Pregnancy Highlights

Just a few more updates on the baby front and we’ll be all caught up! I really want to capture my feelings and thoughts on some of the key pregnancy milestones, so here are a few questions/categories to get me started.

How far along are you? I am 17 weeks 2 days today.

Size of the baby? Baby O is the size of a sweet potato (5 inches long, 5.5 oz).

How are you feeling? Well…this is quite the topic for me. Up until we went to our first doctor’s appointment I was feeling great. In fact, no real signs of pregnancy at all! I thought I was one of the lucky ones who wouldn’t have morning sickness, and that I’d get off scott free from feeling yucky during my pregnancy. Funny how the Lord had a different plan for me!

The day after our first appointment was when the sickness set in. It was a weird feeling. I started feeling light headed in the shower and wasn’t able to stand up while drying my hair or putting on my makeup. I was nauseous and had no idea what to do to make it go away. I tried to lie down for a little while, but that wasn’t doing much. So, I pushed through the terrible feeling and tried to finish getting ready for work. Right about the time I was ready to get dressed I had my first real experience with morning sickness. (Side note: morning sickness does not limit itself to just the morning. Sometimes the feeling of nausea would last all day for me. Which I would have known had I been reading “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.”) I felt like I was having an out of body experience. I had never been that sick before and it scared me a little. I didn’t know how frequently I would get sick or if my nausea would go away or how to handle the situation at all! It was awful.

My “morning sickness” continued pretty consistently for about six weeks. I was getting sick about four times a week with some days feeling nauseous all day long. Everyone (including the doctor) said that the nausea would go away after the first trimester—but that came and went and I was still getting sick. At about 13.5 weeks it tapered off to about two times a week, and over the past two weeks I’ve only gotten sick a handful of times. However, the queasy stomach is still there and I got sick as recently as three times last Tuesday! But I’m thankful that it’s tapered off and keep telling myself it’s all worth it in the end!!

Total Weight Gain/Loss? Last time I checked I was up a total of 7.5 lbs. I gained a few lbs. at first, but didn’t gain anything between my first and second appointment. But of course, between my second and third appointment I managed to gain 5 lbs.! HOLY COW!

Maternity Clothes? I am fully into maternity clothes and have been for almost three weeks. I did the button/hair tie thing for awhile, but I was getting too uncomfortable in my jeans to keep that up any longer! Any why should I when I can wear maternity jeans—OH MY GOODNESS those are so comfortable! Seriously. Thankfully I can still wear some of my regular shirts.  I had a couple of breakdowns along the way trying to find clothes that fit—especially at first. Shopping for maternity clothes isn’t nearly as much fun as I’d hoped. Guess I’ll have to stick to shoes and accessories.

Gender? We cannot wait to find out the gender! Just 15 more days and we’ll know if we’re having a boy or a girl!! Be sure to vote in our gender poll on the right side of the blog.

Movement? I haven’t felt a definite movement yet, but I did experience what I now know to be “little flutters”. They feel a little like a butterfly is flying around in your stomach. At the time I wasn’t quite sure what it was.

Cravings/Aversions? At the very beginning it wasn’t so much what I was craving but what I didn’t want to eat that was the problem. Almost immediately after getting a positive pregnancy test my aversion to protein—poultry in particular—set in. I wanted NOTHING to do with chicken and the thought of a chicken breast literally made be gag. Any kind of meat was a huge turn off and I still haven’t been able to eat a hamburger. Nothing healthy sounded good at all. And—if you can believe it—my chocolate craving was gone. My diet consisted of baked potatoes, cheese, crackers, peanut butter and cheez-its. I was craving refried beans at first, but I QUICKLY found out that was a terrible craving to have and thus have been avoiding them like the plague ever since.

I haven’t really been craving anything in particular—but do have a hankering for something specific every now and then. We had dinner with some of our friends, The Smiths, and they made homemade rice krispie treats for dessert. Little did I know that they’d be such a hit with Baby O! Dare I confess that I’ve eaten 4 batches of rice krispie treats since then??!

I also got on a cheez-it and lemonade kick for awhile (only the Simply Lemonade brand though—everything else was too sweet). Kelly thought I was nuts for going through jugs of lemonade in just a few short days. And best of all, I do find that a good-‘ol-fashioned Slurpee will do the trick no matter what! I was having a sinking spell one afternoon while running errands with my Mom and a Slurpee sounded amazing. I haven’t stopped drinking them since. Needless to say—I think they’ll be my saving grace this summer!

What I miss? Thankfully there’s not a whole lot I’ve had to give up, but if you know me, you know I miss my morning Spark the most. I also miss not running out of breath after climbing the stairs or a brisk walk.

What I’m looking forward to? We’ve been counting down the days to find out if we’re having a boy or a girl—so I guess I’d have to say the gender reveal. But coming in a close second is the nursery! Once we know what we’re having then I’ll be able to figure out what I want the nursery to look like. Oh yea, and that I can finally start buying stuff for our little one!!

Well that’s all I’ve got for the latest pregnancy update. Until next time!