18.5 weeks and hungry all the time!

Now we have just over two weeks until my doctor's appointment and luckily, time seems to be moving fast enough. We're both excited to learn more about having a baby in Finland as well as to hear the baby's heartbeat. If I read correctly, ultrasounds are not performed onsite, but we'll have to see. Either way, you can bet that we'll insist on an ultrasound (and I doubt they'll disagree since it's been over 12 weeks since the last one).

This past week, I've really been able to feel the baby every now and again. David even got to feel the baby kicking which was really exciting for the both of us. My appetite has grown like crazy and I now feel the need to eat almost constantly. Toast with strawberry jam (made by my wonderful husband) has become a daily evening snack for me :). My food cravings are very specific and unfortunately as of right now, the few things that I'm craving are unavailable here in Finland. C'mon Finns, why don't you have shaved ice?!

Well, not much else to update on, but here's a picture of the baby bump - sorry my hand is kind of in the way, but my shirt wasn't cooperating with me wanting to show off my belly.

Let the countdown begin!

Well, as some of you know, people here in Finland like to take a long vacation (at least 2 weeks, but usually a whole month) during the summer. All companies and such, yes, even McDonalds, give their employees a long summer holiday which is awesome when you get to take it, but unfortunately it can also be a huge inconvenience. Since I wasn't in the computer system at the maternity clinic this week, I won't be able to go until August 12th because the nurse is on her holiday now until 8/11. I have an appointment set for 9:45am on the 12th though, so needless to say, we are both counting down the days. By then I should not only be in the system, but we should have our KELA cards so there won't be any issues once I get there. It seems like an eternity away (especially when following Lisa and all of her appointments and ultrasounds - thanks, Lisa :p), but we will manage.

I'm still working on David, hoping he'll come around on finding out the sex of our little baby. Since our place is only a one bedroom, the baby will have a small nursery corner in our room. I'm kind of sad that we won't get to decorate a whole nursery since that was something I had really looked forward too, but we'll work with what we have and make the best of it! Hopefully some generous co-worker of David's will have some baby furniture that they are willing to hand down to us at least temporarily because there's just no way we're going to afford buying our own new set. Even if we could, we'd have to part with it when we left to come back to the states, so it just isn't worth it.

We're also not sure how we're going to work a baby registry for a few reasons (see below), so any suggestions are welcome. It is highly unlikely that either of us will be back in the states before the baby is born since flights are expensive and quite long, especially by yourself. So.. our reasons..

1. Shipping to Finland from the states is quite ridiculous price-wise.
2. The one baby store we know of here doesn't have online shopping, so that's not an option.
3. We have to pay customs, taxes, duties, etc. on anything that we receive here (and those can be pricey).

So, again, any suggestions are welcome... VERY welcome.

I think David and I have decided on a belly picture every two weeks unless my belly decides to really pop out overnight, so you have to wait another week for that, though I promise that my belly hasn't gotten much bigger. That said, I am having problems sleeping as I just can't stay comfortable in any position for long. Baby has also decided the past couple of nights to get really active before bed and I can feel him/her moving around (I think :p). At this stage, it is hard to tell, but I'm pretty sure it is the baby moving, which is very exciting! I just wish baby would decide to play around during the day, not when I'm trying to sleep :).

Hope everything is well with everyone back in the states!

Getting settled in!

On Monday we moved into our apartment which was great after trying to live in a hotel with only a small fridge and no microwave for almost a week. One of the first things we did was go to the grocery store and get some basics. Trying to figure out what things are is kind of fun, but can also be extremely annoying when you are looking for something in particular. Luckily, most everyone here speaks English so it isn't too hard to find someone to help. After spending most of the week without internet, we got our modem today and now have internet. Living without internet was extremely difficult since it is our only connection to our friends and family so we are very happy to have it up and running!

As far as the pregnancy goes, we applied for our KELA cards today, which is what I need in order to get to the doctor here. Hopefully we'll hear back on that soon as I would really like to hear the baby's heartbeat and get another ultrasound! We can't believe that it has already been 10 weeks since the last ultrasound and are very anxious to see our little baby again! David still says he doesn't want to know what we are having, but I most definitely want to know if it's a little boy or girl, so we're working through that. Hopefully he'll just change his mind and then everything will work out from there since there's absolutely no way I'm changing my mind :).

Hope you all enjoyed the belly picture - sometimes when I just catch a quick glimpse of myself in a mirror I'm surprised at how big my belly has gotten. I've decided that my old undershirts (camis) are just too tight and have moved on to my maternity tank tops which are much more comfortable as they aren't extremely tight. My jeans still fit for the most part as they were pretty low-rise in the first place, but I'm thinking it won't be long before I have to pick up a pair of maternity jeans as well (which I should have picked up back in the US where they aren't quite as expensive).

The next ultrasound could possibly show us whether it's a boy or a girl (if we decide to find out), so what does everyone think - will it be a boy or a girl??

16 Weeks Belly Picture!

So, here's the long-awaited belly photo! This was taken today, which makes me exactly 16 weeks pregnant based on my first ultrasound that was now 10 weeks ago. More on that in the full blog post.