24 Weeks Pregnant

As I approach the third trimester, the “honeymoon stage” of the second trimester is quickly fading. I feel like I am going to explode! Whenever I eat too much I roll around in pain because it is so hard to breathe with all that pressure. The other night Scott and I went to a ward dinner event. We had already gone to a movie and had snacked throughout it, so when we got to the dinner I was already full. But hey, why not stuff myself some more? Big mistake! After eating, Scott looked over at my bright red, pained face and asked if I was going to pass out. I wasn’t going to pass out, but I was feeling a bit hot and stuffed. They were giving some very spiritual talks but I couldn’t take much longer and I got up to use the bathroom. I am glad the bathroom was empty because I spent the next 15 minutes jumping up and down, touching my toes, hanging from a stall door, loosening my pants, shoving my belly out and rolling around hoping that maybe I could get some more room in there. Eventually I gave up and left. Scott was standing outside the door looking very concerned. He had been debating about busting in the women’s bathroom to heroically save me because he was sure I had died in there. I am so grateful my husband is understanding of my pregnancy pains. We left early and I waddled to the car. Yes I have begun waddling, and yes I look like an idiot because I am not that far along yet.

Sometimes I wonder where this baby is going to fit when he gets bigger!

Right now he is the size of an ear of corn:

 

But one day he will be the size of a small pumpkin:

How in the heck is a pumpkin going to fit if I am already choking on corn!?!

Other than dying from food, I feel great! On Wednesday, we went to my doctor’s appointment for another ultra-sound and it was great to see my little boy again. He is still a boy! He is also healthy, healthy and Lincoln got to see him. When she was showing us the baby Lincoln said, “he is smiling!”. When she showed us his spine Lincoln shouted “he has teeth!” and then while looking at the head he said '”he is a circle”. We thought it was funny that he was so interested in the baby and shouting out what he thought he was seeing. Lincoln also felt the baby move for the first time this week. I was reading him his bedtime story and while I read, he held his hand on my stomach. When he got a kick to the hand he sat up and stared at my belly and asked, “what is in there mom?”. I keep telling him it is a baby, but I am sure he thinks mom is getting fat with an alien.

As for the exciting news, we decided on a name! Yay! I thought for sure our little boy was going to be nameless. I really wanted to have his name picked out before because it helps with bonding. It makes him seem more like a person and already apart of the family. We have decided to not tell anyone the name, but we will give you a hint:

It is a name of a car

Now for stats: This week I gained another two pounds making the total 17 pounds. Sometimes I feel like the weight is going to all the wrong places, like my love handles, thighs and rear end, but I am just thankful that my little boy is healthy and growing, even if it means I have to grow all odd-shaped too.

My belly is really starting to pop!

Here is my bare belly:

23 Weeks Pregnant

All about the bladder

My bladder takes over my life when I am pregnant. I constantly have the “urge to pee” and if I can go three straight hours without rushing to the bathroom it is a miracle. At night I make sure I go right before bed and then wake up twice in the middle of the night. It is exhausting and just plain annoying!

Last Friday, Lincoln and I went to the park to throw rocks and play in the water. I made sure to go to the bathroom before. I promise. I’m not sure if it was being around water but the moment we got there I had to pee. First mistake, I decided to hold it. After two hours, yes two whole hours, I was bouncing and told Lincoln it was time to go. He needed to finish throwing all his rocks. Maybe I am a terrible mom, but after watching him take his time throwing several rocks, I kicked the rest of the rocks in the lake with one quick sweep of the foot, “They’re gone, time to go buddy!”. I began walking quickly to the car and who knows what he was doing, crawling? Ugh! I grabbed him and began running. He lost his shoe. I put his shoe back on. Eventually we made it to the car and once the car was started I breathed a sigh of relief, only three miles to the house. That’s when it happened. I could feel the sneeze coming on. “Crap!” I thought as I crossed my legs and sneezed hoping with hope that it wouldn’t happen. Oh but it happened. Yes, I peed my pants. A grown woman, how embarrassing! It wasn’t too horrible, but bad enough that I did need to change some clothes.

This baby is on my bladder. Oh does he love bouncing on my bladder. I feel like I am nine months pregnant the way I run to the bathroom, cross my legs and smack Scott when he gets me laughing a little more than I can handle. By the end of this pregnancy I will probably be wearing depends.

Other than bladder problems, everything is growing nicely. I gained another pound this week making my total 15 pounds.

This week baby’s lungs are developing stronger and believe it or not if baby was born there is a very minimal chance of survival, but still a chance. Amazing!

