19 Weeks!

19 weeks! Woo!  I’m almost halfway!  I know that my OB practice will let you go to 42 weeks, but I plan on inducing at 41 if she’s not out by then.  I am impatient, and that would be plenty of time for her to grow and be ready to see the world.

Thanks to everyone for the comments on my last post.  I knew that my family was going to be difficult, but the fact that they aren’t listening to me AT ALL really upsets me.  It’s like I’m a child and I’m not allowed to make my own life decisions, even though I’m almost 29 years old and pregnant with a child of my own.  It feels ridiculous and really irritates me.  My heart rate is racing enough on it’s own lately, so I’m going to have to find a way to keep calm about all of this, but it’s difficult.  Just thinking about it makes me grumpy/stressed all over again.  *Breathe Breathe*

So this week has been pretty much like the past few.  Bloody nose, back aches and feeling tired, but not exhausted (unless I don’t take a nap and I’m up past 8:30).  Sleeping is still giving me problems, but I’ve started taking a hot shower before bed and it seems to be helping me fall asleep better.  I would imagine this brain of mine is going to be in hyper drive for the next few months.  I’m already getting overwhelmed by everything we need to do, learn about, register for, and get set up.  It’s amazing how much stuff you need for a little, tiny person!  She’ll have more things than I have by the time she’s born!

We’ve decided on a name. ❤  No one gets to know it until she’s here, but my husband and I love it and I’ve been able to talk to her using her actual name.  It’s an amazing feeling.

I’m still not sure I’ve been able to feel her.  Sometimes when I lay down to sleep I can feel a little thump in my belly, right under my belly button.  There is no pattern or rhythm to the thumping, which is what makes me think it might be her.  I just wonder why it’s always in the same spot.  Is that normal?  I have a week and a half until our next appointment and our last ultrasound.  It will make me feel better if I can see her moving around on the screen.  Hopefully I’ll be able to feel her and be sure it’s her by then though!  My husband keeps telling me not to rush her and that she’ll move when she’s ready to move.  I have a feeling he’s always going to have her side. haha

Here is the belly!  Oh, and I finally got some bras this weekend at Kohls (I also got one at Destination Maternity, but it’s not great and it’s a nursing bra so I plan on waiting until they start noticeably leaking or I start breast feeding).  They are stretchy and soft.  Not very supportive, but I could care less about that right now.  They are so big it would be hard to have them lifted up regardless.  I also got two “panty bras” that I am using for sleeping.  They’ve made a world of difference with my sore nipples.  They are not even a little bit supportive, but they keep them in place, which keeps my nipples from rubbing against my shirts.  My next purchase will have to be underwear.  My favorite ones are cutting into my legs (yep, legs are getting bigger) and I think it might be causing some of my leg pain while I’m sleeping at night.

Belly!

Yikes

I’m a little confused about something, so I thought I’d write about it and see if anyone has any ideas.  Maybe someone else understands this…

My family seems to think that they should all come up here and be here during the birth, while I’m in the hospital, and when I get home.  I get that we will probably need some help and guidance for the first few days, but holy cow, I do not want eight people all up in our business during the craziest moments of our lives.  I mean, am I completely crazy??  Is it wrong to only want your parents and your husbands parents there?  Could you imagine getting home from the hospital with a newborn, your FIRST baby, and everyone is everywhere, and your house is in chaos, and everyone wants to put their two cents in to how you are doing everything?  That seems more stressful than having to go through labor…. and it honestly might be.

Not to mention that my sister keeps asking me how long it took us to get pregnant, which I don’t think is anyone’s business.  She doesn’t even know about what we went through, yet for some reason she wants to know.  Is this something that everyone shares with people?  If you are a normal person, who can get pregnant like nature intended, do you get offended when someone basically asks you how long you and your husband were humping before you got conceived?  Because that’s basically what she’s asking.  I find it rude.  If someone wants to offer that information to you that’s one thing, but you don’t ask.  Right?

Ugh, maybe I’m just too worked up tonight.  I’m already stressed out because my dad had a heart attack last night.  I’m not super surprised, because heart problems run in my family and he’s a smoker and a drinker, and has a horrendous diet, but it’s still a shock to hear that your dad is in the hospital and had to have a stint put in, and that he has muscle damage on 20% of his heart. He described it as having “20% of his heart die,” which freaked me out a good deal.  I’m the calm one, the rational one, so I don’t get worked up over things like this, but I still want him to be healthy and happy for a lot longer, so I am upset.  I’m hoping this is the big push my family needs to get themselves into a healthier lifestyle.  My dad hates being in the hospital and feeling helpless, so if anything is going to help him get on the ball, it’ll be this…. as sad as it is to say that having a heart attack is the only thing that might get through to him.

