23 Week Pregnancy Update
Good morning! I thought we were about due for another pregnancy update! I just KNOW you were dying to see my baby bump—right? 
What’s going on with baby?
Baby girl is very active these days! I haven’t noticed her moving from the outside, but she certainly makes her presence known from the inside. She’s always active after I eat (loves food—her mommy’s girl!), when there’s music on (daddy’s girl), and late at night. It’s so fun to get to interact with her more and more. She is over a pound and is close to a foot long now! Her heartbeat was nice and steady at her appointment this week as well.
What’s going on with mom?
I’m doing really well! While I don’t LOVE-LOVE being pregnant, I really have minimal complaints and have had a pretty easy pregnancy thus far. I have started to have a bit of indigestion/heartburn at nights, but nothing a couple tums can’t clear up.
I have been basically eating whatever the heck I want though. Which is never good. I’ve also not been good about exercising at all. I’ve come to realize that healthy living does feel cyclical and sometimes you will have times like these. We are all imperfect people living in a world of brownies and ten dollar pizzas—sometimes the brownies and pizza win for the day. I just can’t let them win for the week or win for the month. (I wrote a really good blog post called What to Do When Things Go Wrong that I reread during times like these.) I worked hard to get in my 5 servings of fruits/veggies yesterday (success!) and that is where I will start today and build on that success. Little steps are better than large leaps.
Anything else?
Well I’ve been reading a bit about parenting/keeping a baby alive. It seems like everyone has a different idea of how to do it. And every baby is a bit different so….yeah. It sometimes feels like a deluge of information that I’m not sure how relevant all of it will be in the future. Here are a few of the tentative “plans” we have for our baby/parenting style.
- We want baby girl to be a part of our family, not the center of the family.
- We want to use a loose schedule of eat, play, sleep. Hopefully plenty of sleep.
- I want to breastfeed and cloth diaper. But if those things don’t work out it’s not the end of the world.
- We want our baby to be healthy and happy.
Most of the other details are still fuzzy.
Ever been stuck in an unhealthy eating rut? How did you break out?
What was the one unexpected thing you learned during your first months of parenting?
Yay! 2nd trimester is so fun!
Love your thoughts on parenting!
With my 5 weeks of experience; I’ve learned that you do what works for you and your baby:) Your instincts are great to follow.
With nursing, having someone who has recently gone through the journey is so helpful! Just someone to text for support or questions has been so great and emotionally strengthening for those first two weeks of overwhelming hormone changes 🙂
At 5 weeks; we are just now getting into the babywise “eat, play, sleep” and Peyton is moving from center of our universe (simply due to eating constantly:)) into part of the family.
You will be a great mom:) Praying the rest of your pregnancy goes well!
Thanks Katie! That’s what I keep thinking that so much we will figure out as we go.
The first month I learned that forcing/pushing B$ into a schedule wasn’t going to work for him – it was better all around for us to feed on demand and let him sleep when he wanted to sleep. He was a difficult sleeper and still isn’t great with sleeping (apparently I was the same way – yay). He eventually fell into his own loose schedule that worked for us. One thing I plan to do differently with future hoodrats – don’t let everyone hold them when they fall asleep! He got very used to being held when he slept and I think that added to some of our difficulties on top of his natural tendencies.
Can’t wait to hear all your new mom stories in “a few” months! It’s an adventure 🙂
Alisha told me that too about letting Soph sleep on someone. It should be fun! 🙂
I also nursed Sophie to sleep and that turned into an awful habit. The awful part really happened when she no longer would go to sleep after being nursed but knew no other way to go to sleep. “Teach them as you plan to go”… I think that’s the quote from Babywhisperer? It’s true. I think routines for baby are important but equally important is to realize that what you do in the beginning is ALL they know so it’s hard to unteach that. BUT after saying all that, it’s always good to give a big healthy dose of, “Be easy on yourself too.” Don’t stress yourself out when things aren’t perfect. I totally do… but I try not to 😉
You seriously look adorable! You are going to be a great mamma!
Aw thanks girl!