22 Weeks Pregnant

Baby Growth: Leo is roughly 11 inches long and almost weighs a full pound! There is something about seeing that he or she weighs that much that is very comforting to me…it’s exciting! At this point Leo looks like a miniature version of what he or she will look like when delivery day arrives. 

I feel a harder spot right above my belly button and it makes sense why when I look at this picture…I bet Leo is turned the other way and it’s his or her little booty I’m feeling at that hard spot!

My Symptoms: It has been a pretty stressful week for me. Thankfully I literally haven’t left the house much at all other than driving Kye to school so the stress hasn’t been overwhelming (no headaches! whoop whoop!). Originally I had planned to go to Atlanta this past weekend to visit my friends but it ended up not working out which really was for the best. We had a great little weekend as a family! We surprised the kids with Frozen Friday night!!! 

And Saturday morning we went on the big van hunt. I knew going into our test driving experience that we’d most likely end up with a Honda but I still wanted to see some in person to make the final decision. The kids came with us and were so pumped about climbing around inside the vans! Car buying is NEVER a smooth or fun experience. When buying a car, or dealing with major medical insurance, or other type of annoyances I’m always so thankful that Zach sells Aflac. Aflac is straight forwarded. It’s easy to understand as a consumer and it’s even easier to explain as the agent. All this other junk is complicated and it seems so tricky. We are still hashing things out right now so hopefully I will have a happy ending to this van tale soon 🙂

From time to time I get some random “blog haters” and that is always added stress on me. This week was probably the largest group of people I’ve had yet and some pretty crazy, rude, and hurtful comments came flooding in through my email as well as my Facebook blog page. Anytime these types of things happen I try to view it as an opportunity for personal growth. I do not respond to rude comments or to bullying or especially to attacks on my beliefs. I stayed firm on that and had to do a LOT of banning, blocking, and deleting this week. Although the words still hurt I tried to stay positive and really do have so much appreciation for everyone who has my back during such times 🙂 If anything situations like those only make my passion for blogging stronger because I know the devil wouldn’t be trying to stop me from doing it if it wasn’t shining some light for the Lord right? 🙂 

Even though there were some stressful times this week, overall I REALLY focused on my pregnancy. I made it my top priority which I honestly haven’t done as well as I should about up until now. I am having a LOT of back pain issues. And that is scary seeing as my belly isn’t very big yet and we still have a long way to go. I know it’s because it’s my third pregnancy and because I am bending over constantly due to having two other children! I got serious about my heating pad use and it does relieve the pain. I also read up about tips to help and read that I should be squatting to lift anything over 10 pounds. Um. Thats crazy! So I started being extremely mindful of squatting rather than bending. So much so that my legs have been on FIRE. But hey, it makes a HUGE impact on the amount of pain my back has and squatting is actually a Bradley exercise to help prepare my body for child birth so it’s a win win!!!

I have also gotten hardcore about pelvic rock exercises. Another Bradley exercise and it really helps to relieve back pain. I am doing about 50 or so a day. I do a session during naps and again at night. And other times if I’m feeling in pain. I’m also trying to sit on the floor more and do my “tailor sitting” (which is basically like indian style) while reading or taking notes or texting 🙂 Basically I am just keeping Bradley stuff at the front of my mind throughout the day, rather than at the back of it where it’s been the past 22 weeks 🙂

I am pregnant. I know that is obvious, but that’s how I would describe my symptoms at this point. I ache. I’m tired. I struggle to get comfortable. Clothes are starting not to fit. I get worn out faster. It’s all just coming MUCH quicker than I expected because I still have like 5 weeks left of the second trimester! I thought I was supposed to be feeling good at this point!

My skin is pretty broken out, which I normally experience earlier in pregnancy so I’m thankful the zits held out as long as they did! I had like this MASSIVE pimple on my chin and didn’t even realize it all day haha. I’m just not used to break outs. My nails have also grown super long and are thicker, which is one of my favorite pregnancy symptoms for sure 🙂

I know people say I tell too many details but “down there” is def getting some attention as well. I have moments where I have to race to the bathroom and can’t tell if I’m peeing myself or if it’s just discharge. Lovely. I haven’t resorted to wearing panty liners yet but the day is probably coming soon!

