Pregnancy Questionnaire

I keep promising a regular pregnancy update and have yet to deliver.  I decided tonight I would just start it.  It is midweek and a sort of silly time to start, but no time like the present, right?  I may adjust the questions as we go along since I think some of these get old and redundant and I don't like some of them. =)  If you are a regular reader and find this interesting enough to comment, I would love suggestions.  What do you think would be interesting to update regularly?

How far along? 10.5 Weeks

How big is baby? 2 inches, 3 oz, the size of a lime!  (well, at 10 weeks anyhow)

Total weight gain/loss: I have no idea.  Last doctors appointment I had lost several pounds but that was also right after the stomach flu.  I will probably delete this question since weight gain is nothing a plus sized girl wants to talk about anyhow.  Not sure if there is a more interesting way to re frame the question...

Maternity clothes? Not really.  I was wearing them during the initial bloat, but that has gone down.  So far I can still fit in my pants, though we will see how long that lasts!

Sleep: Not much of an issue so far (gratefully).

Best moment this week: hmmm... Ah!  We bought new dressers for our bedroom so that I can relinquish room in the office (where my dresser and second closet currently reside) and the baby will get one of our old dressers.  I'm actually seeing how it is reasonably possible that we could put a second nursery in the current office without giving up everything.  Once we receive our furniture we can really start to consider this possibility.

Movement: Nothing from the outside, but the occasional tap on the inside.  Fascinating since it is so early, but once you've had your cervix kicked/hit it is a sensation that cannot be confused with anything else.  This kid is active!

Food cravings: none though I've consistently enjoyed fish this pregnancy.  Fascinating since the smell destroyed me during my first pregnancy!

Food Aversions: none to speak of.  Occasionally a smell will set me off but no foods that I just can't eat!

Gender: No idea!  I started out with a strong girl vibe.  I've had dreams and thoughts for a long time that we were going to end up with two daughters.  Lately though, especially since this pregnancy is night and day different compared to my last one, I can't shake the boy vibe.  We've had votes on both sides from friends and family, though there is a clear boy leaning.  We will find out in mid to late May at our anatomy scan for sure, though who knows, we may get a heads up at the NT scan in April.

Labor Signs: none

Pregnancy Symptoms:  Mild nausea on occasion, particularly when I don't eat quickly enough.  Exhaustion particularly mid-day (thank god for afternoon naps!).  Flutters that I know will quickly become full blown hits and kicks and rolls!

Belly Button in or out? In

What I miss: Nothing really since I am pretty much ignoring all the "rules" this time around.  I did really like the sound of a beer recently though... Oh I know, I miss taking over the counter medications to ease my aches, pains, etc (cold and flu symptoms, motrin for body aches, whatever)...

What I am looking forward to: experiencing this pregnancy in a different mindset and seeing Bella become a big sister

Upcoming appointments/events:  April 12th is my next prenatal appointment as well as our NT ultrasound!

Weekly Wisdom: Second babies are really different! =)

Milestones: Nearly in the safe zone!

Bump Picture: I haven't started taking these yet.  So in its place, here is our ultrasound picture from 8.5 weeks!

Very careless!

Well today I really blew my facebook cover on this pregnancy.  So far it seems only four friends saw it, two who knew and two who found out! =)  I posted a comment on the babysteals wall (one of my favorite deal of the day sites for all things mommy and baby) that mentioned expecting baby number two.  I realized that any of my friends who also "like" babysteals would see this.  So when two of my girlfriends texted me today (within 30 seconds of each other no less) I wasn't surprised.  I knew they both liked babysteals and also that they were not caught up on my blog (despite usually being regular readers).  However just moments ago, another friend "liked" a follow up comment I made on my own post.  I quickly realized that facebook had created a secondary newsfeed where every single move you make pops up in the upper right hand corner of your friends pages.  If they happen to be on when you do something, they will see it.  I really hate this feature and had forgotten about it since I ignore it all the time.

So we will see who else figures out that we are expecting in the next few days.  Gratefully I am 9.5 weeks along and getting closer and closer to that "safe" zone.  Once I hit 11 weeks, I will feel comfy.  I still probably won't post my facebook announcement until after my nuchal translucency ultrasound (where they check you for genetic abnormalities) which will put me closer to the end of my first trimester.  I still just don't trust that my treatments last year haven't put this baby at risk for some serious issues.  The doctors seem confident enough but I know what my body went through.

I guess we will see who is "surprised" by my news once I finally facebook it.  At this rate- no one!  C'est la vie, eh?  Definitely not the "reveal" I was expecting for baby number two, but these days I laugh at my own plans!  I'm thinking I will start my regular pregnancy updates soon, though I'm thinking about how to make them a little more interesting than last time.  I felt the questions got redundant, especially since some are relevant to the first trimester, whereas some are for the third.  We shall see.  I also hope to be a bit better about getting pictures of my changing body this time.  But probably won't start that until I hit 12 weeks since at most, I'm a little bloated these days. =)  I'm sure there are other interesting things happening in our lives but I honestly can't think of a thing.  We are still pulling ourselves out of the sick muck and trying to get our feet back under us.  My house is a disaster and a persistent pinched nerve is stopping me from doing much at all.  With mountain play rehearsals rapidly approaching, I keep thinking "I've got to get better so I can do it all!".  Poor Bella is going stir crazy being relatively housebound with her very boring mama.  Well, we will get there.  And I just have to trust that I will have energy to enjoy Bella during the day, and sing and dance and play at night.

