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2007-09-08 - 5.49pm��previous entry��next entry
17 weeks, 6 days pregnant
Yay, 18 weeks!!! Well, 17w6d today, but anyway! I'm writing today in case I don't find time tomorrow. I can't BELIEVE I'm 18 weeks pregnant already! Craziness. There are only two weeks to go till I'm halfway through my pregnancy!! Yikes!
24 days to go till my scaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!! I'm sooooo excited! In fact, that just about sums it up for me this week - I am just soooo excited to be pregnant! I'm no longer morning sick, though I have felt pretty queasy a lot of the time this week, but it felt like just a sluggish system or something, rather than morning sickness used to feel. And my energy is coming back. I come over EXHAUSTED very easily, and feel tired out pretty much all day every day, but there's such a contrast somehow, even with that. I feel like I can dig down and actually draw on energy to do normal things, even if I'm feeling wiped out at the same time. Before, I can't describe it really. I was just incapable of anything due to exhaustion. Not like I was ILL, like with M.E, but still. I'm so glad that stage is passing!
And I'm showing more all the time! I LOVE having a bump to show off! :) I'm getting far enough along so that people are starting to ask if I know if it's a girl or a boy yet (lots of people have asked me that, like people in the street, for some weird reason!), or when my scan is, etc. I can't wait till I'm showing MORE! At the moment, if I'm pushing a shopping trolley with the boys in it, and I stop to talk to someone I know, they don't know I'm pregnant till I blatently declare it, haha! I can't help myself! I am so happy to be pregnant! :) Anyway my bump is so little that it's easily hidden behind pushchairs and shopping trolleys, and people don't notice. When I'm putting the boys in their carseats, I doubt anyone in my street could tell that I'm pregnant, while I'm leaning over and stuff. I can't wait till EVERYONE knows just from a glance!! I am pretty sure I will get looks and maybe comments with such young children, but phooey, I don't care. I hope I won't care when it happens. It feels like it would be the type of thing to really upset me at the time, so hopefully it won't.
Anyway!
I am pretty sure Beanlet was having a growth spurt around my last entry. I had a huge appetite for 3 days, and during that time I barely felt a kick or two a day from Beanlet, even when I was really lying still and waiting to feel some. Then suddenly on day four, I couldn't face food at all! I just felt full and sluggish and bloated all day long and it was hard to force myself to eat meals. I didn't feel sick as such, just really off food. Over those same three days, Beanlet was more active than I EVER felt him/her before! I got kicks and squirms and taps and bumples all day long, and pretty much at night as well, when I was awake! That was a real "a-ha!" moment for me, because I remembered it well from my last two pregnancies. A growth spurt for the boys used to last a few days where they would be extra quiet, to the point where I would worry and poke them a lot! My appetite would also be huge. Then the activity would be more frenzied than ever and my appetite would be smaller. So I'm SURE Beanlet just grew like a foot or something, hehe!
Talking of Beanlet's size, he/she is now a whopping 5.5 inches (that's 14cm!) from head to bottom!!! And about 8.5 inches from head to toe! That's reeeally big, considering my little bump! I can't believe the time has flown so fast and I already have a baby that big inside me! He/she is only light and tiny yet though, not even weighing half a pound!
I am feeling Beanlet move with my hand on my tummy a lot more now. I get kicks and bumps and even the odd hard jab, all through the day, no matter what my position or what activity I'm doing. So far, I only get a sudden sharp pokey jab when I am holding one of my boys on my front with their legs around my back, so that they are sort of slightly "sitting" on my little bump. Beanlet doesn't jab THEM, but I get a sharp jab to the front of my abdomen, most times that I hold them that way! I haven't felt those at any other time yet.
Today, Neil felt the baby kick for the first time! We were sitting on the sofa while Matthew napped and Arthur had his Big Boy Quiet Time upstairs, about to FINALLY discuss girl names, and I suddenly felt two little kicks and a squirm, and I realised that I hadn't felt ANY movement at all for at least a couple of hours. So for the first time, I have noticed Beanlet sleeping and waking up! I think it was around this stage with Matthew where I noticed him waking up after a sleep :) So sweet! Anyway, I figured that was a good time to have Neil try to feel the little kicks, since when Beanlet first bumps about in there, he/she usually continues for a little while before quietening down. So Neil put his hand on my bump and within a very short time he felt two little kicks! And then another which made him gasp and say how strong that one was, hehe! He's funny. He can't have any idea how it feels, of course, but it was SUCH a tiny gentle kick compared to hundreds more that I will feel over the coming months!
