32 Weeks:

 It’s been a while since I’ve posted last. Unfortunately my endometriosis is still a thing. This last week has been very stressful and upsetting. You’ve been super active, which I absolutely appreciate as opposed to the alternative but it’s also very exhausting. I’ve had a lot of the pregnancy insomnia too. Also very exhausting. When I went to my 32 weeks appointment I got some not great news from the Dr that my numbers still aren’t where they should be with the GD, despite also taking a med this time, Metformin. It’s not seemingly doing the job properly that it’s meant to, so the Dr has upped my level of high risk and is now sending me to high risk fetal doctors as well as moving me to two appointments a week from here on out. Each week I will be doing NST’s as well as ultrasounds to make sure that you are growing the way you should, that you are getting the oxygen you should and are reacting to movements the way you should do. I had my first NST yesterday and everything went really well which is good. I go back again on Friday for another, and then next Wednesday (also your brother’s 5th birthday) I’ll see both the specialists and likely be put on insulin, as well as my regular OB for an NST. The part that bothers me in all of the increased risk they through at me. That you may show up anytime between now and 39 weeks and if you do, they won’t do anything to stop the labor which will likely end in a long and expensive NICU stay. I’m at higher risk for preeclampsia, and you are at higher risk of being stillborn, increasing in about 4 weeks. :( This terrifies me. I’ve asked what we do when that time comes, if we schedule a C-section and get you out early to what. He said the plan to proceed as normal, and as long as the NSTs and ultrasounds look good, everything should be fine, and we will plan to get you out at the 38/39 week mark. It’s just so much to think about. So please be safe, know that you’re loved and try to safely and comfortably stay in there another 4-5 weeks. 

19 Weeks Update:

 Today was Thanksgiving and I am 19 weeks along. I started feeling you kick two nights ago from the outside. You are already so very strong. Your brother loves to give you hugs and talk about all the things he wants to teach you as you get bigger and older. We are all very excited to meet you and will get to see you again on Dec 7th, so that makes me happy. I’m still getting winded really easily which makes my relatively useless for the most part. I also can’t stand for very long which also doesn’t help. Unfortunately tonight, (I’m assuming because of all the Thanksgiving carbs and fatty foods) I learned that I am not out of the woods this pregnancy regarding the thoracic endometriosis. Tonight was the worst in a long time and unfortunately I can’t even take anything for the pain with you inside me. I had to wake up daddy to put stuff on my back and ribs and have been laying on a heating pad for hours. I tried taking Tylenol, which doesn’t ever do anything for this but figured I’d try anyway, and instead the pain got so bad, I immediately threw them up. I’m still in a lot of pain right now at 3:22am but at at least not crying uncontrollably still. Really praying this goes away soon so that I can sleep but if it’s anything like the other times, I’ve got another three hours to go. I contemplated making daddy take me to the hospital but that would require waking up Ms. Nancy and freaking out all of the kids, especially for them to maybe not be able to do a trying either and then charge me a bunch on top of it for an ER visit. :( just know that I love you kid and that once you’re here, it’ll all be worth it. 

Edit: make that twice I threw up :( it’s now 5:11am and am finally starting to feel a little bit better. I made some echinacea and raspberry leaf tea to see if that’ll help any too, and to try and rehydrate me a little bit. Needless to say, I’ll need to do some serious sleeping in tomorrow, but I’m praying everything will feel normal and that maybe we can get the outside Christmas lights out up. 

14 weeks

 So there hasn’t been a whole lot to update these past few weeks, or I guess now thinking about it, there’s a few things :) today I threw up for the third time this pregnancy. Thankfully that’s all it’s been. I got my new glucose monitor because as to be expected, I have gestational diabetes again. On Oct 4th, we got the results of my blood test. You are a beautiful and healthy baby boy! :) On Oct 10th, we had a little scare at my appointment. She was unable to find your heartbeat on the Doppler, so they sent me in for an ultrasound. The great news is, there you were, beautiful and breathing and heart beating strong, and I got to see you again! But please let’s not scare me like that again. 

9 weeks?

 Today we got to see you for the first time! We confirmed that there are in fact only one of you hiding in there. My appointment was early this morning an hour away and the whole family came in order to catch a glimpse of you. Here you are, a tiny little bean. 

