Holy cow, when did I become six months pregnant? It feels like the time is both flying and creeping along. March will be here before you know it, but let’s get through these holidays first, shall we? In the last few weeks, I think I’ve started experiencing every pregnancy symptom there is when you’re in the second trimester, which has been rough considering I went from no symptoms to ALL of them. I experience a lot of gas pain/pressure in my ribs and back, getting comfortable has become increasingly difficult, and I get breathless just sitting on the couch! I’ve been trying to do some prenatal yoga to help me feel better. But, enough about that!

baby size: 11.8ish inches and 1.3ish lbs, about the size of a large zucchini or ear of corn. He’s now considered viable if we were to be born tomorrow!

cravings: Chocolate-y cereal and cookies (fig newtons and sugar cookies). Y’all, the amount of sweets I’ve been eating this pregnancy has been unreal. I’ve always preferred salty and crunchy foods over sweets (like chips, fries, and savory cheese) but since becoming pregnant and having cravings, I’ve wanted the sweet stuff. I’m a little concerned that I’ll end up with gestational diabetes or something. I’ve gotten much better about balancing my intake of healthy foods with the sweets, but I still have that bowl of cocoa puffs before bed just about every night.

feelings: Emotionally, I’ve been staying pretty stable. I have had a few days recently where the crying has been free-flowing because of current life situations, but nothing that hasn’t been controllable. I figure I’m allowed to have a little catharsis every now and then. Physically, however, I’m feeling it. Like I mentioned above, I’m having all the symptoms right now and that’s making me a little moody.

movement: Baby boy is moving All. The. Time. I still feel him most in the evenings when I’m relaxing on the couch, but he does randomly kick and punch throughout the day. Sometimes I’ll even feel him moving around in the middle of the night if I wake up from a weird dream or have to go to the bathroom. It worries me just a little on the days he’s really still, but I guess he needs his rest like everyone else.

miss anything?: The holidays are coming up, which means parties and dressing up are just around the corner. Right now, I miss getting to wear all of my pretty and fancy dresses to holiday gatherings. And, while I haven’t done a deep search, it’s been harder than I expected to find a fun, glittery cocktail-style dress for pregnant women.

looking forward to:  Working on the nursery. The crib is up and we’re debating whether we should paint the room before we get any more furniture. Initially, I wasn’t interested in painting but here lately I’ve been changing my mind. We’re going with a woodlands/forest theme so I’m thinking we might paint at least one wall light blue and then put up a tree decal and paint some clouds. It seems like a lot of work so we’ll see what we end up deciding.

how we’re prepping: We’re still adding items to our registry to prep for baby showers. I have very little experience with babies so I’m practically clueless when it comes to knowing exactly what they’ll need besides a bed, food, and diapers. I’ll add a bunch of things to the registry and then remove them, and sometimes add them back! Do we need a changing table or should we invest in a dresser with a changing pad? Which mattress is best? What are the pros and cons of everything?  Ugh, it’s very overwhelming.

best moment of the month: Not specifically related to the pregnancy but I really enjoyed spending Thanksgiving with our families, some of whom haven’t seen the bump in a while, if at all. I love family so getting to spend the holiday with them while we’re prepping for our own little family was one of the best things to happen this entire year.

That’s it for now. Be sure to stay tuned for next month’s updates.

Linkups: Let it Shine

Thanksgiving is just around the corner so I’d like to take some time ahead of the holiday to reflect on the things in my life for which I am the most thankful. Thankful Thursday is a weekly series for the month of November.

With the holidays upon us and expecting a baby in the spring, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I grew up. Parenting styles and decisions are extremely personal but they often originate with what we know, which is our own experiences with how we were raised and the traditions of our families before us. Nick and I have created a couple of new, small traditions of our own since getting married, like purchasing a new ornament for our tree every Christmas, and now that we have a baby on the way, I’m really excited to establish our own family traditions. So this Thursday, I’m thankful for all of the wonderful traditions and practices I have to draw from as we start our family.

My family has always made a big deal out of birthdays and holidays, and I love it. We all come together, eat good food, and open gifts when the occasion calls for it. My aunt always bakes a cake or makes some kind of dessert. My uncle is almost always in charge of the gravy. My dad carves the turkey or operates the grill in the summertime. My grandmother makes coleslaw (we are from the south, afterall).

