Week 20 - Halfway!!!

Week 20 - October 24 - 30, 2013

Officially halfway! I woke up the morning of the 20 week mark in a wonderful mood and so excited! What a triumph! Halfway through my pregnancy with a wonderfully healthy little girl wiggling inside! Hooray!

From 10 weeks to 20 weeks! Baby Hals is growing!

 

Through the day (and the rest of the week) I kept thinking...wow, I have made it so far! And wow, it has gone so fast! But...that thought was quickly swamped with wow, I have so far to go! And...wow, I have a feeling this may go just as quickly! Ah! I triumphantly took a picture of my growing baby bump and reflected upon how much Baby Hals has grown and how well things are going! I was really excited to show up in Florida with my cute bump as well...

 

My official 20 week mark started on a Thursday and Friday morning I was scheduled to get up early, take the MARC and metro into DC to Reagan Int'l, fly to Orlando, and drive to meet up with friends in Florida. I was presenting in Daytona at the Florida Council for Social Studies Conference on Saturday. So...I had a lot to do in terms of packing, finalizing my presentation, and getting my hands on a forsaken apple cord that would allow me to project my iPad through VGA to and LCD projector. So I headed to the apple store in the mall (I had tried to get the cord through Amazon and it had been a disaster). After my apple store experience (I wanted a shower...but that's beside the point), I popped into the Vera Bradley store on my way out because I the baby section caught my eye and I wanted to check out their diaper bag backpack first hand. (Which I am a pretty big fan of!) While there a store clerk approached me and started chatting about the various items, and oh aren't these things so pretty and cute, and oh I had three boys so I never got to enjoy this kind of stuff... At that point I interupted her to excitedly say I was having a girl. She replied "oh, you're pregnant?! I had no idea?" Sigh. Yes, I thought - pregnant and halfway...

 

The next day on my flight from DC to Orlando I sat beside two very nervous, very chatty college age girls on the plane and when my pregnancy came up they again said - oh my gosh, we didn't even notice you were pregnant!! Again...sigh. And then once I met up with my friends we hit the food trucks in Wickham Park (which were delicious and a lot of fun) and we saw a very truly pregnant girl there in a purple shirt who made my cute little bump look just that...like a little bump. But from there I adjusted my perspective. Weight wise I am doing great (gaining, but at a very healthy rate) and ultimately I am glad I am not humongous pregnant. 20 more weeks is a looong time to continue expanding - particularly if I was already quite big. So...ultimately I am glad I am not full blown "grocery store pregnant" just yet, but at the same time...I woke up at 20 weeks, took my picture and did the side by side comparison and could only marvel at how much I have grown. And yet...it evidently isn't enough growth for anyone to think I am anything more than just kinda pudgy. Embracing it...but I spent Thursday and Friday going through an additional mental adjustment of being halfway...but still not obviously anything more than that girl in the grocery store with a beer gut or a cookie addiction.

 

Presenting at FCSS went really well! I really enjoyed getting to share my work with other teachers and overall had a great time with my presentation. And the rest of the weekend? I spent laughing and enjoying the company of our dear Florida friends. We enjoyed dinners, we had a traditional laughter filled evening at WOB and tried to invent the worst possible name for baby Hals, and caught up. It was really nice.

 

During week 20 Baby Hals also became an acrobat...although to my credit I didn't realize it for certain just yet. One of the nights I was staying with Thomas and Brie, I slept absolutely horribly...and kept thinking to myself...do I have a rumbly tumbly or a tumbly baby? In hindsight? I had a tumbly baby! By the end of week 20 it was clear - I had a tumbling, flip-flopping, barrel rolling, somersaulting acrobat in my belly! And it was awesome!

At 20 weeks, Baby Hals is the size of a banana! We took this the last night of week 20 and the night before Daniel left for the Maldives! This one was my favorite!

 

Every week that I feel good I am oh so grateful! I'm trying not to dread the future, but it's pretty common knowledge that I am likely to feel less than comfortable by the end. So every day and each week that I still feel good or even pretty good? I am thankful and rolling with it!

 

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