25 weeks and appoinment

We had an appointment on Tuesday. Baby is doing great, heartbeat is 147 (which is very boyish), and I measured 24. I've gained 6 pounds so far, and I'm still below starting weight with Noah. Urine test was clear- no more infection and no ketones! Probiotics galore did the job. =)

Kat talked about birth supplies and some of the options we have for after baby is born. She talked about this herbal bath thing we can do after and it sounds amazing. And she was talking about how Zach or I could do the baby catching part- she would provide support through crowning and once the head is out, provided there's no cord in the way, Zach or I could grab the baby. That made me super excited! I've been daydreaming for a few weeks about pulling the baby out and putting him on my chest. The thought of finally being able to hold LB makes me very excited an teary-eyed. I'm so excited.

LB is still transverse, which isn't a problem yet. Kat mentioned doing some poses from spinningbabies.com to help him (....or her) get into a good position. I think baby should generally be head down by 28-30 weeks or something. So we're still ok for now, but I'll add the poses to the end of my prenatal yoga workout.

Symptom wise... I feel mostly fine. I've noticed a little bit of heartburn over the past few days, and my feet are swelling a little. No big deal.

So that's about it.

20 week appointment update

We had a good appointment. Blood pressure was great, and I'm measuring 20, which is spot on. Kat found the baby's heartbeat right away, which was nice. Last time LB tried to hide. She said he's hanging out right in front, which is cool, and right now he's lying transverse facing in. She could feel his bum. =)

Noah was being very adorable and studying everything Kat did. When she was feeling for my uterus, he started feeling my belly too. After she had measured me, he lifted up his shirt and she measured him too. And when she was rubbing in the aloe (she uses aloe as the gel to transmit the doppler noises), he helped. Super cute. =)

LB's heartbeat was 137-149. He would move around and be all excited, and his heartbeat was higher, and then he would settle down, and that's when it was 137. Kat said that's what boys do. So I've just started referring to LB as a boy. I think it's a girl, but I know it's probably going to be a boy, so I'm just referring to him as a boy for now.

I lost about half a pound this past month. I'm up a total of 2 1/2 pounds now (still about 5 pounds lower than where I started with Noah). I think that's a good starting point. The rest of the pregnancy is when the weight really starts to come on, so I think I'm doing well so far. I'd like to keep the weight gain at a -healthy- minimum.

The only slightly bad thing is that I have an infection that's trying to get started, and I'm spilling keytones, I think, but Kat gave me some instructions on how to take care of it.

That's all. Other than that I'm super duper excited for December. =)

20 weeks

Half way through again! I'm surprised. It feels like it's flying by and dragging on at the same time. We're going Team Green again, so I kind of hope it continues to fly. I want to know if LB is a boy or a girl! It's driving me crazy. I don't know why I do this to myself. Team Green. Bah.

LB is the size of a banana now. 6 1/2 inches head to foot, 10 1/2 ounces. Goooo LB! 

I'm feeling movement every day now. It's still pretty spotty throughout the day, but I enjoy it. I haven't really had too much in the way of symptoms lately. Some headaches. Some heartburn. Hot all the time, but that might be because I live in Vegas. Crazy, crazy dreams. Like dreams that could be turned into novels about this scary distopian universe and become best sellers and turn into a smash hit movie, Hunger Games style. Maybe I should write them down.... I wouldn't turn down a book contract. Or movie rights. Then when I'm being interviewed and they ask me where I got the idea for the novel, I could say "oh, y'know, I was pregnant. Having crazy dreams. And I was watching a lot of Doctor Who."  Score.

There are a lot of foods I've been wanting lately, although I think Pinterest is largely to blame. Cinnamon rolls, shrimp, crab rangoon, any Chinese food (oh, how I love Chinese food). I haven't really been hungry though. I'm mostly eating because I know I need to. I've had a cold lately, though, and that may be why I haven't had much of an appetite. Whatevs.

Noah... is going to be 2 next month (what??!?). Um. I don't know how that happened. I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the sort of little baby that I held that first day. Wasn't that just yesterday?

He's becoming a lot more verbal. Most of his words aren't super clear yet, but he's been stringing a couple words into sentences, which is super cute. He likes to watch the garbage truck empty the trash can every week, and when it drives away, he runs back to me and says "cah go?" holding his hands up. I don't think he could be more adorable if he tried.

