Down to Two Digits!

As of today, I have 98 days left until my due date. Wow! In some ways it feels like time is dragging by, but in other ways it feels like time is flying. Yesterday I noticed some droplets of colostrum coming from my nipples. I know it sounds really weird, but I was happy about it. I thought, "My boobies are working!" I am 26 weeks today. Fertility Friend says if Cole were to be born now, he has 85% chance of survival. Those are pretty decent odds. Not that it matters. Cole needs to stay put until at least 39 weeks. I know they say 38 weeks is considered term these days, but I've also heard that boys generally need a little more time than girls to be fully developed. So, as far as I'm concerned, he needs to stay put until he is completely ready to come out.

It has been so wonderful feeling his kicks and watching my belly move around from his kicks and whatever else he's doing in there. Sometimes I'll play a little game with Cole where I'll push my belly right where he kicked and he'll kick back. We do that back and forth for a bit. It always makes me smile or laugh. It still scares me how attached I am to this little guy. I mean I knew in theory that it would be like this, but no one really knows exactly how it feels until they actually go through it. There have been a lot of women on my due date board on Baby Center who have lost their babies late in the game. It seems to me like the farther you get, the harder it is. I don't know what it's like to experience that kind of pain. I can certainly imagine it, but I hope I never have to know that kind of pain. It can be hard to strike a balance between being aware of everything that could go wrong and being able to enjoy what I have and the gift I have been given.

In school, in 3 of my 4 classes we have learned about prenatal development and reproduction. It's kind of fun to be learning about that stuff in detail while I am directly experiencing it. I've been able to share some of my own experience in class discussions which is pretty cool. I've still got to figure out what I'm going to do about spring semester. Hopefully that will all work out ok. I can't let myself worry about that too much. I just don't have the room in my brain for it.

Baby Shower

Next weekend I will be in San Diego for my first baby shower. My dad's wife is throwing it for me. I'm very excited about it. My dad called me this morning to ask me about some details regarding the travel system stroller I put on my registry. He apparently saw a nicer (and more expensive) one that he was thinking about getting me and wanted to make sure I didn't have my heart set on the exact one I had picked out for some reason. Dad, if you want to get me the nicer one, I am ALL for it! I will be 22 weeks when I go San Diego. I have gotten a lot bigger in the past few weeks since I posted my last belly shot. I saw a couple of my friends that I hadn't seen in several weeks and they were surprised by how much my belly has grown since then. Yesterday both G and my friend K got to feel the baby kick. It was pretty cool that others can feel him kick now too! Anyway, here's my latest belly shot, which K took yesterday at 22w3d:

It's A Boy!!!!

Today's ultrasound was quite an experience! Everything looks good and right on target. His heart, brain, stomach, spine, limbs, everything looked good. His face is formed properly - no cleft palate. He gave us a couple of great money shots too! Not a shy boy as far as that goes. He kept covering his face though, but we still got a decent look at his cute little nose and eyes. We found out that my placenta is anterior which explains why I haven't felt him move as much as many other women have by this point. I did feel a couple of good kicks on Tuesday, though, which was really awesome! My favorite part was when the ultrasound tech was moving the thing around my belly and the baby reached out and poked the placenta. It was so cute! So with out further ado I present to the blog world Cole Daniel:

16 Weeks

I have my 16 week appointment on Tuesday. It probably will just involve most of the same stuff as my 8 week appointment with the nurse. I'm hoping I get to hear the heart beat again. That would be pretty awesome. I am scheduled to have my glucose test. I was surprised that I'm getting mine done sooner than most of the other ladies on the message boards but apparently new research finds that it's better to get the glucose test done earlier. Here's the conclusion of Pub Med's abstract on the study they've done: Glucose screening at 16 weeks of pregnancy is a useful alternative to third-trimester screening for gestational diabetes. The negative predictive value of screening test results < or =" 110"> or = 135 mg/dL is 55%. This latter finding is superior to the 8.6-22% found during the third-trimester.
An article from Medscape quoted one of the doctors involved in the study: "Screening at 16 weeks is a better predictor of gestational diabetes," Gerard Nahum, MD, from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, says in a news release. "It's more sensitive than screening later, and allows us to focus earlier on women who are at greatest risk. It's also a more practical screening technique because blood samples drawn during early pregnancy for other tests can also be used for this purpose."

