Week 15: Second tri

At 15-ish weeks, I’m officially in the second trimester! I’m feeling more secure about the pregnancy, slightly more energetic, and definitely more pregnant than I have so far. I sometimes find myself holding my back and walking like a big pregnant person, which seems silly since I don’t look much different and haven’t gained weight yet!
I’m feeling more connected to the baby now, too, since hearing his/her heartbeat again last week and feeling him/her move a bit, too! (I know it seems like it’s too early to feel the baby, but I swear I have! He/she had hiccups a few days ago—what else could that be? Funky gas??)
I haven’t been very sick this pregnancy (knocking on wood, of course)—just a little queasy—and that hasn’t changed. The evenings are my worst time of the day. I start to feel sick and tired just as I’m supposed to be feeding my family dinner, cleaning up, getting kids to bed, preparing for the next day. … So my house is messy, and we eat a lot of pizza! We’ve been back at school for a few days since winter break ended, and we’re still trying to get back into the routine, especially since our routine takes longer now than it used to. With a foot of snow on the ground, there’s a lot of collecting gloves, hats, boots, coats, blankets for the freezing car … and then the drive takes longer when the streets are messy or plows are coming through. Isn’t it nice that baby is snug and warm (and protected from all the nasty germs going around!) all winter long? When he/she arrives in June, the weather will be beautiful and our schedule carefree!
About the gender: While sometimes mamas will go in and see a conclusive ultrasound image as early as 14/15 weeks, my doctor prefers to wait until about 19 weeks. One more month of guessing. Since we already have a girl followed by two boys, the whole family is hoping for another girl. I would love that, but I’m not anticipating it! I was so sick with my daughter and not very sick at all with my boys. Since I haven’t tossed cookies once this go-round, I’m thinking we might be in for another dose of blue and dinosaurs and robots and endless potty training. (Is it just me? Potty training boys is nigh impossible.) It probably doesn’t have much bearing, but my parents’ pattern was girl-boy-boy-girl-boy, and my in-laws had boy-girl-boy-boy-boy. Lots of boys in there! And I would never trade the two fellas I’ve got—they are my lion cubs, my flower-pickers and my pint-sized protectors.