18wks (6ds)

Prepare for this to be a long post, since I'm almost a week late. Oops. Anyways, it's been a busy time! I had my step-sisters and brother-in-law visit this past weekend and my two sisters and my mom visit the weekend before! I went to Wekiwa Springs and felt Bebe move for the FIRST TIME. Barely. It felt like two tiny kernels or popcorn popping. And then nothing for two days. And then a little every day. Just small movements. Twitches at first, like a finger against the inside of my stomach. And now I can feel bumping a few times a day and I know she is moving about. I'm actually feeling her while writing this. It's fascinating!! And I can't wait until I can put my hand on my stomach and feel her kicking from the outside. Not quite as exciting as baby movements, but still exciting, I went to Epcot this past weekend and managed to spend all day there without dying of exhaustion. Keep in mind it is the midst of Florida summer, so, it's miserable being outside for a few minutes - let alone for a while. But we had a really great time and I got to have my ham and cheese croissant in France so I was very happy. I am already salivating in anticipation for Food & Wine Festival starting at the end of September. I just want to eat. It's not too much to ask. Especially since I cannot partake of delicious fruity beverages. I will get my kicks in Belgian Waffles and Cheddar Cheese Soup and Pork Potstickers, dammit.

In other news, I am borderline ready to change Bebe's moniker to 'The Childlike Empress'. Because she is small and regal? No. No no. Because Jason and I are incapable of actually naming her. This morning as we debated the spelling of our first choice (yet again) and added another name to our growing list of contenders I finally burst out with "Bastian! Give me a name!" This, of course, distracted from the naming conversation at hand and disintegrated into me explaining the ending of The Neverending Story to him since he'd never understood it and resulted in us adding it to our Netflix queue. But the point remains! I am half convinced we are never actually going to have a name for her. She's going to be born and we will only have a middle and last name because we are incapable of making a decision. For those who haven't heard, Bebe's middle name is going to be Quinn. It's the only unanimous decision we have both happily agreed upon regarding names. Aside from our Boy name which was so much less complicated deciding on. But Bebe is a girl, not a boy, and naming her is haaaaard. Especially because Jason and I have vastly different tastes and opinions when it comes to things like names. He'd be happy with something common and simple, while I want it to be more unique and interesting. We'll get there. Maybe. Possibly.

As for me! My stomach as seriously popped over the past few weeks. While before I felt like I looked as if I just needed to lay off the brownies, these days I look in the mirror and go "Holy Hell, I have a baby in there!" It's AMAZING I look down and my stomach is round and high and so stereotypically girl. The only sad part of this is I had to say goodbye to a very close companion of mine that I have held close for half my life. My navel ring. I was 13 when my cousin and I convinced our mother's to take us to get it done and were allowed on the condition that we wouldn't pierce any other part of our body as long as we lived in the house. We promised and went to a shop called Grateful Jay's where I was pierced with a silver hoop. I dealt with the infections and I changed it periodically to bars with dangling pieces or hopes with glow-in-the-dark beads all through middle and high school. It was winter of 2003 that I bought the last navel ring I'd ever wear, the one in the side picture: 24k gold with a small diamond chip in the middle of a love knot. I haven't changed it since. This little navel bar went through college with me, went through FA training, and has been all over the world. For thirteen years I have had some sort of metal in my navel. I'm 26 now. And for the first time my navel is empty. Just in time too. Two days after taking it out the hole went from small and round to straight line as my uterus has continued to move up. But I will dearly miss it.

Bebe (The Childlike Empress) is now 5.5" long and 7 oz. Making her the size of one of my favorite things: a sweet potato! Her skin is still thin and her blood vessels are visible beneath it. Her ears are in their final position, but sticking out a bit from her head (and if she has her daddy's ears they'll stay that way). The big news this week is that her fallopian tubes and uterus is fully formed and in place! She's supposedly moving like crazy, which I can believe, even if I am only feeling a fraction of her movements.

