Another Shot, Too Late

So I got the flu.
I had been waiting on the best time to get my flu shot when I didn't have a cold (last week) and when I didn't have anything super fun to attend. You know, just in case it made me sick. I am well aware of the fact that the flu shot cannot make you sick...but sometimes the side effects are pretty rotten too.

Then I got the flu from hell and had my first throw up of the pregnancy. Thankfully it was a quick 24 hour bug that left as suddenly as it came on.
Flu shot officially in me now, so hopefully no more vomit this year :)

Nothing much else has been going on in these parts, just enjoying every moment of this journey!

And we're back to squash...

23 weeks and the size of a butternut.

Feeling the Burn

Week 22 brought heartburn! 

Apparently I have never had heartburn before, because I wasn't even sure what it was when it arrived. I'm still not quite sure that it isn't acid reflux...if that's different from heartburn. Anyway, it's here and I'm eating lots of tums. 

I have to say, despite the heartburn, I am feeling better physically than I have since this little embryo implanted in The Uterus Formerly Known as Empty. I have lots of energy, I am now clearly pregnant and not fat, so I don't feel so gross, and all in all everything is hunky dory around these parts. Another bonus that any infertile who has been pregnant even for a moment might be able to relate to: now that I can feel her moving around, I know almost hourly that she is still there. If only the movement was palpable in the first trimester, it would save so much cray cray.

I totally thought that my pre-prego wardrobe would stretch further into the weeks than it has. Even my long shirts are getting short, and no one wants to see a flesh-colored belly band popping out the bottom of my shirt! So shopping it is.

And! The baby is the size of something other than squash this week :)

 

Yes, I'm totally in pajama pants. Husband was was definitely instructed to leave those out of the picture. Clearly, photography is not his day job...

 

Belated Updates

The post was written. The photos were taken. The photos were not uploaded due to laziness and daylight savings sleepiness, so over a week late...

I'm starting to feel like I have an alien inside me. It was all good and well until I started over analyzing the little being. I have started feeling more than just little pokes in my lower belly. Sometimes I feel rolls, sometimes I feel flip flops, sometimes I feel a limb (one of the four, not sure which!) move from one area to another. It's pretty cool, but also incredibly weird. And if I think about it a lot, it kind of creeps me out! I mean, there is a human in there. In my uterus. Doing whatever little humans do when in a uterus. And it's breathing fluid. It's unbelievable.
As Baby and I rang in 21 weeks of togetherness, Daddy got to feel a big, huge movement on the outside for the first time ever. I don't know that I've ever seen his eyes light up like that; he was in complete and utter awe and so excited. It was just as amazing to watch as it is to feel.

It's also starting to feel a bit crowded in there. After I eat, it feels like I can't take a deep breath and that my ab muscles are streeettttccching. And I have hiccups ALL.THE.TIME. They are not the subtle kind either. Usually a big, loud, awkward hiccup in the middle of a quiet meeting or in the grocery store. So funny for everyone involved!

Baby Girl is the size of sugar pie pumpkin!

Scans and Squash

First off, thanks for sharing in our girl excitement! It is an interesting situation to be SO excited to be having a girl and know at the same time that if we found out we were having a boy we would have been equally excited! It's so fun to know and stop calling the Little One "It"!

The 20 week scan was pretty amazing. The details of the little body were so much easier to see now that she is the size of a weird bumpy Fall squash :)

"I'm actually the size of a banana, but Mom squashed it, so squash it is!" No pun intended.

 The placenta is far away from my cervix, so no placenta previa and all the parts checked out exactly right! The most difficult part to see was in between her legs. Apparently we have a modest one! Hopefully that will serve her well in her teenage years ;)

The ultrasound tech got all the way through the scan and said the best she could give us was her best guess. WHAT!?!? I almost lost it because I thought we wouldn't be able to find out. The Doctor came in to do his part of the scan and also revealed that from the images the tech had gotten he was also not sure. Fab. But FINALLY he got a good glimpse and was able to say with 99% certainty that we have a Little Miss growing in there. I'll take those odds. 

I must have been giving off strong girl vibes because 99% of people asked thought I was having a girl, but didn't know why. On the day that we saw the heartbeat for the first time, one of the receptionists was the first to predict that we were having a girl. At 6 weeks 4 days. Even strangers who predicted thought girl, so I think I would have been shocked if it was a boy.

