23 weeks

How far along?: 23 Weeks

How big is baby?: 11.5 in 1.1 lbs
Food cravings?: Not really anything in particular right now. Maybe ice cream, and I am thirsty a lot. I'm also eating like a 15 year old boy right now with how hungry I am.
What I'm looking forward to: Dr's appointment on Wednesday, those are always nice.
Milestone: This milestone makes me breathe a teeny tiny sigh of relief. Ella is far enough along in her development that she could have a chance at survival outside the womb. Basically all of her organs are developed and functioning, we now just need the next 17 weeks for those systems to mature.
Sleep?: Doing okay, just thave to pee all the time.
Best moment this week?: This week has been pretty lazy, not a lot going on. AJ and I were able to squeeze in some time for us over my weekend, so that has been nice.
Feelings this week?: I'm feeling pretty big this week, but I think the growing has slowed a little bit. I think I'm about the same size this week as I was during week 25 with Sam. So I'm not that much bigger. We're also thinking about middle names, I was really set on Jane for the longest time, no matter what the first name was... but since we decided on Gabriella, I've been thinking Rose might sound better as her middle name. We're still not sure, they both sound great so we haven't made any decisions yet.

I'm a little disappointed that we aren't farther along in her nursery, but it's a lot harder to find the time when we have another little one to manage. We were done with the nursery for Sam by this time when I was pregnant with him. I guess this Wednesday we'll have to just get on it. I need to clean out the rest of the furniture in that room and vacuum and carpet clean before we paint or anything. Hopefully we can get that taken care of this weekend.

Other than that, not much else going on. Sam amazes me every day, he's talking really well lately and says 3-4 word sentences now!

22 weeks

How far along?: 22 Weeks 2 Days
How big is baby?: 11 inches, 1 lb!! Yay we've hit the 1lb mark!
Food cravings?: Ice cream
What I'm looking forward to: Getting the nursery finished, still soooo much to do.
Milestone: Not much going on right now, just fattening up.
Sleep?: Off and on.
Best moment this week?: This week has been pretty good, I got a good bonus from work which is always nice and a refund from my awesome bank. I also started feeling little baby kicks on the outside as well.
Feelings this week?:  This week has been okay. A few stressful days there but things are back on track now. We did accomplish a few things this week including getting our taxes done and finding a Daycare for my Sam. (He starts the 13th!) I was so afraid that it was going to take forever to find someone, but we were so lucky and got a great referral to a daycare lady that used to be an elementary school teacher. (Not to mention she is very reasonably priced.) I'm excited that even though he's going to be in daycare, he's at least going to be getting something out of it. We also didn't have to go with a daycare center, we were able to go with in-home daycare which I feel much better about. Plus it will hopefully teach him to learn to share a little better. Other than that, not much going on this week. Ella is going crazy lately, she's moving all the time. I think that she's going to be my wild child. Sam is so calm all the time and he's really a good kid, I hope I get as lucky with #2, but I don't know, we'll see! It was nice for other people to be able to feel her move too. Sam never moved enough for that, but Ali got to feel yesterday, she was so excited, it was adorable.

21 weeks

How far along?: 21 Weeks
How big is baby?: 10.5 inches, 12 oz
Food cravings?: Chick Fil A, Dr Pepper
What I'm looking forward to: Getting the nursery finished!
Milestone: Not much going on right now, just fattening up.
Sleep?: Off and on.
Best moment this week?: This week has been pretty good, I got a good bonus from work which is always nice and a refund from my awesome bank. I also started feeling little baby kicks on the outside as well.
Feelings this week?:  This week has been pretty easy going, not much going on really. Sam had his Dr's appointment on Friday, he's growing a lot, he's now 25 lbs (38%), and 32 inches tall (36%). He has gained 4 lbs and grown 1 inch in the last 3 months. His head is still the biggest part of him, in the 80%. I hate the percentiles, they make me worry, he has gone up significantly in weight percentile, (last appt he was in the 23%) but has gone down in height (last time he was in 38%) I hate the percentiles, I really, really do. Makes me worry for nothing. Good news is he's hitting every single milestone for 18 months old and the Dr was pretty impressed with how much he's talking, even using small 2-3 word scentences now, which is advanced for his age. I always knew he was going to be smart though. :-)
Other than that, not much else going on. Sam might have allergies, based on his puffy eyes and stuffy nose from the last few days, but he did have a fever last night, so I'm not 100% sure on that. Fever could've been from his vaccine though, so we'll see how he is today. The swollen eyes have me more concerned then anything else though. Ella's doing okay been pretty quiet the last couple days, I think she moved to another position cause usually her heartbeat is up around my belly button and now it's down a lot lower on my tummy. So I think that's why I haven't felt her as much. Just little kicks here and there.

Not a lot of pictures lately as I can't seem to get Sam to sit still and I don't have a good enough camera to capture him moving without it blurring him out! Here are some of his puffy eyes:

Happy boy, even though he's not feeling well!

