Human again!

 You know the song from Beauty and the Beast? "We'll be human again, only human again, we'll go waltzing around once more..."? Ah, this past weekend has been so wonderfully human again! We're hitting week 13 now of pregnancy, and without the student teaching for the weekend--which has been my main source of exhaustion--I have finally been able to be myself again. I have been busy all day for four days in a row now without having to take a nap, or lie down because it was too much because I'm pregnant. I am so excited. I cleaned the house on Friday and made bread, which I've wanted to do for several weeks now. I have been so happy. Rod and I went to the gym on Saturday, and though we were both tired, we watched a movie and then went out for a walk later that evening, and I still had energy to do it all!!! That is the most exciting change that has happened recently. It'll be interesting to see what happens when I go back to school tomorrow, but so far, man it feels good to be human again!
  Along with that change, my husband has noticed that with the beginning of each trimester, I've broken out in acne. True, and very irritating.... But, that means no picture this week (well, that and I forgot to have my husband take one before I posted this) so I can't show off my baby bump. Yes indeed folks, it is there! It showed up on Monday and has grown a little since then too!! Unfortunately, it's not very big yet. It's exciting for Rod and I, because after three months of telling everyone we're pregnant, we wanted to start looking it. When we found the definite bump on Monday, we were SO excited. But it's only just big enough to cup my hand around, so it's really not big enough for anyone to see yet. No matter, everyone will see it soon enough, now that it definitely is here, right? I'll have to take a picture next time, just so you have a picture, even if it's not quite visible yet.
  According to some research, starting with the thirteenth week, the baby can hear sounds, though it's mostly just manifested as detecting vibrations, not really distinct sounds. We found that exciting, and Rod spent yesterday morning trying to communicate with the baby, "We love you, Junior." I don't know if he got the message, but like my mom says, if he missed it now, we'll have plenty of opportunities to tell him later.
  Recently, I have been dreaming more and more about babies. All the time, actually. It's exciting. Last night I dreamt about my little sister, Mary (who is NOT pregnant--it was a dream, remember) having a baby shower. I was looking at these booties that someone gave her that were soo cute, white with little polka dots on them, and when I got up this morning, I was so excited about baby stuff! I jumped on Rod (yes, he was already awake) and begged him to take me baby shopping this morning. I didn't have to beg very hard. I think that's the fastest I remember us getting out of bed in the morning. We went to Target, and then to look around at prices at Babies R Us. We got so much fun stuff! I think Rod enjoyed the morning just because he spent the time watching me jump around all excited. He was on a little crusade to find the right stroller, though we didn't buy one yet. We're holding off on the big purchases for now (mostly because we're going to have to just store them until the baby arrives). We bought little things, burp cloths, towels, wash cloths, a couple of pacifiers, bibs, socks, onsies, a first aid/bathroom care kit, diaper changing kit, fun stuff. We had a good time looking at clothes, but didn't buy any because we want to know the gender before we buy clothes.

PS-those little things, watch out! They can rack up fast!

It was so much fun to buy some stuff for Junior. The bathtub in the picture, I bought that while out with a friend on Saturday, and I think now that we have a blue bathtub, we're ready to have a girl... :)