2 pounds, 14 ounces

Today I had a doctor appointment at the high risk clinic to get a growth scan. Basically an ultrasound where they measured the baby to determine how big she is and to make sure she is growing like she should be. First they took my blood pressure, 114/76 - perfect! I guess it isn't going up yet, or maybe it won't! The ultrasound tech showed me everything and explained what we were looking at, I swear I think they must see in 2D as much as she could see. I did find out the position of the baby and it wasn't really what I thought. She is head down but over on the right side of my body and her face is facing left. Her back is all along my right side, her butt is in my upper right corner just under my right boob. Her little legs are up top on the left side under my other boob. So basically she is in an upside down L type position. Sorta, because one of her legs was over her face for some of the exam. And for some of the exam her legs were crossed. I can't picture it. Anyway she is still a girl and still quite nameless. She was sleeping when the exam began and her resting heartbeat was 147. She, of course, woke after being poked on and because I was laying on my back she tends to wake up when I lay like that. I got to see her bones, her heart, her kidneys, her brain, and a few other things that you wouldn't expect to see, like her eyelids. While being examined I also found out that the very annoying feeling I sometimes get is her legs pushing out against my stomach. I guess maybe she stretches. Oh and I also got to see her swallowing a few times, and she stuck out her tongue. I saw a lot in the 20 or so minutes it took to do the exam.

Anyway everything was fine, she is measuring right on, her heart and brain looked good to the tech and doctor, so I go back in 4 more weeks to get another growth scan. I will also have to start going weekly to be monitored at that point, and that I am not looking forward too because that is when you just sit there and they need the baby to move so many times in a certain amount of time, it is just boring. But I will do what I must, and here are the photos from today.

I know most people like the profile picture best but this one is neat, the chin, nose and lips! And I am guessing a hand off to the side. Her little mouth is open, isn't that a unique u/s photo?

I think they gave me about 5-6 profile photos. They all look the same to me, so I just picked one lol.

At first she had her leg somehow over her face so the doctor basically smacked her in the butt a few times to get her to move it lol, and he wasn't gentle. Of course she didn't cry that I could tell haha and she moved her leg so we could get this photo!

I wonder if she looks like Summer? I need to go get her 4D ultrasound photo from when she was 29 weeks and compare ...

I still can't believe I am having a baby. I still can't believe I don't have a name for her yet. I still can't believe I have so much longer to wait!

28 Weeks

I am 28 weeks pregnant. I am 7 months pregnant. I am in my third trimester. I only have 12 weeks left until I deliver this baby - more or less. I am having a baby shower in a month. I have to go register. I had a doctor appointment this morning. It was boring ;o) which is good. My blood pressure was 128/76. I realize I always post my blood pressure, and this is because it started to get high with my last pregnancy and I am really concerned it will get high again. It is up from my last appointment but I am already on a two week schedule so I am not worried, yet. My temperature was 97.5. My pulse was 80. The baby was asleep when the nurse got her heartbeat at 150. Later the doctor checked the heartbeat and it was 160. I am measuring correctly I guess. I am seeing the high risk doctor next Tuesday and then I will get an ultrasound and a growth scan. Oh and I passed my glucose test and my iron levels were normal.

I guess I am doing great. Of course I still feel tired most of the time, it hurts to walk, it feels like the gap between my legs are trying to widen, but at this point that is probably expected.

This week also ends the first week of school. I think it was very successful. Summer is doing great spending at least an hour each day working on letters, numbers, counting, reading, learning! I really enjoy teaching her, and it helps me stay on some sort of schedule. Normally we do her schoolwork first thing in the morning after breakfast, then when we are finished I go clean the kitchen. Here she is from earlier in the week learning how to mix colors. We froze the colored ice cubes and then used them to draw on the sidewalk later in the afternoon.

154.5 at 27 weeks

Weight gain is always a touchy subject, of course not as touchy when you are pregnant but still ... anyway I was looking back to my blog when I was pregnant with Summer, 4+ years ago. I found this post where I was 26 weeks pregnant. At that time I weighed 153. I was just thinking that a week later with this pregnancy I weigh the same. To make sure I went and weighted and at 27+ weeks today I am weighing 154.5. Then I realized that I started this pregnancy 10 pounds lighter, which means I have gained an extra 10 pounds already in this pregnancy. Yikes. I really don't care, in fact I want to go get something to eat right now :o) but how wild that I caught up to my other pregnancy weight. I should realize I am larger than before, Kris had made comments as to how big my stomach is already, as you can clearly see!

First Day of School

Today marks a milestone in my life, oh ya and in Summer's life too because we started school today! I am still getting the feel of it but I have help this time, thanks to a program I found, Time4Learning, I now have some help. Teaching Summer is so easy, honestly, she loves learning and was really excited about starting school.

Of course the day didn't start as I planned, I woke up constipated (thank you pregnancy) and spent a bit of time in the bathroom. I had Summer sit on my bed and watch cartoons while I suffered a bit, but finally we got on track. We had breakfast together at the kitchen table, we got dressed for school, and we were on our way.

We start school each day by looking at the calendar to see what day it is. Then we took our daily blank index color, pick the color we want, and Summer got to choose her word of the day. Any random word. She chose mouse. I helped her write mouse on the index card and then gave it to her with a piece of tape to hang up. I bought these refrigerator daily reminder things that I am using for her performance, every time she does something good, completes a paper or whatever, she gets a sticker. Today she ended up with 4 stickers!

She also writes in her Hello Kitty journal daily. She can write whatever she wants. Today she wrote her name, she wrote "cat" and "dog". She can also draw a picture on her page if she wishes.