Baby is the size of a large mango;

and here is my little mango:

22 Weeks Pregnant

I have the hardest time taking pictures on the day of. I just don’t have the time! Tonight while making dinner, Scott snapped a quick picture while I cooked. Speaking of dinner, I have become OBSESSED with cooking. Anyone that knows me, knows that I HATE cooking. I always have and I was determined to always hate it, but something happened and I believe that “something” is pregnancy. I enjoy cooking and trying different recipes now, weird. I don’t think we have eaten the same thing twice in the past two months. Good, yummy, homemade food is what I crave and now that we are 12 hours away from my mom who cooked us the yummiest Sunday dinners, I now get my fix every day cooking myself. Yet it is more than just good food, I want to be healthy for my baby and oh my gosh did I find the BEST website for healthy recipes in the entire WORLD!

skinnytaste.com

Holy crap! I LOVE her recipes and I LOVE how healthy and tasty they are! For the past two months I have been a cooking machine and now the thought of making anything from a box makes me want to gag. Why would I ever put that nasty stuff into my body or my child's? Can you say hydrogenated oils? They are in most packaged foods and it is basically like eating plastic. Scott thinks I am insane, but I take it as a compliment. I thought it would be hard to stop eating hydrogenated oils, but as long as you make everything from scratch and don’t use nasty margarine, oils or shortening you don’t even realize you are avoiding it. Of course eating healthy doesn’t stop me from cooking LOTS of sweets and treats.

I made these yummy sour cream sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting. Mmmmmmmm!

 

They were gone in three days, whoops!

Besides cooking, I went through Lincoln’s baby clothes to decide what I needed to buy and sort out the clothes that were worn, stained or out of style. While I was going through the clothes, Lincoln would get so excited and say, “This was my FAVORITE baby shirt!” or “These were my Favorite baby boops(boots)”. It made me laugh pretty hard.

The other day I was laying on my back and scratching my belly(sounds gross but my skin is so itchy!) and my belly was sticking out, Lincoln came over and said, “WHAT is in THERE mom?”. He doesn’t quite understand what is going on yet.

But what is going on is pretty exciting! Baby is 11 inches long and about a pound. He looks like a baby with his perfect lips, eyes and eyebrows. He even has lanugo, fine hair, covering his body.

He is the size of a spaghetti squash:

I have been feeling really good this week! Nothing too exciting and no changes. My total weight gain is 14lbs and I can tell my belly is about to pop right out there any day. It feels so tight! The “fat” stage should be over with in no time, I can’t wait! I need to go buy my some pregnant clothes because these ones won’t last much longer. Yay!

21 Weeks Pregnant

I felt like my posts were getting a little bland, so I thought I would spice it up with a little bit of my personal opinion. This post is an honest TMI post. Remember it is a pregnancy blog so if you don’t want to know the details of being pregnant you probably shouldn’t read it!

There are two types of girls, complainers and tough girls. Well, that is what I use to think. I could hardly stand to hear pregnant girls complain about how miserable they were every single day and every single moment. So I decided I was going to be the tough girl when I got pregnant, and I was with Lincoln, but I recently decided tough girls are the most annoying girls of all! There is a nice balance between being tough and complaining. Pregnancy is no piece of cake and it comes along with strange symptoms; stretch marks, weight gain, swollen hands and face, nausea, varicose veins, gas, stomach cramps, bone aches, larger hips, tender boobs and well pretty much every thing a girl could possibly not want.

This post I decided I would share some of the awful symptoms I have experienced. No I definitely do not think it is healthy to sit around and complain, but I do believe in being honest. If some girl is telling you how she gained hardly any weight, didn’t swell, had no stretch marks and experienced no pregnancy symptoms, chances are she isn’t being very honest with you.  Of course there are the rare few that really don't. I haven't had a lot of symptoms and my pregnancies are really easy, but I want people to realize I am human too! Although there are times I forget I am pregnant there are still the little reminders that I am.

This past week has been excellent! I have felt great, but I also feel pregnant. Whenever I exercise I get this terrible pain in my pubic bone. It feels like someone kicked me in the crotch. Ouch! It happened with Lincoln further along in my pregnancy. At night my hips ache, and I constantly have to change positions to put pressure off my hips. When I take a shower my legs turn all purple and blotchy, gross! My limbs go numb all time if I sit in any position for too long. It is so weird!

As for stretch marks….

