Great Expectations: 21 weeks

How Far Along: 21 Weeks

OVER HALF WAY!!!

(Don't you LOVE the 5ft Giraffe Nana Fronch, mom's newest nickname, found for the nursery!)

Fruit Size Comparison: Pomegranate 

Weight/ Clothes: I'm still pretty much on target with my weight gain, which is good. I'm carrying well and seem to truly be "showing" now.

I'm loving the maternity clothes my mom sent me for my birthday. They really have come in handy especially since I needed a dress for the wedding I coordinated for the first time on Saturday.

Cravings: Nothing to report.

Gender: The votes are still leaning towards the baby being a boy, but there have been QUITE a few more votes for it being a girl lately. We'll see on the 13th!

Movement: Feeling waves of movement pretty consistently now. At my centering appointment, the midwife was using the doppler and found the heartbeat for a couple seconds before the baby moved and it took quite a bit of searching to relocate the heartbeat. She commented on how much this baby is moving around. We seem to have a very active kid in there.

Symptoms: HEARTBURN!! It's been BAD! I've taking Tums pretty regularly and I found out at my appointment that I could take Zantac because I was taking more than four Tums a day it could be the better choice. I kept an eye on it this week to see if I would switch over to Zantac. I'm probably going to. 

This heartburn is CRAZY! It's not just acid choking me and climbing up my esophagus, but it creates soreness all through my midsection that feels like a huge bruise (imagine that feeling, ladies, when you wear an underwire bra and it's too tight and digs into your rib cage leaving you pretty sore...that's what this soreness feels like). 

Mental State: I feel like I had some pregnancy brain this week...I had some things to accomplish and definitely felt busy (substitute teaching applications and interview, a Hillsong Concert, launching the youth ministry), but when I was asked later in the week what I had been keeping busy with I drew a total blank even though I knew my days had felt full! I needed to check my calendar to see how I had actually been keeping busy. 

Appointment Updates: I had my second centering appointment this week and this month's discussion centered around pregnancy symptoms and solutions. It was a helpful discussion for sure! I haven't been dealing with all the symptoms that were covered, but it's nice to have ideas for ways to alleviate symptoms if and when they arise. We were also told to expect to come in for the well-known GLUCOSE TEST, which I had already experienced due to the heavy family history of diabetes, so I was asked to share what the experience was like with my centering mates. I told them it was like drinking flat orange soda and what made it a challenge, for me at least, wasn't so much the taste but the short amount of time I had to get the entire bottle down (5 minutes). I suggested bringing a straw since the lab didn't have any when I did my test. My early sugar test had fantastic results...my doc said I almost needed more sugar in my diet but not really. I'll have another sugar test around Halloween within the normal time frame since the extra weight is a factor in developing gestational diabetes. How lucky for me, right?!

My blood pressure was good this time around, thank goodness, and I'm measuring at 21 weeks and the baby is moving around a bunch as noted during the doppler exam.

Is this normal? Strange occurrences: My heartburn soreness

Best Moment of the Week: Mom mailed me a SNOOGLE! My sleep has definitely improved since I've found comfortable ways to sleep with my new bed buddy.