A quick update, since there's not much that has changed:
I'm 23 weeks and still feeling great. No heartburn, leg cramps, headaches, back soreness, or any of that other stuff that I keep reading about on various pregnancy websites. My belly is slowly growing and I'm looking pregnant for real now! Still, no strangers have asked if I'm pregnant. Maybe I'm still at that "is she pregnant or is she fat" stage...who knows? I'm just about back to my pre-pregnancy weight and I have a feeling there's no slowing down now, especially with all this yummy holiday food that's always around. The baby is kicking harder and harder, although he has his active days and his lazy days, which worried me at first when I didn't feel him kick constantly for a couple days. I'm still quite comfortable when I sleep, I just don't usually sleep through the night anymore because I usually have to get up to pee a couple times. It could be a lot worse though, and luckily I seem to still have a lot of energy throughout the day even if I don't sleep well at night.
We've been having fun buying clothes for the little guy. I haven't gotten anything that's not on sale yet, so I don't feel too badly. I've literally never seen Jon shop online for anything, but the other day we were lying in bed and he went onto The Children's Place website and started picking things out and actually ordered them! I was shocked haha. Other than clothes, we haven't gotten anything else really. Since we live with my parents and don't have our own home with a nursery to set up, I haven't felt like there's any reason to buy anything else besides clothes yet. I'm feeling so relaxed and stress-free about the whole thing, actually. I'm excited about baby boy getting here, and I love that I don't feel like we have to have everything together first. I'm pretty sure it will all work out just fine as long as he gets here safely. That's all that matters.
I'm also feeling really calm about the actual labor and delivery part. I am reading a hypnobirthing book (no, it's not about being hypnotized while giving birth) and even though some parts are really weird and a little too new-agey for me, it really does have a lot of great points. For example, women hear their whole lives about how birth is the most horribly excruciating pain you'll ever feel, and how it's so hard and terrible. Which it very well may be so many women. But the book points out that if you go into something expecting a certain outcome, that outcome is a lot more likely to happen. It's the power of suggestion. It's kind of like how we can sometimes get a scratch or something, and not notice it, but then suddenly feel pain once our eyes see it. It doesn't hurt until we know it's there. Our minds are a powerful thing, and when we fear birth because of the pain associated with it, our bodies respond to that fear and the perception of pain greatly increases. That's not to say that it won't be painful - I'm sure it will be. But I can learn relaxation techniques and ways to work with my body and let it do what it was made to do, which can help advance labor instead of slow it down or stall it, which is what stress and anxiety can often do.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
:)
Monday, we found out the gender of our baby! I thought it would be the longest day ever, but luckily it wasn't. I did have about a hundred anxiety attacks during class though. I always get extreme anxiety about going to the doctor, even if it's for something painless and routine. Being that this was one of the most important doctor's appointments of my life thus far, I had constant anxiety and nervous excitement all day.
I was lucky enough to get to drink several glasses of water and then hold it for over an hour. That was quite uncomfortable, especially since I had to also drink something sugary (to get the baby to move around so the gender could be seen more easily). Sugar makes the baby move a lot! It was so worth it, though. At first, the tech took some measurements, because that was more important than knowing the gender, and she wanted to make sure to be able to get all the measurements she needed. The baby is right on target as far as how big it should be at this point. She got a profile view of the baby, and it was sucking it's thumb! Oh my goodness, it was the most precious thing ever. That brought on a few tears :) I think it really felt real at that moment. There's a little person in there and it sucks its thumb!! Wow. The tech then said that she thought she knew the gender, but it was hard to tell because the baby was breech and the cord was between the legs. I pleaded with her to do anything she could to get a better look, and she told me I could (finally!) go to to the bathroom, which could help reposition the baby. I came back, and she tried again. She was able to get a better look and tell us that the baby is a BOY!! She said she wasn't 100%, since the position of the baby and the cord between the legs didn't give her a perfect view, but it sure looked like a boy to me, and I'm no expert! I have since compared our ultrasound pictures to ones online, and I'm confident we're going to have a little guy :)
As soon as we stepped out of the doctor's office, I burst into tears. I had been so anxious/excited/emotional all day, and all those emotions finally hit me at once. I was so overwhelmingly happy that it was a boy, that I couldn't stop sobbing the whole drive home.
Jon called his parents and told them the news. We then arrived home to my family waiting anxiously. My mom is so cute. She had gotten 2 cupcakes at Costco earlier that day. One of them had a princess on it, and the other had a Superman logo. She had us choose the one that matched the gender, and hide it under a cup. We Skyped Drew in Washington, and announced the news by revealing the cupcake. It was very fun and everyone was so happy. My brother is the only boy cousin on my dad's side, so everyone's excited to have another boy in the family. We called my grandparents and then started telling everyone we knew.
It's still a little surreal that we finally know the gender of our little "it." I had been looking forward to 20 weeks for so long. It also feels weird to be halfway done with this pregnancy. It has flown by and now we have less than 5 months!
I was lucky enough to get to drink several glasses of water and then hold it for over an hour. That was quite uncomfortable, especially since I had to also drink something sugary (to get the baby to move around so the gender could be seen more easily). Sugar makes the baby move a lot! It was so worth it, though. At first, the tech took some measurements, because that was more important than knowing the gender, and she wanted to make sure to be able to get all the measurements she needed. The baby is right on target as far as how big it should be at this point. She got a profile view of the baby, and it was sucking it's thumb! Oh my goodness, it was the most precious thing ever. That brought on a few tears :) I think it really felt real at that moment. There's a little person in there and it sucks its thumb!! Wow. The tech then said that she thought she knew the gender, but it was hard to tell because the baby was breech and the cord was between the legs. I pleaded with her to do anything she could to get a better look, and she told me I could (finally!) go to to the bathroom, which could help reposition the baby. I came back, and she tried again. She was able to get a better look and tell us that the baby is a BOY!! She said she wasn't 100%, since the position of the baby and the cord between the legs didn't give her a perfect view, but it sure looked like a boy to me, and I'm no expert! I have since compared our ultrasound pictures to ones online, and I'm confident we're going to have a little guy :)
As soon as we stepped out of the doctor's office, I burst into tears. I had been so anxious/excited/emotional all day, and all those emotions finally hit me at once. I was so overwhelmingly happy that it was a boy, that I couldn't stop sobbing the whole drive home.
Jon called his parents and told them the news. We then arrived home to my family waiting anxiously. My mom is so cute. She had gotten 2 cupcakes at Costco earlier that day. One of them had a princess on it, and the other had a Superman logo. She had us choose the one that matched the gender, and hide it under a cup. We Skyped Drew in Washington, and announced the news by revealing the cupcake. It was very fun and everyone was so happy. My brother is the only boy cousin on my dad's side, so everyone's excited to have another boy in the family. We called my grandparents and then started telling everyone we knew.
It's still a little surreal that we finally know the gender of our little "it." I had been looking forward to 20 weeks for so long. It also feels weird to be halfway done with this pregnancy. It has flown by and now we have less than 5 months!
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