32 Week Pregnancy Update

Date:  September 15, 2018

How Far Along:  32 weeks

How Big is the Baby:  winter squash, puppy, or chocolate box 

How I’m Changing: not a whole lot of change from last week

How I’m Feeling:  I still feel great, but have had some really bad days in the last few weeks where I have been extra emotional.

How I've Been Sleeping:  I’ve still been sleeping really well.  I am waking up a little bit earlier.

What I’m Eating:  still a lot of chicken 

Food Cravings/Aversions:  Auntie Anne’s Pretzels

Weight Gain/Loss:  30 pounds 

Movement:  He’s been kicking me a lot in my ribs now.  A couple times this week, I have felt one of his body parts for a few seconds while he was stretching.

Pregnancy Symptoms:  heartburn, back pain, feeling more tired while walking and getting up and down, and feeling more out of breath

What I Miss:  being able to lift heavy things

Stretch Marks:  no stretch marks yet

Belly Button:  the same as the past couple of weeks

Wedding Rings:  fit the same

Labor Signs:  none, and I haven’t had any Braxton Hicks contractions     

Milestones:  making it this far

Best Moment This Week: celebrating my birthday

Upcoming Appointments/Events:  My next doctor’s appt. is in about 2 weeks.

What I look forward to:  going on a babymoon

Weekly Wisdom:  Do a pregnancy journal and take lots of pictures while you’re pregnant.

30 Week Pregnancy Update

Date:  September 2, 2018

How Far Along:  30 weeks and 1 day

How Big is the Baby:  winter squash, puppy, or chocolate box 

How I’m Changing:  Not a whole lot has changed from my last pregnancy update.

How I’m Feeling:  I’ve been feeling okay, but have been getting bad heartburn, and indigestion.  

How I've Been Sleeping:  I’ve been sleeping really well.  It is getting harder to roll over and get out of bed now.

What I’m Eating:  We’ve still been having a lot of chicken for dinner, and sometimes for breakfast. Andrew’s been making chicken biscuits with honey.  I’m still eating a lot fruit, but not many vegetables.

Food Cravings/Aversions:  peanut butter 

Weight Gain/Loss:  27 pounds  

Movement:  His movements have been getting a little bit stronger now, and he’s been moving around a lot.  

Pregnancy Symptoms:  heartburn and indigestion  

What I Miss:  I don’t miss anything right now.  I know I’m going to miss being pregnant once I have the baby though.  

Stretch Marks: still no stretch marks  

Belly Button:  It’s getting shallower. 

Wedding Rings:  still fit the same

Labor Signs:  none                                          

Milestones:  making it to 30 weeks  

Best Moment This Week: celebrating Andrew’s birthday 

Upcoming Appointments/Events:  Andrew and I are starting a childbirth class on Tuesday.  I have a doctor’s appointment on September 12^th. 

What I look forward to:  getting a video of the baby moving from the outside of my stomach

Weekly Wisdom:  If you are having a lot anxiety about different things that are going on in your life, try to be happy and see the positive things in the situation. 

Second Trimester Must-Haves

Date:  August 20, 2018

1.    Maternity clothes

2.    Stretch mark cream (I use Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula Lotion and Oil, and Bio-Oil.)

3.    Water or Gatorade to stay hydrated

4.    Granola bars and healthy snacks

5.    Money for nursery furniture and decorations

6.    Pinterest to plan the nursery

7.    Amazon to buy baby items

8.    Addresses for baby shower guest list

9.    Getaway or vacation while you still can

10. Camera or phone to take bump shot pictures

28 Week Pregnancy Update

Date:  August 20, 2018

How Far Along:  28 weeks and 2 days

How Big is the Baby:  papaya, bunny, or chocolate cake

How I’m Changing:  I’m just getting bigger.  

How I’m Feeling:  My mood has been really good.  I’ve been feeling great.

How I've Been Sleeping:  I’ve still been sleeping really well.  It has been a little bit harder to fall asleep because I’ve been having indigestion though.  

