Shorts and Snippets

Week 26 Bumpdate

Baby is the size of KALE 🥬 which she doesn’t like. (True story. She doesn’t like certain foods!) Sorry, baby girl. You’re kale this week.

Kale is 14 inches long and nearing two pounds, and over the next 14 weeks she’s going to gain at least five or six more! She’s breathing in little bits of amniotic fluid and getting her immune system ready by soaking in my antibodies. The nerves in her ears are more developed too. My favorite update of all is that she has eyelashes now and her eyes will be opening soon. 😍

Symptoms
– I’m listing a craving for the first time in a while because it’s funny to me: queso. Yeah, that gross, synthetic crap that’s probably not edible if it’s not heated up? I can’t get enough of it. Speaking of food, I think terrible thoughts about people who stand between me and food these days. Hanger is a thing, and it’s vicious. Those of you who follow my Instagram stories saw the other day I was stuck behind a van ordering $47 worth of Starbucks for fifteen minutes when all I had ordered was a sandwich and I almost went to war.
– My back is aching like crazy. Heating pads are the best!
– Leg cramps and swollen ankles, as usual. For the past day I’ve had some weird pains in my right leg that I’m associating with soreness in my hip.
– If I’m out in the heat too long I start getting minor Braxton Hicks contractions. 🥵

Things to remember:
– We celebrated Alex’s first Father’s Day Sunday!
– Yesterday we got our carpets cleaned which means soon we’ll be putting together baby’s crib (which came last week!).
– My mom moved around the corner from her house in Anthem into another home and the first thing she said when I walked in was how perfect the great room was going to be for the baby shower in August. I’m so excited for it. The love this baby has received makes my heart swell.
– Not gonna lie, the past week has been hard with the heat and my feeling bigger by the day. I keep telling myself if I can survive the first trimester, I can survive the summer. I also keep reminding myself I need to take it easy, which is difficult for me to do.

Just 14 more weeks till I can hold this precious girl.

Week 25 Bumpdate

🎉3/5 of the way there!🎉

Baby is the size of a cauliflower! She’s 13.5 inches long, weighs a pound and a half, and is gaining more fat each day. Her little hands can grasp things too and she knows which way is up and down (how cool is that?). I feel her move with regularity now, when I’ve been sitting down for a while or in the early mornings as the sun is rising. I’m convinced that dawn is her favorite time of day. 🥰

Symptoms 🤰🏽
– I’m hungry! SO hungry, no matter what I eat, all the time.
– Leg cramps every now and then.
– I feel like swollen legs and ankles have been slightly better this week, but they’re still there.
– It’s getting harder and harder to bend over! 🤣Pretty soon someone else will be tying my shoes.

Things to remember:
– I started tracking calories the other day and changing some of my eating habits because according to every professional reference I’ve read, I’m, like, 20 pounds over where I should be at this point. Ugh. I’m struggling a bit with this and hoping some light exercise and better food will help. I’m starting prenatal yoga tomorrow – my first yoga class EVER – so think good thoughts for me.
– I ordered baby’s crib and mattress last week. I’m starting to feel the need to get her nursery totally ready to go even though I’m barely at month six. It’s really, really important to me that it’s EXACTLY how I want it, and I want plenty of time to get it done. Must be the nesting instinct!
– I also scheduled maternity pictures for the end of July (yay!) and started making a hospital bag checklist. Type A problems, guys.
– Speaking of hospitals, our hospital tour is next week, and my gestational diabetes test the week after that. Some days it feels like I’ve been pregnant forever, and others I swear time is just flying.

15ish more weeks until we can finally hold this little girl. 🎀💗

Week 24 Bumpdate

Baby is the size of a cantaloupe! 🍈 Her brain is developing more and more; she has sleep and wake cycles now and is developing thoughts and memories! Her skin is gradually becoming more opaque and has a pinkish tint. And I feel her move with regularity now. 😍

Symptoms 🤰🏽
– Swollen legs, ankles, and feet. Slippers are life.
– Pregnancy brain. I’m forgetting things all the time and am slow to respond when people ask me stuff. 🤣
– Pregnancy rage. Seriously, this is a thing for me! I don’t know why, but the most insignificant things make me so angry lately! I’ve started using self checkout at the grocery store for full loads because I about lost my mind one day when the clerks threw my groceries in my bags. At RENT last week the rude security guards tried to take my electrolyte water (who does that to a pregnant woman??) and you better believe I made a scene until they let me through. I’m blaming hormones on this one!

