12 Whoppin Weeks!

I feel like 12 weeks is a long way in the pregnancy :) haha, I know it is only the beginning, but I am almost out of the first trimester and my pregnancy has been going pretty stinkin good so far. I have been sick, yes... no doubt about that, but I still feel like we have been blessed with other things. I really don't feel like there has been anything else that has been bothering me at all. The sickness is mainly only in the morning (when in reality it could be ALL day and much stronger than it is) and it hasn't kept me from doing anything that I would be doing otherwise. I feel pretty lucky that I have been able to exercise and play volleyball and do those things that I love. I know that there are some people who cannot exercise and do various activities when they are prego and I feel lucky that I can... so far :)

One thing that I wish I wasn't worried about, but regretfully I am, is weight gain. It bugs me so bad that I can't get my mind off of it, but it just is something that I worry about. I feel like I have already gained a lot of weight (my doctor told me I am normal, but I don't feel normal at this early in my pregnancy). I feel like I am already showing, but its not even the baby that is growing, its my food baby! I am having to constantly eat or else I get a little bit nauseated and because of the constant eating I am gaining weight and a steady pace! (or at least I feel like I am gaining weight. I really don't remember what I weighed at my first appointment, but I think I gained like 4 lbs since my last appointment, which was 4 weeks ago! That is a whole lb a week! Way too much in my opinion). granted, I had JUST eaten a bowl of cereal right before the appointment, but I still felt like I was at too high of a weight for my goal weight. **I want to try and gain between 20-30 lbs throughout my pregnancy. Is that a good weight gain goal? Or is it high or low?** But at the rate I am going at, I doubt I will be able to keep it in that range. I don't know. Its probably stupid, but it is just something I have been worrying about. I will probably have a whole range of other things to occupy my worries, but for now, this is one thing that is on the list.

As for the baby, I am feeling my nesting coming on already. Haha, this is probably SO early, but we are going to be moving the room that our bed is in into the room across the hall and our old room will be the baby's room. The reason we haven't been staying in that room this whole time is because we want to remodel the closet before we move in. Well, I am wanting to get going on that remodel right away because I want to start getting stuff moved into the baby room. Cleaning the carpet, the baseboards, the closet in that room and starting to get a better idea of how much room we are going to have in the baby room. I know all this stuff can wait until the summer, but I really don't want to be 2 months out from our baby being born and have all this stuff that we will still need to do. We have time, but I just want to be prepared.

Well, to get to more exciting things: The baby weighs about half an ounce! I can't believe how much the baby has grown! It is the size of a large plum! We are getting so excited to find out what our baby's gender is and to think that we might be able to do just that in 4 weeks is really really exciting. I have had a lot of people ask me if we are going to have it be a surprise, but I just can't imagine not knowing. Why wait for a surprise when it can be a surprise in 4 weeks! It is still a surprise to me that I have waited 16+ weeks to find out!

At our appointment, the doctor got out the doppler and we listened to the heart beat. I know I was really set on asking for an ultrasound because I wanted Jeff to see the baby, but I figured he could wait another 4 weeks ;) and it really is most important that he is there when we find out what the gender is and especially when our little peanut is born. Right? It was still just as exciting to hear the heartbeat and our baby's heart sure was beating! 168 beats per minute! Doc said it was a good, healthy heartbeat. Made me happy that our baby went from 120 to 168 in 4 weeks :) That low number at first scared me a little bit, but it seems it was just growing still! Anyway, long enough post for tonight!