I have to talk about stretch marks because they are a worry for every pre-pregnant girl, pregnant girl and post pregnant girl. I haven’t gotten any new stretch marks….yet….. but I am sure I will get them. Last time I got them on my lower hips, butt and my chest. I cried for a good night because I felt so ugly. Most people probably have no idea I even have them. It isn’t something I show off(obviously) but I also recognize that stretch marks are apart of pregnancy. I could care less if people know I have them now! It doesn’t make me less pretty, they are scars that show what I  went through to have children. They happen to almost everyone, on the belly, on the boobs, on the butt and even on the legs. Nothing is more annoying to me when girls brag about how they don’t have any stretch marks and act like they are better than those who do. Chances are everyone has them somewhere, even my husband has them (don’t tell him I told you!). I even got some when I was growing in high school! The point is, if you have them, don’t feel bad! If you are scared to get them, don’t worry! Most of mine have completely faded and the deeper ones on my hips were not noticeable at all after I got back into shape. A few of my friends got them on their stomachs really bad, but after some exercise they were almost impossible to see without really trying to look. There is literally nothing you can do to prevent them because they are genetic but don’t worry because it is normal.

As for other awful symptoms, they aren’t here yet, but they are right around the corner.

Swelling, my hands have already started to swell, but my face will swell lots towards the end. Last time I didn’t think I swelled at all, until I look back at pictures.

Wider hips and ribcage: My hips will spread along with my ribs and honestly when I look at pictures post-pregnancy I think my round curves are much more attractive than stick thin. I didn’t realize I had gotten any bigger below until my baby belly was gone. I remember a few weeks after having Lincoln, I was feeling my ribs and boy were they far apart! There is no way I could fit into my high school prom dresses anymore. I am built more like a women and not like a teenager, nothing wrong with that. It’s called growing up.

Weight Gain: Every woman is different and I constantly have to remind myself that it is healthy to gain weight. Some only gain 15 pounds while others gain 40. Your body knows what you need and as long as you are eating healthy and a good caloric amount you will gain what you need to gain. With Lincoln I gained 20 pounds, but I have gained 14 pounds already this pregnancy (I gained another pound this week) and still have 19 weeks to go.

Embrace the beauty of pregnancy and all the crazy things that come along with it!  Most of all stay positive, active and healthy and you will enjoy your pregnancy. BUT don’t be ashamed to complain and ask your husband for foot massages and get a little extra pampering because you are carrying a baby and therefore you deserve a little extra love!

Now back to my regular boring posts.  This week baby is as long as a carrot!

I thought I would do a little side by side comparison from last time. I can definitely tell that I am carrying different this time around. For one my shirts are feeling tighter and the dress I wore on Sunday is ready to be stored away for later, it was a tight fit,  but my pants are still loose. With my acid reflux, I am guessing I am carrying higher.

 

 

19 and 20 Weeks Pregnant

On Wednesday I had my second appointment and it was a complete disaster. Long story short, the office was much too big for me and the secretary was very rude and talked to me like I was an idiot, which I was from all the confusion. They wanted me to drive to a different building to get my blood work done and schedule another appointment with a different office to have an ultra-sound. The doctor was a big sweetheart, but I don’t feel like driving all over town to have appointments, especially since it took me an hour to get there (I got lost with a GPS). Once I got to my car I bawled for a good ten minutes because I miss my small town where everything is simple, friendly and convenient. I scheduled an appointment for next week with a different office that is only ten minutes away and everything is done in the same building. We’ll see how it goes!

However, I don’t want to focus on the negatives of the appointment because there is way more exciting things to talk about!

Like the fact that I am going to have a BOY!!! The doctor did a quick ultra-sound so I could find out the gender and my little boy was trying his best to hide his privates. I instantly could tell it was a boy, but it took the doctor a while to get a good picture. Towards the end, baby got the hiccups and it was just about the cutest thing ever. He is growing good and will probably be bigger than Lincoln was.

As for having a boy…..

Wow! I am beyond excited! How cute is it that I will have two adorable boys? Very cute! I can’t wait to dress them the same for church. As soon as my appointment was over I drove to a store and bought them a couple of matching outfits. I have about six storage bins packed with baby clothes(from Lincoln) and I can’t wait to go through them. Of course I will be buying plenty of new clothes too, because I am one for spoiling my children rotten.

As for the little guy, he is doing good. He has a strong heart beat and measuring a little bigger than 19 weeks, so they moved up my due date to

July 21, 2012

Yep, that is right! I am in fact 20 weeks and four days today. I promise I didn’t skip a week. This week I have once again felt great, lots of energy, no pregnancy symptoms and even my acid reflux I have managed to keep away by watching my proportions. And with being 20 weeks, that means I am at the half-way mark! WOW! Is that crazy or what? You know what is even crazier? Baby is the length of a banana!

 

Can you believe there is a baby in there? Seems like a dream until the little guy gives me a soft kick.