My Seventeenth Week

I'm eighteen weeks now!  Actually, eighteen and a half really.  We're on a trip right now so this post is a little late and the below picture was taken in a hotel room.

So, the seventeenth week was interesting.  I actually had some pretty wretched morning sickness one day this week.  Apparently the baby doesn't love pumpkin oatmeal as much as it's mama and decided to make me puke about 4-5 times til every last trace of it was gone from my tummy that day.  (Sorry, TMI!).  My husband thought that was pretty funny, because he's sort of a hater of pumpkin and rolls his eyes at me every year when I start putting pumpkin in EVERYTHING.  He said the baby must get it's pumpkin aversion from him.  I did successfully eat some pumpkin pancakes this week though, so not all is lost.  I still find it interesting how my nausea has presented itself.  I was talking with a friend who is 13 weeks pregnant and she had pretty bad all day nausea until about 11 weeks, but never really puked.  I guess I'm lucky in that I never really have long periods of actual nausea, just a strong gag reflex and urge to puke at random times, and it's still happening to me at 18 weeks.  Strange.

I was in my friend Sarah's wedding this week, which was fun, but I picked out and purchased my bridesmaid dress before I was pregnant (and actually in pretty good shape) and barely squeezed into it for the event.  Sitting, dancing, and standing were all pretty uncomfortable in the dress and by the end of the night, I couldn't wait to get that dress off.  Another week or two and I probably wouldn't have fit in it at all.  The bump is a-growin!

Ow, my dress is too tight!

I did some more maternity clothes shopping this week and ended up with a pair of pants, a pair of jeans, a sweater, and a top from Kohls.  I have to say, their maternity section is small and limited, but I LOVE their jeans and you really can't beat some the deals I've gotten there (one of the tops I got was like $6 after I used a 20% coupon and found it on sale).  I've actually been pretty disappointed with Target's selection so far.  I had one trip to Destination Maternity, but most of their stuff is crazy expensive and designer, which I don't really care about.  There's a maternity consignment shop in Charlotte on my radar that I'm going to have to check out sometime soon.  I guess one thing I'm going to have to tap into eventually is online maternity clothes shopping.  I've kind of been avoiding it, because I really like to try stuff on and have a hard time being able to tell what will fit me from a picture.  Friends with maternity clothes, if you have stuff you want to let me borrow, I'm definitely game!

Another thing I've been meaning to tell you guys is that I've been listening to some Pregtastic podcasts, which I had originally heard about on Kath's blog.  They have talk shows about almost any baby and pregnancy related topic you can think of, so it's been fun to listen to some and hear a group of pregnant women speak on different topics.  I recommend them if you are expecting and want some fun and interesting pregnancy information.  I've listened ones on registry must-haves, baby carriers, and some of the high-low ones.  I like having them in the back ground when I'm doing something else.

I'm up a solid 4 pounds now, so my weight is creeping on, but still pretty slowly.  I think the bump is fairly obvious now unless I'm wearing something pretty loose though, so it's fun to kind of have more of a real bump.  I know I still have a long way to go though!

I haven't had a lot of strong cravings this week.  My diet has been pretty normal, more like my pre-pregnancy diet, except for the day with the pumpkin oatmeal disaster.  Oh, one thing that was kind of neat, was that I had non-alcoholic wine this week!  At my friend Sarah's rehearsal dinner, the restaurant had it and offered it to the bride and I since we are preggo and unable to drink alcohol.  We split a bottle of Cabernet, and I thought it was pretty good.  Upon further research on their website, they are associated with J.Lohr, one of my favorite wineries, so that means my taste buds must not have been too off when I declare that it was pretty good.  I might have to see if I can track some bottles of this stuff down to get me through the next four and half months.

I still don't know if I've felt movement.  Sometimes I think I might feel something, but I'm still not sure.  I am excited to feel some legit kicks and hope that happens really soon.  I think it will help a lot with my confidence in the pregnancy.  I've been checking my friends old pregnancy posts and lot of them were already feeling kicks at this point.  Jealous!

