A new background! We took this photo last weekend just before going into our first Christmas celebration at Aaron’s dad and stepmom’s house. They live high up on a hill and have an incredible view from their driveway.
We celebrated Christmas four times with different members of our family, and each time felt extra-special because we experienced such an outpouring of love and excitement for our daughter.
Shortly after Thanksgiving, we sent our baby-registry link to our parents so they could choose gifts from it if they wanted to. Well, those grandparents-to-be sure are excited, because we received so many generous gifts! Santa brought everything from big items — like a car seat, high chair, and swing — to safety must-haves — like baby gates and a video monitoring system — and of course plenty of toys, books, clothes, and more. It was like a pre-baby-shower shower! We are overwhelmed, so grateful, and working hard on our thank-you notes. 🙂
Luckily, the only time I cried was during our first celebration with Aaron’s dad’s side of the family. We were in the middle of opening presents when I pulled out an adorable pink onesie and just started sobbing in front of about 10 people. Those were the very first gifts we’d received for our baby, and seeing them just made everything feel so real. Gotta love those pregnancy hormones!
Our next celebration was hosting my dad and brother at our house on Christmas Eve — or what we called Christmas Evie, since she received the most gifts out of anyone by far.
(Yup, I’m wearing the same top. My “festive maternity top” selection is quite limited.)
I really need to look into finding an adult version of this activity gym; it converts into a ball pit, and what could be more fun than that??
Thank you so much to my dad and brother for their incredibly generous gifts, and more importantly, their wonderful company on Christmas Eve!
And thank you to Aaron for making our delicious dinner of glazed ham, roasted potatoes, biscuits, and salad. Actually, I made the salad. 🙂
Aaron and I opened our gifts to each other first thing on Christmas morning. I got him a pair of Ugg slippers he wanted, plus some cookware he’d been coveting from Crate & Barrel because he is truly obsessed with cooking/baking and I do everything I can to encourage it. 🙂
Aaron got me two pairs of my favorite cozy socks — I’d been begging for a replacement pair, because they’re the greatest ever and I’ve worn holes in mine — and he also booked me a prenatal massage in our hotel room during our babymoon in February! YESSSSSS!!!
Next, we were off to Aaron’s mom and stepdad’s house for Christmas brunch. Santa had been busy!
We enjoyed a fantastic brunch my mother-in-law Greta made of blueberry French toast casserole (with challah bread!), egg nests, and fresh fruit. So good!
One funny moment we had while exchanging gifts was when Aaron’s stepdad Mark opened this sweater that Aaron had chosen for him, and then Aaron immediately opened one very similar to it that Greta and Mark had gotten for him! So cute.
I was thrilled to receive what I had asked Santa for: a super-cozy pair of gloves and a cold-weather headband. If you have some Christmas money to spend and need to bundle up for the winter, I highly recommend those!
Thank you, Greta and Mark, for an amazing Christmas morning and so many wonderful gifts!
It was very special to have Grandpa O with us, too, as he recently moved into a nearby assisted living home after having lived independently to the age of 89.
Next, we went to my mom and stepdad’s house for our final celebration and Christmas dinner. My mom had all my favorite holiday snacks ready upon our arrival: fancy cheese and crackers, deviled eggs, Ruffles with sour-cream-and-onion dip, and more. A pregnant lady’s dream come true!
After exchanging gifts, Aaron cozied up by the fire like a distinguished gentleman in his new sweater…
…and Don modeled his spiffy herringbone vest.
We capped off the day with a delicious homemade dinner of a rib roast, mashed potatoes, green beans, and biscuits, and with my brother teaching my mom how to play the super-violent video game he works on at his job, which was quite entertaining. Thank you, Mom and Don, for having us and for all the fantastic gifts!
Whew, I’m exhausted just recapping all that Christmas goodness. Oh, one last thing! One gift we gave each set of grandparents-to-be was a custom ornament made by our friend Katie, who recently started a calligraphy business called Ink & Sable.
They turned out so beautifully. Thank you, Katie!
I went to the gym a whopping one time this week, the day after Christmas. It felt really good to walk and lift weights after a whole lot of sitting and eating. My weekly at-home weigh-in indicated I gained 2.5 pounds since last week. I believe it!
There is an elusive front view of the belly, which is not nearly as cute as the side view. So, yeah, we’ll just stick with side views, huh?
After last week’s weird resurgence of exhaustion, I felt back to normal in that sense this week, and made it through multiple movies without falling asleep! Aaron and I saw the new Star Wars movie thanks to a free screening his company did, and we watched a fantastic movie at home called Chef (watch the trailer). I can’t shut up about how good it was. It’s on streaming Netflix, so go watch it now!!!
My intense thirst has dissipated, so that’s nice. Hunger is about the same as ever — pretty normal.
I’m still just feeling really good, with no major complaints. I anticipated the worst while imagining what pregnancy would be like, but I’ve had it very easy so far. Even my first-trimester nausea and exhaustion weren’t that bad, compared to what many women experience. I do imagine the third trimester will suck, though, so I’m trying to enjoy this easy phase.
The best parts of every day are when I feel our baby kicking. I feel her every day now, multiple times a day, and Aaron is often able to feel her from outside my belly, too. My mom even got to feel a kick on Christmas!
I usually feel her during the quieter moments, like when I first wake up, when I’m watching TV after dinner, and when I’m falling asleep. It’s not a jabby feeling anymore; more like a hearty thumping. It makes me smile and feel so incredibly excited to meet her.
It finally feels like it’s no longer just Aaron and me, but the three of us — a family.
This is our holiday card that I was stressing about getting in the mail last week. We used a tripod to take the photo after my usual weekly picture, and then printed it at Aaron’s office print shop for super-cheap. Whatever works!
That’s all for this week; I’ll be back next year with another update. Have a safe and happy new year, everyone! We’ll be on the couch sipping sparkling cider and falling asleep well before midnight, I’m sure. Nothing sounds better, at this point!
We are officially past the halfway mark! I keep saying that it feels like the next ~19 weeks will take so long, but everyone assures me they will fly by and our baby will be here before we know it. I’m so torn between wanting the time to pass quickly and being mindful of enjoying the last few months Aaron and I have all to ourselves!
In case you’ve forgotten what I looked like before being visibly pregnant — I know I have — here’s a fun comparison. My face is definitely filling out more, in addition to my belly!
After our 20-week anatomy scan last week, we saw our doctor for a regular monthly checkup at exactly 21 weeks, and she said I’ve gained 9 pounds overall. About a pound of that is the baby — the ultrasound tech estimated during our scan that she weighed 14 oz. — and this week my pregnancy app says she’s about 10.5 inches long. We somehow forgot to ask how long she actually is!
Healthy pregnancy weight gain for a woman with a normal pre-pregnancy BMI is 25-35 pounds overall, so I’m feeling good about where I am — although I’m being more mindful about how many treats I eat, since my doctor also gave me the glucose-tolerance beverage I’ll need to drink before my next appointment to test for gestational diabetes. I’m still enjoying all the deliciousness of the holiday season, but not eating dessert after every meal anymore.
A few fun things that happened last week that I didn’t mention were that we picked up a Baby Einstein jumper/activity center thing for $20 from our neighbors, and we finally bought a changing table/dresser!
