Pregnancy Week 21

 It has been so long since I have posted anything. It was hard to post during the holidays and there hasn't been a lot of new information to post. But I thought I would probably like to look back at this later so I should try to add a little more.

So last time I revealed the gender is a girl. I had thought that I was having a girl from the beginning, and I'm glad to have it confirmed. The first week of December I watched my niece so that my sister could go to dinner with her husband on her birthday. She had taken steps before that but that week she was really walking so she spent most of the night dragging me around the house showing me her toys and the dog water bowl. Running around with her wasn't the most comfortable on my back but other than that I haven't had too much back trouble.

I also started watching my parents dog while they moved into their new house. After a few weeks my mom asked if I he could stay with me indefinitely. They don't have a fenced in yard and she doesn't want to mess up their new house. I agreed to take him. He is almost 14, so he sleeps a lot and he doesn't hear and see as well as he used to. His breath was stinky so I gave him some denta sticks but they were making him sick. He used to be able to eat different treats and food easily but he is having more trouble now. I think that is another symptom of him aging. At least I'm got practice cleaning up puke.

On the 11th I had a doctor appointment. There wasn't an ultrasound so I went on my own. They used a doppler to listen to the heartbeat. I started to get a little nervous because it took the tech a little while to find it. But once I could hear it it was a relief. Since I wasn't having a lot of symptoms at that time it almost felt like I wasn't pregnant. So it was nice to hear. The beat was 154 which was very good. The PA came in after and said that I needed to gain more weight. My weight was the same as my first appointment. I think I was bloated during that appointment so I do think I gained weight based on my pre-pregnancy weight at home. She said that it was sometimes in the first trimester it was hard to gain weight but to try to gain some now. I also scheduled my 20 week anatomy scan for 4 weeks in the future. 

In the following weeks I got ready for the holidays by getting gifts, wrapping them, decorating a little bit. On December 20th I asked my sister if she needed to go to target because they were going snowboarding for the holidays and she usually has to get something, and I had to get new bras. Mine cups were getting too small. So we went to Big 5 so she could get a snowboard outfit, she usually would borrow from our parents. She did a lot of the shopping. I walked around with Naomi as she walked around the store and tried to put things in her mouth. But I was able to help her decide on a coat and pants. Then we went to target where we got some outfits for Naomi for the snow. We also got a lot of other clothes for her. Then we got two maternity bras that work for nursing too. We also got some stocking stuffers and household essentials. When I went home I was so exhausted. For the most part I don't get tired anymore but long days can make me tired even though I know I wouldn't be tired if I wasn't pregnant.

Month 4 Christmas Bump

I also started to notice some flutters but I wasn't sure if they were kicks or gas. They felt like little bubbles and sometimes I would have gas a little bit after. So I can't be sure when the first kick was but I felt some kicks on Christmas eve that I'm going to count as the first kick. During Christmas and New Years weekends I visited Mimi and Papa's new house every day. We did walks, ate Christmas dinner two days in a row, played pickleball and mahjong and watched Christmas movies. We would usually visit my G'ma as her birthday is the 26th and she turned 90. However, covid numbers were very high and none of us wanted to risk giving it to her. She is getting the first dose of the vaccine on January 21 and will plan a 90 year old birthday party for this spring. So it was a low key holidays but very relaxing.

I was starting to suspect that my sister was also pregnant around this time. I knew that she wanted to have a second baby soon so I knew she would be trying soon. She had her first period after giving birth a year after Naomi was born. She has irregular periods so they are hard to predict but I was thinking she should have a period by then but she hadn't. One day in mid-December she called me and asked what my earliest pregnancy symptom was. That made me think she was asking because she was trying to figure out if she was pregnant. Then I noticed when we met to exchange gifts she didn't have anything to drink! None of these are suspicious on their own but together they were. 

So on January 3rd, I went over to my parents house to watch the Cardinals game with my Dad. She and my mom had gone to walgreens when I arrived so I texted her and told her to get a pregnancy test. So she got one and took the test. After 3 minutes she didn't go straight in to look at the test so I did because I learned that if you don't look at the test at the right time there could be an evaporation line that makes the test look positive. I picked up the test and there were two lines! It was positive. Even though I had been suspicious I was shocked and I felt bad about seeing it first. So I walked out of the bathroom and said "you should look at the test." Then I walked away. 

My sister and mom called me back in the bedroom because of my reaction. Turns out that my sister already knew she was pregnant she knew since the day we went to target. Earlier that morning my Dad saw a bracelet on Naomi's wrist that said 'Big Sis' so they all knew already. Naomi had been napping the entire time I got there so I didn't see the bracelet. 

