Monthly Archives: January 2015

Week 26: Baby’s the size of a head of lettuce

A lot was going on in Lucia’s world this week, namely, opening weekend for her Nani’s play “Shadows”! I helped produce the show, Uncle Derdo directed and was the lead male actor in the play, and Nani wrote the play, was the props master and costume director, and produced the play so it was a wild time for our family the past four months and we were so excited (and relieved!) to finally see opening night arrive and go over so well. Seeing the play again after 15 years and being in such a different place in my life (I was in high school the last time the play was produced), I was overcome with pride in my mom and in my family. It means so much to me that because of my mom, not only do I have some amazing stories of my family that I otherwise would never have known but I also have it in a visual performance where my family members, some of whom I never met, really came to life right before my eyes. Means the world to me and hopefully will be treasured by Lucia, Sirena and any other kiddos we might have in our family. 🙂

Now back to Lucia: I’ve come to the conclusion that this little girl moves a LOT more than Sirena did when she was in my belly. Lucia jiggles my belly around all day long and gets me with some major jabs and belly rolls a few times a day. I have yet to catch it on film (I need to keep our camera handy!) but hopefully soon. She also seems to stick around reaaaally low most of the day and night. It can feel really uncomfortable where my pants rest on my low abdomen and I find myself having to resituate myself (or my waist band!) to get some relief from her pushing down.

I’ve also noticed that clothes do not fit me the same as they did with Sirena’s pregnancy. It’s obvious that my belly has grown a lot more quickly this time around but even shirts and leggings that I wore through to the end of Sirena’s pregnancy (when I was a lot larger than I am now) just aren’t fitting the same even now. I’ve had to purchase a few more maternity shirts and a new couple of pairs of stretchy pants to feel more comfortable on a daily basis. Hopefully these will last for the next 3 months!

The only other news with the pregnancy is that so far I haven’t developed linea negra (a brown line from navel to top of pubic bone that is temporary) like I did during Sirena’s pregnancy by now and so far I’ve still got an actual belly button! It’s becoming more and more shallow by the day so I think its days are numbered. 😉

Belly shot!

No photo this week, oops!

Week 27: Baby’s the size of a cauliflower

We started off this week with a prenatal appointment. We met with a new midwife, Vicki, so it was nice to be able to get to know another midwife who may end up being the one present at our birth when the time comes. The ever-exciting glucose screening was at this appointment and a few days later I received the same potentially disappointing news that the test levels came out a bit high and so I’ll need to go in for the longer 3-hour glucose screening next week. Fingers crossed I’m not diagnosed with gestational diabetes but of course we’ll face that if it comes to that!

Things are starting to get more and more real with the impending birth and arrival of Lucia…the midwife talked to us about preterm labor signs and starting next week I need to start keeping a kick count (to make sure she’s keeping active throughout the third trimester). Third trimester starts next week…ahhh! So much to do and now it’s really getting to be crunch time.

Fun fact: Next week during Sirena’s pregnancy is when I chopped all my hair off. I’m considering doing it again…guess it’s a third trimester pregnancy thing??

Belly shot!

My shadow seems to have returned!

Other pregnancy updates:

• Total weight gained so far: 7 pounds
  
• Fun baby developments: She weighs about 2 pounds and is around 14.5 inches long, she’s beginning to show brain activity, she’ll take her first peek around this week while her blinking reflex begins, and she probably recognizes my voice!
• Number of days until our family vacation/babymoon to Hawaii: 6! We are so excited!

Week 22: Baby’s the length of a spaghetti squash

Things have been a bit slow-going in the baby department due to the holidays. The only thing that has not slowed down (and in fact has sped up like CRAZY!) is how BIG this baby girl is getting! My belly has gr-o-o-o-wn by the minute, it seems like. The unfortunate thing is that because of the hectic holidays, I not only forgot to take a belly photo this week…but the following week as well! All I can say is, looking back at my belly photos from weeks 22 and 23 with Sirena’s pregnancy compared to now, it looks like I’m 4-6 weeks ahead of schedule with the baby belly now, haha!

We think we’ve decided what to do with the baby in terms of sleeping arrangements which is a pretty big deal. Some people have asked if the girls are going to share a room and although that’s the plan eventually, it’ll be a while. Here’s the plan as of today (goodness knows how things change when babies enter the scene so this may all go straight out the window!):

• The first 3-4 months, baby girl will be in our room in the co-sleeper. We’re going to buy a changing table/dresser (so Sirena will keep her dresser as is) for our room and a comfy and good quality glider/recliner for our room as well.
• After the transition out of our room, we’ll move her into a space in our office with basically just the co-sleeper (set up like a crib) and her changing table/dresser. This will probably be until she’s 18+ months old.
• When she’s sleeping through the night, we’ll transition her to share Sirena’s current room with her. The room will basically be only for sleeping and getting dressed. All of their books and toys will be transitioned to our current office which will eventually be half office/half playroom.

One really exciting piece of news is that this week…Sirena felt the baby kick! Her reaction? “Whoa.” 😉

Belly shot!

No photo this week, oops!

Week 23: Baby’s the size of a large mango

We started week 23 off with a prenatal appointment and I’m grateful after our scare at week 21 that everything is looking just dandy with the little miss. She’s measuring just right and after the midwife looked at our u/s photos from a few weeks ago she determined that the due date is right on time (with Sirena’s pregnancy, her due date was pushed back two days at around this time). At our next appointment in a couple of weeks will be the oh-so-exciting glucose screening. I’m anxious to find out what the results are because I was glucose intolerant during Sirena’s pregnancy and had to basically follow a diet for someone with gestational diabetes (to prevent developing it because I was borderline). The midwife says that their test only determines yes or no, so there will be no grey area–if I’m a certain level I’ll be diagnosed with gestational diabetes, there won’t be any diagnosis for glucose intolerance. Here’s hoping for the best!

This week the major discomforts of pregnancy really started to get to me. Walking just up and around the block for me can be painful for my lower back and I have to slow waaay down. Thinking back to my pregnancy with Sirena where I was hiking one week before she was born, it frustrates the heck out of me that this early on I can barely get up and walk around the block. The other major discomfort has been crazy insomnia in the middle of the night. There was a string of 5 nights in a row this week where I’d wake up somewhere between 1-3 in the morning and not be able to get back to sleep for at least 2 hours, I’d just be wide awake lying there. Blech.

One question that a lot of people ask me is if we’ve chosen a name yet. We’ve got a small list of names that we keep tossing around that we like a lot but we just haven’t settled on the one yet. The fact that I knew Sirena’s name when I was in college makes it feel so weird that now here we are like so many other people trying to decide a name just months away from having her. I’m happy to know that we’ve decided on a middle name (can’t reveal it quite yet, though!) so that at least helps when trying to come up with a first name and hearing how they sound together. I’m hoping we’ll have a full name decided on by the end of this 6th month of pregnancy, but we’ll see!

Belly shot!

No photo this week, oops!

Other pregnancy updates:

• Total weight gained so far: 2.5 pounds
  
• Fun baby developments: Her face is fully formed right now and just needs some fat to fill it out, she weighs just a little over a pound, and she’s actively listening in to what Mama is saying as well as the loud noises out in the world (Lola barking, for one).