Thursday, March 18, 2010

26 weeks and just 99 days left

On Friday I will be 26 weeks pregnant. Today I have 99 days left until my due date! That is so exciting! I have FINALLY made it down to the double digits. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. It doesn't seem so far away. I can't wait until 2 weeks from now when I am 28 weeks and also in the third trimester.

We still have to paint the nursery and get some of the bigger furniture items. My mother offered to buy the crib and I plan on buying the matching changing table. Other then that we are mostly ready. Once we get those few big things out of the way it is just a matter of gathering all the little dohickies you need a long the way. Hopefully we will get those things covered at the baby shower.

Currently my next step is the glucose testing. I will do that in 2 weeks at my next OB appointment. I would say I have to get up bright and early but I am already up that early on the weekdays anyway. I have to make sure Bryan actually gets up on time and out the door to meet the school bus. He is generally pretty good at it. I only have to wake him up once in a great long while. Some days I wonder why I am still getting up with him. He is getting so old. But then the day rolls around that he forgets to set his alarm and I am glad I still get up with him. Plus it is nice to see my boys off to school and work every day. So I will be up that morning anyway. I have to remember not to eat anything before I go and to bring a snack with me. The nurse said I can eat something after the test and before my OB appointment. So I will have to find a quick and easy snack to stuff in my purse for that day. Fingers crossed that everything goes well and I pass my glucose test with flying colors. I have been keeping track on my own at home once a week. So far my blood sugar levels have been very good. Let's hope they stay that way after all that sugary drink I have to guzzle down.

Wyatt is strong and active. I am pretty sure he is head down now. I feel most of the kicking up towards the top of my belly and around my belly button. I am no longer feeling kicks in my bladder or cervix. I still feel pressure to my bladder. But I am assuming it is now his head putting pressure there. It is a longer more constant pressure that comes and goes instead of the quick and sharp jabs I was having before. When I use my doppler I can hear his heartbeat down pretty low. It is below my belly button and off to the right side now. Instead of being up above and around my belly button. So hopefully he is in fact head down and stays head down until birth.

I am doing pretty well. It is getting hard to move around. The act of getting off the couch these days is ridiculous. I am having trouble bending at the waist. UGH! Good thing I bought new shoes that do not require me to bend over to tie them. LOL Cause I might just be walking around with untied shoes all day.

Braxton Hicks contractions suck. Some days I don't have any at all. Most of the time it is only on the nights I work. They do not hurt but they are uncomfortable. I know they are normal but they always put me on edge. I am looking forward to being closer to my due date so I can relax a little bit about them.

My stomach muscles are killing me these days. All of the pulling and stretching that my ever growing belly does to the muscles and ligaments are taking it's toll. My belly aches after a long day. I find it hard to just sit down and put my feet up while the nesting urge is strong. I just want to get things done. But my belly says otherwise and I have to sit and rest and rub out the kinks. I am trying not to be one of those weird pregnant ladies that rubs her belly all the time. BUT it does help a lot when things are sore.

I am starting to sleep better at night. The last two nights I have slept great. I probably just jinxed myself by saying that. Let's hope it continues. It probably won't. My belly will get bigger and bigger and BIGGER over the next 3 months and so will my discomfort. But in the mean time I am going to enjoy the deep sleep I have been getting the last couple nights. If all else fails my doctor has OK ed the use of Unisom for sleep and relief from restless leg syndrome. Who knew that Unisom would be my best friend this pregnancy. It got me through the worst nights of morning sickness and the most annoying nights of RLS.

Just 2 more weeks left of the second trimester. I am excited to be heading into the home stretch. I am curious to see how large my belly will get. And most of all I can not wait to meet our son! Grow Wyatt GROW!!!


26 weeks pregnant

Monday, March 8, 2010

6 Month Dr. Appointment

I had my 24 week OB appointment this morning. It went very well. Everything is still looking great for both me and the baby.

My blood pressure is still down and doing well. I have lost 1 pound since my last appointment a month ago. That is not an amazing loss but honestly any loss during pregnancy is different. Being that I am a plus size mama it is perfectly ok for me to lose some weight. I really didn't expect it to happen. I thought I was going to have to struggle to keep my weight gain from getting out of hand. But Wyatt is growing bigger and stronger every day and I lose a little more weight every visit. It might change by the time my third trimester rolls around. I gained all of my weight in the last month of my pregnancy with Bryan. So it is still possible I will gain weight some where down the line. But at this point I have an almost extra 20 pounds of leeway for my total pregnancy weight gain.

The doctor had me hop up on to the table to check out the baby. Well maybe hop isn't the best word these days. LOL He checked my fundus (top of my uterus) and it is nice and high. Maybe a little on the high side but Wyatt has been known to ride a little high in my belly anyway. He is going to have to start growing OUT cause he really doesn't have much more room to grow up anymore. LOL His heart rate was in the 140s which is fantastic!

We did discuss Wyatt being breech at this appointment. He spends a LOT of time with his feet kicking my bladder and cervix. While he does flip over every know and then and kick my belly button he spends most of his time head up and feet down. He has presented breech during my last couple of ultrasounds. It is still possible for him to settle in head down so that I can attempt a VBAC. But my doctor warned me not to get my heart set on one type of birth or the other. There is a good chance that due to his frequent breech positioning and the malformation of my uterus that I will have to have a repeat c-section. He will do an ultrasound at my 32 week check up and we will make the decision then. So while there is still a chance at a VBAC he is leaning more towards a c-section. Only time will tell and he hopes that I get my chance at a successful VBAC. But we are not a normal case and we have to do what is best for me and the baby. I am perfectly happy either way as long as baby and I both come out of this birth experience healthy.

I have to admit on my way out of the parking ramp I started crying. Maybe it is the hormones or maybe it is just everything we have been through. It is most likely a mix of both. But I cried. We have been through so much. We have tried so hard for so long to have a healthy baby. There have been so many obstacles and loss and heartbreak to get to a healthy baby. We are not there yet but we are well on our way. This pregnancy has been fantastic and Wyatt is so healthy and strong. Hearing the doctor tell me today that I am doing a great job and we are both healthy and to see him so optimistic that this pregnancy will have a happy ending takes my breath away. Every baby is amazing and a miracle. But I just don't think people can truly understand what a unbelievably amazing miracle a healthy baby is unless they have struggled to achieve that baby. I know I took Bryan being so healthy for granted. I could not have understood back then what a healthy baby really means. We are so very blessed to have one healthy son and another one on the way. We are blessed!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

24 weeks

I am 24 weeks pregnant! Time is flying and yet my due date seems so far away. Things have been going pretty well. Wyatt is roughly 12 inches long now and about 1 1/2 pounds. He is the size of a papaya. I don't really know how big that is. But I have read else where that he is the size of a football. That makes more sense to me. I definitely feel like I have at least a football in my belly.

Wyatt is a wiggle monster. He has settled down in the mornings over the last 2 weeks. But it picks up around noon and then game on! He kicks a lot and pretty hard sometimes. My bladder seems to be one of his favorite targets. But he has also taken a liking to my belly button. Now that is a new kind of pain. Getting your belly button kicked from the inside. Shocking! I am glad he is sleeping in more now but I wish he would go to bed earlier also.

The other night I was awake until 4am. Don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoy the show he puts on. It is amazing to feel. I can even see my belly move every now and then when he kicks good and hard. But 4am! That is far to late little man! I was having a tough night as it was. I could not get comfortable. Every position had it's down falls. Even with pillows I still felt my stomach muscles were being pulled by my ever growing belly. The only position that I wanted to lay in was on my stomach which is obviously out of the question these days. When ever I would finally settle in he would kick HARD! He was kicking constantly but it was as if he heard/felt the silence and decided to spice things up a bit. I guess at one point I was laying to much to the front. I could feel him kicking the mattress! LOL

He responds to Ethan's voice pretty well. Wyatt will kick and push with his feet in the direct of Ethan's voice. It is pretty funny. I am waiting for the day when he hauls off and nails Ethan in the head with those jabby little feet. LOL Or the chihuahua ... she is kinda pushy when on my lap.

I am getting bigger. For the most part I look pregnant. Sometimes when I just wear a regular shirt I think it might be a question. So I try to wear shirts that are obviously maternity shirts. It works pretty well most of the time. I have decided I am going to miss the elastic pants when this is over. They are so comfy. Who ever invented the button/zipper combo should be slapped around a little bit. We all might be less crabby if we always had the comfort of elastic waist pants. I am totally keeping these pants for future use. Eventually I will have to deal with bloated, crabby, PMS kind of days again. And I will be prepared with my stretch jeans!!!

I have my 24 week appointment on Monday. This appointment has come a LOT quicker then any of the others. At least it feels that way anyway. Pretty soon I will be down to every 2 weeks ... then once a week ... before ya know it he will be here! I can't wait!!!


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