20 Weeks

How far along?: 20 Weeks 2 days! Halfway there!
How big is baby?: 6.5 inches 10.5 oz
Food cravings?: Lots of random stuff right now, I'll just get a craving for something random like pork chops or a banana shake.
What I'm looking forward to:
Milestone: Ella's digestive system is starting to function!
Sleep?: Ugggggggghhhhhh, between one kid kicking me on the inside at all hours of the night, (I haven't gotten used to the sensation yet, so it wakes me up, or keeps me awake in some cases) and the other waking up in the middle of the night for Mommy cuddles, then having random dreams about the Wiggles, all while having to wake up at 4:00 am, sleep has been a pretty non existent entity for the last couple of days... Don't get me wrong, I love the feeling of Ella kicking, and cuddling with Sam. But I've gotta sleep!
Best moment this week?: It was a pretty good week, mostly I just enjoyed spending time with family.
Feelings this week?: Tired. I'm excited because Ella is moving more and more every day, I don't think it will be much longer before we can feel her on the outside. Getting her room ready and cleaned up and we moved Sam into a big boy bed yesterday and now we have the crib to get ready for her room, AJ is going to paint it white along with the changing table he is building for her.

Last night went okay with Sam in the big boy bed, it was a lot harder to get him down to sleep because I don't think he's used to so much freedom. Took him about 5 seconds to figure out how to get down off the bed. We'll see how the next few days goes, but I'm hoping he gets used to it really quickly!

19 Weeks!!

How far along?: 19 Weeks
How big is baby?: 6.0 inches, 8.5 oz (we are at about 1/2 pound!) 
Food cravings?: Chocolate, Fruit, Ice Cream 
What I'm looking forward to: Getting the nursery done! AJ is in the process of getting Sam's big boy bed built, it is almost done and I think he's going to be set up in it by Sunday! Once we get Sam in his big boy bed we are going to paint the crib white, (AJ's idea!) and AJ is going to build a changing table/dresser for Ella's room. While he's in the process of building it, I think we're going to get the room painted, (I'm going to work on removing wall paper over the next few days.)
Milestone: Ella's senses are continuing to develop.
Sleep?: I'm starting to go back to being tired all the time. Unfortunately the 2nd trimester energy kick isn't lasting as long as I'd hoped this time.
Best moment this week?: The ultrasound and finding out we are having a little girl!
Belly button in or out?:  In still.
Feelings this week?: I'll be honest, when we found out that we are having a little girl I didn't know what to think, I'm so used to my little boy! But then things started falling into place and I realized it really won't be much different from raising a boy, just a little more pink, lol. AJ was pretty shell shocked too, he still says he's trying to wrap his head around it, lol. The more I think about it, the more excited I am though, I am excited that I get to have the best of both worlds, I get to roll around and get dirty with my boy (and girl if she wants to, lol.) And I get to have all the fun little girlie things as well. I'm happy to have a name for this little one instead of just calling her baby, I'm excited to get the nursery decorated, and I absolutely LOVE the bedset I chose for her. (And yes, it's pink!)

I am also a little sad this week because we are getting ready to put a lot of Sam's baby stuff away... He's no longer going to be in a crib and we're going to introduce the potty to him, (probably in no serious way, but he's starting to tell me when he's poopy, so I figure it's time to at least introduce it.) I'm excited at the same time to see him growing up, but he really is looking much much more like a little boy and much less like a baby... and he's talking SO much too... Using sentences and everything, sometimes I look at him and wonder where my little baby went!

IT'S A GIRL!!

We had our ultrasound today, everything went great the ultrasound tech looked at everything for about 30 minutes, doing the gender last. She said that the heart looks great and everything looks normal. We'll have that confirmed by my Dr on Wednesday next week. When we actually got to the gender part at first we didn't know if we were going to be able to find out since she wasn't cooperating, legs crossed and the umbilical cord between them. So the tech had me go potty and while I was in the bathroom I did a few jumps to get her moving, lol. When I came back and we started again, she could see everything right away and it was obvious that it's a girl! So we are going to be lucky enough to get the best of both worlds.

I honestly wasn't expecting it to be a girl, but am really happy about it. I now get to be introduced to the world of pink, lol. We've already picked the name, it's going to be Gabriella Jane, Ella for short. Can't wait for my sweet little girl in June.

18 weeks

How far along?: 18 Weeks
How big is baby?: 5.6 Inches, 6.7 oz
Food cravings?: Apples, ice cream
What I'm looking forward to: Our big ultrasound is in a couple days, I'm so ready to know what we are having and I'm ready to see our little one and make sure s/he is doing okay.
Milestone: Baby's bones are starting to harden and the bones in the inner ear are finished forming, so baby is able to hear some now.
Sleep?: Sometimes.
Best moment this week?: There have been a lot of good moments this week, I felt the baby move consistently for about 10 minutes yesterday... also Sam is really starting to get talkative and he's my little parrot, he repeats everything I say now. 
Belly button in or out?: In still.
Feelings this week?: Ready for things to get moving, I'm so ready to find out what we're having. We should know in just a couple of days... We also started getting things cleaned up in the baby's room finally. AJ finished my desk, (which looks awesome) and we brought it up to our bedroom, and was able to fit it pretty well in there. We also reused all the wall decorations from the office in our bedroom as well. Now it's just cleaning out the rest of the crap in that room and we'll be ready to get things set up for baby!

I'm also starting to realize just how quickly Sam is growing up... he's starting to act so much like a little boy and not a baby anymore. He's talking sooo much and really understanding things, yesterday he pointed to my nose and said: "nose." He's a boy after my own heart too.. he absolutely loves books, he even took one to bed with him the other night... Absolutely love it!