Sharing with Others

Just had to make a quick note- tonight whole laying in bed getting ready to sleep, my darling husband got to feel the little one kick for the first time. It was a sweet moment he seemed to enjoy a lot.

I've been feeling lots of kicks for the past few weeks and its been fun having this experience all to myself, but now I get the joy of sharing it with others. Just hopefully not
too many others, I hate having my stomach randomly touched by strangers :)

Easy Going

I haven't had much to write (complain) about lately so I've been pretty quiet. As of today I am 22 weeks and 2 days pregnant, cruising right along and well past the halfway mark. I am estimating I have about 3.5 months left but we won't know for sure til I get a little further along and we are how my poor uterus is holding up.

About that, with my last pregnancy 7 years ago, during my c-section the doctor saw what he called a "uterine window". At the time he scared me badly and made me feel like this was a major life threatening emergency akin to a uterine rupture. He actually asked me while lying cut open on the table if I wanted him to tie my tubes right then and there. Of course, I said no way. I can't make such an important decision under duress. Good thing I said no, because my marriage crumbled shortly thereafter and who knew a few years later I would be married again to the love of my life and desperately wanting a child with him to join our blended family even further together.

So fast forward to the summer after I remarried. I requested all my old medical records and pored over them meticulously, then made an appt with a highly regarded doctor at the University for some preconception advice.

What she told me shocked me. A uterine window is not a rupture. It refers to a very thin spot in the uterus where sometimes they can see the baby through. This could potentially raise the risk of rupture but its not a given. It's also not an emergency at all and is seen in lots of women who have had multiple pregnancies, not just prior C-sections.

I do have some legitimate risk factors which we discussed in detail, but ultimately she gave me the green light to start trying to conceive right away and said she would be my OB and watch all of the things we discussed closely. A month later, we were pregnant. I don't think any of us expected it to happen so fast, but we are glad it did.

So now here I am, nearing 6 months pregnant with no major complications. I'm feeling the baby kick all the time now, but its mostly very low since he prefers to be in the breech position almost all the time. Good thing we're planning a c section anyway because he may just stay breech, who knows. This coming Thursday I have an ultrasound to check out the baby's heart. At my 18 week ultrasound he was still a little too underdeveloped to see some of the structures they like to so we are going back. No cause for concern though, it's just routine.

I'm getting anxious to meet baby boy!

Ahhh, Sweet Relief

I've been having the worst heartburn for a few weeks. It happens regardless of what I eat. I've even gotten heartburn after drinking water. Water!!!

Luckily, I brought it up to my doctor and after a little cajoling (Shes not a drug-happy doctor) she have me a prescription that has been a life saver for me. Now I'm free to eat all the delicious spicy things my heart desires once again.

20 Weeks!!!!!

Today I hit the official halfway mark of pregnancy. I feel like I'm finally feeling pregnant. It's unmistakable now with my belly starting to poke out more and more each day.

Heartburn has reared it's ugly head and I still can't brush my teeth without throwing up, but all in all I think i'm entering the blissful period of the second trimester. Finally!

Eating stuff that comes up well

Since I've been pregnant I notice I am only eating things that are "pleasant" coming back up. It only took one ramen noodle experience to make me never want to eat that vile stuff ever again, let me tell ya. After puking up pillowy-soft, half digested saltines many times, I can confidently recommend those and I see why they are a morning sickness staple.

I thought I was getting past the sickness, but turns out it was wishful thinking. This morning after dropping my youngest kid off at school I spent 10 minutes barfing in my driveway.

However, I learned a valuable lesson. Peaches and cream oatmeal comes up quite lovely and it's my new daily breakfast :)

Show me the money shot, baby

Today's my anatomy ultrasound so hopefully we will know which flavor of baby we're having in just a couple of hours! I haven't decided if/when we're telling anyone the results just yet. I have visions of a gender reveal party but its more likely I'll just text it to people since December is so busy as it is.

Here's hoping for a cooperative, not-shy baby!

Almost Halfway There

Because I've had 3 prior C-sections, this baby will most likely also be a C-section. I say most likely because I am still holding out hope for a possible vbac, even though the chances of that are very slim to nothing. Anyway, because they don't really want me to go into labor like last time (fun story, my water exploded everywhere), I will likely be having my kiddo a couple of weeks early. This means my halfway point is right about now...yikes!

I am ill-prepared. It's been 7 years since I had a little one in the house so all the equipment items and baby clothes are long gone. I honestly didn't think I would ever have more children due to past complications, but thanks to an amazing OB and an even more amazing hubby's support, here I am. But I really need stuff! So much has changed since my kids were little and I feel like a first time mom all over again.

I've decided to stop stressing and realize that as long as we have the bare minimum of diapers, boobs and a carseat, we're probably ok ;)

Catching My Breath

I have complete and total amnesia, apparently. I don't remember a single thing that's happening to me right now from my previous pregnancies. I suppose it is some biological memory loss or women would never have more than one child. I also think that because
I'm 30 now (so old), I'm less in shape than I was with the others and now I'm more complain-y and less tolerant of my aches and pains.