17wks (1d)

I can't believe I am less than a month away from being halfway through this pregnancy. It boggles my mind! I've also known about her existence for three months (and 1 day) now and that is also mind blowing. Especially considering how dramatic the first couple weeks of that knowledge was. I remember when I thought I wouldn't be able to write a weekly entry, and here I am! Three months, later, writing one for seventeen weeks and knowing that she is a SHE. And she has been doing well, I think! I still can't feel her, even though Jason is convinced he can. It's cute. This morning he put his hand on my stomach to say goodbye to her before going to work and was like "Katie, I swear, she's moving!" I tried to convince him that if I can't feel her then he definitely can't, but his excuse was "you're sleeping, you don't know!" Soon enough though! I should be able to feel her in the next coming weeks. And with the way she was kicking in that ultrasound I have no doubt she will make her presence known soon and often. I've also had a kickstart in my need to pee. It's all the time! I feel like every hour I have another full bladder. This is boggling to me since before I got pregnant I hardly ever had to use the bathroom. To the point where Jason was convinced there was something wrong with me! And now? Those days are long gone!! Also my appetite is definitely picking up. Last night I called Jason demanding Philly Cheesesteaks for dinner and a couple nights before then I had the biggest craving for Chinese takeout. I also got myself Ensure Protein drinks, since I'm having a hard time with getting enough protein and I wanted to get something to help. Even if it tastes like chalk.

I'm also finding it super hard to resist shopping for her. I just want to go out and get everything she needs and set up that nursery and buy everything at Janie and Jack even though it is the most absurdly over priced store in existence (though it should be noted that I managed to resist buy the CUTEST swimsuit that was on sale for $12 - self restraint thy name is Katie). I DID, however, buy all my bedding and some room decor since it was on clearance at Babies-R-Us. It's so cute and I'm SO happy with it. Greens and browns and whites and BUNNIES (though, Bunny, if you're reading this post, I have to say that as soon as I realized they're GREEN bunnies the only thing I can think of is you, lol). I have the 6 piece bedding set (fitted sheet, duvet and duvet cover, bumpers, dust ruffle, window valance, and diaper stacker), a lamp, a mobile, a 2 piece wall art, and an extra fitted sheet! I can't tell you how relieved I was when I finally purchase that and brought it home. It's like I've finally started putting things together for her. Like I have something she needs. Am I still panicky about the fact that her nursery is still a storage room? Why yes. Yes I am. Jason and I seem to have very different worries however. The other day we had a conversation that went so:
Jason: "We're having a girl. We have to worry about boys. And she's going to want to get married."
Me: "Honey. She's not even fully formed yet. Marriage is a long way away, we don't have to worry about that. What we should worry about? Her room is filled with stuff."
Jason: "We have plenty of time to clean out the nursery, Katie."
Me: "Oh. So her nursery can wait, but she's getting married soon?"
Jason: "... Yes! She's getting married really soon!"

Speaking of Bebe being not fully formed yet! She (I can say she :D) is now the size of a large onion, being 5" long and about 5 ounces! Her skeleton is hardening from soft cartilage to bone and her umbilical cord is growing stronger and thicker. She now has sweat glands (important, but it seems so random while she's cooped up in there) and MOST interestingly - Bebe can now sleep in REM cycles and dream. I have no idea what she can possibly be dreaming about though. Perhaps she is dreaming of doing more backflips, or dreaming of sucking her thumb again. I'm not sure. But it's fascinating that she is capable of it and does it. I wish I knew what was going on in her little head. It's so bizarre that she is growing inside of me and I have no idea what she is thinking or feeling or experiencing. I suppose this is just preparing me for having her outside the womb where I'd beg, borrow, steal or kill to be able to have an inkling of what she's thinking.

I am going to leave this post today with what the AMAZING Lindsay @ You Are The Roots (henceforth to be known as my Pregnancy Fairy Godmother) sent Bebe!! She even addressed it to her! Jason came in with it like "What did you buy for the baby? I told you not to buy anything." But ha! It was not me! THANK YOU SO MUCH LINDSAY!!!

