Week #14-Officially in 2nd Trimester!

Week # 14-5/24/13

Baby is size of: Lemon!

Weight-154.0 I really am going to start watching my eating more. I need more veggies and lean proteins. 

Change from last week: +1.6

Symptoms: Continues to tame down! Yeah! No nausea at all this week!  Sore boobs, light cramping every now and then-I find lots of water helps, exhaustion-comes and goes.  Oh, also urinary hesitancy has stopped-baby must have moved.   I continue to routinely get up three times a night to pee 12, 2 and 4. It never fails. But, I easily fall back a sleep. Oh, also restless legs at night, but only in my right leg. Breakouts-boo. 

Cravings? Caesar salads and cold Velvetta Shells and Cheese-must be cold!

Exercise: I took two long walks of about 3 miles each this week, one with Dan one on my own. I also started doing push ups. 

Friday we had Amanda's graduation and last night of bowling. It was fun! I am so proud of my little sister. It's crazy it was six years ago that I walked across the stage! Bowling was a lot of fun. I didn't do as well as I wanted. Our team took 6th place out of 8 and won $32.50-woohoo! Sunday we went out to dinner to Joey Gerards for Amanda's graduation dinner. It was good. Time with family is always fun.

I also got a chance to catch up with Jenny at Alterra. She showed me her pictures to Europe-which really made me wish we could have taken out big trip this year, Oh well!

 I feel fat. I'm irritated that I am in that in between stage of getting a baby bump, and just looking fat and bloated. I know it's all a part of being pregnant, but I would rather look pregnant than just have people wonder, "did she gain weight?". Ughh! I know the first time you are pregnant it takes longer to show, but I am getting inpatient! Pants no longer are comfortable. I swear in a week they just decided not to fit. My mom insists that 16 weeks is when bumping starts. We'll see!

Baby Thoughts-I thought I'd start what's been on my mind each week regarding anything baby. I am overwhelmed. I admit it. There is just so many things to do. I feel like it's a wedding, yet a faster race. I don't have 18 months to plan-I now have less than six months. Six months to prepare to have a life come into this world! Six months to physically prepare, financially prepare, mentally prepare and emotionally prepare to being another human being into this scary world.  I continue to look at my registries that I started at Target and Kohl's and while it's fun, it's stressful. For example, I want to clothe diaper. Do you know there is like over 100 brands of clothe diapers out there? Which one do I get? Do I get a bunch and try out which one works best? What if I get all these clothe diapers only to find out I failed at clothe diapering. I want to breast feed more than anything. What if the baby doesn't like it or doesn't latch on, what if I don't produce enough milk? I would be so upset! These are the types of things running through my mind. I tell myself to take it day by day. Until we find out the sex, I'm not doing much as far as buying things. I go to the store wanting to purchase my first baby item, but I take a step back and just wait. 

Another week down! Memorial Day weekend a head. Mom and Dad are having a party on Sunday, I work all weekend-booo. However, our anniversary is next week Thursday so I am taking Thursday, Friday and Monday off. It's finally starting to get nice out!

   5/17/13-Amanda's graduation-Master of Counseling from Concordia

                                        This sums up our bowling season-Jameson shots! 
    From my Aunt Kathy, Uncle Mark                

   and Hannah, so sweet!

     From Jenny and Matt

Week #13-Mother's Day!

Week # 13-5/17/13

Baby is size of: Peach!

Weight-152.4 :). I'm happy with this. I'm gaining very slow

Change from 2 weeks ago: +.2

Symptoms: Starting to tame down! Yeah! Nausea is almost non-existent,  really sore boobs, light cramping every now and then-I find lots of water helps, exhaustion-comes and goes.  Oh, also urinary hesitancy-Ugh!, I have to lean over when I go to the bathroom, baby is probably hanging out on my bladder. I heard this is common with tipped uterus's. Also, I routinely get up three times a night to pee 12, 2 and 4. It never fails. But, I easily fall back a sleep. Oh, also restless legs at night. 

Cravings? I'm doing better with fruit!, I've been liking Caesar salads lately. I continue to like carbs, but it is not the basis of my diet anymore.

