Chubby Bump: 20 weeks pregnant.. Half way there!

How far along are you? Half way there!!!! I'm 20 weeks and 0 days!

How I'm feeling:  umm.. This weeks has been ok. Not the best but also not the worst. I've had quite a lot of heartburn. I had, I think, two days where I felt nauseous. I also think that my body now really started to retain water which sucks. I've never ever had a problem with swelling or retained water while preggers with Nathanael. So I started to wear my compression socks which I got for our long haul flight  to Australia. Those socks... Oh, dear! I'm so out of breath after I put them on. It's a struggle. But as long as it helps, right?! Still drinking lots of water, 2-3 litres... And I feel like my arm doesn't fall asleep as often anymore as it used to. That's a plus.

Emotionally I've been ok. Still quite a lot of tears just listening to certain songs and so on. But otherwise  all is good.

Total weight gain: I forgot to weigh myself this morning but I weighed in yesterday with -1kg. So I'm down 1kg.. Perfect.

How big is little bee? Little bee is approximately the size of a banana weighing 300gr and measuring 25,6cm head to toe. 

Maternity clothes: Yes. Nothing to add. Just trying not to go stripy every single day :D

Sleep: Sleeping well. I've noticed that I usually don't have to get up anymore to pee. Peeing, however, has been bad during the day now. 

Movement: I feel little bee every single day. Mostly in the evenings as I'm too busy to notice it during the day. Therefore kicks are still not that hard that it hurts or anything like that. The other night I actually felt little bee roll over and I actually felt it from the outside. Unfortunately Mister Husband wasn't around and I reckon as soon as he would've put his hand on my belly it would've stopped anyways.. hahah. always the same..

Food cravings: TOMATOES! Oh, gosh. One day I had this super hugh craving for tomatoes! At least it was a healthy craving. And I do really like salads. But of course chocolate is still up there in my cravings list. 

Food aversions: eating it all!!! YUMMERS!

Belly button in or out: in. Maybe I should add the Wedding Band on or off question: They're off most of the time. I can still fit them but I get scared I won't be able to take them off again as I do start to swell. So when I wear rings I will wear some that are slightly too big.. Which would be m engagement ring and one I got from my grandy.

What I miss: Haven't really missed anything this week. well, there has been one thing. always the same. Shame on me but I missed Baileys... It's quite cold at the moment with a lot of snowing so the occasional coffee with Baileys would be A.W.E.S.O.M.E!

Best moment this week: First time of the year to go listen to carnival bands (I have no clue what you would call them in english..) Nathanael dressed up as a dino (Got that from Carter's). And I got Marcel's birthday pressie (His 30th b-day is coming up next monday!)

What I'm looking forward to? Still the stroller. It was supposed to arrive on friday and it didn't. So still waiting on that! I can't think of anything else right now :D

                             

I thought I'd share my bare belly for once including my tiger stripes

                             

Please excuse the bad lighting...

Chubby Bump: 19 Weeks pregnant...

How far along are you? I'm 19 weeks and 0 days! Almost half way!!! YAY!

How I'm feeling:  Well, I'm good. That kind of sums it up. No nausea anymore. Rarely any headaches and the back pain has been fine as well. So when it comes to the physical aspects of last week I have been good. The only real thing that somewhat worried me was that during the night when I woke up my left arm had been falling asleep. I had a doctor's appointment on tuesday and I talked to my doctor. She said it could be from retaining water that pressured a nerve but I haven't really been swelling. So she told me to take some magnesium and see if it'll go away and to try and drink lots of water. Since taking the magnesium before I go to sleep I have noticed that my arm was better. However, for a few days now my wrist has been hurting. So I'm really trying to drink lots of water as I do think it might be retained water.. we'll see.

