Category: pregnancy

Symptoms: Unpredictable ravishing heartburn. Braxton-Hicks contractions almost every time I walk or move very much, starting from the moment I step out of bed. Fatigue, naturally. Floating rib. Inflammation in between my ribs. Some random numbness and tingling to the inside of my  mouth and lips, although the jury is still out on whether or not that’s pregnancy-related. Nothing serious or unbearable, just normal stuff that is making me very ready and excited to have this baby.

Medical stuff: I am 1 cm dilated and 25% effaced. I know that doesn’t mean a whole lot, but I’m glad that at lease something is happening.

Movement: Nearly constant. Mostly pressure but sometimes kicks that hurt me. I can really feel his little hands and feet sometimes now! So cool. And his head is down so he is in position!

Clothes: Same stuff. Scrubs are getting kinda tight and I desire maternity pairs, but it’s not worth it to buy them now. I pretty much wear the same outfits over and over because at this point even a lot of maternity tops are too short.

Preparation: We have done some things! We have a new dresser for our room, the old one is moved to the guest room, and I finally went through all of Meredith’s clothes so that half of the dresser in her room has baby boy stuff in it. The rest of the nursery is reorganized too and now there is room on the shelves and in the closet. I would still like to make the room a little more gender neutral but that probably won’t truly happen until maternity leave when I have a bit of time. We decided on a name. I have commissioned my brother to make a birth announcement template so that I just have to plug in details, photos, and then have them printed once he arrives. And I guess that’s all we’ve done, but I feel like we could bring a baby into the house at this point and be fine (except we don’t have any newborn diapers yet). Still have a few things left to get in order.

Also: My doctor is going out of town on my due date for four days, so we are going to do everything possible to have this baby before then. I’m sure her partners are great, but I have never seen anyone except her and she got me through the craziness of Meredith’s birth so I’d really rather have her there.

Symptoms: Really just normal aches and pains as things adjust in there. I’m sure my backaches are made worse by a certain 30-pound toddler demanding to be held and carried too. Heartburn comes and goes, I get full fast and tired more easily, but overall I’m doing well. Still no carpal tunnel signs!

Medical stuff: Our anatomy scan was perfect which was a huge relief. I’ve gained about 15 pounds so far which is fine I guess. My doctor gave me a hard time about not taking my iron pills so I guess I’ll try to be good. My 1-hour glucose tolerance test is coming up this week and she told me that I’ll probably fail it (like I did with Meredith) because I have PCOS. How fun!

Movement: It’s much  more pronounced now. Not constant, but daily. Loving that.

Clothes: I wear almost exclusively maternity clothes now except for some stretchy skirts. For work I broke out my larger scrub pants that I wore during my last pregnancy and postpartum, and even though I could squeeze into my regular tops it’s just not comfortable so I wear maternity t-shirts and scrub jackets.

Preparation: Got our new carpet and I’m working on our bedroom! Okay so it’s not specifically new baby preparation but it’s something on my list that I want to get done beforehand. Otherwise we haven’t done much other than throw a few names around that we both kind of like. Still completely not sold on them though and I had a dream that the baby was born nameless so that might happen. With the holidays coming up and lots of other unrelated things on my to-do list this whole baby thing is going to take me by surprise if I’m not careful. I’ll have to do a “before baby” post because the more I think about it the more there probably is on it.

Also: It’s funny how much I’m not focused on the pregnancy this time around. I’m just way too busy with Meredith and work. I guess I can attribute some of my mania where the house is concerned to pregnancy because it gives me a deadline, but overall it’s just kind of there in the background. I still can hardly imagine having a second kid in the house and a male version at that. Pretty excited though. :)

But most of you probably already knew that, considering I’ve been talking about it on Twitter and Facebook, and am not exactly timely in getting this post up. But yep, it’s most definitely a boy, no question about it, little guy was not shy at all and David was quite proud.

So, I have thoughts and they are thus:

1. Yay! A boy! I know deep down that’s what David wanted and I’m so happy he’ll have a little guy to teach to be a man and I’ll get to find out what it’s like to mother a boy. It will be different and fun and exciting.

2. I guess this means I’ll have to make some changes to the nursery to make it less girly and more neutral. I still intend to have Meredith share the room with the baby for awhile, until she gets old enough to move her into her own room (and when I have the energy to turn our guest room into a kids’ room). Kind of a bummer that the kids won’t always be able to share a room.

3. A little worried because it seems like boys are more energetic overall and I’m just a really calm, laid-back person. I’m not the type of mom to play rough and tumble or to be running around all the time. Maybe Meredith will have a calming effect on him.

4. Boy names are not nearly as fun as girl names. This part is going to be tough.

5. Can’t reuse all of Meredith’s clothes either. Although I do have two nephews so that will help in the hand-me-down department.

6. I still just can’t imagine what it’ll be like to have a boy…but I guess I will find out!

Time for an official pregnancy update, yeah?

Symptoms: Nothing really to complain about. Most days I still have a bout of nausea a few hours after I wake up but it passes quickly. Overall I have a pretty big appetite. In the past month I have gained about 8 pounds and am up a total of 12-ish which is similar to my last pregnancy at this point. Bloating is kept in check by avoiding large amounts of dairy. Almost every  night I wake up around 3:30 or 4am to pee and then don’t get any good sleep after that so I’m tired in the mornings. So far no signs of carpal tunnel which was a big issue in my last pregnancy.

Medical stuff: I am still slightly anemic and am supposed to be taking iron supplements but I’m not. Maybe one of these days I will get motivated and start taking them but it’s just not something I’m worried about and I don’t feel like dealing with the side effects.

Movement: Over the past week I went from maaaaybe feeling the baby move every few days to feeling it for sure throughout each day. David even felt it kick once! It’s such a relief, and one of the most amazing things.

Clothes: My scrubs are getting a little tight but are hanging in there. I am very limited right now on other clothes that fit. Most maternity clothes are still baggy but regular stuff is too tight. This weekend I’m going shopping for some transitional stuff that I can wear again when I’m not pregnant. Maxi skirts and loose shirts for the win!

Preparation: Well, I started a small list of things that would be nice to have for a second baby. I’ve been brainstorming names but so far they’ve all been shot down by David. Our anatomy scan is on Monday so once we find out the sex we can think about it more seriously, along with what to do about the nursery. We talk to Meredith about the baby in mommy’s tummy every day, but I don’t think she gets it yet. For me the most exciting part of our preparation so far is that we are getting new carpet. I can’t wait to be able to lay baby down on it without being grossed out, and I’m very excited about the inspiration it will bring me to fix up the bedrooms.

Also: David and I booked a two-night getaway at a private cottage in an adorable town in the Texas Hill Country for our 5-year anniversary. The trip is happening at the beginning of November and it will be the first time I’m away from Meredith overnight, but I am just so excited about the trip that right now it’s overshadowing any type of anxiety about being apart from her. Soon we won’t have the chance to do this by ourselves for awhile so I’m glad we’re going for it!