Mildly delving into the TMI catagory....Read at your own risk....



34 Weeks

35 Weeks

The two pictures seen above are (obviously) my belly growth over the last two weeks. It is fascinating to me to see how weekly it can change. I feel like in two weeks I went from looking like I am having a girl (carrying round and kinda high....) to looking like I am having a boy (carrying lower and more pointy). Sean and I were looking at my belly yesterday, kind of...examining it, if you will. We noticed that I really haven't stretched any worse that what i had already been stretched with Peyton. I don't appear to have any NEW stretch marks which is nice....I find it strange that the underside of my belly doesn't appear to be tight, in fact it's rather loose....Sean and I aren't sure if that means i'm carrying the same as when I was pregnant with Peyton (since no new stretch marks) or different (which is why the underside of my belly isn't tighter). <br><br>

I had my 35 1/2 week check up today. I have only gained 9oz since my last appointment 2 weeks ago. For those keeping track of my weight gain....which would be super creepy....I've gained a total of 33lbs. I'll take that - I have 4 weeks left (give or take...), and I gained less than a pound in 2 weeks....So I'm still anticipating being under 40lbs..potentially under 35lbs! If you figure the baby weighs around 7lbs, the placenta and amniotic fluid is another 4lbs and uterus and extra blood supply is another 6lbs....totalling in about 15-17lbs of weight loss as soon as baby is born. Leaving only about 20lbs to lose....which based on how big my boobs have gotten (Currently in a 40DD and my milk hasn't even come in yet...) I bet they weigh 5lbs on their own so maybe I will only lose 15lbs which i would be ok with too. When they initially took my blood pressure it was REALLY high 143/77 and I was concerned bc last weekend my feet swelled up really bad and it was the first time I have ever in either of my pregnancies had a fear of preeclampsia. The corpsman switched arms and used a different BP cuff (which hurt like a B) and it read my BP as 107/65.   <br><br>

I saw Dr. Poole again (Yay!) - Fundal height is right on target and babyT's heartrate was at 140 (*boy range*). I had to have the Beta Strep test done today (a bacterial infection that pregnant women can get and pass to the baby) since I already had to be undressed from the waist down for the test he said he would check my cervix. He said i was a good fingertip dilated (which is 1cm)! So my body is def getting ready for BabyT's arrival! Granted, I could walk around at 1cm for 4 weeks but Doc said he didn't think I would go past my due date at the very least. Once I hit 37 weeks IT IS ON! So I have a little over a week and then no holds bar! Walk walk walk and....other natural ways to induce labor :-) Dr. Poole said he would strip my membranes at my appointment after I hit 37 weeks to help motivate me! <br><br>

After today - I am truly in "Go" mode - We finally got a non-damaged crib! So Sean will be putting that together tomorrow and I can finish up BabyT's room this upcoming week! I am nesting like WHOA right now esp knowing that in all reality BabyT could come ANY day now (probably still have AT LEAST 3 weeks). I am ready to get the house dusted, vacuumed, scrubbed and get it baby ready. It is honestly a bazaar and surreal feeling that this time next month we will have a new baby in the house.....

The Illusive BabyT....

So I realize today (after a little pier pressure from friends) that I haven't blogged in 10wks...So I apologize to those who have been waiting for updates via blog and I have disappointed.

This blog i will post the most recent BabyT updates as well as just post a slew of belly pics (all of which can also be found on Facebook) throughout the last 10wks.

Most of you know that I was working a temp job for a little while which was nice to pass the time during my second trimester. It really made the time fly by. March 1st was my last day of work and it also coincided with the beginning of my third trimester (28wks) so I was able to stop working which was really nice. However, i seriously don't feel like i've stopped moving/going/doing since then. My first week out of work I had basically back to back appointments. One of which being my 28wk check up. BabyT's HR was in the mid-high 130's (for those gender guessing that is "boy range") and my fundal height (cm from pelvic bone to the top of the uterus and after 20wks is supposed to be equal to however many weeks you are) was measuring 30cm....which either means big baby or stretched out uterus. The idea of a big baby makes me nervous. Sean was 7lbs even, I was 7lbs 11oz and Peyton was 7lbs 13oz...so I had initially anticipated a 7lb-7.5lbs baby, this gave me reason to rethink that.....

