20 Weeks!

In pregnancy talk, 20 weeks is very significant. It means I am at the half-way mark already! I'm past the first trimester and into the second. At about 14 weeks I was all done spending every day, nearly all day, nauseous and grossed out by everything under the sun. Now I only get pukey about once every 2 weeks or so, which is much much better. I had many more food aversions than cravings. Let's list:

Aversions:
Coffee (so sad!)
Beef, except in spaghetti sauce
Chicken, except the McDonald's Southern Chicken Sandwhich
Asparagus
Garlic
Anything that smelled like anything else

Cravings:
Fried egg sandwich

Yup, just one craving, and it only came on strong one time. Other than that, my diet consisted of yogurt, cheese, apples, peanut butter, & cereal. I'm recently getting my appetite back, much to Tony's disappointment since he was eating everything off of my plate that I couldn't finish. At this rate, our baby bellies might be growing at the same proportion :) I am also back to enjoying coffee, but not nearly as much as I used to. I wonder if I'll have to wait until post-pregnancy to get back to my java loving self?

A couple of weeks ago, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the very first time. Well, Tony and the doctor heard it and were satisfied with what they heard. I, on the other hand, asked for a Do-Over and then I heard that little heart go! It was beating at a healthy 144 BPM, which some of my friends say means it's a boy in there. We'll see :) Otherwise, the doctor is very happy with my weight and the levels of stuff in my blood and urine. Overall, he is pretty pleased with the way this pregnancy is going. He always says, "Good Job!" which makes me feel really good about doing almost nothing.

Now, at 20 weeks, Tony and I agree that I am definitely looking pregnant. According to what I've read, this baby has grown past the size of a large mango and is now closer to the size of a small cantaloupe. Don't you love the food references? S/he weighs more than half a pound and can probably hear sounds in there. Hoping this baby loves sitting in the front at church with Tony's loud music as much as I do. Last night I felt this little baby move for the first time! Well, it was the first time I believed it anyway. I am sort of a "I'll believe it when I see it" type of person, which doesn't serve me all that well in my faith, and has made the majority of this pregnancy very surreal. Now that I can see and feel my stomach growing, hear the heartbeat, and feel little movements, I'm pretty sure there is a baby in there... So Crazy! So Exciting!


GREAT LAKES CHURCH!
These are big days not just for our little family, but also for our greater church family here at Great Lakes Church. Tony and I just got back from a wonderful visit home to Washington. It was fun, full of love, restful and just what we needed. We were surprised at how eager we both were to get back and hit the ground running with everything that will need to be done to get ready for the fall season here. Tony busted his butt finishing up the mailer that will hopefully hit 50,000 homes in the Kenosha area on September 10th. It advertises our new series "Q & A" where we are handing control of what we talk about to the audience via email and live text messages on Sunday mornings. I'm excited and nervous to see how this goes. The mailer also advertises our new auditorium seating. We are opening up a second auditorium/theater because we have been bursting at the seams in our 10:30am service especially. We are also going to be opening up new class rooms for kids, lauching new Growth Groups, and using a new and much better online database to continue to make sure everyone is getting connected. Lot's of work to do and no shortage of enthusiasm to get it all done.