Category: Pregnancy

Vernix caseosa, a greasy white substance made of lanugo, oil and dead skin cells (yum) now coats baby’s skin, shielding it from the amniotic fluid. (Picture yourself after a nine-month bath, and the need for protection makes sense.) You might actually get to see the vernix at birth, especially if baby is premature.

Ever since J and I found out that husib is a boy, this pregnancy has definitely taken on a different tone. It feels very real and husib seems like a real person to us now. J and I talk to it a lot, especially J who has long conversations with it every night, which are very silly, but I guess J is getting more out of it than the husib. I talk to it too, but more in passing. Last week, I finally bought some baby stuff, a few onesies, a way too big sweatshirt that says “Captain Awesome” just becasue J and I joke thats what we will end up naming the kiddo. I’m also getting some movement this week, its usually right when I get ready to go to bed and there are all sorts of bumps and flips in my belly. Its the greatest feeling in the world.

How far along? 19 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: +2 from last week. Ugggh…its probably all the cake and fries I’ve been eating.
Maternity clothes? Finally bought a pair of maternity dress pants and a cute maternity work shirt. Haven’t worn it yet though. I think I’ll debut it next week to celebrate the midway point.
Stretch marks? No new ones but I’m pretty paranoid
Sleep: Its no good but I body pillow from Target on Monday and I loooove it.

Best moment this week: So many! Finding out that I’m going to have a baby boy, feeling some movement, buying stuff for the baby. Its been a very happy week around these parts.

Movement: Yes Yes Yes
Food cravings: Cake, Pasta, Dal, Still not loving meat 90% of the time.
Gender:  Boy
Labor Signs: Too early
Pregnancy Symptoms: A giant belly! movement, peeing more and more. Its weird to feel the uterus, its harder than my normal belly.
Belly Button in or out? Innie but I think its looking a little weird
What I miss: beer, god, I missed beer at the concert. Also spicy italian sandwich
What I am looking forward to:  Midway point, actually deciding if we are gonna switch houses
Weekly Wisdom: If pillows are awesome, body pillows are genius!!! Its made a world of difference. Also I love my dresses, they make me feel less fat these days.
Milestones: So many, this entire week!

Your fetus has become amazingly mobile (at least compared to you), passing the hours yawning, hiccuping, rolling, twisting, kicking, punching, sucking and swallowing. And, baby’s finally big enough that you’ll be able to feel those movements soon.

So this is the big week, I find out in less than 24 hours if husib is going to be a boy or a girl. I can’t wait and I’m really nervous for some reason as well. I also think I felt movement yesterday, but it could have been gas as well,so who knows. Nothing else too new, work is good, we are thinking about moving to a bigger place, but we are still in the thinking phases.

How far along? 18 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: – Back to prepregnancy weight. I have gained back everything I lost during the first trimester so approx 5 ish lbs.
Maternity clothes? Not yet.  But I  ‘ve been wearing my work pants unbuttoned.
Stretch marks? No new ones.
Sleep: Its no good, I’m having a super hard time getting comfortable, but I think I’m getting used to the waking up a bajillion times.

Best moment this week: I’m pretty sure its going to be tomorrow’s ultrasound

Movement: A very cautious yes…but not sure
Food cravings: Almond butter and Jelly sandwiches, Tomatoes and cake
Gender:  T-21 hours. I still think its a girl
Labor Signs: Too early
Pregnancy Symptoms: A giant belly! other than that this week has been pretty chill
Belly Button in or out? Innie.
What I miss: sushi, sleeping through the night. Having a non fat day
What I am looking forward to:  Tomorrow morning and buying tons of baby stuff right after. I got a 20% off gymboree coupon.
Weekly Wisdom: Pillows are awesome, lots and lots of pillows
Milestones: kick? sex? too many too scatterbrained at the moment

Thinking about husib as a an avacado reminded me about this great mexican restaurant I went to in DC last month. It was called Rosa Mexicano and they had tableside guacamole where they made you a giant- I mean giant bowl of guacamole to your specifications. They also had really good entrees too, I remember I got crab enchiladas in green sauce and I think they were one of the best enchiladas I’ve ever had. I can’t help it, my pregnancy brain is constantly thinking about food especially mexican food, so avacado week is a perfect fit.

