19 weeks, 3 days

Well.  Here we are.  Almost to the halfway point of being pregnant with baby number two!

My dear sister informed that I don't talk about Bob as much as I talked about Lily.  I really don't remember specifics about what I talked about that pregnancy..though I guess that was the reason I blogged then, so if I REALLY wanted to, I could go back and re-read them.  Meh.  Go for it, people, let me know what I had to say ;) And I'm not intentionally avoiding talking about Bob..I just really feel this pregnancy is different on just about every possible level:

We didn't tell people the day we found out..our families didn't find out until I was 14 weeks along, and I guess that because we didn't talk about it to our friends and families, we didn't talk about it to each other a ton?  I mean, we did talk about it and how excited we were..but I guess I wasn't hounding Jesse every day of every week trying to figure out what he was thinking and feeling during the whole pregnancy.  Since Lily was a surprise, it took us both awhile to wrap our minds around the fact we were going to be parents and our lives would be changing forever and so I feel like I, at least, talked about it a ton more, hoping that the more I talked about it, the more real it would feel.  

This time, I guess especially after the miscarriage, we're both just so excited that we knew this from the minute I took the pregnancy test and we haven't needed to revisit the topic.  Now that I'm feeling the baby kick and move around, I'm beginning to feel more at ease with it all and know that this is for real.  And I also know it will continue to feel "more real" the bigger I get and once we actually set up his/her nursery and I can walk in and see where Bob will sleep in such a short time.  

I tried really hard not to have any expectations of how this pregnancy would go..and for the most part I haven't, but even if I had, man would they be wrong.  I had the easiest pregnancy ever with Lily (or so I thought).  I avoided morning sickness and felt her move around 12 weeks.  With Bob..The first 11 weeks were awful.  I was incredibly nauseous, though I never threw up, and just was so lethargic and exhausted.  I didn't feel movement until closer to 16 weeks this time around.  I didn't notice any cravings with Lily, and while I still don't think I'm having cravings-- which I label as the wake up in the middle of the night "I MUST HAVE THIS NOW" need for something specific-- I have noticed there are some foods I'm wanting more often than not.  Recently, it's been pasta.  Again, not I MUST HAVE IT NOW wants, just most of the meals I think about for dinner have some sort of pasta in them.  Jesse thinks I'm getting in touch with my Italian side (he claimed my Mexican side with Lily since I wanted everything to have hot sauce on it).  A week or so ago, I was wanting proteins, but NO MEAT.  Ugh.  I hadn't realized how much we ate meat until none of it (except a big, delicious steak) sounded appetizing.  I wanted spinach and peanut butter.  Not together, though.  

What else has been different...hm.  My body ached for the first trimester this time around.  The same kind of joint pain I get after a really long run.  One of my co-workers told me she thought I was already carrying this baby lower than I carried Lily.  Now, to be fair, I carried Lily pretty low.  The cute old grandma's who "know" everything about a pregnant woman just by looking at her would come up to me and say "you're having a boy, aren't you."  No, granny, it's a girl.  But I really have been feeling this baby is lower, still.  Which is weird, because all my pants still fit, and I think at this time with Lily I was either already wearing maternity pants on occasion or having to leave the top button undone on my jeans..but everything still fits.  Maybe I'm wearing sweats more..

I guess that's all I can think of off the top of my head.  And now, two announcements that I guess I have to finally accept and make public:

1) I am 97% sure we are going to let Bob's gender be a surprise.  I am, however, female and pregnant, so this is liable to change.  I'm incredibly excited to see our little one next week at the ultrasound, but I am really liking the thought of waiting until delivery to find out if it's a boy or girl.  Which, if you know me very well at all, this will be a shock to you since you know how I am with surprises.  

2) we (read: Amber) have started potty training Lily.  Even though she's only 16.5 months, I/we felt that now was a fine time.  I'm not going to get all bent out of shape, stress about it or force her because I know it's early.  But since she'll be 21 months when Bob is born, I decided I would MUCH rather try and begin potty training NOW as opposed to when there's a newborn baby.  We began on Sunday and I'm not sure what to expect or what I expected.  Jesse was impressed we've had any successes, I guess he assumed it'd be a few weeks before she went in the toilet.  I guess I (wrongly!) assumed she'd go the first day we tried..but we HAVE had a few successes and I'm clearly more excited about it than she is!  We will see how this ends up going in a few more weeks..

this was when Lily decided to share her spoonful of peanut butter with Zeke..not just in the "here, Z, have the rest of it" but in the "I will have a lick, now you have a lick, now I have a lick" kind of way.  yummy.