Thursday, September 12, 2013

This Pregnancy

I've realized I haven't blogged much about this pregnancy, which is obviously a huge part of our lives right now!  The first many weeks (6-18 or so) were absolutely awful.  Worse than last time, for sure.  I think I sufficiently covered complaining about that dark time in a blog post a few months ago, so I'll move on.  Starting at about 20 weeks, I completely turned a corner!  I've felt great.  And I've appreciated every day that I've been able to eat normal food and drink water.  Strangely enough, there have been some food aversions that have stuck the entire pregnancy food: mexican food and meat in general have been a little tough for me. The latter part of the second trimester was heavenly and really couldn't have gone better.  One thing that's been especially wonderful this pregnancy is that I've had basically no indigestion or heartburn since 20 weeks; I struggled with that the whole pregnancy with Andy, so that's been wonderful!

I don't remember feeling very uncomfortable with Andy up until the last week or so; this pregnancy, I've been a lot more uncomfortable since I hit the third trimester.  Nothing horrible--just lots of pressure, lots of Braxton Hicks (some that hurt), bad quality of sleep, a lot more fatigue (probably due to chasing Andy around), ridiculous amounts of visits to the restroom (according to the ultrasound tech, this baby is sitting very low), etc.  Still, I'm doing great on the whole, enjoying my tri-weekly three mile exercise walks, though Cameron can attest my pace has gotten quite a bit slower. :)

As far as things at the doctor's office go, everything is looking great!  We had a little scare a few weeks ago, so we're feeling especially grateful for the good health of the little guy. Refresher: In my pregnancy with Andy, I started measuring 2 cm small about 30 weeks.  Ultrasounds revealed Andy was, in fact, pretty small.  The official term was "small for gestational age."  It meant we had lots of extra ultrasounds to measure his growth and had weekly non-stress tests.  Ultimately, he was induced at 39 weeks when it appeared that he'd stopped growing and it would be better for him to live outside of me.  The little guy weighed in at 6 lbs 3 oz.  The placenta turned out to be small, which was deemed the reason for his small weight.  The placenta was sent in for testing.  The results were inconclusive; the doctor said it was likely a fluke and wouldn't be an issue in future pregnancies.  Luckily, there weren't any major consequences for little Andy and he was perfectly healthy otherwise.  However, it did make breastfeeding and sleeping very difficult, as small babies tend to not do as well with either.

Fast forward to now.  The baby and I had both measured normal the whole pregnancy, and then I went to an appointment a few weeks ago about 28 weeks, when I started measuring 2 cm small again.  Eek! I was so disappointed.  It didn't necessarily mean the same thing was happening again, but I couldn't help but feel like it felt all too familiar.  I was sad to think I might have to be induced early again (I really want to go into labor naturally).  I was sad to think that this would probably be an issue for every pregnancy I have.  I was worried that nursing and the baby's sleeping would be so tough again.  Not to mention lots of extra testing.  Obviously there are much worse complications than a small baby, but I still wasn't excited about the same thing happening again.  My sweet mom organized a fast among family members, and thankfully we've now had two ultrasounds (at 28 weeks and 32 weeks) where the baby was measuring normally, above the 50% percentile!  (We also found out he has hair!  And a large head, just like Andy!) We're on track to have an 8 lb. baby.  We are so grateful that everything seems to be functioning as it should.  Third trimester ultrasounds aren't always accurate in determining weight, but we're really encouraged since we've had two of them showing him growing normally.  We are so grateful and happy!  Let's hope it continues!

Andy still has no idea what's going on.  When you ask him where Max is (yes, we're about 90% sure we'll name him Max), he points to my tummy.  But sometimes he points to his own tummy too.  He's in for the shock of his life when we have to divide our attention between two!  I'm sure the two boys will eventually be best buddies, and I'm so excited for that.  But I'm so nervous (and a bit sad) to think that my alone time with Andy is coming to a close.  Still, we are getting so excited for little Max to join us sometime around October 26!

Now for some pictures:
20 Weeks
30 Weeks
20 Week Ultrasound:



28 Weeks:
Sucking his cute thumb!
32 Weeks: (just last week!)

5 comments:

  1. You look amazing!! And tiny in a good way! I hope and pray you will have a big baby, but not too big! Can't wait to meet this little Max, which is such a great name!!

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  2. Those are really fun ultrasound pictures! I definitely see Andy's cheeks in the bottom one :) I can't wait to see if he is an Andy look-alike or if he'll have his own unique look.

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  3. You look fabulous! So glad things are looking up and Max is growing like he should. :)

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  4. Youre a babe, you look great! I still feel so bad you had such a rough rough 1st half of pregnancy. I hope these final weeks are smooth sailing! I here ya bout being uncomfortable early on. MY body is definitely feeling the baby 2nd time around.

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  5. I'm so glad that everything is okay. I can't wait to meet little Max!!! You look soo cute, I'm loving that striped dress!

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