First off, to anyone who actually looks for updates on here, sorry I took so long. I just haven’t felt like it lately. Not that anything is wrong; I just take forever to write these (over an hour per post at the least) and I didn’t feel like taking the time to do it. I also don’t love getting on the computer, because I have no self-control so when I do I spend hours doing pretty much nothing. Easier to just never turn it on. But still, I need to update, if only for my own sake, since I’ll want to have this to look back at. It’s the only record I’m keeping (I have a pretty pregnancy journal, but… yeah, haven’t even written in it, whoops). I’ll start with a general update (using the format one of the blogs I read uses, which I like), then go into all the stuff that’s been going on in the weeks since I last reported in.
How Far Along?: 22w3d
Total Weight Gain: Not sure. Around 15lb? I don’t know what I actually started at.
Sleep? ALL THE SLEEP! Still getting around 12 hours a night, and I could do more. We were on vacation the last few days, and I didn’t sleep as much because I didn’t want to “waste” our time together, and I was actually looking forward to coming home and being able to sleep longer again!
Best Moment This Week? All of the fun we had on our cruise? Related to the baby, the best thing was that since Christopher was with me all the time, he was able to feel her kicking a ton. It seems like her favorite times to kick are when he’s asleep or at work, but he got to feel her multiple times a day while we were together. Also, I definitely saw my belly move from a kick for the first time. I’ve thought I might have seen it out of the corner of my eye, but this time I was looking right at it.
Movement: All. The. Time. Seriously, does this kid sleep? I’m almost glad that I know for sure there’s only one in there. And I realize this somewhat contradicts what I said about Christopher not feeling her much, but first off, he really has been working a TON (90 hours some weeks), and a lot of times she’s kicking where it can’t be felt from the outside. Her favorite targets are my cervix and bladder, which is just super fun.
Food Cravings: Nothing too specific? Still enjoying more orange soda than I have at any other time in my life, and still loving coffee. But not too many of those “omg give it to me now” moments.
Anything making you queasy? Nope. Well, the really rocky day at sea I took a zofran just in case, but it hadn’t really gotten that bad.
Baby Bump: Very obvious. I had a ton of people commenting on/asking questions about me being pregnant when we were on the cruise. Definitely feel bigger this time than I did last time, but not crazy huge either. Just very clearly pregnant.
Gender: Still definitely a little girl! So happy. 🙂
Labor Signs: Ha ha, no, thankfully. Still having Braxton Hicks, but that’s not anything unusual. And I’m actually having fewer than last time, which is nice.
Belly Button In Or Out: In! And it needs to stay that way! Visibly starting to stretch though.
Wedding Rings on or off: On, but definitely having times when they’re tight. Usually when I first wake up, but when we were walking around in port and I got hot, they got super tight. So I’m expecting to need to stop wearing them pretty soon as it gets hotter.
Happy or Moody: Moody as crap. I’ve cried about the most random things. Like at dinner on the cruise one night, they started playing music for the waiters to dance (pretty standard on a cruise), and this old couple got up to dance and it made me cry. Christopher thought it was hilarious. But they were really sweet!
Looking forward to: Having my “baby celebration,” if I can ever buckle down and find a location and set a date! We’re not doing any showers, since we still have everything we need from last year, and none of it is even used, but I want to do something to celebrate this baby too. Since I LOVE party planning, I’m really happy to get to do it myself. As much as I appreciate having showers thrown for me, I hated that I couldn’t plan it myself. This one will be so fun! 🙂
Also, one other note, since we don’t like to share the name before the baby is here (what if she comes out and it doesn’t fit her at all, and we’ve been calling her something for months that we have to change?), we’re calling this baby Daisy. So that’s not her official, legal name, but it is what I’ll refer to her by, and will probably still call her some of the time once she’s here.
So that’s basically where things are on the general pregnancy front. Very much pregnant, not terribly uncomfortable, very wiggly baby girl. If you’re just looking to know that everything is cool, you may stop reading. You know how long-winded I can be. But now let us get into some specifics.
