26 Weeks Update

At 26 weeks gestation...

... I have more energy.  I really thought I was going to go through this entire pregnancy as a run down, tired, haggard looking something.  Just a couple weeks shy of the third trimester, my body decides to allow me some energy.  I am so grateful.  At least I am having this time, because the third trimester is fast approaching, and with it, I'm sure I'll be tired again.

... I have a doctor's appointment this week. I wasn't supposed to be going back for another appointment until 28 weeks.  My doctor decided it would be a better idea to split up that appointment, because I would have had my glucose test, my Rhogam shot, and my first biophysical exam all at the 28 week appointment.  That's a bit much.

...  I'm still having swelling.  It's not horribly bad.  It just makes walking around a little uncomfortable by the end of the day.  

...  the real pain in the neck is the pain in my back.  No matter how I situate myself, my back hurts.  About the only thing that eases the pain is to apply heat to the muscles.  By the end of the day, all I want to do is lay down, and rest my poor aching body.  I think I'm going to have to find a support belt for my back.

...  my sleep is pretty good.  Of course, I have to get up during the night to use the restroom, but other than that, I sleep pretty well.  The only other thing that wakes me up during the night is back aches because my belly is pulling on my back muscles.

... you can see Baby Girl moving around from the outside.  I have no idea what she's doing in there, but she looks like she's practicing to be an acrobat or contortionist.

... I weigh in at 123 pounds, and my belly measures 34.25 inches around.

25 weeks, 5 days with Micah

24 Weeks Pregnancy Vlog

At 24 weeks gestation...

... we have reached the point of viability.  At this point, Baby Girl has roughly a 50% chance of survival if she is born.  Of course, the longer she stays put, the better her chances of survival become.  

... this week has been marked by several issues for me.  I've been exhausted.  Mostly, because the end of the month is very busy at work, and I haven't been able to sleep well.  Sometimes I haven't been able to sleep at all.  My sleep is usually restless when I do sleep.  I wake up several times during the night.  I also have some crazy dreams that wake me up.  I just wish I could sleep better during the night, especially since I can't take naps during the day.

...  in other news, I've developed a severe itch.   It started sometime during the week with just my legs {from the knees and down} itching.  Friday night after I had gone to bed my entire body started itching: arms, legs, belly, back, underarms, throat, chin, face, and even my ears.  It's the worst at my joints.  Speaking of joints, they are warmer than the rest of my body.  At first, it was just the itchiness, but now I've also developed hives. The hives come and go.  They are usually on the inside of the joints that itch the worse at that moment.  I've been scratching, taking extra showers and bathes, applying lotion to my body repeatedly, and I finally broke down and tried Benadryl.  Nothing works very well, or for very long.  I itch so badly sometimes that it feels like my skin is burning.  I have found that if I'm distracted by something else that I'm doing, I can sometimes ignore the itchiness.  It doesn't go away, but I can ignore it.  I will be asking the doctor about this at my next appointment, which is coming up on Tuesday.

... I nearly fainted yesterday.  I was so close that my vision had shrunk to blackness.  It's really my own fault.  I waited too long to eat, because I was so busy cleaning and getting ready for a bridal shower that was held at my home for one of my church member's.  I ended up disappearing into a bedroom, where I slept through a good portion of the shower.  I feel horrible that I missed most of the shower, but I would have felt so much worse if I had fainted.  That probably would have ended the whole event.  I also wasn't the hostess.  I only provided the venue.

...  we're feeling lots of movement from Baby Girl.  She gives me some big kicks and somersaults.  She has also started balling herself up in one spot for naps.  That of course is not comfortable for me.  I told someone that it feels like bones rubbing my muscles from the inside.  

... still in nesting mode.  I really wish I could win the lottery, so that I could actually make the changes that I want to make in my home.

...  we've started walking daily.  I'm trying to build some stamina as I go through the pregnancy.  Being pregnant is tiring enough when you are in shape.  It's even more so when you're out of shape.

