17 Week Update

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17 weeks!

Baby is the size of: An Onion! (Yuck. My least favorite food in the whole world)

Craving: Strawberries, orange juice, mexican food, and donuts

Symptoms: A lot of heartburn, headaches, frequent urniation, pregnancy brain

I feel like every morning when I wake up I’m bigger than the day before. I definitely look pregnant now, rather that just chubby which is such a relief. I was really insecure about that for a while! I’m officially in maternity clothes. Luckily I was able to get hand-me-downs from a few wonderful women so I didn’t have to buy much!

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16 weeks along in one of the cute maternity shirts passed down by my Aunt!

My headaches have been getting pretty bad lately. One day I went over to my mom’s house and she made me a glass of iced tea and my headache went away soon after I drank it. That’s when I realized that, unfortunately, caffeine is the cure! I went cold turkey without it during the first trimester to be safe, and I was super bummed that it seemed to be the only thing that would cure my headaches. I asked my doctor about it at our last appointment, and she said one cup of tea or coffee per day is fine and won’t hurt the baby. I still like to play on the safe side though so I only have a small cup of tea when my headache is so bad I could cry. So maybe like 2-3 times per week. 

I’m finding cravings to be such an interesting thing. When I drink a cup of orange juice I breathe a sigh of relief because it is seriously so satisfying. Today, Kurtis and I got Krispy Kreme donuts (I know, I know), and I literally giggled out loud after my first bite because it just tasted that good. I always laugh at myself after I have these weird reactions to my food. I find pregnancy altogether to be somewhat hilarious. Like, really, this whole thing is weird if you take the time to really think about it. And I really want orange juice now. 

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If you go to La Sandiaa (best mexican food ever), you have to get the augua fresca (watermelon water), it’s to die for. Especially when you can’t have a cocktail!

The second trimester has been treating me well. I still have my off days where I don’t feel well, and I still get winded and out of breath easily but it’s very nice to have an (huge) appetite, and not be bedridden all the time. The hardest thing during the first trimester when I was really sick, was keeping up with life in general. When Kurtis and I first got married I was only working part time and I was a rockstar at keeping the house clean and cooking dinner every night. Not even just cooking dinner, but breakfast, and packing lunches for us both to take to work. And I did the laundry, and folded it all, every Tuesday night.

Then, I started working for Orangetheory, which was much more demanding of my time. Before the studio opened I had some more free time on my hands, so I still kept up rather well. Then, we got Bennett the same week the studio opened and I started working my full 40 hours. Throw together a puppy, and my new work schedule, and I started to let things slide. Then throw in pregnancy, and pretty much nothing got done, ever. 

To be honest, I would’ve been embarrassed for anyone to have seen my house in the state it was in during my first trimester. Not only was I still working full time, but I had a new dog, and I was extremely sick. I would get home from a long day at work and go straight to bed. I don’t think I did laundry or cooked a meal for a solid month. I cleaned here and there but it was still gross. I barely had the energy to walk up stairs, let alone mop the floor and do dishes.

Poor Kurtis. He tried to help where he could but he works full time as well and is kind of a lost cause when it comes to housework. And he can cook eggs and that’s about it.

Once I started feeling better I knew I had to start getting better about things because, if this is what it’s like just during pregnancy, I can’t imagine how bad things will get once the baby is actually here! I’ll be even more busy and overwhelmed, and tired. So, I had to get things in order! I made myself a new schedule and now I do one or two cleaning chores per day rather than trying to tackle it all on my day off. And I’m trying to cook dinner at least a few times per week, same with packing lunches. I really need to get some more crock pot recipes because I think that will make things even easier if I start using my crock pot more! 

As usual, I’m just trying to find the balance in things, but I’m sure I will figure it all out. Women do this all the time, right?

I’m starting to research more the type of baby products I want to invest in/register for, and what I want the nursery to look like. We have a few pieces of furniture, but we won’t officially start designing or registering until we know the gender. Three more weeks (ah)! I almost feel the nesting mode coming on. I know it’s kinda early for that but I’m such a planner I want to get everything settled as soon as I can! I’ve been researching all the different brands of things I want as far as baby gear. Today we actually went out to a few places so that we could see and touch everything to help us decide what we want. It was actually pretty fun and we made some progress as far as what we want for our registry and for the nursery decor.

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I was so excited to finally be able to park here!

As for the baby, everything looks good! The heartbeat was strong at our last appointment, and so far, there are no big concerns, Our big ultrasound is at our next appointment, so keep us in your prayers that everything looks normal! I’m definitely feeling the flutters, and loving it! Kurtis can’t feel them from the outside yet, which is normal. I told him it probably wouldn’t be for another month, but he still presses his hands against my belly and commands the baby to move, to no avail. It’s pretty funny!

What do you all think, boy or girl?

xoxo.