Category: Kids

Lucas or Arianna related updates

Kids

34 weeks

How your baby’s growing:
Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she’s born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you’ve been nervous about preterm labor, you’ll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine.

How your life’s changing:
By this week, fatigue has probably set in again, though maybe not with the same coma-like intensity of your first trimester. Your tiredness is perfectly understandable, given the physical strain you’re under and the restless nights of frequent pee breaks and tossing and turning, while trying to get comfortable. Now’s the time to slow down and save up your energy for labor day (and beyond).

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” Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she’s born — are filling her out”…really? b/c i have tons of fat layers and none of them are helping with my fun new (as in the last couple of weeks) symptom of nocturnal hyperhidrosis, which is fancy medical jargon for waking up in the middle of the night having completely, literally soaked all the bedding in sweat. yuck.

” By this week, fatigue has probably set in again, though maybe not with the same coma-like intensity of your first trimester.” nope — definitely coma-like. it takes forever to go to sleep at night, usually from major muscle/joint achiness in my lower back and hips and legs, the i wake up pretty much hourly to pee, so i’m tired like allll the time. i nap so much that every time i sigh lucas says, “mommy tired” and every time i leave the room lucas says, “mommy go night-night.” paul has him seriously trained now to never ever ever wake mommy up and he is sooo 100% good about following that rule.

the 2011 baby name list is out now. Arianna landed #22 on babynames.com and #32 on babycenter.com

we finally have our paint colors picked out and paul is going to start taping off the nursery tomorrow and mom is hopefully going to be able to start sewing. now that January has hit, i’m suddenly anxious to get the nursery ready. i also might be nesting, because i suddenly got the urge to organize the master closet and bath – the only two rooms left of the house that weren’t unpacked and settled.

Kids

32 weeks

How your baby’s growing:

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (per an ultrasound she is actually 3 lbs, 9oz) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You’re gaining about a pound a week (yup, gained two pounds since my last doc visit two weeks ago. was kinda bummed about that until i read this) and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she’ll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

To accommodate you and your baby’s growing needs, your blood volume has increased 40 to 50 percent since you got pregnant. With your uterus pushing up near your diaphragm and crowding your stomach, the consequences may be shortness of breath (yup) and heartburn (and yup). To help relieve your discomfort, try sleeping propped up with pillows and eating smaller meals more often. You may have lower-back pain (and yup again) as your pregnancy advances.

So I had an awesome day yesterday. First I went to the doc in the morning for my 32wk check-up. Just the usual, but as he was walking me out and talking about scheduling an ultrasound to figure out when we would need to do the c-section, the tech was hanging out there and said she could see me right then. so i got to go ahead and get the sonogram right then, and SURPRISE! my placenta has *completely* moved out of the way of my cervix and i have gone from a high-risk pregnancy requiring an early c-section to a completely normal pregnancy with no restrictions.

After the doc, I picked up Lucas and we had a dentist appt. It was his first teeth cleaning and he was a perfect little angel as usual (when he is at a doc office) and lay on the chair and held still for the whole thing.

After the dentist I had time for a nap before my plans to meet Lauren and Jana at Melting Pot for dinner. When I went inside, they weren’t in the waiting area. I told the hostess I was meeting people and she asked if it was for the shower and I told her no, just a couple of people. I called Lauren and she said they were seated at the back and came to find me to direct me to the booth. For some reason we went to the party room, and when we walked in, my eyes first saw Raechel Bowman. I was excited she was there b/c she hadn’t been able to make it to the Christmas party. There were a bunch of people there and I was surprised so many people had come to dinner – I thought it was just going to be the three of us. Then I looked more to the left and saw my mom and Sarah…and wait…pink balloons…and wait this isn’t just a bunch of people were able to make it to the dinner with us…this is a party for ME!! i was so surprised, shocked, and thrilled. it was so so cool. I’ve never had a surprise party before and this one was perfect. Sarah and Shelly, Amanda and Macy, Mom, Jana, Raechel, Kristie and Ashley Ford, Lauren, Jenn and her sister Amy and her mom Judy. 

Lauren had spread rose petals all over the table and Amanda had baked an awesome three-tiered cake of yumminess and everyone got Arianna presents! It was all so perfect and amazing and awesome. My friends are so amazing. 

