Week 17/18

I have officially hit the 10 lb mark in weight gain... this feels like it should be momentous, but considering it is probably only a fraction of what I'm going to gain (I'm still less than 1/2 way there) I probably shouldn't get too worked up over it. I did mention to my doctor last week my nervousness about my recent weight gain, but for some reason her chart has my weight at 8 weeks about 10 lbs higher than what I do, so by her records I haven't gained any weight. I definitely feel like I'm cheating the system, but I guess if she's not worried, then I won't be either. Jokes on her when I arrive at my next appointment another 10 lbs heavier! ha ha -ok, I guess the joke would be more on me, but you get the idea.

I think I'm finally in maternity pants -they're still a bit too big for me and a little saggy in the waist/hips/upper thighs, but most of my regular pants were crying uncle. My bump may not be growing out, but I'm definitely growing wider.

No new ailments to speak of this week. I'm definitely in that honeymoon phase and most everything is status quo. I'm still not sure if I've felt the baby move. Sometimes at night there are these twinges that *could* be the baby, but it could just be me digesting dinner... I've noticed an increase in my appetite recently (also corresponding to this weight gain), but I haven't had any real cravings or aversions since I kicked my sugar problem.

Here's the picture for the week. It's getting bigger, I mean it's definitely there, but just not super prominent. I'm waiting until it looks like I swallowed a beach ball!

Week 16/17

So still growing -nothing new to report. The weight is getting a little out of control (in my opinion) and I'm going to talk to my doctor about it on Friday to see if it is something I should actually be worried about. Otherwise, nothing new. I've been getting a lot more headaches, which I've read are normal, but then I also read if they become more frequent and are coupled with rapid weight gain that I should contact my doctor. What is considered rapid weight gain? I'm thinking 5-6 lbs in a few weeks should count!

I'm not sure if I can actually feel the baby move yet, there are these twinges that I think *might* be the baby, but I'm not really confident in saying that I've felt it. Still not in maternity clothes, but I did go shopping for some over the weekend, so once I'm the right size I'll be all set!




Here's the belly. I'm still waiting for it to become a round pregnancy belly rather than the thick gut look I've got going on now. At night the belly is definitely a lot bigger and looks more "pregnant", but it's not consistent in that round, sticking out kind of way. At least not yet. I think I'll feel better about the weight gain when it looks more like I'm pregnant and less like I've been inhaling potato chips in my spare time.

Week 15/16

I'm coming up to the end of the 4th month... almost halfway there! Nothing really new to report. I've gone through a "growth" spurt and have put on a few pounds in the last few weeks. I'm a little bit concerned, but I'm hoping it'll all just even out in the end. As of now I'm up about 7lbs total, but considering the last 3.5 were in the last two weeks seems a little problematic. As you can imagine, this has made my clothes like me even less. I'm still wearing my regular clothes w/ the pants unbuttoned and a belly band over top, but I'm thinking this option is going to be less and less feasible as the weeks go on. I have some maternity pants that I'm waiting to transition into, but as of right now they are still too big.

Everything else seems to be going well. The morning sickness is definitely gone, but my energy has not quite returned. Napping is still one of my favorite past times and going out at night past 10 or 11 is quite the feat for me. I'm starting to get headaches, which are never fun and I have to be careful when getting up as I tend to get quite lightheaded and fainty feeling.

And now proof positive that I'm getting fatter:

Week 14/15

My plan was to try to do a pregnancy update once a week, but clearly that's not happening... maybe once I start having more interesting updates I will.

I am currently in week 15 -I am 14weeks and 3 days pregnant. The math kind of confuses me, but I guess it's semantics. The baby is a size of a navel orange this week, which seems pretty big to me. I'm definitely starting to show a bit more, but I'm still just mostly feeling thick. I'm not quite big enough for maternity clothes, but definitely too big for my regular pants. I've been wearing them all unbuttoned with a belly band over it. All my shirts are still fitting, but I'm not sure how much longer that will last. Thankfully the morning sickness is over and I really only get nauseous if I go too long without eating. I'm trying to eat on a schedule, but I also am trying not to gain 50+lbs... so we'll see how that goes. My reaction to sugar has stuck around, but it's definitely not as bad. Sweets leave a bad taste in my mouth and my stomach isn't super happy, but I no longer feel like I'm going to spontaneously vomit from it.

