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I can’t believe I am now officially in my 2nd trimester ( according to some sources. others don’t count 2nd trimester until the end of the 13th week)

STATS:

How far along: 12 weeks.

How big is baby: It’s a plum.

Total weight gain: 1.5-2 lbs ( I am at 136lb right now)

Sleep: Thanks to my relaxation apps, the sleep has been wonderful.

Best moment of the week: ULTRASOUND! We had our 12 week ultrasound on Wednesday. It was the first time we actually saw a real baby in there. Our first ultrasound was a blob in the middle of the screen. This time it was absolutely amazing! The second we saw the baby, it pushed off the uterine wall and jumped to the opposite side of the sac while turning our back to us. It was so cute. Afterwards it kept moving and jumping slowly but was very cooperative and everything was measured the first time. The Nuchal Fold measurements were fabulous. So now I am waiting on the bloodwork to get the complete results of the Down Syndrome screening.
So everything looked really good, but the tech REFUSED to let us see the genitals. :) lol She gave us a straight out NO! I don’t see what it would have hurt, but whatever, we’ll find out in September.
We shot a small video, not from the beginning unfortunately, because my hubby is a fumbler and couldn’t find the iPhone and then the camera on my iphone ( lol), but it’s still pretty amazing.

Food cravings: Still nothing. I’ve been eating cheddar as a way of adding calories, and I enjoy it more than ever before, but again it’s not an actual craving. I have more ,like, preferences, it seems, not actual cravings.

Food aversions: The aversions are getting better, at least aversion to food in general. I still can’t stand the idea of eating lettuce or sardines, but it might be because they remind me of the horror I had to go through.

Symptoms:
Nausea – It’s slowly getting better. I still get it pretty bad in the evenings, but I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Heartburn – still there, but not as bad
Skin – I keep waiting for it to clear up- NOPE- it’s stubborn.
Round Ligament Pains: I think a few days ago I felt my first bouts of round ligament pains. Nothing since then, but it felt ….”different”.

Gender: At our 20 week ultrasound.

What I’m looking forward to: Finding out the results of the down syndrome screen in a few days.

What I miss:
SUSHI! ( I really need to order a sushi kit and make my own, but I hate cooking right now, so i don’t know if it’d get much use)
BEING THIN (I feel I am getting fat. And not the pregnant fat- that I can live with- I am afraid I am getting simply fat: my legs, my stomach, it’s just scary looking to me. I know it might not seem that way to you, but I was sooo much fitter and skinnier 6 months ago, I just really miss that state.
Playing tennis and rollerblading: it’s too hot to play and with the balls flying everywhere and the amount of exersion tennis gives me it’s just not safe.

Next appt: August 5th. (by the way, what happens on the non-ultrasound appointments? What’s the point of going to the doctor every month?)

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Excuse the yucky tired look. I so wasn’t feeling it :)

STATS:

How far along: 11 weeks.

How big is baby: It’s a lime.

Total weight gain: Not exactly sure. It seems I gain 1.5 pounds one week and lose it another week. So as of today it’s 1.6 lb.

Sleep: Can’t complain.

Best moment of the week: Doctor’s visit. Anything baby related is good. He was SHOCKED that we heard the heartbeat at 8.5 weeks via doppler. He said even if a doctor told him that, he would have not believed it. He asked us questions about how and when  and the bpm (165-170) and how it sounded and then proceeded to listen on his own doppler, which of course sounded exactly like our baby’s heartbeat we’ve heard a few times ourselves.  After I described to him the baby’s heartbeat, my own heartbeat, the placental flow and the difference, he went from being skeptical to amazed. He brought it up several times during our visit and said it must have been because I’m thin (not anymore, poo) and my uterus is super close to my belly. “Your baby is already a perfectionist”- he said. lol

Food cravings: UGH! Nothing! I just don’t like food right now. I eat cucumbers and any fruit more willingly than other things but that’s pretty much it. I had a craving for potato dumplings one day, but it disappeared as soon as hubby brought them from a restaurant and I had them- full of greasy cheese and oil- ugh!

Food aversions: I hate all food. It’s annoying. I want to like food again. I still can’t eat lettuce.

