I Like to Move it Move it

That must be this little boy's motto because that is exactly what he does for about 90% of his time. I'm actually shocked at how much movement I feel this early. I think the fact that this is my 5th pregnancy helps a bit there. Every time I eat he starts moving around almost immediately. I'm not complaining, it's very reassuring really. I wonder what he'll do when as his space to dance around shrinks over time.

Along with feeling more movement I have also been feeling swollen lately. My legs and hands especially. I had preeclampsia with Chiggie and I would never want to repeat that experience again. So far I have no symptoms. My face and feet haven't swelled up at all. This has been a great week. No issues what so ever. I am really hoping things stay that way!

19 Weeks

We're almost to the top of the hill now. This is a great time of year to be pregnant. It's such a busy, fun, season that I don't have much time at all to dwell on the small issues. Things are going well. I continue to have spotting, but am trying to stay off of my feet as much as possible. My heartburn is mild and is controlled entirely by Tums. I'm never nauseated, even while riding in the car. I am sleeping well at night. At least nothing pregnancy related is keeping me up. My only real complaint remains daytime fatigue. I don't remember being this tired at this point in past pregnancies, but I suppose I could be forgetting. I enjoy the kicks and bumps and keep reminding myself of what's to come.

Dreams

Every time that I have been pregnant I have considered waiting until the birth to find out the baby's gender. Each time I've come up with some random excuse to find out. I need to buy clothes, get the room ready, prepare siblings, etc. In the end I've never regretted knowing. I'm sure it's a wonderful experience to be surprised, but the birth itself has always been quite enough excitement in one day for me. Something about knowing the gender of the baby changes things for me. All of the sudden I know something so very important and special about this new little being.

Since my Thursday ultrasound I have had the most vivid dreams about the baby. I am holding him wrapped snuggly in blankets. I see him and he's gorgeous. He looks so much like all of the girls. I feel a new connection. I did this with all 4 girls as well. I have dreams for him as well. The baby, boy, and man he will be. It's such a responsibility. One I've never taken lightly as a parent. Right now I'm content to have him snuggly in my belly where he's safe from the world.

18 3/4 Week Belly Shot

Now that I'm definitely showing I thought I'd start posting weekly belly shots. As huge as I look at this point I haven't gained any weight. In fact I'm still 3 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm growing though. It will be interesting to watch the progression over the next 20 weeks or so.

Relief and Surprise!

I had my ultrasound today. Since I am already over 18 weeks they went ahead and did a full anatomy scan. After the last week and a half it was fantastic to actually see the baby. We had the best ultrasound technician ever and she was very informative. She told us everything she was doing. To answer a few of the questions that the bleeding caused, my placenta is great and right where it's supposed to be. The amniotic fluid levels are perfect as well. Baby is measuring almost a week bigger than our dates, but our dates are accurate so no due date changes. The bleeding is most likely caused by a cervical abrasion and doesn't affect our little one at all. I have to stay off my feet when I'm spotting, but things look really good. I was so relieved I cried.

We weren't really sure if we'd leave today knowing what we're having. Mostly we just wanted everything to be okay, so either way we would've left happy. The tech was great though and she knew very early on. She showed us and another tech confirmed out thoughts. So as promised I can now tell everyone how the intelligender test went. I took the test exactly as instructed. I even held my bladder all night long. First thing in the morning I took the test and it said:

The color code is right there on the bottle. Orange is for girl and the green color indicates boy. We got a very clear BOY result. I've never tried this before and we did it just for fun. We never bought anything or told anyone we knew what we were having.

Well today we know. The test was RIGHT! Yep we are having a little boy. Of course we're all elated that things look so great and he's growing perfectly!

Appointment

I finally got in to see my elusive OB today and the appointment went well. I am right on track with growth and the heart beat was strong at 152bpm. It was very relieving. Even though I've been feeling lots of movement the heartbeat was nice to hear. I'll have an ultrasound soon to attempt to determine the cause of some of the issues I've been having. At that time we should also find out the gender!

18 Weeks

I am almost half way there. A while back in an attempt to scientifically guestimate our newest baby's birthday the King and I came up with a formula.

Chiggie-15 days early
Tea-20 days early
Midge-3 days early
Boo-12 days early

15+20+3+12= 50/4=12.5

So we're predicting the baby will come about 12.5 days early. With a due date of March 23rd that puts the arrival date right at March 10th at noon. Sounds good to me. As far as new symptoms this week there haven't been many. My heartburn has gone from slight to regular. Breathing seems to give me heartburn at this time. I should have very healthy bones with the amount of Tums I've been popping.