Everything is looking good so far. The due date moved by two days so you are now “due” April 18, 2024, which now makes me just shy of 9 weeks. We started my blood draws today and in two weeks I’ll go back to have my NIPT testing done, which will also tell us what you will be! :) we are so excited! Sophia can’t wait to find out and go back to von Maur to pick out a perfect little outfit for you! Unfortunately we won’t know before the local sale so I’ll have to wait until spring to grab you things for then, at least in regards to clothing. We also decided to start earlier on my GD testing so that I can be keeping track of it all. It was a very long but very exciting day. We also went over to grand mommy and granddaddy’s house to share the news with them, and sent grandma a text bc it was also her birthday. :) everyone is very excited! Love you little one!

8 Weeks:

 In good news, yesterday I was finally able after a lot of frustration, to get my Dr. to get me a script for zofran. Now I am at least able to eat and get off of the couch. Today I was able to run to the grocery, do a pickup, eat, do the kids school, garden and do dishes. All of this after two weeks of not being able to move or accomplish anything. Unfortunately now I’m having the unpleasant, feeling like I’m having an anxiety attack thing I unfortunately remember well from prior pregnancies. Not fun times at all. Heart racing and feeling indigestion. Ugh. I just want to get comfortable so I can sleep. 

Mid week seven

 So far this is the bed day I’ve had in about two weeks. I’ve had minor nausea at different points but was able to leave the house, take a short walk to get an iced apple cider that thankfully my stomach allowed me to have and have gotten to eat several different foods today without any upset. *fingers crossed* there is hope going forward. 

Week 7:

 We are in week seven now and I’ve been feeling nauseous a lot now. Usually starts first thing in the morning and runs until around 4-5pm and then I’m mostly good again. Still haven’t thrown up yet but still just feel gross and have been essentially useless  as I’ve been confined to laying on a couch all day bc any movement makes it worse. The past two days I’ve also been feeling exceptionally tired compared to the other days. Still peeing constantly. Other than that, doing pretty okay. More and more people know now bc it’s impossible to hide if you see me. Twelve more days until I get to see the Dr. and hopefully get some zofran and also get to see this little one on the ultrasound if I’m lucky. Then hopefully they will schedule the NIPT testing since we have DS that is in the family as well as me being more at risk by being over 35. Additional nice bonus is it tells us gender early too. :)

Week Six:

 Today we are at week six. As of yesterday I started feeling a little nauseous in the morning, but it settled out by lunchtime when I had to take Rosalie to the Dr. Today I had a little bit earlier again and a little off and on but not too bad. I had some lemon ginger hot tea and some soup for lunch. In a little bit I’ve got to take the girls to acting class, so hoping it’ll stay good while we’re out but I did put double bags and wipes in the car just in case. 

We are currently looking into ordering food delivery again so that I can start my diabetes diet since I know I’ll end up with GD again. Our first appointment isn’t until September 12, so hoping the nausea hangs on until then in case I need some zofran. 

The kids know, Carrie knows and a handful of local friends know bc of the need for safety as covid has a new variant making its rounds. We haven’t told either family yet. I’ll likely tell them after our first appointment just to make sure everything is good, and maybe we’ll even have a sonogram picture if we’re lucky. I’ll probably plan to do a sneak trick over to his parents house to surprise them, and text my mom since it’ll be here birthday. 

I still have anxiety over sharing the news with my family bc of the drama that happened this summer and knowing that my family won’t be able to be a part of it this time. :/ On the bright side, Carrie sounds like she will try to come up a week or so before I’m due in order to help get last minute things ready and to be able to keep the kids overnight if needed. 

I need to re reach out to my birth photographer from Everest and see if anything changed at the hospital since it was bought. I also considered asking if either of the girls want to be there for the birth if the hospital will allow. We’ll see. 

Cuatro

 So, a whole lot has happened since I last wrote. I honestly completely forgot about this and now feel incredibly sad that I didn’t also document my journey with my son, who is now 4.5 and absolutely amazing. He’s beautiful and funny and smart and sweet. He absolutely adores his momma and always wants to cuddle. He loves building and creating, whether is legos, magnetic tiles, foam shapes, play dough or even just drawing. He loves school too! He’s one of the greatest loves of my life. 

