32 Week Update

Another milestone bites the dust! I'm running out of them! I feel like perhaps I've been making them too easy, but then when you think about it it's been at least 4 weeks since I made the 32 week milestone so it wasn't that easy! I think my 2nd to final milestone will be to achieve 36 weeks 5 days, which is the day after when I had the girls making me the most pregnant I've ever been. Sounds reasonable enough! My final milestone will be 39 weeks when I finally have him! 7 weeks away!

Monday I went in for my first NST, not really know what to expect! They set me up in a regular exam room with the machine and put two monitors on my stomach. One was to monitor his movement and my uterus and the other his heartbeat. He was really easy to find and stayed on the whole time (only kicked off once but it came right back). I also had a little clicker that I was to click every time I felt him move. It was kind of hard because the monitors put pressure on my stomach which is basically what it feels like when he moves, but I was able to do it. He was pretty sleepy though and was moving at a regular once every few minute pace. After ten minutes they came in with the buzzer and she buzzed my stomach a few times. His heart rate jumped from 148ish to about 165! I think it scared the poor guy! He started moving more, but it wasn't enough. At the end of the 20 or so minutes they came in and said the Dr was going to send me over to ultrasound for a BPP, because he didn't pass the NST.

What I learned about the NST is that they look for accelerations in his heart rate when he's moving well. When he moves his heart rate should change between 5-15 beats and they should see some movement of his heart rate within that 20 minute monitoring window. Bitty stayed the same the whole time, so that's why he failed.

I was pretty worried at this point, but excited that I got an unplanned ultrasound! She put the probe on and  you could immediately see his little butt up by my ribs, still head down! He was practicing his breathing really well the whole time, and wriggling around. It was weird that some of his moving I didn't even feel, so that didn't help the NST either. She also measured him and he's weighing 4lbs and measuring exactly 32 weeks! If he gains weight at a normal pace like he has been he could weigh anywhere from 6-8lbs when born. I think it's strange enough that he weighs what Vanessa did when she was born past 36 weeks, she was such a peanut! Still is, actually.

So tomorrow we have another BPP, I'm going to drink some orange juice before hand and wake him up a little but I think we'll be in and out of there in no time if he behaves like he did on Monday! I got some really cute pictures of his face in 3D this time as well. He has the cutest chunky cheeks, and he even smiled at us! It really made me excited to meet him and see what he looks like in person, but I can already tell he looks just like his daddy and sisters. He's going to be perfectly adorable!

Symptoms - Starting to experience some weird pica like cravings, so am taking iron supplements. Back pain has gotten really bad, acne is getting better though!
Food cravings - Nada! Although Jimmy John's isn't unappealing, I don't exactly crave it.
Size of baby - He's 4lbs! Growing perfectly!

31 Week Update

I just want to complain!! Whine and complain, possibly throw myself on the floor and have a real temper tantrum just like the girls do, just for a little while! And it's not even to complain that I'm uncomfortable and that I want this baby here NOW, because that's not the case at all. Although I will admit to being excited to meet my little man, time seems to be flying by on its own and I'm a little apprehensive about how we're going to fit him in (ok so I'm scared!) so he can bake a little longer!

I want to complain about this stupid acne! It's driving me insane! I wash my face religiously and I try not to touch it or rub it to clog my poors, but nothing is helping. I do think that if I weren't using my proactiv my face would be much much worse than what it is, but even using it it's still pretty bad!! And that isn't including my poor chest, shoulders, and arms. I've even been finding acne on my forearms, wtf is that all about?? I'm like a giant walking pimple! They're sore, they're unsightly, and I just can't wait until they are gone. Acne was the reason I had the mirena removed, I just can not handle what it does to my self esteem/image, and I'm already dealing with being overweight. At least I know there's an end in sight, I just have to keep thinking about that.

I'm also glad that acne is the worst of my problems! I keep thinking about my pregnancy with the girls around this time and I was pretty much down for the count until they were born. I hit a wall around 28 weeks and it only got worse from there. This pregnancy is much easier and much less painful! I can walk without severe pelvic pain, in fact the only time I have any pelvic pain is at night when I'm trying to sleep, rolling over seems to make it hurt pretty bad. Sleeping is probably the worst of the pain I do have during this pregnancy, my hips and back get pretty sore and stiff but I'm living with it. Although I'm not sure the pain is worse than waking up every two hours like clockwork to pee! My energy is depleted from this tortuous cycle.

