The Wednesday Stork: Week 19

Another week already? Just kidding...it hasn't started flying by yet :) I'm told it does, but I'll let you know if that's true.

I had a request last week to do a belly shot which, as you know, is something I've been putting off. I still don't think it's worth sharing at this point, but the satisfaction of my reader(s) says otherwise. Therefore, it is my dubious pleasure to give you...

...the 19 week belly:

This was shot pretty much first thing this morning, so it's not being off-set by a stomach full of food; I wanted to get as true as I could to the real thing.

 However, I've never heard any other pregnant woman mention this, but I feel like I have two "bumps." This is the one that's comfortable, as in, I can still breath. If I let everything "go," the bump is slightly more impressive, but that's not how I walk around all day. If I did that, I'd suffocate. Has anyone else felt like that?

Anyway.

Weeks: 19. Todd called it "half way" and I promptly corrected him. This will almost certainly last the entire 40-41 weeks for me and, as you know, 19+19=38. 

Weight gain so far: I have no idea. I weigh myself nearly every morning and my level of fluctuation is off the chain. Today, I was back at just over a 3 pound increase, but last week I was at 6! And I held on to it for nearly the whole week so I was pretty certain it was here to stay. It was just this morning that I was w-a-y down again. Whatever.   

Wearing maternity clothes? Well, no....but I wish I had some! 

Got any prego stretch marks? No. 

How am I sleeping? This has been another pretty good week of sleep. I think I had my first difficult morning today.  

What do I miss? Oxygen. I'll get to that in a minute.   

Feeling anything in there? Yes. But the more exciting part is that Todd can too! I'm really surprised since I think it's technically still "too early" for him to be able to feel anything. But last night I could feel Ty moving around and told Todd that if he would just keep his hand there for awhile, he might be able to as well. It took a few minutes, and he says it was very subtle, like feeling a heart beat, but he felt it :)  

Aversions or cravings? I was on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich kick this weekend, but seeing how I didn't want another 2.5 pound weight gain this week I tried to lay off of them...but they still sound pretty good and it has been three days so maybe I've earned one.

What’s the gender? I'm still under the impression that the Dr. found it to be male. 

Any labor signs? None. 

How pregnant do I feel? A bit. I found myself needing to take deep breaths this week; every so often, I just have to do this great big inhale. I guess it might be the uterus starting to crowd my diaphragm, which does happen eventually. To tell the truth, I feel kind of silly to get as "winded" as I do being no bigger than I am. 

Belly button status: In. 

Still sporting my wedding rings? Yes. Although, I wake up sometimes in the night and feel that a few of my fingers have fallen asleep. I've thought more than once that maybe my fingers have swollen and my rings are cutting off the circulation, but that's not been the case. I don't know what causes the numbness at night but the rings are not yet the culprits! 

And that wraps up the past week! Stay tuned next week for: the big 20 :) 

The very best

Today, I need to tell you about the best teacher I've ever had: Todd. Surprised? Don't be. I don't know that I'd given it much thought before this weekend, but he really is the best.

We did a couple DIY projects over the weekend that I could never have attempted without him, primarily because they included mathematical skills, precision, and knowledge of how to operate a sewing machine. Before a few days ago I possessed none of these things. I still don't have mathematical skills or precision, (let's not get unrealistic) but I do now know how to basically operate a sewing machine! I feel very accomplished, very wife-ish :)

Anyway, back to Todd being the best teacher I've ever had. I realized this weekend that he is able to teach me and that I'm able to learn from him for three main reasons:

1. He can do things I wish I could do.
2. He is willing to teach me things.
3. He doesn't get aggravated or annoyed if/when I don't catch on or when I make mistakes.

Not everyone gets to live with someone who can do things, and I get that. Maybe I should take that off the list because it is kind of an unfair advantage. But the other two are legit. He really is willing to teach me anything he knows that I want to know. He'd even sit down and teach me all about building websites or using Photoshop if I asked him. He's just...willing.

And, best of all, after he's taught me and explained and reexplained, he doesn't get frustrated when I mess up! Do you know how liberating that is? He just says something like, "it's ok, we can fix it," or "you're doing fine," or "that looks great!" Who couldn't work under those kind of conditions? :)

Todd has confidence in me. And this weekend it dawned on me just how valuable that is in any teacher.

But enough gushing...let's get to the results of all this excellent teaching! Our "big"project, our piéce de résistance, deserves its own blog post which I hope to have up later this week, but let me just say that it's something I've wanted to do and am so pleased with how it turned out!

After we mostly finished our main event, we spent a little time doing some smaller projects. First of all, we were given a Boppy pillow by some friends who were also given it second-hand. I guess they didn't want it or already had one or something, so they passed it along to us. I was prepared to use it as it was, but Todd said, "do you want me to re-cover it?"

Here's what it was covered in originally:

Gross, right?

Todd pulled the pieces off and we pinned them to our new fabric. We cut those out and then he figured out how to sew them back together, and even managed to put the zipper back in! It was the first zipper he'd ever done and it turned out great! He let me do most of the sewing on the machine (but not the zipper part..no thanks).

The finished product:

Soooo much classier :) I'm glad Todd suggested re-covering.

The last project of the weekend was made with the leftover fabric. Todd wanted to make some placemats and came up with these:

He made the first one and then taught me so we could both do the rest. It was really very easy and now I'm inspired to make more...maybe something Christmassy.

To sum up, I'm grateful for a friend, teacher and husband who is willing and patient. It makes all the difference :)