12 weeks! and other stuff going on

Baby's now the size of a plum!

As you move into the second trimester, baby shifts into the growth and maturation stage. After weeks in the critical development stage, almost all of baby's systems are fully formed.

Your uterus is continuing to grow, and your healthcare provider can now actually feel it in your lower abdomen. You may not need maternity clothes at this point, but you may have noticed that things are not fitting as well. If this is a subsequent pregnancy, you will most likely need maternity clothes sooner than a woman who has never been pregnant before.


You may have also noticed that your skin is changing, such as the darkening of the areola. Other changes you may have noticed include irregular dark patches on your face and neck. These are called chloasma or mask of pregnancy. These patches normally disappear or become lighter shortly after delivery.
This week your baby will begin to take on more of a normal appearance as the eyes move closer together and the ears move closer to their final position. The intestines have grown so fast that they actually extend into the umbilical cord, but they will begin to move back into the abdomen. The kidneys can now secrete urine, and the nervous system is continuing to mature. Your baby may have developed more complicated reflexes such as sucking
First trimester: Check! The nausea, fatigue, mood swings, and bathroom dashes should soon fade, but (sorry!) headaches and dizziness will probably get more intense. The good news: You're about to embark on the second trimester, when mood and energy levels generally peak.

(I know the above is kind of jumbled but I just took paragraphs from all my emails that I get updates from - thats why it doesn't flow so easily ha)

How Far Along: 12.5 weeks!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 130. Up 2 pounds. I'm going to speak on this a moment. It's not like I am WANTING to gain weight, but I kind of get excited when I see I've gained a little. However, the fact that it has only been 2 pounds is amazing. My belly looks like i've gained more like 6 and it's cool that its just everything stretching out instead of fat just collecting on my gut :)
Maternity Clothes: BellaBand! I did try on a pair of maternity shorts...didn't work out so well. I thik I need to give it more time haha.
Gender: 5.5weeks until we know! :)
Movement: nothin yet
What I miss: Wanna guess? Coffee. However, the other day I did give in and get a Starbucks and IT-WAS-AMAZING. That caffeine kept me going well into the afternoon!
Sleep: I have now put a pillow in between my legs. The difference isn't huge but it does help. I've slept a little better the past few nights.
Symptoms: I believe my 'morning' sickness phase is over. Woo hoo! For now symptoms are just uncomfortableness (...just go with it), and yes, this is TMI but I cannot go to the bathroom to save my life.
Cravings: Taco Bell :)  My sweet tooth is slowly coming back. Last night I saw a commercial for a foot long chili cheese coney at Sonic and I felt like I could have eaten 4 of them. MAN those look good.
Best Moment this week: 'morning' sickness gone!
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On other notes Cheslie came to visit last weekend! We watched Valentine's Day Friday night...bust. Saturday though we went to one of our friends farms where they have a lake that he stocks with fish. We (my family and us) headed out and there was MAJOR construction going on so we were stuck on the road forever. Someone mentioned she thought we should stay on the road we were on but instead the boys decided to take a detour and then later on mentioned that someone ended up being right :) Ok, i'll get off my pedistal now.
We got there around lunch time (meaning to get there around 10) and went ahead and ate our lunches. We packed lunch meats, bread, cheeses, etc. I don't know about anyone else but my sandwich was REALLY good. Just turkey, gouda cheese, lettuce, and mustard on a hoagie!
After that we baited up and went out to fish. Oh, I did forget to mention that Winston came along on this voyage. He LOVED every moment exploring EVERYTHING. He would only get paw deep (ha) in the water though so later Chad decided to throw, no not toss, not gently push, but throw him in to get him used to the water. I looked up right as I saw Winston several feet above the water wriggling around looking like "HOLY COOOOOWWWW! NOOOOOO". I'm just giving my opinion. Who knows what he was really thinking. Don't worry, this is NOT how we are going to teach our kid to swim...
Anyways we started fishing. Everyone caught one, and Chad caught two. Chelsie and I then went up and sat in the shade with Mom and Dad. Chad continued to fish all around the  lake. Ending number = still 2. Chad had made it halfway around the lake with Winston and we were sitting across on the other side watching. I then started to call Winston's name just to see what he would do. I was calling him, saying 'good boy' and I walked out on a little dirt peninsula to get as close as I could. (funny side note - right now when I tried to type 'could' what came out initially was 'cood'. C'mon pregnant brain, hang in there!)
Winston, bless his heart, jumped right in with joy and started swimming. Now this lake isn't HUGE but its not tiny either. He got about halfway and then realized what he was in for. Poor thing gave me the look of failure and then turned around. It was the cutest thing.
After we were done fishing we headed out to Old Navy and bought the famous $5 flag shirts. Red - White - and Blue. That's right. We are THAT cool.

(this is the zoomed in version of where Winston swam from and where I was standing!)

Sunday we went to church and then lunch at Logans with the fam. That night we went to our small group and ate with them and then headed to our second anual 'Thunder on the Mountain' show on top of Brookwood hospital. Well, the parking deck at least. Brought some snacks and watched the 25 minute show. They cut their budget by $20,000 this year but it was still decent. After that we went home and watched Bounty Hunter. It was ok. I wouldn't watch it again but it was OK.

(Its IBC people, don't freak)

Monday Chad went and played golf and Chelsie and I went shopping and had a nice lunch at Olive Garden! She left that afternoon :(
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My grandma:
This weekend my grandmother passed away. Saturday night she went to bed and couldn't breath and then ended up passing out. They rushed her by ambulance to the hospital but she never woke back up. She had some brain damage and then she went into kidney failure. Sunday my Mom ended up driving up to Indiana right after lunch and got there around 12:30 AM. She was the only one able to be there with my Grandfather and that morning at 10:40 my grandma passed away. This weekend we are heading up to Indiana for the funeral on Saturday at 2:30.