Not too many  changes for week 16. I haven’t felt any movement yet and I just keep getting fatter but other than that, its been a pretty smooth week. On to the avacado baby

Watch what you say… tiny bones forming in baby’s ears mean the little one can now pick up your voice. Eyebrows, lashes and hair are starting to fill in, and taste buds are forming. And, if you’re interested, an ultrasound might be able to determine gender.

How far along? 16 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: – no idea, I’m scared to find out.
Maternity clothes? Not yet. My mom bought me some really cute tunics from when she was in India in may. They aren’t maternity,but they are loose and larger than what I would usually wear, so I consider it maternity. They are still a little big so I havne’t started wearing it yet.
Stretch marks? No new ones.
Sleep: Its killing me. I wake up every morning around 5 am to pee and then I can’t fall asleep again until 6 and then I can’t wake up with my alarm and I’m running late every morning. It totally ruins all my healthy breakfast plans and I end up eating McDonalds like today.

Best moment this week: I definitely feel pregnant these days. The days of not believing its really happening is all gone.  I feel like I’m finally adjusting to things

Movement: Nothing yet 😦 Hope it starts soon
Food cravings: Enchiladas, pineapples and tomatoes
Gender:  I don’t know anymore. I recently read a novel which had a character of a really cute 5 year old girl adn it made me really want a girl, but who knows
Labor Signs: Too early
Pregnancy Symptoms: backaches, growing boobs (yep still) and I had a nose bleed and bleeding gums symptoms. According to J pregnancy is the worst disease ever and I totally agree.
Belly Button in or out? Innie.
What I miss: dancing without feeling like achy or tired or just plain weird
What I am looking forward to:  feeling the baby move and finding out the sex.( yeah, I know same as last week, but its still true)
Weekly Wisdom: Non pregnancy related but the new Crest alcohol free mouthwash tastes like crap. Yuck, it has sucralose in it
Milestones: We got/are scheduled to get some hand me down baby gear. Yipee

Continuing the march towards normal proportions, baby’s legs now outmeasure the arms. And, finally, all four limbs have functional joints. Your fetus is squirming and wiggling like crazy down in the womb, though you probably still can’t feel the movements.

This week, other than the fainting episode has been good. J and I have been pretty dull, he has been working on the weekends a little so I haven’t done too much other than catch up on reading and relax. My mom is in India again and I sort of miss talking to her, also I feel bad b/c I know she wanted to be super involved but family circumstances are such that she has to focus on my grandparents for now.

How far along? 15 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: – not sure, its been a bit erratic and I’ve not got on the scale this week.
Maternity clothes? Not yet, but things are definitely not fitting right. I moved up a size in shirts though
Stretch marks? No new ones. I started using the Palmers Cocoa butter and Vitamin E oil today along with regular moisturizer, hopefully, it will keep them away.
Sleep: I love sleep. love it. Can’t seem to get enough. Trips to the bathroom in the middle of the middle of the night are more frequent.

Best moment this week: Seeing how much the husib has grown from the fainting u/s I had last week. Also knowing that everything is still okay and I didn’t damage the husib in any way.

Movement: Supposed to start pretty soon
Food cravings: Italian Ice, Pizza and Aloo Gobi. I finally made the perfect batch and it hit the spot perfectly.
Gender:  My intuition says girl. We find out Jul 23
Labor Signs: Too early
Pregnancy Symptoms: backaches, still some tiredness, and completely frazzled brain, also my face is looking puffy  and feeling a bit lightheaded
Belly Button in or out? Innie.
What I miss: not having my old body. These days when I look in the mirror, I just don’t look like me
What I am looking forward to:  feeling the baby move and finding out the sex.
Weekly Wisdom: Don’t go to Babies R Us , it will scare and overwhelm you. It was simply too much
Milestones: Finally checking out some baby gear.

So I pretty much skipped a few weeks of weekly updates- I’ve skipped lime, prune, plum, and peach and finally this week we have Lemon baby at 14 weeks. I’m officially in the second trimester! yaaay! My nausea seems to have disappeared for the most part and I definitely have more energy but only in short spurts. If I walk for too long, or stand for too long by feet and back do hurt quite a bit. Also, have I mentioned that my boobs are huge, I mean HUGE!!!! I can’t stand it, but of course J being the boy he is , is very happy with them. As far as other pregnancy news, there really isn’t much to tell, we had an ultrasound and we have our big anatomy ultrasound scheduled for July 23rd which is only 4 weeks away and I guess we’ll know if we are having a boy or a girl, of course only if the husib cooperates. So onto the state of my womb then?

