29 weeks and feeling HUGE!

Week 29 update from babycenter.com:
Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain. To meet his increasing nutritional demands, you'll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium, such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby's hardening skeleton each day.

Yep, feeling huge. It's definitely not as easy to move around now as it was a few weeks ago. I have a short torso, so the baby is taking up everything I got ha ha. I'm continuing to lube up twice a day to try my best to avoid stretch marks, so far so good! I'm getting more and more belly rubs from random people (no strangers, that would be weird). Zach still tells me every day how cute he thinks I am..but I don't always feel so cute. My hands are swelling, my feet are sweating, I feel like my chins are sitting on my boobs, which are sitting on my belly, which is sitting on my legs (when I'm sitting). Haha, it's all very glamorous! With all that stuff aside, I'm still feeling great except for the same back pain I mentioned once before that is getting worse and worse.

We have one class left in our prenatal class and its when we will have a practice labor and delivery. It's all very funny to pretend having contractions and pushing with Zach counting to ten in my ear. We definitely giggle a lot during the class. The best part is the massages he's learned to give me :-)

My parents gave us the stroller for the baby. They brought it out with them so we wouldn't have to take up all the space in our car after the shower. We put it together while Zach was at work on Friday and I think it's a really good thing that we did because it was not easy and he may have been throwing things and cursing.

Speaking of which, I can't wait for my shower on May 14th!!! It's going to be so much fun. I can't wait to see all my friends and family and to be at home again for a few days. I'm also very excited to get baby stuff to play with, and then we will finally start putting together our nursery :-) Yay!! My friends in Iowa are throwing a shower for me on June 11th. That will be a lot of fun also. They won't tell me anything so I'm anxious to see what they have planned.

Total weight gained since the beginning of the pregnancy: 21-23 pounds. Doctor says I'm right on track, but I still get a little queasy each time I see the scale go up :-(

Yep, that's scary. No other news for now!

Prenatal Vision Recap - Picture heavy!

While my parents were here visiting for Easter weekend, we had an appointment at Prenatal Vision for an ultrasound like I mentioned in my previous post. I chugged three bottles of water and ate a banana in the morning before the appointment like instructed, and by the time we got there my bladder was ready to explode. I never knew why they always want you to have a full bladder for ultrasounds, but learned that it's because if they can't get the baby to cooperate, they have you empty your bladder which gives more room in there and then the baby will move and maybe show his face :-)

There is a big screen on the wall in the room and comfy chairs for all spectators. We only had my parents with us, but the room could seat ten people. I was pleased when the ultrasound tech told me that my belly looks really nice. Nice and round and no stretch marks. That made my day haha! :-) The ultrasound was really special. Everything looked normal and good and then we started playing around to get a good shot of the baby's face. He was not very cooperative. He kept putting his feet in front of his face. And they were cute little feet, but we just wanted to see his face. We ended up getting some good pictures and a definite "boy picture" that makes me laugh every time I look at it. He's not afraid to show his goodies. I think my parents loved the experience and I would definitely recommend this for anyone during any pregnancy. We also got a DVD of the entire ultrasound which is also very neat.

(If you click on the picture, it will open in full size).










Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!!

Hello 3rd Trimester!!!

Uhh, I forgot to take a belly picture yesterday to post it because yesterday was the first day of our third trimester!! How exciting! :-) We will take a picture tonight and I will be sure to post it soon.

On a different note, my parents are on their way to Des Moines to see us right now! They left Pa at about 5:00 est this morning and should be getting to our house tonight around 7. We are very excited to have some visitors and I'm sure my mom and dad will be happy to see us (and their little grandson).

Tomorrow we have an appointment at this place called Prenatal Vision. It's basically a clinic to have ultrasounds "for fun." They have different packages with varying pricing. You get so many minutes of an ultrasound, 2D, 3D, and 4D* with some print outs and a DVD with lots of pictures and a slide show to music. You can also take up to ten people with you. Since my parents are going to be here, we thought it would be fun to do. Neither of them have ever seen an ultrasound because "back in the day" the doctors didn't do them. So this will be their first glimpse at their baby grandson :-) It's a shame that both sets of grandparents aren't nearby so we could do that with everyone there. How cool would that be?

*You may ask yourself, what is 4D? Actually at our first doctor's appointment, Zach asked the nurse the same question. He told her there is no such thing as 4D (haha). She told us that it is basically live video of the baby inside the womb. So if he's sucking his thumb or hiccupping, we will be able to watch it like he's on a video camera. Look for pictures soon!!!

Baby kick scare

Well, we had a little bit of a scare this morning.

At the suggestion of my doctor and our prenatal class leader, I have started counting kicks each day. Basically, you record how long it takes for 10 kicks, once a day. It should never take more than 2 hours and generally be about the same each time. For the past week and a half that I have been recording this, the baby has taken anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes to get to 10 kicks. He kicks way more than that throughout a whole day, but this is just at one time. The idea is to be aware of the movement because a change in movement could signal that there is something wrong.