Next Monday I start my twice weekly appointments, Mondays are NST day and Thursdays are BPP day. I'm excited to see him on ultrasound!! I'm not excited to be doing all that driving every week until he's born, but I'm sure it'll go by just as fast!

Symptoms - Acne, back/sciatic pain, tired, but otherwise doing much better than I thought giving the heat of the summer.
Food cravings - Nada still! I have lost hope on this one!
Size of baby - Over 3lbs and 17ish inches, gaining 1/2lb a week after this point. His movements feel like Allison and Vanessa at the end of my pregnancy and they were 4 and 5lbs, so perhaps he's about 3.5lbs or more?

30 Week Update

We're in the 30's! The home stretch! We're also at single digits, with only 9 weeks to go until my scheduled cesarean. It seems so close, and yet so far away at the same time. I think time is flying by though, and I don't know if that worries or scares me, or makes me excited. We'll see how it goes when he gets here I guess!

Had a Dr appointment on Tuesday, everything was as normal as it has been. My bloodwork all came back perfectly normal. So my thyroid is fine, I don't have gestational diabetes, and my blood pressure is perfect. I gained 1lb within the past two weeks, putting my grand total at 9lbs. Maybe I'll make my goal of 15lbs total? I start my twice weekly appointments on the 23rd. Mondays will be the NST and an appointment with my doctor, and Thursdays will be the BPP ultrasound and that's the day that I look forward to! She also said that they'll schedule growth ultrasounds on a 3-4 week basis, which means I could end up with 1 or 2 of those as well.

Remember when I was wondering if he was ever going to get the hiccups? I'm laughing at myself now! He hasn't woken me up in the middle of the night (yet) but he does get them at least 2-3 times a day now! So far today he has had them twice!

I was given the all clear to use whatever my heart desires on my acne, although I'll admit to already using my proactiv a few times. My face isn't cleared up but I'm not sprouting as many new ones a day and it's looking better, which better is fine with me as long as it's not as bad as it was getting! I have good days and bad days as far as being tired goes, today I started the day off really tired so I really needed a nap! My sciatic pain also plays around, today it was bad so I ended up taking tylenol so I could walk! I love going swimming and cooling off in the pool, but it seems to have the opposite effect on my sciatic pain making it worse instead of better. Go figure.

Symptoms - Acne, back/sciatic pain, tired, but otherwise doing much better than I thought giving the heat of the summer.
Food cravings - Still not craving anything! I'm saddened by this! No fun!
Size of baby - He should be 3lbs by now, and around 17ish inches.

29 Week Update

It's 4th of July! I'm 29 weeks today and my little princesses are exactly 18 months old as well! I can't believe they're already a year and a half, where does the time go! They will be just over 20 months when Bitty is born so time is inching steadily closer!

We grilled hot dogs and had some friends over for the 4th, it was a good time chatting and hanging out, but unfortunately our citywide fireworks were cancelled due to some rain that we had during the day. It is an absolutely beautiful, albeit humid, night so I don't know why they cancelled them, but they will be shooting them off on Saturday instead so we won't be completely without! I'm going to assume it's because the rain lasted so long today that they just did not have the time to set up so many large fireworks before it would be time to shoot them off, or maybe the ground is too wet, or it's too humid outside, who knows! I'm disappointed though, I wanted to see how the girls liked them, but we can wait a few more days I guess!

My little sister went home last night, we took her to the airport for her red eye midnight flight and was sad to see her go. It was weird waking up this morning to an emptyish house without her here, her presence didn't bother me at all, it was actually kind of nice to have someone here! I'm really going to miss her Kindle Fire and my Angry Birds, but I can't buy one for myself until I sell the Kindle Keyboard that I already have, and I haven't had any takers, ugh!

I can't wait for my ultrasound in 3 weeks to find out how big this little boy is, because he certainly feels pretty big in there! He did not want to go to bed last night, and I'm not sure what he was doing in there but it was very painful and I just could not sleep! No matter what position I was in he was fidgeting and kicking me so hard in the side that it really hurt! I pushed on him, poked him, moved positions, nothing helped! He physically assaulted me haha he better not do it again! For the life of me I can't figure out what he was doing in there either, except perhaps stretching his legs out and kicking/pushing as hard as he could, wish I could see in there sometimes!