Your adorable little fetus is busy with thumb sucking, toe wiggling, and (not so cute but equally amazing) making urine and breathing amniotic fluid as the liver, kidneys and spleen continue to develop. Lanugo (thin, downy hair) is growing all over the body for warmth.

How far along? 14 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: – minus 2lbs pre pregnancy weight, but I’ve been eating more so I think I’ll gain it all back
Maternity clothes? Not yet.
Stretch marks? No new ones
Sleep: I love sleep. love it, but I can’t sleep through the night anymore, I end up having to get up at least once to pee

Best moment this week: not this week specifically, but it was seeing the husib a few weeks ago and watching it bounce on its head.

Movement: Way to early
Food cravings: Hamburgers, mexican and Indian
Gender:  Girl  vibes lately but we find out for sure in a month I guess
Labor Signs: Too early
Pregnancy Symptoms: backaches, still some tiredness, and completely frazzled brain
Belly Button in or out? Innie.
What I miss: beer and wine, I think I’ve forgotten what wine tastes like
What I am looking forward to:  more energy in the second trimester. I’ve been told second trimester is the promised land.
Weekly Wisdom: You can’t stay in denial forever
Milestones: 2nd tri

I have had three instances of terrible terrible Gestational Amnesia or whatever it’s called all in the one day that I was trying to entertain. J and I had some friends over on Sunday, they had a baby last year so they were going to come over and “enlighten” us about the whole experience and we just wanted to talk babies without feeling guilty. Well, lets just say it didn’t go smoothly

1) I burned two batches of Aloo Gobi- yep two. Burned the first batch, because I had the heat on too high and went to hurry into the shower, the second batch, because I was excited that our friends had come over so I completely forgot that it was on the stove.

2) I ruined my chicken curry. I had made a delicious delicious chicken kadai. I had the great idea of putting in the oven to warm, but I didnt’ realize that I had it in there too long and it burned too. This is my signature chicken dish, I make it all the time, I mean at least once a week and I screwed it up.

3) So now I had dinner guests who were expecting dinner and instead of 3 dishes I only had one dish of saag paneer that was actually edible left. So Jeff and I decided to order some indian takeout from Kabob and Curry to supplement my saag paneer. I was of course mortified in front of our guests, but I put up a brave face. BUt when I placed the order and they asked for my address, I had a complete blank out moment and could not remember our address, I had to run up to Jeff and frantically ask him what our address was.

I’m sure our friends think I’m on some kind of drug or just a supremely incompetent person and I’m not. I think I’m an okay cook and I’ve had dinner parties before, without burning anything.

Grrrr…Poor J, I feel like I let him down in front of his coworkers ,but as usual he was a great sport and he actually ate my burnt aloo gobi and burnt chicken…isn’t that sweet?

Sorry, a very bare bones update today, b/c I feel ill and I think today might be the magic day where I actually hurl at work. Crossing fingers and really hoping I don’t. God, its so hard sometimes, I felt fine until I ate. You know why I ate, b/c normally, I feel ill if I don’t eat? So what’s a girl to do? Sorry, husib, your mama’s a bit cranky at the moment, and this crushing headache isn’t helping matters.

Anyway, on to the edible matters update. Its dirty martini week in my uterus, b/c Husib is the size of an olive, a lovely delicious pimento stuffed green olive, that tastes better and better when it soaks up some good Tanqueray. Yummm….but Husib no gin for you until you are 21…so you can just be an ingredient for now.

Your little embryo has now officially graduated to fetus-hood. Adding to the excitement, a Doppler ultrasound device might be able to pick up the beating heart. With basic physical structures in place and increasingly distinct facial features, baby is kind of starting to look like… well… a baby!

Congratulations on becoming a fetus husib! yaaay!

How far along? 9 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: – same as last week
Maternity clothes? Not yet. 
Stretch marks? No.
Sleep: Yes, especially, if I do any sort of activity
Best moment this week: being more than 1/2 way over first trimester.
Movement: Way to early
Food cravings: Fries, Fresca, sour gummies
Gender:  haven’t thought about it this week
Labor Signs: Too early
Pregnancy Symptoms:  Long headaches, cramps, Nausea
Belly Button in or out? Innie.
What I miss: Not feeling sick
What I am looking forward to:  A three day weekend for Memorial day 
Weekly Wisdom: You have to pee much more than you thing
Milestones: Fetushood