28 weeks

How far along?  28 weeks!  

Total weight gain: -4lbs!   

Baby is the size of: winter squash

Maternity clothes:  got a support belly band that's great!

Stretch marks: None that I didn't already have

Sleep: better for the past week or so, still playing pillow tetris though

Best moment this week: surprise baby shower at work

Miss anything? turkey sandwich

Movement: She's been really active this week

Food cravings: bacon sandwiches

Anything making you queasy or sick? Not really

Labor signs: Nope.

Symptoms: Back pain, gas, heartburn, pelvic pain 

Belly button in or out? In.

Wedding rings on or off? On but tight

Happy or moody most of the time: Happy

Looking forward to: Getting the stuff cleaned out of the nursery room...still

way to go cervix!!

This is the last week of the second trimester and my cervix is holding strong with good measurements! yay!

Baby girl is also doing well, she is measuring right on track size wise but weight wise she is in 75th percentile! Chubby baby. Last estimated weight at the ultrasound last week was 1 pound 14 ounces which is exactly double her weight from 4 weeks previous.  Heart rate was a little high at 179 but tech said it goes up and down.

After all the measurements were done I fished a little and the ultrasound tech (nicest one EVER) turned on 4d for us! We got to see her in 3d but LIVE, it was SOOO freaking cool!  She kept putting her hands up in front of her face but we got a few good pics.

If everything continues to be good I won't have to go back to the Maternal Fetal Care center anymore, I have another appointment with the MFM in September so technically I'm still high risk but all the docs are pleased with how everything is going. 

Pain wise, well that comes and goes, I have days where I feel almost normal then I have days where walking is almost impossible. I have found that I can't be on my feet for more than 20-30 minutes at a time and I can't bend from the waist, both of those things trigger pain.  I have Yoga tonight, I'll have to tell teacher I can't bend from the waist but I think the yoga actually helps so I want to keep going.  I need to start walking on the days I feel good but I'm kind of concerned with getting very far from home and having a bad pain episode with no where to sit down. 

Other symptoms, my hands have started to swell a little, blood pressure is holding steady and I drink tons of water so must just be pregnancy.  Its not bad, just enough to make my rings tight once in awhile.

I do seem to be on an upward trend for my weight, I have days where I am starving! Last night 2 hours after dinner I ate a bagel with cream cheese, a pickle, some grapes and a handful of nuts and then was hungry again before bed but didn't eat again. Guess little girl doubling her weigh every month will do that!

How far along?  26 weeks!  

Total weight gain: -7.6lbs!   

Baby is the size of: bowling pin

Maternity clothes:  bought a few new shirts last week

Stretch marks: None that I didn't already have

Sleep: what's sleep? I toss and turn a lot from back pain

Best moment this week: I was sitting in a meeting with my hands crossed across my stomach and she was kicking so hard she was moving my hands

Miss anything? Beer

Movement: She's quiet when I'm up moving but if I sit down and get quiet she starts dancing

Food cravings: green grapes

Anything making you queasy or sick? Not really

Labor signs: Nope.

Symptoms: Back pain, gas, heartburn, pelvic pain 

Belly button in or out? In.

Wedding rings on or off? On.

Happy or moody most of the time: Happy

Looking forward to: Getting the stuff cleaned out of the nursery room

Oh and here is a quick reference on the months/weeks thing

Glucose and pain and other what nots....

24 weeks, viability, yay!!! Now that being said, this little girl needs to stay in and cook longer! 

Since the last post I've been to see the chiropractor twice and been to pre-natal yoga twice, my back is not really much better than it was before. 

I've been having some issues with constipation (totally new for me) and that in turn is causing me a pain in the bum, like, literally. Sorry for the TMI. I've had this same pain twice in the past, once when I had a bout of colitis coupled with a ruptured hemorrhagic ovarian cyst and the other time after my IVF egg retrieval. It appears to be related to digestion coupled with swollen girly parts (inside parts), I guess it just happens that mine are swollen and full of baby.  Hopefully this passes soon, its a pain in the ass, ha ha. 

