26 Weeks and a $.99 shirt from Goodwill :)

 26 Weeks

26 Weeks

Before I brushed my hair and did a little makeup, I didn't want to show my face :-P

So here we are, 26 Weeks.

Today when talking to my Yoga instructor about different poses, etc, I mentioned about being 6 months and her eyes got so big! She was baffled! lol

Again, at night, when my muscles relax more, it pops out more than in the mornings, but still.

Status:

How Far Along:  

26 Weeks - 6 1/2 Months!

Weight:  

155lbs. Puts me at 14 lbs gained. I'll start going from the first weight I told my midwives, which was after I had lost 4-5lbs from morning sickness, which was 141 lbs.

Bump/Showing: 

Measuring on target at 25cm today according to midwife. My baby bump is starting to stick out more and more. Pretty much any normal shirts I had I can no longer wear unless they were extra long or larger than most all my other clothes.

Today I found some cute cheap clothes at Goodwill. The blue blousy top in the picture above I found at Goodwill today for $.99! Awesome! and it's Maternity! I love a great deal! I also picked up 2 other sweaters that I can wear.

Food Cravings/Aversions:

Just hungry all the time still mostly. I've been a little hooked on cookies the last couple days. I'm sure I'll pay for it in my weight gain by next week.. lol!!

Nothing is making me queasy. :)

Gender / Names:

Surprise gender :) Some people think it's nuts to not find out. Oh well, we'll make it work!

Though I've had a few people lately say they "think" it's a boy.. being I'm carrying lower, but who knows. It's 50/50! lol

Nothing solid on name ideas yet. :/  Need to start working on this.

Activities:

Started back to the Yoga class last week and today. I'm using the blankets for support, etc. and not doing poses that are flat on the belly, but rather lying on my side and doing leg stretches when they do those. Most of the other poses the instructor does are safe for me to continue doing. I will of course come out of a pose or not do ones when/if I feel uncomfortable, outside of the normal "I'm out of shape" discomfort.. lol.  I definitely feel good when I leave the class. The next day a lot of my shoulder, leg and arm muscles are sore, but that's normal. I really like the class and hope to continue on for the rest of my pregnancy. I think I will benefit a lot from it during the labor as well.

We'll probably miss out on skating this Thursday, as the rink is having a massive crazy school night that we don't want to be there for. I especially don't, since I have to be super careful when skating. My balance is definitely shifting and the movements I'm used to doing aren't as easy as they were. My skating will probably continue for a while, I just really have to take it easy and be careful.

Supplements / Diet:

Still trying to remember to take the Cal-Mag for my leg/muscle cramps. It definitely helps. 

I also bought some new Prenatal vitamins today, as my first stash is just about out and were a cheap vitamin. I decided to go up in quality a bit. 

I've been making myself very aware of my iron intake. My iron was low from the beginning and my blood pressure has been low as well. I've been eating oatmeal or grain cereals in the morning, along with Orange juice or another Vitamin C beverage to go with it. The body supposedly absorbs iron better when taken with Vit C, so I'm making it a point to do this. I've also been trying to add greens, etc. to my dinners. We had cooked kale the other night and I really liked it. Instead of regular lettuce on my sandwiches, I'll use spinach. Things like that.

Today at my appt, my blood pressure has already shown an improvement

Last month it was 105/65. Today it was 110/75. 

My midwife said we can test my iron levels again maybe after next month, just to make sure we're good. She wasn't concerned with my levels being a tad lower, since they weren't crazy low, but we'll keep an eye on it.

Movement:

Tons and tons! This baby is a mover! My 26 week update said that the baby can start opening it's eyelids and "seeing". The other morning at about 6am, the baby must have woken up and seen that there wasn't any room inside there and started pushing everything around to make room! lol. I swear it was more movement than I'd felt ever! It was crazy!
I'm feeling random kicks in my right lower rib area. This morning I was feeling flutters and movements down at my left hip area. My midwife says it's likely the baby is somewhat diagonal to the lower right side, with the head being close to my left hip and the feet being curled up at my belly button area. This would definitely make sense to the feelings I feel when the baby kicks. If it's kicking forward, it would kick to the left of my belly button, which is where I feel it. When the baby stretches it's legs, I would feel it in my right ribs, which I do.  

