14 Weeks

Time to do the week 14 recap! This should be a short one since not a lot has changed since last week. But I am feeling excited to officially be in my second trimester!

 

Baby: Baby is 14 weeks and the size of a lemon! Fun fact: baby is growing peach like hair all over his/her body to help stay warm! Fuzzy baby.

Weight: No weight gain yet, but since I can now keep down all my food I'm sure I'll see new numbers on the scale soon.

Symptoms: Haven't thrown up in almost 2 weeks! Still some nausea early in the morning or if I'm out walking, but definitely manageable. I've been getting really bad headaches at work, borderline migraines, but shortly after I get home in the evenings it disappears and I feel pretty good the rest of the night. Lots of aches and pains in my lower abdomen. Sometimes the pains are so sharp they take my breath away, but they aren't continuous and my midwife assured me (again) that they are nothing to worry about.

Sleep: I feel like I can never get enough! I've still been going to bed pretty early and struggle with waking up for work....but now that I type that, I don't believe things were much different when I wasn't pregnant! I simply love my sleep and will miss it dearly when baby comes ;)

Cravings/Aversions: Tuna fish. Tuna fish. Tuna fish! I want it everyday. Such a weird thing to crave, I know! Kinda makes me cringe when I tell people because I'm pretty sure they find me disgusting. Also, a subway turkey sandwich. I think they only reason I want one so badly is because they say not to eat deli meat while pregnant. By the way, who makes up these rules? I can't have deli meat and have to keep my tuna intake to 8oz or less a week? I'm pretty sure someone who secretly hates pregnant women is just coming up with this stuff to spite us... But I digress...

Workouts: I still haven't worked out at all. Shameful. But I do want to start walking a little more and using our elliptical now that I'm feeling a bit better. So hopefully by my next update, I'll have something to report.

Thoughts: I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with all the "stuff" baby needs and how expensive it is. I'd love any advice from mom's out there who may have discovered a product that every blog, magazine, and baby book out there says you need, but you really never used with baby? What "necessary" buys are really unnecessary?

Huckleberry still has 6 more months of being my baby!! I'm making sure to lavish him with lots of attention and tennis balls!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Mary, Mary, quiet contrary

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockleshells

And pretty maids all in a row.

I know too many nursery rhymes for my own good. Buuuuut, in other news, we have tomatoes! And lots of them! They were slow coming and for a while I thought they might all die. But nope! We have nice, plump red tomatoes. 

Our small cherry tomatoes aren't ripe yet, but they are finally coming in, too! I'm just glad they survived my clumsy gardening hands.

And speaking of surviving, this lone pepper is a fighter. He is the only one that made it on any of our pepper plants and I can't wait until he's ready to be picked.

We also have an abundance of grapes that will probably be ripe in another month or so. Problem is I'm pretty sure they are tart wine grapes. So does anybody want a truck full or wine grapes? My preggo self has no need for this! 

It's so fun to watch your garden grow! Although I have to admit these tomatoes didn't thrive because of me. I have no idea what I'm doing! I barely even watered those guys! I may have forgotten about them for about a two week period. They just must be a hardy plant. But I hope next summer to expand my garden and work on my skills because I see some spinach, zucchini, carrots, and squash in my future!

How about you? What's in your garden and do you have any gardening tips to share?

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Alki Beach

After spending the last few weekends at home feeling sick and grumpy, I decided we had to take advantage of the Seattle sunshine and my settled tummy and get out of the house! We headed to Alki Beach and walked around, people watched (and dog watched. Seattleites like their dogs.), and then stopped at Duke's for a bit to eat.

It was Huck's first adventure to the ocean! He was way more excited about greeting the other dogs by a nice butt sniff than getting in the water, but I still think he had fun!

And although after a while all the walking did upset my stomach a bit (apparently, baby wants me to be fat and lazy), it was so nice to get out of the house and move! Sometimes I forget about all the beauty Washington has to offer -- the amazing hiking trails, the ocean and tons of beautiful lakes. It's easy to get in a rut, doing the same ole' same ole' day in and out, but once you venture out your front door and remember there's a world out there, it's hard to want to do anything else but explore. Life is fun! And there's so much to see! All I need to do is remember to go outside :)

Hope you have a fun, adventure filled weekend as well!

iMoments: Huck & Hersch Edition

Life's little moments as captured on my iPhone.

 One of Huck's favorite things, plastic! It's the simple things in life :)

Fluff butt, Herschel, makes a good pillow.

Although I don't think he was a fan of this cuddlefest.

 Peek-a-boo!

Huck creeping on me while I do a little work from home.

One sleepy pup and a clean kitty!

I bathed Herschel for the first time since the day we brought him home.

Not only did he not bite or scratch me once (such a gentlemen),

but I'm happy to say he had no fleas! 

Huck has not been so lucky...

This fluffy critters keep our hearts full and bring so much fun and joy into our home!

