27 Weeks

Today starts the 3rd trimester.

As a mother's day promo, we bought the Owlet foot monitor. We plan to only use this for our trip this Christmas to CO, to watch the baby in the high altitudes. Though, we still have to verify/talk with a pediatrician once Fire Baby is born.

We actually had our meeting with my doula. Down to the last min, it looked like it wasn't going to happen..and she was about 3 hours later or so than originally planned, but we met. It was brief, but was the most professional I've seen her in a while. She wants to touch-base every 2 weeks and come to one of my midwife appointments, but we'll see how that goes/if that happens.

Shower invites went out this past week too. Just got mine the other day. Mom RSVPd No (:() and Laura said Yes. That's all I know for now.

I bought a laboring gown too from Amazon. Just something that looked comfy and allows for nursing. If it fits well, I plan to buy a 2nd one then throw them as the 1st things in my hospital bag.

Weeks 24, 25, & 26!

These are the last weeks of the 2nd trimester. Yikes! The reality is really starting to set in, nearly moment of panic.

The kicks and movements are getting very strong and more frequent (though they were already frequent). I have been able to see movement from the outside for a few weeks now. Once in a while the kicks are so strong and sudden they make me jump, screen, or even catch my eye!
Dan hasn't been able to catch movement yet. Though the movement is frequent, it doesn't last long at any given point.

Dan and I decided it would be good to do the postpartum photography series, and I just booked that not too long ago. I was waiting for a good time to get space for it on the credit card. I'm pretty excited about it - also a little nervous what types of emotions it will catch. Though, that's the point - it will be good in the long run

We paid a deposit on the infant daycare. It's a Montessori and the cheapest place we looked at. I'm a little nervous on the cost, but it has good review, a lot of Plano mom recommendations, and a mom friend of mine also sent her 2 kids there and loved it (though not infants). I think it will be a good place to try, the class sizes are a little bit and the school really isn't anything fancy, but seems clean and friendly.
We decided to also send Sean here for 2 weeks over the summer to help bridge the gap between Canyon Creek closing and his school starting.

Mom and Dad spent 2 weeks down by us, which was nice. They hoped to spend a lot of that time searching for places to live and golfing, but the weather was bad so they didn't get much of that in as hoped. We took them to a cabin in Broken Bow over Easter weekend - I didn't relax much, but it was still a nice time. Sean had a ball and mom and dad liked it. The weather was great up there though which helped a lot. I found a tick on me (and I was just walking on gravel at the time!) but it came right off and I felt it, so I don't think it was there long.

While they were here mom and I went to Buy Buy Baby to get the swing for me :) They didn't have it in stock, so we had to order it, but it was still nice to go to the store with here. However, it took waaay longer than it should. We expected to be in/out in about 5-10min, but were probably there 30-40 min trying to buy this one thing.

No shower invites have gone out yet - Kate say she plans to send them next monday. I'm nervous that's too short of notice, especially since 1/2 of my guest list is out of town/state..but w/e.

My charlie horse problem is getting bad - to the point where I'm scared to even go to bed and it's been keeping me up at night, so I can keep checking/catching one coming. A little bit ago I had 2 in one night and couldn't walk for the full next day. I keep getting recommendations for magnesium to help with this and sleep but I can't find something that works for/with me. I asked my midwife for help and she suggested going to a specialist to find what will work best for my body. The good news is that they are in network with my insurance company, the bad news is that they want to book/see me as a new patient. I don't want to be someone else's patient, I just want an answer to my question.

23 Weeks

Just this morning (at work) I'm seeing my stomach move from the outside b/c the baby is kicking so hard :D. The just look like a muscle twitch at this point rather than a full movement. But still pretty awesome.

I was finally able to hammer down a date and time to meet Marggie! I'm not convinced though until it happens, but it's the farther commitment I've gotten from her in a while.

I missed writing up last week that I had my 1st appointment with the the MFM doc. I didn't know what to expect and ended up leaving feeling like it was a waste of time. It ended up just being an ultrasound appointment, that literally was it and I just had a full ultrasound the week before!