...  we really have given Baby Girl a name.  It took some back and forth debating between Mikey and I, but she does have a name.  The debate now is the spelling of her name.  Watch the video to hear the pronunciation. 

18 Week Pregnancy Vlog

At 18 weeks gestation...

... my first trimester symptoms are basically gone.  No more nauseous, aversions, etc.  Now, I am getting tired from walking long distances.  I have some shortness of breath, usually from walking long distances.  I want to sleep more often, and for longer periods of time.  I've had some braxton hicks contractions, but those were as a result of a near accident, and have mostly gone away.  I've had some crazy dreams in the past week, but thankfully the headaches have pretty much gone away.

... Mikey and I were nearly in an accident.  The seat belt pulled across the bottom of my stomach.  Even though I try to wear it as low as I can, across my hips, it rides up. Two different idiot drivers swerved into our lane.  Mikey, who was driving at the time, slammed on the brakes to avoid being hit on my side of the car.  We weren't hit, thank goodness.  After it was all said and done, the bottom of my stomach was sore for about a half an hour, and then it went away.  I didn't think much more of it, until the next morning when I woke up to a braxton hicks contraction.  I didn't start having braxton hicks with Micah until about 26 weeks.  At about 30 weeks, I started being monitored regularly because they were causing changes to my cervix.  When I woke up to that feeling, I was a little worried, but I started drinking water knowing that sometimes dehydration can cause contractions.  As the morning progressed, the braxton hicks contractions came more and more frequently, so I called my doctor's office.  The nurse told me to come in to be checked out.  The doctor checked me, and all was well.  There were no changes.  Everything looked to be closed up tight, and the doctor wasn't worried.  I went home to rest, and haven't felt bad since. I'm hoping to avoid being monitored so often with this pregnancy. 

... went big with my hair.  In case you couldn't tell in the video, I chopped it all off.  After taking the twists out, I realized that my hair wasn't getting any better, and decided to go for broke.  I'm going to start over, and go natural.  Hopefully, I get the kind of results I want.  So far, I'm loving it.

... have bought some more clothes.  Mostly loose fitting tops, and  few dresses.  Nothing else maternity.  I doubt I'll but anything else maternity.  Maternity clothes are too expensive for something that I'm going to wear for a very short amount of time in the grand scheme of things.  Especially because I'm so small naturally.  Buying a larger size in regular clothes works throughout most if not all of my pregnancy. 

...  I'm getting more and more excited to find out if this little one is a boy or girl (hopefully Thursday).  Hopefully the nugget cooperates.  Of course, I really just want a healthy baby, and don't care if I have a boy or girl.  But I'm really interested to know either way.

... weighed in at 118.4, and belly measured at 32 inches around.

12 Weeks Pregnancy Vlog

I know I've missed several weeks.  This update will cover the weeks I missed also.  At 12 weeks gestation...

... my symptoms have eased off considerably.  In the past few weeks, I've been exhausted.  I've gone to bed as early as 8:30pm and slept through the night.  Generally, I am such a night owl. Starting a new job while growing a baby is hard work.  The nausea has ended for the most part.  It never was bad, but I'm glad that it's leaving.  Now the only time that I get nauseous is when I wait too long to eat.  I did have one episode of vomiting.  Of course, it was because I had waited to long to eat.  I had drunk a glass of orange juice, because I felt like I was catching a cold.  Unfortunately, I didn't eat first.  Let me just say, orange juice on the way up is disgusting.  That one episode of vomiting led to hemorrhoids.  All I can say is OMG!


... cravings and aversions are nonexistent.  It's kind of funny.