Thursday night before I went to bed the baby was extra active. My belly was jumping all around, he must've been dancing in there. All day yesterday and this morning I hadn't felt any fetal movement at all. At 10:30 this morning I decided to call my doctor to let him know, and he immediately told me that I needed to go to the hospital. So off to the maternal ward we went. I started to get a bit anxious, but didn't really think there could be anything wrong and the little guy was pooped from moving around so much the other night.

They admitted me there, and the nurse pulled out the fetal heart rate monitor to find the heartbeat. After 15 or 20 minutes, she wasn't able to locate the baby's heart beat. I started to panic. I could see the look on Zach's face and he looked really worried also. He was starting at my belly like willing the baby's heart beat to make an appearance on the monitor. It broke my heart to see the concern on his face. She left the room to find another nurse to give it a go, and I started crying. They tried a different type of device and thank God we heard the little guy's heart going. His heart was going about 150 bpm and he started to react and kick at the straps wrapped around my belly. It was definitely a huge relief. I went from being a little concerned, to panic and then relief all in about 30 minutes. Let me tell you, that was the scariest thing I have ever experienced. I think the worst thing was watching the nurse trying every spot on my belly and hearing nothing but my own heart beat (which was going so fast that they were monitoring my heart rate as well to be able to decipher it from what could possibly be the baby's). After ten or so minutes tracking the heart beat, we had an ultrasound. Everything was perfectly normal, so we left there happy campers.

I sort of felt like this was all unnecessary, but the ladies there assured me that a change in fetal movement like that is not something that you want to ignore and that they didn't blame me for calling the doctor. It could be nothing (like it was in our case!) but it is the number one way to detect a problem and prevent a still birth.

So... I think it's time for a nap now after that scary experience. I am going to continue tracking kicks every day like I have been and hope that the little guy doesn't give us a scare like this again. He's not even here yet so I can only imagine what kind of worries we will go through when he is here!

Here are a couple of pictures from the ultrasound. They are print outs that I took a picture of with my cell phone so they aren't that great. They look much better in person, but these will do!


This is the baby's face with his fist and forearm in front of it. You can see his little nose, eyes and part of his lips.

Here are his little feet. His legs are crossed at the ankles. Look how cute his little toes are!

26 weeks

26 weeks, only one more week and then I am in the third trimester!! Wow, time has really flown by!

Here is the update from babycenter.com:
The network of nerves in your baby's ears is better developed and more sensitive than before. He may now be able to hear both your voice and your partner's as you chat with each other. He's inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, which is essential for the development of his lungs. These so-called breathing movements are also good practice for when he's born and takes that first gulp of air. And he's continuing to put on baby fat. He now weighs about a pound and two-thirds and measures 14 inches from head to heel. If you're having a boy, his testicles are beginning to descend into his scrotum — a trip that will take about two to three days.

We started a 5 week prenatal on Wednesday. This class is to get us ready for labor and possible events leading up to labor. The first class was mostly about anatomy and thing to expect during the pregnancy and prior to labor. We both actually learned a lot and enjoyed it. Next class, we are going to be learning different pain soothing techniques for during labor. We've also signed up for the baby basics class, breastfeeding essentials, and Zach is going to attend a boot camp for daddy's class.

I've started counting kicks and keeping record of them. The baby should generally kick the same amount each day. This is the best way to be aware if something could be wrong with the baby. He's been very active like usual. He's started rolling rather than just kicking or punching, which feels incredibly weird, and makes my stomach look like it's doing the wave a bit :-) I have to say, having a baby kick and roll around inside me is the strangest (and most wonderful) thing I've ever experienced.

I've been feeling great still. I am getting pretty uncomfortable lately. Sitting up straight gets pretty uncomfortable since I have a short torso and the baby is already taking up most of the space I have in there. I am also getting terribly sick of sleeping on my side :-)

The other day I came home from work and took a nap on my side without any pillows under my belly and when I woke up I had the worst pain in my life across the lower part of my belly, and the left side all the way down to my upper thigh. The pain was so bad that I couldn't stand up straight. I started to get worried and Zach was too because this is all new to us and we have no idea what certain things could mean. By the time I was getting really concerned the pain started to go away after walking around for a bit. Then we both remembered (from our prenatal class) that there is a tendon that connects from the top of your thigh all the way up to the top of your uterus under the breast. This is exactly where the pain was, and I'm guessing it got strained a little bit from lying on my side without supporting my belly. Apparently this is also a very common thing that happens. Anyway, now I am sure to put a pillow under my belly when I sleep because I definitely don't want to experience that again!

The past few times that it has been pretty warm outside (it was 87 degrees today!), I have been just miserably hot. I don't know what to wear to go out when I want to look decent and not just wear lounge clothes. I'm going to have to pick up a few sun dresses for that. Yay, an excuse to shop! I'm sure Zach will love that. :-) I think that's all for now!