I'm about to tell this kid.. you can try to move other parts around, but baby I don't think that my hips and ribs are going to move.. lol. The baby must know I'm talking about it, because it's in here kicking and moving like crazy right now!

Baby heartrate:

The baby's heart rate today was about 140 again. She said it started out in the upper 130's, but I started laughing, and then it went up a bit into the 140s.  :)

Baby's Room and Baby Items:

I still need to do my registry... someone is a slacker and it's me!

A friend of my just passed down some of her baby stuff to me. We got a boppy pillow, a baby bathtub and a ton of toys! She also gave me some nursing tanks and a couple more maternity shirts. How awesome is that!!?!?

I randomly check Craigslist for good deals, and there are tons of them, but I haven't made any purchases. Biggest thing is, we want to catch up on bills and start getting ahead now, plus we have to pay off the midwives, so money isn't free flowing right now. lol

I started cleaning up the room upstairs. I had all the Christmas tubs and mess in there. I got all of that cleaned up. I also moved my sewing desk back over to the window and got that reorganized... I can't wait to get furniture and stuff in there! :)

Sleep, Moods, Misc.:

I've been sleeping a lot lately. Today I woke up the baby woke me up at 6am. I laid there tossing and turning a bit before deciding to go ahead and get up a little after 7. I went to yoga this morning, stopped to the Goodwill and when I came home, the bed with my dingle-doggies on it looked overly appealing, so I snuggled up with them and we all took a cat-nap :) It was nice.

I do find that I wake up randomly at night and am sleeping on my back. I try to sleep on my side as much as I can. I tend to keep my head propped up a bit and my knees are usually bent, but I'm constantly finding myself on my back again. 

The other day I was having ligament/muscle pains/cramps. This belly is already stretched more than it's ever been, and is only going to keep growing, so I expect to have those kinds of muscle cramps and pains. It was a tad more than usual, so I laid down and propped a pillow on my side and that did wonders! I was too tired for a bath, or else I would have taken a hot bath. .. which actually sounds really good right now... hmm.. 

I've also had odd pain in my belly button area.. more so just sensitive than it is pain. Either way, it's weird. lol. 

I'll save all my other randomness for another post :)

25 Weeks :)

The 'bump' is finally really starting to pop out! 
25 Weeks along :) Most people are baffled when I tell them I'm like 6 months.. Especially during the day, it seems my baby bump isn't as prominent as it at night a lot of times. I don't know if my muscles just relax more at night, or the baby moves to a different position, or what, but it's always bigger at night.


So here's where we are at:


How far along:  25 Weeks


Total weight gain: 12 lbs. +-


Gender / Name Ideas:  Surprise on Gender! No concrete names yet


Maternity Clothes: Most definitely have to wear maternity pants. I need maternity sweaters. I bought a few clearance long sleeve shirts at Target, but I definitely need more maternity shirts or extra long shirts. My long torso, plus the belly is making everything I have tight, or really short and it looks stupid.


Baby Bump:  Starting to pop and actually look more 'pregnant' than just beer belly. lol. I think that because this is my first, and my muscles aren't already stretched, and I'm tall, with a long torso, I have a lot of room and the belly isn't popping out as much as most women at 6 months. But it's getting noticeable, especially at night.


Best Moments this Week: Feeling what I think are hiccups. Pretty cool feeling. Every time I feel the baby it's a cool feeling. The other night my step daughter finally got to feel it. She had her hand on my belly, waiting for a kick, and kept thinking she was feeling something, but I told her, just wait, you'll know for sure when you feel it. Then, Bam!.. Her eyes lit up and she says "whoa, I felt that!" That was fun. I still love laying down at night to read and getting totally distracted watching the water aerobics show.


Things I Miss: My husband and I went out Friday night to celebrate New years, since we didn't want to get out on New years, for all the craziness. It was fun. I can't say that I totally miss drinking like a fish, but I do miss the occasional cold Bud Light.. lol. 
I miss being comfortable bending over. I might not even be showing much, but there's a lot of pressure when I bend over, and at work, it's a little harder than normal. I haven't totally cut out coffee, but I do have to watch my intake.


