First of all, Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone! Secondly I have added another link to the bar above that will take you to all of the weekly pregnancy updates in case you missed one and want to catch up!

It also has a picture of all the photos in one place so that you can see side by side comparisons of how large the bump has gotten! Its crazy for me to see how much it has changed week to week!

Baby’s Size: Baby Girl is the size of a Rutabega.  And since that is definitely not a vegetable I am all that familiar with, lets go with she is about a pound and a half and 9ish inches long.

Baby’s Progress: She is gaining a little bit of fat this week (haha… aren’t we all).  These next three weeks should also mark her most active phase since she has plenty of room to do somersaults but is also big enough to move around quite a bit!

Weight Gain: I gained 2 lbs this week, so it sounds like all that ice cream eating is catching up.  My doctor’s goal is for me to gain a total of about 20 lbs for this whole pregnancy, so for those of you keeping track I should be gaining about 1lb each week for the rest of the pregnancy.  Mostly at this point I’m just trying to eat good for me food and not just fast food and ice cream.  That works about 50% of the time.

Sleep: Sleep is definitely trickier these days.  All the books say that your urge to have to pee all the time subsides in the second trimester and returns in the 3rd, and if this is the subsided version of that urge my third trimester promises to have lots of trips to the potty in the middle of the night.

Milestones: We took our ‘prepared childbirth’ class at the hospital this week.  And they definitely don’t censor any of those videos.  Suffice it to say we now have a mental picture for what birth will look like… whether we really wanted it or not. I am glad we took the class, it was helpful to hear about what the hospital’s policies are on most things and get tours of where we will be delivering. Our hospital is the highest level of NICU in our county (and I think in Dallas besides Children’s Hospital), which hopefully we won’t have to take advantage of, but is nice to know it is there.  We also will have our own room for Labor and Delivery and another one for Postpartum.  It is now starting to sync in that in just over 3 months (if all goes according to plan… and we know how that goes) this little girl will be making her appearance!

Although my favorite time of the class was the 30 minutes where the instructor had the dad’s do chair massages to learn how to be helpful, so I got a pretty great back massage from the husband!

Favorite clothing item of the week: I bought this gingham shirt from Gap maternity when I had a coupon for 40% off and I love it! It’s actually a pretty thick material so I don’t know how practical it will be for summer, but it looks super cute and I have a feeling it will make it into my post baby wardrobe rotation.  (It definitely covers the bump but doesn’t look extremely ‘maternity’)

Symptoms: I’ve had some pretty rocking headaches this week, but those aren’t out of the ordinary for me this time of year (especially with all the crazy weather changes) and sitting in a chair for long periods of time is definitely harder, so i’m having to remember to get up and walk around a bit so that my feet don’t swell and my back doesn’t hurt.

Workout: I’ve kept up walking outside when it is nice, and now that the temperature is above 40 degrees I’m going back to my Camp Gladiator class.  I am actually pleasantly surprised by how much I am able to do in the class without getting uncomfortable or doing something I shouldn’t be doing this late in pregnancy (i.e. I don’t do sit-ups or any laying down ab exercises, and while everyone else gets to do squat jumps I keep both feet firmly on the ground).  But I do feel more energy after working out and am glad I can still keep that up.  My doctor is a huge fan of working out as late as is comfortable in the pregnancy, but I do check in with her at every appointment to ask if its still okay!

You would be amazed to know how hard it is to remember to take a weekly picture! I somehow forgot on Sunday afternoon (my usual time to take since I’m home during daylight hours), so thanks to daylight savings I had an extra hour yesterday to squeeze one in. (And FYI that is the only good thing that came out of daylight savings this week. Am I the only one having trouble waking up this week?)  But in that one hour, Reese wasn’t home… So this is the best I could manage with me, a small tripod and a chair.

Baby’s Size: She is just over a pound and almost a foot long now! She is mostly just skin and bones right now, but will be starting to fill up the cute little baby rolls very shortly!

Baby’s Progress: Her lungs are busy developing and her taste buds are developing even more as well.  Mostly it is just business as usual and everything is growing strong and more developed.

