23 weeks tomorrow!

I actually have a lot to update for once!

Last Friday was our 22 week OB appointment. I have only gained 13 lbs so far which I am really happy about, especially because it seems I am always hungry, and for the first trimester I was less nauseous if I ate. BP was perfect, no urine issues. Baby totally cooperated this time and they found his heart beat right away. In fact, due to his position, the Doppler was right on top of his heart and my OB could hear all of the valves functioning "just beautifully" as she put it. My uterus is measuring 24 instead of 22 weeks, but I was told that's normal and better than measuring too small.

Our u/s results were fantastic; no soft markers for Downs! He has a prominent nasal bone and all the bones in his pinkies plus his femur length was normal. However, our baby is a stubborn little dude, because they have not been able to get good views of his heart so we went back one more time on Wednesday.

This ultrasound was a way better experience. It was at another OB's office in the same building, and Nate was able to be in the room the entire time. We both watched our baby during the entire ultrasound on a big TV screen on the wall. The tech was super sweet and went over all the body parts she was measuring and answered any questions we had. It was so cool to watch our little guy for a whole hour! He curls his hands up under his chin when he sleeps like I do, and I totally think he has my nose and Nate's lips! I asked if she could confirm the gender, but he was sitting breech with his legs crossed so no further visual of his boy bits. He also kept putting his hands in front of his face when she switched to 3D so no good face shots to take home. But he's healthy (he showed us his heart which looks great!) and that's all that matters.

I reached another milestone the other day. TMI (too much information) warning for those who do not want to read about my boobs....

They started leaking colustrum!! I was a bit surprised and excited all at once, only because I was happy to know the plumbing up there works, haha!

In other exciting news, progress is being made on the nursery. My tree-shelf wall is almost done, and mom has gotten a lot done on the owl mural on the closet. Last week we bought a light fixture for his room and a bookshelf that matches the off-white colour of our crib and dresser/change table. I also found out this week that I have the same baby furniture as Elaine! Which is funny because when we bought it, I was looking for something similar to hers as I loved it back when Matty was born. Not only that, but she is doing an owl, birds, and butterfly theme for her little girl (due within the next 4 weeks), and we are doing an owl and dragonfly theme for our little boy. Great friends think alike! ;-) I can't wait for both of our babies to be here. It's so much fun to be pregnant at the same time as one of your very best friends.

Oh, and I've popped even more I think. I feel enormous. Here's my latest belly picture (taken yesterday):

21 Week Follow-up Ultrasound

So our baby boy is doing really good! Yesterday was the follow-up anatomy ultrasound since the first was a bit "early" and he was too small to get all the measurements they needed. He is measuring right on target, his heart rate is good, and thanks to the tummy probing he finally turned so that he is no longer beating up my cervix and bladder. I actually saw my belly jump very slightly from a couple good knees/elbows during the ultrasound so I think all the poking ticked him off!

Unfortunately the u/s was super short and the tech I had was a tight lipped cow. She barely grunted when I asked if he was cooperating, and I was starting to freak out that something was wrong because she said absolutely nothing the whole time! When she left to give the doctor the scans and to get mom and Nate, I felt baby like crazy (that's when I saw my tummy jump!) so thank god I had that reassurance. I had to drag it out of her that he was measuring perfectly and what his heart rate was (143 bpm). I asked if she was able to see his boy parts, and she said no, that this was a follow up so she didn't look. Hmph.

We plan on going for an elective 3D ultrasound in a few weeks, so I guess I can get a better look then! At least we were able to see him "looking" at us and sucking his thumb! Here is a picture from the ultrasound, but it's pretty crappy. It's of his face as he was looking at us. It looked so much cuter on the actual screen.



We will get our combined ultrasound results on Friday, but I'm feeling good about everything.

Last night was also pretty exciting because he was moving a ton since the ultrasound and had been giving me his hardest kicks/punches/nudges yet. So, while we were curled up on the couch watching "The Business of Being Born", Nate had his hand on my belly and felt him for the first time! I was worried that with my extra padding it would take a while for him to feel it, but after I saw my belly move today I began to wonder. I'm so happy he was able to experience that!

