**** this is copied/pasted from a personal journal I kept throughout my pregnancy, which is why it jumps all over the place, and none of the pictures are there. Also... it stops at 32 weeks because at that point I was ready to have my baby, and not all about writing my every thought :) ****
Little Baby Wagoner
Weeks 1-12
Ok.. so as unorganized as I am I really want to try and document everything that I have gone through during the first trimester of my pregnancy. I’m going to try to sum everything up while not leaving out any important details…we’ll see how this goes.
April 13, 2010
So.. I have to admit it was a totally random act for me to go home for lunch that Tuesday and take a pregnancy test. I had absolutely no symptoms and I honestly think that the only reason I took the pregnancy test was because I had an extra one in the medicine cabinet and wanted to throw away the box.
Anyone who knows me knows that I take a pregnancy test about once every 2-3 weeks, so peeing on the stick was not a nerve-wracking, heart-pounding, scary/exciting moment for me. I literally peed on the stick, stared at it, waiting for the result to be negative so I could again laugh at myself for even thinking I was pregnant and throw it away. Well.. today that was not the case… Oh wait, wait wait, I’m telling the story wrong. I need to correct myself. My theory on why I took the test was totally inaccurate. I didn’t really think I was actually pregnant, but I bought a new test that day, at the Rite-Aid near my house, during my lunch break. Weird. I am only 13 weeks pregnant and I already have the “pregnancy stupids” (thank you Jenny McCarthy for that excellent term).
Ok- we’ll start over. During my lunch break I went to Rite-Aid, bought the pregnancy test and the clerk looked at me and said, “man, must be something in the water, you have no idea how many of these I’ve sold today.” This took me off-guard because, in general, a drug store clerk probably shouldn’t make a comment while you are buying and personal item, i.e., pregnancy tests, condoms, tampons, etc. I just shrugged and quickly walked out of the store. I was now pretty eager to get home and take the test, then return to work like normal….
So, now, we’re back to where I left off earlier. I peed on the stick and sat there, waiting for the negative result to pop up so I could get on with my day and come home from work and have a nice, big, glass of red wine and relax. WRONG. As I sat there, waiting, I could see a faint, pink line pop up. Now, as a self-proclaimed pregnancy test taking pro I was always used to the second pink line appearing, but this was the first pink line. I’ll try to give you a little illustration as to what you are looking at while taking a pregnancy test. Usually, in my experience, one pink line pops up (negative), looking like this: I, but today, this is what I saw (positive): I I. This is when my palms started to sweat and my heart began to beat. WHAT IS GOING ON? THIS IS TOO MUCH, I NEED A DRINK! Not so fast Whitney… you’re knocked up!
My ole reliable negative pregnancy test was positive. That Rite-Aid clerk was really on to something.
At this point Evan knows absolutely nothing. He always makes fun of me for taking pregnancy tests. He thinks they are a complete waste of money. But, I’m not on birth control, it makes me terribly sick (a little foreshadowing of the torment I’m getting ready to go through during weeks 5-12 of my pregnancy). So, I would rather be safe than sorry.
I always pictured in my head telling Evan I was pregnant in a really cool, unique, knock his socks off kind of way. Well… that did not happen. As soon as I took the test and got the positive result I jumped in my car (with the test). Driving as fast as I could to Evan’s office I called my friend, Leigh, and told her I was pregnant! How bad am I? Leigh was the first person to know, NOT Evan. But, I had to tell someone and I obviously wasn’t going to tell Evan over the phone. I just needed to get it off my chest. At this point, while driving, and sweating, heart-pounding- I felt like a crazy person.
I called Evan on my way to his office. I tried to sound calm, claiming that I wanted to meet him for lunch. When I pulled into the parking lot I was expecting him to be waiting for me outside. Of course he wasn’t (not his fault, I’m just extremely impatient). I called him again trying to rush him to come out of his office so I could tell him the crazy news. Finally after about 20 minutes (I’m sure it was only about 20 seconds, but like I said, I’m extremely impatient) he came outside and got into the passenger seat of my car.
