Pregnancy: 22 Weeks and 5 Days

I cannot believe I'll be 23 weeks along this Saturday!  That's more than halfway through this pregnancy!  Especially since we're going to induce sometime in August, since I'm considered double whammy high risk.

And yes, that IS a medical term lol.

So far, everything continues to go smoothly.  As I mentioned in my Menu Planning Monday post, I'm finally able to cook again, which has been really nice!  Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy my hiatus from the kitchen for a bit; however, I do enjoy cooking, and four months was a pretty long break!  I still have super-smell, but it's like the smells don't affect me as negatively as they used to...which is wonderful!

My RA hasn't responded to the pregnancy at all.  I'm taking 20 mg of prednisone a day, which basically lets me function as long as I don't overdo it.  Anyone care to guess how often I overdo?  Because it's waaay more than I should lol.  Anyway, I know a lot of my friends and family (and doctors) were hoping that I would get some pregnancy-caused relief starting in the second trimester.  After all, 75% of women with RA see some sort of remission.  I, however, am not at all surprised that my RA is not following the expected path.  It has seldom played ball in any other respect, so I really wasn't hanging my hat on the hope that it would this time.  That all said, the prednisone helps, and so does my wonderful hubby, so it's all good!

Other than that we continue to get the house ready!  I have a great local carpet cleaning company here today, cleaning the downstairs carpet and tile.  Oh my gosh, my carpets were SO DIRTY!!!  They actually changed colors as the guys worked.  Of course, that makes sense, seeing as we've been here for 3 years now (when did THAT happen?!?) and we've never cleaned the carpets.  Bryan and I painted the nursery a couple of weeks ago, and all the main furniture has been ordered, so those are some big check marks off the list.  Today, I'm upstairs with the pups cataloging donations and watching TV while the wonderful carpet cleaners work.  I figure I'll have them come back out to do the upstairs sometime in late June or July...that way it's freshly cleaned before we bring Caylee home!  And of course, that cleaning will mark the end of the pups' upstairs privileges lol.

Speaking of, little Miss Caylee continues to grow bigger and stronger every day!  Bryan and I have already preregistered for her delivery at the hospital, and we're signed up for a hospital tour/birthing class and a childcare class.  Those aren't until June--I wanted to do them sooner, but they ran out of room.  Speaking of running out of room, I've been feeling Caylee move for about the past two weeks, but this week she has really ramped up her efforts to make her presence felt!  She was so active the other night that she actually kept me awake after one of my many pee breaks!  I love feeling her kick and punch and move arounds--Bryan says I get a huge smile every time she does.  Sometimes the strangeness of the sensation sends me into giggle fits...it's the coolest sensation ever, but also one of the weirdest!  I can't wait until she really starts kicking the crap out of me...that way Bryan will get to feel her too!  We go back in next week for a check up and ultrasound...possibly our last Caylee sighting until she's in our arms.  I can't wait to see her again!!!

So that's the basic update rundown!  Now, I think I'm going to get back to cataloging...or maybe take a nap.  ;-)