Family – Page 3 – Sara Morrison

26 Weeks

Baby Size

Baby Mo is the size of an acorn squash at 14 inches long and 1.7 to 2 pounds. For a non-produce comparison, he’s about the size of a VHS tape!

Highs

We are in the DOUBLE DIGITS until my due date! 98 days to go!

I feel better about making some nesting progress compared to last week. We finally picked a crib, and it arrived today (thank you to the Morrisons!). I think I need to officially relocate my desk to upstairs to make room for all of the assembly we need to do. I’m a little sad about leaving my office (mostly the ceiling fan), but there are a number of to-dos waiting on me to relocate as the first step, and I might as well do that now.

I also had lunch with my friend Jacque (who is a great mom!) and spent two hours picking her brain about childbirth and doulas and daycares and all sorts of topics. There are a number of advantages to being a “second mover” when having kids, and getting advice like this is near the top, followed by the trash bags of borrowed maternity clothes. 🙂

I also have progressed to a little bit of running with my walking! Running isn’t terribly comfortable, but it’s also not the excruciating pain I was having a few weeks ago. I feel much better about my Peachtree prospects now that I know I can run at least a few minutes here and there.

Oh – and I passed my glucose test so no gestational diabetes here. Which is good news because ice cream is a pretty important part of my diet right now.

Lows

Not being in constant pain makes everything else in life seem pretty good, so there’s not much here. I did have a pretty drastic “pregnancy brain” moment earlier this week where I could NOT figure out how to spell the word “succinct.” I even said it out loud, sounded it out, and couldn’t get close enough for Google’s dictionary to help me out for quite a while. It was both frustrating and amusing.

Other than that, I’m not sleeping terribly well, but it isn’t bothering me too much.

25 Weeks

Baby Size

Baby Mo is the size of a cauliflower at 13-13.5 inches long and about a pound and a half. I also read that my uterus is currently the size of a soccer ball which seems gigantic!

Highs

Josh and I took a long weekend trip to the beach! Even though I didn’t enjoy the heat and humidity, I definitely took advantage of floating in the pool as well as digging a hole in the sand for my belly, so I could lay on my stomach. If only they made mattresses with sand pits, so I could sleep on my stomach again…

My sacrum/SI issues continue to improve, so I can go for actual walks now! I walked up to an hour at the beach, and then this Monday I walked 4.5 miles. Running is still very uncomfortable, so it’s looking like Peachtree will be a long (very long) walk for me. I definitely have some FOMO about not being able to run as well as some general worries about the experience of walking a 10k (seriously, so long to go walk), but it’s the 50th anniversary of Peachtree and will be my 11th one, and I want to be there.

Everything seems to be going well with the baby’s health as well! I had my glucose test today, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone says. People say the glucose drink is disgusting, but I thought it tasted just like Sprite, maybe a tad sweeter. Baby had a strong heartbeat at 136, and he was quite the wiggle worm after I drank the glucose drink which is fun.

Lows

I have a decent amount of back pain / discomfort not necessarily related to my sacrum/SI issue. I am just generally uncomfortable with staying in any position (whether sitting or standing or laying down) for too long. And I’m only going to get bigger!

There’s also a bit of “time is running out” panic I occasionally get since I still haven’t moved out of the office/future nursery, and we have a number of things to do on top of that. But 15 weeks is still a lot of time!

24 Weeks

Baby Size

Baby Mo is the size of a cantaloupe at 11.3-11.8 inches long and about 1.3 pounds.

Highs

I got to see a lot of my coworkers and Praxis participants as well as former coworkers at a conference last week. It was so fun to meet some people in person for the first time as well as catch up with old friends. A number of the speakers I used to work with are moms, so I got some good advice along the way as well!

A moment that really stood out to me was when I got the chance to speak with Magatte Wade. I am a huge Magatte fan, and she squealed over my belly and dubbed herself the baby’s Auntie. To have someone who is incredibly busy doing amazing things with her life even know I was pregnant ahead of time and say she can’t wait to meet my child made me tear up on the spot.

Another moment of extreme gratitude was toward my mom! While the conference was great, there was a lot of sitting in uncomfortable chairs, and my back was a wreck at the end of every day. Mom drove all the way to Atlanta on Sunday and just rubbed my back for nearly an hour. She did a number of other PT-related things to try to help my SI-related pain, but laying on my pillow fort surrounding my belly (to be able to be on my stomach) and her rubbing my back was just so nice. And it worked! We went for almost a 20 minute walk after that (the longest I’ve walked in weeks), and I didn’t have any pain!

Even though my SI / sacrum issues haven’t fully resolved, the improvement to be able to go on walks has been great! I have impatiently tried running a few times (shocker), but the difference in force/impact is just too much right now. I’m still not giving up hope on Peachtree, though!

