Pregnancy Update: 17, 18, 19 Weeks

I hit 19 weeks today, and I can honestly say I am feeling much better now. I’m still tired. I still go to bed between 8:30 and 9:30 every night (which is definitely an improvement compared to before). I am able to focus better on my work because I am not so tired and I’m not distracted by headaches and rot gut as often. I’m doing a lot better with making food everyday (which saves money and makes me feel better about what I’m eating too).

I had one half day of total moody meltdown last week (thankfully Dave was at work and he didn’t have to witness it). Unfortunately, my Mom fielded that outburst from Florida over the phone. I appreciate it too–venting about how pregnancy is awful and uncomfortable and how I don’t see how anyone could possibly want to do this more than once totally made me feel better afterward. Outside of that tantrum, I’ve felt very happy and optimistic, although somewhat impatient.

I’m not (so far) one of those people that thinks pregnancy is fun or great. I feel gross most of the time (compared to my non-pregnant self). I sweat a lot and my scalp is really dry (maybe that has nothing to do with pregnancy but it has never happened before). I’m pretty uncomfortable at night because I’m trying to sleep on my side, which makes my bottom arm hurt. I finally got one of these, and it helps tremendously.

I haven’t weighed myself lately, but I feel bigger in the belly area—not big enough yet to look pregnant to people who don’t know me. I live on the edge of UCLA campus, so I’m sure when I walk to the store everyday in my yoga pants and t-shirt everyone just thinks I’m a sloppy college student who drinks a bit too much beer. I’m over caring about it though–I know my belly will get bigger soon enough and it’ll be obvious that I’m pregnant. I could feel my ligaments stretching last week, and that was really uncomfortable, but not really a sharp pain so it’s just a reminder of what’s going on in there.

Baby E is kicking everyday now. It’s just little taps that Dave can’t feel by touching my belly yet. Although, when I was home alone last week, I could actually see the kicking happening. I know that’ll get stronger soon enough too.

Speaking of getting stronger, I have been more active. I had 8 weeks when I did nothing active except a few walks. Now that I have an online yoga subscription I can fit in a 15-30 minute yoga session anytime it works. This is good for me—I usually have a hard time mentally with doing workouts like that because my brain wants me to spend an hour or so to make it “worth it.” Now I see that even 15 minutes makes a difference. I got a 3-month membership at the gym down the street so I can walk everyday. I could walk a little outside, but it’s so polluted sometimes (today is horrible!) that I feel like it’s counterproductive–plus I have to stop at intersections every 50 feet. We have our eye on a place in Marina del Rey, and we plan to move in April. I forgot to update about our apartment crisis before—Dave fixed the issue (lead in the bathroom) but we decided to move out of the city for quality of life issues. Unfortunately, he’ll have to drive to work, but we’re going to either Santa Monica or Marina del Rey, so it should be about a 25 minute commute either way… and we’ll be living at the beach.

We started going to birthing classes on Monday night, and we both love it. We decided on the Bradley Method, and it’s definitely right up my alley. I’ll update more on that later.

Overall, I’m really doing well. I won’t lie and say this is fun or feels good, but I am really excited and happy that it’s happening. I’m not going to have a baby shower or register anywhere—that’s just really not fitting for me. There are tons of baby consignment stores around LA and a huge baby consignment warehouse sale in the spring, so I plan on doing my part to save the planet by not buying new stuff. I figure I can get most of what I need from consignment shopping, and I’ll buy certain things (like cloth diapers) new.

So far, the second trimester is treating me very well. What about you?