19 weeks

How Far along: 19 weeks (I'll actually be 20 weeks tomorrow, I'm a little late getting this up)

Size of Baby: A large heirloom tomato (according to baby center), 11 oz. (according to the ultrasound we had this week)

Total Weight Gain: 3 lbs.

Gender: ??? We had our 20 week ultrasound this week and could have found out the gender, but we want to be surprised on his/her birthday. It was hard to resist the urge the look at the ultrasound screen and find out, but I'm so glad we are going to wait. It's so fun to daydream about whether our little one will be a boy or a girl and not know for sure.

Movement: I've been feeling a little bit of movement, but not a ton. Our ultrasound tech said I have an anterior placenta which means the placenta is situated on the front side of my uterus (between the baby and my abdomen) which is why I haven't felt a whole lot of movement. 

Sleep: Sleep went from great to not so good this week. I'm having a hard time getting comfortable.

Maternity Clothes: Still wearing mostly non-maternity clothes: lots of sun dresses, gym shorts, and t-shirts. Although, my friend Lauren gave me some of her maternity clothes this week which was so nice!

Symptoms: The nausea and vomiting came back this week (weird?). I also woke up one morning with terrible low back pain. I couldn't even bend over to put my hair up in a towel after my shower. I asked my doctor about it and he said it's sacroiliac joint pain and that it's common and something I will probably experience off and on for the duration of my pregnancy. lovely.

Aversions: I wouldn't call it an aversion necessarily, but I just really don't have an appetite for vegetables. I have to force myself to eat them and I'm sure I'm not getting enough.

Cravings: No real cravings this week.

What I Miss: Feeling normal.

Best Moment of the Week: Our 20 week ultrasound! Hearing the ultrasound tech say that our baby looked "perfect" was music to my ears! Talk about an answer to my prayers. It was such a relief. And seeing him/her move all over the screen was so fun. I wish I could see that every day. When we saw the baby's face, his/her mouth was wide open in a big smile and the ultrasound tech said, "It looks like he's laughing!" (note: she had not looked for the gender yet, so "he" was a generic term). It was definitely the highlight of my week :) 

Here are the pics from the ultrasound. The top one is baby's face and the bottom one is baby's feet.

We are already so in love!

  

17 & 18 weeks

I wasn't able to do my 17 week update last week because I was at my parents' new house at the beach and they don't have Internet yet. So, I decided to group last weeks update in with this one.

How Far along: 17/18 weeks

Size of Baby: turnip/green pepper (according to baby center)

Total Weight Gain: ? I don't have a scale at home, so I haven't weighed myself since my last appointment.

Gender: ???

Movement: I felt the baby move for the first time at the end of week 17! I was laying on my back when I felt it. It was so cool! Since then, I've felt it a few more times, but every time I do, I still think, "Was that the baby??"

Sleep: Sleep is good, other than frequent trips to the bathroom :)

Maternity Clothes: Still wearing mostly non-maternity clothes: lots of sun dresses, gym shorts, and t-shirts.

Symptoms: Round ligament pain

Aversions: None

Cravings: Still craving sweets: snickers ice cream bars, cookies, sugary cereal, etc.

What I Miss: Nothing in particular this week.

Best Moment of the Week: Feeling the baby move, spending time at the beach with my family, AND two different people at the airport asked me if I was expecting. It was the first time someone I didn't know asked me :)

16 weeks

How Far along? 16 weeks


Size of Baby? An Avocado (according to baby center)

Total Weight Gain? 0 (I lost 4 lbs. during my first trimester, but gained it back by my last appointment, so I'm back to where I started)


Gender? ???


Movement? No movement yet, but I seriously can't wait! My doctor said I could start to feel it any time now :)


Sleep? Sleep has been ok, kind of restless.


Maternity Clothes? I stopped wearing regular pants at around week 7 or 8. Luckily, it's summer so I've been wearing lots of sun dresses, gym shorts and t-shirts. I do have one maternity dress and two maternity tops that I've been wearing, but most of my normal clothes still work.


Symptoms? Still nauseous and throwing up on occasion, especially if I go too long in between meals.


Aversions? None


Cravings? Candy-anything from snickers to gummy bears. Oh, and yesterday morning I wanted a chocolate glazed donut really bad, so Paul went out and got me one. What a nice hubby :)


What I Miss? Drinking alcohol-especially beer. I went to happy hour with some friends from work last week and let me tell you, drinking water at happy hour just isn't as fun.


Best Moment of the Week? My 16 week appointment with the doctor. We listened to the heartbeat on the Doppler and it's nice and strong-150!

