13 weeks, 0 days...

Originally written: March 13, 2009

Big week this week! Gradually other people and myself are starting to notice my little baby bump. I'm starting to feel like it is a bump and not just flab. My tummy is starting to itch more too, which means the skin is stretching. Good thing Lisa sent me some body butter for a gift! I can still button two pairs of work pants, but choose not to, just because it's not comfortable. I put on the Bella Band instead. My jeans still fit fine because they were big on me to begin with, so no worries there for at least another month or so. I'm hungrier now, noticing that I have to eat something every two hours or my stomach just aches and growls at me.

On Tuesday, March 10th we had our 12 week appointment and it went excellent. The baby is measuring exactly the right size for being 13 weeks. The ultra sound was so much fun and a HUGE change since the 8 week one. Our little bean now looks like a little person! It has arms, legs, feet, toes, fingers, eyes, nose, mouth and a very definite shape to it. The doctor pressed on my stomach and we got to watch it move all around, flailing its arms and legs and it even turned over on its side and put its back to us! We also got to see a shot of the top of the head to see the "butterfly shape" of the brain. And you could see the umbilical cord on the screen. So exciting!

I've only gained one pound and they asked me to drink a bit more water because there's a little too much protein in my urine. Blood pressure was good at 100/70. I got back on April 6th for my 16 week.

I feel, ok. Depends on the day. I'm still not sleeping very well. It seems when I finally fall into a deep sleep, the alarm goes off and I have to drag myself out of bed. It's been busy with the new job at work, so by the end of the night I'm really tired and can hardly keep my eyes open. The heartburn is getting worse, happening almost every night now. I try and sit up a lot in bed, but I'm so tired my head just falls down to the side. I usually pop a TUMS and feel a lot better. The feeling of food stuck in my throat and chest depends on the day. It's not every day like last week and has subsided a little bit, but is still happening. I hate that worse than heartburn because it makes me gag on things like my toothbrush.

My parents made flight reservations to come down over Mother's Day weekend. By then we'll know the sex and be able to go do some shopping. It's going to be so much fun getting the nursery together. Guess I should make April my Spring Cleaning/Get my Donations Together month! We have a lot of extra furniture stored in that room that I think we'll donate for a tax write off. Then maybe we can paint it in June so it kind of looks put together before my shower in July.

Random things I craved this week (some lasted for days, some lasted for 5 mins and went away) are:
Fruit Smoothie - and I don't mean that sugar-loaded crap that Jamba makes, like actual natural fruit smoothies either plain or with yogurt. Finally, after 3 days, got mine today. Cranberry, Strawberry, Banana and Ice. Perfect. :-)
Cheesy popcorn - yes like that stuff that's so good it turns your fingers orange and comes in a pretty tin at Xmas time. Yum!
Cheeseburgers - still in the back of my head every day, though I don't feel like I'm going to die without one. There's simply just never a moment when that doesn't sound good! Tomorrow we'll go to Red Robin and get my monthly cheeseburger and I will be happy again for another 4 weeks haha.
Neapolitan Ice Cream - this started last Friday night because I wanted something to ease my indigestion, but I didn't want milk (besides we drink non-fat and that has no impact on the gagging feeling in my throat). I wanted strawberry, then I wanted chocolate, then I wanted vanilla...so Jeff came back from the store with Neapolitan so I had all three. Quite yummy.
Root Beer - this has been going on for a couple of weeks now. Let me just note that I NEVER drink Root Beer. It's ok, just not my favorite kind of soda, tastes a little funny...well over the past 2-3 weeks I'm obsessed with it. So I finally bought myself some diet stuff so I can treat myself every weekend to one. Good thing it's caffeine free or I'd be in trouble.

Well that's all I can think of for my entire 12th week. Today's day 1 of Week 13 (I don't get why some books/sites say I still have another week in my first trimester, meaning the second trimester starts on week 14 and other books/sites say my second trimester starts today since my 12th week is now complete...???). I'm really looking forward to the next couple months as we find out the sex of the baby, have visits with friends and family, and a trip to Washington and Canada on tap. We also get to start planning a theme for the nursery which will be a lot of fun.