How far along: 21 weeks
Fruit-size comparison: Teeny Peep is the size of a carrot, and from our appointment this week weighs 13 oz.
Developmental milestones: Teeny Peep’s digestions is really working this week on developing. She has already manufactured all of the ovum she will need for her entire life (about 6 million). Her eyebrows and eyelids are developed now- crazing to think that she will put mascara on those beautiful lashes one day.
Maternity clothes: Oh praise the Lord for maternity clothes. lol I spent a great deal last week online updating my maternity wardrobe. I love dressing this bump! I think I’m good….for now ;-)
Weight gain: Still only 1 lb., but maybe 2. I’m pretty thrilled about this. With Dutch at this point I was up 9 lbs so I feel like I’m doing pretty good at staying at a healthy weight gain. I imagine that a big boost of weight is coming soon though. I’m finally starting to get ravenous. While we were grocery shopping today, I told the Mr. if I didn’t get some food right now I was going to eat the entire store. Dramatic much? lol When I’m hungry, I’m hungry, and I want to eat NOW, so I know that scale is going to start ticking higher for me.
Stretch Marks: I've got plenty of kisses from heaven from carrying Dutch. I applied lotions and such daily with that pregnancy, but to be honest I don't think I'm even going to try to prevent future stretch marks. I absolutely love these badges of honor and I'm so proud to wear them.
Sleep: Ehhhhhhh not the best. I don’t sleep much but I’m functioning pretty well. It takes me a while to fall asleep, I have plenty of potty breaks, and I’m up early; however, when I’m sleeping, I am sleeping like a rock.
Best moment of the week: Well by far this week, the best moment was our doctors appointment! Since we knew this might be a long appointment we had it early in the day while Dutch was in school. My scan with him was a little over 2 hours so I didn’t want him to feel trapped in a small room if it ended up being a long scan again, which ended up being a really good decision. We got ushered in really quickly and had a great tech. The tech got her heartbeat right away (135) and started looking for gender so that we wouldn’t have to wait. Unfortunately, Teeny Peep is currently breech and really really low (which I could have told you that without a scan lol) so it was very hard to see her profile. She does not have a lot of space and is curled up so tightly that getting a glimpse at her internal organs was a big challenge for the tech. Right now she has her knees tucked so tightly into her chest and her chin is tucked down too so she looks like a tiny ball. Teeny Peep demonstrated some of her stubborn personality by refusing to move no matter how much she was pushed on, or which side I was laying on…….or even when the tech flipped me upside down on my head. Because of this, I’m going hardcore with my labor exercises to make sure she flips head down and doesn’t get stuck in the breech position. I know we have time for her to flip but I’m going to do everything I can to get that to happen soon. Anyhow, the tech gave my stomach a break (thank goodness!) and measured everything else that he could. We loved getting a virtual tour and seeing that everything looked normal. I had been praying for a boring appointment and in that sense it totally was textbook boring :-) The only excitement was trying to get her to move for some pictures and for her gender reveal. We she finally started wiggling, the Mr. looked and said “It’s a girl!” before the tech could make the official announcement. So it was a great appointment checking out our little girl for a couple hours, and I think we're still on a high from seeing her.
Movement: Oh yes and I love every single ballet movement. I swear this week, late one night, I not only felt her kicking on the inside and outside, but I saw bulges on my stomach. I even recorded it with my phone because the Mr. was asleep. I know that he is going to get to feel her soon, I just have to have them both awake and in the same room at the same time. She is sitting on my right side and I can feel all of her kicks on my left side (exact opposite of Dutch) generally in the late afternoon and late evening.
Cravings: I don’t think too much of anything is a big craving, I just love food in general again. I’m already looking forward to my own personal Thanksgiving feast! I remember the holidays with my last pregnancy …..I truly believe that every holiday season should be spent in stretchy pants!
Gender: Did you see our post on Monday!?!?!?! It’s a girl! Teeny Peep is a girl! We are pretty sure that we have settled on her name. We had a really tough time before we knew the gender narrowing down names for boys and girls The only name we could agree on was a girl name, and the Mr. said that that was a sign she was going to be a girl. So we’re practicing with it for a while to make sure this is the name for her.
Belly button: It’s starting to poke out a little. I had a halfie with Dutch: half of my belly button would poke out but never the entire thing. I think this time I will get a full-on outtie…..I am honestly looking forward to that and was sad that it never popped out with Dutch.
Wedding ring: On, and about to get sparkled up this month.
Anything making you queasy/sick: Nothing that I can think of.
What I miss: I still miss being able to wear Dutch. I've been looking for some used woven wraps or even a sling that I can borrow or purchase because Dutch and I love babywearing so much. My belly has just gotten too big for the forward wraps and carriers that I have. So even though I'm no longer on pelvic rest, I'm still trying to find a way to wear him. Hopefully soon!
What I’m looking forward to: I don’t know if this is pregnancy related or not, but I feel like we had a great report with the doctor this week, we’re over half-way done with this pregnancy, and the summer heat is starting melt away into the holidays. I feel like I can breathe a little bit, and I’m looking forward to just enjoying and embracing everyday of this fall and winter. I’m looking forward to being pregnant this season, to having fun with my family, and to making the every day a special day.
Labor signs: Nooooo! Thank goodness!
Symptoms: I’ve got some heartburn but nothing like I did when I was pregnant with Dutch. I can go days without the symptom; however, I think that's probably my biggest symptom these days (besides the obvious growing bump of course). I think my symptoms finally caught up to the second trimester bliss and I’m honestly feeling great. I’m going to enjoy it while I can lol
Nursery: There isn't going to be a new nursery. We plan on having Dutch and Teeny Peep share a room. It's not that we don't have the space; we do have another bedroom, but we would like our kiddos to share a room when they are younger. We're thinking this will be a great opportunity to continue building character with our children. And to be honest, Dutch didn't move into his nursery until he was eight months old, and even then only for a few hours a day until he was 11 months old, so the new baby will probably stay in our room about the same amount of time and then we will do a transition of some sort. Of course we don't know what it is like to have two children and exactly what it will be like, but this is how we think we are going to try to start.
Emotions: Oh goodness this week has certainly been an emotional roller coaster. I have been extremely high and extremely low and bouncing back and forth. I even annoyed myself this week! I’m not too much of an outwardly emotional person; the majority of my emotions are kept to myself but I can definitely tell I’m like a bouncy ball. Maybe what they say is true for me, that when your pregnant with a girl you’re a lot more emotional? Or maybe it was just all of the anxiety associated with our anatomy scan this week? I’m looking forward to next week being a bit more balanced!