Pregnancy Update – Week 21

I don’t know if I will do this every week, but I was in the mood to share today!

21 Weeks - Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long — the length of a carrot. You may soon feel like he's practicing martial arts as his initial fluttering movements turn into full-fledged kicks and nudges. You may also discover a pattern to his activity as you get to know him better. In other developments, your baby's eyebrows and lids are present now.

How are you feeling?

I am feeling great, really.  I do have some indigestion, which I know is usually of my own doing based on what I am eating.  Note to self, I cannot have a piece of Edwards Key Lime pie an hour before I go to bed….no matter how much I want it!  TUMS have become my new best friend, and I am getting use to it as I have had indigestion pretty much the entire pregnancy.  Otherwise, this is the question I get asked the most, and I am happy to say at this point I am feeling really good.

Any weight gain?

I think I am a pound or two shy of my pre-pregnancy weight, which is fine with me.  I really didn’t want to gain too much with this pregnancy just based on my weight before getting pregnant, and I am happy that at just over half-way there I am just now starting to gain extra weight.  I know it will happen, just wanted to wait till after 20 weeks which is good!

Have you registered yet?

Nope, not yet.  Probably because we just keep buying everything ourselves! Though we have many things picked out that we want and have received very helpful advice on some great products.  (Thanks again Ky…SO helpful!) Since I have received advice on what is important to get and what isn’t, have ideas of good products, and we have a direction of what we want to get I don’t feel nearly as overwhelmed and after our vacation feel ready to tackle Babies R Us and Target!

A few peeks at what we are going to get for Henry……

This is the bedding we will get, I LOVE it. 

 

You can see the collection HERE.

I think I must have this lamp!

 We also really like this highchair.  It is wood.

 

Can you feel the baby kick?

Yes, but I am still anxiously awaiting Henry to give me some good hard kicks and kick more regularly.  At this point I no longer question if that is him kicking or just gas, but depending on where he is I can’t always feel him very well. He usually is kicking around 9:30-10:30, around lunch time and/or some time later afternoon after I eat and a bit in the evening. I know Terry is also anxiously waiting for the day he can feel his son kick!  He puts his hands on my belly hoping he will move a little.  I know the day will come very soon and then there will be a time where I wish he didn’t kick as much….but right now I just want movement!

How is Terry?

He is great. I have never seen him this happy and excited.  I am always texting him when the baby kicks, so he can feel included.  He loves to rest his hands on my belly waiting for a kick and I think we are both loving calling the piglet by his name!  It is wonderful, and even though he wasn't always sure if he wanted to be a father, I knew it was there and it is fun seeing changes in him now and I can't wait to see more once we have our child! 

Here are a couple pictures taken at 21 weeks.  Yes they are bathroom pics at work, but I wanted to send them to my parents that morning so they could see my growing belly, so decided to just take them in there!

Best thing someone said to me this week?

“You look great. You have a glow and you just look really really good!”

Talk to Me – “It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told.”

*I apologize up front as I will be using the word moisture in this post.  I hate the word moist, but it is necessary in this post.

“It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told.” Sorry I just love this quote, but I must say this is NOT me! I have never been one who faithfully uses lotion.  In the winter when my hands become extremely dry and painful I use Neutrogena Deep Moisture hand cream and it works wonders!  Occasionally (and by occasionally I mean once every 3 months) I will moisturize my face with some AVON lotions.  But as for using lotion on a daily basis on either my body or face, I do not do that.

Now when I was younger it never seemed like that big of a deal; my skin was fine.  But over the years I have noticed my skin become dryer and maybe not as elastic.  But still, I do not moisturize at all.  I refuse to wear lotion during the day, as it just feels greasy and heavy and I hate that.  I hardly wear makeup because I just don’t like the feel of stuff on my face for a long period of time.  And even at night my face and skin feels heavy when I put lotion on plus I feel like the blankets stick to me.  (Ok, I KNOW they don’t really stick to me, I am just weird and don’t like to feel constricted when I sleep and lotion makes me feel that way.)

