Kicking

As Mom's pregnancy moves on inevitably things are going to change. The biggest change at the moment is that Twinkle is kicking. Kicking a lot and with power. Just two nights ago I was sitting next to Mom with my hand on her belly and was treated to a couple of really strong kicks. Mom seems to be commenting that Twinkle is kicking all the time. This is a big departure from Mom's pregnancy with Alyce. During that pregnancy Alyce would only kick on rare occasion and usually stop right after I started feeling for them.

Twinkle at this stage of development (23 weeks) is now 12 inches long and weighs around one lb. I believe his ears are now developed enough that he can hear what is going on. Not that what he can hear is all that interesting. Odds are he just hears the rush of blood and the gurgling of Mom's belly digesting a cheeseburger.

Speaking of cheeseburgers. That is another big departure between the pregnancies. With Alyce mom wanted nothing to do with meat. She forced herself to eat chicken, but couldn't stand hamburger. This time around all mom wants to eat is hamburgers and ice cream. Proof positive that no pregnancy is the same.

20th Week Ultrasound

Last week Mom had another ultrasound. Hopefully this will be the last one. This ultrasound is the one where most parent's get to see their baby for the first time. This is also the one where you can find out the sex of the baby. I'm am happy to say that we were able to confirm the sex of the baby. Twinkle is going to be a boy! Alyce is going to have a little brother and twinkle is going to have a big sister. This should make for some interesting dynamics later on in life.

The ultrasounds all looked great. The baby was progressing fine. Mom's placenta had moved up the wall of the uterus so we no longer have any fears of a placenta previa.

The above picture is of twinkle arching his back. The bright white lines are his skull and spine.

The picture above is of his foot. There is some toe detail.This is another profile picture. With this one he is turned a bit so you can see his legs and back.

And lastly another profile. He is quite the show off.

Moving On

I think it is safe to say that Mom has moved on from the initial stages of pregnancy. The all day morning sickness has left and her energy has improved. Last week she cleaned a bathroom, the kitchen, and did laundry in a single day! On top of that Mom spent the entire weekend hitting the outlet malls.

Mom's uterus is getting much larger now as the baby is now the size of a large apple. What is nice about that is Mom is starting to show a little bit which makes the pregnancy much more real for me. This is happening earlier than last time which I think is pretty common for a second pregnancy. Mom is enjoying it because now she gets to wear all of the comfy maternity clothes.

One thing that hasn't shown up yet is the baby kicking. Starting around 18 weeks you should feel a few little flutters from baby movement. Mom isn't too worried about it, but she said that she is looking forward to her ultrasound next week to make sure everything is fine.

Ultrasound Pictures

Here are the ultrasound pictures that had been promised some time ago. Life happens when you are busy making other plans. The resolution isn't the best because twinkle at the time was very small. Next week Mom gets another set of pictures and they should be better.

Don't Buy Anything You Can't Return

We had our ultrasound yesterday and we are happy to report that everything is fine. Alyce did not join us this time. Aunt Sue was gracious enough to babysit for her.

We got to see lots of pictures of the baby. Those are soon to be scanned in and posted here. The baby was dated to 14 weeks. Mom was originally dated to 14 weeks 1 day so the baby is progressing normally.

After looking at the baby the tech proceeded to look at the placenta. She said that the placenta looked normal. Our biggest fear was that it was detached or detaching and that was the source of the bleeding. The ultrasound eliminated that as a possibility. One item the tech did bring up was that the placenta was very low and was close to the birth canal. She did say that it wasn't covering the birth canal and we didn't have the presence of mind to ask if it would eventually. If it were to cover the birth canal it would be called a placenta previa and would necessitate a C Section at delivery time. Mom has a normal checkup with the doctor next week and I am sure she will answer all the questions we have now.

And to explain the title of this post "Don't Buy Anything You Can't Return". The tech was able to determine the sex of the baby. She said that it was still kind of early and nothing was definite until the 18 - 20 week ultrasound. But in her opinion she thinks that we are having a boy! She went on to say that we shouldn't buy anything we can't return just in case she was wrong.

That's right a boy! I wasn't hoping for one over the other. I think either a boy or girl would have provided different parenting opportunities. As far as family goes it is a mixed blessing. On my side all my cousins are having boys. This is good for twinkle, but bad for Alyce in that she will be the only girl and won't have anyone to play girlie games with. On Mom's side it is the exact opposite. There are all girls with one boy on that side. So it is quasi good for twinkle in that he has someone to play with. Strange how division of the sexes can occur.

Pregnancy Trouble

As of late we have had a few hiccups with Mom's pregnancy. Starting last Tuesday Mom had some bleeding related to her pregnancy. Naturally your mind goes into thinking it was something horrible like a late miscarriage.

