Wednesday, July 24, 2013

20 Weeks & Ultrasound update

I'M HALFWAY DONE!!!!  I had to get that off my chest :).  I'm so excited.  To whoever has been pregnant before, I'm sure you know what I mean when I say that every new milestone reached is not only exciting but also a relief.  20 weeks is a big one... 24 weeks is next.  If the baby were to be born at 24 weeks, doctors would legally be required to try to keep her alive.  That one is kind-of happy and sad at the same time, but I won't go into that :). 

Lots of things have been going on this week.  I had my 20 week ultrasound today and it was great.  Jason went with me this time, which was nice.  They confirmed again that we're having a girl (yay!), so I celebrated afterward by buying her a sweater dress :).  It's my first baby purchase this time around and I'm afraid I'm going to go on a baby-clothes-shopping-spree soon.  Someone please stop me.  Anyway, back to the ultrasound... baby girl was moving around a lot so she made it difficult for the doctor to see her heart as well as he hoped, but everything looked good from what he could see.  She "appears" to have a perfect heart, no holes, no artery transposition, etc. which is what we've been praying for.  The doctor mentioned the amniocentesis again but I think the look on my face told him we were still declining because he didn't push it :). 

From the measurements they took, baby weighs approximately 14oz, which is perfect.  They said the baby is usually about a pound around 21 weeks.  I just hope she isn't trying to beat her dad in the birth weight category.  He was 10 lbs 12 oz!!!  Yikes.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I was feeling movement to the right of my belly button and I wasn't sure if it was baby or digestion (because of my hernia repair sensitivity) but I now know it is definitely the baby.  She is head-up near my right ribs and it feels like she's standing directly on my bladder.  I can't see any movements from outside my belly, but I'm sure that will happen soon.  She seems to be just as active as Logan was.

Other than her weight, she is supposed to be around 10 inches long from head to toe.  She's a growing girl! :)  Based on everything the doctor saw, he said I don't need to come back for another 8 weeks so that will be sometime in September.  Crazy how fast time is flying by :).

Now we just have to come up with a name... some of the ones we've been arguing about are Brinna, Elise, Annabelle, Annalie, Anna/Annie, Suzie, Kendall, Noelle (middle name), Joy, Emmy, etc....  God knows what her name is, so I guess I should just chill out and we will figure it out soon enough :).

Have a great week!  I'll be back next week with the 21 week update.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

19 Weeks

I'm back from Oregon and quickly remembering how much I hate Georgia's humidity.  My nose seems to be much more acclimated to it, though, compared to the dry (eastern) Oregon air.  I was fighting a bloody and congested nose the entire time I was visiting my family.  It has gotten much better since getting back, though.

Anyway, it has been a very tiring and busy week.  I got back from Oregon late Tuesday night and had to get up early for work the next day... after losing 3 hours from the time change.  I think I've done surprisingly well adjusting to the change.  I was able to fall asleep at a decent time last night and I woke up at 7:30 without an alarm set this morning.  I'm still tired, but I think my body is just trying to catch up.

Fatigue
That's one thing that has been hitting me hard lately... I feel very drained and fatigued, especially in the morning.  Some days when I walk into work, I feel like I need someone to walk behind me and push me along.

Nausea
I think the Georgia heat combined with the humidity has been making me feel nauseous in the mornings again.  I also have hot flashes with cold sweats in the morning before I leave the house, which makes the nausea even worse.  Bleh.  I'm looking forward to October... hopefully the temperature will cooperate.

Movement
Baby is movin'!  I had my last appointment on Thursday morning, which was great.  The doctor used a Doppler to listen to the baby's heart but couldn't get it right on top of her because she was moving constantly.  All I could do was laugh because it appears that we have another Logan in the works.  I've been feeling her movements a lot more lately and I love it :).  There's no better feeling when you're pregnant!

Weight Gain
1 lb!  I was really worried that I had gained 5 lbs or more over the past month, especially with the way I ate in Oregon, but I have only gained 1 lb in the last 4 weeks :).  I've been trying to eat sensibly... I eat a ton of fruit for my snacks, but every once in a while a girl just needs a burger.  I think it helps that my stomach has been regulating itself so once I'm full, I can't even force myself to eat more.  I just hope I can keep this up for the rest of the pregnancy.  It would be nice to only have 10 lbs or less to lose but I honestly don't see that happening ;).

Nursery
I've come up with the decor theme for the baby's room.  I think I'll have Jason paint the walls a really soft grey and I plan on decorating with pink, turquoise, and white accents... with some chevron prints and I've been looking at cute decals on etsy for the wall.  I'm thinking maybe a tree with some birds or something cute like this.  There are so many things to choose from on Etsy, so I'm hoping one of them will stand out as the winner soon :).  If you have any ideas, please let me know!

Size
Baby is about 6" from head to bottom (not including legs, I guess), which is about the size of a large heirloom tomato... plus legs :).  She should weigh about 8.5oz.  We have an ultrasound next Wednesday so it'll be interesting to see what her estimated weight is then.

Well it's time for bed so I can wake up for church on time tomorrow.  I'll post again after my ultrasound next week :).

Friday, July 12, 2013

17 & 18 Weeks

Greetings from Oregon!  Since I'm running behind on posting updates for the past 2 weeks (sorry!), I'm combining them into one post.  If you are my friend on Facebook, you probably already know that I have taken a last-minute trip to Oregon to visit my family so getting ready for this has taken up a lot of time.  On top of that, I finally finished my MBA class (yay!), so that took up quite a bit of time too.

Anyway, not much has happened the past two weeks as far as the pregnancy goes, which is nice.  I have started feeling more movement from baby girl - kind-of like she's rolling around.  I haven't felt kicks yet that I know of, but it's nice to feel her on a regular basis now :).  Here are my updates for the past two weeks:


Rib
When I was pregnant with Logan, he popped one of my ribs out of place.  It started feeling better when he was about a year old, but over the past couple months, it has been hurting really bad because everything is getting pushed up into my ribcage.  I talked to the doctor about it and he said there's nothing that I can really do for it except put heat on it (which is the last thing I want to do in the summer).

Sleep
Just in the past week, sleeping has gotten more uncomfortable.  I'm not sure exactly what's causing it because I'm not in much pain but I think it's a combination of my belly getting more uncomfortable and my mind not shutting down at night.  I keep waking up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep very well.  It doesn't help that I have to get up multiple times every night to go to the bathroom. 

Mental Fog
Work has gotten more challenging lately because I'm tired and also because I can't seem to think as clearly.  Hopefully it'll help now that my graduate class is over but I just can't seem to think straight.  Thankfully my boss has been very tolerant of my blank stares ;).

Baby
Little girl is now the size of a bell pepper and is about 5.5" long and weighs 7 ounces according to my BabyCenter app.  However, at my last ultrasound 2 weeks ago, baby's estimated weight was 6 ounces... I'm hoping she won't turn out being the same size as Jason when he was born (almost 11 pounds!  Pray for me, please ;)).

I have my next appointment next week and another ultrasound the week after that, so I will update after each appointment.  Have a good one!