23 Weeks

How far along: 23 Weeks

Total weight gain: + 13 pounds

Sleep: It’s going OKAY. Lower back pain is gone, so that helps a lot! I did not sleep great Friday night (probably because I was too excited for all of the shopping on Saturday).

Best moments: Lots of movement all week, especially during the storm the other night! Also, our trip to Chicago was this past weekend. Steve, mom, Aunt Erin & I drove up Friday after a half day of work. We were very fortunate to stay at Uncle Mike’s house, but unfortunately, we didn’t even get to see him because he was out of town! Thanks Uncle Mike for letting us crash!!
Saturday morning we headed to the IKEA where we shopped for 5 hours (there was a lunch break in the middle). We got lots of stuff for the baby room; shelves, picture frames, lamp shade, rug, hampers. We also got some other items for around the house; new kitchen cabinet handles, curtains, curtain rods, picture to frame for bathroom, table lamps and more shelves (to name a few items).
Afterwards we headed to the Premium Outlet Mall where I got some maternity shopping in, we were able to turn in our broken Samsonite suitcase to get it repaired under warranty, and the most adorable elephant onesie from Baby Gap!
Saturday night we were able to meet up with some cousins for a nice dinner. It was great seeing everyone, especially my 13 month old cousin Nolan. He is such a cutie!!! Sunday we headed back to St. Louis. It was a great, but short, weekend!

Movement: Every day especially at night! Steve has definitely felt a couple strong kicks too!

Symptoms: Every night my throat will start burning from heart burn right at bed time. And the frequent potty trips! In our 5 hour car ride we had at least 2-3 stops each way.

Maternity clothes: Finally got some work pants at Motherhood Maternity in Chicago this weekend! They are great!

Food cravings: Driving home from work on Tuesday I took a last minute turn into Dierberg’s because Mexican sounded so good. Over an hour of cooking later and an additional 30 minutes for clean up, I decided going out to a Mexican restaurant is way easier, tastes about the same if not better, and is about the same price (or possibly cheaper). Forget cooking Mexican at home for 2!

Food aversions: Nope.

What I'm eating: Mexican, spinach & cheese ravioli, turkey sandwiches, grilled cheese and soup, grilled chicken, spaghetti, sweet potatoes, apples, peaches, frozen yogurt, cookies, milk, cereal, OJ!

Exercise: Loved the weather this week. Lots of walks with Mario! The weather in Chicago was a big change—windy and snowy! But we did do LOTS of walking while shopping indoor (IKEA) and outdoors (outlet mall) this weekend!

Gender: Boy—a little Cardinals fan!

What I miss: Still miss a normal size bladder and sleeping on my back.

What I am looking forward to: I think my “nesting” is kicking in because I really want to get going on finishing things around the house. I would like to get our formal dining and living room going very soon, some new shelves in the basement to organize everything down there, paint the guest bedrooms and hang up curtains…it’s all stuff we’ve put off since moving in and I want to GET IT DONE!

Milestones: Putting together the baby crib!! It only took 1 quarter of the Mizzou game the other night! Super easy. We shall see about the dresser this week!