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Thursday, October 16, 2014

Baby #2 Bumpdate: the 7th month

The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy with a blur of doctor's appointments and fall plans with the family.  This month is my oldest son's birthday month so we have a few traditions.  Boo at the Zoo, trick-or-treating, a visit to the local pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving  painting, and his 2nd birthday party are definites. We're also finally adding a new tradition of apple picking.

As for how I'm feeling lately...the dreaded rib pain is back.  I had that really bad with Liam and I've been hoping I'd avoid it this time since second babies tend to sit lower.  No such luck.  Laying down seems to be the worst.  The tech at our 31 week ultrasound made me feel better though when she said she couldn't visualize the baby's spine because his back was "jammed under" my rib cage. No joke!  That's exactly what it feels like.  At least baby boy is head down and ready for his birthday as far as that goes.

How far along today: 33 weeks + 3 days

Baby size:  At 33 weeks, baby should be about the size of a honeydew, 19 inches long and 4.5 lbs.  At 31 weeks, Coen was 3lbs and 12oz (3.2lbs was the What to Expect estimate) so he may be just a bit bigger. Despite that, my fundal height at the last appointment was 2cm smaller than gestational age, which is what got us the 31 week ultrasound in the first place. 


Trimester: Oh third trimester, you are a tough one... You're making me anxious to have this baby boy here even though it is WAY too early still.  

Gender: As I announced in my Gender Reveal Post, it's a BOY!  


Name: This little guy's name will be Coen Gabor.  See my What's in a Name Post to see how we chose this name and why it is so special to us.

Movement: This baby boy moves A LOT!  The ultrasound made him move, me getting up at night because of Liam or to go to the bathroom wakes him up and he becomes crazy active (not helping with trying to go back to sleep), and I've noticed a few loud noises will start up his crazy antics too.

Cravings: Chocolate chip cookies and sour candy.  Although, I really just like to eat, especially carbs of all kinds (and especially sweets unfortunately).  Thank goodness I passed that 3 hour glucose tolerance test!


Aversions: What are those?  Just give me food and lots of it!  


The Not So Fun Pregnancy Stuff:  
The weather is FINALLY starting to cool down! But not fast enough.  Highs are in the mid-80s (which feels like high 90s to me) still! This is a huge thing for me since we are still having to run our AC pretty hard on warm days to keep me from feeling like I am melting into a puddle.  Shorts and tank tops are often what I wear while I dress my toddler in long sleeves and pants on cooler days.  I'm pretty sure some people think I'm nuts but I just feel so hot that jeans sound horrible most days.  The forecast for the coming 10 days looks promising for more chill in the air though!

Sleep has been very rough lately.  This is probably my biggest struggle in the past few weeks.  Liam had a rough few weeks.  I also just wake up in pain a lot.  My back and neck bother me but the rib pain I meantioned earlier is the worst.  I just feel bruised, like I've been in a car accident and can't lay on my ribs.  Unfortunately, any way I lay puts pressure on my rib cage.  I desperately googled ways to relieve it and have come up with a survival routine.  I take a shower and stretch before bed.  I try to avoid laying down until the moment we are going to sleep then try to take as much pressure off with my body pillow as possible.  This has seemed to work a few nights.  I'm also anxiously awaiting him to "drop."  That was promised as relief online, but since Liam never did drop, I'm worried that'll be true this time too.  But honestly, all my research mostly just let me know that the rib pain is likely here until delivery day.  Delivering is the only cure.  (Yikes...I have 6 weeks and change til my due date and Liam was late...)

Sciatica is like a ninja.  It comes out of nowhere but strong and hard.  One minute I'm scrubbing the bathroom and the next I can't even walk up the stairs or put any weight on one of my legs (usually the left one).

Most exciting moments:  Getting a 31 week ultrasound!  I was a little disappointed that Coen wouldn't cooperate and show us his face but the little blurry, melty looking tidbits that I did get to see made me happy and I can't truly be disappointed when he looks perfectly healthy. 

Worst moment: The day after our ultrasound, I had an OB visit and found out that Coen's amniotic fluid is measuring "low normal".  In fact, after a little research I discovered that at 8.9, for his gestational age, he was 0.1 away from "low" (5th percentile) not just "low normal."  I have another ultrasound next week to follow the fluid levels.  Coen looks perfectly healthy but if the fluid becomes too low, I will have to be admitted to the hospital for bed rest and IV fluids.  I worry that we will have to induce early and it is still REALLY early.  For now, I'm just trying to drink lots of water and not worry too much since it won't change anything.

What I'm most looking forward to: I'm looking forward to all the fun October activities we have planned and the hubs finally having some time off this month to do all of them with us.  We really need some time together to have fun, finish the house, and relax before we become a family of four in a month and a half.  I'm also looking forward to seeing Coen's sweet face again next week.  Ultrasounds could never get old to me!

Big Brother: Liam is turning 2 in 2 weeks!  That is crazy.  We are planning a little Elmo birthday party for him at home.  He is majorly into Elmo right now.  He could watch Elmo videos we rent from the library all day if we let him.  That and the YouTube videos for Choo Choo Soul's "Alphabet" and "All Aboard" songs as well as the Mickey Mouse Club House intro song. 

He had two weeks of waking up a lot of nights but hopefully this has passed (it has been over a week since the last time now).  He refuses to nap some days so that routine somehow got messed up too.  Hopefully this will be a short phase since Mommy is exhausted.

Liam's latest obsession is Halloween so I've made some effort to decorate the house a little for Halloween and do some crafts that follow the theme as well.  His enthusiasm is very rewarding.  He exclaims "Ham-a-meen!" and adds "craft" or "art" or "disz (decoration in Hungarian)" and repeats it so excitedly that I'm starting to love Halloween stuff too :).

We've been working on getting Coen's room organized and Liam loves that.  He likes pointing out socks and clothes.  And he exclaims "Kutch-Ko!" when we head toward his room.  He points out daily that "Kutch-Ko" is in my belly.  He also identifies baby things like cribs in the store with his baby brother's name. We had a play date with a little boy who has a baby sister and I tried to use her to explain that Coen would be a baby like that very soon.   I'm not sure how much he understands but he seems excited for now.