I am so bad about updating this quickly! Oh well. Anyway, so as of yesterday, (May 1st) I am 21 weeks. I have no idea where the time went! I know, I still have a ways to go, and the second half always seems longer. I am really happy to be in this place, and very content to just go with the rest of the pregnancy. No rush at all. I am starting to get a bit nervous about getting everything together in time. And the fact that we live in such a small apartment and there is really no space for baby is hard. I want to decorate the nursery, and I found the theme I want and bedding set. But that will have to wait until we can move in November. I knew I wanted purple butterfly's for our next girl. But I love that this set has ladybugs too. I think it would be great especially if our girls have to share a room.Anyway, going back a bit. I was really frustrated because I felt Aimee moving at 17 weeks and wasn't feeling anything with this little one for the longest time. I felt a few random twitches but nothing that was completely for sure. Then, Easter Sunday (19 weeks 6 days) I finally felt it. We were sitting in the A and W drive through, getting ready to head home from Lebanon after spending the weekend with family. All of a sudden I felt 4 or so big kicks in the left side of my belly. Joe was even able to feel a few of them. I was so happy! Since then I have felt a lot of twitching and bumping in the bottom of my tummy and some off to the sides. It was pretty regular for a few days but has slowed down the last few days. I have to remind myself not to worry too much.
Monday evening, exactly 20 weeks, we went in for the big ultrasound. Everything looked good but the baby was very modest the whole time. The tech tried over and over to see who we are having. She got a shot between the legs with legs closed and said her best guess is that this is a girl. So we aren't really sure, but I'm going with girl for now to keep my sanity! Honestly we were both a tad bit disappointed. We were really wanting a boy. But I'm happy either way. And having a theme to work with and a possible name really helps get me on board. We are thinking about naming her Clarissa Ann. We would call her Claire. We aren't sure yet though.
I've added on the ultrasound pictures. I compared the profile shot of this baby to the one of Aimee at 21 weeks. I can't believe how similar they are. It will be really interesting to see what this baby looks like when she gets here.
I had my follow up doctor appointment on Friday. I've been testing my blood sugar 4 times a day and recording what I eat. After reviewing it all my doctor is happy that it looks like I will be able to control my blood sugar with diet. So I need to be really careful not to have huge sugar spikes or get really low. He also is sending me to a Fetal cardiologist this Friday. He said it was a precaution because of the diabetes. I will go to Springfield and have an ultrasound. So yay for another chance to see if we are really having a girl. But I am a bit nervous that there is something wrong with my baby's heart and he just isn't saying anything. We shall see I guess.
Since I am now 21 weeks I seem to be growing more regularly. I still don't feel uncomfortable. Except for my lower back that is. But that pain comes from my back injury and is just made worse by pregnancy. It is hard to get comfortable and I walk with a waddle from the pain. I'm not looking forward to how much worse I know it will get though. Even though I'm feeling movement, I'm still not feeling like this is completely real. I sure hope it hits me before I have the baby. That would be a hard reality to get used to very fast! I guess I am starting to look a lot more pregnant than I thought I was though. We took Aimee to the carnival over the weekend. We were in line to get on the ferris wheel and the ride operator was 20 feet away. He held up 2 fingers and pointed to us. I shook my head and held up 3. He said no, and made the shape of a round belly. I looked down and laughed. I totally didn't think I looked pregnant but I guess I do!
I'm doing as much research on completely natural labor as I can, and working on writing up my birth and coping plan. I'm still feeling very nervous about labor though. I think partially because I know how hard it is and also because I plan to go against regular hospital practices in a lot of things. I'm praying for peace as the process goes along.
