18 Weeks

One week of therapy. That's all it took for me to pick up a cold from my lovely little students. I've been obsessive about handwashing....the first thing everyone has to do before starting speech therapy is wash their hands, and I've been wiping down the table with Clorox wipes about 10 times a day. Still no match for the mighty kid germs, apparently. Being pregnant with a cold is no fun, because I really can't take any of the good medicine that would make me feel better. It hasn't knocked me out completely, but I'm really looking forward to breathing through my nose again.

I haven't mentioned whether or not I've been feeling the baby move, and that's because I'm still not 100% sure. I think I've been feeling it for the last few weeks. It's a similar feeling to what I felt around 12 weeks, but feels a little bit more like concentrated jabs and twinges, rather than the continuous rolling type of sensation I felt back then. I guess the closest I can come to describing the feeling is that it's almost like a very light muscle spasm a couple inches below my belly button. So maybe I'm feeling my little sweet potato sized baby....I don't think I'll be completely convinced until I can feel it from the outside.

This is a very big week, because we go on Tuesday for our BIG ultrasound, when we should hopefully find out if we're having a boy or a girl. I am so excited to see the little one again....it has been 7 weeks since our last ultrasound and so much growing and changing has happened since then. It's funny, my belly still looks pretty small....I always pictured myself waddling in to the office with a huge belly by the time we got to find out the gender. All my belly growth is still really low, which makes sense because I don't think the uterus reaches belly button height until around week 20. But to me, the result is that I look like I'm just getting more of a spare tire around the middle, rather than a true baby bump.


Since I want to have full disclosure when it comes to my bump progress, you should know that for this week's and last week's pictures, I pulled my yoga pants down below the bump, which just lets it stick out there in all its bump glory. When I'm wearing pants that come up higher on my belly, it gets kind of compressed and I look much less pregnant. I know before long, nothing is going to hide this baby! Two more weeks and he or she will be the size of a cantaloupe...I doubt there will be any hiding that!

Stay tuned for (hopefully) the big gender announcement on Tuesday!!

Question for my mommy friends

The hospital offers a childbirth class, and we probably need to sign up soon in order to get a spot prior to our due date. It costs $110, and we could either go once a week for 4 weeks (evening classes) or do it all on one weekend. I think we should do it (even though I don't want to spend the money), but Stewart is on the fence. He wants to know if you took a childbirth/labor class and whether or not it was worth the time and money. Thoughts?

17 weeks

I can hear my mother now, "I think an onion is smaller than an avocado!" Remember this fruit thing is not an exact science. But look at the difference in estimated weight from last week...from 3.5 ounces to 5.9 ounces in just a week! I tried to find some other baby-size comparisons, and here is what I came up with.

The Babycenter How Big Is Baby? slideshow says he or she is the size of a turnip.


And from the Tarzan's Ultimate Guide to Baby Sizes Week-By-Week for Soon to be Fathers, baby weighs the same as a hockey puck.


But however big, the important thing is that baby's skeleton is hardening from cartilage to bone, and is starting to accumulate fat. Fingers and toes now have their unique fingerprints, and joints are able to move and bend.

I'm definitely starting to experience some of the second trimester symptoms now.

• Heartburn- which I'm not helping by continuing to chug orange juice every morning
• Racing heart- It's happened three times in the last two days.
• Spider veins- I've started seeing some little ones popping up in the last few years, but all of the sudden they've gotten much worse. Something to do with increased bloodflow during pregnancy. I see lasers in my future...
• Reduced hair loss- I usually shed a ton in the shower, but it's slowly been happening less and less.

I've worn mostly maternity pants this week (no shirts yet), and whether or not I look pregnant definitely depends on what I wear. I wore an empire waist (non-maternity) dress on Monday, and got lots of "Oh look at your belly!" and "You look pregnant today" comments at work. But yesterday in my (maternity) jeans and school T-shirt, I heard lots of "I can't believe you're not showing at all!" I'm also coming to the conclusion that not all maternity pants are created equal, and despite my plan to spend next-to-nothing on maternity clothes, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy a couple of pairs of pants for work. Thankfully a couple sweet friends are letting me borrow some maternity shirts, so I won't have to spend a lot in that area.