I am going to list all the things I've complained about these past 17 weeks:

Nausea
Vomiting
Feeling like all food is gross
Cramps
Constipation
Diarrhea
Painful gas
Sore hips
Sore back
Heartburn
Sharp pains in my side
Throbbing ovaries
Headaches
Neck aches
Bleeding gums
Feeling fat
Crying all the time
Sore boobs
Can't tolerate contact lenses
Extreme shortness of breath
Feeling like I hate everyone and everything

I feel guilty when I complain, but I can't help it. I live to complain and being pregnant has given me license to let loose on that front. Hubby has learned to tune me out for the most part which, of course, pisses me off and makes me accuse
him of not caring :)

I'm going to try and be more grateful from now on. I wanted this baby desperately and there are plenty of people out here who want a child and can't have one and would gladly trade me places.

17 weeks, whoo hoo!

I am 17 weeks pregnant today and pretty excited about approaching the halfway mark so rapidly. I still have no discernible "bump" but I'm sure it's coming. I felt some flutters last week and was getting worried because it's been a few days but earlier hubby poked and prodded by belly and I felt a few little thumpity-thumps. Yay!

Morning sickness seems to be tapering off. Yesterday I barfed a lot in the morning but it calmed down enough for me to enjoy a thanksgiving feast. Today, knock on wood, I didn't throw up at all.

In a little more than a week we will have our anatomy sonogram and with a little cooperation from baby bean, we will hopefully learn the gender. I'm anxious to start amassing baby stuff since its been over 7 years since a newborn was in my life and we have literally nothing. I really want to know so I can buy all the cutesy stuff if its a girl. If its a boy, hubby will be over the moon thrilled. I will definitely blog the results!

Fluffy Butts

When I told everyone I wanted to cloth diaper this kid, I got nothing but shocked looks, people telling me I'm crazy, or speechless gasps.

I put my heart and soul into researching how it all works and I feel confident it will be a good option for our family, but everyone doubts that I will stick with it! Now I'm determined to prove everyone wrong.

So, today I bought my first cloth diapers. A few weeks ago, I discovered this amazing world of co-ops where moms just like me help other moms save money by buying in huge bulk orders. This makes cloth diapering even more of a money saving experience. Aside from the environmental impact, we are expecting to save about $1000 in the baby's first year. Who wouldn't want that??

Because I haven't found out the gender of this little bean yet, I stuck with gender neutral prints. I am super anxious and excited to get my order in and officially start my "stash".

Preggers Again

I decided to start a pregnancy blog so I don't drive my friends and family crazy on Facebook with baby stuff.

So here is the story so far:

In June me and my husband decided we were ready for a baby, so I had my IUD removed. I started taking prenatals to build up my nutrient stores, and we planned to be pregnant within the next several months. A month later, we were expecting with a due date of May 3rd!

In the beginning, things were very rocky. I had some bleeding and at my first doctor's appointment we were told this wasn't a viable pregnancy. She had done a quick ultrasound and at 5 weeks 4 days, she saw an empty gestational sac. Because my hcg levels were so high, she said a heartbeat should have been visible or at least a fetal pole but there was nothing. She went over options for terminating the pregnancy, such as a D&C, taking a medication to begin the miscarriage, or just letting nature do it's thing. I opted for the latter.

Of course, I was devastated. It is never easy to hear those things, and with my recent 30th birthday I automatically started thinking horrible thing about being too old, ha. My husband took me out to dinner that night, just us two. It was nice to have a date night after such terrible news. As we eating, a weird phone number called me, and I ignored it. It was 9:30 pm, but I didn't feel like talking to anyone anyway. A long voicemail was left and I couldn't resist listening, even though I was cutting into hubby/wife time. It was my doctor.

I listened, stunned, as she explained she made a huge mistake. On my chart it said I was 9 weeks along and as she was reviewing her cases for the day she realized someone had calculated it wrong. She assured me at 5 weeks seeing an empty sac is totally normal, and that she wanted to see me for a repeat ultrasound in two weeks. She did mention that my hcg levels were abnormally high though, so it could still mean miscarriage.

I didn't let myself get excited. In fact, before the appointment I had more bleeding so I was counting this pregnancy out. I was pretty depressed, and I had just lost my job on top of everything. I had a little hope creep in my mind after reading many stories about misdiagnosed miscarriage. Those were the longest two weeks of my life.

At my nest appointment I was relieved and overjoyed to see not only a little bean-shaped baby, but a flickering heartbeat. Everything looked normal and I was sent through the normal tests and initial pregnancy intake stuff.

Since then, I had more episodes of unexplained bleeding, but my doctor, knowing what a nervous wreck I'd become, always got me in right away for emergency ultrasound and everything always looked fine. No explanation at all. It's been about a month since the last time, and I'm not really worried anymore.

I am getting started on this blogging project so late because I've been experiencing severe nausea and vomiting until this point. I was battling dehydration constantly, I lost 19 lbs, and felt like crap about 99% of the day. Now that I'm in the second trimester, things are looking up. My weight has stabilized and I only throw up once or twice a day instead of all day long. I am feeling downright cheerful about it. My doctor thinks it will only get better from here, and boy do I hope she's right.