Pregnancy: 16 Week Update

Sorry my blog posts have only been pregnancy related lately. It's a struggle for me to find the balance between exhaustion, working enough, parenting enough, cleaning enough, cooking enough, blogging enough...you get the picture. 

How far along? 16 Weeks

Size of Baby:  Avocado! This happens to be a staple snack for LW and I LOVE guacamole, so I haven't seemed to have an issue consuming or cutting up avos this week :) Thank goodness. 

Weight Gain: Still no clue. Two more weeks until I weigh in again! 

Nursery:  My window treatment obsession has been curbed! HOORAY! Finally. I was nearly losing sleep over the fact that we would miss the last available blinds I liked at Bed Bath & Beyond before they were sold out (discontinued model) so on New Year's Day Hubs and I trekked out to the store with LW and bought the last two. I am so relieved. 

Also, I put my nesting to good use by updating LW's "big boy room" windows: 

He isn't in the twin bed yet, but I already feel like his room is so grown up with the window treatments and new throw (both of which have helped us with nap time - story for another post perhaps). 

Movement: With LW I feel like from 10 weeks on he was just running laps. I know it's normal to not feel movement at all until 18 or so weeks, but this baby is really a snoozer. I'm not sure if it's a cause for concern, or if it's because I am so busy I don't stop to think and feel and connect with him (queue Mom guilt) or if it's just too early...or if he's truly just a lazy bum! In the ultrasounds I've had so far the tech has had to jostle him pretty firmly to get him to cooperate or move at all and even then he gave a casual hand gesture or slow-motion kick and went back to napping. Maybe he will be like that in real life....since we all know in real life Billy DOES just run laps, constantly. A mom can dream, ya know. 

Symptoms:  I'm fighting the tail end of an annoying cold that just won't die...so my nose is stuffy a lot. And I'm sure that isn't being helped by the pregnancy at all. Otherwise, I'm suddenly very hungry. And could eat all. the. food. 

Cravings:  Chocolate cake glazed doughnuts. Ohhh baby. I tried getting sour cream doughnut holes at the grocery store and that did not hit the spot so on our way to church on Sunday Hubs stopped and got me one of the delicious doughnuts I've been craving. Ohhhhh it made me so very very happy. 

Looking forward to: Our ultrasound in two weeks! Hubs took the day off of work and I am already looking forward to having another very long weekend with him home to help (and snuggle). 

Things I can't get off my mind: Since we took care of my blinds crisis and Hubs got me a doughnut, I'm happy as a clam! I'm feeling a slight nag from my subconscious about wanting to find a care option for LW a few days a week...and then wondering what I will do when Mo arrives...how will I manage...but I'm doing my best to just smash those nagging thoughts right back down to where they came from and try to enjoy every minute I can with LW as we are still just the two of us during the work day and enjoy the pregnancy with Mo as much as possible. 

Every day I feel like I hit a near-breaking point and wonder, "HOW can I do this?! WHY do I do this!? WHEN will it get better?!!" and I somehow seem to keep pushing through, persevering, and everything is fine. By the end of the work day I've always done what I needed to do, dinner is ready to start, and I can start looking forward to Hubs coming home to help with everything. Somehow, every day....it just works. I am so thankful for that.

I have become addicted to Call the Midwife and seeing all of those natural deliveries and home births has made me start thinking, "Could I have this baby naturally? Do I think I could do it this time? Will this labor be different from the labor I experienced with LW?" Then, there was an episode with a placental abruption (as I had with LW) and it all came flooding back to me. The pain. The fear. The worry. The relief and comfort I felt from my epidural and knowing I had a team of tremendous doctors and nurses by my side...and immediately I thought, "Yes. An epidural it is. Unless God will have it differently, I will deliver this baby comfortably with a beautifully numbing epidural." because the moment I got it with LW, everything got so, so so much better.