I had my 16 week appointment with the doctor today. I have officially gained 6 lbs total and the baby is growing appropriately. My blood pressure is good, 110/70. I heard the heartbeat again today. He found it right away with the doppler and it was very loud and strong.

He asked me if I had felt the baby move yet. I told him about my dilemma, not knowing for sure if that’s what I felt. He said more than likely, that was the baby and not gas. So I guess I can officially say that I first felt the baby move at 16 weeks! He said I will certainly know for sure very soon when I start feeling kicks.

I also talked to him about natural childbirth. He said that I would probably have to deliver at Northshore instead of Slidell Memorial because it takes him longer to get to Slidell Memorial. He said that without an epidural you cannot delay pushing, and it could be over very very quickly, possibly faster than he could drive to the hospital. So that is something new to think about… I haven’t toured Northshore, so I guess I should put that on my list of things to do.

I scheduled the big ultrasound too. My next appointment should be in 4 weeks, but the doctor will be out of town. I scheduled it for 3 weeks from now on Friday, June 22.

I was a little worried about my weight gain, so I was glad to see its only 6 lbs. Our scale at home is a piece of crap and I think I’m going to throw it away. I weighed myself before I left for the doctor and it put my weight about 7 lbs more than what I weighed at the doctor’s office. I think I need a new scale…

Maybe…..?????

Yesterday Victoria was over here and I was sitting on the couch with my computer. I felt something weird in my abdomen, like a weird rolling. Immediately, I sat straight up and told her I felt the baby move for the first time. I was just certain that’s what it was. It was really a strange feeling and it lasted only like 1 or 2 seconds. And of course, Victoria was like “awwwwwwwwwwww” and got excited. But then about 30 mins to an hour later, i had gas… so now I don’t know… haha. It happened again this morning. I just don’t know!!! Was it gas?? or was it the baby???

week 6 compared to week 15 (today). there’s a bit of a shadow in the pic from today, and that is distracting.

And week 6, week 13, and week 15 together

I bought some strawberries at walmart today, so i decided to have a fruity lunch – Strawberry protein shake with cheese and crackers. And a fig newton. Aaron had to have the fig newtons. I compared them to the Snackwells nasty cookies and they are pretty much the same, but TASTY.

Strawberry Shake
1 scoop strawberry whey powder
1 scoop breyer’s low-fat vanilla ice cream
1/2 lb chopped strawberries
4-6 oz fat free milk
Put it in the blender and puree.
325 calories, 6 grams fat, 40 grams carbohydrates, 32 grams protein

My whole lunch tallied to 550 calories: 17 grams fat, 56 grams carbs, 50 grams protein. Not bad… lots of fruit and dairy. The problem is that I am still hungry. but I don’t think it would matter what I ate. I think I could eat a whole cow and a jar of lard and still be hungry.

I got a few books in the mail yesterday: Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy and The Bradley Method book. they are both a bit scary. I read all of Belly Laughs last night. It was funny, but somewhat scary. But funny…. I haven’t touched the other one yet. I’ll put that off until I’m ready to really be frightened.

OK, so probably only mom will get the Jackal reference… However, I did cut down a tree today. Pregnancy does not hinder my tree cutting ability! Well, tree pulling ability. I got to hold the rope and pull down the tree after Aaron cut it. And it was only a very small popcorn tree, about 20 feet tall. But it was fun!

This weekend we ventured to Jackson to attend Fran’s wedding. Fran looked beautiful! Unfortunately, I did not take any good pictures. I don’t think photography was allowed during the ceremony, and during the reception I was too busy stuffing my face with the tasty food. I did get this one of a very beautiful, but very blurry Fran Peacock!!

While in Jackson, we did some shopping. I window shopped at Motherhood Maternity. I bought a couple of cardigans on clearance at Old Navy. Aaron picked out a diaper bag for himself at Babies R Us. Its a slingbag – very much like our camera bag.

And I purchased a big diaper bag on Ebay – a leather Anne Geddes doctor bag. Jayme got this one a few weeks ago at her shower, and I thought it was totally cool. I think it must be discontinued because I could only find it on Ebay. I went ahead and bought it before they all were gone. Here’s the diaper bag on Ebay

Also, on Friday, Aaron was offered a job with AGT at Stennis. He is very excited! He starts the new job on May 29. I will be lonely all by myself at home now.

woo hoo!

I am starving… dang Matt Ford for bringing me cookies from Paul’s Pastry. I am almost too hungry to resist the buttercrunch. It looks like I am going to have to start eating like a body-builder again. Lots of protein to curb the appetite. This is what I have eaten today and it doens’t seem to be working out all that well: For my first breakfast I had a piece of sourdough with laughing cow light and two egg whites (about 200 calories). My second breakfast (because I am starving to death) was another piece of sourdough with some pizza sauce, 10 turkey pepperoni, and a half-serving of pizza cheese (about another 200-250 calories). I am still really hungry. Not cool. I am determined to not gain ridiculous amounts of weight. I am shooting for 25 lbs. Here’s an example weight gain chart (opens in a new window)

On another subject…

I bought two pairs of maternity denim yesterday – one pair of shorts and one pair of capris. Both from Wal-mart – $31 total. I am determined not to spend a fortune on maternity clothes. So far its working out well. My regular shorts and jeans still fit, but by the evening they push too much on my stomach and it doesn’t feel good. These stretchy maternity pants are waaaay better. And they fit well, so they don’t look like frumpy clothes.

I also bought some new underwear yesterday. I bought underwear two sizes too big so they would not be tight across my lower abdomen. They look ridiculous, but I don’t care. They are very comfortable.

I realized today that you have to register with blogger to leave a comment. I fixed it… no registration required. sorry, that must be annoying. not that anyone wants to comment on here anyways, lol….

Here is a comparison from week 6 to week 13 (today)

Here’s week 6, week 11, and week 13 together. i think week 11 looks the biggest… maybe i was bloated or maybe its the shadow from the flash.

I cooked some really tasty stuff today which prompted me to eat waaaay too much. We went to Whole Foods yesterday and saw rhubarb, so I decided to bake a Strawberry and Rhubarb cobbler. It is extraordinarily tasty and not even slightly healthy, ha. I put the recipe in my recipe blog – Strawberry and Rhubarb Cobbler. We have eaten more than half the cobbler already.

I also cooked Beef Sukiyaki for dinner. I don’t cook this often, although it is one of my favorites. Its hard to find the right ingredients (fresh shiitake mushrooms, watercress, sake), so I usually don’t bother making it. Since we were at Whole Foods I decided to pick up what I needed for sukiyaki. I didn’t put that recipe in the recipe blog because I am lazy and tired from eating too much. If you got my cookbook for Christmas, the recipe is in there.

This ridiculous overeating is a good sign – I’m obviously feeling better and I have regained my appetite. I also felt well enough today to complete my entire workout. usually I have to cut out an exercise or two because I start feeling nauseous. Today I actually did the whole thing, and I even went up a bit on the weight on my squats. Yay, a 30 lb dumbbell. I feel like such a weenie!

Here we are with Tim and Alex at their wedding last weekend. Click on the picture to see a big version…

That’s Tim and Alex with us and Adam. The picture was taken after the wedding, so Aaron has already changed out of his tux, and I put on some jeans. Not looking pregnant yet, at least not that day.