Week 16

I'm a little confused about how this pregnancy timeline stuff is counted. Some things say I'm 16 weeks, some say I'm "in the 17th week". For those who are new to counting by weeks, I say I'm 4 months. Either way, things are moving right along.

Sean and I went to our second prenatal visit on Friday, heard the heartbeat again and this time remembered to record it. I e-mailed it out to a few folks so if you want to listen, just let me know. Everything is totally normal and our ultrasound is now scheduled for Monday, March 2nd! Which means we'll probably know the avocado's gender in three weeks!!!

Because I have a strong family history of Diabetes, I needed to take the glucose test a few weeks earlier than normal, so we did it while we were there at the clinic. I drink an 8 oz bottle of 50 mg of glucose, which tasted like flat-extra-sweet-orange soda, then waited calmly for an hour without moving around and had my blood sugar taken to see how my body adapted to the high levels. This stuff is so sweet it made me nauseous, The results came back over MyGroupHealth on Sunday and I had "elevated levels": 143 when the ideal range was 65-135. Not terrible, but a smidge high, which meant I had to do the THREE HOUR TEST. No less than 3 midwives sent me secure messaging to make sure I did it right away, so first thing Monday morning, after not having eaten since dinner the night before, I was there. I had an initial vial drawn and then drank the glucose, this time a lovely flat-extra-sweet-lime-soda flavor, and waited. An hour passed and I had another vial drawn. An hour passed and I had another vial drawn. An hour passed and I had another vial drawn. All while trying hard not to vomit the syrupy liquid back onto my own lap.

Turns out all of my levels were in the normal range this time, so NO GESTATIONAL DIABETES FOR BRITT!! *sigh of relief*

This weekend was also major milestone in another way - Sean and I went to a maternity store. I realized at Kristina's baby shower that my jeans were definitely not as comfortable sitting down as they were the weekend before and finally bit the big-belly-bullet. I got a pair of jeans and two tops for now because it's really all I had the patience (or budget) for. I'll need to get some work pants soon, though. Sean was actually very enthusiastic about shopping for me. With us, we tend to prefer to buy the other person clothes since we know they would rarely do so for themselves. Plus he got to take a picture of me wearing the sample belly they provide for size purposes. So, here is a preview of what's to come:


I'm currently not showing much belly, if at all, but I can definitely feel a firm lump when I lay down or bend over and I suspect it won't be long now. I can feel it up to my belly button already because I apparently am short-waisted. I think I'm just short-everything and that happens to be proportionate, but whatever. I've also lost 7 pounds thanks to morning (all-day) sickness, but I'm told I can count on all of that coming back and then some.

The baby is now an avocado about 4 1/2" long head-to-rump. That's bigger than my ipod. Oh jeez. That's big. *deep breath*