17 Weeks

On Sunday, December 15th we made it to the 17 week mark!

According to The Bump:

~ Baby continues to beef up.  She's now about 5.1 inches long and weighs about 5.9 ounces.
~ Her rubbery cartilage is now turning to bone.
~ And she's growing some meat on those bones -- putting on some fat.
~ She's growing a stronger, thicker umbilical cord, too.

That all sounds like good progress to me!!!

I am definitely sporting a more noticeable baby bump these days:

Unfortunately, I'm still patiently anxiously waiting for the nausea and what I call "puke burps" {sorry for being gross!} to let up, but at this point I'm losing hope that they will...   I don't mean to complain in a bad way -- if puke burps bring us a healthy baby I will gladly continue dealing with them -- it's just been really hard to try to function as a "normal" human and get anything done {at work or at home} feeling this way almost all day, most days.  There is just so much I need to do {Christmas is in 5 days, AHHHH!}, and while Shep has been working overtime at being an absolute CHAMP picking up a LOT of my slack, I'm feeling a bit frustrated that I'm not making any progress on all the things I want to be doing {including keeping this blog much more up to date than I have been!} while time is passing by so quickly!

This week I had 2 holiday parties to attend: a team party at my manager's home in Brooklyn on Tuesday night and then our company party on Wednesday night.  I've honestly been dreading both of them, because my nausea is always way worse in the late afternoons and evenings.  I must have had a stroke of good luck though this week because I actually felt pretty good at both parties!  On Tuesday night especially I didn't feel like I was dragging myself around, didn't feel nauseous at the party, and had a good time!  We even stayed for the whole party!  I did stay up WAY too late though, and woke up on Wednesday morning regretting my lack of sleep.  Wednesday afternoon I felt really icky but by the time the company party rolled around at 7pm I felt okay to go.  I put on my new maternity dress from Target, and had a good time...

Source

I only stayed for about 2 hours, but I made an effort and that's what counts!  Thursday morning I woke up so tired though that I actually felt hungover -- bizarre seeing as I haven't had a drop of alcohol in months!!!  Getting through the work day yesterday was a bit tough, so I took today off.... TGIF!  :)

Have a great weekend!

Team Blue or Team Pink?

One of the first things almost every person has asked when they found out we're expecting, after "When are you due?" is...

"Are you going to find out early whether 
you're having a boy or a girl?"

And the answer is..... nope!  We're going to wait until the delivery to be surprised!

A lot of people have found our response surprising!  Especially in this day and age, when almost everyone I know finds out as soon as possible, I get it's a bit unusual that we're choosing to wait it out.  One of my favorite replies was from a co-worker who proclaimed:  "You?!  Preparation Patty??  You're not going to find out???"  I got a real kick out of that.  I'll be one of the first to admit it -- there is a part of me that is very organized, detail-oriented to a fault, and possibly a bit of a control freak.

But here's the thing -- on the flip side there is a HUGE part of me that just loooooooves surprises.  I mean L.O.V.E.S.!!!  I was disappointed when I thought I'd figured out when and where my "surprise" bridal shower was {though oddly still was surprised when I walked in and saw all those people smiling at me -- even though my hunch was right!}.  A few years ago when I accidentally stumbled upon an unwrapped Christmas gift hubby had hidden from me, when looking for an extra blanket in November, I almost cried and got so mad at myself!  I'm the kind of person who keeps a wrapped gift box containing a piece of jewelry in my nightstand drawer for 6 months.  Yep, you read that correctly.  For our anniversary in May, Hubby bought me 2 gifts, which I thought was too much, so I only opened one of them and said I'd save the second gift for another time.  A couple weeks and then months passed and I told him not to get me anything for my birthday, and that I'd open the second box then.  Well, my birthday came and Hubby had bought me something else, so I decided to wait until Christmas to open it.  Yes -- I voluntarily have decided not to open a whit bow-tied little blue Tiffany box, just because I love the suspense and thrill of knowing I have a forthcoming surprise!

So, although I'm absolutely curious to know whether we'll soon be parents to a baby boy or baby girl, for now we're staying Team Green, ladies and gentlemen!!!

At least that's the current plan.  At 17.5 weeks we still have a little time to change our minds, but I don't think I'm going to change mine.  Hubby originally said he wanted to find out, and threatened to bribe the ultrasound tech to tell him without me knowing!  There's no way that he could keep that secret from me though, so that plan is not going to work.  ;)  While I'd certainly be willing to be convinced to see his side of things -- this is his kid too! -- when I pressed him to share with me any good arguments he had why we should find out the baby's sex before the birth, he didn't really have anything convincing {sorry, Hubby!}.  He said he was 50% sure he wanted to find out early but I'm about 90% sure I want to wait, so I think the math works out in my favor for the moment...

I recently saw a post on a message board, advising a mom who was asking whether she should find out her baby's gender, that said:  Do you shake wrapped presents? If no, stay team green.

That seems like very fitting advice for me!  ;)  Team Green we are!