31 Weeks

Oh, hey!  Sorry, I haven't posted anything.  We've been super busy and work has been crazy recently.  Anyways, I'm back!

I'm officially in my third trimester.  So far, its been completely manageable.  I still have very little heartburn.  At one point I was taking zantac every day, but i just stopped and I'm still not having any heartburn.  I just take tums if I do, which might be once a week.  I had developed a pretty awful cough due to allergies.  It's gone down a lot in the last week or so, but I do use an inhaler occasionally still, when I was using it every day twice a day for a while.  I also take Zyrtec almost every day.  And, Singulair at night.  We just have SOO much dust in our house, its ridiculous.  I recently bought a groupon to get our ducts cleaned, so hopefully we can schedule that soon.  We just need to get our house situated, we are a bit between rooms right now and our upstairs is a mess!  Probably my worst "symptom" so far is how horrible sleep has become!  Normally, I don't feel huge, but when I'm in bed I feel like an elephant!!  Sleeping on my side is super hard, I was previously a back sleeper and you can't do that when pregnant.  So, I switch between sides, which seems easy enough.  But, turning over is such a task!  And, then I'm awake and have to pee.  I probably get up 2-3 times a night to pee.  I know this is just going to get worse, hopefully I can still manage some sleep!

As I mentioned, our house is in a bit of a disarray.  Ben and I have begun to sleep downstairs which is great.  We got all new bedroom furniture and I feel like we have an actual adult room now!  Juliet's room is all painted, but all that's really in there now is her crib.  My goal tonight and tomorrow is to finish organizing our upstairs, which is the new living room/playroom.  We worked on it a lot last night and I was in a lot of pain afterwards.  I went to the chiropractor today though, so hopefully I won't get bad lower back and tail bone pain again tonight.  My little sister and her friend are spending the night on Saturday, and they will be sleeping in that room.  So, I need to get it done by then!  I won't be able to do anything on Saturday because I will be out of the house, pretty much, all day.  In the morning Ben and I have a breastfeeding class, then I have a baby shower, then I'm picking up Rachel and Alexa and we are meeting Ben downtown for the DC United game.  It should be a busy, but fun day!

On to baby!  According to the internet, she is just over 3 lbs now and about 18 inches long.  That is huge!  She is moving around a ton now.  Or, maybe she's moving around the same, but I can feel it more since there is definitely a lack of space going on.  I went to the OB yesterday and she is already head down.  So, that is good news for delivery.  The Dr. said it is very unlikely that she would switch to another position.  I'm now into an appt every 2 weeks so until 35 weeks when they'll start every week.  As far as me, my belly has definitely gotten bigger.  But, it only seems to be measuring at 43 inches.  I think part of it is that I'm just sort of stretching my love handles forward :)  I'm now hovering at right arounds 185-186 lbs which is my pre-pregnancy weight.  That's held like that for the past couple of weeks, so I'm hoping it continues to move slowly.  I was slightly overweight when I got pregnant so its not a bad thing if I don't gain any weight.  I'm not dieting at all, but I am definitely eating healthier.  I try to have a salad and fruit once a day.  That being said, I also have lots of cookies.  I, almost always, have snacks in my desk drawer so I try to be healthy with my other food.

This past weekend, Ben and I went to the Nationals game with some other couples from the moms group I am part of.  Here's a picture to give you some perspective on my size!

The game was fun.  But, it was very hard to be in the heat.  I, naturally, get heat exhaustion, so if you add a bowling ball to my belly it certainly doesn't help.  Still, it was nice to get out of the house and enjoy the outdoors.

This weekend is our shower/bbq celebration.  I am looking forward to seeing lots of friends and family! 

26 Weeks

It's been a pretty uneventful week.  This past weekend I did some window shopping at Ikea to look at some of the stuff we will still need for the baby's room.  We are going to buy a closet organization system from there most likely.  And, we also are going to get an Expedit shelf.  Though, now its called Kallax.  Then, Sunday we had brunch plans for Easter and visited with family for a bit.  Pretty uneventful!  Last night we went to a Q&A on Labor and Delivery at Inova Alexandria Hospital.  We aren't going to be delivering there, but we figured it was still a good seminar to go to.  It was fairly informative.  Not the greatest event I've gone to, but a good intro session to tell us what to expect.  We do plan to do a class of some sort at Inova Fairfax, where we are delivering.  

My big to do this week is Friday I have my glucose test.  Then, I'm going to get my name changed with SS.  I need to do it ASAP so I can change it everywhere.  I need to register for the hospital by 30 weeks so want everything to be up to date before then so there are no problems later on.

