20 weeks!

Good Lord. I am now halfway along! Time.is.flying!! Last week, nothing too eventful except that I'm getting really dizzy a lot. I've heard this could be from lower blood pressure, but my blood pressure has been normal at my other appointments, and I took my blood pressure twice this weekend - once it was high and then ten minutes later it was normal, so we shall see.

Tomorrow is the BIG ultrasound!! I just pray that everything is looking healthy and normal. At this point, the gender means nothing to me because I just want to hear everything's going ok.

Kicks are starting to get much harder, so the baby must be getting stronger. Also, I'm starting to get "pains" when he/she places it's body part in or on certain places. Yesterday, all of a sudden, I got a super sharp pain down lower by my pubic bone and it kept coming and going every ten seconds or so. I finally had to massage that area to try and get the baby to move whatever it was it had down there out because it was killing me. That seemed to work. Last week, one day, I also felt the weirdest sensation -- it felt like the baby stretching from the top and bottom. It happened several of times in the matter of few minutes. It was really cool. Tommy has also started feeling the baby from time to time and I've seen it kick twice and felt it kick from the outside a couple of times already. Other than that, the baby just seems to keep moving up a storm, especially during the day, and it doesn't seem to mind!

19 weeks!

Last week was once again pretty uneventful. I almost fainted on Monday at the store, but I was able to get home, eat something, and then I was fine. Tuesday, I stayed home with some kind of flu bug, and the rest of the week was great. The baby is really moving a ton more, though. It's amazing how much more, even in a week, I can feel it. For the last three days, I sware, I wake up, sit up and then a minute or two later I feel the baby move for a little bit. Then, I don't feel it again until about 10 or 10 30 am and from then on out I feel it move about once, sometimes several times, every five minutes until about 6 30/7 pm and then it settles down. I thought babies slept all the time at this stage! ;) Mine seems to be up at least 8 hours a day non-stop. I love feeling it, though!!

Also this week, we started playing music for it with our headphones. The baby totally freaks out and flips around and kicks me when the music comes on -- especially if it's like a rap song or faster paced. It's really cute.

On Wednesday night, too, Tommy had his hand on my stomach and we were feeling on my uterus to see if we could feel anything baby related and he felt something and then it moved away from him (like a body part). He loved that! Later on that night, I was feeling and I got kicked twice from the outside. It was amazing!!! This morning, I was listening to the baby on my doppler (the baby hangs out at the very top of my uterus by my belly button) and I wasn't even trying to feel it and it kicked my fingers.

We're just so in love with our child and can't wait to finally find out on the 18th what gender it is so I can stop calling it IT! :)

18 weeks!

I take belly pictures every week (no, I won't scar your eyes and post them), but over the last two weeks my stomach has popped out big time. It's even popped out a decent amount from last Saturday. It's crazy how fast it's growing!

The last week has been pretty uneventful, which is good news. The only symptom I've really noticed is the shortness of breath, but I think a big part of that is due to the cold I have. Last night was the first night my sinuses have been really "open" in awhile and I didn't know what to do with all of the extra oxygen! ;) It was great.

Also last week, the baby's movements are getting much more noticable. It almost feels like when you're going over a hill in a car really fast and your stomach flies up in the air and comes down -- that's the feelings I've had lately with a few kicks here and there mixed in. I love feeling it!

Triple Screen Results

Tommy and I decided to go ahead and have the triple screen blood test done to test for Down's Syndrome and other neural tube defects last week, even though there's a 25 percent chance of a false positive AND we wouldn't terminate even if we found out something was wrong. So, we got the results today and everything is NORMAL!!! I was so happy and so so relieved.

17 weeks!

Thanksgiving is over and now it's on to Christmas!! The last week, I've felt completely so much better. Maybe this is when my second trimester "boost" will start, haha. But, I felt normal all week and loooooooooved it!

I'm staying at my mother-in-law's house for the Thanksgiving holidays and both she and my sister-in-law got to hear to heartbeat and the baby moving on the doppler. It was really cool to watch their reactions. The baby was moving around like crazy, so it was funny listening to the karate moves going on inside my uterus.

Also, I forgot to post about my third OB appointment, but it went well and everything appears to be normal! :) Here's what I posted on myspace:

Everything went really well, except that I've lost another four pounds (ten total), but I feel like such a whale, I don't see how that is possible, but who knows. I thought for sure I would have gained since I feel so huge. It worries me a little bit, but my doc didn't mention it. Other than that, my blood pressure was 110/68 and she measured my fundal (spelling?) height. Also, we heard the baby on the doppler again (153 bpm) and then we sheduled the BIG ultrasound for Dec. 18 -- four weeks from today!! I can't wait!!

On Tuesday, it's down to 3 more weeks until we find out what Hampton is. That will be a big day!

16 weeks, 1 day!

Getting closer to halfway!! This last week was really hard, pregnancy wise, but I made it and I'm feeling better, so that's the good news! My gag reflex is huge and the nausea is coming back a little bit. But, I've felt the baby a lot more the last few days and on Saturday, while I was putting up the tree, I felt a big kick and that was pretty cool. Today, too, while we were eating breakfast, I felt a really fast vibration where the baby is, so I'm not sure what it was doing, but it was a cool feeling! My third OB appt is this Tuesday and I think we set up our appt for our BIG ultrasound that day. I can't wait to find out what our baby is and see it on the screen again!!

15 weeks!

This last week has been so much better!! I'm back to my normal pregnant self, aside from the emotional basketcase I can turn into, and I'm loving it! Everyday I've felt movement, usually in the morning, and 2 nights ago, I felt a big (well, bigger than any other movement) almost stretch where the baby was when I was listening to his/her heartbeat. It was trying to sleep and I woke it up and that's when I heard the loud movement noise on the doppler and felt a big stretch. It moved around for a minute and then went back to sleep. I am in love, I will admit.

Yesterday, we cleared out the nursery, too. Thank God for Tommy, seriously. I got freaking out of breath and exhausted after we had moved the mattress and box spring to my grandparent's house and he had to end up doing most of the other moving, packing, and throwing away of items. He is a saint!! He helps me soooooooooo much now that I'm pregnant, and even goes and does things for me when I ask him, too, just so I don't have to, and he's been the best emotional support. I couldn't have asked for a better husband or father of our child. He's just great!

Anyways, after we moved everything to my grandparent's house and threw the stuff we didn't need away, we set up the crib. We still have a lot to do in the room. We're going to order a changing table, armoire, and glider here in a few months, but at least the room is clear!

For Christmas, Tommy and I are going to paint the nursery together (since we should know the sex by the, knock on wood) and play Christmas music while we're doing it. I'm not feeling the jungle theme anymore. Then, we'll be able to start ordering more furniture and getting it put together. I'm excited!