Passionately neutral

For years Southwest Airlines used to declare itself "passionately neutral" about whether the Wright Amendment limiting its service to and from Dallas should be repealed.  That phrase has come to mind a lot as the perfect way to describe how I feel about the gender of our second child.

 

It seems that parents are supposed to want one of each, so if the first child is a boy you should want a girl the next time, and vice-versa.  And certainly, I'd be thrilled to welcome a daughter.  But, I'd be equally excited to hear Kevin call out "it's a boy!" in the delivery room.  Regardless of gender, this child will be his or her own person and have a unique personality.  S/he will no doubt take after big brother Daniel in some ways and be totally different in others.

 

This baby will almost certainly be our last child, so if it's a second boy I won't get the chance to be the mother of a daughter.  There are some experiences I will miss out on if I never have a girl like shopping for prom dresses, being mother of the bride, and finally learning how to do a French braid.  And it occurred to me in November as election results came in how fun it would be to wake up a daughter in 2016, 2020, or 2024 so she can watch the first female president-elect give her victory speech. 

But then I think about how much I love being the mother of a little boy and I know that a second boy would be a wonderful experience too.  Sure, I'd miss out on some things not having a girl, but I'm not one of those women who feels like she has to have a daughter.  Even as a little girl I was always the tomboy who was happy to get dirty playing with the boys so I wouldn't really miss the "girly-girl" stuff like a lot of women would.  And for Daniel, he might bond more with a brother than he would with a sister.  Certainly there are plenty of exceptions but in general it seems people are closer to same-sex siblings.

Certainly boys and girls have their differences but the truth is that there are plenty of things that will be the same regardless of our child's gender.  Whether I have one of each or two boys, I want to make sure each of my children learns important life skills like how to cook, do laundry, change a flat tire, and jump start a car before s/he moves out of the house.  I want them each to try sports and learn to play a musical instrument.  I want to help them to learn about our faith, what we believe, and why we believe it, then give them the freedom to follow and express their own beliefs.  I want to inspire in them a love of reading, a thirst for knowledge, and a lifelong drive for continual self-improvement.  I want them to learn the sense of satisfaction and self-confidence that comes from setting big goals, working toward them over time, and then accomplishing them.  I want them to know that there's nothing inherently feminine about being loving and sensitive to others' needs anymore than there's anything inherently masculine about being courageous or assertive.  To sum it up, I want to empower my children, male or female, to run a business, run a household, or run a marathon.

So as I sit here just weeks away from meeting our new baby, I am excited to find out what we're having, but can honestly say I will be equally happy either way.  I wondered if it would be hard to go through the whole pregnancy not knowing but it's been fun to be able to consider and imagine both possibilities.  And it's fun to hear everyone's confident predictions and wild guesses (both of which stand the same 50% odds of being correct). 

On a related note, I'll be putting together an online baby pool at some point for people to make their guesses as to gender, birth date, measurements, etc.  No prize for the winner, just the satisfaction of being right.  I'll post it once I do, so if you want to weigh in, you'll have your chance!

 

35 week update, Daniel's developments...and the other Daniel

35 weeks in, headed in the right direction

Last week I had my 34 week checkup and a sonogram confirmed what my midwife had determined through manual palpation 2 weeks earlier: this kiddo is head down, ready to go.  Everything else looks good and barring any complications between now and then we're planning for a natural unmedicated delivery.  I'll be working with the same midwife and doula who helped me deliver Daniel so I'm looking forward to working with my "dream team" again.  I've got my next appointment on Monday (when we'll also do a tour of the hospital labor and delivery area to re-familiarize ourselves and make sure there are no policy changes since our previous visit) then after that I graduate to weekly appointments.

