Weekly Chat Jan22-28 !!!!! « Back to Group Discussions

[forestmushroom]

Name:

Weeks/Days along:

Appointments:

Symptoms:

Food:

Exercise:

Body changes and other milestones:

Thoughts:

[MeredithA]

A friend of mine posted this on facebook & I wanted to share it: http://www.imow.org/economica/projects/story?key=6572

It's a video called "Birth Markings" about body image and how the marks/changes left on your body symbolize something wonderful. I just thought it was neat :-)

[forestmushroom]

Originally Posted by MeredithA 

A friend of mine posted this on facebook & I wanted to share it: http://www.imow.org/economica/projects/story?key=6572
It's a video called "Birth Markings" about body image and how the marks/changes left on your body symbolize something wonderful. I just thought it was neat :-)

That is so awesome and beautiful!  I hate the objectification of women and girls, and how our value is all in our appearance.  My body if forever altered by my babies, and I don't want the pressure of having to look like I never had children! 

[poppyseed2012]

Name: Poppyseed/Bonniejean

Weeks/Days along: 24 w 3 days

Appointments: Next midwife appointment 2/9, follow up u/s 2/16

Symptoms: Hungry, tired, weepy

Food: Most everything, still no beef or raw onions

Exercise: Yoga class once a week, trying to walk, stretch every day (trying...)

Body changes and other milestones: Bigger belly, more acne, dull hair (and I LOVE the belly video!)

Thoughts: I've definitely felt reduced movement in the past week. Which is no fun. Going from feeling him all time time and a lot, to going from every now and then a little poke. I'm not sure why this happened, but it sounds normal.

I'm starting to get my birth plan together. My mom is a yoga teacher and is starting doula training and is going to be my doula. I'm very excited about that! And I'm also going to have one of my best girlfriends present. I see a group of midwives, but will be delivering in a hospital. I'm wondering what my husband's role is going to be in the birth. In the book, "Birthing from Within" she says you shouldn't feel guilty if you don't want your husband around and you shouldn't be mad at him if he doesn't want to be around. And at this point, he's not too interested in the whole process. I mean, he's interested in hearing about the birth plan and even making some decisions with me, but he gets queasy around blood and I'm just not sure how it's going to go down. I'm trying to keep an open mind!

[janellody]

Name: Janelle

Weeks/Days along: 24 w 4 days

Appointments: Next doctor appointment 2/9 with glucose test

Symptoms: acne is getting pretty crazy, and I am feeling more sore lately

Food: It's a bit easier I suppose

Exercise: same ol same ol

Body changes and other milestones: Nothing new

Thoughts: I am definitely starting to feel more ancy (spelling? have never written that word lol) and can't sit still for very long anymore.  I went to the girl with a dragon tattoo movie and it was over 2 hours long and I was moving around the whole time and wanted to get up and move. I am the same way anywhere else, and I am getting more uncomfortable when trying to sleep.. I am scared that the 3rd trimester uncomfortableness is coming around...

[CorgiMommy]

Name:  Maryke

Weeks/Days along: 21 weeks

Appointments: today

Symptoms: Heartburn still!

Food: Bland fruit and vegtable foods

Exercise: Whatever I get time for

Body changes and other milestones: Still showing a bit, but nothing too alarming, it is no 4!

Thoughts:  Just getting very exited and thinking about the birth a lot as well.

[Rowdie]

Name: Rowdie

Weeks along: 25 weeks

Appointments: Thursday, I meet my midwife!  I've moved from Japan to the US to Canada in the last two months.  I had a regular ob/gyn in Japan until we got the cancer scare (misdiagnosis), but I've been in prenatal transition since then.  I'll be happy to meet the person who will be there at the birth.

Symptoms:  heartburn now and again, and feeling really heavy when the baby shifts to certain positions.

Food: GRAINS!!!! (zombie-voice).  Anything super-grainy. Bought some multi-grain chips and made humus for them (yum!)