Peanut Butter Pie

Today is Paul's birthday (happy birthday babe!)

To celebrate, I made Peanut Butter Pie.

I kind of adapted this recipe from two I already had; one from Kraft and one from Tasty Kitchen.

Ingredients:

1 Oreo pie crust (6 oz.)

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tub (8 oz.) Cool Whip, thawed

1/4 cup hot fudge (ice cream topping)

Beat cream cheese, sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer until blended. Fold in Cool Whip. Spoon mixture into crust. Drizzle hot fudge on top and gently swirl with a knife. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.

This was the first time I've tried this recipe. I brought it to the field house (Paul had to work on his birthday. boo) and it got the seal of approval from all of the coaches, which in my world, means it's a keeper. 

Enjoy!

first trimester in a nutshell

Even though we just broke the news on here last week, I feel like I've been pregnant forever (yikes, I still have over 5 months to go)! I am officially in my second trimester, but I thought I'd do a little recap of the first one.

Week 4: I found out I was pregnant when I was 4 weeks along. I felt really good: excited, a little tired, sore boobs, kinda crampy, but otherwise normal.

Week 5: Same as week 4, but a new symptom revealed itself: heightened sense of smell, which was particularly bothersome when walking anywhere near the school cafeteria. Ew.

Week 6: This is when it all went downhill. I started feeling nauseous-I wouldn't really call it "morning sickness," more like "all day sickness" woof.

Week 7: Constant nausea, throwing up, loss of appetite, and bad taste in my mouth. We took a trip to New York to visit a friend and lets just say, I now have an aversion to New York. The smells, the heat, and the crazy cab rides do not mix well with pregnancy hormones. We also had our first ultrasound this week where we got this beautiful picture. It was a relief to see the heartbeat and know that everything was looking good so far :)

Week 8: Nauseous, throwing up, no appetite, bloated, tired. This is the week I officially stopped wearing pants unless they has a stretchy waist. All other pants felt so uncomfortable when they pressed on my stomach. This was also the last week of school before summer break wahoo!

Week 9: Same symptoms as above. Thank goodness I was on summer break because it was hard to do anything but lay on the couch. The only thing I could manage to force down my throat was carbs-this is what my kitchen counter looked like.

Week 10: Same symptoms as above. I finally called my doctor in desperation and he prescribed me some anti-nausea medication. It wasn't a cure-all, but it helped!

Week 11: Same symptoms. We had our 12 week appointment and got to do another ultrasound which I was thrilled about! It was amazing to see how much the baby had changed in 4 short weeks. What looked like a bean before, looked like a baby now. We got to see him/her move its little hands and feet. That was the coolest experience. I wish I could see that every day!

Week 12: Same symptoms. Even when I wasn't feeling terribly sick, I just didn't feel normal. I felt like a stranger in my own body. I went up to Boulder and my mom took me shopping for my first maternity clothes.

Week 13: Same symptoms, but slowly starting to feel less nauseous. We went to visit Paul's parents for the week and it felt so good to float in the lake every day!

Week 14: Second Trimester!! Finally starting to feel better. Still feeling nauseous on occasion, but not nearly as often. Praise the Lord!

I've been trying to take a belly pic every week since I found out. I missed a few here and there, but here's what I did get..

So there you have it, the first trimester in a nutshell :)

So Excited...

And We Just Can't Hide It!!!

God has blessed us with a baby due in January!

We are OVER THE MOON!

Pink or Blue?

My friend Rachel had a little gender reveal dinner last week. It was really low-key with just a few people, but it was so fun! She had us meet at a restaurant in Boulder. When we came around the corner, this is what we saw...

Her husband, Ben, is so funny. He jumped up and said, "It's a BOY!!" Poor guy is gonna be out-numbered :)

I'm so excited they're having a little girl! We had all been trying to guess for the last few weeks and couldn't wait to find out.  I'm pretty sure everyone guessed girl. Rachel had looked up all of the old wives tales and gender charts and everything was pointing towards pink. She even did some crazy test where she threaded a strand of her hair through a needle and held it above her wrist. Apparently, the needle swung in a circle which meant she was having a girl. I usually don't believe in old wives tales, but I guess in this case it was true!

I wish I would have taken a picture of the adorable little hat I bought for her (I bought a boy gift too, just in case). It was purple with a big flower on it-so fun! 

My fellow CW's in Boulder. I just love these girls. We sat at the restaurant for 4 hours, and I seriously could have stayed longer. We had so much fun talking and catching up. 

I'm so happy for Rachel and Ben and I CAN NOT wait to meet little miss Cora Michelle in November!