13 weeks

There are differing opinions on when the first trimester ends and when the second begins. Depending on who you ask, it's anywhere between 12-14 weeks. So, since I'm right in the middle of that, I am officially declaring myself in the second trimester!!

I am 13 weeks along -- just 27 weeks (give or take) to go! How is that possible?

Entering the second trimester is a huge milestone. First of all, it means that my chances of having a miscarriage go way down, which is awesome. It also means that I'm entering the portion of the pregnancy that most women say is when they feel the best (after all the exhaustion and nausea and before all the hugeness, leg cramps and ankle-swelling).

*The baby is now the size of a... peach! Wow.


*How I'm feeling: Pretty good. I still have random days where I suddenly feel exhausted or nauseous, but overall, I think I've gotten off pretty easy with the symptoms.

*Physical differences from last week: No change to report from last week. I won't even bother with a picture.

*What's been on my mind: Everything I do these days, I stop and think "at this time next year, there will be a baby with us when we do this." We went to a spring training game over the weekend, and it got me so excited to think about taking our child there, spreading out a blanket, eating ice cream, and -- when he or she is old enough -- running the bases after the game. We also like to go out to dinner on Friday nights, so lately we've been taking note of which of our favorite restaurants seem the most "family-friendly."

*What I'm looking forward to: Our next doctor's appointment is tomorrow! We should get to hear the heartbeat this time. :) I'm really excited for that. And I'm hoping at that appointment they'll schedule me for the "big" ultrasound, where they do lots of screenings and measurements on the heart and *hopefully* can determine the gender.

*Other random thoughts: Let's talk about DHA supplements, shall we? DHA is an omega 3 fatty acid that is critical for brain, eye and central nervous system development. Obviously, I want our baby to have stellar development in all of those areas, and most women don't get enough DHA through their regular diet (nor is it found in most prenatal vitamins). So, I went on the hunt this weekend to find it and bought a big ol' bottle of the stuff at a vitamin store. I opened the bottle this morning and noticed it smelled fairly strongly like fish. Ew. But I choked one down, and went about my morning.

It's important to know that I burp a lot now. Thank you, pregnancy, for that ladylike side effect. The first time I burped after taking the DHA, it tasted like fish. This was after I'd had a bagel and orange juice for breakfast and had brushed my teeth. And it was at like 5:45 in the morning. It was almost enough to make me throw up. This continued all morning (and now I'm realizing that DANG, I burp a LOT now!). I tried eating other stuff, chewing minty gum, drinking lots of water. Still, fish burps. Not to mention, the DHA has also made me nauseous (but that's easier to deal with than fish burps, believe me.) I emailed my friend, Kristin, who is also pregnant to see if she has had this problem. And she has. Her tip: take the supplement at night. Brilliant. So I will be trying that tomorrow and hopefully I won't wake up and burp a lot in the middle of the night.