Lows

Really this is just some aches and pains and wishing I could run. Diaphragm pain is my newest growth pain, and I know he’ll start invading my lung and rib cage space soon enough. Oh boy!

And even if I can’t run, at least I can do every day life without pain like I was a couple of weeks ago. And there are other forms of exercise! I swam laps one day last week. It started comically bad, and I felt like my lungs had zero capacity, but it’s still an option.

23 Weeks

Baby size

Baby Mo is the size of a grapefruit! He’s about 11.5 inches long and a bit over a pound in weight. From here on out he is expected to “gain weight rapidly.” Oh boy…

Highs

I got another garbage bag of maternity clothes from a friend! There are several advantages to having kids after your friends, and this is certainly one of them. All of the advice is helpful, too. I am particularly excited about all of the tank tops since it’s almost officially summer.

I built my new bookcase upstairs and have all of my books moved out of the office-will-be-nursery. I still have some organizing to do, but it felt like a good step toward moving out of the office (even though I am taking my sweet time since it’s cooler in there than the loft where I am moving).

I had some improvement with my SI pain (more below), but the best was after sitting in a reclining chair at the movies for a couple of hours this weekend, I was pain free for the walk back to the car! When you’ve been waddle-limping for over a week, you take what you can get.

Lows

My SI pain continues. Thankfully I’ve improved to the point that I can walk around the house mostly pain free (huge quality of life improvement), but I still can’t go for a walk without pain, and I certainly can’t run. I saw my physical therapist at the end of last week, and she said my hip alignment looked fine and that my sacrum was rotated, which is what is pinching my SI on the right side. That was a little discouraging because it’s a bit easier to fix a hip alignment issue with some manual adjustment and exercises. I’ve been doing the recommended stretching and exercises for the sacrum issue as well, but it appears to be a harder problem to fix. I also got a new SI belt to wear throughout the day that is a big tighter to hold everything in place.

But – it could be worse! I’m still holding out hope to be able to run Peachtree and have 3 more weeks to get back to running. Cross your fingers for me.

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!

16 Weeks

Now that I got my initial post out, I’m more motivated to keep up with ongoings! Also, I found another woman’s blog over the weekend and reading her weekly updates was really helpful to me. Maybe this will help someone else in the future?

Baby size

Baby Mo is the size of an avocado! 5 to 5.5 inches long and about 2.5 oz in weight.

Highs

I got to visit my coworkers in Charleston last week! We ate giant pizza which was my favorite food-related moment of the trip.

I had a great run at the end of last week as well. Friday was plagued with storms, so I kept an eye on the radar and was finally able to get out the door in the late afternoon. I wanted to run my 8-mile route but was open to seeing how I felt. Lately the first mile of most every run has been uncomfortable, and I feel like I have to pee even if I went right before stepping outside. The first couple miles of this run followed this pattern, but then once I started feeling better, I felt so strong for the rest of the run! It was a great end to the week/start to the weekend to finish up feeling like I thrived during a longer run rather than just survived. I have a goal to do a 10-mile run before I get too big, and having a solid run like this made me more confident in my ability to do that.

Then on Saturday I met up with my friend James for a run, and it was so fun to have his company! I found that a lot of the discomforts I have while running alone aren’t there when I have someone there to distract me.

Also on Saturday we got to have lunch with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law! We haven’t seen them since Christmas, so it was nice to get the chance to catch up on life and share more about their nephew-to-be.

Lows

I’m having a LOT of SI pain on my right side. I had some about 6 weeks ago but managed to keep it under control with a few exercises, but this weekend it really flared up. I K-taped my back at the beginning of the week and opted for a pool run yesterday and a short run today, and both of those have helped. I have a pregnancy support belt set to be delivered today as well! I didn’t think I needed a pregnancy support belt this early, but my friend Jenn said she started running in hers at 16 weeks, so I will, too!

If you’d like to know what SI pain feels like, imagine having a stabbing/is-my-back-broken level pain when you randomly make certain movements, but you’re not sure enough which movements bother it to avoid them. Fun times.

The only new symptom to develop is my gag reflex is extremely sensitive, and I’m gagging when I brush my teeth now.

My main low is that I just don’t like how I look right now. All of my weight and expansion is right in my stomach, but I always imagined the expansion being a little…firmer. My expanded stomach is soft and flabby, so I’m in that awkward stage of, “Did you eat a big meal, or are you pregnant?”

Something that helped reading the blog I found this weekend is hearing someone else struggle with that and acknowledging that you can feel both unhappy about how your body looks because of the baby AND super excited about the baby growing there. They aren’t mutually exclusive.