21 Weeks Pregnant with Abigail

I am officially 21 weeks today based off of my LMP date, but the baby is still measuring a week ahead of schedule. The due date for now has not changed and is still May. We hesitate to put a specific date other than May due to her size and the rocky start that we had with the first trimester.

I am enjoying my second trimester now and I am beginning to relax into being 5 months pregnant. My nausea is down considerably since my first trimester, although I am still taking medication to prevent it from occurring. The nausea would hit throughout the day, most often right after I would eat something. I am able to sleep better on most days and I am still able to fit into most of my own clothing with the exception of pants from time to time. As of now I have only gained a total of 10 lbs, which is great. Since coming off of bed rest in November I have been really active and doing much more around the house and with Emma : ) The doctor loved how I did not gain any weight for the months of November and December.

As everyone knows by now we are having a GIRL! We are so excited and feel extremely blessed to be having Abigail Grace Pheris and know that Emma will enjoy having a little sister to play with. Many people believed we would be having a boy due to the extreme differences in my pregnancies. I was not open to that prediction and felt that it was a girl, then Ray confirmed it for us before going to our appointment in December.

We have moved all of Emma's baby furniture into the guest room, which Abigail will enjoy when she arrives in May. We believe that it is important for them both to be separate in their own rooms at this early age, but we do have the hope of the girls sharing a room at some point int the future. Emma now has a queen size bed that she loves and we have upgraded her room from a nursery look to a toddler room, we will post pictures of it soon. Sorry, but we will no longer have a place for people to stay when they come to visit, but we still welcome the company =).

Abigail has been a very active baby since the beginning, she moves and stretches all the time now. She shows signs of practicing her breathing, flexing her arms and legs, as well as giving her Daddy a high five when he puts his hands on my belly. Ray has been able to feel her move more and more over the past week. We were even able to feel her heartbeat through my belly the other night due to her position. From the previous measurements from our December appointment she looks to be right handed, loves to keep a beat, move constantly, is modest, and really likes her privacy. She tried tho shield her face from the ultrasound tech and it took a bit of maneuvering and bugging her in order to get her into a position to find out we were having a girl.

She moves around a lot if I tend to stay in one position to long or if the position is one that she does not care for. Her most common times of the day with increased movement are mid morning after I have eaten, after lunch, and when I go to lay down she moves the most!

We look forward to learning more about Abigail and sharing her with our loved ones as we gather to celebrate her coming birth. To be surrounded by such wonderful people and be comforted and guided by their love and thoughtfulness is a great blessing.