Bumpdate: 16 Weeks!

Part of me can’t believe I’m four months along, but then the other part of me feels like I’ve been pregnant longer! Either way, I’m so thankful for my healthy babe and the support from our friends, family and this community of mommas. With some of the things that have been going on with this pregnancy, having such supportive girlfriends and parents has been a real blessing. I’m hoping my next bumpdate says that both my complications have cleared up, but for now I’ll be laying low and making sure Baby S remains safe and sound.

Oh and if you missed them, here are my other motherhood blog posts –

• Bumpdate: The First Trimester!
• Baby S is a … (Gender Reveal!)
• We’re having a BABY!!!
• Spring Wardrobe Purchases – Maternity and Non Maternity!
• Our Fertility Journey…

Progress: 16 weeks, 3 days. The pic above is actually from 15 weeks 🙂

Name: We have had a first and middle name we both love! His first name will tie into S’ heritage and the middle name will be a family name from mine.

Size: According to our ultrasound this morning, he is exactly five ounces! Our baby app, The Bump, also says he is should be around five inches long. My healthy growing little babe! He was small during our first trimester so he has caught up to his original August due date which makes me feel relieved.

Baby has also decided that he wants to be up side down so he is breech with both ultrasound techs this week thought was funny. I guess they are usually in the opposite position?

Sickness: Luckily my nausea heavily subsided in the first trimester at week nine (it was so bad!!!) and fully went away at thirteen. That said, I have two complications going on and when one of them occurs I often get a wave of subtle nausea that makes me lose my appetite.

We had our first high risk maternal fetal medicine appointment today which we will continue to have each month until I give birth. Luckily both complications I have going on haven’t affected Baby S thus far and major prayers they stay that way! We just need to monitor both and I’m on a light “rest” which means pelvic rest, no lifting anything and no strenuous exercises. I am so thankful for both all the OBs in my doctor’s practice and our maternal fetal doctor.

Vaccine: I’ve had questions on whether I will receive the COVID vaccine so I figured I’d just address that here. Outside of our close friends and family, I personally am not going to share my decision because I’m not a medical professional and I’d never want my decision to influence another’s. There are educated people that are well equipped to advise on the matter like your OB! I am going off my gut instinct on what is best for Baby.

Of anything I’m most scared about the chickenpox because I cannot get it while pregnant. Our next step pre-pregnancy was for me to get vaccinated before we started in on fertility treatments because we discovered through our testing that I was not immune. So I 1000% cannot get chickenpox while pregnant (and unlike the COVID vaccine, varicella is an active virus so you can’t get it while pregnant) so luckily we have heard immunity, Massachusetts strict immunization requirements for kids and the super sanitized state of the world to help. I will be extra cautious to avoid large gatherings or parties with acquaintances. And we will ask friends about their history once we start to open back up because I can also contract chickenpox from adults that have shingles. My fertility doctor had eased my anxiety about this and then my OB kinda raised them, but it’s important that I do not stress and just take proper precautions because I cannot have stress because it can worsen one of my complications.

Cravings: I wouldn’t say I have cravings, but I have some foods I like to eat more than others. Bagels with cream cheese, bean and cheese burritos, Caesar salad, chicken wraps, tuna fish sandwiches (I hadn’t ate tuna since I was like 5!), breakfast burritos from Pressed and I desperately want a freaking cold turkey sub loaded with all the fixings with lots os pickles, but that one will have to wait until after I give birth. S also made chicken marsala this week and I’m not sure anything in my life has ever hit the spot more haha.

Aversions: I had an aversion to almost everything in the first trimester and then many lingered into the second like avocado, coffee, Mexican food, Italian food, cold water, smoothies and many more. As of last week though, most have subsided! We are having tacos tomorrow for the first time in forever (one of our pre-pregnancy life weekly staples) and I was able to start having a little caffeine when really needed. I don’t know when I’ll ever get the second trimester wave of energy.. lol.. but I’m waiting for it! I’m more exhausted now than the first tri. Until then I will have 1/4 – 1/2 the recommended limit of caffeine on a ‘really need’ basis.

All that said, there are so many things I was able to have in my first trimester that I cannot even look at right now. From cereal to saltines and even S’ deodorant scent.. anything that stirs up a first trimester sickness memory makes me feel ill!

Physical Changes: Wow do I have a baby bump now. I love it! Dressing the bump has been so fun. I usually wear flowy tops pre-prgnancy, but now with the bump it’s fun to wear some tighter tops. I’m going to be honest that having to be on light exercise, like walks and super light Peloton classes, makes me feel uneasy. I really don’t want to gain excess weight, but I’ve been telling myself that as long as I eat as I normally do, I will be fine AND this is just a season. Moving my body lightly is what I need for now. I had dreams of running my favorite half marathon pregnant this summer, but due to my complications that will certainly not be the case.

Anyways, I’d say my bump super popped week 14 from the bottom all the way up through my ribs. And as of this week, it’s rounded out even more on the bottom. It’s so cute to see S look at my belly. We are both so amazed by it and the fast changes that occur each week.

I’ve been super surprised that I’ve had no growth in my chest because that is oftentimes women’s first inclination that they are pregnant. I’ve also heard you’re fully developed there by the end of the second trimester. This just shows how different everyone’s bodies and pregnancies are. We will see if anything changes within the next two months. One positive of that I suppose is that I’ve only watched one area of my body change whereas having everything grow at once may have been overwhelming!

Other than that, I’m about the same everywhere else. Oh I do have a back roll now on my sides lol, but .. this is a season 😛 and long line sports bras camouflage it.

