25 weeks

24. mar

BABY'S SIZE     a cauliflower!  13.5-15 ounces and 1.5-2.5 pounds.

HOW I'M FEELING     the 10 hour drives were a little tough - hard to get comfy, but otherwise about the same.

WHAT I'M EATING     i went a good chunk of the week without cereal.  and i survived!  i did have a little coffee kick though.  Naylor coffee is usually 1/4 to 1/2 caffeine (this week it was 1/4) and then i made Baby Coffee, which is half coffee and half milk.  ok, and a lot of sugar.

HOW I'M CHANGING     i might have to start putting my pants on sitting down.  when i stand, i kind of stick my knee out to the side as i bend it, and something that i do makes my back and hips tweak really bad.
i might be changing my mind, also.  we see an ob, and i really like her.  i am a little concerned though, about the other doctors in her group.  there is at least one who is pretty well known for his love of c-sections.  and that makes me nervous.  so i think i might want to change to a midwife.  that way, the stress of "what if the c-section doctor is on call??" won't be there.

MOVEMENT     Ya Ya got to feel grand baby #2 wiggling!  i think it liked her - it did a giant bonk that surprised us both!

SLEEP     sleep was a little iffy this week.  we are used to a king, and the bed we camped on was a queen, so we felt smashed.  i did take a few naps here and there though.

THINGS THIS WEEK     felt so proud that i had gotten rid of so much of my storage stuff, but then the stuff i kept barely barely fit in the truck.  eda had to squeeze onto a rocking chair for the ride back and she was not thrilled about it.
we also did an ikea expedition on our way through denver.  at first it was very exciting (it was arley's first ikea experience), but then we had a bad cafeteria experience - they were very rude, so then it wasn't exciting anymore.  but then it was.  until the end, when we waited in line for 20 minutes to buy a tupperware for era's water.  finally we just bought a paper cup from the refreshment thing right at the door.
we went to our first birthing class this week.  it's pretty hippy and a little weird, but i think i'm going to like it.  i've been practicing already.  they say that's what makes it work.  "you get out of it what you put into it."  so i'm doing it!

LOOKING FORWARD TO     i'm not sure if i'm actually looking forward to it, but i get/have to take my gestational diabetes test soon.  you drink this super sweet kool-aid type drink, and then in an hour have your blood drawn to see how your body processes the sugar.

FUN FACT     baby has a sense of equilibrium and can tell which way is up and which way is down.

24 weeks

17. mar

BABY'S SIZE     a cantaloupe!  10.5-12 inches and 12.5-21 ounces.

HOW I'M FEELING     pretty much the same.  sleeping the same for the most part, same energy for the most part.

WHAT I'M EATING     this week has been a dessert kind of week.  i have been wanting and wanting a crepe with ice cream inside (there is a place that makes those here!!) but we never can seem to get there during open hours.  so i have been filling my ice cream/crepe void with gelato, and cookies, etc.

HOW I'M CHANGING     my belly is poochier and poochier.  regular pants are getting not so comfy on my belly, but i am still wearing all of my regular shirts.

MOVEMENT     baby is wiggling away!  i think i'm starting to be able to tell the difference between a kick or a punch and a roll/body wiggle.  those ones feel so weird.

SLEEP     i still have to wake up to roll over.  my hips have been getting super achy, so i have to roll over really often.

THINGS THIS WEEK     i got asked for the first time by a stranger if i was expecting.  such a tricky question, especially if a belly isn't showing super obviously.  and by obviously, i mean about 42 weeks, about to tip over, pregnant.  even then it's tricky.  but i was excited!

LOOKING FORWARD TO     going to wyoming for easter!  although, i also have to do chores.  i'm FINALLY emptying out my storage in the basement.  cutting the umbilical cord.  it's a little sad.  but mostly because i have to find a spot for all that stuff or get rid of it.

FUN FACT     small capillaries are forming and baby's skin is becoming more opaque.

23 weeks

10. mar

BABY'S SIZE     a grapefruit!  still a wide range on size, so who knows.  about 3/4 pound to 1.5 pounds.  