“What’s going on?” I asked casually. “Nothing much,” Evan responded. I started driving. After about 100 yards I pulled into the first available parking spot and opened my glove compartment, which had been housing the positive pregnancy test.
“LOOK AT THIS!!!” I screamed as I stuck the white stick in front of his face. “I’M PREGNANT!!!!!!” At this point I just stared at Evan’s face, hoping to read every single emotion that went through his head. He just smiled. The biggest smile I’ve seen. There was no fear, no confusion, no stress, just pure joy. It was awesome. He hugged me so tight, which immediately eased all of the anxiety I had been feeling for the past hour or so (if only temporarily). It was literally the perfect reaction.
It wasn’t 5 minutes later that the news really began to sink into Evan’s brain. That’s when he looked at me and asked, “Are you sure you are pregnant?” I had only taken one pregnancy test and of course had not gone to the doctor, so no, I wasn’t sure. My response, “well, let’s go to the drugstore and get a couple more tests.” 15 minutes and $75 later we walked in the front door of our house, 6 boxes of pregnancy tests, 3 different brands. We wanted to make sure the test wasn’t a false positive, haha!
So, I’ll spare you the details of me taking the tests, but sure enough, they all came back positive. The kicker was the digital test, the last test I took, which popped up “pregnant.” There is no denying that.
The next step was deciding who/when to tell because we knew it had to be very early in the pregnancy. I couldn’t wait to tell my parents, and I didn’t want my parents to know and Evan’s parents not to know. We both decided to call our parents that night.
At this point Leigh, Evan and I are the only people to know that I’m pregnant. But, it wouldn’t be long until my sister came knocking on my door (she lives in Raleigh and goes to Meredith- it is the end of her freshman year there). I believe she had some laundry to do or something so as soon as she came in I, of course, showed her the positive pregnancy tests! She couldn’t believe it, but was very excited.
I had taken the rest of the afternoon off work to let this big news settle in my brain. If I had gone back to work I wouldn’t have accomplished much, so it made the most sense to take the afternoon off. I had very mixed emotions. I was happy, sad, surprised, stressed, scared, anxious, etc. I think I experienced the entire spectrum of emotions that afternoon.
***
MY INITIAL FEARS:
Money, our dogs, my ability to be a good mother, Evan’s ability to be a good father, what my parents’ reaction would be, what Evan’s parents’ reaction would be, what my friends’ reactions would be, what my boss’s reaction would be, money, timing, Evan’s job, my job, oh yeah, did I mention money? How the hell are we going to pay for this child?!?!?!
Evan had gone back to work, Rebecca had gone back to school, so I had the afternoon to stress about everything. My fears turned to insurance. I had just started a job in December as a contractor and was moved over to a full-time employee in March. This meant I was in-between insurances and waiting for my group health coverage through AlertNow to kick-in on June 1. What if they denied me because I was pregnant??? What if this plan doesn’t cover pregnancy??? What if…..??
And this was only 3 hours after I found out I was pregnant. GEEZ. I had to calm down.
OK, so Evan gets home from work and we needed to call our parents and let them in on our little secret. But, for some weird reason we were both really nervous to tell them. It was almost like we were teenagers and were going to get in trouble for having sex! Weird!! I forgot whose parents we called first, but both of their reactions were GREAT. My mom was so excited, her first words were “I’m really going to be a grandmother?!” She was really, really happy. Evan’s parents were really happy too. Whew, the hardest part was over and we weren’t even grounded. HA!
It was now just the two of us. We were going to have a baby. Our lives were getting ready to be forever changed. And this was just the first day!
Pregnancy: Weeks 4-12
So, after a little confusion regarding my health insurance we got everything straightened out and our minds were eased when we found out that pregnancy does not count as a preexisting condition for group health insurance policy. Luckily my AlertNow (now Blackboard) health insurance covers maternity and it’s actually incredible coverage compared to some other group plans. We got very lucky and are very thankful for the fact that it’s not going to cost us thousands of dollars for the doctor’s visits and hospital stay.
Once the insurance questions were answered I finally got to stop, breathe, and start to concentrate on this little baby growing inside of me. We made our first appointment for April 21st to confirm the pregnancy via ultrasound. We thought it would be easy… again, we were in for a rollercoaster ride for the next few weeks.
