16 Weeks!

Or as I maybe should have titled this, 24 weeks to go! I left subtle hints in my last couple posts, but yes, I am 16 weeks pregnant with John and my first child. We are so excited to be parents but, of course, also have all the other emotions that come along with being first-time parents such as nervousness, fear of failure and just plain not knowing what to expect. Within the last month, I attended 2 baby showers (one for my cousin and one for John's sister, Kristin) and I can honestly say that these are putting me in the right mindset.

I have many friends and family all around me who have recently gone through having a child so I know everyone will be more than happy to offer up advice and support. It'll be great to have such a wonderful support system. However, that's probably one of the things that is also worrying me....trying to be just as good of a mom as all my friends and family have been and live up to their standards. I also discovered that part of my personality is that I like to figure things out on my own and not be told how to do things so not sure how that will play into this yet but if I get frustrated, that's why.

I was told several times at work this week that I have "popped" although I think I look exactly the same and don't notice much difference. All I know is that I am getting quite big already for only being a little over 3 months along. I guess that's just one of the joys of being petite - not many other places for it to go but out! I only have about 3-4 more inches until I reach the steering wheel of my car. This should make the daily drive to work so much fun!

I had the awful tiredness and pretty bad nausea until about week 10-11. Although I only threw up about 5 times, I still felt pretty gross when I got too hungry. The whole tiredness/pregnancy nausea thing is something that one will never fully understand until actually going through it. I have had people describe it to me prior to becoming pregnant but it just doesn't do justice to what/how you really do feel. Needless-to-say, I am very happy to be out of the first trimester.

The other thing that I am really noticing right now is that my pregnancy brain/baby brain has fully set in. I first came to terms with this the Saturday before last when my mom and I were driving from EP to visit my sister at Augsburg. Instead of ending up in Minneapolis, I somehow drove to Eagan and had to have Rachel give us directions over the phone on how to get to her place. I later had a little argument with her roommate (who I have met a dozen of times) over what her name was. They finally convinced me that they were telling the truth and I was wrong - hate it when that happens. At work I noticed that it sometimes takes just a little longer to interpret our client's e-mails and to type coherent sentences. Thank goodness for spellcheck and for this post turning out as well as it did!