29 Weeks Pregnant

 

Monday I had a check up for little baby Abigail. (Although we were attempting to keep her name a secret from everyone but family, it’s slowly getting revealed and will probably not be a secret much longer. After all, Leah knows it, and she has no concept of secret, although her daddy is the one that’s let it slipped!) The last ultrasound showed some issues with her kidneys, so they did another to see if anything had changed. And they were perfectly normal! I even passed my glucose test for gestational diabetes. The only issue with the baby was that she was stubborn and wouldn’t move her arms out from in front of her face. So dramatic!

This pregnancy seems to be flying by. It seems like a long time to say I have 2 1/2 months left, but when it boils down to it, that’s 12 weeks—less if she comes early like her brother & sister! I’m not stressing like I did with the others. She has a place to sleep, clothes to wear, milk to eat. She doesn’t have a room set up yet, but I’m not in a hurry to move her big brother and give him more freedom at night. We only lack a few baby necessities (and I’d really like to get Andrew out of diapers so we don’t have 2 sets again!) but I’m really not so worried about that. I’m ready for her to be here.

I have heard people say that the third-born child is usually laid back and just “fits right in.” Well, I don’t know about the laid back part, but if this little girl is at all as active on the outside as she has been in the womb, then she will definitely fit right in with her two busy, active siblings! She seems to be my most active baby yet, although it could be because I’ve been stretched around in there by 2 previous pregnancies and I’m just more aware of the movements. She is most active between 8-11pm, when I can usually see her moving around on the outside. Either she can’t get comfortable in there or she’s practicing to be an Olympic gymnast! I fear that my third-born will not be low-maintenance and will be a busy little bee!

Now to compare: on the left I was 27 weeks pregnant with Leah (June 2008). I had gained about 17 lbs. The one on the right is today, 29 weeks pregnant with Abigail. I have gained 22 lbs.

   

And on the left is 29 weeks with Leah and then on the right is today again. Hmmm, Leah looks like she’s a little lower in there?

   

Baby #3- Halfway There!

Our family is now living the American dream: 2.5 children... Well, okay, we don't have a dog or a white picket fence. Are those required? Anyway, I can hardly believe this pregnancy is halfway over (I am at 20.5 weeks.) And yet I know the longest part is yet to come. So far this time around has been just as easy as the others. I haven't had many symptoms at all. There was a little nausea the first few weeks, but only when I didn't eat regularly, and nothing serious. I'm more tired now, during the 2nd trimester, than I was the 1st trimester, which is unusual, but then, I do have 2 preschoolers! I really haven't even had many cravings.

I feel like I'm showing way more than I should be at this point, and have already gained 16 pounds (which is about what I had gained with Leah by this time), but I'm not worried. I'm just this week feeling the baby move more regularly. I have been feeling it only slightly right before bedtime for a couple weeks now, but there is definitely more activity now.

We really haven't done much at all to get ready for the baby, yet, with the exception of purchasing a bigger car and a car seat for Andrew. But really we have pretty much anything a baby would need to survive around here. We have had someone offer us a toddler bed, so Andrew has a few changes coming up in the near future.

And now, finally, we reached my favorite milestone: the revealing of the baby's gender. Nothing really seems official until I know this one big question. Though many people tried to persuade us not to find out this time, I do not like to be surprised in something that requires so much planning and preparation. So I needed to know. But Brett, however, wasn't so sure he wanted to know. He knew though that it would be a hard secret for me to keep, so here's what we did:

It's a gender reveal cake. Partially in celebration of Father's Day, and partially so that I got the privilege of telling him the gender rather than the ultrasound technician, he stepped out during that portion of the ultrasound, and all day I kept the secret. I made him a cake with pink icing in the center, carefully concealed by plain white icing. So when he made the first cut, he knew right away it was a girl!

My preference for a particular gender went back and forth. At first, I really wanted a boy (and, thus, convinced myself that my instincts were saying boy), because: a) a boy would be easiest, since the nursery is already decorated for a boy, b) it would be nice to have the 2 boys close in age, c) boys are much less drama and generally less high maintenance (although Andrew as a baby was not so much!). Then, about 4 or 5 weeks ago my instincts started leaning more towards maybe I'm having a girl. I haven't felt much movement, and the baby is sitting very low, both of which happened while I was pregnant with Leah. And I started convincing myself that having a little girl to dress up again would be fun. So I realized I would be content either way! Brett was excited, too, and said girl was also his instinct.

Somehow we were lucky enough to see the ultrasound in 3-D this time-- I've never had that before, but apparently that's standard at this doctor. It was so cool to see our baby in "real life." Although she was quite shy and kept putting her hands in front of her face.

"No pictures, please!"

