Pregnancy Update: 19 Weeks

Hey guys!
I'm just finishing up my 19th week of pregnancy and am feeling great - both mentally and physically. Sometimes I forget I'm even pregnant... This week proved to be somewhat challenging with my 19 week appointment, as you'll see below. At the same time, I feel confident after seeing the doctor + seeing our little one at the scan that everything is a-okay. Check out my stats below.

Current disposition: Like I said, sometimes I forget that I'm even pregnant given the way that I'm feeling and how active I've been. The other day when I was playing with Lincoln, I plopped down on the bed (not hard) stomach first. This is something I NEVER would have done with my first pregnancy. With my first, I was so careful all of the time. Even during my runs - the thought of bouncing up and down made me think that the baby would be uncomfortable. As a result, I went at a much slower pace, shorter distance and also ran less frequently. Mentally, I feel very positive, despite a tougher situation that transpired during my 19 week appointment which I will talk about below. I also have very exciting news about our prospective move - which I will share soon!

Energy level: energy is GREAT. Really not much to talk about here. My diet has been great and I've still been sleeping like a champ getting at least 7 1/2 to 8 hours per night. Still running 3 miles a day at least 4x a week.

Diet: since last week, I've tried to tighten up my diet a little bitin terms of the quantity I consume, especially late at night and while dining out - my two problem areas. That said, I am NEVER restricting myself if I'm hungry. Usually, when I go out to dinner I allow myself to order something fun since we rarely get the chance to go out. Also, generally late night snacking is my thing - if you know what I mean. So -- I've just been trying to clean this up - maybe ordering something healthier out to dinner and being cognizant of my late night snacking. My general diet is very healthy still. On the regular, I've noticed that having warm lemon water in the morning really eases my stomach and eases my appetite in the morning. When I wake up, the first thing I'm thinking about is eating something to settle my stomach, but if I have warm lemon water I'm not as ravenous. After my lemon water, I'll have either a Glowing Green Smoothie or smoothie bowl. I also sometimes snack on Lincoln's breakfast which is usually fruit and toast with almond butter or oatmeal with fruit. For a mid-morning snack, I've become obsessed with hard boiled eggs. I like them right out of the pot - nice and warm - with sea salt! So delicious. Generally I'll eat about two per day as snacks or whenever I am hungry. I've also read that it can be beneficial to consume a hard boiled egg right before bedtime. New dessert? For lunch yesterday, I made myself a salad with apples, cheese, avocado and walnut - topped with homemade garlic dressing - recipe coming soon. At dinner, I snacked on some crackers and cheese then made myself another big salad with romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, avocado, cheese and buttermilk ranch. I had made pasta for Lincoln and had a few bites after having had my salad. For dessert, I'm hooked on the fresh peanut butter that you can buy from Whole Foods. I pair this with raw honey from Trader Joe's and a few sips of whole milk. Yum. Overall, I feel really good about my diet. I feel that BOTH baby and I are in a great spot and are getting tons of yummy nutrients.

Maternity Clothes: Dresses and yoga pants all the way. I'm having a lot more fun with my wardrobe this pregnancy. I think it's really important to look and feel nice throughout your pregnancy. Not to just give up throughout those 9 months and even after baby comes. This pregnancy, I vowed that I would still feel and look like myself. This means getting ready and dressing cute!

Weight Gain: at my 19 week appointment, I stepped on the scale and weighed 135lbs!! This means that from my 16 week appointment and my 19 week appointment, I actually lost 2 lbs, and have gained a total of 5 lbs. At first I was excited to see the number of the scale, but then I was a little worried that I wasn't getting enough for baby to grow properly. I believe I should be somewhere around a 7 to 10lbs weight gain at this point  (which isn't a huge deal). Regardless, I brought this up to the doctor who assured me that everything is alright and that I am in a healthy spot for baby to grow. I explained to her that I gained SO much weight during my first pregnancy, so I was very firm about making sure that my diet was very healthy this time around and that I wasn't consuming and extra calories that I didn't need to. The doctor reassured me that everything was going smoothly. Curious, I asked if she could check what I weighed at this time during my first pregnancy. She was able to pull up the chart and told me that I weighed 147 lbs - ahhhh! This means that I had gained 17 lbs from my normal weight. Yikes. I'm so glad that my body is responding healthily this time around. Slow and steady weight gain is the key in pregnancy and I feel confident in that. Maybe it's a girl?

Doctor's Visits: I had my 19 week appointment - and as you saw, I was weighed, had my blood pressure checked and also heard baby's heartbeat - a solid 143 bpm! The doctor I saw was amazing - I hand 't seen her in my time at Georgetown and she was the absolute sweetest. I also had the 20-week anatomy scan during this appointment. This ultrasound was a little bit rockier than I  had anticipated. Similar to my first pregnancy, they found a cyst in baby's brain. 99% of the time (the ultrasound tech told me) these cysts go away and are merely developmental. However, it is a soft marker for Down Syndrome. The ultrasound tech also found some fluid in the kidneys and other soft markers. From this, they recommended I do further testing which meant I had to get a heck of a lot of blood drawn to rule out any possibilities. I had my blood drawn to check for both infections that could be hurting baby and also for Down Syndrome. The Down Syndrome test is one step further than what is done in the earlier stage of pregnancy. All of this is super scary, even when the ultrasound tech and doctor reassured me that they were almost certain that everything was a-okay. I'm actually thankful that I went through something similar with Lincoln - and he turned out super super healthy. Still, I get nervous and await the phone call from the doctor in hopes of positive news. I actually JUST got a call from the doctor who told me that the infection test came back negative - which means baby is not being infected by something I could have had - this is great news. She said that she would get back to me with the result of the Down test by Friday or next Monday at the latest. I'm hopeful that this news is positive and more than anything I rely on the fact that it's God's plan no matter what. Thoughts and prayers welcome at this time!

xx,
ILA

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