hi guys! the end is in sight! we're officially 39 weeks along, which is considered full term, and i figured that i should probably get this post up sooner than later, right? anyway, hope that this is helpful! ~Lindsay
shots! shots! shots!
i had to get 2 shots, one was RhoGam because my blood type is Rh negative and we think paul is positive. this shot is to ensure no issues occur if the baby's blood type is positive and our blood mixes. depending on baby's blood type, i'll be getting a second dose after delivery. yay~. the second shot that i had to get is Tdap, which is for a few different things, but most importantly whooping cough (the P). that way, i'd have immunity, and the baby will have some resistance until he needs to get his own.
third ultrasound
a few weeks ago, we were measuring a bit small so the doctor ordered another ultrasound to make sure we there were no issues with growth, etc. turns out, we're just little because i'm petite too and everything's fine. they gave us an idea of how he's measuring and about how much he'll be when he's out. what was cool about this round though was that he was positioned in such a way that the tech was able to show us his face! so neat!
movements
a lot of people mention getting jabbed in the ribs and such, but i never felt that. any time i'd feel movement, it was either my belly being stretched out or tiny limbs poking out in places...or what i'd equate to a small animal putting all of their weight onto one spot my pelvis. i'm not sure if he was sideways and facing the same side the whole time, but every time he'd press on my pelvis, it was 90% of the time on one side in about the same spot. also occasionally, i'd have a little trouble breathing because something was pushing up against my sternum, but once i'd poked at him some, he'd move away.
toward the beginning of the trimester, not so much the past month or so, he was waking up with my alarm clock. not sure if it was the sound or if me rousing would wake him. in recent weeks, he's usually not moving about until about 30 minutes or so after i get up and moving. otherwise, the whole time, he's been perked up throughout various (but fairly consistent) times in the day. on a couple occasions, like paul's office christmas party and a two day training i had recently, this guy was up basically the whole time. which was crazy.
body changes, sleep, aches and pains
never in my life did i have heartburn before about 2 months ago. and acid re-flux was nearly non-existent too. but omg, it was definitely there and real. they tell you to sit upright for a couple hours after eating each time. but that one night i had heartburn super bad, it didn't start hurting until a few hours after eating and lasted for several hours. it was the worst, especially since i didn't have any antacids yet and most places nearby were already closed for the night.
i did have a few headaches here and there in months 7&8. one of them was probably because it's a side effect of RhoGam, and it lasted like 4 days. other occasions were probably work-related, one of those lasted about 4 days as well. i still appreciate that these were headaches rather than migraines!
i don't really know how belly stretch marks even work out exactly, but i haven't seen any (i have a ton other places from growth spurts). supposedly if you grow fairly steadily, they won't be as bad, but that'll remain to be seen once i start shrinking back down after baby's here. also, apparently by now, a decent proportion of people's belly buttons pop out (if you have an innie prior) by now, and mine hasn't. it's been incredibly close, but it's like nah.
in recent weeks, i've been having a lot of pelvic pain and cramps. the cramping is being attributed to possible braxton-hicks, and the pelvic pain is just par for the course as this guy makes his descent. the pelvic pain is pretty tough because it is incredibly uncomfortable to move around. especially from sitting or laying positions, and less so when walking--but i suppose my lower back has been otherwise hurting too, lol. i do have a waist support band, but this kid knows instantly whenever i put it on and moves around, pushing on it the entire time.
baby classes, lactation consult
we took a few baby classes through our hospital, as well as the tour of the birth center. the baby classes were all directed by nurses and were primarily videos and powerpoints, with time for any questions or discussions. the classes seemed to have been all created by the same company and had a decent bit of overlap...but i suppose they've got to reinforce stuff some kind of way and people might not take all of the classes. the breastfeeding class and lactation consult were probably the ones we got the most use out of. the class was very informative and gave us a better idea of what to expect. and the lactation consult was during one of my appointments with my usual gyn nurse that i was seeing before my ob. and she more or less gave us the one on one time and to see how things worked and felt with a doll. there'll be a lactation nurse around after delivery for the real deal though.