Emotionally I have been pretty much the same. Nathanael has been teething quite badly this past week and he needed his mummy a lot. So I sometimes got to a point where I just couldn't handle it anymore and just cried. There are also a few things that have to be figured out for my/our future and I had a lot on my mind not making it any easier to have a clingy, teething toddler and being emotional anyways. But it's ok. Nothing that really bothers me in terms of "oh, I can't handle my life anymore". :)

Total weight gain: Still the same. I haven't gained or lost any grams. I even checked the weight I weighed in at my doctor and I have been exactly the same weight every time I went. And my doctor was really happy and told me to try not to gain as long as possible which I will try.

How big is little bee? Little bee is approximately the size of a grapefruit weighing 240gr and measuring 15cm head to bum. From next week on the abby will be measure head to toe!

Maternity clothes: Yes. I have been wearing mostly dresses last week. Non-maternity dresses but all my other clothes are maternity.

Sleep: Sleep has been good. The thing with my hand has been mentioned above. So still peeing about 2 times a night.

Movement: Yes, feeling little bee every day now. Still no big movements but definitely feeling little bee moving. She/ he has been moving a lot around my bladder. It feels like someone's playing soccer with my bladder which I haven't really had this early with Nathanael. 

Food cravings: Cravings have kind of been weird. Um... I have been craving chocolate quite a lot. Not every chocolate only special ones and not every day the same type of chocolate. One day I craved mustard and at the same time chocolate.. Not that I would have wanted to eat them together I just wanted them at the same time.

Food aversions: no aversions this week... I can eat it all :D

Belly button in or out: in.

What I miss: I missed going to the toilet by myself.. Just having a few minutes off... But it's ok. I know it's only a phase until the next phase.. hahhaha

Best moment this week: All up it was a lovely week. We were able to see little bee this week but unfortunately he/ she didn't want to show the gender. But everything is fine and that was great. AND we ordered our new stroller!!! YEAY! Maybe if someone's interested we decided on a Bugaboo Donkey Duo. I wanna do a time lapse video of when I or we assemble it. And then I would like to write a review on our current stroller (which I'm trying to sell) and our new one.

What I'm looking forward to? Looking forward to tonight. Hubster and I are having a date night. Nate's gonna be staying at my parents and we'll probably go out for dinner. So def looking forward to that! And as I already said our new stroller might arrived at the end of the week!

Please just don't look at my panty line :D

I think my bump looks super weird this week.. 

Chubby Bump: 18 Weeks pregnant...

How far along are you? Today I'm 18 weeks and 0 days.

How I'm feeling:   Emotions have been like a roller coaster. I wouldn't say worst week so far but by far the most emotional week. I guess it's gonna stay on that level for a while. I have not had any like super wild crying. It was more of tears just rolling down my cheeks at every possible situation. But it's ok.. I'm ok with that. The whole situation with my patience got better. I was much more calm and relaxed this week. I like that! Nausea has gone completely which is great. I had the occasional headache and on friday and saturday I think I overdid  a bit. 

Friday my mum, Nathanael and I went to IKEA for some shopping. So we did lots of walking and carrying. I was super tired when we got home. Then on Saturday Nathanael stayed at my mum's place and I got some cleaning done and I built Nathanael's new bed which we got at IKEA... This resulted in a bad back pain and being super tired and just feeling off. 

And something else that has really taken over is being out of breath. I think it got quite noticeable and even just putting Nate in his car seat and popping Ares in the car I'm out of breath.

Nathanael's new bed

Total weight gain: still 1 kg down. So same as last week.

How big is little bee? Little bee is the size of a bell pepper weighing 190gr and measuring 14,2 cm.

Maternity clothes: Definitely maternity close. Some non-maternity shirts are still ok, though.

Sleep: Sleep has been quite good this week. Peeing usually 2 times a night. I have noticed that some nights I wake up and my left hand/arm has fallen asleep. A really weird feeling and of course I googled it. What came up was the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. As far as I read there isn't really that much you can do about it but I will mention it to my doctor this week and see what she says.

