Small baby, big mommy

I had an appointment with my regular OB today, because I did not see them for my 20 week appointment.  (I went to the high-risk OB.)  I found a few things troubling.

(1)    Baby’s small.  I’ve been saying this whole time that baby’s been measuring behind, and it did not really concern me because that was how it was from the beginning, and hubby and I think I ovulated a few days later than they are measuring.  Today my OB told me that my measurements from the high-risk OB showed baby measuring in the 30^th %.  (Apparently they use a variety of measurements to come up with that estimate, including some leg measurement, head measurement, etc.)  I was like, “oh, that’s no problem, we’re probably a few days behind.”  But then she said, “yea, even though your due date is May 10, they measured as though it were May 13, and you’re STILL in the 30^th percentile.”  Yuck!  But is that even bad?  I mean, it’s not like 30% is small.  (I understand they get worried when baby is measuring below the 10^th % or when baby’s growth falls behind.)  The high-risk OB didn’t even mention it, so maybe I have no reason at all to be concerned.  After the OB told me that, though, she suggested I could have another ultrasound at 28 weeks to check growth (the same offer the high-risk OB made), so I decided to take that appointment after all.  Let’s make sure this little man is not too little.  I can always change my mind.

(2)    I am gaining too much weight.  I mean, I knew that, but a (big) part of me thought, I’m so healthy—I exercise and (generally, outside of the holidays) eat well—and my husband and I have never had any problems with weight (and we have a skinny little kid!) so NBD if I put on 5-10lbs more than the “ideal.”  I mean, if I can brag for a minute, my husband and I looked like fitness models before I got pregnant!  (And he still does.)  But Dr. said the concern is not just mom having to lose an extra 5-10lbs after baby—some studies suggest that if mom gains too much weight it puts her baby at risk for obesity in later life.  UGH.  Then she showed me my weight gain chart and the basically vertical weight line (ie it shot up) from Thanksgiving to now.  She was like, “that’s the holidays.  You do not want to keep gaining like that.  Eat cheese or peanut butter.  Avoid carbs.”  But I love carbs!! 

Now, she admitted that many women with obese children are obese themselves, and that can have a genetic / environmental component (obviously).  But there is concern that when mom gains too much weight—even if she is otherwise generally healthy or in a healthy environment—that can set the kid up to be fat.

My doctor then measured me and said my tummy was measuring at 24 weeks pregnant—so AHEAD of where I should be.  Small baby, big tummy.  Dammit!

I decided to read a little more about this.  It does appear that there is real concern that if mom gains too much weight it can impact baby’s weight later in life and increase the risk of obesity:

http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001521 (“The results showed that the amount of weight each mother gained in pregnancy predicted her children's BMI and the likelihood of her children being overweight or obese. For every additional kg the mother gained during pregnancy, the children's BMI increased by 0.022. The children of mothers who put on the most weight had a BMI that was on average 0.43 higher than the children whose mothers had put on the least weight…. This study shows that mothers who gain excessive weight during pregnancy increase the risk of their child becoming obese. This appears to be partly due to a direct effect on the developing baby.”).  This figure shows what appears to be a direct correlation between weight gained and child’s BMI: http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001521

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2017/09/06/ajcn.117.158683.abstract (“maternal weight across the childbearing period increases the risk of obesity in offspring during childhood, but high prepregnancy BMI has a stronger influence than either gestational weight gain or postpartum weight retention.”)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001295/ (“Mean (SD) gestational weight gain was 31.5 (11.2) pounds and offspring BMI z-score (BMI standardized for age and sex) was 0.15 (1.0) units; 6.5% of adolescents were obese (BMI greater than or equal to the 95th percentile). Gestational gain was linearly associated with adolescent adiposity: compared with 20–24 pounds, gain less than 10 pounds was associated with child BMI z-score 0.25 units lower (95% confidence interval [CI]: −0.47, −0.04), and gain greater than or equal to 45 pounds with BMI z-score 0.18 units higher (95% CI: 0.11, 0.25). Compared with women with adequate gain according to 1990 Institute of Medicine guidelines, women with excessive gain had children with higher BMI z-scores (0.14 units, 95% CI: 0.09, 0.18) and risk of obesity (odds ratio 1.42, 95% CI: 1.19, 1.70).”)

https://www.nature.com/articles/0803582 (“We found that high weight gain during pregnancy (⩾16 kg [35lbs]) was significantly associated with higher risk of overweight in Portuguese children.”)

