Mexican Jumping Bean.

Mexican Jumping Beans... yuck! 

Our little girl is taking me back to my childhood. I remember getting these Mexican jumping beans as a kid and thinking they were so cool until the creature inside that made them jump about appeared. For those that do not know... Mexican jumping beans are little hard seed looking things that bounce about. The reason they bounce is not because the seed is living but because what is inside is. These nasty little worms jump and squirm about until they finally make a hole in the shell big enough to get out. It was a pretty traumatic experience to one day discover my jumping beans no longer jumped and there were bugs handing out of them. You might be wondering why does your unborn child make you think of Mexican jumping beans? The past week and a half I have gone from feeling flutters or popping pop corn in my stomach to straight up pushing and prodding from the inside of me. Yeah, I am comparing my unborn child to a Mexican jumping bean; don't judge me. Hopefully the reveal of what is inside won't be so traumatic and disappointing as it was for me as a child. Speaking of movement, as I sit here right now I can actually see my stomach move with each push or kick that she does. Most mornings when I wake I can tell what side of my stomach she is on because it literally looks and feels like she is leaning on me from the inside out. Such a strange feeling but I must admit I am pretty mesmerized by it. I catch myself stopping all I am doing to watch her move or try to feel it outside of my stomach.

Last night, Amos (our dog) laid his head on my stomach and began his usual whining at me to give him some attention. The more I ignored him, the louder he got. After about 5 minutes of whining the baby gave one really good kick/ punch. Amos pulled his head back and looked at my stomach in complete confusion. This pattern of resting his head on my stomach and whining, baby kicking/punching, and Amos watching my stomach in curiosity went on for about 5 more minutes. The louder he whined the more she moved. All I can say is my child either has some form of sick attraction to dog whining or absolutely detests it and has already began laying down the law as master.

Amos 

 The nursery has been coming together quite well. We have decided for sure that we should get a changing table so that we can use the dresser for table top space. We will need to order that soon. Since we are going with this antique theme, Tim and I have been able to enjoy some antique shopping. Tim purchased an old school chair the other day for her room. It has such character! I love that he is so willing to be involved and wants to have input on nursery decorating and such. My mom sent me several of her dresses from when she was a child and one of my grandfathers (yes, apparently it was acceptable for baby boys to wear dresses too)  to display in the room.

As far as symptoms for me, for the most part things are going well. I have heartburn issues but have learned to work around them or just tolerate them. I can tell baby girl is going through a growth spurt because my stomach muscles hurt quite bad. I have a feeling I will be expanding more pretty soon. I weighed myself last night and about fell off the scale in shock. I don't think I have seen those numbers since high school, maybe freshman year of college. To be completely honest, my body image is probably pretty screwed up. I lost a decent amount of weight after high school and had become quite proud of myself. To see the scales grow closer to those high school  numbers and think about the fact that the baby inside of me is only about 1lb has a tendency to bring me down. I am now 22 weeks 2 days and have gained a total of 14lbs. I have caught up to the weight gain that I should have for where I am during pregnancy. Though, this is healthy and average it feels pretty discouraging to see my feet and that number all on the same scale. I guess, this too will be worth it in the end.