Bump Board: 14 Weeks Pregnant!

So much to update on this week & I've even got some ultrasound pictures to share from my NT scan - which I will also update on throughout my blog. But I'm 14 weeks pregnant this week & baby is doing wonderfully. My due date has changed yet again to July 23, 2015 - it was originally the 26th, and then switched to the 25th, and now it is to the 23rd. The earlier date the better, because it's one day closer that I get to hold my little nugget in my arms. 

First things first, my nuchal translucency scan went wonderfully. I also got my first round of sequential screen blood work which came back normal & there was no cause for alarm. I'll go back for my 2nd round of blood work between February 6th to February 26th because it has to be done within a certain margin of time. The baby is getting so much bigger than the last time I saw him/her on ultrasound right before Christmas. 

It actually looks like a BABY! We could see the fingers, toes, hands and feet. And even the eyes. Baby wiggled around a lot BUT stayed upside down the entire time and refused to budge so we couldn't even get a peak at the potential gender... it's okay though. I'm just happy that baby is doing so well and is healthy!! Baby's heart rate was 163 BPM. It was amazing to be able to see how much has changed since my last visit. You can even see baby's brain and spine. The tech said that the NT scan looks completely normal. I did a lot of "googling" online and psyched myself out for what I was in for. I read a lot about patients going in and being told that they weren't good results and then they later went on to have a healthy baby, but it is still nerve-wracking to think I would need to worry my entire pregnancy more than I already had. Another great moment was that Ray and Caleb were able to see the baby for the first time as well!! And the office we went to they have a big tv on the wall where we can see the images from the ultrasound, which I've never experienced before, so it was really nice to be able to see the baby on a big screen rather than looking over at a small one.

Although we weren't told anything about gender -- any predictions?? A friend of mine said she thinks boy, but I'm still up in the air, I keep thinking girl. because it's completely different this time around than when I was pregnant with Caleb. By this time with Caleb I had already been suffering from substantial amounts of heartburn, but I'm not 100% sure of when it started exactly. 

I also had an appointment with my regular OB on Tuesday and baby's heart rate was 153 BPM. Which confuses me in terms of gender, because they always say above 160 is a girl and below is a boy. I guess I just need to be patient until my 3D ultrasound on the 11th, which is coming up quick. We also heard the baby's heartbeat for the very first time this week. And I would be lying if I said I didn't cry and get extremely emotional. I feel like I have finally made it. And I am nowhere near as worried as I was before this appointment. 

Bump shot from before my NT SCAN.

What's New This Week?

Baby L is the size of a Lemon and growing rapidly! :) Doesn't seem like much of a difference since the size of a peach last week but there is! 

This week, baby is probably sucking his thumb and wiggling his/her toes in there. Baby's kidneys are making urine, and his liver and spleen are doing their jobs, too. Baby is also growing something called lanugo, which is a thin, peach-fuzz-like hair all over their little body. It will help keep my little nugget warm in my belly. Baby is continuously moving and twisting and turning all their itty bitty joints in they body and continuously moving around inside my belly - but I don't feel anything just yet, but it's definitely something I'm more than ready to experience :) 

The lungs are continuing to develop and the little babe is practicing breathing with the amniotic fluid on a regular basis. Other exciting news? My little nugget can now frown, grimace, and squint and their little reflexes are becoming stronger and more frequent.

Whats New with Mommy this Week:

My energy was returning, and now I'm back to being kinda sleepy...nothing too bad or anything remotely like the 1st trimester, but I'm sure in time it'll change and my energy will slowly come back. Honestly I don't mind being that tired because then I can fall asleep no problem which was always an issue before I got pregnant. Another new symptom that I'm experiencing and hating... feeling dizzy and experiencing lightheadedness. Which is definitely not on my list of favorite things to deal with. It's usually the worst when I first wake up in the morning, so I've been keeping bottles of water and little snacks next to me for as soon as I wake up. Round ligament pain has also began as my uterus stretches to accommodate my growing belly and baby. I told my OB about my dizzy spells and he told me to just keep my fluid intake up and he said that its completely normal for this stage in the game because when you're pregnant you have 40% to 50% more blood in your body. My hormones are settling down a bit but I still cry pretty easily. Due to my dizzy spells I haven't been able to workout at all this week so I'm hoping after a relaxing weekend and a lot of fluid intake I'm hoping to be back at it on Monday morning. Most of my nausea has dissipated immensely - thank God. But I've been really lucky because I've never once suffered from morning sickness. I'm still always hungry too... which worries me about my weight gain which is another reason why I don't want to NOT work out. And I'm not depriving myself or anything like that for the sake of my own nerves. I am making sure to keep my nutritional intake up, and I'm really hoping to get back into the fitness swing of things on Monday. But I'm still hungry a lot. Especially before bed... 