At the beginning of the year I wanted to make a conscious effort to moisturize daily. I bought Vaseline Cocoa Butter lotion and try to remember to use that on my stomach, legs and arms. I mean it is sitting on my nightstand right by where my glasses go…so by “try to remember” I mean “when I feel like remembering”.  I also use an AVON daily lotion on my face. So far, I think I may remember to do the body lotion once every week or so and the face lotion even less.  Baby Steps, no?

I hear all these people on shows talk about the benefit of using lotion daily.  I even googled ‘What are the benefits of using lotion” (yes I did) and they say it re-hydrates dried skin, helps with anti-aging, smooth calluses, feels and smells good, help yourself relax, protects your skin, and makes your skin glow. Ok, sounds good but does it work?

So, riddle me this friends….is it important to moisturize your skin daily?  Do you use lotion?  If so, what do you use and how often?  Is there a big difference between a $5 lotion and a $50 lotion?

And what about exfoliating, do you do that TOO before you use lotion? 

I realize I am not getting any younger and should do what I can now…but does that mean using lotion?   I see my mom, who has beautiful skin and doesn’t really use lotion, and just wonder if it is mostly about genetics or does lotion really help with the elasticity and look of your skin?

*On a side note, I know it sounds really lazy to not just take a few minutes to put on some damn lotion.  However, it already takes me forever to get to bed because I have to pee, not once but twice, before I can fall asleep.  I have my contacts to take out, teeth to brush (and have a routine with that), like to pluck anything on my face that shouldn’t be there, and lets not talk about how long it takes me to set my alarm (I may be slightly OCD in a few areas of my life).  And then we have to shave and moisturize and do all those other daily/weekly things to keep ourselves going.  It is just too much sometimes!

Boy or Girl, Which Will OUR Baby Be?! Well We Know……

So it is pretty darn official, considering our ultrasound tech handed us a circumcision brochure as we left the office (haha)…we are having a BOY!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Looks like most of you knew it too :)

No matter which it was we were going to be equally as thrilled, but actually SEEING our baby and now KNOWING our baby instead of calling him “it” just makes everything 10 times more real.  It is weird just HOW real this feels now. 

I was wondering about myself because up until this point I was excited but didn’t feel that strong connection to the baby.  I mean I called him something generic, couldn’t feel him move much or that noticeably, and didn’t always feel like he was “there”.   Over the last week the excitement for actually finding out made me feel so much closer to our baby and today, as I laid in the office and she told us, I filled with this emotion I had yet to feel up to this point.  Tears of joy filled my eyes because not only was our baby healthy but from this point on we will not be calling our piglet “it” but by his NAME, a name that holds so much sentimental value to both of us.  This is real and now feels real.

SO, are you sharing his name you ask? Yes.  We have had this name picked out for YEARS so no need to "hide" it any longer.

His name is Henry Donald H.!!! 

Henry was my grandpa’s name and Donald was Terry’s grandpa’s name and both of these men were strong and amazing individuals who met SO much to each of us.  Both of our grandpa’s passed away before Terry and I started dating but we are excited to carry on their memory and give such a strong name to our son! (OUR SON – AHHHHH!)

So the details of the appointment.

Well overall, everything went well and Henry is healthy. PHEW! I was more anxious about this than anything else.  At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what the gender is, as long as our little one is HEALTHY! 

The heartbeat was 143bpm.  He had a nice, strong heartbeat.  He weighs 12 ounces.  I forget how long he is or if they told us that….I was totally distracted!  He is still on schedule for his due date in September.  The only issue was that our sweet, stubborn baby boy was ALL CURLED UP IN A BALL!  His feet were above, yes ABOVE his head.  His knees were by his face and his face was pretty much buried between his legs.  Now while this gave a PERFECT view of his, well junk (seriously, it was all just hanging out there plain as day to see…that’s terry’s boy) it also made it difficult to see the rest of his body.  We saw some cute little feet and toes, a cute butt and his junk.  Great :)  We may go back in a few weeks for another ultrasound to see if the ultrasound tech can get a better view of the spine (she tried everything!).  Not that there were any concerns because she said everything looked great, just want to make sure.

I wish we had a picture to share, but because of how tight our baby was wrapped up and how incredibly LOW he was, the pictures make him look like a black and white blob.  Maybe in a few weeks! 

This is getting SO fun now!  A mini-Terry....well now that is just awesome.

