A Great Day for Appointments

Despite it being only 4 degrees (with wind chill of -11), it turned out to be a wonderful day for doctor appointments.  Our first stop with MFM.  Before we even started the ultrasound, I told the text that he is very much awake and active.  This was one of the first ultrasound baby was breech.  We did a little bit of moving, but let the text get in all of her measurements and we even got 2 beautiful 3D pictures.  You can see his hands were at his mouth in one of the pictures. Then we she unfroze the camera, we were able to watch him suck his fingers and see him swallow on the screen.  It was so neat!

All of our measurements came in good.  My cervix was just 2 mm shorter than last time but still long and closed.  We were use to seeing a head pushing on my cervix, but this time it was little legs moving in the screen shot.

Next, I had my OB appointment.  After the u/s, that's a rather uneventful appointment.  He just listened to the baby's heart and measured my belly.  All done!  I will have another appointment with him in 4 weeks, but I'll have to go in before for my gestational diabetes test.

Mommy/Baby Stats
Weight:  I'm .10 of a pound below my ppw.  I think I'll get there this week since I'm still off of work and not so active.

Sleep:  Been doing real good!

Symptoms:  None!

Cravings:  Ice cream whenever I can!  I don't know how so much time as gone past, but Baby will finally have his first taste of crab legs and lobster tomorrow night for New Year's Eve!!!  I'm so excited for both of us!

Movement:  He is very active.  He had a schedule going, but I think with me being home for Winter break, it is all thrown off.  Now, I just feel him moving and rolling all throughout the day.  Some kicks have been hard enough to see my stomach move and for the kids to feel.

Next Appointment: January 13 for another cervical check.

Baby size: Personalized to him this time- he is estimated to weight 1lb 5 oz and measured about 3 days ahead.

22 Weeks

Yesterday, marked the beginning of week 22.  For my past 2 pregnancies, this has been the point of heartbreak.  This coming Monday (12/23) will be the longest I've been pregnant since over 2 1/2 years. I am so grateful that everything is going in our favor.  Now on to 24 weeks when we reach viability!

We had another cervical check last week.  Everything was closed and measured fine. Baby again continued to be difficult.  He refused to give us a good picture. Once the tech got the good view, he threw his arm up to cover his face.  Then turned his head into my placenta.  We'll just have to wait until next week.

Mommy/Baby Stats:

Weight:  I'm still below my pow, but I'm getting closer.  By the time we are done with Christmas, maybe I will have gained that last pound.

Sleep: I getting longer stretches of sleep several nights a week.  Still wake up throughout the night, but not staying up that often.

Symptoms: Doing pretty good with the indigestion.  Sometimes it gets hard to stay sitting up for 2 hours after eating.  Itching is probably my biggest issue right now.  Between stretch marks on my stomach and eczema every where else, the itching is making me crazy.

Cravings/Aversions: nothing exciting

Movement:  He moves quite a bit.  Haley has been able to feel him move once, but he won't budge at all when Chase comes around.  Baby also gets really excited at loud events (school Christmas Concerts).  I've also started doing kick counts (trying to feel 10 kicks in 2 hours).  Most of the time, I feel all 10 kicks in less than 1 hour.  I'm started to learn his wake patterns and he's pretty active between 7:30pm-8:30.

Next appointment: On Dec 30, I'll have a cervical and a growth check with MFM.  Then, we'll go to OB for the last monthly appointment before we move to every two weeks.

Baby's size: He should be about the size of a large banana, weighing about 1 lbs! He has eye brows and lashes and maybe even a little hair is starting to grow on his head. He can hear my heartbeat and my voice as well as recognize out voices.

Anatomy Scan

Today was a busy day with 2 doctor appointments on completely different parts of town.  The first appointment was with MFM for my anatomy scan. It went great!  Baby was perfect.  I laughed at how it used to be that as soon as the baby was born, mom and dad checked to make sure that baby had 10 fingers and 10 toes.  Well, we were able to do that today!

My placenta moved, so placenta previa is no longer a concern and  my cervix was also long and closed. Now, it looks like I'll only have to more visits to check cervical length and then my visits will be more for monitoring his growth.

Baby at 19wks 3 days

Then after a quick ice cream stop, we headed to my OB appointment.  This was another quick and uneventful appointment.  We listened to the heartbeat, which is now easy to find because he is getting so big.  I'll have one more appointment with Dr Saikie in 4 weeks, then I move to every 2 weeks.

Mommy/Baby Stats

Weight: I'm still down albs from my ppw, but I think the chocolate chip cookies the kids and I were eating and then Thanksgiving helped with my gain last week.

Sleep:  Still keeping strange hours.  Can be up for an hour during the middle of the night and other times can sleep straight through the night (expect for bathroom runs).

Symptoms:  Some form of indigestion everyday, usually pretty mild.

Cravings/Aversions:  Cravings very, but nothing strange or unusual.  Aversions- still no McDonalds (except for a large Hi-C orange) and now no Cousin's Sub (the seasoning is suddenly disgusting).

Movement: I feel baby move several times throughout the day. It was fun to see what he was doing on the ultrasound as I was feeling the movements.  He is partial to the right side of my stomach. My stomach can be visibly lopsided at times.

Next appointment:  So far my next MFM appointment is scheduled for Dec 16.   Luckily no more tests for a while.

Baby: He measures about 6 inches and is about the size of a mango!  He is also about half a pound.