Skin to Skin has taken on a WHOLE new meaning......

Hello Folks! I am now 24 weeks and 6 days pregnant. And while its only my own mother's intuition and not that of a licensed professional....I'm pretty sure Mia weighs around 10 lbs today! ;-) Which, by the way, is the reason for all that weight gain last month. I'm sure of it! ;-)

Things with me have been good for the most part. I think the heat and my new census count of 2 humans instead of the lonely old 1 have contributed to me feeling as tired or at least close to what I felt in my first tri-mester. I just got back Monday from my trip to Houston. It was a whirlwind tour indeed! We managed to squeeze 2 2nd birthday parties, a wedding shower and a family barbeque into a little over 48 hours. Yep, we're good. We also did get in some late night and Monday pool lounging which helped balance everything out. When I got home Monday night, I was so exhausted that I just crashed and burned.....finally today, I am feeling like I am starting to catch up a bit as far as sleep goes. (side note: Houstonites (specifically of the Wilson clan) are the nicest people around! Can't tell you how many times I was told how good I looked or how small for how far along I am! And while I'm sure they were just being nice, it was very enjoyable to hear :))

But enough with the small talk....lets get down to business. I have discovered recently (as stated in the title of this blog) that Skin to Skin contact has taken on a whole new meaning. I am pretty sure that this term is used by doctors to describe an action by a mother or father of putting a newborn on their bare chest in order to create a bond or comfort. Well thats not what I'm referring to. I have recently discovered, on my own body, places where pieces of my skin are touching....and not in the comforting kind of way. Lets start with the fact that Pre-Mia, my girls were perched on my chest (where they belonged) and never vetured anywhere out of the norm. It was nice and predictable to know exactly where to find them. As of recently, they have started wandering......I now can locate them sitting very comfortably ON MY STOMACH. Seriously?! Ridiculous. Or if I'm sleeping at night, I occasionally have to scrape them from under my armpits....sexy, I know.

Moving on down.....my stomach which used to be snug against my ribs and organs now spends its days lounging on my LAP! I didnt notice it until today when I was wearing a skirt. I caught myself tucking the top of my skirt between the two to avoid the awkward skin to skin that I was unaware was annoying the crap out of me. Well, now I am fully aware of it.....fully. Awesome. And even one more little gem.....the tops of my thighs which once only graced each others' presence when my legs were crossed in a lady like position now are best buds. Its a good thing because they are in CONSTANT contact. Fantastic.

I am not mentioning these things to draw attention to the fact that I was thin before or even the fact that I am not thin now, but to emphasize that when its a million degrees outside and your skin is making contact with your skin.....you sweat. I am a sweaty, pregnant beast right now. So.....consider this your warning: Sweaty Pregnant Beasts (SPBs) have unpredictable moods and ravenous appetites. Keep your hands and fingers away from their mouths and always carry with you deoderant should you be brave enough to schedule an outting with one.

Despite this blog, I assure you, I am not trying to get you to stop reading....seriously, I'm not. I just need to read this later to remember that maybe being this pregnant IN TEXAS, IN SUMMER time is not my idea of a good time....that's all. Its mainly just for me ;-)

Besides that, Mia, Dan and I are doing just peachy. She moves around ALL the time and I still find it super awesome and entertaining :) I sure love my little family. Even Luci, even though she still wakes us up at 5:00AM every morning. I'm convinced she knows whats coming and she's trying to break us in early. What a helpful little pup ;-)

So I leave you with this.....

24 Wks
and....

the full frontal ;-) you can tell by my glistening belly that I was not joking about the coco butter slathering ;-)

Please continue to keep our family in your prayers.

The Texas Giant has NOTHING on THIS roller coaster.....

Hello friends :) Today I'm 23 wks 5days pregnant. I woke up this morning after my first good nights sleep in what seems like months! This is great news both for me and hopefully for those who have been the victim of my raging hormones lately.

I want to start off by saying 'Thanks' to all of you who gave me peace about my last doctors visit. I want you to know that I am aware that weight gain is normal and that the amount of weight my doctor is "suggesting" is completely unreasonable for me at this point (as, again, I am an overachiever). I also don't want anyone to be worried about me. I was having a bad day....a REALLY bad day. I was definitely concerned about my weight gain, BUT I am not going to stop eating as that is completely out of my control at this point in time ;-) Chances are, I will have other bad days, but rest assured, I know that as long as Mia is healthy, the good days will far out weigh the bad.

