It's my due date!

So, today's the day. Supposedly. So far, there's no definitive signs of the baby coming. I had my 40 week checkup on Monday, and at that point I was 3cm dilated. Also, starting over the weekend I've started having stronger contractions (that actually hurt), but only 1-2 per day. Definitely not labor, but positive signs, and much more than ever happened before I was induced with Natalie.

I'm willing to do just about anything to get this kid out, so today I tried acupuncture! I had it done at the same place I've had prenatal massage, as the head of the practice told me he's used it to induce labor in about 4 other women. Whether it actually works remains to be seen, but it didn't hurt and it was worth a shot. He seemed to think that it would induce labor within 48 hours...we'll see!

Otherwise, just waiting. I'm scheduled to be induced on Monday if he doesn't arrive before then. I'm hoping I don't have to be induced, but it's nice to know that Monday at the latest we'll meet our little guy!

Week 39

Yesterday I had my 39 week checkup. Nothing has really changed since last week; cervix is slightly thinner than it was last week, but I'm still right about 1cm dilated. As the midwife said, that doesn't necessarily mean anything: I could suddenly start the labor process any moment, or I could suddenly be 4cm and sit there for over a week. So it doesn't necessarily mean anything, but it's good to know where things stand.

I have an appointment scheduled for Monday afternoon if nothing has happened before then, and we'll start talking options in terms of whether to wait longer or to try and induce. I'll keep everyone updated!

These pictures are from tonight; this shirt isn't a maternity shirt, but it's a super stretchy material so I was able to get into it. I just like how bright the colors are! And I have so few warm-weather maternity shirts that I need all clothing I can fit into for now.

38 weeks pregnant!

I had my 38 week checkup today. Very exciting: things seem to be progressing! I'm a full 1cm dilated, still about 60% effaced (100% effaced means the cervix is completely thin for the baby to pass through, so I'm more than halfway there). My midwife could feel the baby's head starting to push down on the cervix (I've definitely been feeling that lately), and all of the uncomfortableness I've been feeling (pelvic pain, some light cramping, heavier Braxton-Hicks contractions) are good signs of labor.

Of course there's no way of knowing when the baby boy will actually decide to enter the world, but she seems to think that it'll happen by my due date, which is only 13 days from now! Frankly, I'd be ready for him to come this weekend, but I realize I may have almost 2 more weeks. I'm just happy that I'm already more progressed towards labor than I ever was with Natalie (which is why I had to be induced). Hopefully that means things will continue to progress, and I won't have to be induced.

Don't you love the drool marks in the middle of my stomach? That's from where Natalie was "kissing" her baby brother.

I am going to work tomorrow, as I have a few more things to finish up. However, next week will probably be day-to-day: if I feel good, i'll head in, but if not, I'll be staying home and avoiding the drive.

36 weeks pregnant!

So I'm a little late on this update, as I'm technically 36 weeks and 5 days as of today. Sorry, the rainy weekend made me not want to do much of anything, include get on a computer. So, here's a quick pregnancy update.

I had my 36 week checkup last wednesday. Things look good; I'm up 15 pounds total, and I can hardly believe that's all I've gained. I was so much bigger than this with Natalie. Maybe it's a boy/girl difference? Who knows. But I'll take it either way. I got a bunch of info from the midwives about early labor signs, procedures to follow, etc. I now visit them every week, and we can check to see if things are progressing as they should be.

On Thursday my coworkers threw me a baby shower at work. Evan and Natalie came, which was a lot of fun. I got to show her off! She was such a good kid; very shy for the first 40 minutes or so, but after helping mommy open up presents and eating a little cake, she opened right up to everyone. She looked adorable too (there are pics, but I haven't gotten them from my boss yet).

Since I gave a talk at work that morning, I dressed up for both events too. Here I am after getting home:

And having fun with my big girl:

32 Weeks pregnant!

So I don't really plan on putting a weekly pregnancy update on here (I'll probably do every two weeks until a couple of weeks before I'm due, assuming everything is going normally). But, I absolutely LOVE this new maternity shirt that I bought (for $5!!!!), and since I took my 32 week pictures wearing it, I wanted to show them!

Here's the standard sideways pose, and you can see the pretty flowers going down the side.

I like these two seated ones; you can see how pronounced the belly is when I'm sitting!