 

Blog, Kids, Uncategorized

30 weeks

How your baby’s growing:

Your baby’s about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds. A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it’s not very keen; even after she’s born, she’ll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she’ll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)

 

so having nightly heartburn isn’t a new thing, but having heartburn so bad that the meds dont fix it is. soo that means i either dont fall asleep until like 2am, or i fall asleep sitting up. went to the doc yesterday, glucose test passed and iron count was fine, so my exhaustion is normal and not a result of anemia. i’ve really hit the too big to move phase full on and getting up and down off things is difficult. mom, paul, lucas, and i did peekabelly on saturday, so below are pix of miss arianna! i’ll still have one more regular ultrasound in the coming month. i finally got some over-the-belly maternity jeans at kohls today. braxton hicks contractions seem to have decreased, but i guess she is getting too big for her house because her kicking has become stronger, of the uncomfortable variety as she attempts to rearrange my organs from the inside. overall, though, i still feel like this pregnancy has been easier than the last one. i don’t know if it is because i’ve done it before so i’ve come to expect all the ucky feelings, or if they are just less this time around.

 

 

Blog, Kids, Uncategorized

29 weeks

“How your baby’s growing:

Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain. To meet his increasing nutritional demands, you’ll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk.”

As of last week I’m in the third trimester. I changed doctors last week, too. I don’t remember if I already posted about my old doc, but they had moved their office into Kennestone hospital which was a *pain in the ass* to go to all the time so that is why i switched. so far i  really like the new doctor and nurses i’ve seen, altho i did have to be at the doc + lab (for diabetes test) from 10a -2pm. the doc assuaged my fears of having the baby on my birthday. the current plan is: next doc appt at 30 weeks, ultrasound at 32, and sometime around 32 or 34 weeks we will schedule my c-section to be around 38-39 weeks. i’m hoping they will let me pick the date b/c i want it to be 2/2/12.

biggest symptoms right now are the nightly heartburn, a new thing of extreme exhaustion where i want to sleep allll the time, not so comfy kicking and stomach hardenings (braxton hicks i assume – could someone tell my uterus that i won’t be delivering that way so it can skip the practice contractions?), and an inability to bend over b/c my tummy gets in the way. i’ve also started weaning myself off my zoloft, which is not going so well and i’m definitely not looking forward to going off completely since i’m only at half dose and am already having increased anxiety issues.

this week we are going to get the paint and start painting the nursery. i’ve decided i want pearlescent ivory. mom and i are going to start the sewing probably this week, too.

 

Blog, Kids, Uncategorized

25 weeks

how do things go missing after a move?  i absolutely can’t find the pitcher to make juice, some lawn tool of paul’s, a couple of dolls (altho there are a couple of boxes of fragile items i haven’t opened yet that they could be in), and there have been maybe one or two other things over the months but i can’t think of them now. but logically, you pack stuff up, arrive in the new place, and put your hands on every item you own as you unpack. so it’s not like “oh i haven’t seen that in years, who knows where it went” b/c i would have seen every single thing we owned recently. maybe that is the problem, having seen too much at once. but really, it’s not like i would have gone and stuck a pitcher in a hall closet when unpacking. there would only be one logical place to have put it.

i’m totally addicted to a new series called Strange Angels. I can’t put them down!

lucas said a 5 word sentence the other day, “now, put it in there” in referring to pouring oatmeal from a measuring cup into a bowl. he also said a sentence to paul containing two different ideas when he asked paul to 1. go upstairs and 2. open the door because he wanted to get into the locked bedroom where i was sleeping, “dada upstairs, open door?”

my family is nuts. where is my video camera when i need one.

i sold a virtual (WoW) item for 110 real dollars. i love capitalism.

pregnancy updates:

“How your baby’s growing: Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches, but she’s beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she’ll start to look more and more like a newborn. She’s also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you’d now be able to discern its color and texture.”

week 25 and i think the nausea is finally receding. i’ve stopped having to take pills on a daily basis. i officially cant breath as of this week, which comes a week too soon since i have to hike all over TN this weekend and i don’t know how im going to make it anywhere. i feel her moving a lot, and the kicks are significantly harder. i can also see them from the outside (that started may be 1-2 weeks ago?) ive started occasionally having heartburn and an increase in anxiety for some reason (or maybe it’s just b/c i can’t breathe). i get restless leg syndrome frequently at night, which is earlier than i remember it starting to occur before (thought it was a 3rd trimester thing) but it hasn’t been too bad yet so i can usually fall asleep.

Blog, Diary, Kids

24 Weeks

“How your baby’s growing:
Your baby’s growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound. Since he’s almost a foot long, he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he’ll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing “branches” of the respiratory “tree” as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon. In the past few weeks, the top of your uterus has risen above your belly button and is now about the size of a soccer ball.”

One thing it doesn’t mention is that 24 weeks hits Viability Day: This just means that if for some awful reason i had to have the baby now, the doctors would at least try to save it, whereas before there wouldn’t be much point. i found this chart online that actually shows chances by week.
http://www.spensershope.org/chances_for_survival.htm