Being that I was in such a bad place during my last post, I completely neglected to fill everyone in on the totally AMAZING things that are happening with my body and mind at the moment. So here goes....

Regardless of all the weight gain, I have, to date, remained stretch mark free!! I have also bought stock in Palmers coco-butter lotion, as it is nightly slathered, by the bottle, onto my stomach, ass and boobs. Speaking, of the girls, I was also forced (although it didnt take much arm twisting) to buy my first C-cup bra! Yes, that's right, your little Margaret is growing up (and out) ;-) This, as those who know me well will attest to, is a day that I was pretty sure I would never see sans a purchase of tube socks to fill said bra. Besides that, my belly button (old faithful as I recently refer to her as) has held strong, remaining in her stance as an "inny" although, between you and me, I feel her days are numbered :-/

Besides that, my little Amelia is like an acrobat on speed! She is constantly moving and kicking and doing this weird drop-down-like-an-8lb-weight on my bladder thing I am assuming to test my timing as far as running to the nearest bathroom without peeing myself. So far I've been successful, but I can't lie...there have been some close calls. I was sitting on the couch the other day too and it looked like my stomach was popping a bag of popcorn! I must have sat and stared down at it for at least 15 minutes.....thank God I do these things in the privacy of my own home. If someone saw me, I feel like I might be commited. Between the 20 minutes downward gaze at my bare belly, and the conversation I am having with my unborn child, I can't say I would blame them though. Seeing as how she's been so much more active, Dan felt his first kick a couple of weeks ago!!! It was so exciting for me and for him :) I, of course, cried. But it really was an awesome moment. Now, he can feel her almost nightly. She already takes after her hard-headed Daddy though, and refuses to perform on demand. When my mom was over the other day, she started her little kickboxing routine and of course, the second my mom's hand arrived on my stomach, it was break time. Thanks for making me look like a liar, Mia ;-) Anway, its been really awesome to feel her every day. I feel like I have a whole new attachment to her :) And just when I thought it wasnt possible, it makes me fall even more in love.

I'm headed out of town this weekend with Kristin and Cooper. We're going to Houston for Alivia and Addyson's 2nd birthdays and for Lauren's wedding shower! its going to be a busy one, but I'm looking forward to it :)

Besides all that, I guess I'm just trying to find some balance in everything. Lord knows I could use something to even out these mood swings.....I'm a little scared if I can't manage it soon, someone may get hurt ;-)

Thanks again for all your support, keep praying for us! We love you guys! :)

well.....that probably could have gone better.

So, today I am wrapping up week 23 and going to start week 24. I had another Doctors appointment today. Let's just say, I've had better......

As far as Mia goes, everything is good. Her heart rate was strong at 150 and I am measuring about 24cm - generally you measure in cm within about 2 of the week you're on. Since I'm just about 23 weeks, to be 24 cm is "normal".

Aside from that, I had my first complete meltdown at the doctor's office (well, technically, it was "completed" in my car when I left the doctor's office). I was concerned going into this visit that I had gained too much weight this month. According to everything I have read and heard, at this point in my pregnancy, I should be gaining about a lb per week. Well, being the over achiever I am, I decided to double down and make it a nice round (no pun intended) 8 lbs in 4 weeks. Yes....that's right. 8 lbs. Yikes. Well I can attribute a lot of this to my new found philosophy that eating whatever I want, whenever I want is my God given right. I am going to gain weight anyway, why not do it while enjoying the finer (fattening-er) things in life, right? Wrong. I started to tear up when she told me "yeeaa....thats a little on the high side" maybe you should just "watch a little closer what you're eating". WHAT?!?!?! She may as well have said that I was scarring my unborn child for life because I could not drive by a McD's without salivating, because I'm pretty sure that's what I heard. I was embarassed and totally mad at myself. That just happened to manifest itself as tears and hives....it really helped with how good I was feeling about myself at that very moment. Really helped.

I had a few more questions to ask her. I had been having a pain just above my belly button that was pretty persistent. Her answer: its just your stomach stretching. Of course it is. 8lbs, 4wks....makes sense. I asked her some other stuff too, but I can't remember what.....its a blur.

