25+ Week Update

Well, she is moving around a lot more than before...much more like how I remember Canon feeling.  I have gotten Canon to feel her move once or twice, but now every time I ask if he wants to feel the baby move he is not the least bit interested.  Why is it that fetuses always seem to want to have a dance party as you're laying down to go to sleep at night?  It's like they just woke up from a nap and are all ready to play when you can't seem to hold your eyes open another minute.  (Which, of course, makes it hard for you to fall asleep when you really want to sleep!)  I love feeling her move around, especially the feeling of her pushing against both sides at once.  The other thing is that I still feel like I've only gained about 10 lbs max so far.  If I gain 1lb/week from here on out, will still have gained about 10 lbs less than I did with Canon.  Crazy, huh?  That's fine by me...I seriously don't want a new record weight.

As for the health of the pregnancy, my last doctor's appointment went really well...except that waiting an entire hour after I drank the "orange drink" for my blood tests...that was difficult.  (I was already really hungry when I drank it, and I had to wait for an hour.  Canon was starting to get hungry by that time too, and I forgot to replenish the snacks in the diaper bag from the previous Sunday.  Grrr!  Thank goodness the medical center had a cafeteria!)  We heard a healthy heartbeat, and she seems to be just the right size.  They took my blood and said all the measurements seemed to be right on track, including testing the thyroid because I brought it up since my chiropractor suggested it might be causing some of my symptoms of fatigue.  However, they mentioned that my iron count was a little on the low side.  They didn't say it was dangerous or even worth being alarmed about, but they did recommend that I take an iron supplement in addition to my prenatal pill.  She said that was totally normal in this stage of pregnancy, and they wanted my to boost up my iron count in preparation for childbirth, since you often lose blood during delivery.  So, I now take 4 pills each day for my pregnancy: 1 iron supplement and 1 heartburn pill in the morning, and 1 heartburn pill and 1 prenatal pill at night.  Other than my lack of total agility and flexibility...and that pesky pain in my lower back that keeps coming back...I'd say that I feel really good with this pregnancy.  There are times when I just have aches and pains, but overall I'm still super excited to be pregnant...getting ready for our little girl.

My belly is still growing.  See!

week 25 this time

side view of week 25

good look at week 25

 Compare it to the last pregnancy:

week 25 with Canon

week 27 with Canon

20+ Week Pregnancy Update

I have been able to feel the kicks for a few weeks now, and every once in a while she'll give me a few good ones (I love those, by the way...she's not big enough for them to hurt yet).  On Saturday, the day I turned 21 weeks, Mark felt her kick.  I most often can feel her when I'm lying down, but usually it's in a place where I can't feel with my hands because she kicks really low.  I was so happy when I was able to get Mark to feel her kicks though.  I think of it as the next milestone for her in utero.

I don't know if it's just because it's still a bit early on, but I remember Canon being more active than this baby.    Maybe she's of a more mellow personality, or not as jumpy...the reason Canon was called Tigger 2 before he was born.  Maybe...she's just not big enough yet, and I'll start to feel her move a lot more as her due date comes closer.

As for the state of my pregnancy, I'm getting a pain in my lower back (just right of the spine along the pelvic bone) that I didn't experience with Canon.  Usually it's just a dull ache, and I've mentioned it to the chiropractor I work for.  He's adjusted me a few times trying to help it, but my doctor told me today that it's a very common symptom of pregnancy.   It's just the way the baby sits on my joints and nerves.  I get a sharp pain only when I move wrong, like if I'm on my back and try to lift my hips with my legs to move over.  Ouch!  I guess mobility is often one of the first things to go with pregnancy.  I was just thinking that it was going to take a bit longer before I am no longer agile.  Ha ha!

Also heartburn has been a little more prevalent than it was at the beginning.  Even though I'm taking my Zantac, I still experience heartburn throughout the day.  It's not necessarily worse, or really harsh heartburn, but it's quite often.  I need to stick with the Zantac and still pop a few chew-able antacids throughout each day.  My doctor said that I can choose to switch to a different medication if I want to, but I don't know if it's worth it.   There's no guarantee that a different one will work better, and the only way to know is to try it...with a new prescription and and everything, but I think I'll just not bother with it. Oh well...it's better than some symptoms that I never have to deal with for a pregnancy.