Symptoms - Acne is still horrible, been washing my face every night with Cetaphil but it's not helping at all. Going to ask my OB what I can do about it! My back really hurts if I over exert myself, or carry two toddlers around all day. I'm still on top of the heartburn which is good!
Food cravings - Not really craving anything special at the moment, I ended up getting a Jimmy John's sandwich so I'm not craving them anymore, although I wouldn't turn one down!
Size of baby - He's gotta be about 10 lbs! Actually he could be anywhere from 2.5-3lbs right now and 15-17 inches from head to foot. Can't wait for my ultrasound to see!

28 Week Update

I have a semi good excuse for not updating for two weeks! My little sister has been staying with us since the Tue/Wed before last and I was entertaining her rather than sitting on the computer writing blog posts. I did think about it, but really my 27th week was pretty much like the previous few so I decided to wait. Now, onto week 28! My goal is here! It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was setting 28 as my next goal and now it's here! I think we're going to aim for week 32 next, because that's when I start my twice weekly doctor visits. Yup, I said twice weekly!

Had my 28 week checkup this past Monday, when I also did my glucose test. I was given a really yummy fruit punch drink that I actually liked a lot better than that flat orange one. Downed it in about a minute and my sister was impressed haha so we waited in the waiting room, got in to see the doctor and was checking out when my hour wait was up and I had blood drawn. I really like how they set that up, so that you have your appointment during the hour wait it makes time go by fast and is very efficient! The blood draw was bad though. He was able to draw out of my hand, which hurts much less than in my arm but he had to take 6 stinking vials so by the 6th one I was seeing black around the edges, sweating, and sick to my stomach. I almost passed out and probably would have if it went on for another 30 seconds!

The appointment was uneventful, although I did find out that I lost 2 lbs which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing but that makes total weight gain 8lbs so far. I hope I'm on track to only gain about 15lbs total, so we'll see! I'm also not sure why they are seeing me twice a week starting at 32 weeks, but she mentioned something about my BMI being so high that they monitor closely. I get the feeling they do it for everyone though? Or perhaps it's because of my BMI and my hypothyroidism? Either way, I'm happy to be getting an ultrasound every week, but not happy about having to drive up there twice a week for 7 weeks!! I also asked her if my chances of going premature were increased because of my weight and she said no, so that's good! I want Bitty to cook the whole time!

Bitty had his first hiccups today! I have been waiting and waiting (and almost getting worried!) for him to start getting them, because the girls had them all.the.time! Seriously, 5-10 times a day! I didn't even do kick counts I would just count how many times a day they had hiccups! They also had hiccups frequently during the day after they were born as well. I can't say I want him to get them frequently because they can start to get annoying (especially when you're woken up in the middle of the night and they last 10+ minutes!) but I read that hiccups are a good sign of brain development. Not implying that babies who don't get hiccups in utero are not as developed, I just liked that thought.

In complaints, he has decided to kick the hell out of my ribs this past week. It's very uncomfortable and I wish he'd stop! lol I don't think he's listening though, and he's starting to feel big in there! His movements are becoming less kick/kick/punch and more of a rolling whole body movement, which is painful when it's in your ribs! I hope he's a good size when born.

Symptoms - The acne is just horrible. My whole face is covered, my chest, even my stomach is starting to get some! My arms aren't horrible, but my tan helps hide the redness as well. I really hate it! Back pain and hip pain when sleeping, along with some pubic pain when rolling over while laying down, or when getting up from sitting for awhile.
Food cravings - I'm craving Jimmy John's, which will probably last until I actually get it, so it's probably just a usual food craving. Still enjoying Panda Express!
Size of baby - He'll be about 2.5lbs and 15-16 inches head to foot, but he feels like he's 10 lbs when kicking in my ribs!

26 Week Update

In approximately 6 days or so I'll be officially in the 3rd trimester! I'm excited about this prospect for some reason, though I'm sure I won't feel any differently next Wednesday than I do right now it's pretty much the final stretch! I have about 13 weeks to go if you count up to my scheduled c section date which is at exactly 39 weeks. I am having a hard time believing that I've been pregnant for 5 months already! It seems like just yesterday we were finding out and I was wondering how I was going to get through all the months ahead!