"HI LITTLE GIRL!! Bebe I can't wait to meet you. Love, Ethan" (Lindsay's beautiful new baby boy)

16wks (3ds)

Oh man was this a great week! I am doing really well. Energy is up and thriving and I'm really starting to get my appetite back! Even my headaches haven't been as bad this past week. And, of course, yesterday was great, and that wasn't even supposed to be part of this blog post but whatever. It's exciting. The first part of the week was absurdly slow moving, as if the whole world knew I was anxious to find out the gender of my baby and was conspiring to make me wait as long as humanly possible. It was torture. I did a lot of sleeping since time tends to pass faster and less boringly when you sleep through it. But eventually the day came and though I had slept through the week I was barely able to get a little over 4 hours sleep that night. Go figure. I was able to down about three glasses of OJ in addition to my bagel in an attempt to force that child into movement. Fortunately it worked! Any pregnant women who want to ensure their fetus is not asleep during an ultrasound? Drink lots of OJ before your appointment. Mine was doing back flips and acrobatics in there. We got to the appointment and they had me do another Chinese Gender prediction test and it said clearly Boy. It was Boy surrounded by other Boys. And the guy said they had a 90% success rate with the chart.

So we get into the room and it's huge and they're playing Coldplay lullaby music so Jason automatically approved of it. The tech was super nice and she talked us through the whole thing and Jason sat up on the bed with me and we watched the ultrasound on this huge flatscreen. At first we couldn't see much because Bebe was lying in the most absurd position, but after a few deep coughs there was a shift and the tech goes "There we go!" and we go "... what is it?" "You can't tell?" "..." "Well-" *zooms in* "What isn't there?" "OH MY GOD SHE'S A GIRL!" And we found out our little Bebe was a beautiful, slightly alien looking, flexible little GIRL. The voting was 12 for girl, 4 for boy - so way to go majority! She had her head on the bottom and her whole body flipped over it like an extreme Yoga master who was a former Russian acrobat. We got to watch her for about 15min and I could watch her for hours and hours and hours. Afterwards I dragged Jason to Babies 'R' Us so we could find an adorable GIRLY outfit for Bebe. Not that she won't have a million cute girly outfits by the time she is born, but I wanted to be able to say "I got this the day I found out I was having a little girl" and so we got one! Of course, since we're rather obsessed with our cats, we had to get one with cats!!


if you're really bored and interested, Bebe's 13:14min ultrasound

OKAY. Bebe specifics. And, yes, still calling her Bebe for now because while we THINK we have a name we want to try calling the baby by it to make sure we like it and it sounds good to us. So Bebe she will remain for the present! Bebe is 4.5" long and 3.5 ounces and is about the size of an avocado. While at the grocery store the other day I picked one up and held it to my stomach and went "hey honey it's our daughter!" I really couldn't believe something that big was growing in me and will KEEP growing and getting BIGGER. Legs have grown longer and stronger (as we saw in that ultrasound) and her head is a lot more erect too. Her eyes have moved to the front of her head and her ears are almost in their final position. Scalp patterning has begun too, even though there isn't hair yet. But she has started growing toenails! In the ultrasound we could see her little heart fluttering, which it should be since now her heart is pumping 25 quarts of blood to her body each day and this will keep increasing until birth! I still haven't felt her moving, even though I know she's kicking up a storm in there. But I've been assured that I might not feel her until around 20wks since this is my first baby. Oh well! As I told a friend, from the way she's moving I might be begging her to STOP kicking before too long once I feel her start!!

15 wks (3ds)

So I'm 15 weeks and the most exciting thing that has happened since I last posted and now is that I had another doctor appt! It was a short one, Dr. listened on the doppler and found Bebe right away with a FHR of 142! He said my uterus was about 2 finger widths below my naval and that everything looked and sounded fantastic. FTR, I am loving the rise in my uterus because I can finally button my jeans again! I'm enjoying my little reprieve before I have to go back to maternity clothes and belly bands. I also got to make an appointment for my anatomy scan! I'll have it at exactly 20wks at 7:30am on August 25! I'm really (and nervously) looking forward to it. Mostly because I just want to hear that everything looks perfect and that I have no cause to worry about anything. I think my biggest fears right now are umbilical cord length (I have this horrific paranoia about it right now, tyvm pregnancy message boards) and placenta position (1 trimester of pelvic rest is more than enough, no placenta privia for me hopefully). But right now I am trying not to focus on those! I am 15 weeks and I can finally start to see a defined tiny little bump and I spend most of my time just poking it in order to "play" with Bebe - though what Bebe's thoughts on this form of "playing" I am sure aren't as favorable. I've also traded exhaustion for headaches which I seem to get a lot more regularly now, though fortunately they are more annoying than debilitating. According to the Dr. I am now +4 lbs. from my pre-pregnancy weight which I feel good about since I'd really prefer not to stray too far from the recommended 25-35 lbs.