19 Weeks and Nursery Ideas!

So here I am at 19 weeks (as of yesterday)! I have to say, I love my belly. Sure, somedays I feel fat, but generally I am just insanely happy to be looking round and pregnant.



We started clearing out the nursery earlier this week, and our theme is going to be owls. We are basing it off of this fabric from Spoonflower.com:



I'm going to make curtains, a crib blanket (not a quilt, and it won't be used in the crib until baby is older but it will match), basket liners, a lamp shade, a breastfeeding pillow cover, and more. The crib skirt will be out of plain lime green fabric, and we are going to make some cushions for the rocking chair (that Nate's mom used to rock him in, aww!) out of either lime green or teal fabric.

Mom and I are going to paint a tree on the wall and add shelves like in this picture but with lime green accents, not orange:



I bought this owl piggy bank off of Etsy and it will probably go on one of the tree shelves:



And I will be buying/making other various owl accents, such as sewing up some cute owl book ends similar to these:



Our crib and dresser/change table (with removable hutch) is second hand, but it is gorgeous. Here is a picture from when we bought it off Kijiji during our last pregnancy in 2009:





I'm toying with putting this wall quote above the baby's crib:



And mom and I are also going to paint owls sitting on branches on the huge while closet doors (they take up one wall). I don't have a picture of that, but the owls will be pulled from the fabric.

I so can't wait to get started! Nate is putting the crib together today, as we have his cousin Greg and his wife Jodie and their baby girl Alysa coming to stay with us next week (and Alysa will be using the crib and change table while they are here). We just visited them in Vancouver a month or so ago, they are very close family to us and we usually only see each other once a year, so we are really excited to see them again. I cannot wait to cuddle Alysa again. She is such a pretty baby, here is one of my favourite pictures of her that I took while in Vancouver:



I'll be taking in progress pictures of the nursery, so I will definitely post them all once it's done. Mom and I leave for Vegas on Tuesday morning, so I will also post pics of our haul. Stay tuned!

18 Week Ultrasound

Friday was a very eventful and exciting day! First, we had our 2nd OB appointment at 9 am. I will admit I was a bit nervous even though I had been feeling movement. It didn't help that our little squirmer kept dodging the doppler, but our doctor's resident was super sweet and understanding (and pregnant herself!) so she busted out the portable u/s machine to give us a little sneak peek. Baby was moving up a storm, and even waved hello to us. I was measuring right on target and everything else looked good. I made sure that I was cleared to go to Vegas next week (which I am!), and after a quick hello to our actual doc, we were off to wait for the big ultrasound.

It was so nice to actually have just an external ultrasound with no crotch cam needed! Though my bladder has never been fuller and I was soooo uncomfortable. Baby was being fairly cooperative though very active, and finally at the end he/she revealed it's gender to the tech. When he brought Nate in, he gave us a "tour" of our precious little baby, and when he got to the potty shot, right away Nate and I saw what it was without a word from the tech (though he quickly confirmed our guess).

It's a BOY!!!!!!!! We are so very happy!!!

It's what my gut said he was, though I did keep dreaming of him being a girl. However, I could never quite wrap my head around our baby actually being a she, so looks like Mommma's intuition was right!

I have to go back for a follow up u/s in 3 weeks because the tech said it was too early to get some of the measurements, though they did tell me to book between 18-20 so I'm not sure why it was an issue. But baby looked very good (weighing in at 7 oz, heart rate 147 bpm), and my doc said she would have called Friday if there had been any obvious problems (due to us being higher risk for Downs).

Mom and I are headed for a quick trip to Vegas next week to do some baby shopping and enjoy a girls' getaway. I can't wait!!!

Here is a picture of our little boy:



And me at 17 weeks:

Vancouver Pics - 15 weeks

We were in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago to visit family, and these were taken a few days shy of 15 weeks:

16.5 weeks!

