24 weeks pregnant

This week I'm 24 weeks pregnant! Baby girl is as big as a....

I had a "bonus" ultrasound on Wednesday. Her estimated weight was 1lb 5oz and everything looked perfect and healthy. Yay! My sister came with me because Nick had to work. I'm really excited she got to see her niece. Again the ultrasound tech pretty much sucked but we did get a look at her adorable face.

She must have been feeling pretty spunky that day. She kicked the fetal Doppler a ton which was really cute, she's definitely got a personality already! She tends not to like things in her space when the cats/dog lay on my tummy even a little bit she kicks at them.

This week she's starting to develop capillaries which make her skin look more pink and less translucent and her lungs are beginning to become more functional. In the next few weeks she'll practice breathing through her nostrils.

It seems like she's becoming more aware of the sounds around her. She always reacts to Nick's voice when she hears him she starts moving around it super cute.

I've been having way more cravings lately! This week cheese was a big craving as well as fruit and chocolate. Watermelon has been a big hit with me this summer and I've never been a big fan of it before.

Symptoms haven't been too bad this week. I've been working through the pelvic pain and I have a chiropractic appointment this upcoming week. My feet have been getting swollen and I've been really tired lately, but nothing too inconvenient.

Now that I'm not working I'm going to make an effort to make it to the gym 3 times a week. I went today and it was great getting my sweat on. As far as my nightly "workout" routine goes I've only done it a few times this week because I've just been so exhausted. But here is what I generally do.....

My Pregnancy Fitness Routine


No signs of stretch marks yet! My total pregnancy weight gain so far is 13.4 lbs. One of the hardest things about this week has been accepting the fact that I am going to gain quite a bit of weight. I haven't felt very good about myself lately. Don't get me wrong I love my belly and I'm happy to be the vessel for my daughter to grow in. But it is hard. Every day I notice things getting bigger all over. I'm staying active and eating right most of the time. I feel like I'm doing good but I'm starting to figure out the gain is inevitable. You have to gain some weight to have a healthy pregnancy. Every woman and pregnancy is different and if I am one of those pregnant women who end up with the swollen bloated everything and the big puffy round face I need to just be okay with it. It's rough for me, but I'm getting there.

<3

23 weeks pregnant.

I'm 23 weeks pregnant! There's not that much time left before little one gets here! And she's getting big and strong in there! She's now as big as a...

And my uterus is now as big as a soccer ball! Woah!

This week my biggest symptoms have not been very fun. I started having leg cramps in the night :( Thankfully I'm so used to having them normally that I can usually react quickly and prevent them but right now the muscles in my calves are soo tight it's uncomfortable pretty much all of the time. Symptom number two is extreme pelvic and hip pain! I've always had issues with my hips when I'm really active so that doesn't surprise me it's the pelvic pain that's really freaking me out. I don't know if it's normal to experience it this intensely this early but thankfully I have a Drs appointment this upcoming Wednesday where I can ask her about it and possibly set up an appointment with a chiropractor.

This week we got our crib set! I am so excited! I absolutely love this set. It's just pretty without being overly girly. The last thing I want is for my baby girl to be bombarded with a ton of pink frilly shit all over the place every day of her life and I think I've been successful in avoiding just that.

I'm still doing my exercises most nights of the week. I've also been reading "Natural Childbirth for Dummies" and I've incorporated some new moves that are supposed to help prepare me for labor. I think I'm going to post my workout routine on the next blog for any other interested preggos. No signs of stretch marks yet and I'm still using my Angel Baby Earth Mama Natural Stretch oil which I've been using every night since I was about 6 weeks pregnant. I'm now up to 11.7 lbs in total weight gain. I was retaining a lot of water up until today but now I seem to be pretty much back to normal.

Here are my belly shots this week. The first 2 are what I get when I ask my husband to stop what he's doing and take belly shots of me. The next 2 are my mirror shots and now you know why most the time I just do mirror shots ;)

<3

19 & 20 weeks

Warning this post is going to be all over the place.

First of all I am currently 20 weeks and baby is the size of a....

