Daily Note: April 14, 2009

Hello week 20, nice to finally meet you.

I've been a little remiss about taking precise weekly photos of my growth. Tuesday is when I ring in the new week, but sometimes Jeff works late, or I'm out with friends and by the time I remember to take a picture, I've taken my makeup off and am wearing sweats and I don't know... I'm just not in the mood to be photographed. So we've started trying to take a picture each weekend instead. This means that these pics are usually taken close to the end of my "week". Despite my pleading, Jeff refused to crop my head out of these photos.

Here's a pic from week 18 that I hate, but oh well:


And one from week 19 that's slightly less horrible:

New developments in the pregnancy include Jeff feeling the baby move. Sometimes he lays next to me with his hand on my stomach and if we're patient enough he can definitely feel the kicks and flips. He says it feels like someone knocking on the other side of the wall. The baby is still very active, with her primary rest period being in the morning. I usually feel a small kick or two during breakfast, then she's still until lunch time. After lunch she typically gets moving and stays active well into the evening. The movements are still not strong enough to keep me awake at night, but sometimes when I'm rotating on my pillow mountain in the night I will feel her shifting with me so I know she's having a tough time sleeping too.

Maybe just as exciting as Jeff feeling the baby move is the fact that I *think* my long time companion, Barfy may have (FINALLY) taken a leave of absence. I will admit to feeling kind of sorry for myself lately, because it seems like everyone in the whole world stopped feeling nauseous around week 14. I had actually resentfully resigned myself to being one of the unlucky few who would feel this way the entire time. But for the last 3 or 4 days I've felt a definite absence of nausea that I haven't experienced in 5 months. I'm hesitant to call it a permanent recovery, but it really feels different from all the fake-outs I've had in the past. It's not that the nausea has faded, it's that it's GONE (currently knocking on wood and throwing salt over my shoulder in every attempt to not curse my luck).

We bought a baby name book this weekend and have now accumulated a list of about 20 names that we spend our evenings debating. We had a boy name all picked out, but this business of girls names is harder.

In non-baby related news, Jeffrey took me out to a really lovely dinner at Boat Street Cafe on Saturday. Last time we went I ordered the scallops and Jeff ordered the pork loin chop. I was so jealous of his chop that I ended up eating half of it. So this time, we both ordered the pork chops and loved it. Photo illustration of my love for the pork chop:

Then I ordered the citrus pound cake with poached rhubarb for dessert and oh my god. It definitely goes into the top 10 things I've ever eaten category. I wasn’t interested in putting my fork down long enough to pose for a photo:

And with no transition (or reason really), I offer you this adorable photo of Jeff and Maurice, looking out our open bedroom window last weekend when the sun came out.