Most of my thoughts, though, are preoccupied with July 30th. On that day I will be going to Prenatal Impressions for the Gender Determination! I cannot wait to find out if Bebe is a Boy or a Girl, and I even had Jason pick me up orange juice and brownie mix so I can try to force Bebe into a sugar rush to force movement. I've been pretty consistent with thinking Bebe is a girl through most of my pregnancy thus far, but lately I've been finding myself saying "He" at some points. Whether this is due to having a set name for a boy and no set name for a girl, I don't know. But It'll be fun to find out! I've also started looking into Old Wives Tales about gender prediction this past week and I'd like to share my findings with you:

REASONS BEBE MAY BE A BOY:

• I did not experience Morning Sickness
• My feet are colder than before pregnancy
• The hair on my legs has grown faster than before pregnancy
• Dad-to-be has been gaining weight (sorry honey!)
• I am having headaches
• Add my age at conception (26) and the number for the month I conceived (April=4) and the result is an even number (30)
• My age at conception (26) and the year I conceived (2011) are an even and an odd number (Mayan method)

REASONS BEBE MAY BE A GIRL:

• My baby's heartrate is 140bpm or higher (150, 174, 166, 142)
• My left breast is larger than my right breast (though, to be fair, this has always been the case)
• I am craving sweets and fruits
• I have gained weight in my hips and rear
• My face is broken out
• My breasts have grown absurdly large
• The Chinese Gender Chart tells my I'm having a girl (though, it should be noted, I have done this 4 times with various sites and got Girl twice and Boy twice)

OTHER TELLS THAT ARE NOT APPLICABLE OR I HAVE NOT TRIED:

• I barely have a belly (I swear, it looks so much bigger in pictures. It doesn't look nearly that big when I look in the mirror) so I do not know if I am carrying high (girl) or low (boy). I also do not know if my belly is shaped more like a basketball (boy) or a watermelon (girl)
• Drano test. You're supposed to put your pee into a cup of drano and if it's green it's a girl and blue it's a boy. But I do not have drano, and the fumes are supposed to be really bad for you
• The key test. If a pregnant woman picks up a key from the fat end she's having a boy, from the thin end it's a girl. But I know this now so I will be conscious of it now!
• The ring test. IDK how to do this to myself, lol
• The Native American legend: if your younger child's hairline at their neck ends in a point you are having a child of a different gender. if it is straight across you are having a child of the same gender. Obviously I can't do this since I have no previous children. Also? Not always accurate, though people SWEAR by it, because my hair ends in a point at my neck and my younger sibling? Also a girl.
• If you try 2 or more days before you ovulate you're having a girl. The day of or day after ovulation and you're having a boy. Apparently because Y sperm swim faster and die earlier and X sperm swim slower but live long. Unfortunately, we were taking a break the month I got pregnant and it is the one month I did not test for ovulation and my ovulation timing is never consistent so I could not tell you when ovulation occurred for this to be a viable method.

So that's 7 points for Boy and 7 points for Girl and 6 unknowns. Does this mean I'm having a Hermaphrodite? ANYWAYS I have created a poll (see side bar beneath my Welcome! blurb) so please please please feel free to vote in it! If you'd like to expand your answer in my comments go for it! I love comments and justifications! It should say a lot that I resisted putting the answer "PONY" and "HUMAN" as answers because (and I'm looking at you SSers) I know some of you would choose those!! Oh but enough of predictions and speculations. FACTS! At 15wks Bebe is 4"! Trying to figure out a fruit size is like comparing apples and oranges. Literally. One site says Apple and one says Navel Orange. Fun huh? I might go with Apple since I'm a Mac user, haha. One fun thing is that Bebe can now sense light, even though eyelids are still fused shut. But if I shine a flashlight on my stomach Bebe will shy away from the light. Fortunately for Bebe I have no idea where my flashlight is. Bebe is practicing breathing by moving amniotic fluid through that tiny little nose and into those developing lungs that are just primitive little air sacs right now. Legs have outgrown arms so Bebe looks more proportional now and all those little limbs and joints can move and bend. Even though there isn't much to taste besides amniotic fluid, taste buds are growing and developing. MOST importantly, it is now possible to determine gender which will happen next week (and just in case the u/s place is wrong, it'll be confirmed on August 25th by my Dr at 20 weeks). Some people have felt their baby move by now, but I have not, sadly. But apparently 16-22 wks are typically when first timers start feeling the movement so I am going to drink OJ and eat brownies and poke and prod and just wait for little Bebe to poke back!

