Lets talk about melons!

okay maybe not real melons... but lets just say large oranges turned into large grapefruits in what feels like a matter of days!

OK i couldn't find a good picture of a grapefruit... but you get the idea.

It's really fascinating to me how quickly my body is changing. When ya really sit down and think about it, it's sort of crazy that with God's help, I'm creating a whole life out of nothing in only 9 months! What the heck! I would think it'd take at least a few years for something like that to happen... no wonder there's always talk about how children ruin women's bodies. It's a miracle we can make it out alive. All joking aside though, it's really a wonderful and exciting thing! I went from feeling a little down and a little too anxious because I was not seeing any physical signs of this baby, to literally growing a  tummy in a matter of days! It's crazy. I still think my baby bump is rather small and still not quite obvious but it is beginning to become more noticeable! My little bro and sis keep saying things like "i swear your tummy grew since i saw you this morning!" or "you're bigger then you were yesterday!"
it's really pretty amazing!

I'm feeling really excited because my big ultrasound appointment is coming up in two weeks!! AND Troy will be there!! We should get to find out if it's a boy or a girl at that time too. I seriously cannot wait!! The debate is still on until then. Troy is convinced we ARE having a boy. and I just really WANT to have a girl. No matter what happens though we'll both be THRILLED!

Quickening

I THINK i felt the baby move the other day!!!!
I'm not really sure about this, but it was sooo weird and sooo exciting! Almost all day off and on i kept feeling this really weird really quick sort of fluttery feeling in my tummy about two inches below my belly button, toward my right side. The weird thing was that it was not really anything i'd ever felt before. I'm still trying to decide if it was some sort of muscle spasm type of thing or if it was the beginning of baby movements.

I was doing a little reading on this and based on what i've read along with how far along i am (just over 17weeks) it's very possible that i'm beginning to feel something. The websites i've checked out say it's called quickening and it's basically the first fetal movements that the mother can actually feel. The ultrasound allows the doctors to see the baby moving before the mother can ever feel it, but this quickening is considered the first time or times the mother can finally feel it. On the link i posted it says this usually will happen around 20 weeks for a first timer, however, many other sites i've looked at say it can happen as early as 13-14 weeks. It all varies depending on the mama and the baby. No pregnancy is exactly the same as another.

What i felt was sort of this twitchy really quick feeling that would happen for maybe a couple minutes then go away, then maybe twenty minutes later it'd come back. The thing that was throwing me off was that it was in the exact same spot (which i didn't think over that long of a time period i would feel the baby in literally the exact same spot. I guess i figured that it'd be moving all over the place and i'd feel things in different places, but as i've thought about it more, it's very likely that it's just chillin there in the same place and might move its arm every so often in the same way) and that it almost hurt.... it didn't really hurt, but it felt sort of tingly like when you hit a nerve in your elbow. Not when you hit your funny bone really hard,cause we all know that just hurts, but this was more like a weird tingly twitchy sort of thing. Very hard to describe. But it didn't feel like it was any sort of gas and it felt like it was in my tummy in the "hollow" space where the baby is.

I have not felt this movement again since that day so I'm not sure if what i was feeling was actually the baby or not. It could just as easily have been some sort of muscle stretching or straining or maybe gas of some kind... shoot i guess it's likely that it could have been anything. But let me tell you, since i felt that i've been hoping to feel it again because if it is our baby moving, that's seriously the most exciting thing that's happened yet!

Blood draws, blood pressure, and a shot oh my!

Today I had another Dr visit. This one was basically just for the second portion of the screening i did back in July. The one that's suppose to test for Down Syndrome and Chromosome disorders, well technically for the potential of these things, it doesn't actually tell you if your baby has something or not, just the likely hood/possibility that he/she will have it. Anyways, so the first half of the test, if you don't remember, was an ultrasound to measure some kind of fluid and space behind the baby's neck as well as measuring the heart beat and length of the baby combined with a blood draw (from me, not from the baby).

