18 Weeks Pregnant!

We just got home a couple hours ago from our BIG trip! I turned 18 weeks pregnant yesterday so wanted to get this post rolling asap 🙂

Baby Growth: Right now Leo weighs roughly 7 oz (same weight as a bell pepper) and is measuring roughly 5.5 inches long from head to hiney. His or her ears are in the correct position and he or she is moving around like crazy in there (so I should start feeling it more and more!)

My Symptoms: Well seeing as this was probably one of the BEST weeks of my LIFE I’d say my symptoms were a combination of pure joy mixed with true bliss 🙂

When we went on Kye’s first Disney trip I was 29 weeks pregnant with Britt. Um. That is CRAZY. If you are pregnant and planning a Disney trip let me tell you that the 17th to 18th week is PERFECT timing to go. I am happily into my second trimester. I have more energy. I am not too big yet to where I’m uncomfortable. I’m still sleeping great at night. I’m not peeing all the time yet. It made the trip SO much better because I was earlier in my pregnancy!!!

The biggest symptom I had to deal with pregnancy-wise on the trip was the headache issue. I got a mega bad one on our arrival day and it made me super nervous about the week ahead. So I went into precaution mode. I napped almost every day we were there, I went to bed SUPER early each night, I drank a TON of water, I took Tylenol (for the first couple of days anyway), and I made sure to drink my afternoon Spark. I also got some sweet tea and mountain dew and ended up drinking those as well. Caffeine helps knock out the headaches so I was all about it to make sure I wasn’t miserable on our trip! I laughed about it b/c I actually very, very rarely drink caffeine in my “normal life” but while pregnant I’m like making sure to get enough caffeine in my system to keep the headaches at bay. My routine was to down water all morning then drink sweet tea with my lunch, have my spark in the afternoon, then sip a mountain dew if I felt like I may still have a headache or be about to get one. It worked like a charm! I had the rough one Saturday (arrival day) but then never had a bad one again the whole trip and by the end of the trip I wasn’t needing any Tylenol at all ever and cut out the mountain dew 🙂 

I did have some pain in my lower abdomen, I assume it’s stretching and it wasn’t anything that concerned me much. 

Weight: I didn’t weigh in this week seeing as we didn’t have a scale in the room, so I’ll be sure to do it next week!

Gender: On the way home today we finally talked a little more about names. We are 100% decided on the girl name!!! Which is funny b/c it was HARD for us to come up with one. We’ve had two boys names that we LOVE for awhile now and are STILL stuck on which to use. We just both love them both! I would have NEVER guessed that we’d be so decided on a girl name before a boy one! I truly have ZERO clue as to what the gender of Leo is! Every single person I know who is pregnant and due roughly around the same time I am is having a boy…so maybe that means boy? 

Maternity Clothes: LOVING this larger sports bra. As well as the larger regular bra. I did put on my “normal bra” and it is for sure too tight so I’m packing that junk up until after these babies go back down in size again! I also wore my bella band for the first time this week. I forgot how annoying that thing is with riding up and such. The day I wore it I actually could have buttoned my shorts but just wanted to wear it so I wouldn’t have any “muffin top” issues. Maybe it’ll start being more comfortable once my pants are legit too tight to button!

Movement: I can feel Leo move pretty often! Especially if sitting down or laying down. Last night in the bed Zach got to feel it too!!! YAY! I love that 🙂 

Sleep: When I set up the itinerary for our trip I made sure to leave PLENTY of down time. We actually went back to the room for naps 3 out of the 4 days we went to the parks. And each of those days I also napped. Which was great! I also was asleep every night before 10 (except the one late fireworks night) which was also awesome. Being “unplugged” really allowed me to get more rest and truly relax. It was a GREAT lesson for me! I also slept very, very well in our bed at the townhouse. They had some awesome pillows and I felt very comfortable the whole time. Which was really another big advantage of going at this point in pregnancy! 

My dreams also started back up…I had one that was a terrible nightmare. I dreamed that some girl Jordan dated back in the day got pregnant by a random guy and Jordan, being the nice guy he is, felt bad for her and ended up leaving Casey and their baby to go help this random chick raise her baby. It was SUPER random and mega realistic to where when I woke up in the morning I couldn’t stop thinking about it and was worried it had actually happened! I know Jordan would never actually do that and who knows why I even dreamed it?!?! 

Cravings: Honestly, it’s more about what foods I do NOT like than it is about foods I DO like. I am very, very picky right now. To the point where I’m sure it’s mega annoying haha. On the trip I did really love eating my apple slices. I also had random cravings for chili cheese fries. Which is not something I’d ever usually want! We ate them two different times 😉 I do not feel like my appetite has increased all that much yet? Many meals I was so busy helping the kids that I barely ate anything and I never felt hungry afterwards. I also never really snacked or anything! I did grab lunch on the way in on arrival day and loved my Subway 🙂 Zach also did go out and get us dinner one night and I only wanted one thing: shrimp and rice from a Japanese restaurant. And it was amazing, of course 🙂 He also surprised me and got us Cosmic Brownies. We tore ’em up!!!

