And Baby Makes Three

First of all, do I look abnormally large in this picture for 17 weeks? I sure think I do. I haven’t even hit 5 months yet! Although, I am getting close since I’m 18 weeks now.

I’ve been feeling good now. I still have some aversions to smell, such as when Joe eats seafood, but other than that things are going well. One thing I’ve noticed is that I don’t get up as much at night to go to the bathroom, yet I feel like I’m living in there during the day. Weird. Oh, and I’m getting sores on the sides of my mouth, which I’m assuming is from the fact that I can’t breathe through my nose anymore (thank you, allergies and pregnancy hormones) and have to breathe through my mouth when I sleep. Blah.

We’re looking forward to our appointment next week. I don’t know if they’ll do the anatomy scan then, since it will be 19 weeks, or the week after our vacation, which is 21 weeks. After that scan, we’ll finally get back to going in once a month. Hooray. I’m looking forward to having a more normal pregnancy with (hopefully) no more complications.

On Tuesday night, Joe and I were so tired that we passed out as soon as we hit the bed and said our prayers. Until 12:30 a.m., that is, when the sound of glass shattering woke us. We didn’t know what was going on. All we could think of was that someone was breaking a window to get into our house. Joe tossed me my cell phone so I could call 911 if necessary, and he headed down the hall with a flashlight.

The culprit was Callie, who had knocked over a glass Joe had left on the bathroom sink, breaking it and sending glass shards all over the sink.

We were relieved, but it took us a while to be able to fall back to sleep, and Joe was sad that he lost his favorite Homer Simpson glass. We learned two lessons: we need to keep at least a baseball bat under our bed in case there ever comes a time that we would need to protect ourselves, and we really need to remember not to leave empty glasses laying around.

I am off bed rest! I got the OK on Wednesday from the perinatologist. Everything looked great. He did see something in the amniotic sac, which he said could be a clot or baby debris (such as skin cells or vernix), but that it doesn’t pose a threat to the baby. He said it’s pretty hard to distinguish between a clot and what he calls “baby dust”, but he says it’s not a worry and it’s fine for me to go back to normal activities. So, it’s back to work for me tomorrow, but I’ll probably still take it easy. I won’t be mowing the lawn or cleaning the gutters, as Joe suggested.

Smudgers looked great. She weighed in at 7 ounces, which the doctor said was right on track for 17 weeks. We got a nice long look at her, and left with 3D pictures and a DVD of part of our ultrasound. It’s so cool to see what her little face looks like already, even though it looks like a little monkey face in one picture!

She’s so cute it’s not fair to other babies!

Happy Father’s Day to the best soon-to-be Daddy in the world!

Joe, you are going to be the best dad ever. You already take such good care of me and Smudge. You’ve loved Smudge deeply ever since the day that we got our positive pregnancy test, and you show it every day. I love how you pray for all of us, and especially for Smudge to continue to grow well; how you put your hand on my belly and poke around to make her dance; and how you pull out the doppler and ask if we can listen to her heartbeat.

I can’t wait until you are able to feel her moving and until the day she is born and you hold her for the first time. I can’t wait to see you taking care of her, playing with her and teaching her. You’re going to be an amazing dad.

We love you very, very much.

Love,
Cady and Lucy

And, of course, Happy Father’s Day to my awesome dad.

My dad’s always been there for me and has always been so supportive. One of my favorite memories is of him reading to me early in the morning at our vacation house in Virginia. Those were always our times, and I hope Lucy will have special memories like that with her dad. My dad is also a fantastic grandpa, and I can’t wait to see him with Lucy. I love you, Dad! Happy Father’s Day!

Things have calmed down since Wednesday. We were scared to death since I had a placenta previa and was told that any bleeding likely would be from the placenta tearing or rupturing. I seriously think that’s the most scared I’ve been throughout this pregnancy. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to be from anything serious.

Lucy is really moving around a lot now. At night when we listen to her heartbeat with the doppler, we usually lose her 3-4 times. She’s just bebopping around and living it up in there. I wonder how rough she’ll be when I actually start feeling her.

We have decided to start clearing out the nursery next month. I have no plans to start decorating or really working in there until after the point of viability (24 weeks), but starting to move things out will in the next few weeks will give us more time and we won’t feel rushed.

I have, however, picked out the furniture and bedding I’m going to buy. The furniture is in cherry wood, which I love, and the crib is a 4-in-1 convertible, so it will be useful for several years.

The bedding I think we’re going to go with is super girly, and I am totally in love with it. I found a couple that I liked, but this one I really loved. I think it looks really classy, and it’s a 13-piece set, which is awesome. I’m still trying to find the border. I’m not a big fan of borders usually, but I think it will look really nice and really break up the pink walls.

I have to find a bathing suit for our upcoming beach trip. I hate buying a maternity bathing suit that I likely will only wear this one time, but I do want to go swimming. I’m so self conscious, though, since my knees are all swollen (thank you, arthritis!), and I feel like my thighs are larger than they were. I was thinking about finding a sarong to wear over my bathing suit, but I think I will go with a pair of bermuda shorts. I just hope we’re able to go on the trip. I’m so nervous that the clot will still be there on the 24th and that I will be on more bed rest. I don’t think I could handle that.

That’s about all I’ve been thinking about for now, but I’m sure I will be thinking about more baby-related things in the next week and a half. It’s not like I have anything else to do!