we are at: 16 weeks 5 days.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
back off
i am no longer allowed to sleep on my back.
it sucks.
this is because as baby grows (and so does uterus), sleeping or resting too long on one's back creates pressure on the inferior vena cava, a large vein that supplies blood to the placenta. it can also put undue pressure on the spinal cord and/or large nerves and contribute to or exacerbate sciatica.
unfortunately sleeping on my back (or stomach) is most comfortable for me. i am not a side sleeper. even with a pillow between my knees, my back and hips get tired and sore. my hips also start to ache from my legs not being stretched out straight.
maybe i could learn to sleep standing up?
in the meantime i guess i'll have to learn how to sleep comfortably on my side.
we are at: 16 weeks.
it sucks.
this is because as baby grows (and so does uterus), sleeping or resting too long on one's back creates pressure on the inferior vena cava, a large vein that supplies blood to the placenta. it can also put undue pressure on the spinal cord and/or large nerves and contribute to or exacerbate sciatica.
unfortunately sleeping on my back (or stomach) is most comfortable for me. i am not a side sleeper. even with a pillow between my knees, my back and hips get tired and sore. my hips also start to ache from my legs not being stretched out straight.
maybe i could learn to sleep standing up?
in the meantime i guess i'll have to learn how to sleep comfortably on my side.
we are at: 16 weeks.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
get a little backbone
we were only supposed to hear the heartbeat this morning, but brian really wanted an ultrasound and begged the doctor for one. so she rolled in the machine, squirted that cold jelly on my tummy, and baby spot popped up on the screen.
WOW! what a change from four weeks ago when we saw him/her last! eyes and nose were clearly visible to us and the doctor could see its brain (all i could tell was a big head). that curved horizontal line on the left side is its spine, and there were little stripes across its chest that the doctor said were ribs. spot was very wiggly this morning and we saw arms and legs flailing everywhere. apparently he/she was as happy to see mommy and daddy as we were to see him/her!
we did get to hear the heartbeat as well, which the doctor said would get stronger and easier to hear as the baby gets older. it was beating along at 120 bpm which she said was good. normal is 110-140 bpm, she said.
my uterus is up at my belly button, which means spot is growing well. doctors measure "fundal height," the distance to the top of the uterus, as a way of making sure the baby is growing enough. they just poke around on your stomach as if they are feeling for your liver or spleen or something. i had been trying to figure out where it was the last couple of weeks and have been unsure so she showed me. i was quite surprised - it is hard and firm, like a flexed muscle, and then at the top my stomach gets all squooshy again. personally, i knew that baby was growing without her even having to tell me. i only fit into a couple pairs of my pants anymore and my bias-cut, elastic waist skirts.
our next visit is in december, the same day that we have the 20-week ultrasound. next week or so i go in to the lab for the expanded alpha-feto-protein (xafp) test, which tests not only for some chromosomal abnormalities (like down's and trisomy 18) but also for non-hereditary problems like neural tube defects. i will also have a chromosome workup on myself, as there are some minor family histories that could have caused a problem that could be passed on to our baby. highly unlikely, but i figure it's just one more piece of information, and i only have to do it once. it's not like my chromosomes will change from this baby to the next.
we are at: 15 weeks 3 days.
WOW! what a change from four weeks ago when we saw him/her last! eyes and nose were clearly visible to us and the doctor could see its brain (all i could tell was a big head). that curved horizontal line on the left side is its spine, and there were little stripes across its chest that the doctor said were ribs. spot was very wiggly this morning and we saw arms and legs flailing everywhere. apparently he/she was as happy to see mommy and daddy as we were to see him/her!
we did get to hear the heartbeat as well, which the doctor said would get stronger and easier to hear as the baby gets older. it was beating along at 120 bpm which she said was good. normal is 110-140 bpm, she said.