Exercise: yoga, now at the gym (we just started up at the YMCA), some cycling when the streets are dry.

Thoughts: I'd been doing yoga at home, so moving to led-classes has been lovely.  I sit in the back so my modifications don't discombobulate those around me.

We need a bigger bed.  A queen is not roomy enough for the two of us plus baby (though once the body pillow is out of the equation...

We had the GREATEST scenographer for last week's u/s.  She spent a good 30 minutes peeking at the different bits, even after she was done with the necessary checks.  She guessed that we didn't want to know the gender before I even stretched out on the bench.

I'm at the point where, to the observer, I'm either pregnant or I've got a lot of belly fat.  It's not obvious it's a pregnancy.  I met an old friend who I had to tell I was six months pregnant because he thought I might have just ballooned since the last time we'd met.

[cristeen]

Name:  Cristeen

Weeks/Days along:  22 weeks today

Appointments:  U/S this morning, but nothing more for a few weeks

Symptoms: starting to get some m/s.  In part I'm sure because I'm skipping dinner half the time.  Food is becoming revolting in the evenings.  At least dinner type food.  Cookies, ice cream and the like aren't revolting, and neither are fruits.  Maybe I just need to make a batch of hummus to snack on to keep my BS up. 

Food:  Like I said...

Exercise:  HA!  Although DH suggested a walkstation, and I really like the idea.  Gotta find a treadmill on CL though. 

Body changes and other milestones: My joints are definitely loosening up.  It's getting harder to move at times, and I have a harder time getting up from the couch or the floor. 

Thoughts:  Had our 20 week u/s this morning and everything looked great!  I burst into tears when the tech was looking at baby's heart, and we could see 4 symmetrical heart chambers beating right along.  As much as I've been trying to not think about it, I guess I was really worried after all.  And as much as DH is convinced that life wouldn't be that cruel twice, I'm not so convinced.  So it was really nice to have the confirmation that this baby's heart looks healthy.  The doc came in after the tech (because of our history the doc double checks the heart), and confirmed that the heart looked good.  He did suggest an echo, but indicated that the only reason he suggested it was our history, and not because he's seeing any reason to do one.  DH left that up to me, but I'm not feeling the need to do one.  We had a good enough image of the heart that we know we're not repeating history.  Anything else that may crop up would be minor, and I could cope with it. 

So now I'm feeling like I can move on, if that makes any sense at all.  Be happy.  Bond.  That kind of thing.  Which isn't to say I wasn't already doing some of that, but all of it was with this shadow looming.  And that's gone now.  And all I want to do is sit down and cry.  I'm glad we canceled therapy today, so I don't have to deal with other people until tomorrow now.  I'm not in emotional shape for it.  I took DH to the train after the appt, popped in and out of Ikea to get a work table/chair for DS' therapy, and picked up a sinful lunch from my fave deli (shrimp salad sandwich, pasta salad, chips).  And I'm just going to be kind to myself the rest of the day. 

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by poppyseed2012 

 I'm wondering what my husband's role is going to be in the birth. In the book, "Birthing from Within" she says you shouldn't feel guilty if you don't want your husband around and you shouldn't be mad at him if he doesn't want to be around. And at this point, he's not too interested in the whole process. I mean, he's interested in hearing about the birth plan and even making some decisions with me, but he gets queasy around blood and I'm just not sure how it's going to go down. I'm trying to keep an open mind!

What do you WANT his role to be?  What does HE want his role to be?  You might want to get him the book The Birth Partner, so that at least he can feel useful if he wants to. 

My DH doesn't have an issue with blood (he's a former medic), but he does have a problem seeing me in pain.  A big problem.  With both boys that was the really hard part for him.  I think if he had done a little more reading, and knew some things to suggest that might help, he wouldn't have felt so helpless.  In the end, with DS, he wound up getting right in my face, and we chanted (a mantra) together, which is the only thing that got me through the last few hours of labor.  I needed him to help me focus on something other than the pain, and he did that for me.  Something to keep in mind though is that after days of labor, and intense pain, I had zero concentration, and it can be very difficult to concentrate through contractions anyway, but at the end there I couldn't even remember the next word in the chant.  He had to chant it with me NON-STOP during each and EVERY contraction.  I'm sure he got sick of it, but it really helped me.  