So, I proceeded to my car where I called my husband and through the tears told him how awful of a mother I was because I had gained too much weight. He, being the awesome person he is, assured me that I was going to be the best mom...and that the extra 4lbs did not define me. I sure love him. I may not have expressed that as I assured him that the 4lbs was, indeed, the end of the world. I then proceeded to scare the crap out of my mother, who I am sure thought there was something wrong with Mia and would never have guessed that my reaction was to a few extra pounds....she had to reassure me that I was, in fact, pregnant! And there was a tendency for pregnant women to gain weight....and sometimes it was unpredictable. So.....eventually, the waterworks stopped, and I pulled myself back together. And I will get over it and start making healthier choices so that I can avoid future break downs.....at least in the weight department.

I am realizing that while pregnancy has been a super amazing experience for me, and the prospect of being a mommy makes me happier than I've ever been.....I am still a woman, and gaining weight is hard on me. Even if I know I am supposed to, but especially if it's more than the "norm".

Thus ends my Debbie Downer episode. Looking forward to kicking my next appointment's ass! :)

Here is me and my 8lbs (well, actually 17 lbs) at 22wks 2days

Is it hot in here, or is it just Mia?

Well folks, we've now crossed that infamous halfway mark and are well on our way into the second half of this adventure. I will be 21 weeks this weekend and I kind of feel like this half is already flying by. Its kind of like when you fill your car up with gas, and you end up getting awesome mileage, so you pretend like on the second half of the tank you can drive just as far as you did the first half, and its like you go 3 miles and you're on empty....thats what it feels like to me at least. Except that my skin still has 4 1/2 months to prove me wrong when ever I think 'its just not going to stretch that big'.

My first 14 weeks , I literally thought someone had figured out a way to stop time entirely. I would run home after work and get so excited about turning the page in my Pregnancy journal to see that my baby now had thumbs! Now, I totally forget that I have a journal until I finally get to sit down on Sunday. But honestly, by then, I'm so tired from the week, that I dont really care that she has hair folicles....wait, I mean, I care, but with Dan as her father, I assumed the best when it comes to her hair regardless of what my journal says. I think now, that this kid is doing her little tap dance routines on my organs at all hours of the day and I make a funny grunting noise when I have to sit down or get up (noises I was pretty sure you had to be 85 and have a replacement hip to make), I don't need to know what's going on as readily as I did in the beginning....because I am always very aware that there is a human growing inside me.

I just finished (hopefully) a 2 month long battle with the A/C in my apartment complex. The maintenance people were at my apartment no fewer, I kid you not, than 6 times to fix the same damn problem. Now, it took everything inside of me to not go off on the office staff after the 3rd call to report that the SAME thing was wrong with the SAME appliance that THEY were responsible for, but I am trying to keep my blood pressure down for the sake of the little dancer within. Lucky (I guess) for me, they were relatively quick to respond all 6 times, even if they chose to complete the task piece meal in order to test every limit of my patience. My new coming home routine due to the shenanigans consists of me stripping off every article of clothing upone immediately walking through my entryway and hoping the door closed before the the neighbors catch a glimpse and lose their lunch ;-) Because, I'm not sure if you knew it or not, but its like 1000 degrees outside now! And summer hasn't even started yet! What was I thinking getting knocked up in January??

As far as what's going on with me...besides the ridiculous aparment nonsense.....Well, I'm growing. Daily. There is no doubt whenever you look at me now that I am pregnant....or that I swallowed a cantelop whole. I am still feeling pretty good though. I have found that being on my feet for any extended period of time makes me hurt, physically hurt. Mia shifts down and gets all cozy in my pelvis and after a little while of that, I want to stand on my head to relieve some of the pressure. But, I guess thats to be expected. Nothing I am experiencing is out of the normal from what I've heard. Its just mostly that I bitch about it more than others ;-) I am also not able to eat as much (try as I may) and I assume thats because there is less room for all of those calorically sound (haha) decisions I've been making for the last 20 wks. That's probably not a bad thing. You can believe me when I say, she's definitely not going without.

After our last doctors visit, according to my books, Mia was about 2 oz bigger than the average (but nothing to worry about) so I am very curious on my next visit to see how I measure!

I guess thats it for now......
oh, here's a new pic - 20wks 2Days

and yes, those are underwear....I'm sure Dan is now mortified. I personally, could care less ;-)

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Well I'm pretty sure this isnt the first time that anyone is hearing....It's a GIRL!! :) Our doctor's visit on Friday was awesome. Seriously....best. day. ever.