Now on with the decorating of the nursery! And of course, some shopping! Shopping for maternity clothes is just not as fun as regular clothes, so I'm going to displace my retail indulgences onto my fetus. Woot woot!

Pink or Blue?

Well Guys, what do you think? Pink...or blue?

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PINK it is!!! There's a baby girl in there!!!

Hmm...Where'd That Come From?

Fall has brought with it cooler days, everything pumpkin, falling leaves, and some weird stray hairs and nipple "stuff".

A few nights ago I looked down at my bare belly while greasing it up with some stretch mark preventing oil and noticed a little gathering of little peach-fuzzy blond hairs on the lower portion. I have no idea what that's about. Then I noticed some white flakiness on my nipples, what appears to be a tiny bit of dried milk. Lactation, check. This was a weird week in the body department, people!

Nothing much else has changed except that I am having a little bit harder time sleeping at night. Aside from still waking up at least twice a night to pee, I am finding it harder to find a comfortable position. A big, giant pregnancy sleep pillow may be in my future.

Nineteen completed weeks of growing a baby. NINETEEN WEEKS?! How did that happen?! We are just about half way there?! I will spare you from more "?!" combos, but really, I never anticipated the weeks would fly by like this. In just a few days we have our scheduled anatomy scan where I will find out if this little one is a Mr. or a Miss! I CAN. NOT. WAIT!!!! I am so excited to find out the gender that I have almost forgotten that they will also be checking out all of the other parts to make sure everything is looking a-okay. Just as long as everything looks healthy and on-track, we will be happy, but I am so, so excited to know I can hardly stand it.

I don't know if I'm missing some pregnancy intuition, but I have absolutely no inklings or feelings on which sex it is. I do have to say, probably 95% of people that have made a prediction on gender (it's funny how many people do this!) have guessed that I'm having a girl. Most have said that they just have a "feeling". Only time will tell!

Without further ado...

Baby is the size of a Winter Squash. Okay, the book said large mango, but it is not mango season, so none to be found!

Also, a fellow blogger suggested I make a page with weekly bump shots, so I started that too. So if you're not in a bump viewing place, avoid my "Belly" page like the plague.

Sexy or Awkward

This week started off at a bachelorette party. It was awesome to relax with girls, in the sun, poolside for a weekend. When we were told there was a "surprise" for the bachelorette on one of the nights, my first guess was stripper. I was confused when a woman showed up at the house...then pleasantly surprised when I found out we were taking a burlesque class. It was pretty hilarious and also super awkward. What I learned is: 1) Air-humping is super weird. At all times. 2) Some people were born to be strippers (or have insanely lucky husbands). 3) Pregnant ladies doing burlesque are cute, way funny, and sexy? For some reason everyone was very enthralled with the pregos (there were two of us) doing burlesque and couldn't stop telling us how hot we were. Hey, I'll take it.
Aside from bacheloretting, the week was pretty eventful. On the plane ride home I felt what I thought was the first "flutter". But I wasn't convinced because of all of the plane vibrations. And because it didn't feel like a flutter at all.

  Tuesday I had a checkup with my OB where we heard the heartbeat for the very first time ever! I was half expecting/hoping that they wouldn't be able to find it because they couldn't last time and that we would get a little ultrasound peak. No go, but still fun to hear it beating away (at 140ish beats per minute). My OB asked if I had felt movement yet, to which I replied, "maybe?" Apparently that's a very common answer.

The next day I felt movement FOR SURE. When I say it doesn't feel like a flutter, I mean it doesn't feel like a flutter at all. The way I describe it is a poke from inside, which kind of makes sense since the legs are probably about the diameter of a finger :) It has been one of the more exciting parts of the pregnancy so far to finally be able to have some almost daily tangible evidence that something is growing (besides my belly). It's also amazed me how much that little one moves in there! Usually I feel a series of kicks in one focused area, then nothing. Then the next series will be in a completely different area of my tummy, which gives me images of the baby flipping and somersaulting around in there. Pretty amazing peeps.

This week the acrobatic bebe is about the size of a sweet potato.

And a side view!