I'm officially 18 weeks pregnant...almost half way there! It doesn't seem like half way already. Then again, on other days, it seems like I have such a long way to go!
Overall I've been feeling pretty well. I have tough days & easier days. My energy level has been decent, though I'm really tired when I sit down in the evenings. I've been putting Vera to bed lately, and we try to lay down between 8 and 8:15. Often I fall asleep with her, and wake up at 10:30 or 11. By that time, my evening is gone, so I just get up and crawl into my own bed. It's somewhat frustrating to have such short evenings without enjoying TV shows or relaxing after Vera's in bed. But, I guess I need the rest, so I will take it while it's cold and dark outside!
Most recently, I've started to experience the aches and pains of pregnancy. I've noticed my lower back starting to hurt a bit. Lately, the most noticeable aches are horrible headaches. Sometimes Tylenol doesn't touch the pounding head. The pain starts in the back of my neck and creeps up to my head. It can get so bad that I become extremely sensitive to sound, which makes for long days with teenagers at school and a 2 year-old at home. I went last Friday and got a massage, after the recommendation from my doctor. It helped so much. She told me that my head was extremely tight and she could certainly understand why I was having excruciating headaches. I might have to pay her another visit (or two) because it felt so good!
At about 16 weeks, I started to feel the fluttering movement of the baby. I was really surprised that I could feel it already. Although, I guess I don't remember when I first felt it with Vera. Pretty crazy feeling! At my appointment last week, the baby's heartbeat was around 159 bpm. I think that's pretty comparable to what Vera's heart rate was.
Dr. Bachman, my beloved doctor, left the practice at the end of the year for a position at Cleveland Clinic. So once again, I'm faced with a decision to make. What are the chances this would happen to me with two pregnancies!? I guess it isn't meant to be. I met Dr. Train at my last appointment and she was nice enough. I'm not totally sure which direction I'm going to go, but I need to select a provider really soon!
I'm still wearing my regular clothes at this point! I'm trying to hold off on maternity clothes for as long as possible. This past week, I've noticed that some of my shirts & sweaters are starting to look a little short. I've been wearing maternity jeans for a while because my regular jeans were getting really uncomfortable. Over Christmas Break, I washed up all of my maternity clothes that were packed away. I forgot how much I dislike them. Some of them are really stretched out and in sad shape. I'm going to have to get some new things for this spring. All of my maternity clothes from Vera are winter clothes.
I haven't had a lot of major cravings. I went through a spell where cold meat sandwiches (ie Subway) sounded good for every meal. Just like with my pregnancy with Vera, a bowl of cereal always sounds good in the mornings. Lately, I've had a craving for a piece of cake with buttercream icing. It's always so hard to keep my sweet tooth in-check. I guess I can thank my dad and grandpa Otte for my sweet tooth!
Most recently, Adam and I have started making plans to get a room ready for baby! We're going to put the baby in Vera's current room, which means Vera needs to move out...much against her will! In order for that to happen, we need to move all of the furniture and stuff out of the spare room. It's going to be quite the undertaking. The spare bedroom (and it's closet) have somewhat served as a basement for us...a place to store all kinds of things! We have two dressers in the spare room that need to move out. One of them will have to go in our bedroom. In order for it to fit, we need to take down the large TV shelf that was mounted on the wall when we bought the house. When the shelf comes down, we're going to have to do some painting to make it look right. We decided that while we're moving things around & painting, we're going to move everything out of our bedroom and repaint it. The carpet is also the original carpet from when we moved in. We're going to replace that and put trim around the closet and windows. It's a needed project, but it's been put off because the furniture in our bedroom is big and heavy. Once we get our room done, we can move Vera into the spare room and then put together a baby nursery again. It could be a long project! I much appreciate Adam's DIY projects because it keeps him busy and saves us a lot of money. But, it gets exhausting living in the mess with furniture in disarray.
I'll take a picture at 20 weeks and post it here. Stay tuned...
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