The good and the not so good...

I've had lots of things I've wanted to blog about but never seem to make the time or when I try to start I don't feel like writing all these words that are in my head! But it's a good way to unload and I want to share! Also, really sorry there's not many pictures - I don't know what pictures I'd add to these topics... maybe I'll try to get creative and add something! (so if there are random pics that's why)

First, just in general everything is so great! I feel good, baby seems to be doing great... she is like a little kangaroo jumping around all the time! There is nothing more amazing then feeling your baby kick inside of you. This morning when Robby climbed in bed to snuggle and wake up he put his hands on my tummy and felt a couple of good strong kicks! "I feeled it!" he said. It's neat for him to be able to feel his little sister in there! Last night I went to a movie (Breaking Dawn - woo hoo! it was so fun!!) and baby was more active than ever! It felt like she was doing a can-can line for like 45 minutes!! So crazy!

I'm 23 weeks now and have another midwife apt on Monday. I love my midwife and feel so lucky that I found her! I said this on facebook but at my last appointment after I asked questions and we chatted for about 45 minutes she said, "ok, I'm just going to have someone come in to do some body work and massage on you!" So for 15 minutes she had her massage therapist daughter rub my feet and my back... I was speechless and soooo happy. :)  I just feel like the level of care and attention I get from her is far better than anything I've seen before - at least in my experience with the three doctors I had during my pregnancy with Robby. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Dr. Savage too but she doesn't have an hour to sit and just chat with me as most doctors do not. Also, midwives focus a lot on nutrition and the overall mental health and well being of the mom and spend a lot of time just building a relationship of trust so when my birthing time comes we'll be ready. I just am so happy with her - it's great. :) I want other people to know that this kind of care exists! If you are pregnant - consider a midwife!!! There's still a range among midwives too and I think home birth midwives probably spend the most amount of time with their clients but still it's better than the 5 minutes per apt one of the OBs I saw was giving his pregnant moms.

So some of the wonderful things about pregnancy right now are:
feeling the baby kick!
having a cute round tummy & not just a squishy one :)
appointments with my midwife
thinking/planning/day-dreaming about my birth
looking at adorable baby girl clothes!
talking about baby names (even if we can't totally agree on anything!)
imagining what this little person inside of me will be like, look like (blue eyes like her dad, maybe?)
being pregnant with my best friend so we can talk all we want about it and not get bored
when Robby asks things like, "when the baby is 3 can she watch Kung Fu Panda? So I can watch it with her?" and "when the baby comes can she sleep with me?"

Hopefully that list illustrates I'm ecstatic about being pregnant and life is good!

Pregnancy comes with a few downsides and I just wanted to elaborate on some of these and share some things that I've learned or have been thinking about. Not trying to complain just wanted to get this out there!

Weight gain - yes, it's inevitable, you're having a baby you're going to gain some weight! It's just been frustrating that I'm gaining so much MORE weight than I did with Robby! I know people say sometimes with their second kid they gain more faster... it's been especially hard since I had just done a bunch of work losing weight at the beginning of the year and was probably my skinniest ever just before I got pregnant. Which my awesome sister in law points out that could be part of why I've gained so much! I'm just trying to focus on eating as much healthy food as I can and limit the treats as much as I can. I know I shouldn't stress about my weight gain and if I'm eating good foods then I'll gain whatever the baby needs me to and hopefully I'll be able to lose it not too long after I have the baby! I remember how awesome breastfeeding was for losing all that pregnancy weight! Hopefully that works again! I'm just saying, the numbers on the scale just make me a little nervous right now!