My brother and I would help my mom put up and decorate the Christmas tree. Sometimes we would go pick one out of a lot, sometimes it would come from our back yard (seriously, we lived in the woods), and one time we dug the tree up, roots and all, and then planted it after Christmas. It lived for so long after that! Due to crazy work schedules and dispersed families, we would celebrate Christmas Eve with the extended family by enjoying a feast and opening all of our presents, and then Christmas Day would be much more low key with just the four of us in my immediate family: mom, dad, brother, and me.

I’m not sure yet how we’ll navigate the holidays once the baby is born since our families live on opposite sides from the state from each other and we don’t want to deprive any grandparents of holiday time with the little one. Luckily we have some time to figure it out. But I know one thing for sure: I’m extremely thankful to be so close to my family and to have traditions that make the holidays so memorable.

Sweet baby boy!

That’s right! We are thrilled to announce that Baby NCsquared is a boy and I can’t wait to be a boy mommy! I’m really impatient so there’s no way I could wait to find out at a party or even at birth. In fact, here’s a confession: We’ve known for about a month now! I paid for an elective ultrasound in my 16th week to find out the baby’s sex as soon as possible because I couldn’t wait an extra month to find out at my 20-week scan today. But JUST IN CASE the sonographer was wrong, I wanted to wait until it was confirmed at our 20-week scan before making the big announcement. And you may be thinking how likely is it that the sonographer is wrong? Well, probably not very likely BUT I did have a friend from high school who went her entire first pregnancy thinking she was having a boy because that’s what the sonographer told her only to give birth to a beautiful baby girl! Oh, and then there’s this woman whose surprise at giving birth to a boy after being told she was having a girl was captured for the world to see! We have double confirmation (and some pretty good sonograms for proof) so we’re now confident we’re having a boy 🙂

Another confession: there’s something I need to get off my chest, a soapbox that I need to address. I *hate* when these things are called “gender reveals” because there’s a big difference between gender and biological sex. This was a biological sex reveal because all we’re telling you is that my baby will be born with male reproductive anatomy: penis, scrotum, testes, etc. Gender is a socially constructed role that describes certain characteristics of being male or female, but it isn’t always determined by reproductive anatomy. But that’s a post for another day.

Anyway, now that we know we’re having a boy, we’ve picked out a name (to be revealed later) and have started decorating the nursery. We’re doing a cute woodland animals theme with the fox as the main character. It’s also given me a chance to start bonding with him because I can call him by his name and better picture our future with him. I really can’t wait to meet him and see what his personality is like and all those other cool things that come along with bring life into the world.

20 weeks!

I’m 20 weeks along now and super excited that I’m finally halfway there. In the early days, it felt like this moment would never get here and even now, it feels like the baby itself will never get here. Hurry up March! My pregnancy has been very calm so far. I was expecting to experience all of the horrible symptoms of pregnancy like bad morning sickness, food aversions, and out-of-control emotions. However, I was extremely lucky and only experienced a little bit of morning sickness and some fatigue; it was very manageable! The only food aversions I had were coffee, which went away as I entered my second trimester, and onions, which actually got stronger as I entered my second trimester. And I’m finally starting to get that little baby bump!

But enough about that. On to my current stats!

baby size: According to my Glow Nurture app, the baby weighs about 10.5 ounces and is 10 inches long – about the length of a small banana.

cravings: Smoothies. As with most of my cravings (even pre-pregnancy), if I saw someone consuming something that looked delicious I’d want it. About two weeks ago, I saw someone drinking a smoothie and I’ve wanted one ever since. While I haven’t made to a smoothie king, I’ve made do with Bolthouse Farms and other smoothie drinks from the grocery store. But you have to be careful with those; they can have a ton of sugar!

feelings: I haven’t been nearly as emotional as I thought I would be but I’m noticing the tears come much easier these days. It wasn’t unusual to find me crying during a movie or at a sweet video or commercial but now I can just see someone crying and it’ll bring tears. I’ve also noticed that I get irritated a little quicker than I did before, but luckily it doesn’t last long. Otherwise, I still have my sunny disposition 🙂

best moment of the month: By far, the most amazing moment of my entire pregnancy so far was the first time I felt the baby move. At 16 weeks, I read that I could start feeling movements at any moment (it’s called “quickening”) and I kept researching what women said it felt like, hoping I had felt it/would feel it soon. They described the feeling as flutters or gas bubbles. It wasn’t until I was about 18 weeks that I finally felt it! I was lying on the couch in the evening, watching TV and playing on my phone, when I felt the little muscle spasms-flutters in my stomach. It took me a second to realize what it was, but when it clicked, I was so excited. I feel them pretty much once a day now, usually in the evening before bed when I’m relaxing on the couch, and I absolutely love it.

