May 2019 – Sara Morrison

21 Weeks

Baby Size

Baby Mo is the size of carrot – about 10.5 inches long and 11-12.5 ounces. 21 weeks is when they change from “crown to rump” measurements to “head to toe” measurements, so that accounts for the big jump from last week!

Highs

I’m going to keep my office for a couple more months before we turn it into the nursery, but I spent some time this weekend measuring spaces and moving some furniture around upstairs to decide where we’ll put my desk. I do a lot of video calls, so I not only needed an outlet and a decent amount of wall space but also an acceptable background for those calls.

We put some other organization plans in motion as well. I got a new bookshelf to move my books out of the nursery to make way for more baby items, and I’m excited to put that together this weekend.

Other than that I enjoy feeling the occasional jab as he starts moving around more. 🙂

Lows

It.is.so.hot. I know everyone is hot because we are experiencing record temps for this time of year, but my ability to deal with the heat and humidity feels impaired.

After weeks of little to no SI pain, I ran without my support belt this morning (I did last week as well with no troubles) and now the SI irritation is back with a vengeance. I guess I will be keeping the belt on from now on.

Thanks for reading! As a reminder, I’m participating in a 10-week fundraising effort for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and there are only 10 days left! Every donation works toward a cure. Donate HERE.

20 Weeks

Baby Size

Baby Mo is the size of a banana – about 6.5 inches long and 10-11 ounces (although they told me he was 11 ounces at my scan last week!).

Highs

Halfway there! Cue the music.

The anatomy scan went well! All of his organs got a thumbs up which was a huge relief since the anatomy scan is one of the last times you can find out something is wrong developmentally. Baby Mo wasn’t super cooperative at the scan, but I did get to see him suck his thumbs and fingers when he wasn’t completely hiding his face with his feet and hands. So cute!

He continues to be a wiggler as well. I think I don’t feel all of the subtle movements because almost every time I feel him, it’s significant. Josh was even able to feel him last night! I don’t feel him every day yet, though.

We got some fun baby items from garage sales/Facebook Marketplace last week as well! Josh has a coworker who scoped out some yard sales for us and got us a bouncer and a jump station for $10 each.

My biggest win was getting a BOB Revolution Pro stroller from Facebook Marketplace after weeks of searching and messaging various sellers. I don’t get why so many sellers don’t respond to messages, but I was pumped to find a lightly used one within 30 minutes and for a bargain. Having a stroller meant for serious running is important to me, but I really struggled with the $450-500 price tag. Luckily there are plenty of used ones out there, and I even found new ones for as low as $375 on sites like Zulily if you’re opposed to buying used.

Lows

The most important part of the anatomy scan was that he is healthy, but other than that, it was an incredibly frustrating experience.

I get my ultrasounds at a different office than my OB, and last time they saw me almost right at my appointment time. I assumed that would be the case again, so Josh came, hoping to get to see the ultrasound, and ultimately had to leave and go back to work after sitting with me in the waiting room for 45 minutes.

Once I actually went back, the ultrasound took about 40 minutes. It was very fun to see him for that long, but I didn’t realize the cost of that would be how sore I felt the rest of the day and afterward. I felt like I got punched in the lower stomach for a good 2 days.

And the ending was anticlimactic because the printer connected to my ultrasound broke, so I only got one photo (of his feet) to take home and show Josh. They had multiple techs come in to try to fix it, and everyone just kept saying “I’ve never seen this before,” and they said they couldn’t email me any of the photos either. I have a regular OB appointment again next week in the same building, so I am either going to call or stop by ahead of time to see if they can have some printed for me to pick up. It was definitely a bummer to not have anything to bring home to Josh!

Other than that I officially gave up on trying to run 6 days per week as I really tried to force that last week and was miserable by the end of it. And very tired! I need an extra day to have a later alarm as that makes it easier to get up on the other days (especially as it get hot and earlier wakeups become necessary).

Thanks for reading! As a reminder, I’m participating in a 10-week fundraising effort for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and there are only 2 weeks left! Every donation, even just $5, works toward a cure. Donate HERE.

19 Weeks

Baby size

Baby Mo is the size of a large mango and is about 6 inches long, weighing 8-9 ounces.

Highs

My best friend gave me an entire trash bag full of maternity clothes! It was like Christmas! I am now exclusively wearing maternity shorts/pants and have a great stash of shirts to turn to when I stop fitting into my regular ones.

Josh told me about Predaddit – the reddit community for expecting dads, and it’s the cutest thing ever! I also found the expecting mom community – Baby Bumps – and have enjoyed reading some of the posts there. There can also be stories of loss, but people are good about titling them in a way that it makes clear whether they’re happy or sad.

