18 weeks: It's a boy!

I'm writing this on the day I "switch over" to 19 weeks. This week, I started to feel movement much more frequently, and we also took the kids to the doctor's office for my monthly visit where a quick bedside ultrasound told them... it's a boy! We are so excited to meet him and have all our kids in our arms.

This week, my anxiety has gone up a lot. But it's less worry about specific things like loss, and more physical anxiety, which I'm also all-too-familiar with. So I'm committing to keeping a few promises to myself to reduce stress and improve sleep. Basically, this involves moving more after a (necessarily) sedentary few months.

I'm aiming to walk for 30 minutes in the morning after my quick stretches and PT exercises. I've been listening to music and perfecting my pregnancy playlist to reflect the miracle, joy, and anticipation we feel in this season. I also started Barre3 workouts again online this week. I thinks it's feasible to do one 10 minute upper body workout + one 10 minute lower body workout + one 15-30 minute prenatal full-body workout each week. I'll try some new workouts this week and next, and then stick with the same 3 workouts on rotation for 6 weeks to really build strength and endurance back up. It also just makes me breathe deeper (which I don't do when I'm anxious) and will increase my blood flow to keep my varicose veins from aching. And THAT plan will take me right into the 3rd trimester! I'll be bigger then, but also the weather will be maybe getting a little cooler, so I'm hopeful that I will be able to stay active. It's been kind of fun to be pregnant in such different seasons this time around.

Finally, just because I need to commit to this somewhere, I need to act my way back into journaling before bed. I really enjoyed this for a while, and I know it helps my sleep. But I don't wanna. Yet I need to. So tonight I will clear my desk off and just... begin again. No theme, no pressure, just a 5 minute timer and my journal.

Oh! Also, if this baby follows my previous pattern, today basically brings us to the halfway point of this pregnancy, which is REALLY hard to believe. The first trimester lasted FOR-EV-ER and the second is flying by. I'm REALLY trying to focus on one day at a time and not let the pressure of catching up from the first and nesting for the third overwhelm me right here in the sweet second tri.