Food

So I was doing a lot of pregnancy research before we were officially "trying," because I wanted to be really prepared, and I figured, you only have 40 weeks DURING the pregnancy, so you should be as prepared as possible beforehand. (I had a similar approach to choosing baby names - this is a name the child is going to have for the rest of their LIFE, so you should make sure you take the time necessary to pick a good one, even if that means picking names before you are even trying to get pregnant... which I used to think was a little silly but it turns out to be what we did!).

Anyway, during my pre-pregnancy research, I saw a lot of information about foods you should avoid or limit. And luckily for me, it's like I was born to be pregnant! Or, at least, that I naturally don't eat most of the things you are supposed to avoid:
lunch/deli meats - I don't eat
raw/undercooked eggs - I actually prefer to overcook my eggs
fish with high mercury content - I don't eat any fish
caffeine - I do drink some tea, but cutting out/cutting back on caffeine has been easy. I do miss my occasional Pepsi (and I did have about 6 ounces of Pepsi when I was in Hawaii, but that's it), but for the most part, I've been good on really limiting my caffeine. I will still have an iced or hot black tea every now and then, but other than that, I am mostly sticking with herbal tea, juice, or water
unpasteurized cheeses - I'm sure I like some of these, but I rarely purchase/eat them
unpasteurized juices - can you even buy these anywhere?

The two things I do miss eating that I am supposed to avoid are hot dogs and bean/alfalfa sprouts. I don't eat either of those very often, but there have been a few times since getting pregnant that I could have had them... totally worth it to avoid, but I do miss them!

Pictures... finally!

Bump!

I like this one because you can see the shadow under the bump!!

Also because I liked my outfit yesterday :-D

4 months

According to my calculations/method, I am 4 months along today!

Also, I must say that the BeBand/Bella Band thing is the BEST thing ever!!! It is definitely my favorite maternity-related item so far.

 I was trying to put a couple of pictures in here, but apparently my browser is not up-to-date enough to add photos... guess I'll try again later!

18 Weeks Update

Today is 18 weeks for me and my little one! Not a lot to update since last week - I still haven't felt Baby move (at least, not that I have recognized). There have been a few times when I thought I might have felt something, but I'm pretty sure I haven't felt the "real thing" yet.

I realized that pretty much all day I am tensing my stomach muscles - not consciously or intentionally, but when I think about it, I can "relax" my abdomen and my tummy sticks out a little more. It's not painful or uncomfortable, and I don't think it's bad or a problem to be dealt with, I just think it's odd. I've also had some more round ligament pain (still pretty infrequent). For the most part, I still feel the same as I did pre-pregnancy, except that I get tired more often/easily and now when I bend over to get things, there's something in the way :)

Two weeks until we get to find out if we're having a boy or a girl, if Baby cooperates! I may have mentioned this before, but we are going to do a mini-reveal of the gender while my mom is out visiting. We will have my in-laws and mom with us, and we will get my dad, step-mom, Sean and Siobhan, and possibly my grandparents and Ian and Kathryn on Skype, and all find out together :-D It should be fun. It might be a little tricky working out everyone's schedules, but hopefully we can make it happen!!

Also, by my calculations/method, I'll be 4 months tomorrow!! Exciting!! :-D