23 weeks of gestating

this past week has flown by.  partly because i was in a cave studying.  we're coming up on finals, so it's time for last minute midterms (grrrr), papers, oral presentations, and all sorts of other fun.  this past week was also exhausting.  i haven't been this tired my entire pregnancy, including the first trimester.  but, i'm trying to just go through my list of to-do's one at a time until it's time to go to sleep.  mmmmm sleep.  anyway, the hard work will payoff when this quarter is done and i can look back and think, "wow, i did pretty good!" just like i did after fall quarter/first trimester of pregnancy.  also, hubs is fasting (it's the Bahai fast right now), so i'm trying to step it up and make sure there's a lovely dinner for him at sunset every night.  it's only been since saturday, so hopefully i can keep up the routine, especially during finals.  i just read my friend's blog, her and her husband are both working full time and put their baby in daycare, yesterday was their first day (i think), and she was explaining all the prep-work and post-work that needs to be done in order to get 2 adults ready for work and 1 baby ready for daycare.  sounds hectic and exhausting.  and then, i just read a FB post from my sis-in-law regarding how tired she is; she is in her first trimester, pregnant with twins; working full time, raising a toddler and trying to maintain a household.  sounds ridiculously exhausting.  so, i should feel lucky that i am just trying to get through school while cooking up this little monkey.  i think of it as in training for what lies ahead, all this busy-ness.  but it's all good.  over the weekend i dragged hubby hubby and i went to  to joann fabrics to get a soft and fuzzy backing to the blanket that i will make.  i settled on this, which is suuuuuper soft and cuddly and also didn't evoke a making-fun-of from hubby:

soft and cuddly blanket material on the right

although, i did evoke a certain amount of making-fun-of from hubs about this: for some reason i though i needed to buy 4 yards of this material.  i have no idea why.  wait, yes---probably because i bought 4 YARDS of the material on the left.  why?  i have no freaking clue.  i'm blaming this on pregnancy brain.  it may not seem like that much but 4 yards is 12 feet of material!  for a blanket!  wtf?  hubby asked me why on earth i needed 12 feet of fabric, and by the time i realized, the lady was already cutting the fabric, and looked way too grumpy for me to interrupt and ask to reduce the amount down to something more reasonable.  so now, i have tons and tons of both of these fabrics.  i will be making many blankets and other things with these fabrics.  just another wonderful example of how dingy i can be these days.  we also got some things in the mail from mama-bozorg and baba-bozorg (grandma and grandpa in farsi), a boppy (woohooo) and this cute play gym for bub:

it also plays music and has twinkle lights, so if this doesn't keep our little guy entertained while he's lying on the floor, i don't know what will.

yay!  thanks mama K and baba A!  we are accumulating quite the collection of adorable stuff for this baby including some of my favorite gifts so far:

tiny hoodie and tiny pants, i put a pen next to it so you can see how tiny these things are

how cute is this?  the pants are knitted----love!

i also was able to squeeze in a maternity photo shoot over the weekend these gorgeous people:

2 very dear friends who will welcome their baby girl in the next few weeks

so that's what's been going on.  onto the pregnancy stuff:

How far along: 23 weeks
Size of baby: about the size of a grapefruit, from 10.5-11.8 inches and 12.7-20.8 ounces.  i'm sure that bub is on the latter side of those ranges, see weight gain section.  baby is more aware and able to listen to my voice and loud sounds, and is pretty much just gaining more weight and refining all the important organs and stuff.
Total weight gain: up about 15 lbs or so.  i stepped on the scale at a friend's house the other day and the reading said i gained 5 lbs this last week.  surely, that can't be right!  i stepped on the scale at my house and it said the same thing.  hmmm...what is the likelihood that both scales are off by the same amount?  i mean, it can't have anything to do with the entire bag of oreos i ate over the past 2 weeks could it? 
Maternity clothes: mixing maternity and regular
Gender: still a boy 
Movement: everyday, more predictable now, and i'm pretty sure i've felt when he gets hiccups!  and i can feel him further up in my abdomen now as he (and my uterus) are getting bigger
Sleep: almost delicious as chocolate cake
What I miss: nothing really
Cravings: chocolate, oranges, but mainly my appetite has just picked up in general so when i'm hungry everything sounds good; pulled pork sammich, bacon cheeseburger, chocolate cake, pasta, whatever......
Symptoms: same as always, but it's also harder for me to bend down and bend forward since my big belly is in the way and it doesn't squish out of the way, also my belly skin is very itchy
 Best moment this week: getting a pretty decent grade on my ochem midterm, i was not expecting that!!!!!!  wooohooooo!  the wonderful bahai celebrations and breaking the fast with friends, feeling the little monkey move around of course is my favorite. 

bye bye feet

hello in there my sweet boy