My Pregnancy: Weeks 18, 19, & 20

Life has been busy and I seemed to fall behind, so I'm lumping some weeks together so I don't miss any!

Week 18:

We spent most of this week in Arizona (I owe you a blog post full of amazing pictures from our trip!) and my most notable pregnancy thing was being super itchy.  I think it was a special combo of stretching skin, healing poison ivy, super dry air, and crappy bar soap.  I was scratching my boobs and belly all week and Dave's cousin's wife kept giving me crap for it.  When we got home, my poison ivy scabs were mostly healed and I got pretty serious lathering up with lotion and I felt immediate relief.

What else?  My hunger was raging and I did not pass up a chance to eat second breakfast when Dave's family was offering.  I felt pretty good on all our hikes, but I could tell towards the end of our 4 mile hike that that was my limit.  I busted a move on the dance floor at the wedding just like normal and it felt great.  I was pretty disappointed when I realized I probably shouldn't go in the hot tub at our rental house, but I stuck my feet and calves in and that was pretty satisfying after a long hike.

Week 19:

I almost forgot to do pics this week, so these kind of suck. They happened at dusk right before week 19 ended.  Oh well.

We had our first Hypnobabies class on Monday.  It was class 2 out of 6, since we missed the first class while we were on our trip.  There are 3 other couples in our class.  We covered nutrition guidelines and an overview of the stages of birth.  Our instructor Keli shared a ton of birth stories and anecdotes with us and class involved a lot of discussion.  Towards the end of class we did some prenatal exercises and then we listened to Keli read a hypnosis script.  I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the rest of the course.

Baby has officially started to occupy my bladder space!  One day I was fine and the next day I suddenly felt like I had to pee all the time.  There's not much in there when I relieve myself, but it sure feels like it.  I can't imagine how bad this is going to get eventually!

I killed it at the gym this week.  Olympic lifting still feels great.  I hit a 115# squat clean, an 80# snatch complex, and some 125# back squats.

I finally felt the baby for the first time!  I was told that it would be super subtle, just a flutter, or even just feel like I had gas, so a few times in the past week or two I would feel something.  But then I'd wonder if it really was just my stomach rumbling and I was trying to convince myself otherwise.  So I just kept waiting to feel something definite.  But while I was driving my car on Tuesday morning, I felt something that was different than before.  It was definitely subtle but unlike anything I had felt.  And then I felt it a couple more times.  Hello baby :)  I can't wait till Dave can feel her!

Week 20:

We had our 20 week ultrasound and it was amazing!  Baby girl was 13 oz and measured perfectly on schedule.  The doctor said the word of the day was normal and that everything looked great.  The ultrasound technology is crazy.  We got to see all her external body parts clearly as well as views of her brain, spine, internal organs, arteries, and even the chambers of her heart.  It was SO cool.  And they surprised us mid ultrasound by turning on the 3D views.  I had no idea that was going to happen.  I generally think 3D ultrasound pictures are lightweight disturbing, but when it's your baby and you can see little lips and a tiny nose... well it's different.  It was such a cool experience and made it even more real.

This week also brought some unpleasant symptoms like some horribly aching feet.  I've been noticing my feet really hurt after being on them for extended periods of time and I typically wear really comfortable footwear so I think it's due to the pregnancy.  My feet don't look swollen yet, so I'm thinking this is going to get a lot worse.  I've also noticed my skin hasn't been great.  My face has been hit or miss, but I have a bunch of blemishes on my chest that are not cute.

Honestly wasn't sure I'd want to put these on the internet or not, but here we go!

It's pretty much a miracle that my boobs fit into a few of my old suits.  I don't think I'll be getting away with that after Memorial Day lol.

Mela is way cuter.  It was her first time at the beach and she loved it, even when she got wrecked by a wave and then rolled face first in the sand to try and dry herself off.

Everyone was texting me Happy Mother's Day and every time I was like who me?  Dave got me a Mother's Day card and wrote a poem in it from the baby.  It was adorable!  Can't believe I'm halfway through this pregnancy.  Time is flying!