24 weeks, 0 days - Viable fetus!

Major milestone today, folks!  As of today, our baby is viable as in, if he/she were born today, there's a chance he/she would survive.  Apparently, if I showed signs of labor, doctors would do things like have an emergency c-section or try to resuscitate the baby if it wasn't breathing upon delivery.  Prior to 24 weeks, I guess most doctors won't do that.  So, big day!

I have the glucose screen next week on Wednesday.  I'm nervous about it.  I hope I don't fail this time.  Just in case, though, I've been seriously indulging in fruit and it's been lovely.  I mean, there's really no limit on the number of blueberries a person should eat at once, right?  Mmmmm... I could eat them forever, I think.  Hooray for 24 weeks!

We leave for Destin, FL tomorrow with Matt's family.  I'm trying to decide if I'm confident enough to sport a bikini or if I'm going to go the one piece route.  They both have their problems.  I for sure look pregnant, but in the one pieces, I look like I'm fat and trying to hide it.  In the bikini, I think it could go either way but I'm not sure folks would look at me and automatically think, "oh, she's pregnant."  They may just think, "oh, she should not be in a two piece."  Then again, it's Florida so there's a real good chance there will be lots of people who shouldn't be in two pieces flaunting their stuff so I should probably just get over it.  What weird things I worry about.

23 weeks, 6 days - BIG Tony Braxtons

Apparently, in addition to the muscle memory and the speedier delivery, one of the traits of subsequent pregnancies is that you feel Braxton Hicks contractions earlier and stronger.  I simply cannot believe how frequently I have them.  My doctor told me to call her immediately if I ever have more than 6 in an hour and I don't think I've even come close to that, but I have at least a couple every single hour.  I feel like with Henry, I only had a few per day if any.  They did start relatively early (around 20 weeks, I think) but I don't think I even felt them unless I put my hand on my tummy.  This time, I feel a distinct tightening every time and it's a lot more uncomfortable.  Not painful or anything, but certainly not something I think is nearly as cool or to be celebrated as I did last time.  Just very bizarre that they're stronger the second time around.  Why would that be?  Aunt Stevie?  Can  you weigh in on why they'd get stronger for each subsequent pregnancy?  I mean, I understand showing earlier and bigger because  your muscles are all stretched out, but I don't understand stronger practice contractions.

Otherwise, I'm doing great except I'm real frigging tired.  I'm getting pretty sick of reading the Baby Center updates telling me how much energy I'm probably having right now.  Cuz I'm not.  I'm just tired.  All the time.  I guess I do have more than I did in the first trimester when I was feeling so queasy all the time, but I just get so run down so quickly these days.  I watch Amy's family go-go-going seemingly all the time and I try to keep up, but it just makes me so exhausted that I can't.  Maybe it's because I'm out of shape or maybe it's just the pregnancy but I'm real sick of hearing about how much energy I'm supposed to have.  Speak for yourself.  Jerks.

22 weeks, 6 days - Pretty pregnant

So I'm feeling pretty pregnant these days.  I'm for sure showing and I've told just about everyone at work.  They were so nice and kind and seemed very surprised but, of course, as soon as I told them they were able to see it.  Amy is telling people that I've "popped" so yeah, I'm showing.  I still don't think I'm showing much, that it just depends on what I'm wearing but there's for sure a belly there.  Baby is moving moving moving.  I don't remember when I started feeling Henry's hiccups but I'm hoping this baby doesn't get them like he did.  They were cute sometimes, but mostly, they just kept me awake at night.  They were kind of nice because they were predictable so I could for sure let people feel him whereas the movements are so unpredictable that baby might be moving up a storm then stop as soon as I put a strange hand on my belly.  BabyCenter says that we may be able to see Babe moving soon, so I look forward to that.  It was so gross and weird and freaky last time.  I'm pretty excited for it.  :D

Pregnancy is cool and weird but one of the most interesting things I'm finding about it is how little my pregnancies seem to be about the baby on the way.  For me, that is.  My first pregnancy was totally about me.  In fact, I kind of ignored the fact that I was going to have a baby at the end until the last couple of weeks.  It was all about how my body was changing and how I was feeling and how my pregnancy was compared to other people's and how the world reacted to me.  This pregnancy is about how different it is from my last pregnancy and how the new baby will affect Henry.  I haven't thought much about the new baby at all.  It's so interesting.  Sorry little baby.  We'll be thinking TONS about you soon enough!  I'm sure you won't let us do anything otherwise!

22 weeks, 2 days - Belly Pic and Ball park

This was actually taken on 22 weeks, 0 days but I am only getting around posting it now.

