Middle Marker

20 weeks now. I was officially halfway there yesterday - Sunday’s are 'my marker days' but I usually am late with my weekly update. I’m finding out already that even when you stay home as a mom, days can still be pretty busy and sometimes hectic, especially when the kiddo isn't in the finest of moods. We've been having a lot of fun together now that I’m home, believe me. But she's been throwing her strong-willed personality at us a bit more lately. She went through the 'terrible two's' right before she turned two, and then it went away and we were like, "Yes, it's gone and we survived!" But I sorta feel like I’m eating my words now because there seems to be a second wind to this milestone. Riding the wave, starting to skim my book The New Strong-Willed Child again that I thought I might be able to put off, praying a bit harder for patience, and trying to learn a little about myself and the way I can present things in a different manner so we can both understand each other better. The more challenging times in parenting are good for learning new methods; builds character too.

Okay, back to my summary on how this pregnancy is going...

Heartburn is in full force but yes, coffee is still worth it. I feel like I’m already sacrificing by switching to completely decaf so I deserve two cups a day if I feel like it. I swear my cups are only eight ounces too. Spicy foods bring on the heartburn immediately but for some reason I can't get enough. I had heartburn pretty bad with Mallory too. I remember eating the chewable Rolaids like they were candy. When I went to get some from the store a few weeks ago I was dismayed to find out that they no longer make Rolaids...sorta makes me wonder why? I'm using Tums but I find that they don't work all that well. At least not as good as I remember the Rolaids working. The good thing is it's causing me to reach for my water more often.

I’m on a big chocolate kick right now. Sweets in the house are hard for me to ignore this time around; I’ve already banned ice cream from being in the freezer. But hey, I’m halfway done and I’ve only put on 10 pounds so I’ve got that going for me. Maybe little boy is sucking up all the sugar for me; you know, helping me out. Because after I do have sugar, he's a mover for sure. His time for kicking at me is also usually first thing in the morning, right before I fall to sleep, and around 3am. Mallory was a 3am'er as well. Though her bouts would last for a couple of hours and Nolan’s are maybe 30 minutes long. Please let this mean he's going to be a more chill infant.

Sleeping has become more of an issue lately. I wake up a lot. And I’m already a light sleeper so every bit of uncomfortableness that I feel I wake up. The biggest problem is I love - like really love - sleeping on my stomach. But I can't obviously. Well, I actually can but it hurts and I even think I’ve linked it to one of the reasons when I did I would find myself throwing up in the morning. It was Nolan’s way of getting me back for crushing the heck out him. I have a good pillow that acts as my body pillow - it's shaped like a kidney because I find the full-size body pillow too intrusive. But I just don't care for sleeping on my side. Sleep wasn't a battle that I won when I was pregnant with Mallory either so par for the course. Luckily I’m not dying for an afternoon nap as much; energy finally coming back maybe. But I do still have moments where I can't not lay down, even if it's only for 45 minutes.

Morning sickness is fading and one Zofran in the morning helps a lot for usually the rest of the day. But I’m still really sensitive to smells and certain things can cause me to have to run to the bathroom. I had to on Saturday morning when Jody had sprayed some grout sealer on the kitchen counters and it just became too much for me to handle. I even was able to call it a few minutes before it happened. "The smell of that stuff is kinda making me sick to my stomach." A few more gulps of my Starbucks coffee later...you know the rest of the story. Overall though I am feeling much better.

We go in for our 20 week ultrasound on Thursday morning and we’re pretty excited. We’re bringing Mallory with us too. So she can see her little brother. She says hello, and good morning, and good night to him all the time. Last night she even told me as I was leaving her room that she loved him. I mean, how cute is that?! When we get the pictures of Nolan back from this appointment I’m going to pull out Mallory’s and compare them size-wise. I’ll post updated pictures of the little guy once I get them; maybe any big comparison differences I notice too.