20 Weeks

I officially made it to the half-way mark of this pregnancy yesterday!  This week things have changed a bit with the measurements.  Since the baby is not quite as curled up, there is a measurement from crown to rump as well as head to toe.  So this week both of the fruit comparisons actually make sense - one for each measurement.  Babycenter.com says that it is about the length of a banana this week - about 10 inches from head to toe.  Thebump.com says it's about the size of a cantaloupe this week - about 6.5 inches long and about 10.5 oz:

Photo Courtesy of thebump.com

There is apparently a lot of swallowing going on inside me right now.  The baby is swallowing several ounces of amniotic fluid every day for nutrition as well as practice for his digestive system.  According to thebump.com, the baby's taste buds are working now, so whatever I eat, the baby will develop a taste for.  With this knowledge, I plan to eat a lot of tomatoes just to spite his tomato hating daddy.  HA!  I have been feeling the baby move more consistently now.  Starting on Friday I have felt it at least once a day.  It's pretty exciting and such a cool feeling!

(Warning:  I am about to write about our weekend in Milwaukee.  If you are only interested in baby stuff, skip down to this week's belly shots below)

Matt and I had a very fun weekend!  We took a road trip up to Milwaukee to see some of my friends and to watch a Marquette Basketball game.  The car ride was a little rough as I had a hard time remaining comfortable for 6 hours in the car.  My back was giving me a lot of trouble.  I can't even imagine what this is going to be like when the baby gets bigger!  Probably no long car trips in my near future!  Once we got there we had a wonderful time!  We did dinner with Kerri and her boyfriend, Chris, on Friday night as well as some drinks afterward at the hotel bar, Blu.  Saturday we hoped to go to AJ Bombers for some burgers, but the place was so small and we had a party of 12 so the wait was WAY too long.  We did get some Bloody Marys before leaving the place though:

One thing I really miss about living in Milwaukee is the Bloody Mary.  The garnishes they put in them are like a little appetizer.  And this is everywhere you go in Milwaukee!  At AJ Bombers, since they are known for their burgers, they garnish their Bloody Marys with about a quarter of a burger patty covered with cheese and wrapped in bacon.  Yes, that is meat wrapped meat . . . I definitely ordered my Virgin Mary for the garnish!  Another thing I love about Bloody Marys in Milwaukee is that they always come with a beer chaser.  Even my Virgin Mary came with one, which Jackie's fiance, Willie, was more than willing to take off my hands.

After we left AJ Bombers, we decided to eat at The Safe House.  Kerri brought me a cake and everyone sang to me for my birthday (which is Saturday).  It was nice to be able to celebrate my birthday with my friends who I normally don't get to celebrate with!

After lunch, we headed over to a bar close to the Bradley Center for a flip cup tournament.  We had signed up for this flip cup tournament back in October, so I was actually scheduled to play.  I clearly did not partake in this activity, but luckily Stacey subbed for me.  I still had some fun watching and talking to people though. 

Sabrina, Stacey, Matt and Kerri playing in the Flip Cup Tournament

Sabrina, Kerri, Jackie and Me

The Whole group - Willie, Stacey, Me, Kerri, Matt, Jackie, Sabrina and Jamie

Later on at the game, it was Fr. Wild night.  They actually had a bobble head of Fr. Wild that everyone got.  Of course we had some fun with our bobble heads at the bars after the game.

Fr. Wild hanging out in Jackie's Hood

Fr. Wild getting crazy - Drinking with Matt

High Five with Kerri, Jackie and Chris

As you can probably tell by the pictures, we were pretty much done by this point in time.  I was about to tell Matt that I was just going to take a cab back to the hotel since my back was hurting and I was getting tired, but luckily everyone was ready to go.  We headed back to the hotel where upon realizing that I hadn't eaten anything since lunch, I promptly ordered Pizza Shuttle.   Matt unfortunately fell asleep before it got there, but I enjoyed it!  I realized that this was my first time eating Pizza Shuttle sober - not quite as good, but it still hit the spot!

On Sunday we woke up and packed our stuff then headed down to Chicago to see Nick.  As we were driving I realized that we were going to be passing right by Mars Cheese Castle.  Matt had never been to Mars Cheese Castle before but had spoken to me on the phone while I was there when we first started dating.  He had always been curious about since then, so we stopped in.  This was the last weekend in the building.  Behind the current building they are building a huge castle shaped building that they are currently moving into!  I can't wait to check out the new place!  Of course we bought some cheese curds to take home as well as some peanuts and some chocolate bars:

As I said, the cheese curds were a given.  We got the peanuts because Matt liked that they were called "Peanuts from Hell."  And yes, they live up to their name!  I only ate one of them and my mouth was on fire!  The chocolate was an early birthday gift to me.  We actually bought 5 bars - cleaned them out!  They are the Lindt Chocolate Almond bars.  I ate them all the time when I was in Europe and have had a hard time finding them in St. Louis.  We seem to find the hazelnut bars everywhere, but not the almond.  So we bought all five bars they had there!  Chocolate and cheese . . . I'm in heaven!

We met up with Nick for lunch in Little Italy.  It was far too short of a visit, but we were glad we at least got to see him for a little bit.  Finally we got home around 8:30 in the evening.  We were exhausted!  I put a load in the washer, did a bit of other unpacking and then went to bed. 

Monday morning came WAY too soon!  About halfway through the work day Matt called me to remind me that we hadn't taken my belly shots for this week!  So that is why this post has come on Tuesday instead of Monday.  We took the belly shots last night right at 20 weeks!  Here they are:



We plan to order the nursery furniture this weekend and start emptying the bedroom.  Hopefully we can get the painting started soon too . . . but one step at a time I suppose.  Halfway there!  So exciting!