Rainbow Baby: Week 13/14

13 Weeks Pregnant:

Weight: 170 pounds

Waist (at belly button): 35.5”

Hips: 43”

Bust: 38”

Total Weight Gain: -3 pounds so far

Baby’s Heart Rate: Found it with my doppler last night and it was 155 and SO perfect!

Number of times I get up in the night to pee: 2-3…

Thoughts about growth: I expect to start rapidly gaining because my activity is now down to zero as per doctor’s orders. I literally can only get up to pee and shower. It’s the most exhausting thing in the world, which I find completely ironic since all I can do is lie around and do nothing… But more about that later…

How I am feeling emotionally: I have been emotionally exhausted this past week. It seems like every day something else happens that taxes my emotions, but I am just handling everything one step at a time and trying to stay as calm and relaxed as possible.

How I am feeling physically: I notice that I have “contractions” when I get too worked up or stressed out, so calmness is definitely key. I talked to the doctor about these possible contractions and he assured me that they are probably just more or less my muscles stretching and tightening, and not actual contractions… I am not too worried yet because they aren’t regular like they were with Leila, but more or less I am just paying close attention to my body responses so that I don’t miss any important signs.

Cravings: Fried pickles. Jalapeno poppers. York Peppermint patties and pineapple juice… At the same time… Chocolate anything… Pumpkin anything…

Things that make me green: Still ground beef and red meat… And now, lettuce. Ugh. The thought of lettuce. I actually CRAVED a burger and then when I tried to eat it, it had lettuce on it… and I barfed. Yuck… I still like spinach but not as much as I did in the beginning… It’s mainly the light green/white iceberg type lettuce that makes me sick. And the smell... Oh yuck the smell. On the upside, I haven't ACTUALLY been getting as sick as I did with my other pregnancies. This is so foreign to me! I don't know if it's just a small lull in this pregnancy and then the sickness will pick back up, or if I am going to have a somewhat "normal" pregnancy and not be sick any more! I am excited to see what's in store for this pregnancy.

Activity: I am officially on bed rest. I had my surgery on Tuesday and my cervix was in worse shape than the doctor had thought. The doctor said that in all of his years of doing cerclages (which is at least 25 ish), that I have one of the worst he has seen… Originally he had said I would just need to be on light modified bed rest with limited activity, but after the surgery he decided that I need to be on complete bed rest for at least a week, only getting up to pee and shower. And then starting in a week or two, I can just begin to move around. Even then he wants me to keep it very minimal and no bending or lifting. This will have to continue until at least after the holidays. So three months of bed rest, and then we will see where I am at. As much as I hate to admit it, the doctor seemed like he didn’t expect me to make it as far as he had expected before. We are still aiming for at least 28 weeks, though of course I would be thrilled to go longer. My biggest goal is 36 weeks, because anything past that is very unlikely. My realistic goal is 32 weeks, though I pray every day that this baby can stay put until 36.

Doctors Appointments: My surgery was Tuesday, as I mentioned above, and before that I had an appointment on Friday. I got to see the baby on Friday and I have to say, he or she is absolutely gorgeous. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the screen. Everything was right where it is supposed to be and looked perfect. I have another appointment next Thursday where they will check on the baby and make sure the stitches are taking well and that there aren’t any complications. So far I haven’t had any bleeding since the stitches were set so I think I am good to go.

Boy or Girl: Still leaning toward girl but occasionally I think boy… so I am going to be honest: I haven’t a clue!!! I was so sure with Landon and Leila, maybe this baby just wants to be a surprise! I think my birthday present to myself may be to find out early. I will be 15-16 weeks on my birthday, so the tech should be able to tell... but my doctor said they won't do an anatomy scan until 20 weeks, even though I have frequent ultrasounds!

Miscellaneous: Right now my sister is here taking care of me and Landon and I will be honest: I don't know what I would do without her! She is a life saver, literally. I had prepared about 15 casseroles before she came so that she wouldn't have to cook a lot, so I am going to be posting those recipes as well as some suggestions for where to find recipes to fill your freezer with meals! I have to be honest, it has been a blessing to know that dinner is taken care of!

Rainbow Baby: Week 12

12 Weeks Pregnant

Weight: 170 pounds

Waist (at belly button): 35.5”

Hips: 43”

Bust: 38”

Total Weight Gain: -3 pounds so far

Baby’s Heart Rate: Stays around the 160s

Baby is measuring 6 days ahead, so though according to my due date I am still 12 weeks, according to the baby's growth, I am 13 weeks tomorrow!