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijpo.12163/full (“The results of this study suggest that ‘overnutrition’ in pregnancy independently affects child body composition throughout child development, particularly in non-Hispanic White respondents.”)

Even asthma is a risk, potentially due to “proinflammatory mechanisms”!

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/early/2014/07/16/peds.2014-0439.full.pdf (“[Maternal obesity in pregnancy] and high [gestational weight gain – more than 42lbs] are associated with an elevated risk of childhood asthma; this finding may be particularly significant for mothers without asthma history. Prospective randomized trials of maternal weight management are needed.”)

I truly thought that discouraging too much weight gain during pregnancy (within reason) was just mom body shaming.  I had NO IDEA that it might actually hurt baby!!!  I gained around 35-40lbs with my first and he’s a healthy skinny little thing.  I started this pregnancy very thin (BMI 19.1) and about 10 lbs lighter than I was with him, so I assumed I would gain more.  I wasn’t super worried about weight gain but now I’m freaking out a little bit.  My question, of course, is if I am not supposed to gain too much weight when pregnant, WHY AM I SO HUNGRY???

More cheese, less donuts I guess.

[Before we go any further, yes what you’re reading is that I am both worried my baby is currently too small and that he will end up being too big.]

(3)    I might need an early induction.  This one potentially threw me for the biggest loop.  At the end of the appointment she made some comment about inducing labor at 39 weeks.  I was like, “what now?”  Then she told me that older (now defined as 35 and up) mothers are at an increased risk for stillbirth later in their pregnancies, and maybe their placentas may deteriorate faster than younger mothers.  (This risk of stillbirth issue is why my OB’s office was not going to let me go past 42 weeks with my son back when I was a youthful 33.)  She then said that to avoid this they recommend induction at 39 weeks.  She also said that induction when you’re already dilated with an open cervix is very different than if you’re tight as a drum, which is NOT FUN.  UGH!  

Just the other day my hubs and I were talking about my delivery (the first time we’ve discussed it) and he was like, “maybe home birth?”  I said, “nah, I’m more comfortable in a hospital.”  Now it sounds like I might not even have a choice.  BOOOOOOO.

Here’s an amazing article on the subject: https://evidencebasedbirth.com/advanced-maternal-age/

I have to think more about this.  Damn my old age.

Bizzy baby

All is good at 22 ½ weeks pregnant!  When we left for the holidays I was 20 weeks pregnant and just starting to show.  So I packed a couple of maternity pants and a few maternity tops, but mostly just roomier normal things.  And then I exploded.  I think my abs just totally gave up.  I went from looking a little chunky to very, very pregnant in what seemed like days!!  My weight gain has been strong and steady.  22 ½ weeks down and 22 ½ lbs up.  Yikes!  I’ve kept up a lower-pace workout regimen (I ran basically every other day the past two weeks), but I am voraciously hungry.  (And my husband is a total enabler—“if you’re hungry, it’s because your body wants you to eat!”)  I shudder to think how big I would be if I were not working out or if my diet were any less healthy.  (And it hasn’t exactly been super healthy the last few weeks.  I confess I have been hitting the treats hard over the holidays.)  But enough complaining about weight gain.  This is a GOOD problem to have!  And I lost it all before and I’ll be able to lose it again.  (It only took me… five years….)

