Welcome to Nine Months. I will be blogging here for
the next nine months about what it is like to be pregnant and take care of a young child!
I have one daughter who was born in January of 2002. Now I am expecting our
second (and final!) child the first week in December 2003.
Thursday, June 26, 2003 Getting A Belly (16 Weeks 2 Days)
I'm still not visibly pregnant to the rest of the world, but my belly is starting to pop out. I had a bathing suit on yesterday and I realized that it looked like I had a spare tire around my waist. I'm still having bad days here and there when I am feeling sick and exhausted. It seems as though the morning sickness is dragging on longer this time. There were a couple of times when I am pretty sure that I felt the baby move. It never lasts long though. I'm sure that in the next couple of weeks, I will really be able to feel him/her.
There's not too much new to report about the pregnancy. I have a doctor's appointment next week. It's just a routine listen to the heart and ask any questions visit.
It's nice to feel better. I am still queasy here and there but it's not an all day thing like it was. I have been wanting to clean, so I know that's a sign of feeling better. I'm starting to get anxious about cleaning out the turtle room for the baby. I have to find a new aquarium for my 2 red-eared slider turtles first. They are going to be moving out to the living room. I'm thinking about a 55 or 75 gallon glass tank with a stand that will hide the massive pump that I will need. I'm waiting to find a deal in the Pennysaver or a flea market. I hope I find something soon. Also, the turtle room has kind of become the "I don't know where else to put this so I'll put it in the turtle room" room. I can feel our house getting smaller every day.
Also, since I have been feeling better, I have been thinking more about the baby. (I've been too wrapped up in myself until now...) I was picturing holding a little baby again and it got me excited. They are a lot of hard work, but they are so precious too. I also started thinking about the fact that there is a person living inside of my body. That's a pretty amazing thing! I should be able to feel the baby move soon. Both my husband and I felt our daughter at 17 weeks. Sept 11, 2001 to be exact. It is just the craziest thing to feel!
Thursday, June 12, 2003 I Can Eat Cheese Sandwiches Again (14 Weeks 2 Days)
Shortly after discovering that I was pregnant, I couldn't eat or drink a lot of the things that I would normally have on a daily basis. They just made me sick. These are things that I love too! For lunch everyday, I would have a cheese sandwich. Yes, a boring little piece of cheese on two pieces of bread with a little Miracle Whip. And I loved it. It was good, even though I had it every day. Once the morning sickness kicked in, I couldn't even picture eating one without gagging. The same went for fruit juice. I can now only drink Kool-Aid. The more the percentage of real fruit juice in it the more I gag. It's really strange the things that your body does to you when you are pregnant.
Over the past several days, I have been able to start eating cheese sandwiches again. I can feel that the morning sickness is starting to lighten up. I am still queasy and I still do the lovely sneeze/gag thing, but I can tell it's getting better. I was this far along with my daughter when I started to feel better. Hopefully this is it. I'm never going to experience morning sickness again!!
Monday, June 09, 2003 A Prophetic Dream? (13 Weeks 6 Days)
I had a dream back in January that I have been meaning to post here. Since I am thinking about it, I will do that now. It was January 12, 2003. We were not trying to get pregnant. In fact, I was still breastfeeding and my fertility had not returned, so it wasn't even something that we could do if we wanted to. I woke up that morning still in a dream state. I was standing in the turtle room (which will be the new baby's room) and I was holding a baby. I heard a voice that said, "She will be born in December and she will have lighter and less hair than your daughter." I got up and wrote this down immediately. But, I did not tell my husband about it. After we took the pregnancy test in April and I realized that I would be due in December, I scrambled to find that piece of paper with the dream written on it. I showed it to my husband and both of our jaws dropped.
I had tons of dreams when I was pregnant with my daughter, and they all indicated that she would be a boy. So, of course I was in shock when the doctor announced, "It's a girl!" I'm not sure what to make of the January dream, but I find it quite strange that it mentioned December and that's when the baby is due!
Tuesday, June 03, 2003 Second Trimester (13 Weeks)
Today officially starts my second trimester. I am still feeling quite ill, but have my hopes up that it is almost over. The second trimester is usually the best of the three since you are usually over the morning sickness and you aren't uncomfortable since your not huge yet. I have my fingers crossed...
Sunday, June 01, 2003 The Latest (12 Weeks 5 Days)
It's been a rough day. I was physically sick again today. It came upon me while I was preparing lunch. I tried to talk myself out of it, but it just wouldn't work. I am about to enter the 2nd trimester, so HOPEFULLY this will be all over very, very soon.
I had a doctor's appointment on Friday. He told me that I am not anemic and that he wishes his blood counts were as good as mine. Then he sarcastically (in a joking way) reminds me that I have a toddler to keep up with this time. I can't get all of the rest that I was able to obtain when I was pregnant with her. He also advised me that I am Group B Strep positive. This is a bacteria that some women (and men) carry naturally. It is harmless to the carrier but can be life-treating to the baby when the baby is born. This basically means that they will treat me with penicillin when I go into labor. The baby can only contract it during birth. I was unaware of this when I was pregnant with my daughter. I tested for it the day before she was born and they did not have the test results back yet, so they treated me as if I did have it. Luckily, everything turned out fine with her.
There are five doctor's in my practice and last week I saw the one who thinks nothing is a big deal. I swear that every question and concern that I had, his reply was, "Oh, that's okay don't worry about it." He told me that my ultrasound looked fine and tried to blame the bleeding on implantation. I was under the impression that implantation bleeding happens around 4-6 weeks not 11. Oh well, everything is fine, so I should be concerned about it. Maybe he's right to just not worry about this or that. I guess that is just a mother's instinct though!
