34-35 Weeks... Birthday, Big belly, Ultrasound, Baby Shower, and More!

35 week belly! I don't think the picture really does my enormousness justice ;)

 Today I am 35 weeks pregnant, and it also happens to be my birthday!
26 years ago I was born four days after my mommy's February birthday, even though I was supposed to have been a March baby too ;) I have been celebrating all day with tons of contractions and cramping... Annnd I'm starting to get pretty nervous about the state of my preparedness for this child!

About a week ago we had our VERY LAST ultrasound (#5!) which went really well, as far as baby is concerned... Karl had to work and so my mom and Amaia (who just turned 6!) came with us. Evie was pretty good for most of it, but as we were trying to leave she threw an epic tantrum all the way out of the hospital and into the car and part of the way home... She's been doing that fairly regularly these days--I think it's because she's been skipping her naps :/

As for baby, he was measuring only about 2 days ahead this time around, but all his little body parts are looking perfect and he's not behind on his growth. The estimate is that he was weighing in at about 5 lbs 3 oz as of a week ago! He's currently head down (like he has been this whole pregnancy, good boy!), which is fantastic news.

We couldn't get a very good picture of his face this visit, however; silly monkey had one foot and a hand in front of his face! This is the best pic we could get :)

 

Saturday I had my first baby shower, thrown for me by my loverly visiting teachers, Carmen Cole & Amy Bingham :) Only about half the people I invited ended up being able to come (it was a little bit short notice, and for some reason lots of people were gone doing fun things that day!), but I actually thought it was the perfect amount of guests for my comfort level. It was a lot less awkward when I could kind of talk to everyone instead of worrying about all the people I couldn't get to or was leaving out.

Carmen did, however, have everyone play a baby shower "game" where everyone went around the circle and gave me a compliment and some parenting advice. I will admit, I was not super comfortable with sitting there making person after person say something nice about me while everyone listened... Just not sure what to do with myself! But, I did really appreciate all the kind things that people said. I'd been having a rough week, and an especially rough morning, so once I moved beyond the slightly awkward feeling, it really was a blessing to hear those things :)

And here are some beautiful pictures of that event, which I stole from Carmen:

And now for some symptom complaints ;) In the last couple weeks I've started to itch terribly... And I'm so scared it's going to turn into the nightmarish PUPPP I had with Evie! With her it started earlier, but it felt so similar to this! I'm just hoping I can have this baby before it gets to the same point it did with Evie (I was basically clawing the skin off of my entire body).

Also, ever since I started itching, I've gotten some new stretch marks! I was doing perfectly well just reusing the old ones, but they just started popping up where ever I scratched :( It's not too bad, I just have them on the top half of my belly now (the old ones were mostly below my belly button), rather than new ones all over my body, so I guess I should be thankful. I'm just irritated that, if not for the itching, I might not have had to get ANY new ones. Buuuuut, that's just the joy of having a momma's body :)

I have had quite a bit of cramping and contractions starting the past few days. I always have lots of contractions, but it's definitely gotten a lot more intense the past little while! With Evie I did this for about two weeks before she finally decided to be born... So we'll see what happens. I'm worried it's just going to get worse and worse over the next 5 weeks, but I'll still go all the way to my due date and just be miserable, lol! I DO want to keep this baby in as long as he needs to be in, but I would really appreciate it if my body would cut me a break, at least for a couple more weeks!!

Like I said, I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens... Luckily we're getting close ;)

Starting after my appointment next Tuesday I get to be seen weekly from now on!! Only 5 weeks to go; we're getting there slowly but surely!

Hello 3rd trimester! Hello Baby!

Getting bigger! Can't believe we still have a ways to grow!!

I'm 28 weeks today; we've made it to our last trimester! YAY! So excited that we're getting closer!

In the last week or so baby has been moving a TON, suddenly lots of elbows and knees I think ;) I think he must've had a growth spurt, because it's been really hard to feel him from the outside up until this point, and it's been mostly random little kicks. These days he feels like he's wiggling all over the place! Karl's kind of felt him a couple of times in the past little while, but he REALLY felt him last night for the first time.

