19 weeks

Here we are, just goin' along! :) I like being pregnant. It agrees with me. I look at friends around me and think about how blessed I am and how easy I've had it. Sickness and problems have been minimal and most days are smooth sailing.

My biggest complaint this week (and it's actually a big one) is lower back and hip soreness. I wake up feeling fine and by 11am or so, I'm practically hobbling because my hips are so sore. There are times when I stand up at work and have to adjust my posture and my stance several times before I can even take a step because everything has locked up. Not fun! I have questions about chiropractic care on my list for my next doctor appointment. I don't know what Kaiser offers in the way of chiropractic but by golly, I'm going to find out. I also borrowed an exercise ball from my parents and I'm hoping that spending a lot of time sitting on that will help.

I've started sleeping with more pillows at night - one between my knees, another behind my back and a little tiny one under my belly. They don't always stay there and I still end up on my back a lot, but I try!

I'm still drinking TONS of milk. I probably go through about a gallon by myself every 5 days or so.

I lost half of my belly button this week! I've always had an innie (really, quite a severe one) and now the top half just blends right into my belly and doesn't go in at all. ;) I also have the very beginnings of the dark line above my belly button (can't remember the long Latin name of the line). I feel bigger in the evenings and some days I look in the mirror and go, "WHAT!!!!!" I love it but it's so surreal sometimes. :)

Baby is moving lots more these days! I would say I probably feel him/her 5 or 6 times a day and can easily tell the difference between baby movement and stomach gurgling (like when I'm hungry!). It's all the time now, not just when I'm lying down or sitting.

We find out the sex very soon!! Stay tuned this weekend for the big gender announcement. ;)

18 weeks

I've still been really emotional this week (I forgot to mention that last week when I posted about the wedding!). I cry easily and I get irritated easily. Luckily not as much at my family these days, more so at rude people at work or idiot drivers. ;) One day this week was especially bad. I was having a meltdown in the car and I could not stop crying, no matter how hard I tried. I was in the passenger seat and I opened the glove box to retrieve a napkin or something to wipe my face with. Apparently I didn't get the glove box closed all the way because about a minute later it fell open, bashing me in the knees. OH THE SOBS! I felt really bad for Steve at how hysterical I was being and I remember thinking to myself, "These cars passing us on the freeway are going to think I've been kidnapped and am utterly losing it!" Thankfully Steve is SO patient with me when these ridiculous moments strike. I'm so thankful for him.

Last week my mom and sister and I had a great time at my cousin-in-law Ashley's baby shower. They had a co-ed shower with lots of friends and family and it was tons of fun. My cousin Brinton is a hoot and kept the room laughing during gift opening. They got some really adorable stuff for baby Presley and I can't wait to meet her! I'm posting a picture of Ashley and I because I know a lot of my Cary cousins read this blog. :)

Ashley at 33 weeks, me at 18 weeks

I'm still getting mild headaches a few days a week. This week it's getting harder to do things like bend over to tie my shoes, or raise my leg when I'm shaving in the shower. Bending over and getting up and down at work are becoming more challenging too.

I have been feeling baby move more this week! The movements have changed from subtle barely-noticeable flutters to actual movements that I can detect. So far I haven't gotten a reaction any time I've pressed on my stomach but I can tell the baby has wake and sleep patterns and I feel movements most in the morning and evening. They are no longer only when I'm laying or sitting really still and I feel them pretty much every day. It's very exciting! Steve said there was one night last week when I was sleeping and he had his hand on my stomach and he's pretty sure he was feeling movement too. I haven't felt anything from the outside yet but I usually don't have my hands on my stomach when it happens.
People who don't know I'm pregnant are starting to mention things in the halls at work... I had one doctor see me in the cafeteria last week and he gasped and said, "Ohhhhh! What did I just see?!" Many friends and coworkers will stop me in the hall to tell me how cute I look or to touch my belly. Thankfully I don't mind people that I know touching my stomach so that hasn't been an issue yet. ;)

17 weeks

 

This was a very busy week!

