Baby Squish : 28 Weeks

The last Baby Squish post before the big 3-0. Eeek!  It's been a while since I looked at my countdown:

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31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

I'm excited to hit thirty weeks because she'll be born in the 30-somethings (39 weeks, 2 days if the date we want is doable) and I don't know, it seems monumental.  Then I'm excited to hit 32 weeks because "eight weeks left" sounds like nothing and even though no one has really told me I'm enormous, I feel like everyone is thinking it, and maybe it's okay to be enormous when you only have eight weeks left? Maybe? Sure. Then comes 35/35 (35 weeks with 35 days left), then full-term at 37 weeks...then, of course, I'm excited to hit 39 weeks, 2 days and see this mystery being in person.

Everything continues to go well - I had my last cervical check of the pregnancy today (assuming nothing crazy happens in the next twelve weeks). No more dildo cam! (I may have slipped and said that out loud in front of my doctor, who may have blushed.)

We got some good 3D pictures from today's ultrasound - well, good if either a) it's your own kid or b) melty-wax-faced babies are your thing.  This first one is my allllllll time favorite 3D picture, I think. From the sweet little nose and mouth in the upper right, to the crossed hands, and yes, that is a food hanging out there along the left side.

Cute kid. It's okay, you don't have to agree. I know how creepy and weird most people find these.

This isn't a cute picture, but I wish I had the video that went with it. As soon as he touched the wand down to my stomach and pressed a bit, she went from a neutral face to this crazy grimace and actually reached up and pushed the probe away (you could see the probe move!). He replayed the video about ten times and called all the nurses in to watch. Dude, sorry about invading your space.

I still feel SO weird and disconnected about this pregnancy - I love being pregnant, I love the kicks, I love seeing her squirm around on the ultrasound...but it's still absolutely so surreal to think that we'll be welcoming another baby into the house in two and a half months.  I mean, shit, it still doesn't seem real that I have ONE kid. I'm going to be the mom of TWO soon? That does not seem possible in any way, shape, or form. I'd say hopefully it becomes reality soon, but if it still doesn't seem real that I'm a mom at all two years after I became one, I doubt reality will hit anytime soon.

Baby Squish : 26 Weeks

I really have no updates, yet I feel compelled to post. Why is this? Some sort of blogger compulsion? Do I need help? (Yes. But perhaps not for that. Want to name my baby? Or paint the room?)

Gosh, in both of these pics my booty looks so sad and low and droopy. Carys, I'm taking the funds for restorative plastic surgery out of your college fund.

Truly, though, everything has been going extraordinarily well (knock on wood). My symptoms continue to be mild heartburn occasionally, a runny nose (that's really a pregnancy symptom!), and a giant growing belly. And a belly button that appears to be a third eye in some outfits.  If it wasn't for the movement and the fat, I wouldn't feel pregnant in the slightest. LUCKY. ASS. MO. FO. Trust me, I realize it. This is also why I'm a dangerous pregnant person - I love it (well, post-cerclage pregnancy anyway). It's easy to love when it's such a breeze. Hence Chris being in danger of me trying to talk him into a whole baseball team worth of kids.

 Since 20 weeks I've had bi-weekly check ups to check cervical length and see how the cerclage is holding up, and the answer has been the same the last six weeks - beautifully.  I think I mentioned in my last post that the cysts are gone. Baby is measuring right on track, with an estimated weight today of 2lbs 2oz, which is 52nd percentile. Maybe she won't be a second nine pounder?

This week I hit the "less than 100 days" milestone. Next week is third trimester.  Then  before I know it it's going to be the end of October and the start of the fall/winter holidays and I'm pretty sure that time will be over before I can even blink, and I hope to god I can get everything done that's needed. Like, you know, figure out a name.

Baby Squish : 12 Weeks

Today, I had my NT scan, which Squish passed with flying colors. NT measurement was 1.3, nasal bones were present and accounted for, brain was present and in the right place, stomach was there - and the kid was bouncing off the (uterine) walls. (I feel like I used that same joke with Carys at some point...) (I need new material.)

They also gave us a tentative sex guess. Already, I know, right!??! Are you ready?

Baby Squish is (probably) a.....

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.......Ha, yeah right. Not sharing that news yet. But I do know with 80% certainty. And I'm very excited. Although either way, I'd be thrilled, honestly. I absolutely adore my sister, and would love for Carys to have that bond, too. A brother and a sister are awesome (I have one! He's great!) but there's something special that sisters share that I don't think any other sibling set can match. However, I also would love a boy, because I eventually would love at least one of each, so it'd be wonderful to get that out of the way in case something prevents us from having a third.