Movement: Tons! Definitely a pattern developing. Mornings are cool, lying in bed feeling the baby move around. And randomly throughout the day. Always at night.  I have a feeling I'm going to have a night owl on my hands. lol. 


Food Cravings / Aversions:
I just want food in general. Constantly and a decent amount. lol. But no specific cravings really. Nothing out of the ordinary for my general weird eating habits. lol. I've always had odd cravings, randomly, so nothing new there. Last week I really wanted some cake. Not totally normal for me. Really I wanted some Tres Leche cake, or white cake with vanilla ice cream.
I don't really have any aversions. Though I'm not totally loving everything I cook for dinner, mostly that's because I made it. I haven't really wanted roast, like pot roast or anything. Last time I made it, I didn't want it. But not to the point where it makes me queasy.


Random things I'm experiencing:
Slight back pain randomly. I think the baby moves around and might be hitting a nerve in my lower back / sciatica-like feelings. Nothing awful and not all the time.
I think I randomly feel Braxton Hicks contractions. I was looking up some of the 'symptoms', if you will, online and it coincided with Braxton Hicks. Just slight, mild cramping in my lower abdomen that lasts for about 30 secs to a min, and mostly only after I've had to go pee, and held it. But I don't even get these but randomly, rarely.


Looking Forward to:
Ultrasound.
 We have an appointment with my midwives next week sometime.. (had to be rescheduled because I forgot to request off for work, and of course got scheduled for that day).. but they are going to give me an ultrasound order so I can get it scheduled. We'll probably go to a dr/hospital for the ultrasound. But I'm quite thrilled over it. I can't wait to see the baby. Not the little boy or girl parts, just the baby. lol


Birth Plan Notes:
Still going with the home birth/Midwives and hopeful Water birth. I need to make a list of other things that are important to make note of.. and maybe even start getting things together. We haven't done much in this area yet :/


Baby Items/Room:
Haven't done much in this area yet either. I need to get the baby room cleaned up, but since we're planning on having the baby in the bedroom with us at first, I'm not in a hurry. I do plan to start picking up things like diapers/wipes on sale, etc. We have a few things, but need to do a registry. Maybe this month! lol


Other Randomness:
I think I'm getting jipped on the "long nails and luscious locks" part of this deal. lol. I don't see any changes in my hair and my nails still look like crap. lol. Of course, I'm sure work doesn't help my nails, but still. But I'll take that over any of the other crappy things some women experience!

I need to get my sleep schedule rearranged. I've been up so late lately because of my holiday work schedule, and have been sleeping in so late and end up wasting most my days off. :(


Ok. That's good for now. :)
Happy New Year!

21 Weeks Picture :)

Sharing the picture I took the other day of me 21 1/2 weeks along.

How Far along:
21 weeks 3 days




Activity/Movement:

Very active baby, several times a day. Especially at night when I lie down. I can't get anything done because all I want to do is watch my belly. I can see very defined kicks, poking at my belly. It is very very cool.  The other night when I was lying down, I swear the baby was doing gymnastics! My husband came in and got to feel a kick and got to see several of them too. It is so much fun :)

Birth Plan, etc:

I had an appointment with my midwives on Saturday morning. Everything looks good so far. Baby's heartbeat was around 145bpm.. after they poked around and woke it up.. lol

Diet/Nutrition:

Biggest concern right now is getting my iron up. My hemoglobin is low and my blood pressure is in the "Low-Normal" range.. This time it was like 105/70. Not extremely bad, but I definitely need to get my iron up. I don't want to have issues down the road.

Other Experiences:

The other day I was having really bad leg cramps. It was terrible. It started in my ankle, below my chin, and when I went to stretch my foot and stretch the muscle, my calf balled up in a horrible charlie horse. The only thing I could do to get that to go away was to point my foot back up, which in turn aggravated the front muscles again. ARGH!! It was awful. I just about screamed. Finally got that to go away. Only to get it again that night. I came running out of the bedroom to the living room and just stuck my leg up on my husband's lap and had him start rubbing my calf. I never want those again! lol. My midwife suggested I take Cal-Mag supplement. Supposed to help balance out your levels of calcium and magnesium and help not to get leg cramps. So far so good for the last 2 days. My goal is to get these things under control now, so that I reduce any potential issues down the road or during labor. Last thing I want is to deal with leg cramps during labor!

