17 Week Bumpdate

Well hello there!  Please excuse my absence once again as I have just had the busiest week of the semester so far.  I barely had a chance to sit down until Thursday night, at which time the baby decided to have a dance party or something.  Feeling those little flutters are the highlights of my days, and I had to wonder if it had been moving a lot all week, and I had just been too busy to notice it?  

Anyway, I wrote most of this post on Sunday, so the picture is accurately from 17 weeks, even though I'm almost 18 weeks now!  But this morning I finally got around to finishing the post, so here it is.

The bump:

At this point, the baby is right around the level of my belly button or a little lower, which I think is higher than normal for this far along.  I'm attributing it to the fact the I am roughly the height of a fourth grader, and  my torso is very short!

 Here's a comparison from last week. The bump looks a little bigger and a little higher to me. 

Milestones:

I officially cannot comfortably wear my regular jeans anymore.  Saturday night Luke and I took a trip to Target (after first inhaling some BURGERS from Five Guys, of course) and I was on a mission to find some maternity jeans and dress pants.  Unfortunately, everything I tried on was way too long, or baggy in my hips and legs.  So I settled for the next best thing, and bought a belly band.  It's pretty comfortable, and does the trick for now, so at least I bought myself some time before I have to really start buying maternity pants.  The shirt I'm wearing in this week's picture is a maternity shirt though! My first official maternity-wear purchase, besides a few second-hand things I bought from a friend of a friend.

Symptoms:

• Every once in a great while I will still get the occasional wave of nausea. 
• Other than that and a little "crowded" feeling in the stomach region (I already have a hard time taking a deep breath after a big meal!), I am basically feeling even better than before I got pregnant.  I don't know what it is, but these pregnancy hormones have me feeling downright euphoric most of the time.  And my skin and hair are better than normal too, so I guess I have nothing to complain about at this point!  On the contrary, I have so much to be thankful for!

Cravings:

• I've gone from craving meat in general to just craving beef.  At first I wondered if it was all in my head, or if it was a true pregnancy craving.  But it is unnatural the way I will think about burgers all the time, and then when I eat one, every bite is like the best bite of food I've ever eaten.  I think it's at least partly due to the pregnancy.  

• Fresh, summery fruit has also been on my mind lately, although I have yet to satisfy that craving.  Particularly pineapple and watermelon.  That might be more my spring fever talking, though!

Aversions:

• Lately if I even think about the foods I ate when I had morning sickness, I practically gag.  I don't think I'll ever eat toast on white bread, oatmeal, or drink Sprite or ginger ale again.  All the foods that I ate that are supposed to be easy on the stomach are now the ones I associate with the nausea.

Fun Stuff:

• 2 Weeks from today we will find out the gender!  Time is actually flying by, so I hope that continues to be the trend until March 1!
• I finally was able to meet with my clinic supervisor at school to map out a plan.  I am so thrilled with what she came up with, and as long as the baby doesn't come more than 5 weeks early, it should work out perfectly.  Here's an outline for my family and friends who have been asking me about it:
• Summer semester 2013: I will take 2 classes instead of 3, and skip clinicals for the entire summer.  The 2 classes will end June 13, and I'll have the rest of the summer off!  That makes me hope the baby gets here around 37 weeks, right when it's full term, so I have a few more weeks to enjoy him or her before the fall semester begins!
• Fall semester 2013: I'll take 2 classes and do clinicals instead of my first externship.  My schedule should be a lot less hectic with clinicals instead of the externship.  And I believe my classes will be night classes, so hopefully I'll be at home at least a few days a week with the baby!
• Spring semester 2014: I'll take 2 classes, plus my school externship.  My schedule will be busier this semester, but the baby will be 6 months old at that point.
• Summer semester 2014:  I'll take that one lone class that I'm skipping in summer of 2013.  And I'll do my medical externship, which will be an intense 5 days a week for 8 weeks.  And then I'll graduate in August 2014 instead of May 2014.  Since I'm hoping to get a job as a school SLP anyway, that shouldn't throw my plans off too much!  

I'm so glad it looks like everything is going to work out pretty well with all of my school stuff.  I just hope I can work out my financial aid and all of the logistical details, but I'm trying not to worry, and to trust God with all of it!

On we go to week 18!  We will know whether this is a boy or girl in no time!