Belly pic: 20 weeks

I've reached the halfway point! The only comparison pic I could find was one of me sticking my belly out, so I look a lot more "popped" and higher in the 2007 version, but that's only because I was arching my back. I also thought I'd include a picture of the little guy who was inside the 2007 belly, and is now beating me in sheer belly mass. I have a bit to go before I'll catch up to him, but I'm getting there.

Now I'm getting really exhausted in the afternoons and evenings, but I think that's because I may be coming down with something. Last night I was at Target (for my big night out - whoo hoo!) and three different people asked me if I needed to take a seat. One woman even made me sit down and brought me some water, saying that I looked like I was about to faint. And yeah, I did feel pretty awful. I'm not sure if it's low blood sugar (I'm still in that cycle where I feel too nauseous to eat, but not eating makes me feel nauseous) or something else, but today I woke up with a horrible headache and sore throat as well. So perhaps hilltot and I are just passing a cold back and forth.

Last week I also switched out my belly button ring for my pregnancy ring. Yes, I have my belly button pierced. It's the result of losing a bet with a group of 14 year olds when I was 22 (never bet against teenagers). I don't even remember what the bet was, but I've had the piercing for 14 years and it's become a part of me. I had to take the ring out when I broke my back (belly button rings and full torso braces don't mix well) and once I was out of the brace, I felt so strange that I had to put the ring back in. And now I've taken out my metal ring, which was straining against the melon-y massiveness that is my belly, and replaced it with a longer, flexible plastic ring. I was able to wear the pregnancy ring throughout my pregnancy last time, as well as through an emergency c-section.

Nothing else really to report. I don't have any appointments until April, so I'm just sitting on the couch eating bon bons while I wait. HA.

Belly pic: 19 weeks

Today is 19 weeks! Babyhill seems to be doing just fine, although there's really no way to tell from out here! I listened to the heartbeat on the fetal doppler this morning (I allow myself to find the heartbeat once a week, just to reassure myself), and although I haven't felt much fluttering lately, I've felt exhausted and nauseous. I chalk that up to babyhill churning out lots of hormones. I also suspect I might be succumbing to gestational diabetes (I feel like I'm suffering from low blood sugar pretty much all the time, yet I feel too nauseous to eat anything).

I've gained about 9lbs so far and I'm hoping to increase that dramatically but I'm not sure how to do it. I gained 25lbs with hilltot (I'd gained about 15lbs of it by 19 weeks), and I'm hoping to gain more this time because I started off this pregnancy 10lbs lighter. So I have some catching up to do! Any suggestions on healthy, tasty, protein-rich, non-meat foods I can eat? Other than peanut butter, yogurt and cottage cheese? I'm sick of those.

Anyway, here's my belly pic from today. I don't have one from my last pregnancy to compare this week, so you get a silhouette of last week's.

Duh

The past few days, I've thought to myself, "Gosh, I feel bloated! What did I eat??" Then I remember that I'm pregnant.

Belly pic: 18 weeks

I feel like I've gotten smaller since last week! I've been sick so I haven't been eating as much, but I don't think that should impact my belly size. Regardless, everything is going well and I'm in that stage of pregnancy when I can sometimes forget that I'm even pregnant. I'm not nauseous anymore, I'm not as exhausted as I was before, and I'm still pretty comfortable getting around. I have tweaks and twinges every once in a while that might make me gasp (round ligament pain), but that happens infrequently and passes quickly. I'm starting to spread out to the sides too (maybe that's where the belly growth has been) so my waist is a distant memory...I'm quickly heading to pear/weeble wobble territory.

Update

Well, Dr. H didn't tell me that everything is an elaborate joke and we actually have nothing to worry about at all, but she did make me feel a little better about things. As I mentioned in my last post, we will have a fetal echo cardiogram to check the baby's heart at 22 weeks and I will have multiple growth ultrasounds to make sure the baby is developing normally. Otherwise, we wait and see. Dr. H did say that maybe I have such rough pregnancies in order to balance our perfect babies. I like that idea.