Three Little Birds...

Today was one of those days where I just know that everything is going to be alright.  I had my second appointment with my OB today to verify that the pregnancy is progressing as expected.  It went really well.  She did an ultrasound and the baby is growing exactly as expected, was super active, moving around for us, and has a strong heartbeat (177).  It still looks like a little gummy bear, but we could see a distinct head, body and even little arm and leg buds flapping around.

I walked out from the appointment feeling on top of the world.  I just knew in that moment that all of my fears from the last year, were for naught.  I'm sure the feelings will still come and go, but seeing that little baby on the screen today was my three little birds on my doorstep (to use the words of Bob Marley).

I am being treated as having gestational diabetes again.  I had done some bloodwork for my primary care doctor just days after finding out I was pregnant, and my fasting glucose came back a little high.  So my OB ordered an A1C test to see where I really stand.  I was adament that I didn't want a straight diagnosis of diabetes while I was still pregnant, since I know my body and am very clear that things changed when I was pregnant (even before I knew I was pregnant).  My OB absolutely agreed, and said she didn't even care about the glucose read because really the A1C test is the only accurate way to see how your body is processing sugar.  In a very simple explanation, a typical glucose test checks your blood sugar at a single point in time, either at fasting or at a specific point after a meal (usually one hour).  This is typically the way pregnant women are checked for GD since that is specific to the way your body is processing sugar.  The A1C is typically ordered when diabetes 1 or 2 is suspected.  It uses a marker on your red hemoglobin that shows a sort of average blood sugar over the past 2-3 months.  This is a better indication of how your body is managing in general.  My A1C test came back slightly elevated with a result of 6.  According to my online research, this is actually still within the "normal" range, but in the "pre-diabetic" range.  I am actually happy about this test and its results for a few reasons.  The first is that I don't have to take the awful Glucose Tolerance Test.  The second is that this tells me that although my blood sugars are currently elevated, it really is due to the pregnancy, and I was fine prior to the pregnancy.  This is of course just a guess since it is an average (and maybe I was worse before, or just the same the whole time), but I am pretty tuned in with my body, and feel very confident that this is the case.  I feel that this means I will manage my health and diet quite well through the pregnancy due to the extra monitoring, and that I won't be facing a long term health issue after.  It may not be ideal to have GD, but it forces me to take care of my body in a way that I typically am not great at, my weight will again be well managed during the pregnancy, and it leaves me with a chance of actually losing a good amount of weight shortly after delivering, and hopefully this time, I'll actually keep it off!

So anyhow, it felt like good news all around today.  Plus, I got my new phone, which is always fun, even when done under duress.  Since I upgraded, I have a much better camera phone now which will hopefully mean more wonderful pictures of my sweet Bella, this crazy pregnancy, and any other delightful things I find in life!

Really??!?!

To add insult to injury, my phone has stopped working.  I cannot get it to take a charge and it is dead.  Why is this happening?  Oh, well when Bella threw up after her nap on Friday, in my bed, she was holding my phone.  Vomit managed to get into every crack and crevice of my phone.  At first it seemed ok.  Clearly not anymore.  I am praying that I can just get it to charge enough so that I can download the few things I haven't recently, and back the darn thing up.  Ugh.  This is so frustrating.

You know, because having the stomach flu wreck my house wasn't enough, now it is leaving me without a phone and costing me money...  So.  Frustrated.

Oops!

I just made a little mistake!  I wasn't planning to make the official pregnancy announcement on facebook until we got through the first trimester.  I technically still haven't, but in my post-plague fog (more on that later) I rushed to get our Disney photos up from this last week and realized too late that there are a few shots with Bella wearing her "Big Sister" shirt loud and proud.  So far no one has said anything, and only one person "liked" one of the picture.  I'm hoping it goes by unnoticed, but you just never know who will see what on Facebook! =)

So moving on to the fun that we've been having!  Starting today and working backwards I think will have to do.  Today I left the house for the first time in four days.  Yep, it's been that bad.  The plague struck our house this week.  Oh, I mean the stomach flu.  Bella started with it on Wednesday, and Nick came home that night also under the weather.  Thursday the two of them battled it out while I just tried to hold it together.  Let me tell you, vomit and pregnancy do not go together.  Then Friday, I was struck with the plague.  I was calling in reserves left and right.  I spent the entire day in bed.  Saturday my mom joined the crew since it looked like so much fun.  Gratefully I'm on the mend, one day in bed, one on the couch, and today I started to do a little bit more.  Poor Bella only today seems to be done with the awful stomach mess.  Here's hoping that carries through the night, because then I'll actually trust that we are on the mend!