I'm still researching baby purchases, because I know creating the registry is coming up.  One thing I'm kind of stuck on is strollers.  I think I want to get a BOB Revolution for running with the baby (I'm open to other suggestions though), but I think I'm also going to want some other kind of stroller for normal activities, because I don't think I'm going to want to cart the BOB in my car.  The other stroller will need to be something that unfolds/folds easily, that will fit in my car trunk (I drive a mid sized sedan), and works with a car seat initially.  I'm not sure if I should just go with the travel system combo (car seat/stroller) or something else.  I know about the snap-n-go, but maybe I might want something that will actually work beyond the car seat as well.  Confusing.  I may end up just going to the store and to see the options in person and will need my husbands help deciding.  Please let me know if you have suggestions!

Lastly, we have our anatomy scan scheduled NEXT WEEK!  We are finding out what we're having, so assuming all goes well, we will know in a week!  I'm not sure what I think we're having.  Initially, I thought it was a girl, but I've kind of migrated to the middle now and I think it could go either way.  I've had people tell me they were sure it's a boy and some tell me they're sure it's a girl.  Greg thinks boy.  I think like most people I'm pretty much split on the old wives tales, so that's not really any help.  I guess we'll just wait and see!

My Sixteenth Week

I'm seventeen weeks now!

So, my sixteenth week was pretty rough because of my crappy cold.  The coughing/phlegm stage lingered for days after the rest of my symptoms had subsided and it mostly just made my uncomfortable.  Being sick when you're pregnant sucks.

I had my 16 week appointment at the OB this week and they did a blood test for spina bifida and then used the Doppler on my tummy to listen for the heartbeat.  I again will say what I said last time we did the Doppler- I have no desire to get one of my own Doppler machines and try to find the heartbeat myself.  Even at the doctor's office it makes me nervous when they are moving the wand around looking for it (even though the doctor found it pretty quick).  I would be a ball of stress if I was trying by myself at home and couldn't find it.

Anyway, hearing the heartbeat renewed my sense of security for sure and I immediately went home and announced the pregnancy on Facebook, so that is now out of the way and I can stop worrying about it (and whining to you guys about it).  I received tons and tons of well wishes too, which was fun.

I also bought the baby some cute onesies at Old Navy because of my excitement after the appointment.

Saturday, I went to Erin's baby shower, and literally everyone there was either pregnant or a new mom.  I was glad to actually be pregnant and not still in limbo like I had been so many other times when attending showers or it would have been sad and uncomfortable.  Much talk of babies and pregnancy ensued.

Also, Jen made these awesome chocolate cupcakes for the shower, which seemed to trigger some massive chocolate cravings in me.  The next day I made chocolate cookies, and the day after that I got a chocolate milkshake.

Other cravings this week included Outback sirloin, so one night I got take out dinner from Outback that included a sirloin, shrimp, baked potato, salad, and bread.  So good.  I'm still eating a lot of fruit too- apples, pears, strawberries, nectarines, and grapes this week.  This may have been my first week without a cheeseburger, but I guess the steak is close!  I heard recently that it's actually a good thing for pregnant women to eat red meat.  There's a certain enzyme in the red meat protein that isn't found in other sources, so I'm going with it.  I also heard I should be eating kale though, and I don't think I've had any since I got pregnant, so I guess I should get some.

I seemed to get the "nesting" feeling this weekend, since I did a lot of closet cleaning and went through the plastic tubs I showed you of extra clothes in the baby's room.  I got rid of two garbage bags of stuff, and also moved around stuff in my closet so that the stuff I can't fit into is moved to remote parts of the closet.  Progress!

I don't think I've felt the baby move yet, and I'm hoping that any day now that'll happen, now that I'm kind of in the most common window for when you first feel it.

I'm up about 3-4 pounds weight-wise.  I think I kind of popped a little more this week, although, I still think the belly is hidden depending on what I'm wearing.  I find myself getting frustrated a lot when I'm trying to get dressed though, because I'm kind of in that awkward don't-really-fit-into-regular-clothes stage and not-totally-in-maternity-clothes either.  I'm sure I look frumpy at work some days.