My appointment was at 3, so i left the office at 2 and stopped by Starbucks to make sure our little one was awake and ready to spread those little legs (i swear that is the ONE and ONLY time in her life i will make that kind of request!) Well, it worked! But, I think I'm jumping the gun a little bit.....

For those who didnt know, Dan's mom and mine were both at our appointment. We knew that we wanted to share this special day with the two ladies who made all of this possible ;-) First, she took Dan and I in alone and got right to work! I was literally in amazement. The sono tech showed us all of the organs, we even saw the 4 chambers of the heart pumping!! She said all of the limbs were perfectly proportionate to the head and she showed us the brain (which was enormous, of course). Then she went to the spine and of course....the MONEY SHOT! :) I literally burst into tears when I found out we were having a little girl. All of a sudden the little body growing inside of me was not asexual....it was a little girl...our little girl :) I literally don't think I have ever been happier in my whole entire life!

Just after that, we invited the moms in to see what we had just seen. Note to all of those who are now pregnant, the SURE FIRE way to elongate your sono is to INVITE PEOPLE!!! It was probably the most awesome 20 minutes of my life. Now, I'm sure you all expected me to say that, but let me just tell you that when i walked into that room, I was pretty sure I was going to pee my pants....literally.....I had a huge thing of coffee before and that aside, I have to make a trip to the bathroom every 10 minutes regardless of what I've had to drink....When I arrived at the office ready to give my urine sample (REALLY READY) they informed me that I needed a full bladder for this sono. Awesome. Even so, miserable with an almost exploding bladder that was being fondled and pressed on by the tech (thank God for Kegels), I could not have been happier! Back to the moms though.....Neither of our mom's had seen that kind of sono before. You have to remember, they didnt have this kind of technology when we were born (especially when Dan was born ;-)) In fact, neither of our moms even knew what they were having until the day we appeared. Needless to say, we were all in tears. It was truly amazing :)

While i did not get video of the sono, I have attached a few pics of our little Amelia Anne below. I hope you guys enjoy looking at them as much as I do :)

This is her little face and her two hands are doing the 'Home Alone' thing :)

Here, she is showing up her acrobatic skills, with a little leg over the head action. She's also sucking her thumb :) already making our hearts melt

And this one, she finally situated her legs more comfortably and is just relaxing and sucking her thumb again :)

Right after the sono, I had a consulatation with my Doc. They told me to finally give the urine sample, to which i entered the bathroom and completely forgot why I was there, and didnt even attempt to pee in a cup, true story. Then they took my blood pressure. Well, I think its fair to say that I was a little excited. The girl taking it looked at me scared to death that my heart was going to beat out of my chest and just said "I dont think I'm going to write that one down....maybe we should wait a minute." haha, I thought it was kind of funny. I was back down to normal-ish after about 15 minutes. The doctor said that everything looked great and we are on track and growing as we should....both of us :) She told me to brace myself, as the next 4 weeks is going to bring a lot of "growth". I'm pretty sure that translates to, "you only THINK your ass is big now!" And you know what....bring it. Now that my little bump has a name and is constantly moving and reminding me how awesome she is, I hardly care about the weight :)

Well, as you can probably guess.....we have been floating on a cloud since Friday. We now refer to our little angel as 'Baby Mia' and I literally can't write that or think about her for that matter without a huge grin on my face :)

My next Dr. appointment is in June, but I feel the following ones will be constantly trumped by Friday, May 20th....regardless, I'm looking forward to seeing how she's growing! She's already big for her age weighing in at a whopping 10oz last friday!

So, I leave you with the first Mommy and MIA pic :)

19 Weeks and 1 day

I'm too excited to sleep!!! (spoken like the kid from the Disney world commercial)

Well, tomorrow's the day! At 3 PM we will officially not have to stutter over trying to be politically correct with pronouns when referring to MJ. Its a relief too....I, for one, have now wasted countless minutes of my life backtracking and using the word he-she and his-her. Its always awkward, like I am having a little hermaphrodite or something (dear Lord, please don't let that be the case, but if it is, I would not love him-her any less.....)

