21 March 2012

18 weeks

IComLeavWe
Update: Paxlet pictures are now updated.

Today is a great day, although work has been on blah, but I'll get into that at the end of this post. The reason today is great is that March ICLW starts today and so does Spring! Today is the first day this year where the day is longer than night. Up north in Finland where we have looong dark winters, this is an important milestone each year. It means spring is on it's way (if the snow will just stop coming down), the sun is shining more and it is actually warm when it shines! It was a balmy 6C (42,8F) and sunny outside at lunch today. Still needed to wear my earmuffs and gloves though.

And now for this week's update. I still can't believe I'm at 18 weeks (or 4,5 months!) and going into the 19th week.

Total Weight Loss/Gain: I'm up a kilo, so that's 3 total so far this journey.

Maternity Clothes: I'm loving my belly bands and I think only 1, or two at most, pair of paints can be worn without a button and zipper undone. I'm really looking forward to spring so I can wear some lighter and stretchier clothes. I should go check out some maternity pants (I know I've been saying that for some time now...) I'm also concerned that I might need a new-new maternity bra. I'm thinking the one I bought is maybe (already) a bit too small. Ugh!

Stretch marks: Nope, none yet.

Sleep: I sleep quite well, even after getting up and going pee often. hehehe. I have noticed that my neck is a bit more stiff than usual when I wake up. I think part of that has to do with not flipping from side to side as much during the night.
I can't remember if I've mentioned this before or not, but I have a "bean bag" that you can toss in the microwave/freezer that I have been laying out under my belly when I sleep. It is just enough support that my belly doesn't feel tired already in the morning.

Movement: Nothing yet. My stomach and everything in that area is quiet!! No butterflies, no bubbles, no whooshes or other possible Paxlet movements yet. If there does happen to be movement, I definitely know it is gas or my stomach digesting.

Cravings/Aversions: The only time I seem to "crave" something is if I see it (for ex. on TV) or a group of us are talking about it. Sort of like last Saturdy when I wanted pizza (I can almost always eat pizza) and then seeing the green popsicle on Dexter, which led me to wanting one myself.

Gender: I don't really have a feeling either way.

Symptoms: I've been definitely getting more round ligament twinges and pains. I'm even getting minute, yet sharp pains right in the pubic area. Those are uncomfortable. My tummy feels heavy quite often, especially as the day wears on. And I feel like I am waddling already, to an extent.

What I miss: Absolutely nothing. I truly am loving this, even when I'm "complaining" a little!

What I look forward to: Two more weeks until our 20 week scan when we'll get to see Paxlet again and maybe even find out the gender. I'd so love to feel Paxlet move.

Moods: I think this last week has been great! I've been quite cheerful (spring coming doesn't hurt this) and feeling quite energized and perky.

Milestones: Paxlet is the size of a sweet potato!
My tummy is definitely showing more and more, although I think if you didn't know I was pregnant you might not be 100% sure if I was pregnant or just fat.

Misc: I know I've talked about the need to pee a lot! But I guess that is my biggest symptom or issue with pregnancy. And it's more of an annoyance than anything else. But do you realize how much time a pregnant women spends in the bathroom just going pee? A lot!! I was joking with my co-worker today that we should just move our desks into the bathroom as it'd save us some time. Haha

And my gripe that I mentioned at the beginning of this post: work. I've been pretty good about staying stress-free and just going with the flow so far most of this year. But lately, it's just been so crazy and hectic that I'm just not as happy. For example, yesterday, I went into work just after 8am in the hopes of leaving at 4pm. Well, before our meeting at 2pm our SAP program crapped out on us. Our meeting lasted until just after 4pm, which when I got back to my desk I found out some of the work in Shanghai wasn't done, partly due to SAP crapping out on us. This isn't my week to stay late (until 6pm), but the issues from Shanghai were a bit more complicated than normal, so I stayed to do it. And stay I did! I didn't leave the office until 7:30pm!!! The issues really were more complicated and long winded, even for me who is an expert on this issue. On any other day it would have been fine to stay later, but I had really hoped to leave the office early. It just made me pissy! Not to mention I still didn't get everything done and continued it this morning. And to make matters worse (or rather me more grumpy), our time-keeper-machine only calculated me for 2hrs 45 min extra and not 3hrs! I am fighting those 15 minutes, I deserve them. And then again today, I still had my own stuff to do plus more stuff from Shanghai, so I didn't really get much of anything done (or so it felt like). And again I left later than I wanted, but still earlier than 7:30pm. Tomorrow I am only working my 8 hours and leaving when they are over no matter what is or isn't done!

Paxlet pictures aren't yet taken for this week, but I'll have Mr Siili take them before I go to bed and update  soon.

17 weeks
16 weeks
15 weeks
14 weeks
13 weeks
12 weeks
11 weeks
10 weeks
9 weeks
8 weeks
7 weeks