I wish I could say that the issues I'd been having disappeared but they haven't. They've picked up if anything. I'll be interested to see if I have a low lying placenta or something of that nature. I've had to resort to self diagnosis as getting in to actually see the doctor is next to impossible. The nurse assured me that even if I was to get in sooner than my scheduled appointment I would probably only get "temporary reassurance" anyway. She's a real sweetheart I tell ya.

Thankfully my appointment is tomorrow and I will hopefully get some answers. In the meantime we have finally picked out two names that we really like. Keeping with tradition we will wait until the birth to make the announcement, but I feel relieved just to have that part out of the way. I will be sure to update tomorrow when I know more.

Very Reassuring

It is almost as if the baby got the message that I was feeling a little nervous and picked up the pace. I am now feeling A LOT of movement. All the time, I get little nudges and bumps. I'm not even quite 18 weeks yet and just yesterday felt it from the outside as well. I think he/she is trying to tell us that everything is just fine in there. It certainly makes us feel better.

Last night we were out shopping and looking around and took a trip through the baby department. It's so fun to look at all the tiny clothes and to know that not very long from now we'll have clothes that size hanging in the closet. We picked out a couple of outfits for each gender that we really liked with the intent of coming back after the ultrasound. When I'm feeling good and not having any problems I am enjoying being pregnant again.

Relaxing

I honestly think I am feeling better today. The spotting has pretty much stopped altogether and that's a relief. The other physical symptoms remain, but I am relaxing. I've really tried to take it easy the past couple of days. I don't have a whole lot going on the rest of the week so it shouldn't be too hard to keep that up. The hardest part is watching the girls drag all of their toys downstairs knowing I won't get up to stop them. I know the house will still be standing. Hopefully I'll get some answers in a week.

Frustrated

I should start by saying that I debated a good while about whether or not I even wanted to put up a post about this. Finally I decided to go ahead being my ultimate goal in the end is to have an accurate record of the details, good and bad, about this pregnancy.

When I was pregnant for Chiggie I had some symptoms of preterm labor. I never dilated or effaced, but I spend some time in the hospital on IV meds and was put on pill form for around 12 weeks. With Tea I had one similar incident. I had contractions was admitted and spent 24 hours on IV meds. Once released it never happened again. My water broke with her at 36 weeks 6 days and she was born healthy. The next two pregnancies bore no symptoms at all.

Fast forward to this pregnancy. For a couple of weeks I have felt crampy. It's strange to say because I am so early on. I have several painless contractions (BH) a day and sometimes more. Yesterday they were very frequent. I did the usual, drank plenty of water, kept off of my feet, went to bed early, etc. I remember having some cramping in the night, but felt decent this morning. As the day wore on the cramping/tightening came back. I again pushed the water and tried to lay down for a bit. I was fine until I started spotting. This upset me. Alone it would have suprised me a bit, but combined with the cramping I was worried.

It was my OB's lunch hour so I waited it out until I could call the office. I called the King at work so that he could come home and help with the girls. I was pretty sure I'd be going in anyway. Much to my surprise, when I got a hold of the office they didn't want me to come in. They said that since I was only 17 weeks there was nothing that they could do anyway. 20 weeks is the age of viability, which I already knew, but still. Wouldn't they want to make sure there wasn't an underlying cause? What about peace of mind? Maybe just letting me hear the heartbeat would've helped me out in the stress department.

I don't even know what to think at this point. I'm irritated beyond belief. I'm anxious, but I also believe the baby is just fine. I have an appointment a week from tomorrow. That seems like forever right now though. Until then I'll just take it easy . I'll try to stay positive and think good thoughts. If anything changes I plan on just going straight to the ER, even though that sounds like a nightmare. I'd appreciate any prayers you have.

17 Weeks

We're cruising right along through the 2nd trimester. Some less than pleasant symptoms are creeping their way in to the picture but they're more of an annoyance than a problem. They include:

• restless legs at night
• daytime sleepiness (this has lasted pretty much the entire pregnancy but is intensifying again)
• an irritable uterus, frequent cramping, etc.
• leg pain

As the baby grows I'm sure the list will grow as well. I can honestly say that I am enjoying being pregnant. It's going by almost too fast. When I hear of friends having their babies I hope that my pregnancy lingers just a bit longer than I feel theirs have. I got the results back from my quad screen and they were all normal. That is always reassuring.

A Decade

When I got pregnant for Chiggie I was 19 years old. I will be 29 in March. That means that my first pregnancy and this one are nearly a decade apart. I can honestly say that age plays a factor. With my first pregnancy I had morning sickness for 12 weeks, preeclampsia, pitting edema, all topped off with PUPP. It was miserable. I delivered in early June, but it was unusually hot and humid. Our air conditioner wasn't working and frankly I don't know how I survived.