I told the doc this, but she said she (of course) likes to do her own ultrasounds. Baby still looked great and I saw some strong movement, one full blown kick even, but what was weird is that I didn't feel it.
She's going to recommend that I come back every 6 weeks, but I'm thinking of declining that. As long as I feel good, I feel baby movement, and my prenatal with my midwife go well, I'm not sure what I need this extra monitoring. I might agree to go back 1 more time once I'm full term, but I'm also worried that could lead to unnecessary interventions. So, we'll see. I still need to talk to my midwife about it.

We toured our 2nd daycare last week and will tour the 3rd (and possibly final) daycare this week. I liked this last one a lot better than the 1st and the price is better. For some reason Dan wasn't convinced.  So we'll have to talk more.

I finished gathering the addresses for my shower, so now the invites just need to be made and sent out!

22 Weeks

Not too much excitement going on this week:
* I finished my shower list, including addresses
* I'm starting to get comments from other people on how big my stomach is and/or how I've really popped
* Fire baby is really moving a lot lately! I can feel them kick nearly 'round the clock and the kicks are getting stronger and I'm feeling them in more parts of my stomach :)

Weeks 20-21

My inlaws were in town for most of this week (and I just got back from visiting my parents the prior week), so I think that distracted me my posts. Also, I normally write these in the morning and on the morning of the 20th week I had my ultrasound, so things were crazy when I got back.

Mostly a pretty normal week. I started up my magnesium again (Natural Calm). I'm not having stomach problems but I am having sleeping issues! Super weird dreams and constantly up tossing and turning - it's starting to catch up to me now. I'll probably have to stop again to see if this goes away.

We registered Sean for Kindergarten this past week too!!!! Aaaahh!

I had my 1st true pre-natal massage this past week too. It was really great. A LOT better than I expected. Normally they are uncomfortable and annoying, but this was relaxing and I felt really good when it was over.

The most exciting thing that has happened over the last few weeks is that I had my 20week/anatomy scan! I took Sean and Dan to the scan and the prenatal appointment. Overall, it went really well.
Baby's heartbeat was good
No fluid in the brain
Measuring right on track
No cleft pallet
We saw a little bit of movement, but not a ton. Baby was probably sleeping.

Sean was pretty nervous but also very curious. He said the whole thing was weird.
When the tech was looking in the area where you can see the gender, I told Sean he can look but we weren't - and he still chose to look. He thinks it's a boy, but when the tech was scrolling through all of the pictures she took, I thought what I saw was a girl (so I saw a pic or two I wasn't supposed to).

My midwife wants me to see a Maternal Fetal Medicine doc - so I'm going to one tomorrow. At this point it's just a consult to see if they need to be involved later on.

19 Weeks

We are in Wisconsin this week; lots of time chilling and squeezed in a few naps.

The coolest thing that happened this past week is that I started feeling kicks! I felt the first one the day of the flights  - during a nap I took that afternoon.

Since then I felt a few stronger kicks maybe every other day :)

They feel like bubbles popping - which is what I thought it was the first time.

I went to the maternity store with mom and got a few pairs of pants. I really wanted to buy some maternity bras, but they did measure me and I went up to a C cup (one full cup). I had a feeling that was the case since my bras are not comfortable anymore and they even just look bigger.

18 Weeks

Soooo Tired!!

We created our announcement photo this week, but aren't going to post until we've at least told my grandparents in person (which will be this Saturday, when I fly back home).
I was trying to come up with a cute, cost-effective, and easy way to tell them - I ended up finding a St. Patrick's Day shirt for $10 that says, "Kiss Me I'm Pregnant"

I realized later that when I told them about Sean it was around St. Patty's day too. Just a coincidence.

We finished interviewing photographers this week.
The last one we met on Sunday was my favorite as far as her pictures go, but only my 2nd favorite regarding personality. However, I decided soon after that I just wanted to go with the best, since it's only $200 more than my 2nd favorite (for talent). However, she mentioned at the end of the meeting that she would send me more information tomorrow (Monday) on her post-partum serious and she never did. I followed up on Tuesday (and now it's Wednesday) and I still haven't heard from here.

I'm not sure if she's at an epic birth or is ignoring me???? I really want to text her about it, but I'm trying to hold off another day or too so as to not be too annoying. However, I want to book someone before the end of the week b/c everyone I talked to only has 1 spot left for August.