While hanging out at home with Jeff and my parents on Saturday night (Saturday, October 24th), I’m pretty sure I felt our baby moving! I felt Mirabella at around 17 1/2 weeks, so at one day shy of 16 weeks this time, it seems feasible now that I can probably identify the feeling better. Tinges and tingles. Flutters and such. I thought I felt a little something the next day also, but nothing too prominent yesterday or today yet, that I’ve been aware of anyway. It’s early, so I’ve had to concentrate and be very in tune to the motion. Even so, I’m fairly sure the feelings have been our baby cakes on the move, twirling around in the limited space I’ve provided.
I’m so excited for the kicks and punches. Then to be able to feel it from the outside-and to see it from the outside-is the coolest sensation. I’m convinced Mirabella was trying to pound right through me at times, but I am sure longing for those feelings again. Let’s go, baby. It was you I felt, wasn’t it? Give your sister a run for her money. Beat me up, buttercup!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Doctor appointment
At 15 1/2 half weeks, I had a second appointment with my doctor yesterday (Wednesday, October 21st). Our baby’s heartbeat sounded strong and my sigh of relief was loud. Being stupid, I had fallen at work a few weeks back standing on a cart I shouldn’t have been standing on. It wasn’t serious enough for me to get checked out, but I fell backwards and it startled me. It hurt. It compounded my already present anxiety about how my baby is doing. Then the night before my appointment, I had the strangest sensation, a sharp pain in my stomach. A blow to my insides, even though I haven’t felt my baby move yet and even if I could, it couldn’t be this strong. It was enough to provoke an audible sound from me, but the pain only lasted seconds. I was sitting on our bed and had turned to reach for my nightstand and it was like something was tearing from inside of me while jabbing me, hard, at the same time. It was indescribable really, but it was painful and it was weird. So between the fall and that goofy thing, the second I heard that heartbeat pounding solidly I was ecstatic. My doctor checked me for a hernia, but didn’t end up thinking that was responsible for the previous night’s happening. He let us know all sounded good and that he had no reason to think otherwise, nor do I. For at least a few days or so anyway!
I’ve gained four pounds total, not enough to get any judgment from the gals doing my weigh-ins. Yet. I gained two pounds from my first appointment with the nurse practitioner to the next with my doctor, and then another two pounds from that appointment to this one. I feel perfectly justified having Mexican for both lunch and dinner yesterday. We opted out of doing any genetic testing, the Quad Screen, during this appointment, as we chose to do with my first pregnancy. My clinic didn’t have the H1N1 vaccination available, but my doctor did recommend I get it when they do. The thought of getting the shot leaves me with some uneasiness, but thinking about what could happen if I don’t leads me to believe I’ll get it willingly. My next appointment is a big one, the ultrasound on December 1st.
I’ve gained four pounds total, not enough to get any judgment from the gals doing my weigh-ins. Yet. I gained two pounds from my first appointment with the nurse practitioner to the next with my doctor, and then another two pounds from that appointment to this one. I feel perfectly justified having Mexican for both lunch and dinner yesterday. We opted out of doing any genetic testing, the Quad Screen, during this appointment, as we chose to do with my first pregnancy. My clinic didn’t have the H1N1 vaccination available, but my doctor did recommend I get it when they do. The thought of getting the shot leaves me with some uneasiness, but thinking about what could happen if I don’t leads me to believe I’ll get it willingly. My next appointment is a big one, the ultrasound on December 1st.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Patent pending
This is such an awkward stage, especially this go around when I'm showing sooner at this point than I had previously. Even though I can obviously tell I'm pregnant, and if I held my shirt tighter (like in my pregnancy photos) you all could too, but it's not so much that it would scream pregnancy to most people who don't know. Thus, my frumpy, chunky in the mid section look is less than cute right now. People will see me with a seven month old and naturally assume I just never got rid of the baby weight...it's not a good look! For the record, I did take off a decent amount of baby weight. Not all of it, but really, I was smaller at one point in these past seven months. I swear. Someone back me up. Anyone?
I'd like to invent something that expectant moms could wear to let people know they are pregnant when it's not obvious, or maybe even when it is. Something like those "Pregnant, Not Fat" shirts but slightly more discreet while getting the point across. Maybe a bracelet. A different color bracelet for each trimester and pretty soon, it would become standard that if you're wearing a yellow bracelet (not like the Lance Armstrong kind, different...and cuter), you're in your first trimester. In your second, your bracelet is orange, and third, red. This is a rough draft; I'd make the whole concept cooler, but wouldn't this make us all more comfortable?
I'd place ads in magazines from Sports Illustrated to Cosmo, in shows from CSI to Oprah to Sports Center, online and on the radio to promote awareness of their significance.