Speaking of food... Cravings currently are gumballs (how weird, right?) and I will easily eat a bag of them in a sitting. Baby Carrots are my go-to late night snack, and I love kiwi's and peaches. Brown rice with sriacha sauce is also something I absolutely love. And I still eating bell peppers. Granny Smith Apples. Another odd meal I'm really loving? Taco bowls!! I add ground turkey, tomatoes, bell peppers, guacamole, sour cream, crushed up tortilla chips, lettuce and mild taco-sauce. It's one of my absolute favorite things at the moment. And it's delicious so I don't mind... 

...Nothing too out of the ordinary and most is healthy. :) As long as baby is happy, I'm happy.

All in all things are going really well. I feel good, and I've gained about 7 pounds so far. Baby is healthy and growing according to plan. I feel really blessed and grateful to be 14 weeks pregnant. I truly believe that my mom is looking over me and my little rainbow baby from heaven ensuring that we are going to continue to be okay...they say when you randomly find feathers that it's an angel... and I've found so many feathers especially since I got pregnant that I can't help but think it's my mom shining down and just letting me know she's got this, that it's all okay. 

Looking forward to our 3D ultrasound on the 11th and hoping that we can find out the gender, but if not I can be patient and wait until our 20 week scan... doesn't mean I want to though, LOL. Mainly because we are anxious to get some things for the baby and we are really looking forward to planning our nursery and everything that goes along with it. My good friend Emily is also helping me in planning my Baby Sprinkle-Shower :) and we can really start getting it together once we know gender... the sprinkle-shower will probably be sometime in May. Ahh, Spring! Can't wait for warmer weather, I've already decided I'm going to live in Maxi Dresses. Once we know gender we can start narrowing down our names as well.. but don't get excited!! We aren't announcing any baby name choices until Birth Day! 

Thanks for reading! <3 

XoXo, Jenna

12 Weeks Bump Board!

Hit the 12 week mark! One more week separates me from leaving the 1st trimester in the dust :) Although I can't complain too much because my first trimester was much easier than some other preggo mama's to be have gone through. 

This week Baby L is the size of a Plum... YUM! 

- Most of his/her critical systems are fully formed!

- He/She is about to enter the growth and maturation stage, in which her organs & tissues will grow and develop rapidly.

- Baby is now developing reflexes - if you poke his/her body, she'll likely move :) 

- Baby is opening and closing their fingers and curling their little toes, too! 

- Their brain is developing fast!! 

The average fetus at 12 weeks is about 2.1 inches long and .49 ounces. Now that Baby L's got pretty much all his/her parts, baby's main job is to KEEP ON GROWING! :) 

Big News!! I'm reaching the home stretch of the 1st trimester!!  Which hopefully means that my hormones will tone it down a bit -- so I stop crying at just about EVERYTHING that pulls at my heart strings in even the smallest of ways. Morning sickness & nausea will hopefully subside (although some mama's deal with this throughout their entire pregnancy!) and some energy will return in the 2nd trimester - at least I hope so! But this can be replaced with headaches and dizziness - ugh! Baby L is almost done developing their body's most important systems and parts, which means its mostly about getting bigger and more mature from here on out :) 

Appointments coming up: 

Nuchal Translucency screening on January 19th. We get to see our baby on ultrasound :) and I get quite the arsenal of blood work at this appointment as well.

The nuchal translucency screening test (also called the NT scan) can help your healthcare practitioner assess your developing baby's risk of having Down Syndrome and some other chromosomal abnormalities, as well as major congenital heart problems.

The NT scan must be done when you're between 11 and 14 weeks pregnant, because this is when the base of your baby's neck is still transparent. 

It's a bit nerve-wracking given everything we have been through to even get pregnant but I trust God and I know He's got this. 