Then at 31wks I got sick, again with the bronchitis type feeling, chesty cough, runny nose, groggy etc so i went into the Dr. again to make sure everything sounded clear and my ears were clear (since the last time I got sick with this mess I got an ear infection) - I ended up seeing the midwife bc she was the only one that had open appointments that week. She said everything sounded clear (of course as soon as I left my chest got all stuffy again.....), listened to the heartbeat (she actually ASKED me if i was having a boy bc HR was 136....) and measured the fundal height. This time I was measuring 32.5cm. She actually said "Whoa, big baby..." which again - made me super nervous. Upon further research and asking the dr's WHAT exactly this would mean for me, BabyT and the rest of my pregnancy. From what i was told, they would continue to monitor and document the FH and if closer to fullterm (36+wks) I am still measuring 1.5-2wks bigger than I should be they would put in for a special ultra sound to measure the baby/amniotic fluid to determine baby's size.

Through-out the month of March my BFF Beka came to visit and my Mom did too. My friends gave us a great shower and truly (pardon the pun) showered us with so many wonderful gifts. We are so lucky and thankful to have the friends(family)to share events like that with. The first week in April (aka last week) we took a nice family vacation to Monterey/Carmel Valley to visit some family friends and to get out of hanford for a few days while Peyton was on Spring Break. We had such a wonderful time going to Santa Cruz beach boardwalk, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Fishermans Wharf. We truly enjoy our time in that area, Cindy and Ted are fantastic hosts and it doesn't hurt that Ted is (literally) an amazing chef so any meals eaten at home are nothing short of delicious! We also used this time off to have another 3D ultrasound (see BabyT's facebook album) and had our family/maternity photos done by a good friend/Amazing photographer Julie O'kelly (http://www.photographswithjulieokelly.com/ ).

This brings us to today - 33 1/2 week check up! Got to see Dr. Poole (one of my favorite OB's on the base) he asked me if i had any questions - my first question was about my hands going numb when im sleeping, apparently at this stage of pregnancy as long as it's not associated with other symptoms it isn't anything to be alarmed with and is relatively normal. FH was at 33.5! Woohoo for everything evening out (i'm 33wks 2days today so that's as close as we're going to get) HR was at....146 (again, for those keeping track of gender hints....this is now back to "girl range") He felt around for the baby's positioning and it seems to be heading in the "head down" position! BabyT's head is kinda angled next to my right hip, so not in the transverse position but not quite head down yet. We have some time left so that isn't anything to be too worried with just yet. Things are quickly coming to an end and it's really starting to hit me. We have the nursery painted, all the gifts we have received have been put in the baby's room (they are not put away yet but that is bc we still have to set up the crib and some shelving, they are all separated by type of baby item. i.e bath stuff, diaper stuff, toys, blankets etc). I still have a list of things that need to be done....set up the crib, hang the floating shelves, finish the blanket I'm making and wash all the diapers (bc we're using cloth Gdiapers!) and baby clothes. I will try to be more diligent with blogging over the next few weeks to keep everyone on the up and up. Keep in mind from here on out it will get a little more graphic as they will start checking for dilation etc at my next appointment so my next few blog posts will not be for the faint of heart :-) -I named this blog the Illusive BabyT as I am convinced that this baby is totally on board with it's gender being a secret - there is no photographic evidence of the gender of our baby. For as many ultrasounds as we have had (3D and otherwise) this kiddo has not made one attempt to turn around and show us the goods (not that we have encouraged or provoked it to...) and all the old wives tales can't narrow it down just right. HR keeps changing speed and i feel like one week i'm carrying high and all over and the next week i'm lower and more straight out....6 1/2 more weeks or less and we will all know!

