Reprieve Lifted

My goal this year was to post every Sunday, but for some reason, 5 months in, I still can't get the hang of our morning church schedule and get to church on time, or remember to blog.  But I figured I'd give a pregnancy update.  

I got about a month of reprieve from everything.  I had energy, slept... pretty well, no longer had as bad of anxiety issues or rash issues or nausea... well my reprieve has been lifted it seems.  Hopefully it will come back at some point b/c I've still got a long way to go, but every day I wish gestation was only 5 or 6 months.  I'm 22 weeks.  And everything is back.  Except I'm not anemic or nauseous.  What I do have apparently is symphysis pubic dysfunction.  My family knows what it is b/c my sister-in-law has it really, really bad.  She's nearly bed-ridden.  Typically, hormones cause the ligaments in the pelvis to relax making hips spread and labor easier.  Ours relax too much.  So we get a lot of pain as our pelvic bones and legs grind, shift and pop.  Walking is painful, sitting, standing, moving.  But it's not yet severe for me.  So I talked to my dr. who said to do whatever I feel safe doing.  Well, that's bad advice for me, because I pushed too hard last week.  Then, I had one day where I could hardly move w/o crying.  That's when I realized I must have this SPD and not just regular pregnancy pains.  Like I said, it's still manageable as long as I keep myself in check and rest plenty.  But the problem is, it gets worse as baby gets bigger, and with each pregnancy.  So I'm already at a point where I'm  being forced to give up my morning walks which keep the anxiety away and help me sleep, basically keep me sane... - ish ;)  Really, I've been blessed.  Mentally and physically, I could be so much worse off right now.  But I'm a little stressed thinking of the future of this pregnancy, as well as any subsequent ones.  Also b/c I can't do as much as I feel like I need to.  I've got a lot to do!  (As fiercely as I've resisted it, I've become one of those moms who feeds my kid nuggets every day for lunch, b/c we're in the car.)  And now that I know the gender, I've got lots of prep work to do.

Speaking of gender!! I accidentally made the ultrasound appointment during our trip to Disney.  That was with my old dr.'s office, who were very adamant that this was an anatomy check, not a gender check.  I even had to sign a paper to that effect.  Then I had to wait until a week after my first appt. with my new dr.  I hated to wait, but as incompetent as everyone in that office was, I decided to look at it as a blessing.  So I finally got in with my new dr.  She's a midwife.  I'm loving her, and the staff.  I still have anxiety about delivering here (with plenty of legitimate reasons to back up my own neurosis,) but at least I know now that I'll be taken care of up to that point, and I'm a lot more optimistic (usually) about delivery too.  

Anyway, all you FBers know, but for the sake of my blog, it's a boy!  We're all very excited.  Chloe even wanted a boy, "because boys are awesome!"  She changed her mind at the last minute, but she's not disappointed.  She gives us a new name each day that she thinks we should use, Nicholas, Steve... haha.  And last night she made the exciting realization that baby will weigh less than the dog, so she'll be able to hold/carry him.  Everett's excited too.  He prays every day for baby, mostly that he'll be born "on Chloe's birthday," or born "soon."  But he didn't get the whole ultrasound thing.  Chad and I tried to explain what we were looking at, but he just couldn't see what we saw.  And what we saw was amazing!  The tech did some of it in 3D/4D which instead of this (which actually is a really good image too, compared to the ones from the other dr.)

 

 3D looks like this. 

 Our little contortionist, we got to see him put his toes in his mouth, and his thumb.  She wasn't quick enough to catch a picture of him sucking his thumb, but she toggled between the two images a few times for us.  With 4D, I got to watch him move as I felt him.  Here's his face.  His arm is under his chin.

It really was incredible, and now it's all so real and exciting!  He was stubborn though.  She had to work a little to give us the gender.  And as soon as she found out for us, she was done.  So grateful for that little miracle, because again, that would NOT have happened at the other place.  Nor would the 3D images.  Now I get to decorate his room and we get to pick a name!