I finally started gaining weight! I wouldn't say that I'm excited about this, but it was kind of nice to see the number on the scale increase just a little bit, especially since my doctor seemed surprised at my last visit that I weighed the exact same amount that I had at the visit before.

My cousin Stacy got married! I was a bridesmaid in her sports themed wedding and the entire day was a blast. It was so exciting to be a part of her special day and to see her marry her best friend! (And a great guy at that.) I'm totally bummed that I didn't get a picture of her and I but I'm hoping to post an album to Facebook soon.

During the reception Steve asked me if I wanted a glass of wine. Jordan looked at him and goes, "She's pregnant!" Steve chuckled and said, "Oh yeah..." and Jordan gave him the most perplexed look. It was hilarious.

We were watching a TV show this week and the man's wife went into labor while he was at work. He hung up the phone and said, "She's having contractions, I've gotta go." Jordan looked at me and said, "So... she's in labor?" I said yes and he sighed and said, "Man... that's going to be so weird when that happens to us..."

Jordan is awesome at giving foot massages! I asked him one evening if he would rub my feet and he said, "Sure, but not for free." I asked how much he would charge and he told me he would give me 25 minutes for a quarter and 50 minutes for two quarters. I laughed and asked if he realized that was only one cent per minute. I had him rub my feet for one minute and then said, "There, you just earned yourself a penny!" He laughed too and I told him I would give him a quarter for 5 minutes and two quarters for 10 minutes. He replied, "Ok, I'll start tomorrow."

The next day I asked him if he wanted to rub my feet and I got quite a nice foot rub for 50 cents! I'm thrilled about this...

I did have one "incident" during week 17... I had been puke-free for awhile and the gagging had mostly subsided, save for an isolated episode here and there. One day I was at work and we were extremely short staffed. It was just one other person and I in the front office and she had gone to lunch (thank goodness because this would have been super embarrassing if I wasn't alone). I started to feel a little nauseous and I thought that was weird because it came out of nowhere and I had just finished a yogurt a little while earlier so my stomach wasn't empty (not to mention, I had also had breakfast that morning). The phone rang and I answered it. I listened to the person on the other end, all the while trying not to gag and quietly sipping ice water. All of a sudden I blurted out, "Can you please hold" and pressed the hold button right as I grabbed the trash can and threw up. It was awful!! I was able to compose myself and finish the phone call but holy smokes, that was not a situation I hope to repeat!

Headaches have continued this week, probably about every other day. I'm still trying to increase my water intake and have been doing better. I'm hoping this will keep helping with the headaches too.

Here's another photo that I'm posting just for laughs. This is what I saw the last time I went to my parents' house, created out of their fridge word magnets.

 Thanks, guys. ;)

16 weeks

 

4 months along! Time is still flying... and I'm still sure that I won't think that when I'm 8 months pregnant and as big as a house, but for now, the weeks just keep flying by!

I've been making baby steps in the progress of Baby's room. It started out as our computer/craft/leftover wedding/junk stashing room. We succeeded in moving the computer to a different room and I have slowing been making progress in organizing craft supplies and filing stacks and stacks of papers that always end up on TOP of the filing cabinet rather than IN it. One of the problems of our house is that we have no storage space so we have been using the two spare bedroom closets for that purpose. I want the closet of the baby's room totally cleaned out so that we can use it for BABY stuff, and the closet in the other spare room will become our homeschool supply closet, so figuring out what to do with everything else has been tricky. I'm trying to get rid of as much as I can!

Steve got really sick this week and ended up missing 9 out of 10 days of work in two weeks. We took him to the doctor when I was 16 1/2 weeks and they said he probably had had the flu (fever for days, sweats, chills, vomiting, upset stomach, lethargy, aches) and that his lungs sounded junky and they put him on antibiotics. It's been a sloooooow recovery but I left that appointment feeling EXTREMELY grateful that I had given in and gotten the flu shot a couple of weeks earlier. Jordan and I managed not to catch the germs.

I started getting headaches this week, usually in the afternoons. I'm trying to drink lots more water and it's been going better, so that sometimes helps. I generally get somewhere around 4 and 5 headaches a week.

Less gagging!

