Things are Looking Up...

This week marked my 14-week stamp of pregnancy. 14 WEEKS! That's over 1/3 of the way through.

I'm now in my second trimester, and let me just say it is fan-freaking-tastic compared to the first. While I'm not too far into it yet, I'd imagine this is probably where most women get the whole "I love being pregnant - if I could be pregnant forever, I would!" crazy mentality. Yes, at this stage, I'm loving being pregnant. I love knowing that there is a baby - MY baby - growing in my belly. I love knowing that soon I'll start feeling it move around, if I haven't already felt it (I've had a few instances the last few days where I'd swear I have). I love that my belly is starting to pop out, even if right now it still looks like I've eaten a few too many pints of Ben and Jerry's. I honestly feel like I have been a happier and less-stressed human being since I've been pregnant (clarification: happier and less-stressed ASIDE from my insanely rampant hormone swings). HOWEVER - do I love it all so much that I would go so far to say that I'd be pregnant forever if I could? That's a big n-to-the-o. I think pregnant girls are so cute, and whenver I see one I want to run up to her and be like "I'm pregnant too! Want to be friends??" But with the cuteness, there is also a dark side. A few "for instance"s: my face seems to be going through a second round of puberty. Growing up, I've been lucky to have fairly good skin. I'd just break out here and there right before Aunt Flo came to visit every month. Now, my face is in a constant state of break-out (although actually getting better in the last couple of weeks). I've also begun feeling the aches and pains. God bless Kevin who doesn't mind giving me frequent neck, shoulder, and back rubs for temporary relief (I haven't quite talked him into the foot rubs... yet). Unfortunately the pains are constant and nagging pains that no massage or dose of Tylenol can unwind. My newest pain is one that has set up camp in about a 6 inch span across my lower back. Fantastic. Sleeping is also something that has continued to suffer. My growing belly is keeping me from sleeping face down, and I'm getting in to the danger zone of back-sleep risks (once the baby and uterus grow to a certain point, sleeping on your back can cut off circulation to baby and my lower half). So I try to stay on my sides all night, which has typically been my position of choice even pre-preggo. Because my body's posture is all out of whack due to my belly, I've started sleeping with a pillow between my legs to try to straigten me out again. It helps, but I fear that gone are the days of careless sleep. The plus is that I'm no longer waking up every 2 hours for a potty break. Most nights I'm able to make it all the way through the night without going! As the Pull-Ups commercial would sing - "I'm a big girl now!". And my main reason for not proclaiming my desire for eternal pregnancy... I miss my wine!! I miss my morning coffee!! Some people say that coffee is fine, as long as it's in very limited quantities. And once you're out of your first trimester, a glass of wine on occasion is okay. But I refuse to drink either. I am absolutely committed to doing all that I can to harbor a safe and healthy body for my baby, and if anything were to go wrong I want to know that I did everything I possibly could to prevent it. So 9-10 months without my morning coffee or wine nights with the girls is completely fine with me. Forever, though? Pshhh. No way!

As for Bun, he or she is supposed to be about the size of a closed fist now. Everything is in place, and from now on it will just be growth and development occuring. Something new this week is hair - eyebrows, eyelashes, and "baby fuzz". I've rented a baby Doppler machine for a month so that we can listen to the heartbeat as often as we'd like. I figured now would be a good time since the heartbeat is so strong and detectable, and because it was such a long stretch before my next ultrasound. We've used it a couple of times, and found the heartbeat within a minute or so each time. It's absolutely astonishing - I could lay and listen to it all day. I wish I could figure out a way to record it and upload, although I have a feeling you wouldn't be as enamored as I am with the sound ;)

**Complete sidenote - TWO DAYS until Twilight movie! Cheryl and I are so there opening night!

6 things I love

I've been tagged by Cheryl to post 6 things that I love. Now, I love a lot of things. Way more than 6. But I decided to go with the frontrunners on my mind right now. So here goes... 6 things I love:

1) Jolly Ranchers. Especially the Cinnamon Fire kind. But I also love Watermelon and Apple. Basically, if it's red or green, I love it. I keep my office stocked at all times.

2) Lemons. I like to cut them in half, sprinkle salt on them, and chow down. Seriously. I used to do this obsessively when I was a child (Santa would even leave lemons in my stocking - hey, they were cheap and I was happy so it worked well for both sides). And for some reason, I've picked this habit back up during my pregnancy. Cringe if you may, but it's magically delicious. Bun and I are big fans.

3) Money. It's been said that money can't buy happiness, but watching the bills pile up sure does put me in a crappy mood! With the economy in the crapper, our current house on the market, our new house under construction, and Christmas right around the corner, we're on a bit of a budget. We're both fortunate enough to have well-paying jobs, but right now we're feeling the clench (as I'm sure the rest of yall are or have at some point, right? I mean, I'm not alone in this, right? RIGHT??). Please feel free to make a donation to the Crane fund. Wait, make that Baby Crane's College Fund. Yeah, that sounds more legit. ;)

4) Houston's "cool season". The weather right now is gorgeous!! It's so hard to be inside at work all day when it's so nice outside. Sometimes I put my chair right up against the window so it feels like I'm outside. I make sure to close my office door so the people walking by my office don't think I'm loonier than they already do. I can't wait until it's cool enough to bust out the pea coat. Oh crap, will I need to buy a bigger one because of my bulging belly? Sweet Lord, please refer back to Thing I Love #3. It's a never-ending cycle.

5) Christmas season. I love everything about it. People are cheerier. Things smell better. You can't help singing along to Christmas songs (which, btw, they've started playing at the grocery store and Target!!) You get to wear scarves and gloves (okay, for like 5 days). And my three most favorite Christmas things:
(1) wrapping presents. I try to make every present look different - different papers (yeah, we end up with like 17 nearly-full rolls of wrapping paper after it's all said and done due to this), different ribbons, label tags. For a lot of people unwrapping presents is the most fun part. For me, it's the wrapping.
(2) decorations. Last year, I pulled Kevin into the mix by having him crawl all over the roof to put lights on the house (it was our first Christmas in our very own house). I was his cheerleader from the ground, but I don't think he was quite as enthusiastic as I was about it. The inside of our house gets all done up too. Cheryl pulled me into her ornament decorating obsession, and I created a custom mantle garland that was BEAUTIFUL, if I do say so myself!
(3) Christmas commercials. The Coca Cola polar bears are the BEST!! But I love them all.

6) The Twilight Series. Totally unorginal, I know. But I'm counting down the days until the movie comes out. Am I really going to elbow pre-pubescent and high school girls out of my way to see it opening weekend? Probably. As BFF Cheryl likes to put it, "I heart Edward". He's really my baby daddy. And Kevin knows this.

So I'm supposed to tag people from here. But here's my version of the "tag" - if you read this blog (even if you found me by chance and just happen to be passing through), I tag you! And let me know if you follow through with it so I know some of your loves :)