As you can see, we've got some definite belly action there.  Below is the 22 week compare from Henry:

As you can see, I've for sure picked up speed with this baby.  This time around, my bump is a lot rounder and more pronounced than it was at 22 weeks with Henry.  That could have more to do with the fact that I've gained so much more weight than I did with Henry, though.  Who knows.  

As far as the rest goes, I'm feeling pretty well other than getting over a bit of a cold.  That makes me tired but otherwise, no real complaints.  I'm kind of emotional and blue lately, getting my feelings hurt about stupid things that normally wouldn't bother me but I think that's to be expected during pregnancy.  

Mother's day was amazing, though.  We went to a Braves game with Henry and it was just about as perfect as it could have possibly been.  I felt a little guilty because the Rehbein clan did a mother's day brunch, but I didn't find out about it until the day before Mother's day and by then, we'd already had our plans set.  I don't know how far in advance Matt knew, but if it was before that, the word wasn't spread.  Anyway, we went to the game and Henry was just an angel.  He was rapt and engaged for the first few innings, then he ate french fries and popcorn for the next few, finishing it out on mommy's or daddy's lap playing with daddy's phone for the last few.  He was just a dream child.  And he seemed to have a really great time.  I went in to get him up the next morning and the first thing he said when I opened the door was, "ba-buh!"  I thought he was saying "Grandpa" so I told him he was crazy and that I was Mama.  He then clicked his tongue and said it again.  I looked at him for a few seconds trying to determine if what I heard was real but when he did it again, I was sure.  He wasn't saying "Grandpa" but "baseball" and clicking his tongue to imitate the sound of a ball hitting a bat.  Ha!  So, yeah.  I think he liked it.  So cute.

 

21 weeks, 0 days - Somersaults and back flips

My goodness!  This babe is AC-TIVE!!  It's funny to me to think that some people don't feel their babies move until they're 22 weeks along because this baby is so extremely active that I can't imagine anyone being able to miss it. It's so cool.  :)  I don't seem to notice a pattern of active and quiet like I did with Henry, but I also haven't been paying close attention.  I just still get excited every time I feel baby get active because it's such a neat feeling.  I wish I had an ultrasound machine so I could see what he/she's doing at any given point.  I can't describe how neat it was to feel baby moving then look at the screen and see what it was that he/she was doing.  Just absolutely amazing.  Pregnancy is fascinating.  I know a lot of people complain about it and a lot of people don't feel well throughout, but man, I just feel so lucky that I have the fortune to experience this incredible miracle growing in my belly.  Even the sickness and moodiness is fascinating.  Our bodies really are cool, cool things.

This week, baby is either as long as a carrot or as big as a butternut squash.  Seems funny because they're so completely different sizes, but whatever.  Baby's growing and that's what matters.

We got the rug for Henry's room yesterday and the paint over the weekend, so it looks like I'm going to need to get started on it sooner rather than later.  I've been feeling so very behind in everything lately and, while there's still 4 months until baby comes, I just don't feel like there's much time.   With the way I feel during the week and how little motivation I have for actual work on the weekends, I'm beginning to wonder if we're going to actually get everything done that we need to.  Really, it's not that much.  We mostly just need to do Henry's big boy room and get him moved in.  And potty trained.  And get a couple of Aunt Le's old chairs reupholstered.  For any Piepers in the audience, I have the deep brownish maroon chairs that Aunt Le used to have in her rumpus room.  They're very faded and the foam is disintegrating, but I love the chairs themselves and want to get them reupholstered in plain linen fabric.  I think that the clean lines of the chairs will look great in linen and then we'll put them in my obscenely large bedroom for night-time nursing sessions.  With Henry, we had a couch in the bedroom, but I don't want to put that back in our room so I'd like to have the chairs done before we have new baby.  I've posted a pic below of what I'm thinking of.  Obviously, this isn't the shape of the chairs, but I'm hoping the finished product comes out to look something like this:

Anyway, that's about where we're at.  Nana sent me a big box of "transition" clothes yesterday, so I have lots to wear now.  She sent me tons of great maternity clothes the other day, too, but I'm liking the "transition" clothes more now because I don't have a big belly yet and maternity clothes really celebrate the belly.  So I feel like they mostly just look weird right now.  But I don't expect it to be too long before I need them.  So exciting!

20 weeks, 6 days - Announcements, announcements, announcements!