HOW I'M FEELING     still good.  i'm noticing that things are taking just a smidgen more effort.  climbing out of our couch (it's very deep and pretty low) is serious business these days.

WHAT I'M EATING     focusing on fruits and veggies still.  i still love love love cereal.  but is that a craving or just real life?  who can say?

HOW I'M CHANGING     i notice that i get short of breath a little easier now.  things are starting to squish up towards my poor lungs.  i have been getting these terrible side aches in my ribs (front and back) that i'm pretty sure are from squished guts.  i might have to start carrying a lacrosse ball with me (that the athletes use to massage muscles) for some pressure - that always seems to help.  but it's a bit hard to reach the ones on my back.
i've also been having some pretty brutal pelvic pain - hips, pubic bone, back, pretty much everywhere.  i've been doing research (partially by asking people at work) about what could be wrong, and i've found this thing called symphysis pubis dysfunction.  it's where the relaxin hormone that gets the body ready for labor goes a little crazy and all the joints are affected.  so the hips really easily become misaligned, which causes pain.  i have to wait a couple weeks to ask my doctor, but i feel like that's probably what it is.  it's pretty awful.  but they say the pain can go away.  fingers crossed!

MOVEMENT     lots and lots of wiggles.  i notice a ton around 10 and 11 pm, and 4 and 5 am.  otherwise, they feel pretty random.  when the baby is really getting crazy, i can feel the wiggles from the outside.  i have been trying to let arley feel them, but a lot of times, i'll feel a big bonk and when i press on my belly with my hand, it stops.  finally, we got a super wild bunch, and arley felt them.  he was getting kind of mad, and i couldn't figure out why.  finally he said, "stop flexing your abs!"  he thought he was feeling me flexing instead of the baby.

SLEEP     sleep is still going ok.  i've been having a little more trouble switching back and forth from days and nights.  that occasionally happens anyways, so i'm hoping it will get better soon.  i also have to wake up to roll over.  1: it takes a little more work.  2:  i try to be really careful so i don't tweak my pelvis.  i tweaked it the other night and it was the worst pain.

THINGS THIS WEEK     arley's mom will be here on monday.

LOOKING FORWARD TO     a trip to wyoming (i hear it's still cold there...  it's turning into summer really quickly here).

FUN FACT     baby's lungs are developing further (good chance baby could survive in the world if it came to it)
baby can definitely hear my voice and heartbeat, and loud sounds like dogs barking (eda apparently talks to it all the time, even if she thinks she's protecting us from the rabid cars on the street).

spring is in the air!

22 weeks

3. mar

BABY'S SIZE     a papaya!  apparently a papaya can super duper vary in size.  baby can be anywhere from 12.5 to 20 ounces and 10.5 to 12 inches.  i could have a footlong!

WEIGHT GAIN     i should just take this one out.  i'm really not tracking it very well.

HOW I'M FEELING     much better this week.  my cold is on it's very last leg.  FINALLY.

WHAT I'M EATING     salad and cereal.  but not together.

HOW I'M CHANGING     i'm squeezing into my regular scrub tops.  probably only a week or two more.  i bought a couple in the next size up, so i don't get that beer gut hanging out of a too short shirt look.
did i mention that i got some preggo leggings as a gift from my mama on our denver trip?  they are AMAZING.  they come up to my ribs!  and they are so.  comfortable.  so comfy, in fact, that i bought another pair from target so i don't have to go back to my regular ones.

MOVEMENT     baby is wiggling away.  i was laughing the other night at work, because i could kind of feel my guts bubbling (that's a thing when you work nights, mostly, i think), and every time i felt that, i would feel a giant baby wiggle.  i was imagining that my bubbly guts were startling it into flailing its arms and legs.

SLEEP     it's becoming a real effort to roll over.  i have to wake up and actually do work for a second.  other than that, and the constant waking up to pee, i'm sleeping really well!

