Weird Pregnancy Symptoms

So, I have "What to Expect When You're Expecting," and I've read a lot of it.  I also get weekly emails from babycenter.com, but some of the symptoms that I've had during my pregnancy have not been listed in any book.  They're just weird.

1. Ear zits.  You know when you get a zit in your ear, and it's really annoying?  Well, I've consistently had at least one throughout my pregnancy.  At this moment, I have one in each ear.  My face?  Still clear, like normal.  Just my ears.  What?

2. Sneezing.  I sneeze all the time.  I don't feel like I have terrible allergies or anything (except for one week of torture,) but the sneezing never stops.

3. Hair loss.  In my first trimester, my hair fell out in clumps!  I thought that your hair was supposed to be thick and luxurious during pregnancy...  It actually stopped after about 14 weeks, but it was so weird.

Although I've had a rough pregnancy in some ways (yes, I'm still barfing occasionally despite my prescription,) I consider myself very lucky not to have had the following symptoms:

1. Heartburn.  Bring on the spicy food.

2. Constipation.  Enough said.

3. Ravenous hunger.  I definitely eat more, but I'm not starving all the time like I expected to be.

And now I just jinxed myself.  By the time I get back from Hawaii (we leave tomorrow morning!) I will have experienced all of these.  Awesome.

The Delta

Doug and I had the privilege of getting to spend a week house boating on the Sacramento Delta with our high school students.  We didn't shower for a whole week, ate ridiculous food like brownie mix mixed with water with cookies for dipping in it, slept on the roof, and had the time of our lives!  I (and I think everyone else) was a little bit wary of going on the trip 6 months pregnant.  You have to climb a ladder to get up to the roof, and I didn't know if I would get sea sick, but I wanted to be there for my girls and experience the trip before Miss K comes and it isn't even an option anymore.

I felt great, and it was one of the best weeks of my life.  I saw God move in my girl's hearts in big ways.  These girls are one of the true joys of my life; I love them so much.  I pray that my daughter will grow up and seek God the way that they do.

Also awesome?  My company gave me 3 free days of vacation for being a volunteer!  Find out if your company offers something like this, and if they do, take advantage of it!

24 Weeks

Dang.  I'm 24 weeks already?  I've been trying to do regular(ish) pregnancy updates, but it's not working out.  Doug and I spent the last week on houseboats with our high schoolers.  It was amazing.  It deserves it's own post, but I am definitely glad to be back home after a week away.

An update on my pregnancy:

How Far Along: 24 weeks, 1 day

Size of baby: Over a pound!

Total Weight Gain: 12 lbs...and feeling every ounce of it...Movement: Our little lady is a kicking machine.  I feel her moving around constantly now, and Doug feels her kick every day.  It doesn't hurt at all, but there is a certain amount of unpleasantness about it.  Sometimes it feels like she is getting all up in the bid'ness of my vital organs.

What I miss: Fitting into my skinny jeans...  Oh, vanity...

Cravings: Airheads!  Seriously, where have they been all my life?

Symptoms: Allergies like I've never had before!  I tried to power through them for two days without any drugs, but I finally had to call my Ob and ask her what I could take.  She said that I could take a Benadryl.  I took one and didn't feel the Little Lady move for over 24 hours!  I drugged her.  It totally freaked me out, and I will not be taking it again.

Maternity Clothes: Let's see.  I seem to be collecting them at an alarming rate.  I bought a bella band (meh), black maternity pants, got a GIANT bag of maternity pants from my sweet friend Holly, and the most amazing striped maxi skirt. 

Best Moment this week: Well, this was a few weeks ago, but the first time that Doug felt her kick was pretty awesome.  Oh, and discovering that there were Airheads in the Target dollar section...


Here I am at 22 Weeks:

And here I am at 24 Weeks:

Drawing a line.

Has anyone else seen these?  Now, I'm all for covering up a baby's baldness with a giant bow or headband but fake hair?  That's my limit.

Ultrasoundy Goodness

We had our, errrr, 5th ultrasound yesterday.  Yay for whacked out hormone levels...  I must say though, there is a major silver lining to my body's inability to produce hormones at the right levels.  We get to see our sweet baby girl (in 4-D no less) every 4 weeks!  AND my insurance has to pay for it.  So maybe my body knows what it's doing after all...

Shopping

In the past 2 days, I've ordered an Ergo Baby and a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag.  I think I'm getting the hand of this 'shopping for baby' thing...

Ergo Baby?  Bought off Babysteals.com for 50% off!

Diaper bag?  Nordstrom anniversary sale!

Anniversary Trip

Our trip to Las Vegas was perfect.  In the past when we've gone to Vegas, we've always stayed at the cheapest hotel that we could find.  Some of the winners we've stayed at include Circus Circus, Motel 6, Hooters, well, you get the picture...  We decided that since it was our anniversary, and we would probably be spending a lot more time in our hotel room since I loooove to sleep, we would stay somewhere nice.  Doug did a lot of internet searching and calling hotel promotional desks trying to find the best deal, and we got a great deal at Aria.

The hotel was nicer than I imagined it would be.  Our room had floor to ceiling windows, a pillow top mattress, and a giant soaking tub.  Ahhh, heaven.  The highlight of the room was a remote control that controlled everrrrything in the room.  She was our own personal robot maid.  We could use it to open and close the curtains, change the temperature in the room, turn on and off the lights, turn on the privacy sign; it was awesome.

We hung out at the pool all day on Saturday and even managed to find two chairs next to each other in the shade.

We decided to go to a nightclub and ended up at Tao.  The three of us (Baby Hulse likes to groove to the music too) got our dance on into the wee hours of the night.

The rest of the weekend was spent playing craps, eating like kings, and taking glorious naps.  Happy Anniversary to my sweet love of 4 years.