I'm also starting to have name anxiety! It's really fun to talk about names in a hypothetical sense, but now that we actually have to name our baby, I'm kind of freaking out about it! We have a list of names of both genders that we both like, but nothing that has jumped out at both of us as definitely being THE name. Plus Stewart's favorites are not my favorites, although we do like both of each others' top picks. I actually had a dream last night that we told my family my favorite name for a boy, and they made so much fun of it that I ran out of the room in tears. (For the record, my mom does like my top boy's name, so I'm not sure where that dream came from.)

OK, I know all you really come for is the belly picture, so I won't deny you any longer!


And just so you know, after I looked at this picture, I changed my shirt before going in public. Because if you didn't know me and saw me in this, you wouldn't think "Aw, look at the cute pregnant girl.", you would think "Man, that girl shouldn't be wearing that shirt!"

Confession

While waiting at a restaurant this week, I noticed another pregnant woman standing near us, resting her hand on her belly. Stewart and I had a quiet discussion about who we thought was farther along...he thought it was her, I think it was me. At that point, I admitted to Stewart that I sometimes rest my hand on my stomach in public on purpose, so people will think I'm actually pregnant and not just thick around the middle. And he told me I had to stop.

The great irony is that we were at Steak and Shake, waiting on milkshakes to go, which obviously WILL make one thick around the middle.

Not one to pass up the opportunity for drama, I pretended to be ticked and left Stewart by the door to go sit on one of the counter stools. With my hand on my belly, smiling smugly at my husband.

16 weeks

Meet our avocado baby! Exciting developments this week include the bones in the ear, which means that he or she can start picking up on our voices (and my growling stomach sounds, sorry baby!) We had a great weekend doing some baby shopping and hanging out with family and friends in Jax. We had lunch on Saturday with Stewart's cousin and her husband, who gave us the cutest little stuffed lamb and onesie. (Baby gifts are so fun!) Then we got to spend the evening and Sunday morning with my dear friends from college Deb and Ryan. My cough has started to subside, which helps with the headache. Overall my energy level had been ok, although today I was wiped out and took a two hour nap when we got back in town. I have one more week at work before I start seeing students, and I'm kind of dreading starting my all-day therapy schedule. I know I'm going to be SO tired.

So one of our objectives for the trip over to Jacksonville was to check out a couple strollers that we haven't been able to see in person. We really liked the Baby Jogger City Mini, which I think is our front-runner right now. It literally folds up in one motion, with one hand. I think I folded it up six times in the store, just because I couldn't believe how easy it was! And it's only 16 lbs, which isn't bad at all. Here's a picture, isn't it sporty? And check out the huge canopy!

Another one I've heard good things about is the new Peg Perego Si, but since it's really new we can't find one in a store anywhere. I'm not sure if I would choose a stroller sight unseen over the City Mini, which we know we like. I'm hoping I'll come across one somewhere in the next few months. If not, we'll probably go with the one above.
Here's the Si.


Stewart spotted the Bugaboo Chameleon when we went into a fancy boutique baby store, and declared it "awesome". Then he saw the $900 price tag and I had to catch him when he almost fell over. I know there are people who can afford it, but I still can't believe that people actually buy them! Here's the Bugaboo eye candy.


And last but not least, my 16 week belly picture. This was taken early Saturday morning, and I really think my bump has grown since then. It started expanding after our Cheesecake Factory lunch, but never really went back down! I got a cute pair of Gap maternity jeans on sale this weekend for $15, and I might be rocking them this week on casual Friday!

Body confidence, courtesy of a 3rd grader

A friend at work has two sweet girls, one in 3rd grade and one in 5th grade at our school. Today as we were walking out to the parking lot together, she told the girls that I was going to have a baby. Their eyes got really big and they just kinda stared at me, until Melissa prompted them to tell me "congratulations." As I was pulling out of the parking lot, she flagged me down and told me that the younger one had said "But she can't be having a baby! She's skinny!" Bless her little heart.

This is from the same girl who last year, after seeing me after school in my gym clothes said "Ms. Courtney, you look CUTE in shorts!"

If I have a girl, I'm going to have to take lessons in raising her from Melissa.

Yesterday's appointment and today's announcement

The cat's out of the bag at school! I had asked my principal not to tell anyone until my doctor's appointment yesterday (more on that later). So when I got to school this morning I told a couple of the front office ladies, and then was on my way to go tell my friend Megan, who I've worked with for the last three years. Just my luck, the principal intercepted me along the way and excitedly asked if everything had gone well. When I said it had, she practically started jumping up and down and said "Can I make an announcement now??" I had kind of been leaning toward not making a big school-wide announcement, but she was practically humming with excitement and who was I to ruin her fun? So I told her yes and she literally ran to the intercom to announce it. Can you tell I work for an enthusiastic and child-living principal? Since the school is only one year old, I'm the first faculty member to get pregnant so everyone has been super excited. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "This will be our first baby otter!" (Obviously the otter is our mascot.)

