19 Weeks

How far along:  19 weeks; size of a tomato


How I'm feeling:  Good, no real complaints

Sleep:  Again the crazy dreams I tend to remember... at least right when I wake up.  I am still able to sleep modified on my stomach a bit, not all the way, but still abouts there.  One thing I'll mention and probably will mention again below is Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS).  I've suffered from RLS from time-to-time for as long as I can remember.  I've noticed it a lot during this pregnancy... where my legs ache until I move them... I've even woken up in the middle of the night with it... which isn't how it normally happens for me (it more effects me when I'm trying to go to sleep at the beginning of the night... which it still does.)

Worries/Fears:  I haven't spent too much time worrying about anything this week.

Miss anything: Now that summer is here I'm missing having a beer or alcoholic beverage sometimes, but really that's very very minor for me.

Movement:  Maybe I should refrain from answering this one until I know for sure... still in the maybe it's happening but I'm not totally sure camp.

Food cravings:  Ice cream is delicious... but let's face it, it was ALWAYS delicious

Food aversions: None really...

Other symptoms:  The RLS sucks at times, heartburn has been happening (I finally had a TUMS one day, I had it in my mind they would be chalky gross to eat, but after I had one it really wasn't bad), sometimes I get sharp pains for a few seconds when standing up too fast (round ligament pain maybe?)

Maternity clothes, Stretch marks, Belly Button:  Maternity clothes for sure (I can still wear some of my dresses).  No remarks on the other areas.

What I'm looking forward to: Three day work week!

Best moment of this week:  This category should be renamed to what happened this week...


On Wednesday after work I met Susan and we got mani/pedis and had dinner.  It was really nice.  Afterwards I headed back home and finished off one of the best nights of the year by watching three hours of Survivor (and finishing off the last of the pint of The Tonight Dough)


Friday I got off 59 minutes early for the holiday.  I came home and took a nap.  Afterwards I grabbed some dinner.  I then started to clean the house - that night I did the kitchen, dining room and some of the living room. 


Saturday morning I got breakfast.  Dan went to help his sister and brother-in-law move out of their house.  I spent the morning cleaning (bedrooms, bathroom, rest of living room) and relaxing.  After he got home we had a snack and hung around.  Kyle came over and then we went to dinner at Salt and Smoke - so delicious.  Headed back home and had a low key night.


Sunday we went to a few stores - Ashley Furniture, Weekends Only and a fish store.  We need to get a couple of dressers for the house with the baby coming.  Later that day Ben came over for awhile.  Dan grilled some hot dogs.  I eventually went and got ice cream.  Dan went to bed really early.


On Monday I got up and headed over to my mom's.  We went up the Gypsy Caravan.  It was a lot of fun looking around but I did end up getting sun burnt.  Afterwards we picked up Lindsey and ate at late lunch.  Then we got some Andy's Frozen Custard.  I went grocery shopping and headed home.  It was a really low key weekend, but nice!


The Bump:  It's there!  And just realized the belt thing on the dress was untied... thus making me look wider... IMO... oh well.

18 Weeks

How far along:  18 weeks; size of a sweet potato or bell pepper


Appointment update:  I had an appointment last Friday.  It went well.  I got there a little late because I wasn't expecting there to be traffic on the highway mid-morning on Friday, but atlas there was (although I realized afterwards I could have just gone around it but how are you supposed to know that?!?)  My doctor had to go to an emergency C-section (I actually heard her telling the staff that on my way out from leaving a urine sample) and saw a different doctor in the practice.  It was a pretty short appointment, but went well.  We talked about the genetic tests (Quad Screen) and I went ahead and got it done.  Some people feel strongly one way or another about that, but I was pretty in the middle.  The doctor made some good points to me (the reason I've heard not to do it was what would you do if it came back with something bad... you wouldn't terminate the pregnancy) which I think is a fair point, but it seemed like there was some conditions that they screen for that you actually CAN do something about while still pregnant.  Plus they were already going to stab me with a needle for a different test (I originally had blood drawn for it at my first appointment but they used the wrong vial so they had to redo it) so I figured while they already had a needle in my arm might as well.  Have I mentioned before my body doesn't like needles? haha.  She also listened to the baby's heartbeat which is always fun.  It took her a moment to find the heartbeat and in that process we heard a whoosh and she told me that was the baby moving around in there. 


