Seventeen Weeks!

Another week has hit the books! Because I traveled this week, I'm a little thrown off. Apologies in advance if I duplicate items from last week. It's all blurring together! That said, here are the highlights:

• Pop Goes My Belly: R and I looked through my bump photos for the past few weeks and realized that - holy cow - I "popped" sometime in the past week. I look huge! You can definitely tell there's a baby growing in there, as you'll see in this week's photo.
• I Feel Bad About My Belly Button: have you heard of that Nora Ephron book I Feel Bad About My Neck? Well, I relate, except my bad feelings are in regards to my belly button. The aforementioned popping seems to have turned my adorable innie into an outie! It is squishy and pokes out. To make him understand why it's freaking me out, I had R stop while walking down the street yesterday so I could lift up my shirt and have him poke it. It's so weird!! I heard two teenagers making fun of a pregnant woman with a really noticeable outie at R's tri last weekend. Now I'm obsessed. Chalk it up to yet another unexpected side effect!
• Give It to Me Straight, Doc: we had our monthly OB appointment on Friday. It was very uneventful, as they all are now. I weighed in (moment of truth!), had my bp checked (120/60 - same as every other appointment), had my belly poked and prodded (baby's still growing), and listened to the heartbeat (fast and strong). We got to ask our questions, though this particular doctor was pretty business-like and not very loquacious. My practice has 12 doctors and whomever is on call when it's time to deliver is the designated baby catcher. I'm endeavoring to meet all of the doctors before that time comes, so I see a different doc at each appointment. This one was decidedly not my favorite so far, but I'm trying not to let it bother me. The highlight of the appointment was scheduling our anatomy scan for August 11 - exactly 21 weeks!
• We Are Family: during our trip to Seattle this week, Baby and I got the chance to hang out with Aunt K & PV! It was so fun to see them - we had lunch at Elliott's, toured Pike Place Market (fish throwers! cherry samples! art!), wandered down to Pioneer Square for some insane caramel apples, visited Salumi (the Batali family's Italian deli), poked around a Finnish store, and purchased a gift for friends of K & PV. We then hiked back to my hotel and spent some time just chatting. It was just the loveliest visit and I felt so lucky to have the free afternoon of my work trip overlap with their vacation. Always fun to see family! 
• Cold in a Heat Wave: of course, after my travel, I seem to have come down with a summer cold. The neti pot is saving my life, but I can't believe how sluggish, weak, and foggy-headed I feel. It's a bummer, but I know pregnant gals are more prone to picking up bugs, so I've sort of been anticipating this for awhile. I'm sure I'll shake it sometime this week, which will be just in time for our pre-baby getaway... more on that next week!

For now, on to the tracker!

Week: 17

Weight: +5 so far!

Baby is the Size of a(n): Pear

Symptoms: tired, hungry, dizzy when I get up too quickly, round ligament pain when sneezing/coughing/shifting positions (sneezed in bed last night and actually cried because I felt like I was being torn in half), tailbone pain when sitting for awhile, heavy & crampy feeling in lower abdomen, very vivid dreams, and serious moodiness (still rocking the waterworks, plus my filter is broken: I commented loudly that I'm 'breathing for two, here' when passing a smoker on the street in Seattle. Yikes!)

Current Obsession: sweets, blueberries, cherries, PANCAKES, tomatoes, all the vegetables from our farm share, peanut butter, red meat, and whole wheat English muffins

Current Aversion: eggs and anything greasy (this is pretty bearable now)

Thinking About: when R will be able to feel the baby move; whether we're having a boy or girl (we find out on 8/11!); designing a nursery; finishing up our registry; and dreaming up names (we have a strong contender for favorite right now!)

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Sixteen Weeks!

Another week, another post. So far, week sixteen has been pretty delightful. Here are the highlights:

• Moving and grooving! Our little babe has been wiggly and squirmy all week, leaving me smiling several times throughout the day. There are times when the thumps (kicks, maybe? They feel like I'm being lightly 'flicked' from the inside...) are strong enough - or well-positioned enough - that I can lightly press my hand on my belly and feel them both inside and outside! I think the fact that I can feel them inside makes the outside feeling more noticeable to me, because R still hasn't been able to feel anything. Won't be long now, I'm sure!
• New job! I started a new job this week and am finally settled in to my new office, organized, and ready to dig in. It's not as though there's nothing else going on in my life, but it's still fun to take on a new challenge. The wiggling babe in my belly keeps me centered and keeps life in perspective, for which I'm very thankful.
• Cheer, cheer! R had a major triathlon yesterday, so I went out to support him, and baby - by default - came along. After a good luck kiss, R was in the water for the swim, so I hightailed it out onto the bike course to wait for him. As I walked along, I found a perfect spot where the riders would go by on their way out onto the course, and then back by again in the second half of the ride. My choice of a spot to set up may admittedly have been impacted by the delicious donut smell wafting out of a corner bakery. I plunked down my camp chair on the corner, ordered a glazed donut twist and a water, and sat outside to wait. When R went by, he grinned at me, knowing full well why I was sitting where I was. Around the time he went by, Baby starting wiggling around. Whether excited about the donut or the race, we'll never know. ;)
• Jet-setting! I'll round out week sixteen with a trip to Seattle for three days of meetings and recreation. It'll be my first time out there, and I'm pretty excited! Luckily, the extreme aversion to seafood has passed, so I'll be enjoying some good eats in addition to taking in the sights. I'll share photos on the week seventeen post. :)

Until that time, how about the tracker?

