Twenty Two

At 22 weeks, I feel like my belly is starting a major growth spurt.  Compared to last week, it doesn't really look that much larger in the photos, but it's now starting to get in the way.  Today, while I was trying to sneak past a student at his desk, I managed to bump him with my belly, despite me thinking that I had plenty of space!  It was super embarrassing, and just let the class know that this particular instance probably isn't going to be the last time it happens...

We've also started to feel the love our friends and family already have for our little guy.  Over the last two weeks, since we found out he's a boy, he has received some awesome gifts from some very awesome people.  I feel so grateful for the people in our lives every time I walk into the nursery and see the blankets, onesies, books, and stuffed animals we have be gifted.  One of my former students even dropped by school to give me a gift for the baby.

How far along?   22 weeks- Depending on what website I look at, baby boy is either the size of a papaya or a spaghetti squash.  I've also seen other websites compare his size to a barbie doll this week- That's a pretty decent sized human growing in there!
 
Total weight gain/loss: Unsure

Maternity clothes?  All maternity clothes now.  I'm glad that I purchased some more flowy/stretchy dresses over the last summer, because I'm still able to use those.
 
Stretch marks? Nope

Symptoms: Getting kicked all the time, the growing bump, achy feet at the end of the day...

Sleep: Same as last week- still managing some nights without waking up, but the majority of nights, I wake up once to use the bathroom.

Best moment this week: Picking out nursery furniture, and when Luke was telling me about how he's getting antsy to meet our baby.  He also notices and points out little babies and kids, just like we do with dogs and puppies (this started right before we got Lucy).  I'm realizing that he is definitely ready to be a dad.

Have you told family and friends: Everyone knows.

Miss Anything? Hot tubs.  I would kill to go lounge in one.

Movement: So much movement!  I love feeling him kick- it's mostly at night.  It's also a fun reminder that I am not alone when I am teaching and he gives me a kick during class.

Food cravings: Still no big cravings.  I see someone eating something and typically I want it too.

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Dishes with too much meat.

Have you started to show yet: The bump is definitely a baby.

Baby is a: BOY

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy.

Looking forward to: Ordering the nursery furniture and putting it all together!

21 weeks!

Every week, I feel like I am surprised by how quickly the previous week passed by.  Somehow, I only have 19 more weeks of being pregnant, and while I don't want to miss any experience, I am starting to feel ready to meet our kiddo!

Our exciting news for the week is that we found out that we are expecting a little boy!  Knowing that we'll have a son in a handful of short months has been one of the most exciting parts of the pregnancy so far.  I feel as though it helps both of us bond more with our growing child.  Even the simple change from "it" to "he" makes him feel that more real, and more permanent than before.

Boys require bow ties.  This is a fact.

 On to the bump update!

How far along?   21 weeks- He's apparently pomegranate sized this week.
 
Total weight gain/loss: Unsure

Maternity clothes?  As much as I can.  I have a pair of jeans and one pair of workpants that I can still squeeze into with the help from a belly band, but I don't think that they'll last much longer.
 
Stretch marks? Nope

Symptoms: All of the movement, and extreme thirst.

Sleep: I'm started to get more uncomfortable, but it's been okay so far.  Still just one nightly wake-up to go to the bathroom, but there are some nights that I sleep straight through!

Best moment this week: Finding out that our baby is a boy!  We would have been happy with a girl, but when Luke and I started out talking about kids, we always said how much we would love to have a boy first.  It's nice that things are going our way.

Have you told family and friends: Everyone knows.

Miss Anything? Real coffee today.  I was exhausted and could have used a caffeine IV drip.

Movement: My favorite part of pregnancy so far.  The other night was fun, because as I way on the couch, I realized that if I poked baby, he would either flop around or kick back.  I like that I can interact with him more.

Food cravings: Water this week.

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Dishes with too much meat.

Have you started to show yet: People are definitely starting to notice.

Baby is a: BOY

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy.

Looking forward to: Luke finally feeling him move!

Half Baked!

 

How far along?   20 weeks, Baby Lorenz is the size of a banana, and half way done.

Total weight gain/loss: Unsure

Maternity clothes? Rocking the watermelon stealing pants with more consistency.  Maternity shirts are also more comfortable.  My regular shirts are starting to ride up too much.
 