We're going to have to turn his carseat around soon. I'm super bummed. He's an inch away from the height limit, so once he gets there, he'll have to be forward facing. We'll have to turn him around once LB comes anyway, since we can't fit two rear facing carseats in our itty bitty car. I'm still hoping he can make it until then. He's got 6-7 pounds until the weight limit, so he should be good there. We'll see. December's not that far away....

If there's any truth to "mother's intuition," LB will be a girl and will be coming early. I've been feeling very convinced of that. But trying to prepare for it being opposite. Because this family makes boys. And Noah was super duper late. So. There's that. We'll see in December. Or January. Probably January.

16 week appointment

I love our midwife. She's awesome. Just wanted to throw that out there. =)

LB (Little Bug) is taking after his/her (his) brother and evading the Doppler as much as possible. But we kept hearing him move, and I felt him move every now and then. Kat (midwife) eventually got the heartbeat for a couple seconds- it was 155. Noah's was usually in the 145-155 range, I think. She kept commenting on how fast LB is; he'd dart around when she moved the Doppler.

Uterus measured 16, which is spot on (at 12 weeks, I measured 13). Blood pressure was a little high, but still ok. We went over the results of my bloodwork from a couple weeks ago, and Kat was super excited that my hemoglobin was 14. Apparently that's awesome and highly unusual. There were a couple minor things that showed up in the bloodwork to take care of- I'm losing (leaking?) trace proteins, and I'm not completely sure what that means, but Kat mentioned it could just be a dietary thing and recommended a couple things to do to take care of it. She mentioned the Brewer pregnancy diet, so I'm going to look into it. I also need to drink more water. I've been really bad about it this time around. I just lose track of time and get to the end of the day and realize I've only had 32 ounces of water. That's no good.

So I have a few things to take care of. Nothing big, and Kat said if we listen to our bodies like this and address problems, we have less chance of running into bigger problems down the road. I really like Kat. =)

Otherwise, I'm doing well. I have random moments when I feel sick, and I sporadically feel LB fluttering around. I love those flutters. I'm very excited to feel them more consistently. I've had a couple instances of heartburn and hip pain, but it hasn't been a big deal.

For the record, I think LB is a girl. But because boys are pretty much what this family has, I'm going to assume its a boy. And if it's a girl, we'll just be pleasantly surprised. =)

Cravings

I don't seem to have weird pregnancy cravings, like pickles and ice cream (the exception of course, being french fries dipped in a chocolate shake- but that was a pre-pregnancy favorite). My cravings tend to be normal foods that I just don't like. With Noah, I wanted sauce on my spaghetti, and mayo on my sandwiches. And I started eating bell peppers. All normal things, but not something I would eat.

This time, I'm wanting jalapeño poppers. I hate spicy food. I do not like jalapeños. And yet I keep seeing jalapeño poppers on Pinterest and it makes my mouth water.

I'm also really wanting potatoes. And soups. But I love those anyway.

So. Jalapeño poppers. I may be trying some soon. (Or I may substitute bell peppers for the jalapeños... But y'know)

Announcement

Deep Thought

This is going to be an unusual and serious post. Just FYI. I'm not expecting anything; just writing what's on my mind.

I always feel like I'm an annoying person. There are aspects of my personality that I'm sure are annoying to some people, but I mean in general, I think I'm annoying. I feel like if I start talking more, people will notice how annoying I am. I don't like that. I want people to like me. And I know that's not great either, but it is what it is. I yam what I yam (and apparently I'm Popeye?).

I tend to go through this cycle. I'll start feeling like I'm kind of left out of groups of friends, so I start talking more, and then I feel like I'm getting annoying, so I stop talking. And then I start feeling left out again. It's a vicious circle, and I can't seem to find a way to be happy. I shouldn't care so much what people think, but I do. I can't seem to get past it.

There are times where I can just accept that some people may not like me and that's ok. But those moments of clarity don't happen very often, and they don't last very long.

I think I need to just get out and make some friends. I haven't established a group out here yet, so maybe this is just a result of being lonely. I haven't had any friends (apart from online relationships) in a long time, and maybe that's all I need. There are also hasn't been very much good happening, and life is just very stressful, so I'm sure that's playing into it too.

Anyway. That's what's on my mind today.