Pregnancy Update: Week 11

The baby’s the size of a lime!

Your baby at 11 weeks

  • You can’t see it, but she’s moving fluidly and gracefully in there.
  • Her skin is see-through, but she’s on her way to looking more like a baby.
  • Her fingers and toes aren’t webbed anymore.
  • Tooth buds, hair follicles and nail beds are forming.
How I’m Changing
I unfortunately still haven’t taken any pregnancy photos, partly because I’ve been lazy and partly because my husband has been working crazy long hours and hasn’t been home before I go to bed to take a photo of me (self portraits are just a fail).  I have been feeling bloated the past week and I am really starting to feel round around the middle. I have gained three pounds since becoming pregnant and yet I feel like I have gained 10 because my body is changing so much and my clothes aren’t fitting the same (or some at all).  I am trying to just be calm about it but sometimes I just feel upset that my favorite dress doesn’t fit right or the fact that many of my tops and bras (which I need to buy new ones of) are too tight across the chest and of course the fact that I currently only have three pants that fit well.
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How I’m Feeling
This week I have had really horrible sinus congestion and postnasal drip which has been driving me crazy.  From what I have read the nasal congestion can be due to hormones, the same hormones that are causing me morning sickness, mood swings and fatigue.  My morning sickness (rather all day) is still happening and I’ve been particularly tired out in the afternoon lately.  I have to say as much of challenge as morning sickness, fatigue, ect are I am really happy that I am having these symptoms because it means the hormones are working and I am growing a healthy baby.  I am hoping that in the next 3-4 weeks I will be feeling better and the morning sickness with subside.
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What I’m Eating
I have been eating crazy meals.  I have been on my own 8-10 days out of the past two weeks because of the Hubz crazy work hours so I have just been making food for me.  Last night I had creamy corn with nooch and hot sauce, a lemonade and a potato (you can see why I didn’t blog about that).  Other meals this week have been a bean quesadilla (which my stomach hated), pasta with nooch and broccoli, soygurt with berries and granola (which I have had for almost every breakfast as well) and a tortilla with avocado, chickpeas and corn.  I also have been munching on tons of clementines.
My major food aversions are garlic and onions.  The smell makes me nauseous and it’s awful because I LOVE garlic and onions.  I also am having quite an aversion to leafy greens. I am hoping that come the second trimester these aversions will calm down and I can get back to eating normally but until then as one of my midwives says don’t stress some days all you want are mashed potatoes and thats okay.

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Random Facts of the Week:

Overall weight gained: 3 lbs
Crying fests: 1 huge one and lots of tears while watching Christmas movies
Food cravings: citrus
Amount of exercise: 0 <– working on workout goals for the upcoming week
Number of pants that fit: 3; 2 jeggings and one pair of Loft pants that luckily still fit
Maternity clothes purchased: 4 tops and 2 bottoms

We’re Expecting

If you don’t know already we are expecting a baby in July!

I am so happy the news is finally out! It has been torture these last six weeks keeping it a secret from you.   I have been wanting explain things like why I stopped drinking caffeine and alcohol or why my recipes are lacking or why I haven’t been running. Don’t worry though this is not going to turn into a pregnancy blog but I will be sharing weekly updates and I will get back to daily posts now that things will make more sense as to why my meals are a little wacky and why I have changed my workout routine.

Here are a few details I’ve been planning to share (please feel free to ask any additional questions you’d like):

Date we found out: November 5, 2011
Date I suspected I was pregnant: November 2, 2011
First Midwives Appointment: December 6, 2011
Next Midwives Appointment: January 4, 2011
Due Date: July 19, 2012
Number of test taken:  3 (just for good measure)
Current Pregnancy Symptoms: Nausea and fatigue (as of 11/7/11); extreme nausea on 11/12/11; nausea and fatigue increasing around week 6
Times I’ve cried while listening/watching TV Shows, Commercials and Radio: I’ve lost count
Pregnancy Magazines Purchased: 2
Pregnancy Related Purchases: Jeggings because pregnancy bloating = tight jeans
Strange Experiences (TMI):dark yellow and strong smelling urine- it took me a few days and google results to conclude that it’s the new prenatals that I have been taking.
How far along are you?
I am 10 weeks along.  Only a few weeks short of completing my first trimester!  The Hubz and I debated telling people before this but haven’t really told anyone until now just in case the third time really wasn’t the charm. We have told a few people over the past few weeks due to various circumstances and because we are horrible at keeping secrets but the real unveiling wasn’t until yesterday/today.