... had my second doctor's appointment.  The doctor had trouble finding baby #2's heartbeat with the doppler machine, so she decided to use the ultrasound machine, since it was in the room.  She found the baby and his/her heartbeat with no problem.  The baby's heart rate was at 169 this time.  She also talked to me about the nuchal translucency screening.  We opted out of it for Micah, because we knew that regardless of any findings we would not end our pregnancy.  I also tend to be a worrier, and often think in worst case scenarios.  I allowed myself to be talked into the scan.  Mostly because it will allow me another peek at my newest little one before the anatomy scan.  Hopefully nothing goes wrong.


... weighed in at 114 pounds according to my home scale.  My waist is XX inches around.  I definitely have a pouch now.  I know that it's my internals shifting around to make room for baby.  I'm going to have to move into loose fitting and maternity clothes soon.


So far everything has been going so well, that sometimes I forget I'm pregnant.

12 weeks

12 weeks

Baby #2 at 11 weeks, 1 day

Stop The Presses

Do you see that? Yes! I am, indeed, pregnant again.  Do you remember this post?  We found out the day after this dream that we were adding on to the Giles family.  How prophetic.  If I’m not mistaken, Mikey dreamed about his mother before we found out we were expecting Micah as well.  I must also say that Uncle Monkey called me the same day that I posted about Mikey's dream, and told me that he thought that the dream meant that I was pregnant.

I have also decided that for this pregnancy I want to do something different.  I’m going to attempt pregnancy vlogs.  Basically, you get the same information that I type out, but in video form.

At 8 weeks gestation...

... I'm having some symptoms.  I am always eating.  I am always hungry, and eating keeps me from being nauseous.  As long as I have something in my stomach, I feel fine.  I am, of course, going to the restroom more often.  That may have something to do with all the water I'm trying to drink.  I had one episode of bleeding gums.  This is a lesser known symptom of pregnancy, but one that I had with Micah also.  I am also exhausted all the time.  I want to take naps, but I can't.  I'm usually sleepy when Micah is awake, and not sleepy when he takes his naps.  Our naps need to get on the same timetable. I have experienced some cramping and spotting, but the doctor was not concerned.  I am not doing anything that could cause strain on myself, and that's the only thing I can do to prevent the cramping and spotting for now.  I've also had some crazy dreams lately.  Last, but not least, I've had some nausea.  I have been eating several small meals a day, drinking ginger ale, and sucking peppermint to combat the nausea.  I am so grateful to a former coworker who let me know the secret of peppermint.  Basically if you're nauseous, eat a peppermint.  If you are going to vomit, the peppermint will cause you to do so, and if you're not, the peppermint will calm the nausea.

... I've had very few cravings.  In the past week, I craved hot dogs, salad, and pickles in the same night.  After eating them, I haven't craved them anymore.  I also want a burger that I can only get from home.  I wouldn't technically call this one a craving though.  These burgers are so good,  I just want one of them.  My aversions though, are weird.  I found out while eating a sandwich that I don't like the taste of miracle whip.  I actually ended up scraping it off my sandwich before I could finish eating.  I also strongly dislike the smell of Micah's clean diapers.  They have some type of fragrance in them, and it makes me nauseous every time I change his diaper.  The funny thing is the smell of a stinky diaper doesn't bother me nearly as much as a clean diaper.

... had my first doctor's appointment.  I got to see and hear the baby's heartbeat. The heartbeat was at 132.  Micah's heartbeat ranged from the 150's to the 160's.  I like the doctor that I've seen so far.  I have to cycle through all of the doctors in the practice, so hopefully, I'll like them all.

... weighed in at 117 pounds at the doctor's office, but according to my home scale, I weigh 115.6 pounds.  My waist is 28.5 inches around.  I kept up with my weight gain with Micah, but not my stomach's growth.  I ended up gaining roughly 25 pounds with Micah.

I have had a couple people ask me if this baby is planned.  Yes, he or she was planned.  The baby is just coming a little sooner than anticipated.  We were planning to wait until Micah's was closer to two years old before trying for another.  The way it is turning out, we will have two babies under the age of two for about two months.  Our plan got bumped up a little, but we are so happy with the way things are turning out.