On a side note: how can babies be comfortable like that?!  I get they are all cartilage and stuff but how was he comfortable like that?!  The wonderful ultrasound tech said she sees that a lot, especially at this age.  She said the positions babies get in is very funny to see!  LOVE IT!

Talk to Me – Diapers

So a quick question – what diapers do you recommend using?  What brand worked best for you?  Does a certain type of brand work better depending on the age of the child?  Any brand/s to avoid?  Any other information I should know when choosing diapers?

Things like diapers we were going to start buying in small quantities now when there are good sales, just to stock up a little bit so we do not have big expenses like that once the baby is born. 

Ok, I apologize for all these posts about being pregnant.  I promise I will blog about other things too but there will be some posts about pregnancy and baby stuff mixed in as well.  It is tough because I have a million questions about this new phase and I really appreciate the feedback, but I also have other stuff I want to share that is not pregnancy related…..just at the moment this is what is on my mind!

Belly Photo - 19 Weeks

Ok, I am not really a fan of putting pictures of myself up on this blog (so sorry if they scare you)!! However some people have been asking for belly photos and as I am nearing the half-way point I thought I would reluctantly post a couple pictures.  I have been taking pictures every few weeks, but nothing consistent.  Though I think I am going to start taking a weekly picture from this point on now that I have a bump to show!

Not easy to tell from the front, but you can kinda see the belly.

Side View - Oh there it is!!

Don't forget to guess what you think is growing inside me either on the side poll or HERE!

Pregnancy Update

So I haven’t really done a pregnancy update on the blog, so I thought I would do one today.  It is kind of boring, not too much going on right now....the babe is just doing its thing!



Currently, I am 19 weeks along. According to babycenter, our baby is the size of a large heirloom tomato and weighs approximately 8 ½ ounces and measures 6 inches from head to butt!

Also “Your baby's sensory development is exploding! His/her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that s/he may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to him/her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.”


I know the hearing, or at least feeling the vibration is working because we went to the RUSH concert Wednesday and I felt definite movement inside. The babes loves RUSH! Over the last couple weeks I have felt flutters and sometimes I am not sure if it is in fact the baby or gas/my body and other times I am fairly certain it is the little one but either way the flutters have been very light. Well at the concert there was NO question that this little one is moving and it was most likely because of the loudness and vibration from the concert! Loved it.

Friday I had a regular doctor appointment.  The Doctor had trouble tracking down the little one. She said she could hear movement, but it took awhile to find the heartbeat. Not going to lie, those minutes I was a bit worried something happened. But then she found it and as quickly as she found it, the baby would just float away! FINALLY, the little one was still long enough for her to check the heartbeat (140 bpm) and for us to hear it and everything seemed good. PHEW! I really had no idea the baby moved so much inside. She said this child is active and as it gets bigger and has less room to move I will feel it more. I am excited for that and excited for Terry to feel the little one move!

My last appointment was 5 weeks ago. Up until that point I had lost 7 pounds. At this appointment I had gained 3 pounds (which the doctor said was good), my blood pressure was wonderful, no swelling in my ankles, and my only complaints were some bouts with indigestion (which I never really have had before) and a couple times I had some mild achiness which she said was normal pulling from the growing uterus. I am also “showing” more now and so far things seem ok. Let’s keep it that way please!

Overall I am feeling well and loving this!  Terry said to his friend that he loves how well I take to pregnancy.  He said I am not moody and for the most part just mellow, I am healthy, and except for the forgetfulness and the occasional worries I am calm and collected.  I am not insulted because I think the poor boy was a tad worried, knowing what a nutter I can be without the extra hormones in me! 

As for preparing for the piggy, we have a lot of stuff done but still have a lot to do before September….and between school and just things previously planned we have been BUSY! Hopefully this summer when terry is done with school we can get some more stuff crossed off our list.  Not stressing yet as we have many of the "big" things taken care of.


As I said previously, next week we find out the gender. Stay tuned for that :)

Poll Time – What Are We Having?!