In June, I woke up two nights at 3:30am in excruciating pain in my upper back and rib cage. I tried a heating pad, took Tylenol, nothing helped. The pain made me nauseous. Finally around 6:30am, it subsided and I could sleep. Again this happened in July, both times right before my period was set to arrive. I don’t normally google issues but this time I did, and learned about the rare thoracic endometriosis which fit the bill and was the ONLY thing that popped up for my symptoms which is strange. It didn’t make sense since I never had symptoms of regular endometriosis and you have to have one to have the other, but still, it all lined up. I set up an appointment at my gyn to see if they could check. Bc my symptoms were thoracic related, she referred me to a pulmonologist. I set up an appointment with him and he agreed that this is what it sounds like, but has only ever had one patient who has suffered from this. As stated, its pretty rare. So he scheduled a CT which was supposed to take place during my period (which isn’t when my pain would come) so we scheduled it out for when my app thought my next would be. Then I ovulated sooner, so we moved it up. Then instead of working like my body normally does, it decided to have my period show up only 5 days post ovulation, and I called on Thursday when it started to reschedule my CT, but the soonest they could get me was Monday. Unfortunately something told me this period wouldn’t last as long as my others, and by the time Monday came, I was barely spotting. The CT didn’t work. :( however, my Dr. does still believe this is what I have and that it’s because the timing of the CT was off. I agree. Especially when it started happening by pre ovulation as well. 

Prior to this, we’d planned to start trying to get pregnant in June. We were asked to wait so we could have a full cycle to get the CT done. Now since we know and aren’t planning to do either surgery or hormones (both which would stop me from getting pregnant) we were clear to try for our final pregnancy. 

This time, my body decided to ovulate for five full days of which we took full advantage. 2.5 weeks later my nipples were sore and I had some minor cramping. I knew in my heart these were implantation cramps and I mentioned it to David that I couldn’t test yet but was pretty sure we were pregnant. 

On August 4, I took a test. In the first ten minutes (when it says to check by) it was negative. I threw it away feeling slightly deflated despite knowing it was probably still too early. When I came back later in the evening I saw it on the top of the trash can, and it showed positive now. I thought wtf?! So I took another. Same thing happened. So I took a digital and it showed negative. Again feeling defeated. :(

On August 10, I woke up at 6:45am feeling slightly nauseous but thought maybe I just needed to poop. So I snuck out to the girls’ bathroom and decide to take another test, just in case. This time it showed up positive within five minutes! 

I immediately texted Carrie bc I need to share it with someone and didn’t want to wake up David. I decided to wait until there was a better time to tell him, and decided that I’d wait to tell the kids the day we were planned to head on an overnight stay at Great Wolf Lodge. Later that day, I took one more digital just to confirm for sure! Again! Positive!

I have now told David, and fast forward to today. The day we leave for our trip. I picked up “big sis” shirts for the girls and a big “big bro” shirt for Everest to surprise the kids with, although pretty sure they already suspect bc despite now only being 5 weeks, I look like I did when I was four months pregnant with Everest. 🤦🏽‍♀️ not fun, bc I means there’s zero chance of hiding it from anyone when we see his family soon. Anyway, I’ll let ya know how the kids react to it. :) 

In shitty news…endometriosis is supposed to haunt symptoms when pregnant per both my Ob/gyn and the pulmonologist. Needless to say, started feeling the pains (not quite as bad but still awful) around 3:20am and it only just now stopped around 6:50am. Needless to say, it’ll be a long day. More unfortunate is that now that I’m pregnant, the herbs and meds I’d been taking to help with the pain, the majority appear to not be safe while pregnant. So basically I may have this awfulness through my whole pregnancy and I can’t even take anything besides Tylenol which does absolutely nothing bc what I need is anti inflammatories. 🤦🏽‍♀️ 

I have my first ob appointment set for September 12th, and hoping we’ll get a dating ultrasound out of it so that I can show his family on the 24th when we see them for Bruce’s retirement party. Then hopefully shortly thereafter we can get my GD testing out of the way so I can just start my process again, and also get the genetic testing done bc of my sil’s child with DS and now bc of my age, I apparently am also at higher risk for both chromosomal issues as well as twins (also bc it runs in the family, it’s my fourth kid and I’m over 35). The good news is, that testing also usually tells me a little early what the gender will be, so fingers crossed, bc then we can start the final shopping. :) Thankfully I still have a lot of our baby stuff bc I hadn’t completely written off one last kid, despite only originally planning on three. 

Anyway, now that the pain has stopped, I’m going to attempt to rest for an hour or two before this long day ahead of us that I have to get up for in three hours. Can’t wait to share the rest of this journey with you, and seriously so heartbroken that I forgot about this blog during Everest. Maybe I made some Facebook posts that I can go back and add in retrospectively. 

