Sunday, August 30, 2009

we survived...and it was almost fun

We both survived the visit from my family. And, oddly enough, all of that dread and pessimistic preparation seemed to have done the trick - we actually had a good time, we all got along, and I almost feel bad for dreading it so much! My nieces - 4 and 2 -were wonderful and fun to spend time with. My SIL seems to have come down a notch or two and was very easy to talk to and, at one point, asked me if my mom was throwing me a shower b/c she'd like to be "in on it" but said it would be hard to plan exclusively from 4 hours away....which was shocking to me...and considerate! She did look about 7 months pregnant...but I guess that is expected with your third. She looked at me and said how she remembers she didn't look as big as she does now with her first until she was almost giving birth (very unlike her to be self-deprecating, so I was nicely surprised again). In any event, we had a good time. Brett and my brother sat around laughing and drinking beers. We do all know that we have different views on things and, though my brother and his wife used to pick on us horribly for that, they seem to now be willing to live and let live. Maybe we are all growing up.

I have discovered one major pregnancy symptom- I am a HUGE klutz. I am hurting myself and breaking things left and right. I'm not very big so my balance can't be that far off (and yoga has been going fine) so I'm assuming it has something to do with being tired a lot...so I don't move as well as I usually do...not sure. I just know that I have a sprained finger, a blood blister from where a mop 'bit me', a badly stubbed toe, almost fell down the stairs 2x yesterday and broke a glass 2 days ago. I'm a mess.

The other thing is that I have a lot of pulling pains in my belly area. It is really really uncomfortable. It seems that that nice strong core I've cultivated from 12 years of yoga is holding in my organs and uterus and everything and this is seriously causing my hips to move slightly out (which makes them sore)...it is also causing stretchy pains from the strain of holding all of that in. My mom just keeps looking at me and going "I don't remember any pain like that, are you sure that is normal?" Yes, mom...its normal...

So...onto where our little peanut is in her development...





She is the size of an avocado! This week she is apparently working on her facial expressions! Her uterus is fully developed and her ovaries are already containing primitive egg cells (uh oh, watch out daddy!). Her skin is still translucent but her heart is pumping 25 quarts of blood a day...crazy.

Interesting developments this week - there have been a few instances this week of women who knew what sex baby they were having finding out they were having the other sex. One of them transferred a CGH normal female embryo and her 20 week anatomy scan showed that she was very clearly carrying a well-endowed boy. Um, eeek. She then discovered that this is the main error for CGH embryos b/c the x and y chromosomes are the smallest and so are the hardest to define with accuracy. So, we might still have a surprise. Another woman did one of those genetic tests at home where you prick a finger and send your blood to a lab and they tell you if you are carrying a boy or girl. It said "girl", and her anatomy scan said "boy". She is now pretty upset and selling brand new baby girl stuff on craigslist. The last one is a friend of mine who, at her 20 week scan, the OB said, "it is a girl - I am 99.9% sure". Well, at 29 weeks, she had a 3d u/s and boy did they see boy parts! She isn't upset -other than the fact that they need to re-paint the nursery and return a lot of stuff (and get the word out b/c her shower is next week!). So, my first thought was, uh oh...maybe we shouldn't have told anyone we were having a girl...and then more stories came up and now it seems that the "wrong gender predicted" quota is likely met. So, I'm pretty secure that we are having a girl...but I really still don't care either way. I just think it must be very mind-shifting to be talking about "her" and "she" and picturing her for months and then be told otherwise!

We have our next OB appt in 2 weeks or so and we are getting our detailed (and last) scan then. Hopefully they will be able to confirm or deny our CGH results...

7 comments:

Not Your Aunt B said...

Glad the visit went well. Be careful! The clumsiness and preggo brain are hazardous! LOL! The lower belly stretching is annoying. I remember just trying to do hip rocking and circle eights, not that it helped at all. And yay for avocados. I love avocados. So do the girls. Girl or boy, the baby will be so loved and adored by you both.

Jill M. said...

What a shocker of a visit, so glad it finally went well! Maybe your SIL is finally learning that it's not all about her.

As far as the new pg symptom, maybe we need to put bumper pads on you. The hip stetching stuff doesn't sound too fun.

Yeah, I saw all that girl was actually a boy stuff. I'm definitely waiting till my u/s to find out the gender now.

Lost in Space said...

So glad the visit went so much better than you could have anticipated. I hope this is a continuing trend. (-;

We might have to put you in a plastic bubble for awhile! Be careful, girl!

Those gender predictions sound tricky. A friend of my BFF planned for a girl after her anatomy scan only to find it was wrong. His name is William. (-;

DAVs said...

Good family visits that are surprising are always so nice...I've had a few myself :)

That avacado is making me hungry....yum. I think that strong core is going to come in SO HANDY in the delivery room...but sorry about the pains.

And yeah, that 'uh oh' on the gender is crazy! But either way, it's going to be well loved.

Amber said...

Glad your SIL didn't stress you out!

As for the stretching pains, I have them, but they're not too bad. Then again, I have absolutely no abs or core to speak of after 2 surgeries and not being able to hit the gym because of pain. Hopefully your core will relax a little so you're not so uncomfortable!

Kris said...

I am SO glad that things went well with your family. It is always nice to be pleasantly surprised:)

The wrong gender thing is the reason why we didn't find out that L was a boy in advance. I had heard too many stories of the wrong gender being seen at the 20 week u/s, tikes! This time we will find out because we will be having several u/s after the 20 week one so it can be confirmed over and over and over again:)

Retro Girl said...

I'm glad the visit went better than expected...always a nice surprise. I'm a klutz, too. And actually a little stupid and slow ;-). Seriously - it takes me 4X as long to leave the house, and I always forget something in the process. I hear it is all pretty normal.

Can't wait for your big scan! You will have so much fun!