16 weeks

I am now a little more than 16 weeks pregnant. I feel like I am in pregnancy purgatory.. halfway between looking normal and halfway between looking pregnant- which in general terms means I am feeling and looking just fat and bloated... The pictures illustrate my point.




This past week has been a little overwhelming as the bleeding stopped over the weekend, but came back Monday. I called the doctor's office again and they had me come in for a sonogram to check on the baby and to determine where the bleeding may be coming from. Good news was that the baby was measuring right on schedule. It looked perfect! When I giggled, it jumped and moved around like crazy. It is always such a thrill to see the little image on the screen. It is twice as big as it was at my last sonogram at 12 weeks; measuring a whole 10.2 centimeters! The cause of the bleeding was still not determined, but the doctor wants to keep an eye on my placenta as he feels it is 'low lying.' He went into this analogy about a tree's roots needing to move with the expanding land- but I didn't quite follow that. Good news was that as long as the color of the blood doesn't change, he doesn't think it is something to be overly concerned about, although he wants to do another sonogram in two weeks to check the placenta and we will do another one two weeks after that. The sonograms are so reassuring that everything is going ok. I have felt a few little movements this week. Thebump.com calls them "quickenings." At first it was hard to tell if it was gas or actually the baby, but there has been a few times where it has been unmistakenable. I can't wait to feel them more frequently and know Brett is anxious to be able to feel them from the outside. He talks everyday to the baby and it melts my heart. We are both in awe of this tiny miracle that is growing...

On a different note, it is no doubt that our baby will be a Hawkeye... We have received a few items from family members. Below is a picture of some of our favorites. We can't wait to take the little one tailgating and back to Iowa City to Kinnick. I think my favorite item here is the little hat. I can't get over how tiny it is and that we will actually have a baby in August that will fit into the hat. It amazes me everyday.