Baby Update - June 10th

Its about time for a baby update...its been such a special time and yet its kind of an odd passage of time. I am 17 weeks which means there are only 23 weeks left. Rarely in life are there such defined deadlines. Sometimes we want to change jobs or move homes or plan special things, but its odd to actually have a D-day....November 18th it is! I must admit that I think that I have had a blessed first 17 weeks. Of course when you tell people you're pregnant or when you google things about pregnancy, you always hear the worst case scenarios, so maybe that isn't normal either, but I feel like its been a pretty easy 17 weeks.
I was close to feeling nauseous maybe twice during the first trimester. :-) Weirdly though, some nausea kicked in only first thing in the morning during weeks 13-14 but then it was over.
The worst part about being pregnant is clothes. Its natural to think that when your clothes get too tight that you are getting fat, but then you have to remember that that's just part of it. I have a lot of cotton skirts and even got a couple pairs of maternity shorts, but its still hard. There is that in between time when people can't tell you're pregnant if they don't know already so then you still feel fat...even if you know its not reality. Anyways, its totally all worth it! My sweet cousin sent me 2 full boxes of maternity tops that she wore a year ago, which was a huge blessing! I'm not a huge shopper anyway so spending a lot of money on clothes you can only wear for a little while is a depressing thought for me...so I really appreciated her generosity!
The most exciting thing is that I THINK I felt Baby R move for the first time last night. I'm still not 100% certain, but I was laying on the couch working on my laptop and I felt what my friend accurately described as a little muscle spasm. I waited thinking it was just a fluke but I felt it again at the same spot. I told Derrick and he immediately came over and tried to feel, but I told him it'd be a while before he could feel anything. :) It was cute anyway though. Again today, I was on the couch and felt the same thing repetitively in the same spot except it was more of a singular thump then another and another....so I'm pretty sure I am right! I know it will continue to get even more exciting as the whole thing becomes even more real and tangible.
We will find out the gender on July 3rd which we're very excited about! After that, we will start to pick things out for the nursery and register and stuff. That'll be super fun - except the amount of products and options out there for babies is overwhelming. I'm going to have to enlist the help of my "been there and done that" friends for the best choices for baby gear. If you're reading this and you have a list of favorites and "must haves" - PLEASE share!! :)