28 weeks - amazing!

It's amazing that I'm 28 weeks today and in my third trimester. I'm still frequently surprised to be pregnant, and I'm so grateful to be here.

It's been a fairly uneventful 4 weeks since my last blog post. Three weeks ago, I had a day with a bunch of Braxton Hicks contractions - never enough to trigger a call to the doctor, but they happened here and there throughout the day. So I ended up with an OB appt 2 weeks after the last one, instead of waiting my usual 4 weeks (well, not 'my' usual 4 weeks, since I've seen him about every 2 weeks this whole pregnancy). Cervix was perfectly normal, but it was really nice to get that confirmation.

I had my gestational diabetes screen, which I passed - yay! Also did bloodwork for parvovirus, CMV, and toxiplasma, since those could have caused the "somewhat echogenic bowel" in the 20 week scan. All negative for current infections - again, nice to rule them out.

We took a quick trip to Chicago (where I met the lovely @Calmantha) for our babymoon. Had a fabulous dinner, after which our little guy was incredibly active. My husband and I were both watching my belly bulge and ripple as he wiggled around. When we were going to sleep I told my husband he should put his hand on my belly, which he did, but then had to move it cuz it was keeping him awake!

Last weekend we took our first prenatal class - this one was a CPR class. So we're both re-certified. Our childbirth class isn't until late October, and we have a bunch of classes between that and mid-November.

The nursery is looking really good. It's painted, the new light is in, the rug is in, and this week I put up the curtains. We ordered a custom mobile to go with our color scheme (apricot, leaf green, mint green, brown, goldenrod), but we're waiting to hang it until we have the furniture. The crib and dresser will actually come in sometime in the next 2 weeks, but the glider won't come until early November, and it makes sense to have them all delivered together. Alas. I'm waiting to wash all the tiny clothes and diapers until we have the dresser to put them in.

Ob appt this week was quick. We got to peek at the little guy, who's looking good. He's measuring a bit ahead, but he's been doing that the whole way.

My baby shower is next weekend - I can hardly believe it. Just amazes me that I'm having a baby shower.

I have a growth scan on October 23 (31.5 weeks), and then an ob appointment the day after - then I officially move to 2 week appointments!

I feel my little guy all the time.  I'm at the point where I'm supposed to do kick counts once a day. But honestly, there are very few hours where I don't feel at least 10 movements. As I get closer it'll be more important, since there are some potential concerns about placental sufficiency (see last post about being induced at 39 weeks).

I look quite pregnant now, although everyone who sees me comments on how little I look for being 7 months pregnant. I've gained about 17 pounds at this point, and it's all belly and chest.  Some of the maternity clothes I bought early on don't fit anymore (or aren't long enough) so I did a round of shopping this week and got a bunch of cute fall stuff.

Not a lot of symptoms. I'm still getting over this cold that I got in late August, but it's clearing out. My back is hurting more - likely directly correlated to the weight in my belly. And I have tendonitis again - in fingers this time. I suspect it's a combination of pregnancy hormones + overuse from iPhone/iPad stuff. Trying to be good about resting the fingers as much as possible.

Really, really happy. I suck at getting pregnant, but I've turned out to be pretty good at being pregnant, and I really enjoy it. My mom enjoyed being pregnant (and had no stretch marks, which is the best predictor for whether or not I'll get any...)

Sending love to the blog and twitter friends who particularly need it right now.

24 weeks!

So happy to be crossing the viability milestone. It wasn't something we thought about at all until we had the scary early 2nd trimester bleed, but since then it's definitely been the point on the horizon we've been watching.

Now we get to look to 28 weeks, but it does look more and more likely we'll be having this baby in December.

I had an ob appointment on Thursday, and found out he wants to induce me at 39 weeks due to my elevated hormone levels in my second trimester bloodwork (hcg and something else). They're not super elevated, and it's very likely it's because of the bleed, but elevated numbers indicate a possible placental insufficiency issue, and are correlated with an increased chance of stillbirth. So inducing at 39 weeks is just being cautious, in case the placenta isn't keeping up with the baby.

All in all, I'd rather not be induced (duh), but there are some practical benefits. Our due date is Dec. 22, so by inducing a week early, we get his birthday further away from Christmas. It also makes it easier for my husband - the first couple of weeks will be during company holidays, instead of being paternity leave (though amazingly he gets 4 months of paternity leave that he can take in the first year), so work will be quiet - and it makes it easier for family visiting from out of town, since the timing will be more predictable. And I'm a planner, so having a schedule is nice.

That said I'll be talking with my doula to see if there is anything we can do to improve the chances that the first stage of induction (the gel that softens the cervix and hopefully starts contractions) works, and that I won't need further medication to get contractions started.

And of course it would be awfully nice if I went into labor naturally right around 38w6d.

Everything else at the appointment went great. It was the first appointment with no ultrasound - just a conversation, and then he used a doppler to hear the heartbeat (I haven't done that at home since I've felt the baby move at 18w) and measured my belly.

I'm up to 12 pounds gained - almost exclusively the bump and breasts - a little around my hips. I feel good, and everyone says I look good. I'm loving maternity clothes, and I've definitely reached the point where everyone recognizes I'm pregnant (though they don't necessarily say anything).  I bought a few more maternity items this week - 2 tops, and a pair of pajamas. I also got some Hot Milk maternity/nursing bras that I bought through one of the online sale sites. Really cute and comfortable (I got wireless ones).

The nursery is really close to being ready to move stuff in - I had some repair work done earlier this week, and I'm meeting with a painter today to get a quote. The crib/dresser are ordered, the rug is already here, the light is already here, and I'm ordering the glider today! Really looking forward to getting the room together.

In the next three weeks I'll be doing the glucose tolerance test - just the 1 hour, no fasting version. I'll also be screened for toxoplasmosis, CMV and parvovirus, since those could be linked to the echogenic bowel that was maybe seen at our first Level 2 ultrasound in early August. Unlikely to turn up anything, but since I'll already be having blood drawn, easy to add in to the testing. And my next ob appointment is the last week of September.