27.5 weeks

As of two weeks ago I am officially going every two weeks to the doctor.  The doctor has never really said why I need to do this so early on.  I'm assuming because of my big babies in the past they are considering me high risk, and want to keep an eye on me so this one doesn't get too big to deliver.

My appointment on Thursday was a long one because I had to do the glucose test.  The appointment lasted for two hours.  Allie was a gem the whole time!  She even charmed the nurses into giving her a cookie and sticker.  The actual time seeing the doctor was quick.  She did take the time to measure my belly and I'm measuring a 30 {ie two weeks ahead in size}  Nothing too surprising to me about this since I measured ahead like this with both Lily and Allie.  However the doctor seemed a bit surprised and concerned.  A bit of good news from the appointment was that my blood pressure is holding steady at normal.  It had been high at the beginning of the pregnancy, but now it appears to have leveled out.

On Friday the nurse called with the results from my blood tests.  I was completely in shock to find out that my glucose numbers were "really good".  I was expecting bad news on that.  At least I don't have to worry about it too much from here on out.  However, the bad news the nurse delivered is that I am a bit anemic.  At least I know why I've been more tired this time around!  The fix is easy enough, I just have to take an additional iron pill.

What would be a pregnancy update without pictures?   As you can see I grew quite a bit the past month! LOL!

99 days of pregnancy left...99 days of pregnancy...

{Please sing the following tune to 99 bottles of beer on the wall}

99 days of pregnancy left

99 day of pregnancy

You cross one off

You pass out in a chair

98 days of pregnancy left!

Can't express how excited I am that only have 99 days left of being pregnant.  Honestly though it is because I will be snuggling with my new little one. YAY!

Pregnancy Update

I won't lie, this is going to talk about the woes of pregnancy.  But as a HUGE disclaimer I promise not to be too whiny, because even I don't appreciate reading my whinyness.  I also need to write this somewhere so that in the future I don't have to ask Russ "Was it this bad last time?"

The past week has been quite rough.  It actually started the weekend of the 11th.  I spent a lot of time that weekend walking around, bending down, and doing other activities that I know aren't good for my hip problems.  I began feeling the pain start creeping into my hips and pelvic region.  I tried to rest, but it didn't work to well.  Last week it all caught up to me.  I finally got to the point where I couldn't move without my hips popping or grinding, or the pain being so intense that I would cry out.  I also felt bruised in all of my hip/pelvic region.  Not only that but me not sleeping enough caught up with me at the exact same time.  On Thursday I was falling asleep while playing with Allie.  Who falls asleep sitting up?  I felt bad and had to skip a Primary meeting that night because the pain was so intense and I was falling asleep.  Russ took care of the kids for me and I took a nap, a bath, then went to bed early.

I write this not to whine, but as a reminder that I need to take care of myself.  In case you are wondering, no the pain is not gone.  It won't be for at least 3 more months.  Sometime after baby comes it will mostly go away.  I learned from Allie though that it never quite goes away 100%.  The goods news is that the pain has lessened some and I have caught up on some much needed sleep, so I'm not nodding off during the day.  I also feel like I can function as a mother again during the day.  Slightly important when your hubby is gone all day at work and you are at home with the kids :)

Emotionally I was spent last week as well.  I guess the hormones are really kicking in.  I spent a lot of time crying and feeling sorry for myself.  After dragging myself to the General Relief Society thing, I felt much better.  The talks were wonderful and talking with friends before hand lifted my spirits.  I hope I can keep these nasty hormones at bay for a little longer, so I can enjoy this time being pregnant.

22 weeks

I hit 22 weeks today!  How exciting!  I love when you reach a point in pregnancy that you are able to see that you are getting close enough to the due date that you can start counting down.  I'm counting down months right now!  Four more to go!

Wednesday I drove up to Houston to get my ultrasound done.  I had been contemplating taking Allie with me but around Saturday I decided to leave her with a friend.  I'm glad I did.   The ultrasound itself turned out to be over an hour long!  BGJ #3 just didn't want to roll over so the tech could measure her stomach and heart.  Two of the most important measurements according to the tech.  During the ultrasound I had to do a lot of rolling over to see if I could get the baby to move.  Oh and lets not forget that the tech was really digging into my stomach to see if she could push the baby over.  {I came home feeling sore and bruised from it all}  

The tech was wonderful through the whole procedure.  She was very talkative and pointed out every little thing she saw.  She laughed as the baby fought back against the ultrasound wand.  We watched as she kept punching at it and kicking.  I wasn't feeling a whole lot of the movement but it was fun to watch.  Baby also kept moving her mouth during the whole thing and the tech joked that she was yelling at us to leave her alone! LOL!  Towards the end baby FINALLY turned just enough that we got the measurements.  I was excited when the tech handed me a ton of photos and said that I wouldn't have to come back for anymore ultrasounds.  Which in turn means that she got a complete ultrasound this time {no thanks to baby!} and that my placenta had migrated enough that it is not a concern anymore!  WAHOO!