Exercise: Through my first trimester I had exercised per usual with cardio and weights, just a bit shorter sometimes due to nausea. Since my first ER visit for one of my complications on Feb. 28, I’ve cut myself back from my own intuition and then even further per my both of my doctor’s request as they dived into what was occurring even further. So for now, I am thankful that I can still lightly walk and do very low intensity Peloton spin classes. I just have to make sure that I do not go up and down from the saddle and avoid HIIT, heavy resistance and weights.

I’m a runner so not having that, especially in the Spring/Summer, makes me pretty sad because it’s my release mentally and physically. And, like I mentioned, no road races this year which is compounded from none in 2019 due to COVID, BUT that will be okay because this is just a season and I will be running with my little babe in a stroller next Spring!! I cannot wait!! If you have jogging stroller suggestions, I’d love to know.

Most Excited about Next: Making it to 24 weeks! This is our huge goal that we pray for each day because that means Baby S can survive outside of momma in case of an emergency. We are praying my two complications resolve themselves ASAP, but we will certainly have a sigh of relief once I’m in the safe zone of six months pregnant.

I’m also just so excited in general to meet him. That is a far way away, but seeing his little feet and big ol’ belly on the ultrasound makes me just wanna kiss him all over! I don’t want to wish pregnancy away as it’s a special chapter, but also the more I see him, the more I just want him safe in my arms. I tell S all the time how crazy it is that you can love someone so much and have not even met them yet.

Least Excited About Next: Honestly any more bleeding or worsening of my two complications. One of them gives me severe pain, which I can deal with because luckily it doesn’t affect baby due to the location, but it knocks me out from being able to walk, put on pants, move positions on the couch, etc. I think it also drains me / makes me more tired. For this one, I also need to make sure I have no stress as it can worsen the issue.

Then the other complication, if it doesn’t get better, will put me on traditional bed rest the third trimester, can cause premature birth and does require a C section so I’m praying heavily that both of these things just subside! I am thinking positively because we have plenty of weeks for them to correct! Luckily we have monthly ultrasounds and appointments with the high risk doctor to monitor so I hope in four weeks that both are showing some movement in resolving.

Movement: I was told that in week 16 many women start to feel their babes. I have weird twinges at times, but I think it’s just my muscles. Due to the location of my placenta, the ultrasound tech also said it may be longer than normal to feel him as well. Being pregnant is such an interesting thing because you don’t feel the baby for so long and then when you see them in the ultrasound you’re like.. he/she is really inside there?! It’s such an odd feeling! S feels my belly everyday and is so excited to eventually feel him!

What We’ve Tackled –

Baby’s Nursery: I’m keeping all large items neutral and doing a touch of old school Pooh 🙂 Below is what I’ve purchased so far. I’m stumped on a rug, but know that isn’t needed right off so I’ll take my time to find one once everything else comes in.

Wardrobe: Oh my gosh the clothes are so cuuuute! My favorite stores so far are Katie Quinn Baby, H&M and Zara. That is where I’ve purchased the most of his clothes. I’ve gotten a range of newborn though 18 months so I think he is good for a bit in addition to anything he’s gifted at our baby shower this summer. Here are a few items I’ve grabbed him. I can’t link much of the other two stores because they aren’t RewardStyle affiliates. I cannot handle the golf outfits.. he’s going to be Daddy’s little golf sidekick!

Registry: Since there are so many baby products on the market, I started building this in our first trimester and it’s pretty much done. It’s more so just our list of what we need because we will be grabbing items ourselves too over the next few months like the stroller! For some items, we will wait until the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale since they will be on sale like the car seat and stroller.

I’ll share a whole blog post on these items we’ve selected to purchase and then some to put on our registry, but below are a few.

Daycare: Wow! Daycare searchin’ is a full time job. Luckily S took that on before his busy season came around. As of last week we have one waitlisted and another secured just in case. We viewed many and really fell in love with one that just so happens to be 30 seconds from our home. That is the one we are the first on the waitlist for. They have another location in the next town over and since that had an opening, we put down a deposit so that we 100% had him secured for 2022. It’s crazy that you secure daycare so far in advance!

So many of you gave me advice on questions to ask, things to look out for and more which really came in handy. Every mom that messaged me also said to go with your gut because it will be the best guide there is. Wasn’t that the truth! Every other single facility we looked at, we were both immediately like – NOPE. There was only one daycare (with the two locations) that we felt trust with and they had the best learning programs that just blew us away. Those two things were the top priorities for us. The walls are COVERED with artwork with “themes” that rotate every month. This month was Dr. Suess since it was his birthday and only one week into the month, every wall in the building was covered and it was so cute! The other daycares were really just babysitting with no curriculum to shoot home about and there was no hint of any artwork activities or “fun”… and that was during working hours! Many also didn’t separate the babies based of stages like noncrawler, crawlers, etc. so all babies from infant through 15+ months were together which just seemed odd and unsafe.

At our daycare/school, Baby S will learn infant sign language to be able to communicate with us for more, milk, no etc. How amazing is that?! They have art activities every day even as an infant and have baby yoga. How cute? Once he progresses to 15 months, they will be teach him Spanish too! He will be running circles around us before he is even in kindergarten.

Although we can make one of us staying home work, we both enjoy our careers so we want to make growing a family and our careers work together. After touring this learning center, I knew it was 100% the right decision for us personally because I’d never be able to teach him everything they will!

Thanks so much for being so supportive and helpful during this exciting time in our lives. There are so many mommas in this community that have offered advice and wisdom that have really helped S and I navigate. Xo Mindy