7 Months!

Coming up on 29 weeks (7 months, 1 week) so I'm getting closer!  The belly has really popped in the last few weeks, which makes sense since baby has doubled in size in that time.  She should be around 2.5-3lbs by this point.  Which is NUTS considering how hard she kicks me sometimes.  At the prenatal appointment this morning we hear a VERY strong heartbeat.  It was sitting at 136bpm and was a distinct thudding noise and not just the "wubwubwubwub" previously.  It was super cool.

I also passed my gestational diabetes test (meaning I don't have it, yay!) so that's a great thing too.  One less thing to worry about.  Also, I've still only gained 12lbs.  Woohoo!  2 more months to gain up to 7lbs...which I most likely will do.  Since baby needs to gain 3-5 more lbs herself before delivery day.  Anyhoo, I'm happy, baby's healthy, I'm battling another cold, but as soon as I'm better I'm getting a flu shot, so hopefully that will help.  On the plus side, the more times I get sick during pregnancy, the more anti-bodies baby will have.  Go immune system!

Things are going well.  I have 6 more weeks of work and then it's last minute planning stuff before baby comes.  Hoping she doesn't turn up early!

Oh the Changes You Make

One of the girls I nanny mentioned to me this week, "lots of things have changed since baby has been in your belly".  She mentioned how I can't pick them up any more, and I can't push them on the swings too long (I get stomach cramps), etc. and it got me to thinking about all the things I've had to change in my life since becoming pregnant.  

As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I bought prenatal vitamins and started taking them.  I'm not someone who enjoys taking pills every day, but I knew this was something I needed to do.  Thankfully, since this pregnancy was planned, I was already taking folic acid before I got pregnant (not every day, but when I remembered) so I just had to switch pills and remember to take them every day.  I still struggle with remembering to take them, but I still miss about one day a week.  But I'm trying!

I also changed how I was eating.  This was partially because some foods made me feel nauseated, and partially because I wanted to be healthy for baby.  There's a lot of stress in the first trimester to do everything you can to prevent a miscarriage (which is ridiculous because most miscarriages happen because of abnormalities with the growing baby and nothing you did).  I stopped eating a lot of sugar.  I have a major sweet tooth, but I got stomach cramps when I ate sugar while pregnant (still happens if I have more than a little), so that gave me withdrawal headaches for a few days.  I started drinking more milk, stopped drinking caffeine (for the most part), and tried to only eat when I was hungry.  

On top of all of that I've had to change how I sleep (positions, time, pillow placement etc.), how I walk (loosening joints and ligaments=wobbly Jess!), how/if I lift things, what products I clean with, what I wear, how I bathe, the list goes on.  I can't even imagine what it must be like for people who drink lots of coffee or alcohol, or even smoke before becoming pregnant.  

I think these reasons (along with morning sickness that won't go away and many aches and pains) are generally why women become sick of being pregnant.  It's having to change so many things in your life to accommodate this tiny little human growing inside you.  And you can't even know the effects of your sacrifices until after baby comes out.  It's maddening!  These are the things I've been struggling with the last few weeks.  I'm sure it will all be worth it in the end (and it was very gratifying to see our baby's perfectly formed skeleton on our last ultrasound) but it's hard to sometimes remember everything you are supposed to do/avoid (especially with pregnancy brain).  

I'm sure anyone who's not a first-time mom can tell me that the good moments you have with your child will overshadow any discomforts or inconveniences you experienced during your pregnancy, so I hope for that time to come.  I love this tiny baby inside of me already, and I bond with her every time she kicks me when I poke at her.  I just hope that I can be the mom she needs and focus on the good things for her.

Moving and Grooving!

This past Wednesday marks the 24 week mark (or 6 months!).  I've been pregnant for 6 months.  Wow, it doesn't seem like it's been that long.  I'm sure the next few months will more than make up for it, and make it seem very long indeed.

