15 Weeks... 25 to go! :D

Phwe- These past couple of weeks have slipped by.

Over the last couple of weeks there hasn't been much change. I am starting to grow out of the "awkward" stage where people can start guessing that I'm actually pregnant and not just gaining weight, specifically in my waistline. Brad and I haven't been to the Dr. in 3 weeks. We have our 16 week appointment on Monday, so that will be exciting. We'll get an update on the heart beat, and we will have more blood drawn for our genetic testing for the possible genetic disorders (see previous posts).

As the time gets closer and closer Brad and I start realizing more and more things that will need to be changed in our daily routines with a baby around. I've been sleeping better lately since my last Dr's appointment. I have been trying to stay up until after 9PM which usually results in me sleeping soundly until around 6AM, but every once in a while I'll be awake around 3 or 4 AM. I've been finding myself less and less tired these days also, which is helping the sleeping issues a little bit. My sleeping methods drive Brad CRAZY now because I have to have a flock of pillows around me just to get comfortable. Brad hates it because he's gone all week, so to fill his spot I use pillows for comfort. When he's home on the weekends I'm either completely leaning up against him or he's getting shoved off of the bed by pillows. hehe. my bad.

The dreams are really starting to catch up to me. My hormones must really be going when I'm asleep. I have had more dreams that I can't even imagine what caused them to arise. Totally random stuff. My first dream was about me and my family when I was visiting over Christmas. I was ready to give birth (even though at Christmas I'll only be 6 months along)... And one night while we were celebrating at my dads house we were chased into the basement by aliens. Everyone else in my family then became pregnant (including Dad and Brad) and then the next night the Aliens cut out their green slimy babies from all of our bellies and left us. Then I woke up. The End. These dreams are SO weird.

I'm going to start trying to take pictures every week so that I can see my growth. Everyone else says its noticeable week by week that I'm growing. I haven't been able to notice much, besides the fact that my jeans keep getting tighter and tighter. I've turned to sweat pants for my comfort clothes. When I'm not at school (some days even then...) I'm wearing sweats or shorts and a t-shirt. Jeans just don't fit right anymore. ha.

Anyways. I'll update again next week after our 16 week appointment. We're getting closer and closer to our half way mark, and we're excited to find out the gender of baby Punt. Here's a picture at 15 Weeks!

13 Weeks, 1 Day

Again, Tuesday got away from me and I find myself writing week 13's post a day late. Sorry! :)

This past week has been so SLOW. Brad and I had a check up last week Thursday. All is good. They took my weight and I gained 3 pounds the last 3 weeks. I'm up a total of 9 pounds from my "beginning" weight which we considered as my consistent weight for the last year since I haven't fluxuated much. My Doctor said that a majority of my weight gain is due to water uptake. Baby shouldn't be weighing quite at a half of a pound yet (anywhere from 5-8 oz Dr. said).

As much as I don't want to admit this, my gas gauge seems to be "full" at all times. hehehe. Even Maddie and Shepp have been  turning their noses up at me.... oh well. Doctor said it's normal for one to pass gas more often, so I blame it on the baby! I have also started new cravings within the past week. My largest, most ugliest craving of all though, is a tuna salad sandwich. Ugh. Just typing that makes my mouth water. My doctor has said I need to limit fish intake to 3 oz a week. I've decided this equals about 1/2 of a tuna salad sandwich a week... which doesn't fulfill my craving.

Sleep has started to become... uncomfortable?.... As much as I would love to sleep 20 hours a day and never get out of bed, I find myself restless during the night and not able to find a comfortable position. Having to transition from a belly sleeper to a side sleeper is killing me. My Dr. last week ordered me to start staying up past 930 PM (at the earliest) and trying to stay awake up until 11 even. I have been so tired at night that 730/800 bed times have been normal, but as a result I was waking up at 300/400 in the morning and being restless and done sleeping for the night. I started staying up later and find myself able to sleep up until 500/600 each morning now. The only problem with this is I fall back asleep around 630/645 and my alarm goes off at 700, which puts me back into my tired mode. Whatever! I'm getting used to it. Everyone keeps telling me "this is the transition into NEVER getting another full nights sleep, EVER AGAIN..."...... i don't know if i like hearing this....