Aaron had been checking Craigslist every day for the past several weeks looking for the perfect one, and he finally hit the jackpot last weekend! We love that the top railing can be removed once we’re done using it as a changing table, and it has drawers for clothes but also open space for quickly grabbing diapers, wipes, etc. It doesn’t match the crib perfectly in terms of color, but we’re not Pinterest-picky. We paid $115, bringing our grand total for nursery furniture to $215 ($50 for the crib, $50 for the glider).
We already have some artwork hung, too, as you can see. On the far right is a print of Kermit the frog riding a bike, which we saw in a Seattle art-shop window a year-and-a-half ago and Aaron is obsessed with. Above the changing table are four of Ryan Berkley’s animal portraits that we bought from Etsy as a mutual wedding-anniversary gift. I fell in love with these quirky portraits when I saw them at a gift shop in Portland several months ago, and Aaron thought they were just as hilarious as I did. It was so hard to choose our four favorites!
Side note: We currently use the nursery as an office, and we have nowhere else to put Aaron’s desk and computer, so we’re leaving them in there. Baby’s first iMac! I also have a ton of crap in those plastic drawers that I need to go through. That’ll be exciting.
Anyway, Aaron has collected those bike prints over the past few years with the intention of hanging them in a nursery someday. That day has arrived!
And here’s the other side of the room, currently home to the glider, side table, carseat and Christmas presents!
We’re not going to paint the room, since we live in a rental and don’t want to put in the effort of nicely painting the super-tall walls (it has vaulted ceilings) when we could very well move in the next year or two, so I’m hoping to add some fun color via curtains, crib bedding, and maybe a rug. We’ll start on all that after the holidays!
Another fun purchase: Aaron found this amazing, huge teddy bear on our local buy/sell Facebook group for $15 and we had to have it!!!
Even this photo doesn’t properly show the scale. If you stand him upright next to me, he’s about as tall as I am… which is 5′6″. His name is Frank, and he’s currently hanging out on our couch for us to snuggle with, as he is so amazingly soft and comfortable.
I also had to spring for a maternity coat, as the long, puffy coat I currently wear clearly isn’t going to fit through my entire pregnancy. It’s already getting uncomfortably snug through my chest and belly, so I decided to take the plunge on a different one before I got to the point of being unable to zip it!
This one from A Pea in the Pod is pretty similar to my existing coat and has all five-star reviews, but I didn’t want to pay $200 for a coat I’ll only wear for a few more months. Miraculously, I found the exact coat in my size on eBay for $69, and Aaron — being the eBay expert, in addition to the Craigslist expert — won it for me! The description says the owner only used it for the last three weeks of her pregnancy and had it dry-cleaned afterward, so I hope it’s pretty much brand-new. In any event, I’m happy to have it for less than half of what it costs new.
Enough about stuff; how am I doing? Perfectly fine! The most common question I’m asked is, “How are you feeling?” and I have no exciting answer for it. I am noticing it’s a little more difficult to stand up from being seated, and I catch myself sighing with relief as I sit down. It just feels so good to sit down and get comfy.
A bit of exhaustion has crept back in this past week, too. Aaron and I tried to watch the first three Star Wars movies this weekend in preparation for seeing the new one, and I cannot stay awake to watch one all the way through — even in the middle of the day. On Saturday, I fell asleep from 1:30-3:30 in the afternoon, and again around 8:30 before waking up on the couch at midnight to go up to bed and sleep until 7:30 Sunday morning. It’s almost like I’m sick, but I feel perfectly fine. Just the nature of baby-growin’, I guess.
Oh, and I’ve been thirsty, thirsty, thirsty. I’ve always been a big water-drinker, but starting this past week, I can’t seem to get enough.
I guess I do have an answer to how I’m feeling after all: tired and thirsty!
I only went to the gym twice this week, as I found myself stressing about getting our holiday cards in the mail and dedicated a few evenings to doing that rather than working out. I’d been hoping the latest episode of the Serial podcast would motivate me to get on the treadmill, but no such luck!
That’s all for this week. I’m so excited for Christmas this year, as I’ve pretty much only requested baby stuff and can’t wait to see what’ll be under the tree!
I hope you all have a wonderful, safe, and happy holiday! Please drink lots of wine for me! 🙂
This was the week we finally found out the sex of our baby! Our 20-week anatomy scan was at 8 a.m. on Thursday, and I woke up feeling really nervous. As I washed my face, I broke into an intense Carrie Mathison-style cry.
(If you haven’t been watching Homeland this season, you need to get on that. It’s fantastic.)
Anyway, I haven’t been super emotional during my pregnancy so far, but it hit me that we were about to “meet” our baby for the first time — that is, we would not only see the baby again, but finally know if “it” was a he or a she. The whole thing would all feel more so much more real after finding out just that little bit more about our kiddo.
Then I went downstairs and sat on the couch with Aaron and cried some more as he looked on in absolute bewilderment. It was hard to explain the intense combination of happiness, nervousness, and anticipation I was experiencing.
Once we got to the hospital and checked in for our appointment, I lost it again when the receptionist told us the power was out due to high winds, the hospital was running on generators, and they may not be able to do the ultrasound.
Nooooo! I was already on the edge emotionally, and on top of that, I really had to pee since they told me to come to the appointment with a full bladder. All we could do was sit in the waiting area while they figured out whether or not they could do the ultrasound. It should be noted that we stared at a TV that played calming scenes — cows grazing in a field; snow geese flying around; a tropical jungle — as we waited. Surely if that TV worked, the ultrasound machine would work!
We were eventually called back by an ultrasound technician and she assured us we could do the scan. Apparently the receptionist didn’t know what she was talking about; the only thing they couldn’t do was use the internet, and they didn’t need Wi-Fi to peek inside my uterus. Oh, and I could also pee if I wanted to, did I want to? YES, PLEASE.
I was still weepy as the tech got all set up. She was so nice and assured us she’d talk us through everything.
Of course, the real purpose of this scan is to look at every inch of the baby and capture lots of images to ensure that everything is healthy and growing properly. We looked at the baby’s heart, abdomen, brain, face, arms, hands, legs, feet — you name it. The tech was very reassuring and pointed out all the healthy things she was seeing (which was everything, thank goodness!).
Her first attempt at peeking between the baby’s legs was unsuccessful, but she went back later, toward the end of the scan, and finally caught a good glimpse.
We were THRILLED to find out our baby is a girl, but we can’t say it was a complete surprise. 🙂 Right after our 13-week genetic screening ultrasound in October — when the ultrasound tech wouldn’t comment on the sex — we immediately had an appointment with the doctor who will be doing our delivery, and the nurse who took my blood pressure and stuff before the appointment offered to go ask the tech what her unofficial opinion was. Her exact words were: “Let me go see if I can get it out of her!” She came back about five minutes later with: “She thinks it’s probably a girl!”
Aaron and I still had a few minutes alone in the room waiting for the doctor, and we fully danced around the room and hugged and got all teary-eyed. Of course we would have been happy either way, but — just being honest — we both wanted a girl. I think a lot of people are surprised by this, but Aaron in particular really, really wanted a girl!