Was this pregnancy planned?
I like to say it was planned but it wasn’t;  the Hubz and I have had a “if it happens, it happens” attitude for about the last year.  We weren’t trying to conceive and actually had no plans to try until next October after our planned half marathons but now that it’s happened we are excited.

Are you scared?
I’m surprisingly relaxed.  I have surprised myself because my last two pregnancies (both resulted in miscarriage) and I feeling so much calmer than I did during those two pregnancies.  Don’t get me wrong I’m nervous that we might miscarry again but you can’t plan for it besides cleaning up your diet and making sure to be at your best healthwise.  I think that I am more relaxed because I am not as stressed as I was during our last two pregnancies and I am 90% more active than I was back then.

So that whole caffeine and alcohol detox was just a decoy?
Correct. I am not on a caffeine and alcohol detox by choice.  Pregnancies means giving up delicious cups of coffee and sharing home brews with the Hubz.  Oh well at least he’ll be a home brew expert by the time I can drink again.

Are you going to an OB/GYN or Midwife?
I am actually going to a midwife group.  This means that I won’t necessarily see the same midwife each session, it’s whoever is in that day and it works the same at the birth.

Do you know the gender?
It’s too early to know but I think we are having a boy and the Chinese Gender predictor says that based on my age and month of conception we will be and it’s said to be 90% accurate.

Are you going to run your half-marathon?
At this point I may run/walk the February half marathon if I am feeling up to it.  The race is run/walk so I might just get out and it anyways but as for the Disney Half I won’t be able to run it this year because I won’t have enough time to train.

Changes: (I’ve kept a journal over the past few weeks)
I am now a night person! ME! It’s crazy because I have always been a morning person.  Pre-pregnancy I woke up at 5am and started my working day around 5:30am and was in bed by 9…..err okay 8pm.  Now I am so nauseous in the morning I have a hard time getting up and when I do get up and start moving around the nausea comes on even stronger.  At night I have been more awake and minimal nausea.

Update: 11/20/11. I’m experiencing extreme nausea especially when I’m hungry which makes it really difficult to decide if I want to eat or vomit. I’m ready for this whole morning  all day sickness to be over.

Update: 11/22/11. FYI may be TMI.  Last night I had a bit of a scare with a little tissue discharge, mucusy discharge and light cramping.  Having experienced two miscarriages in the past this frightened me a little to say the least so I called up the doctors office to discuss my concerns. Since the discharge happened only once and no issues since then the nurse I spoke with said not to be overly concerned and explained that during the 6th week that this type of thing is common and unless I begin to have severe cramping, excessive discharge or bleeding not to worry.  That being said I’m just going to sit tight.  Also I changed offices today but I’ll discuss more of this later.

Update: 12/1/11 Today I am 8 weeks! After last weeks scares things seem to be going well and we have our first midwife appointment next Tuesday, it can’t come soon enough. Lately I’ve been exhausted and nauseous and super picky about food.  I’m driving myself nuts because I just want to desire my normal eats but right now I really just want bland foods with hot sauce (I know crazy right?).

Update: 12/2/11 Today my husband jokingly through a ball of paper at me and it hit me between the eyes. I balled uncontrollably then after I cried I laughed (youknowyourpregnantwhen.)

Update: 12/6/11 Today we had our first prenatal visit with our midwives.  I was a bit nervous for the appointment and to ease any of our fears they did a really quick ultrasound which showed our bebe flapping around with a really quick/strong heart beat.  I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t get one of the nice ultra sounds with the updated equipment next door at the hospital; instead our first one was on an old machine on a tiny screen and it wasn’t the clearest but better than nothing.  Tomorrow is 9 weeks and we are debating when to tell people we are prego. I think we’ll decide next week.

Update: 12/13/11
Spent the last week feeling pretty great but now we are back from NYC and I’m back to feeling exhausted, bloated and sic