The next two weeks will be funky. My laptop died and Dell is sending me a new replacement ( and a much better laptop, since they don’t make mine but have to at least match or exceed all the components), so for the next two weeks it’ll be difficult to blog. I still have my work desktop and my hubby’s laptop that I am using but none have my pictures or editing software.
So that being said, this week’s pic was edited without my usual tools. I meant to do a bump progression but can’t do that until i get my data back ( or stop being lazy/busy and pull out the hard drives and hook ’em up as externals).
Also excuse my blurry face, hubby isn’t so good with the focus and I really don’t have the energy to do the usual self-portrait set-up. ( and yes, I am cupping my butt- it comforts me lol jk)
STATS:
How far along: 16 weeks.
How big is baby: It’s a Avocado.
Total weight gain: +2-4 pounds (138.8-140lb) After two days of not inputting everything I eat into my software, I lost about 1.5 lbs, which made me realize that I really do have to track nutrition and make sure I eat at least 2000 calories. So the last two days have been better and I hope to get back to 140 lb and continue onto my 141 lb to be on track with 1lb a week gain. I am also paying more attention to protein and making sure I have enough, which has never been a problem, but right now is the time to watch it.,
Sleep: Ok, I am finally at the point where it sucks to sleep and I wake up sore and tired. After a few days of messing with the pillows and finding out that my big tempur-pedic pillow needs to be supporting my back, I am doing better. But I really need to order a body pillow. I found one I think I like for $100 (YIKES!), but something keeps me from ordering it ( how about that insane price?). So if you, guys, used a body pillow, let me know which ones worked for you, ok?
Best moment of the week:
OB’s appointment and being told that if he had to pick a person to deliver a 9 pound baby today, he’d pick me ( to my question about my pelvic size). He also said that he doesn’t think I’ll get stretchmarks ( will see), and that I should totally go for an epidural, because “why go through all the pain” (lol). I also asked him if he’d touch my boobies, to which he laughed out loud and wondered why (to look for breast cancer of course 🙂 lol ). Then we realized that hubby does my OB’s job daily while moisturizing me and my boobies before going to bed ( bonus for me, bonus for OB, and bonus for hubby- it’s a win-win)
Going over new friend’s house for some pool time ( there are two people I am making an exception for this pregnancy, partially because I can’t say no to them, and partially because I really want to see them- just know you’re either very special or, now that I feel better, I want some company lol ) .
Food cravings { again, these are not real cravings (i.e. I can easily resist them), but here are things I’ve been “enjoying” more than other foods I eat}:
Pistachio ice cream ( more of a real craving ), peaches, popcorn, salad
Food aversions: Slowly disappearing
Symptoms:
Nausea – Gone, except for…. I kept getting a weird feeling, like an unsettled stomach or something. I can’t pinpoint whether it’s a type of nausea, or maybe heartburn. It’s unpleasant, and feels like I ate something bad, it comes and goes. One day on- one day off. Seems to be worse after diary products. Any clue?
Hunger – There it is! I wake up hungry, I am hungry every half an hour. Luckily, a peach satisfies me, and I don’t eat junk, otherwise, oh boy, I’d be in big trouble.
Heartburn – Cross my fingers, but it seemed to have tapered off. If i get it, it’s usually for a really short time, or late at night.
Skin – OMG, it’s horrible. I have constelations on my face! I keep telling hubby that for every breakout I have, it’s that much more that I love him (just to freak him out, because you should see his face when I say that :)) It’s these small ( and some big) breakouts ALL over my forehead and neck and some on my chin. I didn’t have anything even approaching this during puberty.
Movement: I keep waiting for some movement and nothing so far. We even tried singing to the baby and poking around a bit 🙂 But I can’t feel anything. Can’t wait though.
Gender: At our 20 week ultrasound on September 1st.
What I’m looking forward to: Gender, gender, gender, of course- I’d like to get started on planning the nursery! Also, hubby’s birthday next week, which we’ll spend at a friend’s beautiful mansion, with those two select friends we decided to “allow” me to see haha ( this is the first time I am glad that we recently moved here and been too busy working rather than making friends, and most my friends are now far away and that 90% of population here are twice our age- that means I have only a handful of people who I have to see during my pregnancy and break our intentions of “no exposure to germs” ( still thinking about how to deal with baby showers and the coming up flu season- I’ll talk about that whole “plan”  more and how it’s been working out)
What I miss:
Ok I am totally done recounting what I miss… What’s the point? I can’t do anything about it until I give birth, so I miss nothing- Â I’m living in the moment ( maybe sushi…well and going to parties… but that’s it)
Next appt: September 1st, the big one
Do you guys think I am not showing enough? I keep seeing photos of 17-18 week ladies ( and yes I know things can change in 2 weeks) and they have big big bellies, or at least a baby bump. Mine just looks like…. I don’t know… a beer gut? I don’t think I’m showing enough? Shouldn’t I be bigger at this point? Shouldn’t I be popping now? It’s all kind of just buddah belly-ish, it doesn’t help that the top part of it, my stomach, is always extended with all the food I am consuming to make sure I am at 2000 calories.
NAMES: I never wrote about the names we picked out!
We’ve had these names picked out fo a while now. We had quite a few favorites, but not all names go with our last name and we will be doing NO middle names ( our kids can pick them if they’d like when they are a few years older).
So finally we’ve decided on Alexis and Greyson
So that’s it for now, see you in a few days. I gotta go to sleep…zzzzzz…
With my first pregnancy, I didn’t feel like I was actually showing until I was like 24 weeks pregnant. I just felt… fat, lol. So you may have a while! And I first felt movement at 17 weeks exactly so it could be pretty soon for you!
That’s how I feel 🙂
Really hoping for some movement soon!!! It doesn’t hurt right, you just feel bubbles/butterflies? I’ve had a few hurtful twitches but I figured that’s not it.
yeah exactly, it’s not painful, but i definitely knew when it was baby movement! Just like you said, sort of like bubbles. It’s so exciting when you first feel it!
I was super tiny at 16-17 weeks also and didn’t really pop till about 20- and there was a HUGE difference between week 16 and 20 for me- see for yourself if you want!
http://youngmammatales.blogspot.com/2011/04/looking-backbaby-belly.html
The first pick I was 16 weeks and the one below 20- BIG difference. And I ended up having a big 9 lb 22 inch baby
Yeah you look tiny on the first pic. I feel I am huge but not really showing 😉 I guess I’ll enjoy my time without a massive belly for now.
hehe you still look tiny to me! (in a good way) i know a girl who’s also pregnant for as long as you are and she’s huge. I mean come on , pregnancy is NOT an excuse to eat whatever you want and let go of yourself. I use neutrogena stuff for my skin and it works really well! Idk if you would use it bc you mostly use safe organic stuff probably? And also i was wondering, you don’t want foreign/Russian names for your kids?
Yeah neutrogena is definitely not smth I’d use during pregnancy. Plus the acne is really a hormonal problem and no cleansing solution will clear it up. I just have to wait!
As far as names, I’ve never really wanted Russian names. I only like a handful of names (Elena being one of them, but I’d never name my daughter the same name). Others sound too Russian or two old-ish. We wanted a bit of a modern name and definitely not ethnic. It’s gonna be difficult enough for me to speak Russian to our kids cuz I have no Russian exposure here. I’ll actually write about that some time.
I love the names you chose! I think I will be shocked if you find out the baby is a boy, I am really thinking a girl for you! 🙂 Your belly looks just right for 16 weeks, I think. I had to go and look at my 16 week belly with my first baby, and it looks really similar to yours. I’m a lot shorter than you at 5’3″, so my belly was just a little more rounded right under my belly button. I think when you are as tone as you were going in to it, your belly has a lot more stretching to do until you really get the defined belly. With my first pregnancy, I was asking my husband for months if I looked pregnant yet, or just bloated. But don’t worry, the next pregnancy you will be obviously pregnant much earlier, even going back to your regular pre-baby belly between pregnancies! 😉 I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or bad, haha. At least that was the case with me. For pregnancy two, my 16 week bump looked like my 20 week bump for pregnancy one. Yikes. And I was back to my regular, flat belly between the pregnancies! I find it interesting how every pregnancy belly looks different, even when it’s the same woman.
I’m interested to read a Russian exposure post! I find that sort of thing fascinating, and wish I had some kind of an awesome heritage I could teach on to my children.
Two things I so understand the non comfy sleeping! I spent the first three months sleeping on the couch because I COULD NOT stand my bed:)
as for the belly, on the bright side, your fear of the top sticking out as much as the baby bit, I’ve known a couple people who didn’t get the upper belly poking out for a long while and for them it just looked like they had that awekward skinny girl-bottom of the belly pudge. you definately look like you’re working on your pregnant belly not just random pudge:)
Most women pop at 20 weeks. You have some time still 🙂
I’ve also heard it’s all in how the baby is positioned. I saw a diagram picture of a breech and then a normal baby. The normal positioned baby showed more because the head of the breech baby was up high. Alexis was breech for me the whole
Pregnancy and I didn’t show until later in my 20 weeks. I could always feel her head up by my ribs, didn’t know it was her head at the time though. You always show faster with your second + pregnancy, so those women could’ve been on their second pregnancies. Love tour names bythe way 😉
That all is good to know…. I felt that I had lotsa belly but none of it is actualy uterus, compared to other girls I am seeing.
My skin finally cleared up after about 20 weeks when I was pregnant.
Have you researched your labor and birth options? I’m surprised that you would consider an epidural; they don’t come risk-free, and you’re very aware of what you’re putting in your body during pregnancy, so it only makes sense to be aware of it during labor and birth. (I’m not being snarky, but am curious!). There are a TON of resources and options if you do choose a med-free birth – Bradley, Hypnobirthing, Hypnobabies, Lamaze, etc. Thinking about getting a doula to help support you (and your husband!) is a good idea, too.
I’m 5’10” and gave birth to a 10.5 lb, 24″ baby vaginally – you can definitely give birth to a bigger baby (and frankly, not having an epidural would help with that!).
Hope mine starts to get better soon.. It’s really frustrating.
As far as the birth options, it’s too long to explain and I’ll probably end up writing a post about it, but basically I am open to anything, since I know most labor and birth experiences don’t go as planned. I bought a few Bradley books and we’re planning on having hubby as a birth partner/coach ( though that will depend on how well he prepares). If not then I’d probably want to hire a doula.
To be honest, I don’t know how I am going to deal with pain, so I am open to an epidural, and a lot of woman who plan a natural birth end up with it anyways. From the little research I’ve done ( i haven’t gone too extensively into it), the worst thing an epidural would do is possibly stall labor and increase the risk of interventions. But I ….”might…” be ok with that risk, if the pain is horrible..I don’t know yet.
In the end, my whole approach has been like ” I will do what I can possibly do and make the sacrifices I am willing to make, but allow certain risk for things I don’t think I can handle”. So far, some things like: eating extremely well, being super careful with food preparations, not being exposed to too many germs (i.e. not going to parties, and not living a normal life I would otherwise), not stressing out, etc have been things I’ve been able to handle. I am yet to decide whether I think labor pains is something I can or want to handle. I want an epidural…hypothetically …, so I am “procrastinating” with reading books that I know will tell me something that will make me NOT want one… but if it’s relatively safe, I’ll probably go for one.
Oh and also the last thing I want is end up with regrets about my labor experience, so whatever I decide, it will definitely be totally open to whatever happens and be ok with any scenario ( except some major complication that i haven’teven thought of).
quite honestly neither one of my birthing experiences went as planned. I had an “open minded” plan as well (my motto was “I will go as long as I can until I cant go any longer” as far as pain managment went –epidural etc)
I got induced with #1 because he was a week overdue and they were worried about his size (they estimated him being over 9 lbs…..they were very VERY wrong. He turned out to be 7lbs 7.5 oz) I ended up not making ANY progress –no epidural at that time– for close to 24 hours. No effacement, no dilation…nothing. I ended up with a c-section.
with #2 I went for a routine checkup (a NST at the hospital because of my age and my insulin resistance issues) and was totally unprepared for what happened. They ended up doing an emergency c-section right then due to some issues she was having. She was 3 weeks early and I didnt even have her nursery done. She is perfectly healthy thank goodness but it was very VERY scary.
So my advice for a “birth plan” is to not have one. Know what you might like, might hope for….and then expect that it wont happen that way. Expect the unexpected, keep and open mind and go with the flow. I know people who still harbor resentment because they didnt have their dream birth experience (7-8 years after the birth of their child). They wrote it down, it should have happened that way. Life isnt like that……..birth isnt like that.
Yup, that’s pretty much what I expect- nothing. I am getting to know what I want, but I still realize that most likely it’s going to go the way it’s going to go.
I love the names! Not too overused but nothing freaky either 🙂
That is EXACTLY the reason behind these names: modern-ish, no too popular, but not funky, weird or difficult to spell
oh and I find Greyson quite dreamy
You look beautiful, and very tiny. But I’m sure you’ll pop soon enough.
You are still early to have “popped.” I have a friend who has a similar body structure as you, she’s pregnant with twins and doesn’t have much more of a bump than you do. You’ll probably start seeing a difference in another month or so!
Hi Elena,
I’ve been following your blog for a while, getting ready to start our second child. We have a few similarities – I am also Russian married to an American, but we’ve decided to settle in Amsterdam instead of the US. I just wanted to comment on the language and raising your children bilingual. We have a 19-month old daughter Sophia, who is being raised in 3 languages at the same time. I have done quite some research about bilingual kids, but not much is out there about trilingual upbringing. 🙂 Anyway, we’ve agreed that I will speak exclusively Russian to her, my husband – English and she learns Dutch at the kindergarten and on the playground.
Sophia is now starting to speak and it sounds very funny, like “Eto boy” or “Gde cheese?”, but I know many bilingual and trilingual kids, who sorted out all the languages by the age of 3 and are perfectly fluent in all. Actually they are native speakers of 3 languages.
Anyway, even though you might not have the Russian exposure – by speaking to a child in your native language you will give such a great gift (or asset if you wish) to your son or daughter! My advise if to definitely consider it!
Katya, thanks for the feedback. I am currently reading books about multilingual upbringing… It seems daunting, because we also want to do spanish, but my hubby doesn’t speak well enough to do it. And I don’t think it’s smart for me to do two languages at the same time, and unfortunately we don’t have the same exposure, the society is english and husband is english, so that’s that.
But good for you for doing that! I will be writing a post about multilingual upbringing and getting some experiences from people, i’d love for you to answer those too.
Hi dear!
First of all, I love the names!
Secondly, you look wonderful as usual – and for what it’s worth, I didn’t “pop” for a LONG time – here’s my 19 week bump report – http://7x7xmommy.com/2010/09/02/the-bump-report-week-19/
We’re tall!!! There’s a lots of space for your little peanut right now. 🙂
Can’t wait to see more…
I actually did check out your 19th week pic a few weeks ago, it’s funny cuz our changes are so similar. I also just realized that we have the similar due dates just a year apart: january 26th 🙂
Ha! Love it…you’re right…Abby was due 1.27.11…arrived 1.22.11. What a great time for a baby! 🙂
I love the names!! Greyson is one of my favorites, too!! Don’t worry about your belly! You are so tall, it’s going to a while before it gets very big. It will be here before you know it!
I have a body pillow, it’s just a cheap one from Target. I didn’t like it a lot with my first pregnancy but I really love it this time!! My hips have been getting sore, when I walk around a lot, but I think sleeping with the body pillow helps.
I’m SOOOOO excited for your ultrasound!!! EEKK!!
OMG, I cannot wait for september 1st 🙂 What shape is your body pillow?
It’s just a plain rectangle one, nothing fancy, but it works for me. ; )
You look great, I’m tall too and felt like it took forever for me to pop. I cannot even tell you how awful my skin was throughout (and after) my pregnancy…. crazy hormones.
What site do you use to keep track of calories? Can’t wait for your ultrasound, I love the name Greyson but have my fingers crossed you’ll be using Alexis!
Oh yes, my fingers are majorly crossed for Alexis! :))))))
You can use loseit.com to keep track of calories ( it has an Iphone app too), but I also need to keep track of nutrients, so I use: http://nutritiondata.self.com/mynd/mytracking it’s super detailed. i use it daily.
I looked just like you when I was 20 weeks pregnant with #1! Also, did you know staying away from “germs” is not necessary? In fact, it may make it more likely your child will get sick as you and s/he won’t have any immunity. Just a thought. It seems like you airbrush your face in these photos, do you? I am curious as I would like to do a pregnancy blog with my second. And why don’t you call your husband by his name? Hubby and especially hubster are so annoying!
lol @ your questions.
“Staying away from germs” is for different reasons, not because I’m hoping my baby will be less sick when it’s born. lol In pregnancy your immune system is lowered, so you’re more suseptible to colds, flu, CMV and other infections, which can hurt the fetus during development. Once the baby is out and is developed, it’s less of an issue. A person’s immunity doesn’t get that much worse by staying away from germs for 9 months. I’ve had 26 years of exposure- the baby will get plenty of antibodies.
Yes, I definitely smooth my skin in pregnancy photos, because my skin is a total nightmare right now, and it’s not something I or anyone else would want to look at. In this photo it’s so obvious because the focus is on my legs rather than my face, so the face looks even more blurred.
And finally, I don’t call my husband by his name, because for new readers it wouldn’t be clear who he is, unless i specify each time, which I don’t want to do ( like “Andrew, my husband”) lol. Also I almost never call him by his name in real life, we use pet names. {ps.: i don’t think i ever called his hubster 🙂 }
Actually, from what I have read and experienced and seen among my mom friends the opposite is true. Pregnant women have a natural immunity that protects them from sickness. I’ve been pregnant 4 times and only had the sniffles once. No flu, no nothing. I’ve seen the same with my mom friends.
Of course, you are entitled to do whatever you want but keep in mind that once baby arrives, your social life is going to be dramatically impacted (even if you hope it won’t!) so getting out now is really, really helpful.
Going back to a previous post about buying shoes while pregnant…my foot went from an 8 to a 9 while pregnant and has never gone back down! I had to buy all new shoes.
That’s definitely not what doctors or books or studies are saying. Your pregnant friends could have been lucky, plus things are different for everyone. But considering the facts and research, it’s feel better for me to take the precaution. It’s not for everyone, like I said, but i feel safer that way.
As far as social life, I really hope I can still get out often when we have the baby. If not, I’m ok with that too. I’ve had my years of more socializing than probably anyone I know lol ( one of the reason why we waited this long until we were sure we were ready for the baby).
Bummer about the shoe size, I’m really hoping not to have to go to size 10 lol
Thank you for responding! I understand about the airbrushing. And you are right, I misunderstood your reason for avoiding germs. Is it true that getting a cold while pregnant can hurt the fetus? I never heard that. Scary. Where do you get all of your information about creating the perfect uterine environment, including keeping germ-exposure to a minimum? It’s very interesting. Good luck and stay healthy, and keep the tips coming. PS – you called him “hubster” on your May 6 posting 🙂
The colds won’t be as bad as flu or CMV, however any inflammation in your pregnant body can make negative changes to your baby’s system. Let alone the fact that you’ll probably use meds that aren’t perfectly tested on how they influence the baby. So we are just trying to do this extremely safe even it that means going a bit overboard.
I started learning about this stuff in my first (and best) preconception book (see navigation at the top that says preconception resources– it’s the yellow book “get ready to get pregnant, it was the best thing I’ve ever read). And once I found out how vulnerable the fetus is, I started reading more books on epigenetics and stuff (pregnancy resources at the top, prenatal psychology books). Amazing info. So now that I have that info, it’d be selfish of me not to be super careful.
Hey, once You get your blog up, let me know. Would love to read.
“[My OB said] that I should totally go for an epidural, because ‘why go through all the pain’.” I’m surprised to see this on your blog, since you have always portrayed yourself as excessively careful with your health (and that of your baby). It isn’t clear from the context if your “LOL” was meant to laugh at the idea of having the epidural or if you were just laughing because of his tone. I hope you’ll seriously consider the very real risks involved with epidurals. I highly recommend themidwifenextdoor.com, if you haven’t already been there. She is very knowledgeable, her articles are extremely well researched and she always tries to represent both sides of any argument. She has several good articles on epidurals.
Like I said in the previous comment, I haven’t made up my mind yet as to how I want to approach it, mostly due to the fact that I haven’t done enough research. At first I was all for natural birth if I can manage it, then I started considering an epidural more and more. At this point, I don’t know. I know one thing- I’ll be going into labor open and ok with any birth outcome, because I know how unpredictable it can be. In the end, I know I will at least try and see if I can go naturally… I am keen on controlling things I can actually control but i don’t like stressing over things I can’t. As of right now, I figure if I can do it naturally, I’ll try to do it naturally, if not, I won’t stress over it. Aside from higher risk of C section, and forceps/vaccum extractions I haven’t read anything that would make me think it would harm the baby.
Thanks for the link, I’ll definitely read her posts.
Awwww hope you have little Alexis!!! But no matter whether the baby is a girl or boy as long as she/he is healthy! 😉
About the language thing: my ex could understand Russian much better than he spoke and he always regretted that his parents didn’t put more effort into perfecting his skills when he was young. Russian immigrants, they wanted to integrate into the American culture so much, they only spoke English to their children. My ex could neither read nor write and if he managed to put together a few sentences in Russian he was just over the moon with joy!
Fluency in second language is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give their children. An overwhelming number of the most successful people in this world all speak more than one language. It used to be a privilege of the rich, but today if one of the parents speaks another language it’d be a big mistake to not to share it with their offspring.
Fully agree! And that’s why we’re going that route, inspite of all the difficulties and me being completely uncomfortable speaking russian in emotional context. But I just can’t justify NOT doing it, simply because I don’t want to deal with it…
I think it is very wise of you. I can relate to feeling odd to have to speak Russian again. When my mom was here I felt completely out of place, because I had to speak Russian again 24/7. My gfriend talks Russian to her daughters and asks me to do the same but whenever I see them, it’s very hard for me not to slip into English.
By the way, from everything I hear and read about having a child, it sounds like there’s a never ending list of things a parent has to do regardless. It’s like you don’t count anymore, whatever emotional fears of physical desires you had, forget about it. It’s not about you anymore, so suck it up and do what’s better for the baby :))
But they all say it is well worth it…
Yup! that’s pretty much exactly it! The second you see that pink line, your life isn’t yours anymore.
Though I am hoping of finding a balance between doing as much as I can for our baby and having fun at the same time. We’ll see- it’s definitely a new chapter of life.
If my OB told me to go for an epidural because “why go through the pain?” I would immediately find a new doctor. Now you know going into it that your doctor does not support natural birth if you choose to go that way, and who is he to make that call for you? I had two beautiful, uncomplicated natural births that went VERY quickly and would have indeed stalled if I had had an epidural. With my second I stalled at 8cm and just flipped over and she was born 10 minutes later. Never would have been able to do that if I had been numb.
Also – when we were “shopping” for pediatricians, I told the one we chose that I was planning a med-free birth and he said, “Excellent! That’s what I like to hear! Best for baby and Mom.” And he was right! 🙂