We definitely took that 13-week prediction with a grain of salt and had plenty of doubts during the weeks between the two ultrasounds — especially since so many people guessed we were having a boy! I was fully prepared to receive boy news and switch my mentality from picturing life with a little girl to picturing life with a little boy. That wasn’t the case, though, and it just feels right to know that the little girl we’ve been dreaming about is really on her way.
Speaking of that little girl — she has a name. We decided on it long ago, and we’ve chosen to share it now because we’re so happy with it and don’t plan to change it for any reason. Also, it’s becoming quite a popular name and I’ve been terrified that one of the many, many pregnant couples we know will choose it and then think we copied them (which is sort of dumb, I know, but clearly I’m not thinking 100% rationally… see the Carrie Mathison cry above).
Our daughter’s first name will be Evelyn, after professional cyclist and Olympian Evelyn Stevens, whom Aaron admires and I’ve come to admire after learning about her. This video does a beautiful job of explaining what she’s all about; I love the idea of being able to show this to our daughter whenever she asks where her name came from, so she can see that she’s named after a very brave and strong woman.
Her middle name will be June, which is pretty much just because Aaron wants to call her Junebug. 🙂 We both liked the name and it sounds nice with Evelyn.
I plan to call her Evie (pronounced with a long E sound, like Eee-vie, rather than Eh-vie) when she’s little, but who knows! My parents have a ton of weird nicknames for me (like Doodle Bug) that have nothing to do with my actual name, so there’s no telling what we’ll come up with when we meet her and get to know her personality.
And whenever she has an opinion either way, she can go by Evelyn, Evie, or whatever it is she feels comfortable with.
Although we’re already calling her by name privately and amongst family and friends — and her name is obviously no secret — I’ll probably stick with referring to her as the baby, her, she, etc. on this blog until she arrives; just my preference.
Anyway, that’s all the exciting news this week! A few more fun things happened that I’ll just lump in with next week’s update, because what could be more exciting than what I’ve already shared?? NOTHING! Our little girl is growing strong and looks perfectly healthy, and we couldn’t be more thrilled!!!
I celebrated by finally getting my hair cut for the first time since early August. I went super-short with my last cut so I could go a long time (by short-hair standards) in between cuts. It is possible to be lazy with short hair, thank goodness!
I also went a bit darker (at home), which my doctor said was perfectly safe as long as I did it in a well-ventilated space. I stayed away from hair dye during the first trimester, as that is when I was most paranoid about doing anything “wrong,” but definitely talk to your doctor about what is safe for you.
It’s hilarious how different the answers are when I Google, “Is _______ safe while pregnant?” and when I ask my doctor. Google pretty much always leads me to random message boards where people claim that ________ will totally ruin everything, and my doctor pretty much always tells me, “Oh yeah, that’s perfectly fine!” Examples: sleeping on my back, taking a certain brand of allergy pill, eating pasteurized brie. This was all great news to hear because: no matter how hard I try to fall asleep and stay asleep on my side, I always wake up on my back; both sets of my in-laws have cats that I’m super allergic to; brie makes me really, really happy.
Again, talk to your doctor… and don’t read random message boards! I probably would have worried a lot less throughout this pregnancy if I had stuck with that policy throughout.
Not that all the worry is over. It’s never over, I guess. But we’re reallyyyyy looking forward to our 20-week ultrasound to get reassurance that everything is still going well!
I continue to feel completely normal, other than getting tired around 8:00 each night and needing to be in bed by 9:00. I don’t mind, though, because I loooove sleeping and will happily take as much sleep as I can get before the kiddo arrives. I slept for 11 hours Friday night to Saturday morning — 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. — and it was glorious.
My big victory this week was reintroducing salads to my lunches after a long hiatus, and having three days in a row where my breakfast, lunch, and dinner all included vegetables! I know I mostly post pictures of delicious desserts and treats on Instagram, but I am really trying to eat healthy most of the time so I can feed the baby good nutrients and also enjoy a good snack now and then.
He sauteed extra onions and green peppers to add to the filling, so each enchilada was huge and almost made a meal in itself for me. I’d bring one to work for lunch, then have a salad an hour or two later once I had more room in my stomach.
We still have leftover filling and tortillas in the freezer; we just need to buy more enchilada sauce and cheese at some point so I can continue the love affair. ❤
I only made it to the gym twice this week, on Wednesday and Saturday. I have no good excuse, really. I did my usual walking routine for 35 minutes each day, plus lifted weights on Saturday.
I’m really starting to test the stretching capacity of my regular workout clothes. They still “fit” — like, they’re not uncomfortable or obscene-looking — but when I change out of them, the effect is similar to popping open a can of Pillsbury biscuits: everything kind of oozes out once the pressure has been released. Sorry, so graphic, but so true.
I think I’m still a few weeks away from buying new workout clothes, but my weight gain is definitely ramping up, so we’ll see. I gained two pounds from week 17 to 18, and 1 pound from 18 to 19. I’ll have an official weigh-in at the doctor this coming week to see what my total gain is so far, but I think I’m in the neighborhood of 7-8 pounds. That is crazy to me, because I feel like I can easily pack that on during an indulgent, weeklong vacation. Pregnancy is weird.
OK, it’s my bedtime, so I’m going to wrap this up real quick-like. We got a cute little Christmas tree this week, and decorated it and our mantel in approximately 15 minutes.
We’ll have to put that thing up on a table or something next year, as we’ll have a grabby little baby chilling with us. I also want to get three personalized stockings for next year, as we currently use two generic hand-me-down stockings from Aaron’s mom. Perhaps I’ll take advantage of a post-Christmas sale, if I remember?
We also made sweet gingerbread houses with our friends Sarah and Chris.
I thought we were going to be using plain gingerbread rectangles, but oh no, they had used gingerbread-house molds to make actual front, back, side, and roof pieces. Deluxe! No comment on the amount of candy we ate compared to the amount that made it onto our house.
We also drove to Portland and back in one day so Aaron could take advantage of a Rapha sample sale for hugely discounted bike clothes and accessories. We spent a total of five hours driving, one hour of waiting in line to get into the sale, and two hours in the store (which was packed full of people), including one hour of just waiting in line to buy his stuff — but it was all worth it to go to Salt & Straw afterward and eat the best ice cream of all time, ever. That’s the reason I went. And also to be a supportive wife or something.
That’s all for this week! I’ll be back next week with the big news from our 20-week ultrasound! Or maybe I’ll get too excited and share it on Instagram first!
When we first started taking these weekly photos, it was so hard to fight the urge to suck in my belly, which is what I’ve done all my life whenever I knew someone was taking a photo of me. OK, maybe not ALL my life (as seen below), but at least since I was old enough to be aware of wanting to look a certain way in photos.
It’s weird — in a good way — when the whole point of taking a photo is to show your belly getting larger. It means the baby is growing big and strong, and I can have less anxiety in between doctor appointments!
Speaking of that… I am always calm and reassured for about a week after hearing the baby’s heartbeat or seeing it on an ultrasound, and then my worrying kicks in again. This week, I didn’t feel any jabs or flips for a few days and got really anxious. Then I’m pretty sure I felt the baby move while watching the Apple Cup on Friday (probably doing a celebratory dance, since mommy’s Huskies embarrassed daddy’s Cougars so badly), and I was relieved once again.