What I’m Eating:  I have not been eating very healthy.  I constantly want to snack.  I’ve been snacking on different foods we got from The Cheese Shop (chocolate covered banana chips, veggie chips, and cereal).  We’ve also been having a lot of chicken. 

Food Cravings/Aversions:  Skippy P.B. Bites, and strawberry shortcake.

Weight Gain/Loss:  26 pounds

Movement:  The baby still moves around a lot.

Pregnancy Symptoms:  The only new symptom I’ve been having is indigestion.  I’ve also been feeling lazier.  

What I Miss:  The first few months of the pregnancy because it was fun, new and exciting (telling everyone I was pregnant, finding out the sex, and the gender reveal party).

Stretch Marks:  I still don’t have any stretch marks, which I’m very happy about, but I know a lot of people get them within the last couple of weeks.

Belly Button:  It’s becoming shallower.

Wedding Rings:  They still fit the same.

Labor Signs: none                                           

Milestones:  I’m officially in the third trimester!

Best Moment This Week:  It was really fun spending time with Nana Bibb this week while Sandra and George were on a trip.

Upcoming Appointments/Events: Andrew and I are going to do a hospital tour tomorrow and I have a doctor’s appt. August 29^th.   

What I look forward to:  getting the baby’s room done

Weekly Wisdom:  Try to play a lot of music for your baby while you’re pregnant.

26 Week Pregnancy Update

Date:  August 5, 2018

How Far Along:  26 weeks and 1 day

How Big is the Baby:  papaya, bunny, or chocolate cake

How I’m Changing:  I’m getting a lot bigger.

How I’m Feeling:  I’ve been feeling okay.  I’ve been recovering from a cold this week.  

How I've Been Sleeping:  The past two days I slept great, but I worked at a camp this week so I had to get up earlier, and didn’t get as much sleep as I normally do.

What I’m Eating:  I went out for lunch almost every day last week after camp.  For dinner, we’ve been having a lot of hamburgers, corn, and squash casserole.

Food Cravings/Aversions:  strawberry shortcake

Weight Gain/Loss:  25 pounds

Movement:  He’s still moving around a lot!

Pregnancy Symptoms:  swollen feet, leg cramps, stomach cramps, and indigestion

What I Miss:  not being pregnant  

Stretch Marks: none

Belly Button:  still the same, but stretched out more

Wedding Rings: still fit the same  

Labor Signs: none                                           

Milestones: making it this far 

Best Moment This Week: Celebrating Andrew and I’s 8-Year Anniversary

Upcoming Appointments/Events: I’m going to do the glucose test sometime next week.  

What I look forward to: getting even farther along, seeing the baby kicking my stomach from the outside, and getting the nursery done

Weekly Wisdom:  Try to get the nursery and things done in your house ahead of time so that you can enjoy your pregnancy, and not be thinking so much about getting everything done.

24 Week Pregnancy Update

Date:  July 22, 2018

How Far Along:  24 weeks and 1 day  

How Big is the Baby:  eggplant, Maltese puppy, or fruit pie    

How I’m Changing:  I’m getting bigger and gaining weight.  It’s harder to get up and down now and I get more out of breath.  

How I’m Feeling:  The past two days I was a little bit moody, but for the most part I’ve been feeling great.

How I've Been Sleeping:  still sleeping really well

What I’m Eating:  Last week, we went to the beach so I had a lot of seafood, and a lot of junk food and snacks.  

Food Cravings/Aversions:  Skippy P.B. Bites, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  

Weight Gain/Loss:  21 pounds  

Movement:  I think he really likes to move around 7pm, before I go to bed, and in the morning when I wake up. My doctor said that the placenta is in the front, which does make it harder to feel movements.  

Pregnancy Symptoms:gaining weight, increased appetite

What I Miss:  I’m starting to miss not being pregnant, and doing things I could normally do. When we were at the beach I was scared to go swimming in the ocean because I was worried about getting knocked over by a wave.