I've noticed that I'm getting more painful in my hips and lower back as the days progress, especially when I'm laying down trying to sleep. I've been trying to use a pillow in between my legs and to support my stomach but I really don't like sleeping with things or having stuff touch me while I'm trying to sleep (except a blanket of course!) so it's an adjustment for me. It does seem to alleviate some of the pain so I really do try to make an effort to use it. Fortunately my pubic bone doesn't really hurt until I'm in bed trying to roll over, but that's much better than all the time hurting!

Heartburn is good and managed right now. I'm only taking 150mg twice a day because I'm afraid the 300mg is what made me sick last week and I'm going to be too scared to even try to take 300 again for fear of the consequences. We'll just hope and pray 150mg does it for me for the next 13 weeks!

Symptoms - Hip and back pain, especially when trying to sleep, very mild heartburn sometimes, tired most of the time, and I'm pretty sure I've developed a waddle.
Food cravings - I still miss my McChickens! And Panda Express sounds good pretty much every day. I also craved Chicken McNuggets for a few days this past week, and ate them those few days too, but don't feel the craving anymore. That's how my cravings usually work.
Size of baby - He should be about 2lbs now and about 14 inches in length. I think he's supposed to start gaining pretty rapidly in the coming weeks, fattening up! I wonder how much he's going to weigh? I'm guessing between 6-7lbs.

25 Week Update

Late again! Want my weekly excuse? I was sick this week, ugh! Woke up around 3am Tuesday morning throwing up, didn't really get much sleep after that, and continued to not be able to hold anything down the rest of the day. Justin and I caught "What to expect when you're expecting" at this cool movie theatre in Scottsdale in the afternoon, and I was really hungry so we took full advantage of the order from your seats service that was provided. It was a great experience and the food was good, but towards the end of the movie I could tell things weren't sitting too well... Justin wanted to see this guys SRT4 that was for sale that lives in Scottsdale so while we waited in the parking lot I couldn't take it anymore and had to go behind some bushes right in broad daylight, it was gross. There were spiders all over the place, and I didn't even care! Got home, took a nice long nap, and drank a little bit of water and was able to hold that down before I went to bed.

Wednesday I woke up feeling much better! I was able to eat small amounts and drink and I thought for sure the worst was over! Thursday I woke up at 6am even sicker than I was on Tuesday, it didn't even matter if there was anything in my stomach or not I was throwing up the whole time. I called my OB because I was afraid I'd start getting dehydrated and they sent me to L&D at the hospital. Got there that afternoon and was checked in. I gave them a urine sample that they said they could check for dehydration and then laid there watching stupid court shows for maybe 45 minutes. A nurse walks in and starts talking about discharge, go home get some rest and drink fluids. I was like "Um, I'm here because I can't keep any fluids down!" She was a little flustered, then she spotted my cup of ice chips and asked if I had kept those down. I had, even though I still felt sick to my stomach so she said to go home and eat some ice chips and drink very small amounts a little at a time. I was very disappointed in my lack of treatment, not that I wanted an IV or anything but they didn't really even do anything and I'm pregnant! Bitty seemed to be fine the whole time, he wouldn't even hold still to get the heart rate monitor and kicked me relentlessly so I'm glad he has been ok.

I've been fine the past two days, fingers are crossed that I don't get sick again! I don't know if it was because I started taking the 300mg Zantac tablets that made me sick (even though I had been taking 2 150mg tablets which is 300mg for over a week) or if it was some type of bug. I just hope it doesn't happen again! It's hard to take care of the girls when you are puking the whole time, and my parents left for WI this morning and will be gone for two weeks. So if I do get sick, I'm on my own!

Aside from being sick, there's not a whole lot to report. Bitty kicks and punches up a storm, definitely taking advantage of not having to share a room! He hasn't gotten the hiccups that I can tell yet, but I'm waiting for it to start. The girls had hiccups 24/7, I wonder if he'll be the same way? I'm excited to get closer to my 3rd trimester! It officially starts at 27 weeks, which is just over a week away! The home stretch!

Symptoms - My hips hurt if I lay on one side for too long, and my stomach protests the whole day if I eat too much, so I have to eat very small amounts throughout the day otherwise I feel like complete crap.
Food cravings - I still miss my McChickens! Haven't craved anything else.
Size of baby - Bitty should be somewhere close to 1.5lbs and 9-10 inches head to rump, he feels pretty big in there!