So much to share on this 22nd week so let’s hop right to it.

22 WEEKS PREGNANCY UPDATE

Baby boy is right around a pound now, coming in around 11 inches and around the size of a coconut. My other app says a papaya!

• Baby is sleeping in cycles of around 12-14 hours per day.
• Growing brows and lashes as well as first signs of hair on his scalp.
• Skin cells are starting to produce keratin which is a protein that will help develop the outer layer of skin.
• Hearing has developed enough that the baby can hear sounds inside of my body like breath and heartbeat.
• Developing greater sense of touch and practicing grip. It’s not uncommon for the baby to grab onto the umbilical cord!

HOW I’M FEELING AT 22 WEEKS PREGNANT

I feel like there have been a lot of changes in the last week and things haven’t felt quite as easy as they have in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Weight Gain/Body Changes: I had a doctor’s appointment last Thursday and I’m officially up around 14-15 pounds. I won’t say it’s not strange to see the scale cross over to numbers you’ve never seen before but it’s also weird how all things considered, I still feel pretty much like myself in my body, even 15 pounds heavier. Overall, I feel like everything is growing and my belly seriously seems to get bigger every single day now.

Workouts/Workout Modifications: several things to note here…
1) Workouts, especially teaching strength and anything HIIT-style is feeling so much harder. I’ve lightened up on my weights and I’m also going to have to start toning down some of the intensity when it comes to the HIIT intervals I teach. I taught a tabata workout two consecutive days last week and after the second day, I was absolutely wiped out. Also, this past Monday I taught strength and took a yoga class and then had to take a nap when I got home! I saw my doctor last week and he told me it might be time to start scaling back some, and I agree.
2) I’m having to be so much more mindful about not over-stretching or pulling/tweaking anything. When you’re pregnant your body releases a hormone (relaxin) that loosens your ligaments and makes you more susceptible to muscle strains and injury. Things that normally would be no issue for me, I’m having to be crazy proactive and intentional about.
3) I finally got to run on Sunday for the first time in 2 weeks and it was magical. So grateful that it felt good.

Symptoms: I AM SO TIRED. I don’t mean to whine or complain because I’m so grateful to be pregnant but this week has kicked my butt. I don’t know if it was the holiday or getting over my sickness or baby boy having a growth spurt or what but I am exhausted. It’s mostly just extreme body fatigue but sometimes I also feel sleepy like I need to take a nap. Mostly, I just want to sit or lay down as much as possible.

Also, my skin isn’t great right now but there’s nothing I can do about the hormone stuff.

Food Aversions: I can’t say that I have a lot of specific aversions but more of a loss of interest/motivation recently to prepare food. I’ve been turning to a lot of simple foods like you see in this recent eats post. On New Year’s Day I went to Whole Foods and bought a whole chicken, collards and black eyed peas with plans to make a big dinner. After taking down Christmas, I sat down in a chair and never made it back up to cook. Tanner made me a frozen pizza at 8:30.

Food Cravings: salt and vinegar potato chips, pineapple, all the bread, oatmeal.

Sleep: overall I am sleeping well although it has been taking me a long time to fall asleep lately. I’m doing better sleeping midnight-8 a.m. than getting to bed around 10 and getting up earlier. I get in bed early but I end up reading for a while and then it takes me quite a long time to fall asleep. Once I actually get to sleep, I sleep pretty well. This pillow has been AMAZING.

Maternity Clothes: still holding out.

Movement: I feel him move every day now, which has been amazing! I feel him when I’m sitting down and when I’m in bed. He’s usually most active at night when I get in bed to read and the last few days it’s felt like he’s having a party in there.

Names: I’ve had a lot of people ask me about names. We are nowhere on that right now!

Recent Appointments: I saw my doctor last week for a regular OB appointment. The nurse checked baby’s heartbeat and it was 150. My doctor came in and I was expecting a super quick hi and bye but he surprised me by asking the nurse to bring in a handheld ultrasound machine. Since I’d been sick he wanted to check and see how the baby was doing in there and be sure his fluid levels were okay. I think he also knew I could use a little peace of mind! It was awesome to see baby boy and also to see where he was positioned. His feet were exactly where I’ve been feeling most of the movement.

He also shared that my 18 week anatomy scan showed an “echogenic focus left ventricle.” He explained that this is like a “bright spot” they see on the ultrasound and can sometimes be a soft marker for down’s syndrome. He said it’s not an uncommon thing for them to see on ultrasounds and that he was considering me low-risk for complications since my NT scan and blood testing came back with something like 1 in 6,000 odds. He said most of the time these things just resolve on their own but that we’ll do another big ultrasound at 28 weeks to check on it. He didn’t recommend any further testing and genetic counseling. I see him again in a couple of weeks for another check up.

I definitely wasn’t expecting to hear that news three weeks after my anatomy scan but I’m hopeful that it will resolve and not be an issue.

Next up: I honestly can’t believe that baby boy’s due date is in just over four months. It’s starting to feel so real, and I’m feeling everything from excited to anxious to terrified and everything in between. I’m interviewing two doulas this week. We are going to start clearing out the room that will be the nursery and choose a paint color. We moved into this house in March but that room was our “random catch all” room because we hoped it would be a nursery eventually. There is a lot of crap in there! We’re also working to finish up the family room/den that we are redoing as well. I also need to finish registering! I haven’t looked at it in a couple of weeks.

Here’s one final picture to share…front view with 10 weeks of difference! Grow, baby, grow!

Did you have periods during pregnancy where you felt more fatigue than others? Were you able to trace it back to anything in particular? 

How did you come up with name ideas? Did you have names picked early? Halfway through? Take some to the hospital? Come up with one at the hospital? I find this process to be both overwhelming and fascinating!

What do I NOT NEED in a nursery? We have a very small space to work with.