22 Weeks!

22 weeks, feeling great, and here's the highlights:

Size of baby: papaya..... according to The Bump's Baby Tracker, baby is a papaya for the next 3 weeks.... I'm kinda getting over these fruit comparisons
Maternity clothes: all the time, and with no shame!
Movement: still every day, with quite a mix of little taps and the occasional big flips and kicks.  I get frustrated sometimes when I'm waiting for a big kick and I just get the tiny ones
Food cravings: really, really into grapes mixed with cottage cheese lately.... it's heaven
What I miss: still the same... this won't be changing
Sleep: on average, very good, though its true what they say about having the STRANGEST dreams when you're pregnant.... I don't know where I come up with the stuff I tell Chris about in the mornings
Symptoms: a little extra tired this week, but I was definitely busier than I usually am, and the occasional sciatic pain
Best moment this week: there are 3 for this week: in third place, nearly selling out of all my goodies at the craft fair.... in second place, we picked out and ordered our nursery furniture yesterday...... but, by far the BEST moment was Chris feeling the baby move on Tuesday night! 
What I am looking forward to: CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

It was definitely another great week.... On Tuesday, I only came home with 2 iced cookies, and 3 packages of scones, and to be fair, the cookies were broken, so I took them off the table, but my cakes and truffles were the biggest hits.  I had one lady come and buy $19 worth of items, separated into 2 visits.  That was pretty awesome!  I also scored one more job before Christmas - tomorrow is the Embassy tree lighting, so yesterday I baked 4 dozen Christmas tree cookies and today I will ice them.  Then next weekend, I'll be baking 6 dozen cookies for the kids to decorate at the family Christmas party hosted by the Ambassador.  There was potential for a third job, but it didn't work out, but honestly, it's for the best because it would have turned into a lot of stress for me the day before and the day of leaving for our trip.

As I said, Chris finally got to feel our baby bumping around - I told him, see I'm not making it up!  Usually when I lay down to go to bed, I wait to feel Baby give me some goodnight movement.... I hadn't been feeling anything, but I told Chris to put his hand on my belly just to see if the baby might react differently to Daddy hands than Mommy hands..... and all of a sudden it was the 4th of July in my belly!  Baby gave some of the hardest kicks I had felt lately, and Chris felt almost all of them!  It was very special.  He's since felt the baby on another night too.  I'm so glad he is able to experience that now.  Baby movement is pretty amazing - I could lay down and feel the kid move all day and be happy.

Overall, I've still been feeling pretty great, though it seems I can rarely make it past 9 or 9:30 without falling asleep on the couch at night, and that's even if I take about a 90-minute nap each day!  I was not even this tired when I was working out so much before the wedding, and I definitely did not take naps then.  On Friday, I dropped Chris off at work, got to the Embassy to use the gym, parked the car, walked inside the door..... and walked back to the car.  I was so tired!  I went home and went back to bed for a while.  I did make it to the gym later in the day, but only after I got some more rest.  For now, I'm taking advantage of all the sleep I can get while its at my disposal... I wish I could "bank" sleep for later, because right now I can't imagine the exhaustion once the baby gets here.  But, I figure that women have been doing this for years upon years, and surviving, which means I will too.

As I also said, we picked out our nursery furniture last night and ordered it!  I had said that I wouldn't want to pick out something like that sight-unseen, but we did our research and feel pretty comfortable with what we're getting.... plus, it's from Kohl's, which means that it won't be too hard for us to return it in the event of a problem.  And, we got a great deal - our 3-in-1 convertible crib, changing table, and dresser for under $200.  Once we get back in January from Arizona, our furniture will be waiting for us, and we will likely have the glider that we ordered a week or so ago before we leave.  This baby coming will really start to feel real when we start getting the room together.  I feel better now that we have most of the major nursery items on the way.  I know once January gets here, everything is going to come at us very quickly.

We have started working with Bailie to get her ready for the long trip to Arizona..... it has been so much harder on me than on her!  We increase the amount of time she spends in her crate by about an hour each night, and last night was the 4-hour night.  She has improved with each night, whining less and less, but those first 2 days were awful!  She would just cry and look at us like, what did I do to deserve this????  And it would break my heart, and I would just want to let her out!  Once she would settle down, I would be counting the minutes until her time was up!  I just hate that she doesn't understand.  How am I going to let our baby just cry it out when I know he/she needs to?  Its a good thing that Chris and I are such a good team, because without him, I couldn't even get through crate training with the dog.

It's going to be a nice last week here before leaving.  Tomorrow's the tree lighting, Wednesday we have one more check-up, and Friday we have a really nice Christmas party to go to.  I'm just really excited for everything coming up.  This time last year, I could only pray that we would be where we're at now within another year.  Last year I was only meeting what would become the rest of my family, and now Chris and I are over halfway to our own family.  And this time next year, our baby will be 8 months old by Christmas!  It just goes to show you that prayer is for real, because I have gotten nearly everything I have prayed for regarding Chris and me, nearly down to the last detail.

I will take my bump picture tomorrow and post it sometime in the evening.  Until then.... :)