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.

Ultrasound pics

7 weeks 4 days abdominal ultrasound

7 weeks 4 days internal ultrasound

Circle of life

My grandmother passed away on Tuesday. She had been very ill recently and had been in the hospital over most of the summer.  She was moved from the hospital to a full care nursing facility about a month ago, and I was able to visit her there twice. My last visit was to tell her about the baby.  She was happy, but was so very tired so she didn't say much or have much of a reaction.  She knew though.  And she knew I loved her. Our last words to each other were to to say "I love you". 

Yesterday was a very bittersweet day for me.  We had her viewing last night, so it was a very sad time, but we are also overjoyed at the new life that is growing inside me.  Her funeral was today, and it was so hard to say goodbye.  I'm so glad I got to tell her about this little baby. 

The ultrasound was fantastic.  My sister was able to join me.  The tech took a lot of time, and we saw some wonderful images on the screen.  My little lucky bean has a heart rate of 168bpm, and we were even able to watch it wiggle around a couple of times.  It is measuring perfectly, 7 weeks 4 days on the abdominal view and 7 weeks 6 days on the internal view. 

I've been getting more nausea and a bit of gagging, but so far I've only thrown up a few times. Exhaustion is still the most major symptom I've got.  I can feel a more twinges and stretching down near/in my uterus now too.  I still have moments though, where I feel so totally normal that it seems like it's not really happening.  I'm starting to believe it more and more.  I'm even saying the word "pregnant" out loud now. 

I ordered a fetal Doppler online that I'm waiting to have delivered.  It should be here this coming week and I will hopefully be able to start hearing the heartbeat soon. 

I still need to scan the pictures I got, but I haven't been able to yet.  I'll post them as soon as I can get them done.  

I have the nuchal translucency ultrasound on Oct. 30th.  I plan on telling C that she's going to be a big sister that weekend.  Fingers crossed that everything continues to go well and that our dream of her being a big sister do come true!  

Ultrasound

We have one lucky little bean, measuring perfectly on target at 5 weeks 3 day!