Pregnancy #2: 38 weeks!

I'm 38 weeks today! 38 crazy weeks down, only 2 more to go! And life is really kinda perfect right now. I'm sitting here eating lemon bites, watching Parker on the monitor roll around and sing in his crib as he settles down for his nap, and I'm so filled with joy and anticipation. After all the misery of last week (see next paragraph), the past few days have been wonderfully calm and I feel ready for baby girl and starting the next phase of life. It feels like all the pieces of our lives have fallen into place!

Week 37 sure was a shit show...nothing was in place last week! Not just for me, but for our whole family. The week started out fairly great. At my 37 week OB appointment, I tested negative for Strep B, baby was measuring a healthy 37.5 weeks, heartbeat was strong, and my blood pressure was still normal. I was even half a centimeter dilated already! All those Braxton Hicks were finally paying off. The only downside was that I had a UTI, but whatever. Pretty typical for my pregnancies. On Tuesday, I was feeling a ton of contractions and really thought baby was going to make an appearance last week, so I went into a flurry of activity. This included taking Parker in for a haircut, followed by going out for Thai food (I was hoping spicy food would keep the baby activity going!). Well, it's a good thing that contractions slowed that night because the next day Parker was so incredibly, miserably sick. It was the saddest thing I've ever had to watch and deal with. We'd made it almost 2 years with him never getting the flu! And man, when it hit him, it hit hard. We actually thought it was just food poisoning from the Thai place at first. Until I got sick on Thursday. And then Aron got sick on Friday. Ugh! It's the first time the 3 of us have all been sick at the same time, and it was so hard to take care of myself and be a parent. I hope it doesn't happen again for a loooong time!

I ended up being so sick that I had to go to the hospital (labor and delivery) on Thursday night. I couldn't keep anything down and got so dehydrated that my body started having contractions again. They were coming 2-3 minutes apart, and even though they weren't super strong, I was so worried I was in labor. I did not want to have the baby while I felt so horrible!! Luckily, after 2 bags of fluids and a shot of zofran in the IV, my uterus calmed down and contractions were just sporadic for the rest of the night. Aron was such a trooper, he stayed with me at the hospital (and I was only in the triage room so there wasn't even a super comfy chair!) and took such good care of me the entire night. It wasn't until noon the next day when I could finally keep water and a few saltines down. Which was exactly when Aron got sick. It took the entire weekend for all of us to finally be 100% recovered, although Aron still has a bad cold right now. Luckily Parker and I never got any of that. But of course, from being on the antibiotics for my uti, I now have a yeast infection. Again, pretty typical, but jeesh! Maybe TMI for some of you readers, but it's just a body. :) 

This morning we had our 38 week appointment and the best news was that I'm now 1.5 cm dilated! Things are happening! It's crazy to think that I'm walking around at 1.5 considering that when we checked into the hospital for Parker's birth, I was only at 2 cm! That had felt like so much work just to get to 2, and now here I am at 1.5 without much work at all. Some of my random contractions have been pretty painful, but nothing like the early ones with Parker. Maybe the 2nd pregnancy really is easier!! I have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow, so I'm crossing my fingers that Thursday is the big day. :) Aron's mom is also driving down tomorrow, so the Thursday timing would be perfect. The only downside is that we have Parker's birthday party planned for Saturday! So we'd have to cancel that, but of course we'll still celebrate the little man as a family.

Everything else today went great - BP still normal, baby's heartbeat was a strong 142. She's already sitting so low that they can't really measure my uterus anymore. My belly hasn't grown much at all in the past few weeks anyways. At the 35 week appointment I was measuring huge, but it hasn't budged from there. I also haven't gained any weight in the past 3 weeks, but my doc says that's totally fine. It's definitely fine by me! With Parker, I gained so much weight in the final month, and I was so miserable from being so swollen. I feel so much healthier this time around! Even though my diet could still use some improvement...forget I mentioned I'm sitting here eating lemon bites as I type!

Even though my belly is smaller this pregnancy, I somehow ended up with more stretch marks. Boo! But I also haven't been as diligent with my lotion, so I probably have myself and lack of discipline to blame. :) I think the fact that I popped so quickly didn't help. It's funny, because in the middle of the pregnancy I got so many comments about "any day now" when I really wasn't that big, and now all I hear are comments about how small I am! Baby is right on track but for some reason it just doesn't show as much. Even at the hospital last Thursday the nurse said "not much belly there!" So funny. 

Not much else to add about the last few weeks. Apart from a week of the flu, everything has been pretty normal. Like I mentioned at the start of this entry, everything feels kinda perfect. Our house is clean (cleanish...I mean, I'm still me. Ha!), Aron's mom will be on her way down to help out tomorrow, I'm already dilating... life is good! I'm so excited to meet baby girl!!