15 weeks

I accidentally got really behind in my posting so 15 weeks seems like a long time ago! Let's see what I can remember...

I am still really emotional. I wouldn't say that I have roller coaster emotions but I cry easily out of frustration or anything sentimental. And talk about the road rage... jeez.

SOMEHOW Steve's car (which I have been driving because mine is on strike) developed a completely HORRIBLE sour milk smell. I cleaned out the car one weekend so I could go pick up a friend of mine and her two kids and all of the gear we would need for a freezer cooking day at another friend's house. So the car was completely empty. The next day I went to the grocery store and bought milk. The day after that, the smell started. And holy cow, it's awful. I sniffed all around that stupid car, including the EXACT place I had set the milk, but the smell didn't get any bettor or worse depending on where I sniffed. I checked the milk jug that I bought and it was perfectly dry with no leaks. We're still totally puzzled about it and the smell is still lingering, though MUCH more subtle now. I had started having to go out and start the car and roll the windows down about 10 minutes before I wanted to drive it, just to prevent the gagging. How awful.

Speaking of gagging, I still do. Morning sickness continues to elude me most days (hooray!) and I throw up about once a week.

We had another ultrasound this week! My friend Aslan works for a volunteer pregnancy center and when business gets slow they look for "models" to do ultrasounds on because it helps keep their funding, etc. up. I didn't have to think twice about a free, local peek at our baby!

The center has volunteers who are minimally trained in ultrasound and are able to tell three things: that you are pregnant, how far along you are, and that there is a heartbeat. Baby's heartbeat was in the 150's! We got a nice, long look at many parts of the body and Jordan got to be there, which was really fun for him. Our baby is a  mover and a shaker, that is for sure! At one point the tech had the want on my stomach and she wasn't moving it at all. Baby was flipping and turning all over the place! We saw a couple of good kicks, some waving and lots of head movement.

Because they are only trained to tell the three things I mentioned above, they cannot make any kind of guess or assumption regarding gender. I did ask the tech to take a peek though and we have an idea of what we think baby might be. :) The big announcement will come on April 13th - check Facebook!

Here are a couple of pictures of our adorable little Dash.

 

(The word on the left says "hand" and the words on the right say "face profile")

 

Foot!

14 weeks

I still have not gained any weight during this pregnancy. I also started tracking what I eat and have noticed that I eat a LOT of starch (what can I say, I love pasta!) and a lot of cheese. I have quite a bit of fruit, usually with breakfast (whole fruit, yogurt, organic juice, etc.) but I am seriously slacking in the veggie department. I've read that half of my plate at dinner should be vegetables and I'm lucky if I even eat vegetables some days. It's horrible! Especially since I love vegetables! Someone suggested that I get those veggies through juicing, so I think I will pull out my juicer this week and try some different combos. Carrot juice sounds great - I love that stuff!

I'm also trying to increase my water intake, which is also pathetic. On a good day I will fill my 32oz jug in the morning and drink it all that day. On a REALLY good day I will refill it and sometimes drink another 10 or 12 ounces before the end of the day. But seriously, that's lame. I should be drinking THREE of these things a day!

Another symptom I noticed this week is headaches. I get e-mail updates every couple of days and a couple of weeks ago I was getting updates about headaches. I thought maybe that was a symptom I had escaped but it seems that I was just a little late in getting to that one...

I've still been emotional this week, but a little less so (thank goodness). I still sleep very lightly and am getting tired of sleeping with earlplugs because they make my ears sore after a few days. Steve is supposed to schedule a sleep study in the near future and I'm hopeful that they will diagnose him with sleep apnea and prescribe a CPAP machine for sleeping. *fingers crossed*

Our 14 week ultrasound was rescheduled because Aslan has been VERY sick this week. We will go at 15w5d instead and she said we may get to find out the sex at that appointment. :) We also have a routine OB appointment scheduled for 15w1d and it's with a different physician than that horrible one we saw the last time. Who, by the way, wrote us a letter back! I will try to post our letters and her reply at some point, but she basically apologized for coming across the way she did, used the phrase "find a baby first" (one of the things I had commented that made us so mad) and hopes that we will come back to see her (not a chance) but she understands if we would rather see the other physicians at the practice. I was appreciative of her reply but had a good chuckle over her horrible grammar.

