Happy Week 19 !!

As of yesterday (Saturday), we are at 19 weeks!! One more week until we're at the halfway point... I can't believe it! So far, everything is still going well - I'm still feeling good, and Matt and I have started thinking and talking more and more about what we need to do to get ready for our tadpole. November is going to come quickly! Actually, we both got a rude awakening last week when we had our friends visiting with their toddlers...not that the kids were difficult (they were angels and so much fun!), but that our house is FAR from being baby friendly. Free-standing wine rack with full bottles of wine in the family room (too bad I can't help to fix the problem by drinking them!), decorative glass vase on the fireplace hearth that is perfect for tipping over, glass top kitchen table, and head-height coffee tables with pointy corners that are just welcoming the toppling toddler learning how to walk. Matt has concluded that we just need to cover our house in bubble wrap, and that should do the trick. I guess that's another life change in getting ready for kids - not worrying about broken things, and realizing that your beautiful coffee tables will ultimately have a gazillion scratches and teeth marks on them.

Another pregnancy update - I'm showing! I think my belly looks huge when I look in the mirror, but then I see ladies at 9 months pregnant, and I'm pretty small still. This past Friday, I made my first maternity clothes purchase. It wasn't the best shopping experience - my local Target had slim pickins when I really needed a black skirt at the last minute, but I did find one. I can't tell you how comfortable I was the whole day wearing something that did not have a defined waistline! I can still wear my regular pants at this point - but mostly with alot of help from rubber bands and safety pins :)

Another baby milestone - I think I felt a baby kick! After dinner on Saturday night, I felt a couple small inside pokes. It was very gentle, and I haven't felt much since then, so I hope it's what I thought it was. But I like to think that the tadpole was trying to tell me that he/she really liked the cheeseburgers and onion rings that we made for dinner :) We'll see if we get any more pokes this week. I'm really excited that I might actually be feeling the baby move!

I must be going - I already dozed a bit watching Mythbusters earlier tonight, and I swore that I was going to bed early. I'm quite tired after our busy 'house' day this afternoon - Matt and I wall-mounted our bedroom TV, and then tackled our beast of a walk-in closet. The good thing is that the closet is clean, and Goodwill is going to be very thankful with all of the clothes we are donating. Matt still thought I could have parted with a few more pairs of shoes... but men just don't understand anything about a woman and her shoes :) I WILL leave you though with our first belly picture for the blog! Here's my before shot (technically at 12 weeks, but I hadn't grown a bit - the tiny bulge is my pants buckle), and today's picture at 19 weeks. I think my shirt is making me look bigger than I really look, but what can you do? And I'm not looking wonderfully photogenic either...

Before........... and at 19 weeks