As you'd expect at nearly 9 months pregnant, I'm increasingly uncomfortable these days with frequent heartburn and pain in the pelvic area and lower back.  As if that weren't enough, this kiddo has followed big brother's lead and wedged up under my rib, which is as painful as you'd imagine it might be.  3rd trimester pregnancy+short torso=tight quarters=discomfort for mom.  And difficulty putting on shoes and socks...too bad it's not flip-flop weather, that sure was easy for the final months with Daniel.  But, discomfort aside, I know it could certainly be worse.  I don't really have to use the bathroom more than usual, a welcome change from my first pregnancy.  And even working some extra hours at work (we're swamped with Hurricane Sandy files), I'm not exhausted.  I'll drop the overtime soon and go to a regular 40 hour week, but given that a lot of women this far along have to be on restricted hours or even bed rest, I've got it pretty good.

Daniel's developing personality

Daniel completed his first semester of preschool and it went wonderfully.  He continues to enjoy school and talks a lot about his friends and teachers.  Especially at night when we lay down together in his bed-that's when he'll tell me about his day.  Not a lot of detail yet, but he'll name his friends who he played with and hit the high points of his day.  His details aren't always accurate but it's entertaining to hear.

 

He's learning a lot too, not just colors and numbers and such, but also practical skills like picking up behind himself and eating and drinking with minimal assistance.  It's been really impressive for us to see how much he has changed since he started school.  He is so proud of his new accomplishments and enjoys showing us new things he has learned.  He's especially fond of singing songs he's learned at school.

 

But he's also a two year old.  Which means the "no" phase was bound to hit sooner or later, and it did a few weeks ago.  Ask him any question and the answer is always "no!"  (Although, after 2 days with my parents last week for Christmas, at least it has become "no thank you" or "no, Mommy.")  Disagreeable, but kind of cute too, especially when we trick him into giving contradictory answers.  "Do you want to eat any more?"  "No!"  "Are you all done eating?"  "No!"

On a related note, when we ask him if there's a baby in Mommy's tummy he'll say "No baby, baby already gone."  And just to mix it up, sometimes he'll tell us the baby is in Daddy's tummy, or Daniel's tummy!  Oh kiddo, just you wait and see.

When he's not saying "No" to everything, he is speaking increasingly long and complex sentences and phrases.  He pronounces words very well for the most part but has a few he mispronounces-"gor" for "door," "tau" for "car," "palamies" for "pajamas" and "pomano" for "tomato."  One of the funniest things he misstates is a line from one of his books.  He's got a book with cars that make noise and the fire truck is his favorite car.  The book says the sound it makes is "neener neener neener."  We've said that to him but for whatever reason, he's decided that it should be "neener neener nit," and will insistently correct us if we say it "wrong" and make us say it the "right" way.

He still loves ending his day reading books and actively follows along.  The Sweet Smell of Christmas was his favorite for the past few weeks and he wanted to read it at least once a night, often twice.  While I was thrilled that he liked my favorite childhood Christmas book, we've read it so much over the past month that I've gotten my fill for awhile.  What's cute is that after reading Goodnight Moon so much and noticing the clock over the fireplace in that book, every time we read the Christmas book he has to point out that there's not a clock over that fireplace, then go back to the beginning of the book to show me the clock in the kitchen.  So a single reading of that book can take awhile!

 

In other news, he is fully potty trained!  He started daytime training in early September and while there were occasional accidents, he has been in undies during the daytime since then.  So in early November we decided to try putting him to bed in undies too.  At first we were doing a "dream pee" every night, where the last one of us to bed (usually Kevin) would wake him up and set him on the potty in the middle of the night.  But after a few weeks we stopped doing that and he still stayed dry.  He's had a few accidents but really, it has been a very smooth transition.  Most days and nights he stays dry and he's generally good about telling us when he needs to go.

Given that, I haven't washed a load of diaper laundry in 2 months.  It's been a nice break, but of course in a few short weeks we'll start all over again once HB comes along.  Still, it will nice only having one kid in diapers at a time.  He really made it easy on us by potty training before the baby comes!

 

The other Daniel

Over the past few weeks I've thought quite a lot about another little boy named Daniel.  I've never met him.  I should never have even heard of him.  He was no doubt a special, amazing child, but before December 14 there's no reason why I or anyone else outside his circle of friends and family should have known about him, any more than the world at large should know about my Daniel.