The big news is that we finally told the tiny man he’s going to be a big brother.  (It was going to be impossible to put off any longer—as I mentioned, I have gotten HUGE recently.)  As expected, he was NOT super excited at first.  It went something like this:

Total silence, looking back and forth between us.  [Shock]

When he finally spoke, “no you’re not.” [Denial]

Then, “I don’t want a baby brother.” [Pain]

Then, “I thought you weren’t having another baby.”  [Anger]

Then, “Can we give him to another family?” [Bargaining]

Then, near tears.  [Depression]

Then we just let him think about it.  And (thank goodness!) he warmed up to it.  When we dropped him off at school, “this is the best day of my life” [Acceptance/hope]

Yes, he cycled through the textbook 7 stages of grief.  In about an hour.  Poor kiddo!!  We expected he would cycle through them again a few times, but so far his viewpoint has been 100% positive ever since.  He’s proudly told anyone who will listen that he’s going to be a big brother, and when I went to his class to help with their holiday party, he brought all of his friends over to me to see my at-that-point-still-just-a-little-bump tummy, telling them his baby brother was the size of a potato and was swimming around in amniotic fluid.  (Yes, I’m probably going to get some angry emails from other kindergarten parents.)  So, other than a very tense 10-15 minutes or so, it went as well as I could have possibly hoped!

What else?  Oh, this is one busy baby.  As I think I previously reported, I started feeling bubbles at 15 weeks, my hubby was feeling kicks on the outside of my tummy by 18 weeks, and I was visibly seeing big kicks on the outside of my stomach by 19 weeks.  (I’ve read that second-time moms feel movement sooner, and thin women (which I WAS when I got pregnant—notice the past tense) tend to feel kicks sooner.  And position of baby/placenta and general activity of baby all play a part in when/how often mom feels movement.  So my experience is earlier than normal, and I think earlier than with my first.)  Since then I have been feeling this baby log roll every day, multiple times a day.  He’s nuts!  I remember feeling/seeing kicks with my first little guy (and one time with my anencephaly pregnancy), but based on my memory this baby is MUCH busier than his older brother.  I mean it’s like a 24/7 dance party in there.  I actually got a little worried at one point and looked to see if there was any literature suggesting there can be TOO much movement.  What I found did not concern me, but does suggest a few things (and take these with a grain of salt)—active babies in utero might turn out to:

·       cry more

·       have a higher score on a brain maturation test 

·       have better control of body movements after birth

·       be more unadaptable and unpredictable

·       be less easily frustrated at 1 year 

·       if a boy, be more active as a toddler

·       be more independent at 2 years

·       be more likely to interact with toys or strangers at the age of 2.

https://scienceofmom.com/2014/10/30/can-fetal-movements-tell-us-anything-about-a-babys-temperament/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18796-bumpology-active-fetus-boisterous-child-uh-oh/

I told my husband all of this and he said, “uh oh.  He’s going to be EXACTLY like his older brother.”  All I could think was, “no, this baby is MORE active!!” 

I have to confess, I am REALLY starting to believe this is going to work.  (I mean, at this point, if something happens, it’s not a miscarriage, it’s a stillbirth.  This is a real baby!)  It’s pretty scary.  And amazing.  Really, really amazing.

“When” it works

I had my “20 week” (really, 19w4d… and I think this baby is actually more like 19w1d….) appointment with the high-risk OB today.  I was a total MESS.  I kept reminding myself that at the 15 1/2w apt, the doc said she would be really surprised if we found something at the 20w appointment.  But that did not stop me from feeling absolutely ill in the hours leading up to the appointment.  (It’s amazing how much impact my mental state can have on my physical state!)

I saw a new ultrasound tech today, so of course I gave her the “do you know my history?” / “I want you to tell me if you have any concerns” speech.  She was familiar with my history, and suggested she would tell me if she was worried (but I didn’t believe her).  Baby is growing, had a heartbeat, etc.  But the ultrasound took FOREVER.  I kept asking, “is that normal” “does that look right” “do you have any concerns” “what are you looking for now” etc.  She spent a super duper long time looking at the heart, and that was freaking me out.  After about 45 mins (of her reassuring me repeatedly she did not have any concerns “yet”) she said she was done and was going to get the doctor.  For all of my “good” ultrasounds, the ultrasound techs have been like, “you can get cleaned up, I don’t think the doctor will want to see anything.”  And for all of my “bad” ones, they have asked me to stay as I am (stomach exposed) so the doctor can “take a look.”  So, of course when she said she wanted me to stay as I was so that the doctor could take a look I totally freaked.  She said, “oh it’s normal, he always likes to do a check.”  I’m like, yea right lady.  Then I pressed her, what’s he going to be looking for, do you have any concerns, etc.  She said, no concerns (not very convincingly), he’ll just want to confirm my findings and check a few things on his own.  And then she was gone for like 20 mins.  (Another bad sign.)  And when the doctor finally came in—the same one that diagnosed our omphalocele almost 2 yrs ago!—the genetic counselor was with him.  I nearly had a heart attack!  I literally said, “you guys are freaking me out!”  And the doctor said, “we’re both just so excited to give you the good news that everything looks great!”  Sweet relief!