I guess one other thing to mention about this pregnancy is my weight-gain.  So far, I feel like I'm still about where I was when I started.  Technically, I guess I've gained about 5 lbs because the first time they weighed me, my weight was a few lbs lower than I expected to see on the scale.  I'm not dieting, or trying to not gain weight.  I just haven't really had a huge appetite like with Canon, and I've just eaten when I felt like it.  I try to not each junk, but sometimes I've just gotta have my chocolate.  Somehow I've not gained a whole lot, and I'm ok with that for now.  The baby is the right size, and I'm not going hungry, so everything seems to be going as it should.  Maybe I'll end up weighing less after this baby, unlike with Canon.  Who knows?  I still have 19 or so weeks to go, so I may end up gaining a whole lot in the end.  We'll just have to wait and see.

20 Week Belly Shots

I know I took pictures more often while pregnant with Canon, but it's harder for me to get good times for pictures this time around.  Either my hair or face look totally awful, or I'm wearing yucky clothes (or clothes that just don't show off the belly-bump very well), or I'm just too busy or tired to get around to it.  I intended to take a picture at 17 weeks...then I intended to take a picture at 18 weeks...again at 19 weeks.  By the time I hit 20 weeks, I knew I had to get a picture.  I intentionally put on this shirt and did my hair so that I was somewhat presentable.

front view in the mirror- 20 weeks

side view in the mirror- 20 weeks

full side view- 20 weeks

How do you think I compare to 20 weeks with Canon?

17 Weeks with Canon

19 weeks with Canon

20 weeks with Canon

It's a G-I-R-L ! ! !

So I guess my mother's intuition was accurate.  It turns out that we're having a little girl.  Mark actually did get to come with me, which was good...because he wasn't really feeling well, which wasn't so good.  He decided to sleep in a little and come with me to my ultrasound and then go into work late.  I was thrilled to have him with me to find out the gender of the baby and to watch the baby move.

Through this ultrasound I think she was trying to sleep.  She was cuddling her arm up under her head, like she was asleep, and she seemed to be extremely modest, crossing her ankles through most of it.  The sonographer had to try 3-4 times to see the gender.  Eventually we did get to see it, and we got 2 pictures to prove it.

I breathed a sigh of relief when she said it was a girl...not that I would've disliked having another boy.  I just couldn't picture this one being a boy.  I tried imagining the sonographer announcing that it was a boy, but that just felt wrong.  The only scenario that seemed to fit was this one being a girl.  Mark and I both felt that it was a girl, even though he had a dream the previous night that it was a boy, and I was just excited to find that my mother's intuition wasn't way off.

Interested in a few pictures?  Not very many of them are all that cute, but the little girl was just not cooperating.  She seemed to be more interested in sleep than posing for the camera.  She wasn't very active, unlike Canon who jumped and kicked non-stop through the ultrasound.  One similarity was that they both kept moving their arms so that a shadow was cast over the heart when the sonographer wanted to get a clear picture for the four chambers of the heart.

Front view of the face...before she has much chub to fill it out.  Isn't Skeletor cute?

Proof of girl #1.  See the 3 white lines, with the dark partitions...that's how they know it's a girl...
and not just missing the boy parts.

It's a GIRL #2.

fingers curled up under her face, she was lying on her arms

Her ear (at the right arrow) is scrunched up by her shoulder (at the left arrow).

woot woot...showing a little leg!!

Her ankles were crossed for so much that her legs were squished together.  Here you can see one knee over the other (at the right of the picture) and both shins.  Her feet are over the left of the picture, poking out toward us.  I think her legs were cramped between the placenta and uterus.

MY FAVORITE SHOT...her little feet 

This is only one foot, but not as good a shot as the previous one.

this is her arm curling up under her head (ok, so here it looks like it's over her head), but it's like she's trying to use it as a pillow to sleep on.

Her other arm was sticking out into the open, but it kinda looks like she's flexing her muscles.  :)

I'm looking forward to seeing what she'll look like for real once she's born.  But for now, I just need to prepare her older brother and our house to receive this little newcomer.  At least I still have time to enjoy her all to myself!  :)

There have been a couple times when I thought I could feel her kicks with my hand/arm.  However, she doesn't really move a whole lot yet, so it's hard to determine if it was my imagination or not.  I guess it will take another week or so to know for sure.

IT'S A GIRL!!  IT'S A GIRL!!  IT'S A GIRL!!  Did I mention that I'm excited that it's a girl?

General Gender Thoughts

I remember with Canon that I thought that it was a girl, but thinking of it as a boy wasn't too hard.  I always thought that a boy first would be good because I like the idea of having a bigger brother.  However, with this baby, I have a hard time thinking of it as a boy.  It just doesn't seem to fit.  In my mind this one is definitely a girl.

