I’m trying out the seven quick takes linkup today since it’s an excuse to just post random stuff, which is what I’m doing lately anyway. Not sure if I’ll always have seven though, so let’s just skip that part.

One

I’m 16 weeks along in this pregnancy and I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday. Especially in these early months before I can really feel the baby move I always get a little nervous before checkups. Yesterday about gave me a panic attack too. The experienced MA (Jen) who I LOVE is leaving the practice and so she was training a temp, and so it was just me and the temp in the room. First she starts analyzing my urine results and is staring at it for a really long time. Finally she asks me, “you haven’t been having any spotting, have you?” as if she expected something to be wrong. So already I’m worried.

Then she moved on to checking the heartbeat. She spent a whole minute (which seemed like forever) on the right side of  my belly and there was nothing. Then she moved to the left side and immediately we heard what I knew was my heartbeat, but I could tell she was confused. Apparently the rate on the machine was jumping around and eventually she said, “okay the rate is 175 that’s very good.” But I told her I didn’t hear that rate, all I heard was my own. We then looked at the machine together and the rate was mostly in the 80’s. No matter what she did we could not hear a baby heartbeat. Internally I was partly freaking out / partly preparing myself for terrible news & trying to be at peace with that / partly trying to convince myself it was just because she’s new. Finally after a million years Jen came in the room and immediately found the baby’s heartbeat, in the 140’s. Then she showed the temp how to do an ultrasound in case she’s having trouble finding the heartbeat and I got to see the little kid moving around like crazy and looking good. So! That was exciting.

16 week photo:

Other than my scrubs for work I pretty much wear these shorts if I’m going out, lounge pants if I’m staying home, and a stretchy skirt (preferably maxi, but I only have two of them) to church. Choices are limited. I’m feeling great though.

Two

I promise all my takes won’t be as long as the last one. Anyway I made dinner again last night, so that’s twice in one week if any of you are keeping track. Huge accomplishment. I made these taco chicken bowls and I know it’s like slow cooker 101 but I was still proud that it turned out so delicious that my husband finished his bowl and my mother-in-law asked me for the recipe.

Three

Our house is one-story, about 2400 square feet. The front half has all real wood floors that I love, and the back half (a hallway and four bedrooms) is all nasty carpet that our dogs have torn up and stained. Pretty sure that I’ve whined and moaned about it here before, but it’s super embarrassing. So we are looking into tearing that up and replacing it. At first I thought we would just go all wood, but since I want it to look similar to the wood we already have I think that will be too expensive for us right now. So then we thought we’d do the hallway in wood and put new carpet in the bedrooms, and we’ll just keep the dogs out of there. My question for you is, have you ever put down wood floors or carpet? Where do I start looking for this stuff? What are the good companies to go to?

Four

I started thinking about a name for our second baby. Our anatomy scan is in three weeks so after we know the sex we’ll think about it more seriously, but I started looking at the social security website. I looked up the name “Meredith” and I was surprised to see that it keeps going down in popularity. Last year it was number 668! That’s so low. But it’s still traditional, and (in my opinion) very pretty, and it was a family name. Basically perfect. It’s going to be so hard to match that.

Five

I’m drinking coffee again! Like, for real! Hot coffee, in the morning. Every day. It’s sooooo great.

Six

I listen to a bunch of podcasts and at least four of them are book-related. This is making my “to-read” list extremely long. I truly mourn the fact that I will never be able to read everything I want to in this life. This isn’t a book blog and I know I post my quarterly round-ups of what I read, but I’m thinking of more thoroughly reviewing my monthly book club books because they aren’t necessarily things I’d pick up on my own. Will think on this.

Seven

Cheeks! She’s still got em.