Pregnancy Update - 18 Weeks

Since I just did a Mac update, I figured it's time to do a baby girl update as well!  So many of you have asked about this pregnancy and how it's going, I figured I'd put all your questions in a post and hopefully answer everything.  

(16 weeks)

How far along are you?

18 weeks!  Can you even believe it?  This pregnancy is flying by.  Baby girl is the size of a bell pepper and weighs as much as three eggs.  She has eyelashes and fingernails.  I've been feeling flutters for a while, but she's just now starting to make her presence known with kicks and punches, which has to be the greatest feeling in the world.  They're not strong enough to feel from the outside yet, so feeling her move is like a little secret between just the two of us.  It's such a wonderful and reassuring feeling. 

How do you feel?

Terrible!  Yeah, so far I've felt pretty awful for the majority of this pregnancy, but it's finally getting better (knock on wood).  This this around has been so different than my first.  With Mac I felt great, like I could take on the world, all the time.  I was happy and calm and (according to my husband) a joy to be around.  This time...not so much.  Up until this past week, I've been queasy and nauseous and exhausted. I've had horrible headaches, I've moody and quick to anger, I haven't been sleeping well and worst of all, food has not sounded good.  I haven't even been able to play around on Pinterest because just looking at the food would make me want to vomit.  Two rounds of the stomach flu this winter hasn't helped either.  If I never eat another cracker again for the rest of my life I'd be fine with it.  Luckily everything's starting to get better and my appetite is slowly coming back.  I still can't stomach the idea of fish or a green vegetable, but a BLT with extra mayo sounds mighty good (even at 9 a.m.).  Yay carbs!  As of last week, I was only up 3 pounds, but I have a feeling that's all about to change.  Baby's going through a growth spurt and so am I.  My bump is out in full force, along with my appetite this week, so I'm planning on a big gain over the next few weeks.  Bring it on!

(bump)

This is probably the last time I'm ever going to be pregnant (boo!!!), so I really want to enjoy it and savor as much as I can.  I breaks my heart just saying that this is it, but 2 is probably the right number for us.  Even though this pregnancy hasn't been as smooth as my first, it's been incredible.  I really do love being pregnant, even if I'm sick. Just knowing there's a baby in there, growing strong and kicking away, makes me so proud and excited.  I'm amazed at what my body can do and I love watching my stomach grow bigger by the day.  I love knowing that I'm protecting her and feeding her and taking care of her, way before she's even born.   I love rocking a giant bump and I can't wait for it to be bigger!  I've never felt more beautiful in my life than when I'm pregnant.  Pregnancy really is spectacular.  

How's nursery planning going?

It's begun!  I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do, now I just have to make it happen.  I'm keeping it under wraps right now, because I know I'll change my mind a dozen times before it's actually ready to be shown to the general public.  Don't worry, I'll do a big reveal and before/after post when it's all done and I'm sure I'll give some sneak peeks on Instagram.  I'm getting some decorating tips and advice from the amazing Natasha, who is helping me design the nursery and pick out decor.  So far I've made a few purchases, but everything's still in boxes until we can get the room cleaned out and organized.  We've decided to do a whole new nursery and not convert Mac's room for the new baby.  Mac's room is closer to our room than future baby girl's nursery, which is currently being used as a spare bedroom (mainly for the cat), but we've decided to keep Mac in his current room.  Switching rooms would be a ton of work for us and I just think that might be more change than our little dude needs right now.  I also don't think he's ready for a toddler bed (I'm not ready for him to be able to get out of it!) yet, so we're going to buy another crib and convert his to a toddler bed later.  The less change/stress for him, the better.  And so what if we have to walk another 10 feet to get to her room.  We'll survive.  

(17 weeks)

Do you have a name picked out?

No.  This is so hard!  I like really classic traditional names and Ryan like more trendy modern names, so we're having a really hard time coming up with anything we can both agree on.  He has a hard time separating a name from anyone he knows with that name and I am just really picky.  We also have a lot of friends and family members that have chosen great names for their girls (our friends have excellent taste), so a lot of the names we really like have already been taken and we don't want to be duplicative if we can avoid it.  We do have one name we both really like, but it's not definite.  Unfortunately the people that I've mentioned the name to (our nanny and my parents) both gave me such strange looks and polite "oh, that's nice" responses (I don't believe them) that I've decided not to mention the name to anyone else for fear of getting my feelings hurt.  No, I don't care if everyone loves the name we pick, but I want to love it and I don't want other people's negative reaction to influence my decision.  So if we do choose a name, we're not going to tell anyone.  However, we're still open to suggestions, so fire away.  In the meantime, I think I'm going to use a nickname for her on the blog, like I do with Mac.  "Baby Girl" just sounds so generic.  When I started using "Baby Mac" to refer to our little bean, I never thought it would stick like it did, but I love it.  I want to give baby girl a nickname we also love (although I'm not sure we'll ever call her that directly), so I'm I will call her "Baby Mim."  And no, that's not foreshadowing the name, we still don't know what her name will be.  

What are you looking forward to?

Our anomaly scan is next week, so I'm excited to have another ultrasound and get a good look at baby girl (Mim?). I think the ultrasound will help me have some peace of mind. Still, in the back of my mind, I can't shake the feeling that this is all too good to be true and that something is going to happen.  I'm trying not to let it get to me too much, but it's always there.  I'm not sure if it's because of the miscarriage last year or maybe it's because I think Mac is the most amazing and perfect child to ever live and how can we possibly be that lucky again.  You know, a whole lightening doesn't strike twice mentality.  I'm still a nervous wreck.  I can't go more than 48 hours without breaking out the Doppler and listening to her heartbeat (which is strong!).  The more I feel her move, the more relaxed I'm becoming.  I hope she continues to dance away in there so I can finally calm the eff down. 

(18 weeks)

How is this pregnancy different than with Mac?
It's so different in so many ways.  Like I said, I was never sick with Mac, so 17 weeks of continuous all-day nausea was very different.  I also feel like I'm much bigger this time around. Of course I started out with a few more pounds this time, but the bump grew much faster.  And it's way less round this time.  The bump isn't exactly just in front of me like a basketball, it's more like an inner tube all the way around me.  Seriously, back and side bumpage?  WTF?  That's not cool.  Also, although I'm much more nervous this time around, I don't think about being pregnant as much as I did with Mac.  Sometimes I go hours without really thinking about it, whereas I don't think I went 30 seconds with Mac.  This is probably just due to the fact that I'm much busier this time, chasing a toddler around.  My skin is really dry, but that could just be because of the weather.  My hair is pretty awesome right now, which I'm totally digging.  I've been pretty good at keeping up with my pregnancy book so far, but I'm doing a poor job at getting pictures of myself that aren't taken with my iPhone.  I need to get the camera set up on the tripod and get some good ones.  I apologize for the crappy photos above.  I'll do better, baby girl.  I promise you'll have tons of photos and your entire life will be well documented, just like your big brother.

So there it is.  All is well and I finally feel like I might not die.  I have a renewed excitement about the rest of this pregnancy and I hope I'm able to enjoy it.  Being pregnant is such a blessing and I really want to love it as much as I did the first time around.  I'm so excited for this little peanut.  I've been dreaming about her for so long.  I can't wait to get maternity photos taken and for Ryan to feel her kick.   I can't wait to meet her and hold her and rock her to sleep at night.  I can't wait to do this whole baby thing all over again.  I feel like the luckiest person in the world.