I'm suffering through my first pregnancy cold right now.  I knew I was fighting it off Monday and Tuesday and by Wednesday morning I felt like death.  I sent Jon out to buy a myriad of things from Shoppers so that I could get well.  We got a humidifier and Netirinse, which is like a neti pot, but better.  And some regular tylenol, halls cough drops, vapo rub, and some chicken noodle soup.  The humidifier works wonders, let me tell you.  It made it possible for me to breathe through my nose and I was able to sleep through the night.  I also tried putting the vapo rub on the bottoms of my feet with socks on top (which multiple people swear by) and I didn't cough all night.  I still feel pretty awful, but already much better than Wednesday.  I have a feeling I'm going to have this dry cough for a while though.

As for pregnancy stuff, Jon is now able to feel baby kicking!  He even pressed his ear to my belly yesterday to try and hear her (which he did!) and she kicked him in the cheek!  She seems to respond to his voice whenever he talks to her.  We also both saw the kicks-i.e. little shockwaves bouncing from my belly.  It was the coolest thing.  Jon's face was hilarious when he saw it.  I'm in love with his wonder at this baby in my belly.  He is so excited.  We both just want to meet her!  We know it'll be tough, but we're so ready to be parents.

I've also been having some rib pain (only on my right side) off and on, depending on the day.  It usually happens if I combine eating too much and not laying down during the day.  No amount of massage or warm baths helps it go away.  Just sleeping.  I may have to finally spring for some bigger bras, as my ribcage is most definitely expanding.  Take a look at this visual:

Baby takes up a lot of room in there!  By now, my uterus is about the size of a soccer ball.  That's crazy!  Baby weighs approximately a pound and a half and from head to toe is about 8.5 inches from head to rump (which is the length of the short side of a standard letter-sized paper).  She will gain another half pound during the next two weeks.  It's amazing that it took her 5.5 months to gain 1 pound and only 1 month to gain another.  How cool is that?!  Thankfully I've still only gained 10lbs so that's another plus.  I'm in the guidelines for my BMI cateogry, so I'm happy.

My next Doctor's appointment is on Monday.  I get to do the icky, nasty gestational diabetes test.  Basically I have to drink a super sugary drink and then they take a blood sample an hour after that to see how high my blood sugar is.  Oh joy.  But it's necessary, so I'll grin an bear it.  I want baby to be healthy!

21 Weeks! Just over halfway there!

Today I am just over halfway to the finish line (i.e. delivery).  Things are going really REALLY well so far.  Every test I've taken and every test for baby has come back perfect.  They gave me the results from the last ultrasound and she is perfectly formed.  All of her bones are in their proper place, her organs are all functioning properly (including all four chambers of her heart) and are the proper size, the umbilical cord is excellent and healthy, and she's physically perfect in every way.  All of my blood tests came back clean and I'm apparently really healthy too.  My blood pressure was 122/64 today, so yay!  Here's a glimpse of what my insides look like right now:

The only thing they said that was a bit disappointing is that I have a slightly anterior placenta, which means that it is positioned near the front and will cushion the baby's kicks for the next few weeks.  So it will take a little longer for others to feel them and for me to feel them strongly and consistently.  I've been feeling her move already, but mostly in the evenings and only when I'm sitting down.  It feels almost like your stomach dropping when an elevator goes down too fast.  That tiny little adrenaline rush.  It's weird and cool at the same time.

Oh, and apparently my cervix is long and closed which means I am at very low risk for pre-term labour.  Yay!  So yes, everything is going well.  I'm feeling better, though still not sleeping very much at night.  I'm consistently up at 4:30 every morning to go pee, it doesn't matter what time I go to sleep.  I wake up feeling groggy no matter how much sleep I've had, but I don't need a nap during the day most days now.  Only 3 more weeks until the 3rd trimester starts!  Wow this is going fast!

Meet our Little Girl

Meet our baby girl!  Quite a difference 8 weeks makes, let me tell you!  Our first ultrasound picture taken at 11 weeks (left) was very clear and she was pretty cooperative...but that was because she wasn't aware of her surroundings so much.  The picture taken yesterday at almost 19 weeks (right) is blurry and not very good because our little girl is feisty and doesn't like being prodded.  Every time the sonographer tried to get a good picture, she'd turn away from the camera.  When we were taking pictures of her spine (yes, she has a spine now!!) she moved from her side to her back and basically mooned us.  When we tried to get pictures of her individual feet, she kicked at the camera.  When we tried to get a good shot of her face, she brought her fists up to cover her eyes, so we just got to see her nose and mouth.  At one point, she was so mad at being prodded that she kicked me where the camera was a second before and I both saw it on the screen and felt it in my belly.  So funny!  This little girl has some spunk!

