Baby Veale weighs as much as a turnip this week at 5 ounces and is about 5 inches long from crown to rump. Another half inch growth spurt this week. A lot is going on with Baby Veale; her or his skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone and the umbilical cord is growing stronger and thicker...which is good since apparently Baby likes to suck on it (we got to see it happening at the 13 week ultrasound!) And Baby can move his or her joints and sweat glands, body fat (why does a chubby sweaty baby sound cute but a chubby sweaty me, not so much???) and fingerprints are forming this week!
I've started to learn what it means to relax. I don't think I had ever really relaxed in my life! I have the occasional day when I sit on the couch in my pj's for a couple hours but that's more of a recover and recuperation from my normal life style than actually relaxing. I think this new relaxed feeling that I've experienced is due to the placenta releasing a hormone (yes, more hormones, gosh there are a lot of them) called relaxin. Relaxin's job is just as it sounds, it relaxes all of your muscles which will obviously be helpful during labor. I must say that I'm enjoying this rather zen feeling (usually while sipping a decaf flavored latte with whipped cream and a hand on my belly) and I'll have to find a way to channel it after pregnancy.
I'm still not looking noticeably pregnant which kind of has me down. I'm certainly looking wider, but it's not really a belly. Honestly I'm just feeling fat which is also making me have a difficult time with cravings. Being so health conscious before pregnancy makes me leery of all of the odd cravings. They say that your body will crave foods that contain nutrients your baby needs. There are instances where I use this as justification, like those delicious decaf lattes I've been enjoying; they are the only way I'm getting milk down my throat and calcium is important so I'll take those extra grams of sugar because of it. But when I want things like crab rangoons (why do I want them so badly?) I cannot think of any nutrients that this would give me that I cannot get from a healthy source so I do not give into them. Well, I haven't given in yet...this one's just getting stronger though! So I'll continue to battle the cravings!
New symptom this week is crazy vivid dreams! I hardly ever had memorable dreams before and now I have crazy dreams multiple times a night. The only explanation I've found for this symptom is that since pregnant women wake up multiple times a night it's more likely to wake up during a REM cycle and be able to remember the dreams. Most of the dreams have been life like and scary. The worst of which was when I dreamed it was Saturday and woke up to an alarm clock on a Thursday! ;-)
I've started to learn what it means to relax. I don't think I had ever really relaxed in my life! I have the occasional day when I sit on the couch in my pj's for a couple hours but that's more of a recover and recuperation from my normal life style than actually relaxing. I think this new relaxed feeling that I've experienced is due to the placenta releasing a hormone (yes, more hormones, gosh there are a lot of them) called relaxin. Relaxin's job is just as it sounds, it relaxes all of your muscles which will obviously be helpful during labor. I must say that I'm enjoying this rather zen feeling (usually while sipping a decaf flavored latte with whipped cream and a hand on my belly) and I'll have to find a way to channel it after pregnancy.
I'm still not looking noticeably pregnant which kind of has me down. I'm certainly looking wider, but it's not really a belly. Honestly I'm just feeling fat which is also making me have a difficult time with cravings. Being so health conscious before pregnancy makes me leery of all of the odd cravings. They say that your body will crave foods that contain nutrients your baby needs. There are instances where I use this as justification, like those delicious decaf lattes I've been enjoying; they are the only way I'm getting milk down my throat and calcium is important so I'll take those extra grams of sugar because of it. But when I want things like crab rangoons (why do I want them so badly?) I cannot think of any nutrients that this would give me that I cannot get from a healthy source so I do not give into them. Well, I haven't given in yet...this one's just getting stronger though! So I'll continue to battle the cravings!
New symptom this week is crazy vivid dreams! I hardly ever had memorable dreams before and now I have crazy dreams multiple times a night. The only explanation I've found for this symptom is that since pregnant women wake up multiple times a night it's more likely to wake up during a REM cycle and be able to remember the dreams. Most of the dreams have been life like and scary. The worst of which was when I dreamed it was Saturday and woke up to an alarm clock on a Thursday! ;-)
How far along? 17
weeks
Total weight
gain/loss: down 4 lbs overall…but a 2 lb increase from last week.
Maternity clothes?
Not yet but more of my clothes aren’t fitting comfortably anymore; I had to
wake Dan up to help me zip up my dress yesterday…
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: Better! Still waking up every couple of hours but I
think that’s something I just have to get used to.
Best moment this
week: Getting a Decaf Campfire Mocha
from Caribou coffee, there are marshmallows and chocolate in it AND you get to
choose from white, milk, or dark chocolate!
Haha, I’m easy to please.
Miss Anything? All of my pretty heels…I cannot walk in them
anymore, thanks clumsiness.
Movement: not
really, I had a strange flutter feeling when we put the iPod playing classical
music on my belly…maybe that’s the “quickening” they talk about…even if it’s
not I’m pretending that it’s Baby! I’m starting to get antsy in anticipation of feeling
deliberate movement; I’ve read that it
generally happens between week 16 and week 18, but for first pregnancies it
tends to be on the later end.
Food cravings:
Crab Rangoons.
Anything making you queasy or sick: anything
with a strong scent. Bacon (pork in
general), sweet potatoes, bananas, and onions are still on the aversion list
among many other things.
Have you started to
show yet: I’ve started to look overweight but not really pregnant.
Gender prediction: We’ll
find out on July 9th if Baby cooperates! I’m so excited!
Belly Button in or
out? In
Wedding rings on or
off? On.
Happy or Moody most
of the time: Happy! But easily
annoyed…I think people have become worse drivers in the past couple of weeks, I
get really stressed out while driving!
Looking forward to: Finding
out the gender, getting a pedicure, and someone giving me a good excuse to eat
a Crab Rangoon…anyone?
Great up-date! Love all the information, all the things I want to know but feel funny asking LOL! You said you felt fluttering? With all 3 of my pregnancies the movement started as a fluttering. I used to say it felt like a butterfly flapping its wings inside me.It is one of the best feelings in the world!
ReplyDeletexoxo Nana V.
I only feel it when we put the music on my belly...not sure if that means I have a dancer in there or if the music is just vibrating the amniotic fluid, haha, but I described it as something wriggling in there...but when I looked it up everyone else said fluttering so I figured I'd go with that terminology! :-)
DeleteThe other day I found myself in the produce department wondering what size my grandchild would be the next week. Thank God no one in the store asked if I needed any help! They probably would be calling the men in the white jackets to take me away! I agree with Nana V it is such an awesome feeling when you feel fluttering! Love you! Mom
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