I didn't have time to post a 19 week blog so I'm shoving that info into this 20 week one. And lots of stuff happened.

So right before I hit 19 weeks I was obsessed with the sun and being in the heat. I spent almost every day outside. As a result of pregnancy I've been way more sweaty than I normally am but I was enjoying the 90 degree weather anyway. Here's a few outdoor pics I took that week

                                           
                                               Maggie and Lucy. They get along sooo well.

I posted that weird pic of my belly so that you can see how weird my navel is looking. Its getting kind of flat now and I need to get a longer barbell for my navel ring.


Here are my 19 week belly pics...

A few days after I turned 19 weeks we had our big ultrasound...

Both of us slept like crap the night before because we were so stinking excited. Thankfully when I got to the office they took me in right away. First it was me and the ultrasound tech in the room Nick  had to wait to come in until after she got her technical measurements. So the whole time I'm in there the lady is making small talk and all I'm wondering is if the baby is okay. Why do us techs do this? You can see that I'm pregnant and what pregnant lady doesn't get a little nervous that something might be wrong. The previous 2 days I hadn't felt too much movement (it turned out it's because it was in a weird position) I was pretty anxious to know that everything was alright. But she kept doing her thing for about 10 minutes while I sat there nervous. Finally she brought Nick in and we actually got to see some stuff. Most importantly the money shot. Our baby was spread eagle and there was no doubt in my mind what we were looking at was a baby girl even before the tech said anything. Instantly tears started pouring I think Nick teared up to. It was one of the most amazing moments of my life, it made all of this so much more real. We are having a baby girl. Unfortunately the tech didn't really care about getting us nice pictures she printed off a bunch of blobs that hardly resembled any mammal let alone a human.

Let me just say how surprised I was that we were having a girl. When I first got pregnant I thought it was a girl because of how sick I was in the beginning. Everyone I know who had baby boys hardly had any morning sickness at all. But after about 12 weeks I was suddenly convinced we were having a boy and I had felt that way all day every day since. I always referred to the baby as a he. I was in shock when it turned out to be a girl. But I'm so happy it's a she!

We did a photo shoot with my sister the day before the ultrasound. We took girl and boy pictures so that we would be prepared for each. She hasn't finished editing all of them but I'll post the rest of them in my next blog.

Right after we found out the sex we went and registered at BuyBuyBaby and bought our first piece of baby girl clothing from Baby Gap. They were having an amazing sale this week and I scored this adorable romper for $11 (originally $32 I am very proud of my sales shopping abilities).

Also this week I got to meet baby William!!! I was so happy to see Philena and meet her little man. Its amazing how much this kid looks like his parents. He was an absolute sweetheart. I've been wondering how Lucy would react to a baby being around and getting more attention than her and she was great with William. She looked so happy to be a around a baby and William really liked her too.

At 19 weeks baby girl weighed 10 oz and was in the 74th percentile for weight and length. So she's big maybe that's why I can feel so much so early? The Midwife and us tech were pretty impressed that I was feeling so many kicks and that they can actually be seen from the outside. She is really reacting to sound a lot more than she was before. When Nick talks to her she moves more. We went to see Prometheus yesterday and she went nuts when it got loud in the theater! I hope it didn't terrify her too bad but she was moving so quickly and intensely it was startling for me too.

I've been craving lots of sweets lately... Especially french toast and fruit. It's been a craving for a few months now but I'm indulging it more than I did before. It has gone from a want to a need. Another craving has been slurpees from 7-11. I am not a soda drinker so it's weird for me to want something like that soo bad.

I guess some people can start getting stretch marks around this time but I don't have any yet. I've gained 6.8lbs so far and 5 inches on my waist. I haven't measured my ass but I don't need to do that to realize it's getting fat. I've never really had a booty so I don't mind, it's just new and weird to me. About a month ago a customer at work was talking to me about pregnancy she literally said, "your ass is going to get soo fat it wont even resemble your ass from before," that's a little scary but for now I'm okay.

Here are my week 20 pregnancy pics...

Until next week!

<3