What I Miss: Gah. I just LOVE this stage of pregnancy. It makes me sad about the time in my life where I won’t be pregnant again! I am thankful and blessed and just enjoying it all 🙂

Best Moment of the Week: Seriously, there were SO many amazing moments. It was THE BEST TRIP EVER. I fully mean that!!! I have NEVER enjoyed a vacation as much as I enjoyed this one! It was perfect and flawless and just simply magical 🙂

Also…I’m trying NOT to get overly excited…but my foot did AMAZING. We didn’t even get a wheel chair or anything! I wore my tennis shoes everyday and walked alllll over the place and do NOT have any pain!!!! I go back this week so we’ll see what he says…but I’m feeing positive which is a HUGE blessing 🙂

Pregnancy-wise the best moment was def Zach being able to feel Leo move 🙂 Always a special moment! And Leo, just so you know, we were watching Zombieland on TV when it happened. Maybe you’ll be a zombie junkie haha!

Questions/Concerns: I often struggle with just allowing myself to be TRULY happy. The devil knows how to creep in and steal my joy. I have had SUCH an amazing week that it almost makes me scared of what “bad thing” might be about to happen. This upcoming week is a big one with appointments. We go to the OB on Monday morning for the 18 week ultrasound! I know it’s the BIG ONE where they check everything and I’m scared that maybe God blessed us with this super awesome amazing week b/c He knows the future and that the ultrasound is gonna be something wrong with Leo. I know that it’s silly to think that way and that it’s totally the devil trying to knock me down…but I can’t help it! I’m really just ready to skip tomorrow and have Monday be behind us so we will get to see our precious baby and KNOW that he or she is perfectly healthy!!!

I also go back to the foot dr on Thur and am eager to see what he says about my pain and progress post shot!

I don’t really have any other questions? I just wanna see a healthy ultrasound and a good report about Leo 🙂

Goals for the Week: Since our Top Secret Friend will know the sex of Leo here soon…it’s time to confirm the bedding options so that can be done! I don’t want the designer to know the sex until we have 100% confirmed exactly what we want either way so we need to get that done this week!

Kye’s birthday is this week so I need to get his birthday slideshow done as well as some little details for his family-only birthday party next weekend (he had his big birthday celebration at Disney!). I also need to have a spotlessly clean house by then too 🙂

Since my foot did do so well at Disney I want to get back at the elliptical (I wasn’t risking it with the big trip coming up) and get more serious about Bradley.

It’s also time to get Kye transitioned upstairs so this playroom needs to be 100% finished and we need to be moving forward to getting Kye’s new room done!

I also have to get all of our tax stuff ready for our appointment in a week.

AND I need to shop around for VANS. Yes. VANS. It’s time. Mom of three = Van Life. We’ve been saving for a year now and thanks to Dave Ramsey and our spending smart plan we have a good chunk set aside and after we do our taxes we plan to get one! Any van owners? Which one do you have and what do you love and/or hate about it?!?!? I haven’t even really started my research yet!

Belly Pictures: I know many of y’all follow me on Instagram (and for those that do…sorry I didn’t do so great posting Disney stuff. I planned on it, but having TWO kids at the parks is a LOT more than having one…but don’t worry, I just uploaded 1,200 pics to my computer from our trip so there will be a TON of posts coming up!) and may have seen this picture I posted of myself this week. I look SO pregnant! Which is totally why I posted it 🙂 This dress just hugged me in the right places and really gave me that “baby belly” look.

But it was REALLY just that dress haha. I had a different one on that morning and you couldn’t even tell I was pregnant! I wore this the next day and this is a more “realistic” belly shot of how I look at this point. I DO think I need to start wearing tighter fitting clothes, but it’s hard for me b/c I feel like I just look chubby rather than “cute pregnant.” However I AM pregnant and need to ENJOY the ability to wear tight stuff while I can b/c we all know you avoid it like the plague during postpartum 😉 

Here are my 18 week pics from yesterday! I’m wearing the bella band with the shorts! You can find my belly stickers here 🙂 It’s a size medium top, from just the regular sized people section at Old Navy and it still fits fine! Pretty good for almost halfway there huh?

 Britt said “Me picture too!” Zach only got part of her in the shot but it’s still cute 🙂

Notes from Past Pregnancies: I think I’m actually now looking more like my pregnancy with Britt? Here is that weekly post! I’m also glad I have a spot at the bottom of my weekly posts from here on out during Britt’s pregnancy that also cover stuff about Kye’s. So much easier than having to look it all up! It’s interesting to me that I was so busy during all three of these weeks! With Britt we went to the beach and I went to Atlanta, with Kye we went to Atlanta as well and to California! It made me feel good about myself to read that I was SO exhausted and worn out while at the beach and in Atlanta during this week while pregnant with Britt. I must be in better shape now than I was then…even WITH my foot injury b/c I rocked out at Disney like a CHAMP 🙂