13 weeks.

Here’s where we are today:

— 
I'm making all kinds of fancy facial expressions.
   
— If you could get a look at my private parts, you could now tell if I am a girl or a boy.
   
—  My intestines absorb the amniotic fluid I swallow.
   
—  My nose and lips are in final form.
— Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce.



The Details:
How far along: 13 weeks

Total weight gain: According to my Drs. scale (while dressed), +3.  According to Natalie’s naked scale, +2.

Sleep habits: What is sound sleep?  I’ve forgotten.  I can fall asleep easily, but staying asleep or going back to sleep after waking up is a true challenge.  I think this is due in part to a lumberjack husband sawing some logs next to me.  If I wake up in the middle of the night to pee and can’t fall back asleep, I usually watch an episode of The Golden Girls, and I’m able to relax enough (and block out the snoring) to fall back asleep.  I’ve been having super vivid and bizarre dreams, too.

Maternity clothes: While I don’t have much of a bump at all, I still prefer to wear my maternity jeans.  My stomach will start out flat in the morning and bloat by the end of the day, so regular jeans are unbuttoned by mid-afternoon.  Why even deal with all that hassle?  Maternity jeans it is!  All of my tops fit just the same. 

Best moment of the week: Hearing the baby’s heartbeat at today’s appointment (more details below).

Food cravings: Fruit, smoothies, milk, Mexican food

Aversions: After hugging the toilet after eating chicken salad, I’d have to say anything with chicken in it is on my aversion list right now.

Symptoms: I’ve been very luck to have very few symptoms with this pregnancy.  Other than mild nausea, this baby has been very kind.  I do have to say that I get winded very easily and have had some pretty significant indigestion the past few days – almost like something is sitting on my chest. 

Movement:  No conclusive movement yet.  I say conclusive because I feel movement in my stomach, but I can’t tell if it’s the baby or the Mexican food I ate for lunch.

What I’m looking forward to:  I’m looking forward to being pregnant in the winter this time.  I think baby bumps in sweaters are so adorable. Plus, it will be nice to not be so darn hot this go round!

What I miss: I miss having the ability to eat and drink whatever I want without having to worry or check Dr. Google if it’s OK. 

Next appointment: November 1.

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So, this past weekend the women in my family and I went to St. Francisville, Louisiana to celebrate our annual Girls’ Weekend. 

It started out wonderfully – we all met at Alexander’s in Baton Rouge for lunch and chatted away for hours. 
Can you find me?


My wonderful Aunt Elaine and me.  I <3 my family.


Then we caravanned to St. Francisville and purchased some tickets to tour The Myrtle’s Plantation.

The tour was great – our guide was fantastic.  I felt fine the entire time, but by the time we got back to the room, I was feeling anything but.  I tried to hang in there when we all played the Bad Santa game where you each pick gifts and then steal them if you want them (not sure what the technical name for that game is), but by the end of the night, I was feeling…off.

Then after a few hours of sleep, this is how I spent the next few hours.



Granted, I’m not a black lab, but this is much cuter than the real thing. 

I’m really not sure if I had food poisoning, if my body was haunted by a ghost from the Myrtle’s or if I had some weird bug, but it was not pretty, and it was beyond ridiculous that I had to suffer with this ON VACATION!  In a room with three other women.  All of whom got to hear the beautiful orchestra playing in my bathroom. 

Thanks to the miraculous healing power of Zofran, I was able to keep the urge to purge at bay most of the next day, but whatever demon I was battling took all of my life force and kept me from doing anything but sleeping and lying outside on the grass.  I missed out on an entire day of fun because of this crap.  I was not too happy.  However, how amazing is it to be surrounded by loving women (most of whom are nurses) while you’re sick?  It was like having my own personal staff of moms to take care of me.  Not to mention my own mom was there to make sure I was OK.  I’d have to say this was a decent sick experience just based on the love I felt from everyone.

I managed to recover the next day (the day we left) and got to go shopping and eat with my aunts and mom.  Here we are right before we left the place:

Standing: My Aunt Cyndi, my Mom: Seated: Me, my Aunt Elaine

This is where we stayed:


This is the view I had while I was dying in the grass:


I want to especially thank my wonderful mother-in-law and father-in-law for watching Anna while I was gone!  I came home to a clean house, a cooked meal, a cut yard, a cleaned off patio and a happy husband who got to spend lots of quality time with his parents.  It was wonderful!  I should go away more often!

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So, this blog entry is getting super long.  I do apologize if you’ve made it this far.  Only a little more to go.

I had my monthly checkup today to check on the baby.  It was kind of a tense appointment because the first girl who came in could not find the baby’s heartbeat on the Doppler.  Then my own Dr. couldn’t find it!  It was a very surreal few minutes when she kept going back and forth trying to find the h/b.  I don’t think I’ve ever been more scared.  Honestly, I was already preparing myself for the worst, but then I could hear that sweet little whoosh sound, and I saw a look of relief on my Drs. face.  She reassured me that it’s very common this early on to not hear the h/b on the Doppler.  The baby’s h/b was a perfect rate at 152 – 155 bpm.  She said it was a perfect heartbeat, so that made me happy.

Things to do:
Get a flu shot
Make a final decision on 2nd trimester screening for genetic abnormalities (still on the fence about this)

Now that I’m just a few days shy from 2nd tri, I’m going to get my flu shot.  I wanted to wait as long as possible to get it, but my Dr. really wants me to do it sooner rather than later.  She wants Joe to get one, too. 

That’s about it for now.  I’m just trying to finish the final touches for Anna’s Super Hero birthday party on the 15th and just hoping/praying that people show up!  Her costume came in, and it’s just too cute for words!  When she puts it on, she puts both arms up in the air and runs back and forth like a super hero.  She really plays the part well!  I love that little girl!