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....