And also, don't set anything in stone.  DH wanted to catch DS (I wanted that too).  But the position I wound up pushing in required 2 people to physically support me.  That's the only way I got DS through my pelvis, but it meant his hands were busy, and the MW caught DS.  Which in the end she would have jumped in anyway because he had a nuchal hand and meconium, but if he had had his heart set on that, I think he would have been far more disappointed than he was. 

Originally Posted by janellody 
Thoughts: I am definitely starting to feel more ancy (spelling? have never written that word lol) and can't sit still for very long anymore.

Antsy.  Like you've got ANTS in your pants. 

[BubbleMa]

Name: Sarah

Weeks/Days along:  25 weeks

Appointments: Feb. 6th

Symptoms: Heartburn, varicose veins, braxton hicks, "restless leg syndrome" at night, yeast infection.  BLECH!

Food: Pretty much anything.  If I don't have to cook it, even better!  Garlic turns my stomach though.

Exercise:   

Body changes and other milestones:  Growing belly!  Lots and lots of movement.  It's getting harder and harder to get comfortable at night.

Thoughts:  SO left for a business trip for a few days, I miss him but I'm kind of looking forward to having the whole bed to myself.  ;)

[Sky]

Name: Sky

Weeks/Days along: 23 weeks 1 day

Appointments: Had Appointment with Nurse midwife a few weeks back all was well. Having U/S on Friday yay! get to see this Little girl again :-)

Symptoms: None really but my nose always runs a bit when pregnant YUCK!! Still a tired at the end of the day.

Food: fresh veggie and fruit. Was craving seafood! had lobster and hope to get some crab legs soon LOL!

Exercise: I always limit my exercising to 3x a week for 45 min verses the 5x a week for 1hr because I always loose weight when preg.

Body changes and other milestones:  Starting to show a little now, feeling lots of movement as my placenta was anterior so it was harder to feel earlier on.

Thoughts: This time it's going by fast and I have to start organizing soon! DH and DS and DD can feel movement from the outside so that is exciting! I'm enjoying every moment of this pregnancy :-)

[mlovesj]

Name: Marisa

Weeks/Days along: 24w 6d

Appointments: Had one last week and all is good.  I need to do the glucose test this week.

Symptoms: BubbleMa/Sarah's update could have been mine:  I have restless leg syndrome (ugggggg) which makes me feel squirmy and uncomfortable every evening.  I need nightly calf & foot massages.  Sleeping at night is starting to become uncomfortable:  insomnia, achy hips, waking to find myself on my back and feeling bad about that. 

Food: I don't really have any food issues.  Loving blueberries, cereal (Nature's Path Optimum!) and cheese & crackers.  I find myself getting really irritable when there is nothing that "sounds good" to snack on in the evening.  My man does the shopping and I think if I were the one at the store, there'd be a lot more snacky (and probably bad for me) things in our cupboards.....The one aversion I have is eggs, which is too bad because they are so nutritious during pregnancy and I think other women rely on them as a staple.  I just can't really get myself to eat them.

Exercise: I chose a gift cert for 3 free prenatal yoga classes during the hospital tour we took last week.  I have ordered some maternity yoga pants.  And those are the two proactive steps I've taken toward exercise. But that will change before next week (I am promising myself!).