Exercise: I took two long walks of about 3 miles each this week, one with Dan and one with Lindsay and her daughter Aubrey. It felt good, I forgot what a great exercise walking is! I'll be getting into a real routine next week

Mother's Day-was a nice day! We went out to Polish Center of Wisconsin for brunch. We had not been back there since our wedding! So crazy that it's been almost four years. It was such a wonderful spread. They have literally everything: salads, meats, eggs, bacon, make you own omelet, wonderful deserts. It was great. Mom and Dad gave me a mother's day card with 100.00 to buy maternity clothes which I thought was so sweet. I may go shopping this weekend-at least for pants! My pants fit, but in another three weeks, I'm sure too uncomfortable to wear. It was a nice day. I came home and relaxed as I was pretty tired after vacation. 

I also saw a few friends this week I hadn't seen in a while. Lindsay, her daughter Aubrey and I took a long walk on Root River trail. It was nice to chit chat and catch up. I went to Nicole's apartment with Crystal and we had Toppers and chatted for almost four hours. I love my girl time! All my friends are genuinely excited for Dan and I. It's nice to have great friends who are so supportive. It also sounds like we'll have lots of baby sitters!

I e-mailed Frank-the owner of Cross Fit Greendale and cancelled my membership :(.  I stated in the e-mail that my goal is to be back at Cross Fit Monday, February 3, 2014. I really want to stick to that. That's over two months after the baby is born. 

Work. Ugh. What can I say-it's a mess. We were taken over by a private agency to help with our medical and mental health. So many changes a head. I really have been looking into places that offer part-time insurance. I want to take 9 weeks maternity leave-all of my own time with sick/personal/holiday/vacation, come back for 2 months and leave. I know they won't have benefits paid part time positions so it's not worth it. It's a scary thought though. I really don't want to work full-time when we have our kids. I can't be a stay at home Mom either-I'd go crazy!

Fun week a head, Amanda's graduation, last day of bowling for the season, graduation dinner at Joey Gerard's on Sunday and working out starts next week! Yeahhhh for just about second trimester! I have survived :).

                                            Mother's Day at the Polish Center, It was beautiful!

 First card is from Mom and Dad, the second one is from our neighbors Jenna and Justin-very sweet!

Week #12-Vacation!

Week # 12-5/10/13

Baby is size of: Plum-personally, I think a lime is bigger than a plum!-I was a lime last week

Weight-I didn't do it this week-It was vacation! But, I was 152.4 at the doctors-the exact same weight I was a month ago (4/12) when I weighed myself at the doctor :) So, between week #7, when I had to go to the doctor due to bleeding and week #12 at the doctor, I only gained 1.4 lbs :). Slow and steady! Pants still fit-although a little snug :)
Change from last week-probably a little more due to vacation, we'll see next week!

Symptoms: Pretty much the same, Continued nausea on and off, although it is subsiding, really sore boobs, light cramping every now and then, some back pain, exhaustion-I can't wait to get some energy back! It comes and goes, on vacation I had tons of energy! Oh, also urinary hesitancy-Ugh!, I have to lean over when I go to the bathroom, baby is probably hanging out on my bladder. I heard this is common with tipped uterus's. 

Cravings? Still carbs, I'm doing pretty good in moderation though. Food aversions are getting a lot better and I can eat more veggies and chicken.

Exercise: We did a lot of walking on vacation, however, still none. Come 2nd Trimester (week 13-I'll start)

Dr's Appointment-5/7/13-11:30am

What a week! Vacation started with our doctors appointment. It was rather quick. They took my blood pressure. Which was 126/60. The top number is usually a lot lower so that concerned me. I chalk it up to not exercising which I need to start doing again. They asked if I had any questions, problems. She explained a septate uterus more to me. She stated the baby will either push it out of the way and it will be corrected or there is a chance I could go premature as baby may run out of room. She didn't seem overly concerned, time will tell. I did mention I had some back pain but she said not to worry about it. I was kind of worried about a bladder infection due to problems peeing recently and such hesitancy. She then attempted to find the baby's heartbeat on the doppler-could not be done. She said since my uterus is tipped, it was probably sitting pretty far back there. So yeah!-I had to get an ultrasound :). We saw baby hopping and flipping around! It measured 11w 5d-1 day a head of schedule. Very active and a wake in there. I did mention "she" at one point during the ultra sound as I have been having a gut feeling it's a girl. The ultrasound tech really looked and she pointed out something that could be the penis. She told us to remember this on our 20 week ultrasound. Dan loves it and is running with the fact that it's likely a boy. I then did another blood test to test for my platelet levels since they were lowish last time. I was told if they are still around the same, I will have low platelets throughout pregnancy which isn't a concern and is pretty common. I haven't had a call from the nurse it so I'm sure I'm fine.

