Extra Wild Wednesday

Sparky has decided that today is extra wild Wednesday and my body has been suffering the consequences all day. This morning I actually had a few incidents of her head pushing down in my lower abdomen and her feet pushing up diagonally on the opposite side near my ribs. OUCH! I was worried for a few moments that we may have a car wreck because of her craziness. She has been wild since 5 am without much rest in between.

After lunch I had to take a break from answering my phone - resulting in 3 voicemail messages I had to return - because the attacks were getting a little too strong and much to frequent to risk being on the phone with one of my builder contacts and blurting out "ouch" or any other reaction to Sparky's fun. I should be thinking about making dinner, but standing up right now is not something I am looking forward to doing. At least we know she is active and healthy, right???

The Week 29 Update

Well, we've made it to week 29. Another uneventful week for the most part. Unfortunately, I "failed" the one hour glucose tolerance test - so this Friday I have to take the 3 hour version of the test. This is not going to be a fun day - 4 blood draws in three hours. And... I have to fast for the 8 hours before and the three hours during the test.

Sparky is up to about 16.7 inches and around 2.7 pounds. She's still very active and hopefully is going to be moving to a head-down position. I've been trying to sleep at night, but she is getting to be big enough to push down on my bladder, so that I have to get up a few times at night to use the bathroom.

So Friday is the big day for the tolerance test. I am not surprised that I failed the one hour version - waffles right before the test probably didn't help my blood sugar. I will be quite surprised if I fail the three hour version and have gestational diabetes.

Stay tuned for the results...

80 Days...

According to Sparky's due date, we have 80 days left until our family of 3 (counting Maize of course) becomes a family of 4. In that amount of time I can apparently go around the world (according to the classic novel). Can anyone tell me what else I can do in exactly 80 days - just for curiosity's sake.

The Very First Stretch Mark

For my few friends who are not now and have not been pregnant - using cocoa butter or any other type of lotion to avoid stretch marks WILL NOT WORK. It will however, keep you from feeling all itchy and flaky, so I still recommend it.

I now have a very tiny beginning of a stretch mark down on my belly (below where I can see it without looking in the mirror). Steve verified for me this morning that it was an actual stretch mark and not just a mark from my pajamas. Obviously, it was a very sad morning and most of my bikinis went into the Goodwill bag, along with a lot of other things. I kept a few, just in case the mark is below my bikini line when my belly is back to its normal-ish size and shape.

Since there wasn't a clear victor in the nursery decoration vote, we are going to stick with Classic Pooh (we've registered for the set at Target). We figure it's the best of all worlds - classic, cute, neutral (sage and cream) and best of all, not pink and girly (for Steve's sanity since he will be living with all females for a long while).

My tennis ball sized ankles returned this week. Not that I did anything different than a normal week (40-ish hours at work, at my desk, calling builders and reading contracts). Hopefully the swelling doesn't get too out of hand. For now I can live with it, but if my shoes quit fitting we may have a problem.

0 for 6...

Well... The doctor is zero for six in his attempts to listen to Sparky's heartbeat. She is apparently afraid of having her heartbeat known. They tried really hard to pin her down today by pushing in on my belly, but she was too sneaky for them. We visited the doctor again this morning for the dreaded shot and blood draw visit. It was just as non-fun as I had expected. First was taking the two vials of blood to find out if I have gestational diabetes. Although they say you can't feel the needle once it is in your arm, I am pretty sure they are full of it because I felt that needle in my vein the whole time. Then I got to have a rhogam shot, since I am lucky enough to have rh negative blood. Hopefully Sparky won't have rh positive blood so I won't have to have that shot again - it really stung going in and my poor backside ached all day at work.

Sparky's next opportunity to evade the doctor and the doppler heartbeat monitor is February 13th - maybe as a valentine gift to the staff at the doctor's office she will decide to cooperate. Or maybe she will just be too big to evade them.

Hoping you are all staying warm - our garage door was frozen to the cement this morning and it took some boiling water and Steve prying at it to get it open.

