22 Weeks

Babies grow at such different rates that all 3 sites I look at weekly for updates give completely different suggestions as to our little boy's size this week. He could be as small as 7 inches and 12 ounces, or as big as 11 inches and over a pound. Eyelids and eyebrows are more developed and his muscles are getting stronger. He is also developing a sense of touch and can grab on to things now, and he may very well grab onto the umbilical cord just to hold on to something.

One of the articles this week has the subtitle of "Baby's Busting a Move!" And let me tell you, I'm feeling it. This little boy has been so crazy the past few days. The movement is almost non-stop, and strong.



And the occasional survey:

How far along? 22 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: I think just over 8 lbs.

Maternity clothes? For the pants, every day. With shirts I still wear a lot of my non-maternity ones, thankfully.

Stretch marks? Nope. I thought I'd get some because my weight gain has been pretty rapid the past couple weeks, but none so far.

Sleep: It's off and on. Sometimes I sleep really well, other times I can't sleep at all.

Best moment this week: Sam getting to feel baby boy move from the outside!

Movement: Tons and tons. Lots of kicking and punching, mixed with occasional rolling.

Food cravings: None at this point. I just always feel hungry.

Gender: Boy!

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? It's definitely getting more shallow...

What I miss: Fitting into my church clothes! I desperately need a maternity dress to wear to church.

What I am looking forward to: Being able to feel baby boy from the outside more often

Milestone: Not really any big milestones this week. Just loving being pregnant!

Feeling Baby from the Outside

I've been feeling some really strong kicks lately, and I can tell they can be felt from the outside, but they are usually inconsistent and in different places, so chances of catching it are slim. Tonight baby boy was being super active and kicking me consistently in one spot. I put my hand there, and sure enough I felt a couple little nudges. I told Sam to put his hand there...the kicks stopped. Of course.

I was sad that Sam couldn't feel the kicks because I know he really wants to. He gets jealous that I feel baby moving around so much and he doesn't feel anything. After about 30 minutes, the little guy started kicking again. It was in a different spot, but it was still consistent and strong. I didn't even bother putting my hand there first. I just told Sam to give me his hand. After maybe 30 seconds, Sam felt a kick! Or a punch, I'm not sure. It was so fun for him to be able to feel that, though I think he was a little weirded out by it. :) I'm excited to be able to feel it from the outside more often. It was really cool.

21 Weeks

Baby boy is about 7 inches long and 10-11 ounces in weight this week. He's got tastebuds now, so when he's in there swallowing away to develop his digestive system, he can taste the difference in what I eat.

The past couple days I've been feeling more movement. Usually I can only feel when he kicks or punches me, but yesterday and this morning I've felt more flutters than normal. It's been really fun. Also, Sam felt our little boy the other day! He didn't feel a kick, but he poked my belly and sure enough there was something there. I hadn't even been able to feel anything like that yet, but it was really cool. No idea what we were feeling - maybe a foot or something. Also, it seems this little guy might be developing a bit of a personality. When Sam pokes my belly, I get kicked. Not every single time, but most of the time. It's really funny. It still takes me by surprise every time.

Baby Boy!

We're having a boy!

And he's darling, isn't he? It was so much fun seeing our little baby boy move around inside my belly. His little legs were kicking and arms were waving. His head was buried way down in my right hip, which made the ultrasound tech a little unsure that we were going to get a good look at the baby's brain, but she jabbed enough that he moved and she got all the shots they needed. Everything looks great. I'm measuring about a week behind, which is consistent with the ultrasound we had at 8 weeks so I'm not surprised. Heartbeat was about 155 bpm. We couldn't be happier.




Too bad the money shot didn't print out very well. At the ultrasound we could very clearly tell it was a boy before the ultrasound tech even told us we were looking between the baby's legs. It was just obvious.





(Let me know if you can figure that last one out - I still struggle and I know what it is.)


We celebrated by buying some cute little boy clothes. :)

Poll Results

We closed down the poll last night. Here are the results:



We find out in approximately 7 hours if the majority is right or wrong!!