Visible belly growth in our weekly photos and those tiny little jabs are the only things keeping me sane right now. Only TWO MORE WEEKS until our 20-week ultrasound, when we’ll get to see every inch of our kiddo and find out if he/she is a he or she!
Speaking of THAT… I crushed Aaron’s dreams around 13 weeks when I finally decided I couldn’t get on board with the boy name he loved so much. I was almost there, but when I really pictured calling our baby that name, it just didn’t feel right. So, we went back to the drawing board for boy names and came up with a list of three names that we liked well enough, but nothing that we LOVED like we love our girl name.
Friday night, I went hunting for boy names again, and gave Aaron my laptop to continue looking while I got some dinner. Suddenly, he came into the kitchen and said a name… and I LOVED it. And he LOVES it. So now we have a boy name!!!
This makes me even more excited to find out the baby’s sex since he/she will actually have a name the moment we find out, either way.
We didn’t make any baby-related purchases this week, but we did put some work into our Amazon baby registry so our parents can refer to it for Christmas gifts, if they like. I don’t really want anything for myself this year, so I’m happy to just get baby stuff!
Before I jump into Christmas, I guess I should talk about Thanksgiving! The three-day work week leading up to Thanksgiving was quite busy and stressful, as my company has Black Friday sales to rival the best of ‘em and I had lots of clothes and jewelry to write about. I’m just glad to not be on the sales-floor side of retail anymore. Thanks, OfficeMax and J.Crew, for providing enough horrifying Black Friday work experiences to last a lifetime.
Anyway, I got through the work week and was so happy to have four whole days off! I didn’t work out at all Monday through Wednesday, so I tried to at least get a healthy start on Thanksgiving by walking on the treadmill.
My Instagram feed was full of photos from everyone’s turkey-trot adventures, so I did my version. It was more of a gobble wobble, but I covered 5K in 45 minutes, plus a little extra distance thanks to a 5-minute cool-down. I also snapped a pic of my belly from above, as this is the most it has ever stuck out BEFORE eating Thanksgiving dinner. 🙂
We spent the afternoon/evening at Aaron’s mom and stepdad’s house and enjoyed all the traditional, delicious fixins’. I was determined to go off the rails this year in terms of eating, but the cruel irony of pregnancy is that my stomach holds less food because a little baby friend is squishing it. So, I ate a completely normal amount of food for dinner and only had a tiny bit of room left for seconds and dessert. I’ll get ‘em next year!
Black Friday was a super-lazy day spent watching the aforementioned Apple Cup at Aaron’s best friend Adam’s house. Adam and his wife, Kim — who have a one-year-old son, Josh — are expecting identical twins (!!) just a few weeks after our kiddo, and already have two boy names and two girl names picked out — hence why we revisited the boy-name issue on Friday night. We got plenty of parenting tips from them, and also stalked their baby gear and nursery setup for inspiration.
By the way, I fully expect Kim and I to be in labor at the same time in side-by-side hospital rooms, since twins tend to come a few weeks early. We have the same doctor, so she can just jump back and forth as needed. IT COULD HAPPEN!
I got back on the workout train on Saturday and did 30 minutes of treadmill walking + a 5-minute cool-down for 2.25 miles total, plus 20 minutes of weights. My arms were burnnnnning, but after holding Josh and realizing how much strength is needed to carry a baby around, I know it’s totally worth it.
We had dinner out with my dad and brother Saturday night, where I undid the exercise with delicious fish ‘n chips and pizza. And a skillet cookie. With ice cream.
And on Sunday, I did the same 30 + 5 walking workout, skipped the weights, and then ate more pizza (plus brownies!) while watching the Seahawks game at my mom’s house. We won! And I won, because pizza and brownies were involved.
I swear I eat vegetables sometimes. Mostly in the form of green smoothies.
But only when brownies are looming in the background and whispering to me, “Soon.”
I have Aaron take these photos on Saturday or Sunday when we have plenty of daylight, which is before I actually “turn” another week pregnant on Tuesday. So, I think we took this one on a Saturday, and then I hit 17 weeks the following Tuesday, and now I’m writing this the following weekend so I can reflect back on everything that happened this week. Make sense?
Anyway, when we took this photo last weekend, I compared it to the 16-week photo and thought not much had changed in the belly department.
The lighting was different, nearly all the leaves had fallen off that tree, and I was wearing a different color of the same Old Navy shirt (story of my life), but otherwise I didn’t see much difference and I was a little bummed. I’ve definitely had food babies bigger than that bump.
WELL. That was then, and later in the week, I noticed my belly suddenly seemed huge.
It might have been the fitted tank (this one, from A Pea in the Pod), but I finally felt super-obviously pregnant. Even a co-worker very tactfully and politely commented on it — my first comment like that, even though they all know I’m expecting. I think people are scared to say anything, which I totally understand since it’s difficult to know whether or not a pregnant woman is self-conscious about getting bigger, and commenting on someone’s body is generally a no-no at work. (At this point I’m not self-conscious/would not care about getting comments, but I’ll let ya know how I’m feeling in the weeks to come!)
Fun fact: I’ve had that plaid shirt for three+ years, and wore it for our engagement photo shoot back in 2013.
It fit a little differently back then. 🙂
Anyway, enough about me. How’s the baby doing?
Great, according to our doctor! Aaron and I visted her this week for a quick monthly checkup and heard the baby’s heartbeat going strong at 142 beats per minute. Once again, I was anxious to hear the heartbeat because I’ve been feeling so normal and was worried that something was wrong. I’m just paranoid.
I’m now definitely sure that I’m feeling the baby kick/move on a nearly daily basis, though, which is reassuring! It still feels faintly jabby, almost like the start of a cramp, so it always freaks me out a little at first before I realize it’s just super-fun gymnastics time in there.
I was also up on the scale with a three-pound net gain from my first official weigh-in at 9 weeks. I was down two pounds at 13 weeks, and this week I was up five pounds, so I’m finally going in the right direction!
This still sounds low to me, but our doctor wasn’t concerned and the baby is clearly growing, so I won’t worry about it. I feel like I’m eating all day, every day, and I certainly never let myself get very hungry. I’m also indulging in plenty of treats, like Aaron’s homemade cookies and this incredible find from Costco:
Be still my heart. Now a slice of cheesecake is just a quick thaw away. And no crappy flavors in this mix! Usually multipacks have at least one bad flavor, y’know?
That said, I’m still trying to eat vegetables (not super successfully) and work out regularly. I made it to the gym four times this week! I feel like Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday is a good schedule right now. That way I can have a rest day every other day during the work week, and then go back-to-back both weekend days when I have tons of free time and more energy.
Here’s how I exercised this week:
Tuesday: 45 minutes of walking on the treadmill at 4.0 speed (15 min/mile pace) on the random hill setting. Including a five-minute cool-down, I walked 3.1 miles.
Thursday: 20 minutes of weights (mostly 10 lb. weights, with some 15 lb. weights on the exercises where that feels comfortable) and 15 minutes of treadmill walking, 4.0 speed/random hills.
Saturday: 40 minutes of treadmill walking, 4.0 speed/random hills, with a five-minute cool-down.
Sunday: 20 minutes of weights and 15 minutes of treadmill walking, 4.0 speed/random hills, with a five-minute cool-down.
