Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas 

from our family to yours!

Over half way there!

This pregnancy seems to have both flown by and then also parts seem to be dragging on!  We did find out the gender (early actually due to some blood work suggested by my OB), and we are excited to welcome a little baby Boy to the mix next year!  

I will be 21 weeks pregnant tomorrow and since my doctor plans to deliver at 38 weeks, that means I have 17 weeks left to go.  I have begun to feel the little flutters and kicks, which makes this pregnancy all the more real.  Until you can feel the baby, I always have a hard time believing they are really in there (any other moms deal with this?).  At our 20 week ultrasound the Tech confirmed that he was indeed a boy, so we are excited that the blood work and gender ultrasound both confirm things.  Baby boy is looking good and is measuring 5 days ahead of schedule (and weighing in at 13 ounces already), which for a mom that delivered her last baby early, is a great thing!  Any additional growth we can get (within normal range) is awesome!  

Because of my high risk status, I had to do an early glucose test and that came back negative, but I will have another one around 28-32 weeks just to confirm things are still fine with my blood sugar.  My BP numbers remain good and I have actually gone down from 400 MG labetalol to 200 MG daily.  You are allowed to go up to 2400 MG daily, so I have lots of wiggle room there if needed.  We have been told repeatedly that my BP numbers would likely drop in my second trimester than slowly creep up in the third, so we are preparing for that anyway.  But at my risk factor, my doctor will actually let me numbers get up in the 150s/90s before considering upping my meds.  They let people with "Chronic hypertension" run a little higher than most because the baby is conceived in an environment with fluctuating numbers anyway and it actually puts them more at risk to medicate too much and let the numbers drop too low.

Also because of being high risk, I get to do ultrasounds every 4 weeks, so we go back in mid-January for another one.  With Olivia, I had low amniotic fluid levels, along with the preeclampsia, and her distress in womb near the end, so they can monitor all of babies activity and fluid levels via the ultrasound.  Plus I will take every opportunity I can to see the little guy!  

The nausea/morning sickness from my earlier post continues and at my 20 weeks appointment, my doctor confirmed what I already suspected, that if you are still dealing with it at 20 weeks, it will likely stick around your whole pregnancy.  I have no idea what causes it (foods, etc), but for awhile I was vomiting daily.  Thankfully, it seems to be lessen a little (every other day or every third day), so I will take the streaks when I can get them, though the nausea and food aversions persists.  As such, at almost 21 weeks pregnant, I am actually 3 pounds less than I was before I got pregnant, so though the bump continues to grow, the scale does not reflect that.  Thankfully, my doctor is not overly concerned as I am not purposefully withholding calories (haha who does she think I am???) and the baby's growth is going just fine.  A women's body is an amazing thing of nature to be able to provide for such a little one even when my nourishment is down. 

People often asks if Olivia knows what is going on, and to be honest, we aren't sure.  We tell her almost daily about her baby brother and she will sometimes offer a kiss to my belly.  Her new thing is to ask me to "Open" my belly, meaning pull down my jeans so she can see my belly.  I have tried to show her ultrasound pictures of the little guy, but they seem to scare her rather than impress her.  And I imagine we could take her to the ultrasound with us, but that seems like a disaster to try.  I know she would want to touch everything and the 45-60 minute appointment might be a little much to try to entertain her.  So we continue to hope that she will adjust relatively well (though she does seem to be possessive of mom when other babies are around).  

So for now, we just continue on the course and hope to make it to 38 weeks with no issues!  We certainly appreciate those who pray with us for a much smoother pregnancy this time around and for a healthy baby boy!