2nd Trimester: Weeks 20-25

Symptoms further into 2nd trimester:

1. So itchy: like my entire body. I lotion in the morning after my shower and mostly before I go to bed. But sometimes I have to ask Brian to itch my back so hard he thinks he is going to rip my skin off my back (his words). Or I'll wake up in the middle of the night itching my belly.
2. Frequent pees: Like at work I counted the other day. 11 trips to the bathroom in 10 hours! I've always had a small bladder, but gosh. This really gets annoying.
3. Right along with the frequent urination is that I am sooooo thirsty. I don't even really like water normally. I wake up 1-2 times in the middle of the night and drink half a water bottle both times. So thirsty.
4. My lower back and mid back are starting to feel really sore. Especially by the end of the day. I worry because I am only half way.. what will I feel like at the end!!! Luckily, Brian rubs my back before I sleep most nights :)
5. Weight gain: 16-18 pounds so far
6. Leg cramps in the middle of the night.  Like I need MORE things to wake me in the middle of the night, along with my 3-4 bathroom trips.
7. Hair: my peach fuzz on my stomach has now darkened.. it's my least favourite symptom so far
8. Stretch marks: One or two.. thought not on my belly.. and despite using my kiehls lotion faithfully :(
9. I can't lay on my left side or this weird bubbly feeling happens on my left side of my upper abdomen.. anyone have any idea what this could possibly be?!
10. Last of my lengthy list of symptoms.. I've started snoring some nights. My nose is always so congested in the morning. Poor Brian, pregnancy has been hard on both of our sleeping.

I know I sound so complainy. I just want to document everything for myself to remember. Honestly, I really think I am lucky, because I think I have had a pretty easy pregnancy so far and I even enjoy being pregnant. 

But on to the good stuff! At 19 weeks (Jan. 12).. I finally felt our baby kick! Ever since our ultrasound, Brian kept saying how in the world are you not feeling like a 5-6 inch thing do somersaults in your stomach! I felt the same way. I was so ready to feel something. I kept hearing that I would feel a flutter like a butterfly, but that isn't really how I would describe it. 4 days after our ultrasound, I was lying in bed and I felt a small little jab like 3-4 inches below my belly button. It kinda felt like a heart beat, or maybe a piece of popcorn popping.  I was like.. there is no way.. that can't be it... because I had been talking about wanting it all weekend. I felt it 3 distinct times and then fell asleep. The next morning at work as I sat at my desk, I felt it all morning!

I feel him move almost all times that I am sitting still and quietly. Usually sets of 5-10 jabs. He moves constantly! It is such a fun feeling. Sometimes it feels to me like your stomach drops.. like on a theme park ride. I wish I could describe it better. So fun. I feel much more connected now that I know gender and can feel him move. About 10 days later Brian felt his first little kick. :) We asked our doctor at our last appointment if a busy baby in-utero, means a busy baby afterwards. He said usually their personalities are similar right from the womb.... oh no!

Other notable events so far in my pregnancy:

On Feb. 6th (22.5 weeks) I saw my belly move from the outside. It's a weird thing to see, but I love that my baby boy constantly reminds me I am pregnant and he is right there all the time and growing so fast!

At 23 weeks Linea Nigra appeared. What a weird thing to just have a black line all the way down from your belly. It almost looks like a shadow, or someone drew on me with make-up. I remember learning about it in Anatomy, but it is just so strange when all of the things you hear or learn about start happening to you!

At 24 weeks (Feb. 13)  I had my glucose test. It seems silly now, but I was so worried I had gestational diabetes. I swear I had all the symptoms, bleeding gums, frequent urination, excessive thirst. I really didn't want this. I read that 50% or women get Type 2 diabetes in the next 10 years if you get gestational diabetes when pregnant! I had an almost sleepless night a few day before my glucose test thinking I must have gestational diabetes. Plus it doesn't help that Brian is always telling me I eat so much sugar I am going to give myself diabetes. Anyways, thank goodness my test results were normal! 

We haven't bought anything so far, but we have collected a few things. I have a baby box in my closet that I look at from time to time full of my precious baby things. I'm so excited! Only 99 days left!! Double digits!

