19 weeks and counting

I just realized that I have slacked significantly with my blogging. We will be reaching 19 weeks pregnant tomorrow, phew!! Never in my lifetime did I imagine that I'd ever say that....feels darn good.

I have to admit that the first trimester was a bit of pain, literally. My nausea didn't lighten up until a couple weeks ago. I've had every pregnancy symptom but none have discouraged me so far. When you try so hard for so long it's amazing what you'll put up with and ignore. Everyone told me how much I'd hate being pregnant and so far I don't have any complaints. Keeping busy has really helped me out. I'd like to go on record for still not taking one single nap. I've never been able to nap so unless I'm going to fall done exhausted I don't see that happening anytime soon.

We did raise hell when we let our families know that we wouldn't be sharing the gender of our baby. We actually told our families we wouldn't be finding out so they wouldn't get too ticked. Everyone has been kind of arrogant about what gender they want and I got very protective. I didn't think it fair for our baby to be categorized as a certain sex and not just a great baby. My side has only girl grand babies and DH side has only boy grand babies so you can imagine the pull each side is making and voicing. The second we announced our decision to not share the gender everyone cooled their jets. It was a load off of my ever growing chest and I had a good cry when it was over :) We go in April 5th for our gender ultrasound. I don't care what gender he/she is, still can't believe we got this far.

Now onto the fun stuff! I've felt the baby "quickening" since 11 weeks along, also felt 1 big somersault. But within the past few weeks I can feel the little one moving all the time. Kicks, jabs, rolls, stretching and whatever else he/she feels like doing. One of my girlfriends borrowed us her doppler to hear the baby's heartbeat. I was fine without it but I was sure it would help DH feel more "involved" so I brought it home. So far I'm the only one that can find it, hehe. The second day we had it DH decided he wasn't going to stop until he heard the heartbeat, I think I won an award for patience that day. Well, the baby got sick on the intrusion and actually kicked the doppler!! It made a huge noise and I felt it very strongly, super weird. Had my hand been there instead I would have felt the movement on the outside too. What an experience!

My cravings have been quite strong but nothing too unhealthy so far. For some reason I've wanted to go out to eat rather than cook at home. I really enjoy cooking so this was a new one for me. I'm actually waiting for my Mom right now so I can take her out to lunch for some Chinese :)
I'm enjoying every minute, feels good not to be spending all my time in the bathroom. Even then I enjoyed the feeling and rode the emotional waves. Imagining holding our baby for the first time makes me cry and still feels surreal. What an amazing experience!