27 weeks and Counting

88 more days!!  Yes, that's how many more days I have to go (give or take) until I can to meet Baby JJ.  I'm so thrilled. I know that I haven't been overly drowning you guys with details about my pregnancy or taking tons of belly pics, but I am truly excited to be having another bundle of joy soon.    I guess my fears from my first pregnancy kind of carried over to this one and I was afraid to really put much out there in case something went wrong and then I'd have to talk about that too.

But now the end is in sight. I am down to the last trimester and Baby JJ is doing well.  In fact, the doctors think that he's going to be almost nine or ten pounds once I finally deliver!  Gosh, I sure hope not because Moo was not a small baby and there was some tearing down there.  And let me tell you that while it didn't hurt when I pushed her out, the aftermath was quite painful.  I was soaking my booty in ice baths for two weeks!

Not to mention, a ten baby is going to be pretty heavy to carry around.  Anyways, I went to my 27th week checkup and they gave me my O'Sullivan's test.  It pretty much just checks my sugar level to make sure that it's not high where it would affect the rest of the pregnancy or the baby.  I'm hoping the results will come back fine.  Although, I have to admit it did put a cramp in my style because I had a hard time figuring out what I was going to have for breakfast.

I mean my usual breakfast consists of pancakes with maple syrup, maple sausage, grits and some butter toasted dipped in the syrup from my pancakes.  So, because of the test I couldn't have the pancakes or the sausage and I didn't really want to just eat toast and grits. I ended up dozing back off to sleep until almost eleven.  By then it was time to prepare lunch but I did have some stir-fry I had made the night before while I waited for my lunch to cook. I didn't want to get too hungry.

Oh, I did get pic of the inside of the waiting room.  I'm just so taken with the comfortable furniture and the fact that the Bradford Clinic doesn't feel like a doctor's office at all.  See for yourselves.

The couches are very cozy and I love how the decorative pillows match the foot ottomans.  I kind of cut my foot ottoman out of the pic but it's that blue thing in the corner there to the right.  I still think that it's so cute and thoughtful that they have them for us pregnant ladies to rest our tired and swollen feet on.  I mean I haven't seen ottoman's in any other doctor's office yet.

Well, by now JJ is 2 pounds or a little over that as my doctors think and is almost 15 inches long.  He's opening and closing his eyes and doing a lot of moving.  Because my belly is sitting much lower than it did with Moo, it feels like he's about to fall slap out of my womb every time he moves. In fact, this past week I have sort of been freaked out about it because it's been more intense than usual.

Sometimes, it actually hurts when he kicks or stretches or does his Zumba workout in there. LOL.  It does feel like he's having his own party and has invited some friends to join him.  So now that I'm going to be going to the doctor every two weeks, you all can  look forward to more belly pics and tons more posts about baby stuff.  It just seems like now that I am so close to meeting my little man, I can't stop talking or thinking about it.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  Thank you to everyone who is supporting March For Charity. It truly means a lot to me.  Don't forget to check out our lovely sponsors in the right sidebar.  They have donated some awesome prizes for our Twitter Party raffle. I will be putting up a post about that tomorrow for those who don't understand how it will work.  And if you'd like to donate a prize or gift certificate that would be great. Remember our aim is to raise money to donate to one of these lovely charities that I have and will continue to highlight all this month.

19 Weeks and Counting

Well, I have reached the 19 weeks mark and so far I'm loving it!!  Guess what my nausea and morning sickness seem to have poof and disappeared!! (Knocking on wood).  Yay, bring on the food people.  I've never been so happy to be able to drink a soda again in my life.  I'm telling you when you get pregnant you learn to appreciate the simple things in life for real.

I'm noticing that my energy is slowly draining away.  I'm getting more and more out of breath just doing simple stuff like going down steps or doing the laundry.  Not to mention, I still have to chase after Moo when we're not at Grandma's or when the hubby is at work.  She's a busy toddler who could care less that Mommy is preggers.  All she knows is that there's a ball of energy inside that she just has to let out. LOL.

At my doctor's appointment this week we got our first ultrasound!!  I was beyond anxious to see what was going on in there.  We got to hear the baby's heartbeat.  It was really strong and I have to admit that I cried a little.  It's always emotional when you hear your baby's heartbeat because you never know what can happen.

After the ultrasound, I met with Dr. Zerkle.  He was very warm and has a likable personality.  I could tell that he really enjoys his job and loves making connections with his patients.  One of my biggest fears about choosing a OB/GYN practice was having a gender mixed staff.  However, it wasn't so weird or awkward having a male OB/GYN down there.

In fact, he had one of the female nurses come in the room and assist with my pelvic exam.  And since I knew what to expect, I was a lot more relaxed this time around.  It was also surprisingly quicker than the ones I had when I was pregnant with Moo.  I'm just totally falling in love with the people at the Bradford Clinic!!  I will certainly be recommending them to my friends.

All my blood work from my last checkup came back good except for that fact that my iron level was way low.  No shocker over here though.  I've been anemic since I came out of the womb.  I've been on a different variety of iron pills and nothing has really worked well enough to keep it up.  So, I had to get more blood taken so that they could better access how serious my anemia really is.

While I wait for the results, here's what's going on with my bundle of joy.  At 19 weeks, my little baby is about 8.5 ounces and 6 inches in length.  That's about the size of an heirloom tomato.  So, now my baby weighs same amount as my cup of water.  A little scary once you think about how fragile that is.  Grow baby grow, but not to much.

In the ultrasound, I could see that the toes and fingers were developed.  I got see the brain and how small it was.  When I was pregnant with Moo they didn't point that out to me.  The brain is now designating areas to allow the baby to hear, smell, taste, touch and see.  So, now is a great starting point to start reading aloud and playing music to my tummy. There is plenty of amniotic fluid in there. 