I can’t believe it is already that time in the pregnancy, the time where we will get to find out what we are having!  I am fairly certain at this point it is infact a human baby.  There was that one weekend where I got really drunk and passed out on a farm, but I am 92% certain nothing happened…..though that goat was looking at me funny when I left in the morning. Hmmmm

Anywho, since we are fairly certain know it is a human baby I thought I would do a poll and see what YOU all thought the gender was going to be.  For those thinking, “Hey Jenn why would I know?”!  Well who knows, maybe you have some kind of psychic ability or maybe you are like me and even though you are guessing you like the feeling you get when you get it right! 

As this is our first, I honestly have no reason to think one way or another what the gender is and have had NO thoughts what the gender is.  I even had my first baby dream the other night since getting pregnant and it was of us in the ultrasound room finding out the gender.  The ultrasound tech was going through her normal stuff and we get to the reveal and she is about to tell us and a bunch of birds fly in the room and we have to leave.   I have no idea what that means, but even in my dreams I am not making a guess!   

I do wonder if that because we have had a boy name picked out for years and would like to use it because of the sentimental value and we cannot agree on a girl’s name that maybe it could be a girl…or maybe because we have our boy name it could be a boy!!  I don’t know, and honestly I just don’t want to guess.  I know it is cliché but I don’t care what we are having and I really just want a healthy baby, no complications, and I want to make it through this process as healthily as possible.  Plus, I don’t want to have my heart set that it is one gender then feel bad if it is the other gender.

SO because I refuse to guess, but still LOVE hearing what you all have to say and think it is fun to guess…..I will leave that all up to you!  Go ahead and leave your comments and/or vote on the side of the blog!  I will be finding out next week on April 21^st, the day before my birthday!

Talk to Me - Invitations

I am looking for invitations for some things going on this summer.  I have checked a couple stores when I have been out shopping, but really haven't put a lot of work into looking for invitations and the places I have gone I haven't found what I am looking for. 

So I thought before I drove myself crazy searching for invitations I would check and see if any of you knew of a great place to get invitations...either online or in stores.  I am totally ok with making my own invitation or finding a place online where I can make them and get them delivered.  I just really want something easier and not too expensive.


Any tips/ideas?  Where do you get invitations for different events?

She Created A Monster!! I Am Addicted to This Website!!

So the lovely twopretzels innocently enough sent me a few websites yesterday that have great deals on kids and womens clothes.  I browsed a couple sites then got to Zulily and the browsing stopped and the buying began!  Oh my goodness, I LOVE this website.....and fear I will love it more once we know the gender.

We have bought a couple cute outfits that have been onsale but we will most likely get  stuff at thrift stores and garage sales over the summer, plus we also wanted to wait till I was farther along before we really bought more.  Well that stopped when I saw these lovely things for only $3.49 each!!  (Regular $14.99....even Amazon doesn't have them cheaper than $9.99) I have seen how expensive onesie's can be....you can not beat this deal!!

Look at these....

LOVE THEM!  I am a HUGE Fan of Dr. Seuss and therefore our child MUST wear these!  We got multiples of each.  We also found some other onesie's that were gender neutral and onsale.

I also got myself a belly band that was originally $29.99 for $14.49! 

Then today, just hours after buying this stuff I go back and take a look and see what sales they have today and see these aprons that I am in LOVE with!

Aren't they adorable?!  They are only $14.49!  Since it is not about me right now and I will not even be able to wear one of these in a few months without looking like a giant balloon I am practicing control and not getting one, but come on....how awesome are they?  Plus, shouldn't a mom have an apron?! (No Jenn, NO.)

Yep, I think Kylee created a monster as I am just loving this website!!

Love/Hate Relationship - Product Review

So I went to the doctor this week as I have had a cold since last week and I wanted to check things out.  The doctor told me it was just a cold and there wasn’t any medicine I could take (Tylenol Cold has been recalled) but instead told me to try a saline nasal spray.

Basically, the spray will help flush out my sinus cavities and keep them moistened (ew) which will help prevent a sinus infection which can happen when the sinus cavities become clogged from things such as a cold.  She said it was over the counter and perfectly safe as it was just pure saline and may help relieve the congestion I had.  So I gave it a try!

Product Description - Simply Saline Adult Nasal Mist helps clear congestion, dust and debris while improving the ability to smell and gain clearer breathing. Nasal and sinus irrigation reduces nasal blockages and improves nasal airflow. Relief from the symptoms of the common cold, irritants and dryness is gained quickly.