Drama Queen:

"Okay, I'm tired now." We caught her yawning!

She does have some sort of issue with her kidneys, where they are not functioning properly, not draining like they should be. The doctor was not too concerned at this point, it may be that they just haven't finished developing. They will monitor me and do another ultrasound in a month. If there is still an issue at that point, I will be placed in a higher risk pregnancy. We are praying none of this is necessary and everything turns out okay with our little girl's kidneys.

Here we go again…

As of October 31st, our children will officially outnumber us.

We found out March 12th. It wasn’t really a surprise, as I had stopped taking birth control only a month or so prior. It actually took me quite awhile to get to the store to actually get a test, seeing as how we live in a small town and I didn’t want to be seen purchasing one in a local store, and I don’t believe in spending an outrageous $15 for one test. So when we finally got the chance to get to a Dollar Store, I really wasn’t surprised at the test’s results. I was already starting to feel some of the usual first-few weeks- symptoms. I had the usual all-day queasiness, although I wouldn’t really call it nausea, so much as just a loss of appetite.

My first doctor’s appointment was Monday, the 16th. I was a little farther along than I thought—I am 12 weeks today. I had originally thought I was only 9 weeks and I would be due sometime around Brett’s birthday, Nov. 9th, but the ultrasound put my due date closer to the end of October. We will see if I make it all the way! It’s a whole different experience this time, since I’ve had 2 summer babies and this will be a winter baby—I have tons and tons of baby clothes in storage and yet I’ll probably end up having to buy some for the appropriate season!

I also have a new doctor and will deliver at a new hospital this time. It’s a little sad, since I loved my old dr. so much, but I really do like this new one, and I think it will still be a great experience. I’m not as nervous this time about the labor and delivery, or even the newborn part, really. My fears are mainly financial at this point, and how in the world we’re going to fit 3 into my little car! God has always worked things out for us and I know He will continue to do so.

We announced the pregnancy at church Sunday after Andrew’s baby dedication and everyone seemed genuinely excited for us. I know this will be a spoiled little baby, and I’m excited to see him/ her raised in this church and this area. We waited until after Sunday to talk with Leah and Andrew about the baby. Of course, Andrew has no thoughts yet; however, Leah's reaction was priceless. When we asked if she wanted a baby brother or baby sister, her response was, "But we don't need another baby, we already have one..." After my appt. she asked if she could see the baby. So I'm hoping as time passes she will start to understand a little better.

17 Months Old/ 3 Months Pregnant

At 17 months, Leah:

- Is sleeping from about 7:30-8pm until about 6-6:30am. When she wakes up, she is AWAKE, and ready to goooooo, but she has trouble making it until 2:00, after school when she can take her nap. She is grumpy for her teachers most of the day. I would love for her to sleep in a little longer.


- Still has the morning "ba-ba"-- and can now say the name of the bottle, so I'm guessing I've just made it harder on myself waiting this long. Typically this is the most milk she gets in her all day, so that is why I still let her have it. She will drink milk from a cup, but prefers "juice." She has about 3 cups of watered-down juice a day, usually sitting down & drinking the whole cup at one time, and then asking for more! She doesn't usually drink much with her meals, though.

- Favorite foods include: bananas, graham crackers, yogurt, chicken nuggets, cheese, and anything mommy or daddy have. She is able to eat applesauce & other "messier" things with a spoon on her own now, and actually won't even let us feed her with a spoon anymore if she's in her high chair. She has also reached the toddler stage where, one day she loves a food, and the next day she won't touch it!


- Is saying even more words. Sometimes she'll carry on entire conversations (that no one understands), complete with facial expressions & gestures. Most of the time she is able to communicate to me what she wants (and if she doesn't get that, everyone better watch out!) somehow or another.


- Figured out how to climb stairs. But she has to have something at the top worth crawling towards. And she gets too scared to come back down. So I'm not too worried about her coming downstairs from her bedroom. But we're putting the gate up just in case!

- Likes to take her shirt off. And doesn't mind walking around without one.

I have already reached the 2nd trimester in my pregnancy-- it seems to be going by so fast! I don't really have anymore sickness, and I'm really not even craving anything. I just like to eat A LOT! I can't believe I've already got a little belly, and people are starting to notice!

As a perk of volunteering at the Crisis Pregnancy Center, I got a free bonus ultrasound the other night-- the sonographer didn't have any clients so she offered to just take a look! And we got some great pictures. The baby was so active. He (I will refer to him as "he" just because it is easier) was sucking his thumb, kicking his legs, waving, and flipping back & forth. He looked straight at us one or two times. She did try to see the gender, but he wasn't that cooperative. We have an appt. at the doctor for the "big" gender-revealing ultrasound on February 16th.

