Seventeen Weeks

This week I...

• Actually gained weight.  I was losing weight at the beginning of my pregnancy, and it was starting to worry me, so I was happy when the numbers on the scale went up this time.  However, that still doesn't make it great to hear the doctor (not my usual one) say, "well, it looks like you've been able to eat now."  Jerk!  Let's hope he's not the one on call when I go into labor.
• Felt the baby move.  A LOT!  Scott tried to see if he could feel the baby on Saturday night.  He couldn't, but I could feel the baby kick him.  That was pretty cool!  On Monday morning, the baby was moving like crazy, and I felt it with my hand, so I thought Scott would be able to feel it that night.  But, the baby moved up a little farther, and now it can't be felt from the outside anymore.
• Started getting a pain when I breathe from time to time.  That's fun.  I think it's a combination of allergies (which are usually bad this time of year) and things getting squished.
• Had my first baby showers.  I love my kids!  My 6th and 7th period classes decided to throw me baby showers on the last day before spring break.  They were so great!  I can't believe how much work they put into it.  Here are some pictures from the two showers:

One of the banners brought in by 6th period:

The gift table in 6th period:

The food table in 6th period:

6th Period brought in balloons:

Opening my gifts during 6th period:

My cupcakes.  Rainbow Chip frosting is SO hard to find, but it's my favorite part of the cupcake.  I love Aly for working so hard to get it for me!

One of the kids wanted everyone to dress like me.  No one else played along.  :-)

More balloons brought in by 6th period:

After opening gifts, the kids realized we still had some time left.  They asked me what else you normally do at a baby shower.  I told them that you play games sometimes, so they quickly came up with some games for us to play.

Then the 7th period celebration started.  These three girls planned this shower:

We played Baby Bingo.  They even had prizes for the winners!

Then I opened my presents from 7th period:

One of my favorite outfits:

 The girls also had the kids guess how many squares of toilet paper it would take to go around me, but no one got a picture of that game.  As of Thursday, March 31 (16 weeks, 1 day), it took 8 1/2 squares.  :-)

Finally, a picture of me at 17 weeks:

And a belly shot:

Sixteen Weeks

The biggest event of the past week is that I felt the baby move for the first time! I've heard people say that it is too early for me to feel my first baby move, but I'm sure that's what it is. I feel it exactly where the baby is right now, and it feels like a light tapping. Sometimes it's harder than others. I love the feeling! It lets me know that the baby is doing well. I can't wait for other people, especially Scott, to be able to feel it, too!

I quit taking my progesterone this week. Monday was the last night that I took it, so last night was my first night without it. It makes me a little nervous, especially since I didn't feel the baby move as much today. But I'm sure everything will be fine. The doctors say that the placenta has definitely taken over production of progesterone at this point, so I shouldn't have anything to worry about.

I have also basically quit taking my anti-nausea medication. I haven't had a pill since Friday, and I've been feeling a lot better. I still get bouts of queasiness if I go too long without eating, but it's not bad enough that I can't handle it.

Apparently, 16 weeks is supposed to be when you start noticing increased stuffiness and nosebleeds, and I definitely have! I am so stuffy now, and my nose has been a bit bloody. This could be my allergies, or it could be because of the baby. My allergies usually start around this time of year, but this year, I can't take anything to make it better. It's not too horrible...yet. I may have a different story in a few weeks.

More people are starting to notice that I'm pregnant. I was even asked by a stranger if I was pregnant. I thought that was kind of daring, especially since she was our waitress and we hadn't tipped her yet. :-)

All in all, it's been a good week, and I'm looking forward to about 24 more. We're 2/5 of the way there!

Christmas 1985 (Give or Take a Year)

I believe the year was 1985.  If not, it was close.  I had just turned six (or so), and Christmas presents were starting to be wrapped at our house.  Some were under the tree.  Some were still in other rooms of the house.  One day, Brandon and I were playing in his room, and I saw a present in his room.  I asked who it was for, and he told me it was mine.   I started to tease Brandon and act like I was going to peek and see what it was.  Little did I know, he didn't tape it very well.  (I don't know what I expected from an eight-year-old.  This is probably why I would come to be his official gift-wrapper in later years.)  I lifted up a piece of the wrapping paper, and although the present stayed wrapped, I was able to see what was inside.  It was an outfit for one of my Cabbage Patch dolls.