As for the doctor's appointment, it was kind of underwhelming. I saw a different doctor like I thought I would, and while he was nice, it was obvious that it was just a quickie checkup appointment. He had a student with him who found the heartbeat with the doppler (150 bpm). Stewart and I later joked that other than that, the whole appointment could have been done over the phone! It just felt kind of rushed and I didn't quite feel like I was able to get all my questions answered. So I'm looking forward to seeing my doctor again in three weeks. And I'm REALLY looking foward to that appointment because I'll have an ultrasound and hopefully find out whether we're having a boy or a girl! I am so anxious to find out!!

Old wives tales

So I found this list of old wives tales regarding baby's gender, and thought it would be fun to see how many apply to me on each list. I'll bold the ones that I think really apply....some are kind of hard to decide. I may need to make some comments even if I don't bold the item. I'll do my comments in blue. (Really, how confusing can I make this?)

It's a boy if:
-You didn't experience morning sickness in early pregnancy. Despite some nausea and my one all-day vomit fest, I don't think I had the classic morning sickness.
-Your baby's heart rate is less than 140 beats per minute
-You are carrying the extra weight out front
-Your belly looks like a basketball ·
Your areolas have darkened considerably ·
You are carrying low Way too early to be able to tell this.
You are craving salty or sour foods ·
You are craving protein -- meats and cheese ·
Your feet are colder than they were before pregnancy ·
The hair on your legs has grown faster during pregnancy ·
Your hands are very dry ·
Your pillow faces north when you sleep ·
Dad-to-be is gaining weight, right along with you ·
Pregnancy has you looking better than ever ·
Your urine is bright yellow in color·
Your nose is spreading ·
You hang your wedding ring over your belly and it moves in circles · Haven't tried this one.
You are having headaches ·
You add your age at the time of conception and the number for the month you conceived and the sum is an even number

It's a girl if:·
You had morning sickness early in pregnancy ·
Your baby's heart rate is at least 140 beats per minute. (It was 156 at 8 weeks, that's the only time the doctor told us the heart rate, so we'll go with that.)
You are carrying the weight in your hips and rear · Boo
Your left breast is larger than your right breast ·
Your hair develops red highlights ·
You are carrying high ·
Your belly looks like a watermelon ·
You are craving sweets ·
You are craving fruit ·
You crave orange juice ·
You don't look quite as good as normal during pregnancy ·
You are moodier than usual during pregnancy ·
Your face breaks out more than usual ·
You refuse to eat the heel of a loaf of bread · This is true, but was also the case before pregnancy, so I don't think I can count it.
Your breasts have really blossomed! ·
Your pillow faces south when you sleep ·
Your urine is a dull yellow color ·
You hang your wedding ring over your belly and it moves from side to side
You add your age at the time of conception and the number for the month you conceived and the sum is an odd number

So that gives us 2 for boy, 6 for girl! Anyone else have any predictions??

15 weeks

I got out a ruler this morning to get a better idea of how long 4 inches is, and was shocked at how big the baby has gotten! Especially since that 4 inches doesn't include the legs (the measurements are crown-to-rump, so from the top of the head to the bottom of the butt.) Wow!

Honestly, this hasn't been the greatest week for me in terms of how I'm feeling. I started with this nagging cough which has moved progressively farther into my chest. It also intensifies the headache, which I haven't been able to get rid of completely since it started last week. Of course I can't really take any medicines that would help a cough or a headache. I go to the doctor tomorrow, so obviously I'm going to talk to him about the cough (I really think I'm just out of luck with the headache.)

I also started back to work this week, so I'm a lot more tired and feeling the back-to-school stress. I told my principal and assistant principal that I'm pregnant (and they were really excited), plus the ESE teacher and paraprofessional that I work with closely. I haven't told the rest of the teachers yet, and I'm trying to decide how to do it. It seems kind of weird to stand up at a faculty meeting or something and announce that I'm knocked up, but on the other hand I hate the thought of people wondering and talking behind my back about whether I'm pregnant or just packing on pounds. Stewart swears that my belly is rounding out and getting harder, but to the casual observer, it's still pretty hard to tell. My larger-size pants are now starting to get tight, so I'm thinking that maternity pants may be on the horizon in the next couple weeks.