14 wks (5ds)

Barely. But I'm here I'm here with a few minutes to spare if I rush this. The end of vacations are like a black hole of time loss. On Thursday, the day I turned 14 wks, we left vacation and drove to Chicago where I could meet up with friends to see the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 2 (and meet Matthew Lewis [aka Neville Longbottom] by sheer coincidence). Then the next day we drove straight through the night from Chicago to get to Orlando at 7am on Saturday. After a quick nap we left to South Florida to pick up the cats from my mom and Sunday we came back to Orlando (after stopping at Lindsay's (You Are The Roots) to meet her beautiful son Ethan. Lindsay also gave me a ton of baby things for which I'm eternally grateful and ecstatic about. Monday and Today have been spent in the hell known as 10 loads of laundry and unpacking and organizing and, most importantly, starting my baby registry! I decided to start working on it now since a lot of the main things we want are going to be gender neutral in order to be passed down to our future children whose gender might be different. This means bedding and room decor and large scale toys like bouncers and play mats. This is fine with me because I'm not big on frilly flowers and pink butterflies anyways. Then there's all the little things too like diapers and creams and feeding accessories, etc. etc. etc, that don't require gender. It's nowhere near ready to be released since I'm already thinking of changing several things and a few items are listed because I like them and want Jason's opinion of which is best, so there's that. And the big tickets like crib, furniture, car seat, stroller and baby monitor (trust me, Jason is in charge of that one) require a lot more research before we settle. But I'm a little less panicked now that it's begun.

Bebe! Bebe is the size of a lemon this week and is about 3.5"! Brain impulses are in high gear as Bebe's facial muscles begin making expressions anywhere from a grin to a scowl. The body, arms and legs are also rapidly growing in order to catch up to that once giant head. Lanugo, an ultra-fine downy hair, is also forming all over the body. In addition to the kidneys which are making urine, the liver is now producing bile and the spleen is assisting in red blood cell productions! Bebe is punching and kicking up a storm, but sadly I still can't feel a thing. As for me, I love the second trimester and am having no complaints! I woke up STARVING today and actually wanted to eat which has been rare for me lately. I definitely have more energy and have been zipping around with chores. I'm also completely stressed out at how disorganized my house is and now that I'm not panicking over my baby registry I can finally get back into the swing of doing my chores and switching out dressers so I can get this old furniture out of my bedroom. I am LOVING being able to move around more now that my first trimester light-activity restrictions from my hematoma are lifted. I also have a doctor's appt this Friday and afterwards I will schedule my anatomy scan!! Exciting!

13 wks

Guys guys guys guys guys guys! I'm out of my first trimester. At least I think I am. One website (BabyCenter) says Second Trimester is AFTER the thirteenth week so I wouldn't be there until next week but I don't CARE because I want it to be here now so I will listen to the majority and say it is today! And what a beautiful day it is too. I spent it on a boat reading my Kindle while Jason fished. Only to realize that pregnancy does not make me an effective fishing partner because even though the fish barely met the length limit he was debating letting it go because it wouldn't be a lot of meat (and he caught 3 the day prior) and I was all doe eyed and "Please! Honey you have to let him go you HAVE to!" And this isn't just because the idea of eating fish still makes me a little green around the gills, I just got really really upset at the idea of killing it. So he let it go and I was happy. But don't judge me too harshly! I kept my mouth shut the night he caught three with me on the boat. I only speak up for the small ones. Since those are the only ones he's bound to listen to me for, lol. Aside from fishing I've had a really nice vacation and Jason's taking me out to dinner tonight to boot so we can celebrate!

