So much to share on this 22nd week so let’s hop right to it.
22 WEEKS PREGNANCY UPDATE
Baby boy is right around a pound now, coming in around 11 inches and around the size of a coconut. My other app says a papaya!
- Baby is sleeping in cycles of around 12-14 hours per day.
- Growing brows and lashes as well as first signs of hair on his scalp.
- Skin cells are starting to produce keratin which is a protein that will help develop the outer layer of skin.
- Hearing has developed enough that the baby can hear sounds inside of my body like breath and heartbeat.
- Developing greater sense of touch and practicing grip. It’s not uncommon for the baby to grab onto the umbilical cord!
HOW I’M FEELING AT 22 WEEKS PREGNANT
I feel like there have been a lot of changes in the last week and things haven’t felt quite as easy as they have in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Weight Gain/Body Changes: I had a doctor’s appointment last Thursday and I’m officially up around 14-15 pounds. I won’t say it’s not strange to see the scale cross over to numbers you’ve never seen before but it’s also weird how all things considered, I still feel pretty much like myself in my body, even 15 pounds heavier. Overall, I feel like everything is growing and my belly seriously seems to get bigger every single day now.
Workouts/Workout Modifications: several things to note here…
1) Workouts, especially teaching strength and anything HIIT-style is feeling so much harder. I’ve lightened up on my weights and I’m also going to have to start toning down some of the intensity when it comes to the HIIT intervals I teach. I taught a tabata workout two consecutive days last week and after the second day, I was absolutely wiped out. Also, this past Monday I taught strength and took a yoga class and then had to take a nap when I got home! I saw my doctor last week and he told me it might be time to start scaling back some, and I agree.
2) I’m having to be so much more mindful about not over-stretching or pulling/tweaking anything. When you’re pregnant your body releases a hormone (relaxin) that loosens your ligaments and makes you more susceptible to muscle strains and injury. Things that normally would be no issue for me, I’m having to be crazy proactive and intentional about.
3) I finally got to run on Sunday for the first time in 2 weeks and it was magical. So grateful that it felt good.
Symptoms: I AM SO TIRED. I don’t mean to whine or complain because I’m so grateful to be pregnant but this week has kicked my butt. I don’t know if it was the holiday or getting over my sickness or baby boy having a growth spurt or what but I am exhausted. It’s mostly just extreme body fatigue but sometimes I also feel sleepy like I need to take a nap. Mostly, I just want to sit or lay down as much as possible.
Also, my skin isn’t great right now but there’s nothing I can do about the hormone stuff.
Food Aversions: I can’t say that I have a lot of specific aversions but more of a loss of interest/motivation recently to prepare food. I’ve been turning to a lot of simple foods like you see in this recent eats post. On New Year’s Day I went to Whole Foods and bought a whole chicken, collards and black eyed peas with plans to make a big dinner. After taking down Christmas, I sat down in a chair and never made it back up to cook. Tanner made me a frozen pizza at 8:30.
Food Cravings: salt and vinegar potato chips, pineapple, all the bread, oatmeal.
Sleep: overall I am sleeping well although it has been taking me a long time to fall asleep lately. I’m doing better sleeping midnight-8 a.m. than getting to bed around 10 and getting up earlier. I get in bed early but I end up reading for a while and then it takes me quite a long time to fall asleep. Once I actually get to sleep, I sleep pretty well. This pillow has been AMAZING.
Maternity Clothes: still holding out.
Movement: I feel him move every day now, which has been amazing! I feel him when I’m sitting down and when I’m in bed. He’s usually most active at night when I get in bed to read and the last few days it’s felt like he’s having a party in there.
Names: I’ve had a lot of people ask me about names. We are nowhere on that right now!
Recent Appointments: I saw my doctor last week for a regular OB appointment. The nurse checked baby’s heartbeat and it was 150. My doctor came in and I was expecting a super quick hi and bye but he surprised me by asking the nurse to bring in a handheld ultrasound machine. Since I’d been sick he wanted to check and see how the baby was doing in there and be sure his fluid levels were okay. I think he also knew I could use a little peace of mind! It was awesome to see baby boy and also to see where he was positioned. His feet were exactly where I’ve been feeling most of the movement.
He also shared that my 18 week anatomy scan showed an “echogenic focus left ventricle.” He explained that this is like a “bright spot” they see on the ultrasound and can sometimes be a soft marker for down’s syndrome. He said it’s not an uncommon thing for them to see on ultrasounds and that he was considering me low-risk for complications since my NT scan and blood testing came back with something like 1 in 6,000 odds. He said most of the time these things just resolve on their own but that we’ll do another big ultrasound at 28 weeks to check on it. He didn’t recommend any further testing and genetic counseling. I see him again in a couple of weeks for another check up.
I definitely wasn’t expecting to hear that news three weeks after my anatomy scan but I’m hopeful that it will resolve and not be an issue.
Next up: I honestly can’t believe that baby boy’s due date is in just over four months. It’s starting to feel so real, and I’m feeling everything from excited to anxious to terrified and everything in between. I’m interviewing two doulas this week. We are going to start clearing out the room that will be the nursery and choose a paint color. We moved into this house in March but that room was our “random catch all” room because we hoped it would be a nursery eventually. There is a lot of crap in there! We’re also working to finish up the family room/den that we are redoing as well. I also need to finish registering! I haven’t looked at it in a couple of weeks.
Here’s one final picture to share…front view with 10 weeks of difference! Grow, baby, grow!
Did you have periods during pregnancy where you felt more fatigue than others? Were you able to trace it back to anything in particular?
How did you come up with name ideas? Did you have names picked early? Halfway through? Take some to the hospital? Come up with one at the hospital? I find this process to be both overwhelming and fascinating!
What do I NOT NEED in a nursery? We have a very small space to work with.
I would give in to some maternity clothing! They feel soooooo much more comfortable and really help show off the bump, especially maternity shirts. My yoga pants felt like they were squeezing my belly quite a bit and once I switched into maternity ones I completely stopped wearing any of my regular pants.
I am 18 weeks right now and I think my hubs and I have decided on a name for a girl or boy ( we find out Friday!!!!). We just would sit and brainstorm and makes a note of any name we liked, eventually we just both came to names we both really liked and agreed on and those are the winners.
I have a one year old and the simpler the nursery the better I would say. We have a crib, rocking chair from Ikea and a dresser that doubles as a changing station and that is basically it. And honestly we didn’t even really use the nursery for the first 10 months, Olive slept in our room until then.
Congrats on baby boy! I just had my first child, a baby boy, in September. At our 20 week scan they saw an echogenic spot on his bowels. Based on our NTS, my age, and blood testing they told us the risks were very small but there was still a chance our baby could have been exposed to a virus, have Down syndrome, CF, or other genetic disorders. We accepted that we would love our child regardless but the next fews waiting for a repeat scan were pretty stressful. The echogenic spot resolved by the next scan and baby is perfectly healthy. Echogenic spots are pretty common and often resolve. Prayers for positive results at your next visit and a healthy remainder of your pregnancy!
So excited for you! Yes, there are times when you are just more tired than others. It sounds like you are listening to your body well and giving it what it needs to grow your baby.
I had baby 3 in May, and seriously you don’t need much in a nursery! Crib, rocking chair, dresser, and a basket for books. You do not need a changing table, you can use the top of the dresser or the floor (that’s what 3 babies does to you). For your living room, don’t get a giant swing! There are small swings and bouncers, and your baby might not even like it. I do recommend a Bumbo chair, as all 3 of my kids loved to watch me in the kitchen from it. Got can hold off on an exersaucer, and I would get a small high chair (or a tray attachment for the bumbo) that just goes on one of your kitchen chairs. I would also get a pack’n play and store that under your crib. I wouldn’t buy a bassinet, because the pack’n play usually has a bassinet attachment! There is so much you could get, but I would really keep baby items simple and minimal—they grow up so fast!
Hi, Jen, I’ve been reading your blog for years and just love you! We have three kids — 9, 7 and 1. On our littlest one’s 18 week ultrasound we had a bright spot as well. Our doctor made it out to be a very small deal, had seen several that day alone (we live in Charlotte as well). I was nervous based on my advanced maternal age and history but my doctor assured me that technology is so amazing these days it picks up every little thing — for better or worse. He never scheduled any additional ultrasounds or even brought it up again. My daughter was born completely healthy! Hope this helps! Can’t wait for your new arrival! You are going to be a wonderful mom!
I have 3 children and I was most exhausted when I was pregnant with #1. I think I just wasn’t used to being sooooo tired all the time. I had a fairly physical job and I remember a point when I looked at a flight of stairs and I thought, ‘nope, can’t climb them!’. I would have given anything to crawl into a ball and sleep at the base of those steps. I think you just get used to the tiredness, it didnt feel as bad with my other pregnancies.
You literally need nothing in your nursery, lol. You need a crib or pack and play if you have a good sleeper (or extra sheets for your bed if baby ends up there), a little blanket to change diapers on any floor, car seat….. I will say, my favorite nonessential is a white noise machine. I still use one with my 3 year old.
So so excited for y’all, Jen! I definitely had waves of exhaustion – for sure! Especially in our line of work – it’s tough! It hit me hard in my first trimester and then again in my third, but i definitely had to change somethings up and modify!
As for nursery – we have a super small space too. Crib, dresser (we have a changing pad on dresser, but i couldn’t probably count how many times we’ve actually changed her on it and now..she’s too big for it – so if a y’all dresser works better – don’t fret. A rocker and then we did IKEA bookshelves that are on the wall so it didn’t take up floor space.
Definitely don’t get a big swing. They’re massive. ABSOLUTELY a rock n play. He can sleep in it (bassinet) , you can move it all over the house and whenever we traveled – that’s what she slept in and then definitely get the BabyBjorn Rocker/lounger thingy. Lastly, highchair, IKEA $15. It’s small, minimal and the easiest to clean. Best the decision we made!
Hope all goes well with the rest of your oats!
My son had a bright spot in his heart when I was pregnant with him, I think they saw it at 30 weeks? I went back a few weeks later and it was gone and he’s a perfectly healthy baby 🙂
We had that bright spot on the ultrasound as well. It turned out to be nothing. It scared us have to death! Our doctor also said he wasn’t worried, because it was the only soft marker he saw, and then it was very common.
Hi Jen, you’re looking great! And it seems like you’re really listening to your body in terms of needing rest / a break / scaling back, etc. I was able to keep wearing non-maternity leggings and some tunics for the whole pregnancy, but it was nice to have a few maternity items in the last few months – Target’s Liz Lange Maternity is an affordable brand that I bought a couple of things from. Old Navy maternity workout shirts were good also. And I waited way too long to buy a couple of larger bras. That made a big difference in comfort level!!
In terms of saving space in the baby’s room: we took the doors off a small closet in the nursery and put a 3 drawer IKEA dresser in there (anchored to the wall), with a soft changing pad on top (the Poopose- ridiculous name but it does the job) and a diaper pail next to it (the Ubi, would recommend that too). This freed up some space in the room and we could still fit some clothes on hangers on the rod above the changing station, but it’s not like she has many clothes that need to be hung up at this stage in life!
You look great, and these are the first photos you’ve shared where I definitively thought “Yes, she’s definitely pregnant!” (I know that you have probably thought that for a lot longer period of time — ha!)
Here’s hoping that things continue to go smoothly for you.
Jen – You are doing great listening to your body. I just had my first baby in October and I did Crossfit and ran during my pregnancy. But there were times of extreme exhaustion, usually when baby was going through a significant growth spurt or development (although that’s all they are really doing in there).
