Week 13 - Week 15: The BIG Reveal!

I've decided weekly updates will be kind of boring this time around, so I'll just type a little each week and then publish when I hit some sort of landmark. So this post is Week 13 - Week 15: The BIG Reveal!

13 Weeks

It's so odd to me how relaxed I feel so far during this pregnancy. There is definitely a difference in being a "first-time mom", well, first-time pregnant, and the second time around! I don't spend hardly any time googling or obsessing over descriptions of what baby is doing in there each week or reading scary books about delivery. I'm not worried about what the nursery will look like, but that's probably because 1) we don't know the gender yet, and 2) we will be moving once during this pregnancy and then again shortly after baby is born. 

Yikes.

I'm not looking forward to that move next year, because I'll hardly have made it past my 6 week healing time. (all the more reason to move forward with a c-section so baby can arrive at 39 weeks and give me as much time as possible to heal!) But we will cross that bridge when we get there!

So most likely little babe will hang out in his or her crib in the corner of our room until we get settled in our next house. Then I can decorate a nursery! And I'm okay with that! Ava had her own room from day one because we have a 4 bedroom house so I could immediately start working on it. I spent all pregnancy deciding what I wanted. It's honestly kind of nice to not have to think about those things this time! I can continue to focus on my Ava girl for as long as it's just the 3 of us!

I've already started to have pelvic pain. NOOOOOOOOOO

That was my least-favorite symptom last time. And I only had to deal with it for the last tri!

I've slept with a pillow on my side since the day I got my positive pregnancy test. Now I put it between my legs to help with my pelvic pain.

My belly has popped earlier this time around!

Constipation has hit me hard! I'm still trying to get it under control! I just need to be more regimented with my daily yogurt and Fiber One snacks!

14 Weeks

So apparently the second trimester doesn't actually start until week 14. How did I not know/remember this?! I have been so tired and so hungry lately! Ava is sick and hasn't been sleeping well, so I've been up in the night with her a bit this week. And I have a pretty ferocious (is that the word I want?) appetite lately! I read that a baby grows so fast in the first trimester, that if it continued it's rate of growth for the rest of pregnancy, that it would weigh around 1.5 tons at birth!!! Is that not the craziest thing you've ever heard?! Basically all the systems of the body are in place and the last 2 trimesters are fine-tuning and strengthening those symptoms, growing bigger, and putting on a few pounds of fat.

I'm not nearly as anal about taking my belly pictures on the same day each week. In fact, this week's picture is actually a few days late! Don't care. I'm so tired.

Seriously...I go to bed at 9:15 every night and I'm still dragging the next day! Ava wakes me up between 6 - 6:15. Sometimes I hear Chris getting up for PT so some days I'm up at 5:30.

I really like food. I mean I guess that's normal while pregnant, and I haven't gained weight yet, and I do chase Ava around during the day, but I just feel like I'm being gluttonous! 

I am definitely feeling baby kicks. They're more like feathery flutters! I got some back-to-back-to-back flutters the other day!

Chris and I had just gotten into bed the other night when I realized there was a peach-sized lump sticking up in my lower belly! Little baby was saying hello! I've read that Braxton Hicks contractions happen in all trimesters but you can't actually feel them until around 20 weeks...unless this isn't your first baby. I think I was having a BH contraction - I had a lot of them with Ava and my uterus would always squeeze and make a big ball in my belly and you could really see my uterus! Little peach was slightly on my right and I'd press down on my left and there was nothing there. It's so odd that baby is so tiny in there! In no time at all my whole belly will be filled with baby. We enjoyed pressing on my belly a bit to feel exactly where baby was and talking to him/her. (We hate calling the baby "it"! We can't wait to find out gender next week!) We weren't able to get any kicks out of baby. S/he must have been too tired like momma, haha!

I'm really dragging my feet with digging out my maternity clothes. I put on jeans and wear them unbuttoned and unzipped around the house, and then they keep falling down. I primarily wear workout clothes and lounge pants. Tops won't be an issue for awhile but I really need to get some different bottoms to wear! Now if we could just hurry up and get this move over with I could dig things out and reorganize...

15 Weeks

Ok drumroll!!! We know the gender!!! I was worried I wouldn't be able to sleep the night before the big ultrasound due to excitement, but it was due to Ava waking up every hour or two to have a coughing fit and cry! Poor girl; she has so much chest congestion and the last two nights have been rough. She has been insisting on starting the night by needing to be held and then crying if you try to lay her down! I hate that we can't do anything else for her besides a humidifier and lots of liquids. She's still playing alright but these nights are miserable!

We arrived early to our appointment because we were sooooo excited! She checked for the heartbeat before she did any "searching" for parts, haha! The heart rate was 143, which has come down a lot from the 175 from my first appointment!

Then she began to pass the doppler across my belly to begin the hunt. I immediately saw what I thought for sure was boy parts, and I said aloud, "is that what I think it is?!" And sure enough, she said, "Yup - you're right! It's a boy!"

We both felt instantaneous joy!

We cheered and high-fived and laughed and I even got a little teary-eyed! We spent the rest of the appointment learning about little boy. He is laying transverse, just like Ava was, but with his head on my right side. He was very active in there, although I could not feel any of his movements! He was kind of nestled up against the placenta, just like Ava was! We got some good shots of his face and watched him open and close his mouth and move his arms around and checked again just to make sure he was a boy - Chris wanted some reassuring! He was very cooperative and at the end got a little still so he was ready for a nap, I guess! Ava had fun walking around the room and sometimes she'd look up at the screen. What a great big sister to a brother she will be! I can only imagine the trouble these two will get into together!

We immediately wanted to go shopping for sweet little boy! He will need some clothes to wear and some things for his nursery! I need to start thinking of how I want to decorate!

Just look at him:

It's so amazing to me that he is only about 5 inches long and we can already see so much about him! Such a tiny little blessing! I already can feel a stronger connection between him and I. I love knowing that I can call him "him" instead of "the baby" or "it". 

We announced with simple blue balloons - I knew Ava wouldn't cooperate a whole lot...and I was right!!

And we shall name him:

Liam Alexander