Nothing worse than asking someone who isn't pregnant when they are expecting. Actually, yes there is: being the person who was just asked. Sorry if this is a repeat, but this brings me back to a few days after I had Mirabella when the nice, seemingly new grandpa was admiring his just hatched grandson or granddaughter from the hallway looking into the baby nursery at the hospital. I was still struggling to walk after my c-section and was walking down the hall past him. He turned from the nursery glass to look at me and with a proud new grandpa grin on his face said, "Not much longer for you!" With a gleam in his eye, he was so happy and cheerful for me. All I could do was smile and say, "Yep!" After all, he was only trying to be sweet. I thought it was hilarious actually and couldn't wait to get back into my room to have a good laugh with Jeff, until I finally got there and started crying before I could get the words out to explain what had happened. By my own admission, I still looked fully pregnant then, but hearing I did from a total stranger, hit me. In the stomach.
In light of this memory, I think there would need to be a fourth bracelet. It could be a multicolored/confetti/polka dot/celebration looking one to let people know you have just brought life into this world and could use a break from people wondering if you're pregnant or not (or when you are going to start hitting the gym and laying off the cookies). Good for one year. Hmmm, this one might be my favorite!
I know I'd feel a whole lot better seeing that kid I knew from high school right now (the one I knew and who knew me but we didn't know each other well enough to seek each other out for a chat at the mall) if he knew why my belly was swollen and possibly a screaming orange second trimester bracelet would do the trick!
Heck, it could be an entire jewelry line. Maybe a collection of hats and gloves for the winter months. Um, maybe not. I can picture it, the poor guy pleading for forgiveness, "But ma'am, I'm sorry! I saw an ad in SI and I just thought..." Scratch that. That one might turn out to be disastrous.
Jewelry it is. Brilliant.
I'd like to invent something that expectant moms could wear to let people know they are pregnant when it's not obvious, or maybe even when it is. Something like those "Pregnant, Not Fat" shirts but slightly more discreet while getting the point across. Maybe a bracelet. A different color bracelet for each trimester and pretty soon, it would become standard that if you're wearing a yellow bracelet (not like the Lance Armstrong kind, different...and cuter), you're in your first trimester. In your second, your bracelet is orange, and third, red. This is a rough draft; I'd make the whole concept cooler, but wouldn't this make us all more comfortable?
I'd place ads in magazines from Sports Illustrated to Cosmo, in shows from CSI to Oprah to Sports Center, online and on the radio to promote awareness of their significance.
Nothing worse than asking someone who isn't pregnant when they are expecting. Actually, yes there is: being the person who was just asked. Sorry if this is a repeat, but this brings me back to a few days after I had Mirabella when the nice, seemingly new grandpa was admiring his just hatched grandson or granddaughter from the hallway looking into the baby nursery at the hospital. I was still struggling to walk after my c-section and was walking down the hall past him. He turned from the nursery glass to look at me and with a proud new grandpa grin on his face said, "Not much longer for you!" With a gleam in his eye, he was so happy and cheerful for me. All I could do was smile and say, "Yep!" After all, he was only trying to be sweet. I thought it was hilarious actually and couldn't wait to get back into my room to have a good laugh with Jeff, until I finally got there and started crying before I could get the words out to explain what had happened. By my own admission, I still looked fully pregnant then, but hearing I did from a total stranger, hit me. In the stomach.
In light of this memory, I think there would need to be a fourth bracelet. It could be a multicolored/confetti/polka dot/celebration looking one to let people know you have just brought life into this world and could use a break from people wondering if you're pregnant or not (or when you are going to start hitting the gym and laying off the cookies). Good for one year. Hmmm, this one might be my favorite!
I know I'd feel a whole lot better seeing that kid I knew from high school right now (the one I knew and who knew me but we didn't know each other well enough to seek each other out for a chat at the mall) if he knew why my belly was swollen and possibly a screaming orange second trimester bracelet would do the trick!
Heck, it could be an entire jewelry line. Maybe a collection of hats and gloves for the winter months. Um, maybe not. I can picture it, the poor guy pleading for forgiveness, "But ma'am, I'm sorry! I saw an ad in SI and I just thought..." Scratch that. That one might turn out to be disastrous.
Jewelry it is. Brilliant.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Our baby at 14 weeks
More produce references! I'll be posting these on a different schedule than last time so as not to repeat my fruits and veggies (until the end maybe where I posted these weekly).
At 14 weeks, the baby is about the size of a lemon.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
The second trimester has begun
Today means 14 weeks of pregnancy for me! Please, no gifts. Unless you insist. It has gone by much faster than last time thus far. Things have been going smoothly too, so I’m hoping for more of the same. My biggest pregnancy symptom right now is tiredness, but I may just have to get used to that being a fact of my life for a few years the way things are panning out! Still, it’s so much different than my first pregnancy where naps were much easier to come by. There were many days I’d come home from work and head straight to bed for an hour or two before Jeff would wake me up for dinner. Since I found I was pregnant this time, I can count my naps on one hand.