I’m now going to go hang out with my husband and relax.  Try to forget about all of this stress.  I just had to vent though.  My husband let me vent and then decided that I was too worked up and needed to stop talking about it all together.  He’s right, but I think one last outlet on my anger was very helpful.

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

18 Weeks!

Here we are at 18 weeks!  Things are starting to get busy around here.  Checking out paint colors and furniture.  Paint colors are a total pain in the butt.  They look one way on the card, one way in the sample container and a completely different way on the wall.  I even have a picture on Pinterest of a color I love, so I looked it up on the website and the color painted on a wall looks about 40 shades different in a completely different color.  I guess I’m going to need lots of time and lots of sample money to figure out what I finally want.  Anyone out there know of a pretty, light green color?  Like a mint color?  I don’t want neon and I don’t want dark.  Thanks in advance if you know of anything!

I’m a little less tired lately.  I can still nap for 2-3 hours if given the opportunity, but I’ve been out of town or cleaning, so I haven’t had a lot of time for napping.  I have so much to get done before I’m ginormous and super tired.  Hopefully I can get it all done!  I’m also still having bloody nose junk and my back is SO out of whack.  I went to the chiropractor last week, and that helped a little, but there is only so much they can do, and I am only allowed to go once a month.  I can deal with it though.  If it means my little lady is growing up strong and healthy, I don’t care how out of whack I get.

Oh, and can we can say clumsy?  I’ve never been clumsy in my life, but I find myself dumping water on the floor, stepping on the dogs, and tonight I smashed my finger trying to get a casserole dish out.  Is it because I’m distracted or is this what they refer to as “pregnancy brain”?  I think that might be one in the same, actually.

Sometimes I feel like we are a little ahead of the game doing all of these things at 18 weeks, but holy cow there is SO MUCH to do!  Plus, we are notorious for being ahead of the game and then getting completely lazy and forgetting about doing anything.

So far I can’t seem to feel her moving.  I can feel…. something… but I have no clue if it’s her.  It doesn’t quite feel like gas though?  So maybe?  My doctor says it could be about 20-23 weeks before I really feel her, but I hope it’s sooner. 🙂

Okay, here’s the belly…. it’s a little smaller than last weeks, but that’s because it was taken first thing in the morning without the super bloat.

Help Me Out Here…

Alright, I just had a chat with my friend who is currently trying to do IVF.  She got all ready in December and medicated herself.  She started meds on a Sunday and didn’t have an appointment until Friday to check follicles.  Turns out she had three sized 14-15 on one side, and three sized 5-6 on the other.  The doctor decided that the others would never catch up in time, so he cancelled the cycle.

— Okay, so let’s analyse all of this for a second.  First, should she have had an appointment earlier than five days after starting meds for the first time?  This was her first time on injectables and there was no telling how her body was going to react.  Second, that’s all I had for this section.

So, she’s super bummed and goes in for another consultation to discussed what they are going to do differently this time around.  The doctor tells her that they are going to keep her off of birth control the month before IVF, because sometimes this can prevent IVF from working well because it hinders egg growth.  Then he tells her that once her period starts, he will bring her in on day three and she’ll have an ultrasound to check and see how many potential eggs she has in her ovaries.  Then, if she has enough potential eggs, they are going to start her meds at a higher dosage.  If she doesn’t have enough eggs, they will wait to start until next month (if the scan goes well that month).

— Okay, so… I didn’t know that birth control before IVF could decrease your potential eggs for the cycle.  Every single person I’ve talked to, and every blog I’ve read, have seemed to have the same theme of “birth control for a month, then we’ll begin!”  Have any of you heard of not taking birth control before starting IVF treatment to increase the potential for a higher follicle count??  Also, has anyone ever heard of the doctor being able to look at your ovaries and tell how many eggs have the potential to mature that cycle?  I have never, in my three years of reading and talking to doctors about infertility, heard anything like that.  I know when I was diagnosed with DOR, due to my low AMH number, they brought me in for an ultrasound to confirm that my ovaries were pretty empty.  I assumed they were looking at how full they were in general, not how many eggs were available at that moment.  I mean, I was still on birth control during that scan, so had I assumed right since birth control prevents you from ovulating, how would eggs show up on a scan as “ready to go”?