Since I knew so much about the tests because of my journey, I said something like the test line was light but it still counted as positive which got my sister worried because she didn't know it needed to be dark. So she called her doctor the next week to get her first appointment changed. They scheduled her for the 15th but since she was concerned she was moved to the 8th which w
as the same day as my anatomy scan!

Our OBs are on separate corners of the street with the Chandler hospital at the third corner between them. My OBs covid rules is that you can bring a guest and any child under 8 so I invited my mom to come to the scan. My sister's OB doesn't let guest or kids in right now. So we were going to bring Naomi to my appointment, but my brother in law ended up watching her. 

At my appointment the baby was laying on her stomach and her head was near my belly button on the right side and the legs were by my hip on the left. Because of he position the tech got to see the skull, kidneys and the potty shot, but she wasn't able to get her face, chest or heart. So I had to get rescheduled for Friday the 22nd. Her heartbeat was strong and the PA said that she was weighing around 11 oz but it is hard to tell that early. My mom asked about seeing the delivery doctor. So this coming appointment will be with the main doctor that delivers at the Chandler hospital. I don't mind seeing the PAs but it is nice to meet the doctor later this week.

There was one issue which was that the baby's placenta partially covering my cervix. It is called placenta previa. If the placenta is within 2.5 cm of the cervix that can cause bleeding and when giving birth it could mean that the placenta is born first which is bad because the baby can't get oxygen or anything if the placenta is detached. I have noticed a little bit of spotting, but only when wiping and sometimes it is hard to tell if it's blood or just dark urine. It wasn't really a concern because everything I read says that it should be more like period flow. Most of placenta previa will resolve later in pregnancy. The way it was explain is that if you imagine a balloon with words on it. The words might look like it is near the part you blow in, but when you blow up the balloon the words more out of the way. So as the uterus grows the placenta will move away from the cervix. Since mine is only partial previa it will probably go away and I will be able to have a vaginal birth. I was put on pelvic rest which means no sex and avoiding pelvic exercises. 

At my sister's appointment, she had a blood clot and the blood clot made the placenta tear a little bit from the wall. Usually that will have the symptom of bleeding, but my sister hadn't experienced any bleeding, but she had some more cramps than the first pregnancy and she felt hot in her uterus. The doctor was concerned he scheduled a follow up for a week, the 15th.

On the 15th appointment the doctor was much more optimistic. The baby's heart rate was up and it grew more than what is expected in 7 days. There was still some bleeding and a tear but it looked much better. She has a follow up in two weeks. So she is 8 weeks and 1 day along and I'm 21 weeks along. I think the baby is a boy, so I will use he to refer to him from now until we find out the gender. He is due August 29th. Since she hasn't told anyone but us and her husband I won't be posting this publicly until after other people know, but I wanted to write about it while it was fresh.

Nesting - Painting

Last week I had heartburn a few days in a row but by the time I bought tums I didn't really have any heartburn, but we will see if it returns. I have also been feeling the baby move a lot more. I don't have to think if it's gas or not. I have also been having round ligament pain. I went to my sister's no Tuesday and walked with my niece to the park twice. It isn't too far but it is hilly. The next morning I had pain. I think because of all of the activity the day before the ligament got tight over night so when I stood or turned it would be sore. 

Week 20 - Nesting

The other time I had the pain was today! Last week I kind of started nesting, so I decided I wanted to paint the nursery. I found an ombre wallpaper that looked so pretty and I found tutorials on how to paint it. Since I was so determined my parents came over to help. We only painted one accent wall that color. I might go back and paint the rest of the walls white since they are a little scuffed from over 10 years of living in the house. After we painted I made lunch and my dad fixed my pooper scooper and then picked up the poop. After lunch we went to look if we needed to do another coat. We decided the top white part was too big and created another transition color to make it fade a little more. Then gave the dogs baths. While they were drying we cleaned up the paint and put the crib together. Kelsi's son just grew out of the crib so she brought it over on Friday! After my parents left I did laundry all night and organized my drawers. So this morning I felt some round ligament pain too. It wasn't as bad as last week. I saw that Pidgeon pose is a good stretch for this pain and you can do it easily in bed on your back. It only takes about 20 seconds on each side and it feels much better. 

Today I also think I might have felt some hiccups. I have been feeling more movements, but these felt more consistent and in the same spot, but I also just read about feeling hiccups at this stage so I could just be kicks.