baby journal: week 14

Journal from Monday, May 26th ● Posted 5.27.14

Alright, if I'm being totally honest, my number one pregnancy symptom for the past four months has been - not morning sickness, not cravings, not swelling - but crazy, bumpy, red, angry, pizza face, teenager, acne-ridden skin.  There.  Now you know.  It's been the pits.  And that's coming from someone who didn't have good skin to begin with.  But, you guys, my chin!  It's been a war zone.  Not.  Even.  Exaggerating.  I've been drinking (tons and tons of) water, wearing barely any makeup, using only the best skincare products, but no dice.  It's just a hormonal mess and stubborn to the max.  BUT, I think I've finally found something that starting to help.

Last week I bought a jar of coconut oil to start (hopefully?) combating stretch marks before they start (and if it isn't really working, I don't want to know - plus it smells great).  While reading online about other uses for coconut oil I kept coming back to articles about the benefits of using it as a facial moisturizer.  At first I just laughed - more oil?  Thanks, I've got that in spades already guys.  But after loving what it did for my skin elsewhere I decided to opt out of my normal lotions and give it a try.

The results?  So far, so, so, so good.  My skin is getting crazy hydrated, my makeup lays better/ stays on longer, and my spots?  They're starting to recede.  Ever so slowly, but hey, progress is progress, right??  And it make me smell like coconut cookies, so I'm just not complaining.  Now, I did just hit my second trimester, and that is when the hormones are supposed to start to back off, so, really, that might be the true cause of my healing, but who knows.  I'm going to stick with the oil for a good long time if the results I'm seeing stick around.  Fingers crossed!

On a more ironic note, I officially broke the barrier of second trimester on May 21st.  (Woohoo! Let's celebrate!)  I had been feeling so, so good for the past few weeks and only expected to get a huge boost as we passed through to the next round, but...no.  Honest to goodness, those first two days of my second trimester were some of my worst through this pregnancy!  Tummy problems, aches and pains, and nausea! What the heck??  It was too funny (not at the time), and it passed, but that timing?  Too much.  And lets talk about how everything in there has started to s-t-r-e-t-c-h.  Round ligament pain is no joke people.   

But that wasn't the end!  Somehow, by some mean, vindictive, unkind force of nature I got a really, really bad cold on Memorial Day weekend - we're talking fever, chills, headaches, sore throat, aches and pains - the works.  Now, first off, I think it should be against the rules for pregnant women to get sick.  And secondly, it was pretty miserable to be sick on a holiday weekend - just adding insult to injury over here.  Hellooooo second trimester.  You can only go up from here!

Aside from my physical woos, this little lemon is:

• Huge!  Ok, not really, but 3 inches sure seems big to me.
• Barely showing...despite the fact that I feel like I'm bursting out of my pantaloons.  I went maternity clothes shopping this weekend and the store clerks couldn't believe I was 4 months.
• Making mama soooo excited to find out if it's a boy or a girl!  Ugh, is it June 11th already??  My next appointment can't come fast enough.