16 Weeks

15 weeks

How Your Baby’s Growing (from Babycenter.com):

Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now,he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.

How far along: 16 weeks

Pregnancy symptoms: HEADACHES, rare nausea (related to the headaches), Braxton Hicks contractions (not a ton though), grouchiness (let’s go ahead and blame it on the pregnancy), general aches and pains

Food Cravings: fruit, cheese, pancakes

Food Aversions: raw meat (not that I would eat that; it’s just hard to get cooked meat without it being raw first), eggs a little though I feel like I could eat a fried egg right now – major progress!

Sleep: The hubs is still on the couch and I’m still sleeping very well.  I often go several hours without waking.  It is joyous.

Measurement:  about 41 inches around; 186 and something today

Movement: I am really not feeling much, just the occasional something

Labor signs: Crazy though it seems, I am having occasional Braxton Hicks contractions. 

What I miss: what it feels like to not have a headache.  I’ve had a constant one for three weeks.

What I’m looking forward to: The ultrasound is set for June 17th!!!!!  I am soooo looking forward to taking a peek at the babies!

Milestone: I look pretty pregnant these days.

Thoughts from the children: James is adamant there are two girls in there. 

Doctor’s visit: I went ahead and had an appointment today even though I couldn’t see Dr. Torres because I had to get some feedback for these headaches!  They literally NEVER go away, and it’s getting old fast.  Anyway, my BP was 124/76 and my weight 186ish lbs.  Twin A’s heart rate was like 144 and Twin B’s was closer to 150.  They weren’t super constant, but there were two distinct heart beats.  Yay!  I did miss getting to see them though. :)  I saw Dr. Champion who is not my usual doc today because this is Dr. Torres’ surgery day and she doesn’t see patients.  Dr. Champion delivered Natalie, and I like her a lot!  She has younger sisters who are twins, and she talked a lot to me about what I can expect at delivery and going forward.  That was nice.  She also confirmed that yes, I could very easily be feeling Braxton Hicks contractions already, and my headaches are normal.  She said I’ve got a lot of crazy hormones going on, and the progesterone (I think this is what she said) causes the blood vessels to swell and that causes the pounding in my head.  She told me to try Excedrin tension, which has caffeine but not the asprin.  She also said there were a couple of other things to try if that doesn’t help.  I’m relieved that it’s normal (though HORRIBLE); I couldn’t find much to read about it, and I was worried.  :)  Some days the headache is pretty debilitating, but I have a few things I do that help a bit.  Sadly, they involve it being dark and quiet, and you know that doesn’t happen much around here!

Other thoughts: If I had to pick all-day headaches or all-day nausea, I think I’d go with headaches, but I wouldn’t mind having neither!  The headache moves – sometimes it’s in the front of my head, sometimes the back.  I think I’ve even noticed a pattern in intensity. 

Baby-related projects:

• I have a big…well… mediumish furniture rearranging in the plans for this summer.  We may very likely switch the girls from their trundle bed to the low loft/bunk from Ikea.  It’s pretty inexpensive, and it looks like it would work well for our space.  Either way, we’re going to move James in with the girls in his toddler bed.  We’ll move the girls’ play kitchen out to the living room where the changing table is now.  The changing table will go into James’ old room, which will be the nursery.  We’ll do some finagling of the little furniture in there to get another crib in as well.  My plan is for this to take place in June.  I think it will be a good idea for the kids to get readjusted to sleeping in the same room over the summer.  And I’m hoping I’ll feellike doing this in June.  :)
• We started moving some things around but haven’t finished yet.