nursing clothes
i'm super sad that the local maternity store is closing, but i can still shop their website. i guess ecommerce is still killing the brick and mortar clothing industry. personally, i like having the option of returning or exchanging clothes in the store, especially since it gives me the opportunity to peruse their wares in person and try them on if needed. anyway, that all aside, i've been living in nursing camisole tops the past couple weeks to get used to them. they're pretty comfy paired with a nice sweater!
maternity photos
a few weeks ago, we went to a nearby park and took photos. i'm not sure when she'll be finished editing them to send them over, since she mentioned she was already backlogged..but from what we saw on her viewfinder, they came out pretty nice!
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
second trimester: thoughts and reflections
hi guys!!! guess who wanted to put this post up months ago, forgot, got busy, and yeah..it didn't happen? 🙋 unfortunately, i have several other posts that i also wanted to put up sooner, but i think for the sake of things, it's not going to happen til after the baby's here. the good thing though... i left myself some prompts on this post as reminders..because guess what! i did kind of otherwise forget how the second trimester went. 😅 right now, i'm about 38 weeks along, so it's anyone's guess when this guy decides to make his appearance! anyway, onto how things went! ~Lindsay
the announcement
i really wanted to wait til after the first trimester was over before making the announcement. i didn't think we'd be at risk, but i still wanted to wait and be sure. we ended up making the announcement during birthday week celebrations (my husband, sister-in-law, and mother-in-law all have birthdays within the span of a week) as far as letting our immediate family know. after we told them, then it went to friends and extended family, and then socials.
i think the best thing with the announcement was feeling relieved that i no longer had to hide the fact that i had morning sickness all the time. i told my manager pretty early on, but my coworkers gave me the like, 'yeah..we knew something was up but weren't going to say anything.' so that was cool.
appetite and weight gain
the morning sickness finally went away sometime in september or early october, so the 4ish month mark. i was finally able to eat basically anything again and larger quantities -- close to, but not quite my usual portions. i still haven't had anything with bbq sauce since, but i was able to be around it without feeling sick anymore. so that was cool. it took me another month or so, but i was able to gain back the weight i lost with the morning sickness (~4 lbs) and steadily gained about a pound per week throughout the rest of the second trimester.
feeling movements
somewhere between week 18 - 19 i started noticing major movements. i can only attribute it to having a matcha frapp in the late afternoon, because boy, did this guy not let me sleep that night. pretty much for 4 hours straight he was moving like crazy. it went basically from feeling nothing to me being completely aware.
second ultrasound and gender reveal
the second ultrasound was around week 20, where we found out what we were having. the tech said he was very easy to get all the measurements, etc that we needed, and we also got to see him yawn a couple times. that weekend, we bought an outfit to reveal the gender to the family. a week or two later (despite a ton of extended family pestering), we finally did the reveal photo for the socials. my coworker had mentioned a pumpkin inside of a pumpkin..since it was october of course! so i got to carve my first pumpkin by myself (usually my mom did it), and i painted a smaller one to put inside.
glucose test
toward the end of week 23, i had an appointment and we did my glucose test. honestly, i'm not really sure why people say the glucose drink is super nasty. it does kinda suck that you have to chug like 10oz? in 5 minutes then wait an hour before they draw your blood for the test. they gave me the orange one, which really does taste like a non-carbonated orange drink. maybe i just have a sweet tooth and the taste didn't bother me? thankfully, we passed!
