16 Weeks! (+ belly shot!)

Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.

Well, 16 weeks yesterday but either way, SIXTEEN WEEKS! That's approximately 37% of the way through the pregnancy. I know I seem shocked each week, but I truly am still. This pregnancy is just flying, and I still don't feel pregnant. I'm a bit tired, I gag easily when nothing is in my stomach, but overall I am feeling good. I don't feel as though my belly is growing much, but I took a belly shot yesterday and yes, compared to my 12 week shot, I am growing. I know Sprout is growing, but I expected my popping out so fast to mean there wouldn't be any real growth that I could see for ME, but there is!

It doesn't matter how many times one does this, whether it's their own baby or not, each time is so special. I still just sit back and think of how lucky I am to do this again, especially to have another couple want me to carry their child. It's really miraculous and it makes me feel very blessed, and just incredibly thankful to them for allowing me to help.

I laid in bed yesterday morning, feeling my belly, and focusing on the kicks and jabs I could feel within. It's so neat to think that there's this little person in there, growing like crazy, and he or she will be here in just a few months time. I will never take this for granted, that's for sure.

I forgot to post my belly shot on my blog at 12 weeks, I believe? So, I'll begin posting them from here on out. For now, I am doing them monthly, but eventually (third tri-ish?) it will turn into every two weeks or so. I like documenting this, as I easily forget later on how big my belly does get during pregnancy!

Adventures in Becoming Domestic: Part One

In my new addiction love of Pinterest, I've been coming across many DIY recipes for things around the home. I had come across the Duggar laundry soap recipe sometime back, even asking my dad to get me a 5 gallon bucket from his work for me. The bucket then sat around in our garage, taking up space, reminding me that I was slacking on what I wanted to do but.. wasn't doing.

So, Pinterest gave me the kick in the butt I needed. Last week I had come across a recipe for homemade chicken nuggets, so I made them and they were good! Nothing like the McD's chicken nuggets (erm, are they chicken? ew). They were so good, and BONUS, all three of my kids loved them.

I decided yesterday to stop procrastinating for no reason and get on to my soap making adventure. I hit Walmart and picked up everything I needed - the washing soda, borax, and Fels Naptha soap bar. After the kids hit the sack, I got out the bucket, my cheese grater, and went to town. It didn't take long at all, the longest part was the stirring the soap in the 4 cups of hot water on my stove. The smell of soap took over the entire house for a good few hours, making me sneeze, but it smelled good!

Five gallons of liquid soap is now in my garage. I won't know if it's a success until tonight. The soap has to set for 24 hours before you can begin using it. I'll report back later on how well it handles laundry, including the everyday stains my kids get on their clothing.

I then decided to look on Pinterest to find a recipe for dishwashing soap. I quickly found one that called for one cup borax and one cup washing soda mixed together. I mixed it up real quick, dumped it into the only empty container we had (that wasn't for our food), which turned out to be a Mt. Dew bottle (hubby's, NOT MINE! bleah). I could try this one immediately, so I happily did the dishes, filled the soap dispenser with my newly made dish soap and ran the dishwasher. I had even put a container in the dishwasher that once had spaghetti sauce in it. It was very red, needed scrubbed, but I didn't bother - I wanted to see just how well this soap would do, so I popped it in the dishwasher and was sure it'd come out with some red residue on it.

NOPE! Every single dish was clean and spotless. I am shocked and so so happy. I really dislike the amount of products we use in our home that contain toxins. And you know darn well the dishwasher doesn't totally rinse all of the soap off each and every wash! Borax isn't good for us, but it's a lot better in a smaller quantity like I used vs. the other harmful crap that's in the commercially made dish washing soaps (that are overpriced to boot).

I'll have to try another new idea from Pinterest this week sometime!

Intelligender says..

So, there are a few fun tests out on the market for women to use to determine the gender of the baby they are carrying. These tests are really just for fun, and many of them have been wrong for many women from what I've read. I did the Intelligender test with my last surrogate baby and the result was not clear at all. It turns out baby was a boy, though!

I decided to try an Intelligender again this pregnancy. Just keep in mind that there's a 50/50 chance of it being correct. We'll find out sometime next month as to if this result is accurate or not.

My result:

The green color on the label means boy, the orange color means girl. The directions state, "If your urine has turned green to dark/smoky green, you have a boy result! If your urine stays relatively unchanged or turns a deeper yellow or orange, you have a girl result!"

I think it's pretty clear that my result is a dark green and Intelligender says green = boy!

So, we'll see not long from now if that's correct or not!