Tag: 24 weeks

Baby #3, Uncategorized

Baby #3 24 Weeks

peanutsmiles
Size of baby: You are approximately the size of an ear of corn (8.5 inches long and 1.5lbs) Your brain activity is close to that of a newborn and your face is fully formed with eyelashes, eyebrows and hair.

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The Bump: Steady growth! It is definitely firm now and am curious if I’ll get any stretch marks this time around. Shaving and bending over is getting a little more tricky. Also, my jacket is getting harder to zip up-hopefully, I can put it away for the season in a couple of weeks!
Cravings/Aversions: Sweets! However, I’ve cut them out of my diet for the past several days knowing I have my glucose test this week. I’ve been chewing gum and eating craisins, nuts and chewing gum as a substitute. It hasn’t been terrible, but I can’t wait for the test to be over and (hopefully!) go back to eating them again–especially since I bought some Girl Scout Cookies!
What I’m loving: Getting stuff done! We bought Lexi’s new bike this week, I ordered new curtains for the big kid’s room, ordered some fabric to make some valences for the kitchen and dinning room and daddy continues to make progress with the bunk beds!
What I’m anticipating:  Warm Sunshine, whats new? Getting this glucose test over with and getting my hair done tonight!
Miss anything? Sweets!
Worries? Honestly, my biggest worry right now is work. With my boss, my co-worker and I all being pregnant/due within a couple months of each other, I’m worried about what they are going to do for coverage as we don’t have anyone else on our team. There is a lot to learn and a pretty busy time to cover and each passing week is less time to on-board someone.
Differences between pregnancies? With Lexi, we were in Vail photographing a wedding and I ended up in the hospital and cutting the trip short with some kidney issues. With William, it feels pretty similar to this pregnancy. Apparently I was still sleeping on my stomach (although I had reported earlier that I wasn’t). The strength of your kicks and punches also grew with William, which I’m experiencing right now as well.
How I’m feeling: Breathing is a little more challenging. I often find myself sitting at my desk short of breath.
Sleep: This is up and down. I’ll have good nights and bad nights. I’ve transitioning to putting a pillow between my legs now to make sleep a little more comfortable, but this always causes challenges when rolling over in the middle of the night. Most of the time, I can fall back asleep right away, but I’m back to waking up around 5:30 in the morning and being wide awake.
Movement: So much. It is crazy how active you get after I eat. It feels like you’re riding a roller-coaster inside my belly.
Boy or Girl: Sweet little girl!
Milestones: 6 months down, 4 to go!
Best Moment of the Week: Watching Lexi ride her new big girl bike. She jumped right on and we’re working on peddling with the balls of her feet (verses the arches), turning and using the brakes. Hopefully, we’ll take the training wheels off in a week or two!
Sibling Talk: Lexi talks about you daily. She is growing out of some of her clothes and tells me ‘I’ve got a great idea, we can save these clothes for the new baby’. She is also very curious where you are going to sleep. This morning, she was talking about fireworks and was asking, who is going to watch the new baby while we watch fireworks, because fireworks are too loud for the new baby. I told her, I would probably stay with the new baby, in which she responded ‘oh right, you can watch them from the window’.
Love,
Mama
 
Baby 2, Pregnancy Updates

Baby #2 24 Weeks

peanutsmiles

Dear Baby,

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Six months down and four to go until we get to meet your sweet little face. This week has brought a new level of discomfort. You’re getting much stronger and your kicks and punches have become uncomfortable and make me a little nauseous at times when you get me in the right organ–specifically the stomach. I still wouldn’t describe them as painful but there are moments of surprise when my eyes get wide from one of your kicks. At this point, movement still feels like kicks and punches and haven’t gotten to the whole body rolls yet. I still haven’t had any official heartburn to report which I will happily put off for as long as I can. The belly is getting big enough where it gets in the way when I bend down or try to put my socks on, but it doesn’t prevent me from doing these things yet. I can still sort of sleep on my stomach. I’m able to position myself where I am half on my stomach and half on my side, which as been satisfying my comfort need in wanting to fall asleep on my stomach, but then am perfectly happy to roll on my side or back once I am asleep. I’m also able to sleep through the night without having to get up to go to the bathroom. So overall, sleep feels pretty good. No major cravings or aversions at this point.

