21 week update

We have about 130 days to go! Pretty insane when you think about it. I am finally at the stage where I can feel Henry moving all of the time, everyday all day! It's so neat, and he is most active in the morning, just like his mama. Friday morning Hank felt him move for the first time. I was feeling a lot of flutters and kicks, and even seeing my belly move so I woke Hank up and told him to put his hand on my stomach. Lo and behold baby Henry gave his Daddy a swift little jab right in the hand. Hank was totally surprised and it was really great. I can only imagine how active our little guy is going to be as time goes on and I can really feel him moving around in there.



(don't mind the clothing marks, just got home from the gym!)


Summer is ticking on by, and soon I will be back to teaching for the last stretch of my pregnancy. I have to say that I'm not incredibly excited about only teaching during the very end of all of this, being super big and trying to figure out what to wear to not only look professional, but also cover my tattoos. Sigh. But, who am I to complain since this is the tail end of all of this, and soon enough I will at home everyday with my son, being a full-time Mama. Counting down the days! And as far as "home," we are moving forward with a great place, but it was a short sale so of course it's more like a "long sale." We're trying not to get our hopes up because you never know with these things, but it's moving along at a surprisingly fast pace in a positive direction...so we can only cross our fingers that it continues to move ahead and we come out on top, in this house. We're continuing to look at more houses just in case this falls through, which could totally happen. (Can you tell I'm trying to not get my hopes up? haha). Regardless, we will be in a house by the time Baby H arrives, whether it be that one, or another that we will inevitably find. It's exciting to think about decorating our first home and especially doing up Henry's nursery. Our color scheme is going to be gray and white, accented with yellow. It's funny because yellow and gray were our wedding colors, and this is obviously super similar, but I just can't get away from it! For a girl we had a different color theme picked out (as well as a name!) but that will have to wait for awhile! ;)

So this week I am indeed 21 weeks, inching farther along in my 2nd trimester. I still haven't had any sickness, or cravings, but last week my belly grew a lot more, and my skin got insanely bad. Now it's cleared up but for that one week it was like I was an unfortunate teenager, and no exaggeration when I say it was pretty horrible (but worth it).

No cravings, nothing out of the ordinary really. I'm just trucking along. This week the baby is the size of a banana!



Baby gulps down several ounces of amniotic fluid every day, both for hydration and nutrition and to practice swallowing and digesting. And, these days, those taste buds actually work! Studies show that after birth, babies are most interested in tastes they've already experienced through amniotic fluid. Meaning, think about what you want your future child to eat as you prepare your own lunch.

Well, if that is the case then our little guy is going to love fruit- especially berries, spicy Indian food, and Mexican food! I'm really excited to start a huge garden whenever we move, and get going on making baby food when the time comes. This past week we also added to Henry's wardrobe by leaps and bounds, both from gifts (thank you!) and Hank and I have been having a blast picking things out. I have to share one amazing gift we received this week from my friend Marcella (click here to visit her fabulous blog). She owns a baby boutique called Drool and a long time ago I won a giveaway from her shop, but she waited until we found out the sex of the baby to send us over some goodies. She also sent over extra things as well and we are just SO grateful. Thank you, thank you Mar, you are the BEST and oh-so-generous. We appreciate it more than you know!

I got a treat for myself too, the other Marc by Marc diaper bag in the Caramel color. Crazy maybe to have two, but I love them so much and one of my wonderful readers sent me the link to the highly sought-after caramel color at a great price so I had to do it. I love them because they look like regular handbags but have super cute vinyl MBMJ jumble print lining and tons of vinyl-lined pockets for everything. They also aren't heavy like a lot of his bags and I can see myself using them even after my babies are grown up as travel or heavy-duty tote bags. They're pictures below, both with some wrapping/packaging on them...you can also see the vinyl changing pad.



Now that I am more than halfway through my pregnancy, I've begun to think a lot about my birth plan and choices I will be making in the near future. There's a lot to think about, and I will definitely be sharing our plan when we finalize it.

Oh, and before I go, I wanted to share the name of a couple of books I began reading this week. You can click on the image to view the book on Amazon.

Pushed- The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, by Jennifer Block,



and Raising Baby Green, by Alan Greene (next I'm going to read Feeding Baby Green).


I definitely like both books so far and I will let all of you know what the verdict is when I finish them this weekend. As far as NON-baby related books, I will be making another book recommendation post in the near future.

I'm going to leave you with a video I put together of a minute and a half of Henry's ultrasound a couple of weeks ago, at 19 weeks. This may be incredibly boring to anyone but Hank and me (and probably my Mom!), but I could watch it forever. It's so neat to see him moving his mouth as he eats/drinks. Thanks again for all the support everyone! xoxo

Henry's ultrasound, 19 weeks from Danielle Hampton on Vimeo.