Week 22-23: Vero Vacation etc.

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I've become delinquent in my blog writing responsibilities. We've had a busy two weeks! Colt has been playing a lot lately and I've been running errands, or tagging along. I am 24 weeks today which means I'm officially 6 months pregnant! Time is just flying by.

Last week were were thankful to take a little mini-vacation. My parents own a time share in Vero Beach, FL. Its on the east coast of Florida, a little bit south of parallel to Tampa. We left last Sunday afternoon after church to head out there. The car ride is about 2 1/2 to 3 hours, which was fine with us, because we had time to listen to music and comedy routines on Colt's IPOD, and talk. We always say that you could put the two of us in an empty room with plain white walls, and we would still entertain each other for hours. We got there around 6:30 in the evening, and had time to drop our stuff off, check out the condo, and go grab some dinner. After dinner it was about 8:30-9:00, and we were surprised that there were almost no cars on the street. This became a recurring joke throughout the remainder of the trip. When we got back to the condo that night we were so tired! Colt fell asleep around 11pm, but I can never go to sleep that early. As I laid in bed, watching TV, the baby started to become VERY active. He was kicking so hard almost the entire night long. Usually I'll feel a kick here and a kick there, but he kicked so many times consecutively, and never seemed to tire! I was up until 3am with him having a little dance party inside my belly. The next day we started a routine that continued throughout the rest of the trip. Everyday we'd wake up around 11 or 12, put on our bathing suits and sunscreen, grab our beach blanket and head down to the beach for about an hour (or however long Colt could sit still). We enjoyed the "big" waves over there because its the Atlantic Ocean, and not the Gulf. My concerned mom would remind us everyday that there were Great White sharks and we should stay out of the water, or at least near the shoreline. She's so cute! One year, my dad actually almost caught a smaller shark near the shoreline with his bare hands during one of their vacations to Vero, so they must be out there somewhere. Colt and I had a great time going in the water though. The waves are definitely bigger over there. On one occasion, Colt and I were out past the point where the waves break hard, and we could just jump over an oncoming wave, instead of getting caught up in the surf. I was teasing him saying that I was going to body surf into shore (obviously a bad idea since I'm pregnant). As I jumped to escape the oncoming tsunami, I got caught up in it somehow, and my head went under. I was drug into shore underwater! I've learned from growing up near the beach, that if you get caught up in a wave, the best thing to do is not fight it. Just let it carry you in, and when you feel the water pressure letting up, just stand. The time I was underwater is obviously a blur, but I do remember putting my hands down, and opening my eyes to make sure I was far enough away from the sand that I didn't bump my belly. When I stood up, I had so much water up my nose, and my hair was everywhere. I was a little bit disoriented, but I started to look around for Colt. I spotted him where we had been standing, and he was laughing hysterically! "You look like Big Ern!" HAHA! I was laughing so hard. Of course later he asked if I was ok, but I think the initial laugh was exactly what I needed. In case you were wondering, this is a picture of Big Ern...


We spent the rest of the week going to the beach, shopping, and going to see a couple movies. The theatre there had a weekday rate of $4.75 per person! Colt had to play on Thursday, so we headed home on Wednesday night. It was a lovely little break from our normal routine!

On to the pregnancy happenings! These past two weeks have rendered many new "surprises". Last week Colt noticed that I'm starting to get the "linea nigra" or the pigmented line that runs vertically down the abdomen. Right now its very light, but its definitely there. Its funny how some things that aren't necessarily flattering about pregnancy, can be exciting once they start to surface. I can remember seeing some of my family members with this "pregnancy line", and thinking, "They're far along into their pregnancy now!" I'm also getting a little bit of the pregnancy mask. I've noticed a few dark spots under my eyes that weren't there before. My mom said she had a little bit of the pregnancy mask with me, but it faded soon after she had me. It doesn't really bother me, it just looks like a weird tan.

Another not so fun side effect of pregnancy is charley horses. One of my favorite things to do in the morning when I wake up is stretch out my legs and flex my calf muscles to stretch them out before I get out of bed. One day last week when I woke up, I started to stretch, and got a horrible charley horse in my right foot and calf. I had to JUMP out of bed and walk on it, and it went away. Every morning since then, when I do my "morning stretch" I have to be very careful how far I stretch the muscles because I can feel a charley horse threatening! Now that I've learned how to avoid them, they aren't a problem. The baby sleeping on my sciatic nerve on the other hand is completely unavoidable, and not fun. I had a numb leg for several hours the other night.

My dreams have always been fairly vivid, when I can remember them. Since I have been pregnant, it seems that I have very vivid dreams every night, and I can almost always remember them! I have had several dreams about the baby, and even when I don't dream about the baby, I am always pregnant in my dreams. I've had dreams where the baby can talk, dreams where the baby has had a lot of brown hair, dreams where he's had very little blond hair, and a dream where he was born on January 20th, a week before my due date. I can't wait to put all of these dreams to rest, and get to see what he looks like, and his personality for myself!

Lately, Colt and I have been taking long walks everyday. Its so weird gaining weight when you're pregnant. Its a complete 180 from what you've been accustomed to your whole life. When you're not pregnant and you gain a few pounds, you workout and eat better and lose the weight. When you're pregnant, you aren't supposed to lose the weight! Walking at least helps me feel like I'm doing something productive to manage my weight gain. If I can't be thin, at least I can be toned! Haha! I'm still right on target with how much I'm supposed to have gained by now, but sometimes it can feel overwhelming. Most of the time, six months pregnant feels great! I can still do everything I could do before (although shaving my legs is slowly becoming more of a task). The only time six months pregnant doesn't feel great is after dinner! I go to a website called babycenter.com frequently to read the message boards and talk with other soon-to-be mothers who are in the same week that I am. I mentioned this problem of feeling extremely bloated, and mostly just FULL after dinner, to see if anyone else was feeling the same way. I was amazed by the response! There were so many women who are feeling just like me! Some of them asked their doctors what they can do to combat that feeling of "extreme fullness", and the advice was just to eat several small meals throughout the day. Supposedly we can't eat like we used to be able to because there isn't so much room for our stomachs to expand anymore. Its horrible because I get a backache, its uncomfortable to move around a lot, and its almost harder to breathe! Thankfully, its only after eating dinner, and not all the time. I'm going to start eating a small dinner around dinner time, and another small dinner later in the night so I can be full, but not FULL!

I have some important dates coming up! I have my 24 week doctor appointment tomorrow, and another ultrasound on the 12th! I don't know whether they are going to do my glucose tolerance test at the 24 week appointment or my 28 week appointment, but that's coming up soon also. I'm also trying to coordinate some time with my sister so she can take my pregnancy pictures. I might end up setting the camera timer and taking a few myself, but we'll see. I've got some really cool, artsy ideas for them, so stay tuned!!! Thanks for reading!