Happy 17 weeks baby!

My Fifteenth Week

Wow, I'm now sixteen weeks pregnant!  Four whole months pregnant.  Surreal...

Before another one of my nightly walks with Clyde.

My fifteenth week was interesting.  I actually had a pretty bad day of morning sickness one day this week, which was funny, because it kind of came out of nowhere, and it's probably the worst day of it I've had the whole pregnancy, which I would not have thought would have happened this far in.  Although, I have heard more stories lately of pregnant people getting morning sickness more in the second trimester lately, so I guess it's kind of random and depends on the person.

I visited another maternity store this week and ended up buying one casual shirt.  I'm still building my maternity wardrobe pretty slowly.  I'm not sure if there's much difference in the bump, but I wore maternity pants to work this week, and it was nice to not have to worry about them feeling too tight or to deal with a safety pin like I've been doing with some of my pants.  I've probably got a while before I'm in full time maternity clothes, but I am enjoying sprinkling them in, especially on days when the bump feels bigger and my regular clothes feel tighter.

This week we officially picked our daycare!  Out of the three we looked at, there was one we both felt was the best fit for us and our wants/needs.  It was the one that we felt the most comfortable with, and we know two families with kids that go or have gone there that spoke highly of it, so I feel confident in our decision.  I dropped off the registration form and deposit this week so we're officially on their waiting list now!  Pretty exciting!

At the end of my fifteenth week, I came down with a pretty bad cold, which I am still dealing with, and have been out sick from work for two days now, which is unusual for me.  I don't know if it's because I can't (and am not) taking cold meds, or if it really is just hitting me harder because I'm pregnant, but I feel like absolute crap.  My doctors approved medication list has a few things listed I can take, including lozenges.  I took maybe 3 lozenges spaced out in the first 24 hours, because my throat was absolutely KILLING me.  I also have had many cups of hot water with lemon, juice, and soup.  I've gone through at least one box of tissues myself.  Luckily the sore throat has subsided, and I'm mainly dealing with a lot of congestion alternating with runny nose, which makes me feel like I'm living in a fog.  I've been pretty useless the last two days, which is frustrating, when I have a ton of stuff at work and at home I could be getting done.  Naps and TV watching have been my major activities instead.  Oh, and Greg is home and has the cold too, so the two of us have shared in our sick misery.  I am mainly just worried about the baby and hope it's not affecting it.

As for cravings, well, the past few days have had me craving soup, and grapefruit juice, which I guess isn't a huge surprise since I'm sick.  For some reason, orange juice hasn't sounded that good to me most of the pregnancy, but in the past week, I've probably had an entire bottle of grapefruit juice myself.

I still got in my usual cheeseburger over the weekend, and I'm still craving a lot of fruit, including kiwi, apples, nectarines, and pears this week. I also got some mango sorbet and that stuff is the bomb.  Oh, AND I got my first pumpkin spice latte (decaf) of the year on Sunday, and it was delicious.  I haven't had much coffee since I've been pregnant, but probably have about one or two decafs a week, so this was a treat.

One new-ish symptom I have is a little bit of heartburn at night depending on what I eat and whether I'm lying flat or not at night.  I definitely noticed it after eating pizza the other night and my husband will attest to the burp-like sounds coming from my chest at night.  Nice.

Lastly, I have to admit, I have been struggling a bunch with my confidence in the pregnancy again this week.  Two people I know announced pregnancies on Facebook that are each about a month behind me.  Even though I'm "out" on the blog and most of my close friends and family know I'm pregnant, there are a lot of people who still don't know, and I started really struggling with the fact that I haven't said anything on Facebook.  I know it's kind of dumb, but I really do want to be able to share the joyful part of this with everyone I know, but only if I'm really confident that everything is going to be okay, and there is still a part of me that is pretty afraid.  Getting the cold this week didn't help, I've been very worried about it affecting the baby.  I have my first appointment in four weeks tomorrow, and I seriously can't wait to hear the heartbeat again because I SO NEED confirmation right now.  Assuming everything is okay, I think I'm going to go ahead and "come out" on Facebook about the pregnancy in the next few days.  I just know that a lot of people who don't know yet would want to know and share in the joy.