Until then - here are a few progressional belly pictures from over the last few weeks!



22 Wks

23 wks

26 wks

29Wks

32 weeks

The realness is setting in...

At 22wk and 6days (23weeks tomorrow) I still every now and then "forget" I'm pregnant. As if the semi-regular fetal movement, lovely moodswings, cravings and frequent trips to the bathroom at all hours of the night wouldn't be enough to CONSTANTLY remind me! I think the reason is because we talked about "trying" for close to a year before we actually "tried" and I in that time before we started "trying" I was dealing with all the minor medical issues that revolved around us "trying", pregnancy has been on the forefront of my brain for like 18+months now...longest "pregnancy" ever!

So yesterday - we did something that made everything feel super real. We had a 3D ultrasound. It was so amazing. Normally they recommend you do the 3D u/s at 24-32 weeks based on the fact that the baby actually LOOKS more like a baby and has more distuinguishing features (i.e you can look and say "Oh it has your nose!" or "Dang, I hope it grows into that forehead!") but bc of Sean's work up schedule he's going to be in and out a lot until the baby comes so we wanted to get in ASAP. We may try again if he's home long enough in April when the baby is bigger...since it was so awesome! When we first got there apparently I didn't drink enough caffeine beforehand bc the baby was asleep...not only was the baby asleep but it was asleep with it's arm across it's face/head. It took us 10min just to jiggle the baby around to get it stirring so it would move it's arm. Apparently the placenta makes a great pillow bc thru the whole thing it was leaning its head against it trying to go back to sleep. It was so awesome to get to see it moving around and at one point it even was CLEARLY rubbing it's eyes and what looked like licking it's arm...we're not sure what that was about but it looked like a little cat grooming itself lol. At the bottom of the blog i will post a link to the U/S video so anyone who wants can watch it. *WARNING* it is a 20min video...more than half of it is us trying to get the baby to wake up so you HAVE to be patient bc if you try to "fast fwd to the good part" it messes up and will stop playing completely. However - here are some pictures just to give you an idea!

1. Baby sleeping with hands up around it's head.

2. Baby waking up and covering it's face with it's arms

3. Baby trying to go back to sleep (big puffy thing on its laying on is the placenta)

We also have started "collecting" things for the nursery which is super exciting. My good friend Katie who is super artsy and very talented painted us a picture to go in the nursery. I love it bc it has just enough "playfulness" to be baby/toddler appropriate (which means baby won't grow out of it right away) and helps add somemore colors to accent in the room. I think we finally picked out a color grey we liked for the walls at homedepot. Now all we have to do is start cleaning out the room and getting things organized! We also found a cute little elephant stuffed animal at Kohls on sale for $7 yesterday! Awesome find (and we weren't even looking) bc ALL the stuffed animals we've BEEN looking at have been either pink or blue, so we were super excited to get it!

1. Painting courtesy of Mrs. Katie Mitchell 2. "Trunks" the elephant (per Peyton's naming)

Next weeks goals - getting my registery started!

Link to u/s: www.AnticipationBabyView.com/PeekABabyFresnoCA/Baby1201281104.asf

19wks 4days

Happy (Almost) Halfway! Monday officially makes 20 weeks. I can't believe i'm already halfway done! I feel like this pregnancy is going by so fast and things are going to speed up from here on out. This make me nervous because being the planner that I am I don't feel nearly as prepared as I should be. This has been the most eventful month to date!

Right after my last blog, I started noticing "contractions" (nothing painful, just SUPER tight uterus) happening 3-4 times a day and I got concerned. I don't remember getting braxton hicks this early when I was pregnant with P so I made an appt w my OB just to be safe. The Dr. told me that it was normal and nothing "productive" was happening labor wise but that i did the right thing by coming in bc in the event that there WAS cause for concern, pre-term labor can be treated or prevented if caught early. Since then they have gotten more uncomfortable but that probably has to do with the fact that my uterus now takes up the better part of my abdomen.