Stretch marks? Nope

Symptoms: Kicks!  Can't eat as much as I used to and my digestion has slowed way down.

Sleep: Still waking up to pee, but sleeping pretty well still.  It doesn't take me long to conk out.

Best moment this week: Feeling baby kicks from the outside!

Have you told family and friends: Everyone knows.

Miss Anything? Being that today is St. Paddy's day, I wish I could have enjoyed a Guinness at lunch.

Movement: Yep, and getting stronger.

Food cravings: I can't get enough ice cream right now, but I was really only craving juices and fruits this past week.

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Nothing this week.

Have you started to show yet: Yep.  I also experienced my first non-Luke, non-immediate family belly touching today.  Luckily it was a coworker, so not so out of line, but it still put me off guard for a moment.

Baby is a: ??

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy.

Looking forward to: Finding out the sex on Wednesday, and then sharing the news with our families on Saturday.

Post & Run

I can for sure feel the baby kick from the outside! I realized it for the first time on Wednesday night when Baby Lorenz gave me a couple quick jabs. I was pretty sure that was what was going on, but since it was so quick and brief I wasn't 100% certain.  Last night, s/he put on quite the show kicking all night before going to sleep (and started again when I woke up at 6:30 this morning) .  Luke hasn't been able to feel it yet, but he also seems to think that he should be able to feel it after only a few minutes of putting pressure on my lower stomach, silly guy.  We'll give it another try tonight until he feels his baby!

19

How the heck did I make it to 19 weeks already?  On St. Patty's day, I'll be 20 weeks, and officially halfway done with this pregnancy!  At the beginning, each passing week took for.ev.er to get through, and even the 12, 13 and 14 weeks felt like some of the longest weeks of my life.  Now?  The weeks are flying by.  It probably doesn't hurt that I have had 6 or 7 snow/cold days closing down school in my district since early January.  Or the fact that I am now at Spring Break, and we're starting our last trimester at school next week.  I'm sure time will slow down again for a bit, but once May hits, things are going to start getting crazy again!

Kale decided to join me this week :)

How far along?   19 weeks.  According to all of those pregnancy sites, this baby is now the size of a mango from head to rump, and weighs about 8.5 oz.  How do I have a mango-sized human (not including the arms & legs) residing in my uterus??  Crazy.

Total weight gain/loss: Again, I'm bad at this.  I just hope that the doctor doesn't tell me I've gained too much.  I think I'm supposed to be gaining about 1/2 lb per week right now.

Maternity clothes?  I've realized that maternity shirts definitely make me look more obviously pregnant than my regular shirts, so I've been making sure to wear the maternity ones out in public so people can figure out that I am pregnant, and not just fat.  I got some full panel jeans at Macy's today that fit really well (the Target pair stretches out quite fast), so I'm excited to start wearing those more regularly.

Hooray for maternity shirts.  Especially shirts with horizontal stripes that make your belly look even bigger!

 
Stretch marks? Not yet.

Symptoms: I fill up quickly at meals.  Slower digestion. Large belly.

Sleep:  This has been a bad sleep week.  I wake up a lot at night, but I'm not quite sure if I'm awake or dreaming.  Either way, it's exhausting.  I'm grateful to have the chance to catch up on my sleep this week.

Best moment this week: Feeling REAL kicks yesterday!  It was the strangest sensation- imagine you are driving over a really hilly road, and your stomach drops when you pass a large dip.  That stomach drop feeling plus rolling and kicking just below my belly button is the best way to describe it!  It was amazing, and I can't wait to feel it with more consistency (though I may be kicking myself for saying that when I'm being kicked in my bladder or ribs all the time)
 
Have you told family and friends: Everyone knows!

Miss Anything? Nope

Movement: **See the "Best moment this week" question**  I think this baby hangs out pretty far back in my uterus, especially after yesterday's events.  I could tell that the baby was closer to the front of my ute yesterday.  I wish I could figure out a way to coax the little one to hang out in front the majority of the time so that Luke can feel him/her move soon!

Food cravings: I'm still on an ice cream/frozen yogurt kick this week.  With the warmer weather, I've been enjoying iced decaf lattes again.

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Nothing in particular.  Hot, meaty meals still aren't my favorite thing, but I can stomach them.
 
Have you started to show yet: I haven't had any strangers make comments, but those who know (especially coworkers) have started to comment on how much more pregnant I look.

