Baby Shower pics

35 weeks 6 days

I'm doing well with this pregnancy, enjoying every minute of it!  I've only had minor aches and pains, that the new chiropractor I found has been able to help immensely, so I don't have any real complaints at all.  I'll be 36 weeks tomorrow, and I am not in any rush for this time to end.

I've had a slew of appointments since the last time I wrote.  I had another growth scan done at 34 weeks, and baby was head down, still hiding his or her face in my placenta.  We are still going for a gender surprise, and I've done so well with telling each technician that I don't want to know and to let me know so I can look away when they go near the genitals so I don't accidentally see what I'm not supposed to see.  :)  Baby looked great on the ultrasound, the heart-rate was at 141 bpm and baby was measuring pretty much right on.  The tech estimated weight at around 5.5lbs.

Since that head down ultrasound, I am relatively certain that the baby has done a few full 360 turns.  I'm able to feel two distinct lumps on either side a lot of the time, so I'm pretty sure baby like the transverse position best, and then I've had a bowling ball right at the top of my uterus a couple times, with hiccups near my ribs, likely meaning baby was head up at that point.  More than once I've had what I'm sure are feet poke out near my ribs, hiccups near my hip and lightning bolt shock waves as a head connects with my bladder and cervix.

Here's a couple of pictures from the last session, where baby is hiding behind placenta and cord:

I saw my hematologist as well, and as of 36 weeks I will be taking a different anti-coagulant until I go into labor.  After that I will switch back to the one I've been on for the whole pregnancy until I'm 6 weeks post-partum.  With the clotting disorders that I have, I will not be able to get an epidural if I am too close to having taken the medication before I go into labor.  I am truly okay with that, since I don't intend on getting one anyway.  I was med free with my daughter and that is my birth plan for this one too.  The only thing that scares me a little is that if I need a c-section and don't have time for an epidural to be placed due to either the medication or an emergency, I would be put under general anesthetic.  While I'm not planning for that happenstance, the thought of not being awake for the birth of my baby, and my husband not being there to witness it, bothers me a lot.  I'm trying not to dwell on that though, instead using my hypnosis birthing techniques to visualize the birth I want to have.

I'm not sure if I mentioned the hypnosis birthing before now.  I'm doing a home course to help me control my responses during labor.  I labored med free without hypnosis the first time, so I'm believing that I can do it again and that the relaxation techniques I'm learning will help make this an "easy, comfortable birth", like the program suggests.

At my last Dr's appt, at 34 weeks 6 days, I was up 18lbs, so I'm on track for my goal of 25lbs total.  I'm actually gaining weight at pretty much exactly the same pace as I did with my first pregnancy.  I gained 26lbs with my daughter.  I'm carrying about the same too, just slightly lower and slightly more out front.  I go back and forth nearly daily as to whether or not I've got a boy or a girl in there.  Only about 4 more weeks till we find out!

I had my baby shower on the weekend, and had a great time.  I got spoiled rotten, with lots of stuff, and a ton of blankets!  I'll put up some pics from the shower in another post.

In the meantime, here's a recent pic, from 35 weeks 3 days.

29 weeks!

I have a feeling the next 11 are going to fly by.  

I'm up 13-14lbs total so far, gaining 3-4 of those lbs in the last week alone.  I passed my GTT with flying colours, my fundal height is good 26weeks-though this ob seems to measure a little different than the maternity Dr did, so I think her measurements are slightly off on the small side.  The baby is doing great, moving all over the place.  At the last ultrasound, I believe the heart rate was at 150bpm.  My Dr didn't tell me what it was on the Doppler at my last appt and I forgot to ask.  I apparently have an overachieving cervix, that measured at 5.4 on the ultrasound.  

I've had minimal discomfort, some very infrequent mild contractions and braxton hicks here and there. My daily blood thinner injections are going well, and I hardly bruise at all, I mostly just get little red marks instead.  I inject into my love handle or my hips around towards my back.  My biggest "complaint" and I can't even call it one, is near constant heartburn lately.  Tums are my very best friend right now, lol!  I'm tired a lot too, but that's not really out of the realm of ordinary for low-energy me anyway. 

We've started batting around some names, but have nothing concrete yet.  I plan on going to the hospital with several I like and then deciding once we see our new little person.

C is super excited to become a big sister. She has been really getting into the "helping" aspect.  She has been helping me carry groceries and laundry and is always asking what the baby is doing. She loves to feel the movements and talks to my belly sometimes too.  It's pretty cute how excited she is now.  Most of the movements are still very low in my abdomen, but I've been getting a few up near my ribs, and we've been able to see my whole belly shift and roll a few times.  It's fun to watch and even more so to see C's reactions to it.  

I've finally started to get a few baby items now, like diapers when they were on sale and a couple of new swaddle blankets. There isn't much I will really need, aside from a few gender neutral sleepers and onesies, and then a couple of take home outfits from the hospital. A big must is a new infant car seat, and I plan on having that before the end of March. 

I've also started a hypnobirthing home course, as I plan to go natural again. I'm going to join a prenatal yoga class that begins in March too.   All in all things are going great and easy, and I'm hoping that it really stays that way, right though to baby being born. 

Here's a pic from last week, at exactly 28 weeks. 