My next appointment is in June and that will be ultrasound time!  It will be fun to see the baby looking like a baby instead of a blob.  This is the time that we could find out the sex of the baby, but we (ok it's totally my thing) aren't going to find out and leave it as a surprise.  I've had a lot of people ask me why like this is some sort of crazy decision (hey, to each your own right?!)  But here are my reasons... the biggest reason is that's the way I've always pictured doing it.  I've thought about that moment in the delivery room of 'It's a [fill in the blank]'!  I like the anticipation of not knowing.  Like waiting until Christmas morning to open presents.  I know some people say you still get this feeling finding out early but really it's just how I've wanted to do things.  I've also heard the I could never wait I'm too much of a planner... and to that I say I'm not planning any less than you are knowing.  The only thing we'd be doing different if we knew was the temptation to buy cute gender specific clothes and we'd only have to pick one name instead of two.  The nursery I have planned (and have pictured in my head for awhile) is gender neutral... all around this will just be more exciting.  But all that aside if you want to hear a 'practical' reason for not finding out is showers you get practical items instead of people being swayed by all the cute baby clothes (I fall victim to this as well).  While I can site other examples, I remember going to one shower specifically where seemingly everything she got was a frilly dress since she was having a girl...


Now all that being said we have to keep Dan reined in about this.  He totally wants to find out and at one point even said I could go on not knowing and he could know - um NO that's not happening.  Knowing Dan like I do, he'd either ruin it at some point b/c he's evil or he'd torment with knowledge b/c again, he's evil.  So let's hope we get out of the ultrasound blissfully unaware of what sex is brewing in my belly.


How I'm feeling:  As I told the doctor at my appointment I'd hardly know I was pregnant really.  I'm feeling good... the honeymoon stage as they call it.

Sleep:  Crazy dreams are happening again and I think I'm at the point that stomach sleeping isn't going to happen.  I can still kinda do it but it's less comfortable and really modified.  I've also had some arm pains, either in my forearm or shoulders/back area.  There have been a couple of nights where this has kept me awake from the throbbing.  Tylenol helps after awhile and I've used the heating pad semi-successfully.

Worries/Fears:  I can get a little panicky if I think about how different my life is going to be by the end of the year.  It's scary to know that this HUGE change is happening but don't really know how it's going to look and feel.  I mean that's exciting too, but it can feel really big in the moment.  It's also crossed my mind about what if we don't have a healthy baby and that thought is really scary.  We'd deal with whatever we were thrown but that can feel really unsettling.

Miss anything: Not being pregnant? Haha I've woken up with that thought a few times since finding out I was.  But more so than that I miss how I was able to sit in weird twisted positions... now I have to keep my midsection (and thus my body) more straight. 

Movement:  Again, maybe, but this week I've been leaning toward I've probably not been feeling movement. As I've said to a couple of people soon I'll know if I was feeling something or not.

Food cravings:  Food is good, appetite is there and I'm hungry a lot more... but no real cravings.

Food aversions: None really...

Other symptoms:  I wasn't exactly sure where to put this fact but when I'm downstairs my cats like sitting on me, and they keep trying to sit on my stomach.  Pretty has pokey feet and Stitch likes to knead for awhile before laying down.  Neither of those things feel good to me so I've been trying to not let them lay on my stomach (and since they are cats they just don't get the message like they are supposed to).  But one day this week Pretty decided to leap off my stomach and that hurt.  Now I'm even more paranoid about letting them anywhere near that area.

Maternity clothes, Stretch marks, Belly Button:  Maternity clothes for sure (I can still wear some of my dresses).  No remarks on the other areas.

What I'm looking forward to: Three hours of Survivor on Wednesday night, Memorial Day weekend (that snuck up on me) and Dan switching back to days (not sure if it's been mentioned on here, but he's been working second shift for the last few weeks... he has to do rotations on that shift ends up being a couple of times a year)

Best moment of this week:  This was a family filled week.  Wednesday night I had dinner with my dad, Keith (he came into town!), Connor and Janet.  We ate at Edgewood Bistro, it was good.


Thursday night we celebrated Mother's Day with my mom.  We ordered Imos and I made a Lemon Lime Poppy Seed Bundt Cake.  We played board games and had a good time!


Friday I was off work and had my doctor's appointment then had a low-key night at home alone.


Saturday Lindsey graduated from college.  It seems like no matter what graduation just makes the day feel long, and plus I didn't sleep well Friday night b/c of some shoulder pain.  I spent time with Mom and Keith going out to get grandma and then getting to graduation an hour early (wanted to get handicapped seating for Grandma).  This allowed us to score seats with backs, which even though they weren't the most comfortable, at least there was backs on the seats.  Graduation was nice, but a little rowdy (or ethnic as we were saying).  We took pictures and then headed to dinner at the Drunken Fish.  Sure, I'm probably not supposed to eat sushi while pregnant, but guess what I'm a rebel.  It was delicious.  I got my favorite roll (Fried Philly Roll) and they have my absolute favorite dessert (essentially fried cheesecake).  So good!  I came home and was so tired, I forced myself to stay up and then went to bed at 9.