Baby is a: ??

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Back to being just happy.  Hormonal sometimes.  I can cry like it's my job.

Looking forward to: More kicks!

I'll never forget- 3.4.2014

If everything had gone as planned the first time around, Luke and I would be bringing home our first child this week.  Our baby was due on March 4, 2014.  It's a little crazy to think that 40 weeks has already passed since my first positive pregnancy test.  I feel as though we were so naive through the initial process, and that since we were young and healthy, we never thought that losing a baby was even possible.  Then that awful day in July happened, and we were left with an empty womb and heavy hearts.

The whole process of starting all over was daunting and terrifying.  We ignored the doctor's recommendation to wait two full cycles after the completion of the miscarriage, and decided that my body would let me know when it was ready to get pregnant again, so we began trying again immediately.  I thought that if we could get pregnant again right away, the growing hole in my heart would be patched up sooner, and that the pain would go away.  My body had other plans, and held on to the pregnancy hormones until the end of August.  Every blood test I took was like a slap in the face.  A reminder that I still wasn't carrying our child, but that my body couldn't seem to let go.  I stopped crying everyday over the loss of our baby around the time school started up again, and it was then that my cycles seemed to regulate itself again, and a couple months later, I became pregnant with our current little bean.

The thought of going through another miscarriage scared the shit out of me, and while I wanted to be excited, once that second pink line showed up again in November, all I could do was plead "Please don't let me lose this one, too."  Thank God we've been able to keep the one we have now.  I'm thankful for the growing baby that I carry everyday, for the little kicks that remind me that I am never alone, and that (s)he is still okay.

Overall, I've been surprisingly okay with this loss milestone.  I've managed to only get teary eyed once regarding this formerly exciting date, and it hit me out of nowhere.  I was driving home from teaching night school on Tuesday, and on MPR, they were airing an interview with poet, Kevin Young.  He was talking about his poems that focus on grief and one of them was written after he and his wife experienced a miscarriage.  It captured the moments of their first time trying again after the loss of their baby, and all of my emotions came flooding out.  The image of them in bed, the hope that they've just created life- it all hit too close to home.  The reporter asked him how long after the miscarriage did it take for them to get pregnant again, and I thought Young had the most perfect response, "Not soon enough."  (If you're interested in listening to the segment, here's the link: http://www.npr.org/2014/03/04/285712680/kevin-young-on-blues-poetry-and-laughing-to-keep-from-crying)

Yeah, it makes me sad to think about the angel baby we could have been snuggling and getting to know this week, but I believe that being able to hold on to the fact that this Baby Lorenz is active and well helps me get through this. At one point, I didn't know how I could go on, but I am a better person, and my relationship with my husband is stronger despite the loss of our first child. I came out stronger from all of this.

Achtzehn

18 weeks bump update:

How far along?   18 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: Oh man, I need to start writing these things down.  I forgot what the scale said at the doctor's office last week!

Maternity clothes?  Still using my regular jeans + bellaband, plus a couple pairs of maternity pants.  I'm excited to wear the clothes I got from Old Navy, but most of them won't work until the weather gets warmer.
 
Stretch marks? No

Symptoms: Bloody noses!  They have been pretty epic this week.  I've had 3 in the last 1.5 weeks...

Sleep: I'm managing to stay up later, as it seems that my energy is back!  I can still be in bed by 9 with lights out just before 10 though.  I wake up once a night to go to the bathroom, and I hope that number doesn't increase anytime soon.

Best moment this week: Discovering that I've got energy :)
 
Have you told family and friends: Everyone knows!

Miss Anything? Nothing this week.

Movement: It's getting stronger and more frequent.  No true kicks yet (as I can tell), but it's fun that I can recognize that the baby is moving while I am teaching or driving.

Food cravings: Apples, Cheese, Pickles, sweets.  Today, all I want is ice cream.

Anything making you queasy or sick:  I'm going to go with ham again.

Have you started to show yet: Uh, yeah.  My belly is definitely rounder this week.  Baby must have had a growth spurt!

Baby is a: ??

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Mostly happy, but get irritated easily still.

Looking forward to: Finding out if it's a boy or a girl! 

For fun:  I wore the same outfit I wore at 10 weeks.  I like comparing the difference between the two:

                    10 weeks                                                                      18 weeks