First Trimester Recap: Weeks 0-12 + Week 13

This is going to be a lot of recapping for one post! So if you get burned out halfway through, I'll understand. I just want to remember all the details that I can! (so I never do this again...I kid, I kid)

I was so good about writing things down about my pregnancy as they came to mind --just a scribble of facts, feelings, and letters to baby --but I was terrible at taking photos of my bump! I blame this on the fact that for the first half of my first trimester I had no clue I was pregnant and the second half I was too sick to smile for a photo!

As I mentioned in this post, Steven and I didn't find out we were pregnant until the 6th week was almost over! How is that possible? My periods are so irregular that being a week late is common for me and I never even thought to take a pregnancy test. I was bummed I didn't start my period before our Cabo trip, but the possibility of being pregnant didn't even cross my mind... Until about halfway through our trip when I started experiencing nausea and fatigue. When I got home and took the test my head was spinning and I did a quick calculation and discovered I was approaching 7 weeks! I couldn't believe it! I made an appointment with my Naturopath (who is also my OBGYN and  will be baby's Pediatrician!...she is a women of many talents!) who confirmed my test results and sent me home with prenatals, book recommendations, and the numbers of some highly recommended midwives in the area. 

8 weeks, 12 weeks, and 13 weeks

The cami I'm wearing for the 12 week photo is a little too big. I think that's why I look so large ;)

Baby: Baby is 13 weeks and the size of a peach! Fun fact for this week is s/he now has fingerprints!

Weight: I haven't gained any weight so far, but my midwife says that's completely normal for someone who experiences lots of nausea during their first trimester. I have noticed my boobs have gotten larger though, which means I have to go maternity bra shopping soon. Any recommendations on those?

Symptoms: Weeks 1-5: Nada. 

Week 6-7: I started experiencing a lot of nausea and fatigue. I thought the sunshine in Cabo was simply killing my energy levels, but now it all makes sense! In Cabo, when we'd go back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner I would take a nap. Everyday! I thought that was so weird because I've never been a daytime napper. 

Week 8-12: Intense nausea! Some days I would throw up 3 or 4 times, other days I wouldn't throw up at all, but everyday I felt terrible. Motion of any kind would trigger my gagging reflex and up would come anything I'd eaten that day. Work was terrible. I felt miserable because of the nausea and I could hardly keep my head up while sitting at my desk. The fatigue was overwhelming in the evenings. It wasn't uncommon for me to be in bed by 7:30 or 8. To make matters worse, I was dehydrated due to a strange aversion to water. I think because of the throwing up and the dehydration I started to experience intense headaches. Also started having difficulty sleeping because of restless leg syndrome in my right leg. I have no idea what causes it, but I think the fact that my workout routine has changed may be a factor.  Cramping. I started to feel small cramps in my lower belly. Nothing too intense though. Apparently it's from my uterus stretching and growing.

Week 13: Only slight nausea in the mornings, but no throwing up! The last day I threw up was on Friday. Since then I've noticed the nausea, fatigue, and headaches all gradually subside. I have been overjoyed these last few days and hopeful that the worse is behind me! 

Sleep: I loved my sleep early on and could easily sleep 12-13 hour nights! After work I would feel so exhausted I laid on the couch and snoozed on and off until bedtime. Needless to say, pretty much nothing got done around the house! :) Now that I'm in week 13 I feel my energy levels coming back. Now the only downside is how often I wake up at night to use the bathroom!

Cravings/Aversions: Nothing until week 6. During week 6 I started to crave watermelon and tuna fish. Not together though, thank God. I craved watermelon until I started throwing up. (After throwing up quite a large serving of watermelon that craving quickly ended!)  As for aversions, those seem endless! I had an intense aversion to red meat of any kind, which is kind of terrible since we just butchered our cow and have about 150 lbs of meat in our freezer, and water. Even a sip of water would make me puke. 

Now that I'm at 13 weeks, I still crave tuna fish and love any carb/starch to start my morning (it helps settle my stomach first thing). I no longer have an aversion to water and have been trying to drink as much as I can during the day! 

Workouts: Week 1-5 I did hot yoga 3 times a week and went on many walks/hikes with Steven in the evenings. I had no clue I was pregnant or I wouldn't have done hot yoga. The extreme heat is not good for baby. And this is a terrible confession, but since week 6 I have only worked out twice! I simply felt too sick to do anything! My plan was to continue yoga at home, actually use our elliptical that's all dusty in the garage, and take lots of walks before Seattle rainy season hit, but I simply couldn't. Any kind of movement made me puke so working out was out of the question. I hope to get into some sort of routine again now that the nausea is going away.

Huckleberry: A lot of you have asked how Huckleberry's taking the news ;) Steven and I have no doubts that he'll be a great big brother! Huck is gentle and obedient so I have no qualms about him being near our baby and I can't wait for the two to meet! I don't think Huckleberry has sensed any changes yet, but I feel certain he will. After reading this book, I'm convinced dogs know a lot more about what's going on around them than we give them credit for!

me: Huck, there is a baby in my belly. You're going to be a big brother!

Huck: Momma, I want a treat!

More recaps to come, but I promise they won't be as long! Happy Thursday!!