Craving sugar - this goes with the weight gain and I said I am trying to not eat a bunch of junk and at first that wasn't too bad but the past few weeks I've just been craving sugar like crazy!!! This is so not helpful. I am usually a chocolate girl and can have one or two pieces a day of dark chocolate and be totally satisfied. Lately, I'm gobbling up any chewy sugar sweet candy I can find! Well, not everything but way more than I should especially if I'm trying to slow down my weight gain! Becca mentioned sometimes if women aren't getting enough protein they can crave sweets - I've looked at my protein intake and it definitely could be improved so I'm working on that to see if that helps! Also lots of protein is super important during pregnancy! I have a whole nother (how do you spell "whole nother" sounds normal when I say it but writing it??) post I'm formulating in my head about diet! :) 

Hemorrhoids- I can't believe I'm writing about this in a public space but if anyone's made it this far down into this post they are probably safe to share this with. :) I didn't have this problem when I was pregnant with Robby but did a little bit in my recovery. I know lots of people get them and it's normal but nobody talks about it! So! Just wanted to share the advice my midwife gave me for this and it has seemed to help a lot! I've used witch hazel pads and put a drop of two of Lavender oil (from the sample kit she gave me!) - the lavender oil acts like an anti-inflammatory. Also, something my midwife & her assistant called BF&C which means Bone Flesh & Cartiliage - they said to ask for it at Good Earth and I did and came home with a small jar of it in an ointment form. Also, my midwife recommended taking baths & putting epsom salt in there which also helps with my skin being a little itchy and my muscles being a little achy. Win win. So I wouldn't bring this up except for when I mentioned what I'd learned to someone else she said, "I wish I'd had known that!" and I knew I couldn't keep the info to myself.


I'll try to take some better pictures of my tummy and post those soon! I took a belly pic every week with Robby - this time I seem to never take them!

A healthy baby....

....GIRL!

I am still in shock. Can't believe it! While we would have been thrilled with either a boy or girl we really thought it'd be awesome to have one of each - then whatever happens happens but there'd just be less stress...

Before we picked up Rob we got some Jamba Juice - give baby a nice sugary kick hoping to make sure he/she would be wide awake in there! I'm glad we had Robby come to this ultrasound - he was so excited!

I can't remember all the details right now.... the ultrasound tech checked everything else first it seemed and baby looked great in every area! We have referred to the baby as a boy the whole time pretty much and even during the ultrasound I was saying, "look Robby, there's his foot!" Then I didn't even realize she was checking the baby's bottom when she announced, "Well there's lady parts!" I basically sat up and shouted, "WHAT?!?!?" I was so caught off guard and didn't realize she was just perfectly sure we were looking at a girl... she even said, "Um... is that ok?" (like oh no this woman doesn't want a girl) and I told her I didn't even dare get my hopes up for a girl so was she SURE it was a girl?? She was very confident. The picture we got isn't great but that's ok. I mean, with Robby it was so clear instantly that it was a boy that this is just harder to believe. Like she said, "there isn't as much to show with girl parts..." but she did a few other things and then checked between her legs one more time and said she was so sure it was a girl she'd "take our stuff back for us" if it wasn't.

Here's our "girl" proof picture - you can see the three white lines that mean girl...

 HER foot... not "his" like I'd said earlier... sorry little girl!

Cute little profile...

 Her "halloween" mask as the tech put it! Kind of scary angle but still just neat cause it's my baby...

While I will definitely be double checking between baby's legs the second she is born to confirm this information I'm going to go ahead and be excited about this!

As much as of course I've always wanted a baby girl I think a big part of it for me is wanting Rob to have a daughter - he is so cute with all our little girl nieces and I just think that'll be really special for him.

Luckily Robby was instantly excited about this and doesn't seem disappointed he's not getting a brother. His face was so cute when she said it was a girl... we are all going to have to get used to saying SHE now. Which is great. :)

Robby my awesome photographer.... Rob had to go to a work meeting tonight and I forget to take a picture earlier with him!

Me at our Cornbelly's outing yesterday...

 

We are just SO VERY HAPPY! It already was such a miracle to get pregnant.... now to be having a girl.... I just can't even believe it. I feel so lucky!!!!! We are so grateful.

Ultrasound is coming up!

Ahhhh I'm so excited! We have our "20 week" ultrasound this Wednesday! I'll be one day shy of 19 weeks but oh well. They let me schedule it then so I'm doing it! And I can't even stand it hardly one more minute! Need to make it through a whole day and a half... tomorrow is packed and Wednesday is pretty busy too so that's good.