We also scheduled our first 3D/4D ultrasound to hopefully find out if we will be shopping for a

That isn't until February 11th though and I will be almost 17 weeks along. We never had the opportunity to do this with Caleb so I am really looking forward to this! And we are hoping that Baby L cooperates with us and shows us the goods and we get some fantastic pictures of him or her that we can treasure forever! The place we are going also gives us a DVD of the entire experience which will be fun to show to our families and friends. This will also help us in choosing how to decorate and design Baby L's nursery! =) I'm currently into stripes: 

And if it were a boy I love the idea of teal and gray. We shall see! 

Symptoms This Week: 

I am honestly feeling pretty good...aside from being really tired a lot. And I seem to be feeling pretty nauseous from day to day again. Ginger Ale is definitely my BFF at this point. I have always been lucky enough to never have morning sickness though. Always more of an all day nausea and feeling like I'm going to toss my cookies type of girl - which is even worse in my opinion. Nothing is worse than feeling like you're going to barf for 5 hours straight -_-  My belly hasn't changed much either from last week and I might carry small - just like I did with Caleb until around 25 weeks when I popped. My boobs have also gotten HUGE. My bras are getting tight so I'll need to replace them soon with someone bigger. I stick to sports bras mainly anyway because they're comfortable and underwire sucks. My sense of smell is insanely sensitive. I can smell pretty much everything and anything and it's extremely potent which can cause some nausea for me. I sweat like crazy too.. .and I feel like I'm on fire when I sleep. Also... always feeling starving so I have started keeping snacks to my bed to help when I wake up feeling hungry. This is also disgusting but I don't even care... I have been farting and burping like crazy. And my farts? are enough to probably take down a T-Rex. It's pretty disgusting, haha. My husband says "pregnancy farts suck" and he's right. They are absolutely terrible. Constipation is up there too.. I have been having some serious issues going but they subside. I haven't had to take anything as of lately to help me go. I'm still dealing with the itchy thing on occasion but it's nowhere near as bad as it was before. My hormones have me getting upset or irritated a lot quicker than I was before as well. 

Other common 12 week symptoms: 

- That dark line on your belly starts to appear

Still hasn't made an appearance & from what I remember I never had much of one with my other kids either. So who knows? 

- More vaginal discharge to protect your, um, lady parts from infection.

The good the bad and the ugly - remember? I'm suffering from this. It's gross but whatever keeps away the risk of infection works for me. 

- A noticeably bigger belly!! 

Like I said my belly hasn't changed much from last week... and some days it looks bigger than others. I think it's a lot of bloat to be honest. 

- Headaches and dizziness may start to intensify around this time which could be caused by hormones, vision changes, drops in blood sugar, dehydration, or possible stress. 

I haven't had any of this yet ... although my eyes are getting worse. I can barely see without my glasses on, which is something that has gotten considerably worse since I had Caleb. I developed astigmatism when I was pregnant with Caleb and I need to rely on glasses. I wish I could wear contacts but they freak me out.

I am hoping for a return of energy in the 2nd trimester because I have been dragging my behind this entire 1st one. I haven't been able to find an ounce of energy to workout or do much of anything. So I'm hoping that some energy will return and I can get back into a regular workout routine -- I am going to do T25 again from the beginning and do the modified stuff - especially for everything that requires jumping around and bouncing. 

Food Cravings: fried pickles - even though when I had them the other night I felt super sick afterwards. Red peppers, baby carrots, &  French dressing. And still craving Subway. SmartFoods White Cheddar Popcorn is also the bees knees. I wouldn't mind some King Crab legs either smothered in butter. Haha.

Food No-No's: There hasn't been much really.. I guess the fried pickles could fit in here too.

For the most part I try to eat healthy and stay away from junk. But when you're pregnant you do have cravings that are pretty gross, lol. 

Anything I'm worried about: The fact that I don't have many symptoms. But I guess some women are just lucky. I definitely feel pregnant. But naturally I worry.

Boy or Girl: my symptoms, cravings, etc. lead me to believe I'm having a girl but I could definitely be wrong. Because I thought I was having a girl with Caleb and boy was I wrong! LOL. 

Looking forward to the ultrasound on the 19th but a little nervous about the testing. All in all I know everything is okay, but my nerves get the best of me a lot of times. All in all I feel good though and I'm really blessed God is letting me experience pregnancy again. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

XOXO, Jenna 

11 weeks & Bump Board!

