Pregnancy Weeks 22-24

Oh, baby: heartburn, body image, and growing… exponentially!

As far as non-baby: the start of a couple of needed house projects (nesting?) and keeping myself super busy with presentations and coaching!

Week 22 side shot

Nesting:

Is this what it’s called? I have a whiteboard in the house with the projects that we have been meaning to get to.

We’re slowly tackling them, one-by-one!

At fist, we emptied our “office” upstairs. We sold our desk set within a week (thank you Craigslist!), and  moved everything that used to be in those shelves/that room into the spare bedroom.

Thankfully, we didn’t have any visitors in the meantime 🙂

Spare bedroom – before

Before – picture 2

We decided to paint and put new curtains up in this room, as well as organize closets better to fit what used to be in “baby’s room”.

We went with a blue! Hopefully not too crazy, but “different” enough from the brown/gray/neutral that I usually gravitate towards 🙂

I think it turned out great!!

Almost done!

With curtains! Wish this picture could be taken with the same sunlight as above!

Stop over for a visit! We’ll have two Calvin and Hobbes collections on the nightstand ready for you to read!

I’ve also started to just get rid of stuff crap. That stuff that’s been around the house for a while, not being used? The things I’ve been meaning to try sell, but just haven’t yet? Yep, it’s now either on the curb for FREE, in boxed for a garage sale in Marshall, or posted online. Awesome. Please take it away.

Pregnancy:

Heartburn has increased significantly in the last two weeks. Sigh. I can’t find any pattern to it: some days it’ll come on early, some days not at all. There’s no one type of food that seems to cause it. If it’s bad, I will often find myself coughing and then throwing up in the evenings.

I’ve been even more diligent about taking my Nutrilite Double X vitamins twice daily – I’m hoping that will fill in the gaps of what I might be missing.

There have been a couple of evenings where I’ve just thrown up blood, which caused me to actually seek out the doctor’s advice to get this under control.

It’s really not too bad, though, and I’ll actually feel totally normal after throwing up. If this is the only major side effect, I am one lucky mom-to-be!

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Today it was pretty fun to feel baby kicking against the outside of my stomach and stretching my belly button to its max! I am still very excited for the day that Nate will be able to feel these kicks and flutters 🙂

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Photos!

Week 22. I started running with a belly band (Thank you KW!! It works great!) for extra support.

Week 23 – I swear, the bump is so much larger than this picture shows!

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When my stomach first “popped”, I’ll be totally honest and uncensored. I struggled with body image.

Before then, there were a few body changes that required me to think differently about myself: i.e. my chest expanding a couple of sizes, my body becoming softer overall, my rib cage and hips expanding… all of you moms out there know what I’m talking about.

But it wasn’t until I looked down and all of a sudden saw this large, very-pasty looking stomach, that I started to strongly dislike what was happening to me. It seemed to grow exponentially every day. It was so weird looking! My mind went to Charlie in the Chocolate Factory’s Violet. Remember her?

Violet’s turning violet!

I pictured my entire mid-section blowing up like a balloon. On another day, I looked down and realized I didn’t have much of a belly button left. Again, weird. Even weirder? The evenings when baby would move to one side or another so my stomach would be majorly lop-sided.

Now, though, I have totally embraced this ever-expanding stomach. I don’t know what changed – perhaps it was realizing how silly this imagery and these thoughts were? Now, I love this bump. Yeah, it’s still pasty-white, and most of the time it’s either lop-sided or interesting looking, but it’s life. It’s beautiful.

If I do end up as big and round as Violet is above, so be it :).

Speaking Engagements/Coaching:


I’ve been able to speak at two Gustavus Run Camps as well as at Multek for their Wellness Week in the last week and a half. Add to that compiling new training plans for everyone that had their “A” races at Grandma’s Marathon and adding a couple of new individuals to “the team”, and I’ve had no problem keeping myself busy!

Speaking of that, I should get back to work! 🙂