Since the ultrasound, what I had put off to just being air bubbles has become clearly my little feisty girl kicking me and punching me, perhaps in revenge for the prodding for an hour she took yesterday.  She seems to have inherited my temper already!

Coolest things about the ultrasound:  The detail we were able to see was incredible!  Modern medical technology is amazing!  We saw each individual bone in her body, including the two bones in each arm, and the tiny little toe bones.  We saw her making fists and rubbing her face.  We saw her bladder, stomach, kidneys, brain, and heart (including all four valves functioning).  And as if seeing THAT wasn't enough, they switched to infrared to see the fluid moving through her heart, umbilical cord, and kidneys to make sure they were working properly.  And she's only about 6 inches long right now!  It was amazing.

Jon and I both looked at each other when they were measuring her thigh bones from the bottom and we knew, without a doubt, that it was a girl.  It was very clear.  But we waited until the end and asked them the gender.  The sonographer confirmed our suspicion and told us it's a little girl.  I'm already falling in love with my little girl and her spunky personality.  I look forward to getting to know her better in the coming months and years.

It's a...

GIRL!!  Baby Olfert has officially been confirmed as a girl.  She was moving around so much that they had a hard time getting measurements, but that just made it easier to get a glimpse.  We're both ecstatic and looking forward to testing out names!

Baby Bump!

So I woke up last Wednesday morning (the 31st) to a nice little baby bump.  I assumed it was because of the large Thai food dinner I had the night before and thought nothing of it.  But then, it persisted.  It's like the large dinner suddenly forced the bump to show.  Quite frankly, I kinda like it!  I'm 4 months 1 week as of yesterday and I want people to know I'm pregnant and not just chubby.  So tadaa!!  Bumpalicious!

Also, I am officially losing my belly button.  Yep, it's happening.  It's so weird to have it slowly being flattened out.  Also, according to many various sources, my uterus is about the size of a small melon at this point (picture your favourite cantaloupe or honeydew).  Baby is about 5 inches long from head to rump.  Bones are starting to harden from cartilage to actual hard bone so I should be able to feel baby doing their somersaults and flailing around that I saw them doing on the ultrasound.  That will be super cool.  I've had some bubbly sort of feelings happening periodically, but only sometimes and I'm never quite sure if it's stomach grumblings, gas, or baby.  

In other news, I've still only gained about 6lbs at this point.  I look preggers but there's only 6lbs of extra weight on me in that picture.  Go figure.  According to my doctor, 6lbs at this stage for someone at my pre-pregnancy weight is really good.  I'm only supposed to gain between 15-20lbs the whole pregnancy so I'm right on track.  I've definitely noticed that my hunger has increased in the last two weeks, but as long as I'm snacking (it doesn't really matter on what) then I can keep it at bay for a few hours at a time.  It used to be that when I got hungry only carbs could make me feel full, but now it's anything.  

I'm still off sugar for the most part.  Baby doesn't seem to want it all that much, which is fine with me.  I have occasional chocolate cravings, but mostly it's been carrots.  Carrots, carrots, carrots, and...egg rolls.  However, I am happy to say I haven't given in to the egg roll cravings yet.  But they keep coming back so I'm sure there will be a time that I will drive to Chinatown down the street and get some.  But for now, I can deny the craving and I'm keeping my weight gain on track.  

Also, Jon has been a huge help.  He's been helping me with laundry and he cooks for me when I'm too tired to do so, and he always ends the day by filling my hot water bottle and giving me a full back massage.  He's pretty much the best.  And he talks to baby sometimes too, which I find really cute.  He's so excited to meet our baby and to be a dad.  

Anyhoo, my next post will likely be announcing whether we're having a boy or girl, so stay tuned!