Right on track

Today marks 18 weeks and 3 days pregnant. It's crazy to think of how close I am to being halfway done (20 weeks)! Also crazy is that we will find out Baby's sex in two weeks!! I'm not going to lie, the idea of a girl scares me a little less (I think just because I had a sister and lots of girl cousins, etc.), but we will definitely be excited either way. I am very partial to the boy name we've picked out, and we haven't really decided on a girl name yet... and nursery design will be fun either way.

I had a midwife appointment today, and am glad to say that everything is right on track. Low blood pressure, good heartbeat for Baby, and weight gain and uterus measurements are right where they should be. I did have a little freakout yesterday because I made the mistake of Googling the possible birth defects from Zofran (my anti-nausea med) and got super worked up that I had given our baby a cleft palate or other birth defect. But I talked to the midwife today and she was very reassuring and also firm - that they would not put me on anything that would harm the baby and that me getting adequate calories and nutrition was the most important thing for Baby's development (and if I'm sick all the time I'm not eating right or enough).

I am glad that I'm continuing to feel better, with a little nausea still. While on a very low dose, the Zofran still does cause constipation and headaches, so that's fun. My old taste for vegetables and healthier foods is slowly coming back, which is a relief. I was getting pretty sick of lots of bland foods that just got me through the day. But I will give a shout out to the dairy family - thanks to copious amounts of milk, cheese, kefir, cottage cheese, and yogurt, I somehow survived my first trimester. But I'm glad to start eating salads and good veggies again, along with more protein!

Tonight's dinner - zucchini and chicken grillers! Mmmm

Lately sleep has been evading me, and I'm experimenting with different pillow combinations to support my hips and belly. Caleb really enjoys this and and especially loves when I shove him to the far edge of the bed at night so I can have more room. :) I tried one small pillow between my legs (needed something more up top), body pillow (bulky and maybe too big), and tonight I'm going to try the Snoogle. What the heck is the Snoogle, you ask?  It's a bigass, weird body pillow that is supposed to be great for pregnant women. A friend of ours gifted one to me and I'm gonna give it a go. Based on the size of the thing, Caleb might be sleeping on the floor.

Snoogle weirdness

The past week or two I've also started to wear some maternity shirts, now that my belly's big enough to fill the smaller ones out. I have been in maternity pants for a while, because if you know my love of sweatpants, you know I'll gladly choose an elastic waistband over real pants any day. But this also means I have plenty of shirts and dresses that no longer fit - some because they're too short, but most are because they just look terrible now. If they don't properly accentuate my belly, I end up just looking really THICK. And I'd personally rather look pregnant. I'm hoping to receive some hand me down clothes from friends and cousins soon, so hopefully I won't have to spend too much on a maternity wardrobe.

Here's another bumpy pic for funsies.... not a ton of change week to week, but the bump is definitely out there, loud and proud. Until next week.... but really, let's get excited for two weeks from now when we find out if Baby is a boy or a girl! Ahhh!!

18 weeks