23-24 weeks

It has been so long since I have blogged.  I am continuing to read everyone's stories and although I am not commenting I am following each and every one of you so very closely.

There has been a lot going on, nothing earth shattering...

The Good

I am almost 24 weeks pregnant.  And I am feeling baby girl moving LIKE CRAZY!  I don't know what she is doing in there, but we are in trouble if she is this active when she comes out!  I am still sleeping decent most nights.  My belly is growing!  Our nursery is just about complete.  The only thing we are waiting on is the chair and that is going to be a while, probably will not be here until early/mid March.  But, the painting is done, beadboard/chair rail is up, and we have the dresser, crib, and bookcase assesmbled.  I took a chance and did the one thing everyone tells you NOT to do, and ordered all pieces of furniture without being able to see them in person.  Each piece was from the Land of Nod (associated with Crate and Barrel) but there is no location within driving distance to our house.  After looking at other furniture at baby stores and constantly consulting the Baby Bargains book, I knew this was the furniture we had to have.  It came within 2-4 weeks, the men brought the pieces right up to the nursery, and the dresser was already assembled, and it looks beautiful.  I will post pictures soon, but right now we still have our guest bed in there because Sage likes to sit on it and stare out the window, and it is just too difficult for P to get rid of it right now because of how much time our pup spends on it! 

P and I will be celebrating our 30th birthdays in March, just a month before baby is expected to arrive.   Even though I expected to be thinking about baby #2 by now, the realization tha we are going to have our first baby is a pretty awesome 30th birthday present for both of us!

I had an appt. a few days ago and my belly measured 23 cm which was right on track, my blood pressure was still great at 106/62, and she picked up baby's strong heartbeat right away.  Because my alpha-protein levels came back high in November, we need to begin our serial growth scans to make sure baby girl is still growing appropriately and the placenta is working.  So, we have our first (of three) sceduled for 2 1/2 weeks from now.  We haven't seen our little one since that scary high risk ultrasound, so as long as everything looks good, it should be a much more fun u/s for P and me where we can hopefully get a few more pictures!

I love my OB.  I was iffy about her in the beginning, but since dealing with the scare a few weeks ago, she has been wonderful.  She is very proactive and I feel my baby and I are getting the best possible care which I am so grateful for. 

I also found out that the twice a week NST will not start until 32 weeks.  I had originally thought they were going to start at week 28, but was wrong.  That seems a lot more manageable.  Either way, March and April are going to be crazy going back and forth from work to the doctors.  So, let's hope January and February stay calm with no "surprises."

No stretchmarks, yet!

The Bad

December was a tough month for us as a couple.  We seemed to have turned a corner and we are doing a lot better now.  Marriage is hard, infertility makes it harder, and pregnancy after infertility (although some people claim it makes their marriage so much stronger) can be extremely difficult. 

There are reminders everywhere I turn of what was taken from P and me.  Everywhere we turn another couple is announcing they are pregnant, some with their second.  It continues to knock the wind right out of me.  I am hoping that once baby comes these feelings will slowly fade away even more, but the pregnancy announcements still sting, especially those announcing their second.  Those sting A LOT.

Physically this pregnancy has been pretty easy, but a few days before Christmas I started developing a lot of pain in my lower left back/hip.  My OB thinks its sciatica and wrote me a script for a PT evaluation...hopefully we can get that under control quickly.

The Ugly

Shaving?  Haha, let's just not even go there.  There are way too many parts of my body that I can no longer see. 

When my OB asked what my pre-pregnancy weight was I STUPIDLY gave her the weight I was at the morning of my egg retrieval: 123 lbs.  Between losing some weight right before IVF, not being able to eat for 12 hours because of the surgery, and lots of anxiety, I had lost 4 or 5 pounds.  Meaning, that weight was not even close to being my typical everyday weight!  Now I am up to 140.  So, when she told me I was up 17 pounds I wanted to say...wait wait wait haha!  My real pre-pregnancy weight is more like 127.  But, she didn't have a problem with the weight gain because I am still pretty tiny, so I guess I will just go with it!  (And secretly tell myself I am only up 13 pounds, not 17!)

Oh yeah, my pregnancy pants, those pretty much don't fit anymore!  I bought them around 12/13 weeks and they have been great for the last 3 months, but I am definitely running out of room.  No way I can survive the next 16 weeks in them!

That's about it for now, I am going to try and get back to blogging regularly, but sometimes life just gets in the way!  As I write this, baby is giving me a few quick kicks in the stomach, possibly to remind me I have no idea how busy life is actually going to get this Spring!