Today makes the countdown from triple to double digits. It seems like it took forever to get here and then looking forward, 100 days seems like barely any time at all! With Halloween literally around the corner and then Christmas sneaking up on us ever so quickly, its going to be New Years before we know it!
I had a check up with my OB on Tuesday. A few weeks ago I had to do the Glucose Challenge, in which you have to drink a disgusting beverage that tastes like flat orange pop in less than 5 mins, then wait around for an hour barely moving (since movement burns off sugar) and then get some blood drawn. This is to check to see if you're at risk for developing gestational diabetes. With a history of diabetes in my family I was particularly nervous about this test. (Mainly because it means I would have to cut our sweets and carbs, which seem to be my two favourite things lately) At the check-up on Tuesday he disclosed the results. I was 4.2 and you want to be under 7, so he said I'm in the clear.
As per every appointment, they took my weight and once again.... nothing... I haven't gained any weight since last month, so that still makes it only a 2 lb weight gain throughout my entire pregnancy so far. My OB's official medical advice was "go eat cake". (little does he know I baked a chocolate cake the night before and had an extra large serving) Once again he mentioned that the baby is growing and meeting all the stages on time, so there is nothing to worry about.
Aside from the regular check-in, Rob and I have been attending prenatal classes on Monday nights. Its a group of 7 couples (including us) and we are meeting for 7 weeks, covering topics like labour and delivery, how your relationship will change, financial challenges, medical interventions, etc. Its incredibly informative and not at all what you see on tv. We aren't sitting around with pillows learning how to huff and puff properly. Although they will touch on ways to make labour easier (massage, hot water bottles, breathing etc) its not the main focus of the class. Its more of an overall education of what to expect now and after the baby is born.
All the couples are due within 6 weeks of each other, and then we will continue meeting once a month for the following year so we can discuss the baby's growth stages and any struggles we are having as a couple or as new parents. We chose this course mainly for that purpose. It allows you to develop a support network of people who are going through the exact same thing at the exact same time. We've already made friends with a few of the couples in class and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next few classes brings.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Room to Grow
The baby's room is starting to come together. The first picture is of her bedroom door. We found small letters, painted them and put them on the door. We tried hanging them with double sided tape, then glue dots, then poster stickies, but nothing worked. We ended up having to hot-glue them, and now they won't be going anywhere!
We've had the crib for about a month, and now we've got the gliding rocking chair and a book case. We found great letters at Michael's Craft Store and painted them, then Rob used his handy man skills to hang them for me. I must say, they turned out great.
Some of the stuffed animals in her crib are mine from when I was a child. The little purple bunny I actually received as a gift the day I was born, and according to my mother, she went everywhere with me.
I've also started gathering a few books that I loved when I was young. She is already getting a decent collection going. We've got a few Franklin books, some classic Robert Munch and the entire collection of Jillian Jiggs stories. My mom has managed to track down one of my favourite books called Jenny Greenteeth, about a water witch who lived in the Toronto Beaches area. I can't even recall how many times I made her read it to me. We couldn't find any copies locally, since the book was only released once, back in 1985, but we managed to find a gently used copy and its currently being shipped in from Alberta.
We've had the crib for about a month, and now we've got the gliding rocking chair and a book case. We found great letters at Michael's Craft Store and painted them, then Rob used his handy man skills to hang them for me. I must say, they turned out great.
Some of the stuffed animals in her crib are mine from when I was a child. The little purple bunny I actually received as a gift the day I was born, and according to my mother, she went everywhere with me.
I've also started gathering a few books that I loved when I was young. She is already getting a decent collection going. We've got a few Franklin books, some classic Robert Munch and the entire collection of Jillian Jiggs stories. My mom has managed to track down one of my favourite books called Jenny Greenteeth, about a water witch who lived in the Toronto Beaches area. I can't even recall how many times I made her read it to me. We couldn't find any copies locally, since the book was only released once, back in 1985, but we managed to find a gently used copy and its currently being shipped in from Alberta.
24 weeks!