I also look forward to tomorrow's appointment because I should be scheduling our anatomy scan, where we'll find out what we're having!  I'm hoping that we'll be able to schedule it for about two weeks from now! Can not wait for that!!

The Best Weekend I've Had in A While

This past weekend was one of those weekends where I laughed, smiled, and enjoyed myself a lot.  I love those kind of weekends.  Saturday, I actually spent a while doing "bridesmaid duties" with my friend Sarah, since her wedding is in two weeks.  I met her at her hair salon and attempted to help her decide what she's doing with her hair on the big day.  I think she's still a little torn between up or down, but I'm confident it will come together and she'll look beautiful, no matter what she decides.

We followed up the hair salon with a trip to Owen's Bagel Deli.  I've actually been dying to try this place for a while, but have never made it there til now.

The place is very eclectic and has a huge menu, that I probably poured over for at least 5 minutes before deciding on a bagel.  I chose the Chia Bagel: Veggie cream cheese, Swiss, Avocado, Lettuce, Sprouts (which I swapped for tomato, since I can't eat sprouts while pregnant) on a Sesame Bagel.

Wow, it was delicious.  I am now craving another one...

After lunch we hit up the Bobbi Brown make-up counter to see the make-up artist doing our make-up for the wedding, then the alterations place to get our dresses altered.  Sarah's alterations lady was gracious enough to let us two preggo ladies wait til the last minute to get our dresses altered since we weren't sure how the growing bumps would affect fitting into our dresses.  Luckily, the style of bridesmaid dress seems to have left me some room in the abdomen.  I did have to have the boob area taken in a little though.  My boobs still haven't grown that much!

J Crew Selma dress

After a fairly brief stop at home, I was back out again to celebrate my friend Gibson's birthday.  We headed to Park Lanes on Montford, which is a recently refurbished bowling alley.  We opted to have dinner at the alley, and I had a GREAT cheeseburger (see how the baby continues to make me crave them??), before we headed in to bowl.  Now let me just tell you, I grew up in a rural NH town where there was not a lot to do, so bowling was an activity I regularly participated in, along with trips for ice cream at Friendly's, movies, and miniature golf in the summer.  I'm no where near a great bowler, but man, did we have fun on Saturday night.

Birthday boy

Me in action

Brittasaurus was my given nickname...

Kelly and I

I actually did better than I thought I would bowling, and managed to win all three rounds on my lane among the four on my side, so I guess all those early years of bowling paid off.  I haven't laughed that hard or smiled that much in a while.  We really had a blast bowling.

Sunday, was another great day.  Clyde and I slept in a little.

The weather was GORGEOUS!  There was this subtle hint of fall in the morning air, and I even wore a fleece on my morning walk with Clyde.

Kelly and I made plans to meet at Whole Foods, since I'm probably the only blogger in Charlotte that hasn't made it over there since it opened.

We started in the hot/cold bar area, and got some lunch.  I built a salad and had a side of tostones, since I LOVE plantains.

After lunch and conversation, we ventured into the store, which was a totally zoo.  I'm not sure if or when the excitement of having a Whole Foods in Charlotte will ever wear off.  People are seriously excited about this store.  They even had security guards directing traffic in the parking lot... nuts.

I got a bunch of produce, and a few other items, but kept my haul relatively small.  Kelly and I had fun hanging out, even if we did have a few moments where we had to cleverly navigate our carts to get around.  I was impressed with the store, and know that I missed seeing a lot.  I'll have to go back and explore more sometime.

The rest of my afternoon was pretty leisurely.  I got sucked into watching Sex and The City on Style, as per usual, and then was eventually able to pull myself away.  Clyde and read on the deck for a while to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Gotta love weekends like this...  

My Fourteenth Week

I'm 15 weeks pregnant!

Sorry, we weren't organized enough to get a great picture this week.
I got this before my daily walk with Clyde.