Prior to our household succumbing to the plague, we enjoyed a spring trip to Disneyland.  We drove down Thursday and enjoyed a visit with Nick's aunts and uncles.  I wish we lived closer to them since in many ways they were more like grandparents to Nick than aunts and uncles.  It would be nick for them to get to see Bella more often.  But it was a lovely visit that I hope we can enjoy again soon.  Then Friday we visited the La Brea tar pits with my sister KC and her family.  The tar pits themselves weren't exactly what I'd expected- more like a pond with some oil slicks- but it was still quite interesting.  I had no idea what a wealth of ice age fossils the area had been.  I knew they had made some major discoveries there (whole skeletons, etc) but the numbers of fossils is staggering.  They have a couple of visual displays to really  drive home the point, one of which is a wall of wolves skulls.  It was incredibly impressive.  Nick, Bella and I went back to the hotel after lunch since we were all pretty wrecked from the week leading up to the trip, and the drive down.  I of course was blessed with morning sickness on the drive down, so was still suffering through that a bit.  Since KC and family continued their touring, we had a few minutes to pop into Disneyland for a few attractions before dinner and a family photo.

Saturday our friends the Shelah family joined us for some Disney fun.  Although our already later morning was delayed even more due to a "suspicious package" shutting all of Disney down, we held in there and had a fun first day.  Rides, and characters, and fun all around, ending in a delicious BBQ dinner and hoedown!  Sunday we hit up California Adventure for more big kid fun (Tower of Terror anyone?) and ended the day with a delicious dinner at Ariel's Grotto that landed us some much coveted seats in the "splash zone" for the World of Color show.  It was truly amazing from this perspective- and we've seen the show before!  Monday was our final day since Nick had to be back to work on Tuesday.  We split the day running from California Adventure so the "big boys" (aka Nick and Brian) could go on California Screamin (the super roller coaster), and all the boys could play some midway games.  Then we traveled over to the magic kingdom after some lunch in downtown Disney for some quality character visiting and final rides.

I'm afraid I sort of failed on the camera front, not getting many pictures of Bella with anyone other than characters and me or Nick.  Shame too since it is a rare treat to have so many loved ones with us at Disney.  But the memories are there and will have to do.  Hopefully someone else's camera captured some moments that I failed to.

Anyhow it has been quite a couple of weeks for our household.  I feel like I've been running non-stop for a month.  At least the pregnancy hasn't been too rough so far.  I'm not sure what I would be doing if I was as exhausted and nauseous as I was with Bella!  Rough times.  I have another doctors appointment this week with my OB so we can make sure everything is still looking to be on track as expected!

Cruising Along

The days are flying by for me currently as we keep very busy and start believing the future of two kids that we are now expecting!  I took the month of January to recuperate from the holidays (doing fun things like getting sick while still fitting in birthdays and baptisms and auditions), and then hit the ground running in February.  I started the month with mountain play callbacks, promptly found out I was pregnant, saw my oncologist, ran off to Arizona for a few days, saw my primary care doctor and OB, spent time with a friend home from NYC, and then ran off to Disneyland for a few days.  Whew.  It's been crazy.

This Friday I will be 8 weeks pregnant.  This isn't really a milestone as far as pregnancy milestones go, but for some reason for me, it is.  It feels like it means something.  Usually it does mean that you can see your OB (they typically like to wait until you are 8-10 weeks along).  I, of course, already have due to my "high risk" status.  I will see my doctor again next week to confirm that things are progressing as expected.  At this point I don't expect any surprises.  Things appear to be moving along as expected.  I've started having a little morning sickness from time to time and the hormones are definitely kicking in.  I'm very tired (though seem to handle it better than last time- maybe because I'm used to being tired all the time???) but between a single cup of coffee in the morning (as needed) and an afternoon nap shared with Bella, I can usually make it through.

In cancer/pregnancy updates, I am officially off all medications.  I have weaned myself off my antidepressant that I began taking during radiation.  Although I definitely feel the difference, I think I will be just fine without them.  I have enough joy to counter the dark as I get through these 9 months.  Though I do think if I feel the same once I am done breastfeeding (assuming I am able) I will go back on this medication.  It really was helping me.  I also haven't needed help sleeping (which is particularly amazing when the pregnancy is considered).  The good news is that I can take benedryl when pregnant if I need a little help dozing off, though so far so good!  Now, the only pills that I take are vitamins!  Well, I am taking a clinical dose of Vitamin D currently since I had a major deficit show in my recent blood work.  But that still counts as vitamins in my book!  I do expect to be dealing with gestational diabetes again as I am already feeling my blood sugars go wacky.  But my doctors and I will be watching this closely and I have already started changing my diet.  Not surprisingly, I already feel better than I did and am suffering from quite a bit less morning sickness than last time.

Well I will share some photos soon from our Arizona trip and Disney trip.  Lots of sweet moments of our sweet big sister to be!