Symptoms:
Nausea – still here, still strong enough to make me really hate it.
Headaches – on and off occasionally
Heartburn - my DHA pills totally give me heartburn. So I started taking them right before bed, and it’s become easier.
Skin – horrible. This week it exploded even worse. It’s a battlefield on my face.
Boobies: big and less sore – hubby is loving it!

Gender: Sucky news. We’ll be doing an U/S next week at 12 weeks and then the next one will be at 20 weeks, which is when we’ll be finding out the sex. We could do an ultrasound at 16 weeks, but we’re trying to limit the number of u/s, so I guess the more prudent choice would be to wait till 20 weeks. We mentioned the Genital Tubercle Angle (a way to determine sex at 12-14 weeks at 98% accuracy), but our doc knew nothing about it and I don’t expect our tech to be familiar with it either, so oh well.

What I’m looking forward to: Next week’s ( Wednesday) ultrasound, seeing the baby. The last time we saw it was at 6 weeks and it was a little blip. Now I want to see it move around- that’d be so much fun! Oh and I’ll be videotapping the u/s to send the video to mom.

What I miss: Feeling normal and being normal. It’s only been 3 months, and I can’t say I enjoy being pregnant. I realize that this isn’t the most pleasant time and often I forget I am ACTUALLY pregnant. I can’t wait until I have a belly and feel kicks so it feels more real and joyful.

Next appt: July 13th.

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Before I launch into my week 10 update, I’d like to say that I will eventually come back with normal non-pregnancy related posts. And while this is primarily a conception/pregnancy/baby blog, it is also my personal blog. However, right now all I  (barely) have the energy for is my weekly updates here and Selfie Saturdays over my photography blog. I’m really looking forward to that blast of energy in the 2nd trimester and I will be hopefully posting more than once a week.
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I’m very excited to be starting my 11th week.

Whatever was happening with my insides has finally settled down. I’m still bloated, but the extreme belly is finally gone. It seems my uterus moved out of my pelvis a few weeks earlier than it was supposed to. And that movement is what was causing the mess of  my bulging belly and feeling stuffed all the time. Now that my intestines settled back down, all I am left with is bloat and a little belly. Something tells me that with everything happening a few weeks earlier, we will see an actual bump sooner rather than later. Oh and my belly button is getting bigger. It’s kind of freaky, because I’ve always had a very small belly button and now it’s an actual hole I stick my finger into LOL

Also turns out my next appointment isn’t going to be the NT scan like I thought, but just an OB appointment, and THEN they’ll schedule a 12 week NT ultrasound scan after it. Makes sense now, because I was wondering why they scheduled my 12th week NT scan at 11weeks 1 day.

Also, question: is it possible to keep some semblance of a waist in pregnancy? I mean the belly is supposed to grow outwards, not in width, right? So I’d imagine some waist is possible. I don’t like becoming square!  ;)

STATS:

How far along: 10 weeks.

How big is baby: It’s a PRUNE.

What’s the baby up to:

Your baby has now completed the most critical portion of his development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature.

He’s swallowing fluid and kicking up a storm. Vital organs — including his kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver (now making red blood cells in place of the disappearing yolk sac) — are in place and starting to function, though they’ll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy. If you could take a peek inside your womb, you’d spot minute details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing) and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin.

In other developments: Your baby’s limbs can bend now. His hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over his heart, and his feet may be long enough to meet in front of his body. The outline of his spine is clearly visible through translucent skin, and spinal nerves are beginning to stretch out from his spinal cord. Your baby’s forehead temporarily bulges with his developing brain and sits very high on his head, which measures half the length of his body. From crown to rump, he’s about 1 1/4 inches long. In the coming weeks, your baby will again double in size — to nearly 3 inches.

Total weight gain: Seems I am holding steady at 2 pounds, which exactly the weight of the baby+uterus+growing boobies+increased blood volume according to sources. I have figured out my nutrition for now. The feeling of being always full has almost disappeared, so I was able to add a few key components to make sure I meet my calorie goal: milk smoothies with banana, strawberries or mango and homemade guacomoly on whole grain bread ( I owe a thanks for the ideas to 2 of my readers). This, in addition to one “bad” food I’ll talk about in the cravings section, have gotten me where I need to be without much suffering.