Things to remember
– We told some of our immediate family her name! After feeling her move more and more we decided we were ready for some of the family to know. Referring to her by name now makes it feel much more real.
– While seeing RENT on Friday I swear she was dancing during some of the songs since she can hear the outside world and moved like crazy! My mom arranged our seats so that I could sit in an aisle seat, which was amazing as I had to get up seven times throughout the night.
– I scheduled our hospital tour for the end of June and childbirth classes for July. I don’t know where the time is going!
– Some time ago my mom set the date for our family baby shower and it happens to be on Alex’s and my ninth dating anniversary, which I think is just the coolest.

Almost 3/5 of the way there!

Week 23 Bumpdate

Baby is the size of a grapefruit! 🍊⬅️(We’ll pretend that’s a grapefruit.)

She is just under a foot long and weighs as much as a soccer ball. ⚽️ Her little face is fully formed and will be filling out with fat over the next 17 weeks. She is also recognizing sounds from the outside world – so chances are she already knows Lucy’s bark! Blood cells in her lungs are preparing them for the outside world. Best of all, she’s big enough now that the little flutters I’ve been feeling turned to jabs almost overnight. Alex can feel her move with a hand to my stomach now – more on that below!

Symptoms 🤰🏽
– Swollen legs. I’ve never in my life had to deal with swollen legs. This week has been hard as sometimes it’s very uncomfortable to walk! I’m seeing my doctor Thursday for another check up and I’m hoping everything is normal.
– I’ve been so hungry this week – but what else is new? 😂
– Back/hip aches. That’s to be expected – I’m growing a person, after all!

Things to remember:
– Baby always seems to move around more when Alex puts an ear to my stomach to listen to her move. Well, on Sunday morning, she kicked him! It’s the hardest I’ve ever felt her move and for the first time we both felt it. We cried. Now it’s a daily ritual to feel for her kicking!
– Something about getting to month five made me realize that time is going quickly. I’m making a list of everything we need to do before she gets here and dang, I didn’t realize how long that list is.
– We pained her nursery yesterday! I’m so excited to get to work filling it up.
– My mom and sisters and I are going to see RENT at Gammage this week and when my mom texted us all with the plans, she made sure to include “let Alexis pee four times before the show starts.” 😂Seriously, baby girl SITS on my bladder.

The third trimester is around the corner!

Week 22 Bumpdate

Baby is the size of a coconut! 🥥🌴

🎼CONSIDER THE COCONUT
THE WHAT
CONSIDER ITS TREEEES🎼

Sorry. Moana reference there.

Her nose, lips, and eyebrows are more developed, she’s getting little tooth buds under her gums, and she can hear sounds like my breathing and my heartbeat. She can also feel someone touching my stomach. Her eyes are formed but they are still shut and lack pigment – if they’re anything like mine or her daddy’s they’ll be somewhere between green and hazel. Now she’s close to a foot long and weighs a pound!

Symptoms 🤰🏽
– Swollen ankles, feet, and legs. If I’m standing for more than a few hours at a time the discomfort sucks! Elevating my feet helps a lot.
– Stretch marks. Ugh. I thought I could avoid them if I used lotions and coconut oils regularly. Nope! Not that I really tried, mind you.
– Hormones are wack, y’all. Friday I had a meltdown – completely with hysterical sobbing and hiccuping – because I couldn’t find my pink Himalayan salt I use on my eggs and hash browns every morning. I ended up finding it later that day in the pet food cabinet (?🤔?) but at the time I was inconsolable. Over salt.