Week: 16

Weight: -2 during first trimester (will update every four weeks when I visit the doctor for an official measurement, and I go in again on Friday)

Baby is the Size of a(n): Avocado!

Symptoms: tired, hungry, dizzy when I get up too quickly, round ligament pain when sneezing/coughing/shifting positions, tailbone pain when sitting for awhile, heavy & crampy feeling in lower abdomen, very vivid dreams, and serious moodiness (ask R about the multiple times he's come into the kitchen to find me bawling!)

Current Obsession: sweets, blueberries, cherries (we enjoyed many, many cherry treats this week such as jam, pie, pound cake sundaes, and cherry chocolate smoothies thanks to an incredible sale on organic cherries at WFM), waffles/pancakes/French toast, oatmeal, tomatoes, all the vegetables from our farm share, and whole wheat English muffins

Current Aversion: eggs and anything greasy (this is pretty bearable now)

Thinking About: when I'll really pop so that other people can tell I'm pregnant; when R will be able to feel the baby move; whether we're having a boy or girl (should be scheduling our anatomy scan at my appointment on Friday!); designing a nursery; finishing up our registry; and dreaming up names (we have a strong contender for favorite right now!)

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Fifteen Weeks!

Oh dear, another week where I'm just barely squeaking in with the update in time. I'd blame it on how busy we are, but we were enjoying a stay-cation for the past 5 days, so that's not really true. Let's just got with pregnancy brain. :) Yeah, it just slipped my mind.

The biggest and most exciting news to report this week is that I am all but certain now that I'm feeling our squirmy little baby wiggling and thumping away in my belly! It's just about the most magical sensation I can imagine, but it's very hard to describe. In some ways it feels like I swallowed a gold fish, in others it's like that nervous "butterflies in the stomach" feeling you get sometimes. I told R it's almost like that feeling you get when you unexpectedly go over a little hill in the car and it "gets" your stomach (you know, a tiny version of that over-the-top roller coaster feeling?). I feel like the baby is saying, "Don't worry, Mama, I'm still in here growing!" I don't know quite how to explain it, but it's a feeling I've waited almost four months to feel, it makes me smile every time, and it's something I know I'll always remember.

The other noteworthy things from this week were:

• Nearly fainting in the (packed) Apple Store on Saturday. There we were, sitting on stools at the Genius Bar when out of nowhere, the feeling hit. I suddenly felt uncomfortable: hot, short of breath, and just generally out of sorts. Now, I've passed out before, and I recognize the feeling of impending loss of consciousness. I told R I needed to go walk around because I didn't quite feel right. I stood up and as I tried to make my way out of the store, my vision started going black around the edges, my face and arms went tingly, and my ears started buzzing... I held onto tables as I kept walking and willed myself to make it to a bench outside. I just kept thinking, "If you fall, try not to hit your head on one of these tables." Wouldn't that have killed the vibe of the Apple Store?! ;) Anyway, I made it to the mall rotunda area and sat with my head between my knees until the world righted itself. R took me to get a bottle of water when we left and I felt much better in no time. I have been feeling much dizzier and more prone to blacking out lately, so getting plenty of food and water, plus being more slow and deliberate with my movements seems to be the best game plan.
• Buying some of my first maternity clothes (all shirts, so far). The Fourth of July sales were pretty compelling, so I snagged a few cute tops that fit me like sacks right now, but will be perfect for work in a few weeks/months. I'm not used to buying clothes in the hopes that they will fit me soon, and it's even weirder to think, "I hope I get big enough that these don't look silly." Pregnancy is very strange.
• Sort of popping this week. I've been having twinges and aches deep in my abdomen, which I can only describe as "stretching". It actually hurts a little, but it's another reassuring sign that things are going as they should. I woke up one morning this weekend and said, "Well, there's a baby in there." I have a little tummy now that I can't suck in, so I think that's the real deal. The average onlooker still wouldn't guess that I'm pregnant, I think. In fact - confession time - I find myself rubbing my belly in public so people realize I'm pregnant and not just putting on weight. ;)
• Hitting a new clothing low this morning: the button on my jeans ripped out (as in, the button is no longer attached to the pants). Talk about "under pressure"! Truthfully, it was more an impeachment of the jeans than my belly - they're pretty worn. That said, this incident lends further support to the "time to buy some clothes that fit" pressure I've been feeling for some time now... it's hard to say goodbye to my clothes, though, as that feels like it means saying goodbye to my body! (Luckily, my burgeoning little belly is pretty cute - at least that's what R tells me!)

Okay, the tracker:

Week: 15

Weight: -2 during first trimester (will update every four weeks when I visit the doctor for an official measurement)

Baby is the Size of a(n): Orange!

Symptoms: tired, hungry, dizzy when I get up too quickly, round ligament pain when sneezing/coughing/shifting positions, tailbone pain when sitting for awhile, heavy & crampy feeling in lower abdomen, very vivid dreams, and serious moodiness (waterworks!)

Current Obsession: sweets (I have been baking like a maniac!), blueberries, cherries, waffles/pancakes/French toast, oatmeal, tomatoes, all the vegetables from our farm share, and whole wheat English muffins

Current Aversion: beef, eggs, seafood, and anything greasy (this is basically a non-issue now - I'll eat these things, but they don't sound the best)

Thinking About: when I'll really pop so that other people can tell I'm pregnant; when R will be able to feel the baby move; whether we're having a boy or girl; designing a nursery; finishing up our registry; and dreaming up names (we have a strong contender for favorite right now!)

Picture: