Rock and Roll

It never fails! Each and every night when I lay down to go to sleep, this baby starts rockin' and rollin'! And since he's getting bigger and stronger, it's getting to the point where I can't just ignore it, he keeps me awake until he decides to relax. They say that the baby's sleep pattern in the womb will be the same once he is born, so I guess I'll be up with this guy every night from 10 to 11:30pm, I can plan on it!

I finally had my "high risk" ultra sound appointment this week, where they were supposed to get some detailed pictures of his brain to keep an eye on that cyst. I won't hear anything about the results until my next doctor's appointment in a few weeks, but I did get a ton of new photos of this little guy...

Here is a profile of him:
And this one is of his face, you can see his little eyelid and nose :)

All About The Baby This Week

Pedicures and Elbows

I think I painted my toe nails for the last time the other night. I really can't bend over that way anymore without loosing my breathing capability. So that's a bummer... And this little one's movements are beginning to get a bit violent and painful. Yesterday it felt as if he was trying to dig his way out of my stomach with his elbow. And I know this is only the beginning, this kid is only half the size he'll be 3 months!


Stats
25 weeks days
Starting Weight: 132
Current Weight: 142
Waist @ Belly Button: 37 inches
Growth: 6.25 inches

I've also update the info on the Baby Shower note to the right, make sure to read up!

All About The Baby This Week

Busy Busy Busy

I had an appointment with my new Lancaster doctor today. He's the head of the department and likes to crack jokes, so I think we'll mesh well. He, like the last doctor I saw, told me that the cyst in this little one's brain is almost not even worth noting, but he said he'd make sure the specialist saw me anyway. Hopefully this one doesn't cancel on me...

We've been so busy moving this week that sometimes I almost forget that I'm pregnant (until I try to bend down and he gets in my way that is). It sucks to have so much to do with a new house that you can't really focus on getting ready for the new baby, but at the same time it's nice to be able to clean everything and do your nesting as you move in. I haven't been able to keep up on my exercise this week either, so my body is definitly a little more achy than usual. I just can't wait to be all unpacked and clean so I can get back into my routine and start planning the decorations for the baby's room.

All About The Baby This Week

Stressed and Cancelations

I must be really starting to feel the stress of this residential move now, because my body is aching all over. My lower back is causing me some serious pain, and not even the yoga or belly support belt have been able to give me any relief.I had a doctor's appointment this week, all went as expected. The doctor told me to listen to my aching back and give it a rest when it hurts like that, but that's a little easier said than done when you have to pack up an entire home and watch a 2 year old at the same time.

And I mentioned a few weeks ago that I finally received a call from the high risk doctor to schedule an appointment to do another ultrasound of Little Brother to take another look at the small cyst in his brain... well, he cancelled on me, 2 weeks in a row! And since we're moving next week I'll have to wait for the referral to be transferred to a doctor in Lancaster now. It's a damn good thing this isn't a serious issue I need to be seen for huh? The doctor I saw this week for my monthly appointment actually explained the whole cyst thing to me very well, and made me worry even less about it. He said it really is nothing to worry about at all, which I knew from reading all of my internet research, but no doctor had actually explained it to me before in person, so it was nice to hear.

All About The Baby This Week

Ugly Clothes and Discomfort

I can't do it! These Crocs shoes are just too damn ugly, and these maternity clothes are hideous! I put on a maternity outfit this morning, and although it wasn't too bad looking, it did make me feel like an elephant, and once I put on those Crocs I threw up in my mouth a little bit. I couldn't do it. I took them off and wore my trusty flip flops instead. I did however wear my belly support belt for the first time today as well. My lower back has been absolutely killing me, and it felt better as soon as I put it on.

I think this little guy has been doing some serious growing lately. The other night, all of sudden, my stomach just felt stretched to it's limit. I didn't have enough space around my lungs to breathe easily, and I was all around uncomfortable. I can't believe I'm only at the half way point and am already feeling such discomfort. I have a slide show on my computer desktop that just circles through all the pictures saved to my computer, and one popped up of me when I was pregnant with Kash, it was taken just a week before he was born. My stomach was so humongous, I sudden;y became seriously scared for my life. I did not remember getting that huge, and now I'm a little terrified of getting any bigger.

And my nausea's back!! I thought I was home free! I'm pretty sure that with Kash, once my 1st trimester morning sickness took a hike, that was the end of it. Well not this time. It seems like if I don't get enough sleep or water (which is usually the case), I get nauseous. Lame.

