Here's the Bean!

Not sure if you can see the words clearly...I tried to add a text box to the most important parts (head, legs, rump); you may need to click on it to blow it up to see the words. But if you don't want to do that, here's the quick & dirty description: head is on the left. Left arm bud is right below the large melon-like lump (the bean has Patrick's head...what can I say?) kinda poking upward (if you look closely, you can see where fingers are forming); the right arm bud is just down from teh head, it's sorta blurry; the left leg bud is right above the pointy little rump, sticking up; the right leg is obscured by the rump (not sure what this says about my side of the family...).

And, the cat is officially out of the bag, and I KNOW that Janet is probably breathing again. I know it was so hard for her & Rachel to keep it from the rest of the family, but we had a surprise planned out, and I think it worked rather well, so to everyone who kept the secret--Thank you!

For those who weren't there, here's the synopsis:

I found out that you can order M&M candy in your choice of colors & have a custom-printed message put on them. So, we ordered two colors, pink and blue, and had "We're Pregnant" printed on them. Mom, Dad, Mee Ma & Pee Pa--we'll send you some, too--don't worry!!

Patrick sneakily replaced the malted milk balls from Granny's candy dish with the M&Ms, and just waited to see what happened. I didn't realize that Patrick had done this until Bill, dad to Skyler (born on my birthday), husband to Lorraine, and who have been pretty much adopted into the family, sidled up next to me, put his arm around me & grinned. Now keep in mind, I didn't know that Patrick had put the surprise into motion...so I sorta responded, "Uh, Hi, Bill." Bill then gave a pointed look at Patrick, and that's when I noticed that the surprise was now commencin'. The next person to look was Lorraine, who took one look at the "We're Pregnant" and looked at her husband, and said, "No, we're not!" And then Bill explained that those weren't HIS M&Ms, but ours...then Lorraine screamed out, "Oh! Oh! Oh!" and about that same time, Granny had Grandpa read the M&M to her, and then she screamed out, "Chauntelle!" I looked at her, and said, "Yup" or something witty along those lines. There was much whoopin' and hollerin.

Everyone was really happy for us, and later, Patrick's friend Stephen told me that he was really happy to hear that I was pregnant, because he thought maybe I was just letting myself go a bit. Tender words from a tender man...

It is true, though. I'm having to use rubber bands on some of my pants to keep them closed. It ain't glamorous, but it's the truth. I've tried on some maternity clothes, but I'm in that "tweener" stage--I'm getting a bit round, but not so much that I have the belly you need to keep some maternity clothes up (even the ones that say "fit under the belly"...you do need something to hold them up!). I may head to the mall tomorrow to scout out some other maternity departments (besides WalMart & Target), see what I can find. So far I do have a few pairs of pants that I've purchased in a larger size, but you have to be careful there, too, because what fits around the waist maybe isn't so flattering on the butt, thighs, knees, or calves. Lorraine did say that she has a ton of maternity clothes that she was going to give to Kala to give to Rachel to give to me when I pick Rachel up this weekend on my way to Nashville.

I've still been feeling well. Still not sick, still no cravings (weird or otherwise), but I am eating pretty much every two hours (which gets a little annoying at 2 or 3 in the morning). I'm really tired, so am just trying to keep an eye on the tasks I try to do, and not push myself. My bedtime is usually around 9, and I go into bed, maybe read for a bit, then drift off to sleep. I get up at 7, so that's been giving me around 9 hours per night, which seems to be good.

This Wednesday (tomorrow, Dec. 7) marks the beginning of the 12th week....the book says that the bean is now the size of a lime, but I still like to think of him/her as Bean.

And, no, we're not going to find out if the baby is a boy or girl until he/she comes into the world. Hopefully by then, somehow the ends will have flipped so the Bean has my head, and not Patrick's.