21 Weeks

 

How Far Along: 21 Weeks – Over half way there! 

Size of Holland: She is the size of a large butternut squash. 

Movement: I’m not sure what I’ve been feeling this past week. I have felt pressure in random spots, which I am starting to assume is her in weird positions. Sometimes, I will feel the pressure near my belly button or to the sides of it, and at other times, I will feel pressure a little bit lower than that. I definitely have not felt kicks or flips yet! Hoping to feel her make some obvious movements soon. 

What I’m looking forward to: I’m looking forward to Saturday!!! Matt and I are getting a couples/prenatal (for me) massage on Saturday at Miller Motte College. The college has a spa, where you can have students give you a massage, for a lower rate. I have heard 3 different people, who are not connected to each other in any way, say that it is amazing and worth every penny! We are going at 10am and will have a 60 minute massage. We are both counting down the days because we have never had a “professional” massage. We are also going to Wilmington this Saturday for lunch and to pick up a few baby things from my cousin. We will get to visit my cousin’s family for a few hours and we will be bringing home our changing table and some other baby items she is giving us! 

Cravings: Lately, I have been craving bagels with cream cheese and Grande Soy Chai Tea Lattes from Starbucks. My favorite bagels are whole grain bagels with honey walnut cream cheese from Panera and poppyseed bagels with plain cream cheese from Boulevard Bagel. Over the past 2 weeks, nothing has tasted better than that latte from Starbucks! Tonight before Life Group, Matt just HAD to take me to get one! We ended up ordering and getting stuck in the line for about 8 minutes, so the lady gave it to us for free!!! I’d wait 8 minutes in line every day if I could get a free one! 

Symptoms: I haven’t seen any stretch marks yet, but I’m starting to get worried about them coming! I bought Palmer’s Cocoa Butter a few days ago and have started using it every morning and night. I’m really hoping that it will help prevent them! My belly has grown significantly this week. People are not really questioning or unsure of whether I’m pregnant or not; it has become pretty obvious that I am!

Best Moment of the Week: Valentine’s Day was this past week. Matt bought me a card, hydrangeas (just like the ones from our wedding day), and chocolate (my favorite!). He took me to an early dinner at Rucker John’s to get my BBQ Chicken Salad with Ranch and Honey Mustard on the side. We got there about 5:45 to make sure we didn’t have to wait long at all. We were seated in less than 3 minutes and were home by 7:30! We were able to celebrate and relax on the couch before it got super late! 

Random Thoughts: We are so thankful for our Life Group. I absolutely love the LG we are a part of and I can’t imagine not being a part of it. We love the relationships we’ve built and the new ones we are currently building. Having this community is vital for our accountability and growth. I am very thankful to be a part of it! 

19 Weeks and 4 Days

How Far Along: 19 Weeks and 4 Days – I can’t believe I’m days away from half way there! This pregnancy is flying by.

Size of Holland: She is about the size of a large tomato (8.5 oz and 6 in in length). Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch.

Movement: I haven’t felt anything! I’m SO excited to finally feel Holland moving around. I’ve been reading articles about baby movement and today I saw where some first time moms don’t feel anything until 23 or 24 weeks. I’m hoping it will be before then though.

Sleep: Sleeping like a baby and enjoying it while I can! I am a back and left side sleeper, but I have stopped sleeping on my back. About a week ago, I realized that my back sleeping days were over for a while. I mostly sleep on my left side, but I like to adjust to my back sometimes in the morning. My belly is getting to heavy for that!

What I Miss: Not really missing anything. On most days, I drink one caffeine soda (Coke or Pepsi), so I haven’t really missed that. I have switched over to regular soda to avoid the aspartame that is in diet drinks. I am starting to think I will never go back to drinking diet. I had one tonight and didn’t think it was as good as regular, which is crazy for me to say because I’ve always loved diet!

What I’m looking forward to: Alone time with Matt. I’m starting to realize that our time by ourselves is coming to a quick end. I’m very excited to meet Holland, but I also know that everything will change and we will have new responsibilities. I’m very much looking forward to the next 5 months with Matt!

Symptoms: Is my growing belly a symptom? (Haha!) This is the first week that I have truly felt pregnant. During my first trimester, I felt nauseous and sickly, but not as “pregnant” as I do now! Holland MUST be growing more quickly now. I am having some lower back pain and abdominal pressure, but I think they are all just due to the changes going on with my body. Exercising at FITT every week has definitely helped me feel more energetic and healthy.

