21 weeks, 2 days

Today I’m twenty-one weeks, two days pregnant, meaning (even if the baby is born after my due date) I’m past the pregnancy halfway point. Except that this is my fourth pregnancy and I know that the second twenty weeks packs a very serious wallop. Thirty weeks should be considered the halfway point. At least.

Except for, you know, having orthopedic surgery without anesthesia, this has been my easiest pregnancy so far. I’ve been tired — very tired. But besides that I feel really, really good and I’m really, really thankful.

Besides fatigue, my biggest pregnancy symptom, more than with the other three, is that I am super duper emotional. That sound you heard? That was Tom rolling his eyes because “super duper” doesn’t quite cover it. And, yes, he’s thankful that Buick let us merge but he wouldn’t describe it as a “beautiful moment.” There’s no reason to cry.

I’m also eating a lot of cheese. Cheddar in my eggs, a Babybel for snack, some blue cheese on toast for lunch. Before I knew I was pregnant, I was sitting at the table eating Feta with a spoon as if it was cereal, thinking, “Why am I doing this? I should at least eat this with something but I cannot stop eating to get up and get anything else.”

This is also where I’d mention that I hurt my thumb frantically slicing gouda, but if I think about it too much I might cry.

The biggest change in the past few weeks is that my belly has officially popped. No, I don’t think it has to do with all the cheese, thank you for asking.

Generally it takes a while for me to start showing, but once I do I don’t stop until I’m 6 months postpartum.

David took this picture this morning — we were outside playing with shaving cream on the slide. Even though I’m bending over and you can’t completely see my belly, it’s a pretty accurate portrayal of pregnancy with a fourth child; much more than a picture of me in a field with a flower crown would be.

OH YEAH

And we know the gender.

My ultrasound happened to be the same day as my niece’s fifth birthday, so we let her tell everyone.

You’ll notice I shriek before Berkley Grace even says anything — that’s because I accidentally read through the paper. And then I started crying because, well, that’s my reaction to everything these days.

It’s a girl, and we’re all so very excited.

We’re going to name her either Brie or Gruyère.

 

7 Comments

  1. Becky July 7, 2017

    ❤️

    Reply
    • Janna Lee July 7, 2017

      Congratulations! It’s a girl♡ You are an amazing Mother and writer. Keep blogging. Love you much WEPC sister!

      Reply
  2. Elissa July 7, 2017

    Oh how sweet!!! What exciting news!!!!!

    Reply
  3. Meredith July 7, 2017

    A girl! How wonderful!! So happy for you!

    Reply
  4. Lynsie July 8, 2017

    Welcome to the two and two club! Even if you aren’t done everyone will say “oh how perfect you can be done now, you have two of each”. Haha, as if you are only allowed to have even quantities of both. And then if you have all boys and your baby is a girl or vice versa everyone says “oh, you finally have your (boy or girl)” as if gender decides when you are finished instead of sanity. 😉

    Congrats! And congrats on not “popping” until later in pregnancy. My belly popped earlier every time. We joked with the 4th my belly popped before we could even confirm with a pregnancy test at 4 weeks. And if I HAD wanted to have a 5th we joked my belly would likely know ahead of time and go ahead and pop about a month ahead of time to be ready.

    Reply
    • amandakrieger July 10, 2017

      hah! i JUST had a conversation with a friend about how everyone would certainly assume we’re done 🙂
      (we probably are done!)

      Reply
  5. Amy @ Life to the Full July 12, 2017

    Congratulations to you all on your baby girl! I love everyone’s excitement during the big reveal :))) We had our ultrasound a few weeks ago and didn’t find out the gender (same as our last pregnancies) BUT I’m living vicariously through my pregnant friends of “real life” and the blogosphere. So far, there is a streak of baby girls on the way!

    Reply

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