growing a baby

I'm not sure yet how I want to do these little pregnancy updates.  I don't want them to totally take over everything on this family blog, however, I do want to record things so that little miss can look back and see what life was like while she was growing in my belly.  Maybe someday she will read this while she is carrying a baby and compare notes:).  It would be so cool if my mom had something like that I could read.  

I kept pretty detailed journals with the boys, but that was mostly for comparison sake.  Since don't plan to have another pregnancy, I don't know that I need to record every detail of every pound gained when.  Maybe I will..we'll see.

So, weeks 7-12..

Brutally tired and exhausted.  I don't know that I've ever been that tired in my life.  I was fine with it though.  I would rather be tired than throwing up.  I only threw up a hand full of times in the first trimester. I had a lot of food aversions.  Most things just didn't sound good.  I had to make myself choke down water.  It felt so harsh on my stomach.  Somehow I managed to take walks with Rhett most days.  I also took a lot of naps.

Poor Dallas became Cinderella around here.  Most weekends you could find him doing laundry, mopping the floors and making beds.  He's such a trooper.  My house would have fallen apart without him.

I gained 1 pound at the end of the first trimester.  This is normal for me.

12-16

Sickness began.  I know, right!?  What the heck?!  I was so excited for my strength to come back and start feeling like myself again, and instead I started throwing up and feeling super nauseous.  Ick.  If you haven't experienced true pregnancy nausea, 1. I hate you, and 2. there's just no way to describe it.  It's horrid.  There's really nothing like it.  AND, you forget about how bad it is between pregnancies.  Once you feel it again you wonder how you could ever forget such a terrible feeling.  The end prize is totally worth it, though.  I don't mean to complain at all.  I would take an entire pregnancy of sickness to get the joy of my boys.  Every dry heave was a gift:).

16- 17

Feeling much better now!  I only heaved a couple of times and have gotten back to feeling more like myself.  I am able to stay up past 8:00 now, and that in itself is a HUGE victory.  My belly is starting to pouch out a bit and I have gained somewhere between 3 and 4 pounds all told.  I traded in my running shoes for a swimsuit and have been swimming about 40-50 25 meter laps 3 times a week.  I will still walk as much as possible.  I'm taking an aqua zumba class today, so that should be interesting.  I've never zumba'd in my life, so adding water should be totally comical.

I'm pretty confident we have a name!  We had a name that we liked before I was even pregnant, which is not the norm for us, so I think it's the one.  I will share it once we decide for sure and let our family know.  She will have some family history in her name and I love it!  We had 3 boy names this time.  I planned to let Dallas make the final decision on which we chose.  The names were Bo, Brooks and Smith.  I'm pretty sure he would have gone with Brooks.  Brooks Martin just sounds like a ball player.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures to go along with my weeks.  I'm not really great about posing for pics by myself, so I assume I will get some mile-marker photos of my baby bump at like 20+ weeks, but no weekly shots.  I promise not to take any bare belly photos (or at least I won't post them for public eyes to see).  I definitely promise not to post with me in a sports bra and Dallas with his hands wrapped around my belly standing in a river next to a giant piece of driftwood...just sayin.  Some things I just don't understand.

I can't believe it is already May and I'm already four months along.  If the next four months could go just as fast I would be pleased.  Wishful thinking, I know.  Plus, I want time to stand still with Jude and Rhett.

Have a wonderful end to this beautiful week!