17 Weeks along now...

I'm currently 17.5 weeks pregnant and thought I'd take a few minutes to write a few notes about this pregnancy before I forget everything, lol. This pregnancy has been so different from Caden's in just about every way. When I saw that second line on the pregnancy test my first thought was that it was a girl (and with Caden my first was that it was a boy). I'm not 100% convinced but with all the differences in this pregnancy I'm definitely still learning toward team pink. I would love a little girl, but would be thrilled beyond words for Caden to have a little brother. A few more weeks and we'll (hopefully) know one way or the other!

The first trimester was different for me. Right at about 5 weeks (it's like clockwork) I got very bloated and swollen looking in my belly, but after about a week or two it disappeared and the lovely allergies showed up along with some nausea this time around. I never had nausea with Caden other than the first few mornings (when I thought I was getting John's stomach bug). With this little one I had bouts with morning nausea but none of it was awful, just enough for me to ban eggs from being cooked in the house and then I'd lay on the couch for about 15 min and I'd be fine. I'd get occasional episodes throughout the day, but nothing consistent and some days were worse than others. I remember thinking that life would be great if I felt just a little bit worse b/c then I'd have an excuse to do nothing for feeling so bad, but unfortunately my nausea wasn't bad so bad I couldn't function. lol.

I continued to exercise 3 days a week, although I felt more pressure in my lower abdomen and had to modify my exercises starting around 8 or 9 weeks. I've continued to modify what I do as it feels necessary, but I still try to hit the gym at least 3 times a week! I started this pregnancy off weighing less than I have in years! Less than I started off with Caden by several pounds. It's been a little bittersweet for me because I finally lose that extra weight the month before finding out I was pregnant. My starting weight was 124 this time... we'll see if I feel up for sharing the ending weight, lol. As of right now I've gained zero pounds, which has me slightly worried because based on my eating choices I should have gained lots of weight! Maybe it's the exercise this time around, who knows. I'm definitely not complaining though.

With Caden I had to move to maternity pants at around 11 weeks, but so far I'm still in my pre pregnancy clothes right now. However, in the last few days my belly has finally decided to pop out and I've had to pull out the belly band and much prefer sweats over blue jeans, so I think I'm finally going to play catch up for the small belly and non-existent weight gain up to this point.

I've felt a few flutters here and there starting at around 14 or 15 weeks although it has not been consistent at all, but I also don't have near as much time to just sit still like I did with Caden (who I felt at 17 weeks).

It was this week (17) in my pregnancy with Caden that John left for Korea. So from this point forward all the changes I go through will be new to him!

I did take my first belly picture this week, but my computers operating system is at 0% so I have to do some cleaning before I can load them to the computer...

All in all things are going great! My next appointment is Dec 29th at which time we'll schedule the big ultra sound! I can't wait!