Then the doctor did another mini ultrasound (it really is part of his practice to take a second quick look).  He said nothing looks structurally wrong at all and he would be really surprised if we had any major structural issues.  Then we talked about the potential non-structural issues that might not be diagnosable.  Both he and the geneticist said something along the lines of, you know you have had a number of pregnancies marked with structural abnormalities (the anencephaly and omphalocele ones, and likely many of your prior miscarriages).  But you have no reason to think they were also afflicted with neurological issues, although they could have been.  On a separate path you have had a completely structurally sound child who is neurologically normal.  (Actually, quite above average!)  At this point, this pregnancy appears to be on the same path as your son—structurally sound—and there is no reason to think that it would not be neurologically sound as well.   The doctor suggested that he doesn’t need to see me again, but he understands how hard this kind of pregnancy is, so if I want to come back in for another ultrasound at 28 weeks I should feel free.  I told him I would think about it.  Obviously the purpose of the 20 week ultrasound is to give you time to “make decisions” (ie terminate) if you find something really wrong.  By 28 weeks there’s nothing they can do…. Except give a freaking out mom a little more comfort… for a bit.

So that’s that.  I promised myself (and my husband) that I would stop freaking out / saying “if” this works after this appointment.  I mean, from this point on there’s nothing more I can do anyway.  And I also promised myself that I would cut some tags off of some maternity clothes!  So I’m going to do just that.  AND, we decided that this was the appointment that would be required before telling the OTHER tiny man in my life what’s going on.  Yes, you read that right, we’re telling the little man he’s getting a sibling sometime later this week.  Stand by for the report!

I am going to try to embrace the pregnancy.  After 15 weeks of “if,” it’s going to be hard to start saying (and thinking!) “when.”  I look forward to working on it.

P.S. Depending on the measurement baby looked to be measuring around 19 weeks plus a couple days or so.  So he’s continuing to measure a little behind.  (He’s been “behind” since the beginning.  I’m pretty certain I ovulated late in my cycle.)  She guessed he was weighing in at 10oz.  (Which is basically what a 19 ½ wk old should weigh.)

P.P.S. I got my final test results back—I am not a carrier for Fragile X, and my risk of being a carrier for spinal muscle atrophy is 1/834, so there is a risk that I’m a carrier, but it’s pretty small.  (The untested carrier rate for white people is 1/47, so the blood test dropped that risk because I had at least 2 SMN1 Copies.  If they had detected 2 SMN1 Copies, the chance would be 1/5600 that I’m a carrier.  https://clevelandcliniclabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Spinal-Muscular-Atrophy-SMA-testing.pdf)

My lovely lady hump

All is generally good here at 18w6d.  Baby continues to have a normal heartbeat, and is rumbling around so much I haven’t been scared that there won’t be a heartbeat at my weekly appointment.  I actually felt him kick (or punch??) from the outside the other day!  All of my labs have been coming back normal.  (Although we’re still waiting on the genetic carrier results from the fragile X and spinal muscular atrophy blood tests.) 

My massive online orders of maternity clothes were finally delivered this week, and with great trepidation I started cutting off tags of a few things so I have something to wear.  (I’m planning on leaving the tags on most of the things I want to keep until after my “20 week” (really 19 ½) appointment next Monday.)  My belly is getting harder and harder to hide, and I’m running out of energy to try.  I saw a good friend the other day and told her I was pregnant, only to have her say “I was wondering….”  This is the first time the tummy has given me away!!  I think it’s going to look less like too much cheese and more like too little baby in another couple of weeks.  For now, I just look like a person with skinny arms and legs and a beer gut.  Hawt!

