21 Weeks

So this week you will get a cute belly picture, cause I’m feeling much better. The coughing is pretty much gone. All that is left is the stuffy nose, which is always the last thing to go. By the time I got home from work this past Monday, all the ickyness had pretty much subsided, and I knew that I had survived yet another winter cold.



This next week is very exciting…on Friday, we find out if this little bun in the oven will be pink or blue! Needless to say, I’m chomping at the bit to know. Secretly, I’m hoping for pink. The Lord has blessed me with three nephews. I’ve bought all the blue and green clothes with cars, trucks and dinosaurs on them to keep me satisfied for a good while. I would really love to add the first granddaughter to the bunch and buy the pink and purple things with bows and lace. But, if it is a boy, then I know I’m going to be excited, too. After all, he will have three cousins very close to his age that he can tag along with and be good friends with on vacations.
Many people have asked if we have names picked out, and yes, we do. While every once in a while we come across a name that Dave and I both like, we just keep coming back to these:

Colleen Eleanor Norvell Calvin Walter Norvell

What do I like about these names? Well, to be honest, they remind me of my name in a way. There aren’t many Karen’s in the world between the ages of 20 and 29. Most Karen’s that I have ever known have been much older then me. In fact, I have only known two close to my age. One in high school, and right now an extended sister in law of mine is named Karen. Colleen and Calvin are both names that everyone knows, they are classic and traditional, but they don’t sound “old”. They can still be modern, but also have a sense of class. I was very conflicted with the idea of not passing on my middle name if we had a girl. Multiple generations of women in my family share the middle name Christine. It had always been my intention to pass on this name, but Colleen Christine doesn’t really roll off the tongue. We may still change our minds, but for now, we call the baby Little C in preparation for these names.

Lots of people have asked me if I can feel the baby move. Well, my quick answer to this is yes. My long answer is I think so. At around 17 weeks, I did begin to feel some flutters, but the patterns behind them made me feel like maybe they weren’t Little C and instead just a tick or random pulse in my stomach. At other times, I feel the sensation of a bubble popping in my stomach. Very quick, very subtle, but it could easily be described as gas as well. So, is this Little C moving? Who knows? My doctor said that if I think it is baby movement, then I should let myself believe that it is and be excited about it. So, that’s what I’ve been doing. I haven’t felt a strong flutter in a while, but the bubble sensations happen just about every night. In fact, I’ve felt one since I’ve been sitting here typing :>).

This month (meaning Feb) Dave and I have started what we have nicknamed the Pre Baby Budget. My close family and friends know that the word budget usually makes me roll my eyes and get a negative attitude. However, in an effort to be prepared for all of our bills come June, and in an effort to be prepared to take on a day care expense, Dave and I have rearranged and reallocated much of our monthly spending so that we can be as prepared as possible for the hospital and doctor bills. This is going to be a HUGE adjustment for me. While we had a budget up until now, it did allow for a bit more freedom then this current budget allows for, and it was very easy for me to stick to. Plus, if for some reason we couldn’t stick to it that month, it was very easy to adjust for those circumstances. Not so much with the Pre Baby Budget. Not much wiggle room, and we have to plan way further in advance. We’ve just about got all our monthly bills to fixed amounts, so we can anticipate very easily all of our utility expenses. Since Dave and I both get paid once a month, we’ve started paying all our bills the week of pay day, and then we divide out the rest amongst the number of weeks we have till the next pay day, giving ourselves a weekly budget and helping us not spend everything right away and be left with two weeks till pay day and only 10 bucks in the bank. Well, the new budget reduces our weekly allotments and increases the amount we save each month so that when the multiple thousand dollar hospital bills start arriving, we can be “prepared” as much as possible. Sure…we understand that, more than likely, we will never be fully prepared for the financial expenses of having a baby, but we can be prepared for being not prepared, if you get my drift. And that’s our goal. Simply put…we want to have a little money set aside for those first few bills so that when the bills come that we aren’t expecting, we won’t panic quite as much. I would appreciate your prayer in this area, especially for me. It seems like right when we begin to make headway in areas like this, we get hit in places we weren’t expecting. Starting in 2011, we lost a significant amount of money from our paychecks due to the Obama stimulus package being over and to the increase in our health insurance costs at our jobs. Plus, we found out that we owe quite a chunk of money in taxes as well. This is really disconcerting, but we know that first and foremost, it’s not our money, it’s God’s, and everything that we have belongs to Him first. And second, the Lord has ALWAYS provided for us. There has never been a time in our lives together when we have had to go without and been unable to pay bills or meet our needs as a family. And we expect the same from God now, and we know the He will deliver. Because we serve an all powerful God who never changes.

Let me close with the pics below. Another question I get asked is about cravings. While I haven’t had many cravings, there are certainly foods that I enjoy more now then I did 21 weeks ago. Chinese food is so amazingly good to pregnant me, as are sausage rolls from the donut shop and cake. In fact, if I have to say that I crave one thing, it would be cake. And not generic birthday cake, but rich, moist, gooey high class cake. The kind you would order for dessert from a nice restaurant or get at a wedding. Something with lots of layers and filling and icing that is to die for. So, the other night, this craving hit me HARD, and Dave was happy to help me satisfy it. After his meeting with some friends, he came home with what you see below. Now, this piece of cake was about the size of my head, and even though I wanted to eat it all in one night, I didn’t. We both ate on it for three to four days, but the hilarity of me with this enormous piece of cake was too much not to capture on film.

Check back next week for a special addition of The Norvell News when we share with the world if Little C will wear high heels or shiny loafers to the senior prom.