 

That Friday morning, both my Daniel and the other Daniel went to school as usual.  But that day was anything but usual at his school and sadly, he didn't come home that afternoon.  He is Daniel Barden, and he was in 1st grade at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

When I saw the news that day about a shooting at an elementary school I was, like everyone else, horrified and saddened.  And when I saw that so many children had been killed, like every other parent I thought the terrible thought of "what if that had been MY child?"  I couldn't wait to hold my little boy tight and know he was safe and sound.

 

Then when the victims' names were released I thought, "please don't let there be a Daniel."  But there he was, all of 7 years old, beaming at the camera for what must have been a school picture, proudly showing off his missing front teeth.  The fact that a child sharing my little boy's name had been killed made the tragedy hit even closer to home for me.

 

I thought about the way our Daniel says his name right now, "Dan-el."  Did Daniel Barden do that as a toddler too?  Did his mom say "Da-Da-Da-DANIEL!" to him, and did he respond back "Da-Da-Da-MOMMY!" like my Daniel does?  Is their kitchen cabinet full of sippy cups bearing his name like ours is?

 

A few nights later after we had read our 3 bedtime stories, Daniel cried when I said we couldn't read any more that night and it was time to go to bed.  I said "we'll read that book tomorrow night" then thought about how some of those parents must have said something similar that Thursday night not imagining that they would never read their child another bedtime story.  After that I crawled into bed with him and wrapped my arms around him till he pushed them away.  Then when I'd start to get up to go he'd say "Mommy, lay down," and I'd lay next to him once again, crying silently into his hair, thinking about the 20 moms (and dads) who would give everything they had in this world to be able to cuddle up with their son or daughter again.  It's a wonder I ever made it out of his room that night.

 

I remember someone telling me before I became a parent that having a child was like having your heart walking around outside your body.  I didn't really understand what that meant until Daniel was born but now I know.  To be a parent is to love that little person more than you love anything else on this earth, including your own life...which is both a beautiful and terrifying feeling.  As I remember seeing it phrased, the physical scars of pregnancy and childbirth heal, but becoming a parent creates an emotional wound so deep that it is forever raw and exposed.  Sandy Hook was a jarring reminder of that fact.

 

So, I took the name coincidence as a calling to send thoughts and prayers not just to the affected families in general but to his in particular.  I'm sure other parents who recognized their child's first name among the casualty list feel a special pull towards those children as well, as we all think, it wasn't my [name], but it could have been, God forbid.  It's kind of nice think of thousands of parents of Daniels lifting this particular family up, as the families of Noahs, Charlottes, and the other children do the same.

 

When I was running earlier this year I had gotten in the habit of dedicating each mile of a long race to a particular person.  Once I get back out there and start pounding the pavement again, I've decided that I'll include Daniel Barden among the people who get a mile.  He will never get the chance to run a marathon or half himself, but I like to think with the adventurous personality his parents described he'd enjoy being a part of those experiences.  Nothing big, but it'll be my little way of remembering the other Daniel.

 

Into the 4th quarter we go!

30 weeks down, 10 to go, give or take.  Time to sing the War Hymn, saw the horns off, and head into the 4th quarter of this pregnancy.

This little one has been quite active for some time and the past few weeks have been no exception.  I never bothered to keep a "kick count" with Daniel because he was so active I felt tons of kicking and I haven't done one for Honey Badger either.  At least 10 kicks an hour?  We've usually got that within 5 minutes!

Now that I'm in the 3rd trimester I've graduated from monthly prenatal checkups to biweekly (then weekly for the final month).  I had my most recent checkup this morning.  This appointment was quick, routine one-heard the heartbeat via Doppler (131 bpm) and the midwife and her trainee measured fundus height (31cm) and felt my belly to determine fetal position.  The bad news is kiddo is still breech, but the good news is s/he has plenty of room to turn and time to do it.  Maybe s/he is just bored with nothing else to do in there and wants to save that to give something to look forward to.  If there's any doubt about whether we're in head-down position by 36 weeks another sonogram will be done at that point to get a better look, but hopefully this will resolve itself by then.  Cecily suggested I try crawling around on hands and knees to try to encourage the little one to turn so I'll start doing that (maybe turn it into a game with Daniel).