Week 28 - Finally the 3rd Trimester

Well, we've officially made it to the third trimester - 2/3rds of the way through the journey. At this point I think pregnancy and aging are pretty similar. The first bit is exciting, but with lots of learning to do (like what causes morning sickness and all the shoulds and shouldn'ts of pregnancy). The second part is smooth sailing and the most comfortable part of the trip, and then there is the end where everything starts to get achy and you seem to be headed to the doctor all the time.

Week 27 went pretty well. Steve and I officially "graduated" from childbirth class. We both agreed that childbirth class was worse than any single day of our graduate studies. Steve said his head hurt even worse than it did at the end of his 8 hour days first year of dental school. I'd have to agree that no class in law school was as dry at times and as unbearable as watching way too many births (not the cleaned up discovery channel variety either). By the end of the day we were wondering what we'd gotten ourselves into. Yesterday I had my first bout of pregnancy related "freaking out" - I still don't know what was causing my extreme agitation, but I just couldn't get calmed down. The end result is a boxful of things to go to Goodwill and another square for my afghan halfway done. In the end I managed to get myself calmed down enough to get to bed at a reasonable hour and woke up this morning feeling fine. Hopefully my hormones will regulate themselves and I won't have too many more incidents of freaking out. Luckily Steve is pretty levelheaded and just let me have my issues without getting himself dragged into the situation.

This week Sparky has made it up to almost 16 inches long and weighs about 2.5 pounds. My belly, unfortunately, is just a hair over 44 inches (about 44 1/4). I've grown just a pinch, but Sparky's grown a lot, so I am feeling more and more of her movement. She's very, very active and I am sure she is still breech (head up) since all of the kicking and wiggling is centered on the lower half of my belly. She has definite periods of being awake and asleep, but even in her sleep I feel a lot of moving. Lately she has been getting the hiccups quite often - it is a rather odd sensation. I am back to the doctor's on Wednesday for the beginning of the every other week checkups. This visit I have to get the Rhogam shot (since I have O negative blood) and have to take the glucose tolerance test (the one hour version) to make sure I don't have gestational diabetes. Since I was tested for ultra-low blood sugar in high school I am hoping the screening comes back negative to low so that I don't have to do the three hour version of the test.

I finally took a little "Jen time" and got my haircut the other day - I was hating the layers in it and the time it took to make myself look nice each morning. The new haircut is pictured above, but Sparky seems to dominate the photo. Check back Wednesday night to see if Sparky decides to cooperate for the doctor this time (it would be a first...)

Sicky Icky Thursday

Sparky and I stayed home today because of some bad Chinese food last night (I think). Between the nausea, heartburn, and other intestinal problems, I think I could have been the spokesperson for Pepto Bismo today. Normally this wouldn't have kept me from doing my daily routine, including going to work, but when a small person inside of you keeps kicking your stomach and other upset insides it really intensifies the illness.

On the bright side, I am feeling pretty much back to normal (although I have not ventured into the kitchen to find something to eat for dinner). Now that Sparky is getting so big I am having a lot of daily back pain and also a lot of pain around my belly, probably related to more stretching. I've still got a belly button, but I am sure that it is not going to last much longer.

Hoping you are all feeling better than I am - Sparky is certainly feeling just fine, so no need to worry about her health today.

Week 27 - the Last Week of the 2nd Trimester

Well... with only one week left of the second trimester, I believe huge would be the word that best describes how I've been feeling lately. On Friday night I tried to put on the top from the photos in the week 15 update. Being a maternity top and a size large (my pre-pregnancy size was a ladies small) I figured it would be no problem. Boy was that a bad assumption. While the shirt went on (with some struggle), getting it back off was near impossible. At this point my only option is t-shirt material that has lots of stretch. So unfortunately, there goes 1/2 of my maternity tops. The bottoms are going much the same way - they are getting so tight around my belly that I'm thinking about just wearing dresses all day (something that I am not too excited about).

