7 months, I think?

Somewhere in the craziness of my life I think I forgot to do a 6-month blog post. I swear I had one written in my head, but it never made it to my computer. Ah well, such is my life these days. And because things are so crazy, this is going to be bullet points—again.

• Will turned 7-months old yesterday (Really? Where the hell has the time gone?). We weighed him and measured him at home since he doesn't go back to the doctor until 9-months. He was around 18lbs. 12oz. and 27.5" long. He definitely has some chub on him now. His thighs are simply edible!

• He has 4 teeth now. The bottom two came in a while ago, but the top two poked through this past week while I was out of town (girls weekend in Costa Rica—more on that shortly). Let me tell you, these chompers are sharp! I can no longer put my finger near his mouth. With his obsession with chewing on everything and the sharp teeth, I'm in serious danger of losing a finger.

• I think we may have finally lost the swaddle for good. He's been napping unswaddled for a couple weeks, but the last 4 nights have been unswaddled as well. The key? The boy likes to sleep on his tummy. He still refuses to roll from tummy to back but has mastered the back to tummy. In the past he would roll onto his tummy and then get frustrated because he couldn't roll back which would keep him awake. I guess he finally decided to try sleeping on his tummy and decided he liked it. So we now have a tummy sleeper who goes without his swaddle!

• Will has mastered sitting up and occasionally tries to scoot backwards when he's on his tummy. I'm not ready for mobility yet. I'd prefer he stays in the sitting-up stage for a little while longer. He looks like such a big boy when he sits up!

• He's a great eater. We've tried lots of fruits and veggies and some of his favorites are sweet potatoes, butternut squash, cantaloupe, mango and zucchini. He definitely did not like peas and surprisingly wasn't a big fan of apples. I've tried to let him feed pieces of banana to himself but he isn't too interested in that, yet. He is getting better at holding his own bottle, though. Correction, he's getting better at holding the bottle and actually getting the formula out of it. He's been able to hold it for a while, but never really understood he needed to lift it up to get anything. I think he's starting to realize that now.

• Will has always been a very happy, smiley baby at home. But the minute we would walk out the door he turned into Mr. Serious. Over the last week he's starting to come out of his shell. He'll smile and flirt with the ladies in the park or in the store, but still clams up with the doormen to our building. I guess I have a ladies man on my hands.

• We took him to the park a couple weeks ago to see if he liked the swings. Like most things in his life, he was indifferent at first, but after the third time he really started to love them. So much so, he cried when I had to take him out to head home for a nap.

• I spent my first night away from Will. When I was 8-months pregnant and waddling around in 90-degree July heat, a friend asked me if I wanted to go away on a girls weekend to Costa Rica (she'd found an amazing deal!). I figured Will would be 7-months old so it would be OK. Well, I went on the trip and Will was OK, but I missed my baby so much more than I ever thought I would. I definitely needed the break and the rest (working 65+ hour weeks for the past month and starting triathlon training again has been draining) but I would have been happier at home. The trip did make me realize that I need to take/make some time for myself.

• Grandma (my mother-in-law) came to help Hubby while I was out of town. She had such a great time with Will that she suggested Hubby and I take a long weekend for our 5-year anniversary this summer and her and Grandpa would come into town and stay with Will. Hubby wasted no time and booked a long weekend to Rio de Janiero for the end of June. Because we'll only be one time zone away and we're taking overnight flights we are able to maximize our time in Rio without being away from Will for too long.

• As excited as I am for our anniversary trip, I'm also feeling guilty for leaving Will. Before Hubby and I had kids we had agreed to find a good balance between "our" time and "family" time when we did have a family. I know this is an important part of that balance, but it's so hard to leave my baby. I feel like I miss so much when I'm away from him for more than a couple hours at a time. That boy has consumed my love, my heart and my life in a way I never imagined!

It's so difficult to get a non-blurry picture because this boy just 

won't sit still!

Almost 24 week update

As usual I'm running in 25 different directions but wanted to post about my last doctor's appointment, although it was mostly uneventful (I say mostly because there was one measurement that has me a little worried, but I'll explain below in the "UPDATE").

Since I'm short on time I'm going to take the easy way out and use this format:

Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 23 Weeks and 4 days 

Size of baby: He currently weighs 1lb, 6oz based on my last doctor's appointment on Monday.

Total Weight Gain: According to my home scale I'm up 13lbs - and the home scale is the only one I'm really paying attention to since I weigh myself every week at the same time on the same day.

Maternity Clothes: I'm about 90% maternity now. There are still two pair of jeans I can wear with the Bella Band but I'm quickly approaching the end of that. I will say the elastic waist is sooo much more comfortable!

Gender: One super-cute (yes, I'm biased) baby boy. He was in a good position at the last appointment and even the tech commented on his cute little nose when we were looking at the 4-D images:)

Movement: He is an active little wiggle worm. He seems to be most active in the early mornings, but I do feel him throughout the day. Yesterday I was able to see him from the outside for the first time. It was surreal!

