16 Weeks 2 Days

I wanted to post my belly pic. I don't really see much of a difference when I compare it with my pic from closer to 12 weeks, but I feel the difference. I started to feel this little one move last Wednesday. It's the best feeling, and it was my favorite part of my pregnancy with Jack, and I'm pretty sure it will be one of my favorites with this one as well. I usually only feel it when I'm lying really still, but occassionally it will be moving when I stand up at work, and that is the strangest feeling. I don't remember having it with Jack, but it just feels really heavy and weird really low. It usually stops moving after I've been moving for a minute, probably because it's being sloshed around in there and maybe it makes the baby fall back asleep.

Jack has started talking to the belly, or singing to it. The other night he put his mouth right against my lower belly and sang his ABC's, and I could feel the baby moving around. It was cute. Jack continues to remind me when baby names come up that he doesn't like one of our boy names (he actually really "hates" it), and reminds me of what variation of the girl name he'd want to call the baby. For a 4 year old, he sure is opinionated. I guess he comes by that honestly.

We have narrowed the baby names down. If it is a girl it will be Kate Elise (Jack wants to call her Katie which I told him was fine). If it is a boy, the only option we had that we could agree on but weren't over the moon (like we were with the name Jack) about was Charlie. NOT Charles, but Charlie. I really love that name, but I have conflicting feelings about it because Charlie sounds like a kid's name, but what about when he's an adult. I do not like the name Charles really. I figure there was Charlie Chaplin, Charlie Sheen (which makes me like the name a little less), etc., so it could work. Then a friend overseas in Australia told me that they have kids with the official name Charlie over there, and it's not thought of as a kiddie name. That made me feel a little better. My mom, Archie, Jack and I were in the car a week or so ago, and Jack brought up the name Joey. I like Joey, it's not a bad name. I don't mind the name Joseph, so that would be the official name, but we'd probably call him Joey. Except that Archie doesn't like Joey, so he said he'd call him Joe which I'm not a big fan of. I figure by the time the child can make the decision on what he wants to be called by friends, whatever name we call him by will stick with the family. Archie would like his official name (Archel- pronounced Arch-elle) to be the boy's middle name either way. I don't like it with Charlie, but with Joseph it sounds fine. BTW, Kate will be her official name, not Katherine. Katherine just sounds too formal to me. Kate and Jack are both classic names, and I love them both!

I'm still dealing with nausea and some occassional vomiting, but I've begun to eat every couple of hours (like 2 hours), and I will eat some crackers if I wake up to go to the bathroom just for fear of waking up really nauseous (which does occassionally happen). That coupled up with the zofran seems to be working pretty well. I'm still getting the IV fluids 3 times a week.

My next ultrasound and OB appointment are on August 25th-only 15 more days until we hopefully know what this baby's gender is!!! I'm hoping that by that time, I'll have this nausea under control and maybe we can stop with the IV fluids.

I just continue to pray that this sweet baby is healthy and looks great on my next ultrasound. We'll get to see it's little heart, and hopefully make sure things look normal. I see things that get missed on prenatal ultrasounds be present at birth when I'm at work and know that just because it looks normal doesn't mean it necessaily is, but if it doesn't detect anything major, I will have faith that this baby will be ok.

As a random side question, do any of you watch Big Brother on CBS? I am a total addict!

15 weeks 0 days

Today I am 15 weeks exactly. I do have a few things to report. As of Friday, if I hadn't thrown up, I would have made it 3 weeks. The fact that I almost made it that far, is great. I was so hopeful however to be able to be done with these IV's. A week and a half ago, I honestly thought I'd go to the OB appointment and be able to say I didn't need them. Then last week the nausea was back with a vengeance, late Wednesday night I started with a sore throat, by Thursday night was starting with a cough, and with the nasty cough, gagging. I've thrown up twice in the last 3 days, but honestly, I think alot of it has to do with the post nasal drip, and the coughing triggering it. I wasn't feeling great earlier in the week with the nausea, but I think I probably could have kept from throwing up, MAYBE. One morning I went to my mom's office to pick up Jack and told her I felt like I was going to throw up, and she told me to go do it in the bathroom before I got on the road. But the point is to NOT throw up, and I was bound and determined to keep it in as long as I could. Can't say I didn't try.

The acid reflux has also kicked up a notch. I remember toward the end of my pregnancy having to sleep sitting up on pillows in my bed because if I didn't I'd wake up choking on my own stomach acid in the middle of the night, not being able to breathe, and then throwing up. I'm not that bad yet. However, if I lay down, I'm in such bad pain it's ridiculous. Two tums (used to be my go-to) only cut it for about 10-15 minutes and then I'm back in pain again. Milk occassionally helps, it's hit or miss. I may try Maalox next. I don't want to be taking anything like zantac on a regular basis, I just want something for when it's really bad and Tums won't cut it.

I went to my OB appointment on Friday. She didn't measure me, or even palpate my abdomen to see what I was talking about, but she tells me that it's certainly not my uterus that I feel at my belly button. She said it's a fluke. I told her I can feel it plain as day. She assures me it's not, that my uterus is only a few inches above my pubic bone at this point, the only way it would be at my belly button at this point is if my dates were wrong (which we know they're written in stone, no mistaking that), or if I was pregnant with multiples which we also know I am not. So I have no idea what it is I can feel, but I will tell you that it stays mostly on my right side (where I felt the pop a few weeks ago with all that pain-she said that was probably ligaments stretching) and if I push on my right side, I can feel something on the inside (not on the outside) bulge over to the left. It also continues to rise in my abdomen, a few weeks ago this non-uterus was below my belly button and now it's not. No idea what it is if it's not my uterus, but I'll just take her word for it. She is the expert after all, not me!

She did doppler the baby's heartbeat which took a little work to find (maybe because she was looking right above my pubic bone and found it about an inch or two down from my belly button), and it was 149. It's getting lower and lower as the baby gets bigger. Not sure what that means for the gender. This baby started off in the high 160's, at our first trimester screen and ultrasound was at 157, and now is at 149. Crud, speaking of the first trimester ultrasound, I forgot to ask if she had my bloodwork back! I will call tomorrow. She told us to schedule our anatomy ultrasound and next OB appointment for 4 weeks. We will know whether this baby is a boy or a girl on August 25th!!!! We cannot wait.

I worked Totswap again this week, and again, I refused to buy anything for the baby. I saw a ton of cute stuff, but I really won't need many boy things if it is a boy because I saved most of the baby stuff and haven't sold it yet. However, if it's a girl, I already have images of cute little dresses, skirts and outfits swirling around in my mushy brain! The next Totswap sale is in October, so I will definitely be able to shop then.

If you haven't already, I have a poll on the right side of the blog for the baby's gender. You have just over 25 days left to vote, so please make sure you do!!!