~4 months down, 5 to go . . .

making progress
fine, if you go by official due date, i still have five months plus a week until baby girl [we think] makes her appearance. that sounds like a long time, but let me tell you — the past few months have gone SO fast! — probably due to a great combination of happiness, busy-ness [but nothing too bad], and excited anticipation.

some updates: week 17

feeling: still REALLY good. no nausea, no pain, and good energy! i do get tired at the end of the day — while i’ve never been a night owl, now it’s more like an uncontrollable urge to crawl between the sheets at around 9 pm. this is a little sad because at times that’s when josh gets home! on those nights [like last night] i make sure to leave dinner ready for him and just wait for him to join me in bed.

symptoms: other than the early bedtime, the only annoying symptom left that i have is frequent [and i mean FREQUENT] urination. especially in the morning — i basically go every 20-30 minutes, no exaggeration. i also feel like i need to pee during the first half of nearly every AM run, even if i’ve gone just as i head out the door [and i always do!]. i think this is more of a pressure issue than a real bladder thing, though, because it goes away about a mile in! other than that, i probably wouldn’t know that i was pregnant. except for the bump . . .

what i’m wearing: a mix of maternity + non. most of my pants are maternity — i got tired of dealing with the bella bands with my million daily bathroom trips! i do still have one pair of non-maternity jeans that somehow fit [without band] underneath — but i’m guessing my days of wearing these are numbered. most of my tops are not, but i’ve started to experiment with a few that are. i wear a lot of long cardigans these days [mostly non-maternity]. i have a lot of cute maternity tops + dresses on deck that i’m going to start wearing next month when i go on service in the hospital. it’s interesting how certain items definitely minimize vs. maximize the bump!

this dress = a maximizer – i think that’s why i love it! [2.5 weeks ago]
weight gain: after starting rather quickly out of the gate in the 1st tri [my hunger levels now still are nowhere near where they were then!], i’ve tapered off a little. according to the OB’s scale i was only up 1.6 lbs over the past 4 weeks [ie, ave 0.4 lb/week]. this is actually a little less than what is recommended for the 2nd tri [i believe it’s 0.5 – 1 lb/week], but she didn’t express any concern, so i’m not going to stress about it. my TOTAL weight gain so far is just fine and on track — up about 6-7 lbs at week 17.

cravings: i wouldn’t really say i have any! my diet looks pretty similar to pre-preg at this point. but i am loving dairy [cheese + cottage cheese especially!] and spicy/pickled things. there is a jar of pickled jalopeños in the fridge that i have been snacking on randomly — i probably wouldn’t have done that before.

yum!
other health-related: BP = 105/69 [for me that’s LOW! yay!] and my 1st tri screening results came back looking fantastic:

my risks of down syndrome or trisomy 13/18 are that of a 20-year-old: >1/10,000
looking forward to:

1) our official anatomy scan [this is on 10/31, at 18 weeks]! while dr. s felt pretty confident about our baby being a girl at 16 weeks, i need confirmation!

2) having the first stranger actually acknowledge that i’m pregnant. i get a lot of looks [‘subtle’ glances at the belly . . .] but no one has come out and said anything.

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10.25.11

workout: another 3 miler, 9:53/mi pace. that’s 2 in a row — i’m taking a rest day today!

easy soup: i didn’t really feel like cooking when i got home yesterday, but i took a step back and realized it was because the apartment was already a bit of a mess. 15 minutes of cleaning [and blasting old coldplay — i was in the mood] later, i was ready to prep this easy dinner: white bean, sausage, and escarole ragout.

accompanied by many whole wheat crackers eaten while cooking
it came together easily and without a million dirty dishes — a winner in my book! i subbed italian chicken sausage [the precooked type instead of the crumbly kind] for regular + used kale instead of escarole, since that was what was available. it still worked just fine, and i would recommend this for a hearty, healthy weeknight meal that doesn’t take too long to prepare at all.

espanol: check

endo: more polyglandular. did you know that 4.5% of americans have autoimmune thyroid disease, and 80-90% of those are women?! pretty impressive numbers!