38 weeks

I haven't updated about this pregnancy in a while. I feel guilty about that when i look back and see the weekly updates I did while pregnant with the twins. Lets just say with two year old twins running around, and not on bedrest I have a LOT less computer time.

I am 38 weeks today! After having an incompetent cervix last time, I think everyone, myself included, figured I would have delivered already or at least be on bed rest by this time. Nope! I am doing great.

We found out at 36 weeks that we aren't having a little girl like the Dr. had told us at 20 weeks. Nope this baby is all boy. He showed off his parts very clearly. At first I was quite upset with this news, not so much because I cared wether I was having a girl or a boy, but because I had spent 4 months thinking, planning and dreaming about another little girl. After a week or 2 of getting used to the idea (including a fun shopping spree for boys clothes), I am more used to the idea. I am so glad I found out before he arrived though, as the shock of finding out at the hospital would have been crazy. Especially since I had already packed my hospital bag full of pink.

My blood pressure continues to be a worry. Much less of a worry than we thought it would be at 18 weeks though. I occasionally will have a higher than desired reading, but for the most part it is staying down in the normal range. As the end of the pregnancy approaches my fingers are crossed it stays steady, so I can let this baby bake as long as he wants to.

Because Anna and Alex were both breech last pregnancy, I had to have a C section. This boy got head down around 32 weeks and has been that way every ultrasound since then. This gives me a good chance of being able to have a VBAC, or to push this baby out, as my OB says. Due to my previous C section I can't be induced though, so we have to wait for him to want to come on his own. As long as my BP stays okay that isn't a problem, but my OB is worried that it will start to rise as we get to the end, or that my placenta/fluids will decline because of my BP. Fingers crossed I go into labour before my OB wants to do a repeat C section. I am enjoying being pregnant right now, am not even that uncomfortable and wouldn't be in a hurry for him to arrive, EXCEPT for the worry that if he doesn't come in the next week or so it will be surgery for me. Cross your fingers, pray, send positive vibes, whatever...

I love feeling this little dude move. He tends to have a real sleep/ active cycle. It is either go go go with lots of kicks, or very little movement. His kicks are getting much stronger. I love sitting looking down at my belly dancing away. I was resting a cup of tea on my belly the other day and he kicked so hard the cup bounced and spilled some tea. As excited as I am to meet him, I will miss being pregnant for sure.

Renovations are over!

Finally, after 4 1/2 months of living with renovations going on, they are all finished. We started the project to finish our first floor and to open up the main floor living area in March this year. Like all renovations, we ran into bumps along the way. Things we hadn't planned to do, ended up having to be done, as we found damage to our house from rats, ants, water and previous builders stupidity. All these issues are fixed now (fingers crossed) and we are very happy with how things have turned out. It is lovely living in a finished (although what house is ever truly finished, I already have ideas for future projects) house for the first time in either of our lives. The kiddos love having more space, a play room for their toys, and a deck to hang out on.

Turning 2!

The twins had an exciting day yesterday celebrating their 2nd birthday. They had a whole lot of guests come and received a lot of wonderful gifts. They were incredibly well behaved for 2 year olds and there wasn't one tantrum or sniffle the whole party. Highlights included cake, gift opening, bubbles and getting totally soaked with water.

They had lots of guests, it was a house full! Even though there were less people than at their 1st party, it seemed like more with 2 babies, 8 toddlers and 3 older kids (plus some kid like adults). Mommy , Daddy, Anna and Alex all had lots of fun and hope that their guests did too. Here is who came:

Anna and Alex

Mommy and Daddy

Grammy Olga

Aunt Emily, Uncle James and cousins Sadie and Ava

Aunt Holly and cousin Mason

Aunt Ellie

Cousin Crystal and Mike and cousin Jacob

Cousin Amy all the way from Toronto

Friends Jamie, Ian and the twins Carter and Aiden

Friends Ken and Katharine and Anna and Alex's special buddy Amelia

God uncles Shaun and Leif

Friends Harriet, Sasha and Deirdre

Neighbour kids Hunter, Maddy, Aiden and Blake

There were other friends (hay season!) and relatives who couldn't make it but who sent lovely gifts as well.

Thanks very much everyone!

Happy summer!

It has been summer for a few days now, but hasn't been feeling like it. I have to admit I am one of the few people not complaining as being pregnant I have my own built in heat source. I have been bundling the kiddos up in footed pjs the last few nights though and giving them an extra blanket.

This pregnancy is going very well. My blood pressure, although not as low as I would like, has been doing fine with no more high readings like the one I got at the Drs back in April. As long as I don't attempt to do too much more than the ordinary day to day stuff and keep my stress levels down it is staying just fine. I did my Gestational Diabetes test this week and passed with no issues. I didn't enjoy drinking the sickly sweet orange drink and sitting in the waiting room for an hour though. So glad I passed this one and don't have to do the 3 hour one. My iron levels are low though, so I need to take a supplement to get those up a bit. I don't feel super tired, like I did when my iron levels were low when pregnant with the twins. Other than a day and a half with sciatic pain after doing too much during the move downstairs, I have really had very little pain with this pregnancy at all in the first 2 trimesters. It is soooooo different to be pregnant with a singleton than with twins. I had constant pain from the end of the first trimester onwards with the twins. That could be because I had no cervix left acting as a cushion. My cervix measured great this week on my transvaginal ultrasound, between 4 and 5 cm. I got to see our little girl on an ultrasound this week. She weighs in at over 2 pounds now and is measuring in the 50th percentile. Which is perfect, not too big, not too small. Also got to hear her heartbeat at the Drs office later in the week. I love the sound of galloping horses feet that their little heart beats make.