The doctors visit was very routine.  We discussed that I had gained some weight {5 lbs} which was okay since I hadn't gained any weight previous to this.  It was also a relief to here that my blood pressure was a little bit below normal, which is where it normally resides.  I really think that my blood pressure was going high because I was having so many migraines.  The migraines of course were due to the fact that the nurse practitioner had me go off Clariton.  Lastly we discussed that I would have to take the Gestational Diabetes test next time.  YUCK!  I'm crossing my fingers that since my blood panel two months ago came back normal, that my blood work this time will come back normal.  Oh!  I almost forget the doctor told me that the weight of BGJ #3 right now was measuring at 14 oz, or the 45%.  Still below average and quite a bit below the other two girls!  I hope I'm not just pumping myself up to later be disappointed with a 10 lb baby.  The only problem at the visit was that the doc did seem a bit concerned that the size of my uterus had jumped quite a bit in just a month.  She measured me and hmmm over it.  Even without her telling me what I was measuring I could tell that I had grown about two inches.  That isn't normal :(

After my next visit I will be going in every two weeks.  For some reason this feels REALLY early to me.  I don't remember going in that often this early before.  The only thing I can think of is that they've classified me as a high risk patient because of Lily and Allie's weight coupled with the gestational diabetes.

Well, how's about some pictures?

First off, here's me at 22 weeks.  I jumped a lot in size this month! I'm not so small anymore :) And why can't I have the cute round pregnant belly that everyone else has?  Why most I have the lumpy bumpy one?

And here is BGJ's arm.

Her feet

Her profile

And her working on being an alien! LOL!  I think this was when she was mad about being poked so much! Hehehe!

And just for fun I created this scrapbook page the other day.  What do you think?

To be determined...

I used to be so good at blogging every day.  Not sure what happened, but it appears I'm lucky if I blog once a week let alone once a day.  That being said, thank you to all who have patiently waited for this "report"

We got a babysitter for Lily and Allie and excitedly drove the hour to the TWH.  They technicians got me in right away.   Russ had to be separated from me for a bit while they checked my cervix.  He was a little impatient about that.  Once he was allowed in the tech began checking me out and then the baby.  

While searching for my placenta she stopped on the baby's face for a minute.  Russ and I both laughed as we saw the baby chomping away at something.  We couldn't tell if the baby was sucking its thumb but it definitely was moving its mouth. 

After awhile the tech started showing us the heart, the spine, the leg bone, etc.  I kept watching that silly baby moving around.  I found it funny that the baby looked like a boxer.  Both hands were curled up by its face like it was getting ready to punch someone.  As the tech pushed really hard on me to get a picture of something the baby totally jumped.  On the screen it went from high to low to high again.  That even got the tech to crack a smile.

The tech finished taking measurements and told us that she needed to type up the report but to stay there.  After about five minutes she came back, handed me an envelope, and told us that we were all done and to give the envelope to the doctor.  Russ managed to sputter out, "well, aren't you going to check the gender"  The lady proceeded to tell us that she wouldn't be able to see anything because the baby was smaller than normal and I was early for a gender ultrasound anyways.  Russ prodded her to atleast check.  She sighed and said told us that unless the baby gave a "super clear" shot she wasn't going to say either way.  We agreed that was fine.

So after a few tense moments baby showed its stuff.  I turned to the tech and said, "That's a girl right?!"  She agreed and said she was fairly sure it was a girl but we should get it double checked and my next ultrasound.  So we have been telling family that it IS a girl because come on, if I could tell then it must have been a pretty clear shot.  Next month I do go in for another ultrasound which we'll double check the gender.

We did get to unfortunate bits of news from the ultrasound.  First because the baby is measuring small {16 weeks} the tech was unable to capture all the measurements she needed.  She couldn't even see the chambers of the heart because baby was so small.  The other news was that my placenta was close to my cervix.  We are hoping at the next ultrasound it will have migrated upwards so that I don't have to continue to have ultrasounds or ultimately have a c-section.  Wouldn't it be ironic to have a smaller baby but have it by c-section?!  I'm not stressed about either of these bits of news I'm just slightly annoyed that I have to make ANOTHER trip to TWC.  This will be my fourtth trip in four months.  I was only supposed to make four trips in my whole nine months.  Well, to stop dwelling on the bad I have two pics to show off sweet Baby Girls Jones  #3!

First up is BGJ's backbone

And then a lengthwise pic of BGJ where her head looks alienish!

And lastly I know I've said that I'm smaller this pregnancy and I was proved right when BGJ was measuring smaller but this belly shot really makes me look H.U.G.E...but I'm not I swear.  I got these fabulous pregnancy jeans on clearance for $6.  The only problem is that they don't fit me....yet.  If I jump around too much they actually fall off. LOL!  Since they are so big they poke out all over making me look much bigger than I am, including my belly.  Yeah, so don't think I'm a liar or anything....