Week 17

First of all, I want to say my heart goes out to all of those who lost loved ones on 9/11, and in the subsequent wars.  And a big thank you to our police, firefighters, EMTs and servicemen and women who put their lives on the line everyday for us to have freedom.  Never forget!

That being said, here how things are going this week.
 

Week: 17
 
Baby Size: 4.5-4.75 inches. It's about the size of an onion (or the palm of my hand) and weighs in at about 3.5 ounces.

Gender: Still waiting.  I had 2 students guess this week--one said boy and one said girl.  As Brian said, we really hope one of them is correct! 

Maternity Clothes?: No more pants that button on their own.  I do have 1 pair of shorts left that will, and all those wonderful skirts.  I also had to go out and buy flat dressier shoes that I can wear in lab.  The (very small) heels are making my legs hurt too much!

Sleep: Still good, but had another allergy attack last night.

Diet and Exercise:  I managed 3 days on the treadmill this week, due to Monday being a holiday.  I ran 2 miles and walked another mile on an incline.  On Friday I ate a bowl of chocolate ice cream (my new Friday ritual, since I can't have a beer), and on Saturday I had very greasy pizza, but other than that, I was very good this week with my diet.  I do have some comments below about how well I'm able to run now.

Movement: I'm upgrading to 80% sure I'm feeling movement.  After feeling pretty much nothing all week, on Friday, I was sitting on the couch after having finished my weekly ice cream and I felt like something was rolling over in my abdomen.  Since my intestines haven't taken on a life of their own (yet--they will any day now), I'm pretty sure it was the baby.  On Saturday, Snowball was on my lap and I felt a series of little thumps while she was sitting there.  She didn't notice a thing.  It's going to be pretty funny when baby gets big enough to feel from the outside.  I'm pretty sure the kitties will not be amused.

What I Miss: Nothing because of the pregnancy!  I miss hanging out with Brian in the evenings.  It was nice having Monday off, since we could see each other all day on a non-weekend day. 

What I'm Looking Forward to: I have another meeting with my ARC mentor on Tuesday to get the information I'll need to complete the semester.  I also have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, and I'm really looking forward to hearing the heartbeat again.   

Best Moment this Week: The somersault.  It just felt so cool!

Pregnancy Body-New and Exciting!..maybe:  Last week I mentioned that I was starting to notice restricted movement a bit.  This week I noticed that it's getting uncomfortable to run.  Uteruses (Uterii?) are not really attached to the abdominal wall--they have ligaments that hold them roughly in place, but the are essentially free swinging.  Well, when I run now, I can definitely feel it moving up and down in time to my stride.  It's a very weird feeling, and slightly unpleasant.  I'm going to stick with running as long as I feel like I can, but I certainly understand why women don't run all the way through their pregnancies! 

Baby Milestones: Baby is continuing to grow very rapidly.  It is still covered in fine hair (lanugo), but is now starting to pack on some fat (adipose tissue) that will make all that hair useless. 


Food Cravings: I finally got some Chipotle this week, so I'm good for now :)  I am really looking forward to sushi on my birthday, though!

How's Dad?: He's still super excited!  He has wanted to redo his bathroom upstairs basically since we moved in, and finally started to do so last weekend.  He was just going to stain the vanity in there, but it turned out he couldn't reach all the way around while the toilet was in there.  After he had the toilet out, he figured he's pull up the vinyl and replace it with nicer.  Once he had the vinyl out, he realized there was a lot of mold damage on the subfloor.  So now we have no subfloor, no toilet and an unstained vanity!  He's getting the new subfloor in today, and we should get the vinyl we ordered sometime this week.  Then all he has to to is install everything and stain the vanity!  It should be done by the end of the month (I hope!).   

Tid Bits: I start my online course at the University of Phoenix on Tuesday.  It should be interesting, since even after 2 weeks of training, I still have no idea what I'm supposed to do.  I'm sure it will be fine, but it's going to be a pretty steep learning curve for me.  The other classes are still going well--we have our first tests next week, so I guess I'll see how effective my teaching is then!