Weeks 8-12 Bumpdate

My exhaustion has reached a whole new level the past few weeks. Combining that with the time change meant I didn't have the energy and/or enough light to take photos during weeks 8, 9, 10 & 11. Also, we found out that we may need to have an adjustment to our due date in the middle of all this thanks to our first ultrasound. So.... to get everything on track, I decided to combine a few weeks in one bumpdate post.

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When are weeks 8-12?

Friday, October 20, 2017 - Thursday, November 23, 2017

Curious why I did 5 weeks in one post, huh?! I'll explain why a little later.

What’s the size of the baby?

By week 12 our baby is the size of of plum, or a toy solider. My favorite size comparison was week 10, when my Ovia Pregnancy app said baby was the size of a lego man. A couple more fun facts are that baby is now considered a fetus (instead of an embryo) and no longer has a tail. Crazy, right?!

Waist size?

At the beginning of week 12, I was measuring 31 inches around. That's a total of 5 inches gained, since finding out I was pregnant.

Week 5 & Week 12 Pregnancy Bumpdate Belly Progression Comparison photo || Hayley Fiser || thehayleyfiser.com

Symptoms?

Body: I have noticed my sense of smell heightening, but it's not "super hero" spectacular like some women make it out to be.

I've also had off-and-on, lower back/tailbone pain. It's like a dull ache that has been difficult to cope with at times. Luckily, it only happens a few times a week, and is typically when I stand/walk/sit on hard surfaces for a long period of time.

I did also have one scary day at the end of week 11 and off-on-on during week 12, when I got really dizzy when I stood up one evening. Now, getting dizzy when I stand up is something I deal with thanks to my POTS, but this happened every time I stood up for an hour with nothing dulling it. I had toast with jelly, drank a bunch of water, had some yogurt to get more protein, and all the other things that normally help relieve my dizziness. There was just no fixing it. Luckily, it was gone the next morning, and I haven't had it since.

During week 11 I over did it a little bit at work and had some light, brown spotting. It was enough that I was scared and called my doctor's office. I spoke to the nurse, and she explained that it could mean nothing was wrong but there was a chance it could mean something bad. She told me to take it easy for a few days to see if it went away. Sure enough, within 48 hours it stopped completely. From now on, I'm going to be a little more careful about how much I do in a day.

Sleep: Just like week 7, biggest struggle has been feeling exhausted. There is just no way for me to get enough sleep right now.

Cravings & Aversions: There have been a few strange cravings, off-and-on. First, I was craving tomato based things like fries with lots of ketchup and noodles with spaghetti sauce. Then, it was Taco Bell's nacho cheese. During week 11, it was pepperoni pizza and mac-n-cheese. When it comes to aversion, I've noticed that meat has become less appealing. I think that has something to do with my sense of smell, because I don't even enjoy the smell of bacon cooking anymore.

Nausea: This still hasn't been anything crazy. One thing I have noticed is that if I force myself to eat something that personally doesn't sound appealing at the time or when I feel full, I'll have some nausea. As I approached week 12, it went away almost completely.

Movements: Too early for this one. I learned at my last ultrasound that I have an anterior placenta, meaning it's on the same side of my uterus as my belly button, not my back. Sadly, this will provide a cushion between my belly and baby, and it will most likely take a couple more weeks for me to feel baby move than if it was posterior.

Dreams: Some of my dreams are definitely getting more intense and vivid. One dream in particular I remember from week 8 is Jason and I telling our families we were having a baby girl on Christmas, and everyone was so excited. Now, I know there are definitely a million things you could get from that dream, but I'm not going to read into it too much... at least not yet...

Stretch Marks: Still early for this one, too. My belly has started to get itchier recently - probably from the stretching and cold weather - so I've been using more coco butter.

Gender? 

It's still going to be a while before we find out the gender of the baby, because we have to wait until our anatomy scan (that normally happens during weeks 18-22). While we wait, I'd love to know what everyone thinks baby Fiser will be. Take the poll below :)

[polldaddy poll=9843334]

Must have items?

Probably just make sure you have a good mattress and pillow. Because even with the the best sleep I can get right now, I'm still exhausted. I can't image what it would be like if we had an old mattress or bad pillows.

What do you miss?

Just like week 7, I really miss feeling rested and full of energy. Every day has become a fight to keep my eyes open and my brain tuned in... I cannot wait for the supposed second trimester burst of energy.

What are you looking forward to?

Finding out the gender! Now that we've seen baby is healthy and very active, we're excited to find out if we're expecting a little lady or gentleman.

Best part of this week?

Week 8: We had a relaxing weekend, because Jason's allergies were getting the best of him. On Saturday night I went to dinner with my husband's extended family to celebrate this mom's birthday, but he didn't feel very well and stayed home. So, there were some people there that knew, and some people that didn't. It was really funny. The people that knew wanted to talk about it or tell everyone. Luckily no one spilled the beans, and they all understand we're waiting to tell everyone until Thanksgiving, because by then we've seen the baby is healthy on an ultrasound and I'd be in my second trimester.

Week 9: The best part of this week was nothing really happened. Work wasn't too crazy, and we had a nice weekend at home. I definitely enjoy being able to spend some relaxing time with Jason before things get crazy for the holidays.

Week 10: This week we had our first ultrasound at my second appointment with the OB/GYN. We saw our wiggly like chickpea (that's my mom's nickname for baby), and the little heartbeat flickering away. Based on the original calculations, this exam would have been at 10 weeks 0 days. However, after having the ultrasound, my doctor said she thinks the baby appeared to a few days behind - which it totally normal. It especially makes sense in my case, because I was tracking my ovulation during the cycle we conceived using ovulation predictor kits and taking my basal body temperature. By doing that, I know I ovulated much later than the "normal" day 14 of my seemingly normal cycle. So, she scheduled a dating ultrasound to happen the next week to find out exactly how far along I am.

I took the whole day off for my ultrasound (it was on a Friday) to try to limit any work speculation of me taking off a lot more Friday mornings than normal. Since I had so much time on my hands after my ultrasound I had lunch with my sister-in-law, because she was driving through town. After lunch, I decided to go to TJ Maxx just to see what they had for good deals on baby things. I honestly wasn't planning on buying anything, but I was flying high in babyland after the ultrasound. To my surprise, they had my dream stroller, the Baby Jogger City Primer in black and teal, there and it had a clearance price sticker on it. That's right, it had a discount off the already discounted TJ Maxx price. I was able to get it more than 75% off the normal $400 price tag, and it was the only one there. You bet I bought it! To all the moms and moms-to-be out there, go look at your TJ Maxx/Marshalls for deals on baby gear. You my be surprised by their selection (and killer prices). The little store we have in Gaylord, has amazing prices on things like Boppy pillows, Graco car seats, pack-n-plays, and strollers along with items you'd expect them to have like clothes, bibs, blankets, etc.

Week 11: To kick off week 11, I had my dating ultrasound. Baby was very active again, and I could see baby waving and touching his/her face. The reason I had another ultrasound so close to the first one was to measure baby and see if my due date had to be adjusted based on the size of the baby. After taking all the measurements they said they will stick to my original due date of June 1, because baby was measuring just a few days behind it (the due date based off measurements was June 4). One thing I didn't notice it until a few days later was that baby was in a different position at that appointment than during my first ultrasound, which is kind of cool to realize. Honestly, I could stare at our baby wiggling around on the ultrasound monitor all day long.

On another note, it is a little strange to see baby on the ultrasound. Without seeing that I probably wouldn't even know I was pregnant. My symptoms have been so minimal, compared to what I have heard some other women have experienced, that I could have easily brushed it off as allergies, the flu, lack of sleep, or my POTS getting a little out of control (you know... except for that whole no period thing).

Week 12: We have been looking forward to this week for a while. Once we found out I'd be finishing up week 12 at Thanksgiving, we knew that's when we'd share the big news with our extended families and online. It was so much fun to tell everyone. There was definitely a sense of relief knowing that we didn't have to worry about us or someone else accidentally spilling the beans.

Challenges this week?

Functioning with this level of exhaustion has been brutal. There are days that I'm honestly surprised I got up, got dressed, went to work a full day, and made it home in one piece.

Hubby’s thoughts?

There were a couple highly rated books I found for dads-to-be that were supposed to be somewhat funny, but also informative that I had put in the Save for Later section of our Amazon cart. One day Jason noticed them, and thought one sounded interesting - it's call Dude, You're Gonna Be a Dad!: How to Get (Both of You) Through the Next 9 Months - so he downloaded it on Audible to listen to. He said it's a good book, and it talked about what do expect as the dad during pregnancy and how to help mom-to-be at the beginning of the book. Now, he's about halfway through, and it's talking about how to take care of a newborn. He said it explains everything you need to know to take care of a baby on your own, and he's learned so much.

He was also beyond excited for our week 10 doctor appointment, and he counted down the days. That was the day we went for our first ultrasound. It was such an amazing experience, and he was so relieved to see the heartbeat. Some of his customers had told him horror stories about going to the first ultrasound to find out the baby didn't have a heartbeat. He was so worried about that happening, but tried to look on the bright side up to that appointment. I could tell he had gotten extra anxious when we were in the waiting room, and all those worst-case scenarios people had told him where running through his head. So, seeing heart baby move and the little flickering of the heart was a huge relief for him.

Below is the video he took of the ultrasound screen at that appointment (Don't mind my voice. I was too excited to try an contain myself).

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