Body changes and other milestones: I've gotten a few "aww you look so cute!" comments now that people can tell with 100% certainty that I'm pregnant.  I'm also running into people who haven't heard the news and haven't seen me for a while and I'm noticing their looks of surprise.  I've been pretty scarce at my kids' school for a couple of months, so I'm realizing that next time I'm walking the corridors, I'll be getting a lot MORE "whoa, I had no idea you were pregnant!" looks. Besides looking pregnant, I'm also starting to walk a little funny, be frustrated by my 2-sizes-larger breasts and the fit of my new bras (ug, not enough support), and get winded and out of breath so easily.  Not sure how much of that is being pregnant and how much of that is being out of shape??

Thoughts: Wow, this pregnancy is going so quickly!  That push-pull between eagerness to see, feel, hold, kiss my little girl vs. enjoying this (my last) pregnancy and fully savoring the anticipation (not to mention dealing with all the details & issues that need to be worked out, if at all possible, before we have a newborn's needs to add to the mix) is tricky.  Overall, I can't believe I'm essentially 25 weeks already.  I bet lots of you are feeling the same funny confusion in perception:  is 15 weeks a long time or a short time?  Sometimes May feels so far away ("I've got plenty of time!") and sometimes I think - well, how quickly did the *last* 15 weeks go by??  I was 10 weeks pregnant not THAT long ago.  I just can't seem to wrap my head around what's real.  I think that's normal :) Still, puzzling nonetheless. My man is going through a stronger nesting instinct than I am....it's sweet to observe.  Yesterday he went on a massive organization whirlwind around our house, reorganizing our closet, storing unused linens, vacuuming under the bed, putting things in the attic, etc. He even admitted it was due to a nesting instinct.  I realize how lucky I am that my man is a domestic god :) 

[JynxGirl]

Name: Jen

Weeks/Days along: 22 weeks and 4 days along

Appointments: Today was my follow up anatomy scan. The baby still won't show his face, but otherwise looks awesome!

Symptoms: I'm achy in the mornings and have had trouble sleeping the last few nights. Other than that, just a lot of pelvic pressure because of the baby's position. 

Food: Oh, yes please!!! I think I am always hungry right about now. :P 

Exercise: hahahahahahahahahahahaha.... No. :P

Body changes and other milestones: Playing a really fun game of "Will Jen's boobs ever stop growing" right now... the answer so far is no. :P 

Thoughts: I honestly thought I was okay, but the more people nag me about how big my belly is getting, the more upset I get about my weight. Which is still WELL within the parameters for healthy weight gain. I guess it's between the constant twins comments and the "How many days until you're due?" comments that I finally reached a point where I want to hide and not come out of my room until the baby is born. :P

[MeredithA]

Originally Posted by poppyseed2012 

I'm starting to get my birth plan together. My mom is a yoga teacher and is starting doula training and is going to be my doula. I'm very excited about that! And I'm also going to have one of my best girlfriends present. I see a group of midwives, but will be delivering in a hospital. I'm wondering what my husband's role is going to be in the birth. In the book, "Birthing from Within" she says you shouldn't feel guilty if you don't want your husband around and you shouldn't be mad at him if he doesn't want to be around. And at this point, he's not too interested in the whole process. I mean, he's interested in hearing about the birth plan and even making some decisions with me, but he gets queasy around blood and I'm just not sure how it's going to go down. I'm trying to keep an open mind!

My husband was very involved last time - he was right down there the whole time - fascinated with everything going on, haha! He caught our son and is eager to catch this one too. But...I kind of want to catch this baby myself. I suppose it all depends on the position I end up in, but I visualize myself being in the bathtub, squatting, and catching the baby myself. I just don't have the heart to say that to hubby right now. He loves telling people about how he caught DS2 and I don't want to hurt his feelings and make it seem like I don't want him involved because I really really do...oh, I don't know! I guess when the time comes, things will go how they were meant to go and I won't over-plan it. :-) Poppy, what do you want from your hubby as far as birthing? How do you visualize things going? 
 

Originally Posted by BubbleMa 

Symptoms: Heartburn, varicose veins, braxton hicks, "restless leg syndrome" at night, yeast infection.  BLECH!

