Bump Update: 12 Weeks

How far along? 12 weeks today!

How big is baby? The average fetus at 12 weeks is about 2.1 inches long and .49 ounces. Now that baby's got pretty much all his or her parts, baby's main job is to keep on growing.

Total weight gain? 7lbs, 3 of which were the last week.

Maternity clothes? I found out I was pregnant right at the change of seasons so I just pulled out the maternity clothes instead of my regular fall/winter clothes.  I also went to Pea in the Pod to get some new jeans since mine are all too big.  I couldn't not take a picture with the fake belly.  The nice thing about this pregnancy is my two sisters-in-law are done having kids so they passed along their maternity clothes, and as my sister is done with hers (shes 6 wks post partum) she's passing them over to me too.  I have a whole new maternity wardrobe! 

Stretch marks?  Nothing new

Belly button?  I swear, it's almost flat already. What?

Exercise:  Midwife said up to 3 times a week, and I've been going to Pure Barre twice a week lately (holidays and sickness slowed me down a bit)

Sleep: I'm about 50/50 on a good night's sleep. I either sleep a solid 8 hours or I'm up several times to pee and have about 2-3 hours where I toss and turn.  The afternoon power naps are keeping me alive.

Movement:  I really think I felt the baby yesterday, and after seeing how active the baby is on the ultrasound today, I'm sure I did!

Food cravings:  Broth based soup, pizza, smoothies, anything in a tortilla, Wendy's Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger Deluxe with no mayo (duh)

Food aversions: Anything super smokey. Tried some ribs the other night at just couldn't do it. Thankfully no smell aversions although occasionally cooking chicken bothers my nose.

What I miss: Nothing really. Ready for the exhaustion phase to pass.

What I am looking forward to:  Finding out the sex of the baby so we can work on names!

Milestones:  All of our friends and family know about the baby

Say What?   So far nothing too obscure. Mostly a lot of questions if we want a boy or a girl. And for wondering minds, I know Eric is very nervous about having a 3rd girl and his sanity, though I think he's an amazing girl-dad. I keep going back and forth. I feel like we know what we're doing with a girl, but a boy would bring a whole new set of adventures.

Sweet moments:  The girls got new blankets for Christmas from Santa.  Santa left one for the new baby too (mostly because they came in a 3 pack). Every night Evie makes sure the new baby's blanket is in my bed for him/her to snuggle with at night. If I take a nap on the couch I often wake up and she has put the blanket on me.

Make room for baby:  Eric has been drawing up some plans for a bunkbed / loft to put in Evie's room so we can move the girls in together. 

Oh, and THIS:  I went in at 6-7 weeks for an ultrasound.  They use this ultrasound to confirm the estimated due date, the only reason I had insisted on it so early was because I was having some pain on my ovary. Turns out I just had some cysts rupture but everything else was fine. Baby measured right on track and the heartbeat sounded good.

At 11.5 weeks I went in for the 12 week blood work and to try to hear the heartbeat on the doppler. The midwife had told me we might not be able to hear it and that it's normal for being only 11.5 weeks so not to worry. But after she tried and tried and couldn't find it my mama heart began to worry.  I started second guessing every ache and pain I'd had in the last week.  The midwife said since we saw the heartbeat and I hadn't had any fever, spotting or cramping that I was probably fine but that she could schedule me an ultrasound for Wednesday if that'd make me feel better.  That was a whole week away and I knew that if I had lost the baby that I'd probably know, or have a good idea, by then anyway, so I declined. 

That whole next day my heart was restless but I kept holding these words from the Blessing of Expectant Mother's in my heart,

Lord, we beg you to visit this dwelling, and to drive away from it and from this servant of yours, N, all the enemy's wiles. Let your holy angels be appointed here to keep her and her offspring in peace; and let your blessing  ever rest upon her. Save them, almighty God, and grant them your everlasting light; through Christ our Lord. (full text here)

I was begging the Lord to keep me in his peace. Well, that night I received an email from the Pro-Life group at our parish letting us know that a new Pregnancy Aid Center had opened in our area and they were looking for "pregnancy models" to come in for a free ultrasound so the new tech could earn her training hours and they could test the newly donated machine.

Thanks be to God!

I called immediately and heard back Monday morning (today). They could see me in an hour. The moment I walked in I was totally loved on, as were the girls. I told them my story, mostly to let them know I was prepared already for news of a loss, but also just to share how God answers our prayers, even if the answer isn't what we want to hear.  My prayer was for peace, and He was providing that for me.

Two seconds into the ultrasound and even my untrained eye could see the beautiful tiny heartbeat, and watched our baby roll over!  The techs were amazing in pointing out all the tiny features to the girls. Maggie kept walking around with her shirt up, pointing to her belly that she had a baby too. Haha!

The tech took a while because everything she did her supervisor had to check, so the Clinic director pulled the baby models down off the shelf to show the girls the size of our baby and how big he/she will be at 16 weeks, 22 weeks, and 26 weeks.  They were in awe!  Maggie didn't want to leave the baby there. It was just her size.

We are truly blessed and looking forward to welcoming a third baby Buergler into the world this summer!