Baby C - 20 Weeks

I cannot believe I'm halfway through this pregnancy! Nuts. And this body is definitely starting to adjust to the growing baby in there!

To date my weight is up 10-12 lbs. To be honest, I don't feel like I've gained that much weight. So when one of the phone apps I use weekly made mention of my weight gain as excessive (a morning after consuming a box of mac n cheese...) I think my jaw hit the floor. First of all, way to make a pregnant girl feel real good about herself. Excessive?! But also, seeing as my current weight halfway through a pregnancy is still lower than it was at certain points of college, I think I'm doing ok. (It is sad that I did feel better this week when my weight gain was back in the "normal" range).

Symptoms: I'm exhausted. This is mostly due to my crazy work schedule but yesterday was one of those days where I just hit a wall. And it was so so hard to make it through the rest of the day. Otherwise, things are going fairly well. We've got an active baby over here! I started feeling kicks/movement late last week and it is just an amazing feeling. In the past week we had an ice cream social one afternoon and cupcakes another. Woah, little love was doing a few cartwheels in there. So crazy.

Other random symptoms: my hair and nails have started growing like weeds, super dry eyes - which I feel like is an oxymoron because it makes my eyes water so easily all the time, red palms (apparently due to increased estrogen), foot cramps.

Workouts: So much has changed since my last update 4 weeks ago. And I'm pretty bummed about it. I had found running to be so soothing during such a stressful work schedule. It was my time to just zone out and take a mental break. I mentioned in my previous update that I was experience some hip pain after running. Well, it has gotten dramatically worse over the course of a month.

I wasn't doing a great job of listening to my body. Even after foam rolling, I typically had pain in my lower back, hips, pelvic area for about 24 hours after running. About two weeks ago, the pain was excruciating. I had gone to the gym after work and could hardly sleep that night, it hurt just to turn over in bed. It killed to walk! And don't even get me started on trying to get dressed, lifting one leg at a time was the worst. So ya, I knew something was wrong. I'm so thankful to have a physical therapist in the family (don't worry, I talked to my doctor too - who recommends PT for this kind of pain). She has me on the mend but running, walking at an incline, and the elliptical are all off limits for cardio (womp, womp). Not going to lie, I'm having a really hard time digesting this. While I'm healing physically, my emotions are kind of all over the place. BUT, it's all for a good cause. So I will be fine.

New Purchases: This is getting it's own section because there have been a few of these lately...

• Liz Lange for Target. I had the chance to browse Target last week by myself (sidenote - isn't that the best?!). Before I knew it, there was a Liz Lange cotton tank (worn in the pics above) and cotton long sleeve T (in gray space - pics below) in my cart. Both are so incredibly soft and comfortable! I've been living in them...

• I also decided it was time to invest in a few new sports bras. I'm a huge fan of the C9 ones at Target. I probably do not update my sports bras often enough, so wow a little extra support sure is nice!
• And speaking of a little support...I also invested in a few new bras recently. Remember when I mentioned above that at certain times during college my weight was comparable to what it is now? Ya, I've been wearing those bras lately from my heavier days....years ago. These new bras are rocking my world lately. And the girls aren't looking so bad either with a little extra support. If you're in the market at all, I'm obsessed with this one. Probably the softest I've owned. I want another...
• Lastly, I took a trip to the outlets this past weekend and found myself in Destination Maternity. Per my sister-in-laws recommendation, I picked up a pair of maternity leggings (worn in the pics above). Oh man, so comfortable! I'm glad there was a deal and I ended up buying 2 pairs because they are fantastic. I'm a huge fan of the full panel belly, let it all hang out baby. I snagged this maxi dress too. Let's face it, I will be living in maxi dresses this summer!
• And one sidenote - I feel like maternity specific clothing definitely makes my baby bump seem bigger since they tend to accent the growing belly. Or maybe that's the real size, I just tend to cover it up more during the week while working. 

Updates: Baby C is right on track in its measurements. We had our ultrasound earlier this week and loved seeing him/her moving about. Of course, our baby is already rather stubborn and did not want to cooperate with the ultrasound tech! I guess it's a good thing we didn't want to find out the gender because the little love was curled up in a ball the whole time. They had me lay on my side at various times in order to get measurements they needed. And even reclined the bed so that my feet were above my head hoping it would make the baby stretch out. Nope. Baby C did it's own thing. So unfortunately J & I walked away with hardly any pictures. They did print us one 3-D image of the baby's face but he/she has one hand up next to it's face and the other covering half of it's face. Not going to lie, it's a bit creepy.

I have so much to share in regards to nursery updates and my pregnancy must-haves so far, sadly work just keeps getting in the dang way! But I will get to them, promise. The nursery set has been purchased! Eek. And I *think* we've found the perfect glider. Stay with me, pretty please. :) Because at some point work will normalize again and I'll be back more often!


PS - sorry for the world's longest post! So much to say and so little time to get it all written down these days.