In other news I bought a couple pairs of preggo jeans today. It is so nice to be able to wear some jeans again. I was starting to feel very frumpy. Especially since my hair is badly in need of a cut and I hate my bangs and need to grow them out. That's not a very good combination. Luckily G talked to our hair-cutter for me and she said she good give me a side-swept bang look. I'll probably go in towards the end of August.

Next weekend I have some good friends from out of town coming to visit. It should be a lot of fun, but I have been way attached to G lately and it's not going top be easy being away from him all weekend even though we'll be in the same city. We all get together every summer and alternate between Northern California & Southern California, since 2 of us live up here in NorCal and the other 2 live in SoCal. This year it's scheduled to be up here, next year it's supposed to be in SoCal. I don't know if I'll be able to do it next year with the baby. I'm not going to drive with the baby and I don't know if I'll be able to afford the plane ticket to go down. Plus, don't know where we'd stay. If I'm still nursing I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving the baby with G while I go down for the weekend. I suppose I shouldn't be worrying about it now.

I kinda feel like the outsider even more now that I'm pregnant. It was hard enough when I had quit drinking, but now it's more pronounced. One of the other girls has been sort of ttc, but the other two are not ttc right now. They both want to in the somewhat near future but are waiting until they have enough medical coverage for it. I am really looking forward to when they get pregnant too. I hear of so many women online talking about how all their friends already have kids, but for me it's the opposite. That's probably the one thing that made it easier to deal with taking so long to get pregnant. Now that I am pregnant I feel a bit alone. Luckily I have family members with young kids/babies that I can talk to.

Felt Something

I have been feeling a bit of movement for a couple of weeks now, but nothing major. Just feels like that baby is rolling around in there or something. I usually feel movement after I've eaten. Last night when I was sitting on the couch with G after we came back from getting some pizza, I had my hand on my belly just seeing if I could feel anything. I could feel the baby rolling around as usual. It almost felt like thhe baby was doing gymnastics in there. Then, at one point, I actually felt a very tiny little thump. I felt it both inside and on my hand. And it definitely wasn't gas. That was pretty cool. I am so looking forward to feeling more of that kind of movement. I really want G to be able to feel it too.

I had to go get me some preggo clothes today. My pants are starting to get quite uncomfortable. I only have 3 pairs of jeans that still fit without cutting off circulation. Even they are getting a bit snug. I looked at getting that belly band thing, but I just couldn't bring myself to get it. I just don't like it that much and I am not confident that the little piece of material that comes with it will actually stay in place. I only found one pair of pants that I liked that was in my price range. Why does maternity clothes have to be so expensive when it will only be worn for a limited amount of time? It seems a bit ridiculous to me. This IS San Francisco, though. The people here don't seem to get the concept that not everyone here wants expensive clothes. I really wish there was a Target store in the City but the supervisors here have a weird idea that if we let them in they'll take over like cockroaches. It's apparently OK for Starbuck's to do that, but not Target. Gee, makes a lot of sense. Old Navy's maternity section had a crap selection. I wonder why? They used to have more of a selection, but when G and i went there the other day they had very little. It was disappointing. Anyway, enough of that rant. Time to go feed the dog and then go get some food for me & G.

One Trimester Down, Two More to Go!

In honor of making it to the 2nd trimester, I will finally post a belly pic:

BTW, We got to hear the baby's heartbeat Monday. It was 165 bpm. Music to our ears!

Almost There!

By mid to end of next week I will be in the second trimester. I am very much looking forward to that. I should post a belly pic. I'm starting to pooch out a bit. Yeah, I'll get right on that. I'm so lazy these days. It's so hard to get motivated to do anything unless I'm going to work.

On Monday we have our next appointment. I don't know if I'll get another ultrasound or not, but I'm hoping I will at least get to hear the heartbeat. Monday is also our 7-year wedding anniverary. G will be coming with me to the appointment, then we'll go do something afterward and go out to dinner somewhere.

The weather is gorgeous here this weekend. It's also pride weekend which means a lot of people in the 'hood. In some ways it's fun, but the vast majority of people are drinking and partying and I am sooo not into that and neither is G. So we're hanging out in our back yard for most of the time. I did have to go get a dress for my cousin's wedding next weekend. Downtown was pretty packed. We got out of there as quickly as we could. It will be nice to go to SoCal next weekend. I need to start planning when I'll have my shower down there. It will probably have to be the beginning of September since that's the only 3-day weekend school will have for quite some time. My aunt suggested doing it at Thanksgiving, but I said that was pushing it. She said said she had seen plenty of women flying while that far along and I replied, "Yeah, but how many of them took 3+ years to get pregnant?" She concurred.