Food pt 2/Symptoms

So I know I'm not a perfect eater. I think I do pretty good, and even though I do indulge every so often, I usually can limit myself and not go overboard. Most of the time :-) So it's really frustrating to have this hormonal pregnancy acne. I know it's, if not caused by, at least heavily influenced by, hormones, but you would think that eating smart/healthy would also help with the acne... but I'm serious - my acne is the worst it's ever been. Probably TMI, but it's true, and it's frustrating. I know I've actually been pretty fortunate as far as not having a lot of other painful or uncomfortable symptoms, so I shouldn't complain...

Also, I realized I haven't put one of my symptoms/discomforts on here yet: heartburn! It took me a while to realize what it was, because I've never suffered from it before. And thankfully, it's been pretty mild when it has struck, but I have had some infrequent heartburn. Now I sit up after I eat and try not to lay down for a while afterward...

I've had a few moments the past couple of days (especially today) when I thought I might be feeling Baby move. I'm not really sure though, and I'm not convinced it was really Baby, so I'm not counting today.

Unless it happens later today! In which case, today would totally count :-D

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

Also...

Adam noticed today that my belly button is already changing... it's usually pretty deep (I mean I think it's a pretty normal depth), and now it is MUCH shallower! WEIRD!!!!! Also this morning, I really looked pregnant in the outfit I was wearing. Most of my shirts are softer fabric so they tend to "hug" my body more, but I was wearing a button-down over a tank top, and the button down definitely made me look noticeably pregnant! :-D

How many months pregnant am I?

Today is 17 weeks. Not too much to update since Monday; however, I have been wondering how people calculate how many "months" pregnant they are. If you go with the idea that a month is 4 weeks, and pregnancy is about 40 weeks long, that is 10 months, so right away that doesn't work. I have seen some websites that have a chart, and for a few of the months, they have (I believe arbitrarily) made them 5 weeks long instead of 4. I have heard some people say you take the number of weeks you are and divide by 4.4 (the average amount of weeks in a month). So for me, I would be 17/4.4 = ~3.8 months. That is kind of labor intensive (pregnancy pun not intended). I guess I can use that, but I came up with a different idea. Maybe someone else has also thought of this "method," but I haven't seen it anywhere, and I have done a fair amount of googling on this topic, so I will go ahead and call it my idea. I go by my due date, January 2, and count backwards. So December 2 would be 8 months, November 2 is 7 months, etc. While this may also seem labor intensive, I just wrote it on my calendar when I figured it out and now I don't have to do any more figuring! My method is also pretty close to the division method, because it puts me pretty close to 4 months (August 2!!) :-D

So... how would you/did you/do you figure out how many months pregnant you are?

The results are in...

No UTI!! Yay!!!

Adam and I are going to go to Olive Garden and a movie to celebrate! :-D

Also, we went out on the boat this weekend, and I have a hard time getting back in the boat from the water without landing right on my stomach (on the edge of the boat), so I asked Adam about fashioning some kind of step or ladder for me to use. He was able to come up with a makeshift rope ladder that, with me leaning on Adam for support, enabled me to get on to the boat with no tummy landings! What a great husband I have!! :-)

16 weeks & check-up

I kept putting exclamation points at the end of my post titles. I am trying to not overload this blog with exclamation points, only because I don't want to lessen the value of them when I do use them. So understand that I am very excited about my post titles, even if my punctuation doesn't seem to reflect it :)

16 weeks today! Went to the doctor and Adam came, again. He will probably just come to the next one with me, for the ultrasound, and then I may not have him come with me every time after that. He has to take off the entire day when he comes with me, so we'll see if he keeps coming.

The appointment went well. The doctor said I am right on track for growth, and we got to hear Baby's heartbeat again! I also did another urinalysis test, to make sure I don't have a UTI anymore. So be praying! I won't find out the results until Friday or Monday.

I can hardly wait till next month when we'll get to take a peek at Baby!! My brother and sister-in-law did a big gender-revealing party with my nephew, Rowan, and while I don't want to do that, I thought I might do a version of it. I want to have the ultrasound technician write down the gender, and then get my dad, step-mom, Sean and Siobhan on Skype (my mom will be with us) and all find out together. Then I'll just make the announcement on Facebook, probably :) So that's the plan for now!

Clothes and Bump

I bought my first maternity clothes/items yesterday! I am going to need a dress for a wedding in a couple of weeks, and my nicer dresses are starting to get a little tight, so I bought one at Target yesterday that should last me quite a while, if not through my whole pregnancy, yay! I also bought another dress, a shirt, and a Bella Band to extend the life of my pre-pregnancy work pants (and any other pants, but I mostly got it for work). Used the Bella  Band today, and so far I really like it!

I'm not really showing a whole lot yet, but I do like showing. :-) A few people this weekend said they could tell, and of course Adam can notice it a lot as well.

Doctor's appointment got switched to Wednesday, so I don't have to wait all the way until Friday! Then, in 4 weeks, we will be finding out if we are having a boy or a girl! :-D I can hardly wait!!