I’m confused by the things she’s telling me because everyone else I’ve ever talked to about this stuff has been consistent with their information and she’s throwing out things I’ve never heard of.  I just hope that her doctor is taking care of her, and is following correct protocol to get my friend pregnant so that she can enjoy pregnancy like I am.  I want the best for her.  I told her that if her doctor can’t get her dosage right this time, that she’s spending the summer with me and she’s going to my doctor.  She has unexplained infertility at the moment, although she said the doctor told her that her AMH is a little lower than average for a girl her age.  I think my doctor could get her knocked up.. if anyone could.. it would be him.  Does that sound weird?  😉

17 Weeks!

Whoa, 17 weeks!  I can’t believe I almost forgot to do my update today!  My brain is all scrambled because my husband is out of town for work this week. womp womp!

So other than finding out the sex of the baby (Wooooo!!!) there hasn’t been any new things.  I’m still tired, but not napping everyday.  I’m still having trouble sleeping comfortably because my back feels like it’s completely out of whack.  I plan to visit the chiropractor tomorrow!  I’m sure they are going to be like “what have you done to your back!?”  I promise, it’s not me doing it.. it’s the little lady inside of me!  She’s allowed to do whatever she wants though.  I’ll take it!

My husband and I have started the list of names we like.  This is going to be extremely difficult!  We have two that we really like, but one of us each likes the other better.  Good thing we still have plenty of time to figure this out!  I just wish my mother would quit trying to call her names already.  Not suggesting names, but emailing me and calling her a specific name.  Like “thanks for the pictures!  Beth is so cute!”  What the hell??

This may be the slowest week of the pregnancy so far since I’m not working and I have no husband to keep me company at night.  *sigh*  I guess I’ll get plenty of research done for baby things!  I also need to purge more things.  I already tackled the hall closet and the guest room closet.  I’m terrified to even begin the nursery closet.  There is so much craft junk stuffed in there it’s not even possible to describe.  Just imagine if a craft store blew up and that will probably give you a good indication of how it looks.

Here is a picture of my bump… which contains a tiny, little, baby girl!  I took this picture at 5:00pm instead of early in the morning like normal, so it is mostly belly with a thick layer of bloat!  There is no doubt about it now… the top is definitely trying to catch up with the bottom.  It should be completely round in a matter of a week or two.  Crazy!  I guess that’s what you get when you have a big uterus. 😉

16 Week Appointment

Yesterday was my 16 week appointment.  Standard appointment (from what I’ve been told about appointments).  Pee in a cup, blood pressure and then a chat with the doctor about how I’m feeling, followed by listening to the heartbeat.  I love the heartbeat. 🙂  It was right around 145, which she said was great.  Then she measured my stomach/bump/uterus?  That’s when she decided that I was measuring too big for 16w3d. I had no idea what that meant.. maybe the RE shouldn’t have pushed my due date back four days?  The doctor told me that it usually means that there is extra amniotic fluid, which isn’t bad, but she wanted to do an ultrasound asap to check and see exactly what was causing it and have it documented.

Okay, no biggy.  So I went to check out and the lady saw the note and said “I’m going to see if they can get you in right now!”  Huh, uh oh! I thought maybe next week sometime.  So she goes to the back and finds out that they can fit me in soon.  So I go to the waiting room and text my husband like crazy.  I couldn’t bring myself to Google it.  I was surrounded by people in the waiting room and didn’t want to get emotional if I did read something bad.  Luckily my husband is awesome and he Googled and let me know that the few things that could cause it, aren’t serious. Whew!  I was still upset that he couldn’t be there, but I figured it would be a quick in and out and on my way.

Within about 20-25 minutes, I was called back.  Warm, gooey gel was applied (yay for gel warmers!) and then I asked “hey, is there anyway you might be able to tell what the sex is today?”  She said she thought there was… woooo!! I might be able to surprise my husband with something!!  Now I was super excited.

She checked the fluid and everything looked perfect.  She measured the baby and everything looked fine.  Then she checked my ovaries and they were good.  One small cyst on my left ovary, probably left over from the IVF stuff.  Nothing to worry about.  She said that everything looked great and the only thing that would have me measuring big is my long, skinny uterus.  haha  So, there you go.  My uterus is big.  It’s actually spread a little above my belly button, which she said is a little higher than normal for this far along.  Apparently it should be right at my belly button?  Eh, everything is fine so I don’t care how big my uterus is.

….and I got to find out the sex!!!!

It’s a….

 

It’s a…..