While waiting to see Dr. H, I overheard another patient talking to her OB about the results of her gestational diabetes test. She tested positive on the 3-hr glucose tolerance test and was being referred to the Joslin Diabetes Center for treatment. I was feeling compassion for her, as I remember when I received the same news during my last pregnancy. Then I heard her say, "No. I won't go. I'll be fine." Her OB tried to convince her that she really needs to manage her gestational diabetes in order to have a safe pregnancy and healthy baby, but the woman refused.

At one level I was amazed that someone would not want to do whatever it takes to have a healthy pregnancy. And at the same time, I was thinking, "You can just say no?"

Risky business

There are several factors that make a pregnancy "high risk". Advanced maternal age (over 35)? Check. History of gestational diabetes? Check. Previous premature infant? Check. So we already knew we were up against a few odds. But apparently, that's not enough...to make sure that we solidly fall into the "high risk" category, we've discovered that we have something called Single Umbilical Artery (SUA).

A normal umbilical cord starts with 4 vessels: 2 veins (taking nutrients to the baby) and 2 arteries (removing waste from the baby). One of the veins closes up early on, so you are left with the typical 3-vessel umbilical cord. However, in some cases and for unknown reasons, one of the arteries also closes up. This leaves you with a 2-vessel cord, SUA.

SUA brings a host of risks along with it, including preterm labor, low birth weight, IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction), heart, kidney and GI defects, and stillbirth. It most commonly affects Caucasian women (1/2 yes), multiple pregnancies (nope), and women over 40 (nope), who have had 3 or more children (nope), or have Type 1 Diabetes (nope). It is more likely with female babies (not likely, but there's always a chance).

There is a decent chance that everything will be OK, but now we are on high alert. We will be having a fetal echo cardiogram to check the baby's heart and I will have more frequent ultrasounds to check growth. At 30 or 32 weeks, I will start going in for weekly (possibly twice weekly) non-stress tests (NSTs). I will be highly monitored during labor and delivery and we will have our fingers on the emergency c-section trigger at all times.

So that's where we stand right now. I have my next OB appointment tomorrow and this will be my first chance to talk with Dr. H after getting the results of my ultrasound. Dr. H is incredibly down-to-earth and pragmatic, so I'm looking forward to hearing her recommendations. I'm mostly hoping that she will tell me, "Oh calm down..."

Triple whammy

Taking care of a sick toddler is tiring. Taking care of a sick toddler while you are sick yourself is harder. Taking care of a sick toddler while you are sick and pregnant and therefore unable to take advantage of the vast array of medicines available to the average adult is miserable.

Belly pics: 16 & 17 weeks

Here are my belly pics from 16 and 17 weeks. I don't intend to do them every two weeks instead of every week, but that just seems to be how things are working out. And as I warned last time, the comparisons are going to be more difficult because I stopped taking consistent belly pics at this point in my last pregnancy. For example, my 16 week photo is a mirror image (I'm actually facing the other way in it) and my 17 week photo was actually taken at 16 weeks 5 days. And yes, I'm wearing the exact same outfit in those two pictures. You'll be seeing a lot of that from now on, considering that I have finally broken down and started wearing my maternity clothes. Also, I need to make the picture a bit wider because, well, I'm not going to fit in the frame for much longer.

So here we are at 17 weeks! Almost halfway there. I'm not feeling as sick or tired anymore, which is great, but now all of the physical ailments are starting to pop up. Joints tweaking, sore back, and the worst of them all: heartburn. I hate it! It happens when I lie down, so sleeping isn't quite as restful as it could be. I will probably pull out my pregnancy pillow soon so that I can wrap it around me and prop my upper body up a bit.

I had a little milestone this week: quickening! Or, in everyday language, I felt the baby move for the first time! I had a pretty intense ultrasound on Monday morning, and apparently that got the baby all riled up. I could feel him/her fluttering around in there all evening. It's such a neat feeling -- especially because it hasn't yet progressed to solid punches and kicks to my internal organs.

I have a bit more to report, but I'll put that in a different post. Time to go get my little hilltot up from his nap!