On a positive note (I like to end on positive notes rather than gross TMI ones haha) I am in NESTING MODE! The realization that I’m starting to get worn out quicker and that I am having back pain has really set a fire under my booty to get things done while I am still okay to do them! I remember being SO exhausted in the early days of this pregnancy and if that phase comes again I need to have everything done that I can so I can just sleep when needed! I have cleaned out so much random stuff to make more room in our home for Leo. I’m pretty on fire about it and it’s been great having the free time in the mornings to work on things. Britt is such a good little helper too! I have gotten ALL my maternity stuff organized in my closet and have been working on getting some things out of Kye’s current room that I may want downstairs when he moves up. I have cleaned and tossed junk and rearranged SO much and it’s awesome 🙂 I need to have babies closer together so my house can stay this organized 😉

Weight: I forgot to weigh in this morning again! Oops! Other than Bradley/back pain stuff I have also been more mindful about my eating. Use less peanut butter on everything, try to cut back on my portions, up my water intake, and be cautious about snacking. I’m doing a LOT better than I was before with it for sure!

Gender: I had my first dream about Leo! And Leo was a GIRL!!! If I remember correctly I think I used to dream that Kye was a girl and that Britt was a boy. So I don’t know if I take the dream to mean anything about the gender at all. But she was a beautiful newborn and when it was time to announce her name Zach and I both forgot the name we had chosen and were super embarrassed haha!

This past weekend Zach and I had a date night! We have been SO blessed to only have family watch our kids but really Courtney, Casey, and I all need to find additional childcare outside of family. When Austin died it was tough b/c there are only so many family members and we needed more help than family could provide. I know with the new babies Casey and I def won’t feel comfortable with help from non-family but it’s good for all of us to have some babysitters we know and trust to have on call. While it stinks to have to pay someone, it’s important for us to start using some new people on occasion so we can get to know them and so the kids can too! We just went to Olive Garden for dinner and were gone for an hour or so and it was a nice little date night 🙂 It made us both feel SO OLD because we remember babysitting for kids who were the ages of our kids now! Yikes. 

Anyways…while at dinner we finally decided that we HAVE to make the call about this boy name situation. Yes, we both love both names. But our kid can’t have two full names (assuming Leo is a boy). So we both talked it over…the pros and cons of each name…but did NOT give our opinion on which we should pick. Then Zach took two white sweetener packs and two blue ones and gave me one of each color and kept one of each color for himself. We decided white would be one name and blue would be the other. We each put the packet in our hand that we wanted to use for the name and dropped them both at the same time 🙂 

 You can’t tell due to lighting but we BOTH picked the “blue packet” name 🙂 

So it’s decided! We have BOTH a full girl name AND a full boy one!!!

Also I ordered sample swatches of each fabric for the nurseries so we can get going on that next month!

Maternity Clothes: Shout out to sweet blog friend, Danielle, for sending me the adorable dress! I’m getting excited for all of mine and Casey’s showers and love that I have such sweet friends who have hooked me up with such cute things to wear!

Regular clothes are starting to be iffy. I am BIG about pregnant girls wearing shirts that are too short. Ugh so tacky! And I’m at that point where a lot of things are getting to the “too short” limit. Be warned that maternity clothes are probably gonna be making an appearance soon! I have been rocking some maternity yoga pants this week and they are beyond comfortable 🙂 

My bra is also getting tight (and it’s a 36 D!) and it’s also broken so I need to go into Victoria’s Secret and have them size me. I keep putting it off b/c we are at the end of our budget for this month! Has to wait till next week at least!

Movement: I pressed on my belly and must have hit the baby in a spot it didn’t like b/c oh my gosh it like hit me back!? It was the strangest thing!!! It was like a BIG jerk and pressure against my hand! Sorry Leo!!! 

On Tuesday I had my first concern about baby movement. I just didn’t notice anything all day and it made me a little nervous so I layed down for a little while after the kids went down for nap, and sure enough I felt plenty of movement 🙂 

Sleep: After my exercises and my food/water intake SLEEP has been my next top priority. I can tell a HUGE difference in how I feel, how well I resist junk food, and how nice I am based on how much sleep I get. I’ve been aiming to be in the bed by 10. Looking back at my past pregnancies I ALWAYS went to bed early but so far this one have still been staying up until my usual 11. Not good! Getting that extra sleep has really been helping for sure and is something I probably will have to bump up even earlier as time goes on.

I am loving my pregnancy pillow and def sleep best with it. Although I often find myself on my right side when I wake up rather than on the left. I had AMAZING sleep Tuesday night because a cold front came through so it was much cooler in the house. I already warned Zach that we are in trouble with me having a summer baby…I am already getting hot at night!