I will say that I have always felt like I was going to have two girls and then a boy. On the other hand, I've been feeling boy with this one, because I had virtually NO first trimester symptoms (never puked, etc.) and the heart rate seems to be slower than what Carys had at around the same gestation.

So which wins?  Dreams? Old wive's tales? It will be interesting to see (and I'm exceedingly curious to see if the doctor was right, since I tend to talk shit about early sex guesses regularly). Although he has a 50/50 chance of being right no matter what, so it won't be THAT impressive if he's correct.

Next appointment isn't for a VERY LONG four weeks.  However, I can hear the heartbeat on the doppler now so hopefully that will tide me over for a bit.

32 Week Appointment

Nothing too much changed since last time - she's still very large and in the 90th+ percentile, although growth has slowed down a bit (normal for this point). She definitely has a giant head.

We did learn one fun thing: she has HAIR!!! Three of four of my siblings and I had only wisps, and one had a full head of dark, dark hair (ironic, because she turned out to be the fairest of us all, like Snow White.) (Except that analogy falls apart because Snow White had black hair.) (So in this case I'm referring to fair as in light, not fair as in pretty.) (Although that sister really is very pretty as well.) (So it could work that way also.)

Ok, now I've confused myself.

Anyway. She has hair!  Proof:

See? The doctor WROTE IT OUT. That means it can't be wrong and you must accept it as fact.

The white curved lines at the top and bottom of the pic are skull bones - this is a cross-section view of her head. And apparently that white pointy stuff is the hair floating around in the amniotic fluid. I am assured that the hair covers more than one inch of her head but we'll see.  I'm kind of excited about this because I love babies with crazy hair so I hope she really does have a bunch of it. 

She also has her Aunt Ana's super chubby chimpmunk cheeks (well, they aren't chubby anymore, but they were when she was a baby).  They were adorable on Ana; hopefully they're adorable on this baby as well. Here's a front view of her head:

If you can't see it, that's okay. I actually just marked random sections of the picture as body parts and they may or may not be correct. This could just as easily be a picture of a sea urchin.

It's been a while since I've done a countdown so let's see where I'm at:

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Oh wow.  WOW.  WOW and YAY!

What's that? Oh, nothing, I'm just HALFWAY THROUGH.

Halfway through a pregnancy. Now slightly over halfway thorough. Holy shit. Holy crap. Is this really going to happen?

I hope so because I have a closet full of shit that isn't going anywhere. Baby better come use it!

Here are some pics from our anatomy scan today. Everything looked great, although the kid does have some mutant-ly long arms, apparently. The doctor didn't say anything about it, but she left the screen up as I was getting dressed and there's a little chart that says the averages for everything.

See, mutant-ly long arms:

And small head. I can only assume the baby was trying to make it easier on me to deliver, which is very nice, but since I'm having a c-section it can grow that head as big and smart as it wants to. Methinks it's time to break out some Nietzsche or James Joyce or some shit.

Why have I started cussing in my blog more lately?  Maybe it's an extinction burst, trying to get it all out before the small child arrives.

Anyway. Small head, big arms. Maybe a monkey.

The 3D picture doesn't do much to solve the monkey versus baby debate. Whatever it is, it's pretty damn cute.

Definitely cute, though, right? Or am I already one of those moms that can't see that they have an ugly kid?

Countdown:

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I thought the second trimester was supposed to FLY by, but it's not. At all. It's dragging. I just want to get to viability at 24 weeks and then 28 and 32 and 36 weeks (all milestones when babies born at that gestational age do better by leaps and bounds than the previous milestone) and then full term and then have a BABY. Alive. In my arms. That I can then bring home and play dress-up with. Baby clothes are cute!*

*Not the only reason I want a baby. I swear. I also want it to do dishes. And clean up dog poop. And cuddle.

Accessorizing Already

The 18 week ultrasound was actually pretty lame-o, which is dumb to complain about since most people only get two scans during their entire pregnancy, and I have that many most months.  We just got a quick peek at the heart and spine, then the tech measured the amniotic fluid levels. The baby was facing my spine, so none of the views were really that great.  However, the tech did manage to capture this:

Do you see it?  No, not the actually pretty creepy entirely visible skull.  Still not there? Let me illustrate.

Is my child already accessorizing in the womb?? A drag queen or maybe prince of some small country if a boy, obviously, or a princess if a girl. Which would suck for me since I'm decidedly non-princess-y. And non-pink-y. And non-glitter-y. Maybe we can bond over the Princess Bride, though...princess for her, sword fights and ROUSes for me. I hope I get to choose the country that they are royalty of...I choose somewhere warm. With a beach. And water. And palm trees. And tropical frozen fruit drinks served by shirtless bronzed gods.

