Since I haven’t written one pregnancy update, I figure I
better get one up, before the little guy arrives and I have no time to do so! I
am 35 weeks today – which is just crazy! This pregnancy has gone SO fast, which
I attribute to having a busy little girl who keeps me very occupied and the
fact that our 2 ½ year battle with secondary infertility makes this pregnancy
seems more surreal than the first. At times I forget that I am even pregnant
because it is still such a miracle that it still hasn’t fully sunken in. I plan to tell that whole story on another
post though, hopefully sooner than later, because I always want to remember this
miracle and the trials leading up to it.
I thought I had at least 4 weeks until the little guy made
his debut…and I still might, but I recently learned at my last appointment,
that we might be holding our little guy in just 2 short weeks! I started
nesting super early and getting things ready way long ago. The only things left
were washing all the blankets, sheets, and clothing up through 3 months and
then getting packed for the hospital (which includes buying items I was glad I
had in my first delivery and items I learned that I wished I had had…and packing
for Eden to stay at grandma and grandpa’s). I haven’t been the most energetic
lately and had definitely not been feeling the nesting motivation to do these
last few things, until I heard,
“If that’s the case
we will be having a baby at 37 weeks.”
“What?!?” I thought. Fortunately the adrenaline rush from
that gave me a little extra motivation, and I can now say that all of the
laundry is done, the packing lists have been made, the items have all been
purchased, and I have now started actually packing for our hospital stay.
At my last appointment I had a routine ultrasound done, in
which, we discovered that our little boy’s tummy is just tenths of a percentage
above the 10th percentile. If the tummy is below the 10th
percentile in size, they send you to a specialist. The fear is mostly that the
baby is not getting everything they need through the umbilical cord. The ultrasound
tech did measure the flow through the cord and it looked good though. The
doctor believes that our baby is healthy, but just small. He decided to have me
come in for weekly non-stress tests to have the umbilical flow monitored as a
precaution. Then we will have a follow up ultrasounds at 37 weeks and if the
tummy drops in percentile at all, we will be having a baby then! The thought of
holding the little guy in just 2 short weeks definitely gets me all giddy and
I am relieved that he will at least be full term, but at the same time, I wouldn’t
mind letting him chill in my tummy a little longer – till the 39 week mark,
unless he comes on his own, but I guess we will just see how it all plays out
and what happens. I just want him to me safe and healthy. The doctor said if
his tummy drops in percentile, it would just be good to get him out so that we
can start working on nourishing him from the outside and getting him growing.
Other than that surprise, everything looked great on the
ultrasound, which is a relief since we had a couple of hiccups on earlier
ultrasounds . All pretty minor, but still you don’t want to hear anything about
your baby other than, “everything looks perfect!” At our 20 week ultrasound we
learned that our little guy had an echogenic focus on his heart, fluid on his
kidneys, and what they believed was his gall bladder filled with fluid. We learned that the echogenic foci is probably
THE most common abnormality seen on ultrasounds though and that it would have no
effect on the function of his heart. It is just an itty bitty build up of
tissues. We also learned that it is more common for some reason, for boys to
have fluid on their kidneys and eventually this problem resolved itself. Lastly, though not super common, having fluid
in the gall bladder isn’t unheard of and really isn’t a problem, but they sent
us to a specialist to make sure that it was indeed his gall bladder they were
seeing and not his intestines with fluid on them. Fortunately, it was just his
gall bladder and that has since resolved itself as well. So now just his tiny
tummy thing…
I also want to remember some of the things I’ve personally
experienced during this pregnancy. It may be kind of late in the game to fill
one of these surveys out, but better late than never!
How Far Along: 35 weeks
Total weight gain: Oh you know, just 29 pounds!!!
Maternity clothes: Yes, I’ve carried very low, just like my
first pregnancy and have been in maternity clothes since like week 14. I would
feel even more nauseated with a waist band pushing on my tummy.
Stretch Marks: No
Sleep: Besides a few restroom trips in the night, I sleep
pretty soundly. I always fall asleep on
my left side and wake up on my back.
Best moment this week: Getting to see the cute little guy on
an ultrasound…And for the first time ever, he let us actually get a little 3D
peek at his face…at least the half that wasn’t hiding behind the placenta, but
hey, it’s something!
Movement: Yes! For the little guy that he is, there are times he kicks so hard that I seriously wonder if it is possible for him to break my
water!
Food cravings: give
me all the WATERMELON! I haven’t been slacking on putting down peanut M&Ms either
lately (the Costco bags are on rebate till the end of the month!) Throughout
the pregnancy I have craved lots of citrus, protein (cheese, chicken,
ham/egg/cheese sandwiches), potatoes, peanut butter and strawberries.
Food aversions: S’more flavored ice cream (my first
pregnancy ruined me of that one) and toothpaste…gag! Which puts me in a quite the predicament
since I am a little OCD about my teeth being clean and usually brush for about
5 minutes – the worst 5 minutes of my day. During my morning sickness stage
(that was in the afternoon/night till week 16) I didn’t want sweets at all –
always a weird thing for me, and unfortunately I didn’t want vegetables, unless
they were cooked.
Gender: BOY
Belly button in or out: Uh, flat.
What I miss: not waddling, being able to bend over, and
having more of a selection of clothing to wear. Oh and definitely not wear a
compression stocking on my right leg everyday!
What I am looking forward to: holding and snuggling my baby and soaking up every
single moment of the newborn phase that passes all too quickly! With Reed by my side, finally meeting our baby and also the moment that Eden meets her little brother for the first
time.
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