my pregnancy: week 8

This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.

Now that I’ve announced my pregnancy, I’m hoping to do a weekly update to track how everything is going, share pictures of my (hopefully soon) changing belly, and having something that I can look back on and see what it was all like. Also, I forget things crazy fast and if I don’t write it down it’s gone forever.

How is baby growing?

Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby’s hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his “tail” is just about gone.

In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. You may be daydreaming about your baby as one sex or the other, but the external genitals still haven’t developed enough to reveal whether you’re having a boy or a girl. Either way, your baby — about the size of a kidney bean — is constantly moving and shifting, though you still can’t feel it. — from BabyCenter

A kidney bean!

We’ve actually been taking pictures since week 5 and it’s amazing how much baby grows every week. First at week 5 we had a little poppy seed, then a sesame seed at week 6, and by week 7 a baby lentil. Now all of a sudden, blam! a kidney bean!

How am I feeling?

This week has been allllllllll about nausea. It actually started in week 7, but really ramped up this past week. When I first started getting nauseous all day long, I’d keep a huge bag of pretzels by me and munch on them constantly. I found that actually made me feel worse longer. If I force myself to eat my regular balanced snacks and meals, I tend to feel better for longer.

I have to eat something about every 2 hours and if I’m late to eat, I get crazy nauseas. I’m lucky to say I have yet to throw up, and only stood by the toilet once or twice. Still nausea is no fun and I feel so bad for the ladies who get horrible morning sickness.

A friend asked me if the nausea was like motion sickness. I’ve never experienced motion sickness before, but if it is, Jacob I’m sorry I bugged you to go on the ring of fire at the fair with me… my bad.

I’ve been working on getting more sleep. Not only does it seem to help with my nausea A LOT, but I’ve been really sleepy and wanting to go to bed at 8pm. I just roll with it and catch my extra zzzz’s. It’s pretty nice.

My exercise has stayed pretty much the same. I’ve taken the intensity down a bit, but still do the same workouts. On Wednesdays I’d usually go to pump it in the morning and then teach sport training evenings… I’ll see how long I feel good doing that. It’s a lot of exercise in 1 day and when I’m tired it does take it out of me.

We had our first doctor appointment last week and just went over health history + had blood work done. I was kind of disappointed that’s all we got to do. I wanted to see/hear the baby! Our next appointment at 11 weeks we’ll get to listen for the baby and find out more on how everything is going.

Yesterday I actually switched from my regular OB/GYN to a midwifery group at the same hospital. We’ll be starting to see them at our 11 week appointment. More on all that in another post.

Although it doesn’t look like I’m growing, I definitely feel it. My stomach is expanding, but in a bloated kind of way. My pants are feeling a bit more snug, and I even have a pair I have to unbutton and use a hair tie as the loop. A big plus I am SOOO excited about? My boobs are growing. It may not be noticeable to others, but I can tell. Keep on growing girls.

Since I got pregnant, Jacob basically took over keeping the house clean and oranized. Every day he takes care of so much stuff around the house because I’m 1) too tired or 2) feeling too lazy to do it. It actually takes a lot of will power to make dinner when I get home from work, so all the help he does around the house sure makes my life easier.

Plus he surprises me with goodies! Scrabble for fun, pickles (!) and my favorite chocolate bar (!). The pickles and chocolate were not eaten together, just one right after another.

Random info