Baby is Growing Fast

Hi All,

Thought I'd post a picture of my growing baby belly that Jeremy took a few nights ago. It's amazing that I have grown so much in the last 2 1/2 -3 weeks.  I read that from 16-20 months that the baby doubles in size; the baby grows an inch a week at this time and I should gain 1-2 pounds per week during this period. As a result I've been getting lots of new muscle spasms and slight growing pains which is to be expected.

So I finally got some maternity clothes which I need now.  I love my Gap maternity jeans (ladies I highly recommend these as they are very stylish and don't look maternity) and am feeling comfy today!

Can't wait for the 20 week ultrasound which is on April 8. If we cannot find out what the sex of the baby is then we will go to get a 3D/4D ultrasound somewhere.

Jeremy has been really cute and has been playing the baby music on his iPhone at night. Last night it seemed like the baby was responding because I was feeling all sorts of flutters and "fish in a fish bowl" types of feelings. He/she was very active.

I LOVE the 2nd Trimester

Hey ho,

I am now officially 16 weeks as of last Saturday. I cannot tell you how good I feel. It is night and day compared to the first trimester. I have energy up the wazoo (yes, I said wazoo) and am ready to start organizing my house for baby.  I am also raring to go baby shopping.  Of course a lot of that cannot be done until we find out the sex of the baby, so I am in limbo for about another 3 weeks. Sigh.

My nausea is about 90% gone and I can cook most foods again - yay!  Last night I made an andouille sausage and shrimp gumbo.  It was spicy but hey, baby liked it. Spicy doesn't seem to affect me as much as eating too much at once does. Since your food digests slower, I have to keep that in mind and eat smaller, more frequent meals.  Speaking of food, it is time for second lunch!

I also found out that I will get the rhogam shot at 28 weeks, unless Jeremy is negative too.  There is a rh protein that is missing on my red blood cells (that is what rh negative means) and so now Jeremy has to go get a blood test to see if he is negative or positive. Just a little fact: 85% of the human race is rh positive, and 15% (me included) is rh negative.  Go figure. So I can hope Jeremy is negative as well. The shot is an "insurance" of sorts; in case of the small chance (I fall or get into a car accident.... I'm knocking on wood right now) my blood mixes with the baby's blood, then this keeps me from attacking the baby (that sounds horrible doesn't it?)  Not ME personally. My blood, of course.

I'll post a pic of my growing belly soon. It's definitely obvious I am prego now. Either that or I love me some Budweiser.

Well that's it for now.  Time to go eat - again :-)

Vanessa

16 Week Ultrasound

Buon Giorno Friends and Familia,

Hey I have a love of the Italian language, even though I have a vocab of about 40 words.  If I sound prententious, too bad - sue me! I have this fantasy I was of Italian heritage in another life. If you've been to Italy you may have the same daydreams.

So......many of you know that yesterday I had a doctor's appointment to run some 2nd trimester risk assessment tests, and most importantly have a 16 week ultrasound (I will be 4 months on Saturday). I was really hopeful we might be able to find out the sex of the baby, but alas, it was not to be. My doctor's high-tech ultrasound machine broke down, and so the one he was using was a loaner and did not show a great amount of detail.  Boo  :-( In the meantime, we were still able to see the baby and hear the heartbeat, which was fun and also reassuring that the pregnancy is still going smoothly. There will be another ultrasound at 20 months, and the machine they use at that time shows quite a bit more detail (a specialist comes in to run more tests, measure the baby, check out all of its organs, fingers, toes etc.) so we should have a good chance to find out then. I was really looking forward to be able to start buying baby clothes, but I guess I will have to wait a bit longer. :-( Being patient is hard!  I do have to say that when the baby moved its legs, I swear I saw a penis!  But who knows - maybe one of the toes was in the way, it was quite blurry ;-) But now it has gotten me thinking about boy's names. Ha ha!

The good news is the baby is healthy.. he/she was moving around quite a bit. So that is what is important. And in a few weeks I should really know if those "flutters" I feel now are really the baby, or just gas.  Most of the time it is gas. Hee hee.

I had some blood drawn for the purpose of running risk factor tests. They take the blood tests from the 1st trimester, my 12 week ultrasound where they measured the baby and make sure there are no abnormalities like down syndrome, and the blood tests from yesterdays visit, and will be able to give me an overall risk factor for abnormalities. So far 2 out of 3 tests look good. This will determine whether I should consider an amniocentesis (needle where they draw amniotic fluid); right now my doctor doesn't think it is necessary.

Oh and this is interesting (and important) .... since my blood type is A Neg, I might need a Rhogam shot. Because of the blood type, if my blood mixes with the baby's blood during pregnancy, it might distinguish baby's blood as foreign matter, and could start attacking the baby. So this shot would create antibodies to keep that from happening. I will find out in a couple days if that is necessary or not. So thanks mom and dad for the A Neg blood - it's all your fault!  LOL

As far as my growing belly.... the baby is supposed to double in size in the next month (from week 16 to 20), so I assume I'm going to need to buy some new clothes! Right now I am still able to fit into most of my skinny jeans, but have to unbutton them and wear long shirts. That will not be possible in the next few weeks.

Oh and a question: even though I technically won't be a mom yet, but I will be 6 months pregnant in May, does that mean I get to celebrate Mother's Day?  I think the hard work of growing a baby should qualify me to get cards ... hint hint

Here is a video of what is going on with the baby weeks 16-20.  The human body is amazing.
http://www.babycenter.com/2_inside-pregnancy-weeks-15-to-20_10308111.bc

Ciao,

Mommy V