We immediately got an appointment with Mom's doctor. She used her microphone and confirmed the babies heart beat was fine. She couldn't say for certain the reason for the bleeding but she wanted to make sure she could eliminate everything possible so she signed Mom up for an ultrasound next Wednesday. So Mom and I have to wait an entire week to see if anything can be determined.

In the mean time Mom has to take it very easy. She has to limit how much she can pickup and carry. She also has to limit bending over, stooping, and squatting. Try not doing any of things when you have a two year old.

Pictures From The Ultrasound

Sorry we have been kind of bad at getting these pictures online. These are pictures from Twinkles ultrasound which was at the beginning of September. So Twinkle is a lot bigger than this now.

This is a frontal picture. The arms and legs are just beginning to form.


This picture is roughly the same as the one up a above.

I think this one is from the side. Looks like a blob to me.

1/3rd The Way Done

Mom is done with the first trimester and it has been a hard one. She has lost a lot of weight because she hasn't been able to each as much as she wants or should due to ongoing morning sickness. Sadly even the Zofran doesn't seem to working its magic like it used to. However, all is not lost. With the last pregnancy most of Mom's morning sickness issues went away right after the first trimester and they seem to be waning here as well.

The baby is doing fine. Progressing as fast as a baby should. I think he/she is around 2 inches long now and has most of the features of a full grown baby.

In all we aren't really focusing on the new baby so much because Alyce is always demanding our attention. I'm sure once Mom starts showing and the baby starts kicking our focus will change.

It's Legit

Last week we had our first real milestone. Our first ultrasound. On our first trip to the OB the new baby wasn't far enough along for a heartbeat so we scheduled an ultrasound to ensure the pregnancy was viable. We had that ultrasound last Thursday and we are happy to announce that everything is fine. The little fetus was teeny tiny but we could make out a head and buds for arms and legs. More importantly we could see and hear the heartbeat. Put all of that together and we have a healthy baby on the way.

Alyce was with us for the ultrasound, but wasn't really impressed. She hasn't really grasped that she is going to be a big sister. I don't she even knows what a big sister is. Truthfully speaking we haven't really grasped the fact that we are going to be parents x 2.

Feeling Better

Mom is starting to feel better. Maybe it was getting out of the house for Labor Day weekend, but her appetite is returning along with her energy. I know she is starting to feel better when she ate a whole piece of cake at a birthday party. Even though her morning sickness is under control her fatigue is starting to ramp up. Over the past few days she has been going to sleep earlier and waking up feeling tired as well.

We've Got Drugs

On Tuesday Mom's morning sickness reached a crescendo as her appetite and energy hit new lows. We had some left over anti nausea medication from her first pregnancy but we were afraid to take it without the go ahead of our doctor. Mom gave the doc a call and she got the go ahead to take medicine. On top of that we also got a prescription for more! The anti nausea drug called Zofran making her feel 90% within a few minutes of taking it. This time around it isn't working so well. It does make her feel a bit better, but her appetite isn't coming back.

Dr. Visit

Last week Mom, Alyce, and I all went to the doctor for the first visit. It was unexciting as we were too early to hear a heartbeat. So in two weeks we are going in to hear the heartbeat and maybe get an ultrasound of the baby. Alyce did very good at the office, but most of that was because I was playing with her keeping her entertained.

On the morning sickness front. Mommy is having her good days and bad days. At least she is eating something which is better than last time.

Morning Sickness

Morning sickness has reared its ugly head. Mom had morning sickness with Alyce and had a horrible time with it. It was so bad that she lost 10lbs. before she was prescribed anti nausea medicine. This time around I think Mom is is handling it a bit better. I think most of it is because she has to as Alyce doesn't slow down for anyone or anything. Also, I think Mom knows to keep her stomach as full as possible. The first time around Chris would do well to keep down a few crackers. This time around she can eat a PB&J. The trick to getting a whole sandwich down is to throw up before eating it. By doing that she is getting rid of all the nasty stuff in her stomach and allows a brief window to get something down.

I expect Mom to lose a few pounds over the next 5 weeks, but she will come out the side and never look back.

Wind Up the Pregnancy Machine

I am happy to announce that we are expecting another baby! Right now the initial due date is April 15th. Woo Hoo! We are going to be parents X 2! At the moment Mom is 6 weeks 3 days pregnant.

I guess I should back up a bit. Our other child Alyce has a blog. We started it in June 2008, because I wanted to record all of thing things that she was doing before the slipped out the back door. At the time I wished I had started her blog before she was even born to document all of the events that lead up to her birth and beyond.

So here we are. I am starting a blog for our little embryo to record the goings on so that sometime in the future he/she might want to look back and see the events before it is born.