Things to remember:
– People are starting to comment on the bump in public now that it’s fairly obvious I didn’t just binge eat an entire sleeve of Oreos or something. It amazes me how much joy this little girl already brings to the world without being in it yet! People share in my excitement and it makes me happy.
– I had another job interview last week and wore the same dress I’d worn at the end of last month to a different interview. It was a lot shorter which made me wonder if it’d shrunk in the dryer before I realized my growing bump made it smaller!
– I’m officially rocking slippers around the house these days. Standing on tile for long periods of time hurts!
– Alex found a scorpion by one of the litter boxes the other night (🤢). When I said how worried I’d be about them getting in the crib he looked up ways to scorpion-proof crib legs and is currently going on a personal crusade to find potential buddies around the house. He’s already so protective of his little girl. 😍

Five months down! 💗

Week 21 Bumpdate

Baby is the size of a carrot! 🥕 She’s also apparently as big as an endive 🥬 which I take to be some sort of lettuce because that’s the emoji that came up when I typed endive. Huh. Guess I don’t know all my vegetables.

What was I talking about again?

Baby girl has eyebrows and eyelids which means soon she’ll be able to open her eyes! She’s big enough now that I feel little flutters a little more frequently. What will be her liver and spleen are making red blood cells and her digestive system is preparing itself for the outside world (I guess all of her is!).

Cravings 🤤
Food. Like all food. All the food. Except for endives.

Symptoms🤰🏽
– Hungry and thirsty all the time.
– Sore legs and occasional foot cramps.
– Random aches and pains in my back, abdomen, hips, and sides. Boy do those twinges of pain scare me! I race to Google symptoms of any little thing out of fear something is wrong. So far, the worst of it has been round ligament pain, which supposedly is normal.
– Baby likes to sit on my bladder. ‘Nuff said.

Things to remember
– It’s getting harder to bend over and kneel down. I’m actually starting to feel big at this point, which I know is ridiculous because I’m only halfway there!
– Speaking of feeling big, I’ve been really self conscious of how much weight I’ve gained the past few months. I keep telling myself I was borderline underweight before so my weight gain is normal. How the hell do women work out during pregnancy – beyond walking – without feeling like death after? Legitimate question, guys. Would love some pregnancy workout suggestions.
– Alex’s birthday is coming up, and I’ve had a lot of fun picking out gifts for him from our baby. 🥰
– My first unofficial Mother’s Day was so surreal! Alex brought me breakfast in bed and got me a card and the sweetest gift. Later we went to dinner at my favorite restaurant. Hard to believe that next year I’ll have a little girl earthside to mother. 💗

🎉Week 20 Bumpdate🎉

🎼Wooooaah we’re HALFWAY THERE!!🎼

Baby is the size of a banana! 🍌 She has working taste buds and has developed two layers of skin: the epidermis and dermis. She’s swallowing amniotic fluid regularly which is helping her lungs develop and prepare for breathing oxygen. She’s also producing meconium.💩 Her weight is roughly ten ounces and she’s close to seven inches long.

Week 19 Bumpdate

Baby is the size of a mango! 🥭 As of our ultrasound last Thursday she weighs about nine ounces and is six inches long. Nerve cells in her brain are developing in specialized areas for all five senses. She is also developing something called vernix caseosa, a protective coating over her skin. She’s even beginning to grow more hair on her scalp. And something really wild is that she already has six or seven million eggs in her developed ovaries. It blows my mind, honestly.

Cravings 😋
Really just one right now, y’all. Tea. Give me ALL the tea. All of it. Just not sweet tea. 🤢 Give me all the real tea!

Symptoms 🤰🏽
– Restless legs. Night time has been hard sometimes due to aching legs but I’ve heard this is perfectly normal.
– Dizziness every so often. Low blood pressure plays a part in this, I’m sure.
– Hunger! I’m always so hungry and I think it’s going to be this way for a while!
– TMI, perhaps but… Peeing. All. The. Time. See below:

Things to remember
– We had our eighteen week anatomy ultrasound this past week and baby girl did a headstand the entire time. 😂 No amount of me moving around could get her to move! Due to her position the tech couldn’t get some of the essential scans of her head, so they rescheduled me for another ultrasound on the 7th. She’s already in the position to move on out into the world and we keep telling her, no, you have to stay in there longer! But she likes standing on her head. I know this because she uses my bladder as a gym mat, the stinker.
– Every so often I feel her moving, but thus far it’s only been one time of day: the early morning when I wake up and the sun is rising. 😍
– It’s so hard to believe that one week from today I’ll be officially halfway through this pregnancy. The first trimester was by far one of the hardest things I’ve gone through in my life, so I’ve been so, so happy to experience *this* trimester.
– Even though we know her name, we haven’t been calling her anything other than “baby” amongst ourselves because it feels so weird! I know when we’re holding her in our arms, the time will finally have come to call her by her name. 💗

Week 18 Bumpdate

Baby is the size of an artichoke! She is yawning, swallowing, and hiccuping, and while her eyelids are still shut she’s practicing moving her eyes around. She reacts to loud noises, weighs almost 7oz… and is moving around like crazy! She’s big enough now that I can’t sleep flat on my back due to the pressure that’s put on a major vein. On multiple occasions I’ve woken up that way extremely dizzy and lightheaded, because apparently that pressure leads to decreased blood return to the heart. I know this because I suspected it and looked it up – and I’m amazed by how much we figure out via instinct.

Symptoms 🤰🏽
– Low blood pressure. I already had lower than normal blood pressure, so sometimes now I have to grab salt as fast as I can when lightheadedness strikes!
– Backaches and leg aches.
– I’m still hungry all the time. Sometimes I’m up at 3 or 4 in the morning snacking in the kitchen!
– Trouble sleeping sometimes. I think I’m going to invest in some more pillows soon.

Things to remember
– The biggest news is…. I finally felt her move! Monday morning when I woke up she was squirming around and it almost made my heart burst. It was exactly like everyone had described it: butterflies and little flutters. I realized I’d been feeling her move for a few days but it didn’t hit me until that morning. Truly otherworldly.
– Funny story: I loathe Hawaiian pizza but Alex absolutely loves it, and the other day I found myself craving it for the first time ever! I think baby girl has her daddy’s taste in pizza.
– My mom took me maternity clothes shopping last week because I’ve officially reached a point where a good amount of my clothes don’t fit me anymore! I’m so happy with my outfits and even happier I got to spend time with my mom.
– We have another ultrasound at the end of this week – the main one we’ll have for the second trimester! I love my doctor though because literally every checkup I have, he knows we want to see baby and he’s happy to take us to the ultrasound room for a few minutes.

Can’t wait to see you again, little one. 💗

Week 17 Bumpdate

Baby girl is the size of a pomegranate! 😍She is almost 6 ounces now and is starting to grow some chunk in the form of lots of baby fat. Her cartilage is turning to bone and her umbilical cord is growing stronger by the day.

Symptoms 🤰🏽
– Back pain!
– A little nausea still. Last night I was so sick. 😣
– Giddiness all the time – we’ve been on cloud nine since finding out she was a girl.

Things to remember:
So, funny story: when we went for our 15 week ultrasound my doctor poked around and told us he was 90% sure baby was a boy. We were happy, but stunned. We were so sure that it was going to be a girl – I’d spent the last three months convinced! He said we could do a blood test to confirm and we’d get the results in a week. So, we told our families based off that 90% guess – complete with blue poppers and everything! Again, everyone was surprised but very happy. Alex and I started thinking more seriously of boy names.

And then we got that phone call! The technician who called us said, “Well, looks like he was 90% wrong – it’s a GIRL!”

We laughed and laughed and I cried. Baby girl must have thought it was the best prank. We tell her every day that she must think she’s so funny and I can only imagine her giggling.

Other things to remember:
– We have her name picked out – we have for years, actually, since before we decided we were ready for little humans. We haven’t decided yet if we’re going to tell anyone what it is before she’s born. Some things we’re just not ready to share with the world.
– We’re going to do some rearranging in the house so the baby’s room will be closest to our bedroom. And last week we put on an episode or two of Marie Kondo’s tidying up and now we’re obsessed with getting rid of things we don’t need or that don’t spark joy in the house.
– I have a job interview today (hence why I’m so dressed up), and I had to go shopping yesterday for a maternity interview outfit! 😂 Wish us luck!