22 Weeks

I don’t plan on blogging regular updates like this, but I figured it made sense for today’s post since I’m a full 5 months along and haven’t shared much of anything yet. Buckle your seatbelts, kids – this could get long.

Baby Boy:

Matt and I went to the doctor for our first appointment at nearly 13 weeks. The nurse couldn’t find the baby’s heartbeat and after about five minutes of trying, she left the room to find the doctor. Our hearts sank a little because late miscarriages run in my family and finding a heartbeat should be rather doable that far into the pregnancy. Imagine our elation when the doctor came in, stepped right over to the ultrasound machine, and showed us our first glimpse of our healthy, active baby. Both arms were behind his head and he was just laying back, chillin’, and kicking his little legs nonstop. We were in love.

Four weeks later, we were back in the doctor’s office being prepped for another quick peek at our baby. The doctor asked if we wanted to find out the gender that day. I had planned on waiting to find out for awhile (I thought the pregnancy might start going slower once I knew what the baby was) but I looked over at Matt’s pleading puppy dog eyes and just couldn’t say no. The baby was moving around a lot, but the doctor kept catching up with him and saying, “Yep, that’s a boy!” My sister-in-law Kristen did an ultrasound for us while we were in Utah and confirmed it, and so did the ultrasound tech at our 20-week appointment. I’ll spare you the three different bum shots (wouldn’t want to embarrass our little guy) and just share this profile shot at just over 20 weeks. It's the best shot she could get with all of his wiggling around. =)

He’s growing alright!

Baby Bump:

My friends, I hate to disappoint, but there’s not much going on in the “baby bump” department around here. Don’t worry, I’ve gained plenty of weight –- it’s just decided to settle in my thighs and rear end instead of my belly. Personally, I’d prefer smaller thighs and a bigger belly but hey, I’ll take what I can get. I entirely neglected to take a “before” shot, but here are pictures of me on Christmas at 3 weeks and then on Easter at just over 20 weeks. Basically, I started out nice and thin and now I’m nice and thick.

I'm exactly 22 weeks along today:

The baby bump is starting to form and hopefully it will make itself known soon. Any day now!

All-day Sickness:

Whoever coined the phrase “morning sickness” is a real joker because let me tell you, my “morning” lasted around the clock for days and weeks and months. In fact, that sickness told me I was pregnant long before a test did.

I was already eight weeks along when I took the test. After more than a year of disappointment, I just couldn’t handle the heartache of another negative result. I had thus promised myself I wouldn’t take a single test until I was later than I'd ever been before. I tried not to get my hopes up when I was one and then two weeks late. But then the all-day sickness hit (at 6 weeks along) and following a full week of misery, I dared to hope. I told Liz that I either had the worst case of food poisoning ever or I had to be pregnant. Due to mine and Matt's conflicting work schedules, I waited another week to take the test (because a simple phone call informing him about our baby just wasn't going to suffice).

On the appointed morning, I was already so pregnant that it took the test all of one second to register two dark pink lines and confirm what I already knew. I cried tears of relief, gratitude and sheer happiness, and you know what came next – telling Matt on a perfect Saturday in January. Meanwhile, the all-day sickness and total exhaustion persisted for weeks on end. I started feeling a little bit better while we were in Italy and I thought, “Hey! I’m in the second trimester! It’s finally starting to go away!”

(Feeling "good" on a Vespa at 15 weeks in Rome.)

But then I came home and spent the next week curled up in a ball (figuratively all the time, literally about half the time). Yeah, the sickness and pure exhaustion stuck around in full force for another few weeks. Then, something magic happened just before the 18-week mark – I started feeling somewhat human again! It’s only gotten better from there. I’m still plenty tired but have a lot more energy than I did before and, luckily, the constant nausea is gone. As a matter of fact, I haven’t thrown up for almost two weeks now! Hooray!

Cravings:

Fruit and dessert. But then again, I always crave fruit and dessert so I wouldn’t really chalk that one up to the pregnancy. More than anything, I have food aversions. Some days I hate most everything, other days I hate a few less things, and every day I hate Mexican food. Without fail, I’ve lost my stomach every single time I’ve eaten Mexican food during this pregnancy. I’ve even thrown up simply from smelling it. And let’s be honest, just thinking about it now is making me kind of nauseous… On another note, Italian food has been my friend. That may or may not have factored into our decision to travel to Italy in March.

(Italian food and I get along quite nicely.)

The only food I’ve been obsessed with during this pregnancy was carb-heavy, horrible-for-you breads and rolls while I was still working as a journalist. Everything made me nauseous at the time but simply starving was not an option in such a high-energy job at such late hours. Leaving the field to throw up during a game or while pushing deadline was also not preferable. Somehow I figured out that those awful breads could get me through without making me feel like dying, so I ate a whole lot of them despite not really liking them much. They packed on the pounds rather quickly (I’m telling you, my poor thighs) but it was necessary for sheer survival. Once I stopped working, I stopped eating them and really, I’d be okay if I never had one of those Vons rolls again in my life.

Recent Milestones:

I’ve just started to feel the baby kick! I’d felt him move before but kicks are definitely different. I have an anterior placenta and was told that means I’d feel him later and less often, so the kicking was a fun surprise. I’m excited for it to get stronger and more frequent so Matt can feel him, too. Matt lights up just thinking about it.

Alright, that’s about all I can think of for now! Did I miss anything?