25 weeks

STATS:
25 weeks 3 days
Starting weight: 128
Weight: 142
Waist @ bellybutton: 36.75''
Issues: The baby likes candy and sweets, this can't be good...
How Big Is The Baby This Week? He weighs about the same as a rutabaga (about 1.5 pounds), and is about 13.5 inches long, head to toe.


TJ is gone visiting his family in Ohio this week (I didn't go along for numerous reasons, mainly just because I didn't want to use a week of PTO since I plan on using that during maternity leave). Anyway, since I was all alone over the weekend I decided to get a prenatal massage. It was pretty nice, but every so often the masseuse would rub a part of my back that would make the baby move, and that kind of freaked me out, like he was somehow hurting the baby. So I probably won't be getting another one.

I finally gave in and bought a pair of maternity jeans over the weekend. I still wear my normal jeans, but there are some days when they're just not as comfortable, so I'll wear the maternity ones on those days. I feel bad buying maternity clothes knowing that I won't ever wear them again after August, (yes, except for during the next pregnancy).

I had to go to the lab for blood work this week to do the standard tests for gestational diabetes. I probably won't get the results back until my next doctor's appointment in 2 weeks, unless of course it's positive, then I'll probably know by the end of this week. The stupid nurse guy who took my blood decided for some odd reason to use the vain on the top of my hand instead of the one in my arm like normal people, and now my hand hurts like hell and is all bruised and sore. Then, after he takes 1 vile of blood, takes the needle out, and tells me to be on my way, he says "oh, wait, there's another test they want to run on you, I'll need 1 more vile of blood". Are you kidding? Well I wasn't going to let him use my hand vein again, so I gave him my other arm, which apparently has a bigger vein because he used that one without any hesitation. So I left the lab looking like a pin cushion with cotton balls and tape everywhere.

Oh, and I mentioned last week that I have 3 chairs at my desk at work because I can't find one that doesn't hurt my back. So this week I bought a big exercise ball to sit on instead, and it feels much better. So I'm excited about that. Plus, since I'm basically balancing myself on the ball most of the day, I'll be getting a mini workout for my abs and back muscles while I work :)

I think I might have started having Braxton Hicks contractions. I'm not sure though, I'll have to bring it up to the doctor at my next appointment. My stomach gets really hard sometimes, it doesn't hurt at all, it's just hard. It kind of just feels like the baby is in an awkward position though, so I don't know which it is. Oh, and remember that weird ab muscle separation thing I mentioned last week? Well this week, it's actually started bothering me and being a bit painful, so I did some research on it and found out that the medical term for it is diastasis recti. I called the doctor to see if there was anything I could do to make it feel better (even though I was pretty sure there wasn't), she suggested I buy one of those big ugly maternity support belts, but I don't want to. I guess I'll wait and see if it bothers me enough to go get one in the coming weeks. And in case you're curious about my diastasis recti, below are some pictures of my stomach. The first shows what a "normal" pregnant belly looks like when looking down at it, this is what mine looks like when I'm just standing normally. The second picture is of my muscle separation, this is what my stomach looks like when I tighten my abs:

24 weeks

STATS:
24 weeks 3 days
Starting weight: 128
Weight: 141
Waist @ bellybutton: 36.5''
Issues: I'm really uncomfortable at work. I have three different chairs at my desk and I play musical chairs with them all day long thinking one will feel better on my back, but no luck.
How Big Is The Baby This Week? about the length of an ear of corn.


Here's some uterus information for ya,
(nothing more exciting than this has happened this week):

I noticed something strange a few weeks ago, whenever I sit up from a laying down position, or use my stomach muscles in anyway, I get this long slender bump down the middle of my stomach, from my rib cage down to my belly button. It looks weird, so I decided to ask my doctor about it at my appointment last week. Turns out it's not uncommon, I guess my stomach muscles, (which are usually attached to each other at the middle of your stomach, like interlaced fingers) have separated, and that bump I'm seeing down the middle of my abdomen is my uterus coming through the opening. Gross huh? And I read in one of my books this week that my uterus is the size of a soccer ball, that's pretty damn huge!