Our First Appointment
The OBGYN practice that we chose is called Atrium OBGYN off of Blue Ridge Road, right across the street from REX hospital. It is very close to our house, and also very close to my office. I was referred to them by Leigh, who has been going to Dr. Alvarez since she moved to Raleigh.
Our first appointment was on April 21st. The wait from April 13th to April 21st seemed like an eternity as I wanted to confirm the pregnancy and have some solid answers ASAP. At this point I still was not feeling bad, no morning sickness, fatigue, etc. The only tale-tell sign was that my boobs were a little sore, but nothing worse than right before I get my period.
In the doctor’s office I naturally had mixed feelings. I felt scared/excited/nervous all at the same time. When they finally called Evan and I back to the ultrasound examination room I was totally overwhelmed by all of the equipment and didn’t quite know what to expect.
Dr. Alvarez was the first of many doctors we saw. He conducted a (transvaginal, ugh) ultrasound and did not see ANYTHING. There was nothing, not a gestational sac (new term I have learned in the last 2.5 months). There was nothing the indicated I was pregnant at all. What the hell? Had I built up all of this for nothing? Were all of the pregnancy tests wrong? This was crazy and absolutely unexpected. Dr. Alvarez did offer us some explanation of his findings, stating that it may be too early in the pregnancy to see anything in the ultrasound OR that my pregnancy was tubal (meaning that the egg had implanted in the wrong place, which could be very dangerous).
After the ultrasound of nothing was completed Dr. Alvarez suggested that the nurse draw blood to check my HCG (pregnancy hormone) levels. If they were above 2000 he was going to be concerned because at that level you should be able to see a sac, and it would probably mean I had a tubal pregnancy, which would have to be terminated via injection of a special drug. SCARY.
Needless to say when we left the doctor’s office Evan and I were both at a loss for words. For the last week we had been thinking that I was pregnant, we would go to the doctor for confirmation and we would go on with our lives as future mommy and daddy. It was not so easy for us, we had a little bit of waiting to do.
My blood work was scheduled to come back that afternoon. I believe a normal person would be happy to know results in the same day, but of course, impatient me was counting down every single second of the day, staring at my phone for the doctor to call me back. They finally did, the results were that my HCG levels were at around 2013. Not a good sign. They wanted me to come back in two days to have another ultrasound performed and if I had any pain in my abdomen to call them immediately. I did not have a good feeling about this pregnancy at that point.
The next day at work I was extra observant of how my body was feeling. Any pain, cramp, twitch or even dull ache I noticed and by the end of the morning I had called my doctor. I’m sure that a huge part of it was my body playing tricks on me or the pains were just in my head, but when there is a chance of a tubal pregnancy it can be very dangerous and any rupture could cause infertility. If this pregnancy wasn’t destined to happen I didn’t want any future pregnancy to be doomed. The doctor wanted me to come back that afternoon so he could perform another ultrasound to confirm or deny a tubal pregnancy.
So, Evan and I went back to the doctor’s office, back to the same ultrasound room, not really sure of what to expect. I think our minds were both blank at this point. Neither one of us really wanted to get too attached to the idea of being pregnant because we had no idea what the outcome was going to be. So, Dr. Alvarez made his appearance, performed the ultrasound, and to all of our amazement there was a gestational sac on the screen!!!!! Even Dr. Alvarez was amazed. In just one day the ultrasound had gone from nothing to something which was good news for us.
They still wanted to keep an eye on me as I was having some abnormal bleeding and cramping so for the next few weeks I went to the doctor probably about 5 or 6 times and had a total of 4 ultrasounds. Although the bleeding and cramping was scary, they determined that I was not miscarrying. In fact, in about 30% of pregnancies women experience some type of bleeding. When they finally saw the baby’s heartbeat at 6 weeks 1 day I was elated. Once the heartbeat is found and is strong, the chance of the pregnancy being successful and going to term reaches about 90% (as opposed to my first appointment after my bleeding started where the doctor told me I probably only had about a 30% chance of NOT miscarrying). Things had really turned around. We were blessed and so happy.