This week Juliet is probably over a pound and a half and about 14 inches long.  She's bouncing away in my belly.  During the day she tends to be pretty still, most likely because I'm moving so much.  Even before they are born, babies like the moving and rocking.  Then, at night she goes crazy!  It's almost to the point of making it hard to fall asleep at night.  Speaking of sleeping, it gets harder every day!  I'm up at least 2 times a night to pee.  And, even when I am asleep, its not very good sleep.  Otherwise, I'm having very few symptoms right now.  I am absolutely RAVENOUS when it comes to food.  I feel like I want to eat everything in sight all the time.  I'm at 181 pounds, but it will probably go up a couple more pounds this week.  My waist is at 42 inches, you can see in the picture below I'm getting bigger!  With my growing belly I am worried about back pain coming on.  So, this week I began seeing a chiropractor.  I'll probably do a couple of adjustments a week for a couple of weeks.  Then, I'll go as often as I see my OB.  Hopefully this will help ward off any future pain!

This picture is absolutely horrendous, but oh well, its all I've got.

Oh, we did also decide on our day care provider.  We are going to an in home day care a mile or two from the house, so its super convenient.  The nice thing is that we can go there part time, 3 days a week then my mom is going to watch her the other 2.  The woman is super nice, an older grandmotherly type.  Until next week, peace out!

25 Weeks

I've probably said this in week's past, but I most definitely have popped this week!  I officially am no longer "maybe fat".  It's kind of nice to not feel like there's any doubt that I'm pregnant to other people.  This past weekend I went down to see the Cherry Blossoms.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day!  I met a friend for brunch first then we ventured down to the tidal basin with all of the tourists.  It was nice.  I will never do it again, tourists are crazy, but now I've checked it off the bucket list.  I was worried about the amount of walking I would be doing.  And, it was a little tough.  I was certainly sore afterwards.  My tailbone also hurt a lot.  I was really concerned that I would be terribly sore the next day, but I wasn't at all.  Now that the weather is starting to get nice again, Ben and I are going to start going on walks at night.  Just something to get me moving a little.  

This week, Juliet is probably 13.5 inches long and 1.5 pounds.  That is crazy big... mostly crazy long.  And, she's certainly making herself known in there.  She is kicking a ton.  As for me, I really have no symptoms right now.  Sleeping is just not fun.  I'm getting up 2-3 times a night to pee.  But, that's really it.  No heartburn yet, no major discomfort, both things I am sure are coming.  I did gain a pound, so I'm at 179, but I can deal with that.  Actually, there is a weird symptom that has surfaced in the last week.  I can constantly taste plaque in my mouth.  It especially happens after I cough.  When I look this up in google the only thing that comes up is that you can get a plaque buildup behind your tonsils.  But, since I had my removed ages ago, I know its not that.  I'm just chalking it up as pregnancy hormones being weird.  I've heard people suggest getting an extra cleaning while you're pregnant so I went ahead and scheduled myself an appt for next month.  This will be about halfway between my current 6 month appts.  I'll have to pay out of pocket, but oh well, worth it to not get more cavities!

Over the past week or so Ben and I have been working on clearing out our downstairs bedrooms.  I'm super excited because, as I type this, Ben is painting the rooms with his sister.  I'll post a picture next week of them post paint.  Hopefully the rain we had today doesn't slow the process down.  I'd really like to set up the crib soon!

24 Weeks

Oops!  I missed last week, sorry about that.  Work has been a little busy.  And, on top of that, we are working on spring cleaning the house so we can start painting.  Ben will be painting next week with his sister who is on spring break.  Once the painting is done Ben and I will move our room downstairs.  We can also then set up the crib in the nursery.  Once things start to get moving I'll post pictures of the whole set up of the nursery as it goes.

Baby Juliet is about a foot long (!!!) and weighs just over a pound.  In the upcoming weeks she will gain about 6 ounces a week.  That is almost half a pound!  She's also taken to bouncing around in my belly all day long.  This is the weirdest feeling in the entire world.  While it was a cool feeling at first, the novelty of it has worn off a bit.  It's very uncomfortable, particularly at night when I am sitting up in bed.  I think it's because I'm half sitting/half laying so it puts a lot of pressure on my stomach which causes the kicks to be stronger.  Who knows!

As for me... I'm definitely getting bigger!  I'm up to 178 lbs.  That's 5 lbs in 2 weeks, the most weight gain I think I've ever had in this short of a time period.  I, admittedly, ate pretty crappy the last couple of weeks.  I've been craving a ton of sweets and have been doing my best to curb this with fresh fruit instead.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a good grocery trip in the last couple of weeks so I indulged in cinnabons instead :(  I know weight gain is normal, but I'm hoping I can lower my weight gain to about a pound a week.  My waistline also went up, finally!  I've been hovering right around 40 inches for almost the entire pregnancy.  I think it started as some extra fat, and as I gained belly bump, I was simultaneously losing weight so this sort of evened out.  But, this week I am at 41 inches.  Generally, I'm feeling no major pregnancy symptoms right now.  The only hiccup is that last week I found out I have a bacteria infection called bacterial vaginosis.  It's just like a yeast infection, but a bacteria overgrowth instead of yeast overgrowth.  No one really knows why pregnant women are susceptible to it.  I'm on a topical antibiotic so hopefully it goes away soon.  