I’m not super stressed out about the 20 week appointment next week—the high risk OB told us after our 15 ½ week appointment that everything look great and she would be really surprised if they caught something new on the 20 week.  That being said, I am still a little nervous.  It’s particularly unfortunate that hubby can’t make this one—he has an out of town meeting.  Boo.

What’s really keeping me up at night, though, is worrying about all of the things that could be wrong that they can’t or won’t find until baby is born.  Did you know that there are more than 4,000 different kinds of birth defects, and that around 3% of babies are born with some kind of birth defect, and that up to 70% of birth defects are undiagnosed??  AND, let’s not forget that the risk of birth defects rises with recurrent miscarriages (it doubles: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/8290380/), and it increases with a history of birth defects, and it increases with age of parents (although I read that while that is definitely true for chromosomal defects, it may not be true for all defects: https://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20140203/babies-born-to-moms-over-35-may-have-lower-risk-for-certain-birth-defects#1).  So I feel like our risks are pretty much sky high.  That’s not a great feeling.

Of course, we’re under a microscope and going to an awesome clinic, so we would expect a much higher detection rate than average.  And a lot of the super common and devastating ones (anencephaly, spina bifida, trisomy 13/18/21, structural brain defects, structural heart defects, structural kidney defects, limb defects, clubfoot, etc.) either have been ruled out or should for the most part be ruled out at the appointment next week.  AND some birth defects are relatively harmless.  (In fact, I was born with an abdominal hernia—a birth defect.  After a nail-biting [for my parents] surgery when I was a month old, I’ve had no issues.)  I mean, do I want my baby to have a hernia or cleft pallet or even tracheoesophageal fistula/esophageal atresia (what my niece was born with)?  No, of course not.  But those are generally fixable and have no super long-term issues.  I continue to worry that baby will be born with something profoundly wrong.  For now, all I can do is… oh, wait, I can’t do anything.

The other night I dreamed that someone told me that if I walked on broken glass it would help my baby.  So of course I chose to walk on broken glass.  (And it wasn’t like the thick broken glass of a dish.  It was super sharp like a broken light bulb or holiday ornament.)  When I woke up, I was at the part of my dream where I was pulling out bloody two-inch shards of glass from my feet.  And then I made the mistake of googling the meaning of walking on broken glass while pregnant.  Apparently it’s a bad sign.  Whatever.  I didn’t need to search out the meaning of my dream online to know what it means—I would do just about anything for this ~6in ~8oz little fella I’ve never even met yet.  (And it might be a throwback to all of the shit I was willing to do when we were trying to have kids with fertility treatments.)

My husband has started to get on my case about continuing to say “if” this works.  WHEN he says, WHEN.  When will I feel the same way?  I’m not sure, but not now.  And probably not for a while.

P.S I wasn’t super worried about it, but it doesn’t appear that either my new low-dose aspirin habit or my long-standing swimming habit poses any risk to the little man.  (http://pubmedcentralcanada.ca/pmcc/articles/PMC4805457/; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23628264)

Doing it all wrong

I feel like my posts have been a little too optimistic lately, so time to bring things back down to earth….

Had my weekly appointment with the nurse today.  First things first, there’s still a heartbeat.  Just wanted to get that out of the way.  So that’s good.  BUT there are some things to be concerned about.  Nothing major… yet. 

(1) My platelet count is low.  Not dangerously low, but outside the bounds of normal measurements.  (It’s 140,000 now.  I’ve had my blood taken many times, and it’s always at the bottom range of normal.)  This is not entirely uncommon in pregnancy—approximately 1/10 women will have low platelet counts during pregnancy—usually closer to the end.  It’s called gestational thrombocytopenia.  And as long as my measurements are above around 80,000, they won’t do anything.  Once it goes below that, there could be some issues.  Among other things, if it gets too low, you can have bruising / uncontrolled bleeding.  And they won’t give you an epidural because of risk of complications.  Here’s some general info on it:

https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/272867-overview

So bummer, but hopefully not something to be extremely concerned about.

