30 Weeks 3 Days Update/Quiz

How far along: 30 weeks 3 days

 

Symptoms: Heartburn, frequent potty trips, stretch marks, tiredness, lots of baby movement

Total weight gain: 16 lbs as of my last OB appointment. Next appointment is Thursday.

Maternity clothes: I'm loving my dresses. Okay, so half of them aren't maternity, they still work and I love them, especially my long ones.

Stretch marks: My stretch marks are having babies of their own. They multiply like bunnies. But it's only below my belly button and all in a line. I use my cocoa butter, but those darn stretch marks have no shame. They keep multiplying!

Sleep: Although I am still sleeping through most of the night, I am getting up before the alarm for a potty trip. So I know those "up all night because of potty trips" days are coming back. Lately, the new thing to wake me up at night is when I roll over. I'll roll over to my other side and this child of mine kicks me so hard because I woke her up. This happens EVERY night, EVERY time I change sides.
 

Best moment this week: Baby Girl kicked my Sister-in-Law in the head last Friday. It took some poking and prodding to get her riled up, but sure enough, she got moving and WHAM! She kicked O. right in the head. O. loved it.

Movement: Tons. I'm now thinking she's training already to be an Olympic star.

Food cravings: Salads, fruit, and cereal (not just any cereal. Multigrain Cheerios with fresh banana slices!). Yum!

Belly Button in or out: It's still an inny, but it's getting more and more shallow. I think it will eventually just be flat like a pancake. It feels SO strange, though. So maybe it will pop out, we'll see.

What I miss: Being able to paint my own toe nails. I can't really reach to do that.

What I am looking forward to: Thursday's OB appointment. They never called me after my glucose test, so I'm hoping the results are good. We'll see....

 

Milestones: Entering the home stretch-I'm 30 weeks plus a few days! YAY!

How is daddy? I think he's still a little nervous. But he's excited, too. He's just realizing all the things we still need to do, like get the nursery ready. There's a lot of work that needs to be done in there, but we're still waiting for the crib.

How are the grandparents? They are still so excited. I was hoping Hubby's mom could come up for the 3D/4D ultrasound, but that won't work now, since we have to reschedule. I need to get on that and get one scheduled, since we are looking to do it next Monday now. But the grandparents are super excited and overjoyed.

Here's the latest pictures: 

The Back Story

I realize that a lot of you reading this from ICLW don't know my backstory and I'm not going to make you search through all my old posts to find it. So I thought I would post a quick recap on everything TTC and how it is that I became an expectant Mommy. Those of you who know the story, sorry, but I just felt like rather than brag about my pregnancy, I would reminisce about my journey to this day.

Let me start by saying that I have had PCOS issues since high school. I went on the pill when I was 18 because of it and I practically stayed on the pill until I was 27 and ready to TTC. I had a few times where I didn't have insurance coverage and therefore went a few months without the pill. And let's just say that thanks to PCOS, I would have AF and she would stay for a lengthy visit until I could get Provera and start birth control pills again. So when Hubby and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary, we thought it was a good time to start trying. We had NO IDEA what we were in for. Now I can be quite naive and stubborn, so I thought we could be normal and just do everything on our own. After all, babies happen every day for women who both deserve them and don't deserve them. So I thought it would be as easy as pie. But after a little over a year, AF started to be a little more erratic, unpredictable. Then, she came and was determined to stay. I didn't feel like it was that bad, I didn't need to see the OBGYN, she would go away on her own. Nope. Wrong! She was so out of control that I thought I would was going to bleed to death. I left work one day and called my Hubby. I told him to get a hold of the doctor and either I needed medication immediately or I was going to the ER. I started Provera that night and that started a new chapter in our TTC journey.

I took the Provera and of course, AF went away. But when I was finished the Provera, AF came again, as expected, and didn't go away again. So I had to go in and see the doctor. I saw a different doctor because it was a roulette, you get whoever was in the office that day. Turns out that Dr. H would become the best thing that happened on the journey. He treated the bleeding issues with Provera again and then asked me to keep track of my BBT for a month. So I did. No ovulation. Just as he suspected all along. Time to start Clomid. He actually asked me why I didn't come in sooner, but I didn't know I was having problems. I did 4 Clomid cycles with him, the first and last of which I didn't ovulate on. So he referred me to Dr. V, an RE. Best referral ever. Really.

I started seeing Dr. V in June 2009. I opted to do more Clomid cycles, thinking it would really work at some point, it just had to. But even with adding IUI for three cycles, it still didn't work for me. I was supposed to start injectables in October, but I had a cyst creatings lots of Estrogen. Not a good situation. I was devastated, benched for the month with birth control pills. Then, they called me to tell me that my bloodwork was worse than they thought. I also had high Follicle Stimulating Hormone, putting my in the category of "Preovarian Failure." Great. Less eggs. Poor quality. Now I'll never get pregnant. I cried and cried. It was a very bad moment on the journey. But I worked through it and had faith that God had my life in the palm of His hand and whatever His will was, it would be done. Hard realization to come to. But I had to do it.

October ended and a new cycle started. I had my bloodwork and ultrasound done on CD 4 and I already had 4 follicles growing, all around 10mm each, seriously. I was shocked. No meds, no nothing, 4 follicles. So I started Menopur, Follistim, and Ganirelix. I was positive this cycle would be a bust, how in the world could it possibly work? I stimmed for only 4 nights, triggered, and had IUI on CD 10. So really, how could it work? Well, I got a positive pregnancy test on Thanksgiving, a day I will never forget. 

