16 weeks

Today I am 16 weeks, 5 days. On Wednesday, we went in for my monthly midwife visit. The heartbeat was perfect. Even though I hear it every day on our own Doppler, it's still wonderful to hear! The baby has been on my far left side waaaaay at the bottom about 95% of the time. While Ruth Ann was searching for it, I told her that, and when she moved the doo-dad to that spot, there it was! Last night, though, the baby moved toward the center, still far down at the bottom. Swimmy swimmy!

We also got another ultrasound. We printed off 4 pictures. In one of them, you can see the little leg bones bright white inside the grey of the leg! Another one was supposed to be a picture of the face, but either the baby, the ultrasound wand, or I moved just slightly at the last second, so you can just barely see it. Here's the one Matt took of the machine's screen:

Head on the right, facing up, legs bent

I love seeing pictures of our baby! It wiggled around a bit, too, so we got to see it move several times. I still hear all kinds of movement (whooshes and screeches) on our home Doppler, but I can't feel anything yet. Hopefully very soon! We asked if she could tell the sex yet, just in case, but the baby's still too small and the machine's not that good.

The baby's really not that small, though. Hold out your hand. That's the size of the baby! About 5" and 5-ish ounces! Given that four months ago it was just a few cells, that's pretty amazing!

Around 14 weeks, I suddenly exploded! Or so it seemed. It doesn't feel like I'm that much more huge; my pants and skirts are still fitting fine. But people suddenly started remarking on how much I've popped! I do definitely look bigger.

I didn't realize my lower hand was halfway covering my giant belly until it was too late, but you get the idea.

It's so nice to not have to suck in! I can just let it all hang out. Ha! I've gained 6 pounds since the beginning of the pregnancy, and I should gain about a pound a week for my second trimester! That seems like a lot, but I don't think I'll have a problem gaining. I still eat all the time, still mostly healthy stuff.

Geek points if you get what's on the shirt I made.

I'm really not feeling sick anymore except occasionally if I don't eat often enough, or if I eat too much, too fast. My tired-ness is getting better, too, though I'm not feeling that supposed "burst of energy" some women say they have in the second trimester. It would be nice to have! Theoretically, we're having a yard sale next weekend (I have a three-day weekend after our final parent-teacher conferences, so I could use Friday to get ready), so I really need to get on the whole cleaning thing. Clear out the craft room closet, get rid of a bunch of stuff, condense it so Matt's craft stuff can share the space. The guest room closet needs clearing out, too, so it can start holding nursery stuff. A fair amount of things that we use rarely can go up in the attic and/or under the stairs. There's also a chance I will be getting a used crib and corner changing table tomorrow. If we make any decent money at all on our yard sale, I'd like that to go to a nursery decorating fund!

Happy happy happy. :)