There Must be Something in the Water (finding out all of your friends are pregnant!!)
So, when I first found out I was pregnant one of my biggest concerns/fears was that I was really the first one of our friends to have a baby, besides Josh and Laura Oakes. Of the girls I went to high school with, none of us had babies and to be quite honest with you, I didn’t think any of us would for a few years at least. I was scared! I didn’t know how to take care of a baby! Well, we had nothing to fear because over the next couple of weeks we found out that FIVE of our friends were pregnant!!! How exciting is that?!?
Brittany Samuel: Due December 25th
Jessica Layell: Due December 30th (Girl)
Jen Critz: Due December 31st (Girl)
Alicia Kelly (my former co-worker at IBM): Due December 25th
Laura Oakes: Due February 28th (I think)
And ME!!!: DUE DECEMBER 26th!
So now Evan and I had a huge support system to fall back on and speak to whenever we had pregnancy related questions or wanted to just blab about our baby. It was awesome!
Morning Sickness is Bullshit
….because it’s not morning sickness. It’s all day sickness that makes you feel like you are going to go crazy. Starting at about 6 weeks I was sick, and it lasted until last Friday (it is June 23 and I am 13 weeks 3 days pregnant) so it’s lasted a LOOONG time.
I can distinctly remember the first time it happened. Pregnancy all-day-long sickness totally takes you off-guard and then doesn’t let its guard down until it wants to. One night I begged Evan to go pick up Kanki (a Japanese restaurant at the mall near our house). I really wanted the filet hibachi dinner that comes with rice, veggies, soup, salad, etc. It sounded soooo good in my head, and I couldn’t wait to eat it. Once Evan walked in the door I pounced on the food. I probably looked like a wild animal that hadn’t eaten in 3 weeks, but I was really looking that forward to it. I took the first bite, yummy, second bite, still good, third bite, hmm this isn’t right. There was no forth bite. I ran to the bathroom and threw up. Japanese food was the start of my “morning” sickness and I would never look at Kanki the same again. It was a really sad moment.
Everyone tells you that being sick while pregnant is a really good sign. It means that the pregnancy is developing well and that your baby and body are both doing well. Well, OK, I get that, but it still SUCKS!!!! For about two weeks straight I couldn’t eat ANYTHING without throwing up 5-10 minutes later, and sometimes it didn’t even take that long to get sick. And believe me, it’s really fun when you’re only 7 weeks pregnant, not showing at all, throwing up in the bathroom of your office building. You immediately start getting bad looks, like you are the crazy, bulimic girl- it is no fun at all.
Being sick and at work is awful in itself, especially when you don’t work with anyone who is/has A. currently pregnant, b. has been pregnant. You feel like you are complaining all of the time and no one can really understand how bad you are really feeling. For about 4 weeks I felt like a broken record; a whiney little girl with a stomachache. It really doesn’t help when the only people that can relate to you are men whose wives have been pregnant. All they can relate to are the mood swings that they experienced. “Uh oh, watch out for the crazy, pregnant lady,” was the expression I saw in their eyes every time we passed each other in the hallway. Nahh, I’m being too hard on my office. Everyone was actually very supportive and listened to me complain about how bad I felt over and over and over and over.
Foods that grossed me out during my first trimester:
· Scrambled eggs
· Black Beans
· Meat (chicken, beef, pork, etc)
· McDonald’s sausage biscuits
· Fried Foods
· Diet Sprite
· My dad’s BBQ chicken (sad, but true)
· Caprese salad/sandwich (Mozz cheese, tomato, pesto)
Baby Wag @ 13 Weeks 2 Days (June 22, 2010)
Today (June 22) was our appointment to have the nuchal translucency ultrasound. This ultrasound screens for markers in the developing baby that signal for Down’s Syndrome and other chromosomal defects. It was a little nerve-wracking, but age was definitely on our side. Being 26 I only have a 1 in 1200 chance of having a baby with Down’s Syndrome, but we wanted to do the screen for the peace of mind OR so we could be prepared if, heaven forbid, there is a problem.
