16 Week Checkup, Friday 4.17.09

This past Friday we had our 16 week checkup which was very brief & routine. The doctor checked the baby's heartbeat and they drew additional blood for the secondary part of the screening. Our baby's heartbeat dropped to 159-164 (at 12 weeks the rate was at 170) which is all normal.

The exciting part was that I was able to schedule my Ultrasound for the gender test! On Friday, May 15th I have both my gender ultrasound in the morning and my 20 week checkup in the afternoon. Danny and I plan on making a day out of it and finally go shopping once we know if the baby is a boy or a girl! I can't wait!

I haven't "popped" out yet, I am gradually getting a little bigger each day but nothing obvious overnight like some of the other girls. I am barely showing through my clothes still. I'm getting a little anxious about this but I'm sure I'll soon be so big, I won't know what to do with myself (or the belly)! I know I'm still early but your mind starts to find things to worry about, even if unecesssary!

Whats strange is that my back has been hurting from early on. Most back pains are caused by the need to support a large belly so I think mine has to do with the years of bad posture I've had. With everything shifting inside, my back's not happy about it so its probably only going to get worse. However, I'll take the back pain anyday over morning sickness so I still consider myself very blessed to have had such an easy pregnancy thus far.

May 15th-- can't wait!

To Pop or not to Pop

So the other preggars seemed to have had their belly's pop recently. I'm still early, having just started my 14 weeks this past Weds (3.5 months along, officially starting my 2ND trimester) but am anxious to see when it will happen! I get sort of a immediate preview having 2 good friends that are pregnant only a week/3 weeks ahead of me so the anticipation for things are much more 'real time', if that makes sense.

This week I started acquiring maternity work clothes-- mostly for comfort purposes, from the GAP. I got my first pair of maternity jeans awhile ago (Pea in a Pod), maybe I didn't need them yet but they sure are comfortable! I love maternity pants, I don't know if I will ever go back! Its a genius idea putting elastic waist bands on everything, just genius!

On a related note, to balance some of this need for bigger and stretchier clothing--this past Saturday, Yena and I had our 1st pre-natal Yoga Class. We have this class for 7 weeks, every Saturday.

Whoa, am I out of shape! I was so sore the next few days from squats, I could barely walk. I really like the class and am glad it will focus on strength area's that we will need to support the baby (back, thighs, pelvic area, etc). It's definitely a softer, easier, version of regular yoga but I'm still hoping I don't have a hard time keeping up! We were among the earliest in the class, there are women who are much further along so I will be quite shamed if I cannot do some of the moves. No more putzing around-- time to get back on the active train!