Anyway that was a special moment! 17 weeks and 6 days, for his first time feeling this baby kick. I think that is the latest of all three pregnancies, but I'm not sure. Maybe Matthew was around this exact same time? I can't remember. So far, I'm pretty sure the actual STRENGTH of all the kicks and movements are less than either of the boys. Some would say that makes the baby more likely to be a girl, but we'll see! I have my girl vibe back (not sure where it went for a couple of weeks there!), and have had a couple of vivid GIRL dreams, which I had none of by this stage with the boys. I had my first vivid gender dream this week of Matthew's pregnancy and then I "knew" it was a boy, even though I had been wondering if it might be a girl at that stage. I haven't had any girl gender dreams this late in my pregnancies before, and I haven't had any proper boy gender dreams this pregnancy, I don't think. So my gut says girl. My gut says girl anyway, for some reason that I can't explain. I think I will feel silly if/when Beanlet turns out to be a boy!
Anyway, we did finally discuss the girl names! Yay! I was beginning to think maybe this baby IS a boy, given that we've been settled on a boy name for a few weeks now and we have been finding it hard to even discuss the girl names! We couldn't agree on any either. We had that trouble with my other pregnancies, but noooo trouble with boy names, so...
But we have picked three girl names to take to the scan with us and see what we feel is right as we watch the scan, like we did with Arthur. We pretty much knew Arthur was our choice, but we also considered Jamie, Benjamin and Matthew at the scan. Instantly we could tell he was not going to be a Jamie or a Benjamin. Those names just did not suit even his 2D grainy image at all, hehe! But we both felt he could have been either Arthur OR Matthew. So, we went with our favourite name, Arthur. And then we got our Matthew as well! :)
So this time, we are pretty certain that if Beanlet is a boy, he will be Nathan. If Beanlet is a girl, we will be deciding between Emma, Georgia, and Hannah. Those are the three names we're taking with us. If it was ME and I could pick the name myself, I would never even make a shortlist. I have names I like, then names I reeeeally like, and then Georgia, which is like a mile above the rest for me, for some reason. I have wanted Georgia for a girl since before we had any babies! Neil doesn't really like the name, so it hasn't been easy coming to a decision on girl names! We were pretty sure Arthur would be a boy though, so he said that if it WAS a girl, she could be Georgia ;) Sneaky! Last time, we really did not know, apart from my gut feeling and a hmmm thing where we thought we saw boy bits at the nuchal scan. He said NO to Georgia and that was that. There weren't really any girl names that we both liked enough to want to use, but we did both like Emma, which we originally dismissed due to over-popularity. But phooey, what does that really matter?! So if Matthew had been a girl, he would have been Emma, and we were 100% happy with that choice.
Till very recently I had gone off Emma, because there were two Emmas born at our fairly small church in the time since I got pregnant with Matthew, and it just became kind of "old news" sounding, to me. I still loved the name, but it didn't have a fresh thrill to it, for me. Now I am liking it more again. I guess I'm thinking it will end up being the name we use because Neil doesn't really like Georgia, and Emma was our last girl name choice. Emma DOES go really well with the boys' names, and our surname too. And the middle name, Jane, which is a maternity lingerie range here (Emma Jane) but oh well! It flows and it's pretty, and I particularly like that Emma was my great-grandmother's name, and she didn't die till I was nearly 17 - we saw her frequently and were close to her. So apart from the fact that she hated her name (!!), I would be happy to use it with her in mind. I think my grandparents would be very touched too.
So I think it will be Emma, but Neil says he won't dismiss Georgia, since maybe it's not so bad after all (yayness!!), and maybe the baby will just LOOK LIKE a Georgia?! Who knows. The other name I liked from my shortlist was Hannah, though I wasn't sure if it did "enough" for me. I love the name, and I have always loved it. To my surprise, Neil said that name stood out for him too, though he felt the same way as me about it. We decided (or rather, Neil did) that we would take those three names to the scan and choose from them when we saw the baby, if it's a girl (unless NONE of them fit when we saw her!), just like we did with Arthur. So that's what we'll do! I'm so relieved and excited to have finished the big palava over names this pregnancy - I really like to have names sorted in time for the big scan, even if it's a few names to choose from. It's nice to feel like most of the decision is made. I really like to name my babies from the time I know their gender. I think I would get too scatty about it once I knew boy or girl, if I had no name. I would probably go back and forth all over the place, and worry that I was choosing the wrong one. It takes that off my shoulders to make a firm decision the moment we know the gender, and start to call the baby by name from that point on - then there's no indecisiveness about the name after that. I hope!
