Total weight gain/loss: At my appointment last week I had gained one pound. ONE pound!? My pants say otherwise. And so did the scale at the Y last week and today (which told me I'd gained three pounds). Regardless, apparently it's been just one -- but that will likely change soon. They tell me it's a pound a week from here on out apparently! So baby better get growin', or I better get eatin'... or both.
Anyway, baby girl isn't quite yet making me pop out enough to warrant maternity gear. She is, however, making me appear as though I've eaten a few too many Christmas cookies by giving me a bit of a muffin top in a few of my jeans and dress pants. Lucky for me, the GAP apparently foresees this issue and therefore makes some pants (that I luckily happen to own) with two buttons running vertical. Lucky me, I just undo the top button, and, viola! The perfect solution for a
Stretch marks? None yet. In all honesty, I haven't spent any time thinking or worrying about stretch marks yet. Should I be? Now that this silly question is on this little survey, I just might start. I did buy a cocoa butter lotion today at Target in order to be prepared if my tummy gets dry an itchy (an apparently common issue in pregnancy). No one likes an itchy belly!
Symptoms: Nothing! Not a thing. Which is the same as my entire pregnancy for the most part. I guess the one thing that is different is that I have extremely vivid dreams every. Single. Night -- sometimes five or six different dreams a night. It's pretty wild.
Sleep: Perfect. No complaints here, except for the night before Christmas. I was too excited for baby girl to open her gifts!
... yes, we got baby girl gifts this year. But mama needed a good enough reason to buy a cute little dress from babyGAP and a pretty butterfly mobile for her room. So the gifts were probably more for me than for her :)
Best moment this week: Where to start?! I had my Quad Screen done this week and baby girl passed that with flying colors, for one thing. And we saw family we hadn't seen since announcing our news and got to share our excitement in person with them, which was incredibly fun. And we weren't the only ones silly enough to get baby girl some Christmas gifts... she got an outfit from Great Grandma and Grandpa O'Brien, a pack of onesies that I've been loving for months from Grandma Kathy and Papa Wayne, and a handmade leopard-print headband (to match a leopard print infinity scarf for me) from Auntie Jenny!
But if I'd have to choose, maybe my favorite part was when I opened my stocking at my parents' house and found four lottery tickets (everyone else had gotten three) -- three for me, and one for "EKB" -- the initials of our future little lady (yes, we've already picked out a name. No, I'm not sharing with the world wide web just yet). My dad had put a gift tag on the lottery ticket that read "To EKB... From Santa". My heart melted. Anyway, baby girl did not win any money to put into her college fund from that lottery ticket -- too bad for her, that'll be her last chance until she's 18 to do so. Mama, on the other hand, walked away with $25 on her ticket!
Have you told family and friends: Yes! It became Facebook official this last week. All of the sweet words were so special.
Miss Anything? Nope. I'm naughty and I sleep on my back and on my tummy still, but do try to make a point to sleep on my left side as much as I can. I do miss Cherry Coke Zero, but I gave that up last March for fertility reasons, so that's nothing new.
Movement: I think I'm feeling baby girl, but can't be sure. However, whatever I keep thinking I feel continues to get more frequent... so I have a feeling I must be right. Just little "pop" sensations -- usually when I'm sitting down. I think I felt them the first time at 15 weeks while correcting math journals in my classroom :)
Food cravings: None! Most of the time my problem is that I don't know what I want -- as in, nothing sounds all that appealing. It's not that anything makes me sick -- I just don't really know and I'm super indecisive. I do know this: I used to be a pizza and ice cream lover, and I could care less about either of them now and would rather eat something other than either of them. Earlier in my pregnancy, I craved waffles, cinnamon rolls, macaroni and cheese and donuts -- I couldn't get enough donuts in my system in the first trimester.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Sometimes the thought of pizza (especially Papa Murphy's, strangely enough) just really, really turns me off. Not really sick, but just a little bit of a stomach churn.
Have you started to show yet: I have, but I think only to those who know me. But we've been taking pictures since ten weeks, and I've definitely changed since then.
Gender prediction: No need for a prediction; we already know! I'll share about that adventure another time :)
Belly Button in or out? In, and showing no signs of "outieness" anytime soon. But my belly button is kind of a never ending pit, so we'll see how long it takes.
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking forward to: Three things: Baby's kicks getting stronger, being twenty weeks along in mid-January and also our 3-D ultrasound on the 7th of January! We are SO excited to see our little peanut again!
... and for your viewing pleasure, here's a comparison from where we've been to where we are now. Aside from my growing tummy, you'll notice a definite difference in both hair color and style... I think I prefer the earlier. Regardless, that's for my hairdresser to tend to next week. Anyway, disclaimer: if you scroll down further, you'll see pictures of my uncovered belly. Don't say you haven't been warned! Just try not to have nightmares from the naked belly shots:
