Week 20

He's around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — about the size of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. 

He's so big! I can feel pretty much all of his movements and kicks. He's very active at night, because he knows that's when daddy is usually around and puts his hand on my belly to feel kicks and talk to him. When bedtime comes around, baby boy starts going wild. Then when I lay down and my husband puts his hand on my belly, baby boy kicks gently a couple times and rests under his hand while daddy talks to him. Every single night for the past 8 or so days. And if for some reason Corry falls asleep before I do, baby will kick and move like crazy all night long or until I ask Corry to put his hand on my belly and say hello. It's so precious and makes me absolutely melt with love for both of them. Last night Corry expressed to me that he is so excited to play with the baby and hold him when he's born. I can already tell that those two are going to have a special connection when he's born. 

This past week I have also had dreams every night about being in labor or giving birth to our son or being home with him. For a while I've been praying about a water birth. I have to be in the hospital when I give birth, but the Family Birth Center offers water birth options in the labor/delivery rooms. I've been praying about it and thinking about it and my husband and I talked about it as well. I already use water for pain relief/ ache relief, and to take the weight off my legs/ lower belly. I swim a lot and water is very helpful for me already, so I think it is a good option for my first birth. Also, last night was the first "birth dream" I've had where I was given a birth pool (I think that's what it's called) or tub in the hospital room. I have to talk to my OB about it, but it looks like that's my birth plan. It also depends on how things go when I get there. There are signs and little things that could prevent me from having that water birth, but I would like for that to be the plan.

My belly is getting bigger and bigger each week. It's now pretty much impossible for me to sit up in bed without using my arms and rolling a little. My little body frame all of a sudden has this huge massive belly to carry haha. No joke, if you look at my body minus the hips and belly (and maybe boobs) you will understand what kind of stress my poor legs are under to carry it all. With belly and pregnancy weight, I am still 153 pounds. Without it, my doctor said I'm probably in the ballpark of 146 pounds. I haven't been that light since I went to Russia on my religious mission when I was 19. 

Anyway, things are good and I've kind of got my sickness under control. I am currently experiencing what some describe as some pretty intense morning sickness, but not quite hyperemesis again. I've become good at managing it though. I know that I have to take at least one of my nausea meds at 6 AM every morning before I get up, and I have to eat something like steel cut oats or plain cornflakes in almond milk within two hours to keep the nausea meds working. My gluten/wheat intolerance has gotten worse and it actually makes me sick to the point where it feels like hyperemesis pain. So I stay away from breads and cereals and such with wheat in them. I have been doing well with dairy, but now that I can eat a bigger variety of foods, I am cutting back on it quite a bit again to help with inflammation in my gut. I had cheese yesterday so I don't feel any difference yet :) But I do know it helps keep some nausea away. I also try to drink a crud ton of water, almond milk, and juice to stay hydrated. If I go a couple hours without drinking something I get sick. 

**I am finally finishing this post now that I'm 21 weeks. I start classes somewhere in between the 11th and 14th (online starts a little earlier than main campus) and so I may not be as diligent at the beginning of the semester with my posts as I have been. But here are some precious ultrasounds for you to look at :)

 We got a lot of ultrasound pictures this time again, but I wanted to just post three of my favorites. This one is a picture of his right foot. He currently loves to kick hard, especially when mama lays down to rest :)

 Here's a picture of his left hand. It looks a little creepy in my opinion, but it shows that he has all of his fingers and even though we didn't get a picture of it; the ultrasound tech showed us he has all his fingers and two thumbs. It was kind of sweet to see his hands because he was moving around. Just another evidence that he's real, alive, and growing!

Here's a sweet picture of our little man. Ultrasound tech and my OB both said that everything is developing well. No cleft palate, all the fingers, toes and limbs are present, and organs are developing/developed well. In this picture if you look close, you can finally start to see the outline of what his precious face looks like. We saw, but didn't get a picture of his face. They said no cataracts or anything either in the eyes. We were thrilled to see how much he has grown. We have another ultrasound on the 16th to check on my placenta previa and we can't wait to see our love again!