I seem to still have milk, but hardly any surely?! I can't believe I still have milk! This time last pregnancy I was dry as a bone by this gestation. I'm sure it won't be long till I am again. The boys are nursing as much as ever before. I say no to Arthur much more these days, though I've made that a more gradual thing over the months. It's very painful when they latch on every time now - sometimes quite unbearable like they are literally biting a wound into my nipple, but they're not of course. It eases as they nurse so I hold my breath and bear it till it eases up. Matthew still wakes to nurse at night. I'm looking forward now to him being night weaned. I won't continue night nursing when there's no milk, with an over-one-year-old. I will continue day nursing on demand for Matthew though, and less so for Arthur. There are set times when he always has milky, and I won't change those for him. It's a comfort for him and just part of his wind-down routine at bedtime, etc. I'm happy for that to continue and he finds it comforting, calming, and we both enjoy the quiet closeness. There aren't many quiet moments with Arthur these days! Matthew is still my baby and I WANT to nurse him any time he wants still, milk or no. I know it's coming back when the new baby comes, so it's just a temporary dry spell really! If they want to continue for that time then that's great with me, because they'll get lots of good milk again if they've kept up the habit, a few months down the line. By the time the new baby is born, I'm hoping Arthur will have happily let me cut him down to the bare bones of just routine sessions, like at bedtime and first thing in the morning. I am determined that Beanlet will be the ONLY baby I am night nursing when he or she comes along!
Oh! I did weigh myself, at 17w5d, so one day late on my other two pregnancies! I have gained 6.5lbs as of that day. With Arthur I had gained 6lbs, and with Matthew, 5.5lbs. So, if I'm being crazy picky, I have gained more this pregnancy so far than any other! But really, I have basically had exactly the same weight gain as the other two pregnancies, by exactly the same gestation. The three pregnancies are ever so similar. In parts even identical. Which made me wonder last time if it was because I was having a boy, and he was a boy. So I wonder if that's why things are so similar again this time? But, maybe it's just how I do pregnancy? My mum had very similar pregnancies - although she carried completely differently - and had a girl and then a boy. She had a little "all at the front" basketball with Bennie, and gained weight EVERYWHERE with me! So far, I am all at the frong again. Hmmm. But I personally think I AM carrying ever so slightly different this time - a little higher, though when I relax my abdomen everything hangs looowwwww like the other pregnancies, so who knows! Tomorrow is belly picture day, at 18 weeks! I can't wait to put another picture in the gallery! I'll do that tomorrow evening (or possibly the next day) without updating about it, unless I happen to have other newsy stuff to write about as well.
I have had some pink spotting this week to add to the continuing brown, tsk. It was yesterday. Just my normal brown spotting (which is STILL going as before) seemed to have more pink to it than usual. I wondered about calling the maternity unit, since they said to come in if I had red or pink bleeding, even a small amount. But I was on my own with the boys, and I had no cramps or anything, and it was just a little bit pink, and still the normal brown as well. So I didn't. It seems to have died down and my spotting is back to brown today. I can't wait till that ALL clears up. I am tired of seeing any sort of bleeding this pregnancy!
Well, I can't think of anything else suddenly. I have gone off the idea of Parma Violet sweets, but thank you Laura for the tip on where to find some!! This week I just want fruit. No actual cravings though. I am LOVING nectaries this week, and wanting orange juice a lot. I have generally spent most of the week off my food, so there has been little room for big food urges or cravings!
I am getting hot flushes quite a lot these days, and just finding life toooo warm and sweating easily. I get breathlessly exhausted walking up the stairs, and my legs (thigh muscles in particular) have started to be incredibly achy and weak-feeling as I try to walk up the stairs now. Exactly at the same gestation as I noticed that last pregnancy!
I have had a couple of days this week where I've felt really tearful and sensitive to anything and nothing, which I haven't had for a while. Some days I have had the persistant headaches as well, but they haven't been too severe this week which is a relief! It's NO FUN when my headache is just awful and I have 10 more hours on my own with the boys yet!
I have been LONGING to update my arthursmummy diary ALL WEEK. Literally every single day I have wanted to, but not had time or energy. I'm soooo behind on checking diaries too. I need to catch up with my other diary the next chance I get, which will hopefully be soon! I have a ton to offload and write about. I hate when I can't find time to write stuff I REALLY need to write about! I will hopefully get to that soon. Again, I'm planning to write before 19 weeks, but at the moment these seem to be weekly updates! I'll try to update sooner, but we'll see. Thanks for the messages and notes again (Mia, please DO email me that photo!!)! Back soon!
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