Weight Gain: This week I gained another 1 lb, so I am up approximately 5 lbs from where I started.  I am definitely starting to feel the toll that a big old belly can take on your body, so its hard for me to mentally imagine what I’ll feel like on week 38 or 39.

Sleep: I’m going to go ahead and blame it on Daylight savings, but sleep in the last few nights has been elusive.  Although it could also be because Lexie decided she would start sleep training us early and decided night before last that she wanted to go play in the rain at 3am.

Milestones: Thanks to my sister-in-law who is an amazing gift giver, I received a care package this week complete with diaper bag and a gift certificate for a Prenatal Massage.  Which I immediately turned around and made an appointment for this last Sunday.  There is just something I love so much about going to a spa and getting a massage.  Definitely not a regular event for me, but it was such a welcome one!! (Although I do have to say… they are VERY gentle with the prenatal massages and I kind of missed the larger woman who went to work on some of my sore muscles during a pre-pregnancy massage… but safety first!)

Favorite clothing item of the week: I’m pretty much living in Gap Maternity T-shirts and Maternity Jeans these days, so I’ll have to go with those this week.  Although I am amazed at how much of my dresses are stretchy enough to fit just fine during pregnancy.  I’m glad I didn’t invest in very many maternity dresses!

Symptoms: My only symptom this week has been a sore back.  I’m trying to focus on standing up straight and maintaining good posture.  I don’t know how women who stand all day for work do it when they are pregnant!

Workout: I went walking with a friend on Saturday morning.  This is my favorite form of exercise; you get to catch up with a friend and are doing something good for your body!! We maybe should have turned around a bit sooner than we did, but it was a beautiful day to be out and so fun to walk around Whiterock Lake!

You get a bonus picture this week! As I was taking my picture I was so worried about getting it done before dark and setting up the camera that I totally forgot to change into my white shirt! But of course, its the best picture of the bunch… so I thought I’d share! I like taking them all in the white shirt because it is easy to compare from week to week, but there is something fun about the colorful one!

This is going to be a very anticlimactic post! It has been another week… and nothing has happened! We were iced in most of the weekend, and other than crashing our neighbors (thanks friends!) house for food, we accomplished a whole lot of nothing! (and sorry for the darker than normal pic… we didn’t get one snapped in the 2 minutes of sunshine we had all weekend… so its dark and gloomy)

Baby’s Size: She weighs about the same as a large mango (a little over a pound)

Baby’s Progress: Baby girl now has a fully developed sense of movement–which should explain why she kicks mostly when I am laying down and super comfy… apparently the rest of the time I just rock her to sleep! Her inner cochlea is fully formed now so her hearing is even better–Reese has been playing lots of guitar for her. And her lungs are continuing to develop which I am sure we will come to fully enjoy here in just a few months!

Weight Gain: This week I gained about 1 lb, so I am up approximately 4 lbs from where I started.  I had a doctor appointment this week and she seemed pleased with where I am.  She even complimented my gradual weight gain.  She obviously doesn’t know about my nightly bluebell ice cream with chocolate chip routine.

Sleep: I keep waking up having rolled over to my back, which my doc says is a no no, so I’m still training myself to sleep on my side constantly, but other than that… I’m not having any issues.

Milestones: We did start our registry this weekend, but it has a ways to go before it is what I would deem finished.  But can we just talk for a second about the stroller section at Buy Buy Baby? I feel like an intelligent human on most days and that area of the store made me want to curl up in the fetal position. Seriously…

Favorite clothing item of the week: Pajama pants.  The ice storm that came through Dallas meant I didn’t leave the house from noon on Friday until we walked next door for dinner; which means I got to lounge around in my PJs all day.  This was all a very welcome change from having worked pretty constantly from Saturday-Tuesday the week before.

Symptoms: Really I haven’t had any this week! I’m gloriously feeling her kick regularly which is super comforting for a worry wart like me, and I don’t have any complaints about this phase of the pregnancy.

Workout: does shoveling ice cream in my mouth count? Let’s be honest… it’s too cold to workout. I’m ready for summer. And yes… I am fully aware I will eat those words at the end of June when I am 9 months pregnant and we are having 100+ degree days.  But I’m willing to be hypocritical about this.