People have been asking if I have a guess - I have felt like it was a boy since before we got pregnant. I kept thinking this pregnancy has been a lot like Robby's - I haven't had morning sickness and feel pretty good most of the time! - but then I realized there are a few things that are different. The headaches, awful sleeping problems - both of which are much better and less frequent - this is random but my hair is still coming out at a normal rate where with Robby I stopped losing ANY hair basically... I'm STARVING all of the time and much more exhausted - I do have a 4 year old but last time I was working full time so... last time I got lots of leg cramps and none so far. Anyways - it is a little different.

Obviously we would be thrilled to have a girl so we can have one of each. Just to know we have a girl would make me feel like I could more easily relax and say, "now whatever happens happens!" But if it's a boy I might feel like I want to try harder for another baby hoping we get at least one girl. Robby would be SO HAPPY to have a brother though so that makes me excited for a boy too. Either way it's a WIN WIN for sure!

Feeling the baby move has to be one of my favorite things! I hope it gets strong enough to feel on the outside soon because I know Robby will love that.

I have nothing to wear - I bought a few very on sale maternity tops and just ordered some pants on sale from Gap and Old Navy so I hope they fit right when they get here!! I'm resorting to leggings and need to find some longer tops to wear with them so I don't look so silly!

I've been asked for some belly pics but you guys, I feel like I'm rarely "dressed for the day" and am always looking frumpy and in pajamas. At least after about 3 pm.... :) And Rob isn't the most eager photographer... I'll try to get Robby to take some pics of me!

Well, I'll be sure to update again after our ultrasound on Wednesday! Hope to see a healthy baby and hope we find out for sure what this baby is!

Prenatal apt & monthly forum

I had my second checkup with my wonderful midwife, Sherri, last Thursday. We had another good hour long visit and talked about all kinds of things.

One of the things we talked about were using essential oils to solve some of my pregnancy symptoms right now. She actually sells DoTerra and gave me a little 3 pack of essential oils for free which was great and I've already used them a bunch. Peppermint, Lavender, and Lemon.
Peppermint - great for headaches (which Tara ps my midwife says is fine to use while pregnant)
Lavender - to help me sleep and STAY asleep better
Lemon - Rob's used on his cold sore; good for upset tummies/digestion
A few drops of all 3 in a capsule is supposed to be good for allergies which Rob has bad right now so I made him take it 2 times and we're not sure the effectiveness yet but we're willing to try!
Anyways it sounds like there are a million uses for even just these 3 she gave me alone! I know people who use these instead of medicines and I love the idea of having something safe and natural to use for me and my family. I'm definitely interested in learning more about them.
Here's a little chart of different uses of some of the essential oils:

One of the best things was hearing the baby's heartbeat and having Robby listen to it with me - he was so excited! "The baby's heartbeat's COOL mom!"

My blood pressure was normal this time which is good...

Weight - can we talk about the fact I've gained 13 lbs (+maybe a few more if you count vacation lbs that I'm choosing to not count) and I'm only 16 weeks. I was freaking out thinking I'd gained 5 lbs in a WEEK and calmed down a little when I realized it was over a month but still - with Robby I'd gained 0 by this point. I'm not sorry and I'll gain whatever lbs I need to and I feel like I'm eating when I'm hungry and not gorging on treats or anything so it is what it is. But I don't love it. Speaking of gaining weight and nutrition...

Sherri's Monthly Forum

Once a month Sherri gets all of her clients together and does a forum on a subject that's important to cover and then has couples who have just had their babies come and share their birth stories with the group. I know my nutrition isn't perfect but holy cow guys, it can get overwhelming thinking about all the stuff you should/could do.

