Halfway There!

Today is my 20th week of pregnancy. I can't believe how fast it's gone by. In most ways, this pregnancy has been a lot like my first - asymptomatic. Praise the Lord! My first trimester fatigue lasted a lot longer with this pregnancy than it did with Jackson. I also experienced many days with an unsettled stomach, but nothing that resulted in vomiting.

My tummy appears to be growing just as it did with Jackson. I carried Jackson around more than straight out and that's how my body is growing with this one too. I still haven't popped out but I lost my waist a long time ago. I thought I would show a lot sooner with this pregnancy since I've been pregnant before, but that hasn't happened. I am actually grateful because all of my maternity clothes are with our household goods, and we won't get any of that until the middle of May. I bought a couple of things before Meredith's baby shower, but I am going to have to suck it up and buy more because I don't think I'll make it 10 more weeks.

Here's a picture taken today, at 20 weeks:

I know it doesn't look like much, but I promise...I'm thick all the way around! Oh, the chair in the background was a super bargain buy. We got tired of not having anything to sit on. I needed a rocker for the nursery. That is something I did not have with Jackson, and as much and as long as I nursed him, I felt it was definitely something I needed and wanted this time around. It's been great. I can't imagine us living in this apartment for six months without something to sit on except our air mattresses and card table chairs!

And here's a photo taken at 21 weeks when I was pregnant with Jackson:


I felt our baby for the first time at the start of my 17th week. We were eating at Earl's, a barbecue place here in OKC, when I felt the baby on my lower right side. It caught me by surprise and I wondered if I was indeed feeling the baby. Sure enough, he/she moved again and I felt baby a second time. I've felt the baby nearly every day since then. I forgot how wonderful it is to feel your baby move inside of you. I love it!

I haven't had any unusual food cravings - like pickles and ice cream - but I have craved certain things: chocolate milk (but only with Ahlaska brand chocolate syrup and only a drop of it in my milk), green beans, GREEN salads, grapefruit, sparkling water with fresh lemon juice, hamburgers, steak, loaded baked potatoes, Greek yogurt, french fries, and Pei Wei. Surprisingly, I have craved sweets very little. This is a good thing because my midwives have advised me to stay away from sugar throughout my pregnancy. So far, I have done it! This is amazing because I am one who loves homemade desserts on a very regular basis. I don't drink sodas or eat candy, but I love real desserts. (I did eat a small piece of cookie cake that Jason and Jackson bought me for my birthday.)

(If you are wondering about the no sugar thing, here is how my midwives explained it to me: when pregnant, the hormones that keep our bodies pregnant also prevent our bodies from responding to insulin the way they normally would. This happens so that we can still have a whole baby even in a time of famine. If we eat high sugar meals, then our blood sugar soars and stays high for a while. We share the same blood with our baby, so our baby receives our high blood sugar blood. Our baby's body has to make insulin to lower the blood sugar. As a result, we are teaching our baby, in utero, to produce a lot of insulin.)

I'm looking forward to the next 20 weeks. Oddly, I can't wait to be in labor again and to meet this sweet baby. Jackson is excited to meet the baby too. Tonight, he kept talking to the baby. Here's what he said when he was getting ready for bed:

"Baby, do you want to come out, baby? Not yet baby. You want to see me, baby? Oh, come here baby. I will hold you, baby."

It was precious!