Movement: Still feeling movement. However, still no big kicks or rolling but for sure feeling little bee every now and then. I do try to slow down at least when I lie down in bed and just put my hands on my belly and just relax. Because it just seems that during the day, especially with Nate running round and wanting all of my attention, I just don't seem to notice being pregnant that much.

Food cravings: None. At least not that I can think of. I really craved some salads one day but that it it.

Food aversions: still cheese. but it's been ok.

Belly button in or out: in.

What I miss: This week I have to admit I really missed not drinking any alcohol. I was invited to a friends place for dinner and she served such nice wine. OMG. and I was sipping on my sparkling grape juice. 

Best moment this week: There were many!! I had a great time on friday with my mum shopping and we checked out the stroller we're looking into buying. (It was great! So just waiting to order it online and I'll probably do a separate blog post on our stroller). Then Saturday night my friend's birthday. Some mummy time!! GREAT! I really enjoyed it!

What I'm looking forward to? Of course the doctor's appointment on tuesday!!!! Hopefully we find out the gender!!! Keep your fingers crossed!

Mummy Monday: My view on Breastfeeding

I decided to try and put up a "mummy post" each monday. Munchkin is turning 8 months on wednesday and therefore I will write an 8 month post next monday. So I thought I would write about my experience when it comes to breastfeeding.

Before giving birth to Nathanael I really wanted to breastfeed. My goal was at least 6 month. However, if it didn't work, it just didn't and I was ok with that as well.

So when Nate was born the midwife tried to get him to latch on pretty much straight away and he was doing so good. He latched on and got down to business. I have to admit it was kind of painful.
Well, it turned out that the midwife helping me to get him to latch on somehow didn't do it properly and I basically had bruises all over my nipples. It hurt. It really did. So every time he latched on it was super painful. The nurse gave me a nipple shield so it would hurt less. My milk came in, I think on the 3rd day and Nate was really doing great.  I nursed him whenever he wanted and I actually had to wake him up during the night so he could feed. The thing is that he had jaundice and turned quite yellow so he had to drink as much as possible.

So it went really well. Even at home it was all good. I was still using the nipple shield and my midwife told me to try stop using it which I did. BUT it was painful. As I was used to using the nipple shield it hurt pretty bad when I tried to nurse without it as my nipples weren't used to the straight on eating action of Nathanael. But I kept on trying and I would say round about the 2 month mark I was doing better without the shield.

Then some other problems surfaced. I was having difficulties mainly with my right boob. I had clogged milk ducts and I was sore while feeding and even when I wasn't feeding. Two or three times I was even quite worried to actually get a mastitis. I did some research online and asked some other mums what I could do. So I ended up putting a hot washcloth on my boob before feeding and a cool pack  after the feeding. At one point I even considered stopping to breastfeed. I DIDN'T! and I'm proud of it.

Up until the time when I just fed in the mornings and evenings I was having trouble with my right boob and from then on everything was ok.

We started Nathanael on solids when he turned 5 months old (I might to a different post about that). I kept on feeding 3 times a day and then went to twice a day (mornings/evenings) and now we're down to one feed a day. I breastfeed in the mornings and I want to keep it that way as long as I produce enough milk and I feel comfortable doing it. We do feed him formula in the evenings now. Mainly just because I don't have enough milk anymore to pump and we were away for 2 nights and I didn't have any breast milk in my freezer anymore.

To sum it up.
Breastfeeding has been amazing. I love doing it and I would do the same with our 2nd child. It was super easy (if traveling somewhere, nursing on demand). I was nursing in the car, restaurant, train, at home, in our garden, basically wherever I was and whenever he was hungry. I never felt ashamed or uncomfortable doing so. I loved the experience of being so close to my child and sharing such a intimate moment with him. I would totally recommend doing it to any other mother. However, if it doesn't work, if there's not enough milk, way too much pain and so on... well, then don't. I'm totally not anti-formula.. Do whatever works best for you!!!

And now I can enjoy a good glass of wine from time to time... :D