The twins are turning TWO next week. Hard to believe! Time sure has been flying along. We are having a party for them on the 3rd (Sunday) as their real birthday is on a Monday. They are at such a fun age now, exploring and finding delight in everything.

The renovations are coming along... We started this whole project back in March, and now it is almost July. I do have to say I am getting very tired of having strange men in my house every day. The first few months weren't too bad as they were working on the first floor and we were on the 2nd (main) floor and never really had to see them. Now we are living out of 3 bedrooms on the 1st floor while they work on the main floor. This means that our kitchen/dining room/living room area are all under construction. We turned one of the 3 bedrooms into a living room and have the kids table and chair set for the twins to eat off of in there. I pack a cooler in the mornings with sippies, lunch and snacks for the day. Ian has been home a number of the days, which has made it much easier too, as then one of us can be downstairs with the kids while the other makes meals/fetches things from the kitchen. Soon it will all be finished and we will love living in our beautiful "new" house though. I'll put pictures up on here once we reach that point.

23 weeks tom.

I was just reading the facts on pregnancy tickers. At 23 weeks the baby is supposed to be the size of a papaya, about 12 1/2 inches long, have fully formed ears, fingernails and fingerprints. I certainly feel like I have something the size of a papaya in there when I look down, my feet have disappeared I noticed this morning, I have to bend over a tiny bit to see them. Other than the hardness of my belly and that my normal clothes no longer fit, I really don't feel very pregnant yet. I guess having had twins the first time around and feeling huge from the first trimester onwards, this girl is easy to carry by comparison (so far... I reserve the right to complain in the 3rd trimester!)

I had an OB appointment a few days ago. It went well. She told me I was doing "Awesome" :) My BP was way lower than it had been a month ago. I have really cut salt out of my diet this past month, and it seems to be helping. I am amazed by how much salt is in everything, reading labels is key. My taste buds seem to have adjusted to having way less salt too. I took a bite of a pickle the other day (1/2 salt baby dills) and it was so salty I could barely stand it. I used to eat dill pickles all the time. Also trying to take life easier, let people help, ignore my messy house and avoid stress.

I have gained 1 pound so far this pregnancy. And since the baby weighs over a pound now herself, I think that is pretty good. Unlike with the twins where I was told I needed to gain some weight, I have no need to gain any weight with a singleton, maintaining or just a small gain is fine. I figure if you take the baby, placenta, fluid, etc. into consideration I have actually lost weight. I am sure that the scale will go up during the 3rd trimester, but for now I am happy it is staying where it is.

I haven't really bought anything for our new little girl yet, but I did order some newborn cloth diapers. I am excited for them to arrive in the mail. I got prefolds, flats and small sized fitteds and some different styles of covers (including a recycled wool one). I am not sure what else I will really need. I did give away some of Anna's smallest clothes to a friend who had a smaller baby than expected, so I might need a few more newborn and 0-3 month sized outfits. And every baby needs to have a few things that aren't hand me downs anyways...

Team PINK

Earlier this week we went in for the 20 week ultrasound (actually 21 weeks 1 day). I always find ultrasounds nerve wracking. I think it is because the first time I ever had one it was the day we learned our first baby didn't have a heartbeat and that I was going to miscarry. So, since then, I tend to get a little worried.

Everything went wonderfully. They managed (after much poking and prodding to get baby into the positions needed) to take all the measurements, check all the limbs, organs etc. The Dr said everything looked great, that baby was around 1 pound and was measuring around the 60th percentile. Big sigh of relief!

The Dr also knew what the sex was and asked if we wanted to know. We are having a GIRL!

The 2nd part of the ultrasound was done transvaginally to check my cervical length. With the twins at this ultrasound (done earlier at 19 weeks) my cervix had gotten really short (13mm) and I was admitted for a cerclage surgery and spent a week in the hospital on bedrest, before being sent home on bedrest. This time there was much better news. My cervix is staying long (around 50mm) and showed no signs of funneling. Again, big sigh of relief!

Trip to the hospital

I am home again. Went for my OB visit on Thursday and had my BP checked with the cranky nurse (who has gotten really high BP readings for me before when pregnant with the twins), it was really high. Then my OB went to do the doppler and couldn't find the heart beat (she said she thought that she could hear the baby moving, but basically gave up on finding the heartbeat) Well that freaked me right out. So because of those two things, and the state I was in, she decided I should go to the hospital to be checked out/monitored for 24 hours. Because I was now an "inpatient" I got to jump the line and have an immediate ultrasound (all was fine. Baby was just super active, refusing to stay still for more than a few seconds which is why it was hard to doppler the heartbeat.) Got to hear a nice heartbeat and see baby moving, so felt better after that. They kept checking my BP during my stay and never once did it go super high again like in her office. It is up a bit, but nothing to be super concerned about. So there are 2 scenarios. 1) The nurse/equipment at the OB's office sucks and it was a false reading 2) After driving, waiting in the waiting room, seeing the cranky nurse, etc. I was worked up and that shot my BP up , which means that at other times when I am stressed I am probably having really high BP moments as well although that is the only place I have ever had such a scary high reading. So if it is #1 or #2 we really don't know. My OB wants to err on the side of caution and for me to take life super easy at home right now. I am not on strict bed rest, just bedrest when ever possible/limited activities. Pretty scary that at 18-19 weeks I am already having BP issues though. I really hope that I can find help so that I have less to do, and that I can keep myself from being so stressed. With Ian being away, kids sick with colds, renovations, pregnancy, Ian being super worked up/busy at work I have been finding it hard to relax and get good night sleeps etc. I also very rarely have any time away from the kids, if any. Being in the hospital for 24 hours I realized I need to take more time for me, to just relax and to not constantly be on the alert of what the kids are up to.