How are you feeling?

That seems to be the No. 1 question I get after announcing I’m pregnant. And guess what, growing a human is hard! I never really thought about ALL the different effects growing a baby would have on my body. I just assumed it would be mostly physical changes (like the growing belly) and maybe some morning sickness.

I’ve considered myself pretty lucky in terms of morning sickness (though really it should be called all day sickness). I’m pretty functional and most of the time any queasiness can be cured with some constant snacking. Let me tell you, I went through a lot of Honey Nut Cheerios in the first trimester.

Luckily, I don’t have any aversions to food either. I am trying to eat and snack healthier so I can give Spot as much nutrition as he or she needs. Also, with the constant urge to eat, it’s probably good if I am not constantly picking up the donuts, cookies or cupcakes. Contrary to what they say, eating for two is not as exciting as it sounds. Technically I am supposed to eat just an extra 300 calories a day.

As far as negative symptoms, probably the roughest have been the constant fatigue and some heartburn and indigestion. No more can I stay up until 10 or 10:30 on a week night or take that third slice of pizza (although with the pizza, I can’t ever seem to stop and am always kicking myself after the fact.)

Luckily I am well into my second trimester, and all the books say most of these symptoms tend to go away around this time. I still get tired and need to go to bed a lot earlier than I use to, but now I get bursts of energy throughout the day. (Before, I pretty much felt like a zombie all day.) And, most importantly that all day queasiness I had been feeling is pretty much gone.

18 weeks (Four months)

The bump is still pretty undetectable to the average eye. We went to the doctor last week and Spot's heartbeat is strong. (In the 140s -- apparently anywhere between 120-160 is good). 

We also heard him moving around in there, though I haven't been able to feel anything yet.

On September 6 we go in for our ultrasound that will tell us if Spot is a he or a she!

Baby Landstra, AKA: Spot

The first time we got to see our baby, he or she was about 7 weeks. At that time all we could see was a tiny spot. So somehow that became our nickname for Baby Landstra. Now Spot is much larger than, well, a spot. At 17 weeks (a little over 3.5 months) He/she is the size of a sweet potato this week. We are making our way through the produce department each week. Spot was turnip last week and an avacodo the week before and I had guacamole to celebrate! I might just have to have guacamole again this week, too.
For those of you worried we’ll continue with the Spot nickname, don’t worry, that’s just what we’ll use while he/she is still in my belly. I promise we’ll come up with a good (normal) name for Baby Landstra over the next 5 months.

Operation Baby Landstra has commenced

Matt and I are expecting our first child January 17, 2013 and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Since many of our family members live miles – and states – away, we wanted to be able to update everyone on Baby Landstra’s progress.
I’ll also be writing some about my first experience with pregnancy, since “how are you feeling" is one of the top questions I get asked as people begin finding out. However, there are some components of pregnancy I will do my best NOT to share. And if you don’t know me all that well, let me tell you prior to being pregnant I had some pretty strong feelings about pregnancy over-sharing. So here is my pledge to you:

• I will not post about bodily functions. Yes, I had no idea how much these certain unmentionable things we take for granted in our everyday lives are affected once a baby starts growing inside you. But I promise I will not write or talk about it in detail.

• Pregnancy is counted in weeks. 40 weeks to be exact. And it used to drive me nuts when pregnant people told everyone else their progress in weeks and not in months. But because the doctor, the baby books and other new moms or moms-to-be always count in weeks, I have noticed myself falling into that trap. So to save you from figuring up how long 17 weeks is in normal people counting, I will do my best to try to translate that week count into an approximate month count. Because seriously, normal people don’t talk in weeks.
• Facebook will not know more about this baby than you. Usually I am a big fan of Facebook, but something about announcing a pregnancy on Facebook makes me kind of feel icky. While I know – or knew – everyone on my friends list at one point in my life, something about letting them all in the loop feels odd. So while I am not going to be super-secretive about this pregnancy on Facebook, I am taking relaxed approach. No big Facebook announcements for me – especially not to announce when this baby starts coming! But I promise, we will let you all know the important events through this blog, emails or phone calls.

So there you have it. I hope you enjoy reading and keeping track of Operation Baby Landstra.

 14 weeks on July 18 - Just barely a bump

16 weeks on August 2, still not much of a baby bump