In the scan they check for the nuchal translucency fluid that gathers behind the neck of the baby up until about 13 weeks 6 days pregnant. The thicker the fluid, the larger the chance of your baby having Down’s Syndrome. They are looking for the fluid to be less than 2.5mm thick, our baby’s measured 1.9mm. This was good news to us and received a “normal” from our doctor. They also check to see if the nasal bone has formed. Our baby’s nasal bone had formed, so we got another “normal” check from our doctor. This doesn’t rule out Down’s Syndrome completely because they do the ultrasound in conjunction with blood work. The blood work results should be back in about 5-7 days and they will call me with the results. Evan and I are praying and keeping our fingers crossed that the news will be good. I’ll keep you posted!
The funniest part about this ultrasound was the fact that clearly our doctor did not want to perform it for us. Apparently this test in particular is really targeted to couples over the age of 35, who have a higher risk of having a baby with Down’s Syndrome. The test itself also has a false-positive rate of about 5%, which can cause unnecessary worry. I learned that 9 out of 10 babies with a nuchal translucency of 2.5mm to 3.5mm end up being just fine, even though that range is considered abnormal. So, in reality this screen is to recommend more invasive testing or not and my doctor did not want us to have to do that invasive testing (amniocentesis, etc). Luckily, so far we’re good. We’re just waiting on the blood work.
TaDa! And the blood work came in. According to both tests we have a 1 in 3000 chance of Down’s Syndrome and a 1 in 10,000 chance of having a baby with any other chromosomal disorders. Very good news indeed.
The First Trimester is OVER!!!!
Alright, we made it! The first trimester is over, but morning sickness is not. Every time I hear someone say that nausea ends at 12 weeks I want to slap them. Mine did not end until around 14 weeks. The truth is that it does go away as quickly as it came and you do forget about it pretty quickly. I lost a total of 8 pounds the first trimester, but I am having absolutely no problem gaining it all back! (Fortunately, or unfortunately, you decide)
Please forgive me if I move back and forth from present to past tense. I am currently 18 weeks 2 days pregnant (July 27, 2010) and trying to recap what’s gone on so far in the second trimester. It’s been very exciting and pretty uneventful (thank goodness) so far. The most exciting part of this trimester so far has been finding out on July 19, 2010 that our baby is a BOY!!!!!
Me at 14 weeks preggo:
Me at 16 weeks preg go:
It’s a Boy! July 19, 2010
So, today is the day I’ve been waiting for. My 17 week ultrasound + finding out if the baby is a boy or a girl!!! Evan and I invited my mom, his mom and my sister to come along with us to the doctor’s appointment so they could see at least one of the ultrasounds. My mom really wanted to see the baby and I thought it would be very cool to have them all there.
Since I’ve been pregnant I have been set that the baby is a girl. I’ve had dreams about her (3 total) and everyone keeps telling me that because I was so sick during the first weeks of pregnancy that I most definitely will be having a little girl. Evan thought that too, up until the last week or two, then all of the sudden he started to think that the baby is a boy.
In the weeks leading up to this appointment I have been doing everything from taking online “gender prediction” tests, to looking up ultrasounds of both boys and girls so I will be able to tell exactly what I’m looking at when the ultrasound tech points out the boy or girl parts. Evan has also been doing the online tests, one included some kind of Chinese calendar, which I swear, one time said I was having a boy, and one time said I was having a girl. Everything has been right on target giving us about a 50% chance of either- no test has clearly pointed in a certain direction.
So.. we finally get to the doctor’s office, my stomach has been in knots all morning. I don’t know why I’m so nervous about this appointment. I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I’m afraid the baby won’t cooperate and reveal him/herself to us OR that the ultrasound tech will find something in the ultrasound (heaven forbid).
Just as we walked into the ultrasound screening room Evan and I let Alison, our sweet ultrasound tech, know that we wanted to guess if the baby was a boy or a girl- so whenever she could see something, we didn’t want her to tell us, we wanted to have a look and guess ourselves. Well, sure enough, all of my internet ultrasound picture research came in handy because as soon as Alison said “OK, I can see something” I pointed directly at little man’s penis!!! As you can tell, I was really proud of myself. Everything I read said that a boy would look like a “turtle” and sure enough, right there before all of our eyes, was a “turtle”. We are going to have a little baby boy!!!