Best Moment of the Week: We went to Morehead City last weekend to spend time with my parents. The Sochi Winter Olympics started on Friday and I LOVE the olympics!!! I grew up watching both the summer and winter olympics, so I still absolutely love watching them! Matt has been a really good sport and has let me watch them every night this week. I was disappointed tonight when Shaun White didn’t win the gold medal in the half pipe, but maybe he’ll be back in 2018.

Random Thoughts: This winter has been crazy in Greenville. We had our second snow today. We were out of school the other week from Tuesday-Friday because of the snow. Then today, we got another 4 inches! We are out of school tomorrow and aren’t sure what will happen for Thursday.

Matt and I enjoying the second snow of the winter!

Working on Holland’s Nursery

 The time has finally come to work on Holland’s nursery! We moved to our two bedroom apartment in November and have been staring at our second bedroom for months just waiting to get started. Like any spare bedroom, that room caught everything that didn’t have a “place” that it belonged. We always keep our living room pretty clean, so we decided to drag everything out of Holland’s room and into the living room. We knew that we would clean up our living room more quickly than we would if we left stuff in the bedroom!

We have been waiting to find out if we were having a boy or girl before we continued planning out the nursery. When we found out that baby G was a girl, we were so excited and ready to begin looking for paint colors and start getting ideas for her nursery!

Here are a few details from Holland’s nursery so far:

These are the knobs we picked out that will go on Holland’s white dresser.

This is a mirror we got to hang above Holland’s changing table. We are working on painting it pink!

This is our attempt to figure out exactly which shade of teal we want to paint her nursery. We knew that we wanted to do teal walls and light pink, white, and grey accents. It only took 3 paint samples for us to figure out the right color! (Both of these are not the color we ended up choosing!)

Making some progress on the painting. This picture makes the color look more green, but it is actually more bluish teal. It is Sherwin Williams (50%) Aquaduct. Can’t wait to get the white furniture in here!

IT’S A GIRL!

How Far Along: 18.5 Weeks

Size of Baby: Holland is the size of a sweet potato (8.5 in). Her ears are now hearing sound! The sonographer measured her today and told us that she was 8 oz.Maternity Clothes: I need maternity work out pants and I’m busting out of my t-shirts. I will have to buy clothes to wear at FITT very, very soon. I’ve also noticed that my jackets are getting tighter and don’t zip as easily.

Gender: IT’S A GIRL!!!

Movement: Not yet! I am so ready to answer “yes” to this question! My doctor told me I would probably feel flutters or kicks anywhere from 16-20 weeks and I still haven’t felt anything at 18.5 weeks! When I wake up in the morning or go to bed at night, I lay very still and try to see if I can feel anything. I have my fingers crossed that I will be able to feel her in the next week!

Sleep: Most nights, I am not waking up until my alarm goes off. If I do wake up, it is around 5am to use the bathroom.

What I Miss: So thankful that I’m not missing anything this week!

What I’m looking forward to: Painting and decorating Holland’s nursery! Matt and I chose a paint color at Sherwin Williams and are ready to begin! We are going to paint the room a light teal color and then use white, grey, and light pink accents/decor. We haven’t had any big projects to work on in quite a few months, so I’m so excited to have a project to start working on over the next 5 months.

Symptoms: I have had low abdominal pressure over the past week. My belly has grown significantly, so I’m assuming the pressure is due to my growing uterus! I’m beginning to use the bathroom more often too!

Best Moment of the Week: We had our ultrasound appointment today!!! It was originally scheduled for last Tuesday, but Greenville got 4 inches of snow, so everything shut down for 3 days! Our appt was rescheduled for February 4 at 8:00am! I had one ultrasound to check for early signs of pre-term labor and then a normal ultrasound to check for everything else. During the first ultrasound, we realized that “Baby G” was head down (which meant that we couldn’t see the gender immediately!). The sonographer told us that my cervix was extremely long (which is a good thing) and that my placenta was 1.6cm from my cervix (they prefer that it be 2.0). [We will be getting another ultrasound to check on that measurement in 2 more months.] We then switched to the normal ultrasound! The sonographer immediately started laughing at the baby’s awkward and uncomfortable position. She said that our baby would definitely be a gymnast. At first, it was impossible to see the gender and it took about 15-20 minutes and a pack of Ritz crackers to get baby to move around and eventually show some signs of boy/girl! We were so excited to find out that Baby G is a GIRL!!! We are very thankful to report that Holland was healthy and the sonographer was able to see everything on her long list!

Here are a few pictures from the ultrasound today!

our little gymnast with her chin tucked and legs thrown over her head

it’s a girl!

this was the cutest! she turned on her side and was looking right at us with her little hands on her face!

the sweetest profile. hoping that little nose is just like her dad’s!