I still remember the feeling I got that day.  I was devastated!  I cried to my mom that I didn't mean to look; it was just supposed to be a joke.  I felt like Christmas was ruined.  I knew there would be other Christmas surprises, but part of the excitement was gone.  Part of the anticipation had disappeared.

Over the years, there have been other presents that I have had to find out because of certain circumstances, and I've found that this happens more and more as an adult.  But, there is one thing that I can choose to make a surprise.  To me, our baby is like the ultimate Christmas present.  I love trying to guess what it might be, but I want that "Christmas morning" moment when I'm told what my child is on its birthday.  I love the feeling of that anticipation building as each day goes by.

When Scott and I were engaged, we were talking about someone we knew who was having a baby.  I said something about it being a boy, and Scott said, "I think I wouldn't want to know."  I was so happy!  We didn't have to have the debate about finding out or not finding out.  We were completely on the same page.  And now that it our baby is a reality, we are still on the same page.  We will find out what our baby is on the day it is born.

Of course, this brings up questions.  My students have already asked them.

How will we know which stroller, high chair, etc. to get?

We plan on having more than one child.  Even if we knew what this baby was, we wouldn't know what the other(s) would be.  Since we are going to reuse the stroller, high chair, etc. with each child, we would get neutral things even if we did know what we are having.

But the nursery?  Come on, how can you not decorate the nursery for your baby?

One of our bedrooms is right next to our bedroom.  This bedroom will be the nursery, and it will stay the nursery for our future child/children.  So, again, it will be a gender-neutral room.  When this baby is ready to move into a big-kid bed, he or she will get a new bedroom, and that room will be decorated specifically for that child.

And what about clothes?

I have gotten some neutral stuff to start us out.  I will get a few cute outfits for each gender as it gets closer to the baby's birthday.  When the baby is born, I'll take back whichever clothes I don't need.  Besides, stocking up may not help.  Our baby will probably be small (it's already measuring small), but you never know.  One person I talked to recently said her kids were so big that they wore 6-month clothes pretty much right from the start.  She had to take back all of the clothes she got and get new ones.  So, I'm not too worried about the clothes either.  It will all work out.

I'm sorry this post is so long.  I didn't intend for it to be.  I'll leave you with some 15-week belly shots.

And an up-close of the belly bump.

See you next week!

Fourteen Weeks

This post is a little late because I had a busy-ish week.  Our baby is about 3 1/2 inches long now, and weighs about an ounce.  I can't feel it yet, but it seems to be doing well.  I'm continuing to grow, so I consider that to be a good sign.

I'm continuing to feel better and better.  It's still a struggle to make myself eat as much as I should, and sometimes I get sick when I get hungry suddenly, but it's not nearly as bad as it had been.

The biggest dilemma this week has been trying to decide on the nursery decor.  We had a bedding set all picked out.  I had a great idea for painting the nursery.  It was going to be so cute!  But, then we realized that it doesn't look good with the color of wood we want to use for the crib.  So, we've picked out a different bedding set.  And now I can't decide how I want to paint the room to go with the bedding.  Plus, the furniture that we had picked out got some bad reviews, so we have to find something different.  It's a good thing we still have six months or so to figure this all out.

Thirteen Weeks!

I'm in my second trimester!!!!!

And the last week of the first was an exciting one.  The "morning" sickness got better, but didn't completely go away.  In fact, Sunday night/Monday morning was HORRIBLE again.  I was back to not keeping anything down, so I gave in and got more medicine to make it stop.  The medicine worked almost immediately, but then the heartburn started.  It got so bad on Monday night that it was making me sick.  That's when the real excitement started.  I guess my throat was pretty irritated because when I got sick that time, I threw up some blood.  I made a quick call to the doctor on call (after calling the real expert, my mom, of course).  He said I would be fine, but I needed to get the heartburn under control.  He told me to take some Pepcid.  So much for not taking ANYTHING during this pregnancy.  Oh well...I tried.

Other than that incident, I actually had a really good week.  I'm not nearly as tired as I have been in the past.  I also had a lot of fun with one of my classes!  They "guessed" that I am pregnant (I gave them some pretty obvious hints), and they are so proud of themselves.  One girl in my class (Aly) had been dying to guess since Friday, but she was scared of what I would say if she was wrong.  On Monday, she brought it up again, and said that she was just afraid to guess because I might get mad.  I promised her that I wouldn't get mad.  She said, "ok...then everyone get quiet because I'm ready to guess."  The whole class stopped what they were doing, and Aly started listing the clues that she had.