You can see below that I look to be carrying pretty low.  I have no idea what this really means.  Maybe it will start to even out as I get larger?  I'm modeling one of my new zulily shirts!  I bought 5 shirts and am really bummed that a few of them don't fit.  And, unfortunately, there are no returns so I'll have to find someone to give them too.  If you know anyone who can fit a medium maternity shirt, let me know!  

In other news, we chose a shower date!  Rather than doing a formal baby shower, my mom is hosting a casual family barbecue.  Now I'm on a crunch to finish the registry this week!

22 Weeks

What a busy random week!  Well, busy and random for work mostly.  On Friday, I found out that they restructured a bunch of stuff at work and one of the outcomes is that I have a new boss.  This is a good move, just a bit of a surprise!  I liked my old boss, but he was very very hands off... too hands off for me.  The new boss has a management style that I know will work much better for me.  And, in house news, we got a new dishwasher!!  I can't wait to hook it up!  Our current dishwasher is just horrible.  It is the same one that came with the house, that was built in 1994.  So its 20 years old!  It's loud and doesn't really clean anymore.  We haven't hooked up the new one yet but I am so excited for it.  We also finally found a kitchen table and I'm going to get it next week.  I can't wait to be able to sit while I prep for dinners.

Anyways, on to baby stuff!  On Friday I took the day off to do some spring cleaning so that we can start to set up the nursery.  I also boxed up all the clothes that don't fit me right now.  There are SOO many.  I am going to have to purge some of it but I'm not ready to let go yet, maybe soon.  Once I'm finished cleaning up our current bedroom, we can paint the middle floor so that we can set up our new room and the nursery.  We looked at paint colors and I think we found the top couple.  For our room we are definitely doing a light grey.  I was thinking of doing an accent wall, but ben doesn't want to so we probably won't.  Then for the nursery we are doing a light brown.  I wanted to do a medium shade brown/dark tan, but I've been talked off that and agree now lighter is better.  The room is just so small anything too dark would be overwhelming.  The accent color is going to be lavender.  But, I don't actually think we will paint anything lavender.  Probably just decorate with lavender.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but we do already have a crib.  It is a very dark brown.  We need to get a dresser to match it, and probably those cube storage shelves from Ikea.  We are just going to put a changing pad onto the dresser rather than get a changing table.  

I have gotten started on our registry.  I went back and forth on whether to even have one but decided to do it in the end.  I am not registering at a specific store, because if someone wants to get off the registry I don't want them to be stuck with getting it at a specific place.  So, I found a registry that allows me to add things from anywhere, then people can just mark if they've gotten it.  One of the other benefits to this is that people can shop around if they want.  Ultimately, I don't think we'll end up having that much on the registry, because we are going to try to get most of the big ticket items.  Like I said, we already got the crib.  We are going to get the rest of the furniture ourselves.  And, today I bought a car seat!  I found a used one for a GREAT deal.  The one I wanted is almost $300 after you add a second base and I found it used, with an extra base, for only $60.  

Baby: at 22 weeks baby is about 11 inches, head to feet.  To put it into perspective thats about the length of a barbie doll.  Now I keep imagining a barbie doll growing in my belly.  She's also hit the pound mark.  Only 6 or so more to go (hopefully not tooo many more!!).  She is also moving around a lot now.  I can feel her all the time, especially after I've eaten sugary foods or had juice.  I've never been a juice drinker at all, but normally have a glass each night.  We can't feel her from the outside yet, but I'm sure thats coming soon.

Symptoms: Nothing really new to report.  Yesterday I got my first charley horse.  It wasn't that bad, but it was in my ankle, which I think is the weirdest place ever!  I used to get them frequently in my calves and sometimes feet.  I figured this is where they would hit, and probably while I'm sleeping.  But, nope, randomly my ankle.  Even though it stuck around for a while, I was able to point my toe and keep it at bay and I also happened to have bananas so I had one of those.  It hasn't come back yet, which is good, since when I have previously gotten then in my calves they would always come back.  I think one of the other reasons it happened was that I was peeing an extra lot yesterday, like noticeably a lot more.  It could be that I may have flushed a lot of the potassium out of my body by drinking too much water.  I'd rather drink too much than not enough though :)

Weight and Waistline: My waistline is just above 40 inches, so not much growth still.  But, it does look a little bigger to me.  I gained another pound this week and am at 173, but that only puts me up 3 pounds from the end of my first trimester (where I lost 15).  I'm doing my best to eat healthy.  I keep a lot of fruit around and try to eat that instead of sweets.  Of course, I have lots of sweets too!  But, the fruit helps curb some of it.  And, I do love fruit so it doesn't seem like a compromise.  Sorry for the horrible picture below.  I never seem to take these on days where I have on one of my many many cute maternity outfits!

