18 week bumpdate
How am I almost at the halfway point already? Slightly freaking out. I was sitting on the toilet and thinking about life (that’s where all my epiphanies and creative thoughts happen) and it really hit me that this is my last time being pregnant. This will be the last time I can use my pregnancy as an excuse for anything. This will be the last time I attend my 16 week,20 week,24 week and so on appointments. This is the last time I’ll feel wiggling and feet inside my stomach. It’s definitely all so bitter sweet, but I couldn’t feel more complete and at peace with our decision.
Since my last blog post update, I’ve been to the doctors and have a few updates for you all.
Gender: still a GIRL!! We have another ultrasound in 2 week, where I’ll confirm for the third time lol. To read how we found out the gender at 12 weeks CLICK HERE. And to read about her name and why we chose that name CLICK HERE.
Baby’s heart rate: 166 BPM (beats per minute)
Weight/weight gain:120lbs. So total gained is 6lbs! I’m pretty proud of myself because I still eat like a whale. But the only difference between this pregnancy and the other ones, is that I’m always on my feet with the kids, and ALWAYS on the go. I long for a “lazy day”. But once baby Laila is here, I’ll have plenty of time to relax in bed with her while I recover/heal when Renaldo is on leave.
Baby is the size of a: SWEET POTATO! (Monica if you’re reading this, know that I’m thinking of you and Michelle Obama lol)
Maternity clothes: not yet! But I’ve been loving loose dresses.
Stretch Marks:None at all.
Cravings: New one. Toast with Avocado and a fried egg on top. I’ve been eating this every.single.day religiously for the last week.
Sleep: Really good! I just wake up around 5/6am to pee.
Movement: I’m JUST NOW starting to feel little flutters, and light tapping. So that’s super exciting! (If you don’t know I have an anterior placenta)
How am I feeling: I’m really emotional, it’s kind of ridiculous. Like anything gets me extremely annoyed, and snappy. When I watch movies I get WAY too into it and I’m hogging all the tissues because I can’t control my tears. But I’ve heard that carrying girls make you this way?
Still breastfeeding Joel?: We actually went like 2 days without breastfeeding, so I know when he does nurse it’s 100% for comfort!
Middle names we loved but didn’t use:
Soooo as you know we revealed Laila’s name last week. But what you didn’t know, it took a lot of no’s to finally find her a middle name. We ended up naming her Laila Noelle, but weirdly we forgot how much we loved the name Noelle. Back when I was pregnant with Joel, we didn’t know he was going to be a boy (we waited until his birth to find out if he was a boy or a girl) and we had a few names picked out, a couple were for a boy (we settled on Joel Cristian AFTER he was born) and one for a girl, Laila Noelle. Since obviously Joel is Joel, we put the name Laila on the back burner. Once we found out we were having a girl, we instantly knew her first name would be Laila. But for some reason we forgot about Noelle. Soooo I’m going to share a few middle names we (mostly me) loved but didn’t use.
- Aria– Didn’t flow well with Laila
- Eloise– Renaldo said it was an old lady name
- Lorena– Renaldo said it was too close to his aunt’s name. Not true! Her name doesn’t even sound like it.
- Argelis– That’s my middle name. I like it, but not enough to pass it down.
- Maria– No reason why we didn’t choose it, we just didn’t.
- Rae– This is Elias’ middle name but spelt Rey. Wanted something a little different.
- Lorelei– Too many L’s. Laila Lorelei…that’s a mouth full of L’s.
- Allegra– LOVE this name, but then I remembered the allergy medicine.
- Kehlani– I just love the singer lol
- Zara– I love Zara’s clothes. But it didn’t flow well with Laila.
Ultimately we have always loved Noelle, and it just flows really well with Laila. Laila Noelle. Doesn’t that sound so pretty?
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my 20 week bump date. I’ll be sharing some pictures from her 20 week scan!
