23 Weeks Pregnant

This week started off at about 4:30am with Ben having a seizure. It was a terrifying way to wake up, and a pretty scary day after. But he got his bearings after a little while and seems to be back to normal. I learned that vets don’t worry much about healthy adult dogs having a seizure, but that doesn’t mean I’m not a little worried still.

We have a neurological consult for him scheduled for the middle of December (the soonest we could get in), and assuming he’s alright till then, I won’t pursue anything else. I really want to get him an MRI just so I know there’s nothing else going on in his sweet little dog brain, but that might be an overreaction (and an unnecessary couple thousand dollars spent) if this was a one-off thing.

Anyway, aside from that, it’s been a pretty uneventful week. Just plugging along, working and working on the house and growing a baby!

Previous Updates

I’m Pregnant! + The First Trimester

14 Weeks Pregnant

15 Weeks Pregnant

16 Weeks Pregnant

17 + 18 Weeks Pregnant

19 Weeks Pregnant

20 + 21 Weeks Pregnant

22 Weeks Pregnant

At 23 weeks pregnant, baby girl is supposedly the length of an ear of corn.

Symptoms

I’m hungry a lot of the time. I often don’t know what to eat and am completely bored with all my options because I feel like I eat the same things all the time. I want to eat healthily for both my sake and baby girl’s, but I also want to make all sorts of baked goods.

If I take aloe water, senna, and a stupid amount of magnesium, the constipation is manageable. I asked my doctor if that’s excessive, and she said that for now it’s more important to not be constipated than to not be taking a lot of stuff to achieve that. And she says I might need to up the doses as baby girl gets bigger. Fun!

Still having some sciatica symptoms. It mostly hurts at night and it makes laying down uncomfy. Ask me if I’ve called the prenatal chiropractor, and the answer is no. It’s on my list of things to do, though.

I have to pee all the freaking time, and sometimes I think I can feel baby girl kick/hit my bladder.

The pregnancy brain thing is nuts. I realized yesterday that I had completely forgotten to do about four things I made a note to do last Thursday and scrambled to do them all. It worked out!

I’m still sleeping well and a lot. My usual 5am wake-ups are feeling tricky, and I more often get up closer to 6.

My bump has popped quite a bit! It still can’t effectively hold up maternity pants if I’m walking around a lot, but I don’t look like I’m wearing a tent in maternity shirts and dresses anymore!

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Little girl moves a lot pretty much all day, but she’s especially active in the evenings. Jack can feel her pretty much any time.

Food

My diet is still pretty much my normal, plus snacks:

• Chicken and Dumplings (Ohhh my gosh, this was amazing and made a lot, and will absolutely become a staple. I read the comments suggesting to add more vegetables, so I probably quadrupled the carrots and celery and added mushrooms, and it was perfect.)
• Apricot Chicken & Broccoli
• Sausage & Peppers with Brussels sprouts cooked in bacon fat
• A few dinners out

I also made Apple Cinnamon Bread and Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies, both of which are amazing. Aside from that, I’ve had a lot of apples, grapes, skyr, cottage cheese, celery, and bagels.

Exercise

I’m continuing to follow the Expecting and Empowered pregnancy guide, so that covers three of my workouts a week. Having access to a variety of weights has allowed me to keep challenging myself, and I increase the weights I lift most weeks. I’m sure that won’t continue all the way through the third trimester, but it’s nice for now!

Aside from that, I’ve mostly been walking the dogs once or twice a day and doing chores around the house. As it gets cooler, I’d love to try running a little and see how it feels, too.

Stories

I went to a bridal shower over the weekend and the future groom, who is Jack’s friend, texted him after to ask if everything is okay with the pregnancy because “Ellen doesn’t look pregnant at all.” Jack found this pretty funny because he lovingly tells me I get bigger every day – and I totally do. The general pattern seems to be that people who know me really well think I’m obviously showing, and everyone else is pretty surprised to find out that I’m pregnant.

Ben sniffs my belly regularly and is still the biggest cuddle bug, especially in the mornings. He’s begged his way into bed with us a few nights, and he sleeps all curled up into my stomach. It’s adorable.

We’re slowly making progress on the nursery. Jack painted the closet (we didn’t have enough paint when my mom painted the rest of the room) and hung up an organization system, so we can start putting things in there!

I bought a whole bunch of maternity clothes to try on and see what I like. It’s nice that I got all the way through summer without needing any, so I only have to shop for cooler weather clothes, but I’ll be needing those pretty soon, I think. I had a pair of shorts with a looser waist that’s held me over for the last few months, but I can’t say the same for jeans. 🙂