It's a...

We had our big 17 week ultrasound yesterday. As I mentioned before, I was more excited about finding out the baby's sex than I was about finding out the health & well-being. Turns out, she is healthy and developing as normally as a baby should! The tech took about 20 minutes measuring all the body parts, looking at the top of her head, her spine, her ribs. He didn't talk a lot while he was doing this, but did point out what we were looking at every once in awhile.

Finally he decided to try and show us her sex. She wouldn't cooperate at first. She was sitting on her bottom, at the bottom of the screen. So he pushed down on my stomach & shook her around, then had me move my hips all around so she would move. She finally moved just long enough for him to get a picture, looking between her legs from the bottom up. In case you hadn't figured it out yet-- it's a girl.

I had to take his word for it, though, because I had no idea what I was looking at. Once he explained it, I could see what he was talking about, and there was a good deal of certainty behind his explanation.We also heard her heartbeat, and did all the other typical stuff we do at dr.'s visits. Everything is developing great.

I think Brett is going to take a while to warm up to the idea of having girl, since he did want to have a boy. We are comforted by the fact that this won't be the only chance we have! I know he's still excited, especially since she is going to be healthy, but really-- what guy can claim pink as a favorite color?

So now it's time to begin the shopping! I already began our registry at both Baby's 'R Us and Walmart. I will have to go back later to add more things with Brett, but I had a blast looking at pink clothes! Of course, we will have to restrain ourselves, because there are way too many cute things for little girls!

2nd official doctor's appointment

Today was actually more like the 4th appointment but one was just the ultrasound to confirm the due date and last week was just a financial visit/ paperwork. (They asked like a million questions about mine & Brett's health history and our families'. And gave us an estimate of the costs of the birth, which was totally not as much as we'd expected, but does have to be paid by week 24.) I did have blood work done last week as well, and found out today everything looked fine (not sure which tests they really did but found out blood type, etc.).

After a quick physical & internal exam, we got to have another ultrasound today, which I totally wasn't expecting. The baby was a whole lot bigger and more "real" looking than last time. We saw some definitive features and once he/she even looked at the camera! In another shot, he/she was holding his hands together as if he was praying. We also got to hear the heartbeat, which was just the right speed. What amazing technology and what an incredible sound! At this stage of pregnancy, when I'm still not REALLY showing and I can't feel any movement, that sound and those photos are very reassuring. I feel confident that our little one is going to turn out 100% perfect!







He/she is praying in this one!

Here he/she is looking directly
at the camera. See, the eyes
are at the top, kinda sunken in.

My belly @ 3 months.

Week 9

We had our 2nd dr. appointment on the 31st and the baby (finally resembling something a little more human-like, as opposed to just a dot), and the baby measured at about 8 weeks along. This puts my due date around 9/10/08. We're hoping its before Sept. 11th!

This week it seems the morning sickness is starting to subside slightly. I still feel sick sometimes after I eat, but when I wake up I usually feel pretty decent. No foods really sound good at all, and yet every 2 hrs. I feel so hungry! I have experienced some other symptoms, like heartburn, and weird tastes in my mouth. I did make Brett go & get me some cookies & cream ice cream last night-- he seemed to enjoy being my knight. I am now at the stage where I can't quite bring myself to go buy maternity clothes, but I'm definately feeling the stretch in my pants.

Our next appt. will be with an OB nurse on Feb. 27th. I am anxious to hear the baby's heartbeat, but I'm not sure if we will get to.






My growing belly @ 2 months





8 week ultrasound-- much more baby-like!

First Doctor Visit

Finally the day of the long-awaited first doctor visit is here. I have been really anxious-- to see the heartbeat, to know my baby is actually there, living inside me. I was nervous about all they were going to do, but turns out they really didn't do much of anything. I went in at 8am, they did a urine sample (the pregnancy test had a really dark line this time, by the way), took my weight (134) and blood pressure, and then Brett & I got to go back for the ultrasound. The u/s was really quick & painless. Turns out, though, I'm not as far along as I thought. The baby was soo small-- too small to find out its length to determine an actual due date. She figures I'm probably about 5 weeks, but I go back again in 2 weeks. Another 2 weeks of waiting! But we saw the heartbeat. A little tiny blinking dot. Life. I thought I would be more emotional but I still feel sort of detached. I definately feel more certain now; there's no doubt I'm pregnant (especially since morning sickness is finally kicking in), but still so far removed from the future and the thought of actually holding a living human being that was formed inside of me! I decided to tell everyone at work today & we'll probably start telling more people since the doctor said the chance of a miscarriage after seeing a heartbeat greatly decreases.





I shall call this one "blinky."