I’m officially 16 weeks pregnant today, or 4 months. While the change of weeks is always fun, the change of months really feels like a milestone.

I have secretly been excited about 16 weeks because baby is the size of an avocado this week. You know that rarely a day passes by that I don’t include avocado in one of my meals in some way so I thought this one was really sweet. And so crazy to think that in the beginning, Tanner and I lovingly referred to baby as “the chocolate chip” because it was SO tiny for so long.

Here’s some of baby’s milestones this week:

• Eyes and ears are now in their final position. Baby’s eyes are sensitive to light and baby begins hearing my voice and will recognize it at birth. All I have to say is that baby is going to be reallllllyyy familiar with “inhale up dog, exhale down dog.” Oh and, “Zoey, no!”
• The heart is working and pumping 25 quarts of blood a day
• Facial muscles are developed enough to make a variety of expressions
• Baby might be having frequent bouts of hiccups
• If it’s a girl, millions of eggs are filling her ovaries this week (how nuts is that?)

My update for the week.

Weight Gain/Body Changes: still up 6 pounds and that seems to be my sweet spot for the last few weeks. I think my body just needed to gain those initial 5-6 pounds to sustain the pregnancy.

I personally think it’s hard to see the body changes in the photos above but I promise you there is a small bump there and everyone who sees me in real life comments on it. I took a picture of it this morning to show you!

Also, my stomach is definitely starting to feel harder where the bump is versus kinda bloated/squishy like it was in the beginning. From what I understand the magic number for showing with your first is around 20 weeks? I’ve definitely noticed that with friends so it’ll be fun to see when I “pop.”

Workouts/Workout Modifications: the biggest thing I’ve realized lately is that I’m getting sore way more easily from workouts that typically wouldn’t leave me sore and that I need more recovery than normal. Also, I’ve already had to drop my weights for my strength training classes because I experience muscle fatigue and get out of breath so much faster. All to be expected. Since my last update I’ve run just a little, lifted a good amount and done tons of yoga. In general, everything is still feeling good although I stay mindful day-to-day on how what I’m doing is feeling for my body.

Symptoms: I’m in that sweet spot where the tiredness from the first trimester has improved and I’m not really uncomfortable yet on the bump front so overall I’m feeling pretty normal. My skin has been a mess the last couple of weeks with a lot of breakouts and any spots I do get turn dark and aren’t fading after they heal. I think that’s normal too.

To be completely transparent, I’m mostly struggling with the hormonal changes and dealing with emotional stuff…which is even harder with the holidays coming up. I’m going to be writing a post about grief and pregnancy in the coming weeks.

Food Aversions: I’m not having any strong aversions but my sweet tooth has really calmed down and I’m finding myself wanting sweet things like fruit instead of ice cream or chocolate…most of the time. I will not shy away from the Thanksgiving dessert table.

Food Cravings: alllllll the carbs. Seriously, I just want a lot of bread and carby things. Eating a ton of crackers, sourdough, oats, pasta, sweet potatoes, bagels, etc.

Sleep: overall, I’m still comfortable and haven’t had to get one of those crazy pillow things yet and I’m not having to get up and pee quite so much now that baby has moved up a bit in the second trimester.

Maternity Clothes: still a no on this although I work in stretchy yoga clothes. I think getting dressed for Thanksgiving will be a fun and interesting experiment and all I can tell you is that I will not be wearing jeans for this occasion! 😛

Miss Anything: not crying quite so often!

Fun/Weird Stuff Shares: when I go to bed at night or wake up in the morning, I can roll onto my back and feel (and see!) the hard lump where my uterus is. Some mornings and evenings it’s even more pronounced than others and really cool to see.

Also, this falls into the fun category but we received quite a few baby gifts last week from friends and they were our first ones. We now have books, a stuffed animal, muslin cloths and some other fun stuff for baby. Makes it feel real to see it sitting on our table!

Looking Forward To: FEELING THE BABY MOVE! Some of my apps are telling me that early flutters are possible starting at this point and I can’t wait. The only bummer is that my ultrasound tech told me that I have an anterior placenta (that means my placenta is in the front so it’s acting as a padding between my belly and the baby) so I might not feel movement as early as some.

Your gender guesses were mostly boy! We find out on December 7! I’m so darn tempted to go to one of those elective ultrasound places to get an early confirmation. Has anyone done that? Then I tell myself to take a deep breath and be patient, at the end of the day I will be 100% thrilled with either and I truly have no preference either way. I really just want to see baby again. 🙂

Did you experience a “honeymoon period” when you were in your second trimester where you felt pretty normal? 

Did you struggle more with physical or emotional symptoms of pregnancy? 

At what point in your pregnancy did you find out gender? Did anyone wait until delivery and let it be a surprise?