On Looking Pregnant

I have just been dying to finally LOOK pregnant, rather than just like I've gained weight. Today a coworker saw me and said, "Wow...you look pregnant."

Hallelujah!

20 Weeks!

About 10 ounces and 6 1/2 inches from crown to rump (small cantaloupe size - I think I just felt Sam's whole family cringe. Good thing I like cantaloupe!) None of the weekly articles I read really say much more about this week because the big thing is the gender! (tomorrow!!)

I've reached the half way point! Holy smokes. I feel like I should still be really early on in the pregnancy, but I'm not anymore. According to one article, around this point most women have gained about 10 lbs. I'm up to a 6 lb gain, which is big considering 4 weeks ago I still hadn't gained anything. Baby has been kicking like crazy the past week or so. Yesterday at around 3 PM I paid special attention to see if the baby was being active, because our ultrasound is at 3 PM on Wednesday. I got the biggest kick I've felt yet. I'll check again at 3 PM today - just to see if 3 PM happens to be an active time for him/her. I really don't generally feel movement unless it's a kick, with the exception of once a few days ago when I felt the baby roll. It was the weirdest feeling ever. I love it.

The belly:



(I promise I do actually do my hair sometimes. Tuesdays just happen to be lazy days.)

I'm still wearing my pre-pregnancy jeans, but the past couple days have had to use the elastic-band-trick because buttoning them makes it really uncomfortable when I'm sitting down. Might be time to get me some maternity jeans. Eep.

Heartbeat

When I was about 12 weeks into this pregnancy, we bought a cheap fetal heartbeat monitor. On the package it specifically said you probably won't be able to hear your baby's heartbeat until the 3rd trimester, but it was cheap and we thought it would be well worth it, even if we had to wait until the 3rd trimester to hear the heartbeat. I tried to hear the heartbeat anyway, multiple times over the next few weeks. I was never able to hear the baby's heartbeat, only my own. Feeling a little sad that I wasn't lucky enough to hear the heartbeat early, I gave up for a few weeks. I decided to try again this morning, hoping we would get lucky this time. Bingo! There it was, loud and clear. And we recorded it so you can hear, too. :)



(We tried to get another recording a couple minutes later and I couldn't find the heartbeat again. I think the baby moved just so I couldn't hear it anymore. It also kicked the monitor at one point in time. Baby doesn't like me poking around at my belly, apparently.)

P.S. Three more days!! My excitement had kind of worn off as of a couple days ago. I was more excited to make sure everything was OK than to find out the gender, and then I started feeling a LOT of movement from the little one, so I wasn't worried anymore. My excitement is back. I can't wait to find out what we're having! I'm excited to be able to just have a couple names picked out and ready to go, and know what to call the thing that's growing inside me other than "it." And I'm excited for everything to feel more real. I'm still in disbelief.

Belly Comparisons

Let's do some fun comparisons, shall we?

This morning versus this evening:


7 weeks versus 19 weeks (whoa):

And here I was thinking my belly hadn't grown that much. Yikes!

19 Weeks

6 inches and 8 ounces, about the size of a large mango. Arms and legs are in proportion and neurons are connected between the brain and muscles, so baby has more control over movement, which I'm pretty sure I've felt a a couple times over the past couple days!

Overall I'm feeling fine still. Had a random bout of nausea this morning that lasted for only a few minutes, then it went away. I've been feeling an ache in my lower abdomen over the past couple days that I was slightly worried about, but just now read that it's completely normal, thank goodness. It hasn't been painful, really. Just feels like sort of a tugging sensation.

Belly picture:


People have started looking at my belly. I've noticed it specifically when we're at stores checking out. The cashiers always seem to stare at my belly. It makes me a bit self-conscious because it's not like it's weird to be pregnant, so maybe I don't quite look pregnant yet. Just fat or disproportionate or something.

Also, my belly is always way smaller in the morning than it is in the evening. Strange. (I always take the full body belly pictures for my weekly posts in the morning, and then the belly-only shots [seen in the sidebar] in the evenings. The size difference is crazy.)


ALSO, we find out if it's a boy or a girl one week from tomorrow!! Don't forget to vote on the sidebar if you haven't already! :)