 

It’s a GIRL!! 🙂

My husband is so excited.  I love to see him like this.  We even started a list of names last night!  I am so glad we got to find out early, because we have TONS of stuff do to around the house before another person can live here!  Let the cleaning, purging and painting… BEGIN!!

 

A BABY GIRL!!

Argh!

Okay, I’m not sure what’s going on today.  Maybe it’s a full moon?  Or the stars are in some sort of strange formation?  Or maybe, just maybe, everyone is crazy and I want to punch them all!

Today I decided to ask Facebook about some help with a home improvement project we are doing.  I asked about where they got their product and who installed it.  Simple, right?  Well, it was.  It was going great.  Lots of good information.  Then my mother saw the post.  It was about putting laminate in our living room and kitchen.  “Laminate is bad for your feet.”  “You could slip!”  “Wood laminate won’t look good in your kitchen”

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!  It’s OUR house and we want laminate!

So, then I’m trying to calm down and relax a little, and I get a Facebook notification from my sister telling me that I’m going to hate laminate.  Thanks, again, for telling us what we want/like/need.  Then she said I better get some no slip socks.  Because apparently I’ve never walked on laminate before in my life….. even though we already have it in our kitchen…..

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

So, then I get on gmail to chat with my husband, to tell him that my head is about to explode, and a friend of mine messages me.  I told him I was about to stroke out so I was trying to relax.  He said “you shouldn’t get stressed out.  You should get some exercise though.”  What the hell?  What does that have to do with anything? AND… I ALREADY KNOW THAT!! I AM NOT AN IDIOT!!!  Holy cow!  I told him that was exactly the type of thing that is stressing me out today… so he goes on and on about how basically I should accept the advice because he has experience, and experience is better than just reading.

Okay, I’m not saying that some advice isn’t good.  Like, “buy this type of towel instead of this type, because this type is more absorbent.”  Hey! Thanks!  But if you start telling me that “breastfeeding is better than formula feeding,” I am going to hunt you down and punch you in the face.

Is this going to continue the entire pregnancy and beyond??  How do I avoid my family and annoying friends for the next 5.5 months?  Is everyone experiencing this?  I think I need some ice cream…..

Did you know that calcium is good for you while you’re pregnant?

16 Weeks!

16 weeks today! Woo!  I have to say, I’m surprised that this week went by so quickly.  I feel like I was just writing my 15 week update a couple days ago.  It’s pretty exciting because I have my doctors appointment this week!  Just an every four week checkup, but I do get to hear the heartbeat again, so I am excited!

So far this week I’ve had a slight boost of energy.  I had three days where I didn’t even feel the need to take a nap! Whoa!  I’m not completely out of the napping stage though.  I’m not sure I ever will be.  I’m having a hard time getting a good nights sleep.  Between having to pee a few times a night, the witching hour (I’m awake from 5:30-6:30 for some reason), and my legs aching horribly when I lay on my sides (even with a pillow between my legs), I’m getting only a few hours of good sleep a night.  I’ll take it though!  I’ll also take the leaky boobs.  They haven’t started leaking noticeably, but when I’m checking them out to see why they are so sore, I can see that they are opened and a slight bit of liquid on the top.  I’m wondering how long I have until I have to start wearing pads in my bra?  I hope it’s a little while because I still haven’t found a new bra, and mine have no room for a pad.  They actually don’t have room for my boobs, but I have to make do with what I have until I can find a suitable replacement.  I’m surprised it’s so hard to find a good maternity/nursing bra.  I thought they would be all high tech and perfect and plentiful.  I’m still hopeful and on the hunt!

 

Here is my 16 week belly.  I have yet to take a picture in normal clothes.  I mean, I take a weekly picture in normal clothes with a sign in the background saying “___ weeks and the baby is the size of a _______,” but the first thing in the morning picture is too early for me to do things.  I can definitely see a big difference from last week!  The top is starting to pop out now to join the bottom pop.  My husband saw me naked last night and went “Whoa! You look so pregnant!”  Love it!

I also finally got some stretch mark stuff.  It’s actually in the picture up there.  It’s the yellow bottle.  It’s called Belli Oil.  It was suggested by my OB.  She said she used it and she didn’t have one stretch mark.  Sold!  I started it last night.  It smells great and doesn’t make my skin oily like I thought it would.  They say to use it morning and night, but I forgot…. so I’ll try and be better about that.  Now I just need to start walking.  I have an exercise bike, but it’s kind of high up and i’m scared I may wobble off… haha