There are a few things that support this theory, but none of them can be considered substantial evidence:

1. An old wives' tale states that for the first time you hear the baby's heartbeat, if the heart rate is over 150 bpm, then it's a girl.  If it's under 150 bpm, then it's a boy.  Well, this one was a healthy 155 bpm. So, it's a girl, right?
2. So far with my baby bump, it pops out right under the ribs.  It's not just a low bump but it encompasses my whole belly.  Does that mean that it's a girl?
3. One superstition states that you're more hungry when you're pregnant with boys than you are with girls.  I've definitely been way less hungry than with Canon.  Does that mean that it's a girl?
4. Every time we ask Canon which gender he thinks the baby will be, he more often will say girl/sister than any other answer.  Sometimes he'll say both, but I don't remember if he's ever said boy/brother alone.
5. The Chinese Gender Prediction Chart states that it's a girl.  The method behind how it decides which gender at which points, I have no idea... but apparently it's about 93% accurate.  It goes off of the mother's age and the month she conceived.  Even if I was off by a few days and conceived in September instead of October, it still says the baby is a girl.  It's the Year of the Dragon according to the Chinese, which is very lucky!  Apparently most Chinese want to have a baby this year, so maybe this one will be a girl after all.

Now, it would be nice to have a little girl.  That way I'd have both genders.  I have a theory that if the next one is a girl, then maybe it will help Canon stay a calm and gentle little boy.  If it's a boy, they're probably more likely to rough-house...  Then again...a girl could like the rough-house just as much, so it's not a sure thing.  I look forward to making another quilt with the fabric I have left over from the last one I made, but that would definitely have to be a girl to use those colors.

Just because I have these feelings about having a girl doesn't mean that I won't have a boy, and BE HAPPY about it.  So far I feel like Canon has been such an easy baby, such a great kid to have as my child.  I kinda feel like I know what I'm doing with a boy.  Would I know how to do all these things with a girl too?  

I know that every pregnancy is different, even for the same mother, but both of my sisters said that their second pregnancy, which was a different gender than their first, was just horrible.  They felt so sick and really didn't like it.  I figured that if both of my sisters felt that way, maybe this pregnancy would be an awful one if it is a girl.  Yet, I've been feeling just fine, a bit tired, but really good overall.  So, does that mean that this one is another boy? Or am I just lucky enough to have really easy pregnancies?

Either way, I find out the gender TOMORROW!  My 20-week ultrasound will be tomorrow morning, and I'm really looking forward to finding out.  Mark won't be with me this time, and Canon is not allowed in the exam room.  This pregnancy feels like it's been going by so fast, so I need to remember to savor the small moments while I still can.  Hopefully I will have the time to make a fantastic post about how excited I am about the gender after I find out!  Until then...I'm keeping you all in suspense!  :)

Pregnancy Differences

Well, this pregnancy has been very different from when I was pregnant with Canon, but it's not really harder or anything.  This time I haven't had nearly as much morning sickness.  With Canon, I had pretty manageable nausea because all I had to do was nibble throughout the day.  This time the only times I remember being sick are when my heartburn was so bad it made me feel sick.  Well, since I was prescribed the Zantac, I've been really good.  In fact, as long as I remember to take it when I'm supposed to, I feel great.

I also noticed that I am not nearly as hungry as I was with Canon.  I was constantly feeling like I just couldn't get enough to eat, or if I was satisfied, then it didn't last very long before I wanted something else to eat.  This time I don't really eat much more than the normal 3 meals each day.  I probably average 1 1/2 snacks each day, but often those are at night before bed, especially if it's late.  Honestly, I wanted to gain fewer pounds this pregnancy, but I'm not really doing much about what I eat to do that.  I eat when I'm hungry, and I don't when  I'm not.  Although, I am making a better effort to workout than I did with Canon.  The first pregnancy I walked a lot because I worked full-time and took the T in Boston.  Then I'd walk during my lunch breaks.  Now, I don't have a lot of time to just get out, so Mark and I joined a gym and try to go whenever we can after Canon gets put down at night.  Living with Mark's parents has made this activity much more convenient than if we were on our own.