1.  She noticed I have been getting "increasingly large in the stomach area."  (Note:  Ignore the snowman.)

*It's harder to see my bump this week because this is a maternity shirt and it's still a little big.

2.  She's heard other teachers comment on my weight.  If I were gaining weight for any other reason, no one would be mean enough to say something to me.

3.  I'm happy all the time.

At this point, I interrupted and said that I'm not happy ALL the time.  She said, "yes you are!"  I told her I wasn't happy that morning.  She asked why, and I said, "because I was REALLY sick."

At that point, a lot of kids yelled, "Ooooo!"  Then, Aly said, "so, are you?"  I nodded, and was swarmed by a bunch of girls (and a couple of boys) who hugged me.  Then, one of my boys said, "what is going on?!?!"  Aly sighed and said, "SHE'S PREGNANT!!!"

The kids were all so excited.  They were so happy that they were the first class to guess, and they decided that they weren't going to tell anyone else.  They wanted to see how long it would take the other classes to guess.  That didn't last long.  Some kids told their friends as soon as they left, so word is starting to travel.  That's perfectly fine with me.  I didn't know exactly how to tell the kids, so this works out well.

I'm off to the doctor later this morning.  I'm excited to hear the baby's heartbeat again, but otherwise, it should be a rather uneventful appointment.  That's what I'm hoping for anyway.

Twelve Weeks

Today I'm entering the last week of my first trimester!

My nausea is getting better, but I'm still a little queasy from time to time.  That's okay with me, though.  Queasy I can deal with.  I also feel like I'm getting my energy back.  I still fall asleep pretty early at night, but I feel more energetic throughout the day.  That might have something to do with the nicer weather, too.  I always feel so much happier when it's nice outside.

We still have about 28 weeks until we get to meet our baby, but we're already starting to get ready!  A couple of weeks ago, Babies R Us had a trade-in event.  If you brought in an old item, you got 25% off a new one.  My mom had two old car seats that she let me trade in, so I was able to get 25% off two items.

We picked out this high chair:

And this travel system (stroller, infant car seat that fits in the stroller, and base for the car seat):

They are still in their boxes right now, but we're so excited to get to use them someday soon!

Apparently, others are getting excited, too, because our baby has already received its first presents!  My mom surprised me with these cute outfits last weekend.

A sleep sack:

And a sleeper:

And a close-up of the hood:

We can't wait to see how the baby looks in them!

Eleven Weeks

There's not much to report at this point, but I know some people are looking for an update.  According to what I have read online, the baby is now between 1.5 and 2 inches.

I can definitely tell a difference in my belly already.  I'm sure that most others don't even notice, but the people who know I'm pregnant have told me that they can see my little bump already, and I've been wearing my Belly Bands for a little while now (thank you for those, Sue!).  For the past two days, the left side of my belly is bumped out a little more than the right side.  I don't know the real reason, but I like to say that the baby is lying on my left side.

The past 5 weeks have been rough as far as "morning" sickness is concerned.  When I was exactly 6 weeks pregnant, I started getting sick.  I was sick all day, but it was much worse at night.  I started feeling unbearably sick around 4:30 every day, and I would wake up every two hours because I was so sick.  I couldn't keep anything down.  I lost weight, and I was becoming dehydrated.  My doctor said I had to take medication because of the dehydration.  I wasn't thrilled with this idea (I'm trying to not take any medication during my pregnancy), but I knew it was important to stay hydrated.  The medicine has helped some, but it's not a miracle cure for me.  I still feel queasy most days.  I think it's starting to get a little better, though.  I've heard that there is hope that it will go away completely when I get to 12 weeks.  We'll see.  I don't mind being a little queasy because it lets me know that the baby is still there and doing well.

I've also already dealt with some pretty bad heartburn and fatigue, today I've had a dull headache all day.  I do feel a little more energetic tonight, though.  I think Scott is surprised that I'm still awake right now.  I actually cooked, too, which hasn't happened in awhile.  Maybe as I come to the end of the first trimester, I'll start to get back to normal.  Or, maybe tomorrow I'll be exhausted and sicker than ever.  Time will tell.