10 Weeks Pregnant

So we had an appointment with the midwife yesterday. I am 10 1/2 weeks pregnant. She tried to find the heartbeat with the Doppler but couldn't so she pulled out the ultrasound machine and we got to see the baby. The baby was moving all over the place swinging its arms and legs and spinning in circles. It was really cute. Selena was adorable. She was up on the bed with me and was very interested in the goop that the midwife was putting on my tummy.

Overall I'm not feeling too great. Starting around 8 weeks I've been nauseous all day and this last week I've thrown up almost every day right before dinner. Thankfully I feel better after dinner. With Selena I was a little nauseous, but not too bad, but it ended abruptly at 14 weeks so hopefully the same thing will happen this time, or maybe a little sooner. :)

I am showing a little bit. I think I look like I did at about 18 weeks with Selena at 10 weeks now. I am taking belly pictures again, but my face is all red and my hair is a mess so I'm kinda reluctant to post them. :)

A few days ago I had a very odd feeling. A persistent thumping or tapping coming from inside of my belly just above my belly button and off to the side. It really, really, really felt like a baby kicking. Of course my uterus is about 3 inches lower than my belly button and the baby is only an inch to an inch and a half big so it seems impossible. But Floyd and my mother could feel the tapping from the outside. After seeing the baby move on the ultrasound I think the baby was bouncing off the walls. :) Interestingly enough I found plenty of women on various message boards who have felt a similar thing around 10 weeks. Everyone explains it away as gas, but I have never had gas feel like a baby kicking. The only time I have ever had that feeling was when I was pregnant with Selena and she was kicking. So who knows, but it was very odd.

So I've already mentioned how much I love my midwife. Well a couple more reasons she is great. I don't have to wait at all for my appointments, and she recommended getting Floyd's blood tested to see if he was Rh-, whereas last time they said it didn't matter and they would just give me the shot no matter what. For an explanation of what I am talking about, if your blood is Rh-, like mine is, and the baby's blood is positive your body will produce antibodies that will attack future fetuses, which is not a good thing. So to prevent this they give you a shot of Rhogam in the butt part way through your pregnancy and then again after the baby is born. When I was pregnant with Selena I had to get the shot midway through pregnancy but she ended up having Rh- blood so I didn't have to get the second shot. Since she did have Rh- blood it was likely Floyd did as well, so we tested Floyd's blood and he is indeed Rh- so no shot for me!!! Selena was once again really cute, because I had had my blood taken, and Floyd got his taken, so Selena was pulling up her shirt sleeve all ready to get hers taken. So we gave her a cotton ball with some tape so she could feel like part of the club.

The other thing my midwife recommended was for me to start taking a fish oil supplement. She gave me an article about all the benefits of fish oil which included: higher energy, clearer mind, less incidence of post-partum depression, faster labors, less perineum damage, smarter babies, among many other positive outcomes. So I started taking it and immediately felt a difference in my energy level and in my ability to think straight. With Selena I had pregnancy brain really bad. I honestly felt like I was walking around in a fog, and work was very difficult for me because I couldn't figure out things that normally I would be able to. Anyways I had just started feeling myself descend into the abyss of stupidity and I swear the fish oil rescued me. I'm not sure if it is placebo or what but I am totally sold on it, and recommend it to all pregnant ladies. The specific brand my midwife recommended doesn't have any fishy taste and is actually flavored like strawberries, which is great because I think burping up a fishy taste would be the most awful thing for a pregnant lady.

So even though I feel really crappy, being pregnant is fun. It is really exciting to see my body change. I love preparing for birth. I am once again finding all the birth stories I can online and reading them. This time I am also finding lots of birth videos. I used hypnobabies with Selena and I really loved it, and highly recommend it, and am looking forward to using it again. I think the whole thing will be much easier this time because I have a better idea what to expect.

Abadaba! What does it mean?

Abadaba mama, abadaba dada, abadaba woof. But what does abadaba mean? Well we haven't figured it out yet, but Selena loves to say it.

We are all doing well here. Selena is as busy as ever. She has learned to love playdoh. She likes making Floyd or I make lots of small pieces so she can clump them all back together. And she also insists that we keep her table in the kitchen (which is kind of in the way). We got her a membership for the YMCA and she has taken a toddler gym class, which is a lot of fun. She likes the trampoline and the toys. This week she'll start a swim class with her dad in the evenings.

I made her a monster costume for Halloween. It is blue and purple since those are the only two colors she knows. We decided on monster because ever since she was 6 months old she has been making monster noises. You ask her to say "mama like a monster" and she'll growl "mama". She'll say "dada", "woof", and "apple" like a monster as well.

She was 20lbs 8oz at her last doctor appointment and 31 inches tall. We are continuing to keep her rear facing in the carseat even though legally she could be turned around. After watching the following videos forward facing crash trest and rear facing crash test I figured we might as well keep her rear facing since she doesn't seem to have a problem with it and it looks much safer.

Big News!

So for those of you who are good stalkers you may have seen the following picture already when I post pics of Selena:
If you haven't seen it before, then now you do. I'm due May 14th. So I'm 8 weeks along.

The great thing about this pregnancy is I'm not scared at all. When I got pregnant with Selena I was so nervous about labor. I was nervous about taking care of a baby, but this time I'm like I've been there done that and I'm not worried at all. Well maybe I'm a little nervous about having two little ones running around, and the fatigue and nausea are a little hard to deal with right now. :)

I have had one appointment with my midwife and she is absolutely wonderful. I decided to go with a private practicing midwife this time, and the personal attention I receive is so vastly different than I received with the family doctor or the midwives I saw before. All the appointments are an hour long. I can bring Selena to them and she has toys for her to play with. She gave me tons of reading material and I even learned some new stuff despite the amount of reading I have already done. She does two home visits after the baby is born in addition to two post partum office visits. She does deliveries either at your home or at the birth center in Tacoma (The Birthing Inn). I plan on going to the Birthing Inn again. She accepts our insurance. So basically she is really great and I am super excited.

I think Selena is excited too. She has started saying baby.