My Very First Bump Board! :) 

I'm looking forward to doing more of these in the coming weeks. Although I'm sure it'll become more difficult as my belly gets bigger to not smudge some of my artwork ;) I got my chalkboard at AC Moore and it was $19.99 and I got 2 packs of chalk for .99 cents each. I found a lot of my ideas on Pinterest. If you're interested in where I got my sweater from? It's actually a SnookiLove sweater and you can find that www.snookishop.com :) 

Pregnancy This Week: 

Baby L is the size of a LIME already

and can OFFICIALLY be called a FETUS! 

A big jump from a prune just last week! Baby L is moving around in there but I can't feel him/her just yet. Although I'm looking forward to when I finally do get to feel those kicks and movements. Baby's skin is also see through at the moment but he/she is on their way to looking more and more like a little baby in there! Another big milestone this week for Baby L? Fingers and toes aren't webbed anymore. Tooth buds, hair follicles and nail beds are also forming. Only 203 days left to go until my little belly bean is here! =) 

11 Week Pregnancy Symptoms:

What this Mama is Feeling at 11 weeks:

I'm feeling pretty good for the most part and I feel like a lot of my symptoms have already decreased. I'm still pretty tired for the most part but I do find myself able to stay up later - not that I want stay up late. Most nights I feel like I'm asleep before my head even hits the pillow. 

But what stinks is that my lack of energy? Makes me have no real energy to workout :( Since the hubby got me Just Dance 2015  for Christmas this year I've been doing some of those with the kids & that has helped me work up a sweat & dancing is a great workout. So I'm not being completely lazy ;) I'm hoping that once the 2nd trimester hits I'll regain some energy and be able to do more. But as of right now? 

Some minor incidents with nausea but nothing too crazy. It's usually only when I eat something that Baby L doesn't like. And no throwing up =D which I'm sure other expecting mama's would love to experience.

I also almost always feel HUNGRY. Last night (and it wasn't the first time) I woke up basically STARVING at around 3:00 am. And I couldn't fall back asleep until I ate something. The timing is the same every single night. And if I don't wake up in the middle of the night starving? I wake up in the morning wanting to eat everything in site. 

Also this is kind of an odd symptom but I had this when I was pregnant with Gianna - I would itch INSANELY. And it would be to the point of making myself basically bleed & that started up about 2 weeks ago and hasn't decreased at all. When I was pregnant with Gianna I ended up having to go to my OB and actually get prescribed something because it wouldn't stop. 

I know it's an overshare but pregnancy isn't always the sunshine and rainbows. 

It's the good the bad and the ugly. 

One thing that's really tough for me though is how my prenatal vitamins make me feel. I can't take pills for the life of me - specifically the prenatal vitamins. I don't know why, but they are so gross. They are horse pills and they always smelled so bad. Since I've always had "regularity" issues I take gummy prenatal vitamins with extra calcium and fiber. But for some reason whenever I've been taking them I feel like I'm gagging and want to throw up. So that's definitely something that I'm not enjoying.

My hormones are also all over the place. I am either crying, laughing or just plain mad. I find myself becoming increasingly overwhelmed with things going on. Not my pregnancy or anything, but we also have a new puppy and it's been hard to train him. I find myself getting upset over things to the point of crying hysterically because it's a lot to do. Don't get me wrong, I know training a puppy is difficult and it takes time. But some things are just more annoying to me now that I'm pregnant. For instance, the dog not walking up steps. We have a deck and we bought the grass patches for him to use when I'm unable to take him down. We have two steps leading to the deck, and he refuses to walk up them, ever. I can put him in front and he won't do it, and I can put his paws up on a step and he still doesn't budge - which drives me crazy. Because while he's still a puppy he's getting bigger and heavier. He did finally start using the stairs to come in though. I would just crack the door and not give in to his whimpering to come in and he came down the steps. Which is a good thing because getting him to come in before was a pain as well, we would go to get him & he would run away and it's January, it's cold, I don't feel like being outside for 20 minutes. One thing I'm hoping that'll get better is also taking him for walks.... We have a nice little harness and leash for him that is basically useless. He will not walk anywhere. He literally just SITS THERE. And will not walk, and it's really frustrating. But I really think this all stems back to my hormones being crazy, because I'm usually not this bad with things. 

Along with my hormones, I am dealing the the terrible terroristic three's! They say "terrible twos", well compared to how Caleb is now that he is 3 years old, two years old was a walk in the park! Also hard to deal with being pregnant and having whacky insane hormones. Because I find myself crying from exhaustion or being overwhelmed. All things that I know will balance out in due time.

Commercials make me cry, random video clips, things I read - I turn into a total Sally sob story. 