All looks good on the baby front (had 32 week checkup on Friday). He's still head down, I measured 32cm, and I gained 2 pounds, so I'm up 11 pounds total for the pregnancy. I filled out a "birthing wishes" form that all of the midwives and nurses will know. We said for sure that I'd like to try to do things without anesthesia if possible, but we'll see how it goes. Evan wants to cut the cord; I want to hold him right after he's born, (as they're cleaning him off); we want a circumcision; and I want to nurse. So, they'll honor all of those wishes assuming everything with the baby is ok.

Pregnancy Update: 31 weeks

So I've not been very good at keeping up with pregnancy updates! That's partially because I haven't been good about taking weekly pictures showing the growing baby bump. If I had pictures, then I'd most likely post them and write about it! My resolution is to take them each week from now on, so I'll have them to look back on years later! Here I am 31 weeks pregnant:

The baby has finally decided to let himself show! Seriously, it was difficult to tell I was pregnant until recently. While that is nice, because I haven't gained much weight at all (more on that below), this may very well be my last pregnancy, so I want to enjoy it! And I'll admit it: part of enjoying it means sharing it with others. And when people can't tell, it's a little irritating! But, I'm definitely showing now. Here are the few "stats" I have on the pregnancy.

WEIGHT: I've still not even gained 10 pounds compared with my pre-pregnancy weight. I only just now weigh the amount I was when I got pregnant with Natalie. So, I'm feeling pretty good about that. Hopefully I don't swell up in these last 2 months!

SIZE: I would worry about the lack of weight gain if the midwives seemed concerned, but they don't. I think the biggest reason is that I'm dead-on for uterus growth. The uterus should measure (from the pubic bone to the very top) the same number of centimeters as weeks pregnant, and I've been measuring perfectly. At my appointment last week, I was 30cm at 30 weeks. With that and the last ultrasound measurements, it seems that the baby boy is the "right" size.

NAMES: The baby's middle name will be Evan, so we've only had to focus on first names. We do have two that we really like. One is Zachary; the other we're keeping a "secret" - only Evan and I know it. We'll probably decide once we see him, like we did with Natalie.

ENERGY: I don't have much. I feel like I never got the big second trimester push of energy that i had with Natalie, and I definitely have less now in the third trimester. I've got enough to get through work, and play with Natalie some, but I'm exhausted after that. My coworkers are nice about helping me with the more physical parts of what I do, and Evan has been great at home. I'm just looking forward to getting some energy back while on maternity leave!
  Also not helping with energy is that I have a really random infection right now. We ended up at the hospital last night to get me checked out, as suddenly I had really sharp pain around one of the lymph nodes in my neck, and the whole left side had swollen up. I only went because I was worried it could be something negative to the baby. The doc diagnosed me with an infected salivary gland, and prescribed antibiotics in case it is from a bacterial infection (could also be viral). It's oddly painful, and gives me a lovely asymmetrical look. But the amoxicillan and Tylenol do seem to be helping, so hopefully it will knock out the infection quickly. I need all the extra energy I can get!

Pregnancy Week 19

Let's do the fun part of this first! I had my second trimester ultrasound today, and we found out....

IT'S A BOY!

That's right, Natalie is getting a baby brother. I'm excited - we'll have one of each! And now I get to shop in both sides of the kids' clothing section. Baby boy stuff is pretty cute, and I was always jealous of boys getting to wear all of the cute safari animals. Now my baby boy gets to wear them!

He's nice & healthy - measuring up exactly as he should (11oz), all the parts are there and in working order! The due date is still dead on for April 7. It's very unlikely to change at this point.

The ultrasound technician was wonderful, and we got an entire CD of pictures! So, I'm showing some of them to you. First off are the "normal" black & white ultrasound pics. First is a profile of the head (facing up).

He had his arms up by his face for a lot of the photos - nearly looks like he's sucking his thumb!

Here's a cool shot of his leg and foot

And here's the evidence that he's a boy (the middle part sticking out are his parts, with legs on either side

 As great as the black-and-white shots are, they also showed us some 4D photos! Technology is so cool. It's amazing to me that at 19 weeks (not even half way to birth) the fetus already looks so much like a baby. In the first one you can see his face, and it's obvious to me that he has the same nose as Natalie! I can already tell they have that same feature! So cool. In the second you can't see his face, but the whole body shot is super cool.