So while we're on the uterus subject, here is my bi-weekly uterus shot (from the outside of course):

23 weeks

STATS:
23 weeks 3 days
Starting weight: 128
Weight: 136
Waist @ bellybutton: 35''
Issues: I've come to realize that eating a bowl of rainbow sherbert and a few handfuls of whoppers right before bed is not a good idea. The baby was doing somersaults and jumping jacks for a good hour before I could fall asleep.
How Big Is The Baby This Week? he weighs about as much as a large mango

We had our check up ultrasound appointment on Monday to look at the speck in Kash's brain again. The doctor said that the speck is about the same size as it was 3 weeks ago, which is good. She said that in comparison with his brain, (which obviously has grown since the last visit) the speck is now so small that if this was our first visit she would have never known it was there. She also said that this sort of thing is sometimes seen in very premature babies, and that if it doesn't disappear and resolve on it's own, it won't have any affect on the way anything else works or develops, so it's basically nothing to worry about. She said that if my doctor thinks it's necessary she can have me bring Kash in after he's born to follow up on it. She gave me a ton of pictures this time, mostly profiles of his face close up. She said "what a beautiful baby", and just kept printing them out. So here is the best one (they all pretty much look the same):


The ultrasound tech gave me a few too, but hers are hard to make out. The one below is his profile again, in the same position as the one above, but he's touching his face so you can also see his shoulder, arm, and hand. Can you see it? I know, like I said, these ones aren't as easy to read.


And last but not least, the doctor also gave me a shot of his "goods". We've gone from 90% to 100% boy. This should prove it (in case you have a hard time with this one, the picture is taken from below his bottom, like he's sitting on the camera):


I also had my normal monthly OBGYN doctor's appointment this week. All went well there too. She said that she spoke with the ultrasound doctor and was told that the original speck had disappeared, and that there was now a new super tiny spec, and that she wants me to come back in for another ultrasound in a month to follow up on the new spec. Confused?, me too. I think what happened was that the ultrasound doctor didn't check my file before she did the 2nd ultrasound, so when she saw the "new" spec she didn't realize it was in a different spot and thought it was the old one. Once she looked at my file after I left she realized it was a different spec and then spoke with my doctor. Since I've now been told by 3 different doctor's that the spec(s) are nothing to worry about, I'm pretty sure that the ultrasound doctor is using me as a guinea pig to fulfill her curiosity about the specs, which is why she wants me to come back in a month. And that's fine with me, because I would never be getting this many ultrasound pictures otherwise.

22 weeks

STATS:
22 weeks 3 days
Starting weight: 128
Weight: 137
Waist @ bellybutton: 34.75''
Issues: I'm tired, always.
How Big Is The Baby This Week? the size of a spaghetti squash

I think my belly is starting to get in the way of my everyday activities. When I wash the dishes at the sink, my back starts to hurt becasue I have to stand further away, and lean over more. It's getting a little harder to do my yoga and stretching, to crack my back, and to sleep. And I know it's just going to get worse, 18 weeks to go...

We finished registering for gifts over the weekend, you can find more information about that on the left side of this main page. The theme for the babies nursery is counting sheep, the colors will be light blues and greens. We just ordered some pictures for the nursery walls, of cute little cartoon sheep.


And here are my latest belly pics:

21 weeks

STATS:
21 weeks 2 days
Starting weight: 128
Weight: 133
Waist @ bellybutton: 34.5"
Issues: I'm still sick, I guess it takes longer to get over a cold when your pregnant, bah.
How Big Is The Baby This Week? the length of a carrot

The ultrasound doctor gave me a call on Monday, she wanted to let me know that she spoke with another doctor, who is the head of perinatology at UCSF, about the little spec she saw in Kash's brain. The UCSF doctor told her that they had recently done a study on babies who had that same brain spec show up on their 20 weeks ultrasounds, and that almost all of them had it disappear by the time they came back a few weeks later for a check up. So she just wanted to call to assure me that it is most likely nothing to be worried about at all. But I will still be going back in a few weeks to check up on it, and to get some more pictures of him.

Oh, and we bought a new vacuum. "What does that have to do with the baby?", you might wonder. Well, it's a Dyson, and it's specifically designed to help reduce the causes of allergies and asthma, and if this kid is anything like me or TJ he will have both. Plus the baby will be crawling around on the carpet soon and it would be nice to have it be a clean carpet. You should have seen the amount of dirt and dog hair that the Dyson picked up, that our old crappy vacuum left behind. Disgusting.

Oooh, and I almost forgot, TJ made the baby a shelf for his room! It looks very nice, we just have to stain it now to match the furniture. We need all the extra storage space we can get in this apartment.

I had a strange vision issue yesterday. While I was at work things started to go blurry in the upper right corner of my eyes. It was really strange and it wasn't going away so I started freaking out, I thought I was going blind or something. I called the doctor and they told me to come in, so I did, but all they said was "if it happens again definitely give us a call". My vision went back to normal after about 45 minutes, so it was fine by the time I got to the doctor's office. I wasn't sure it was from my cold or the pregnancy or what. It didn't make me dizzy or anything and I could still see fine (except in that upper right corner), and since my blood pressure was normal at the office they said they don't worry about one time occurrences too much. It still freaked me out though, I've never had that happen before.