18 Weeks

How far along? 18 weeks

How big is the peanut? Baby is 5 1/2 inches from head to rump and weighs about 7 ounces The size of a sweet potato or bell pepper. This week baby can start to hear from inside the womb. Baby can hear my heartbeat and my voice! Hearing will eventually get better and baby will be able to hear noise outside of my belly as well.

Total weight gain/loss? 7-8 pounds! yikes! I don't know where it is all at! I guess between baby, placenta, fluid, extra blood flow, etc it makes sense. It is just strange because I don't look 8 lbs heavier! Apparently my weight gain is right on track with where I am supposed to be.

Maternity clothes? I am still wearing the belly band but it is getting to be more and more uncomfortable. I imagine a shopping trip will be coming up soon.

Sleep? So far so good. Some aches and pains at night give me a glimpse about what is to come though!

Best moment this week? Feeling baby moving! I did not feel "flutters" like everyone said I would but I definitely felt baby. The "lump" sticking out to one side that I described last week keeps happening! I can feel when it happens because I feel my uterus and skin stretching to the one side. (it feels like someone's hand resting on your belly and then they slowly start to apply pressure to one spot, except the pressure is coming from the inside!)

The baby pushes its whole body to one side (almost always the left) and I can see it through my belly. My entire stomach looks lopsided! Kevin has finally been able to see it as well. When I touch the side where baby is pushing up against it is firm to the touch. If I leave my hand resting on the area I can feel some occasional squirming. It is not like a kick. It feels like the baby is turning completely over trying to get comfortable. Then before I know it the "lump" goes away and I can't feel the baby when it is settled back to the middle of my body.

Symptoms? HEADACHES! For a while I thought that maybe they were getting better, but now it is back in full swing! I wake up with a headache and go to bed with a headache. I have to take tylenol 3 times a day to stay pain free (which I am not comfortable doing) so most of the time I just suffer through it. I have been drinking water like crazy, using ice packs, heating pads, massaging my neck, ANYTHING I can think of and nothing really helps! I am going to talk to my doctor about checking my hormone levels to make sure it is not an imbalance or something serious. I just hope it gets better soon!

Food cravings? Nothing special. Just really loving food!

Food aversions? None. I try to avoid foods that are super salty because I bloat like crazy. My body has become a salt detector. Seriously, if I eat a food I can tell you whether or not it has a high salt content. The other day I had a chick-fil-a sandwich and I blew up like a balloon! I looked it up online and sure enough that sandwich has 1390 mg of sodium! Before pregnancy I would have thought it tasted good but would have no idea that it had any more salt then a wendy's chicken sandwich (620 mg of sodium)

Don't get me wrong, I am craving salty foods just as much as any other but it usually isn't worth the bloating miserable feeling afterwords!

Gender? ONE MORE WEEK!!!!! I will return to the blog next week with ultrasound pictures and the big gender reveal! I really hope baby decides to cooperate and let us take a peak!

Labor signs? No way

Belly button in or out? Believe it or not it has already begun to stretch a little! I feel dumb saying this, but before pregnancy I always thought of the belly button kind of like a turkey thermometer lol. I thought the belly stretched as far as it could and then the belly button kind of popped out at the end when there was just no more room left! I didn't realize that it was a gradual process of slowly growing out! I guess I never gave it much thought before!

I had my belly button pierced (which I removed at 13 weeks) and typically the top hole of my piercing would be visible and the bottom hole where the ring comes through was not visible. It was on the inside of my belly button. Now you can see both top and bottom hole because my belly has already been stretching changing my belly button! No one except for me would recognize the change, but I know my own body and notice the subtle differences.

What I miss? Nothing right now

What I'm looking forward to? The anatomy scan next week!!!

Milestones? Nearing the halfway mark and my body is really starting to make some big changes finally.

Bump?

Week 17

Two more weeks! Two more weeks! TWO MORE WEEKS! Ahhh I can NOT wait to find out if our little one is a boy or a girl!

This week baby weighs 5 ounces and is 5 inches from head to bottom. Baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone and his or her sweat glands are starting to develop.

Not a lot to say this week. Everything has been just about the same the last few weeks. All of my symptoms from the the first trimester have passed except for the headaches. Headaches have been getting slowly better though. They aren't as frequent and don't last as long as they did a few weeks ago. It is nice to feel "normal" again. I can finally go grocery shopping without feeling sick! I have also began to shake that "fragile" feeling that I had in the beginning. For a while I was so nervous to lift anything, or stretch any stomach muscles for fear of harming the baby. I finally feel more secure with the pregnancy and know that the baby will be okay! Although feeling "normal" is nice I usually just wish that I felt more PREGNANT. My belly has grown a little, but I still feel like people can not tell that I am preggo! I haven't felt any kicks or movement yet. Sometimes it almost feels like I am not pregnant at all. I guess I am just anxious to have that basketball belly and feel our little one moving around! Trying to be patient!! I know it will happen any day now.

I did have one really awesome experience this week. I could not sleep one night. I was tossing and turning over and over. My stomach was so uncomfortable! The best way that I can describe the feeling is that it felt like I was laying flat ON my stomach even though I was on my side. It was just a lot of pressure and very un-easy. Finally after tossing and turning forever I was wide awake. I laid on my back (the only way I felt comfortable) trying my best to fall back to sleep in that position which is nearly impossible for me. As I was laying there I began to rub my un-easy tummy. I slid my hand across my lower abdomen and immediately noticed a huge lump/bump on my left side. I panicked! I had decided that my uterus had moved up over night (that was why I was so uncomfortable) and it had moved up sideways! I frantically starting to google my theory all while thinking "omg my baby is going to be growing sideways out of my stomach!" LOL I kept feeling the bump with my hand for a minute or two and then all of a sudden.... it was gone! Completely flat just like the other side.