And the most exciting news – I’m pretty sure I had some movement! On Josh’s birthday I felt three strong pulses in my lower stomach. I pushed back on the spot and then it pulsed back at me! That is nothing like the “butterfly wings” I’ve been reading about, but I have felt some more subtle movements since then.

We have our anatomy scan tomorrow! I’m excited to see Baby Mo looking a little more like a baby and less like a blob now that’s getting bigger.

Lows

I had some bad congestion/sinus infection-type symptoms last week that made me feel awful! Nothing related to pregnancy – just normal person miserable.

Other than that I’ve been struggling with the heat and humidity as summer approaches. I get hot very quickly, and it takes a long time to cool down after. I’m sure part of it is just needing to adjust as all of us do every year, but it does have me a little worried for actual summer!

Thanks for reading! As a reminder, I’m participating in a 10-week fundraising effort for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and there are only 3 weeks left! Every donation, even just $5, works toward a cure. Donate HERE.

18 Weeks (plus Seattle pictures)

Baby size

Baby Mo is the size of a bell pepper and is 5 to 5.5 inches long and is 6-7 ounces in weight. My favorite non-product comparison is that the baby is about the size of a Nintendo NES Classic Controller.

Highs

I was in Seattle visiting Becka for the majority of last week! Seattle is beautiful, and I enjoyed the cool weather and lack of humidity for sure. When it’s clear enough to see Mount Rainier from UW’s campus, it honestly looks fake it’s so pretty.

Also pretty – an alpine lake! We hiked the Bridal Veil Falls trail and the Lake Serene trail on Mount Index in the central Cascades. The map said it was an 8 mile hike, but I am very skeptical since my watch said 9.2, and the “2 miles” from the falls to the lake felt like much more than that. But it was worth it!

We enjoyed some Zebra Cakes on a rock out on the lake before heading back. The total time on the hike was just shy of 5 and a half hours, and I was POOPED when we got done. Even though the downhill headed back was faster and easier, I still took quite a few breaks to just sit and get off my feet.

I got to see some of the city as well. We rode the Seattle Great Wheel on the pier and toured both the Klondike Gold Rush Museum and the Museum of History and Industry. I also saw the Fremont Troll (under the bridge, of course), and the views from Gas Works Park at night are spectacular!

Other than that, I am anxiously awaiting the first movements from Baby Mo! You can expect to feel the baby move anywhere from 16-25 weeks (what a range), and it tends to be later for first-timers since you aren’t familiar with what to expect.

Lows

I had a really vivid nightmare a couple of days ago that made it really hard to calm down enough to go back to sleep. Yay, pregnancy dreams!

My SI joint mainly is doing better but sometimes even if I do all of my stretching/activation techniques, it still is a pain. I took today off from running to help it calm down again (and because I wanted to sleep in…).

Thanks for reading! As a reminder, I’m participating in a 10-week fundraising effort for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and you can help! Every donation, even just $5, works toward a cure. Donate HERE.

More Seattle pics

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17 Weeks

Baby size

Baby Mo is the size of a pear and is still 5 to 5.5 inches long but weighs a little more – around 5 ounces.

Highs

I got that 10-mile run in! It was questionably smart to do 10 miles the first time I wore my new support belt, but I felt like time was running out to get this distance in, so I just went for it. It was great! I was quite tired for the rest of the day, but I didn’t flare up my SI joint pain or make anything feel worse, so it was worth it.

Speaking of the SI joint, it has been behaving itself much better lately, so I haven’t been hurting like I was the week before.

I also bought my first maternity clothes! My jeans still fit right now but are getting a bit more uncomfortable, so I wanted to make sure I had something other than sweatpants to wear when the day comes that I can’t button my jeans. Since we are very close to shorts weather for the rest of the pregnancy, I only got one pair of jeans along with some shorts and a couple of shirts. I’m a huge fan of the shorts! Maternity shorts are super comfortable.

I ended week 16 with a doctor’s appointment where I got to hear the strong heartbeat (146) which is always nice. 🙂

Lows

I had a bad “pregnancy brain” day last week. I was making a birthday cake for a friend, so I needed to run to the store to grab a few things. In general I prefer Kroger to Publix and had planned on going there. I got in my car and…ended up at Publix. I didn’t even realize I had gone to the wrong store until I parked. It seemed like too much trouble to go over to Kroger when Publix has everything I needed (just in a worse store layout IMO), so I spent twice as long in the store trying to find everything. I also had the fun task of figuring out what the word “softer” meant that I had put on the list (it was powdered sugar, of course).

The only other low of the week is that I found out only 1 pair of my non-athletic shorts fit now. It’s starting to warm up, so I changed into shorts one afternoon only to find that I had extremely limited options. I guess I’ll be wearing those maternity shorts earlier than expected!