3rd trimester–27 weeks

Hallelujah - two trimesters down!  This pregnancy is flying by right now - probably because I have an adorable two-year-old to take care of and a doctorate to finish.

Good new!  We may have come up with a name for this baby. I was listening to the radio the other day and heard a song called "Lily Love" by the Chieftains and The Civil Wars.  The lyrics really grabbed me, and the melody and harmonies are gorgeous.  I had Tim listen to it, and he agreed it was a beautiful song.  Later he came into the kitchen and said, "I like the name Lily.  Let's name her Lily."  So... tentatively, I think that will be it.  Unless we meet her and she looks more like a Susannah or Jane or Eliza.  :-)

Down, down by the sea,
There is a crown of daisies
High, high on a hill
My little Lilly Love

West wind in your hair,
Tied up in golden daisies
She's chasing you down
My little Lily Love

You hide and seek high and low
In every corner of my soul

I almost hear
The sound of your heart beating
Oh, like it's my own,
My little Lily Love

In other news, I have been feeling like my back is going to break.  I don't remember feeling this huge and dysfunctional when I was pregnant with Amelia, but maybe my memory is a bit selective.  I've also been having some fairly intense  contractions - as intense as when I was in labor.  These usually happen at night.  I've had some that occur every five to ten minutes for up to an hour, but they ease up if I drink a glass of water. I have a prenatal appointment Tuesday, so I'll be sure to mention it.

25 weeks

This is a follow up to the last post. I went to the doctor's a couple days ago, and he did an ultrasound to make sure the GI virus hadn't done any damage in utero. Everything looked great!

Also, he told me that the tachycardia is very common in pregnant women (as is skipping heart beats). He wasn't worried at all, but said to call if my heart rate gets above 110. He said the three main causes were 1) stress, 2) sleep deprivation, and 3) caffeine.

D'oh.

24 weeks

We hit the 24-week mark, which is significant because the baby could live outside the womb if born too early. I'm not planning on that happening, but it's comforting to know.

Fortunately, I have stopped expanding at an exponential rate; my weight (and belly circumference) have remained stable for the last couple weeks.

Unfortunately, I've had a terrible bout with a gastrointestinal virus this last weekend. Saturday I woke up feeling lousy, but insisted on going hiking with the family anyway. As the day progressed, I felt worse and worse, and woke up Sunday morning around 3:00 am feeling like I was really, truly going to die. Tim had fallen asleep on the sofa, so I went and told him that I thought I thought something felt very, seriously wrong. A few minutes later, I figured out why when I started vomiting quite violently. This continued well into Sunday. I tried to eat and drink a bit, but that was a big joke.

I started getting pretty worried because when I was pregnant with Amelia I got a food-born illness that made me so dehydrated that I went into labor and delivered 6 weeks early. So this time I decided not to take any chances and went to the ER to get rehydrated. While I was there, they did an ultrasound to make sure the baby was okay. We could see her heart beating and she wiggled a lot when they were trying to get a better look, so that was very reassuring. When they were getting ready to discharge me, they took my pulse. It was 102, which is a bit high, so they kept me a little longer to see if it would go down. Finally, they told me it was probably no big deal and that I could go home, but to call my OB in the morning.

I'm starting to get a little worried about the tachycardia. My pulse is almost always right around 100, and I feel like I'm almost always struggling to get a good breath of air. I think this is all normal, but I'm getting worried that I'm going to end up on bed rest. That would make me insane!!!

I'm getting super excited to meet this little gal, though. The other day when Tim was putting Squiggles to bed, he asked her what she thought we should name the baby. She said, "Piggy." Then she said, "Pretty." So maybe her name will be Pretty Piggy.

23 weeks

Well, the morning sickness is much improved. I still feel icky most of the time, but I haven't actually vomited for a couple weeks. Hurray!

But... I am as big as a boat, and am now finding out what it's like to be very large with child. I remember getting big when I was pregnant with my first daughter, but she was born early and I already weigh as much as I did when she was born. Yikes!!! It turns out that it's impossible to get comfortable when you have a watermelon-sized growth inhibiting normal hip / waste movement. The biggest discomfort right now is that it's really difficult for me to find a position where I can breathe normally. The baby seems to be constantly leaning against my diaphram, so I feel like I'm always gasping for air. I'm going to start exercising a lot more in the hopes that I can keep my overall weight gain down a bit.

Squiggles is finally starting to acknowledge that there is a baby in my belly. She often gently rubs my belly, maybe because it's becoming so prominent. Today when I asked her to say hi to Baby Sister, she waved enthusiastically at my abdomen. I'm certain she has absolutely no concept of what any of it means, but we'll keep working with her.

22 weeks

Today I had another appointment with my doctor. Tim is on spring break, so he was able to come with me. I told Dr. MacKenzie I still wasn't feeling a lot of fetal movement, so he brought in the ultrasound machine and we spied on the baby for a little bit. We watched her wiggle, spasm, kick (just a little kick), and practice breathing. I love it every time I get to have an ultrasound - it's so reassuring to see the baby wiggling about. Tim was super excited, and said he loved seeing the baby. He hasn't been able to go to the other ultrasound appointments.

I'm still feeling better for the most part - I don't feel great, but I don't expect to feel great until I have the baby. I do have days where I can't stop vomiting, but those days are getting to be fewer and far between (maybe once a week).

Today at the grocery store, the cashier asked when my baby was due. I fibbed and said, "About three months." She said, "Seriously? I thought you were going to say next week!" Thanks a lot, jerk! When we saw the ultrasound, the baby had her legs fully extended. Apparently she likes to stretch out - maybe that's why my belly is so big!

20 weeks

I can’t believe it – I’m halfway done!!! 

Today I woke up with the weirdest feeling.  It was the feeling of feeling… normal!  I haven’t felt sick hardly at all today, and didn’t even take my Zofran this morning.  I ate a huge lunch and then wanted CHINESE food (for the first time since becoming pregnant) for dinner.  It was a miracle.

Also, today I felt the baby kicking for the first time.  I have felt her wiggling around a bit, but tonight I felt her kicking up a storm.  It was awesome.

This afternoon, the cafeteria lady told me that it looked like I was having twins.  Ha – thanks a lot!  I am getting pretty big, I have to admit.  Hopefully that means I have a healthy baby girl inside.  I’m so excited to see and kiss and hold and love her. 

18-week sonogram!

On February 23, at 1:00 pm, I had another sonogram.  My good friend Erin came with me because Tim couldn’t get time off at the hospital.  He really wanted to come, but it just wasn’t possible.  Before he left for work, I asked him if he wanted me to text him with the gender of the baby, and he said, “No, I can wait until I get home from work and you can tell me in person.”

The sonogram technician said everything looked great, which was a huge relief.  I was so worried about spina bifida because I wasn’t able to take prenatal vitamins after about 6 weeks due to severe morning sickness.

The technician at first said she couldn’t tell whether the baby was a boy or girl because its legs were politely crossed.  She gave it a couple gentle nudges and a few minutes later checked again.  This time, even I could see its legs were wide open and I knew what it was before the technician confidently proclaimed, “That’s a girl!”  No hesitation whatsoever.

After the sonogram, I texted Tim the following picture:

He texted back immediately and said, “I can’t wait.  Boy or girl?”  I texted him the first picture, and he said, “Told you.”  Ha ha ha.  It’s true, I was convinced it was a boy, but from the very beginning Tim has thought it was a girl. 

We’re so excited to have two girls – sisters are awesome!