Other than the shape of my body this time around, I think the only other major difference is that I think I'm more tired with this baby.  Maybe it has to do with the fact that I have a 2-year-old who wears me out each day.  Maybe I really don't sleep as well as I did the first time, but I really don't remember if I had sleep problems with Canon.  I never really considered myself an excellent sleeper because I quite often wake throughout the night.  But with this pregnancy, I notice that I have more difficulty falling asleep, like I just can't get comfortable...and it has nothing to do with the size of my belly.  Then, I rarely have a night where I don't wake up for no apparent reason.

Something fun to mention is that I just started feeling the baby move.  It's not very often, but this past Saturday was the first time.  Starting at about 12 weeks I was anticipating that glorious feeling, becoming more aware of the different sensations in my abdomen.  However, most of the things I felt were just gas bubbles or strange muscle spasms.  A few times over the past few weeks I thought that maybe it was the baby, but it was only once, and most likely not even in a place where the baby can reach.  Then, the day I turned 17 weeks, I felt it...in the lower left side.  Was that a bubble again?  Oh, there it was again!  So I told my little belly, "Hey, do that again so that I know it's you!" and then I had another little bump, and another one.  Yep!  That's the baby!  YAY for baby kicks!! :)

Doctor Switch

My first doctor visit was with Dr. Alicia Jones on Nov. 15th.    I scheduled an appointment with her because she was the female doctor in the office where I got the proof of pregnancy.  I liked the staff and the office, but I was put-off by the doctor overall.   The appointment started off just fine.  She performed an ultrasound right there in the exam room.  Apparently the size of the baby was right on schedule, so that's good.  However, it just looked like a little blob.  Alex says it's looks like Hawaii, but I think it looks more like New Jersey.  What do you think?

When she asked me about how I've been feeling, I told her about all the heart-burn I've been having, and she prescribed Zantac for me.  (Oh my goodness!!!  That Rx has been the best thing EVER!!  As long as I remember to take the medicine, I feel totally fine!)  She also told me that I could take sleeping aids like Unisom to help me sleep through the night, but that hasn't been as helpful as the Zantac.  I found that the sleeping pills just made me really tired all day long.  I'd rather have energy during the day with less sleep than more deep sleep and no energy throughout the day.\


I also basically told Dr. Jones that I didn't want to have the same thing happen as I had with Canon's delivery.  I explained how long I was in labor, with not much progress, how I was then induced, later I received a C-Section, and the whole time my doctor never even knew I was having the baby.  I told her that I wanted to try for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean section) because I didn't want to plan on a c-section if I really didn't have to.  Much to my surprise, Dr. Jones told me that she doesn't do VBACs; she's not comfortable with them; she hasn't done very many of them; and she just doesn't feel they're worth the risk to her to perform them.

My thought was, "What! What OB doesn't perform VBACs?  I'm not comfortable seeing a doctor who isn't comfortable with doing what I want to do, especially since what I want to do is NOT completely unreasonable or out of the ordinary!  I'm not sure if this is a truly competent doctor if she's not comfortable with VBACs."

Dr. Jones recommended a partner of hers, Dr. Kathryn Walker, who does perform VBACs.  However, if I was interested in changing my mind and just planning a c-section, she would be happy to continue to treat me through my pregnancy.  I was grateful for her frankness and recommendations, but there was no way I would stay with Dr. Jones.

So I called Dr. Walker's office to talk about whether it was worth going to her or finding someplace else to go.  In talking with her nurse, Timmie, I realized that the hospital staff where I had Canon had several warning signs that I was going to need a C-section and she was not surprised that it turned out that way.  I felt really comfortable speaking with her, and hoped that Dr. Walker would be just as cool.  After speaking with the doctor, Timmie called me back and told me that Dr. Walker agreed that I was a perfect candidate for a VBAC, and she would be glad to treat me.  So I set up an appointment in December, and I am so happy for it.

Dr. Walker was so personable, she really seemed interested in what I had to say.  She knew that I spoke to Timmie in length but wanted to make sure that I understood all the risks involved with a VBAC.  She also mentioned several scenarios where I might end up having to have another C-section, but those were all unknown factors until the time of labor.  I felt at ease with Dr. Kathryn Walker mostly because when I told her about a certain concern that I had, she was taking notes of what I said and had a very good response.

She used the Doppler during this visit, and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat.  It was a healthy 155bpm, and I told her, "You know something...there's something about hearing the heartbeat that really makes it feel real.  The ultrasound looks like some sort of blob, but the heartbeat brings it into reality."  I am feeling much better seeing Dr. Walker.  A funny thing to note: it turns out Mark's cousin Julie goes to Dr. Walker and has for 11 years now.  Small world!  :)