Goodbye First Trimester, Hello Second!

We officially entered the second trimester last week at 13 weeks and 3 days. Today marks 14 weeks and 2 days. Yeah! I had my 14 week appointment today and everything was fine. The baby is growing and his/her heartbeat was nice and strong. My next appointment is in four weeks on July 29th when we’ll find out the baby’s sex. Hopefully s/he is cooperative and shows us the goods (or lack thereof). I’ve had three dreams that the baby is a girl. So, we’ll see how good my mother’s intuition is in about a month.

Now that the first trimester is over, I’m finally able to enjoy being pregnant. And boy, let me tell you, what they tell you about the first tri is true. Here are a few things that I learned during my first three months of pregnancy:

1. You haven’t experienced true fatigue until you’re pregnant. I can’t tell you how tired I was (and still am). It’s truly impossible for me to keep my eyes open past 10:30. And at about 9pm or so, I start yawning uncontrollably! Ugh! Poor Taylor, I’ve fallen asleep on him during more movies and tv shows than I can count. Time to give up my night owl post I guess!

2. Food really does taste different! Before I was pregnant, I lived on salads and chicken. I had no taste for chicken in the first trimester and really had to force my salad down on more than one occasion. Apparently, baby likes cheeseburgers (thank goodness it’s grilling season!), ice cream, chips (new favorite: Lays Southwestern Cheddar and Jalapeno), anything with tomato sauce, chocolate and all kinds of fruit. I’m going to have to work really hard at keeping my food consumption in check or else I’m going to gain 100 pounds. Thankfully, as of today, I’ve only gained two. I guess I still have some time to lay off the burgers and chips…

3. I don’t miss cleaning out the litter boxes (thankfully, Taylor has been granted this lovely task until the end of the year), but I do desperately miss my deli turkey and kind of miss my white wine. I’ve been eating my turkey subs sans the turkey (just cheese and veggies) and never wanted a nice, cold, fruity coctail more than right now. Truth be told, I’m not a big drinker, but it’s the fact that I can’t have any alcohol that’s hard to get used to. I just keep telling myself that I can probably have a glass or two during the third trimester, but it’s the social aspect of drinking that I’m missing more than anything else right now. Being pregnant at this time of the year somehow reminds me of the summer before my senior year of college when it seemed liked everyone but me was 21. Hmpf. Designated driverhood here I come!

Ok, enough rambling. I just wanted to get in one good-sized posting before we leave for our one-week vacation on Block Island this weekend! Yippie! I’ll post some pix of all the wackiness that I’m anticipating is going to ensure when we get back. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with an ultrasound photo of Baby H. This was taken about 2.5 weeks ago. His/her head is on the left (such a cute profile!) and body is on the right. At that point in time, baby was 2 inches long.

Have a Happy 4th! Be back after vacay!