Maternity clothes: Nope, but I do have to pick out things that used to be super loose on me. Like shorts that would constantly fall off before :)

Sleep: With the nightly calming oil massage from hubby and Positive pregnancy app, plus adjusting my sleep positions, I have been doing pretty good.

Best moment of the week: Having 1 day where I had almost no nausea at all- YAY!

Food cravings: As before, my favorite cucumber-tomato salad, any fruits. And this week after talking to a friend (thank you, Michelle lol), I suddenly got a craving for breaded mozzarella sticks. I held out for a while not giving into it, but then thought: “Hell, I am not getting as many calories as I’d like to. Adding some natural but junky food for calorie and enjoyment’s sake won’t hurt!”. So I instructed hubby to buy the most natural best looking (ingredient wise) mozzarella sticks he can find. I’ve been eating a few of them daily.

Food aversions: My tastes and aversions literally change daily. I can’t stand ice cream now, or anything sweet for that matter ( again!), except for fruit and juices of course. Still can’t eat fish, or romaine or nuts. Really looking forward when I can make romaine salads again.

Symptoms:

Nausea: I can’t get a handle on it. It’s there, sort of. I don’t feel the greatest, but I can’t tell where it’s more of a fullness feeling or maybe heartburn making it worse. But again, it’s improving which is a good sign.
Other: Sore boobies, an unpleasantly full stomach after eating even a small meal, heartburn after my Omega 3 pills and certain foods, breakouts, some heightened emotions.
New: Headaches! Hello increased blood volume and thank you for ensuring I need head massages daily LOL

Gender:Have no idea. I keep having a feeling it’s a boy. But i’m not superstitious, so I don’t ascribe anything to that.

What I’m looking forward to: Next week’s appointment.

Next appt: July 8th.

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I’m 9 weeks today! Starting my 10th week.

How can I be double the size in waist area and not gain a single pound on the scale? Even if it’s water weight, shouldn’t it be showing on the scale?

STATS:

How far along: 9 weeks.

How big is baby: It’s a GREEN OLIVE.

What’s the baby up to:

Your baby is now about 1 ½ inches long and weighs about 5 grams, it resembles the shape and size of a peapod. Even though it is very difficult to discern the sex of your baby by ultrasound at this point, the genitals are forming. Your baby’s brain is forming 250,000 neurons every minute. Brain development is very rapid at this time. The head is upright and your baby can turn their head, open their mouth, smile and practice breathing. The outer ear is completely formed and the inner ear is nearly complete. The intestines begin moving from the umbilical cord to the abdomen and all the vital organs are formed and starting to work together. The lungs are continuing to develop. The arms and legs are well formed and fingers and toes are not webbed any longer. All of your baby’s joints are formed, so they can bend their fingers and make a fist. They can kick and curl up their toes.

Total weight gain: Well, for the past few days I seemed to have slowly lost the weight I had gained, since I relaxed a little bit with making sure I eat a lot. I just ate when I was hungry and always healthy. Obviously, that was not working, so I’ve picked up my eating and started adding whole grain bread to everything I eat, as well as eat more often and try to get closer to that goal of 2000 calories. Since I started doing that again, I’ve gained some of the weight back yesterday, so this morning it showed 1.5lb.

Maternity clothes: Not yet, but pants are definitely hard to button

Sleep: I have to say sleep has been “ugh”. I get more nauseous and crampy towards the evening and going to sleep is so uncomfortable, because I don’t want to sleep on my back as I approach 2nd trimester, and boobs are too sore and big to sleep on my stomach. So sides are the only option. I have to pee three times a night and every time I wake up, I feel anxious for some weird reason. So we started doing a routine before bed to help me relax a bit and it’s been working wonders. I don’t hurt anymore, I fall asleep easier andI don’t have anxiety waking up. Basically, right before bed, hubby gives me a short light gentle back massage with a relaxing lavender massage oil while I listen to the greatest  iPhone app ever invented for preggo women called POSITIVE PREGNANCY. It’s sort of a hypnosis app, where a guy with an Irish accent talks in a super soothing voice, sending positive messages to you and your “bebe” while “programming” your body to fall asleep. Wow, I’ve had the best nights of sleep after this routine.