So fast forward until now, I'm almost 30 weeks pregnant and still in disbelief and shock that I can write all this and tell you that I am expecting a baby girl in August. I just felt like you all should know the story so that if you read my blog and see all my joyous and happy posts, you know where the journey started. It wasn't always happy or joyous, but God provides when the time is right and He knew when I was going to be ready. 

Sorry for the long post, but thanks for reading it. Happy ICLW!

28 Weeks 4 Days Update/Quiz

How far along: 28 weeks 4 days

 

Symptoms: Heartburn, frequent potty trips, stretch marks, tiredness

Total weight gain: 15 lbs as of my last OB appointment. We'll see how that changes after tomorrow's appointment.

Maternity clothes: I'm loving my dresses. Half of them are not maternity but I can still wear them. My pants and shorts are all maternity. Only half the shirts I wear are maternity. Pretty impressive, since I'm over 6 months pregnant.

Stretch marks: My stretch marks are having babies of their own. They multiply like bunnies. But it's only below my belly button and all in a line. I use my cocoa butter, but those darn stretch marks have no shame.

Sleep: I've been sleeping fairly well most of the night. Although, I am SOOOO hot. I wake up realizing that I must have been sweating. I don't wake up in the middle of the night hot, I just wake up to the realization that I had been sweating.
 

Best moment this week: Baby Girl doesn't like to kick when anyone's hand is on my belly, not even mine. So I decided that Hubby needed to lay his head on my belly to see what she would do. She kicked him twice...in the head. Love this baby so much!

Movement: Tons. I think she's running a gym out of my womb. She's got some Zumba classes going on, aerobics, soccer practice, and kick boxing. Too bad I can't collect on the membership fees.

Food cravings: Salads, fruit, and cereal (not just any cereal. Multigrain Cheerios!). Yum!

Belly Button in or out: It's still an inny, but it's getting more and more shallow. I think it will eventually just be flat like a pancake.

What I miss: Being able to see my feet when I stand. Don't get me wrong, I have a big chest, so it's always been a little tough to see my feet. But now, I have to hunch over to look at my feet if I need to. Plus, I miss the simplicity of shaving my legs. My belly has it's own zip code now, so it's difficult to shave my legs.

What I am looking forward to: Hopefully passing the glucose screening tomorrow. I'm also looking forward to the hospital tour in a few weeks. Oh, and I scheduled my 3D/4D ultrasound for June 12th.

 

Milestones: Entering the 3rd Trimester, scheduling the hospital tour, and finally buying a new crib (the crib we had was used before and apparently doesn't meet safety standards).

 

How is daddy? I think he's a little nervous. But he's excited, too. He's just realizing all the things we still need to do, like get the nursery ready.

How are the grandparents? They are still so excited. I'm hoping Hubby's mom can make it up here for the 3D/4D ultrasound, but I don't know her schedule yet. My mom and his mom are stocking up on baby clothes and just getting ready for Baby Girl!

Here's the latest pictures. These were taken today.

Baby Girl is a Diva!

Hubby and I have decided that Baby Girl is already a diva. She will not do things on demand. For example, at the 20-week ultrasound two months ago, she covered every part of her anatomy one piece at a time and only at the times when the ultrasound tech was trying to get a picture of it. Picture of her face? She decided to put her fist over her entire face. Picture of her abdomen and organs? She put her arm across her chest. Yep. That's the kind of child she is. So it's gone beyond that. She doesn't kick on demand. If anyone puts their hand on my belly, even if she was kicking, she immediately stops. I can watch my bare belly bulge where she kicks, but she very rarely kicks my hand. So last night, I decided to try a new technique so Hubby could experience some of the joy I feel when she kicks me (except when she kicks me in the bladder). He laid his head on my belly right where she always kicks and sure enough, she didn't like his head being there and kicked him. Not once, either. She kicked him twice. He was in her personal space. So it has been decided that Baby Girl is a diva. Not a Diva-in-Training, but already a full-fledged diva!

Mother's Day

Today was one of those days I've been dreaming of celebrating for a while now. I had thought it would never come...my first Mother's Day. But alas, with Baby Girl baking in the oven, my first Mother's Day was exciting! I didn't do anything special, really. Hubby and I went to church and then headed to my parents house for lunch and some serious cleaning in their basement. But, to start my first Mother's Day, I was greeted this morning with this:

My first Mother's Day present really makes it all the more special. My dream of being a mom is coming true for me. God really blessed me with a husband who loves me, who understands the journey I went on, and who showed me that with this special necklace. My mom and stepdad found a beautiful card that's written with the baby as the narrator of the card. So special. They gave me a picture frame that says "Baby Girl" with a picture of my last ultrasound in it. It made me chuckle because I got a frame for my mom that said "When a baby is born, so is a Grandmother." And I put the SAME EXACT picture in it. Too funny! 

That's all the exciting news on my front. Hubby and I have been doing a LOT of cleaning. We've successfully cleaned off three bookshelves. One of them is being sold, one is moving to another place in the apartment (eventually, to store baby food, sippy cups, etc...), and one has shelf space for Baby Girl's books. So I feel like we're another step closer to having the apartment ready for a baby. Not that it's perfect, but we're getting closer! 


While you are reading this, please pray for my friend A. In March, I posted about A. and how her husband was killed in a car accident. She's young, with a two-year old and a baby on the way. This is her first Mother's Day without her husband and it's really only her third Mother's Day. So she needs prayer. I can't imagine the emotions going through her head. She's a wonderful mom, I'm going to be looking to her for a lot of advice. But I know she's emotionally drained and really feeling those emotions this weekend. Prayers are always appreciated, I know that. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms, Moms-to-Be, and Future Moms!