Here's a bunch of random pics that I kept meaning to post from earlier in the pregnancy. Enjoy my "small" belly pics!

  

September 27, 2015. The day we announced the pregnancy to the world!

November 7, 2015. My belly got big! (And: bubbles!!)

November 26, 2015. Thanksgiving? Or maybe the day after. Taken in Vegas when we visited Aron's mom and fam.

December 4, 2015. Aron's work Christmas party!

Pregnancy #2: 35 Weeks!

I'm 35 weeks along today!! In 5 weeks we get to meet our baby girl! I'm getting so excited to see her and touch her and smell her. I can't wait to see how everything compares to our time with infant Parker! The sleeping, the breastfeeding, the cuddles. Five weeks really can't pass fast enough!

As I'm sitting here typing this, I'm getting Braxton Hicks contractions. They've been pretty frequent the past few weeks, but not very strong and not very regular. But regular enough that I sort of keep getting my hopes up that baby is on the way! I don't *really* want her to be born 5 weeks early, but like I said...I can't wait to meet this baby! Last night I woke up with some strong cramping, but it turned out it was just gas pains. Good thing I didn't wake Aron up to start timing! It's still so bizarre to me that I'm feeling the BHs all the time anyways since I didn't at all with Parker. And very bizarre that I'm so eager for them to turn into real contractions and start getting painful... it's probably about time I ask Aron to give me a refresher on how much pain I was in last time! :-)

Just like in my last pregnancy, I've already started leaking colostrum, although not as much as I was at this point the first time around. Which is surprising, since I'm an old pro at breastfeeding now! I thought for sure it'd be more/worse but so far nothing embarrassing has happened. But I'm confident my milk will come in just as great as it did with Parker and I'm really looking forward to breastfeeding again.

Little baby girl is still pretty active, although she's slowed down quite a bit this past week. She used to be really mobile after every meal, now it's mostly just at night. I think she's running out of room for her shenanigans! I'm measuring big with her so I know she's definitely taking up a lot of space. At our 33 week appointment, I was measuring at 34 weeks, and at today's 35 week appointment, I was measuring 36.5 weeks! My belly actually seems to be smaller overall with this pregnancy, but I think it's just higher and wider. I'm also carrying more in my back, but luckily haven't had any bad back pain yet. I'm actually glad she's less active now, because a few weeks ago her kicks would actually make me nauseous. She was great at aiming right for my stomach. Now she just sits contentedly on my bladder.

Everything else went well at our appointment. My blood pressure is still normal! I did have to do some blood work; apparently things that UCSD didn't test at the beginning of the pregnancy but that Scripps requires. Our doc is pretty sure baby girl is already head down, so that's a relief. Parker stayed butt down until almost the very end, then managed to rotate himself thank goodness. Our next appointment is on Feb. 22 and I'll be just about 37 weeks. Our OB will do a vaginal exam then to check on things and will confirm that baby actually is head-down...and will hopefully tell me I'm already dilating and it's time to head to the hospital! :-D

Parker is getting really good at saying "baby sister" and he points to my belly when we ask where sister is. He will also say he's a "big brother" when prompted. It's adorable! We have a few books that talk about a new sibling and a baby coming home, and he knows that the baby in the book is "sister." I'm not sure he understands anything beyond saying the words when asked or when looking at the books, but we're hoping when we actually bring baby sister home and tell him that's who she is, it'll make at least a little sense! We've also already built all the baby equipment to get him used to that being around. Aron tackled the swing, the bouncer, and the bassinet all in one afternoon! It was really sentimental for me when we pulled everything out of the garage. We have so many wonderful memories of Parker with these things, and very soon they'll all be put to use again.

I really need to get on taking some more preggo belly pics! This is the most recent one I have, and it's from January 21, at about 32 weeks.

Pregnancy #2: 32 Weeks!

Hi everyone! It's about time I wrote a blog entry for this second pregnancy! And why, at 32 weeks, am I finally writing? Because it's finally hitting me...there's going to be another BABY in this house soon. Your response might be along the lines of "well, duh." But seriously...this pregnancy has flown by and I haven't been nearly as attentive to this growing human inside me as I was the first time around. Now, with our to-do list expanding and my 3rd trimester symptoms starting in earnest, my excitement and anxiety are growing by leaps and bounds.

Aron and I are already joking about how the second child gets shafted based on the way we've treated this second pregnancy. In many ways, I feel significantly less bonded to this baby than I did to Parker when I carried him. I don't love this baby girl any less; the whole pregnancy part just seems like less of a big deal. We've only taken a few pregnancy photos, I never read the weekly update emails on how my pregnancy is progressing, and half the time I can barely remember how far along I am. This whole time, my due date has been sort of this vague date to plan for in the future, but it wasn't until January 16 and we were officially just 2 months away that my mind started swirling with the thoughts and fears of just how much our lives are going to change when the due date rolls around.