Cravings: Seafood is still #1. When we went on our date I originally said I wanted to go to Red Lobster to get seafood but Zach doesn’t love Red Lobster and I remember that Olive Garden has yummy shrimp pasta so we went there 🙂 We also had some chips this week and those were awesome too! And I got to enjoy my pancake craving when we ate breakfast for dinner Friday night! At night I always crave a bowl of cereal and am trying to cut back on eating my “fourth meal” haha. 

Saturday was PJ day at Bruster’s so the kids and I enjoyed a free ice cream treat!

And I made a batch of cookies for Zach and I to enjoy while watching Survivor Wed 🙂

What I Miss: Not having back pain! I do miss the cooler weather but only because I miss my house being cooler at night 😉

Best Moment of the Week: My children are such a joy in my life and a blessing to my heart! On Sunday during church Kye passed me this note: 

And he surprised me with another one on the day I had all that silly blog drama. It was EXACTLY the thing I needed to be reminded that I am doing a good job and am a good mom and that those that matter most in my life know that 🙂

Yesterday was a wearing day for me. I was just exhausted in every possible way (so much so that the kids ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner and I don’t think that has EVER happened in our home!) and it’s like the kids just knew my spirit needed lifting. They both showered me with so much love and both played with my hair and were just precious and it was wonderful 🙂 One of those times you just want to hit the “pause” button!

I am also super proud of Zach. It’s been an uphill battle lately with some financial stuff and he is just working so hard and the last couple of days have been a BIG stress taken off his shoulders which I’m thankful for! God is always good and always provides!!!

And we also are in the process of finalizing the BIG Ireland Trip! Zach is going to be doing a lot of golfing while we are there so I contacted the spa and booked myself a spa day where I’m going to get a prenatal hour massage followed by an hour facial and it includes lunch! Then another morning I’m just having a scalp/head massage 🙂 I’m PUMPED!!!

Questions/Concerns:

• I think I have finished Leo’s registries! Will y’all look them over and let me know if you think of anything I should add or change??? Any experiences with any of the items I registered for that you can offer insight about would be great too! Here is the link to the Target registry and Here is the link to Amazon. I would have just done Amazon but I know locals like to go into a store so most of the items are on both lists if both had them available to add! 
• Any tips for helping the back pain issues????
• Speaking of back pain…I found this for very cheap on Amazon and it seems to have good reviews…any opinions or experiences??? Does it help? 

Goals for this week: Continue focusing on exercises, food/water, and rest! Get Zach to help me do relaxation stuff from Bradley book! Get Kye totally transitioned into new room upstairs, get van stuff all settled and squared away, get ready for Parker family trip next weekend! 

Belly Pictures: Y’all. My belly is NOTHING like it was during Britt’s pregnancy. It’s SO MUCH like Kye’s it’s not even funny! You can REALLY tell in this picture I sent to Robyn. It’s a straight up “football” (like I was with Kye) and not a “basketball” (like I was with Britt). The negative of that is it’s not NEARLY as cute of a pregnant tummy. The positive is I lost the weight a lot easier with Kye because I think the weight was more evenly spread out whereas it was harder with Britt b/c there was so much belly weight just right in the front, ya know? I look like I have a straight up tire around my middle. So gross!!!!

We took my pics this week in the morning which was a bad idea. Lighting was NOT good and neither were those awesome bags under my eyes 🙂

Notes from Past Pregnancies: Aw so neat that this week back when I was pregnant with Kye is when I met Jordan for the first time 🙂 Who knew then that he’d be our brother and that he’d be getting ready to be a daddy himself!!! Super funny to me that in ALL three pregnancies THIS was the week where I was bothered by the temperature in the house at night, especially since all three have been due at such different times (Leo is Aug, Britt was Dec, Kye was March!). It makes me feel better about my aches and pains to see that I said LEGIT the same sentence as I did this week last pregnancy during the same week: “I am pregnant” haha I guess 22 weeks is my magical week where pregnancy just starts to set in. It’s also the same week I got serious about Bradley while pregnant with Britt and the same week I registered when pregnant with Kye 🙂 You can read about my 22nd week pregnant with Britt here (and there are links at the bottom of that post to link back to Kye’s stuff!)

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Emily Parker

Hey Y'all, I'm Emily! I'm a stay at home mom and consider parenting to be my passion. Disney is my happiest place and I love making memories as a family together. I'm a big believer in transparency and share all of my real-life moments as a mother of four.

My work has been featured on Love What Matters, Today Parenting and Babywise.Life. I'm also honored to be a member of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network.

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