Probably the biggest thing to report (and again, I apologize for taking so darn long), is that we had the anatomy scan back at 18 weeks. Given that the anatomy scan is when they first found R’s issues last time, I was a huge bundle of freak out nerves. I’ve been on this big baking kick lately, so instead of sleeping the night before the ultrasound, I made a cake. (Okay, technically I baked it the day before, but I did all the decorating that night.) See below, because I’m rather proud of my first decorated layer cake, though my photography skills are sorely lacking. I wound up going to sleep after taking Christopher to work at 7am. But it turns out? Nothing to worry about! Little Daisy’s brain is 100% perfect! I really love all of our doctors/midwives at Vanderbilt too; they know our history and are SO conscientious about making sure to give us all the reassurance we need. We had the ultrasound with the Maternal-Fetal Medicine (high risk) office, since they have a better machine. First the ultrasound tech checked everything, and told us as she went that it looked good. She’s measuring perfectly on track. Then they brought in one of the actual MFM doctors, who specifically showed us each measurement in the brain, and that everything was good. Her ventricles measure right around 5mm, which is absolutely perfect. (R’s, you might recall, were already around 20mm at that point, which was bad.) She also pointed out that everything was shaped right, since things being a little off in shape can be a sign of a problem even if the measurements are good. All perfect. We then met with another MFM OB, and a midwife simultaneously, to go over it all again.
Unfortunately while baby is looking perfect, things aren’t quite 100%. I do have a very minor Subchorionic Hematoma. But it is absolutely not a huge deal, they aren’t worried, etc. It basically just means I’ll get extra monitoring, which I was going to ask for anyway. Going from 18 weeks to term without checking in on her was not an option for me. I’m still going to see the midwives (always a good sign, since they legally can’t handle high risk patients); I’ll just be getting ultrasounds at the MFM office every 4-6 weeks. Actually, I have one today. My doula (more on that in a bit) said basically the same thing. The fact that I’m still with the midwives is a very good sign, and she sees minor SCH’s all the time that are no big deal. Frequently they aren’t even caught until they see the placenta after birth. She’s a NICU nurse with Vanderbilt, in addition to being a doula, so I feel pretty good that she was reassuring about it. And seriously, the MFM’s have never tried to sugar coat things with us. If something is a big deal, they’ve said so. So while part of me is a teeny bit worried, because of course I am, overall I’m feeling very good that this will finally be our take home baby.
As I mentioned, we have a doula now. I’m SO freaking excited about her. For one thing, we never booked one last time. It wasn’t like I didn’t get far enough along that I could have, I just really had no faith that we would have any need. I had totally given up on a natural birth, and wasn’t hoping as much as I might that there would be any (live) birth at all. Getting to book one this time feels like a huge step. Plus, she’s really, really awesome. As I said, she’s a NICU nurse at our hospital, and that alone makes her great, because she can provide a lot more information/support if we wind up with a NICU stay for some reason. (No reason to think we will, but never hurts to be prepared.) She’s also the only certified Loss Doula in Middle Tennessee. So she attends stillbirths and other losses, and has very specific training in that (in addition to a late term loss of her own). That means she’s especially perfect for helping us, since the whole birth experience is just different when you’ve had a previous traumatic one. There are some other positives to her group, as opposed to most of the doulas in our area as well. And of course, I just really liked her when we met her. I’m really, really happy with her, and so very excited to be able to plan for a happy birth!
On a related note, we also start our Bradley birth classes tonight. Christopher is a little less than thrilled to be committing 12 weeks and a not-insignificant bit of money on them, but it was one of those things that he knew meant a LOT to me. Bradley classes are supposed to be very helpful with natural birth, especially in helping him know what to do to support me. I’m really nervous about my ability to get through it, but from everything I’ve read, the classes should really help my confidence. And, like the doula, it’s something we didn’t get to do last time, and doing them this time just makes it all seem more real and hopeful. Also, my doula said (after we’d already booked them, so no influence on our choice) that she took the same class with the same teacher and really recommended it. And worst case, surely it’ll be entertaining, right? 🙂
Side note- I know there are a lot of people who think I’m nuts for wanting to go med-free. I’ll try to remember to write a post about it at some point, but for now suffice it to say that I do have my reasons, a LOT of them, and several stem directly from my loss last year. So please don’t give me crap about something you really don’t understand. I’m not asking you to do it, or to even be a part of it, so it’s not your problem.
That’s basically all on the pregnancy front. As I mentioned, we did go on a cruise this past weekend, which was lovely. I’ve also been very into baking, and am doing my first cake for a baby shower this month, which I’m super excited about (they know I’m an amateur, don’t worry!). But nothing too exciting going on beyond that. Just enjoying what will (hopefully) be my last pregnancy, and getting ready for little Daisy to arrive! I’m over halfway there!
And here is my cake. 🙂
On the Road to Crunchy Mama 