body changes
there were some definite body changes throughout the second trimester, i got to a point where i was visibly showing (for people who didn't know what i looked like on the regular). around the beginning of the second trimester, i got myself a maternity body pillow because sleeping became uncomfortable, and i tend to sleep on my back and i needed to get used to sleeping on one side or the other for my organs' sake. this did cause a bit of discomfort and slight pain as i had to learn the feels of this new positioning. sometime in the second trimester, i started using belly lotion/butter products on the regular. we live in a pretty humid climate, so i hate putting lotion on whenever i don't need to. the stickiness. ew. but this is basically daily now, both to keep moisturized and the hope to reduce any stretch marks. toward the middle or end of the trimester, i started having trouble emptying my bladder fully. which sucked. so i ended up having to lift my belly or continually reposition myself to make sure i was done. ugh. as far as my skin, it cleared up during this time, probably with the change in hormones again, and it was back to about how it was when i was on the pill. i saw incredibly few problem spots, if at all during this time, which was super awesome!
the announcement
i really wanted to wait til after the first trimester was over before making the announcement. i didn't think we'd be at risk, but i still wanted to wait and be sure. we ended up making the announcement during birthday week celebrations (my husband, sister-in-law, and mother-in-law all have birthdays within the span of a week) as far as letting our immediate family know. after we told them, then it went to friends and extended family, and then socials.
i think the best thing with the announcement was feeling relieved that i no longer had to hide the fact that i had morning sickness all the time. i told my manager pretty early on, but my coworkers gave me the like, 'yeah..we knew something was up but weren't going to say anything.' so that was cool.
appetite and weight gain
the morning sickness finally went away sometime in september or early october, so the 4ish month mark. i was finally able to eat basically anything again and larger quantities -- close to, but not quite my usual portions. i still haven't had anything with bbq sauce since, but i was able to be around it without feeling sick anymore. so that was cool. it took me another month or so, but i was able to gain back the weight i lost with the morning sickness (~4 lbs) and steadily gained about a pound per week throughout the rest of the second trimester.
feeling movements
somewhere between week 18 - 19 i started noticing major movements. i can only attribute it to having a matcha frapp in the late afternoon, because boy, did this guy not let me sleep that night. pretty much for 4 hours straight he was moving like crazy. it went basically from feeling nothing to me being completely aware.
second ultrasound and gender reveal
the second ultrasound was around week 20, where we found out what we were having. the tech said he was very easy to get all the measurements, etc that we needed, and we also got to see him yawn a couple times. that weekend, we bought an outfit to reveal the gender to the family. a week or two later (despite a ton of extended family pestering), we finally did the reveal photo for the socials. my coworker had mentioned a pumpkin inside of a pumpkin..since it was october of course! so i got to carve my first pumpkin by myself (usually my mom did it), and i painted a smaller one to put inside.
glucose test
toward the end of week 23, i had an appointment and we did my glucose test. honestly, i'm not really sure why people say the glucose drink is super nasty. it does kinda suck that you have to chug like 10oz? in 5 minutes then wait an hour before they draw your blood for the test. they gave me the orange one, which really does taste like a non-carbonated orange drink. maybe i just have a sweet tooth and the taste didn't bother me? thankfully, we passed!
body changes
there were some definite body changes throughout the second trimester, i got to a point where i was visibly showing (for people who didn't know what i looked like on the regular). around the beginning of the second trimester, i got myself a maternity body pillow because sleeping became uncomfortable, and i tend to sleep on my back and i needed to get used to sleeping on one side or the other for my organs' sake. this did cause a bit of discomfort and slight pain as i had to learn the feels of this new positioning. sometime in the second trimester, i started using belly lotion/butter products on the regular. we live in a pretty humid climate, so i hate putting lotion on whenever i don't need to. the stickiness. ew. but this is basically daily now, both to keep moisturized and the hope to reduce any stretch marks. toward the middle or end of the trimester, i started having trouble emptying my bladder fully. which sucked. so i ended up having to lift my belly or continually reposition myself to make sure i was done. ugh. as far as my skin, it cleared up during this time, probably with the change in hormones again, and it was back to about how it was when i was on the pill. i saw incredibly few problem spots, if at all during this time, which was super awesome!
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