The portion I did today was the second part which has to be done between 15 and 20weeks (I'm two days shy of 16 weeks) and all they do for this half is another blood draw. So they drew my blood, then I went to see the actual doctor. Who by the way was not the normal doctor I've been seeing because she was on vacation. Oh, this doesn't sit too well me, she was on vacation, okay fine everyone should go on vacation, but she specifically told me to schedule my appointment for today because she was going to make herself available for it. She also said she'd call me to make sure it got scheduled. Now why would a person promise things like this when they know that they're a doctor with a bazillion patients about to go on vacation and there's no way they're actually going to call or open their schedule? Come on. So of course, she didn't call, and when i finally called to make the appointment, she didn't have the day open, she was listed as still being out on vacation. Figures! So, not too big of a deal, just annoying. I saw a different doctor for this, who frankly I liked the first impression i got from her, so it was all good!

They took my blood, then i went in to see the doctor. Of course i saw a nurse first, she took my blood pressure and asked me a few questions, like if i had any cramping, blood, strange/abnormal discharge or anything else i was worried about. Thankfully, i have had none of the above and everything sounds fine! Oh i did learn that often times during pregnancy women's normal Vaginal discharge may become heavier or more frequent.. if your a girl that should make sense... if you're a boy you may have no clue about this and it might actually sound kinda gross. The best way i could think to describe this- i didn't know how else to explain the semi clear, whitish fluid that comes out in small amounts everyday as a way of keeping the Vagina clean and healthy- is that a woman's Vagina is like a self cleaning oven (lol) and everyday it lets out a little bit of a clear or whitish odorless, or slightly odored fluid that basically takes with it old dead cells from the Vagina and pushes them out to keep the Vagina clean, healthy and infection free! Anyways, during pregnancy this fluid can come out in a much heavier amount compared to what is "normal" for your body. It is considered "normal" for the pregnancy as long as it's not a weird color, greenish, brownish or yellowish, and as long as it does not have a foul or very strong smell. During pregnancy, this discharge can increase mostly due to the increased levels of Estrogen (which if I'm correct is the  hormone that aides in the production of this discharge in the first place. So obviously the more Estrogen, the more discharge! ) Who knew? Just when I was feeling a little uncomfortable about this "problem" I found out its in fact not a problem at all, its totally normal!

So....where was I....
They took my blood pressure, we chatted a little about the discharge then the nurse asks me if I've had a Tetanus shot or a Tetanus Diphtheria Pertussis (TDP) shot recently. Uhh.... I literally don't even remember the last time I had a shot, much less what kind of shot it was. I'm probably over due anyways... So she goes on to explain that in California they've had a lot of recent out breaks of Whooping Cough (Pertussis) and that they recommend that all pregnant women in their 2nd or 3rd trimester get the shot as well as all persons that are going to be around the baby before it's able to get the vaccine itself. In California they're labelling it an epidemic. So of course I had to get the shot! It was weird since it's been so long since i had a shot, but it didn't hurt too bad.

Finally i get to see the doctor. We chat about what my next steps should be since I'll be moving "home" soon and will be needing to transfer care. She asked me a few questions then looked at my blood pressure number that the nurse got and said she wanted a re-do because it was higher then normal for me. Coincidentally my blood pressure was taken right after i had my blood drawn, that paired with the simple fact that I'm in a doctor's office talking about possible bad things that could happen, no wonder my blood pressure was up! She re took it and it turned out fine and normal :-) yay! that was after we finally got to hear the baby heart beat! And she measured from my belly button to the top of my pubic area (basically where the hairs would stop growing... maybe a little lower). This was to measure the approx growth of my uterus. She said it was right on and looking great. So basically everything is good so far. Hence my blood pressure being perfectly back to normal.