(2) I’m at risk for preeclampsia.  There are many risk factors that I do not have, but the two big ones I do have are advanced maternal age and recurrent pregnancy loss.  Also, it’s been a while since my last pregnancy, which is also a risk factor.  (?)  For now the treatment is just to take a baby aspirin and hope I don’t get it.  Obviously I’m being monitored and I’m aware of the symptoms. 

Here are some articles about preeclampsia and risk factors:

http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1753

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC554027/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4354613/

(3) This is the one that gave me the most grief today.  I was not thinking the past couple of months and I’ve been eating sandwich meat.  (!!)  Once a friend reminded me that you’re not supposed to do that during pregnancy, I stopped.  Instead, at a meeting today, I had a veggie sandwich.  Only I realized after the meeting that I’m not supposed to eat sprouts, either, and that damn thing was full of them.  I spent 10 minutes googling and then completely freaked out and called my OB’s office and asked if I should make myself throw up.  They said no, and just don’t do it again. 

I swear to G, if I lose this miracle pregnancy due to food poisoning I’m never going to forgive myself.  And, in reading about the food risks, I realized I’ve been eating soft cheeses too, which are also no-nos.  ARGHHHHHHH.

(4) As if I didn’t have enough to fret about today, I realized that I need to get my fat ass into maternity pants.  I’ve been wearing dresses and tights, which have been quite forgiving.  But today I wore pants.  I tried to make due with normal pants and the old rubber band around the button.  (I don’t have any maternity pants, and was trying to put off buying them as long as possible.)  That worked first thing in the AM, but by mid-day I was not feeling it.  I was so uncomfortable that I spent a small fortune online shopping for pants.  (It was actually a pretty emotionally draining experience—this is the first time I’ve bought anything relating to baby/pregnancy since my son was born.)  I bought multiple sizes in multiple styles from Gap, Macy’s, Pea in a Pod, and H&M.  (I’ll return most of them.)  Hopefully something gets delivered this week and fits.  By the end of the day I was so stressed and ornery (and I’m pretty certain one of my male co-workers saw my unzipped fly and underwear when we were talking), I left work early and went to the mall and bought a pair of tights to wear tomorrow. 

Deep breath.  Tomorrow is another day.

Knock knock knockin’ on my uterine wall

Had an appointment with my OB this week.  It wasn’t just a heartbeat check (although it’s still there—whooh!).  She also checked me for other things, including some additional STDs.  (I’m not super worried about STDs!)  From my last pregnancy, I know I’m not a carrier for cystic fibrosis.  But now they can also test for fragile X and another degenerative muscle condition.  (Science—it’s amazing!)  So we’re going to do that non-invasive testing as well.

She asked if I had any plans for travel, and I mentioned the family had plans to go to Costa Rica for spring break, but now I was not going.  She asked if hubby was still going, and I said that’s the plan!  Then she said if he does, we can’t have unprotected sex for 6 months.  Whaaa?  Apparently zika can be passed via seminal fluids (but not saliva).  So I was like, okay, I understand why no unprotected sex while I’m pregnant, but that would only be for 2 months after he gets back.  Then she said that even after baby is born, doctors are worried zika could be transmitted via breast milk!!  (Apparently zika has been detected in breast milk, although there are no confirmed cases of zika being passed via breastmilk.  https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/23/5/16-1538_article  She said that the information on this is still evolving.  I checked the CDC’s website, and it just says use condoms during the pregnancy.)  Also, she said t of people with zika don’t have any symptoms, so it’s not like we would necessarily know if hubby had contracted it.  Then she said even if zika’s not passed via breastmilk, there’s a risk of other issues from infection, such as Guilain-Barre (temporary paralysis (!!)).  So she was like, you should definitely not go (I wasn’t planning on it!) and no unprotected sex because even if the chance is low, the risk is something really bad.  She did mention that there are potential options to work with the CDC to get tested.  So, in theory, hubby could try to see if he’s been infected.  (https://www.cdc.gov/zika/laboratories/index.html)

I was embarrassed, but I had to ask—does that mean no oral sex either?  She said she just had an awkward conversation with another patient on this same issue and the answer is no oral sex either.