After being home from vacation for a whole week, it feels everyone was able to get back into a routine and Lexi is sleeping through the night again–eating like a maniac and just generally being her sweet self. Daddy was out of town over the weekend in Green Bay for a Packers game so Lexi and I went to the Children’s Museum, had a fun movie night and got her first haircut.

Let’s keep these posts uneventful little nugs. No need to repeat your big sister’s drama and send me to the hospital in excruciating pain with kidney issues.

Love,

Mama

Lexi, Pregnancy Updates

Kidney Trouble

peanutsmiles

Dear Baby Peanut,

This past week has been a little scary, disappointing and painful. We headed to Vail for vacation and to photograph a wedding. We drove out and visited with cousin Lauren and then spent the night with Aunt Mary and Uncle Larry in Lincoln before making the rest of the drive the next day. When I woke up the following morning, I had some very uncomfortable pain in my back and side. Originally, I thought I slept funny or pulled a muscle. I kept rolling into different ways but the pain wouldn’t go away and was getting worse and I was beginning to feel nauseous. Eventually, I got sick and knew we needed to go to the Dr. We headed to the Urgent Care to get checked out and were then sent to the Emergency Room at the Hospital. The pain had steadily increased and was unbearable. I was worried about you and that I could have kidney stones or appendicitis. They checked you our right away and you were very active and had a strong heartbeat so they gave me some medication to help manage the pain. Eventually, we had an ultrasound done and learned my kidney was very enlarged and swollen. However, they weren’t able to determine anything without a CT scan so they released me with some very mild pain medication and told me to come back the next morning. It was pretty clear they didn’t know what was causing the pain or how to find out because I was pregnant, which was a little unnerving.

We proceeded to attend the rehersal dinner and not tell anyone what was going on because we didn’t want to worry anyone. I got sick twice throughout the evening because the pain was so excruciating. Never have I been in so much pain that I actually throw up. Although I was in a lot of pain, I felt I could manage it because you were healthy and maybe even a little prep for labor. The next morning, I felt decent so we began photographing the wedding and things were going pretty good until we headed to the top of the mountain, and I kind of fell apart. While Daddy was photography Nikki and Ryan, I was laying on the bathroom floor trying to feel better and hoping the pain would go away. The pain continued to get worse and I was pretty much incapable of doing anything. As soon as the ceremony was over, Daddy took me down the Gondola and to the condo to sleep off the pain. Thankfully, Micah was able to  help Daddy take a couple photos while he was taking care of me. The following morning, I was feeling OK so we spent it with Micah walking around Vail Village. I was in pain and had to take it easy but was able to keep food down for the whole day.

Originally, we were scheduled to stay a couple extra days, but I was still feeling crapy and wanted to go home and figure out what was causing all this pain. So we drove for 18 straight hours to get home. The Vail Doctors thought I had Kidney stones and had advised that I strain my pee in hope of catching the stones (and let me tell you it was always awkward coming out of a public restroom and having to rinse the strainer), Dr. G didn’t think I had kidney stones. She believed you were pushing on my ureter (tube between my kidney and bladder) as you were growing and essentially putting a kink in my tube causing urine to get trapped in my kidney. The next day we had another ultrasound, which campe back inconclusive of any diagnosis. Unless the pain got worse, I needed to muster through the pain. There was a good chance that it would go away as the pregnancy continued, but there was also a good chance it wouldn’t. In addition to pain, the medication I was taking made me very constipated. I hadn’t pooped in over 9 days. I was even given medicine that is supposed to clear you out and it did nothing. Praying things get better or it’s going to be a long four months.

Love, Mom