The fourteenth week started with Greg and I visiting some day care centers in our area.  Even though we don't need day care for about a year, we have heard the waiting lists are long and wanted to get a jump on things early.  We visited two places, both recommended by friends that have children at each, and were impressed with both.  I will say that the experience was somewhat overwhelming though.  We saw the infant areas at both places, but also were given a tour of the rest of the facilities, which included classrooms where the kids were about 4 years old and focused on educational activities.  This was kind of a big jump for me, when at this point, I'm really just thinking "Please take care of my baby and make sure he/she is still alive and in the same condition I left it in when I dropped it off".  Now we're having to think ahead to how we want our small child educated as well, so it's necessary to think present as well as future in terms of what kind of care and education we want our kid to have.  Head spinning...  We opted to look at one more place recommended to us this week, and then we'll probably make a decision based on these three.

Greg surprised me by actually doing some of his own crib research this week, and ended up finding a crib he liked that seems like it would match the dresser/book shelf we saw at IKEA a couple weeks ago, if we want to go that route.  We went to the store and looked at it and it's nice.  I'm not ready to commit to nursery furniture without a little bit more thought just yet, but it's an option.  While at the store we walked around looking at more baby stuff, and I explained the difference in car seats (infant vs. convertible), strollers, pack-n-play's, etc... to him, showing him how much stuff is out there and how much we have to decide.

In other news, we started cleaning out the room we're using as a nursery.  We had a futon in there that Greg moved out.  Also it has been known as our "ironing" room, since it used to house our iron board and iron, but we moved it.  The bulk of the stuff remaining in that room is mine, as it's sort of been my winter/summer clothes storage area (hence the bins you see below).  We actually have a huge basement, so it's not going to be a problem to store that stuff down there instead, I mainly used this room because it's right next to ours and was convenient and available (til now).  I want to go through some of my clothes and get rid of some things before moving it all downstairs though, so I'll try to work on that in the next couple weeks before we really get going on the nursery.

As for how I'm feeling- still pretty good.  Nausea is less and less.  I think if people are looking for it, they are actually starting to see the bump.  I actually got a couple comments about it this week, and I think the rumor is finally making its way around my office (I'm surprised it's taken this long, because my office is known to be a rumor mill!).  I pretty much always wear flowy tops to give myself room, so I think I've kind of hidden it well, but if I'm wearing anything more form fitting, you can kind of see it.  I've also noticed that some of my bottoms that were roomy enough to fit into til this point are tight now.  I've been using a big safety pin on my flat front pants to extend them further, which actually works pretty good (I never really felt like the bella band was appealing), and did the hair tie trick on some shorts the other day.  I think it still just kinda looks like a beer belly, and look forward to the time when it is really obvious what's happening there.

I'm still craving cheeseburgers, but also corn on the cob, ice cream, peaches, apples, potatoes, and still pancakes (I had some this morning).  I'd say my diet is fairly well rounded and I try to get in a fruit or vegetable with every meal.  It's not quite as healthy as it was pre-pregnancy, since veggies haven't sounded that good to me (I still don't want peppers, and can only eat spinach if it's hidden in something).  I love my carbs, as you can probably tell.  I had a really good grilled chicken sandwich with cheese and grilled pineapple on it the other day when I was out to lunch.  I think I need to pick up some pineapple next time I hit the store.  Yum!

Weight-wise, I appear to be up about 2 pounds now.  Still a slow gain at this point.  I really don't doubt that it's going to creep on steadily with all my indulgent cravings though.

Exercise is still mainly walks and I've been good about doing them almost every day.  I had a crazy week because of the DNC going on in Charlotte, but I think maybe next week I'm going to buckle down and try to get to a prenatal yoga class.  I really want to start doing something besides just walking.

Oh, also, I found myself kind of more tired a couple days this week.  I went to bed around 9-9:30 a few times, which is early for me.  I thought that was kind of funny, since most people talk about the second trimester energy.  I kind of had the opposite in my first official week and was falling asleep.

Anyway, that about sums up week 14!  Onward!