Hello, boys and girls!

It’s week 16, and this is when I started documenting my last pregnancy because I had finally started showing. I definitely think my belly has grown since the last post I uploaded here. If it’s anything like last time, this is the part where I start to see big changes from week to week.

It’s kind of weird making updates during a global pandemic when so much is on pause because there’s not a lot to do and there’s not a lot of personal changes going on to update you on besides a growing belly and a bunch of symptoms. I’ve been consistent on getting podcasts up each week, but not really doing much of anything on camera. Speaking of podcasts, I was editing the latest one and I realized that it’s the exact same age as the baby.

When we started recording “Glowing Through It“, I was not pregnant yet, and I didn’t really think about the premiere date (which was February 9th) in a planned way. I just knew God was nudging me to get it out there. We had batch recorded a few episodes and set them up to go live Sunday after Sunday. By the time we needed to record more episodes, I already scheduled February 27th in my calendar to do that. That was the same day I found out I was pregnant. Once those episodes were out, we’ve been recording each podcast week by week because so much in the world is changing and we want to stay current.

So, that being said, I looked at the episode number of my most recent podcast and realized it was the same number of weeks I’d be pregnant this week. I post the episodes on Sunday, and each new pregnancy week begins on Sunday. Pretty cool to me! Also, I’m wondering if this podcast will be a long term project or if it will only be an assignment for me and my husband for the life of my pregnancy. Who knows? Only God at this point because so much can change in the next several months.

Now more about pregnancy…

I expected some things this week like maybe still being tired and maybe still being nauseous, but something I didn’t expect was to feel a little self conscious about my body. I’ve been through pregnancy before, and honestly I’m glad to have something to show for all the weeks I’ve been growing a human. However, it’s apparently still weird to me to see my body become a different shape and not fully recognize myself.

I don’t take a lot of photos and I don’t get a chance to do a lot of things that make me feel like myself, so I have a view of myself in my mind that seems like “Whoa! So much is happening and changing so fast.” However when I look at the pregnancy photos my husband takes of me every two weeks, I see my belly and boobs getting larger, but not much else has changed. In a way, it helps me to see “Okay, I’m still me.”

Something that’s cool and that I’ve been looking forward to is feeling the baby’s kicks get more noticeable. One time my husband did feel it, but it’s still a little too soft for him to feel for the most part. Sometimes, the baby will ball up in my lower abdomen area and that’s a little uncomfortable, so my husband will massage that area out and it usually works. It’s just cool to know that the baby is full of life and figuring things out in there.

I’ve been thinking a lot about our announcement video and photos lately, and I get excited about it and slightly overwhelmed. This happens a lot when I have a big project to do that I haven’t done before. No matter what, God ALWAYS helps me to excel in the creative ideas He gives me, but I always have to push past the “It’s all too much to do!” aspect of it first.

On top of trying to get this done, we’re also planning some travel to see my Dad over on the East Coast. Planning travel always stresses me out a little bit, but once the tickets are booked, I feel so much better. We still haven’t solidified the dates, but we plan to see him in a timeframe spanning between Father’s day and Petra’s birthday on July 3rd. I’m actually really looking forward to that time, but I have no idea how things will be with the country being more opened up by then. I hope and pray that things are more normal.

Alrighty then. Let’s dig into those baby stats:

Age and size of baby:

16 weeks old, 4 inches long, 4 oz in weight.

Cravings:

The only thing that’s been a daily occurrence for me is having one or two nectarines as soon as I get up and snacking on a veggie platter once during the day consisting of cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, and cucumbers with ranch dressing. Other than that, I do eat a lot of meat because a lot of other food goes right through me and I end up really hungry again in no time. Oh, and also I’ve been having a lot of ice cream.

Morning sickness:

If I get too hungry, I’ll start getting nauseous. This can and has led to throwing up in different times of the day. My life kind of revolves around food which can be very frustrating to me at times. It consumes my thoughts for most of the day because I just really don’t want to throw up. I was usually getting nauseous at the end of the day, but now it can be at any time depending on what I ate and when.

Stretch marks:

No stretch marks and I haven’t felt any tightness in my skin anywhere. My boobs are still huge and maybe even getting bigger. I think it’s time for a couple of new bras.

Crazy hormones:

I remember saying that my skin had been doing really good and I hadn’t had any breakouts. That’s been true for a while, fortunately. Just recently, I’ve seen a few little pimples show up around my cheekbones and jawline, but it’s still nothing like what I used to get before being pregnant. They don’t swell up or bother me really at all. Emotionally, I’ve had some low days the past two weeks. When I’m feeling really sick, I’ll get very overwhelmed with pregnancy and life in general. Feeling like I can’t handle it. When I feel good, I’m very optimistic and excited about the future.

Sleeping habits:

On some days, I have a more normal amount of energy. Randomly throughout the past two weeks, I’ve been exhausted and just fall asleep for an hour or two in the middle of the day. I remember getting restless leg syndrome pretty bad during the third trimester of my first pregnancy. It’s not unbearable right now, but sometimes I will feel the need to kick my legs for no reason like there’s a lot of built up energy in them or something.

So, that’s that for now.  Be blessed and take time to make your dreams into your reality.

-Kytia L’amour