benchmarks and babies: 22 Weeks and I Have Nothing To Compare It To

Weeks: 22 -- that's 5 1/2 months!

Weight Gain: now +5 lbs. from pre-baby weight

This Week's Cravings: Looks like I've nixed the chai teas and have returned to Pregnancy #1's staple: croissants and decaf coffee. Although it's decaf, I'm still limiting my intake, but when I do? Man, oh man, is it ever satisfying! My croissant intake has been the opposite. I've found myself having a whole turkey or ham and cheese croissant PLUS a half of a chocolate croissant in the mornings. My source has been my favorite donut place down the street, Wendi's Donuts, complete with ever-so-friendly Asians who always seem so happy to see another fellow slant-eye walking in. Love them. J is pretty happy with these cravings because I'm actually eating breakfast. Ever since childhood, I've never been a breakfast person, and pregnancy has not made it better. It frustrates J {he thinks I'm starving his child}, but he is oh-so-satisfied that he has won the battle of breakfast, at least for this week.

New Maternity / Baby Purchases: If there's one thing about J that reminds me of my dad {a trait that I absolutely ADORE and find extremely essential in a man}, it's the fact that he is so handy. Apart from arranging for the painters and electrician to work on Baby B's nursery, my husband has done most everything. After dealing with a pesky delivery service fiasco this week, Baby B's crib finally arrived on Thursday, and was assembled so efficiently by Daddy B by Thursday evening. Friday evening brought Baby's mattress and we are almost complete! We have also ordered her bookshelf, which is scheduled to arrive sometime in the next week or so, I presume. {We bought the crib and bookshelf from two different stores, but it seems both stores use the same pesky delivery company. It is NOT promising.}

This Week's Pregnancy Cheat: I hope you're sitting down, because I have not cheated at all this week. Not-a-once.

Things to Look Forward To: I received a phone call from a Kaiser nurse earlier this week {after my latest appointment with Dr. Moore}, who informed me that although everything seems to be going well, she has been assigned to be my "case worker" to keep track of me on the weeks when I don't have an appointment to see Dr. Moore. She has scheduled me to attend a preterm birth prevention class on the 20th. Although I'm reassured that the pregnancy this time is going smoothly thus far, I am still anxious to attend this class. At this point, I don't know if I can really be blamed if I am, at least to some degree, a little neurotic, a little over-careful, a little over-informed, or {d} all of the above. Part of my general psyche has always told me that the more information I'm armed with, the more secure I could potentially be.

Tired / Sick / Sleepy?: This week, I've felt my energy level up, and I have not been so tired. I've been going to bed at about 11:00 p.m. or 12:00 midnight and have been happily waking up between 7:30 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. Due to this, not only have I felt my energy level more easily managed, but I feel like my sleep pattern has been properly calibrated. {I understand that with pregnancy, there is no such thing as a properly calibrated sleep pattern, but I still feel pretty good about not "wasting" my day waking up late.}

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We did our 4D ultrasound earlier this week and got a few great pictures of Baby B. While there was a part of us that wished we had done it later on to get better quality pictures -- obviously, the more developed baby is, the better your pictures would be. Still, we were glad to have done it now because we both needed the reassurance that Baby B is, in fact, a girl. Sure enough, we both breathed sighs of relief when the radiologist showed us the "three lines" that they look for to determine a female gender.

Here she is with her hand to her mouth. Someone is an avid thumbsucker. {Yikes. Her mommy was an avid thumbsucker until the age of NINE!}

Here she is again with her hand to her face. My mom, adorably enough, was in deep concern as it looks like she has a hole on her head. Not so. That's the shadow of the ultrasound bulb. You can sigh in relief too.

Baby in what we now call her "boxer" position. She looks like she's either boxing or praying.

We are also happy to report that her heart rate was strong and she was uncooperative as ever, stubborn like her parents. Our sweet little cupcake has quite the personality!

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Just so everyone knows, I am waiting for all the nursery furniture and decor to come in and be installed before I put up a nursery tour post; however, here's another teaser pic.