movement: See above.

miss anything?: The only thing I think I really miss right now is roller coaster rides. Not that I’m an avid amusement park attendee, but seeing signs for Carowind’s or Busch Garden’s Halloween attractions made me realize I couldn’t go right now even if I wanted to. Just the thought of not being able to do something as fun as that makes me miss it, even when I had no plans to do it in the first place!

looking forward to: The anatomy scan next week. I’m anxious to find out whether the baby is healthy and growing as expected, and to confirm the sex. Also, Thanksgiving with our families. Many of our family members haven’t seen the bump yet so it’s going to be a lot of fun. Plus, FOOD!

how we’re prepping: Slow and steady at the moment. We started our Centering Pregnancy class but we haven’t gotten very far with the nursery. That’s pretty common, right? We’ve put up new curtains, bought a few cute decorations, and measured the closet for an upgrade. My mother is giving us the crib she used when she babysat my nephews. I love scoring free baby gear!  I think once the crib set up, everything else in the nursery will fall into place.

Linkups: Let it Shine 

Photo source

While I don’t want this space to start centering around my pregnancy and the coming baby, it is an integral part of my life — of our NCsquared Life, if you will — so I can’t ignore it. One aspect that I’m really excited about is the Centering Pregnancy classes that Nick and I decided to join. Centering Pregnancy is prenatal care that happens in a small group of expectant mothers and their partners/companions and follows the recommended schedule of prenatal visits, but each visit is about 90 minutes hours long, giving women 10 times more time with their provider. Women are empowered  in their prenatal care by taking their own weight and blood pressure and recording their own health data with private time with their provider for belly check. Then everyone in the group (there are 2-3 other couples in mine) circle up where a healthcare provider leads discussions and interactive activities that address important and timely health topics. I think one of the coolest aspects about this form of care is that it brings 8-10 women who are all due at the same time together for care. I’ve only been to one class so far but I really like it. My particular class (there are several classes that meet at different times) is very diverse with lots of different ages, ethnicities, races, etc. and I’m really looking forward to getting to know everyone and creating a bond with these other expecting mothers.

In our class, we talked a lot about nutrition and what we should and shouldn’t eat. Here are the lifesavers that my provider approved:

• Lunch meat. Because food standards are so high in the U.S., there’s almost nothing to worry about when eating turkey, ham, bologna, etc. In fact, she said we’re more likely to get sick from spoiled mayo from leaving the sandwich out too long, if, for example, you make a sandwich in the morning for your lunch later that day and you don’t properly refrigerate it.
• Sushi and smoked salmon. Same as above! She also said that if you ate a lot of sushi pre-pregnancy then your body is already used to that bacteria so you’re going to be fine. She did advise to use your nose: because of pregnant ladies’ super-heightened sense of smell, we’d be able to smell if something wasn’t right. If it smells off, don’t eat it. And that goes for everything! But look, this girl loves her sushi.
• Soft cheeses, from the grocery store. Again, same as above regarding the high food standards in the U.S. Just make sure the cheese was made with pasteurized milk and you’re good to go.
• Soft or runny eggs. My favorite part of the egg has long been the runny, gooey yolk. Dipping toast in yolk to me is like breakfast heaven. So I was really excited to hear my doctor say it’s perfectly fine to eat runny eggs.
• Coffee/caffeine. Most recommendations say you can have up to 200 mg per day, which is about one cup. My doc said we could have more than that and we’d be fine, but these days my heart will let me know if I’ve had too much because it will start beating so fast or feel fluttery. One cup is enough for me right now, for sure.
• Alcohol.* Controversial, I know, but hear me out. My doctor said that having the occasional glass of wine (the key word here being occasional, obviously) will not give your baby Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Examples she gave as ‘occasional’ was having one glass of wine with Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, or having one glass of champagne on New Year’s. I think this is reasonable. After all, you hear of European women drinking wine all the time during their pregnancies and their kids turn out fine.

*Listen, I’m not a healthcare provider so I’m not claiming that I know best and I’m definitely NOT trying to give you medical advice so please don’t try to sue me. I’m simply sharing the information that my provider gave to me. Obviously, every person has to make their own decisions and if they choose to avoid every single one of these things, then more power to them. I applaud their decisions. My decision, however, was to drive straight to Bruegger’s Bagels after this appointment and scarf down a smoked salmon bagel. And so far, I’ve been just fine!

I can’t wait for class next month when we discuss body changes and the common discomforts of pregnancy, and how to take care of yourself. I’ll be sure to share any interesting information we receive!

Until next time,
Nikki