I’m not doing anything very strenuous; just enough to get my heartrate up and get me sweating a little. I listen to the Pitbull station on Pandora while I’m walking to keep me pumped up and feeling badass. I hope the baby can’t hear those jamz, because otherwise that is some shitty parenting on my part.
So, why am I no longer running? A few reasons:
1. I don’t really feel like it. 2. I hate running on the treadmill, and it’s too dark, cold, and (sometimes) rainy for me to get the motivation to run outside if I really don’t have to. 3. I enjoy walking, and I don’t mind doing it on the treadmill.
I think I’ve run a total of five times during my pregnancy. The first few times were in late August, shortly after I found out, and my lower abdomen just felt weird and heavy. Honestly, I got freaked out by any sort of pang or cramp and decided to dial back on exercise for my own peace of mind. Aaron and I took some long walks around our neighborhood instead, which I really enjoyed.
Then I got hit with serious exhaustion and pretty much failed to exercise at all for a whole month. Once I had my energy back, I went for a few runs in late September and they were definitely run/walk situations, heavy on the walking.
My last run was on our first wedding anniversary, October 3, at nearly 11 weeks pregnant. It was an amazingly gorgeous day outside and I did 4 miles of running/walking. I think I ran the first mile without stopping, and then just had to walk more and more after that. I didn’t mean for that to be my last pregnant run; it just kind of was, and I’m cool with that.
I follow many bloggers who continued to run throughout their pregnancies, and I also follow a few who decided to stop at some point. Neither way is right or wrong, of course; every woman does what feels right for her. I fully intend to resume running eventually, after I recover from childbirth and can work my way back up to it, but right now I’m enjoying taking a break from my usual form of exercise and trying something different.
Part of me also thinks I’d get a bit down about the fact that my running would only get slower and slower, and that I’d have to walk more and more anyway. I might keep comparing my pregnant runs to my old, non-pregnant runs. Why put that pressure on myself?
Anyway, that’s all for this week! I’ll see you on the other side of Thanksgiving. I hope you all have a very happy holiday celebrating with friends and/or family!
I am now four months pregnant! Whenever someone asks me how far along I am, I choose my answer depending on whether that person has kids or not. 16 weeks likely means nothing to a person who’s never been pregnant or the partner of a pregnant woman, so I just go with four months. Every week means something new and different to me, but most people just want to figure out how long it’ll be until the baby comes (answer: 24 weeks, or 6 whole months). 40 weeks = 10 months of pregnancy, which seems like it’s going to feel like forever!
Aaron and I bought a glider this week from a woman who told us her daughter was “almost 25 months!” followed by, “I guess I should stop counting in months now, huh?” Parents are funny. We’re well on our way there.
Anyway, the glider! My mom-friend Marion is super-active on lots of buy/sell/trade Facebook groups and tagged me in a post she saw advertising this glider with matching ottoman for just $50. It could not be in more perfect shape, as the family wound up not really using it, and we gladly took it home!
I’ve always wanted an ottoman that glides along with the chair, and now all my gliding dreams have come true.
Another big purchase this week was Aaron’s great find on the same Facebook group: a Chicco Keyfit 30 infant car seat with base and stroller caddy (affiliate links) for $100. The whole set is very highly rated and sells for $300 new!
(I’m way too lazy to take my own pics, as the caddy is in the garage and… no. I also just ate two spoonfuls of chocolate ganache, so that gives you an accurate picture of my life right now.)
I love buying baby things from people because it’s fun to meet the kiddos who used them before, and the parents are always eager to show off the cool features to us. The mom who sold us this set said she used several different carseats with her three kids and this was her very fave. It was also fun to push the empty stroller around her beautiful, amazing, ripped-from-a-design-magazine kitchen at her insistence. Gotta check out that turn radius, y’know.
We also booked our babymoon this week! In lieu of a fancy trip to someplace warm, we decided on a romantic weekend getaway in February to a rustic bed-and-breakfast just a few hours away from Seattle. A former co-worker highly recommended this place to me several months ago, and as soon as Aaron heard about the five-course gourmet breakfast, he was in! It’ll double as our Valentine’s Day celebration, although we’re going the weekend before Valentine’s Day.
Our other big source of excitement this week was hosting the inaugural Bacon Bake-Off! We invited several friends to cook or bake their best bacon-featuring dish, taste everything potluck-style, and compete against one another for a super-sweet trophy. Gillian won with her delicious bacon cinnamon rolls!
A few friends used our kitchen to finish cooking their dishes, and for a little while it was like a Chopped-style flurry of activity. I may or may not have screamed, “Five, four, three, two, one!” at Chris as he assembled his pork-belly sliders (which earned him second place).
Just in case it wasn’t already clear, hosting an event like this is the greatest thing ever when you’re pregnant. People bring delicious food to you! You get to eat it, and then eat more of it! I had to have a second taste of those cinnamon rolls, of course.
Plus, we got to play with 11-month-old Josh, the son of Aaron’s BFF Adam.
We discovered that our place is pretty kid-friendly, except for the two death-trap staircases that we definitely don’t have baby gates for yet. But Josh was cool and didn’t try to throw himself down them. Thanks, kid!
And now, an update on how I’m feeling: not pregnant. I still feel really normal and forget I’m growing a human most of the time.
However, I THINK I’ve felt the baby move a couple of times — but I’m still not sure. It feels kind of… jabby? It’s so faint and so infrequent, but it does kind of freak me out when it happens. I always thought feeling a baby move inside of me would feel kind of like an alien living in there, and if what I’m feeling is it, then it totally does. I will be happy to feel my first “real” kick, where I know for sure it’s the kiddo saying hi!
I’m still sleeping really well and only getting up once a night to use the bathroom, so that’s sweet. I do find myself going to bed earlier and earlier because sleep is just soooo lovely. I went to bed at 8:15 Thursday night and it was the best. Even on weekends, I’m in bed by 9 or 9:30.
As for exercise, I think I only made it to the gym once this week for 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill. Ugh, so sad. I’m in the midst of switching up my schedule so that I’m going to work earlier and leaving earlier, which is what Aaron already does, so we can have more free time together in the late afternoons/evenings. I thought it would be easier to go to the gym in the afternoon, but so far I haven’t been motivated at all, as I’m still in the mentality of immediately putting on sweatpants and lounging once I get home from work.
Next week, I’ll try harder? Maybe? Yes, yes I will.
There were a few things I forgot to mention in my first trimester recap:
– I started having crazy dreams immediately after finding out I was pregnant! They were the weirdest, most vivid dreams I’ve ever had. I still have them, but they just don’t faze me anymore because they’re so frequent and I’m so used to them. Hormones are nuts.
– I don’t think I properly conveyed the level of exhaustion I experienced during the first trimester, but I was pretty constantly worn-out. I felt like I was recovering from a long run all the time. I never missed work or had to go home early because of it, though, thanks to the nap rooms my company provides!
At the height of my exhaustion, I’d visit the HR desk at lunchtime 2-3 times a week to check out a key to one of the three small rooms, take a 20-30 minute nap in the glorious pitch black, and then return to work feeling refreshed and energized. Thank goodness for the nap rooms!!! When I told my boss I was pregnant, she was like, “Oh, we have these nap rooms…” and I was like, “Trust me, I’m a frequent flyer.”
