Whoa! 27 Weeks 2 Days Pregnant

Yup, I feel fully fully pregnant now.

I can feel her kick all the time now and she seems to be a little nigh owl. Pretty calm and still during the day and then up all hours of the night kicking and punching. We set and bowl on my stomach the other day and watched her make it shake. And Chris had his head on my stomach and she kick/backhanded/headbutted him in the face too. That was really funny. I can also feel her rolling around and changing positions and have felt a few hiccups as well.

I regularly marvel at just how very very tight my stomach is. It feels very much like having a basketball inserted in my stomach. It is hard to sit up and bend over around my belly. Just feels like this solid mass which won't let me move like I normally can. I have experienced a few braxton hicks contractions starting in the last week. That is a very crazy feeling, much like having all of your muscles having an electrical pulse shot through them so they tighten up. And my stomach is just really achy all of the time now. I think she must be having a growth spurt or maybe the weight of my stomach is just starting to stress my body. I don't know.

I had my glucose tolerance test last week and I am really pleased to say that the results were good. So no gestational diabetes for me! Hooray. My blood pressure has been pretty okay. At my last appointment it was a little high when I got there, (but I had just come from unloading my car at the church, multiple trips up and down the stairs, and getting yelled at) so I was buzzing a little. She took my bp again about 10 minutes later and it was perfectly fine. So that is good.

Just in the last few days I have discovered that I am really REALLY tired again. I am not a good sleeper normally and can't fall asleep easily, but I fell asleep sitting straight up yesterday and find that I am needing a nap everyday. I haven't really been taking them, but man do I feel like I could just fall asleep at any second. This is a tad disturbing to me, in that our new flooring in the house just got done yesterday and I need to start putting the house back together and really start getting Hope's room ready and doing a few craft projects I need to complete before she gets here. And I also have to build the VBS set before she gets here. Not sure how being tired and achy and taking on extra work is going to go, but there is really no way around it.

I have started to really feel the need to clean and organize the whole house, which has been put on hold because of the flooring and painting being done. Can't organize when nothing is where it is supposed to be. But nothing like having to move everything out of a room to allow you to really organize on the way back in.

Hard to believe there is only 13 weeks left before her due date. And while I think I would like her to cook a little extra long, I had my first thought yesterday after being achy all day, that I understand people who just want to be done being pregnant.

Today I have a neurologist appointment to get approved for having a vaginal delivery. I am extremely nervous. I haven't ever been to a neurologist appointment by myself. (Now that is not to say that I can't do Drs. by myself, I've done that for many years, but the Neurologist is scary.) My future according to the Neurologist with my history is pretty bleak, and I don't want to hear that as I am expecting my first child. And they look at me like I am crazy or a daredevil or something and frequently they know less about concussions then I do. I am afraid to open the Neurologist door again because that door contains a lot of fear. So I am  really hoping to walk in today with all my medical records and walk out with a note of clearance and never have to go back again.

Okay on to some symptoms:

• Heartburn (going to have a hairy girl, I guess)
• Nausea
• Achy stomach
• Leg cramps
• Tired
• Still having trouble eating, still don't like meat.
• Nesting
• Some panic attacks - getting really overwhelmed with the to-do list and lack of time.
• Mood swings - have had to tell Chris a few times to consider me temporarily insane, like I have lost the ability to be rational.
• Thirsty - can't get enough to drink.
• Bloody Nose and Throat Junk
• Some swelling of my feet

Joy: Pregnant 23 Weeks 2 Days

My blood pressure checked out happily. 124/70. But the OB was still concerned. She told me to get checked by a doctor if we found our heart rate to be 130/80 or higher. That seems a little ridiculous, but better to be cautious.

I have been feeling so much movement now. It's wonderfully fun! Makes it so much more real. And I am in the throws of girly overload. I want everything in my little girls world to be girly now, ironic, I know.

Hope: 22 Weeks Pregnant

Hope Elizabeth Smith - Coming May 2013!