My mom gave me a nursing cover at Christmas, along with a burp cloths, and like 5 baby blankets. She also bought my first batch of baby clothes! We got a snowsuit from Macey's regularly $58 for $9! My mom is teaching me how to shop out of season and so you get the best deals!!!

And as soon as we found out gender, Dave and Denise sent us the cutest surprise it's a boy box in the mail! It even included a maternity sweater for me :) My friend Syd and my sister Sher already got us a gift too. Brian and I were so worried about having a baby, and how it would all possibly come together, but we feel very blessed and lucky. It's overwhelming how much you need for a baby, but I know if you are doing what you are supposed to do, God will help everything work out.

Last I will leave you with yet another really embarrassing pregnancy story..
A few weeks ago Brian offered to go on a walk with me up the canyon. About a mile and half in, I realized I had to go to the bathroom... But I was like, no problem. I can make it back to the car. And then... I sneezed, and you can guess what happened! I couldn't even believe this was happening to me! (important detail.. it was not very much!! What's going to have happen in my third trimester... or post baby! Oh goodness. Good thing I already love my baby boy so much!

It's a .... XY!!

On January 9th was our midway pregnancy ultrasound! I was 18.5 weeks and soooo nervous. The night before our ultrasound I felt like I hardly slept, and I dreamt constantly about the ultrasound. I was excited about finding out gender, but didn't really care whether we were having a boy or girl. Brian and I both had a feeling it was a girl when I first got pregnant. Then that disappeared and I realized I had no "motherly intuition" and I had no clue what I thought the baby was. I was just nervous that we would get in there and our baby would have missing limbs, or intestines outside his/her body. It's just such a miracle that any baby is born healthy. 

Anyways the ultrasound was so fun! Our ultrasound tech was so nice and took almost a full hour with us. She went through every body part so slow and answered all of our questions. If the baby wasn't in a good position she would just be like, no problem we will go back later. It was so fun to actually be able to see bones, and all the body parts of our little one. Every time she would point another body part, I would feel such a sense of relief. Like phew, our baby has an ear.. or our baby has a brain.

Our ultrasound tech said I was actually measuring 5 days ahead of schedule. But I decided to just keep my original due date because I didn't want to be bummed if I went over 40 weeks. Plus, Van Blerkom's are knows for their big heads. Like I think my nephew was 99.9 percentile or something. So who even knows.

Also, our little babe moved like crazy the whole time! We saw his jaw move like he was talking, and his hands and feet kept kicking and moving. Brian looked over at me and was like, oh gosh we already have a hyper one. Weirdly I felt nothing though, I was so ready to feel some movement, but at least we got to see it on the screen.

Our friend Cassie offered to make us a gender reveal cake to find out gender of our babe instead of at the ultrasound. I wasn't sure I wanted to have a party because I felt kind of selfish and maybe just wanted Brian and I to be there. But then I figured I would probably only do a gender reveal party for the first baby and I love having parties!

We asked our ultrasound tech to warn us when the gender part was coming up and we would just close our eyes. Then she would take a picture and put it in an envelope we brought. Brian got a little excited when we got to gender. When I told him to close his eyes and he said, "Anything I see on the ultrasound is fair game!" and wouldn't close his eyes. Then when he thought he knew the gender he closed his eyes and she typed the gender out. Brian had asked before hand if there was a way to tell that it's a girl other than just absence of boy parts. The ultrasound tech said yes there were some other things they looked for, she said there is 3 distinct lines on a girl. Brian saw a blurrier version of the picture below and he swore he saw 3 distinct lines, so he thought it was a girl! HA!

So we took the sealed envelope with the above picture to Cassie's house and came home to decorate. We had my favorites! Cotton candy, rock candy, and then m&ms for Brian.

When our friends got there we played the Old Wives Tale game. The game definitely said I was having a girl. Most voted that I was having a girl, with a few random boy guesses. I guessed boy, because by this in the day point, I really felt it was a boy. Brian guessed girl, because he is a cheater and thought he already knew.

                           We cut into the cake to find out that we were having a BOY!

Thank you Cassie for making us a cake and to everyone who came and took pictures and filmed!