While I definitely want this kiddo to turn I have to admit that the breech position does seem to create less discomfort for me than Daniel did in head-down position.  I'm certainly visiting the restroom more than usual but less than I recall with Daniel.  I'm also not experiencing the pain of having a baby's back wedged up against my ribs and haven't had much in the way of back pain.  So, provided Honey Badger ultimately does end up turning, I'd have to say the breech chapter in this pregnancy may end up being a blessing in disguise.

While I'm still feeling pretty good for this far along heartburn has reared its ugly head and is making nightly appearances.  I didn't imagine I'd be lucky enough to escape it altogether this time but I'm glad to have avoided it as long as I did.  I'm also still sleeping pretty well, most nights only waking up once the whole night.  I don't wake up sore (thanks Tempurpedic!) but I am to the point in the pregnancy where no matter how long I sleep I don't really feel fully rested when I wake up.  And, I get fairly easily winded (that will happen when your lungs are compressed).  But all things considered it's not bad.

However, just like with Daniel, there's nothing like traveling in your 3rd trimester to make you realize that yep, I'm definitely pregnant.  Wednesday we had a long drive to Austin, thanks to holiday traffic.  That night for the first time in the pregnancy I felt my ankles swell...I guess sitting in the car all day will do that.  On the return drive home I put my feet up on the dash a lot and that seemed to help.  I've also found good use for the compression socks that I wear the day after a long run to help with recovery.  Turns out they are also good at reducing swelling.  What with it being boot weather now anyway, I'll try to wear those a few times a week to help prevent swelling.

It's been awhile since my last picture, so here are a few current ones.  The bump is definitely getting bigger!

 

 

28 weeks: 2/3 of the way there!

Shortly after I found out I was pregnant with Daniel I went out and bought the What to Expect When You're Expecting book.  I remember looking ahead to the chapters on the later months of pregnancy that described how big and developed the baby would be.  That seemed so far away just days after seeing that positive pregnancy test and hard to imagine that that little poppyseed was going to be the size of a squash in 7 months.  And now 3 years later, our second child is that big and less than 3 months from making his or her debut into the world.

 

Since my last baby update we've had a few developments.  At my prenatal appointment last week I learned that 1) a new sonogram shows that the placenta previa issue that was noted at 20 weeks has largely resolved, 2) I passed my glucose screening test with flying colors, and 3) baby is looking good, albeit in a frank breech position (booty down, head and limbs up).  My midwife feels confident that the baby will turn (breech position this early isn't uncommon) and that the placenta position will continue to improve, so barring later developments that suggest otherwise we're on track for another natural birth.  We won't do the full birth classes again but it is time to start reading over the Bradley materials and getting back up to speed on everything to remind ourselves what to expect.

 

While the news at the appointment was definitely reassuring, HB has been giving me frequent feedback every day (and night) that s/he is growing and strengthening those muscles.  Daniel was quite the squirmy one and his sibling seems to be just as active.  But while they were both active, HB's movements feel different.  With Daniel I remember feeling like he had wedged himself up under my ribcage.  I haven't had that sensation this time (maybe because of the breech position) but it seems like I am getting elbowed more and earlier with HB.

 

Fortunately getting elbowed is still my biggest pregnancy discomfort at this stage of pregnancy.  I'm still sleeping pretty well, but as I did with Daniel, I find that having an extra pillow up against my back is helpful so I can lay on my back but still be partly on my side.  I'll generally wake up at least once a night to use the bathroom but seldom more than twice.  I've had a little lower back pain last week but otherwise still feeling pretty good.  I'm sure the coming months will bring more discomfort but I'm thankful to be feeling as good as I do so far along.