We learned about the HOPE diet:

H- High Fiber - should be getting 30 grams a day, most people get like 8


O - Omega oils - can be found in flax, hemp, or chia seeds (were some we talked about); I'm taking high quality  fish oil pills Dr. Dummar gave me


P - Probiotics - plain yogurt, we didn't understand too much about them :)


E - Enzymes - help us digest our food, in raw fruits and veggies, can take supplements

There's a ton I could say but I'll just say the thing we are working on now is having a good, healthy green smoothie every morning with flax seed in it to help with fiber and omega... trying to eat more fruits and vegetables, raw foods...

Also, Sherri said by your 4th or 5th month of pregnancy you really should be OFF sugar! Did you hear that? OFF SUGAR! Wahh! Ok, I do see that the more fruits and veggies we eat the less we crave sweets - I haven't even wanted chocolate for days which is good - but I'm definitely not OFF sugar! And there are different levels of OFF sugar - like no treats, or not using any products with High Fructose Corn syrup or sugar in them which is pretty much everything besides raw foods. :) (like when I did the HCG diet) At least that diet helped me be much more aware of what has sugar in it and look for/make my own no sugar or low sugar options. So I'll be trying to cut sugar out of my diet more and more but I'm sure I won't be perfectly OFF sugar.

So I haven't been able to convince Rob to do an early ultrasound and now ours is only 16 days away so I guess I can wait... waiting is no fun! But that's ok. Gives me something to look forward to!!

15 weeks

 I'm 15 weeks tomorrow!

I can't believe it! It's great. :) Today during my acupuncture treatment while laying there relaxing I think I felt a little baby flip inside of me! I felt Robby at around 17 weeks and I've heard sometimes with your second you feel it earlier - either way hopefully soon I'll be feeling lots of little kicks. I know Robby is going to LOVE being able to feel the baby moving and I can't wait for that.

So I'm still having headaches - not as often but still every now and then. They are so annoying. Thanks everyone for your advice and thoughts though - I appreciate all your input! I love when women can share advice with each other. :) It makes me feel better that this seems pretty common and normal! And that hopefully they'll go away soon!

Weird sleep - ugh, so annoying! Last night I could NOT fall asleep - no really, I didn't fall asleep so at 4 am I finally got out of bed and got a yogurt and got on the computer for a few minutes... after going to the bathroom tons of times I was finally falling asleep and then Robby woke up at 6:30 with a bad dream.... and yeah... I didn't sleep. Oh well. Today I laid down at 1 to try to take a nap because I was so dang tired but my body was just totally resisting sleep. Awesome. Now it's 9 pm and Rob is giving me a hard time because I am READY for bed. :)

So with Robby we paid the $50 extra for a 16 week gender check but I had said, no, we don't have to do that this time, we can wait and I made an apt for 19 weeks actually for Oct 19.... but I just realized I'll be 16 weeks next week - we could find out NEXT week what this baby is (assuming it cooperates) and now I CAN'T get the idea out of my head!!!! Rob is saying no way we are can wait but we'll see...

 

I'm not the best at taking pictures of myself! Oh well! There is a tummy!

Ideas?

Alright so the first trimester is almost over and I have had very little to complain about - this has been great! Not throwing up, more tired but not completely exhausted... but for like the last week and a half I've had 2 problems... Headaches & I can't sleep.

Headaches - from the base of my neck... off and on and it just kills. I went to Dr Dummar on Tuesday and he did a chiropractic adjustment which made it feel better then but then they came back quickly. Saturday I had a massage which again felt great but didn't solve the problem. I don't like taking tylenol because I feel like I'd rather not take meds during the pregnancy and I feel like it doesn't do anything anyway so what's the point - the two times I have taken it it's barely made a difference. The most frustrating thing is when I WAKE UP with a headache! Cause you think getting sleep would make it better! Grr! Oh well, it's just getting really old! And I wish there was more I could do!