Best moment of the week: Listening to the baby’s heartbeat on the doppler. We got the doppler and did exactly what we decided to do: listen once and put it away. I’ll write a separate post about that experience, but it was really cool.

Food cravings: I haven’t been having any cravings recently. There are foods that I will eat more willingly than others, but I don’t really crave them. The easiest meals to eat have been cucumber and tomato salad and veggie burgers.

Food aversions: Food in general. I don’t enjoy eating and have honestly forgotten what it feels like have a normal appetite. It feels like I will never be able to enjoy food the way I did before. You do go back to liking food after pregnancy, right? I have trouble eating fish, beans, eggs, anything oily or fatty, cheeses, nuts, lettuce. I still eat it all for nutrition, but it’s a struggle. Except for fish, that I just can’t stomach.

Symptoms:

Nausea: My nausea has subsided for a week, where I almost felt normal! But it seems today has taken a turn for the worse. We’ll see… I still don’t enjoy food and feel sick-ish between meals and at night, but it’s bearable. I guess I can consider myself lucky because the worst of it lasted only 3 weeks. Hope today was just a fluke and it doesn’t really come back.
Cramps: Have been cramping a bit, just very light aches that radiate into my right leg, which make me think that it could be just my muscles hurting from working out ( i work out inner thigh muscles, because they are important in labor and delivery)
Fatigue: It’s up a notch this week. I get tired just going up in the stairs in the house. It makes sense though, because this week and next the baby is almost doubling in size.
Other: sore boobies, an unpleasantly full stomach after eating even a small meal, breakouts, some heightened emotions.

Gender: Hoping that the 12th week ultrasound will give us a guess as to what gender our baby is.

What I’m looking forward to: The end of the first trimester and feeling normal again.

Next appt: July 8th.

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Hi, guys!
I’m finally at the stage where I can justify a weekly update and possibly a weekly belly picture. I don’t have a bump ( obviously), but I do have a BELL-A-Y.

Someone had the nerve to comment on my last post with “You’re ‘noticeable change’ is bloat, dear” (copied as is)!

Ha! Well, shit, Sherlock! No, I truly think that my 8 week pregnant belly is an actual baby trying to poke out. Come on!
Bloat or bump or intestines being pushed out- whatever it is, it’s there because of pregnancy and pregnancy alone. And therefore it’s a “noticeable change” :)

Please ignore my disgusting looks. I love how you can see the progression of nausea in my horrible pictures. Week 4- good and healthy, week 5- oh shit the nausea started, week 6 – ok I’m getting used to it, week 8- oh fuck! This shit sucks! ( don’t you love my forced smile haha)

So again, I almost didn’t post these because of how gross I look, but please remember, I’m preggo in the throws of 1st trimester :) haha

STATS:

How far along: 8 weeks.

How big is baby: It’s a yummy raspberry.

Total weight gain:Looks like 1-2 pounds, but it could be all water weight. I seem to fluctuate a lot. My goal for the first trimester is to NOT lose any weight and gain somewhere in the recommended 2-6 pounds. My maternal fat stores have exploded- WHOA! I might not be showing a big change on the scale but I feel my legs are a size of an island and my stomach…well my stomach is a separate story. Never ever in my life have I had a stomach even close to what I have now. It seems HUGE to me, considering my abs have always been awesome looking. It doesn’t freak me out, per se, but it feels so different, to be bending at your waist while sitting and actually feel my stomach lol I normally eat a lot of bloaty foods ( do healthy things have to be bloat inducing too???), and I’m used to being bloated once in a while, but this is beyond the normal range.

Maternity clothes:No way! Don’t want to, won’t go for it. I’ll wear sweats the whole pregnancy! Ahahahha Ok not really. But it’s too early for maternity. I’ll just pull out my fat jeans. I wasn’t always a size 2, there’ve been times where I was a size 4-6..so I’ll go back to that for the time being…and when I actually start showing we will see. It’s just all the maternity clothes I’ve seen are sooo….old-ladyish. Luckily, I’m working from home and not going many places, except for daily walks, so I don’t need a whole new wardrobe. Though I can’t wait to get some super baggy off the shoulder tops, but not from maternity stores.