Ah, 13 weeks. Such a longed for number, and yet I feel very little has actually changed. I pee more now than ever even though I'm being assured that should slow a bit. I'm not nauseous at all anymore, though I wasn't that nauseous to begin with. I do have a bit more energy during the day, but come dinner time I am beat and just want to curl up and doze. And food? I'm still not that interested. I'll force myself to find something to eat just because I need to and I'm hungry but I don't actually want anything, and the things that don't sound absolutely revolting are few and far between. Poor Jason just wants to be able to cook for me and feed me and keep me healthy and nourished and I am making it virtually impossible by not wanting a thing (though I did ask for buttermilk pancakes yesterday morning and got them!) but he's hanging in there valiantly.

As for Bebe! At thirteen weeks s/he's about 3 in. long, weighs about an ounce, and is roughly the size of a peach! Oh what a peach, my Bebe. The best thing about this week (aside from it being the milestone marker for a significant decrease in my chances of the M word) is that Bebe has FINGERPRINTS. Those tiny little digits have those markings that are individual just to her/him that will be an identifier for life. Also, if Bebe is a girl, the ovaries are now stocked with more than 2 million eggs. Meaning if Bebe is a girl I am carrying my future grandchild in the womb of my womb. Talk about crazy. Bebe's body is growing as well, in order for it to catch up with the head, and now the head is only 1/3 of Bebe's size instead of half. Skin is still completely translucent and veins and intestines are clearly visible beneath it. It's amazing that this all started out as a microscopic bunch of rapidly dividing cells and now it's something moving and wriggling and thumb sucking. I really can't wait for another 3 weeks and 2 days until I can see Bebe again and find out if I can say he or she. Votes are pretty much in a deadlock between family of the baby's gender so it'll be pretty fun to figure out whose intuition was right!

12 wks (2ds)

It's 12 weeks!! Well, and two days, but I've been on the road for the past three days so you have to forgive me the tardiness. This week is a big one because Jason and I decided that we were going to go public with Bebe this Friday (yesterday) and we did! So hello everyone who is reading this blog for the first time and welcome to my pregnancy accounts! It's still another 5 days until I'm out of my first trimester and breathing becomes easier and I stop jumping and freaking out at every cramp (and I had a couple really uncomfortable ones while showering and getting dressed and am just repeating my mantras of "it is just round ligament pain. it is just round ligament pain. you have not jinxed yourself by not waiting until thursday. it is just round ligament pain" because I am overanalyzing everything). 12 weeks also means I FINALLY get to stop taking my progesterone pills!!! I have a about 4 left though which I'm saving for just in cases. It's a little scary being off the progesterone, to be perfectly honest. I've been on it since week 5, so I've had 7 weeks of that sort of safety net and now I feel as if I'm walking without one. But now that the placenta is developed it's producing enough progesterone so my body doesn't have to do it (since it sucked at it). But I am not going to be paranoid! I am on vacation and have fresh air and am just going to relax and enjoy being pregnant. Or I will try to, at any rate.

This week Bebe is a little over 2 inches long (the size of a plum!) and weighs half an ounce. I feel like Bebe is ahead of the development game because according to the various website authorities, reflexes are the name of the game this week - such as sucking thumbs, which last weeks ultrasound showed Bebe was already very capable at. But toes are curling, eyes are clenching, and if I poke my abdomen Bebe will squirm and swim away. You can bet I've been poking and prodding Bebe since I read that!! Nerve cells are developing in the brain and synapses are forming rapidly! The face is now definitely human and eyes have shifted from the side of the head to the front where they should be and the ears are also in their correct place. There was a rapid growth of intestines and right now they've protruded into the umbilical cord, but should now start easing back into the abdominal cavity. The kidneys have even started secreting urine into the bladder!! I just won't have to change those diapers for another 6 months.

As for me, I'm doing all right. I've noticed this week that my taste buds are off when it comes to salt. I had some French Onion soup for dinner one night and felt like I was eating pure salt while my husband assured me it was fine. Then the next day I had Wendy's fries for lunch an I couldn't taste any salt and felt like it was cardboard. Once again, Jason assured me they were plenty salty. But could I taste it? Nope. The smell and thought of fish still turns my stomach. Today Jason got up at 7am to go fishing in a canoe and caught a fish. Then he brought it back around 9 and cleaned it up and cooked it for breakfast. I'm sure it was delicious but I breathed through my mouth until he was done. But my father-in-law then made me pancakes and I was very delighted and I forgot all about the fish. I actually slept through the night so I don't feel exhausted today which is an awesome change!