I sent out an announcement email yesterday to make sure all my loved ones knew.  Most of them do but I was worried that I'd missed someone and sure enough, missed a few someones I did.  Like the entire Pieper side of my family.  Eek!  Talk about an oversight!  My goodness.  But anyway, that's a huge check off the list of things to do.  Been meaning to do that for a LOOOONG time now.  I sent out the house and baby announcement in the same email.  Here's what I sent:

Big news on our home front!  We've moved!  Of course, that happened back in February, so there's a good chance you've heard this big news and it's not big news anymore.  But we built a lovely home just a couple of blocks from Matt's parents' house.  We have a nice sized yard and plenty of room for guests so please take this as an open invitation to visit us whenever!  I've attached a pic of our house from the close date below.  Who'd have thought we'd close during a snowstorm... in Georgia?  My goodness.  Anyway, our new address is as follows:

214 Westwind Drive

Newnan, GA  30263

Henry boy is growing like a weed.  As he approaches his second birthday, he's talking up a storm (though not always legibly) and expanding on his silly and sassy little personality.  Since we moved down to Newnan, he's been going to a Montessori school for a few hours a day, 3 days/week and then spends the afternoons with Aunt Amy or Grandma (in addition to living a couple of blocks from Matt's parents, we're about 5 miles from his sister and her family).  Henry loves playing with his big cousins and it's been really cool to see how much braver he's gotten by playing with the older kids than he had playing with kids his own age at daycare.  It's been a pretty good transition all around.  I've attached a couple of pictures of him that we took back in March.  He looks pretty much the same, though he has a little more hair now than in these pics. 

Other than that, Matt is still working nights at CNN and I'm still working days at IBM so we see each other on weekends.   It's not ideal but we both have jobs, so there's not much to complain about.  

Hope all is super and that life is treating you grand!

love Manda, Matt, & Henry

I got back quite a few responses asking for clarification on Hanky T's tshirt, but mostly, it was just congratulations.  

No real updates otherwise.  Still just plugging along.  Nana sent me a BUNCH of super cute maternity dresses that don't look like maternity clothes so I've been wearing those to work.  I feel so much better now that I've got some clothes that don't look frumpy and that actually fit me.  We have the glucose test scheduled for the first week in June.  I'm a little nervous about that as I failed it last time then had the absolute worst day of my life after I took the follow up one.  Hopefully I'll pass the first time this go around.  I do not want to repeat that second level test, egads!  And that's about it.  Almost 5 months along!  So crazy!

20 weeks, 5 days - Ultrasound video!

Ok, let me start by apologizing for not yet posting the ultrasound pics.  I tried to last week but the pics I took of the pics were too small to see anything.  Matt took video of it, though, so I've attempted to include it below.  I've never added a video to a blog before, so if it doesn't work, sorry.  If it does work, however, you should be able to see a little arm up around the head now and then.  I don't know if you'll be able to distinguish anything from it but I feel like it's easier to see stuff in the video than in just a pic.

Anyway, all was awesome at the perinatologist.  Really.  It was pretty much as awesome as Holly's story was upsetting.  Our tech was great and then the doctor came in and was just... awesome.  He introduced himself and asked if we had any questions, told us what he does and how he's different from a regular ob, then walked us through every single thing he saw on the ultrasound.  It was really magnificent.  I don't wish he was my doctor (because that would mean we had a problem making us high risk) but he really was great and I had a fantastic experience with him.  Thank you, Dr. Gomez.

I felt a little sad when I saw the other ladies in the waiting room, though.  Maybe they were there because they're also 35 but maybe not.  Maybe their babies have some sort of genetic abnormality.  Or the mama is sick somehow.  It just made me very sad to see all of them in the waiting room.  I just looked at them and wondered what it was that made them high risk.  

Anyway, long and short of it is that everything is great!  Baby looks fine and is quite punchy.  Ha!  Really.  The tech kept poking him/her because she needed him/her to roll over to finish her measurements and at one point, Baby started punching the spot where she was poking like he/she was hitting a speed bag.  Bam bam bam bam!  It was really funny.  Ultrasounds are so very cool.  It's so amazing to both feel and see what's happening at the same time.  I loved feeling the baby move and then being able to see what he/she was actually doing.  Dr. Gomez said that Baby was lying face down and head down with his/her legs straight out.  And I could see that his/hear arms were up over his/her head.  Ha!  So much for the pic of a baby all cramped up tight like a little ball.  Not this one!  Baby's feet are way up under my ribs, I guess.  I can't believe my uterus was up that high, but when Dr. Gomez was looking at the feet, he had the ultrasound thing really up in my ribs.  So again, maybe that's why I don't have much of a bulge; if baby is all stretched out, what's there to bulge?  Silly baby.