Baby girl has been moving around a lot lately, you can see it from the outside now pretty easily and Matthew finally felt her kick for the first time this morning 

I saw my OB last week and my MFM today, the only new issue to report is my groin pain (not the pain in the ass, this is an ache in my pelvic region at the end of the day) is my pubic bones separating. Apparently this happens to all pregnant women but is happening to me early due to my EDS. It's not so bad unless I overdo it.  My MFM said that while I was still at risk for pre-term labor due to my EDS that I was in no immediate danger since my cervix has looked good so far. He talked to me about what to look for in terms of contractions and said that most women usually begin to feel them by 28 weeks.  I talked to him about my anesthesia concerns and he advised me to talk to the anesthesiologist but that the kind they use for epidurals should not be affected by my EDS because its local not systemic. 

In other news I had my 1 hour glucose tolerance test today, and.... I failed it, by TWO points, 2 freaking points!  So now I have to go have the 3 hour test, ugh, not looking forward to that, that icky orange drink

makes me feel like crap the rest of the day.

Here is my 24 week belly

Oh, and here is when I'm sitting looking down!

Looks like I finally "popped"

So here is my weight change since becoming pregnant. It's pretty easy to see where the morning sickness kicked in. Lowest weight was at 18 weeks, I'm at 24 weeks now and have been on an upward trend for a few weeks but am still about 10 pounds down from where I started.  

Anatomy Scan

Today was the anatomy scan, and everything looked great! All of her parts looked good and she is weighing in at 15 ounces! 4 weeks ago she was 6 ounces so that's quite a growth spurt! This is the only profile shot we got since they were more concerned with her insides today.

Here is me today as well. I've been feeling her move a lot more and the ultrasound tech commented on how active she is.

Halfway There!

20 weeks! Halway there! According to my app the baby is supposedly the size of a cantaloupe, I just can't see that!

My weight is staying steady, I've been within 2 pounds of the same weight for 2 months now. I guess I'm losing at roughly the same rate baby weight is gaining, its kind of odd.  Today I am 1.2lbs above where I was a month ago but 1.4lbs BELOW what I was 2 months ago, so yeah, right about the same.  This graph starts at 4/1 when I was just around 7 weeks along, through this morning.

Blood pressure has been down again but the dizzy spells have not gotten bad so maybe my body is adjusting.  Here is a snapshot of my BP readings over the past week or so (I don't update my weight in this app, its just in there from when I set it up).

I think the actual food cravings have started, this week it was pierogies, I finally found some at the grocery store yesterday and plan on having those for dinner.  Unfortunately the horrible taste in my mouth and occasional nausea has also returned. 

Sleeping has become and issues as I can no longer sleep on my back, it makes it hard to breath so I turn from side to side all night long. 

My Ehlers-Danlos (EDS) has escalated significantly over the past couple weeks. I'm having to tape the knuckles on the first two fingers of my left hand to try to keep them in place.  The Relaxin hormone on top of the EDS makes me a very Gumby girl right now. 

The only other new symptom I guess is the pretty much constant gas!!!

Good appointment

Had an OB checkup today, my doctor was on vacation but I really liked the doctor that I saw.  Gracie's heartrate was at 150 and you could hear her moving around a lot.   Everything else looked good.

I think what I've been feeling the past few days is her moving around, I'm ready to know for sure!

Maternity Clothes

They say the clothes make the man, or in this case woman...

I've struggled with clothes since my boobs came in when I was about 16.  Being overweight makes it worse of course.  So I was not at all looking forward to shopping for maternity clothes but it became a necessity.

I'm of average height (5'7"), weigh in at around 230, I'm short waisted, have an hourglass figure (with a few too many hours in it), am THICK in the thighs and calves (like really) and have huge boobs.

Pros of maternity clothes

• Stretchy waist don't hurt my oh so tender expanding middle
• You look MORE pregnant in maternity clothes, as opposed to just fat (more on this later)

Cons of maternity clothes

• Not made with the short waisted in mind, many of the stretchy parts of the pants come all the way up to my bra
• A lot of the pants have no pockets
• Many of the pants have a pleated look to them, not flattering
• The length of the pants seems to be oddly long
• The shirts tend toward empire waist but my boobs don't fit in most empire waist styles

So here are 3 pictures of me, all within 12 hours so no change in baby bump size, these demonstrate how different clothes make you look either pregnant or fat.

First of all the empire waist shirt makes you look very pregnant

Then I went home and put on my PJ's and just looked fat again

Today I put on tighter fitted maternity tank