13 weeks

Week 12 blended in to week 13 with the great bleeding scare... but at 13w1d we got to have an ultrasound and SEE our baby and HEAR the heartbeat!

I am completely convinced that the sound of a baby's beating heart in utero is the most beautiful sound in the world...

We were able to hear the "whoosh whoosh whoosh" of the little heartbeat, see the baby turn its head back and forth, watch it wave its little hands and see its absolutely perfectly formed leg and foot, as well as the profile of its adorable face. I'm completely smitten.

I will admit, prior to this week, I was having some off-and-on difficulty really "bonding" to the pregnancy. Part of that may be because sometimes I have to remind myself that I AM actually pregnant! Besides my baby bump, I don't always have a ton of symptoms. Sure, I'm hungry all the time and I gag a lot and have a few food aversions and get more tired than usual... but I don't go around "feeling" pregnant all the time. Then of course we were really worried about the baby for a few days and Steve stresses enough for about 25 people instead of just one. So then that makes me worry and stress more than I might usually...

But seeing and hearing and watching our baby really changed that for me. And not only that, during our really rough days the week before, I'm fairly certain I felt the baby move several times. :) It felt like tiny little butterflies in my stomach and was very faint. Each time it was when I was lying down resting and usually after I had eaten. I can't wait for the flutters to get stronger so I can tell for sure that it's not my imagination. ;) I have read that it's not very common to feel the baby before 15 weeks and that some people don't feel anything until closer to 20. Aslan said she felt her baby (a boy!) at 14 weeks. I do feel that 12 weeks is a little early but then again, I'm showing early too so I won't dismiss those feelings as real! :)

Before my ultrasound appointment I was told that I had to drink 32 ounces of water at least 45 minutes prior to check in so that I would have a full bladder. They said, "I know 32 ounces is hard, but you need to drink at LEAST 24." I was a very obedient patient and drank the full 32 ounces, feeling very proud of myself. And also feeling like I was going to BURST! When the tech called us back she asked how badly I had to use the bathroom and I told her just how badly. She asked how far along I was and when she found out that I was 13 weeks she scoffed and said, "You can empty your bladder."

Phew.

I imagine the ultrasound was much more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise!

We told the tech about the nurse who had told us that ultrasounds were "not safe" and that they don't like to do them unless absolutely necessary. The tech's mouth fell open and she said, "Um... I have to report to my boss that they're telling people this..." I told her yes, please do report that. She asked if I would mind if her boss called me and I said certainly not, I would be happy to tell him about the conversation and what I was told. I hope I do end up getting a phone call about that because we have been told some really ridiculous things.

My biggest symptom for week 13 has been the roller coaster emotions. I don't think I have ever cried so much (or so hard) during a single week before. Poor Steve, he has to put up with so much. The other night I was sitting in a heap on the bathroom floor, just SOBBING my eyes out and gasping to him, "Being pregnant is HARD!" (Compared to the vast majority of the population, I think I am actually having a VERY easy pregnancy, but in that moment, it seemed so hard.) He suggested that we just have this one child and I was extremely quick to shoot that idea down. Lol.

So far I haven't gained any weight. I'm hovering within about a pound of where I've always been for the last couple of years. I'm interested what the doctor will have to say about that at my next appointment. Is it common to not gain any weight for quite awhile (while also not being sick)?

A friend of mine called the other day. She works part-time for a pregnancy center in town and when business gets slow they sometimes look for "models" to do ultrasounds on. Apparently business is slow right now because she offered me an ultrasound! We get to go in at 14w5d and see our little prince or princess again. :) One of the most exciting things was that she told me I can be scanned up to three times before I hit 20 weeks. This is REALLY exciting because it means we can go in again at 17w5d and likely find out what we are having!!!!! (Kaiser won't tell us until 20 weeks.)

Everyone says the second trimester is the best. You gain back energy, get sick less (I only gagged once this week!) and just generally feel much better. I'm excited for the next 3 months!