Pregnancy Journal: Weeks 13-16

How Far Along: 16 weeks

Size of Baby: Avocado, and a rather large one at 4.6 inches according to my pregnancy app.

Weight Gain: 1 whole pound!!! Woohoo. My goal was 2 pounds before my next midwife appointment but I'll take what I can get. I am someone who has never been able to put on weight easily (not because of any emotional reason, just a really fast metabolism and good genes) and I've pretty much weighed the same amount since high school. I'm hoping by the end of this week I'll be seeing 3 digits on the scale in the morning!

Symptoms: I have felt really great lately! I've had no more nausea except for one night when I made a recipe that I had made during the first trimester and my nose and stomach remembered. I feel like my belly is just starting to pop and mostly I just feel really full, like stuffed up to my ribs, especially at the end of the day.  This has led to a lovely new habit of burping. A. Lot. Much to my husband's shock. It's pretty gross. I don't think I ever burped in front of him in the 2 years we've been married. Guess the magic is gone ;)

Exercise: I walk the dog usually twice a day unless it's freezing or pouring rain which it's done a lot of these past couple of weeks. But I downloaded a Holy Yoga pregnancy video and ordered this other dvd that I'm eager to try.

Maternity Clothes: Not really though I did buy one pair of maternity leggings that I'm quite sure I'll get a lot of use out of. And I'm definitely using the hair tie trick to keep my unbuttoned jeans semi-decent.

Worst moment of this month: Hopefully I wont have this category in every post because until this past weekend I've had a very blissful, stress free pregnancy. Saturday afternoon I started having really severe abdominal pain right around and across my belly button. I've had similar pain once or twice before usually when I eat too much too fast or twist or move in a weird way. I chalk it up to all the stretching and pulling going on to make room for our growing babe. But... this time was different because the pain was constant with no break or relief. It felt like my belly button was going to explode and any way I tried to sit or move only made it feel worse, even taking deep breaths hurt. I drank a ton water, took a shower, tried kneeling on all fours. After 2 hours of this I called the 24hr nurse triage line and she suggested I be seen. I gave it another hour to see if there was any change or relief but finally called T.J. in tears.  He was of course getting slammed on call at the hospital but he came home and got me and we headed back to the emergency department. I got seen pretty quickly which was good and after only a few moments of panic (on my end) they found the baby's heartbeat going strong and I started crying even more. Once they found the heartbeat though they didn't really have any answers for why I was still in a lot of pain. They gave me tylenol, I had blood work done, and then was taken for an ultrasound to check my appendix to rule out appendicitis. 

All this time T.J. was in and out getting paged so unfortunately he missed the ultrasound and the only good thing to come of this rotten night. The radiologist couldn't see my appendix which isn't uncommon in adults but she did give me a freebie peak at my baby!!! My baby which looked like an actual baby and not like the little lima bean in my 7 week ultrasound. It had it's little fist all balled up and it's tiny legs tucked up like a frog and it was squirming around. It was only a quick peak but basically it was the most precious, amazing, miraculous thing I've ever seen. It gave me a lot of comfort to see that baby was moving and looking good. But I still didn't know why I was in pain. The next thing they could have done was give me an MRI but since I didn't have any nausea or vomiting or a fever appendicitis seemed unlikely. So they said it was probably, maybe? just muscular pain due to a torn muscle and my baby quickly running out of room.  They discharged me with instructions to come back if any of those other symptoms appeared or if the pain got worse. Sleep was not great that night but in the morning and after another dose of tylenol and a shower I was starting to feel much better. The pain only appears now when I change positions, like going from sitting to standing or vice versa, or when I twist or reach for something. So I'm just trying to move slowly and take it easy.  Again, it's tolerable and totally worth it if it means the baby is okay. And fortunately I'm going to see my midwife tomorrow so hopefully she'll have some more answers.

Best moment of this month: Definitely seeing my baby at my surprise ultrasound!

Looking forward to in the next month: Feeling the baby kick hopefully sometime soon! Just in the past couple days I keep thinking I'm feeling something but I'm not positive yet... My anatomy scan is in 3 weeks and I can't wait to just stare and stare at my little baby moving around. And this time T.J. will be with me!! AND we'll be finding out the gender. I think that will definitely make everything really really real.