We were all so excited! I finally could stop referring to little baby Wag as “it”! He is already so loved and we are so excited to meet the little guy!
With the good, also comes the bad (not so bad, but just a small concern). Apparently my placenta isn’t exactly in the right place right now, something called “marginal placenta previa” is going on which means that the placenta is a little too close for comfort to my cervix right now. The doctor said 99% of the time these things resolve themselves, but they are going to do another follow-up ultrasound at 28 weeks, if the placenta hasn’t moved they will probably have to schedule a C-Section. This means no harm to the baby, but it will be disappointing if they have to schedule a C-Section, as scared as I am of labor, I still do want to experience it. We will keep our fingers crossed and pray that everything works itself out.
August 9, 2010 (20 weeks)
So, it’s been a while since I’ve updated everything. Since finding out that baby boy Wagoner was actually a boy one very, very exciting thing has happened!!! Evan and I can both feel the baby kick from the outside!!! You have to be really patient and most of the time I have to by lying down, but Evan finally felt him about a week ago. Evan was so excited!! I have been able to feel our little kickboxer for several weeks now, but only from the inside. It’s very exciting that Evan can feel his little boy now! It makes everything so real. He’s growing every single day. Each day I feel him kick more and more. He’s especially active at night when I’m laying down to go to bed. One of my favorite activities lately is to go to bed about an hour early and read (but it’s really an excuse to lay there and feel him wiggle around in my belly!)
Complaints
At this point my list of complaints is very short, whew! First trimester nausea/fatigue is over and I’m feeling pretty good. I guess the only real thing I can complain about right now is my back. It aches pretty much all of the time, but I think that’s pretty common. Also, I’ve noticed I’ve had some pains in my legs, which I read was my body’s reaction to all the stretching my hips are going through. It’s not really anything that’s causing too much discomfort. I know I need to “man up” because it’s probably only going to get worse as the months pass by. I can’t believe I’m already twenty weeks pregnant. It seems like I blinked my eyes and two months flew by. December is going to be here before we know it!
Evan: Super Husband
Evan has been a superhero throughout this entire pregnancy. He’s cleaned, done laundry, dishes, IRONED!!! You name it, he’s done it. I will never forget all of the help that he’s given me. Last night he seriously ironed about 20 of my tops/dresses. He’s awesome. He will undoubtedly win husband/father of the year (at least from me).
Our next doctor’s appointment is August 16. It will just be a routine pre-natal exam where they will check baby boy’s heartrate and ask me if I have any questions. Should be fairly short, no ultrasound.
We picked a name!!
After much debate we have finally decided on a name for Baby Wag. His name is going to be Benjamin Evan Wagoner. We will call him Ben. I have always loved the name Ben and fell in love with the name Benjamin Evan as soon as I said it out loud. I knew that was the perfect name for our baby boy. Evan, on the other hand, took a little bit more convincing. You see, Seth and Sacha’s son, Jack, his middle name is Benjamin. So, Evan felt that it wasn’t right for the two of them to share a name (even though everyone else on the planet felt like it was absolutely no big deal… including Seth and Sacha!) Evan’s grandfather’s name is also Ben, which makes the name doubly special. With Seth and Sacha’s blessing we officially decided that Ben’s name will be Ben! It has been so nice to finally be able to look at my growing belly and be able to call our baby by his name while talking to him. Everything is right in our world- we are so blessed and are reminded every time little Ben kicks how lucky we are to get to meet him in December (please, please Ben come in December!!!!).
Ok- so let’s get to the good stuff- PICTURES! I have a lot to catch you up with.