Sparky is still being very active and wild - my mom claims she told Sparky to act this way. On the bright side, Sparky has been getting wild mostly during the day and has been doing much better at sleeping through the night. It has made the work day much more difficult to get through - lots of kicking, wiggling, and flipping. My belly has gotten so big that it sits on my lap when I am sitting at my chair. This phenomenon creates an interesting activity for Sparky - she now kicks through my belly and into my leg. This is perhaps the creepiest part of being pregnant so far. While feeling her move is nice, because I know she is still healthy and doing just fine, feeling all that movement is not really on the top of the list of things I'd like to feel during the day (or night). I'm pretty sure I'm not one of those women who just love being pregnant. I know that Sparky will be well worth it, but I can't say I'm too excited about the thought of doing this too many times.

Well... on to the relevant data for the week. My belly is expanding again (ouch...) and is up to 44 inches. My belly button is being rather stubborn and is still an innie - but it is getting more and more sensitive and painful by the day, so I'm sure it's on its way to being an outie soon. Sparky has broken the 2 pound barrier and is around 14 1/2 inches. She's getting pretty regular in her sleep and wake habits. Her biggest wake times are between 7 and 9 am, 1 and 4 pm, and 5 and 8 pm. She also now has more clothes than any one baby could possibly wear, including 5 or 6 Christmas dresses.

Only 13 weeks to go...

Another Appointment... Still no cooperation

What an eventful doctor's appointment! First off, Dr. Sammarco was off delivering a baby this morning and was running late. At first we were going to just wait for him to arrive, but after a few minutes of waiting the nurses decided they would check in on Sparky this time. Sparky, as usual, decided to be wiggly and uncooperative for the poor nurses who were trying to count her heartbeat. After about 5 minutes of trying, without success, to find Sparky's heartbeat for more than a few seconds, the nurses decided she was doing just fine.

We have now progressed to the point of every other week check-ups. I am not too excited about this possibility. More time out of work means more phone messages to answer on Wednesdays when I get back after my appointments. We also have the pleasure of doing both the glucose tolerance test and the Rhogam shot next visit. Just my favorite things to do get a shot and have blood drawn...

Not only was Sparky super active this morning for the doctor, she continued to be wound up all day long. There were a few points during the day when I thought I may actually groan or scream from all the kicking that was going on. I'm sure my co-workers would not have appreciated my noise as a result of Sparky's activity. At some points I decided that working standing up was more bearable than sitting. This is the type of behavior we are hoping does not continue after the birth. On the bright side, this may be an indication that Sparky has decided not to be a night owl anymore. Having a baby who sleeps through the night would be a wonderful surprise.

We are hoping for an uneventful next two weeks and for another uneventful doctor's visit next time around.

Week 26 - The Picture-less Update

The pictures for this week will be posted later, when I am feeling up to messing with my camera card and the card reader. I've been instructed (by Steve) to keep my feet up and not be messing with things I don't need to mess with to try and alleviate my swollen ankles.

We had a great time up north. Steve didn't get a contract to sign when we were up there, but he got the word that the contract is on the way and he has the job. We were both really excited about the opportunity and really like everyone that Steve will be working with. His co-workers are all really wonderful people and we had a great time having lunch with them last Friday. I'm sure there will be much joking going on in that office. While Steve was checking out the clinic, Sparky and I made our stops around town. We went to the courthouse and found out that I will be able to go back to doing Probate (wills, estates, guardianships) as a court appointed attorney. We also stopped by a realtor's office to get someone started on a house hunt for us. We are hoping to find a nice rental so you all can come visit Sparky and have a place to stay.

My belly didn't grow this week (praise the Lord!) so I've been in a lot less pain. I think my poor stomach muscles have finally adjusted to the 43.5 inch circumference. Hopefully the next expansion will be a little more gradual. Sparky is still super active, but seems to elude Steve's attempts to feel her kicking. He claims to have the "magic touch". We will see how magical it is once Sparky is born.

Tomorrow is doctor day, so we will see how cooperative or uncooperative Sparky decides to be this time. At least they decided to save all the pokes and shots for the next visit.

Have a GREAT week - from Jen & Sparky (and Maize who is trying to help type this and not being very helpful).