Let me tell you, I have a Love/Hate relationship with this product.  You basically stick the end up your nose and tilt your head to the side and then spray a stream of saline up your nose. (Don't be fold by the word MIST on the bottle, it doesn't feel like a mist when it is up your nose!) When I start getting congested I just stick that sucker up there and give it a few good sprays.  Why do I hate it?  Well because it feels SO weird.  It is cold and it makes my eyes water and my nose instantly runs.  I mean who likes the feelings of water in their nose?!  Not me that’s fo sho…I HATE IT.  Seconds before I do this I may whine a little bit to myself because I know what is coming and I just don’t want to do it!  Yes, I act like a child at times.

However, it is SO worth it.  This really makes me feel better, even if it is just for a couple hours.  I am sure it is similar to a neti pot, though I still don’t have the courage to try that and I am sure the Neti Pot would actually be more effective than this product.  But for me, this works and works well.  After I use it all this mucus comes out of my nose (again, ew) and it feels SO GOOD.  I can breathe again and everything up in there feels cleaned out!   

Even though I hate it for the minute or two that I am using this product I do love the outcome.  Who knew cleaning out your sinus cavities could feel so wonderful!  I think I may continue to use this during allergy season to help avoid congestion and sinus issues.

I recommend this to people who do not feel comfortable using the neti pot but who also have allergy and sinus issues....your sinuses will thank me!

Talk To Me – STRESS!!!!!

One reason I have avoided blogging the past few months is because I have literally LOST MY MIND.  And I mean literally, not figuratively. It is gone and I am slowly finding pieces of it but I don’t know if I will ever find all of my mind again.  Now I have heard that losing your mind is common when you are pregnant (pregnancy brain), but for me this is not an uncommon occurrence when I am just stressed….and let me tell you, I have been feeling it lately.  Yes, I am sure the pregnancy has something to do with my absentmindedness, but with the pregnancy also comes the stresses/concerns as well as all the other everyday stresses I had going on before this. 

Basically, the “I just have a lot on my mind” excuse is going on with me.

For the last 6-8 months or more I have had some level of stress/concern in my life and it is now truly affecting my daily life.  It is always a surprise as to what I will say, not say, or even do.  We have all been there, right?!  When the stresses of our life can cause us to feel like we had a lobotomy.   I would try to write blogs and nothing would come out.  I would read blogs and then forget what I just read or have no idea what to write.  I would try to be funny, whether on the blogs, facebook, twitter, or even in person and while in my mind I thought I was funny either nothing would come out right or worse people would get a series of words that vaguely resembled what I was trying to say but that made NO sense what-so-ever.  All this was usually followed by long awkward pauses from not just me, but the person on the receiving end of my gibberish. 

I can't even form complete sentences.  It's  more like “so do you want….” And then I forget what I am saying and try to remember it for 20 minutes, and then forget what I was trying to remember.  I even do stuff and forget what I am doing in the middle of it “Hey Terry/Kristen, why did I get up from the couch and come into the dining room?!”  And of course there is the forgetting where I put things.  Honestly, I now need an alarm on my keys.  And my favorite is not once but twice I grabbed a granola bar and threw the granola bar away while heading out of the kitchen with a wrapper in my hand. Riiiight.

I am really trying hard now that I am pregnant to worry less (HA – if you know me you know this isn’t happening), to not get myself so stressed, and just try to relax.  Easier said than done, no?!   I tried making lists, but found I was losing those.  I did go out and get a big calendar for our wall and started putting EVERYTHING, even when bills are due, on this calendar which has cleared a little space in my head.  But my head is still full of things that can easily stress you out…even just talking about it stresses me out!!  Once I get over this cold and can actually breathe again, I am going to start walking.  I am hoping that by trying to organize what I have going on AND take even 30 minutes of the day just to ease my mind it may help.  We’ll see though, it is easy to say you are going to make time for something but harder to actually do it!

So question – how do YOU deal with stress?  When you just have so much going on and what seems like no time to handle everything and you feel pulled in a 100 directions.  How do you make sense of it all and how do you de-stress?!