20 Weeks: Halfway There, Living on a Prayer

Bump's first wedding at 19 weeks.

We usually track pregnancies by trimester, but for me, reaching the halfway point is a lot more significant than making it through the first trimester. The past 20 weeks have been challenging, frustrating, slow-moving, and thrilling all at the same time. Here are some highlights:

The Symptoms. I think I really lucked out in this department—no morning sickness! I did, however, experience quite a bit of general nauseous feelings around mealtimes in my first trimester. Fatigue turned out to be my biggest issue, and I took a daily nap (sometimes more than one) for most of the first trimester—I just couldn't keep my eyes open. I've gotten my energy back, but now I'm experiencing a lot of nasal congestion (especially at night), backaches (especially at night), shortness of breath (stairs kill me!), and occasional heart palpitations (scary, but my doc says it's normal).

Cravings/Aversions. While I didn't puke in my first trimester, there were a couple of close calls when I forced myself to eat something I didn't really want. After that, I decided to listen to my body and follow my cravings and aversions. For the first trimester, I was grossed out by most meat (especially cooking it), eggs, and a lot of vegetables—basically all the healthy stuff I should have been eating. Instead, I was craving carbs, carbs, and more carbs—pasta, French fries, bread, cookies. Basically all the crappy stuff that my body didn't need. Now that I'm further along, I'm craving lots of fresh fruit, Mexican food, and the occasional steak.

Exercising. Yeah. No. I tried working out twice and got weird cramping and bleeding so I stopped. I take walks now.

Dressing the Bump. I grew out of my skinny jeans within the first few weeks, so for my first trimester I lived in yoga pants, loose T-shirts, and baggy boyfriend sweaters. After a few months, I was so sick of feeling like I was walking around in pajamas I started searching for maternity clothes. I ordered a whole bunch of jeans, made a depressing trip to a maternity store in a local mall, and generally bemoaned my weird new body. Luckily, as the bump has grown, I've been able to find a few key pieces that make me feel human and even, some days, a bit cute! I really love these jeans, maxi skirts, and my trusty Madewell tees are still getting a lot of play. (I'm hoping to avoid maternity shirts as much as I can.) Also, I got a haircut and color at 18 weeks and that helped me get out of my frump slump.

The Lowlights. I've been lucky to have things fairly easy, but there have been some tough times along the way. Dealing with the weight gain and changing body image has been hard, especially as some people have made insensitive comments and I've fallen into the trap of comparing my body to other pregnant women's. There have been some serious scares too, including some bleeding that had me rushing to the doctor for an emergency ultrasound (though all was well). It's also tough to find myself suddenly powerless to help in the house-flipping project we're working on. Todd is doing most of the work while I'm sitting on the couch buying light fixtures.

The Highlights. Despite the lows, there have been some really happy moments so far: Hearing baby's heartbeat for the first time. Finding out, to our surprise, that it's a boy! Feeling him move for the first time in the middle of the night and waking Todd up to share. Shopping for clothes, and hanging them up on tiny little hangers in his nursery. Wrestling with strollers at Babies R Us with Todd. Making our news official and getting such wonderful, truly touching congrats from family and friends. 20 weeks to go. Let's do this!