At around 17 weeks, (I’m pretty sure I wrote about it before) when we did the anatomy ultrasound and found out that Baby Ben was a boy, the ultrasound tech discovered that my placenta wasn’t exactly where it needed to be. So, we had another appointment at 28 weeks to do another ultrasound to make sure that everything was in place. I was so excited to get to see my baby again via ultrasound. It’s so funny that something so close, right there in your belly, seems so far away, until you actually get a chance to look at him! Here is a preview of what Baby Ben will possibly look like-
How chubby are those cute little cheeks? And, don’t worry, his hand isn’t deformed, it’s just the quality of the ultrasound. We can’t really tell who he looks like right now, but regardless, he is already a handsome little guy. Like I will say a million times, we are SO excited to meet him.
The good news about that particular doctor’s visit is that my placenta has moved out of the way of my cervix and we are good to go for a term delivery. Right now there will be no need for a scheduled C-Section! Wooohooo J
Second Trimester Overview
I would say that the best way to describe the second trimester for me was “smooth sailing”. I had absolutely no problems. No swelling, so real pains (besides the occasional backache, which I believe every pregnant girl experiences), and no reason to go to the hospital unexpectedly, thank goodness!!! Towards the end of the second trimester I did start experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions. One night they were particularly frequent (6 in one hour) so I did call the doctor. After his reassurance that I just needed to drink lots of water and take it easy, they did finally go away. Very fortunately, that incident was a false alarm and so far it’s been isolated.
In all honesty, there really isn’t too much to report about my second trimester. The big milestones were that we found out Ben was a boy, picked a name, and got to see his beautiful face towards the end of the second trimester when we had our ultrasound to determine my placenta was in the right place. So far, so good! Only 12 more weeks!!!
HOME STRETCH- Welcome to the 3rd Trimester!!!!
I am still pinching myself trying to figure out how I have already arrived to my third trimester of pregnancy. Back in June this trimester seemed light years away, and suddenly I blink my eyes and I am here. Insane! I’m still feeling great and very, very excited that there are only 12 weeks to go. Evan and I have been getting along great and are having a blast getting ready for Ben’s debut.
We don’t have a crib yet, but that’s OK, Ben will be sleeping in our room for the first few weeks anyway. We ordered our crib a few months ago from Pottery Barn Kids and unfortunately it is on backorder until at least December 6th! Let’s keep our fingers crossed it gets here before Ben does.
Overall the biggest complaint that I have is the fact that I have to get up 437894324 times in the middle of the night to pee. It’s sooo annoying. Makes it hard to ever feel well-rested. But, I know that I’ll be well-trained for the marathon midnight feeding sessions that are in my future. Hopefully the lack of rest will have me prepared for the lack of sleep I’ll be getting once Ben is here.
Things I am thankful for:
· No stretch marks (so far)
· No terrible backaches/pains
· No swelling (so far)
· I haven’t gone into labor yet J
· My wonderful husband
· Our wonderful support system- Evan and I are so blessed with great parents and family who have been there for us every step of the way.
· The fact that baby Ben is healthy and kicking!
· The fact that my nose hasn’t gotten bigger- ha!
· Old Navy maternity clothes (cheap)
· Did I mention my wonderful husband??
· Massages
· Being able to work from home after Ben arrives
· My awesome friends
· My awesome pregnant friends
Things I could live without
· Having to get up 437894324 in the middle of the night to pee
· Ben kicking my right ribs constantly (I know I shouldn’t complain, he’s active and healthy, but man, after a while it hurts!!)
· Peeing a little bit whenever I sneeze- haha! I know it’s gross, but it happens.
· Heartburn
· People asking me how bad is sucks not being able to drink alcohol. Believe it or not, it’s no big deal and it irritates me that people assume everything sucks without being able to drink. Of course there are days where I would absolutely LOVE a glass of red wine, but it’s OK that I can’t drink it. I can wait. Ben is much, much more important. Plus- I don’t miss the hangovers one bit J
Hop, Skip and Jump to 32 weeks!! (Week of November 1, 2010)
So, how the heck did we get here so fast? I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated but I’m telling you, time has been flyyyying. I’ve been feeling great so fat…err… I mean far, just getting bigger every day. As of today, November 4th, I have gained a whopping 28 pounds. A little bit more than I had anticipated, but still not terrible. I have less than 8 weeks to go until my due date, and I’m hoping to keep it under 35 pounds total (we’ll see how that works out).