Family Pic

Selfie before the ceremony, after I helped her put on her hat

Walking across the stage

Sunday Dan and I spent some time together which has been rare this month.  We had lunch, went to Home Depot, Petco and grocery shopping.  That night Dan smoked some chicken and I made sides.  Very delicious.



Yummy dinner

Bump:  It's there!

Bathroom selfie

17 Weeks

How far along:  17 weeks; size of a turnip

How I'm feeling:  I'm pretty good... tired after a long weekend (more on that later) but overall feeling good

Sleep:  Has been pretty good... there's some nights I toss and turn, but that's really nothing new.  Friday night (again more on that later) I slept on a pull out couch which made my back hurt a bit and last night my arm is really aching so that kept me up.  I can still sleep on my stomach for the most part and still getting up to pee most nights.

Worries/Fears:  Well this week I made the mistake of googling "when should I find infant care?" and things I read pretty much said now... so honestly I freaked out a bit about that, where is this baby going to go when I go back to work?!?  While I still don't know the answer to that I calmed myself a bit by talking to a couple of others that have kids and I think we are going to try to go to in home daycare and you can wait awhile longer to find those spots.  This whole issue will be a source of stress for me (in the back of my mind at least) until we have a solid plan.

Miss anything: Not really... there was a point at Connor's graduation where I thought man I wish I wasn't wearing this dress, but I powered through, and there's like a 95% chance I would have thought the same thing had I not been pregnant.

Movement:  Again, I think maybe I am feeling movements, but I'm not 100% sure.  I mean I really do think it is, but without really knowing what I'm feeling I just can't be sure.  There was a point last Friday where I was sitting at work and felt 3 little taps right in a row and it immediately brought tears to my eyes.  That seemed like the real deal... but again, who knows!

Food cravings:  No gotta have this RIGHT NOW cravings

Food aversions: Again, nothing specifically but some things sound better than others.

Other symptoms:  I've hit the pregnancy milestone of experiencing heartburn.  I've had it a couple of times at this point, and don't really know exactly what my triggers are.  I have been trying to sit straight up after dinner since I read that can help.

Maternity clothes, Stretch marks, Belly Button:  I'm in maternity clothes for sure and not looking back.  The dress I wore (referenced above) to graduation wasn't maternity, but flowy.  Sadly it just started to feel really tight around the top of my stomach after wearing it most of the day.  After dinner I changed out of it for the drive home.

What I'm looking forward to: Right now I'm looking forward to my brother being in town, my sister's graduation and my doctor's appointment - all this week.

Best moment of this week: So many good moments this week!  Possibly really feeling the baby move was pretty amazing but so much more!  Friday I got to leave work a little early and I headed up to my dad's house.  We were driving up to for Connor's college graduation (from the school I went to).  I love these mini road trips b/c road trip food!  We got up to Moberly and checked into the hotel.  We all got ready and then headed up to Macon where Dad and Janet were dropping me off.  I met up with my college friend Christina.  We haven't seen each other in 7 years so it was really great to catch up.  I met her husband and we had an amazing dinner.  They took me back to the hotel afterwards. 

Me and Christina

Saturday was a long day, but nice.  We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel.  Then we headed up to Kirksville.  It was fun looking around the town and seeing what's changed since I was there (it'll be 10 years since I graduated next year... I feel old!).  We went to Walmart (um, tradition) and had lunch.  Then we drove around a bit more before parking and heading to the ceremony.  It was a crowded ceremony and lasted like 2.5 hours... but the speeches were good and the weather was overcast with a breeze so that was good.  Although part of the way through I did not feel good (thinking the dress) but I was able to power through!  After the ceremony we met up with Connor and took pictures.  Then we headed to Jeff City for dinner (this day had so very much driving).  We ate at a German restaurant that his dad's side of the family seemed to know real well.  It was a very nice dinner with so much food and wine for those who could partake.  I actually tried escargot for the first time!  I wasn't sure that I would but when it came out it smelled SO GOOD that I had to try it.  I've heard that it just tastes like butter and garlic and that was right on the money, I'm happy to have tried it.  They also had oysters, which I would have tried, but since I was pregnant and they are raw I didn't on that one... and I had tried snails, so give me some credit.  The food was good but so much and his dad ordered ahead of time so we didn't even get to pick out what we were eating.  The main dish was some kind of steak (which I went ahead and got medium well... since that whole undercooked meat thing) which a lot of mushroom sauce (pushed that to the side) and green beans, carrots, potatoes, and cauliflower... I mostly ate the sides.  It was a nice dinner but probably would have been even nicer if I wasn't pregnant :)  After dinner ended (we are talking 9:30) we headed back to St. Louis... I ended up driving my dad since some people were able to drink.  It wasn't a terrible drive.  I got him back to his house and then I headed home - finally making it shortly after midnight.  I was BEAT.  I slept like a rock that night.

