22 Weeks!

How Far Along: 22 weeks

Baby Size: a Baseball Mitt

Current Symptoms: My cravings for red sauce based food items has really kicked up a notch….still with limited reflux issues. Here is my current list…it is quite the spectrum of meal items! Spaghettio’s, Chef Boyardee Ravioli, tomato soup, paneer marsala (yummy Indian!), spaghetti (with or without meatballs), lasagna, chicken/eggplant parm, meatball subs….have any fun recipes to add to my list? This is new territory for me, as I am not at all a “red sauce” connoisseur!

What's Different: Time of year has been an interesting change for this pregnancy. My third trimester with Carson was for the most part over the summer and a little into the Fall. With Wader, my third trimester kicks off with Thanksgiving, ending sometime around Valentine’s Day! Carson’s birthday is a month before Thanksgiving, adding to a busy Fall. Usually people report feeling like their third trimester drags on…I am fearful that mine might go by too fast!! Historically the time between Carson’s birthday and New Years Day is a bit of a black hole, between the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, traveling, etc. Once 2014 hits, we will only have 6 weeks give or take before this little guy makes his debut!

Carson Comments: We continue to kick around about 4 names that we really like, and recently decided to run some of them by Carson to see what he thinks. We thought we could present them in pairs and see which one he picks, and then pair the last two names together, kind of tournament style! Well…Carson seems to think that he is quite the funny man! Every time we present a pair of names, he answers “no, the baby’s name is “tree!” followed by maniacal laughter. We can’t get a straight answer from him either way! We have explained that in no way will “tree” ever be an option…

Daddy Updates: Ryan says that although the government shutdown is unfortunate, he has been taking advantage as much as possible of his free time at home since his company is at a standstill with the National Archives being closed. So far he has fixed our French door handles, repaired the well pump cover in our back yard, oiled up our squeaky garage doors, installed a new doorbell on the house, and most impressively built new composite front steps! So productive! Ryan says that this time off has also allowed him to focus on baby names…he has suggested that we pick a different name of the four each day, and give them a test run rather than using “Wader”. So far one name keeps popping up more than others… J

Baby Prep:  I took Columbus Day off yesterday since we were able to still send Carson to daycare. Ryan and I did a bunch of projects around the house in the morning before spending the rest of the day together.  When we prepared the nursery for Carson, we had his crib in the room along with a double bed, so that it could be used as a second guest room when necessary. Now Carson has his own twin size big boy bed where the double used to be. I spent yesterday morning reassembling the crib so that it is no longer in “toddler friendly” form, with the mattress raised to its highest level. Carson found it amusing when he went to bed last night, because “Wader won’t be able to get out of his bed!”  We didn’t have the heart to tell him that that was the whole point of a crib! We have also moved the double bed down to our guest bedroom, so now there is a queen and a double in one room, hotel style! This will definitely come in handy when all of our family comes to meet the new baby!

Looking Forward To: Carson’s 3^rd birthday! Grampa Moose is able to make a last minute appearance due to an overlapping business trip in the area. It will be fun to have one last huge celebration for our kiddo before his little brother takes over our world for a while! We are planning a Halloween themed dance party for him with some of his closest buddies.