It's been a long while since I posted. Thanksgiving and Christmas are crazy busy times. Since the last update. We had an OB appointment in which she was able to find the heartbeat almost instantly. That was a huge sigh of relief for me. She found it so quickly Chris thought it was mine because it was so strong sounding. We had a failed gender reveal ultrasound at 18 weeks with the Women's Center. It seems like Little One is already trying to teach her Mama better patience. We also had the quad screening which all came back normal!

Shortly after Christmas, we began taking my blood pressure with a cuff we bought at Walgreens and discovered it was pretty high (140-150/80-90). We have done more research and discovered the cuff is too small for my arm which can cause inaccurate high readings. We had it taken at my job with a larger cuff and it was a little high still. (135/80). But I had literally just finished running up and down the stairs and dealing with some angry parents, so I am hoping the high reading had to do with some of that. We have an OB appointment on January 8th which I am anxious to have to find out once and for all. In the mean time, I have been eating low salt content and lots of natural remedy foods like banana and berries and garlic (okay, we only did this one one day because I was garlic-y for several days after).
Just this past Thursday, January 3rd we had our mid-pregnancy ultrasound at my OB's office. She is measuring right on target. Seriously, like to the day. And everything appears totally normal with her at this point. Which was also a relief because the high blood pressure issue could cause growth problems.

Pregnancy is so much more real and so much more fun now that we know we're expecting a little girl! The night we found out, we went and found some little girl clothes and I am now working on painting the letters of her name to go above the crib! Chris is wonderfully excited too and I think that is my absolute favorite part. I can't wait to see their Daddy-Daughter relationship in action. Despite only having a brother growing up, I can already see the tenderness in his eyes when he talks about her. And then watch it switch to fierce protector when thoughts of her dating emerge. He is already so sweet and caring about me, that I can't wait to see that only grow further with our Baby Hope.

During the ultrasound I also discovered that she is WAY high up in my stomach which is why I had not been feeling her kick very much. I was expecting the movement way down low and was attributing all of the movement up top to my stomach and indigestion.  Now that I know where she is, I feel her move pretty frequently. And I have to say, even though my husband gave me a funny look when I told him, yesterday at church our pastor said hoping and she kicked! I hadn't felt her all morning. I leaned over to tell Chris. He didn't hear me at first so I repeated it twice. And each time I said hoping, she kicked. Then nothing for the rest of the morning. It was kinda funny.

I also felt her move a bunch while we were in our dance lesson on Friday. We are taking it much easier dance wise right now, due to limits of my growing belly and trying to take it easy until my blood pressure is cleared. But while we were doing all of our latin stuff, super slow. She was kicking a bunch (off-beat, may I add, and throwing her Mama off). But it was fun to think of her dancing along with us.

Symptoms thus far:

• Tired: not quite the can fall asleep at the drop of a hat tired, but more no energy to get up and get stuff done.
• Heartburn: not terrible, but certainly have it everyday. It is still tolerable at this point that I don't take any tums or anything, but I do occasionally medicate with some ice cream.
• Nausea: This one has me confused. Some days I am nauseous all day but don't actually get sick. Some days not nauseous at all. And then there are days like to day. I woke up very nauseous, assumed it was hunger and went to the kitchen to make a smoothie, and got sick in the kitchen sink. And my husband has said to me, "How come every time you cough (or burp) it sounds like you are throwing up?" I told him because every time I do cough (or burp) I am also fighting to not throw up. I don't know, but I have a feeling like this one is here to stay. 
• Headache: Been having some nasty headaches that feel like sinus pressure, so we have been sleeping with a humidifier which seems to help a lot.
• Stuffy nose: Humidifier has also helped with this at night.
• Sleep: For a while there I was sleeping really really well, then up every 15 minutes, then sleeping well with the humidifier, and now up every 15 minutes again. 
• Hip & Back pain: My hips and back only really hurt when I have been on the same side in the bed for too long. May be time to adjust the sleep number bed again.
• Indigestion: Man, this is a bad one. I am now afraid to eat around other people. Because at any given time a trucker belch can escape with literally no warning. My husband is wonderfully gracious about this one, although, every once in a while he laughs about it, but I am terrified of anyone else hearing it. 

This is our 12 Weeks Ultrasound. As soon as I get the copy of the Mid-point one, I will add it as well.