Week 9: I’m feeling just about back to normal now. Eating isn’t as much of a chore and now that I’ve figured out the ice trick, it’s actually enjoyable to drink tea and water again. My mouth still tastes funny…but peppermint gum seems to solve that problem. I had my intake appointment with a nurse this week. We went over family histories and took some baseline vitals. Matt came with me to help out with Adelaide during the appointment. What a fiasco. Adelaide did not want to have anything to do with any of it. For some reason, she freaked out whenever the doctors had to do anything to me, like take my weight, blood pressure, and oh man, when I had to leave the room to pee in a cup it was like her world ended. I don’t know what her deal was, but she was not a happy camper. She threw an epic tantrum when we left the doctor’s office and screamed the whole way home in the car. It’s so awful when she cries now because she knows words so she’ll sob and cry and then ask for mommy or daddy or paci. Breaks my heart. She went straight to bed when we got home and took a good long nap. Needless-to-say I was exhausted after the event, too, so I also took a nap. I’ve been napping a lot lately. It’s pretty necessary to get me to the end of the day. I don’t remember being this tired last time. Maybe it’s having Adelaide to take care of, instead of just myself. Who knows!
Week 10: I consider it a small victory when I don’t have to take a nap during the day. My days feel so much more productive and less overwhelming when I have two hours to myself to relax and do whatever I need to do without Adelaide underfoot. This week I’ve had several days with no nap! Yay! My appetite is back to normal and my belly has really started sticking out. I was alarmed at first, until I read that during a second pregnancy it’s very common to start showing about a month before you did during your first pregnancy. So now I don’t feel so bad. And I’m actually pretty excited to finally look pregnant and not just bloated. Our baby is officially a fetus! Yippee! This means that all of it’s vital organs have been created and now they all just need to do a lot of growing. Looking back, these past six weeks have really flown by. I wonder if the rest of this pregnancy will go this quickly? I had my first appointment with my midwife this week. Matt couldn’t make the appointment so it was just Adelaide and I. She was so much better this week than last week! THANK GOODNESS! The highlight from the appointment was getting to hear our baby’s heartbeat. What a sweet sound! 170 beats per minute—very healthy. We’ll have ultrasounds next week, which I can hardly wait for, but in the meantime, hearing a heartbeat and confirming that there is, in fact, a tiny little human in there, was very exciting.
Week 11: Week eleven was such a crazy week! My sister, Dana, moved to Colorado on Thursday so our week was full of dinner with her and play dates with her and then hosting her and my Dad on their light night in Portland. Goodbyes are so much more emotional when you’re a hormonal mess. I was very, VERY sad to see her go, but I know she’ll have a great time making her new, post-school life in Colorado. I am really looking forward to when she gets settled in her new job and her new home and we can visit her.
The other major event of last week was our first trimester screening ultrasound. We chose to do this optional screening because we really want to know if we need to seriously prepare ourselves for a baby with special needs. Most everything on the ultrasound looked great. The baby measured at 11 weeks 6 days, so just slightly larger than average (not enough to move our due date) and the little heart beat was recorded at 173 beats per minute. This baby’s heart beat is quite a bit faster than Adelaide’s, which was around 150/160 bpm at this point in my pregnancy with her. The whole process was long and drawn out and of course Matt and Adelaide were both there and Adelaide was VERY done with being in a dark room with a TV that only get’s black and white reception (LOL!).
The ultrasound technician made note of an abnormality she thought she saw on the ultrasound, which is known as a Single Umbilical Artery. Normal umbilical cords have two arteries and one vein, and by itself, an SUA doesn’t mean anything. One artery can do the job of two, and the baby can still thrive and grow and be happy and healthy. The potential issue, is that an SUA can mean there are other chromosomal issues with the baby that can cause a myriad of issues ranging from very minor to very major. Do you love how completely vague all of this is!??!??! It’s driving me nuts!!! Anyhow, they took eight vials of blood from me after the ultrasound and now they’re running a ton of tests and hopefully, like with Adelaide, they’ll come back with nothing exciting. At our anatomy ultrasound (between 18 and 20 weeks), once our little peanut gets a bit bigger, they’ll take a look at the umbilical cord again and confirm or debunk this whole SUA business. We’re hoping we’re among the group of mis-diagnosed patients! Anyhow, it’s all a bunch of unnecessary stress if you ask me, so here are some happy pictures of our tiny new baby!
So there you go! Week 12 was a blur with preparations for Adelaide’s 2nd birthday party (post to come soon!) and now we’re in week 13! My next doctor’s appointment is in two weeks and we’ll get the full run-down on my blood work then. Until then, just a lot of eating and resting and baby-growing!
Grandma Lively says
I am really enjoying getting to “share” this pregnancy with you even though I’m soooooooo far away. Thanks for doing all of this. xoxoxo