Pregnancy: 16 weeks

I had my latest appointment with the midwives this morning. Everything looks good! Baby's heartrate was excellent (160 beats/minute), and just about all of my bloodwork came back normal. The only exception is that my hemoglobin levels were on the very low side of normal, so they want me to eat more foods with iron to get the levels up. Unfortunately, I don't like red meat, so I'll have to ingest more eggs instead! Otherwise, I've lost 2 more pounds, which isn't that big of a deal, but I do need to start gaining soon. This happened with Natalie too; I didn't really start gaining until closer to 20 weeks, so I'm expecting that I'll go up by my next appointment. The pizza and milkshake I had tonight should help with that. :)

I've also had a few Braxton-Hicks contractions, which just means that I can feel my uterus tightening up periodically (mostly at night when I'm relaxing), but there's no pain and it really doesn't mean anything (unless there starts to be pain). I hadn't had any with Natalie, so I wasn't sure that's what I was feeling, but when I asked the midwife she said yep! Definitely. I thought it might be a little early for them, but apparently not. I should also be able to feel the baby start moving at any time.
My next ultrasound will be in 3 weeks, and at that one we can find out the sex of the baby!

A quick update

1. The family.
We had a HUGE weekend! We went up to NJ to throw Evan's parents a surprise 60th birthday party. Doug's birthday was this past Sunday (Sept 27); even though Lynn's isn't until November, we decided to do the party for both of them now. The party was a blast - tons of family, little kids running around, and everyone got to meet Natalie for the first time! I do have some good pics, but they're still on my camera - I'll get them up hopefully tomorrow.

We then headed to Queens on a spur-of-the-moment trip to see some friends! These are friends from our apartment building that we lived in on Wall Street while I was in grad school. We all got to know each other because we have dogs that played together, and I've stayed friends with the ladies because we now all have kids! So, we stayed with our friends Natasha & Adam in their townhouse in Queens (and their two kids Paul & Juliet, and dog Simon); in their basement apartment live our friends Jennifer & Evan, with their son Hugo and dogs Frieda & Diego. It's a full house! We had a great time, and I got tons of pictures of the great things we did in the city with the kids. Natalie went on the subway for the first time when we took the kids to the children's zoo in Central Park - she LOVED the train.

On our drive back home on Tuesday, we stopped for lunch at my cousin's house in Delaware. They live right off of I-95 on our way, so it was a great place to stop and have lunch. Plus, I hadn't seen her in about 5 years since her baby shower, so I'd never met her twin boys! It was a short visit, but a nice one.

2. Me!
So, I'm now officially 13 weeks pregnant, putting me at the start of my second trimester. I've been feeling good for a little over a week now, and am able to eat full meals. Plus, I've gotten quite a bit of my energy back, which is great, as it means I can have more fun with Natalie! So, things are good on that front.

A special announcement

I mentioned previously that I had a reason as to why it had been 2 weeks between posts in late August/ early September. Well, as of today I'm ready to officially tell everyone why...

I'm pregnant!

That's right, baby #2 is on the way. We're super excited, but nervous too - it'll be a change from our nice routine with Natalie, that's for sure! But a good change.

The reason I didn't post for a couple of weeks because of how absolutely awful I was feeling. I had a rough time from weeks 6-9, and since then have had good days & bad. Today I feel fine; yesterday I threw up twice. This is NOT like with Natalie, when I just had a crappy third month but that was it. This time, I can't seem to predict what will set off my stomach, so I'm just being careful with what I eat. I'm just hoping that when I reach second trimester I'll feel much better!

I'm currently 11.5 weeks pregnant, and had my first scheduled ultrasound this morning. Everything looks good; the little guy/gal is scheduled to appear in the world on April 7, 2010. Measurements were dead on for his/her "age", heart rate was great (170), and we got to see him/her moving around all over. Unfortunately, the little one didn't want to turn the proper way for the nuchal translucency test (to check for neural tube defects), so I had to deal with lots of poking & prodding (i.e. shoving) with the ultrasound wands, but eventually they got the measurements they needed. I'll get official results at my midwife's next week, but the radiologist said everything looked great. I wanted to put up an ultrasound pic here, but she only printed crummy ones, so it'll have to wait til next time.

And yes, I'm going with a midwife this time. We had a couple of issues with how induction-happy my OB was last time, and the inflexibility she had with changing my due date. So I met with this practice of certified nurse midwives, and really like them. I still get to deliver at the amazing Birthing Inn at INOVA Loudoun (no, it won't be in my living room like some thought!), and they're willing to let me use drugs if I want, which is key.