Feeling Fat...

Hello girls! It's been awhile since my last post, but all seven of you are in my daily thoughts and prayers. I miss you all so much, but am very pleased to hear that everyone is doing well. Elyssa, I love the pictures of your little home! They did a lovely job updating the interior and it is very nice that you do not have to move far from your current abode. I'm also so glad to hear that you have obtained a position! Congratulations!

I've spoken with a few of you about the cat Paul and I adopted from the local animal shelter. He is a little terror, yet we love having him around. In the five months since we adopted Bailey, he has already managed to shred the carpet in the kitchen, eat two silk flower arrangements, experience a near-drowning in the upstairs toilet, and electrocute himself by chewing through the power cord of my computer.

Isn't he adorable?

Don't let his cuteness deceive you...he really is a little devil. He wakes us up before 6:00 AM every single morning by sitting outside our bedroom door (which we have to keep shut tight because he will climb into bed with us and get as close to our faces as possible) and wailing (no sweet meows from this feline). We keep around mainly because we are highly amused by him. We are dressing him up as a pirate for Halloween. Pictures to follow! See how nice we are to our pets?

The pregnancy continues to progress. Every single week I feel more heavy, more tired, and more uncomfortable. My belly button has officially "popped" and the skin on my abdomen is beginning to feel really stretched and itchy. We bought some cocoa butter lotion to rub on it at night. It does not smell too great, but it feels absolutely amazing once applied. I highly recommend it and wish to kiss the inventor.

Matthew is constantly beating on his mother. I do not know what I have done to this child for him to constantly feel the need to strike me. He never rests. If this is any indication of how is sleep patterns will be in the future, let's just say that I'll be lucky if he sleeps maybe 2 hours at a time. Yesterday, I actually saw the outline of his tiny foot on my stomach as he practiced his kickboxing. It was incredible and disturbing at the same time. It's still a really hard concept to grasp...tiny person inside my stomach.

Here is a picture of me at 22 weeks. This is at the Notre Dame v. Nevada game...which was awesome. Our team this year, however, is not. I really hope they fire Charlie Weis...but that's another topic for discussion.



And here is a picture of "the bump" at 25 weeks. I'm really starting to run out of clothes. I have literally 4 pregnancy outfits that I circulate through. When I'm home, most of the time I just stick on one of Paul's sweaters. They're nice and long, so they cover the basketball belly completely, which makes me feel a lot more comfortable.





At my next appointment, I take the glucose-tolerance test. Hopefully I don't have gestational diabetes...even though I think I would know if I were having trouble by now. Matthew is 14 inches long (REALLY tall for his age) and weighs about 1.5 pounds. He needs to start packing on the pounds...because he is one skinny baby right now.

In other news, GE Transportation laid off a couple hundred of their engineers. Thankfully, Paul was not among the workers whose positions were terminated, but they are planning on cutting all benefits. Basically, Matthew's birth was going to cost us only a couple hundred dollars, but now due to the change in our medical benefits, it's going to drain us an additional $3,000 or so. And go figure this all takes effect January 1, 2010 when my due date is January 8, 2010. One week later and it costs us that much more to have a baby. Ridiculous.

I love you all! I can't wait until Thanksgiving when I will be able to spend some time with all of you! We should all go out to dinner/coffee at some point that weekend. Shannon, I saddened to hear that you will not be in FW over the holiday, but really glad that you have the opportunity to spend time with your family in Wisconsin. I promise that I will find a way to visit you sometime during 2010.

XOXO to everyone! You're the best aunts my little baby could ask for!

Monica