That's all for now!  Have a fabulous rest of the week!

21 Weeks

Hi There!  Sorry so late, work has been busy!  I was traveling all last week so finally had a chance this past weekend to keep my feet on the ground, which was very nice.  Even though I didn't get home until after 1 am on Friday, I was up early on Saturday to go to my first consignment sale!  In all honesty, I probably don't need to buy any clothes for Juliet.  But, it was a fun experience. I left with a bag full of clothes (a big one!!) for $60.  I will definitely be going back again next year.

On to Juliet!  She is 7 inches long and 11 ozs.  Still small but inching closer and closer to a pound.  This week I've felt more and more motion in my belly.  While I can't be positive it is kicks, I am pretty sure they are.  They are a little too distinct to be anything else.  Nothing from the outside, but that's to be expected.

Weight and Waistline: No weight gain this week, held steady at 172.  And, my waist line is just over 40 inches, so getting bigger.  I'm feeling fine about this.  

Symptoms: Sleeping still stinks.  I am finding if I don't sit straight up I'm getting some numbness on my left thing.  My internet searching led me to something called Meralgia Paraesthetica.  Basically, it's a nerve that is being pinched on my hip.  I was at my neurologist today (follow up for migraine appt) and he confirmed this.  Essentially, he said we can test for it but there is nothing we can do about it.  I'll just keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't get worse.  Besides that, the congestion is getting bad.  I am almost positive it's allergies.  I have been dreading the onset of allergies.  I always get them pretty bad, and with the added congestion I knew they wouldn't be fun.  Traditionally, I always get a sinus infection during allergy season.  Hopefully that isn't the case this year.

Picture: So, I had Ben take a picture of me before I put on pajamas.  And, I looked horrible!  Apparently the outfit I wore today was a bit like a moo moo.  It is big, so maybe I just need to grow into here?  Here's hoping because I have a limited wardrobe so I can't afford to not wear one of the few maternity items I own!  Anywayssss, I ended up taking another picture myself once I changed :)

As I mentioned, work has been super busy!  But, no more travel (that I know of at least!!) so things should start to settle down.  I'm taking off Friday to do some spring cleaning, so that will be nice.  Then, Ben can get started on painting and getting the nursery together.  I'd love to get the painting done by April.  We are definitely going with a tan/brown and purple color scheme and have gone to look at colors.  Before it was really just for fun, but now that we definitely know its a girl I want to look more closely.  And, Ben and I are also moving to a room downstairs so we need to look at colors for our room!  I am thinking grey walls, with the possibility of an accent wall, but that's still up in the air.  We'll decide eventually.

20 Weeks

Well hello there!  20 weeks... the halfway mark!  If the internet is right, 6.5 inches long and 10 oz's.  This is supposed to be about the size of a banana.  I went to the doctor today who said everything looked good in the anatomy scan.  According to her size, they are keeping my due date the same.  In generally, things seem to be trucking right along.  Still no surefire signs that I'm feeling kicks or anything.  When my doctor asked and I said, I don't know, maybe?  He said that's pretty normal.  Some of what I am feeling is probably the baby, but it won't be distinct enough to pin point quite yet, unless you know what you're feeling for.  My blood pressure is still normal, 100/60, so thats good!  Nothing really much else to report from the appt.

Weight and Waistline: As I predicted last week, I gained weight this week!  A whopping 2 pounds.  Hopefully I don't continue at 2 lbs a week, as I'd like to avoid gaining 40.  But, last week I was at a conference, where food is a plenty and not good food, so I'm not surprised at all.  And, I suspect, once I'm done traveling this won't become a trend.  I'm right at a 40 inch waistline still, which is a little larger.  I've been just under that for some time.  I'm most certainly getting rounder!

Symptoms: Still feeling good.  Sleep is a pain, but that's to be expected.  I have no expectations that this will change so I'm just trying to get used to it.  You have to sleep on your side, and most things on the internet say left side.  Naturally, I prefer my right though.  Luckily, today my doctor said I can sleep on whatever side I prefer, so right it is!

Picture: New week, new location.  This time, my office bathroom!  Sorry its a little blurry.

Outside of baby, work is... going.  It's super stressful, and when you add my hormones it's a little crazy.  But, I'll get through it.  I travel tomorrow and come back Friday and then should be done for a little while.  My doctor said I can travel until beginning of June.  I'm not sure there are any events between now and then anyways, so this may be it!