Total weight gain so far - 15lbs (thanks Thanksgiving and Christmas....). That is based on what my scale at home says. I have my 20week prenatal visit next Wednesday and won't officially log those pounds until then. However - 15lbs in almost 20weeks....not TOO bad. At this point even if I gain 1lbs every week for the last 20weeks of my pregnancy i will still end up under 40lbs (which is better than the 50 I gained w Peyton). Now that I have some more energy I will hopefully become more active and keep the weight gain at bay. The only problem with this plan is I have been having severe..."groin" pain. I remember having similar pain when pregnant with P but it didn't happen until the very end. With this one, I have been uncomfortable since about week 12-14 but it has progressively gotten worse. It is so bad some days that it is too painful to walk....and I waddle already. While doing some prenatal yoga last week, kneeling on all fours we were supposed to stretch out one leg independently and it was far too excruciating to do. I could barely life my leg off the ground at all, much less stretch it out behind me. After doing some research I believe that my pubic bone is misaligned. In this research i learned that the only way it can be "diagnosed" is via ultra sound, it is normally brushed off as "normal pregnancy pain" and is treated with pain killers. Alternative methods of treatment would be chiropractic. So I went to the Chiropractor this week and he told me one of my hips is higher than the other (probably cause for back pain) and while it helped tremendously it only provided a few days of relief. There are certain positions while sitting/squatting etc that can agitate it and make it worse during and after pregnancy, this includes certain labor positions (like having your legs up in stirrups to open up your hips) and once diagnosed with the pubic bone issue some doctors prefer to do elective Csections. So this week at my prenatal visit i plan to ask for an ultrasound to verify and then start talking epidural friendly birthing positions (epidurals are frowned upon with this condition bc it masks the pain that is supposed to signal your body not to be in that position...however i know myself and I know my body and i am not cut out to do it naturally (unless forced) but I absolutely do not want to go the Csection route unless it is the best option for the baby )

Today we had our anatomy scan (aka 20wk ultrasound to measure the baby's legs, head and check all the vital organs and brain stuff). It was very exciting to see BabyToth moving and shaking live on the screen. I have been feeling lots of movement over the past week. Little punches and jabs when i'm sitting still or lying down. Sean was even able to feel a small little punch/kick the other night when it felt like it was playing kung fu fighter with my bellybutton. Everything looked great. The baby is measuring 19wk4days (vs 19wks 3days which is what we originally thought...so basically right on schedule). We didn't get any good profile pictures but tons of face and hand shots. The baby kept it's hands balled up by it's face (ready to punch) through the majority of the ultrasound and even punched the ultrasound wand at one point. We got a nice wave and were able to see all 5 fingers perfectly. There was no big gender reveal and the tech intentionally spent as little time measuring the femur (legs) as possible bc she knew we didn't want to know. I actually asked if she saw any specific part and she said no, that she purposefully didn't look too closely so that she didn't accidentally slip. :-)

Waving at us! Nice face shot (looks like an alien to me...)

In preparation for Sean being gone a lot over the next few months (yay workups!) I decided last week that it was time for us to finally sit down and pick out a nursery theme so that i could start registering and buying things (or at the very least making lists of things we need) in his absence. After a few arguments, some tears and HOURS online googling "gender neutral nursery themes" we decided to go with Elephants. The nursery will be painted a gray/slate color and the bedding set we picked out is simple but classic looking. We will add gender neutral wall decals etc and then when the baby comes we will add more wall decor, stuffed animals and other gender specific colored items. Here is a picture of the bedding set we picked out from Pottery Barn Kids

(don't let the "Henry" embroidered onto the blanket fool you...we still do not know if it's a "Henry" or "Henrietta")

We decided we're going to do a 3D ultrasound - we found a place in Fresno that does them for decently priced so we set up an appointment for the end of the month. I'm super excited to see our precious baby's face on the 3D! We will have to be SUPER careful with that ultrasound as body parts are a lot clearer and it is no longer a "Hamburger" or "Turtle" its....a boy part or a girl part....