Two Weeks Postpartum:

So it's now been two weeks since my teeny tiny princess blessed us with her presence. I still am bleeding a little, but very little compared to my pregnancy with Sophia. I am down to 124.6 lbs now, so still have 4 more pounds to go before I'm back to pre-pregnancy weight. Unfortunately, I can't do any of my nice long walks or exercise for another 2-4 weeks, which has kind of bummed me out, because we really like our nightly walks, and it's been two weeks since I've been able to. 

Rosalie eats like a champ, and is such a little sweetiepie. She's so good, and so happy (except when she's hungry or getting her diaper changed). She sleeps and eats a ton, but when she's awake, she's so bright eyed and alert. She checks out everything, and she loves her sister a bunch. Sophia (while a little aggressive) knows just how to calm her little sister down when she does get upset. It's so sweet to watch. 

In good news, I've been able to go to the bathroom now, and have probably gone more in the past week than I have in the past year, which is probably in part that I've been eating a box of frosted mini weeks pretty much every 2-3 days. Pretty crazy. It also appears that my stitches have dissolved. 

Oh, and Rosalie lost her umbilical cord on day 8, so she has a cute little belly button now. :)

So Scary....TMI ahead..One Week Update

Oh my god. So today I am officially one week postpartum, and today I had my first postpartum BM. Mind you, I had 2nd degree tearing, which from what I've recently learned, is basically the equivalent to having had an episiotomy. I have been TERRIFIED of this moment. So afraid I would just tear back open, and the pain that would come from it. I am so happy to say that it was all in my head. There was no pain, only some strange pressure, and I didn't realize how much I'd been suppressing it due to fear, but my god. It was a lot. I am so glad now to know though that it's totally okay, and safe, and that I'm not going to be turning over in pain. Milestone complete.

I've been breastfeeding like a beast, I'm down to 126.6 lbs., and bleeding is minimal this time.

In other sweet baby news...at 2 days old, Rosalie turned over onto her side, and also lifts her head quite high when laying on my chest. :) 

Please Join Me in Welcoming the Beautiful, Rosalie!

On Monday, October 6th, I went in for my 39 week checkup. When they did the pelvic exam, I was 4 cm and 70% effaced, then she stripped my membranes again, and when I left I was 5cm. We started talking about setting an induction date if I didn't go into labor before the end of the week, since they didn't want me going past the 40 weeks because of the gestational diabetes. The idea of an induction gave me so much anxiety and stress, mainly because when I hear the term induction, to me it means the use of pitocin to chemically begin contractions, which tends to not only extend labor and make it more painful, but increases the likelihood of needing a c-section. This was not an option for me. That's when she mentioned that with how far along I am (when I went in with Sophia at 39 weeks, 6 days, I was only 3 cm and 50%) and having had contractions for the two weeks prior, that she would just break my water. After talking with David, we decided that with both the timing of not much going on at work, the staff we liked being on call, my sister being available to watch Sophia, etc. that it seemed like the best option, so we scheduled our "induction" for Wednesday. To extents it was kind of nice to have an actual expiration date set, so that we knew how much time we had to get what we needed done. I was even able to make some yummy homemade blueberry muffins to bring in for the Dr.'s and nurses the night before, along with the two batches of snickerdoodles I'd made. 

(our last picture as a family of three)

(final belly shot - 39 weeks)

Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep, 3.5 hours maybe. We were scheduled to be at the hospital at 6:30am, so we got up at 5:45am, got the last little bit ready, and waited for my mom and sister to show up at 6am. My sister swapped spots with me in bed to stay with Sophia, and mom left with David and I to head to the hospital. The timing was awesome, because at 6:25am as we were pulling into the hospital, the beautiful bloodmoon was in full effect. Talk about neat! 

I'd already pre-registered so it didn't take long for the registration process and I was up there by 5 minutes to 7am. They had me change, and hooked me up like they did for my regular NSTs. I had contractions but not really any that I felt much. Around 7:15am the Dr. came in and did a cervical check, and I was still the same 5 cm 70%, then next thing I knew, there was a small leak of fluid. I hadn't even realized she'd broken my water while she was doing it. I didn't even feel it, which apparently is impressive, or at least the nurses seemed to think so that I hadn't even flinched. After about 30 or so minutes, they told me that they wanted me to get up and start walking to hopefully jumpstart the contractions. I didn't end up really walking though, because by the time I got up and out, they already had a room for me, so we went in, and a few minutes later, contractions started happening, so I sat on the big ball for a bit and tried to relax. It was probably around 8am at this point. I think somewhere between 9am and 10am, I had David call my photographer, just to let her know that the contractions were getting closer, and that I didn't think it'd be too terribly much longer. Shortly after she arrived, the contractions got closer and closer and stronger and stronger. 