It's also been really weird because movements I feel super well from the inside can't be felt from the outside, but some that I can't feel at all are very obvious from the outside. I blame my anterior placenta... It really is annoying some times.

I did my glucose test at my prenatal appointment this week and PASSED! THANK HEAVENS!! I am still anemic, though unfortunately, so I've got to get on top of that better :/ I also finally got my results back about the whole infection thing, and they were negative! Yay!

The other awesome thing about today was that we got to go to our fourth ultrasound and see the babe!

Perfect little profile :) Little arm under his chin. Love that little nosey and those lips!

Evie and Karl came, and while I was getting checked in they were running around the lobby. The old lady at the information desk came up to them and Karl was sure they were in trouble, but instead she gave Evie a cute little baby doll... I'm glad people think she's so cute, I don't think she'd get away with most of her antics otherwise! When I asked her where she got the dolly she told me that Grandma Janice (Karl's grandma) had given it to her, which I thought was funny and cute.

Evie was also SUPER talkative today (maybe because she slept in??), she kept running around saying "I wanna see the doctor!" She got tired of waiting in the lobby and tried to go back all by herself, and was terribly mad when I wouldn't let her. When we got back to the room and during the ultrasound she talked the whole entire time. She kept saying things like, "Mommy sick, got hurt, doctor help her feel better!" and she was really enjoying seeing baby brother up on the screen.

Speaking of baby brother, he is doing really well! Fluid was good and there were no signs of any problems caused by the fall yesterday, thank goodness! He's also growing really well (which is one of the things they were worried about last time), he's measuring a week and four days ahead and supposedly weighs about three pounds, three ounces at this point. I knew he'd been doing some growing recently!

All his little body parts are measuring well and looking good still, and his echogenic bowel is almost completely gone, which is great!

After the tech checked everything, she said, "let me just change over to the other machine really quick". I figured that must mean just a machine with a different frequency or something (ok, I had no idea what she meant, but I just trusted she knew what she needed to do), but suddenly, THIS picture came up on the screen:

All cuddled up :) 3D pic... A little weird, but cool all at the same time, lol ;)

I didn't know they DID 3D ultrasounds at maternal fetal medicine, and since I wasn't planning to spend 80 bucks to get an elective one, I didn't think I'd be getting one. We were surprised, but it was pretty cool! Karl thinks baby looks pretty alien-ish but I think he looks WAY more like a baby than in his alien-demon-skeletor pic... That was pretty creepy looking.

Another side note, we saw a different maternal fetal specialist today, and when came in to check us out, she informed us that she had been the one who had done our ultrasound with Evie. She thought it was kind of cool to see her now on the outside, running around and chattering up a storm!

While I thought this was going to be our final ultrasound this pregnancy, apparently we still get to go in one more time to follow up, just in case, at 34 weeks. I guess I'm happy we get another chance to see him, especially since there aren't any major concerns at this point, but I do feel like I've spent an awful lot of time at maternal fetal medicine! Oh well, I'm just going to be glad I get to see him so often :)

Ultrasound #3

Beautiful Baby Boy!

Ultrasound #3: complete! At 20 weeks our baby boy is STILL a boy (in case you were worried) ;) He's looking good for the most part; currently growing well and still measuring about 5 days ahead. According to the tech he's weighing in at about 14oz!

I'm still a boy!!

We got to see baby bumping around in there and even practicing his sucking skills (it reminded me so much of newborn Evie!). It was really amazing to see him doing something so incredibly baby-like. I feel like up until now he hasn't seemed "real" any of the times I've seen him in there: yeah, he had the whole basic human shape to him, but still didn't seem like an actual baby. Seeing his little mouth moving in there, doing something I've seen babies on the outside do so many times, was really something.

I'm gonna say that the baby boy I'll be holding in my arms in about  20 weeks definitely became a lot more real to me at that moment. Pretty amazing stuff ;)

Little hand up by his face :)

We ALMOST escaped with this being our final ultrasound this pregnancy, but at the very last minute the doctor saw something she didn't like... So we get to go back at least one more time.

She came in telling me how awesome everything looked and was congratulating me on not needing to come back in, but just as she was wrapping up, she noticed that baby has an echogenic bowel. Basically, his cute little intestines were showing up white in the ultrasound (like bone does) when they should show up dark. 

This could be an indicator of a bunch of things, including infection, trisomy or cystic fibrosis, or something that might restrict his growth later on in the pregnancy... Or it could be absolutely nothing. 

Since we've done a bunch of tests looking for things like trisomy and they've come back with really good results, the doctor wasn't so worried about that, her main concern I think was that it's either an infection (toxoplasmosis or cytomegalovirus) or something that would cause intrauterine growth restriction as the pregnancy continues.

We did a blood test to check out the infection theory (waiting on results) and we'll be going in at 28 weeks to see if it has gone away on its own and to check up on his growth. If it's still there and he seems to be falling behind in his growth at all, we'll have to come in weekly to check his growth and fluids.

The doctor wasn't severely concerned, she mostly wanted to check up on things to be on the safe side, so I'm not super worried, but it's still a little stressful to know that there is the potential for something to be wrong with our little one!

Our next ultrasound will be right around Christmas (I'll be 28 weeks on the 23rd!), so we're hoping and praying for good news!

Final picture: five little toes :D

Ultrasound #2, and it's a...

Demon-alien-skeletor!!!

 Just kidding... I love my baby, but this picture is pretty creepy looking. I thought I'd share for the sake of Halloween being right around the corner ;) Also, the doctor looked at these face pictures and kept telling us what a cute baby we have on the way... Between that and her comments about me being thin, kinda not sure about her judgement, lol.

ANYWAY, point is, we got to go to our ultrasound today, YAY! Karl and Evie got to go this time too, which was a fun adventure. 

A cuter, though blurry, pic of our little-one :)

The ultrasound went really well. The tech was pretty rough on my tummy, and her pictures weren't great, but it wasn't too bad of an experience. Evie was very interested... for about two minutes, then she wanted to go back to playing with her baby game, haha.

Baby was once again pretty chill and kept turning away from the tech so she couldn't get a shot of the face, lol. I don't know if we've just caught the babe at nap time twice (I even drank a bunch of OJ right before to help wake bebe up!) but this kid seems much more calm than the Evie-Cakes!

I have an anterior placenta again, which means it's probably going to be longer before I really feel anything, and a longer wait before we can feel baby from the outside, which makes me a little sad, but we'll see how it goes. Baby is also currently head down facing my right side and there is a baby bum hanging out just below my belly button ;)

Everything is measuring perfectly and looks good! Still measuring 5 days ahead, which is exactly what we were measuring last time. No soft markers for down syndrome, no cleft lip from what they could see, heart is looking good so far, fluid was good and no signs of pre-term labor... So happy!!

Waving hello!

 Also, the tech DID ask us if we wanted to know the gender... and we said YES. I Tried looking while the tech was moving around looking at things, but I didn't really see anything, so I was kind of thinking it must be a girl... but the picture was pretty hard to see! The tech finally got through with all her measurements and she suddenly said, "well THAT'S not umbilical cord!" I wasn't quite sure what she was looking at at first, but apparently, THAT little extra appendage means we are having a BOY! Apparently my mommy-intuition was indeed correct, I don't know why I doubted ;)

Bum pic!!

I'm still super nervous that our boy is somehow going to end up being a girl at our next ultrasound... but both the doctor and the tech (who looked separately!) seemed pretty sure he's a boy in there!

I'm also a little nervous about the prospect of being a mommy to a boy, but we're excited! We just have to get though the issue of names (Karl and I have differing opinions here), circumcision, and somehow coming up with a bunch of boy stuff, since all we've got are very feminine items... But I'm sure it's going to be great! 

Time for a little blue in our princess castle ;)

10 1/2 Hours...

First off, happy 1st day of October! So excited for this month!!

Secondly, we have an ultrasound tomorrow (in almost exactly 10 1/2 hours)!!! I'm super excited to see baby, but I'm trying really hard not to get my hopes up about finding out whether we have another girly on the way or if we're getting a little bit more testosterone in our house!

They MIGHT not even look, and even if they do, the baby MIGHT no cooperate, and even if baby does, it MIGHT be inaccurate still at this point... So yeah... Trying to prepare myself for the worst, but it's not really working.

For most of this pregnancy I've been pretty convinced this kid was a boy. I don't particularly want a boy more than a girl or anything, but for some reason I just had it in my head that it was a boy. Every time I thought about baby I would just automatically use "him/he". The last couple weeks though, I've been starting to get unsure! I've had two separate people tell me (based on our last ultrasound/how I'm carrying) that it's a girl, so I've been trying to prepare myself to wrap my head around that outcome, and now I just don't know!

This is like the complete opposite of how it went with Evie. I had no feelings or intuition about her gender forEVER. People kept asking me what I thought and I felt so lame saying that I had no idea. Then, the week or so before the ultrasound, I started feeling "girl", still not superly firm in my mind, but I was getting a girly vibe.

Garg! I just don't know what to think this time around!

Luckily, neither Karl nor I have super strong feelings either way. A boy would be awesome, since we don't have one of those, it would be cool to try it out! It would be nice for Karl to have a boy to be more manly with too, but we've also identified some downsides... On the other hand, we know girls are awesome, we know how to deal with them, and we have all the stuff we need for one already, so that would be cool too. And it would be cute for Evie to have a sister.

Either way, we're happy. The thing I'm not happy about, is the waiting!! Let's see if I can get any sleep tonight!

12 Weeks!

We've made it to 12 weeks! There is honestly something magical about this week in my pregnancies (the theory seems to be holding up so far any way), in the last few days I've been so much happier, had a bit more energy, and have been able to eat more. I feel like my attitude has done a complete 180! I will admit that in the last couple weeks I've had more than a few "I am the worst mother/wife in the world" and "How am I ever going to do two when I am failing miserably at handling my toddler??" meltdowns...

It's amazing what a little energy and a semi regular blood sugar level can do for a person!

Today I got an extra mood booster, I got to get a good look at baby for the first time! Didn't get super great pictures, but I love them anyway ;)

Hello!

I went in for my integrated screening to check for genetic problems this morning, which was scheduled for 8:45 am, and they didn't call me back until after 9:15! I was starting to go a little crazy just waiting and waiting in the hospital lobby listening to people talking about all the horrible health problems they had (maternal fetal medicine shares an office/waiting room with oncology!), but they did come get me eventually. I had to talk to a genetic counselor, and then I got to see baby!

They needed to get some very specific measurements, and baby wasn't being cooperative AT ALL. Always facing the wrong way and kept rolling in the wrong direction... Definitely my child ;) Seems to be a lot calmer than Evie was, but maybe it was just nap time, haha. Anyway, we finally got the measurements we needed (after the tech bounced the baby, made me roll back and forth, go to the bathroom, and walk around for 5 minutes), and the doctor came in to talk to me about them.

Apparently everything so far looks fine and dandy, but there is a chance that I may be a carrier for a genetic translocation (which would mean a high chance of trisomies and miscarriage... normally more of a random fluke, but not with a translocation :/ ), and since I can't afford $2000 to get a karyotype done, they want to check on baby again in about a month, and then again at the regular 20 week ultrasound. So we may be able to find out if we're having a boy or a girl on October 2nd, 4 weeks earlier than I thought! Doctor said I shouldn't be worried, since things looked good so far, so I'm pretty excited just to be able to see bebe again!

That whole adventure ended up taking me over two hours (with Evie and Karl going crazy at home, gah!), and I still had my regular 12 week appointment to go to! I ended up taking Evie with me to my appointment by myself, which was a little crazy, but she was also very cute. She sat next to me on the little table while the midwife listened for baby's heartbeat, and she was totally transfixed by the sound. She kept talking about hearing the baby the whole car ride home, and couldn't wait to tell daddy all about it! She also loved the toys in the office and the "alligator" (aka, the elevator, haha).

It's been a hectic day (and I actually still need to get bloodwork done once Karl gets back with the car), but I'm pretty satisfied with the results. Also, I'm finally ready to officially announce that I'm having a baby! I'm just waiting on a picture so we can do it in a cute manner ;)