Pregnancy Update: Weeks 1 - 21

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who congratulated us here, on Facebook and on Instagram. We loved reading all of your comments, and we're just so excited to finally be able to talk about it with everyone!

Since I made it halfway through the pregnancy without a peep, I thought I'd take a little jog down memory lane and fill you all in on some of the details from the beginning until now. All in all, it has been a really, really easy pregnancy - no morning sickness at all, no extreme exhaustion, no headaches, no swelling, no backaches - and for that I am SO thankful. During the first trimester, I did sort of have a weird relationship with food. I'd get an upset stomach if I didn't eat enough, and I'd get an upset stomach if I ate too much, so I had to find the balance between the two (which I wasn't very good at doing). To get through it, I kept snacks everywhere (crackers in my purse, granola bars in my car) and drank a lot of peppermint tea (which is supposed to be good for upset stomachs). I also HATED fruits and vegetables for the first three months. Just the thought of them grossed me out. Instead, I craved Sonic burgers and Wendy's Frosty's.

We had our first ultrasound at 10 weeks, and it was so exciting to see the baby for the first time. Even though I knew there was a baby in there (I took enough tests, that's for sure!), it was still surreal to see it up on the screen. It (we didn't know she was a 'she' then) wiggled and danced and moved its little arms all around for us, and I wished I could get an ultrasound every single day.

Once I made it to the second trimester, most of the food weirdness went away. I was able to stop worrying so much about when I ate, and I (thankfully) started liking healthy foods again. The only negative symptoms I have now are groin pain on my left side that sometimes can get pretty bad (said to be caused by the loosening ligaments in my pelvis - yuck!) and leg cramps in the mornings when I wake up (which I HATE). Other than that, I pretty much feel like my pre-pregnancy self.

Right around 17 weeks, I was able to start feeling the baby move, which was amazing. I had read a million articles on what it was supposed to feel like and would lay really still in the morning and at night before bed to see if I could feel anything. After doing that a few times, I started to recognize little movements (sort of like muscle spasms) that I was pretty sure were the baby, and I was right! Now, at 21 weeks, you can actually see my stomach move from the outside when she kicks (very cool!). In the beginning, I thought I might be weirded out by feeling something move inside my stomach, but it really is such a neat feeling, and I always get excited when she starts to move around (she usually gets really active after I eat - little fatty).

Our 20-week ultrasound was scheduled for July 2nd - Jon's birthday - even though Jon was away at school. It was a bummer that he couldn't be there in the room with me to see her again and find out that she was a 'she', but the ultrasound tech let me call him and put him on speaker phone when she told us the gender. That appointment was one of my favorites because the ultrasound lasted so long. I was able to watch her for almost 45 minutes while the tech took a bunch of different pictures and measurements. The whole time she had her legs up over her head in this really uncomfortable-looking position, and we kept laughing at her. (Maybe we've got a future gymnast on our hands??)

Now that I'm past the halfway point - I'm finally starting to look pregnant, which I'm thrilled about! I sort of thought pregnant women got a big belly as soon as they peed on the stick, but that's so not the case. Even though my little bump is still tiny, I'm ridiculously proud of it and love to show it off. I can't wait until it gets bigger and bigger! (Although watching the numbers on the scale climb up and up is a little bit unnerving.)

In some ways, it feels like this pregnancy is going by really fast, and in other ways, it feels like forever ago that I found out. We still have so much to do before November (put together a nursery, pick out a name, read a million more baby books), because this little lady is going to be here before we know it!

I'm so thankful to all of my family and friends for their love, support and excitement (and hand-me-down baby clothes, of course!) and for Jon who has been an amazing help during this whole experience so far. (Let's just say pregnancy will make you get to know somebody reaaallll fast - in ways you never thought you'd know that person.) ;) But all jokes aside, he has gone above and beyond, giving me back massages, talking through my worries and concerns, and even buying me 'Pregnancy Preparedness Kits' at the start of each trimester full of fun necessities like crackers, popsicles, cozy blankets and framed ultrasound pictures. He really is a keeper, that one.

Now that the cat's out of the bag and we've shared our secret with all of you, I hope to do more updates like this (though not as long as this one, obviously!), so I can remember all of these fun details down the road. Thanks for hanging in there with me on this one - I know it was a lot! And thanks again for all of your sweet comments. I love you guys!