Because I'm starting to feel so anxious, I want to get a quick recap down on how the pregnancy has been going for me/us. The past few days I've been reading through my old entries from carrying Parker and it's made me realize how neat it was that I documented everything. If we ever decide to have a third child, maybe I'll want to look back at these entries (um, this entry) and compare the second pregnancy to the third.

The first trimester already feels so long ago, but while I was in it, it was never-ending. It was sooo much worse than with Parker. Almost as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I started getting morning (ALL DAY) sickness. I stopped going to play dates, ditched all my Mom's Night Out events, and basically spent all my time on the couch or in the bathroom. Weeks 6-8 were downright hell. There was one weekend where I spent the entire time in bed, and all I could eat was cheese and mayo on rolls a few times a day. Which Aron lovingly prepared for me, while taking on 100% of the parenting duties. He was amazing those first few weeks, going to work late, coming home at lunch to help out, and leaving work early. Thankfully at my first OB appointment at 8 weeks, the doc prescribed me Diclegis, which was a lifesaver. I still had some nauseous moments, still threw up every now and then, but overall, it made me feel like a human again. I thought I'd only be on it for a few weeks through the end of the first trimester, but ended up needing it until Week 23. There were a lot of moments when I couldn't believe I still felt so miserable, but eventually I learned to take it in stride and be ok with the fact that this second pregnancy just might not go as smoothly as my first did.

Because I still was feeling so queasy all the time, I never really got that second-trimester energy burst that I had with Parker, and which all the books say should happen for most women. There was no urge to jump out of bed in the mornings and start doing "nesting" type things, or any real desire to do much of anything at all. Even when we had our anatomy ultrasound at 18 weeks and found out we were having a girl, I didn't get all excited to decorate the nursery or go out and buy baby girl things. That did kick in towards the end of the second trimester though. Family and friends started giving us hand me down baby girl clothes, and as soon as I was done bawling over how adorably cute and pink everything was, I wanted to start getting little girl's room ready. Of course, I continued to be lazy and did nothing.

The funny thing about this pregnancy is that when symptoms or pregnancy-related things happen, it feels both new and old. There's so much I had forgotten, and every few weeks when something new would pop up, I'd think "Oh right, I'm pregnant. This is happening. It's new, but I've been here before." Even with feeling sick and now having a very active baby girl in my belly, there are still so many times I forget I'm pregnant. Even with having my belly pop at 16 weeks and instantly having to switch to maternity clothes. Even with having basically all of the same symptoms as the first time around. I think it's because this time, my attention every day is still on Parker and my days are actually busier. Unlike the first pregnancy, I don't have the luxury (haha) of sitting at a desk all day, just working along and delighting in every baby kick and being able to put my feet up whenever I wanted.

Essentially everything that happened during the first pregnancy has happened again this time, but on a larger (more worse?) scale. The morning sickness, of course, But also the round ligament pains, the restless legs, the heartburn. I started getting round ligament pains early on this time, and they would hit fast and brutal. My hunch is that it's because my belly popped so early and became pretty big pretty fast. Sometimes the pain would be so sharp it would literally knock me off my feet. I'd try to stand, only to have my body be all "nope, you ain't goin' nowhere." Throughout the end of the second trimester, I got restless legs bad every night. Now it's sort of back again, but if I remember to stretch out before bed it doesn't seem as rough. I think I'm also much better hydrated now, since I'm drinking a ton of water to keep my dry skin at bay (which is possibly one thing that isn't actually as bad or worse as it was the first time). Or maybe the restless legs thing is as bad, but I'm just already awake so much more during the night now that it doesn't bother me. I've definitely hit that 3rd trimester insomnia phase, where if I wake up to pee or readjust my massive body pillow, it might be an hour or two before I get back to sleep. Hate that!

And the heartburn...damn. It deserves a blog entry all it's own. It started out just in the evenings, similar to what I had with Parker, but now it's an all-day thing. I've started taking pepcid once a day (at my doc's recommendation) to help prevent it a bit instead of just taking the reactionary tums. Which I do still have to take a couple times of day too. Bonus - I'm getting a lot of extra calcium! I tried adjusting my diet but it doesn't seem to matter what I eat or drink, whether I lay down or stay upright after meals, or how often I snack or eat larger meals. I think I'm just stuck with it for these last few weeks.

Now that I'm on a writing roll, I feel like there's so much else I could say! But I think I'll end it here for today, and maybe make an effort to blog at least once a week for these last two months. Recalling the last few months the first time I was preggo, it seems like both a lot happened and nothing happened at all. Of course my biggest fear is that I'll get pre-eclampsia again at week 36. That was a whole lot of stress for the 2 weeks before Parker arrived. I'd rather not deal with that this time around, although it did have some neat side effects like the non-stress testing where I got to see and hear Parker twice a week. :)

I'll post pictures in my next entry!!