Well.. off to crochet. I have people wanting to buy up for Christmas gifts so I need to get my little crochet hands on the move!

Life and Pregnancy update

Oh my gosh.. I need to update more. I get so distracted then I forget that I really want to update on a regular basis and have a cool fun blog with fun pictures and stories and updates and crafts and recipes and stuff people actually want to read. Instead, I currently have a random blog in internet cyber space that no one knows about, that I basically use as a convenient journal on random occasions.
I read other people's blogs and I so want to do cool things with mine but I haven't gotten there yet. Not to mention, I'm horrible at taking pictures. For one, my phone doesn't take very wonderful pictures AT ALL! and secondly, I never remember to take my camera with me anywhere, or to take pictures when I'm actually working on projects or doing anything for that matter. I thought the convenience of having a camera on your phone was so you could take pictures anywhere, but I just haven't seemed to master the ability to take anything decent with my phone. Oh well. 


 So lately..


1. I started working at Target for the holiday season. I really like it, although I'm wearing myself out at the moment, because I feel like I'm either in pajamas and sleeping, or I'm wearing the tried and true Red shirt and Khaki pants and I'm working. Fun. lol. I feel like I haven't any other wardrobe at the moment. I need a few more days off so I can wear my new cute maternity shirts (that I hardly need yet.. a whole other topic~!)


2. According to the calendar, I'm 5 months and 1 week pregnant. 21 weeks. Just made it past the halfway mark. Hardly anyone believes I'm at 5 months because I still have just a small little baby bump. Although I can definitely no longer wear my regular pants for sure.. and shirts/sweaters are getting to be a tad tight and uncomfortable.
I have gained, hmm.. probably about 7-8 lbs.. about 5 lbs of that was what I had lost from not being able to eat the first several weeks.. I'm definitely on track to make up for the loss of food.. since I basically in constant hunger mode lately. I'm trying to make sure I get decent food and nutrition, but it's been a little more difficult lately with working all evening and sleeping in till almost noon every day. I basically get up, have some cereal, maybe a sandwich at some point, then go to work. I hate to constantly spend money, but sometimes my best option is to pick up a chicken sandwich somewhere and take it in for my lunch break, aka dinner. Then I try to eat something when I get home, which has been midnight pretty regularly.


3. A few weeks ago (about wk 16) I started to feel the baby move. Lately I've felt kicks like crazy! The baby is supposedly about 10 inches long and about 12 oz. I tell you what.. if this baby kicks like this now, I can't even imagine what it's going to be like when it's bigger in the coming months! I keep referring to it as Chuck Norris because it seems to have some mad skills kicking and punching! I can see it on the outside of my belly when it kicks. It is a very very cool thing. Every night when I lie down for bed, he or she starts moving and I always sit and watch. It is very cool to me.


4. I have another appointment with my midwife team this coming weekend. I'm always excited about seeing them. We get to hear the heartbeat each time they come, which I find very cool. I'm planning on trying to have the ultrasound done sometime after the holidays are past. We may end up going in to the Dr/hospital for that. I'm totally geeked about it. We're still not planning to find out the gender. I just can't wait to see it!


I'm still rollerskating for now. Insanity. I know. Actually, for me it'd be insanity if I had to quit right now. It's been such a regular thing for us for the last 3 years or so, that I just have a hard time giving it up. Of course I'm not skating like I was before being pregnant, but I'm still skating. I plan to skate as long as my body and mind will let me. When I get a little nervous, or if the floor is too busy, I just sit down and relax for a bit.
Here's me in there starting at the :30 second mark, still truckin with the gang at 5 months pregnant.



Welp. I guess that be it for now. Especially since it's almost 2am. I'm definitely tired. Off to read my book.. if I make it past a page!