After that we worked out of some workbooks. We did the number 1, she had to write it a few times, then she had to write the word "one". We also did some counting where she has to count the pictures and write the numbers out beside it. She is doing so well with her writing, her numbers 1-10 are coming along nicely. Since we were working on the number 1 I went ahead and took out the foam clock and taught her how to tell time. Just the hour times (o'clock). That seemed almost too easy. We did a little addition, added stickers to numbers, I really just went with the flow.

After that we headed over to the computer to start the school preK software. She likes it, I guess we spent at least 30+ minutes on it. We skipped ahead to the PreK2 because it seems a bit harder and she learned about mixing colors. We did the section on mixing colors and for our project I took my ice tray and food coloring and let her see how mixing colors works. It is in the freezer now, as soon as it freezes I will continue using it as a teaching aide somehow.

Overall I am satisfied with how this is going to work, a few hours in the morning and of course the learning never ends throughout the day.

Hopefully I don't wake up constipated tomorrow :o) I guess I will drink more water today, maybe eat a few raisins. The joys of being pregnant ... oh and speaking of my pregnancy, I have less than 13 weeks, which seems like it is getting closer. I bought my first pack of diapers the other day. I have an appointment on Friday, just a normal one I think, oh and I will find out if I passed my glucose test too.

I didn't take any first day of school photos yet because while we did get dressed we didn't brush our hair, so I will try to get some of those later. Until then ...

Loves her babies

Summer really loves her baby dolls. I was not a little girl who played with baby dolls, at least not that I remember, but Summer ... she loves her babies.

26 Weeks

I know I need to take a real picture but look at that belly, well look at how small my feet look. And I am wearing socks because my heals are extremely dry - thanks to the lovely Las Vegas humidity, or lack thereof. So what can I complain about this week?

Actually besides last night I have been feeling pretty darn good. My energy level seems to be up some and I haven't had any complaints, except for last night. I think at most I slept two hours before waking to annoying leg or foot cramps. I went to bed at 9:30, got up at 10:00, walked around, back to bed, up at 11:00, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, 4:40, and finally up for good at 7:00. Today I took a vitamin and I am trying to drink a lot of water in hopes that the leg cramps go away. I didn't really walk a lot yesterday either so I am not sure why I have them. I eat decent and I take vitamins too ...

You would think that I would be exhausted but so far I seem to have good energy. Of course the day has only started, who knows how it will end up, for now I am staying positive and I hope I can get my house clean. I am on my second load of laundry, I have cleaned my bathroom toilet, I did the dishes, I want to do sheets and maybe do more in my bathroom, I want to paint some shirts today and water the flowers out front. I think I can do it.

I am going to have a baby shower on October 1st thanks to my friends. I knew I would be having one, even though I don't need a lot because my friends and I are very big into having parties and if we find a reason to have a party all the better. Once they found out I was pregnant they already began planning this baby shower. I am - scared. Even though this baby is very much alive, very much moves around all day, in fact 4 of my friends felt her kicking and punching yesterday because she was squirming around for over an hour, I still can't imagine having another baby in 3 months. It still doesn't seem real, or it still seems like something bad could happen. Regardless I am enjoying the pregnancy as much as I can, she has a name, mostly, I call her Cora right now. I was talking to her the other day as she kicked around asking her if she was kicking me here and there but I guess until the very end I will probably have my doubt. I do have to go register, and I will need a lot of stuff, little stuff, sheets, clothes, towels, bibs, things like that, but it is really hard making myself do it, because of all the what ifs. What do you do after a shower if you lose a baby, do you give all the gifts back somehow? I don't really dwell on it a lot, or I try not, I will wait until September and go register somewhere I guess.

Can you believe I am having another baby?

Nothing Much

It has been awhile, I guess because nothing is happening, which is a good thing and it isn't. I am starting to wonder how I look to other people because I get asked "how are you doing?" in a concerned voice a lot lately. I either look bad or I complain a lot. Lately I haven't had much to actually complain about, I feel pretty normal, my only issue is how tired I am but I wonder if it has to do with the amount of sleep I am getting, probably more than I actually need. Summer ended up with a fever two days ago but it really only lasted the night and was gone so that is a good thing. I have been experimenting with meals and they are turning out good, tonight I am trying a enchilada soup that is easy, of course these meals are probably better suited for the fall/winter but whatever. I have started reading again, I finished another book (in my 12 series) and will start another today. I took a bunch of pictures a few days ago. Hmmm could that be any more random? I guess we are all just waiting for the weather to cool down a little bit, even tho that isn't going to happen for awhile, one can continue to wait, indoors, in the air. And I was never one to complain about the heat.

Uneventful Appointment

Yesterday morning I had an uneventful appointment. It was just a 4 week check-up and haven't had any issues. The nurse first took my vitals, my blood pressure was 10ish over 60ish, which seems rather low to me but no one else was concerned. My pulse was 80 and my temperature was 98ish. Then the nurse measured my stomach - I guess it measured correctly. She found the heartbeat of 156 after the baby kicked the monitor away twice. Then I saw the doctor, he asked if I had concerns, I do not, so I go back in 4 weeks to see him again. Actually I go back in 3 weeks to do the glucose test - joy. I also found out that I will be going in twice a week when I reach 37 weeks to have the baby monitored. It isn't hard it is just a pain driving all the way across town to do it. I guess it could be worse.

I am starting to get a lot of heartburn and last night I had horrible feet and toe cramps. I drank a lot of water yesterday and didn't do much walking so I am not sure where they came from. Oh well it figures I guess. Just taking it day by day now.