Tuesday, March 27, 2012

17 Weeks

I'm pretty sure I've entered the uncomfortable stage of pregnancy.  It seems a little early to me.  I definitely didn't think my belly would get in my way this soon.  But I've never been pregnant before so what do I know.  At this point, I can't sleep on my belly anymore (which used to be my favorite position).  The doctor told me last week that I shouldn't be sleeping on my back anymore either.  She explained that the baby sinks onto my vena cava which can cut off the blood supply to my brain, making me dizzy and light headed and possibly even pass out.  I listened, and politely ignored her advice.  I figured the baby couldn't possibly be heavy enough to cut off my blood supply yet!  Last night I rolled onto my back and almost immediately the room started spinning really fast.  It was scary, and now I will listen to my doctor.  So I can't sleep on my back anymore.  That leaves my left side (according to the doctor, this side is preferable) and my right side.  So I spend my night rolling back and forth in between getting up to go to the bathroom every 30 minutes.  By the way, I thought that particular side effect was supposed to go away during the second trimester.  Apparently not.  I haven't been sleeping well.  It's hard to get used to my new restrictions.  And when I do sleep, I have the most vivid and often terrifying dreams.  Daniel has complained that I take up too much of the bed.  And my response is "get used to it."  Because I'm not getting any smaller!  Daniel also felt it necessary to exclaim loudly and excitedly how huge I looked on Sunday.  He then took a picture and sent it to the entire family and posted it on twitter, again exclaiming how big I look.  Maybe a better description would be how big the baby is getting, or how pregnant I look.  I could go without the word "huge" or "big" being used to describe my appearance.  My back pain also hasn't gotten any better.  Though instead of pain, I can now more accurately describe it as fatigue.  It really feels like my back muscles are just tired from holding up the baby all day long.  So my new plan is to lay down for a few minutes when I get home from work, and try to exercise more.  Now that the weather is getting warmer, I am very happy to take walks outside.  Jackson also likes this new plan.  My allergies, however, do not.  But that will pass in the next few weeks as soon as everything stops blooming.  The new greatest thing about the pregnancy is my appetite.  I feel like I have a reason to eat whatever I want, whenever I want for the first time in my life.  I am constantly hungry.  I eat more food than Daniel in one sitting, and then I'm ready for a snack an hour later.  My biggest craving is sweets.  Specifically, fruity flavored sweets.  Like jolly ranchers and my new favorite snack- fruit snacks.  I haven't had those in forever, but they satisfy my craving perfectly now.  And I'm back to my old habit of a bowl of chocolate ice cream each evening.  Though I skip a day here and there.  Just this week, I'm starting to feel the baby move more consistently.  At least once a day I can identify definite baby movement.  I could be wrong, I guess, but I don't think I am.  Usually it's at a very specific spot.  Like I can stick my finger right where the movement is. I can now feel my uterus from my pubic bone almost all the way to my belly button.  So if it's in that area, it could be the baby.  Once or twice I've even felt a strong kick.  Though once it's over, I question if it really happened at all.  I'm so excited for when Daniel can feel the baby move.  So far I've felt kind of alone in the process.  I want him to be more involved. In other news... there isn't much other news.  Work is going as usual.  Daniel has 10 weeks left of college.  I'm counting down the days until our 20-week ultrasound (22) and our cruise (39)!  The weather is warming up and I am absolutely thrilled.  I love to spend time outside as much as possible.  In the summer, Denver has to be the most beautiful place on the planet.  It cools off just enough in the evening to sit outside.  It's just warm enough during the day that you can wear shorts and a tank top and be comfortable.  Perfect.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Week 15

I am almost 4 months through my pregnancy, though it feels like a lot more!  I can't believe how slow the last few months have gone.  I really hope it speeds up or this is going to be a very long pregnancy.  I am once again stuck in the attitude of wanting to get done with this stage and on to the next as quickly as possible!  It seems like my whole life has felt like one long wait.  I'm still trying to remind myself to appreciate each week as it comes, though I haven't been very successful at that.

I am very glad I am through the first trimester.  I never actually vomited (due to morning sickness at least), though I felt queasy through about week 8.  I know I'm lucky that it went away that early.  I'm still feeling very tired though.  I go to bed at about 8:30 every night and sleep until at least 7am!  Supposedly I should start feeling more energetic and get that "pregnant glow" soon.  My biggest complaint these days is backache.  Some days I can barely walk by the time I leave work to go home.  I don't want to take any medication if I can help it, so I'm suffering through it without any tylenol.  It seems that the more I sit at my desk, the worse the pain is.  So I try to have good posture and get up once in a while, though standing and walking makes my back hurt too.  I still have to get up about a million times a night to go to the bathroom.  I think that particular symptom is permanent- or at least will last a little longer.

There are some good things about the pregnancy- last week I actually felt the baby move for the first time!  I'm absolutely sure that's what it was because it was in the exact right spot.  I felt it right on the hard spot where I can feel my uterus.  It just felt like a little butterfly or maybe a tiny fish swimming around.  I was at work at the time, so I just took a moment to realize that's what it was and then I went on with my work.  I have only felt it once or twice since then.  I know that very soon I will feel the baby moving stronger and more consistently.  I'm excited for that time- and especially excited for when Daniel can finally feel the baby move.  A few nights ago he pulled out our stethoscope (yes, we actually have a stethoscope) and tried to listen to the heartbeat.  He thought he heard it, but I'm not so sure.  We have our 16-week appointment next Wednesday, and I'm sure we'll hear it then.  I'm also hoping that we might get an ultrasound and possibly could find out the sex of the baby!  I'm going to ask anyways.  I know we will find out for sure on April 18 which is our full anatomy scan.  I'm very excited for that appointment, even if we already know the sex.  We will get to see our baby in 3D and make sure all its organs are developing correctly.  It's amazing how badly I just want this baby to be healthy.  So far, so good!

There are other exciting things going on in our lives now.  We are in the process of buying our house from Daniel's parents.  We were able to arrange it so that we don't have to make a down payment.  This is mostly due to Daniel's incredibly generous parents who are selling us the house for slightly less than it's actually worth.  They will still make all the money back they have invested, so they're happy too.  We are so lucky that our house has actually appreciated significantly in the 2 1/2 years since his parents bought it. Just another reason to love Denver!  But since we are buying the house that means money is a little tight this month.  Daniel has been very stingy about letting me buy maternity clothes.  I don't think he quite understands how depressing it is to put on clothes that looked perfectly fine a few months ago and they make you look like a fat cow.  So far he has allowed me to buy 5 shirts and 2 pairs of pants.  I'm thinking that's not really going to last all summer, so eventually he'll have to allow me to buy more.  Or maybe I'll just go buy more without him knowing.  Shopping for maternity clothes is not nearly as much fun as I thought it would be.  There are LOTS of women out there who are mothers, and every single one of them was pregnant at some point.  Unfortunately, retailers still don't believe that there's enough of a market out there to create more than about 2 shirts and 2 pairs of pants to choose from.  So I have found myself running from store to store, trying on everything they have and liking about 1 in 5 things I try on.  And it seems that we live in a "dry spot" for maternity stores.  No Motherhood Maternity near us, or an Old Navy with maternity clothes.  Just a Pea in the Pod which is ridiculously overpriced.  I did, however, get to shop there because my incredible sister sent me a gift card :-)

So now I'm just counting down the days until we find out if we're having a little Rosen boy or a little Rosen girl!  And then I'll be counting down the days until the annual Rosen family cruise on May 7.  So excited for summer!!