I'd decided after my last pregnancy that this time I wanted to do it completely natural, with no drugs at all. With Sophia, that'd been my initial goal as well, but I ended up asking for Nubain (which is nowhere near as strong as an epidural, and goes away after 3 hours and is done through IV) and learned after the fact that in the end, I'd had her naturally because my drugs had already worn off. So knowing that, I felt a little more confident in my decision this time. Something I hadn't taken into consideration though was that I'd still had medicinal help for those three hours, so it wasn't as bad. I clearly didn't realize what I was in for, but also, a lot of women get to have short breaks in between contractions. I barely had time to get 5 words out before the next one came with a vengeance. I was almost in tears with the pain, (which made me feel weak and pathetic) and I was seconds away multiple times from begging for drugs, but add to my incredible birthing experience luck, that my photographer who was well aware of my birthing wants (I'd discussed water births with her early in the pregnancy because she birthed where I'd tried to initially) and basically turned into my doula. She kept talking me through my contractions and reminding me to calm my breathing and try to relax. If not for her, I absolutely would have given in. So, I am super grateful to her, for both the gorgeous pictures you will get to see, but also for helping me complete my mission. 

My amazing midwife had come in to check up on me, and had just walked out to go downstairs when my nurse convinced me to go sit in the shower to help with pain (like had worked with Sophia). I got in, sat down, and not two minutes later, that urge to push came and I started to panic. I told the nurse to get my midwife NOW, that this baby was coming. I was completely convinced I was going to have her in the shower on that stool and got really scared. David and the nurse helped get me on the bed as my midwife came in, threw on gloves and checked me and shook her head and said "okay, push whenever you're ready." Then the next contraction came. I pushed. They could see her head. The next contraction came. I pushed harder. Her head was out. The third contraction came. I pushed sooo hard and continued to push straight through the fourth contraction and her body was out. I did tear again, but kind of expected it. 

I'd asked to have delayed cord clamping this time, so they put her on my chest immediately. This time I was overwhelmed with emotion and am pretty sure I was bawling. She was so beautiful and perfect. So much hair! Within the first two minutes, she already had found my breast and began nursing. Because of that, I didn't need the pitocin to get the placenta out. I continued nursing while she stitched me up. I am so grateful to my incredible team, who through some insanely ridiculous luck ended up being my same team as Sophia. I could not be more happy with my experience. I love them all so very much! And on top of it all, I got my placenta encapsulated which is awesome. They were so supportive of every single thing that I wanted. Overall, an amazing experience, and now I have two amazing and incredibly beautiful baby girls. I am so very blessed. 

P.S. The beautiful pictures were done by ThunderClap Photography!! If you live in Central Florida, definitely check them out! So worth it!

38 Weeks Pregnant With Baby #2:

How far along? 38 Weeks 

Total weight gain: ~ 17 lbs.

Maternity clothes? Yes

Stretch marks? No

Best moment this week: Spending time with family in the most beautiful fall weather
Miss anything? Being able to bend over to reach things, being able to stand for more than 5 minutes, not being so emotional, not having anxiety attacks, not having teasing contractions

Movement: Super active

Food cravings: Pumpkin everything, olive garden

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not at the moment

Gender: Girl!

Labor signs: Contractions, lots of contractions

Symptoms: exhaustion, frequent urination, unable to stand for long periods of time, contractions, leaking breasts

Belly button in or out? Out just a smidge

Wedding rings on or off? On, and very loose

Happy or moody most of the time: Stressed, but mostly happy

Looking forward to: Meeting my baby girl in a few days

This week the baby is still approximately the size of a watermelon, at 6.80 lbs. in weight, and 19.61 inches in length.