Our next appointment isn't until October 1, which is just another regular check up. I'm hoping that I will start feeling squirms and wiggles here within the next couple of weeks. I'm excited for it to start kicking... kind of. But, I'll report up again next Tuesday!

TaTa for Now!

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12 Weeks, 1 day

EEK!

Sorry everyone, I seriously ran out of time yesterday for me to blog. I had way too much going on at school to have any extra free time to sit around and type out a long story for you all....

So today will have to be it instead.

This past week has been an up and down rollercoaster of emotions. The sickness is starting to subside and I am starting to feel "normal" again. I can no longer do heat I have learned because I overheat very quickly and then I get dizzy and weird feeling.

Friday morning Brad and I had a doctor's appointment as many of you read from my previous post. I was very nervous for this and was afraid as to what the "genetic testing" included. I was afraid they were going to stick this 12" needle into my tummy and pull out blood or something (the horror stories I had come up with).... Well, it ends up they just needed 1) Blood! and 2) and ULTRASOUND! whoo.

Brad and I were super excited when the lady pulled out the sonogram machine and was talking about taking pictures for us and everything. I had absolutely no idea that we were going to be able to see our little human swimming around. The sonographer looked at my uterus, ovaries, and whatever else she saw (I mainly just saw black and white lines all over the screen), and then she found baby! My heart seriously about went flying through the roof. She first measured the heart beat, which was racing at 153 (21 beats lower than at 9 wks, 3 days) beats per minute. The also measured the body length from forehead to buttocks to make sure we were measuring in with our "timeline". The sonographer informed us we are measuring in at 5.06 cm, which is just over 2 inches long! :) She also told us that we are actually measuring in at 11weeks 5 days and we were only at 11weeks 3 days.... so I hope the little tyke doesn't grow too quickly! The thought of an 11 lb baby kinda freaks me out a little bit! =/ hehe. Oh well.

We then needed to get measurements of the head circumference and the length of the head. This was easy for the sonographer to do as the head is a very easy body part to locate. The next part was a challenge though. She needed to find the base of the neck so that she could measure the spine thickness just below the brain...... Well. Baby didn't want to lay on it's back and was laying on it's side. The sonographer tried poking me in the belly to get it to roll around, but it was fast asleep and did not want to be woken up. The sonographer then asked me to cough. Can anyone else NOT cough on demand.... I ended up laughing more than coughing! Well. Ends up. Baby didn't like me coughing, and then started throwing its fists and kicking its legs around and doing cartwheels and jumps and bumps inside of me.... (and I didn't feel a thing....). We eventually got baby to lay on its back, and she got the spine measurement which was .2 cm which she said was right on track according to the due date.

This is baby laying on it's back. You can see a hand up by the face and then one of it's little feed down by its tummy. 

This is a facial shot of baby. You can see both of the little hands on either side of its chest/neck area, and the head you can make out, but you can just barely see the eyes and mouth taking shape! 

I must admit. The Ultrasound was my favorite part of that Dr. appointment!

Friday night Brad and I got to hit up some supper with some friends in Sioux City as we went and visited Brad's grandpa in the hospital. Of course, I took the pictures along and showed off our little human to them. Grandma seemed extremely thrilled and excited to see the pictures. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were all weekend days for me and I got to sit at home, relax, and do NOTHING, which was amazing. I find myself sleeping a LOT more these days and I wear down quickly. NAPS are my new best friend when I get home from school in the evenings.

Brad and I have a regular Dr. appointment tomorrow in Des Moines. This will just be another check up, hear beat monitoring, and the usual stuff (I think). We're not expecting another ultrasound until 20 weeks, which is when we will find out if its a boy or girl! Yes, we have decided to find out the sex, and yes, we are going to make it public. :) Brad and I have also started talking about NAMES! :) So far we have a girl name picked out, but we haven't really settled on a boy name yet. And NO, these names will NOT be made public! They are completely a surprise for birth-day!

I'll let you know how the Dr. appointment tomorrow goes on next weeks update!

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