When I pick Mirabella up from Mary’s after work, all she wants to do is play (and she’s so sweet at that time that my falling asleep loses some of its appeal anyway...some of its appeal). On the days she does end up falling asleep between 4:30-5:30, it’s only a cat nap on her agenda so by the time I’d fall asleep, I’d be back up again. So I don’t try. I’m getting used to being sleepy pretty much around the clock as best as I can, and hopefully my constant yawning hasn’t upset anyone too badly.
(Did just seeing this photo make you yawn?)
No bloody noses for me yet, and at this stage the first time, I had already had a couple. I also had sore boobs then too, growing pains I guess, but what happened to those? No such pain this time, probably having to do with still nursing the first two months of my pregnancy. Now that the nursing tatas have mostly gone away, I’ve been eagerly awaiting my pregnancy ones. Let’s go! I sure liked those. Please come back...pretty please?
What has returned are the break outs on my face and I’m not happy about it. When am I going to get out of this ugly stage? Not soon enough by the looks of it.
Those of you that followed last time, I had gotten this strange pain in my rear (always on my right side). It’s back, and it started two days ago which is much earlier than when it started during my first pregnancy. I described it then as a nuisance, like an achy, sore or pulled muscle. Yep, that’s it again. It’s not so bad yet, but I know what’s to come and it’s not fun. Surely the back pain, and not the early on lower back pain, but the odd pain in the middle of my right side, is not far behind. Bring on the leg cramps too. Ugh. So minor in the scheme, in all seriousness.
I’m going...and going...and going to the bathroom a ton, numero uno (number one, gringos). During the day, during the night, it doesn’t really stop. And after some decaf, watch out. A couple glasses of just about anything, watch out. It’s much worse after that. At least now I’m prepared that this does start so early. From what I recall, it gets more manageable before it becomes out of control again at the end, so I’m looking forward to a little break.
Emotionally, I’m a little out of sorts. My fuse is short and many things make me cry, mostly touching things, or silly things. This hypersensitivity is something I had last time too, but I’m not sure if I wrote it down. There are many examples of my heightened emotional state. The crying ones are mostly small things, like driving to work and waving to the guy that holds up the slow sign on the side road that might be under construction. When he waves back, I get choked up by the nice exchange we had. Really, it’s the many things like that that do it to me.
The short fuse is pretty much just that. No great examples, just that I can frustrate easily and am short fused. Wait, I have an example. I was in the drive thru line at KFC which I never go to, but I had a craving over lunch for their mac and cheese. The guy in front of me was taking forever which was already annoying. At the window, he again was taking a long time exchanging many words with the KFC employee. A side note is that several times I saw him looking at me in his side mirror, something else that bugged me. When the employee gave him his receipt, the driver crumpled it up and with no shame, punkishly dropped it on the ground out of his window. This infuriated me! First off, littering is ridiculous as it is, but most people are embarrassed that they do it. Not this guy. This blatant littering angered me to no end, but there’s more...he looked at me in his mirror, saw me looking at him, and waved! I was ready to get out of my car! Naturally I put my hands up and started yelling at him to pick it up. He turned around out of his window and said, “What?” I repeated, “Pick it up!” and was ignored. My blood was boiling.
When I finally got my food, I pulled out and the guy was parked in a spot like he was waiting for me. When I approached, he turned around to look at me and I continued with some childish name calling and drove away. I was half tempted to get out of my car and punch the guy. I seriously was, had I not been pregnant not wanting to put my baby in harm’s way, I would have. I wanted to scream! I wanted to fight him! I could hardly control myself! This is a more serious example of my short fuse; thankfully I don’t think the other examples are quite as pronounced. I’m sure I’d still be annoyed in the same situation if my hormones weren’t out of whack, but I know it made things worse. Just thinking about it now gets me a little fired up again!
OK, deep breath and back to talking about other pregnancy symptoms, or lack thereof. No migraines since the three in a row I had early on. I’ve also been lucky that I’ve had no morning sickness again too. Whew!
Everything is moving along well and I’m really looking forward to my next appointment in a week and a half to take comfort in the beating heart again. These early appointments have too much spacing in between. What’s a girl to do in the meantime but worry that everything is going as planned? Actually, I have gotten better this time. I take comfort in knowing what a miracle we were provided in Mirabella, so that has helped to calm me some. Sure I’ll still wonder and my mind will race until my baby comes out healthy, but I know that wonderful things have happened for us before I am becoming better at expecting that again.