Can't sleep - I fall asleep... then I wake up in the middle of the night and can't go BACK to sleep. It is SOOOO annoying. Sunday I woke up at 3:30 am and didn't go back to sleep at all. I just get up and go to the bathroom 18 times... roll around... sometimes I'll get up and eat something. Becca said maybe my body is hungry and I am going to try just getting up and eating something right when I wake up next time and see if that helps me go back to sleep. Also, I usually take all my pills (prenatal vitamins, fish oil pills, cofactor pill, and herbs that I finally capsulated because I couldn't drink them anymore!) so I'm drinking a lot of water at bed time which = lots of trips to the bathroom. I'm trying to take those a few hours before bedtime and just deal with the fact they make me nauseous so cut back on the middle of the night bathroom trips.

I'm still able to sleep on my tummy although it is getting a little uncomfortable. I just lay half on a pillow to distribute my weight and that seems to help!

I have another appointment with Sheri in two weeks but I might just call her and see if she has any suggestions for these problems!

Do you guys have any ideas??

If you got up in the middle of the night and were getting a snack what would you get? I need some ideas...

And yeah, let's just pause for a second - I'm almost out of the first trimester! Thursday I'll be 14 weeks! Ahhh! Still feel like this baby is such a miracle. Robby's prayer tonight was short and included, "Please bless the little baby... I'm thankful for the baby and please bless it will stay in there..." We are just so glad to be pregnant.

First prenatal

I meant to blog about this right after and I kept forgetting!

So you know how I had decided on a midwife and so when she called me back on Monday and asked when I wanted to come in I said RIGHT AWAY! I was able to see her the next day, so last Tuesday, for our first appointment!

I pulled up to her house and she and her 5 year old son were just getting out of the car - hurray! Someone for Robby to play with! You guys, this is so great, Robby just ran around and played with her son for the whole hour we were meeting. And we scheduled my next appointment to be when her son would be home again so they can play. It's such a relief knowing he's welcome at these appointments and now he even will have FUN!

It was kind of funny because she and her son had just been at McDonald's at the playplace - it was his first day of school. She said, "oh no, Esther! Today we're going to talk about nutrition and now you're not going to listen to a word I say when you see me with my Dr. Pepper and cheeseburger!" Ha! I told her no, now I won't worry about her judging me if I tell her I ate something like that. :)

We did talk a lot about nutrition and I asked her what I ask every doctor, "How bad is it if I have an occasional diet coke?" I am basically asking for it when I ask this question but I need someone to convince me not to drink soda!! She told me a pretty convincing story - when she was pregnant with her 9th baby, at age 40, she decided she'd just drink Dr. Pepper if she felt like it! And all through her pregnancy she kept having bladder infections... and she said, "I know what it was from and I didn't care!" And then when she was in labor her midwife broke her water and all her contractions stopped - she said in a serious voice, "And Esther... I had to have a hospital birth." She went to the hospital and she had a cervical infection. So they gave her antibiotics and an epidural and then the baby came without any other problems but it was not the kind of birth she wanted and she felt like the infections were linked to drinking soda and just not taking as good of care of herself as she should've. She pointed out that it has to go through your kidneys which are right next to where the baby is!

If my goal is to have a healthy baby and to be able to give birth at home then I need to take the best care of my body that I can!! So I am going to do my best to eat healthy foods and exercise and not drink soda.

My favorite part - we heard the heartbeat! I was almost 12 weeks at my apt and my uterus is tipped back so I knew it would be hard to hear the heartbeat but since I'd been having some cramping that weekend I was desperate to hear it!! She was very patient in searching for it and we found it a few times although it was very quiet - her monitor picked it up and it was definitely a baby's heartbeat! It was such a relief! I'm excited for my next appointment where it should be much clearer and easier to hear right away!!

She also took my blood pressure which was a little high which was random for me. She said it could be a fluke and she's not too worried about it but if it's high next time too then we'll start talking about ways to lower that - like eating more garlic apparently. I've read exercising can help as well - trying to get back into that these days!

And just fyi she does urine tests each week like at a regular doctor too. Other labs and ultrasounds are elective and we'll do an ultrasound around 20 weeks to try to find out if it's a boy or a girl and see if everything looks good! So that's just like a month and a half away! Ah! So exciting!

Basically I still feel really good about my choice and my midwife is great and I'm happy. :)