20 Weeks with Emelia: Getting a jump on this baby thing

I’ve been washing baby clothes this week. Psycho, maybe. Call it very early nesting, or possibly because I don’t want to do this a few months down the road because things are already getting uncomfortable up in here, but I washed baby clothes up to 3-6 months and wow, you guys. Things are getting real. I sold a bunch of Olivia’s clothes awhile back because let’s be honest, the stars had to align to have another girl in the same season as her, and I thought that was so farfetched and we had embryo transfers to pay for.

Luckily, I got some clothes from a whole bunch of garage sales and from my MOPS group in the last few months. And going through Olivia’s clothes have been so weird. Her little sister is going to wear these in a few months, including the purple sleeper Olivia wore home from the hospital and the little white sleeper with the bunnies.

Sometimes it just hits me how crazy this whole thing is. Having another baby. Washing all those baby clothes just made me think how much I didn’t even believe this would be possible back at the beginning of the year.

Queso will have the tall dresser that used to be in Olivia’s room. I put the clothes in there and hung up the outfits in the closet that still houses all the storage that will have to be moved from the soon-to-be nursery. I’m not satisfied with any of it and you’d think with a second baby, I’d be more laid back about the freaking baby clothes storage thing, but I’m not.

The nausea and dry heaving have been better. It hits me when my stomach is empty and in the mornings, but it’s not as bad as it was. I’ve continued to avoid constipation as long as I stay on the magnesium. My month of restricting my exercise when I had the SCH set me back where walking is rough right now. I lost any sort of conditioning I had prior, so I’ve been getting back out walking again, but I seem to consistently have a pain in my lower right abdomen. I’ve been having horrible indigestion and heartburn, usually after dinner into the evening, but it doesn’t discriminate and many times it’s at random times of the day. I’m taking papaya extract, and then Tums when that doesn’t help, but I’m trying to avoid going back on the ranitidine that I was on with Olivia because it took a long to get off it.

There are days when I feel Queso more than others, and I mostly feel her low down on my sides. Tuesday was a day I didn’t feel her much, so when I woke Wednesday, I started getting concerned. Which is pretty good for me, because I’ve spent most of this second trimester feeling pretty good about this whole pregnancy and meeting this baby in Novemberish. I used the bathroom and drank some cold water and went back to bed and felt her squirm a few moments later after lying down. So I’m trying to keep the calm I was having before that there’s nothing wrong.

I’ve been noticing Braxton Hicks more recently, in the last few weeks, which is much earlier than I had them with Olivia. They feel different too, which I think it’s crazy, probably because I’m so much earlier.

My 20-week appointment went well today. My blood pressure was 116/87 and Queso’s HR was 143.

I have a message out to my OB, but I was confused about my weight gain so far. After stepping on the scale today before the appointment, I was informed by her nurse that I had gained 11 pounds so far. I was really confused because, at my 16 week, I was at the same weight as today and was told then I had gained 6 pounds so far. So I was hovering around the same weight today, but she looked at the screen once we were in the room and said, “Well it says here you’ve gained 11.”

I always tend to kick myself after these appointments because I know something doesn’t make sense, but I don’t speak up. So my OB and I had this conversation about me gaining 11 pounds so far and how I was feeling really discouraged because due to nausea and aversions and heaving, I still have a pretty heavy carb and cheese diet and I wanted to be doing better by now with eating healthier foods. We talked about getting out and walking daily and eating more complex carbs when I can and hopefully that will offset the weight gain. Due to my weight, I’m only recommended to gain 15 pounds the whole pregnancy.

With Olivia, I gained 24 pounds, but holy crap, by those last few days I wonder how much of that was severe water retention from the preeclampsia because the day after I delivered her I was down 8 pounds and then was down 4 pounds from my prepregnancy weight 12 days after delivery, meaning I lost about 28 pounds in 12 days. And that’s a lot of numbers, but I think it’s interesting to see it written down.

Anyway, when I logged into my account when I got home, I discovered, no, I hadn’t gained 11 pounds. I gained 5 according to the weight I was when I started being seen in my satellite clinic around 6 weeks. Still, I want to continue to do what I can to stay within that recommended amount, but I have a lot more wiggle room than I thought. I decided to still send my OB a message asking about this discrepancy because I definitely want to clear it up.

I was happy to see my blood pressure behaving, but looking back at my pregnancy with Olivia, it didn’t start becoming elevated until 31 weeks. The thought of getting preeclampsia again is always in the back of my mind.  I’m really hoping this delivery is going to be different.

1st-trimester bump photos

2nd-trimester bump photos