Stretch Marks:  still no stretch marks

Belly Button:  looks a little bit different and is getting shallower

Wedding Rings:  still fit

Labor Signs:  none                                          

Milestones:  making it to 6 months 

Best Moment This Week:  playing music with some friends at the beach  

Upcoming Appointments/Events:  doctor’s appointment on August 1st

What I look forward to:  going on a babymoon

Weekly Wisdom:  Do what you think is best for your family, and don’t worry about other people’s opinions.

Beach Maternity Photoshoot

Anatomy Scan

Date:  July 13, 2018 

We had our anatomy scan on Monday, and it went really well.  The baby was doing well, everything looked good, and we got some really cute pictures. He’s still a boy!  We found out that he was a boy at the 13 week scan, and the doctor said he was 99 percent sure, but I was still questioning it because I was still really early in my pregnancy.  After this appointment though, I’m pretty confident that he is definitely a boy.  The ultrasound tech showed us everything, and we got pictures as well.  It was really fun getting to see the baby again.  This might be the last ultrasound we have, which makes me a little bit sad, but we got some really cute pictures.  Here are some of the pictures we got of him!

Fertility Tests

Date:  July 8, 2018

I was diagnosed with Recurrent Pregnancy Loss (RPL) after my third miscarriage and just wanted to do a blog post talking about all of the doctors I saw and tests I had done.  I’ve gone into more detail about some of these appointments in previous posts. 

The first doctor I was referred to was an endocrinologist.  I had several appointments with him.  He tested my hormone levels, and they all ended up being okay and within range.  There were a couple levels that were slightly off, but for the most part, they looked pretty good, so he didn’t think it had anything to do with my progesterone or hormone levels.  Next, he did some blood tests to check for autoimmune disorders, and one of those tests came back positive, the ANA test (antinuclear antibody test).  My ANA level wasn’t extremely high though, and he said that some people just test positive for it for various reasons, but in some cases, it can be an indicator of an autoimmune disorder, so he referred me to a hematologist to check and see if I had a blood clotting disorder, which can happen in people with autoimmune disorders. 

The hematologist tested me for a couple different types of blood clotting disorders, and all of the tests came back negative so she suggested I see my primary care doctor.  I then saw my primary care doctor and explained to him everything that was going on, and he referred me to a rheumatoid doctor.  It took months to be seen by the rheumatologist.  He tested me for a couple different autoimmune disorders that could cause miscarriages.  He could not test me for all of them though, because there are so many different types of autoimmune disorders, but he tested me for the ones that typically cause miscarriages, and they all came back negative.

I then went back to the endocrinologist and he suggested trying metformin.  He said if the Metformin prevented me from having a miscarriage, then I probably had PCOS.  I started Metformin sometime in September 2017, and it’s one of those drugs where you have to slowly increase it because it can cause really bad stomach issues.  Luckily, when I first started it, I had no problems on the lowest dose, which I think was 500mg, but then when I went up to 1000mg, I felt really sick.  It only lasted a few weeks though, and then my body adjusted to it, and I didn’t feel sick anymore.  Around that time, the endocrinologist I was seeing left, and I got referred to a different doctor. 

The new doctor did an ultrasound on my ovaries, and said I had multiple cysts/follicles, but

did not think I had enough to diagnose me with PCOS.  He thought I could have a blood clotting disorder that I hadn’t been tested for or that my husband or I were carriers for a genetic disorder which was causing the miscarriages.  We filled out paperwork to see if our insurance would cover those tests, and it did, but I ended up getting pregnant before we had the tests done.  He took me off Metformin when I was 6 weeks pregnant. 

At that time, I was having a lot of anxiety about having genetic testing done on my husband and I.  The baby at that point had a heartbeat and was progressing well, so a different doctor I saw at that office at my next appointment said not to worry about having the tests done, and referred me back to the OB/Gyn I was seeing in Charlottesville. 

After seeing all those doctors, and having all of those tests done, we never found out exactly what caused my miscarriages.  I still wonder what happened, and if the Metformin is what helped me get pregnant and stay pregnant this time, even though I had a miscarriage while on it.  I have no idea, but am just happy and thankful everything is going so well with this pregnancy, and hoping everything continues to go well!