Also evident were feet. Two of them, though we just got a shot of one. If you compare this to the one from a couple weeks ago it's insane how much this child has grown just since then.





Next check is on Wednesday, then again next Thursday for the big anatomy scan. After that we'll let the genitalia out of the bag! Thank god, because I keep accidentally slipping with gendered pronouns and it's now the worst kept secret since [insert celebrity/singer] being gay.

A Womb with a View

From the 14 week ultrasound:

In 3D! Dancing with little arms around the head.

Baby Darth Vader (front view of skull, body, arm):

I love this one because it's a view I've never seen before. Looking up at baby from...I guess where its feet would be?...so big white circle in lower right is body, and just above that very shadow-y is the face. Then you can see the two arms and hands - looking a bit like, um, huh, look at that...they look like crab pinchers...hopefully that's ok - on either side. TINY BABY THUMBS ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH YOUR CUTENESS?  You can also say a big hello to my placenta on the left side! Or is it the baby's placenta?  Psh. I grew it. It's mine. (That's weird. I GREW a PLACENTA. Also a BABY.)

These next pictures are from yesterday's at 16 weeks. The baby was moving around SO much that we got very few good shots and no classic profile pictures. Seriously, the thing was on amniotic fluid speed or something.  At one point it got itself into this position and the tech couldn't get a picture of it because she was laughing so hard:

And then minutes later it was doing this (seriously):

Complete with leg warmers, I like to imagine.

However, as you guessed, those aren't my actual baby pictures. As far as I know, I will not be birthing a full grown adult aerobics instructor from 1983.

This one is real. Upside down baby spine. Face kissing the placenta in thankfulness for all the delightful goodness it provides.  Also I'm fairly sure the baby actually has limbs in real life.

Also real. BABY FEET! Swoon.

And. I might know what the baby is. I mean, I know it's a baby (though for the first couple of months it could have just as easily been a gestating gecko for what the pictures looked like). So baby for sure. But I might just know if it will pee standing up sitting down.  Still not telling anyone until 20 or so weeks.  However, feel free to try to change my mind with bribes.

Twelve weeks looks weird.

Twelve is one of those words that looks REALLY weird when you actually look at it and focus on it. And say it out loud a few times.

Anyway, almost in the second trimester! Holy cow!

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Hmm. Making some progress. But I'd like to be in that fourth line. I've never been in the fourth line before. Sniff, sniff.

We had the NT scan this morning and all looked good. We won't get the official results that take the blood tests into account for another week or so, but the nuchal translucency measurement was about 1.5 and nasal bones were present, which are both excellent signs.

In other news, I believe that we're having a gnome. Or maybe Jesus. Or Santa Claus? I see a beard on this baby.

Do you see the hand at the top of the picture above? You can see two fingers and the thumb. 

The bright white line that you can see under the baby's back in some pictures is the amniotic sac. And seriously, what's with the beard??? The doctor didn't mention anything about it and I didn't notice it until after we'd gotten home. I mean, I'd love the world's first bearded baby, but it might take some getting used to.

OR! Maybe the baby is a PHAROH. Like King Tut!

 

I totally see it. 

10 Week Pictures

I called the doctor's office today because I was concerned about a possibly UTI (oh, the many small perils of being pregnant), and when I was there to get it checked out, they said that since I was there, they might as well check on the baby, too!  Opie is doing great - measuring 11 weeks, 1 day (I'm 10 weeks, 4 days) (oh, god, am I going to give birth to a giant?) (ouch) (oh, phew, no worries...I don't have to push him or her out! Yay TAC!). Heartbeat right on track, but I forgot to look at what it was.  Little arms and legs waving around. I have to remember to take video of the NT scan in two weeks. I immediately regretted not doing it at Caleb's and still regret it to this day - he was SO. CUTE. And the pictures don't capture the essence very well.

I love the new doctor's office - they are so responsive and focus on prevention - but every time I see a new doctor (well, both times) they question why I got the TAC. You can tell that they think I should have tried a vaginal cerclage first, though they haven't said as much. I just try to explain we weren't comfortable with the success rates associated with the TVC, but I'm glad it's done and over with so I don't have to fight for it. I trust Dr. Haney was truly looking out for the best interests of me and my future babies - as he does for hundreds of other women.

Optimus Prime, aged 10 weeks, 4 days:

Baby's First Pictures

Sorry so small. The second one down on the right in the montage is the rapidly disappearing yolk sac. The others are all various views of the occupant and his tiny living space.

He or she is upside down here.

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