I haven’t written a lot about my pregnancy on the blog, but I’ve been feeling like I want to share a little bit about how things have been going…and a couple pictures too.
Here I am at 16 weeks! I took a picture at 5 weeks when I found out that we were expecting a baby, but I LOST it. It was wedding season, my cards were in constant use and somehow my little self-portrait was lost. So this is the first documentation of my pregnancy. Tiny little bump, 16 weeks in. At this point I was feeling pretty great. If there was a word for my first trimester experience it would be: hungry…or tired…but probably hungry. I wasn’t sick, but I was always hungry and almost always tired. By 16 weeks I was feeling great, not pregnant at all really. Here I am at 20 weeks! This is when I decided to finally make an announcement about our news on Facebook & my Blog. I was nervous about sharing this, mainly because I was nervous about being pregnant, about the pregnancy going well and the possibility that I might lose the baby. I don’t know if every other pregnant woman feels that way, but that was me. By 20 weeks I was still feeling great, and had felt the first flutters of the baby moving. At this point we were also preparing to move to Alaska where Jamie would start a new job. I was so overwhelmed with all of the changes going on and the prospect of moving away from Chicago, that the coming baby hadn’t sunk in by this point. Maybe thats why this pregnancy has flown by. The word of my second trimester: Transition.Here we are at 28 weeks, about 2 weeks in to our move to Alaska. It was cold, and I was finally starting to really ‘show’…at least the belly has kept me warm this winter! This is the most recent picture I have. 35 weeks, almost full term! As I write this I am 37 weeks and 2 days, so I should probably keep taking pictures…but I don’t really want to : ) As of today’s doctor’s appointment I had gained 40lbs – yikes! My face has gotten rather…er…full? I don’t like it. I know, I know I’m pregnant and its normal and all of that. Maybe I’m too vain. Whatever.
I’m still feeling pretty good most of the time, and I go back and forth between readiness to have the baby and being completely fine with the 3+ more weeks that we’ll be waiting (I think) for the arrival. I am so thankful about how ‘easy’ (relatively speaking) my pregnancy has been so far…Jamie keeps telling me how great I’m doing, and I like to hear that. We’re still toying with names and getting things settled but really I’m just trying to stay relaxed, spend good time with Jamie, see friends, and get lots of sleep! I think it’ll be easier for me to handle labor than the weeks of sleep depravation to come, I’m an 8 hours a night kinda girl.
I’m nervous about the labor and about the nursing and about the lack of sleep, but more than all of that I really am excited about this baby. To see if we’re adding a boy or a girl to our family, to see what our baby will look like, to watch Jamie as a dad, to introduce him or her to our family and friends. Its going to be pretty amazing, I know it.