All About The Baby This Week

Bump In The Way

Well, this belly is really starting to get in my way. I can't really bend over anymore, at least not without a struggle. It's hell trying to tie Kash's shoes. We started moving in to our new house over the weekend, and I'm definitely having trouble carrying boxes, and painting the wall as it gets closer to the ground. And although I was on my feet all day Saturday cleaning up the house, my feet were absolutely killing me by the end of the day, so it looks like I might have to take out those ugly Crocs I bought to wear on my feet when I was pregnant with Kash.

Oh, and I was in a car accident this week. Some guy rear ended Kash and I on the freeway, it was a low impact crash and there was barely any damage done to my bumper. But I did go the hospital the next day to check out the baby and make sure everything was fine. It was, which I knew, but there's no harm in being on the safe side, especially when I can bill the other guy's insurance for my visit. They monitored the baby's heartbeat for about an hour and made sure I wasn't having any contractions. The doctor said his heart sounded great, and everything was normal.

And the high risk doctor finally gave me a call to schedule my appointment with him (or her), I go see him/her next week; they'll be doing a level 2 ultrasound, which just means they'll be looking specifically at the cyst in his brain. They said it should take about an hour. I'm hoping the thing has just disappeared already so I don't have to worry about it anymore...



Stats
21 weeks 4 days
Starting Weight: 132
Current Weight: 139
Waist @ Belly Button: 35.5 inches
Growth: 4.75 inches

All About The Baby This Week

Fruity Pebbles and Brussels Sprouts

Kash has been so cute this week, he pulled up my shirt the other day and patted my belly. He kept saying "baby, hold him" over and over. I tried explaining that the new baby wasn't ready to come out yet, but when he does come out in a few months he can certainly hold him. He loves babies so much, it's so cute. When he sees them in the store he's always very interested in looking at them, and he carries his little baby doll around the house so gently. He's such a sweet heart.

I haven't had too many cravings this week, other than for actual home cooked meals. I haven't been doing a lot of cooking lately, and I've noticed I really crave a 3 part meal often; you know, with a main dish and two sides. Mmmmm. Anyone wanna have me and Kash over for some dinner during the week? TJ works in San Diego Monday through Friday so we're usually free! ;) However, while we're on the subject of food, although it wasn't really a craving, I must point out that for dinner tonight I had a bowl of Fruity Pebbles and some Brussels sprouts, which is obviously a pregnancy meal. I've never even liked Brussels sprouts before, they actually used to make me gag when I was little. And here I was, chowing down on a big bowl of them... pregnancy will make you do some crazy things.

All About The Baby This Week

Owls and Bella Bands

I am completely obsessed about doing this baby's nursery in an owl theme. I found the most adorably expensive owl bedding that I've been trying to talk myself out of for weeks now (because I was determined to find something cheaper), but I just can't get it out of my head. I have to have it! So if you see any super cute owl accessories for the bedroom let me know (or buy them for the shower, hint hint). Here's a picture of the bedding:


Oh I love it!

I'm feeling pretty good this week, no painful issues or weird instances. I am having a crazy sweet tooth lately though, and I did have to finally start wearing my jeans unbuttoned. I can actually still physically button them, it's just not very comfortable, so I had to pull out my trusty ol' Bella Bands from the last pregnancy (they're a piece of stretchy fabric that you wear over the tops of your jeans to keep them from falling down when unbuttoned). I absolutely hate spending money on maternity clothes, especially since I plan on this being our last pregnancy, so hopefully I can wear my normal jeans for quite a while still. I also need to find the box I packed away with all my old maternity clothes... I guess it's a good thing we're moving soon, I'm sure I'll run into them then!

All About The Baby This Week

Is it a Boy or a Girl...

This ultrasound was a bit different from Kash's, they do things a little differently at Kaiser than they did at the doctor when I was pregnant with Kash. First of all, they made me drink 36 ounces of water an hour before the appointment so that I'd have a humongously full bladder during the ultrasound. I'm not sure why this is necessary. I had heard about doctor's requiring this during Kash's pregnancy, and even though for Kash's ultrasound I wasn't instructed to do that, I did it anyway to ensure some good pictures. But when I got called back to the exam room with Kash the first thing they asked me was if I needed to use the bathroom, what a waste! So anyway, I was wondering why, if I didn't need a full bladder then, do I need it now? I really had to pee by the time I got into the exam room, and all the poking and prodding with the ultrasound wand didn't help at all. Kaiser wouldn't let TJ into the ultrasound room until after they did the initial snapshots of all the baby's organs and such, and since this little guy kept facing the wrong direction, it was taking quite a while. I was starting to worry that TJ might begin to think that something was wrong, waiting out there for so long. but she finally let me go to the bathroom, and called TJ into the room for the "show and tell". She started at the top of the baby's head, and slowly moved down his body, pointing out all of his body parts along the way. When she got to his face, he opened and closed his mouth a few times like he was talking to us, and then he waved one little arm as if to say "hi". And when she finally got to his genitalia, he shoved his hands in the way! Then when he finally moved his hands, he closed his legs. I was actually starting to worry that we'd be going home without knowing the sex, he was not cooperating! But he finally stopped being a punk and let us see:



I was completely in shock, I really thought it was a girl. I had only been looking at girl bedding and thinking of girl names, I had basically just already planned on it being a girl. So I had to completely flip my thoughts and change my mindset for a boy, and it took a day or so to get used to it. It was almost like I just found out that I was pregnant. (And just so no one misunderstands me, I did not want it to be a girl, I actually didn't care either way, I just really thought it was a girl). So now that I've adjusted, and have started looking at boy stuff, I'm actually a bit relieved. I was having a hell of a time finding girl items that I liked (especially bedding), and I've already found everything I want for this new little boy. We already have boy clothes and boy toys from Kash, and I think Kash will really enjoy having a little brother to wrestle around with.

Now, even though we had finally found out the sex of the baby, the ultrasound still wasn't quite over yet. This little boy had been facing front the entire appointment so far, and the technician needed pictures of his spine. So she made me dance around to try to get him to flip. Otherwise I'd have to come back for another exam (and my co-pay wasn't cheap), so I was determined to move him around. After a few minutes of skipping, hip rolling, and hanging upside down, the tech came back into the room and had me lie down. And it worked! She was able to get all the pics she needed. So now we have to wait for the results from the doctor, to hear if all the organs look as they should. But everything looked good to me!

Here's a creepy shot of his face, he looks like a little alien, but you can also see his heart in this one:



And here's my favorite one (he wouldn't stop sucking on his fist):

The Hokey Pokey

Well I definitely feel more pregnant this week. My round belly is getting almost impossible to hide, and this little guy has been doing the hokey pokey in there all week. TJ was even able to feel him dancing around last weekend. So a big change from the way I've been feeling for the last few weeks.

I had my monthly doctor appointment this week. My OBGYN has decided to move to another office, so I have a new doctor now. She didn't seem very warm and caring, and that would bother me if I weren't moving in a month anyway. Who knows how many doctor's I'll have had assigned to me by the time this baby's born. It's a good thing I'm not one of those people who are finicky with their doctor's. Anyway, not much went on during this appointment. She asked me how I was feeling, and then we listened to the baby's heartbeat. She had a really difficult time finding it, it took her a good 2 minutes. All we kept hearing at first was swipes of his arms or legs. But she finally found it, and it sounded good. She told me that my ultrasound pictures had been reviewed, and that there were two issues. One was that my placenta is pretty low. She said it's not really a big deal, I might have some bleeding here and there because of it, but as I get further along in the pregnancy it should move up on it's own. The second issue was that they were waiting to see if they had taken enough pictures of the baby's brain, and that if they didn't I'd hear from them to come back in.

So the next day I get a call from the ultrasound office. This woman tells me more information about these two issues. She says that they want to schedule me for another ultrasound at 28 weeks to check the location of my placenta, to make sure that it has moved up. Apparently if it doesn't, I'll have to have a c-section because it's not safe to deliver vaginally with a low lying placenta. Fingers crossed I do not need a c-section, I do not want to deal with that! And as far as the pictures of this little guy's brain go, it looks like we're going to go through the same thing as we did with Kash. I guess they sent my pictures to a specialist, and there is a 4 millimeter sized cyst on the left side of his brain (which is super small, which is a good thing). They have referred me to a high risk doctor to be on the safe side and keep an eye on it. She said there is an incredibly small chance that this could be a marker for trisomy 18, and they're waiting for the results of my blood work to come in, to see how the numbers correspond with the chance of this baby having Down Syndrome. At first I got kind of upset about all of this information, but cysts in the brain of an 18 week old fetus is actually really common, and just like in Kash's case, they usually disappear in the weeks to follow. So I'm not really worried anymore, but I am anxious to hear from the high risk doctor and see what he has to say. The problem with all of the technological advances we have had over the years is that they can detect a lot more than they used to, so things that normally would have gone unnoticed are becoming things to fuss over, even when they're nothing to worry about at all.

And my craving list for this week consisted of:
~spaghetti sandwiches
~gooey chocolate chip cookies
~fruits and veggies
~my G-Ma's tacos


Stats
18 weeks 3 days
Starting Weight: 132
Current Weight: 133
Waist @ Belly Button: 35.25 inches
Growth: 4.5 inches

Some idiot at the UPS Store the other day asked me if I was due soon. Really? I said "No, I have 5 more months left." Jack Ass. I guess I better prepare myself for all those stupid pregnancy comments coming my way...