Not much to report, but I wanted to check in anyways. The most exciting thing lately is that I am definitely feeling movement! Sometimes it's fluters, but more frequently now it's been squirming and rolling, since about 15 weeks. I know that's super early for a plus size first time mom, but there's no mistaking it. When I cough or sneeze, it sends my poor baby into a frenzy, and it is very obviously the baby moving. I feel so lucky I do get to feel movement this early, and it definitely helps make me less paranoid. There are definitely days where I don't feel much, but I know that's normal so early on and I try not to worry. And now that my morning sickness has pretty much disappeared (though I still gag brushing my teeth and swallowing my prenatal) and I pee less often, there are days I have a hard time believing I'm pregnant. But then I will feel the baby move, or I will get a horrible headache, or round ligament pain and I'm right back in the thick of it. On particularly paranoid days if I need more proof, I can very obviously feel my uterus and the fundus is right where it should be. Plus if I lay on my tummy it's like laying on a cantaloupe (and it usually makes the baby squirm/roll).

There are still days though where despite feeling all of these wonderful things, I can't help but think of what if's and worst case scenarios. Surprisingly, we worry very little about our increased risk of Downs. I thought for sure that despite my rationalizations, pregnancy hormones would get in the way and make me sick over it. But I just really feel like everything is going to be fine, and that there's no point worrying about something that we have no control over. I am anxious for our appointment and ultrasound in 10 days, where hopefully we can find out more. But I'm not frantic or anything.

This past weekend, we started cleaning and organizing the basement to make room for the furniture in our guest room. Once that's moved out (hopefully in the next few weeks) we will be able to start on the nursery, which is going to have an owl theme! We need to wait on the gender to order fabric and other accents, but I think we're going to leave the walls as is (a nice beigey taupey colour) and just bring colour into the room in other ways. Mom and I are going to paint the sliding closet doors (they take up one entire wall) and then paint trees with owls on them. I'm going to be making the crib sheet(s), valence/drapery, crib skirt, and a matching blanket for playtime (no quilt or bumpers as you don't use them anyways). We already have the crib and change table from our previous pregnancy (we bought it super early, but it was such a great deal and I am so glad we did!) we just need the crib mattress.

This weekend we also bought a used Valco stroller, which included a rain cover, cup holder, toddler seat ,and kick board for $280. Brand new this would have cost us over $700! We also picked up a used Snap N Go for $50 ($100 new, and it has only been used a few times), and I am getting the car seat adapter for the Valco for $25 (normally $65 new!). So all in all we saved over $520. Not bad!!! I have become addicted to Kijiji lol!

1st OB Appointment

Yesterday I got a phone call from our OB's office saying they would like to move up our appointment to today or next week (which didn't work for us as we will be in Vancouver). So we took the appointment for today. I was suspicious as to why we got bumped up; I suspected it had something to do with our NT results from last week, and it turns out I was right.

The nuchal measurement on our baby's neck was normal, but my hcg levels were higher than normal, and this put our risk of Down Syndrome to 1/149. The normal risk level for my age is somewhere around 1/1000. While the risk is definitely higher, this assessment is only a screening, and doesn't consider a lot of other factors. Really, it means we have a 99.3% chance of having a healthy, normal baby, and those are excellent odds. Because of this, and because we would never terminate for Downs, we decided not to get an amnio and will wait for further information after our 18 week ultrasound.

I won't lie; for a few hours today we were feeling a bit stressed about it. But Nate and I talked it through at length (I love my husband!), did some research, and we feel a lot better. We are not going to stress. We will love this baby no matter what, and truly believe our baby is going to be fine.

The upside to our appointment was that we finally got to meet our OB, who we already love after just the first visit. She is incredibly knowledgeable and has an amazing bedside manner. She also knows Nate's mom, who works with her in L&D at the Royal Alex. She brought out the doppler to take a listen to the heartbeat, and every time she found it, baby would squirm away before she could get an accurate reading. So, she brought in the portable u/s machine, and we got to take another look at our little one. He/she is quite the mover; I could see him/her flopping around and at one point the baby even waved! Well it looked like it waved, it was very cute. And the best part was a nice strong heartbeat of 170.

My next OB appointment is in 4 weeks on June 17; the same day as our 18 week u/s. This works out well because it's in the same building. So our appointment is at 9:05, and we will have our ultrasound at 10:45. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and praying everything will be fine, but if anyone is out there reading, please send positive thoughts our way.