32 Weeks

Life just gets busier and busier...

Baby has continued to measure exactly where they should at each of my last two appointments at 24 and 28 weeks. I failed my one hour glucose test. After how awful the three hour test went with my daughter I asked if there was an alternate option. Thankfully, there was!! I instead had to check my blood sugars four times a day for two weeks. All my sugar levels were good. I was so thankful for that option. It was so easy compared to doing the three hour test. I would even choose that over the one hour test!! The finger pokes were nothing. The only annoying part was waiting to eat again two hours after meals to check my blood sugar - sometimes I was hungry again before the time was up! But even when I checked it a little early so I could eat again, the levels were fine. 

I'm carrying this baby the same as I did with my daughter and the heart rate has been the same for this baby as well. Weight wise I'm actually two pounds less than I was with my daughter at the same point in my pregnancy, so that's awesome! The only noticeable difference is this baby is more active than my daughter was. More kicks, and stronger kicks! My daughter loves the baby in mommy's tummy and gives baby so many kisses! She also likes to set her toys on my tummy and watch baby kick them! Should be interesting to see what she thinks once baby comes out!

My daughter has pretty much stopped nursing. It's been a little over a week since she last even tried. She still points to my boobs and says milk from time to time, but hasn't attempted nursing again. We'll have to see how she reacts when she sees baby nursing!

I have another OB appointment this week and then I'm supposed to go every two weeks until 36, then weekly with ultrasounds starting at 37 weeks. I've been trying to find information about the ultrasounds and so far it seems like in my case it's just unnecessary testing. I haven't yet found any studies showing there is a significant benefit to them. Even the mayo clinic website makes it seem like the ultrasounds are limited in how helpful they are. Since the only risk factor I'm even facing right now is being "old" I just don't see how it's going to benefit me. I don't have GD, my blood pressure is great - and something I even monitor at home from time to time. So who knows. I am looking at reducing some of the appointments I have scheduled and strongly considering skipping the ultrasounds altogether. 

Otherwise all is well. I'm in nesting mode. I've got a good stock of freezer meals done already and would like to make another 10-15 before baby arrives. Getting excited to meet this little one!

16 Weeks

We received the results of the genetic blood test and we're having another healthy baby! My husband was a little disappointed they didn't accidentally include the gender - but I'm more excited than ever to wait now! I finally got over that miserable cold after 7 long weeks. I'm feeling really good with this pregnancy. Still the occasionally icky feeling in the morning for an hour or so, but it's completely tolerable.

My last my OB appointment I found out a few more things about what having a geriatric pregnancy means for me. Apparently my doctor will not let me go past 40 weeks since there's a small increased risk of stillbirth past that time. Which my husband was excited to hear as he's not wanting to share his birthday with baby and now with the 40 week deadline set, that isn't going to happen...unless...I get induced and it takes a few days...which after 42 hours of labor with my daughter...it could potentially happen... I will also start getting weekly ultrasounds at 36 weeks. My doctor did say I'm just on the early side of being geriatric so she's really not too concerned with me.

This baby is a mover! I have been feeling this one so much more than I did with my daughter at this point and some of the kicks are pretty strong already. Last night my husband was laying in bed with his arm on top of the covers and stretched across my belly and he was actually able to feel the baby kick through the down comforter! Hopefully it won't be too much longer before the kicks are obvious enough for our daughter to understand what they are.

Night weaning has finally taken hold. Nursing the rest of the time has significantly dropped off as well. Now it just seems she wants to "nurse" and by "nurse" I mean squish her face into my boob. She mostly does this at nap and night time. She still will occasionally nurse some, but it's like my boobs are her security blanket. I've ordered a couple different styles of blankies to see if she will take to one of those now that she's almost done nursing.

The biggest news in the last week, my daughter finally slept through the night!! It only took 16 months! She slept a nine hour stretch, followed by two rough nights that I think were teething related, and last night was a seven hour stretch. Progress is finally being made!

Next up is the anatomy ultrasound in four weeks!

Baby Kicks and a Cold

I was 11 weeks on Thursday. I still can't believe I'm on this journey! My belly has popped already. A few days ago I dug out my maternity clothes and helloooo stretchy panel pants! Forgot how comfy those are! About four days ago I felt movement for the first time. I was laying in bed and had rolled over to snuggle up to my husband when I felt baby flipping around in there. It was a very soft fluid movement - kind of makes me think of a goldfish swimming in there and bumping against the sides. I've had a few more pronounced movements since then. Yesterday early morning my daughter was sleeping in bed with me and her leg was laying across my lower belly. I felt baby kick her twice! That will be fun when I'm further along and she can really feel baby move in there!

I did the early prenatal blood test. I'm considered a high risk pregnancy again and I'm also now considered a geriatric pregnancy at the ripe old age of 35. So I guess that also automatically covers the genetic screening. I came so close to checking the gender box, but then decided to keep with my original plan of not finding out with this baby. Only 29 more weeks until we know!

I've also been battling a bad cold/bronchitis for a full month now. It's similar to when I was sick during my pregnancy with my daughter. Only that time landed me in the ER with a 102+ fever. I finally started antibiotics two days ago and so far no noticeable change. I really hope it gets better soon because I'm at my breaking point. Pregnancy + nursing + being sick = one really miserable mommy.