Sleep: Not too bad these days. I finally caved and bought a "pregnancy pillow" and it has been wonderful. We're leaving for an 8-day vacation on Friday and I wish there was some way I could take the pillow. I'll sacrifice clean underwear for a good night's sleep anytime:)

What I miss: Sushi. Real sushi, not the faux shrimp sushi I have been making do with.

Cravings: Most of my cravings came in the first trimester and even then it wasn't anything that I didn't already eat. The one thing I haven't had since I was a kid and I simply HAD TO HAVE recently was pistachio pudding. It was heavenly!

Symptoms: I'm still having residual discomfort from the fibriods, but I think that's going to be my new "norm" for the remainder of the pregnancy so I've gotten used to it. I've also started to get some ankle swelling but not full blown cankles...yet.

Milestones:  I'm in an odd in-between period. Because of my vacation next week I had to change my 24-week appointment to a 23-week appointment so it's throwing off the milestones. For some reason, 24-weeks feels like a big number. And I know 28 weeks will be huge when I cross over to the third trimester. For now, I'm on auto-pilot.

UPDATE: Everything went well at my 23-week appointment on Monday, but there was one number that the doctor mentioned. She said it wasn't anything to worry about but the Woowoo's head circumference was on the very low side of normal while all his other numbers were on the high side. He's still in the breech position which can affect the head size. The doctor who reads the ultrasound results didn't even mention it and said the Woowoo was in the 65th percentile and looked good. I'm trying not to freak myself out about the low number, but I admit it's going to be a long 4 weeks until my next growth scan. Dr. Google hasn't been my friend and resulted in some scary findings, so I'm done with him for now. I'm not totally confident the tech took accurate measurements because she only measured 3 of my fibriods when I know there are 6 and the 3 she did measure grew?!?! That makes no sense. The immense pain I was in is a strong indicator that the fibriods have been shrinking, not growing. Anyway, these are the thoughts I'm using to try and keep myself sane and not going into a full blown panic meltdown (I admit I was on the verge yesterday, but feel better today). Regardless, I love my little Woowoo more than I thought I could and want to protect him from anything bad...ever!

I could do this every day

Today was my first ultrasound and it couldn't have come soon enough. I had my first real panic attack last night to the point that I actually pulled out a POAS!

Yesterday morning when I was getting dressed I noticed that I was spilling over the top of my bra (Hubby loved this, by the way). But when I got home last night the girls were snugly back in place with no spillage. This sent me into panic mode and I started analyzing every symptom or lack of symptom I was having. Why are my boobs not as big as before? Why don't they hurt as much? Why does my back hurt? Why am I not as tired as I was last week? It drove me nuts to the point that I woke up at 4:15am and never went back to sleep. All my tossing and turning woke Hubby up. When I told him what was wrong he reached over, did a quick size check on the girls and told me I was being ridiculous. And of course I knew I was, because I had no REAL reason to think anything was wrong. I wasn't spotting or having any severe cramps.

Anyway, I was still a basket case until I was on the table in the Doc's office for my ultrasound. Once I saw the tiny little dark spot on the screen I immediately relaxed. We were able to see the gestational sac and one yolk sac (although he said there was a slim chance there could be another one in there). My numbers came back right on track - 10,082 hcg and 40 progesterone. So despite all my worrying, my little WooWoo (the nickname is a long story for another post) is doing just fine:)

There are still a few annoying cysts hanging out on the right ovary so my attempt at starting this pregnancy off on a healthy track is being sidelined. The Doc said no more running until the cysts are gone. I wasn't going crazy with the exercise, but I love cold weather running so I've been out a couple times a week. It looks like I might need to learn to love cold weather walking instead, at least for a little while.

I must say, a girl could get used to weekly ultrasounds - it's definitely a good way to calm the nerves. I go again next Tuesday when we'll hopefully hear the heartbeat, and I can't wait!! In the meantime, I'm really going to make a concerted effort to not over analyze everything and remain calm. We'll see how well that works...

Wow, this is real

I went in for beta #2 this morning. The office just called and my number more than doubled. I went from 307 to 627. I've been scheduled for my first ultrasound next Tuesday, 1/11/11. I'm doubtful we'll be able to hear a heartbeat then since I'll only be 5w3d so I don't think I'll bring Hubby with me. Honestly, I'm scared I won't make it to that appointment. I'm still really nervous that this all going to go away. I want to be soooo excited and relax and enjoy this, but I keep thinking about what happened last time and how quickly it all disappeared.

I've been having a lot of cramping the last couple of days with some intermittent lower back pain. The cramping has been bearable, except one point last night when it woke me up. I contemplated taking a Tylenol for it, but after about 15 minutes it went away and I fell back asleep. I asked the nurse about it and she said it's nothing to worry about unless it's accompanied by bleeding (which is hasn't been). Of course I know all this, but it's always comforting to hear it from the nurse anyway.

In other news, I ended up working at the office for 12 hours on Sunday. It was worth it - the client was very pleased with our concepts yesterday morning, which in turn made my bosses very pleased with me. The only downside is today feels like Wednesday instead of Tuesday. My head keeps telling me I've already worked two full days. I think it's going to be a l-o-n-g week!