 

We didn't make a baby registry this time because we realized that we already had just about everything we needed already.  We're reusing Daniel's old crib and dresser/changing table so I just got some sheets and a changing pad cover in a Finding Nemo pattern to go with the under the sea theme we had planned.  Last week we had the room painted, and the color turned out great.  It's a soft aqua color that should work well for a girl or boy.  Now all that's left to do is put up aquatic-themed decals on the walls, rearrange the furniture, and get old stuff out of the closet and baby stuff in.  I'll need to get some of Daniel's old newborn clothes out of storage.  If HB's a boy, we'll be all set.  If it's a girl, well, I don't think wearing boy's newborn clothes for a few weeks will cause her any gender identity issues ;)

 

 

Hopefully by my next baby update we'll have the room done and can include more pictures.  Right now the room is in a state of transition.  It was previously our guest room and had my old college bedroom furniture.  We've decided to keep the guest bed in the room but we moved the dresser into Daniel's room for his temporary use while moving the crib and changing table/dresser combo to HB's room.  The major pieces are in place now but we have a bureau, bookshelf, and rocking chair whose fate we haven't yet determined. 

 

The grand plan is to get Daniel a full new bedroom suite in the next year or two but in the meantime, we figured we might as well move the old dresser we already had into his room.  The guest bed will stay in HB's room probably till s/he is ready to move out of the crib, at which point we'll either have bunk beds/trundle in one or both kids' rooms or graduate Daniel to a full/queen bed so we have a guest bed when company comes (kids can double bunk in the other room those nights).  We'll just have to see what seems like the best plan at that point, but the current furniture swap lets us put those logistical considerations on the back burner for a few years.

 

Getting the room ready isn't the only change we've made in anticipation of HB's arrival.  Last month I bid a fond farewell to my VW Jetta I'd driven for 7+ years and moved up to the bigger VW Passat.  The Jetta was the best car I'd ever owned and no doubt had several more good years left in it but that backseat was not made to comfortably hold 2 carseats.  But the Passat has much more rear legroom so Daniel can easily rear-face behind the driver's seat with room to spare and the infant seat will fit behind the passenger seat.  The extra space will serve us well and between that and the terrific fuel economy of the turbodiesel engine (regularly averaging around 40mpg) it will probably supplant Kevin's SUV as our main road trip car.  I expected some adjustment in getting used to a bigger car but have been impressed how it really doesn't handle any bigger than the Jetta did.  Daniel likes Mommy's new car and is obsessed with playing with the keys and pushing the "lock" button on the key fob to honk the horn (sorry, neighbors).  At this rate he'll wear out the battery in no time!

 

Danielisms

I keep meaning to blog about some of the cute things Daniel says and does but never seem to get around to it.  I know though that before long some of them will disappear and I don't want to forget them.  So, a few favorites:

- He sees me eating granola bars in the morning and will ask for "mommy giyaga" or "mommy binoma."  Once Kevin tried to feed him a granola bar and Daniel refused to take it from him, saying "Mommy take it."  Once I held it he was happy to eat it from my hand.

- Speaking of granola bars, he likes to eat them in the wrapper.  Break a piece off to hand it to him and he might eat it, but more likely than not he'll put it back in the wrapper and eat it from that.  He's the same way about eating bananas, they have to be in the peel.
- We make smoothies on weekend mornings but he calls them "foamies." (which is actually kind of logical, on accident!).  Even though the one we pour in his little cup is the exact same thing as what's in my cup, he wants Mommy's foamy instead.  Likewise, pancakes on Mommy's plate are also more appealing than the ones on his plate.

- When I'm giving him food he'll ask "more, Mommy."  Sometimes it comes out as "more mommies."  I've told him he just gets the one.  He'll also ask for "more daddies" if Kevin's feeding him.

- He loves to wash his hands and use wipes.  Do I have the only 2 year old clean freak?  This child will run to the bathroom, drag a stool or chair over to the sink and climb on up.  If you leave him to his own devices he'll stay there turning the water on and off for 10 minutes.  And whenever he catches sight of the tub of diaper wipes he'll try to climb up to get it too and if I try to distract him from that pursuit he'll wail "I need wipes!"  In fact, a wipe to play with is his "prize" when he successfully uses the potty.  (Needless to say, I handle the functional wiping details)  Speaking of wiping, he also likes to clean the table top after he eats, and of course likes to wipe his hands if he gets food on them.

