Pregnancy Update #2 - Half Way There ⇒

Of course I had every intention of updating on the pregnancy each month but in truth there wasn't much to say in Month 4. Now I am 20 weeks--well into the second trimester and feeling pretty good. The gagging has finally stopped. That was brutal! Smells would especially set me off and it didn't even have to be a "bad" smell. Air Fresheners, soaps, our newly varnished desk, you name it, could send me off with no notice into a 20 minute dry heaving fit. Lovely. Truly amazing that I never actually puked. I had to change Elise's diapers wearing a bandanna which she found amusing. I couldn't deal with garbage without holding my breath. The upside was that my wonderful husband took care of all of that so I really can't complain.

I am finding myself to be quite tired still but I suppose that is to be expected given that I work full time, commute by bus 3 hours a day and have a one year old at home. I go to bed at 9:00 to "read" and never make it past a couple of pages. I guess I am forgiven for feeling a little weary.

We opted to do the triple screen test this time which looks for the possibility of the baby having a few major genetic conditions and neural tube defects. We didn't have this test with Elise due to the high false positive rate and I didn't think I could handle the worry. This time, though, I felt I would really need to prepare myself and our family if there were any major problems with the baby having seen what good friends of ours have been through with a special needs baby. In any case, this test came back all clear.

We had our ultrasound a couple of weeks ago and have also seen the results of that. It was great to see the Curveball wiggling about (and boy was it wiggling!) and I think this is an important piece for Erin as it is so difficult for the Papas to participate at this stage (at least in the fun stuff--garbage and poopy diapers for existing fiend to help gagging wife aside!). For me it was just a relief to hear the tech say that everything looked normal. We chose not to find out the gender of the baby.

When we went to our midwife, Rosemary, the following week we were able to get the triple screen test results and the ultrasound report as well. She almost blew the gender secret by mistake. She had wheeled her chair over to me so we could look at the ultrasound report together and she walked me through it step by step (this sort of thing is one of the main reasons I am a huge fan of midwives). I had focused my attention on the measurements where the tech had written beside them 25% which I was concerned meant that the baby was only 25th percentile for growth. Just underneath this part of the form was the hand written note indicating the sex of the Curveball but I hadn't read that far ahead when Rosemary said "and it's a single...gasp! Did you see it?!" And she had snatched the paper to her chest with this shocked look on her face and I realized instantly how close we had been to finding out Curveball's little secret. She felt so bad but had never seen a report with the gender that clearly marked on it. Our midwifery practice doesn't often send clients to St.Paul's as they are in Surrey and of course the hospital is downtown so I guess they hadn't seen that format for the report before. Anyway, the secret is still safe. I would have been a bit disappointed to find out ahead as the anticipation is fun.

My belly is getting quite big but I'm pleased to say I haven't gained that much weight-only 8-10 pounds but I feel I look bigger than I did at this stage last time. Kind of wish I had taken monthly pics last time as I had planned. Oh well. I am frustrated by the shape of my body and then I feel guilty for being so vain and bad for not doing anything about it as I can't seem to find the time or energy to exercise. I am trying to hit the gym in my work's building a couple of times a week. I managed to go once in the first week of my plan which was last week and it felt great. I will try to go twice this week. I'm sure once I get in the habit it will be fine. Plus I have got to eat better which will hopefully give me more energy--damn Hallowe'en with all the candy and junk so easily accessible and me with no will power! And Christmas is coming too!