Today I had another ultrasound at the AFM. I'm 26 w 1 d, and Ms. Ava is measuring in the 65% for weight, at 2.2 lbs! It was a growth scan so they took all her measurements and everything looked good! This is the first time that I almost felt like I was going to cry when she was like, "Ok, and now we're going to measure the femur." I'm like - omg. There is a little human, with a FEMUR BONE inside of my body!! This is insane. I just remember the first (transvaginal 😓) ultrasound, where she was like, a piece of rice. She was literally a little beating heart and that was it. And now look at her. She's got a femur (!) and a stomach (!) and a bladder (!) and a gallbladder (!). It's incredible. 

I'm feeling her move a LOT more now. Pretty consistently every night and throughout the day. Yesterday I was making felipe watch my stomach so he could see her trying to escape. 

That second trimester honeymoon is now starting to wear off -- which makes sense as next week I'll be in the third trimester -- but I'm starting to get uncomfortable when I'm sleeping, my back hurts all day, my feet are getting swollen, etc. I did pass the blood glucose test, but my iron is low, so I have to take an iron pill every day now. 

I also, unfortunately, googled "asparatame and pregnancy." Don't do it yall. These crazy hippy websites will freak you the fuck out! The good news is the actual medical websites said that aspartame can't cross the placenta easily. Still, I stopped drinking diet soda the first trimester then slowly let it sneak back into my diet. True, I drink a TON of water (100+oz per day), but I'm not sure if that negates anything. Actually I wasn't even thinking about this till yesterday because I was like, everything is developing great... but then I was like, but what if, like mentally, it's not. I've been so focused on the physical development, that I forgot to be paranoid about the mental/neuro development. Well, another day, another something to worry about. 

I am oscillating between excited and really effin' freaked out now! Only 3 months to go! 

I am exhausted and think Im getting sick because everyone at work is a jerk and came in when they were really sick . . . or it could just be allergies. And I have so much work to do, it's unreal, yet here I am typing a blog post. #procrastinatorsunite. 

xox

kim

Bumpdate: 20 weeks

How far along are you: 20 weeks

Cravings: diet dr pepper cherry 😓

Weight gained: 0 lbs net; 10 lbs since lowest weight 

Sleep: pretty good most nights, i wake up about twice to pee, and sometimes around 3am i can't go back to sleep. usually i go sleep in the guest bedroom when that happens. 

Baby Movement: i just started to really feel (with confidence) this week. every time i feel her i put my hand on my stomach and a couple times i felt a really good kick!  i made felipe put his hand on my stomach too and he said he felt her!

How are you feeling: i am feeling that second trimester honeymoon feeling!! seriously feel remarkably well, especially in comparison to how terrible i felt in the first trimester, and now i'm wanting to eat more, exercise, etc. basically i feel completely normal. i dont even feel super preggo -- because my weight is really the same as it was pre-pregnancy (i started overweight), but the doctor said on friday my weight gain was "excellent" -- lol -- probably the first and last time I'll hear that in my life!

Names: Ava! Ava Rae, Ava Rose . . . today Amy suggested Amy Grace and at first I was like, noo but now i was thinking about it and I really like it. 

Gender: una chiquita : )

Favorite maternity clothes: i haven't really been wearing maternity clothes yet. i have a pair of target maternity jeans and a pair of asos tall maternity ripped jeans i've worn. but i'm at the weird period where my regular clothes are too tight but the maternity is too loose. 

Diaper bag: i bought a $10 diaper bag off amazon. even though there are tons of cute diaper bags, and i love a good bag, i'm not interested in dropping a lot of money on that until I know more about how i'll use it and what i'll want. 

How do you become a morning workout person?

But really, I'm asking, how?

The sad part is, I used to be a morning workout person. I used to wake up at 5:45am every.single.day., 6 days a week (sometimes 7), and meet my bestie for a four mile run on a causeway next to the ocean and just talk the whole time and not be out of breath at the end. #thegoodoldays

This was pre-college of course; during college there's no way I could get up that early given that I really took the ol' 'going out' part of college seriously, and I worked 40 hrs a week, and I was getting my degree.

Then, I moved to NYC and was a teacher. 5:45am would no longer be even enough time because I had to be to work before 8, and realistically in NYC that means leaving by 7, for a 2 mile bus ride. Ugh. Not to mention, there's just literally no way I was running in the early morning in the NY winters, nor was I gonna run around my neighborhoods when it was dark out, by myself.

Then I was back to Tally in law school, and there was a little while there where I was working out in the morning basically with a personal trainer, but I literally have anxiety about working out "too hard" in the AM because I have (1) thrown up and (2) gone to the ER bc i (didn't realize at the time) had an exercise-induced migraine.

So, I think if I am gonna work out in the morning, to start with, I need to with walking and running. Eventually I would like to get back to adding in weights and strength training, but I think part of my problem is that I just try to do everything at once, and it's just not possible.

Anyways, so I'm going to, once again, attempt a morning workout routine. I've actually been trying to do this for a few weeks - I keep signing up for AM classes and then I back out. I've considered running, but, I do live basically in downtown Miami, and while I've never felt unsafe at the times I walk around, I wouldn't want to go running in the morning when it's still dark out. Part of exercising is that you want to be able to zone-out somewhat, amiright?

So, I don't know why I just remembered there is a gym in our building, and, instead of it being on the first floor, they conveniently (temporarily) moved it to the 10th floor - which is only 2 floors below me. Also, I'm realizing tomorrow is a Monday, so great time to start, and THEN I realized it was the start of a new month, great time to start, and when I realized it was MAY I realized it was a great time to bring back my old fave: "MileADayMay" !

So, for MAY, I am going to stick to running or walking or elliptically or stair climbing at least ONE mile every day -- when I wake up. 😑 I literally cannot take ONE day off, because all it takes for me is ONE day off and I will miss the next three. I also want to start with walking/running because I don't want to go sick and I know those exercises do not cause me to throw up/migraine. And finally, I need to start working out in the AM because of my work. I have been so busy lately, getting so many things thrown at me and that means that even on days I think: Okay, I'll do this after work, I either literally cannot because I have to work all night or I am so exhausted because the work day has been exhausting or I'm starving because -- dinner time. So, I need to workout in the morning so that I can "get it over with," and I hope eventually that turns into something I look forward to as "me" time. Also, I'm hoping this "mental" shift as to why I'm doing it will help keep me motivated (versus it being something I have to do.)

But please, enlighten me, if you're one of those crazy AM workout people - how'd ya start?

xo,
kim