Originally Posted by mlovesj 

Name: Marisa

Weeks/Days along: 24w 6d

Appointments: Had one last week and all is good.  I need to do the glucose test this week.

Symptoms: BubbleMa/Sarah's update could have been mine:  I have restless leg syndrome (ugggggg) which makes me feel squirmy and uncomfortable every evening.  I need nightly calf & foot massages.  Sleeping at night is starting to become uncomfortable:  insomnia, achy hips, waking to find myself on my back and feeling bad about that. 

Thoughts: Wow, this pregnancy is going so quickly!  That push-pull between eagerness to see, feel, hold, kiss my little girl vs. enjoying this (my last) pregnancy and fully savoring the anticipation (not to mention dealing with all the details & issues that need to be worked out, if at all possible, before we have a newborn's needs to add to the mix) is tricky.  Overall, I can't believe I'm essentially 25 weeks already.  I bet lots of you are feeling the same funny confusion in perception:  is 15 weeks a long time or a short time?  Sometimes May feels so far away ("I've got plenty of time!") and sometimes I think - well, how quickly did the *last* 15 weeks go by??  I was 10 weeks pregnant not THAT long ago.  I just can't seem to wrap my head around what's real.  I think that's normal :) Still, puzzling nonetheless. My man is going through a stronger nesting instinct than I am....it's sweet to observe.  Yesterday he went on a massive organization whirlwind around our house, reorganizing our closet, storing unused linens, vacuuming under the bed, putting things in the attic, etc. He even admitted it was due to a nesting instinct.  I realize how lucky I am that my man is a domestic god :) 

Yes!! Add me to the restless leg club! Mainly restless feet, really. Ugh! 
My hubby seems to be nesting too - - - he re-modeled our closet! He has also started numerous mini-projects around the house and is already developing a method for baby proofing our stack stone hearth/fireplace. Very sweet <3 

[callieollie]

Name:  Katie

Weeks/Days along:  24w1d

Appointments:  Next Tuesday

Symptoms:  Some minor heartburn has started, but nothing a little ice cream can't help.  ;)  

Food:  My appetite has increased a lot this past week. Baby must be growing!  I'm hungry all.the.time.

Exercise:  Finally getting in about 2-3 days a week. I'm doing the elliptical and lifting mainly.  I can do the Jillian Michaels No More Trouble zones easily so I do that. Well, not easily, it's hard, but I mean it's not aerobic so I'm not getting super out of breath (although I still am, it doesn't take much for me to get out of breath) and I like feeling my muscle working and getting strong.  

Body changes and other milestones:  Baby must be going through a growth spurt because lots of people have commented on how I've "popped."  I've been getting charlie horses in my foot when I am teaching swimming lessons and man, those hurt!  And I get sort of numb in my hips sometimes when I'm sleeping, almost like when your foot falls asleep.  I definitely don't feel as comfortable as I did last pregnancy but not super bad.  Just probably more like my first pregnancy.  

Thoughts:  I may be done with my progesterone injections!  I took 2 weeks off to see how I was without it and my levels were OK so I'm to go another 2 weeks without and do a test again next week and see where they are.  I am relieved to possibly be done (they were getting old and painful!) but I'm also a little nervous because my levels aren't super high, but I guess I just have to trust that the doctor knows what he's doing!  So overall, that's good news.  

[cookie_]

Name: Marina

Weeks/Days along: 23ish weeks? I get confused sometimes.

Appointments: Nothing for a few more weeks

Symptoms: My breasts just keep getting bigger and bigger. I can't believe I ever wanted larger breasts when I was a teenager...turns out, they're a real pain in the neck to deal with. I miss my A cup.

Food: Eating weird things now, like burritos made out of chili. And big yeasty doughnuts from my favorite local doughnut shop. Someone last week mentioned eating junky kid cereals like Coca Puffs or something, and all week, I would start desperately craving Cocoa Pebbles around 9pm. Have so far resisted the urge though!