my uterus is up at my belly button, which means spot is growing well. doctors measure "fundal height," the distance to the top of the uterus, as a way of making sure the baby is growing enough. they just poke around on your stomach as if they are feeling for your liver or spleen or something. i had been trying to figure out where it was the last couple of weeks and have been unsure so she showed me. i was quite surprised - it is hard and firm, like a flexed muscle, and then at the top my stomach gets all squooshy again. personally, i knew that baby was growing without her even having to tell me. i only fit into a couple pairs of my pants anymore and my bias-cut, elastic waist skirts.
our next visit is in december, the same day that we have the 20-week ultrasound. next week or so i go in to the lab for the expanded alpha-feto-protein (xafp) test, which tests not only for some chromosomal abnormalities (like down's and trisomy 18) but also for non-hereditary problems like neural tube defects. i will also have a chromosome workup on myself, as there are some minor family histories that could have caused a problem that could be passed on to our baby. highly unlikely, but i figure it's just one more piece of information, and i only have to do it once. it's not like my chromosomes will change from this baby to the next.
we are at: 15 weeks 3 days.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
nursery musings
a few years ago mil got this cute little rocker for brian, as a gift for the future grandbaby:
brian just adores baseball and the san francisco giants and has all his life. he has always been and always will be a giants fan. (i even incorporated baseballs into our wedding.) so he was thrilled with this little rocker. it sat in mil's basement for a couple years, in it's shipping box, because we did not have the space for it nor a little one. since we purchased our home this summer, it has moved up here with us and lives in the museum - brian's office which also doubles as a display room for all his baseball memorabilia, including that from his playing years. when the rocker was purchased i suggested we could create a gentle, peachy, giants-themed nursery around the rocker when we had a baby. in the meantime it complements the museum nicely.
now brian wants to get started on the nursery. as in, now, let's paint this weekend.
keep in mind that i am only 15 weeks along.
keep in mind also that the nursery will displace my sewing room, which i use almost daily and have longed for since practically the beginning of time. once the sewing room is converted to a nursery, the sewing room will [somewhat inconveniently] share space with the guest room. displacing the museum is apparently not an option to my dear husband.
am i nuts, or does he want to get going on this just a tad bit too early? i told him we didn't need to start on the nursery until the beginning of april. spot is due may 12 and could well be late. that gives us 6 weeks, at least, to prep and paint and build furniture and shop and decorate and move my entire sewing life downstairs.
we are at: 15 weeks 1 day.
brian just adores baseball and the san francisco giants and has all his life. he has always been and always will be a giants fan. (i even incorporated baseballs into our wedding.) so he was thrilled with this little rocker. it sat in mil's basement for a couple years, in it's shipping box, because we did not have the space for it nor a little one. since we purchased our home this summer, it has moved up here with us and lives in the museum - brian's office which also doubles as a display room for all his baseball memorabilia, including that from his playing years. when the rocker was purchased i suggested we could create a gentle, peachy, giants-themed nursery around the rocker when we had a baby. in the meantime it complements the museum nicely.
now brian wants to get started on the nursery. as in, now, let's paint this weekend.
keep in mind that i am only 15 weeks along.
keep in mind also that the nursery will displace my sewing room, which i use almost daily and have longed for since practically the beginning of time. once the sewing room is converted to a nursery, the sewing room will [somewhat inconveniently] share space with the guest room. displacing the museum is apparently not an option to my dear husband.
am i nuts, or does he want to get going on this just a tad bit too early? i told him we didn't need to start on the nursery until the beginning of april. spot is due may 12 and could well be late. that gives us 6 weeks, at least, to prep and paint and build furniture and shop and decorate and move my entire sewing life downstairs.
we are at: 15 weeks 1 day.
Monday, November 10, 2008
14w
brian is so cute and sweet: mondays are the "anniversary days" when we gain another week. so every monday morning before he goes to work, he tells me, "happy (xx) weeks!"
i love that my husband is as excited as i am about this baby.
we are at: 14 weeks.
i love that my husband is as excited as i am about this baby.
we are at: 14 weeks.