Sleep: It’s been really good up until a few days ago. Since I drink so much water, I get up 3 times a night to pee, which doesn’t bother me as much as the body aches I seem to get in the morning… Oh well, hello the next 7 months of uncomfortable sleep.

Best moment of the week: This week has been pretty quiet but I loved writing the posts about how we found out and our doc’s visit, because it let me re-live it. And then reading your comments was awesome! Reading your comments,guys, is always the best part of my day! They make me feel such a connection with you all! reading about your experiences or hearing that you’ll soon be doing the same- it’s just awesome!

Food cravings:In the very beginning I was craving tomato sauce. Now it’s salt, tomato and cucumber salads, dough (and not whole grain but actual refined grain dough. I don’t normally eat refined grains, but that’s the only one you can buy ready made at the store and hubby refuses to make his own dough (and I can’t cuz I’m too nauseous). I honestly only ate a tiny bit of it. We make vegetable pizza with spinach and mushrooms, pepper, tomatoes, eggplant and tomato paste (no cheese)and we use the store bought dough. So the crust is my fave part. I’ve been salting the shit out of everything too :) Hubby thinks I’m crazy.

Food aversions: Anything sweet! Pretty much anything is too sweet for me, except for fruit and organic no sugar added fruit juices. NUTS! OMG I cannot stand walnuts now. Just the thought of chewing on them-ew! Which is too bad, because that means I have to get my omega3s somewhere else. Anything oily and greasy, obviously. Meats, but that’s normal for me, I have an aversion when I’m not pregnant.

Symptoms: Mild occasional cramps, heartburn, nausea, fatigue, sore boobies that have grown so much that hubby’s eyes light up every time he sees me topless :) Luckily, no gas or constipation so far because I eat a ton of fiber. I’ll be writing a separate post about all the symptoms and what i expected and didn’t expect and how it was different in real life. I thing preggo-to-be’s would be interested, because I was always curious what symptoms felt like and whether I’d get all of them.

Movement: just some muscle cramps and uterine cramping, which, if you think about it, is the baby’s housing growing and moving :)

Gender: I AM DYING TO KNOW! I think the best part of pregnancy is finding out the baby’s gender, because then you can picture him/her better, use his/her name, start preparing for him/her. 16-18 weeks cannot come soon enough! But up until then I’ll definitely take your votes on whether you think it’s a girl or a boy :)

What I’m looking forward to: Well, up until yesterday I was looking forward to getting our doppler…but now that I was nicely informed that doppler and ultrasound is essentially the same (less power and less damage but still), we’ll be mostly likely sending it back. If we’re careful during this pregnancy, we’re careful and we just can’t justify our somewhat selfish need to hear the baby’s heartbeat by “possibly” endangering it more than necessary. (I read that ultrasound can “scramble” brain cells in a fetus. Say what?) So now I’m looking forward to our next 12 week appointment and hearing the baby’s heartbeat on an ultrasound that I can justify ( diagnostic).

What I miss:SUSHI, smoked salmon! I would love to have some sushi. That is the first think I’ll be doing post-partum-I’m telling ya! Being able to walk on our golf course ( we live on a golf course, and used to take walks in the evening. Now that I’m preggo, hubby is super paranoid about all the pesticides, insecticides and fertilizer they continually spray on the green, so he has forbidden me to walk on it). We’ll probably buy a membership at a local sanctuary and take walks there instead. Not having boat trips and wave runner outings every weekend with our friends. Hearing the baby’s heartbeat!

Next appt: July 8th.

Oh and somehow I never mentioned, but my EDD is Jan. 24-26 ( depending on whether you calculate it based on my LMP or the actual conception date).

Also, my belly heart photo you saw in the last post got onto the 1st page of Flickr Explore. Not sure why, considering it was a quick snapshot. But am still honored. I’ve only had 2 other shots that ever hit the front page, and they’ve been a lot more artistic.