"Your baby's skull is still soft to allow for the trip through your birth canal. Some of the tiny bones in his body won't fuse together until after birth. At this point your little one is ingesting a lot of amniotic fluid, which is resulting in the build-up of meconium, (the first bowel movement that he will have after birth). Your baby's tiny fingernails continue to grow but are kept soft inside your uterus. Be prepared to cut them shortly after giving birth. Your baby is gaining about one ounce every day at this stage. The lubricant that will keep the lungs from sticking together during breathing is being readily produced."

Today I went in for my 39 week checkup. I was 4 cm, 70% effaced when I came in and 5 cm when I left, after she re-stripped my membranes. Also, we will officially have our baby girl no later than midweek. :) I am feeling both ecstatic, nervous, and anxious. I can't wait, and yet there's that tiny tinge that yells "Omg, am I really ready for this?! Can't I really do it!?" I know ultimately that I am and that we are going to be just the happiest family of four ever, but at the moment it's all just a rush of emotion. I've found myself crying like three times today and just feeling so overwhelmed. I tidied up the living room just a little today, and am going to make some homemade blueberry muffins tomorrow to bring to the hospital with us. The plans are all in place for different scenarios for Sophia. The only things left to put in my bag are the toiletries and such. I never did get a baby book. We looked today and the only place that had them was Hallmark, and there was this beautiful pink one that I loved, and wanted to get. It even had two little pockets in there for her first tooth and first haircut, but when I flipped it over and saw it was $40, I shot it a "hell no you aren't coming home with me" look. Tomorrow I'm also going to try to remember to make David set up the tripod when he gets home from work, so that we can take one last "family of three" photo, and an updated "hey, I'm about to pop" photo. :) I'm so glad we got to take Sophia to Seaworld this weekend though so that we could at least do one last fun thing with her before her baby sister comes. On the flip side though, she said the sweetest thing tonight when I was getting her ready for bed. "Mommy, I'm going to be sad while Rosalie is still in your tummy. Rosalie is sad too, but when she comes out, we are going to be so happy! Melt...That kid is going to be the best big sister ever! I love her so damn much!

Welp...TMI

The "bloody show" is occurring. 

37 Weeks Pregnant With Baby #2:

How far along? 37 Weeks 

Total weight gain: ~ 16 lbs.

Maternity clothes? Yes

Stretch marks? No

Best moment this week: Spending time with family
Miss anything? Being able to bend over to reach things, being able to stand for more than 5 minutes, not being so emotional, not having anxiety attacks, not having teasing contractions

Movement: Super active

Food cravings: Pumpkin everything, olive garden

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not at the moment

Gender: Girl!

Labor signs: Contractions, lost mucus plug

Symptoms: exhaustion, frequent urination, back pain, unable to stand for long periods of time, contractions

Belly button in or out? Out just a smidge

Wedding rings on or off? On, and very loose

Happy or moody most of the time: Getting a little better

Looking forward to: Meeting my baby girl

This week the baby is still approximately the size of a watermelon, at 6.30 lbs. in weight, and 19.13 inches in length.

"Your baby will weigh between six and six and a half pounds this week. Growth slows down at this point and your baby is busy practicing for life after birth. Your little one is plumper and if born now, he would not require an incubator to keep warm due to the presence of sufficient fat stores. Lungs are fully developed, which means he would be able to breathe on its own if born now. Usually babies are head down at this point, but they can drop right until the time of birth. If you're having twins, they will weigh between five and six pounds at this point, but if they are smaller, they may need to be kept in an incubator for some time after birth to keep them warm."

This week I went in for my 38 week update. I am still 70% effaced, and now am 3 cm dilated. She also went ahead and stripped my membranes, and said there is a good chance that I may end up going into labor tonight. I guess we shall see. Fingers are crossed. 

False Alarm:

No baby yet. 

Starting to feel anxious:

Not trying to totally jump the gun here, but I'm questioning if today is going to be the day. I woke up and 6am and haven't been able to go back to sleep. I've got the period cramp like stuff going on, which last time was my early labor starting at like 1:30am. Keeping an eye on it, so we shall see. 

TMI:

So I definitely feel like it'll be happening soonish. The past few nights, I've been having moderately strong contractions rather frequently for a few hours until around 2am, when the seem to stop and I got to bed. Today they started in late morning, but seem to have subsided a little, but I have pooped twice in the past two days (yes, I realize for most people this is normal), but in my case, I rarely go, so I'm thinking that that is all happening because of all of the movement and contractions, which hopefully means we're once again, one step closer. Heading for another NST this afternoon. 