All About The Baby This Week

normalcy? and discipline

I don't really feel pregnant lately, which I guess is a good thing really, but it kind of worries me at the same time. Most of my horrible first trimester symptoms have gone away, which is what had been reminding me that I was pregnant up until now. And since my stomach isn't very big yet, I don't look pregnant; and I don't feel the baby move too often, so I don't have that reassurance that everything is alright in there. So sometimes I actually forget that I'm pregnant, which I think is pretty weird. I'm even still able to sleep on my stomach (which is my favorite way to sleep, so I'm extremely thankful for that), but I would think that by now luxuries like that would be gone. But on the upside, I have more energy to exercise and get things done now, and I can smell most things without gagging, which is always nice. I still just think it's weird that I don't feel pregnant though, I don't remember feeling this way with Kash...

And this week's list of cravings are:
~greek style vanilla yogurt
~cheese pizza
~sushi
~oreos

My hip flexors have been absolutely killing me. They're always a little tight, but lately I've had to stretch them out for a half hour straight before I get any relief. So that's a pain. And I've noticed that over the past few weeks it seems to really put a strain on my stomach to yell at Kash. He's constantly testing me to see what he can get away with, and he's even started to ignore me when I talk to him, so naturally there's been a lot of yelling. But when I yell at him I can feel the muscles around my belly get all tense, and it seems to actually take double the strength to yell than it did before. So I tried not yelling as loud when I discipline him, but then he doesn't know that I'm as mad as I am, and so he doesn't stop what he's doing. So either Kash is about to become the most horribly behaved 2 year old in the world, or this little baby might pop out sooner than expected....

Oh, and here's a status update I posted on facebook this week, it's pregnancy related so I thought it belonged here too: Danielle Glover wishes it was more obvious that I was pregnant. If anyone just watched me devour that slice of costco pizza like I did, I'd hate to know what they thought...

All About The Baby This Week

bedtimes and blankets

I remember when I was pregnant with Kash that I would go to bed at like 7:30 or 8 each night, I was just too exhausted to stay up any later. And so far during this pregnancy, although I'm tired most of the day, I could still stay up until midnight or so to get everything done around the house that I couldn't do while Kash was awake. Well, that's come to an end. The last few nights I've been in bed by 10, and that was really pushing it, so it looks like I'll be going to bed with Kash pretty soon, and the house is likely to begin to fall apart...

I've been craving all kinds of things lately, so I thought it might be fun to make a list each week of the foods I've craved. So here's this week's list:

~Fresh cooked veggies; mainly carrots, broccoli, and cabbage. Thia has led me to eat Flame Broiler for lunch twice this week (a teriyaki chicken rice bowl with topped with those veggies). So good.
~orange creamsicles, or push-up ice cream pops
~Barbeque chicken pizza with pineapple from Vince's in Lancaster, not from anywhere else, which makes this craving particular upsetting since I don't live there.
~frozen yogurt

And Kash said the cutest thing yesterday. After I had stepped out of the shower and was about to get dressed, he came into my room and put his hands on my belly. I said "Do you want to give the baby a kiss?" Kash said yes and kissed my belly. Then he said "and hugs", and gave me a big hug. I then pulled my shirt down over my belly and Kash said "baby, sleeping, blanket." He thought my shirt was the baby's blanket. So sweet.

http://www.gerber.com/pregnancy/growth_and_development/week_16_your_pregnancy.aspx

Just Stats

Not much happened this week, except for a huge acne breakout. So here's a belly pic and some stats:



Stats
15 weeks 6 days
Starting Weight: 132
Current Weight: 130
Waist @ Belly Button: 34.5 inches
Growth: almost 4 inches since week 4

All About The Baby This Week

Chow Down!

Even though I still have the occasional nausea and gagging episodes, it looks like I have finally hit the part of my pregnancy where I am HUNGRY! I've started to have some cravings for food, (instead of just being appalled by most of it), and if I get a hold of that food I'm craving, I can eat a lot of it! I love this part. Food is one of my favorite things in the world, and finally being able to enjoy it again is awesome. And the fact that I not only get to enjoy it, but I can eat more of it than usual, it's like my Christmas bonus. Too bad I'm often too tired to cook some of the meals I want... anyone wanna stop by and make us dinner??

I had a doctor's appointment this week. Not much happened, but Kash and I did get to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time on the doppler. The doctor commented that it was pretty fast, about 150 to 155 beats per minute, which is in the normal range. She said everything sounded really good. And the old wives tale says that a baby with a fast heartbeat is a girl, so looks like my prediction might be right. (I wonder what Kash's heart rate was though, I'll have to check his blog...)

All About The Baby This Week