23 weeks!

I eagerly rushed in here to check to see what fruit our baby girl is this week, and it turns out she's finally at the stage where she's one fruit for a while. Papaya it is... 


So far things have been going well. In the aftermath of finding out we're expecting a girl, I've been going crazy with the pink stuff! Yesterday, I bought her a new crib sheet with little pink and blue flowers on it so it matches her room a little more. I also can't stop looking at clothes! Everyone says to not buy anything until you've had a shower, and I'm doing my best... I am. 


We were shopping yesterday for a secret Santa child, and I found this Juicy Couture faux fur coat. I grabbed it, ran over to Derek and said, "Stella wants this." He started laughing. He was like, "How old will she be when she can even wear that?" I was like, "Uhm, looks like 12 months, but who's counting?" He was like, "Really? We live in the South..." It was so freaking cute! I guess that's my new thing, "Stella wants it." It's going to be hard to resist buying any clothes until our shower, but I vow to do my best.


Also, I should add that I had an awesome lunch yesterday with my former boss, Ellen, and she bought Stella a Gus stuffed animal! I put it in her room. It really helps balance out all of the OSU stuff we have (and how about the Georgia Southern Eagles beating Wofford last night?!). Thanks, Ellen!! :) 


I have my next appointment tomorrow, so I'm very excited about that. Well, let me rephrase that. I think I'm excited. I'm nervous about weighing in. Everyone has told me that this last period of time was when most of my friends and coworkers gained a little more than the usual. In other words, it's not uncommon to gain a little more at that point. If I had to guess my overall gain at this point, I'm going to pin it at 15 lbs. I always aim high, and I thought I was at 15 lbs around 16 weeks. Thank God I wasn't! 


As far as symptoms go, I'm going to talk to the doctor about the heartburn. I went over the max dosage on Tums yesterday because it was so bad. I'm also having a lot of pain in my tailbone. It's extremely painful, and it makes it very difficult to sit. Other than that, mostly everything is good. The medication has helped my face a lot, so I have no other complaints.


I have been having some awful dreams lately. Two nights ago, I dreamed that Derek and I lived in a place like the Hoth System from Empire, and we had lost our baby. We were trying to find him (yes, Stella was a him for some reason) in all the snow and ice. It was awful! 


Last night, I dreamed that I was talking to Argentinean soccer wonder Lionel Messi (sounds awesome right?) about the importance of the First-Year Experience class at SCAD, and all of a sudden, I had blood running down my legs and I was having a miscarriage. It was horrible. I woke up all frantic and woke Derek up. Thankfully, Stella was going crazy so I knew she was okay and I was able to go back to sleep. 


Then, I fell asleep again, and I dreamed that I was with my college friend Ronanda at a drag queen show and we had all of these frat boys who were trying to rub my belly for good luck. I was running and trying to get away from them! I finally laid down and was crying at the end of the dream.


Bizarre, right?! I'm guessing all of this is normal - the anxiety of being pregnant, pending parenthood, and worrying about the health of our baby. I need some sleep, though! I'm sick of waking up in a frenzy! All of it sounds totally kooky now that I'm awake and blogging about it, but at the time, I was so worried about Stella (or her male Rebellion counterpart). 


Overall, I'm really at the point where I just want April to be here. I want to see her, know what she looks like, hold her, and really get this started. People talk about loving the feeling of being pregnant, but for me, I think I'll be much happier when we have our baby girl here. 


I better go eat some breakfast! I'm starving! :) I'll blog more tomorrow after my appointment. Please wish me luck with the scales! I'm nervous!!!