Thankfully no leg cramps yet! But I'm sure I'll be getting them soon. I used to wake up with excruciating Charlie Horses in my legs and honestly would want to contemplate amputation. And no belly line yet either! In due time. I'm embracing everything that's coming my way though because this is something that I never expected to happen again.

Cravings:

I still always want red bell peppers with French dressing or Ranch dip - not salad dressing but the dip that you make with sour scream & the packet; Sandwiches from Subway - specifically the sweet onion chicken teriyaki; SmartFoods White Cheddar Popcorn; Orange juice - oh my gosh, I just love orange juice. I find myself having at least 2-3 glasses of it a day; Strawberry milkshakes; fresh salsa; red potatoes 

Either way I am trying to eat as healthy as possible. But I am definitely not depriving myself.

Food Aversions:

I used to love the occasional trip to McDonalds, now I can barely look at it without feeling queasy. Which whatever, it's bad for you anyway! London Broil - I used to make this as a dinner for my family and I at least once a week, now it doesn't make me sick but I can barely eat it. I can have a piece or two and then I'm kinda just "full".  Although Ray says that I'm not eating enough.

Biggest Change for me so far:

Waking up in the middle of the night starving. This usually never happens to me. So waking up last night at 3:00 am needing to eat was a definite change. I tried to even ignore it but it was impossible! Finally  got back to sleep around 4:30. But woke up at 8:00 hungry again! Baby L must be getting me ready for all those late night feedings. Like I said I wouldn't trade this in for the world though because we never thought this would happen for us again. 

Boy or Girl?!?

Obviously we aren't sure yet. But in the coming weeks we will be finding out if we will be shopping pink or shopping blue. We really want a healthy baby most importantly. But we are really praying and hoping for a girl. I've already seen so many adorable clothes that I just LOVE for baby girls - plus we know names we are interested in already. Caleb was our top pick for a boys name and that's what we have now. So I guess we will see. 

We do have plans on doing a gender reveal but we aren't sure on if we want to find out ahead of time and plan it that way or if we are going to do a special reveal and be surprised that way. We do want to document it though with pictures and a video.

This is the idea we love: 

(Balloons will obviously be pink or blue - but hoping for pink ones ;)  I just think this whole concept is adorable)

Currently I am unsure of what I'm having and have no real idea. The heart rate of the baby at my last US was 176 BPM. Which it was never that high with Caleb. His always stayed around 155-160. I have that whole "itchy gross" thing going on again and that's something I experienced with Gianna. I have taken 2 different Gender Predictor Tests and each one says something different. One is boy and one is girl. Only time will tell. :) Either way I am excited to find out and share it with everyone who reads my blog! :) 

Nursery Plans:

We live in an apartment at the moment but are lucky enough that our landlord lets us do a lot of work in here. We eventually have plans of moving but right now we are content with where we are (even though it drives me crazy insane). Gianna's bedroom coincidentally has 2 doors (it's weird and I don't know why) but we decided to split it up into 2 rooms. That way Gianna still has her own space and then Baby L will have their own space as well :) 

Last night I did a complete overhaul in Gianna's room. We went through all of her toys and drawers and moved everything around to be how it will be when the wall goes in. (Which we still aren't sure when we are going to be doing this wall). 

This is the end result:

She was a little skeptical about the idea at first and wanted to share a room with the baby and when I explained to her that she would have her own room still she perked up and got excited. Once we have the wall up we discussed painting her room however she wants because it'll be easier. 

So this is now our nursery space:

It's tiny but it's workable. Caleb and Gi used to share this room and we made it work with her bed and a crib and dressers and everything. Obviously the dresser is coming out and the basketball net and everything else. I definitely want a Glider so bad also. 

I'm interested in keeping a neutral color as the base with color accents based on Baby L's gender. I love the color gray for nursery walls. Not overbearing or too dark but I love the grey with pink accents or blue for a boy or teal. I also love stripes but it seems tedious. 

Those are the current ideas I LOVE. I also really wanna find a shag rug like the one in the picture. I am obsessed with it. 

11 weeks down and 203 days to go. <3 

SO excited to continue sharing it with you all! 

Stay happy and healthy! And I hope you all had a wonderful New Year! 

Remember what you deserve from people and don't ever feel guilty about removing toxic people from your life. No matter who they may be. :) 

Have a great rest of your weekend & be blessed! <3 

Xoxo, Jenna