Other than that, I'm starting to feel more like myself. I'm still going to bed ridiculously early and getting a lot of sleep, but I no longer feel like death warmed over. We also bought a doppler -a very unnecessary purchase, which stemmed from an incident a few weeks ago (that I have totally recovered from), but since I was unwilling to march myself to the doctor and insist they check to make sure everything was still in order, Huge decided the next best thing was to order a doppler for home. I guess until we can feel the baby move to reaffirm it's presence the doppler is a nice way to hear what's going on with the little bugger.

Even though I know I'm pregnant, it still feels kind of surreal. I'd love to feel the baby move and maybe feel more of a connection to it. I've started to plan for the baby (called insurance and started looking for day care options), but it still feels pretty surreal. I definitely haven't gotten that "nesting" urge and for the most part think that we'll just figure it out when the time comes. I'm not sure that's the best way to prepare, but I do think it's a good attitude! So we'll see what the next few weeks bring.

For some reason these pictures are minuscule, but this is last week and this week's "bump". You can see it growing, but you would still have to wonder if it was too many slices of pizza or an actual baby going on in there...

First Trimester

I'm pretty much done with my first trimester, and what have I learned? That morning sickness is not for the morning (mine was worse at night) and that you can never trust your scale.

So first with the morning sickness. For me this was pretty much just all day nausea. It started right on time about week 5 with a low grade nausea that I would equate to sort of like motion sickness. No puking was involved and it was definitely liveable, albeit not that pleasant. It then kicked itself up a notch and turned into full fledged sea sickness, but since you were never able to get off the boat, you never felt better. Again no actual vomiting, but this time it was accompanied by a lot of dry heaving and false alarms. Poor Huge had to deal with me at the worst b/c for some reason I felt best in the morning and then would get progressively worse as the day went on. I would feel so horrible that I would almost be at the point of tears by the time bedtime rolled around. Falling asleep would be hard, but I would try as early as possible knowing that I would feel better in the morning (only to start the cycle again). None of the usual remedies helped -ginger ale, ginger candy, crackers... nothing, in fact some of them even made it worse. I then decided to implement a strict eating schedule every 2-3 hour and miraculously that seemed to alleviate things a bit. Not completely gone, but it put me out of some of my misery. Of course I didn't really figure it out until about week 10, so at that point it could have been on it's way out, but whatever the reason I was happy it was working. Thankfully when I hit week 12, things have calmed down considerably. I still get queasy at times, but the dry heaving has stopped and I would venture to say I have it beat (please don't prove me wrong!).

With this 2-3 hour eating schedule and my sudden love for carbs (I mean bagels and pasta have never had a bigger fan than I am right now) you would assume that I must have gained at least 10 pounds by now, because I would. And to be honest I was worried there when I had already gained about 5 pounds by week 9. And even though I'm definitely bigger and thicker, I managed to come out of the first trimester with a respectable 3 lb gain. That's quite the feat since I've been known to gain at least that much after a glutenous dinner! I think the other reason for this is the fact that sugar has decided to be the enemy and I am no longer able to enjoy the sweet delicious treats that should be part of a pregnant woman's diet (or so I've been told). All sugar, no matter how small the quantity (I mean, I'm talking about a tic tac or a single starburst) makes my mouth taste funny and I get a queasy feeling in my stomach. Sigh... I was hoping for a pregnancy of gummy worms and ice cream, but sadly that does not look like my future, but this is definitely evidence that I'm growing and that I probably look bigger than my alleged 3 lb gain. I'm going to pretend my scale is my friend and telling me the truth, but I think we all know better! I haven't quite made the jump to maternity clothes yet, and it's hard to imagine that I will fill them out shortly, but I'm going to try to document it and hopefully keep it to a reasonable (and healthy) level. It's funny b/c I look thinner in my week 8/9 picture than I do in my start picture, but I think my "start" is actually about week 5... guess the nausea kicked in right after that.

Other than that the first trimester has been pretty fast. We got to see the little bugger a couple of times now and so far so good. I'm keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed that everything goes smoothly and hoping the ultrasound on Friday (tomorrow!) goes well. Now that the secret is out and I've told work and friends (and pretty much anyone else who will listen), it's starting to kick in that this is real. There's going to be a baby come April 2011 whether we're ready or not! Who's taking bets on that?

Secret

Well I guess I can let out the secret... I'm not just getting fatter from eating too many carbs (my current love), but because we're having a baby! April 2011, get ready for baby G.