It had to have been the baby! Why else would the lump MOVE? I don't understand how if I can't feel any kicks yet that I could feel baby lumped on one side of my body but I can't imagine what else it could have been! Baby is as big as an avocado, almost the size of a pomegranate so I guess if it's entire body was curled up against one side it would be big enough to stick out! It must have been sticking it's little tushy right out! Once I realized what it was I was so excited!

We have been slowly getting a few baby items ourselves and Nana keeps sending us awesome packages in the mail. We are already accumulating quite a bit of items in the nursery! I am sure there will be a lot more after we find out the gender!

Baby bump-

16 Weeks

Doctor's appointment this week! We got to listen to the heartbeat again (150 beats per minute). I also got some blood drawn for a quad screen. This is a blood test to check the levels of AFP in my bloodstream. The baby produces AFP and it transfers from the placenta into mom's blood. This is perfectly normal, however if the levels are too high or too low it could mean possible problems such as spina bifida or downs syndrome and would require further testing to diagnose. We are obviously hoping for nice normal levels to put our mind at rest about any major concerns! I will keep you all posted with the results! 

How far along? 16 weeks

How big is the peanut? The size of an avocado. 4 1/2 inches from head to rump and 3 1/2 ounces. Patterning on the scalp has begun although no hair yet! Baby is even developing toe nails already! Baby will double in weight and add inches to his length over the next few weeks so apparently I can expect a growth spurt soon!

Total weight gain/loss? 4.5 pounds so far

Maternity clothes? Still rocking the belly band and I bought a handful of some more maternity tanks. I basically live in them and they are perfect undershirts at work.

Sleep? Sleeping just fine! It's been really hard to wake up though. My eye lids are heavy! Wishing I could have that cup of joe in the morning!

Best moment this week? We have friends in town from Kansas City all week so we have been having a blast so far! I feel so thankful to be feeling back to normal! 

Symptoms? No headaches for the past TWO DAYS! yay!! So... I guess no symptoms since that has been my only one lately!

Food cravings? Nothing specific. Just really loving food! lol

Food aversions? None really

Gender? Don't know yet but we get to find out earlier then expected! The doctor told us today at our appointment to come back for the anatomy ultrasound in 3-4 weeks... so of course I said we would be there in 3 WEEKS! lol Our appointment is scheduled for the morning of October 7th

Labor signs? Absolutely not.

Belly button in or out? IN

What I miss? Beer during football?

What I'm looking forward to? Anatomy ultrasound!!

Bump? 

15 Weeks

Baby is the size of a navel orange this week. Measuring at 4 inches and his/her proportions are becoming more normal. Baby's legs are now longer then their arms. Baby is moving like crazy. All of his/her joints and limbs can move completely. (Still haven't been able to feel it yet)

Not much to say this week. The only symptom I am still having this week is headaches. EVERY SINGLE DAY! I am hoping that this will pass soon!

This week started football season! It is actually really nice to have a distraction. Something to keep my mind off the pregnancy. I am playing fantasy football for the first time this year which has already been so much fun. Hopefully keeping busy with other things will help time go by faster. It feels like it will take forever until my 20 week appointment! (Gender reveal)

We have another doctor's appointment next week. I assume it will be a lot like our 12 week appointment, pee in a cup, get to hear the heartbeat, get weighed, and send me on my way. It is always nice to hear the heartbeat. Just a little check up that everything is still okay in there! I am looking forward to it.

Look what we got in the mail today!...

A digital baby video monitor! I am so excited!! Nana (my mother in law) sent it to us! This is something that I REALLY wanted but would not have bought for myself. If we hadn't received it as a gift, we would have saved the money and bought the old fashioned sound only kind. I didn't expect to receive such a nice gift! These monitors are not cheap! I am so excited to have it. I know we will use it all the time to determine whether our little one is just being fussy or if there is actually something wrong (like a limb between the bars of the crib) This thing has a 5 inch color flat screen, rechargeable battery, digital zoom, sound activated LED lights, and night vision. Okay... maybe I am a little OVERLY excited lol!

Latest belly picture-

14 Weeks

Week 14! This week baby is the size of a clenched fist. Baby is moving almost constantly although I still can not feel it!! Baby's neck is much stronger this week so he or she can stretch out straight rather then being curled up all the time. The baby also has reflexes and responses. For example, if I poke my belly, the baby will squirm away to the other side of my uterus. How cool is that! We got to see that a little bit during the ultrasound. When they put the ultrasound machine on my belly baby started moving like crazy!

Baby is developing lanugo now (peach fuzz like hair that covers their body to keep them warm until they gain some body fat!) Other developments this week include the roof of the baby's mouth forming and some intestinal activity.

This week I started my new beauty routine to hopefully avoid stretch marks later on! *fingers crossed* I bought some bio oil and cocoa butter for now. If anyone has suggestions for me about what works best I am open to any advice!

I am feeling pretty good overall. Many of my first trimester symptoms are easing up finally! I am just hungry all the time! I feel like every 2-3 hours I am so hungry that it feels like I haven't eaten in weeks! lol I am just so anxious for my 20 week ultrasound! I want to know if we are having a little boy or girl!! Starting to get several baby items and gifts from grandma which has been amazing! I just love to look at all of the baby stuff in the nursery and imagine my little one using it all. It makes me smile every time!

Getting a little bit bigger... I have gained 2 pounds which I am actually excited about! I am ready to look pregnant! I feel like I am in that awkward phase where I look like it might be a gut lol