When I pick Mirabella up from Mary’s after work, all she wants to do is play (and she’s so sweet at that time that my falling asleep loses some of its appeal anyway...some of its appeal). On the days she does end up falling asleep between 4:30-5:30, it’s only a cat nap on her agenda so by the time I’d fall asleep, I’d be back up again. So I don’t try. I’m getting used to being sleepy pretty much around the clock as best as I can, and hopefully my constant yawning hasn’t upset anyone too badly.
(Did just seeing this photo make you yawn?)
No bloody noses for me yet, and at this stage the first time, I had already had a couple. I also had sore boobs then too, growing pains I guess, but what happened to those? No such pain this time, probably having to do with still nursing the first two months of my pregnancy. Now that the nursing tatas have mostly gone away, I’ve been eagerly awaiting my pregnancy ones. Let’s go! I sure liked those. Please come back...pretty please?
What has returned are the break outs on my face and I’m not happy about it. When am I going to get out of this ugly stage? Not soon enough by the looks of it.
Those of you that followed last time, I had gotten this strange pain in my rear (always on my right side). It’s back, and it started two days ago which is much earlier than when it started during my first pregnancy. I described it then as a nuisance, like an achy, sore or pulled muscle. Yep, that’s it again. It’s not so bad yet, but I know what’s to come and it’s not fun. Surely the back pain, and not the early on lower back pain, but the odd pain in the middle of my right side, is not far behind. Bring on the leg cramps too. Ugh. So minor in the scheme, in all seriousness.
I’m going...and going...and going to the bathroom a ton, numero uno (number one, gringos). During the day, during the night, it doesn’t really stop. And after some decaf, watch out. A couple glasses of just about anything, watch out. It’s much worse after that. At least now I’m prepared that this does start so early. From what I recall, it gets more manageable before it becomes out of control again at the end, so I’m looking forward to a little break.
Emotionally, I’m a little out of sorts. My fuse is short and many things make me cry, mostly touching things, or silly things. This hypersensitivity is something I had last time too, but I’m not sure if I wrote it down. There are many examples of my heightened emotional state. The crying ones are mostly small things, like driving to work and waving to the guy that holds up the slow sign on the side road that might be under construction. When he waves back, I get choked up by the nice exchange we had. Really, it’s the many things like that that do it to me.
The short fuse is pretty much just that. No great examples, just that I can frustrate easily and am short fused. Wait, I have an example. I was in the drive thru line at KFC which I never go to, but I had a craving over lunch for their mac and cheese. The guy in front of me was taking forever which was already annoying. At the window, he again was taking a long time exchanging many words with the KFC employee. A side note is that several times I saw him looking at me in his side mirror, something else that bugged me. When the employee gave him his receipt, the driver crumpled it up and with no shame, punkishly dropped it on the ground out of his window. This infuriated me! First off, littering is ridiculous as it is, but most people are embarrassed that they do it. Not this guy. This blatant littering angered me to no end, but there’s more...he looked at me in his mirror, saw me looking at him, and waved! I was ready to get out of my car! Naturally I put my hands up and started yelling at him to pick it up. He turned around out of his window and said, “What?” I repeated, “Pick it up!” and was ignored. My blood was boiling.
When I finally got my food, I pulled out and the guy was parked in a spot like he was waiting for me. When I approached, he turned around to look at me and I continued with some childish name calling and drove away. I was half tempted to get out of my car and punch the guy. I seriously was, had I not been pregnant not wanting to put my baby in harm’s way, I would have. I wanted to scream! I wanted to fight him! I could hardly control myself! This is a more serious example of my short fuse; thankfully I don’t think the other examples are quite as pronounced. I’m sure I’d still be annoyed in the same situation if my hormones weren’t out of whack, but I know it made things worse. Just thinking about it now gets me a little fired up again!
OK, deep breath and back to talking about other pregnancy symptoms, or lack thereof. No migraines since the three in a row I had early on. I’ve also been lucky that I’ve had no morning sickness again too. Whew!
Everything is moving along well and I’m really looking forward to my next appointment in a week and a half to take comfort in the beating heart again. These early appointments have too much spacing in between. What’s a girl to do in the meantime but worry that everything is going as planned? Actually, I have gotten better this time. I take comfort in knowing what a miracle we were provided in Mirabella, so that has helped to calm me some. Sure I’ll still wonder and my mind will race until my baby comes out healthy, but I know that wonderful things have happened for us before I am becoming better at expecting that again.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
12 weeks: Photos
A little late (since I'm now 13 weeks...14 on Sunday), but here they are. In looking back at the photos of when I was pregnant with Mirabella, my stomach wasn't this size until about 16-20 weeks!
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