Pregnancy Update: 16 Weeks

Hi ladies! Whoa. I can't believe I am already 16 weeks today, but also feel like the 40 week mark is so far away. Doesn't pregnancy always go so fast, yet so slow? I just keep reminding myself that it's a long journey until the end and that the wait is actually a gift. It means more time to experience the miracle that pregnancy is, and also more time with my two boys because we all know how crazy the first year of motherhood is when adding a new baby to the crew. Nevertheless, I wanted to update y'all on where I'm at with my third pregnancy adventure at 16 weeks! Here we go...

Current Disposition: Mentally, I feel so much more like myself. In the first trimester, I definitely had some pregnancy blues. I felt a little down, a little distant, a little less like myself. I was not motivated to do any sort of work, and I felt helpless in the sense that I couldn't take care of my kids like I normally can.
I can't point at what actually caused these pregnancy blues. It could have been the grey skies that persisted in Dallas through the winter season for, what felt like, several months. It also could have been my changing hormones; hormones can make you feel a little down and not like yourself, and that might have been the culprit. It also could have been the fact that I felt horrible; nauseous, sick to my stomach and fatigued beyond being able to lift an arm to put on a show for the kids. Whatever the cause of my pregnancy blues, suffice it to say that they are gone. Woo! At 16 weeks, I feel energized, motivated, happy; almost as if I'm not pregnant.
The weather has also changed and spring has sprung here in Dallas, which is making me feel even more joyful. I wake up with energy, and feel like I can and want to workout. I also want to play with my kids and get outside with them to adventure as much as possible! Also, the mental weight of having three kids isn't weighing as heavily on me, as it did in the first trimester. I attribute this feeling in the first trimester to my inability to care for my two boys properly; so the thought of adding a third seemed insurmountable. Now that I am out of that funk, I'm starting to feel like supermom once again. Having three kids is indefinitely the path that God has laid out for me, and one that I can absolutely thrive in. This is what I was made to do!

Energy Level: Okay, so I just talked about this, but yes, my energy is definitely back. I feel *that* second trimester energy that I love and adore from my prior pregnancies. I was hoping it would hit right around the 13 week mark, but this time around, it took me until (really) 16 weeks to get there. Point is, I'm there! And I'm thankful that God has blessed me with energy!

Diet: My diet has been hit or miss. Truth be told, I am not as strict with my diet as I was during my second pregnancy, but not as lax as I was during my first pregnancy. I probably sound like a broken record. But I'll recap it again... in my first pregnancy, I gained 60 pounds with zero exercise and eating my way for two through those 9 months. Vowing to never let myself go again, my second pregnancy was entirely different. I exercised regularly and ate very clean. I still managed to gain 33 healthy pounds. Rewind back to my first pregnancy, I lost all of those 60 pounds effortlessly within a year, while with the second pregnancy, I thought I would lose the weight within weeks, if not by baby's 3 month birthday. But no. My body retaliated and I started gaining the weight I had lost after delivery at 6 months postpartum. Moral of the story is that with my third pregnancy I have learned that your body is going to do what your body is going to do. You can try and control what you eat, but if your body wants and needs to gain weight, it's going to do that. Sure. Eating healthy makes me feel way better than eating poorly does. But I also have the perspective from both pregnancies to know that eating what my body needs rather than depriving in order to avoid weight gain is what I am going to focus on this time around. But that is me. I am not a fitness pregnancy model, nor am I striving to be. I strove to be last pregnancy and it came back to bite me in my big ol' postpartum bottom. So humbling, that I'm really just giving my pregnancy diet/weight to God and trusting in my body's signals to know what I should and shouldn't eat. No, I'm not scarfing down bagels and cinnamon rolls (because my body doesn't need that; some women's bodies do!), but indulging in a bite or two of sweets then gearing it back to my glowing green smoothie? You bet. I'm enjoying my diet a little more than I otherwise would when I'm not pregnant.

Weight: So how has this diet, being a little looser than my second pregnancy diet and a little stricter than my third pregnancy diet faired for me in terms of the number on the scale? Well, I am measuring very close to where I was with my second pregnancy, believe it or not. I may be 1 pound heavier, but once again, I'm thankful the scale is working (somewhat) in my favor. But let's be honest, does the scale ever work in our favor during pregnancy?  It feels like I just got back to my pre-pregnancy weight of 130 pounds when I found out that I was pregnant with our third (this also happened to me when I found out I was pregnant with our second); jokes on me. But my point is that I was so used to seeing the numbers on the scale go down; and they finally went down; all the way down, and just when I started to bask in my weight loss, I got pregnant, and albeit, the number started to go up. Mentally, this can make a girl feel defeated. Some days I am, but I know this path all too well. I will gain weight. I will gain weight. And... I will lose the weight. Not sure when, but it will happen. Once again, my mind feels like it is in the right place this time around. Yes, I still hop on the scale totally naked in the morning (don't even put on my Apple Watch!), suck my tummy in, close my eyes, then open one and hope that the number has magically gone down, dare I say. Most often it's gone up, and this is a tough reality to face, but I know that that is what my body is supposed to be doing, rest assured.

Exercise: Enough about weight, let's talk about exercise. For me, exercising during pregnancy really is all about getting my endorphins going and seeking that feel-good after-exercise feeling. Exercise gives me more energy thought the day, which means a better attitude towards my kids and also the motivation to do more with them, such as adventures, walks to the park, playing outside, etc. So for me, exercising during pregnancy isn't really an option, instead, it is something I seek to achieve every day for the reasons I just mentioned. What I've found to be key in consistent exercise, is to first and foremost, remember how exercise makes you feel, and the secondly, to find exercise that you love and want to come back to. For so long, I have loved running, but since we moved to Dallas, I've yet to find a running trail that I like. Not only that, but running has felt pretty hard on my body. Everything is jiggling, I have a groin tear that is exacerbated during pregnancy, my ligaments tend to hurt more, and I feel super stiff the following day. I still appreciate my runs, but I've realized that there are many other forms of exercise and fun classes to experiment with that can be fun, and potentially not as hard on my body. One of these lower impact workouts I've come to love during (and also before) pregnancy is spin class. The YMCA in Dallas has a great spin instructor, and it is the perfect duration (45 minutes) and perfect cadence to allow for that feel-good feeling, while being lighter on my body. In addition to spin, I love barre and step class. Any sort of class, is great for me during pregnancy.

Doctor's Appointments: A few weeks back, I had my blood drawn for genetics testing. We received the callback and were classified as very low risk. Very thankful for the news. The nurse also almost gave me the gender results, but I stopped her as soon as she said, "And we have the gender results..." So, they have the gender results too, but once again, we aren't finding out. Wow, does it make it hard to not find out knowing that those results are already ink pressed on a piece of paper somewhere. Nevertheless, we are so excited for our surprise! As for upcoming doctor's appointments, I have the 17 week appointment next week, followed by the 21 week anatomy scan coming up. Prayers for that!

That's all for now, ladies! Can't wait to share more along the way.

xx,

Brooke