13 and 14 Weeks

{I started these at 7 weeks and have just held onto them until now. If you have any interest, they're now posted for the dates they were actually written, so that I have them for the future. If you aren't super interested in these, I'll probably be posting them on the weekends, so you know when to avoid reading the blog :) }

Oops! I missed 13 weeks. I think I was so excited about sharing the news on here (and busy at work) that I completely missed it. Seeing as how I'm now over 14 weeks, I think we'll just cut our losses and keep going (with a bit of week 13 stuff thrown in here). Too bad, since 13 weeks is sort of a bit milestone!

(After seeing others, I really like the idea of labeling the pictures for future reference. However, I'm not loving my current method of making it in Pages and then taking a screen shot. Any tech savvy people who know of a way to add text like this to a photo while still keeping high picture quality?)

How Far Along?  14 weeks (and 2 days)! It feels nice to be firmly in the double digits at far enough along where it's *okay* to talk about it with others. 

Size of the Baby? A lemon! Our baby is growing by leaps and bounds :). It's almost doubled in weight since last week, which is crazy.

Sleep? Keeps getting better! Of course that could have something to do with the fact that I've had to take benedryl a few of the nights (cleared with my doctor) for crazy allergies. Still, only one night where I was awake for maybe an hour, but that was more due to work stress than pregnancy. Otherwise just waking up once every night, which I will definitely take. Still fairly exhausted on some days (needed a good 2 hour nap today), but in general I *think* I'm starting to experience a little bit of that second trimester miracle where you don't feel like passing out all the time anymore. 

Eating? In general this has been going a little better, though breakfast is still tough. I actually had salmon and zucchini for lunch yesterday, which made me incredibly happy since I haven't eaten such a normal and healthy meal in a while. Made me feel good to be sending the baby some yummy nutrients. Of course today I ended up feeling the most sick I have so far and ended up with a pretty carb heavy eating day. Sometimes you just need some pasta with butter and parmesan. My parents sent us a box of fall goodies, so I've been super enjoying some white chocolate covered pretzels.  

Exercise: Had to add this new one, since this is actually happening again! I decided that starting 2nd trimester meant that I needed to make more of an effort to getting back to being healthier, and made it to the gym twice, yoga once, and took a 3 mile hike this past week. 

Yay! Prenatal yoga has been amazing. It's at the yoga place I started attending last spring, but is just a class for expecting mommies. We do lots of things to stretch and strengthen the pelvis/hips and tap into breathing. The instructor is also a doula (labor coach) and has been a great resource already. This week was just 4 of us, two ladies due in a few weeks, and another one also due in April. It's been hard to make the 7:15 Saturday class, but it's worth getting up. I feel very nurtured afterwards and it puts me in a great mood for the rest of the day. The gym was slightly less successful, since it made my bad leg and feet more painful, so I'll have to play that by ear. The hike was awesome - finally found an Arizona trail I like. I'll try to post about it on my running blog soon :). 
 What I Miss? Hmm... I guess still sushi and wine. And eating breakfast without thinking twice about what will sit well. Hopefully we're nearing the end of those days, though!

Best Moment? I've had a lot of good ones the last few weeks. I think the biggest is just having this pregnancy public and getting to sharing in the joy others have for this little one. Telling my students was pretty fabulous. I told them at the end of our class meeting last Friday and they were all so excited. They clapped and cheered (though one put it together that it meant I'd be missing the end of the school year and was a little bummed). They are very excited about naming the baby and have given many "helpful" suggestions like Gideon, Alien, and Kraylor (combining Kristen and Taylor, two girls in my class' names). Now when I'm absent-minded in class (which also happened before I was pregnant, I might add) one student will say that it's because my baby must be being very loud inside and distracting me. Another suggested that I should be a kangaroo for Halloween, since my baby could be my pouch. I've have more babysitting offers than I can count, though I'm not sure a 10 year old is my exact ideal for childcare :). 

I've seen a number of parents since then, and gotten many well wishes (and only one whose husband is pretty bummed I won't be finishing out the year. I promised I'd try to visit for the very end). Otherwise, lots of excitement that this is my first. 

Milestones: Reaching 2nd Trimester! What could be better than that! Telling my students was also huge, as was announcing on here. We also got the results of our NT test a few weeks ago, and our baby is officially "low risk." Exactly what you want to hear. 

Mommy Update: Overall, I'm feeling great. Less nausea overall (barring today's over-exertion induced getting sick session. Ugh). But more energy and feeling normal. Even just last weekend I was sort of worthless, but this one I have been able to be much more present. Ed and I have needed some good quality us time, which has been hard with me tied to the couch the last few months, so we really enjoyed a great date last night and a breakfast/hiking date today. Starting to see the light at the end of the beginning of pregnancy symptoms tunnel. 

Baby Update:

Baby is doing awesome (not that I have any real basis for this - I just feel it). Sometimes I imagine I can feel it moving around in there. I'm sure I'm just feeling muscle spasms or something, but it's fun to pretend, and it could start happening in as little as two weeks! It could also take another 6, but I prefer to be optimistic. Baby can now start sucking it's thumb, which is incredibly cute. Also cute, it can now make facial expressions, including frowns, grimaces, and squinting. More organs are working, including the kidneys, and it's getting lugano (fine, soft hair) over its body to keep warm. Keep growing little one!