There is something very surreal about thinking about our baby in terms of gender. Tomorrow, MJ will have a name.....that name may still be MJ, but tomorrow, we will know for sure. I cannot express in words how I feel right now. I am anxious, excited, and in disbelief all at the same time. Well, lookie there....I can express it in words ;-)  Since the very first doctors visit, I have walked out of the office thinking to myself "this was the best day of my life", and if its possible, I've been right every time. I am quite confident that tomorrow will be no different.

Well this is just a brief catch up before the big news.....so I'll keep it short and sweet. I'm 18wks 6 days pregnant today. In other terms, we are 10lbs, 4 waist inches and 2cup sizes into this baby! This trimester is seriously flying by. Everytime I turn around something new and different is happening to my body. For one, I am growing out of clothes at an alarming rate. I bought a pair of workout shorts last week and put them on this week to find out they SHRANK....a whole size (or two)! I blame it on shoddy material....thats the only explanation I can come up with ;-) So, I have decided to skip over my next visit to the atheletic wear department and just wear Dan's shorts, that, at the moment, fit me just fine :-/ I think he is more thrilled about that than I am....regardless, they work. Besides that, I have been able to feel MJ move on a daily basis now! He-she (see what i mean?!) seems to be more active at night. As soon as I lay down though, I can feel where his-her little body is and if you rub on it for a minute, he moves across to the other side......so incredibly amazing. Dan has been able to feel the hard little lump (MJ) when i point it out, and he's even found him on his own a couple times, but he can't really feel any movements yet. I have a feeling those are just around the corner though!! And I am ready and waiting :)

I think thats about it.....I'm sure you will all be getting a message from me tomorrow regarding our news! so.....just hold your breath until then ;-) I know I will be!!

Does this make me look pregnant.....or just fat??

Well, here I am again, folks....and there is more of me by the day. I am now 17 and a half weeks along....we are coming up on the half way mark!! I know that there were a couple of times during the first tri-mester that I wished things would speed up a little and they definitely have!! I think once I started looking pregnant, time definitely started moving along faster.

Well those of you in Texas have noticed that the weather is MUCH warmer now......so for the first time this year, I hit the pool with my pool buddies, Kristin and Cooper. During any other Spring I have always braced myself for the inevitable scary pale and mostly untoned first visit to the pool, but this year is a whole other ball game. I went through my drawers and in my head thought "I haven't really grown that much" so I just tossed on the same swim suit i wore last year and pranced out to the living room to get Dan's approval (or disapproval) to see if it was safe to venture out of the house. Well, poor Dan has been a real trooper when it comes to the inevitable question "How does this look on me?" I think as women, we all know that there is no right answer to that. If they say "Great!" well, they're obviously lying, and if they say "eh....what else do you have?" then they just called us fat. So, Dan took a second and politely asked "Does it feel tight?" To which i took another look in the mirror and realized it look like my bikini was the sausage casing i had just stuffed myself into....awesome. SO.....I quickly changed into a swimsuit which bagged off of me last year, and to my surprised, it fit...barely, but it fit. The one good part of this story is that my bikini top, for the first time EVER did not gap or sag or fill with water when I got into the pool or fall off when I got out of the pool....who knew they were supposed to fit liek that?!? So, made it to the pool and it turns out that when its 90 degrees out, i could really care less what my swimsuit looks like on me, and I think it helps that I have an amazing friend who lies and tells me I looked good regardless ;-) (I heart you Kristin!)

I have been keeping a mental countdown to the BIG DAY (at least for us) that we find out what our little MJ is! We are now down to 9 days....thats practically nothing! In 9 days, I will officially be supporting all of the employees at both Babies R Us and BuyBuyBaby.....you're welcome ;-) We are getting so excited! I'm not sure if i mentioned it, but we did buy our baby furniture a couple of weeks ago. If I used my brain other than between the hours of 8:30-5, I would have taken a picture to post, but that's not the case....so maybe later. Now that we have it all set up though, we're waiting to find out if MJ's a girl or boy so we can start decorating!!

Well, that's about it for now....I really would like to know what you guys think I'm having though!! I, personally have a feeling its a boy, but I think Dan is going the other way.....We're taking votes now, so humor me and comment here....the winner gets to name our child! The only catch is you only have 2 names to choose from, ones a boys name, and one's a girls name ;-)

So, I leave you with this, another pic.....

This is me and MJ at 17 weeks and 1 day :) on our way to brunch for my Birthday/Mother's Day....you should have seen the after pic, scary.... ;-)