3D ultrasound

Baby was hiding behind hands and placenta, so this is about the best shot the tech could get.  She did get a pretty good 2D one...little one seems to have perfected the "duck lips" pose perfectly already.  :)

24 weeks!

I can't believe how quickly time is passing.  The second trimester has pretty much flown right by me.   

After I wrote last, I had the anatomy scan done.  We have decided to not find out the gender of this baby.  Well, my DH has decided that, and really has his heart set on calling our DD after the delivery to tell her the news.  Since he agreed to go shopping with our DD to buy baby clothes while I'm in the hospital with the baby after delivery, and to not complain when I buy things that I just can't resist in both genders right now, I agreed to go along with a delivery surprise. 

The anatomy scan went well, baby was still measuring on target for a projected due date of May 8th. The heart, spine, brain, bladder and kidneys all checked out perfectly. The tech counted all ten fingers and ten toes, and was able to see that everything looked as it should.  She referred to the baby as "perfect" several times.  I had a great tech who was so happy to show me the different things she was looking at.  I think it helped that I was able to verbally identify nearly everything she was scanning before she said a word.  She had great bedside manner and it was a very fun scan.  

She got some cute profile shots for me too.  

Since that scan at 18 weeks, my belly has grown a lot!  I am definitely needing to wear maternity shirts now.  I'm still in two of my really stretchy pre-pg pairs of jeans, one pair I think may actually go the entire way through.  I plan on going to get another pair or two of stretchy non-maternity jeans that fit nicely.  The maternity jeans I had for my daughter's pg are still all way too big.  The rest of my pants are mostly yoga pants. :)

I was able to stop taking the nausea meds just after Christmas, so around 20 weeks.  At that point I was up about 6-7lbs, and now at 24 weeks I'm up 9lbs from my pre-pg weight. 

I met with the high risk OB who's team will deliver this baby.   Because of the blood thinner injections I'm on with this one, I'll be monitored more closely than the norm.  I will be getting more ultrasounds, likely monthly from here on out.   I've got one coming up this Friday, and I'll be able to get some 3-D pictures, which I'm looking forward too. 

I've been taking belly pictures every two weeks like I did with my daughter, but it haven't arranged them in a sideshow yet. As soon as I do that, I'll post it.   In the meantime, here's a shot from today, in my 24th week. 

The Big Sister!

We told our DD by giving her the t-shirt this weekend.  It didn't quite go over the way I thought it would, because silly me got the shirt printed in cursive writing and she had a really hard time reading it!  I had to help her out with it.  Then she thought is said that she was the one getting a big sister, haha!  I had to explain that she was going to BE the big sister, not the other way around.  

She seemed all excited at first, and then about 5 or so minutes later said that she didn't really want a brother or sister, that she liked being the only one.  I think it hit her in that moment that she was going to have to share our attention.  She's quickly did a complete 360 again a few minutes later when DH joked that we'd have to give the baby away then.  She looked horrified and decided right then that she really did want a brother or sister to be here.  

I've since had a little heart to heart with her to let her know that a family's love grows to include a new baby and that the love that she gets will still be exactly as it always has been.  I told her that she will always be my first baby, and that I will always love her no matter what.  And I've started calling it her baby most of the time and telling her that her baby brother or sister will probably love her best of all.  

She has been so excited since that she wore her shirt three days in a row, and has been telling everyone she sees that she's going to be the big sister.  I also brought out the doppler so that she could her the heartbeat.  She keeps tapping on my tummy and saying "hello baby" and asking me what the baby is doing now.  

She's full of questions (some hard ones I'm not ready to answer yet, haha!) and I don't think that's going to end anytime soon.   

NT Ultrasound

Time feels like its flying and dragging at the same time.  I doesn't seem like it's been 5 weeks since I wrote last, but it all ready feels like I've been pregnant for such a long time that it seems like I should be further along than I am.

We had the nuchal translucency ultrasound done on Wednesday.  It went really well and my risk factors dropped from 1 in 127 based on age alone to 1 in 8000.  At first our little miracle was all curled up and facing my back (which appeared as down on the screen) so the tech had me empty half my bladder to see if it would roll over.  It worked and then we could see everything better with it facing forward.  Baby was moving and stretching and looked perfect (the technicians words) with two arms and legs and all the necessary organs showing.  The NT measurement was 1.8 and baby had a nice visible nasal bone.  As she was doing the scan, I was able to tell exactly what I was seeing every step of the way, and was commenting on what she was scanning before she wrote it down on the screen most of the time.  The tech actually asked me if I was in the medical field.  I laughed and said no, I just like to research all this stuff.  My husband quipped, "She's a little OCD about it", and the tech laughed and said that being informed is good.  No gender shots, but that's okay.  The anatomy scan will be done in 5-6 weeks, and I can hang on till then.

The baby is measuring 4 days bigger than my dates, so they moved my due date up to May 8th instead of May 12th.  I'm officially in the second trimester now!

I plan on counting both dates until I get confirmation at the anatomy scan.  So right now I'll say that I'm 12+4 but really 13+1.  That won't get confusing at all, haha!  I'll use the May 8th date when I talk to people, I'll keep the other in my mind though.

We plan on telling our big girl she is a sister-to-be this weekend.  I am so excited to reveal it to her.

Here are a few shots from the scan.