Twenty-five weeks

What's baby up to this week? Well this eggplant sized little lady is growing up a storm! Nearly every time she kicks now I can see my belly move - its usually more interesting to watch than TV (well...for me at least)! When she really gets going it's easy to think there is some kind of alien in there trying to get out! Is that wrong to say...? Oh well.

While we were visiting our new home town last week one of the major things on our agenda was to find a new doctor and hospital to deliver at. We are very fortunate to be moving someplace that has dozens (literally) of fantastic hospitals to chose from and probably thousands of equally amazing doctors. The only hard part is narrowing it down and choosing one! We finally made a decision on both and while we were in town the new doc wanted me to get a sonogram so she has something on record of our baby girl. This was a real treat because we wont get to see our baby very often for the rest of the pregnancy. The technician confirmed a clean bill of health and estimated that she was up to 1lb and 11ozs! Thats my girl!

Twenty-four Weeks

Sorry this is late! It's been a crazy week and I almost forgot to take a photo! Baby is kicking more and more which is great, though starting to wake me up at night! She's been a trooper this week since we have been so busy, but I'm taking advantage of our energy during this last month of our second trimester!

A Room for Baby

During all my spare time these days (HA! Gotcha, like I have any of that) I do a lot of baby-oriented research. I read about how our baby is developing this week and what size fruit she is. I am also reading about what to expect once she is here - all the nitty gritty stuff on breast feeding and burping and explosive - well...you know. I'm researching car seats and cribs and bottles and - you get the point.

And when I want to take a break from all that serious baby stuff, I design her bedroom. I haven't even created a registry and we don't even have a room set up for her yet, but this is the part where I get to be creative and look at pretty websites like Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware and stop stressing about all the serious stuff. 

(Except in true Tracy fashion I then find so many things that I like that I stress out about making a decision on the fun stuff, as usual)

If you ask anyone who knows me well they will tell you that I love pink. And it's true, I do love pink. I love pink dresses and flowers and all shades of this beautiful color - from soft pink peonies to hot neon pink a la the 1990's. When given the choice I am most often drawn to the option that is pink - heck, strawberry milk is even my favorite kind, and that only has a tiny bit to do with the flavor.

But when it came time to picking out my "perfect" baby room, I just couldn't see it being pink. For one, Brian is less of a fan of pink than I am. The only color that was banned from our wedding was pink. He can handle one or two pink things but anything more than that and he starts to panic. 

So, what other options did I have for our baby girls room? I went down the path of our wedding colors, only lighter and softer. Neutrals and purple.

you can find all of these on my Baby C board on Pinterest!

For our wedding the main colors were chocolate brown, dark purple and gold. Since it was a summer wedding we lightened it up with white flowers and the guys wore light colored suits. I am still obsessed with our color palette almost two years later, so it makes sense that a variation of it came creeping into my brain when picking out stuff for babys room.

Truth be told, my favorite color has always been purple. When I was a kid my bedroom had lilac colored walls and purple carpeting. Lilacs are one of my favorite flowers (which might have something to do with how amazing they smell as well). I own purple Hunter wellies and a purple bag. While I really love pink, it's purple that is my actual favorite color. That and its a bit more "guy friendly". Its still a girly color without being too girly. You copy?

While I was searching around for variations of this purple theme I found myself being drawn to how sophisticated the color palette looked. A lot of options out there are for purple and grey baby rooms, but that read a little too cool for me. I love the warmness that taupes, tans and creams add to the shades of purple. And the great thing about having a neutral room with color accents is that it will be easy to change in the future. What if baby girl decides that green or orange or pink is her favorite color? Change some sheets and maybe the wall color and you are set to go!

So, here is my inspiration board for the babys room, Lets see if I can make this happen in real life!

But expect to see lots of pink baby clothes on our little girl. Thats only one or two things at a time so Brian can't complain :)

Twenty-three Weeks

It seems I spoke too soon. This weekend it happened again. I felt that familiar tightening around the belly and when I woke up in the morning - POP! It seemed I had grown three sizes. I have yet to measure the bump this week, I'm a little afraid to see what the tape measure says!

Baby girl is still kicking me a lot. She woke me up at 4:30 am over the weekend and was kicking like a maniac for the next 4+ hours! But the couple of days afterward she was pretty quiet. She must have tired herself out! According to the book weeks 24-28 tend to be the busiest kicking weeks, as the baby grows from one lb to two lbs they are nice and strong, but still small enough to do a full range of acrobatics. It's been so fun watching her learn to kick an move more often and with more force. Brian can feel her kick nearly all the time now, if he can get is hand there fast enough! I anticipate the next few weeks will be just as exciting!

That pregnancy "glow"

People always remark how pregnant woman have that certain "glow" about them. They look more radiant, refreshed, happier - they really do seem to have an aura around them that makes them...glow.  Recently I've started to get this compliment and I try to accept it as graciously as possible, but I often end up thinking, "Me?? Are you sure??"  Between my ever-expanding waistline, interrupted sleep during the night and various skin problems I am sure they must be talking to someone else.