The nap rooms are located right across the hall from the mothers’ room, which is for breastfeeding mothers to pump. That’ll be my next stop when I go back to work after maternity leave…
Now, let’s talk about weeks 14 and 15 of pregnancy!
As soon as I entered the second trimester, I felt like a fog had been lifted. I became more alert, more productive at work, more energized when I woke up in the morning, and more likely to actually go work out. I went to the gym two or three times during week 14 to walk on the treadmill and lift weights. I also didn’t note any particular negative symptoms, cravings or aversions; I just felt pretty normal. Woo-hoo!!
Aaron and I made two major purchases that made this whole baby thing seem really real! He found a great 4-in-1 convertible crib (here’s the exact one – affiliate link) on Craigslist that we bought for $50. We brought it home in a bunch of pieces late on a weeknight and Aaron was so excited that he had it assembled within 15 minutes. Someone can’t wait to be a dad!
The next night, I came home to find a stroller sitting in our dining room! Aaron found a family selling their practically-new BOB Revolution stroller (affiliate link) — including a rain cover and cupholder attachment thingy — for well below what the whole setup costs new. I hadn’t even thought about researching strollers yet, but Aaron had already read a bunch of reviews, chatted with our parent friends, and decided on this model — and then one popped up on Craigslist the next day! Apparently the family is having another baby and wanted to buy a double stroller instead.
By the way, I really hate researching things and choosing the best thing to buy, so I’m thrilled that Aaron is into this. He also started an Amazon baby registry for us and put all sorts of things on it that I didn’t even know he knew about. I’ll mention things like a bottle warmer I used back in my babysitting days, and he’ll say, “It’s on the registry.” Dang, he’s on top of it!
Some of our parent friends added us to local buy/sell/trade groups and our neighborhood Buy Nothing group on Facebook so we can continue to be on the lookout for opportunities to find good baby stuff secondhand rather than buying them new or requesting pricy gifts. Other big nursery items we need — but aren’t in any hurry to find — include a dresser that can double as a changing table, and a comfy glider and ottoman.
We finished the week by celebrating Halloween at my friend Carly’s new grown-up house in the suburbs. It was a very tame pizza-eating, football-watching affair that was perfect for a prego who obviously had no interest in drinking and partying like the old days.
Aaron and I dressed up as chefs who were cooking up a lil’ lobster, in a nod to the lobster costume I wore five years ago the night we had our first kiss. 🙂
We had to change our photo location for the first time since we lost our weekday afternoon light due to the end of Daylight Saving Time, and our plan to take the photo over the weekend failed since the weather was horribly dark, windy, and rainy! So Aaron and I met up for lunch one day downtown (our offices are a 10-minute walk from each other — sweet) and snapped a quick one then. The bump is slowly emerging!
Again, I made it to the gym three times this week for walking and weights. I also started making a green smoothie every morning as a way to get more veggies into my diet since I still don’t love the idea of eating them by themselves. I blend the following to make a jumbo smoothie:
– Two handfuls of a spinach/kale/chard mix (we get a big one-pound bag at Costco) – So Delicious coconut milk – A scoop of egg-white protein, or a serving of Chobani yogurt – A bit of canned pineapple along with some of the juice for sweetness – Frozen fruit or ice — enough to give the mixture a smoothie-like texture
I don’t measure anything, so the smoothie turns out a little different every day, but it’s always delicious and masks the flavor of the greens just enough without being too sweet.
I also eat scrambled eggs for breakfast, and then have multiple snacks before lunch, and then have multiple afternoon snacks, and then dinner. Dinner nearly every night during week 15 was a grilled-cheese sandwich with pickles and a bowl full of sugar snap peas dipped in ranch dressing. Basically, pregnancy is my second childhood.
My pregnancy eating is a lot like my marathon-training eating in that it is constant, and therefore full of snacks. Unlike marathon-training eating, my pregnancy eating still somehow does not have me gaining much weight — my 15-week at-home weigh-in put me at one pound lower than my weight at four weeks pregnant (WTF) — but I know that’s about to change soon. Apparently the baby is doubling in weight every week at this point, so the lbs are going to hit me like a freight train. I’m ready and willing! Whatever it takes for this kiddo to grow healthy and strong.
Lastly, speaking of physical changes, I can feel my body parts slowly spreading out — particularly my hips. My right hip will ache if I stand or walk around too long, and I asked a mom about this recently: “Is this normal?” In one breath, she replied, “Yupanditgetssomuchworsejustwait.” Sweet. Nice knowing you, hips. I assume you’ll eventually find your way back with all the accuracy of a Mr. Potato Head assembled by a toddler.
That said, I’m really enjoying feeling fairly normal again and will be sure to savor this before my belly starts getting huuuuuge and I feel not-normal again. I’m so excited to hit 16 weeks pregnant — four whole months! — and yet feel such anticipation for our next big appointment, the anatomy scan, a whole month away.
I want time to slow down and speed up all at once. I can’t wait to hold our newborn baby, yet I fell asleep the other night worrying like crazy over how we’re going to raise this kid to be a smart teenager who doesn’t do dumb shit like participate in a high-school sexting ring (that is a CNN link, btw, not something unsavory).
The world is a scary place!!! How will I protect our kid from bullying and sexting and the Kardashians? How will I learn to let go of enough of my anxiety so I can let our kid fall and cry and make mistakes and not live too much of a coddled life?
I guess I will do everything one day at a time. Tomorrow, that just means trying to get some walking in, drinking my greens, eating plenty of snacks, and getting some rest. Come next spring, that just means feeding and holding and loving this baby with all of my heart. I can worry about manners and morals and an appropriate opinion of the Kardashians at a later date.
The first trimester of my pregnancy was a secretive time when I kept most of my experiences to myself or only shared them with Aaron and close family/friends, so now I’m excited to overshare. I loved reading these types of posts from other bloggers for the purpose of comparing my early symptoms to theirs, so hopefully this will be useful to someone out there!
If this crazy-long post is too much for you, here are the main points:
1. I fared relatively well in terms of icky symptoms, like nausea. Huzzah! 2. I was utterly terrified that something would go wrong pretty much every day.
Ready? Let’s go!
4 WEEKS We found out we were expecting at exactly four weeks. I felt really normal the whole week, but I did notice I suddenly had a crazy-sensitive sense of smell. I picked up the scent of cigarettes on a co-worker who I previously hadn’t realized was a smoker, and could smell people’s perfume and microwaved lunches more vividly than ever. These smells didn’t bother me… yet.
I was grateful that no other symptoms had kicked in yet because my brother, Aaron and I surprised my dad with a little weekend trip for his 60th birthday, which involved a day-long hike and a fun night at a little cabin right on a river. I can’t imagine having pulled it off while nauseous or exhausted!
5 WEEKS I started getting really cold at work and craving creamy soups like crazy. Nearly every day this week, I had soup with oyster crackers for lunch and it made me so happy.
A few other cravings kicked in, and they were all carb-tastic: bread, biscuits, corn muffins, a Taco Time Burrito. No aversions yet.
Two big events happened this week: one of my oldest friends, Carly, got engaged, and Aaron and I attended my 10-year high-school reunion with my little gang of BFFs and their gentlemen.