The baby is officially viable! She now weighs over 1 pound and is larger than an ear of corn. Only a few more weeks to go until the start of the third trimester!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Hippy Chick
Another relatively new symptom I'm experiencing is hip soreness. This past week I've woken up in the middle of the night a few times barely able to roll over because my hips are aching so badly and in the morning when I finally get my tired body out of bed I cant help but have that oh so classic pregnancy waddle for the first few minutes until everything lines back up where its suppose to be.
Once again, its those crazy hormones that I can blame for my aches and pains. According to babycentre.ca "Hormonal changes cause the ligaments in your hips to stretch and the cartilage to soften, which can lead to soreness when you’re sleeping on your side at night." Given that pregnant women cant sleep on their tummies or backs, looks like I have a few months of achy joints ahead of me.
I've found that after a long day of sitting, or even driving, my hips just ache in pain so I'm having a lot more baths these days. The AquaFit Classes I attend weekly have also helped because being in the pool allows all the baby weight to be lifted off my joints and I get a good 45 minutes of stretching. The only draw back is getting back out of the pool, when gravity sets back in and you feel even heavier then you did before. It really makes me understand why some women would opt to have water births!
Once again, its those crazy hormones that I can blame for my aches and pains. According to babycentre.ca "Hormonal changes cause the ligaments in your hips to stretch and the cartilage to soften, which can lead to soreness when you’re sleeping on your side at night." Given that pregnant women cant sleep on their tummies or backs, looks like I have a few months of achy joints ahead of me.
I've found that after a long day of sitting, or even driving, my hips just ache in pain so I'm having a lot more baths these days. The AquaFit Classes I attend weekly have also helped because being in the pool allows all the baby weight to be lifted off my joints and I get a good 45 minutes of stretching. The only draw back is getting back out of the pool, when gravity sets back in and you feel even heavier then you did before. It really makes me understand why some women would opt to have water births!
To lather or not to lather?
Well into my 23rd week of pregnancy, all of the symptoms normally experienced late in pregnancy are creeping up on me.
With the baby belly becoming more and more firm as each day goes by, I finally experienced my first pregnancy related stretch marks. Now I'm no stranger to those little red lines, as puberty attacked me well back in my teens. I seemingly went from no curves to having hips overnight so for a long time my hip area looked as though I was clawed by a bear. Fast forward a few years down the road and all those red lines faded into little silver ones that are barely noticeable, so I'm not entirely worried about the pregnancy related ones because there isn't really any way to avoid them.
After hearing all the commercials and other pregnant women rave about certain creams that help avoid stretch marks, I mentioned it to my OB and once again, did my own research online. At the end of the day the only way you can avoid getting stretch marks is if your mother didn't get stretch marks and her mother didn't get stretch marks.... moral of my story is, I'm getting stretch marks whether I rub every lotion in the world on me or not. I'm just going to think of them as a badge of honour to this remarkable journey my body is taking, and besides, they'll fade eventually anyways.
With the baby belly becoming more and more firm as each day goes by, I finally experienced my first pregnancy related stretch marks. Now I'm no stranger to those little red lines, as puberty attacked me well back in my teens. I seemingly went from no curves to having hips overnight so for a long time my hip area looked as though I was clawed by a bear. Fast forward a few years down the road and all those red lines faded into little silver ones that are barely noticeable, so I'm not entirely worried about the pregnancy related ones because there isn't really any way to avoid them.
After hearing all the commercials and other pregnant women rave about certain creams that help avoid stretch marks, I mentioned it to my OB and once again, did my own research online. At the end of the day the only way you can avoid getting stretch marks is if your mother didn't get stretch marks and her mother didn't get stretch marks.... moral of my story is, I'm getting stretch marks whether I rub every lotion in the world on me or not. I'm just going to think of them as a badge of honour to this remarkable journey my body is taking, and besides, they'll fade eventually anyways.
Welcome to the world Sara!