Number of times I get up in the night to pee: I had been staying pretty steady at 1-2, but last night I got up 4 times to pee, and downed an entire bottle of water each time…

Thoughts about growth: My belly is already starting to round out a bit. And my belly is already hard. It’s a wonderful feeling. I love rubbing my belly and knowing that my little Cupcake is probably squirming away from my touch, or doing flips in excitement. I am not surprised that my weight is starting to balance out:  I couldn’t eat at all for a while and now I finally can. And I have been eating a lot of carbs and sweets – comfort foods. So really, it’s no surprise I am starting to gain. Although, I have also been really sick the past couple of days, so I will find out for sure at my appointment tomorrow how much I weigh. Since I don’t have a scale, I just have to go by what I weighed at my last appointment… Which is semi accurate since I have an appointment almost every week!

How I am feeling emotionally: Doing better in the emotions department, though I still do weep a bit at random things. I have noticed that I am very easily let down these days. When something doesn’t work out as planned, I get a lot more upset than I normally would! I have also been very nostalgic lately. I look at pictures of Landon as a baby and I start sobbing!

How I am feeling physically: Still exhausted. I am doing better though. I have been taking naps each day when my son naps and it helps me get a second wind.

Cravings: Still craving lots of odd things. Spicy and sweet… And fruit. LOTS of fruit. And orange juice.

Things that make me green: Ground beef. Browning ground beef. Smelling browned ground beef. Red meat in general. Ugh…

Activity: Still trying to balance raising an active healthy toddler with limited activity to keep this baby safe. I am going to be on bed rest starting at 16 weeks. So I am really nervous about how that is going to go. Downright terrified, actually. I don’t know how to balance giving him the healthy activity he needs, while still laying horizontal to take the pressure off of my cervix. And I KNOW it’s going to be necessary, because I already feel the way I felt with Leila before I had her: like a bowling ball is pressing down on my cervix… I am nervous that the cerclage won’t work, so really our best bet is bed rest combined with the cerclage. If that means I have to be a bump on a log, I really don’t care what anyone else thinks, or how miserable and long my pregnancy is. If it’s for the health of my baby, then NOTHING is too much. Some people don’t get it, but then again, those are usually the people that have had healthy pregnancies and never faced a real threat like cervical incompetence or preterm labor. But all that matters is that I understand what I have to do, as a mother, to ensure my baby’s safety. I will not be that mom that doesn’t listen to the doctor’s orders and then loses my baby and goes “oh. Maybe I should have taken bed rest more seriously…” I will absolutely do everything in my power to keep this baby safe. No matter how hard that may be! I think I foresee a LOT of movies and Netflix in our future.

Doctor’s Appointments: I have one tomorrow, and had one last week. The doctor checked out the baby and did an ultrasound. Baby looks beautiful! So healthy and swimming around like he/she should be!

My surgery is coming up on the 20^th. I am nervous about it, but I know it’s the best shot we have at getting to the third trimester in this pregnancy. I am to at least make it to 32 weeks, but I would be thrilled to go further… Like 36 weeks!

Boy or Girl: Feeling a lot like I did with Leila now. So I am thinking girl. But I will find out soon enough, so I am just going to be surprised when I hear the news! I do still have this adorable vision of two little boys wearing matching outfits in my head… I would have a blast with that! And Landon would love a little brother!

Hello September!

Welcome to September everyone. It is hard to believe that this year is already winding down. Didn't we just celebrate New Year's?

I am pretty sure we did... Like yesterday... but alas, this year has been flying and when I try to sit back and think of all that has happened: all the good and the bad, it makes my head spin!

Here we are, September! Let's make the most of it!

So I have been slacking on tutorials and recipes lately.

I have a confession:

I lost my SD card so I haven't been able to take pictures of anything new... so I haven't been posting much.

I promise to correct this VERY soon....

I also promise to share more recipes with you. And I have a few awesome projects up my sleeve.

And of course, more pregnancy updates.

September is going to be quite a month for me... I have surgery coming up two weeks from today to place a cerclage in my cervix. This is supposed to help me carry my pregnancy further should my cervix try to open up again like it did with Leila.

And then after that I will be on the dreaded bed rest. So I will be sharing LOTS of posts with you guys. I promise to do the absolute best that I can!

I hope you are excited and looking forward to the next few months. I know I am!