- He wore sandals every day during the summer and, as you might imagine, they got a little sweaty.  One night I was sitting at the table feeding him and thought, yuck, what is that awful smell?  I realized it was my little boy's feet!  I said "P-U, stinky feet!"  He enthusiastically repeated it that day and now says it whenever I take off his shoes.
- The other day when I took off my shoes he said, "I wipe Mommy's feet," ran to the bathroom, and returned with some toilet paper and wiped at my feet.  Um, thanks...

- He knows his colors and can correctly name them most of the time, but if you give him a "pop quiz" and ask him what color something is, it's either blue or yellow.  I blame myself a little-I talk to him about how Daniel has yellow hair and blue eyes so I guess those are the colors that come to mind.
- Just in the last week he's started saying "I need to sit up" if he's lying down or slouched.  Guessing he must hear that at school!
 

 

Daniel's 26 month update

School

A few weeks ago Daniel had his first day of "real" school.  This was somewhat anticlimactic given that he's already been there since July for their summer session, but one significant difference is that he's now required to be in dress code, which includes blue pants or shorts and a white or red polo shirt.  Other than that, not much change for him.  His class is really small right now, just him and 3 other kids, 2 of whom also have at least one parent who works at Microsoft.  He adores his teacher and the teachers who do afternoon extended care and talks about them a lot, and he also really likes his classmates.  He's obviously quite happy there, given how much he talks about everyone, and while he's always happy to see me in the evening when I pick him up, he's sometimes sad to leave the school.  The decision to start him in school and leave him in the care of non-family members was not one we made lightly, so it's gratifying to see that he is so happy and thriving there.

 

They must sing a lot at school, because now Daniel loves to sing at home.  So far we've heard "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Jesus Loves Me," "Alphabet song," "Row, Row Row Your Boat," and a few others.  He sings to himself a lot and is happy when we join in.

 

The school also offers age-appropriate gymnastics classes every week.  I expected Daniel to enjoy those and he definitely is.  Here he is showing off his somersault technique.

 

 He also recently started a basketball skills program at school too, so it'll be fun to see what he learns in that. I'm sure he'll enjoy it.

Potty training update
For the past 2 weeks we've been sending him to school in underwear rather than diapers.  The first week he had several accidents a day but this week he made it most days with 1 or no accidents.  The past 2 weekends we mainly kept him at home and just in undies, but now he has gotten pretty good at getting his clothes and undies off and on, so this weekend we kept him clothed around the house.  We also took him to run errands, to dinner at a restaurant, and to the church nursery and he stayed dry everywhere.  While I'm sure we have a few more weeks or months before he stays dry all day every day, he's consistent enough at this point that I consider him largely daytime potty-trained.  He's still got room for improvement but I'm quite pleased with his progress so far.

As for night-time training, we're still at the starting point.  The other night he had a dry diaper in the morning for the first time ever, and as soon as he woke up he told Kevin he had to go.  He not only held it through the night but knew once he woke up to wait for the potty.  We'll wait for him to do that a few more times to know he has the ability, then start putting him to bed in undies.  That may happen next week or not for another month or two, we'll see how he does.

Big boy bed!
In the meantime, in anticipation of that transition, we moved him out of the crib last week.  We started out by placing his crib mattress on the floor to see how he'd do outside the crib rails.  He was excited by the change and slept quite well for several nights.  So, Saturday morning we bought him a twin bed and some new sheets and moved the crib out.

He is quite proud of his new big boy bed and excited about it.  And yesterday he napped for 2+ hours on it-a big deal given that he doesn't nap much these days.  Last night, perhaps because of the nap, he took awhile to get to sleep but otherwise did pretty well.  Today hasn't gone as well though-a restless nap time (not so unusual) but then a hard time getting to bed tonight.  Might be a one-off, but I think once we get back to his school week routine he'll do fine.  He almost always falls asleep right away after a day at school.  He has proven to be a child who handles change quite well and has always been a good self-soother, but still, it is a big transition, so I don't expect it to go flawlessly.  His enthusiasm is encouraging so I'm confident we'll get there.

Bye-bye high chair
Last week we also transitioned Daniel from his high chair to a booster seat.  He had been wanting to sit in a regular chair so this was an easy transition for him.  He likes being able to climb up into his seat on his own and buckle himself in, which is also handy for us.