I'm pleased to announce the arrival of our new niece. My sister-in-law Dawna welcomed her 7th child to the world on Monday October 4th, a baby girl named Sara Elizabeth. I've only seen pictures so far, but hope to get out to Calgary to meet her soon :)
Monday, October 4, 2010
22 Weeks!
Here's the latest belly pic taken at 22 weeks. The Other one is a photo of Rob getting in on the belly showing action. (From the look on Jake's face, I think he thinks his daddy has lost his mind)
Saturday, October 2, 2010
5 Month Check In
This past week has been very low key, as per Doctors orders. Last weekend, after a particularly stressful week, I started experiencing heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness and some cramping, so Rob and I took a trip to the hospital just to make sure everything was fine. I would rather spend an hour or so in the hospital making sure everything is ok, than spend hours at home worrying that something was going wrong.
Honestly I've never been given such priority service at the hospital. Within minutes of arriving and disclosing that I was 21 weeks pregnant, they had my chart made up, took my vitals and attached to an EKG machines to track the palpitations. My pulse was jumping from 107 to 77 every few seconds. After a minute or so of recording they disconnected me and rushed me upstairs to the maternity wing.
Walking in there was quite the experience. You get off the elevator and hit a buzzer across the hall on the wall. Almost instantly these double doors open in sync to a room of nurses staring at you, as if you were royalty. It was a very odd feeling. They rushed me around to a bed and slapped a fetal heart monitor on my tummy. After recording for a few minutes, they discovered that the baby's heart rate was fine. I wasn't concerned about the baby, because while the nurse was tracking the heartbeat the baby was kicking exactly where she was pushing the probe, as if to say, get this thing off me!
The nurse then took all the information and phones the OB on-call. We waited abut 20 minutes to hear that he was sending us home as the baby was fine. As for the heart palpitations, they had begun leveling out, and the OB told me to go home, and take a week on bed rest/house arrest. His strict instructions were to avoid stress. (A lot easier said then done.) I had a regular scheduled appointment 2 days later with my OB that I was to be attending to re-check on the baby, and if anything got worse between heading home and that OB appt, I should return to the hospital.
When we left the hospital we checked the time and we had only been there for 1 hour. Quick the express service for the emergency department I must say. We returned home and Rob set me up on the couch and made sure I had everything I needed for a relaxing evening.
We decided jointly that in order to enjoy a week completely stress free, I would be giving up my cell phone and the internet just to get some peace and quiet and focus on health and family. I thought at the time that it would be incredibly hard to make it through a week without attachment to the electronic world, but I gotta say it was a welcome relief. I didn't realize just how attached I was to my blackberry (checking it when i wake up and when im laying in bed, not to mention a hundred times in between) and to Facebook in particular. It put things back in perspective for me.
Having a few days without those forces controlling my life allowed me to take time to reconnect with myself and with what was happening inside my tummy. I got to enjoy bubble baths, naps, magazines, books and catch up on some favourite tv shows. I spent some quality time playing cards and board games with Rob, and got to focus some time on Jake as well. Rob was a godsend this week. He took Jake for all his walks as walking to much is what was causing my cramping.
At the OB appointment on the Tuesday, he re-checked everything with the baby and she was still doing fine. All the results had come in from my testing a few weeks earlier so we spent the majority of the appointment discussing those. The blood tests/ultra sound scans that tested for things like Downs Syndrome and Spina Bifida all came back in the extremely low range. There is no guarantee that we wont be the 1 in 50,000 that does acquire the disease, but the odds are definitely in our favour. We already knew the heart scan came back fine, but he confirmed that indeed everything in her heart appeared to be the picture of perfection at this time.
The 19 week ultrasound for measurements also came back perfect. She measured out to be 18 weeks and 6 days, when our early dating put her at 19 weeks, so that's right on schedule. All her parts looked as they should and nothing was out of place. So good news all around.
My OB advised me to continue taking the rest of the week off (as in remain at home taking it easy) and that the remainder of the pregnancy needs to be as stress free as possible.
The big news for us this appointment was that I had finally gained my first few pounds of baby weight. A whole 2lbs. 5 and a half months pregnant and I've gained 2 lbs so far. I'd be concerned if my OB didn't continually remind me not to worry because clearly my belly was growing, and the baby was measuring out just fine. The weight must just be re-distributing from other areas.
