Weeks 16-18: April 6-26

From the Texas Department of State Health website

Baby Center has some awesome info including a video about this stage of development  if you're curious.

By the end of week 18 (from smartmomma.com):

Week 18 shows the baby measuring about 5 ½ inches long, with a weight of almost 7 ounces. Along with the lanugo (downy-like hair covering baby’s body), the baby has accumulated vernix (a white cheese-like protective coating) on his body. This protects the baby’s skin by keeping it moisturized in your amniotic fluid.

This is the time when his vocal cords are forming, and he begins to practice vocalizing. Hhe will begin to cry, although without air, no sound will escape her. This is strictly for practice.

If you have a pregnancy ultrasound this week, the technician should be able to make out the baby’s heart well, including the ventricles and chambers. His brain is growing rapidly as well, and all the major areas will be differentiated. He is starting to respond to stimuli, and in the coming weeks, he will love hearing your voice.

An ultrasound will also now reveal your baby’s sex, unless he is shy and has his legs crossed. A girl will have her uterus and Fallopian tubes formed, along with her genitals and a boy will have pronounced genitals as well, visible with an ultrasound.

Weight: At my April 12th appointment I was up 5 pounds (total) and now at the end of week 18 I am up 6-7 depending on the day. According to the doc, that's all totally normal especially since I am really showing now. He would be happy with 5 pounds of gain every 4 weeks, and typical weight gain at 17 weeks is 5-13 pounds so I'm right where I should be. Phew.

Symptoms have been weird and I think I am getting the shaft this pregnancy! Off and on over these weeks I have had bouts of nausea that don't seem to be related to anything. My doctor theorizes it's just hormone surges, which may continue throughout the pregnancy. Does someone have pom poms I can borrow? One day it was bad enough that I had to pull over and vomit on the side of the road. That was definitely a low point. The last week it seems to be mostly better, though slight queasiness in the afternoon isn't unusual.

The round ligament pain continues, and is another thing that will likely remain throughout the pregnancy. I am learning how to make it a little less likely when rolling over and getting up and things, but it still gets me sometimes. My tailbone is way worse though, and sitting in an actual chair pretty much always means standing up will be extremely painful. Not looking forward to a cross country drive this summer!

Sleep is still either elusive or overwhelming. I don't seem to sleep very soundly at night and tend to get my best sleep after Brian is awake and there aren't two restless people in bed. Naps are also hard to come by some days, even if Kian lays down I can't always get to sleep myself. I tell myself it's just practice but I spend a lot of time pretty worn out.

A new symptom is mild Braxton Hicks contractions. I thought it was just weird pressure, but one happened during the ultrasound and the tech told us what it was. She said my body is just going to be super ready when the big day comes! It's not painful, just uncomfortable so no big deal.

I am definitely feeling movement regularly now, both pressure/rolling sensations and little feet and fists. Brian has felt some of the larger rolling movements but I can't seem to catch a kick so he can feel it. Since I sit with my hand on the baby a lot, I have felt a few from the outside, so it's just a matter of time.

Let's see... April 13th we took Sprout to his first air show, and Kian had a great time. We got to see some cool aerobatic stuff I've never seen before so that was fun. That evening my MIL Becky came in to town and stayed for four days. We went through the Saguaro National Forest, finally made it down to Tombstone, and had a date night to go see Hunger Games. All in all a really fun weekend! It's great when Kian gets to spend some real quality time with a grandparent, but always makes me wish we lived closer.

I have been spending a lot of time planning, researching and preparing for our big trip May 7-19, which includes a trip to Florida and our first ever Disney cruise! I am quite certain that it would have been a fun time with far less planning, but I've (mostly) enjoyed the research. Now we're coming down to final details and I'm starting to be anxious but I am sure we'll have an amazing time. It's sort of like a babymoon! Time to focus on Kian while he's still an only child.

The ultrasound gets its own post when I scan the pics in, but suffice it to say that all is well and Sprout is officially a boy! Though I am still not great at keeping this silly thing updated, here we are, all caught up. :)

Week 15: March 30-April 5

Baby at 15 weeks

Baby at 15 weeks:

Your baby is a about the size of an orange by pregnancy week 15, between 4 and 4 and ½ inches long and weighing more than 1 ½ ounces. This week your baby will start producing lanugo, which is fine hair that will cover your baby's body up until a few weeks before birth.

Your baby's bones are starting to get harder during pregnancy at 15 weeks and will continue to do so throughout your pregnancy. Your baby is spending most of his time practicing breathing, by inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid. This helps your baby's air sacs develop during pregnancy.

Your baby continues to form taste buds at this point in time. Your baby’s legs are longer than his arms at this point. Eyebrows and hair may appear, and if your baby is going to have dark hair the hair cells which color it will start to produce their color.
(From http://momswhothink.com)

Weight: Vegas KILLED me on my super amazing no weight gain track record. I gained 5-6 pounds on that week, and though I thought I might shed a bit, I totally didn't. So, up 4 pounds!

The week after Vegas I was totally exhausted. I am sure part of it was due to the trip, but I firmly believe a big part of it was explosive Sprout growth. My abdomen is trying it's very best to stretch and grow appropriately, making for tons of round ligament pain as the ligaments thicken and strengthen to support the growing weight of my abdomen.

I also had a day with heart palpitations this week, which is a first for this pregnancy. It wasn't bad at all but I was a little dizzy and a lot tired. Dandruff is in full force, and the tailbone is still really bothering me. It's not too bad when I am sitting still (a little stiff or sore sometimes), but then it's excruciating to get up or walk. So reclining is best. Poor me, right? XD

I thought I might have felt a few tiny flutters of movement this week, but nothing significant or consistent and let's be honest, it could be digestion! I am eagerly awaiting the days of movement, because it still seems pretty unreal that there's a baby in there. In spite of all the other symptoms, I mostly just feel like it's been a really long and bizarre sickness. It isn't that I'm not happy, I just still can't wrap my head around the end result.

Brian flew nights most of the week, which just wreaks havoc with all of our schedules. He is home until 12 (or in some cases as late as 2pm) and then doesn't get home until midnight or later. It's hard on Kian when he finally leaves, for one thing. For another, I don't sleep as well without him here because I wake up at every tiny sound - and there are a lot of sounds in our house! This is hilarious because he generally sleeps like the dead and doesn't wake up to Kian screaming his head off, so on a normal night if one of these tiny sounds was a burglar or something, we would all be toast. :P Then he gets home in the wee hours and though he's quiet he almost always wakes me up. He turns on the TV, he can't get comfy, and then when he does he snores (sorry honey). And of course with or without pre-school, Kian is up no later than 6:30, which cuts my sleep short and interrupts Brian's cycle too. It's just not ideal and we have another week of it ahead!

The other big side effect of Vegas is that Brian took several days off and Kian was totally spoiled and stimulated almost every day! They went to the desert museum, they had a picnic on Mt Lemmon and played in the snow/went hiking, they spent a lot of time at the park and they went to a baseball game. They talked about going to Phoenix for ice skating and I think Brian is glad they skipped it because it was a lot for everyone concerned. The boys had a blast but Kian has been needy, bored and cranky all week. Having B here in the early day makes it rough too, like I said, because we are creatures of routine normally.

No suprise

It should be no surprise to anyone that I haven't posted in a month. Oops, bad me. I have been spending a ton of time trip planning, both for my Vegas trip and our upcoming FL trip/cruise combo, and my tailbone is killing me if  I sit in a chair for too long so my computer time has been limited.

Having said that, rather than trying to catch up I am going to make the next post about the past week, and then I will try to post some Vegas stuff. :).