Week 19

This week has been pretty eventful. It started with us finding out PK's gender. It's a huge relief to know, but we seriously need to get back to the drawing board as far as coming up with good girl names. That and the fact that I'm not entirely convinced that PK is a girl. Maybe it's a gut feeling. Or maybe I'm just being myself - never fully convinced until I see the hard evidence: the actual baby out of the womb. Or maybe it's from hearing enough stories from people who were expecting one gender, only to be surprised by the opposite when the baby pops out. At any rate, I still have a hard time referring to PK as a "she". The hubby does it all the time now. It's really cute to watch. I guess I'm just being a bit more cautious. Mind you, deep down inside, I'm hoping that I'm wrong, because I really really want the white and pastel green bedroom set that we saw at Li'l Niblets a couple of weeks ago. :D

Apart from finding out PK's gender, I think I'm finally starting to feel some concrete baby movement. Mind you, some of it still feels like gas, but I'm pretty sure that it's actually PK kicking away. A few weeks ago, in my aqua-aerobics class, when we were talking about the best and worst of pregnancy, some of the girls in my class were talking about feeling the baby kick for the first time. Two things stuck out in my mind from that. First, they said that the baby often kept them awake because of the kicking. Secondly, a lot of them described the sensation as "weird but cool". I was really puzzled by the latter comment upon first hearing it, but now I know what they mean. It IS "weird but cool"! I guess I'd best describe it as someone sitting inside a balloon and trying to push outward. The sensation itself feels like a series of blips. Or maybe "blips" isn't the right word, because it would imply that the movements are slight, which they're not. They're quite pronounced. What surprised me the most though, is that PK likes to kick more than once in the same spot. I don't know why that surprises me, but I guess in my mind, I just expected PK to be all over the place!

This week was also my week to do some maternity clothes shopping. Yes, finally caved and decided to buy some stuff that actually fits me. Mind you, I can still pull off quite a few of my old shirts and tanktops. And for the time being, the pants + Bella Band combination is working out beautifully. That being said, my shirt options are dwindling more and more each day, either because I've got too much girth around my belly thereby causing the shirt to ride up quite a bit, or because my new mega-boobs have made it quite difficult to fit into my narrower tops. Hence, the trip to the maternity store. I'd gone into the store intending on buying maybe one or two long-sleeve tops. I wound up coming out with three long-sleeve tops and 2 tanktops. My store of choice was Rhonda Maternity in Yorkville. You'd think that shopping in a boutique in Yorkville would cause me to break the bank, but it didn't. First off, I don't believe in paying a fortune for clothes (don't get me started on my Gucci or Louis Vuitton rant). Secondly, Yorkville is full of rich snobs who think they're better than everyone. Case in point, a husband and wife were at the maternity store that day, and the husband sounded like he felt he was the maternity fashion guru. I've never seen a guy so much into clothes for his wife. Weird... That being said, the prices at this store are relatively reasonable (probably around the same as what you'd pay for at Club Monaco), and their styles are just gorgeous! I'll definitely come back there for summer clothes, especially since I have a wedding to attend in May. Of course, I'll probably end up buying the bulk of my maternity clothes at Thyme Maternity so that I still have money left over to buy that cool baby furniture!