We've been trying to night wean our daughter. Three weeks in and it's not going well. I'm getting so frustrated. The first night she was up every hour. The next few nights she was sleeping 4-5 hour stretches. After a little over a week she went back to waking up every 1 1/2-2 hours and it progressed to her becoming very angry in the middle of the night. So the past couple of nights I've been letting her nurse at 2am. It seems to be helping somewhat. Maybe she's just not ready to be completely night weaned yet. We have less than 7 months to get this figured out before baby comes.

9weeks

We had another ultrasound this week and my first "official" OB visit.

Baby was a little rockstar! Measured one day ahead with a heart rate of 178! Lots of wiggling around in there and waving their little legs!

We have decided we are not going to find out with this one. Speaking with friends who have not found out they all said just how awesome it was to find out the moment baby was born, so we're going to go with that this time! I'm thinking boy because I've had one dream already it was a boy and this pregnancy feels so completely different from my daughter. But who knows, we'll just have to wait and see!

I'm thinking baby will share a room with big sister. Baby will spend most of the first year in with us and we plan on moving before our daughter starts kindergarten so they wouldn't actually spend too much time sharing. My daughter's room is huge so it should be very easy to fit two kids in there. We have another room on the main floor we could use for baby, but it's our home office right now and with as much as we use our home office I really don't want to move it downstairs. Especially with my husband having to do a lot of work from home on the computer - it's so much more convenient to have him on the main floor where we spend most of our day. We need to finish two bedrooms in the basement and once that's done we are setting up a playroom downstairs so maybe we will eventually move the office down there. I'm not going to stress about it right now. It is kinda funny how much I wanted everything in order for my daughter and this baby, I'm just like, meh - it can wait - all we really need is the bassinet set up and some diapers - amazing how quickly your attitude changes from one to two!

I've now graduated to a more typical pregnancy monitoring schedule. We will do the early prenatal blood test again with this baby - only without knowing the gender!

Still in complete shock we're even on this journey right now - but so incredibly blessed!

6weeks6days

One strong little baby still growing away in there! Heart rate was 127! Measured 6weeks3days. I could have ovulated a day late and it was another abdominal ultrasound on a crappy machine so I'm not really concerned about it measuring a little behind.

Next visit is in two weeks for my first "official" OB visit and another ultrasound. I also asked for a referral to a dietician. With my massive blood loss a few months ago and now still breastfeeding while pregnant I really want to make sure I'm meeting my nutritional needs.

Morning sickness has only been a few fleeting moments. I was puking by this point with my daughter. I've felt more sick this afternoon but wonder how much of it is related to my daughter having a bad cold and going on three nights in a row of very little sleep. I've had way more fatigue with this pregnancy - all I think about all day is how much I wish I was sleeping....

So very grateful to be where I'm at right now.

I still feel like I'm living in a dream...

5weeks5days

We had another ultrasound today. We have one strong little baby in there! Gestational sac measured 5w4d and the yolk sac was visible. Only ONE baby in there. The other spots we saw last week did not appear to be there anymore. Although today they just did an abdominal ultrasound instead of a vaginal ultrasound so the picture wasn't as clear. Still no sign of an ectopic pregnancy. They will continue to monitor this pregnancy very closely. I have another ultrasound scheduled for next week. Should have a nice strong heartbeat by then! I'm still feeling really good. Morning sickness has not hit yet so still consuming all the healthy food I can. I could not stomach any raw vegetables my first trimester last time and only limited cooked veggies. I really need to push good nutrition this time as my daughter is still nursing. Speaking of nursing...sensitive pregnancy nipples make for an almost painful nursing experience. I'm also starting to really feel letdown again. My daughter shows no sign of wanting to end her nursing and she's cutting a bunch of new teeth right now so I'm going to hang in there as long as I can. I know how nutritious breast milk still is for her - especially as she gets more into this picky toddler stage. We'll get it figured out. I also contacted my doula today and she's available and happy to help me again! Just under 8 months to go!

5 Weeks 0 Days Beta & Ultrasound

My beta this morning at 21 dpo was 3151!!

My doctor wasn't in today and the nurse I spoke with after getting my blood result tried to get me to wait until tomorrow for an ultrasound but I absolutely insisted on coming in today. So they set me up with an NP instead and yet, my doctor ended up being in the clinic this afternoon and reviewed my chart anyways.

Ultrasound was interesting. There is a tiny little cyst on my left ovary they plan on keeping a close eye on. In my uterus....well...I've had so many ultrasounds over the years so I'm fairly familiar with what I see on the screen. My husband was with today as well. We both saw the tech measure three different little sacs in my uterus. Only at the end of the ultrasound did she point at the biggest of the three and called it a gestational sac. So....what were the other two spots??? (I knew better than to ask this particular tech - she gets very defensive very easily.) She measured all three of them and typed in gest. sac on the screen with the measurements each time. Unless it's so early and those other two were a little smaller that they just don't mention them?? I asked the NP when we saw her afterwards and the tech didn't make any notes about the other two spots. But with my beta being so high and the sac(s) being so small yet I can't help but think maybe we're looking at multiples?? How absurd would that be!

Next ultrasound is scheduled for Tuesday. They wanted me to go a week, but with my history I refused and insisted on an earlier appt. Another 5 day wait it is...