Pregnancy Update: 18 Weeks

Hey ya'll! So I'm 18 weeks pregnant and still feeling amazing. I'm hoping to keep this kind of energy and mindset up throughout the third trimester. I remember with my first pregnancy, the third trimester starts to get a little more difficult but I'm hoping to kick that this time around. Check out my 18-week stats below!

Current disposition: I'm feeling great about my pregnancy overall. In fact, sometimes I forget that I'm pregnant because of how normal I feel. This is a bit different than how I felt with my first pregnancy. The first pregnancy, I felt almost immortal, like a princess, like I was the center of attention because I was pregnant for the first time. Now being pregnant for the second time, you just feel like your normal self. I think as my belly begins to grow, I will get that pregnancy aura around me - but for now, it's just the same old me. I've also been a little distracted by our living situation. We are in the process of putting our Georgetown condo on the market for sale. This is both exciting and a little stressful. We plan to list the condo ourselves, which means a lot of work ahead of us. I'm excited to do this, seeing that I was a broker in my former life and can save us lots of $$$, but also know the work that it entails to list a property. All that said, I am still SO SO excited for our next journey. I pray constantly that God point us in the right direction and lay the right path clearly ahead of us. It seems as if all of his plans are perfectly unfolding to put our family exactly where we need to be in exactly the perfect time. God is good!

Energy level: energy is amazing. My energy levels actually feel a little better in week 18 than it did in week 17. I'm sleeping like a ROCK at 18 weeks - the best I have slept during my pregnancy thus far. I will also add that Lincoln has been a champion sleeper ever since I stopped breastfeeding him at around 12 weeks pregnant. He never wakes up in the middle of the night anymore, which really allows me to fall into a deep sleep. I also don't have to go to the bathroom as much in the middle of the night. I can attribute this to not drinking as much water as I was - only because I'm not as thirsty as I used to be. All of my energy I attribute to sleep, diet and exercise.. and the second trimester!

Diet: so my diet has been both really good and also kind of bad. On a normal day, I consume warm lemon water first thing in the morning followed by a Glowing Green Smoothie or Smoothie Bowl (recipe coming soon) around 9am. Thereafter, I generally have a lightly caffeinated beverage - a nespresso or green tea latte. For lunch I have either have a salad, soup or open-faced avocado hummus toast. For dinners, I tend to eat whatever I make Ryan and I which ranged this week from turkey chili to homemade pizza. As healthy as I'm eating during the day, my nighttime consumption is often the most challenging. This is when I let myself indulge more than I should. The way I see it is that if I have been healthy throughout the entire day, I can allow myself flexibility in the evening. I'm not so sure this is the best strategy while pregnant, as Hayley's nutritionist pointed out that the last meal of the day is the most important if you are concerned about weight gain. For instance, I had pizza on Friday night, dessert on Saturday night and dessert (homemade apple pie) last night. The dessert is something that I indefinitely don't need because it's not like I'm feigning for sweets while pregnant. I more so consume dessert just because I made it that evening for Ryan and I. Truth be told, I tend to eat a little crappier when Ryan is around - ha! I think I do so because I feel the need to cook delicious food for him and I also feel good about making him homemade desserts!  Ryan loves desert and I can do without it. When he is out of town, I maybe have one bite of almond butter to fulfill my nighttime sweet tooth  All this said,  I need to watch consuming desserts at night because for some reason when pregnant, my body tends to hold onto the extra sugar as weight gain. When I'm not pregnant, I'd be perfectly fine eating a small serving of dessert two to three times per week, but for some freaky-deaky reason while pregnant I cannot do so. It's funny because you'd think it'd be the opposite! Therefore, I really need to start watching the extra calories and sweets at night. While I feel it's okay to indulge, having a few bites of dessert rather than an entire dessert is plenty to hold my sweet tooth over in the evenings.

Maternity Clothes: I'm trying to wear out the last couples of purchases I've made for as long as I can! I'm in that really awkward stage where I'm not quite in maternity clothes but am definitely not in my old clothes. Thus, I tend to go for loose-fitting dresses of the sort. This works great until you find yourself wearing the same dress everyday! I may go purchase one or two more dresses that I can wear for maternity and non-maternity. I also don't want to spend much more money on clothes, especially baggier ones!

Weight Gain: I'm not positive where I'm at weight-wise because I haven't stepped on a scale since my 16-week appointment. Adding to it, I'm wearing stretchy clothes and am not able to gauge how my pants are necessarily fitting. I'm pretty sure that around 18 weeks, a 10 lbs. weight gain is normal and expected. I think I could be around this number - in fact, I hope that I am! I have been eating healthy and not so healthy as you saw in the "Diet" section. I am seriously wondering how this is going to translate onto the scale. Let me say this, even if my weight is within the 10 lbs range, I believe cutting out the dessert is indefinitely necessary not just for weight reasons, but to help me feel better about my consumption choices! Besides diet, I have been running a ton - 3 miles per run, 4 to 5 times per week. I know my runs are saving me this pregnancy - both with weight gain and helping me feel my best. If I didn't have my workouts, I'm sure I would have ballooned at this point despite the fact that my diet is generally healthy. I plan to keep up my runs and to watch my consumption at night. If I can achieve this, there is not much else I can do to avoid weight gain.

Doctor's Visits: I have my 19 week appointment coming up this Friday. This includes an anatomy scan in which we can find out the gender of the baby (we aren't) and a 19-week doctor's appointment. Generally, this appointment is scheduled at 20-weeks but for some reason the lady in scheduling told me to come on the Friday, which I guess would make me 19 1/2 weeks preggo. I'm feeling excited about this appointment because my sister and her new boyfriend will be in town to share the fun news with us. Not only that, but it is a huge appointment. The anatomy scan further indicates the health of baby, showing that all of his/her anatomy is in check - aka. arms, legs, heartbeat, spinal chord, etc. As a pregnant mama-to-be, it can bring a lot of anxiety leading up to this appointment. Normally, I would feel a lot more nervous than I do. I have had a very healthy pregnancy thus far and have received wonderful results from my first ultrasound, nuchal translucency test results and neural tube defect blood results. I really expect the anatomy scan to be no different!

Will keep you posted with the results. Until next week!

xx,
ILA

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