I don't think I'm going to see my actual doctor tomorrow (boo!) They like you to see every doctor in the practice once, just in case your specific doctor is not on call when you go into labor. I was hoping that I could see my doctor again so I could try to talk him into making another gender guess. I doubt that I'll even ask if I end up seeing a new doctor. Regardless, I'm going to try to make that ultrasound appointment by the end of August at the latest, so it will be before Stewart starts his next rotation. So hopefully we'll know in three weeks! Stewart's family seems to be leaning toward thinking it's a girl...I still have no idea!

So here I am in my PJ's, still looking lumpy!

My family is kinda into this baby thing...

Picture update!

Blogger is cooperating with me now, so here are my pictures. First, how big baby is...


...and how big I am!

14 weeks

I'm having difficulty posting any pictures right now, and I'm not sure why, so this might be an image-free post. Which actually works out quite well since I haven't taken a 14-week belly shot yet. I'm also a day late in posting (such a bad blogger) because we decided to spend yesterday at the beach and then met Stewart's parents for a last minute dinner. I might have overdone it yesterday because I woke up with a raging headache and haven't been able to completely get rid of it yet.

The last week has been really good and has flown by. I spent 3 hours at the hair place getting my hair cut and highlighted, so I'm feeling much better about my appearance now that my 5-inch roots have been taken care of. Overall I've felt great; no more nausea until today, which I think it headache related. The baby is 3 1/2 inches from head to bottom, about the size of a lemon. He or she can squint, frown, grimace, pee, and maybe even suck his or her thumb. My daily update e-mails are starting to say things like "You're probably finding it hard to hide your pregnancy now; you're definitely showing!" or "You're most likely in maternity clothes by now." But in reality, I don't think anyone would able to tell that I'm pregnant (and still no maternity clothes yet.) My belly might be rounding out just a bit, but still nothing that screams "pregnancy". Which is actually good thing, because I start school next week and still haven't told my principal that I'm pregnant. It would be kind of embarrassing to walk in with an obvious baby bump and shock the heck out of everybody. Hopefully I can manage to corner the principal sometime on the first day back and fill her in.

Thursday we drove two hours to scope out some baby merchandise. Yes, we had to drive that far to even go to a stinkin' BabiesRUS, much less any other stores that carry car seats, strollers, etc. I'm getting so frustrated now that I'm starting to try to get an idea of what I want, but have nowhere to test or try them out. I'm going to have to rely a lot on friend recommendation (Bri? Angie? hint, hint!), so if you have something that you love, let me know! The main things I've been looking at lately are infant car seats, strollers, and upholstered gliders.

One thing I've learned in this shopping-for-baby process is that it's like learning a new language. I re-read an e-mail I had sent to a friend about all this, and realized that if I had read the e-mail 6 months ago, I wouldn't have had a clue what I had written! It's like this secret code of baby stuff that you never even know exists until you're in the midst of it. And if I was getting a grade for pronunciation in this new baby-stuff language, I would fail! I can't tell you the number of times I have asked someone about a particular brand or product, only to realize that I've butchered the name. Three popular stroller and car seat manufacturers stand out....apparently Peg Perego is pronounced Peg PAIR-uh-go (not Peg Per-AY-go), Britax is BRIGHT-ax (not Brit-ax), and the worst, Chicco might possibly be pronounced KEY-coh (not like the Spanish word for "boy".) Now, I'm still not 100% convinced about this last one, but the salesman in one of the baby stores pronounced it this way several times, and he really seemed to know his stuff. It's all made me so paranoid that I don't even want to ask anyone any questions that would require me to say one of these names! What if I say it wrong? Or what if I say it right but come off sounding pretentious because everyone else says it wrong (Chico, anyone?) And I'm about 99% sure that I'm the only person who has ever put so much thought into this.

Anyway, I start back to school with workshops Tuesday and Wednesday (skipping Monday's because of a dentist appointment), and then Thursday starts teacher pre-planning. I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to going back, but hopefully getting back to school and back into a routine will just make the time go by faster until baby is born! I realized on Friday (while at my hair appt.) that it was exactly 6 months until my due date! My stylist commented that it seemed like a long time, but to me it seems like the exact opposite. For so long we talked about our baby timeline in terms of years, so the fact that in 6 months we'll actually be holding our baby.....well that seems like it's right around the corner! And I can't wait. :-)