36 Weeks Pregnant With Baby #2:

How far along? 36 Weeks 

Total weight gain: ~ 16 lbs.

Maternity clothes? Yes

Stretch marks? No

Best moment this week: Having my baby shower
Miss anything? Being able to bend over to reach things, being able to stand for more than 5 minutes, not being so emotional, not having anxiety attacks

Movement: Super active

Food cravings: Pumpkin everything

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not at the moment

Gender: Girl!

Labor signs: Braxton Hicks

Symptoms: exhaustion, braxton hicks, frequent urination, back pain, unable to stand for long periods of time

Belly button in or out? Out just a smidge

Wedding rings on or off? On, and very loose

Happy or moody most of the time: Getting a little better

Looking forward to: Meeting my baby girl

This week the baby is still approximately the size of a honeydew melon, at 5.78 lbs. in weight, and 18.66 inches in length.

"Your baby weighs about six pounds (2.5kg) and will gain approximately one half of a pound per week from now until birth. The protective fat layer will make up about 15 percent of his weight at birth. Even though his gums have ridges that look a bit like teeth, the real ones won't make their appearance until about four or five months after birth. His cheeks are developing fat, creating that lovely chubby appearance. If you're carrying twins, you may go into labor anytime. Your baby is probably sleeping about 90 percent of the time. There isn't much room to move around anymore, although you will still be feeling regular movements. If you notice a dramatic increase or decrease in movement compared to your baby's normal daily activity, call your doctor immediately for further advice and directions. Don't wait for your next appointment, and never think your concern is silly. The doctor will probably ask you to come in for an ultrasound, so as to check your baby's heartbeat."

This week I went in for my 37 weeks update, and she started on the pelvic exams. We discussed that next week I'd like to get my membranes stripped to help hopefully jumpstart labor, so that I don't have to be induced in 3 weeks, and then she did the exam and said that she doesn't think I'll need it because I'm already 2cm and 70% effaced. I think with Sophia when I went in to have her after having my membranes stripped twice, I was 3 cm and 50% effaced. So I'll also be walking and sexing a lot. Haha. Also, later that day, I lost my plug at Target, and then went to my NSTs later that evening and they told me that I was having a lot of contraction activity, and I continued to until around 2am that morning, so fingers are crossed that she is coming soon.  Everything has been put together, her co-sleeper is up and in my room, her clothes have all been washed, the carseat has been installed, my hospital bag is packed except for my going home outfit, and toiletries. Sophia's "sibling gift" is already in the car so it doesn't get forgotten. My sister is going to come over today so that we can talk about what she'll need to know if it happens in the middle of the night and she comes over to stay with Sophia. It's all becoming very very real, and I'm so excited. 

35 Weeks Pregnant With Baby #2:

How far along? 35 Weeks 

Total weight gain: ~ 16 lbs.

Maternity clothes? Yes

Stretch marks? No

Best moment this week: Taking Sophia to the snow festival and spending time with family
Miss anything? Being able to bend over to reach things, being able to stand for more than 5 minutes, not being so emotional, not having anxiety attacks

Movement: Super active

Food cravings: Olive Garden

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not at the moment

Gender: Girl!

Labor signs: Braxton Hicks

Symptoms: exhaustion, braxton hicks, frequent urination, back pain, unable to stand for long periods of time

Belly button in or out? Still just barely flush

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or moody most of the time: Getting a little better

Looking forward to: My baby shower

This week the baby is still approximately the size of a honeydew melon, at 5.25 lbs. in weight, and 18.19 inches in length.

"Your baby weighs about five pounds and a half pounds now. Your baby (not you) will start with a period of rapid weight gain this week. If you're carrying twins, they will weigh slightly less, as they don't have as much room to grow. The average birth weight of full-term twins (37 weeks or later, compared to 39-40 weeks for singletons) is around five and a half pounds each. However, one baby often weighs more than the other. From now until birth, your baby will gain approximately one third of a pound per week. A lot of this weight is the all-important brown fat to keep your little one warm for the first few weeks after birth. This brown fat contains more cells that produce body heat and this in turn prevents hypothermia. This brown fat appears on his upper spine, back and shoulders. When Grandma pinches his adorable chubby cheeks, it's the white fat that she's turning pink."

This week I started my NST's that will now take place twice a week, every week until the baby gets here. Today, I was told that my amniotic fluid is a little low, so I need to drink as much as I can to try and replenish it. It's not me a little nervous.