Friday, November 7, 2008
our christmas present
this year will be finding out whether we are going to have a son or a daughter. (i'm sure there will be more under the tree than that, but that's the most exciting one.) this is because we are lucky enough to be at 20 weeks the week of christmas, and my doctor wants us to have our 20-week u/s that week. not a week before and not a week after. i know, i asked.
i am insanely excited about this but for one thing: because your bladder sits in front of your uterus, you have do the u/s with a full bladder. (the bladder is one of the only places in your body made of special cells that actually stretch like elastic. a full bladder means it's stretched thin like when you blow up a balloon.) that means two hours before, i have to empty out and then within the following hour (so an hour before) drink 32 ounces of water. i told the scheduling guy they had better not keep me waiting when we get there!
so ladies, my question is this: is it as uncomfortable as i think it will be? or am i overreacting?
we are at: 13 weeks 4 days.
i am insanely excited about this but for one thing: because your bladder sits in front of your uterus, you have do the u/s with a full bladder. (the bladder is one of the only places in your body made of special cells that actually stretch like elastic. a full bladder means it's stretched thin like when you blow up a balloon.) that means two hours before, i have to empty out and then within the following hour (so an hour before) drink 32 ounces of water. i told the scheduling guy they had better not keep me waiting when we get there!
so ladies, my question is this: is it as uncomfortable as i think it will be? or am i overreacting?
we are at: 13 weeks 4 days.
Monday, November 3, 2008
insanity
all the books and doctors tell you about "mood changes" due to the increased hormones. apparently there is such a wild cocktail of hormones coursing through your veins that it's like pms on steriods. what they don't tell you is how insanely nuts you feel all the time and how hard it is to keep it all together.
my husband, bless his heart, is taking most of this in stride. he's reading all the books too, especially the ones that tell the husband your wife will be as sweet as pie one moment and a raging witch the next, for no apparent reason. it's not your fault. she's just pregnant and hormonal. so he [mostly] let it roll off his back when i blew up at him in mervyn's on saturday.
in retrospect, i do still think he acted somewhat inconsiderately. but had i been a normal (read: not pregnant) wife, this would have rolled right off my back. he might have gotten some smart remark directed his way when we left the store, to vent my frustration. but not this time - oh no. i was fuming and let him know it, right there in the store. then i stormed out of the store (with brian calling after me), got in my car, and left. then i started sobbing.
the hardest part about these "mood swings" (they are so much more than mood swings!) is that we pregnant ladies know we're being nuts and unreasonable when we go off of you guys, and yet we just can't stop ourselves. we hear those words coming out of our mouths and are appalled at ourselves. that just makes us feel more insane, because we know this isn't really us, and yet we're acting like that. most of the time [i think] i can keep my emotions in check, but when i can't, it really makes me feel insanely crazy.
we are at: 13 weeks.
my husband, bless his heart, is taking most of this in stride. he's reading all the books too, especially the ones that tell the husband your wife will be as sweet as pie one moment and a raging witch the next, for no apparent reason. it's not your fault. she's just pregnant and hormonal. so he [mostly] let it roll off his back when i blew up at him in mervyn's on saturday.
in retrospect, i do still think he acted somewhat inconsiderately. but had i been a normal (read: not pregnant) wife, this would have rolled right off my back. he might have gotten some smart remark directed his way when we left the store, to vent my frustration. but not this time - oh no. i was fuming and let him know it, right there in the store. then i stormed out of the store (with brian calling after me), got in my car, and left. then i started sobbing.
the hardest part about these "mood swings" (they are so much more than mood swings!) is that we pregnant ladies know we're being nuts and unreasonable when we go off of you guys, and yet we just can't stop ourselves. we hear those words coming out of our mouths and are appalled at ourselves. that just makes us feel more insane, because we know this isn't really us, and yet we're acting like that. most of the time [i think] i can keep my emotions in check, but when i can't, it really makes me feel insanely crazy.
we are at: 13 weeks.
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