THINGS THIS WEEK     we are getting ready for a garage sale.  i would rather donate everything and be done with it, but arley thinks we can earn some dollars.  bleh.

we went for a hike.  a 3 and a half miler.  i know.  my vote was for an easy peasy 5 miler.  and then the 5 miler was snowed over (we only had tennies on), so the second choice was the 3.5 miler.  and i was paralyzed for probably 3 days following... my eyes think i'm in better shape than i am in.  or something.
also during the hike, we had a picnic.  arley brought his survival blanket with him and we used it to sit on so we wouldn't get all grassy.  i sat down to enormous enormous butt pain.  i jumped up so fast, and the entire blanket came with me.  there was a cactus.  and i sat on it.  and it was stuck in my butt through the blanket and through my pants.  in hindsight it was lucky for the blanket because i pulled the blanket to get the cactus out instead of having to get cactus fingers while trying to un-cactus my butt.  in the wilderness i pulled my pants down for arley to look and make sure all the cactus spines were out.  it was terrible.
and THEN.  arley decided he would harvest some yucca root and some prickly pear to try eating (he is in survival mode).  so he hacked and hacked away at the yucca (which tasted like soap made into tree bark when it was cooked), and then at the prickly pear.  and got cactus spines EVERYWHERE.  in his hands, in his side, in his MOUTH.  i had to use his leatherman pliers to pull cactus spines out of his MOUTH.
it was a great hike.

we also have been doing SO MUCH work on the house!  painting and cleaning and organizing.  arley even did some amazing demolition this week!  it's like having a whole new house.  it's really starting to feel like ours, which is pretty exciting.

LOOKING FORWARD TO     arley's mama, allyson, is coming to visit.  i'm already dreaming about all the amazing food that will be cooked!  we always have amazing feasts when she is here.  if things work out, maybe we will make it to ojo caliente, the cool spa i took arley to last year with all the different mineral hot springs.
we are planning on having a yard/garage sale (it will be in the driveway...) this next weekend.  i'm more excited to just be getting rid of lots of extra stuff that has been hanging around.  arley is exciting to make some serious dollars (i hope he's not disappointed).  so i made signs.

FUN FACT     baby is sleeping in cycles, about 12-14 hours a day.

arley found a treasure.  he says he's growing his hair out.

21 weeks

25. feb

BABY'S SIZE     a pomegranite!  10.5 inches, 12.5 ish ounces.

WEIGHT GAIN     a few pounds.  i was kind of expecting that i would have gained like 20 pounds by now...

HOW I'M FEELING     super duper sick this week.  it's a cold, but i think this monster baby of ours makes me super susceptible, so it feels like 10 colds all at the same time.  i had to call in to work, sort of because i have a nasty cough, but mostly because i am ridiculously exhausted and can't even fathom staying awake for 12 hours straight, let alone actually do work.

WHAT I'M EATING     focusing on my veggies this week.  my guts are super thankful!  cereal is all i want to eat, but i feel better when i eat fruits and veggies.  so i'm trying my best.

HOW I'M CHANGING     i'm pooching and pooching.  i'm getting second glances from strangers, i've been noticing.

MOVEMENT     i can feel it!  it's wiggling all over the place!  it's so amazing!

SLEEP     still sleeping so much.  but waking up every 3 hours to pee.  so irritating.  i've started waking up a little more to roll over.  it takes a little more effort now.

THINGS THIS WEEK     i had my first super fun meeting with sciatica the other morning as i was getting into bed.  the fire shot down my leg and i almost screamed.  and all my muscles tensed up, so it was hard to relax enough for everything to kind of realign.  it was the worst.  it also helped me realize that the weird nerve pain in the small of my back was definitely NOT sciatica.
arley made me work while i was sick.  he made me do chores and i was very upset about this.  ask him what he did once he got the worst of it (hint:  it involves bed and video games).

LOOKING FORWARD TO     feeling better.  this cold has really taken it out of me.

FUN FACT     baby can suck its thumb and open its eyes.  it's also starting to develop the meconium - the super fun tar poop that is Impossible to clean off.

this is actually from week 19 (valentine's day!).
i forgot how my computer worked for a second and couldn't find my photos for the last few weeks...
can i play the pregnancy brain card?  or is that just for forgetfulness? (i have A LOT of that too...)