Tires, heartburn, and impatience..

Pregnancy has been showing itself in full force.

I now have a "tire" positioned around my waist that I hope will soon begin to round out into a pregnant belly. This whole look I have going which makes me appear as though I'm in need of losing a few 20 lbs and doing some serious crunches is NOT helping my hormonal, lack of a self-esteem. Everything on my left side is growing. I'm assuming it's because baby is positioned on that side. (If not, I'm going to continue persuading myself of this) Needless to say, I don't have the luxury of walking around with a "glow" that makes everyone stop in their tracks and stare in jealousy of my beautiful pregnant self. Wishful thinking.

Perk: I have a beautiful baby inside of me that is forming so perfectly and that in itself is worth my self esteem and body being taken over without my input. Not to say that I won't cry in 10 minutes about being fat and ugly, but at least after each emo breakdown I know that it is all for the baby. Pregnancy is a sacrifice, without a doubt in many ways, but one that I would be willing to make time and time again.

At week 16, I started feeling the baby kick or flutter, whatever you wanna call it, and let me tell you..I LOVE IT. The 1st 14-15ish weeks I didn't feel "pregnant" other than the sickness. Now that I am feeling my baby move, it just gives a peace of mind that he or she is really in there. WOW. I can't wait until they get stronger, Kyle can feel them, and we can see him or her actually moving across my stomach.

At week 16, I was still experiencing the sickness. It is looking like I will be one of those who is sick throughout, but praying it's just taking a little longer to go away but that relief is on the horizon. I was so sick. Couldn't keep any medicine down, vomiting every 20 minutes, a headache from down yonder that kept me in tears, the list goes on. It was awful. I never knew the migraines that accompanied pregnancy. Wheeeeew weeee! Not fun.

This past week, week 17, I have felt a lot better. I got medicine for my migraines which work within 30 minutes. THANK YOU JESUS! I'm hoping the headaches where what were causing the vomiting, because I haven't gotten sick since. The only thing I'm dealing with is an over-active bladder, not that I'm surprised. Well that an heartburn. Lord, do I have some ridiculous heartburn!! Hopefully that fulfills it's truth with the old saying that heartburn equals lots of hair! Oh how I'd love to have a baby with a head FULL of hair. A bald baby will be just lovely too. ;)

We've spent the last week in Mississippi with Kyle's family. So it was definitely nice not being sick. It was also a great way to get my mind off of thinking about baby stuff 24/7 and enjoying company, watching movies, playing games, etc instead. I'm not looking forward to the ride home. The idea of being stuck in a car is not exciting. :/

I still have to wait 3 weeks until we find out the gender. The anticipation is driving me CRAZY. I'm so ready to be able to put a name to this angel in my belly. I just hope I can be creative enough to pull of the gender reveal party successfully. Even though the fact of the matter is, they won't care as much about the party as they will about whether we are having a boy or girl.

Definitely exciting times are ahead. Now if only I could just fast-forward jusssssst a little..

Weeks 14 & 15

15 weeks today! YAY!

How I'm feeling: I can say in these past few days I have felt great! I've been in an especially good mood. The only symptoms I've been dealing with from week 14 until now are headaches and cramping. When my headaches come it is nothing like I've ever experienced before. They are NOTHING like pre-pregnancy headaches. It feels like my head and neck are being hit continuously with a hammer times 9 thousand. My cramps feel like my insides are stretching from one pelvis to the other. I'm reminding myself that all the stretching is my body's way of preparing itself for the little, rapid-growing baby that is in there. In that case, all of these discomforts are worth it. :)

I lack the patience I need! I still have 5 weeks to go until I find out whether my little boo is a BOY or a GIRL! The waiting game is driving me craaaaazy! It feels like the days and weeks are going by so slow! Plus, it doesn't help that I'm at home all day with nothing to take my mind off of it. I'm so curious to see! Everyone around, for the most part, says GIRL. I will be equally thrilled either way, I just wanna know NOW! I wish I could beg my Dr. to get out the ultrasound machine and check at my next appointment instead of making me wait til 20! A girl can dream..

I haven't felt any real flutters yet, but I'm hopeful that they will come soon. My mom just bought us a heart doppler, so hopefully we can get that working soon and be able to hear the heartbeat whenever we want. :)

Milestones of the week:

• I had my first instinct/feeling that "it" is a boy. I'm not counting on it because I'm not dead-set on it. I really don't know!?! All the silly wives tales things point toward girl.
  
• I graduate from college next Saturday, Dec 10th. That's an accomplishment! I will be the first in my family to graduate from college.