So then I started getting worried—should my son/hubby not go?  Are they at risk for terrible things??  She said that other than the temporary paralysis (!!), there’s no risk to them.  (And I’ve been reading about it since then, the risk of infection/paralysis appears pretty low.  Only two people in all of Costa Rica have had Guilain-Barre potentially related to zika, and the infection rate in Costa Rica now is less than 100 a week.  http://www2.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=35222&Itemid=270&lang=en)

So I let hubby know, and we have to discuss further.  I think the risks are so low, he should still go.  The condom thing is annoying, but it’s not like we were going to be having tons of sex from 7 months pregnant to 4 months post-pregnancy, right??

I also got weighed at the doctor’s office.  I’m about 10 lbs up from when I got pregnant, but I’m STILL lighter than I was when I first got pregnant with my son… although not for much longer.  (I was marathon training when I got pregnant this time—skinny minny!)  I’m gaining weight at about the same rate as I did with my son (I’m an early weight gainer), and I gained 35 with him.  So I’m not worried… but I’m paying attention.

I have been exercising 5-6 times a week, though, doing swimming, running, and yoga.  Although I’ve been tired, I was able to exercise normally through the first trimester.  I’ve been slowing down recently, though.  I have a 5k fun run in a little over a week and a swim meet the day after.  That will be my last set of races for the season—the doctors I talked to suggested that competition is fine until about 20 weeks, and then you should take things a little easier.  (Although Olympian Dana Volmer swam a blazing 50m time in a meet at 27 weeks.  http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2017/04/14/dana-vollmer-swim-meet-pregnant-mesa/)

No big surprise, I’m starting to get a bump.  (That 10lbs had to go somewhere!)  Last week, a friend was teasing me that, after 3 kids, she looks more pregnant than I do at 15+ weeks.  And when I saw my family at Thanksgiving, they were like, look at your teeny tiny tummy!  By the end of the weekend, though, they were like where did that come from??  (Turkey and stuffing!)  And when I got back to work, my friend was like, you popped!  So I’m not sure how much longer I can get away with not being obviously pregnant.  I was hoping to make it to 20 weeks.  Tomorrow is 17, so can I make it 3 more weeks??

Another fun thing—I’ve started to feel flutters!  Right around 15 weeks I felt some teeny little scratches.  So I was not surprised we had a heartbeat at 15 ½ weeks.  But then I felt nothing for several days and started to get nervous.  And then right around 16 ½ weeks I felt some little bubbles again.  Since then, I’ve felt little flutters now and again.  I love it!!

The other fun thing—telling people!!  When we first told people, it was “we’re pregnant, it probably won’t work out.”  Their response was, of course, “oh, I’m so sorry.  I’m thinking of you.”  Then it was, “we’re pregnant, it might not work out.”  And then the response was, “oh, I hope it works.  I’m thinking of you.” “Now it’s just “WE’RE PREGNANT!!!!”  And the reactions are totally amazing.  One friend cried, one said she almost fell out of her chair, another was stunned into silence.  So that’s been really cool.  (Also, because of our history, and the fact that I am not really showing yet, it has been an absolute shock to everyone we’ve told.  Mark that as one more upside to a decade of infertility.)

Onward and upward!

Embracing ordinary

Since my last update, we had a heartbeat check (normal), a blood test (I do NOT have any STDs—whooh!—still waiting on the AFP test, but we expect it will be normal), and another ultrasound (normal).  Yes, you read that correctly—everything looked completely and totally NORMAL.  Brain?  Normal.  Kidneys?  Normal.  Stomach?  Normal.  Heart?  Normal.  Spine?  Normal.  Head?  Normal?  Growth?  Normal.  In other words, normal, normal, normal.  The high-risk OB we met (yet another new doctor) was absolutely giddy to deliver the news.  She said something along the lines of, “I am excited to inform you that everything looks normal!”  When I asked what our chances were of having a healthy baby, she cut right to the chase, “your chances are the same as everyone else’s.”

Do you hear that?  We’re ordinary! Yay!!!!!  Obviously we’re not out of the woods yet, but unless something terrible happens, we’re having a baby.