week 22

papaya baby!

average size: 10.5-11.8 inches, 12.7-20.8 oz.

what's going on with baby: "Baby is now able to hear outside noise from down in the womb. Studies show that baby finds gentle music and your own voice most soothing. Nipples are starting to sprout, and that little face is fully formed. And, baby's starting to settle into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day. It shouldn't be hard to figure out when...just pay attention to those kicks as they start and stop!"

weeks 22-24 will all be a papaya because there is just a range that different babies grow right now. so month 5 is the papaya month! yum! hah :)

speaking of growing, i've had a few times this past week where i had some stretching pains. not bad/hurtful pain or anything, but i can tell my uterus is growing for sure! just felt like a slightly pulled muscle or something. she is definitely growing in there, and now there are more baby movements too :) i feel her multiple times a day, every day. i even felt her from the outside one morning while i was laying in bed! so now if i can get erik's hand there at the right time, i bet he could probably feel her too. she seems more active in the evening (takes after her mom & dad!), but it's not distracting as i'm falling asleep (yet). 

this week i moved the rug crocheting upstairs into the nursery. it was getting too cramped down in the family room!

every time i crochet a row on the rug, i have to flip the whole thing around since i work right to left so there is a lot more space up here. also, now that it's on hardwood floor, it's easier to flip too since it slides much better as i flip it. so here is my new set-up! hahaha...i guess it will be also be nice once it's done because it will just already be in the room lol...

kahlua is still being as snuggly as ever. he gets in these moods where all he wants to do is just be RIGHT by me (and even up to my face sometimes lol), and won't let me do anything about it. he'll paw lightly at my face if i'm not looking down into his eyes. he's being very needy! i was able to grab my cell phone and snap this photo of him this past week:

i just love him SO MUCH!!!! my lil snuggle-bear. i think he definitely knows another little one is on the way though haha...sometimes he'll go to lay on my chest and he just slides down off my bump and gets confused since it obviously never used to be there.

also this past week, i ordered some baby clothes thanks to JCPenney!!! a few months ago, their website had a mix-up on the price of this children's patio set:

instead of being listed at $150, it was only $15!!!!! i knew our little one wouldn't be able to use it for a LONG time, but $15 was a steal! so, i ordered one, but so did like 4782164712946214630 other people because of the mis-marked price. i figured i would just wait and see what happened because if we couldn't get it, no big deal. i just figured i would try because the price was so good.

well, sure enough, JCPenney saw this problem (actually only 15 minutes after i ordered ours), and cancelled all the orders. i just thought, "ah well, it was worth a shot", and that was that. BUT! we got an apology letter in the mail for the mix-up, and they included a "$50 off $50 or more" order code on JCP.com!!!!!! what an awesome surprise! so naturally, i HAD to check out the little girl clothes ;) here is what i bought:

i was trying to spend it wisely and think ahead for holidays/occasions that the money would be best spent towards. the dresses online were ALL so cute! but, i also only wanted to spend as CLOSE to $50 as possible since we're being tight with money these days. i ended up getting all of this for only TWO DOLLARS! success!!!!!! well, plus $6 shipping lol...but still a success!!! and all of this because they were so nice to send out that online code in their apology letter for "my troubles". no troubles here! i wasn't expecting anything! haha :) really awesome!

something else we've started to do is pick out the perfect name for her. this is so hard!!! i've looked through (what seems like) ALL the names in the world for a girl, and there are so many to weed through because like 90% of them are just not going to work at all (too weird from other countries, etc). i'm really into different/rare names because i don't want her to be like "ashley #5" in her class (i was almost an ashley! so happy my parents chose jacqueline/jacqui!!! i love the uniqueness). so those names are even HARDER to find because there are certain names i like, for example: avery or zoey, but they are like the number 12th and 14th names for girls right now so they are out. however! we have some that we like, and are rare/different, so we're trying them out in our heads for a while to see if they are truly the right fit. no need to commit so early, but it's good to think early since name picking is difficult and we both have to love the chosen one. so we'll see what happens! :)