For the nursery, I would say crib, changing table or dresser and a glider. We use our glider multiples times a day, and I love rocking her to sleep. I would say a rock n play is a necessity. Harper slept in hers in our room for the first 7 weeks and it moves all over the house. Sometimes she still naps in it. Also, we got the Hatch baby night light. It is AMAZING. It’s a light and sound machine in one that you can control from an app on your phone. I love it because the white noise cancels out any noise in the house and the night light is great in the middle of the night when I don’t want to completely wake her up with the overhead light. We love it and would recommend it to anyone!
You look beautiful momma!! And good for you for knowing when it’s time to take it a little easier on your workouts.
Re nursery just have…
A crib
A glider
A dresser with a changing table pad on top
That’s it! I do wish I had had a glider with my first seriously would have made things sooo much easier. Those are the three! Then in your room you’ll prob want a bassinet type situation and or a bed rail for cosleeping. Even if you don’t plan to cosleep it’s likelyto happen at some point so have a safe situation available for that. Mattress on the floor works well too.?
So excited for you! I was super exhausted in my pregnancy – super sick 1st trimester, tired in 2nd trimester (tho more energy than other times) and EXHAUSTED in 3rd. I needed at least one nap a day!
We picked out his name years before we were pregnant and the middle name is my grandfather’s name – which we planned to use for a boy or girl. The name just happened to be one we liked, agreed on, and wasn’t too unique or too popular.
I recently blogged about 50 things you need for the baby. The only thing I’d add to that is some kind of activity mat – but really they don’t need that in the first couple months. We asked for a lot of novelty items on our registry and if we had to do again, we’d be much more practical. If I had to pick 5 things you need in a nursery: glider, crib, changing table/pad, dresser/storage for clothes, and a lamp that you can put a low wattage or red bulb in for middle of the night feedings/changes.
Love watching your journey!
Hi Jen! One of my friends told me about an app (I think called Babyname), which is like Tinder for baby names. Both you and your partner download the app. Then, the app shows you both potential baby names and you swipe left if you don’t like it and swipe right if you do like it. If your partner also swiped right, it’s a match! Apparently the app then creates a list for you of all the names you both swiped right on. I’m nowhere near needing this app for myself, but I thought it was very clever!
It’s funny / cute that you say “take down Christmas”! Is that a regional saying?
Hey Jen,
My friend Rachel Coley runs the CanDo Kiddo website and etsy store. She is a Pediatric OT and has great recommendations for products that are best for babies developmental growth. I highly recommend you checking her out. She lives in Charlotte, too!
I definitely had periods of fatigue during my pregnancy. The entire first trimester I could barely keep my eyes open, and then again in the last 2-3 weeks. I never could correlate it to anything specific, but always tried to listen to my body and rest more if I was really tired.
For the nursery all you really need for furniture is a crib, dresser with a changing pad on top, and glider. Other things…a diaper pail or lidded trash can, humidifier, nightlight (we use a dimmable salt lamp), white noise machine. Also will probably want a bassinet or rock n play or somewhere for him to sleep in your bedroom. We also have a swing with a removeable rocker seat we love because it’s dual purpose but It is in our family room, not the nursery. We like having the swing in the room we hang out in most, and the seat can easily be taken off the stand and moved around the house if we need to.
As far as names, my husband and I used the Babyname app which was helpful and pretty fun – it works kind of like Tinder. We had one first choice and two backups in case our first choice didn’t feel right once she was born.
Best of luck on the 28 week ultrasound!
I’d get a double check on your serum iron levels just in case 🙂
I remember taking catnaps in my car during my lunch break around this stage. Creating a human is so exhausting!! ?
Like others have said, definitely just use the top of a dresser for changing. We actually found one (on Wayfair I think) that was intended for that purpose so it had a raised bar in the front to prevent rolling as well as a little space for a basket of diaper, wipes, etc on top. We also got a tall, skinny bookshelf that fits in the corner, but the ones you hang on the wall are a good option too. I would recommend a nice glider if it will fit. There’s just something magical about rocking (and possibly nursing) your newborn in the quiet serenity of the nursery surrounded by all the precious baby things. ?