Getting Close Now

Wholly Smokes it is getting down the crunch time for the new baby to show up. However, we are sitting on our hands when it comes to getting ready for the new baby.

I've been getting Alyce's new room ready so we can move Alyce out of the nursery. I've been painting the walls Purple Whisper or as I call it pastel purple. There will be new trim, outlets, and switches too. I remodeling the bathroom too.

Mommy has been getting ready for the baby where she can. Being 35 weeks pregnant makes it hard to do anything physical. But Mommy found all of the old baby bottles in the basement so we can clean them and she has been going through Alyce's baby clothes picking out the gender neutral and temperature appropriate clothes.

We've been getting Alyce ready for her new brother by reading her a book every night called I'm a Big Sister Now. She gets a kick out of it. Every time I say "big sister" while reading the book Alyce giggles and says "sister". I also ask her if she wants a baby brother and she responds with an uh huh.

We are still hoping to get Alyce into her new room by the time the baby shows up. While it isn't a necessity it would be nice to only clear one hurdle at a time.

33rd Week

So here we are at 33 weeks. Seven weeks to go. Mommy is ready for the baby to come out. She is hitting the point where she is constantly uncomfortable. She has loose painful joints, changed center of gravity, and not sleeping very much at night. The baby is still kicking like crazy which is much different than last time. This time around Mommy isn't worried about the baby being ok like she was with Alyce.

We are continuing updating the house getting ready for the new baby. We are updating the front room for Alyce. We are going to move her into that room to free up the nursery for the new baby.

We are also actively looking at names. We have one that we like but haven't done our due diligence to ensure that there aren't any other names that we like better.

3rd Trimester

As Mom approaches her third trimester things are starting to change with her and around the house. Mom is getting bigger every day but in a cute way as her belly is starting to really show. This is a big departure from Alyce where mom hid her bump for a long time. I am sure it has something to do with a second pregnancy being an easier transition.

Mom's center of gravity hasn't changed yet and she doesn't waddle around the house. She is starting to have some hip issues while sleeping. She is trying different things to help such as a pillow between the legs. I haven't heard if it is working or not.

Around the house I am starting the initial preparations for the new baby. The guest bathroom or soon to be kids bathroom is getting some updates. This coming weekend I am going to replace the faucet and some plumping underneath the sink, after that I have to fix some problem areas with the drywall, and lastly we are painting the room a sky blue and then doing a rubber ducky theme. Once I am done with the bathroom I am moving onto Alyce's room. Well her new room. We are going to move her into our front guest bedroom and eventually a big girl bed. I need to get a move on only 3 months left.

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.