We went to Mulligans to celebrate a good appointment-this has been our standard, ice cream or going out to eat after good appointments. We could now tell the world! I called Grandpa Kater and Grandma and Grandpa Meddaugh on three-way with Mom. Everyone was excited and happy. I also told Heather and texted a few of our friends. I slowly began to develop a pretty bad backache as the day went on. It started to concern me. Our flight for South Carolina was at 8am out of Chicago the next morning. 

I couldn't sleep all night. I tossed and turned and was scared it could be my kidney's since it was throbbing pain in the middle of my back. I woke up just exhausted, feeling almost flu like with a lot of nausea. A heating pad did nothing. It was terrible!! We made our flight for later in the day. I called the doctor's office and they had me come in for a urine sample and they would call me in a few hours to see if it was a bladder infection. We finished packing, went to the airport and left. I began to feel a little better.  When we landed, they left a message stating the test was negative. I needed that peace of mind so it was worth the 150.00 change of flight fee.

South Carolina was beautiful! Southern hospitality, lots of wildlife, clean and just great people. I had taken a Tylenol the night we arrived and woke up feeling so much better. Back pain gone. I have no idea what it was, but it has been fine since then. We walked on the beach, found sea shells, went on a carriage ride in Charleston and learned a lot of history and saw beautiful old homes, did some shopping, a sailboat ride, ate great southern food and went on a plantation and learned about slavery and took a boat tour on a river. We saw Alligators, turtles, Herrings, deer, birds, fish-all in the wild. I really enjoyed our trip. I only wish we had just one more day! Our resort was great. I would seriously retire in the area of Isle of Palms. Just beautiful!

We want to try to take one more four-day trip in July. We'll see. We just love traveling and getting a way! There's just so much to see in the US. We may only have one more vacation just the two of us. Dan and I want to continue to travel when the baby is born.  We'll bring him/her everywhere! The younger they start traveling the more used to it they'll be. I'm excited for that.

First trimester is almost over! I consider 13 weeks 3 days the end. I can't wait to have more energy, be able to work out and have this nausea gone!

                 Dan found the biggest sea shell

                                    The Atlantic ocean

                            Beautiful streets of downtown Charleston seen on a carriage ride

                                      Biggest bridge in Charleston

                             Beautiful sunset on the bay

                                Great Food! Wonderful Breakfast-Sea Biscuit Cafe

                                          Petting Zoo with my favorite animal!

Week #11-Almost to 2nd Tri!

Week # 11-5/3/13
Baby is size of: Lime

Weight-152.2 (for what it's worth, I was 151 two days ago, a few bad days of eating). I really don't want to gain more than 5lbs this trimester.
Change from last week +1.8

Measurements-Not too bad for the past six weeks!
                 3/22/13      5/1/13
Waist             30               31 
Stomach        39              40
Hips              39.5            40

Symptoms: Nausea-some days worse, some days better, Sleeplessness-I wake up almost every night for at least an hour-I miss a full nights sleep, exhaustion-worse this week than last week, increase in urination,  SUPER sore and huge boobs, light cramping/shooting pains-round ligament pain?

Cravings? continues to be carbs/salty foods. I'm slowly getting back into vegetables and continue to eat fruits and some protein.

Exercise-I seriously was exhausted this week! I cannot wait to get into 2nd tri and get some energy back! 13 weeks cannot come fast enough!

I felt pretty good this week. I did do some gardening and got a head on some preening and yard clean up. It felt good to get outside in some nice weather! We took the grill out and made salmon on the grill last Saturday and Sunday we celebrated Beck and Amanda's birthdays with Kabobs on the grill! I love grilling season and spending time with family.

My clothes still fit, though just a bit snug! My goal is to get through the first trimester without feeling like I need to buy new pants.  I continue to worry as the first trimester goes on. The bleeding has stopped for two weeks now but that doesn't make me worry any less. I think this is the start of me worrying for the rest of my life!

Work has been absolutely nuts. I am thinking more and more of not coming back after maternity leave and finding something part time. Dan and I are going to get a good plan in place. We have to figure something out! The biggest issue is health insurance. 

I have to note that Dan has been wonderful. He is really helping around the house and is supportive of everything I'm going through. I'm blessed to have such a great husband!

Next week we go to South Carolina. I need a vacation and a few days of relaxation. We also have our 12 week appointment next Tuesday before we leave. Fingers crossed it all goes well. We will then tell everyone the good news!