Speaking of high chairs, while he may be ready to say goodbye to his dining chair he now enjoys climbing up onto our barstools.  This means the counter is no longer a safe place to put things we want to keep out of his reach.  Funny to think how when he was a newborn everything in the house was safe, then as he's graduated from rolling to crawling to walking to climbing, less and less of the house is now out of reach for him.  He keeps us on our toes!

Haircut
The other day I took Daniel to get his second haircut.  It went well, but he got ticklish when the stylist tried to use the trimmers!

 

 

 

20 weeks already?

Halftime

Wow, how did we get here so quickly?  Somehow we're already halfway through this pregnancy.  It has definitely gone much faster than the first time.  For one thing, we've got a toddler now, and he does a pretty good job of keeping us busy between school, potty training, and amusing antics.  Also, last time around we were busily getting up to speed researching birth plan options and baby gear and putting together a registry, so a lot of time was spent thinking about and planning for Daniel.  This time around, we aren't doing a registry and we already know the birth plan we want, having done this before.  So while we certainly think and talk about Honey Badger baby a lot, we aren't really focused on preparing for him/her.  So, after the queasiness and fatigue of the first trimester faded away it was easy to just get on autopilot and let the weeks pass.

 

Another reason the past month has gone by quickly on the pregnancy front is that my allergies have been doing such a good job of taking my attention   This past week they developed into sinusitis, which is even less fun than it sounds.  Fortunately it seems to be running its course but the ragweed season can't end soon enough for me.

 

Last week we had our 2nd trimester anatomy scan sonogram and got to see HB up close.  S/he is developing beautifully, measuring just a few days behind my due date (but right on track with the later due date I've got in my head), but no areas of concern.  The sonographer looked at the below-waist area to make sure all was in order there, but I looked away when she did.  Actually, I didn't trust Kevin not to peek so I looked back at him to make sure he wasn't looking ;)  We asked her not to tell us what she saw but she said she felt pretty confident she could tell the gender.

 

After the sonogram we met with an OB, per the practice's requirement that midwife patients see an OB at least once during the pregnancy.  At this point we learned that our trend of "everything looks good but" midway point sonograms continues.  With Daniel, the concern was "bright spots" on the heart and brain, which ultimately turned out to be normal variances.  With this pregnancy, the baby him/herself is fine, but the concern is that the placenta is a little low on the uterine wall.  It's not really a concern at this point but ultimately if it failed to move up it would block baby's exit thus requiring a C-section. 

We'll have another sonogram early in the 3rd trimester to check, but it almost certainly will resolve by then, as over 95% of cases do.  The good news of course is that the odds are overwhelmingly in our favor.  The bad news is that there's nothing to do but wait and hope.  It helps though to remember that last time we were in this situation the issue ended up resolving, and it almost certainly will this time.

 

Aside from the sonogram, we had another big pregnancy milestone this week.  I was sitting on the couch and could feel HB squirming around and kicking.  I could feel it so much I thought maybe Kevin would be able to feel it too, so he put his hand on my belly and sure enough, he could!  It was around 23 weeks before we could feel Daniel's kicks so it's fun to get to feel HB sooner.

 

Haven't really had much in the way of pregnancy symptoms lately, though I've noticed that coughing triggers heartburn for me (which means this last week has been extra fun).  I'm mostly, but not exclusively, wearing maternity tops at this point, but maternity pants are still too big.  My regular pants still fit so I'm in those and can still button them and wear a belt.  I'm surprised to still be in regular pants this far in, but I'll take it.  I'll credit a combination of higher carry position and lower pre-pregnancy weight...thanks running!

 

Here are a few 20 week pictures.  Ignore the cheesy expression.

 

The shirt says "Future Aggie" pointing to the belly. We were dressed to watch the game!

 

For comparison, here's a current shot alongside my 20 week picture with Daniel.  Comparing the two, I look smaller this time and am still in regular pants with belt, whereas at this point with Daniel I had just moved into maternity pants (but had had to use a Bella band with my regular pants for several weeks prior).