As soon as Carly told me she and her fiance were rapidly planning a spring 2016 wedding, we decided to tell her the baby news in the hopes that she would take the due date into consideration when choosing a wedding date. I made it clear that I didn’t expect her to plan her wedding around the status of my womb — especially so early in the pregnancy, when anything could happen — but that I’d be devastated if I didn’t tell her and then had to miss her wedding because she unwittingly chose a late April or early May date. Luckily, she and her fiance ultimately chose April 2, so I will be nearly 37 weeks prego but assuming all goes well, I’ll get to see her walk down the aisle!
Once Carly knew, it seemed silly to keep it a secret from the rest of my BFFs, so Aaron broke the news while taking a photo of us before the reunion: “One… two… three… Devon’s pregnant!” He then snapped several great photos of their reactions. Carly, on the far right, is just laughing hysterically since she already knew. 🙂
6 WEEKS My cravings for bread — especially sourdough — continued this week, and several common aversions kicked in, including salad, cooked broccoli, eggs, most meat, peppers and onions, and anything with strong spices. I was glad to be at my relatively new job because my old co-workers would have definitely noticed me eating the opposite of what I usually eat at lunchtime! Sandwiches and other carb-based items solidly replaced my typical salad and meat.
I started getting hit with some nausea this week as well, and it felt like being hungover and having a sour feeling in my stomach that I needed to soak up by eating some sort of bread. Hence… all the bread I ate.
This week was exciting because Aaron and I attended an hourlong “intro to pregnancy” session at the hospital where I’ll give birth. It was mostly super-basic info about how not to kill our unborn child and what to expect at our future ob-gyn appointments, but we did get some valuable tips from other women in the group who already had kids. One lady suggested having quick snacks on hand at all times (crucial), and another recommended keeping crackers by your bed so you could eat a few before even getting up to curb nausea.
The next morning, I woke up and found this next to my bed:
Aaron had put together this adorable container of plain Saltines and little Saltine/peanut butter sandwiches. I almost cried. He is the best. I relied heavily on this container for the next few weeks, and Aaron refilled it as needed. ❤
We also told Aaron’s mom and stepdad the news this week! We went to their house for dinner and they were grilling steak, so they would have known something was up anyway if I asked for my steak to be well-done and didn’t say why. They were shocked because they didn’t think we’d started trying yet, and then of course they were very excited!
7 WEEKS Cravings: Sourdough toast with butter and jam, tuna melt, chocolate coconut milk.
Aversions: The same as before, although I realized I could stomach fried eggs in a sandwich (yay, more bread!) and get some protein that way.
I bought a new bra this week because my old bras were getting super uncomfortable in both the cups and bands. (Oh, did I not mention sore boobs before now? I can’t remember when that started, but it’s still pretty much a constant symptom.) Anyway, I just got one soft/underwire-free bra from Target because I figured it wouldn’t be the last one I’d need to size up to during pregnancy. It still fits as of 14 weeks, so woo-hoo!
We told my mom and stepdad this week! I was going to a baseball game with them where there would be complimentary beer courtesy of my mom’s work, and I knew they would be suspicious if I didn’t drink. Aaron and I casually dropped a major hint prior to leaving for the game, and my mom’s jaw dropped before she said, “Are you pregnant????” and then started dancing around the room. Ha! She then had soooo much fun telling all her co-workers at the game that she was going to be a grandma!
8 WEEKS Cravings: Bagels with cream cheese (which I indulged every day!), pancakes, Panda Express chow mein and orange chicken (not sorry for this one, so good), corn muffins still.
Aversions: Same.
We told my dad this week! We took him out to dinner the night before he left for a monthlong trip to Europe, and I struggled with whether we should tell him or not because I worried we’d get bad news at our first ultrasound (9 weeks) and I would ruin his vacation if I had to share that with him via email. But Aaron encouraged me to go for it, and I’m glad we did.
My dad was more shocked than anyone. And I think he was also scared? Ha! I don’t think he realized he was going to be a grandpa quite so soon, and I could tell he was overwhelmed by the news because he had been focused for so long on preparing for his epic trip. But at the end of our dinner, he got a little weepy and hugged me for a long time and told me how happy he was. Awww. My daddy.
Now, the weekly photos begin!
I felt big in this photo, believe it or not. Now I look back and think I was crazy. But you know how bloating makes you feel so much bigger than you look? Yeah, pregnancy bloating is intense. I was still wearing normal clothes this week, but started looping a hair tie through the button-hole of my jeans and using that to secure the button to give my belly an extra inch or so of room.
A few days before our first ultrasound, I started feeling a lot better — less nauseous, more energetic. I actually went for a run for the first time in a solid month! It was only 2.25 miles, but it felt awesome (and I was exhausted by the end).
This boost of energy and lack of nausea made me super-worried; was I still pregnant? I got really anxious leading up to our appointment and steeled myself for the possibility of not hearing a heartbeat.
Luckily, we not only the heard the baby’s heartbeat, but we saw the little squirt for the first time. It was a real baby. And it jumped during the ultrasound. Totally crazy.
The head is to the bottom left, and baby is looking right at the camera. See the little hand sticking up? Hi, baby!
I was soooo relieved after confirming the baby was doing well and measuring right on track, but soon started feeling anxious about what we would find out at our 13-week genetic screening appointment. When will the worrying end?? Oh, this is parenthood, so never.
We rounded out this week by sharing the news with Aaron’s dad and stepmom by whipping out the ultrasound photos while we were out to lunch. They were thrilled!
I felt pretty normal during week 10 and was almost back to my regular eating habits, but still not choosing many salads or veggies. I could choke them down, though, for the sake of getting actual nutrients.
The one craving I noted this week was Top Ramen, aka the most processed, nutritionally devoid food you can eat. Something about the mass of simple carbs and salty broth is so delicious, though! I like to crack an egg in and scramble it up near the end. Yum.
Aaron and I celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary this week! We enjoyed dinner at one of Seattle’s fanciest and most iconic restaurants, Canlis. Our four-course dinner was a lovely three-hour affair as we watched the sun set over Gasworks Park and Lake Union. We were seated right by the pianist and he granted Aaron’s request to interrupt his string of romantic ballads with the Charlie Brown theme song. 🙂
Any anniversary is special, but this one felt especially so because it was our first and because we are so, so, so excited about what’s to come in the next year. It’ll also be our last anniversary as just the two of us!
Oof, not my favorite pic! I was still wearing my regular clothes, but feeling like they just looked and felt wrong on me. I went shopping for maternity clothes at the end of this week and was amazed by how stylish and comfy/stretchy/soft the options were! I bought a bunch of basics, like leggings, jeans, tanks, and sweaters, and immediately wanted to live in them. I don’t know why some women resist switching to maternity clothes; I never want to go back!
Aaron and I both told our bosses that we were expecting, and they were both very happy and supportive — yay!
I also started researching daycare options and reaching out for information about pricing and wait lists — YIKES. The best advice we’ve gotten so far was to figure out the daycare situation early, and I’m so glad we started because it turns out that some places — the less-expensive ones that are also highly rated — have epic wait lists. We are on them, thank you very much.