Skin problems? Oh yes, and lots of them. While I managed not to get sick once during my first trimester, my body decided to take its raging hormones out on my skin. Two words, that no woman wants to hear -

Adult Acne

Oh the horror!!!

Acne was supposed to be something that we dealt with as snotty teenagers. Everyone from the ages of 11-16 seems to get at least one bout of really bad skin. Pair that with (possibly) braces and/or glasses and rapidly changing bodies and you will probably remember why you're glad not to be a teenager any more. But the thing was that everyone was going through this at around the same time. It was hard to pick on kids with acne because chances were you had it too.

But - as an adult woman? Lets just say it stands out a little bit more than our teenage counterparts.

Thanks to those crazy hormones again my skin first started acting up around 4-5 weeks of being pregnant. Of course, at the time I didn't know I was pregnant (I didn't find out until I was about 6.5 weeks) so I just thought my body was freakin' out for some reason. I thought it was probably getting used to being off birth control, so I scrubbed away hoping that it would subside. No such luck. If anything it only got worse the more pregnant I became. My face was starting to look like an oil slick, not really that healthy" glow" that most pregnant women have. And to make it even worse, there were a lot of cleansing products that were now on the "do not use" list because I was pregnant. It seemed the only thing I could do was wash my face twice a day with a mild cleanser and moisturize (which seems counter-intuitive when you're face is super greasy).

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Luckily my dermatologist in the US gave me a prescription medicine that was safe to use after 12 weeks as long as my OB agreed. He predicted that my skin would calm down soon after 12 weeks anyways (as my hormones started to level off) and suggested that I might not even need to use it. And you know what? He was sort of right. My skin has drastically improved since those early pregnancy days, though it is by no means perfect. I have used the prescription medicine a few times when things seem to get bad again, but for the most part it is back to normal. I don't really trust my skin at this point though, I have a feeling that this isn't the last of the acne that I have seen. I still have seventeen weeks to go after all!

So what is that "glow" really all about? Mostly it's a combination of increased blood flow and a little bit of that oil slick. Did you know that while you are pregnant the volume of blood that you have in your body nearly doubles?? All that extra blood tends to rush to the surface of your skin, giving your cheeks a rosy color (put away that blush ladies). Combine that with a slight sheen of naturally increased oil on your face and you get that perfect pregnancy glow. Or you end up looking like you have been standing in a hot kitchen for 8 hours over the frier. Whatevs.

But for all my complaining about a few pimples here and there, I know the reward at the end of it all is going to be worth every single one of them. I'll just be really glad once my skin returns back to normal and I have a beautiful baby girl to show off!

Twenty-two Weeks

Here I am! I noticed that between weeks twenty to almost twenty-two it seemed like my belly was literally growing overnight. I could feel my skin getting really tight - you know when you feel really full and it seems like your stomach is going to burst? It kind of felt like that (cute, right?).  Luckily, I think some of that has slowed down now. I feel a bit more comfortable and haven't notice any "overnight pops" in the last couple of days.

I can still feel our baby girl kicking almost every day. Some days I feel her more than others, which is completely normal considering how small she is still! According to the books this week she is approximately 11" long and weighs in close to one pound. When we had our twenty week scan the doctor estimated that she weighed about 13 oz (about 3 oz more than the book estimates), so I bet she is definitely tipping the scales at one pound this week! Her lips, eyelids and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and she's even developing little tooth buds this week.

It honestly amazes me to read all the developments that our baby goes through each week. It is fascinating to learn about each step she goes through along the way. It really is amazing what the human body can do - it's no wonder they call it the miracle of life!

Breaking all the Rules - Pregnancy Eating and Drinking

Whenever I used to find out that a friend or relative was pregnant the third thought in my head (after "YAY!" and "I hope she doesn't get too sick!") was always - "Ooohhh, now she can't drink for at least nine months! That sucks!"

It was definitely a sign of me not being ready to have my own baby, and I think that's ok. I clearly remember at one of my friends college graduation parties a friend of our exclaimed (during the middle of a beer pong game) - "I don't want to get pregnant - I can't imagine NOT drinking for NINE MONTHS!" 

I guess there comes a point in your life (or for some, maybe not) when you start thinking past the drinking implications of having a baby and plunge right in. But being pregnant doesn't really mean that you have to stop drinking, does it?

Twenty-One Weeks

Happy New Year!!

I hope you all had a wonderful New Years Eve weekend and lived to see 2012. We celebrated January 1st celebrating twenty-one weeks as well as a brand new year.

twenty-one weeks

2012 is certainly going to bring about a lot of exciting changes for us. One big changed I have noticed already this year (and yes I am aware there have only been two days of 2012 so far) is that our baby girl is kicking like a ninja these last couple of days! I used to have to lay really still and be quiet in order to feel her kick, now I can see my stomach move shes kicking so hard! The kicking still feels like taps and pokes, but they are certainly getting stronger and more frequent. It's been so exciting to watch and feel this develop over the last few days for both mom and dad. Finally dad can feel her kick almost as much as mom does! I'm sure the kicking is going to get even stronger and more frequent in the coming weeks and months, and by then I might not find it so novel. But for now I'm cherishing every ninja kick she's got :)