I must admit that waiting an entire month between visits is hard on me. Partly because I'm so anxious about this little baby growing in me and the doctor visit is the only way i know everything is going okay. Since i can't feel the baby yet and I don't really have a tummy showing, it feels like nothing is happening. So by the end of the month I start getting anxious and worried and end up saying a lot of prayers asking for patience and strength and improvement on my capability of trusting in God to keep our baby safe and healthy. Its hard to have faith sometimes, but every time I've been to a doctor i get nothing but great results. This is a continuous reassurance that i should keep my faith and everything will be okay :-)

Oh! I'm just so excited for what's to come. Only about one more month until the "big ultrasound" where we'll finally get to see our baby again and finally get to know the gender (hopefully supposing the baby is positioned right and it's easy for them to see) I can't wait for this!

Shopoholic

So I went shopping today for the first time since I found out I was pregnant. Well maybe that wasn't the best idea... I'm 15 and a half weeks today and my tummy is not exactly what I would call a baby bump, but it's definitely not what it used to be. I feel like its growing fatter and fatter every day. Only a little at a time, but enough that I notice it. I think to anyone else it just looks like I eat too many burgers and drink too many beers, but to me, its the beginning of a baby bump. So how does this affect my shopping trip? Well, my boobs are getting bigger too, and my tummy is getting bigger. So I'm still in a medium size shirt, but it's too tight in the boobs and getting tight in the tummy, especially if it's something with buttons downt the front. I didn't even bother trying on pants, no way! I think I'll wait til I need some maternity clothes to do another shopping trip!

I bought a belly band, Bella band, beband thingy at Target. Oh, it's the Beband at Target and the Bella Band other places. Target's is the same thing just way cheaper. I bought one and thought I'd try it out, see if i like it. Today I took it for it's first test run. Awesome!! Seriously. My favorite jeans, which i could barely button, and could not even dream of sitting down in, i left unbuttoned and put the beband over them, what a brilliant idea. I wore my fave jeans around all day. The only issue I ran into was sitting down in the car, then getting back up, ever once in a while it'd kinda roll over itself, so I'd have to straighten it out a little. but some of that i think was because of how i was wearing it. Basically i put it on under my jeans, so that about half of it was under, then i folded the other half down over the top of my jeans. I'll have to play around with it and see what else works.

I didn't even explain what this is. Basically it's an elastic band that goes around your tummy and the idea is that during early pregnancy it allows you to leave your preprego jeans unbuttoned/unzipped and the band covers the zipper and button area so no one  knows your jeans aren't done up. It also helps hide it and gives you a smooth look under your shirts. Once your really big and pregnant looking you can use it stretched over the whole tummy (or most of it) which will allow you to wear your preprego shirts longer, basically it'll give you an adjustable layered look with your shirts, so you don't have to buy new ones. Then after the baby comes and you can't fit into your pre prego jeans, but your maternity jeans are just too big, it can be used in kinda the same way you used it at the beginning to hold your maternity jeans up. The idea is paying 17 bucks to let you keep most of your old clothes, saving money cuz you wont have to buy as many maternity clothes. Pretty brilliant if you ask me. It seems to work so far!

...and Taaaadaaaa! Looks like I'm just wearing a white T under a black T. The layered look that everyone is into now. Pretty sweet don't ya think!?

Sleepy Head

I can't sleep!!!!!

It's making me CRAZY. I try every position I can think of to get comfortable and I can never find one that actually is comfortable.  Besides that I'm still up at night running to the bathroom every couple hours. It's getting ridiculous. I LOVE my sleep. I don't know if I can deal with this, it makes me so frustrated. I've tried everything,eating right, working out everyday, going to bed at a reasonable hour.

Once I do finally get to sleep for good, I can't wake up in the morning because I'm so tired. There's been a few times where I've stayed in bed 'til almost 11am after going to bed at 9pm! If I could have slept that whole time it'd be insane! But noooooo.

Or I'll wake up with my neck hurting or my body hurting from being in the same position. It's so weird. I never had any of these problems before otherwise I'd say it's our mattress. But I slept soundly before I got pregnant. Man, is this a clue into the next few years of my life? oh no!