Hello, belly! I think there was a lot of bloating happening when we took this photo since my belly looks smaller in next week’s photo, but it’s an accurate representation of how I look by the end of the day. I’ll wake up with a flat-ish stomach and go to bed looking pretty pregnant indeed.
This is the first photo in which I wore maternity leggings (these ones) and a hand-me-down maternity tee gifted to me by Aaron’s friend Lindsee, along with a bag of other maternity clothes — thank you, Lindsee!! She decided she was for-sure done with them after her second pregnancy turned out to be super-cute twin girls. 🙂
This week, my big accomplishment was eating Indian food — the very idea of which would have made me feel nauseous a few weeks ago. It was goooood.
I also took my first weekend nap with the Snoogle body pillow, which is amazing and now my nightly companion. I basically spoon the Snoogle and it keeps my back and hips aligned and comfortable, plus it supports my stomach. The only bummer is that the pillow I ordered didn’t come with a cover, so I got a charcoal grey jersey cover and it’s super-soft and nice. (Heads up: those are Amazon affiliate links.)
Finally, Aaron did a cyclocross race and got third place! I love spectating cyclocross because I can actually see him at several points along the course and cheer him on/take pictures. Plus, there are cool obstacles like this:
Badass. It was super fun to watch and I’m so proud of him! P.S. He is part of a new cycling team started by his buddies called the Distinguished Gentlemen’s Cycling Club, aka team Hammer + Awl. Aaron helped design the kits — black, of course.
Finally, we’ve reached the final week of the first trimester! Here I’m wearing another hand-me-down tee courtesy of Lindsee, and the grey version of these maternity leggings. I transitioned into wearing full-on maternity clothes the day we announced our pregnancy to the world, and I haven’t looked back since.
The day before we shared the news, we had our second ultrasound to check for early signs of genetic abnormalities. Whatever we found out would not have changed our pregnancy in any way, but we did want to be as prepared as possible if we discovered our baby would need special care. Plus, we just wanted to see the baby again! And man, he/she had grown quite a bit.
The baby was straight loungin’ the whole time, and the ultrasound tech had to poke and prod my belly quite a bit to get him/her to move so she could get the nuchal translucency (NT) measurement she needed at the back of the neck. That measurement, combined with whether or not the nasal bone is visible (seeing it is good), helps determine the odds for Down syndrome and a few other chromosomal abnormalities.
Later, a genetic counselor walked us through the odds based on our kiddo’s visible nasal bone and NT measurement, and explained that they were very significantly lower than the standard odds for any given pregnancy. Low odds aren’t a 100% guarantee that those abnormalities don’t exist, but we felt comfortable enough with the information we received to decline further testing.
I explain all this because I wasn’t really aware of this optional screening before being pregnant, and I was definitely more anxious about it than I needed to be. I read lots of very negative opinions online about doing the screening, but ultimately we agreed with those who were in favor of it that we’d prefer to be as informed as possible about our baby’s health in order to give him/her the best life possible.
Anyway! We finally allowed ourselves to buy our first baby item after this appointment since everything — growth, heartbeat, etc. — looked healthy and on track. We saw two arms, two legs, two halves of the brain — good stuff. My endless anxiety was finally calmed (for the most part).
We chose a gender-neutral newborn set that includes a onesie, pants, and PJs with a little hat. There are little turtles and ducks and cute footie things happening. ❤
As for new symptoms, I noticed I was using the restroom more frequently and getting full more quickly this week. I started breaking my meals up into smaller, more spread-out portions. I also hit the gym THREE times this week (crazy!) and started feeling so much better after walking on the treadmill and lifting weights.
My official weigh-in at the hospital put me at -2 pounds since my 9-week weigh-in, but my doctor said that was completely normal. I’m not restricting my food in any way (cheese! bread! all day, every day!) and have definitely gotten bigger, so I attribute the weight loss to having lost muscle due to not running or lifting weights for several weeks. I’d like to get it back so I don’t end up having to rebuild all of my fitness from scratch after pregnancy, but I’m taking it slowly — literally, by walking instead of running — and doing what feels comfortable. More on fitness in another post!
I’ll end this epic one with a before-and-after shot: 5 weeks pregnant on the left, 14 weeks on the right.
Yay for the second trimester! I’ve heard this is the easiest one, so… please let that be true. 🙂
I woke up at 4:45 a.m. this morning to find out if you existed. Your dad and I were planning to go to the gym before work, so I wanted to have plenty of time to let the little test strip do its thing before we left.
I ran downstairs, grabbed a plastic party cup (ain’t no party like a pregnancy-testing pee party), ran back upstairs, and peed. I dipped the little cheapo test strip in for three seconds, then set it on a Kleenex and distracted myself from looking at it by brushing my teeth. It had five minutes to sit before it would tell us whether you were there or not.
“Boo… BOO! Wake up!” I said to your dad. “We have to look at the test!” He woke up, foggy with sleep, and moved ever so slowly into the bathroom. We looked at each other. This was it. This could be the moment our lives would change forever.
We looked down. We saw the control line. And we saw a faint, but distinct, second line. Could it be? You were really in there?
I immediately started shaking and crying and burying my face in your dad’s shoulder as I hugged him. My breathing got fast and shallow. He kept saying, “I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it!” I couldn’t believe it, either. I mean, we know how babies are made. We did the right things on purpose. We wanted this so very much. And yet, when we truly realized it worked, we made a baby, it was so unbelievable.
We dipped another cheapo strip into the cup to double-check. Another line. Then we busted out the big gun — a fancy First Response Early Result test — and dipped that as well. Almost immediately, two clear, dark lines appeared. I was definitely, definitely, definitely pregnant.
I snapped a photo of all three tests lined up. It was 5:15 a.m.
We still went to the gym, believe it or not. We were pumped full of endorphins by the news, so working off some of that energy just made sense.
According to the app I had been using to track my periods, I was exactly four weeks along that day. That means you had already done the following in your short little life as a zygote/blastocyst/embryo:
– Gone to the Taylor Swift concert, aka the most amazing concert ever. I promise I will take you to one when you’re on the outside, too, so you can better appreciate it.
– Visited Michigan and hung out with all your extended family members on your Grandpa and Grandma Snodgrass’ side.
– Visited Chicago, watched the Air & Water Show, and ate a ton of amazing food.
– Had dinner with your Grandma and Grandpa Pass, who said they would totally know when I was pregnant. I guess they didn’t! (We didn’t even know at that point.)
I downloaded a new app, Ovia Pregnancy, to figure out when you were due: April 26, 2016. My mom would be getting a grandchild for her birthday (April 30) next year! We got so excited to tell our parents about you, but decided to wait several weeks to make sure you would stick around. It would be so, so hard to keep you a secret until then.
Your dad left the gym before me, since he leaves earlier for work, and I got teary-eyed as I walked home and caught a glimpse of the beautiful sunrise. I wished I could get a good picture of it, but I only saw the edges of pink and orange light peeking above the hills of our town. I always wanted to remember the sunrise on the day we found out we were going to have you.
Later, when I got to work, I checked Instagram and found that your dad had seen the sunrise on his bike ride to work. He had snapped this photo and captioned it, “What a beautiful morning.”
Baby Pass, this is what the sunrise looked like on the morning that we experienced the happiest moment of our lives — or at least the happiest moment until the moment we meet you.
Dev on Running 