All the graduates on the field

The fancy dinner setting and I guess my bump at the bottom

Even though it was overcast I got red on my nose, forearms and upper chest... could have been worse I suppose

Sunday we woke up early and went to brunch with Dan's family.  It was really nice to see everyone since it's been awhile for me with missing Easter.  It was a really nice brunch with some fun news.  We headed back home (we also saw where Lou and Amanda are going to build their new house).  I went home watched Amazing Race and then took a nap... again I was so tired.  I forced myself to get up, had Taco Bell for dinner, watched some TV and went back to bed. 

A very full weekend but really really nice all around.

Bump:  Last week I thought I had popped, but this weekend even more so!  I got a lot of comments from family on it too.  The top part of my stomach (right under my boobs) is feeling really hard and tight now too - like it's all filling out.  Crazy how that works!

Bathroom selfie again

16 Weeks

How far along:  16 weeks; size of an avocado

How I'm feeling:  I'm feeling really pretty good... I'd say for the most part this week has felt the most 'normal' meaning pre-pregnancy normal

Sleep:  I noticed this point had been deleted off my last few posts when I went back to post everything... but it's an interesting topic for me as I'm someone who LOVES sleep.  I've been going to bed later each night, I think this is partially due to the fact that Dan is working second shift this month and when he is gone I just stay up longer.  I think it's also due to the fact I've gotten energy back.  In other sleep news, stomach sleep is still happening, but it's not directly on my stomach like a modified version.  I know one day I won't be able to and I'll miss it, but I'll deal.  Side story, before I broke my leg I could not sleep on my back, it was sides or stomach, but with the broken leg I had no choice but to sleep on my back.  Now I will sleep on my back from time to time... just took a couple of months 'training'

Worries/Fears:  Some fears about having a healthy baby have snuck in a bit

Miss anything: When I'm around drunk people (like Saturday night) it makes me miss being drunk myself only for the fact that dealing with drunk people is just annoying at times!

Movement:  Maybe, probably not, but maybe something, I'm not sure... it will be nice to know for sure... this maybe movement stuff has happened in the last couple of days... which makes me think it's too early for me to really be feeling anything.

Food cravings:  Nothing really

Food aversions: Nothing specifically... sometimes things sound good, other times they don't

Other symptoms:  Nothing really.

Maternity clothes, Stretch marks, Belly Button:  Big developments in the maternity clothes department.  On Friday I switched over my closet, I packed away all my normal clothes and hung up all my maternity stuff.  I let myself not get rid of anything when I packed it away as who knows where I'll be and what I'll like in X number of months/a year when I can wear all that stuff again.  I have WAY too many clothes as is and my plan is to do a major downgrade whenever I do get back to that stage in life.  It was nice cleaning out the closet and getting things ready... I've been in maternity clothes since then.  I got my Bella Band last Wednesday and wore it for the first time on Thursday and OMG so much more comfortable in pants.  I can still button my pants (have a couple of times without thinking) but would never be comfortable like that for very long.  I'm starting to embrace the fact that I am pregnant so it's okay to look pregnant... even if it's still in the questionable does she have a gut or is she pregnant stage... but whatever, it's all good.

What I'm looking forward to: The next couple of weekends will be filled with family stuff and I always look forward to that.

Best moment of this week:  Let's see... Getting the closet done felt like a great win in my book... although I still need to buy a couple more bins for the plethora of clothing I accumulated.  Friday night was really nice, I hung out with my mom, we went to a few stores and primed the letters for the nursery.

Saturday I did some chores around the house, took a nap, and then had dinner at 3 Monkeys with some friends (Dan, Kyle and Ben).  We went to UCBC biergarten in Midtown afterwards and I missed having my favorite beer.

Sunday was really nice b/c I got my grocery shopping done early and then had lunch with my high school friends - Amanda and Beth.  It was really nice catching up with them and they were so sweet and brought my some gifts.  That night I made dinner, watched tv and went to bed.


Bump:  I need to get a better mirror or someone to take the picture for me... but the bathroom at work seems to work the best for now.  This week I really felt like I got a bump... it's fun!

16 weeks