Great Expectations II: 19 weeks

How Far: 19 weeks

Weight/ Clothes: I'm really showing now...so funny how that happens. Hopefully I haven't gained too much in between appointments this month. We'll see. I'm going to make a really concerted effort to be more active this go round and it will help that the weather is finally getting nice plus Levi loves getting outside for a walk or trip to the park. It's the right cause for gaining weight, but I'd still like to make sure I'm within the zone that is healthy and keeps my doctors happy. Last time around I was right on the cusp of gaining too much, so we'll see if it's any different this time or if the heat of summer has a similar effect as the cold of winter. I know I'll probably deal with more swelling and such this time around since I'll be my biggest through the summer months. Thankfully that all gets better once the baby is born.

In terms of clothes, I am definitely feeing the need to wear maternity clothes these days. I pulled out my maternity pants finally even though I can still wear my low wasted regular jeans too and I pulled out my maternity tops. I'm still transitioning my wardrobe to make my maternity pieces easily accessible. I've realized I have plenty of sweaters, but I don't have many short sleeve or even three quarter length sleeve tops, so I see a shopping trip in my future to pick up a couple of the cute tees like the ones I borrowed from Thais while in Chicago. I also made a trip to Target for Easter basket supplies and found a cute maternity dress to wear on Easter and further into the spring and summer. They were have a sale, so I actually picked up a more casual cotton maternity dress while I was there too. I have a few dressy occasions coming up like my cousins wedding this June, so I'm keeping an eye out for the perfect dress to wear to that.

Cravings: Nothing interesting to report...I'm just not one of those pregnant women who get really strong food cravings. There are definitely foods I flock towards, but I've yet to want pickles and ice cream at a random time or anything really unusual like that.

Gender: The gender reveal for next week's Red Sox game is confirmed. We even scoped out the screen and where we'd be for the game when we took Adam's parents to the Red Sox game this Saturday. I know a few people are confused and think we're doing the game announcement just as a public way to then share the news...but to clarify...Adam and I won't know when we head to the game if we're having a boy or girl either. At least that is the plan unless the ultrasound person slips up or something, but hopefully we'll be just as surprised when we see the announcement on the screen as everyone else. My plan is to start the message with Adam's name making it one of the firsts since they go in alphabetical order and it should be just before the second inning, so nice and early in the game. We'll let you all know the news as soon as we find out!

What do you think? Boy or Girl this time? In the past couple weeks I've become really at peace with either option for different reasons...a boy would be great because we have lots of awesome boy clothes and room sharing will be a little simpler and it would be cute for Levi to have a little brother. After visiting with the Carter boys and seeing how much fun Levi has with them whenever we get together, it brought a lot of excitement about the prospect of having another boy. Plus Adam and I really like a particular boy name (sorry won't be sharing that news until Jellybean arrives), while we still haven't landed on a girl name that we both really love though we'll get working harder on it if we find out the baby is a girl. Having a girl however is definitely a different dynamic between a mother and daughter and even between a father and daughter especially as girls get older, and I would love to have some of those more girlie experiences with a daughter. If that isn't God's plan and I'm meant to be a boys mom then I'll just hope to have a niece to spoil someday!  Guess we'll see very soon!!

Movement: Feeling little flutters and the occasional pop pop...so definitely some movement, but it's really subtle, nothing Adam could pick up on yet.

Symptoms: Feeling very "full" these days. I think my stomach is very squished, which leads to that feeling and the KILLER heartburn I'm having all the time. It chokes me it's so bad. Tums is my good friend and I've started taking Zantac when it gets really bad. That will probably be back on my regimen in the coming weeks. Levi had some hair, so the wives tale was true in his case...perhaps this baby will have a head of hair too with all the heartburn I'm having.

The round ligament pain is still there but more occasionally now and I didn't have any sciatic nerve pain this week. YAY! The girls are hurting now though, which I didn't experience much when I was pregnant with Levi. He has completely weaned, so it's been strange because unlike my last pregnancy when they suddenly grew...this time they shrank a ton and now are getting back to there larger pregnancy state. Very interesting what pregnancy does to the body!

Mental State: The gender has very much been on my mind this week. Adam and I even had a date night while his parents were in town this week, which gave us the chance to chat about our thoughts regarding if the baby is a boy or girl. It was a really fun night out for appetizers, a mocktail for me and dessert. We are hoping to get into a better routine for date nights, hoping to have one once a month or so even if it's a nicer dinner date at home in the earlier months once Jellybean is here.

It was also a wonderful Holy week. I remember attending the different services last year, but Levi was still really little and in the carrier mostly asleep. I was definitely able to take it in more this year and be more reflective and observant since Levi was in the nursery making for less distractions. The Herndon grandparents joined us this week too, which was really fun. Levi loves all his grandparents and is so blessed to see them all as often as he has being that we don't live close by.

Appointment Updates: The BIG ultrasound is next week! Praying everything looks healthy and perfect since the real purpose for the exam is not to find out the gender but to make sure everything is forming properly.

Best Moment of the Week: Celebrating Easter and seeing Levi's excitement as he opened his Easter basket. He knew it was for him and could not wait to check everything out. Next year there'll be two baskets, which will be so much fun and we plan to dye eggs with Levi then.

It was also fun to go to my first Red Sox game of this season...and Jellybean's first game technically... in utero. Levi went to quite a few both in utero and in his first year of life. Fans from an early age!