The scalp is just beginning to get covered in hair.  Since Moo had a full head of hair, I'm hoping that baby number two will have some as well.  I know that means I need to stock up on my Tums.  Hair causes heartburn and I had plenty of it with my busy bee.  It hasn't started yet, but I'm going to be well prepared for when it does.

Still no swelling or cankles.  Thank goodness.  I've been making sure to keep my feet and drink plenty of water.  This cooler weather probably has something do with it too.  I'm hoping to avoid swelling as much as possible.

Well, we did find out the sex of the baby.  So, you will have to stay tuned to my next post coming up later on tonight to see what I'm having.  Meanwhile, cast your vote below in the comments section.

Do you think baby numero dos is a boy or girl?

16 Weeks and Counting

So, I know that some of you are curious to know how my pregnancy is coming along because I really haven't talked about it that much on here.  Well, I'm happy to report that I am sixteen weeks and some change and had my first appointment at my new OB/GYN office.  Like most celebs do, I didn't want to start talking about it too much until I was further along in case something happened.  And not to mention, it took forever to get my insurance straight.

I can't begin to tell you all the hoops these people had me jumping through.  Then on top of that my old practice is no longer in business and I had to find a new one.  Well, I am happy to report that I am happy at the Bradford Clinic here in Charlotte.  I absolutely love it so far.  All the staff is nice and so cheerful.  The OB nurse is just full of helpful information and even recommended some tricks and products to help with my morning sickness!!

When I walked into the office this morning, I felt like I had entered a spa or hotel at first.  I'd never seen a doctor's office that looked less like a medical facility in my life.  It was so posh and glamorous.  I'm talking about designer couches, arm chairs and ottomans.  I can I just tell you how much I appreciate them for thinking to get ottomans.  They are pregnant woman's dream when her feet and ankle start to swell up.

And they even had complimentary copies of some of  the latest parenting magazines in English and Spanish.  I could tell that my hubby was very impressed and he looked kind of worried as Moo hopped down from her chair and began exploring the place.  Yes, she going through the busy stage where she has ants in her pants.  That's perfect for when we're at the park, but not so much when we're at the store, church or the doctor's office.

Although, in her defense she is getting better about riding in her car seat.  So, I try to get too flustered when she doesn't sit still in public.  I wish I would have had the hubby snap a picture, but I'm going back for an ultrasound next week and snap a few then.  I've decided to do a better job at keeping a pregnancy scrapbook.  I actually didn't do one when I was pregnant with Moo. I was just so overwhelmed by all the physical and emotional changes of my pregnancy that I couldn't handle the pressure of keeping up with something like that.

However, this time around I feel more prepared.  I know what to expect.  Also, the hubs is more supportive and understanding.  He's able to recognize when I've reached my boiling point before I actually boil over.  He's even making an effort on his days off to let me sleep in and takes over caring for Moo.  Plus, he's pumped about being in the delivery room again.

I was sure that after seeing all the action down there from the first delivery he would be scared off.  But that's not the case.  He actually said the only part that freaked him out about watching was when Moo's head popped out and it was purple.  He was fearing that something was wrong.  Thankfully, I was able to push her out with my next contraction and she started to wiggle around because she did not cry.

Instead, as they placed her on my chest she kind of looked up at us like 'Hey, I know you guys.'  The nurses thought it was the cutest thing ever.  She did however cry when they gave her her first bath.  She was not feeling that whole water thing one bit.  But now she loves it and I can't get her to come out of the bathtub.  Anyways, I've digressed back to my current pregnancy.

My morning sickness is still here but not as bad as it was before. I've learned that drinking lots of water helps. Saltines are your best friend and sodas, cakes, cookies and some candies are the devil. LOL.  Believe or not I've only put on 4 pounds.  Personally, I think the scale at the doctors was broken because my belly looks like it weighs more than 4 pounds folks.  My hubby and family have joked that there might be twins in there.  I hope not.  Three kids all under the age of three would be quite the challenge.

So, at 16 weeks and some change my baby is about the size of an avocado and should be about 4 1/3 to 4 2/3 inches in length from crown to rump.  My baby weighs about 2 3/4 ounces which is roughly 80 grams.  Not much at all.  In fact, my cup of water weighs more than my baby does right now.  My amniotic fluid level is rising.

By now my little one is covered in lanugo hair ( those hairs on your arms, legs, face and everywhere else).  The fingernails are developed and the arms and legs have gotten longer and are flailing about wildly.  Not looking forward to those hard kicks in the middle of the night.  I'm certainly feeling a lot of fluttering and gas bubble action.  It's crazy how much fluttering and passing gas this baby does already.  Guess that's sign to be prepared for lots of stinkiness in a few months. LOL

Also, today at my appointment they took six tubes of blood to test for things such as Down Syndrome, AIDS, identifying my blood type and any other blood disorders that would be harmful to me and especially the baby.  They also took a urine sample to screen for any infections.  Infections can be very deadly for unborn babies as well as the mother if untreated.

So, far I have no sign of swollen feet or cankles.  I do however have some dizziness and lots of fatigue.  I could sleep all day really.  I get tired a lot faster than I used to.  One of the reasons I've avoided going to the malls as much as I used to is because I just can't walk and browse like I want to.  After the third store, I'm looking around for a dressing room to catch my breath in and rest my legs.

Anyways, I've decided to go ahead and find out the sex of this baby.  I wanted it to be a surprise like Moo was, but my hubby wants to know and of course I'll know what it is once he starts buying baby stuff.  He likes the traditional pink for girls and blue for boys. 

3 More Days Until Christmas!!