In comparison this pregnancy has been a cake walk. I haven't had severe morning sickness at all, no high blood pressure, extreme weight gain, or bizarre rashes. But I can say that the symptoms I do experience feel more exaggerated. I'm not old by any means, but I really can say that I think I have less of a tolerance over time. If I had a pregnancy this time like my first I would be a basket case, while at the ripe old age of 19/20 I was a real trooper. Now I can also say that having 4 other kids plays a role too. I can't rest whenever I feel tired, far from it in fact. There is no such thing as sleeping in. Even snacking is more difficult. We're on a tight budget and most of the snacks we have are really more for the kids.

I'm really not complaining, just comparing. All pregnancies are different I know that. Sometimes I just wonder if its really the pregnancy or all of the other factors involved. Maybe this pregnancy isn't as easy as I think it is. Maybe I'm just much more pre-occupied. I certainly don't have as much time to dwell as I did in the past. I feel like I'm barely pregnant at almost 17 weeks and with Chiggie by this time I felt as though I'd been pregnant forever. It's all perspective I suppose. It will be interesting to see how I feel in the end.

Bumps in the Night

Okay, now I can say with absolute certainty that I am feeling movement. Usually only at night while laying in bed, but I am assuming because that is when I am most likely to notice. It's a very subtle thump here and there. It feels so low so I am assuming it's kicks, but you never know.

I went on Wednesday for my quad screen, which I hate, but at least it's over with. I'm not expecting to hear anything back but with the high rate of false results I wouldn't panic if I did. I would refuse an amnio anyway. My next OB appointment is a week from Wednesday. I am so excited because I will be 18 weeks. Time to schedule an ultrasound. More than anything I am looking forward to seeing this babe again. I have an ultrasound pic from 6 weeks and it is amazing how clear the baby is in that picture. It makes me that much more excited for the changes we will see.

16 Weeks

I don't know why but 16 weeks has always seemed like such a big deal to me. With all of my pregnancies. I guess being that close to half way just makes it more real or something. It's hard to imagine that in less than a month we will most likely know the gender of the baby and be able to get started on the room. How exciting is that.

My stomach has been a bit more sensitive lately. Not in a nauseated way or anything, just much less tolerable of junk. I don't like the way I feel when I eat first thing in the morning. I also have a seasonal habit of eating my own weight in candy corns every fall and this baby just isn't having it. I always feel strange after eating them. Kind of light headed. It's sad really. I guess I'll just have to double my intake next year.

I have dreamt of the baby several nights in a row. Last night I had the weirdest dream that right after the baby was born we adopted a little girl from China and were taking care of two babies. Don't get me wrong that would be great, just a strange thing to dream when we're not in the adoption process or anything. In another dream I had the baby and immediately began dreading going back to work. I don't work outside of the home so I found that a little strange.

I don't really feel like I have any major pregnancy symptoms anymore. Aside from an ever growing belly that is. No real sickness, headaches, or excessive fatigue to speak of. I'm tired, but I think that's to be expected. I continue to be amazed at how natural the girls are about this pregnancy. It's like they just always knew there would be more. They don't act jealous or nervous at all. Chiggie talks quite a bit about where she will be, what will happen if she's at school etc. We just reassure her that as the time nears we will make all of the appropriate plans and she'll know exactly what is going on. At this point I can't imagine being close, but I know in due time.

Nesting?

I can't say that it's nesting for sure, but I have definitely gotten the organizational itch as of late. Why didn't anybody ever tell me that pregnancy, 4 kids, and organization don't really go hand in hand? I'm often frustrated by my lack of ability to get things I want to get done, done. I need to try and stay focused more often. I work myself like crazy one day and then do nothing the next. There has to be a happy medium. I just keep reminding myself that in the end the baby is not really going to care too much about what the house looks like. That can't see that well in the beginning right?

Update

My back feels much better. I'm so relieved it was short lived. Last night I used a heat pack and that helped a lot. I'm wondering if back pain might be a recurring theme this pregnancy though. My belly feels so heavy and I'm not even 20 weeks. The girls have even commented on how "huge" it is. Fortunately for them, at this point, I take this as a compliment.

My Achin' Back

Aside from the very end, my back has never bothered me during pregnancy. Even with massive, and I do mean massive, weight gains. My feet sure, but my back never. Until yesterday that is. The only thing I can think of was that I sat in a hard kitchen chair leaning forward for too long. Weird I know, but that's when it started hurting. I'm positive it's muscle pain. I have no other other symptoms and the tenderness is constant. Heat seems to help and I was able to sleep okay last night. I tried to take it somewhat easy today with the result being a messy house and bickering girls. I really hope this is short lived and I'm going to be more careful throughout the remainder of the pregnancy.