I have other appointment scheduled for next week to do glucose screening for gestational diabetes, and to find out if my stress has lowered enough to start getting back to normal activities. Especially important with Thanksgiving coming up. My favourite holiday of all!
Honestly I've never been given such priority service at the hospital. Within minutes of arriving and disclosing that I was 21 weeks pregnant, they had my chart made up, took my vitals and attached to an EKG machines to track the palpitations. My pulse was jumping from 107 to 77 every few seconds. After a minute or so of recording they disconnected me and rushed me upstairs to the maternity wing.
Walking in there was quite the experience. You get off the elevator and hit a buzzer across the hall on the wall. Almost instantly these double doors open in sync to a room of nurses staring at you, as if you were royalty. It was a very odd feeling. They rushed me around to a bed and slapped a fetal heart monitor on my tummy. After recording for a few minutes, they discovered that the baby's heart rate was fine. I wasn't concerned about the baby, because while the nurse was tracking the heartbeat the baby was kicking exactly where she was pushing the probe, as if to say, get this thing off me!
The nurse then took all the information and phones the OB on-call. We waited abut 20 minutes to hear that he was sending us home as the baby was fine. As for the heart palpitations, they had begun leveling out, and the OB told me to go home, and take a week on bed rest/house arrest. His strict instructions were to avoid stress. (A lot easier said then done.) I had a regular scheduled appointment 2 days later with my OB that I was to be attending to re-check on the baby, and if anything got worse between heading home and that OB appt, I should return to the hospital.
When we left the hospital we checked the time and we had only been there for 1 hour. Quick the express service for the emergency department I must say. We returned home and Rob set me up on the couch and made sure I had everything I needed for a relaxing evening.
We decided jointly that in order to enjoy a week completely stress free, I would be giving up my cell phone and the internet just to get some peace and quiet and focus on health and family. I thought at the time that it would be incredibly hard to make it through a week without attachment to the electronic world, but I gotta say it was a welcome relief. I didn't realize just how attached I was to my blackberry (checking it when i wake up and when im laying in bed, not to mention a hundred times in between) and to Facebook in particular. It put things back in perspective for me.
Having a few days without those forces controlling my life allowed me to take time to reconnect with myself and with what was happening inside my tummy. I got to enjoy bubble baths, naps, magazines, books and catch up on some favourite tv shows. I spent some quality time playing cards and board games with Rob, and got to focus some time on Jake as well. Rob was a godsend this week. He took Jake for all his walks as walking to much is what was causing my cramping.
At the OB appointment on the Tuesday, he re-checked everything with the baby and she was still doing fine. All the results had come in from my testing a few weeks earlier so we spent the majority of the appointment discussing those. The blood tests/ultra sound scans that tested for things like Downs Syndrome and Spina Bifida all came back in the extremely low range. There is no guarantee that we wont be the 1 in 50,000 that does acquire the disease, but the odds are definitely in our favour. We already knew the heart scan came back fine, but he confirmed that indeed everything in her heart appeared to be the picture of perfection at this time.
The 19 week ultrasound for measurements also came back perfect. She measured out to be 18 weeks and 6 days, when our early dating put her at 19 weeks, so that's right on schedule. All her parts looked as they should and nothing was out of place. So good news all around.
My OB advised me to continue taking the rest of the week off (as in remain at home taking it easy) and that the remainder of the pregnancy needs to be as stress free as possible.
The big news for us this appointment was that I had finally gained my first few pounds of baby weight. A whole 2lbs. 5 and a half months pregnant and I've gained 2 lbs so far. I'd be concerned if my OB didn't continually remind me not to worry because clearly my belly was growing, and the baby was measuring out just fine. The weight must just be re-distributing from other areas.
I have other appointment scheduled for next week to do glucose screening for gestational diabetes, and to find out if my stress has lowered enough to start getting back to normal activities. Especially important with Thanksgiving coming up. My favourite holiday of all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)