Exercise:  Fell on my butt really hard trying to push the stroller through unevenly shoveled sidewalks on Sat, then fell again later that night on my side because I tripped over a stupid toy in the middle of the floor. I've got a big bruise on the side and my tailbone hurts a bit, so I've been sitting around more than I'd like the past few days, just waiting on things to feel better.

Body changes and other milestones: I feel like my pelvis is breaking from the inside. It's really starting to hurt whenever I stand or walk or get out of bed. The positive thing is that I don't seem to have the SI joint and piriformis muscle pain that I had during my 1st pregnancy so...yay, I guess?

Thoughts: I love this stage of pregnancy! My belly has lost its softness, so it's a hard little bump that I can pat and rub all day long. I am having HUGE rushes of pregnancy hormones, which results in a bit of weepiness at anything remotely sentimental (I teared up reading one of the Llama Llama books to my kid today, haha), but is also giving me such huge rushes of love for my new little guy. Really missing my husband this week, can't wait for him to get home from his business trip, although I do love having the bed to myself. Have begun to construct what he refers to as Pancake Mountain, which is a large structure of pillows all around me...I need it to be comfortable when sleeping, but it does tend to take up a lot of room in our bed. Poor husband is relegated to edge of bed up against the wall, which he generally endures without complaining. I think he's mostly just grateful he doesn't have to give birth and feels like a temporary loss of bed space is a worthy trade off!

Marisa - totally know what you mean about the confusing time perception. I had booked my babysitter to come this Friday so I could go to a yoga class in the morning. She had to cancel and felt very badly about it, but I was like, "Pshaw, no problem, I have like 17 more weeks of prenatal yoga classes I can go to."  Then I stopped and thought, oh my, I only have 17 more weeks to go! 17 weeks to figure out how to handle two babies under 2 on my own all day, etc. And then the next second I was back to ughhhh, 17 weeks sounds so far away.

Cristeen and Jen - Really happy you both had positive scan results this week!

[forestmushroom]

Hey if y'all have weird restless leg stuff going on, up you magnesium... even a bath with epsom salt can really help!  Magnesium helps with healing nerve damage... check your prenatal, and with your healthcare provider, but whenever I get leg craps or feel like that I take a full dose of Mag, and feel waaay better!  Potassium can help with leg cramps, too... so have a banana before bed! 

[MLog]

Name: Megan

Weeks/Days along: 22 something I think

Appointments: Friday 1/27.  DH and I are both in denial that it's already the end of January.  How did that happen!??!?

Symptoms: Swollen feet!  Restless leg, but I've always had that, it's just worse now.  And just like Forest said, Magnesium is supposed to really help with that.

Food: Not eating as much.  It seems to go in phases.  I did make an awesome "mexican" quinoa salad (cilantro, black beans, etc.) that I am super excited about!

Exercise: Almost ditched yoga last week, but convinced myself to go.

Body changes and other milestones: Got my second, "Are you expecting?" yesterday. :)

Thoughts: Got the insurance paperwork from all my lab work done back in November.  We have a very high deductible policy with full coverage after we meet it.  Anyway, DH freaked out... I tried to tell him that if we were having a homebirth we wouldn't be paying some lab tons of money just to check my blood and tell me what I already knew.  Contemplating whether to refuse the glucose test.  I exhibit absolutely no risk factors for GD.  We're gluten free and rarely eat carbs so I'm not sure how much I could adjust my diet anyway even if the test were to show a positive result.  Plus from my readings (and Cristeen's info) it just seems ridiculous...

[BubbleMa]

FYI:  Netflix has a prenatal yoga video available for instant download.  I'm not sure how good it is, I just found it and haven't tried it yet.

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Crunch_Yoga_Mama/60036865?trkid=4470002

[poppyseed2012]

Ugh, now I have a stomach bug of some sort. I was in the hospital from 5am to 11 am getting fluids. All through my terrible morning sickness I never threw up and I spent last night not getting a break form it.

Anyone else experience this while pregnant? How did you handle it?