oh baby baby: glossy haired maniac

So here I am at 17 weeks. All my pictures were horribly overexposed so I had to fudge with some fancy photo editing tricks to make the most of my best shot. As luck would have it the only one with good lighting would be the one where I look the worst. I have to say I actually like this picture as I think my face looks nice and thin which is not always the case these days.

I know I have been pretty candid here on the blog. Some of you have commented to me or on here how you like it. Others might think its strange. Why be so open about all this stuff? Its something I have given a lot of thought in the past few weeks. And here is what I came up with as far as reasoning goes (although I hardly feel I need to explain myself on my own blog...)

Being pregnant is a wondrous time. Its both miserable and miraculous. You can feel so incredibly close to those you love around you or incredibly alone and isolated. You are constantly in flux and being thrown for a loop. And each pregnancy for each woman is different. I am experiencing so many new things with this pregnancy that never even came up with my first one. I write here what I am going through because there is comfort in sharing. Not only is it a release for me to express what I am going through but it opens up a dialogue for sharing with others. After my last post, I received a phone call from a friend who admitted that when she is pregnant she, too is so irritable her husband calls her Satan's Sister. Her confession immediately made me feel like I wasn't the only person who is out of control emotionally. Its nice to know that someone else only wants to eat Totinos pizzas and similtaneously adores and hates their kid.

So I will continue to share and hopefully it will help someone else not feel so insane even if that person is just me.

• Week 15 brought calm to my face. (knock on wood...) My zits are on vacation! Just in time for Thanksgiving and our family pictures. 
• As mentioned above, I am totally in love with Henry these days. Sometimes I just look at him and his cute face and am overwhelmed by how much I love the kid he is becoming. And then the next minute I am so frustrated and annoyed by him. I feel almost manic. Luckily he won't remember any of this. 
• One lame thing about being pregnant is your exhaustion can just sneak up on you. The other day we were watching the UGA football game. It was halftime and Steve left the room for a minute. I fell asleep on the couch. It was 8:45 pm. Yes, I went to bed and slept all night. 
• This pregnancy has brought me way more discomfort than my last one. Last time I was able to make it almost the whole ten months without aching and general uncomfortableness. Well I am already sore. The term is called "abdominal achiness" but it feels like my uterus is trying to detach and free itself from my body. All of my abs hurt and it is strong enough to be not ignored. At first I thought it was caused by my foolishness in trying to do a plank after months of no ab training. Well it wasn't. Apparently it is my second-time-pregnant-weakened abs, ligaments and tendons being unable to support my growing gut like last time. Totally normal. Totally sucky. Nothing I can do about it except surround myself with pillows that will support my body when I fail to do it on my own.
• Another awesome pregnancy side effect is insane hunger. The other day we went out to dinner at a new restaurant Cook Out. We got baskets of burgers and fries and onion rings. Henry got a hot dog. Well you better believe I demolished my whole meal plus Steve's half uneaten cheeseburger. Shameless. I wasn't even grossly full. No regrets. 
• Because of my erratic energy, I have had to readjust my usual Monday Do Everything Day. Now I spread out laundry, grocery shopping and such throughout the week. Much more manageable. I still find an excuse not to clean my bathrooms though...
• One silver lining is definitely glossy, thick hair and long, strong nails. Hooray for excesses of protein. 

And we get to find out what we're having in two weeks! Steve wants a girl. I want a boy but I feel like its a girl. Only time will tell...

Come back tomorrow for a fun Christmas gift idea and no more talking about babies and bellies.