Thanks Meegs for the comment asking if everything is okay! :S So badly behind on my blogs, and somewhat fed up that I've let this one go when I like to keep everything recorded during my pregnancies! Also I haven't been taking belly pics :( I will try to get one for 24 weeks, but who knows. I am just utterly foggy of brain lately, this pregnancy more than any other (though they seem incrementally worse each time!) and also starting out with a new academic year of homeschooling THIS WEEK. So I'm completely consumed with that for now, and will be for a while.
So this is just quick! :)
I had my 20 week scan and confirmed that Elijah is definitely a boy! :) Also my placenta has moved RIGHT out of the way, praise God!!! The sonographer was surprised they'd even considered it low a few weeks before, as it was almost fundal (up over the top!). This is exactly what happened with Nathan's placenta - they could not believe it had been low to start with (it was completely covering my cervix 4 weeks before this scan with Elijah!). So much prayer has gone into this (both pregnancies) and all I can say is, God is good to me! :) So so relieved because now I don't have to worry about bleeding and delivery options, etc.
I'm also VERY relieved to be 24 weeks pregnant tomorrow - I always like this "viability" milestone! It means that if Elijah was born, he would have a chance of survival outside my womb, whereas before tomorrow they would not even try to save him.
My womb is still on the small side for me, height-wise. It's a continous growth pattern, but always the same amount "behind". Maybe it will measure normally, but as far as fingerwidths to my tummy button, it's always about 3 weeks behind where it normally is for any given week. But at least it's consistent throughout the pregnancy, and thus IS growing, and Elijah has measured right on track every time I've had a scan. At the 20 (almost 21) week scan, he measured spot on for his legs (not an Arthur or Benjamin then, who have my short leggies!), a week under for his abdomen (don't know who has done that yet!) and a week ahead for his head circumference (Arthur and Benjamin after all then, lol!). It's so much fun to see new combinations of our genes every time - they are ALL different, no matter how many we have! I don't think we've yet had a combination of Arthur and Benjamin's little round heads and Matthew and Nathan's more proportionate legs!
I just. can't. WAIT. to meet him!!!! Seriously! I am so excited, and just want to squeal with glee every time I feel him move and lay my hand on my bump and remember he's COMING and I'll get to hold a new snuffly baby in my arms soooooon!!! I can not get over how blessed I am. I get to do it again, I get to do it again!! I keep saying this (in high-pitched child tones, lol!) to Neil and Heather, just randomly as it occurs to me! :) I think this feeling is stronger this time than the last, and that it is getting stronger each pregnancy, each time I have a baby. I feel more excited, and more blessed, and more wonderful about having a new baby every pregnancy. I didn't think that was possible since I already felt SO over the moon about the first and second, and so on, but it's WAY more now, which is such a precious feeling to have!
I wonder if he'll have dark hair like most of his brothers, or fairer hair like Matthew, or even be blonde like Samuel has managed to be! I feel like we're due a red-head though! :) Neil and I both have red hair in our families, and copper tones to our own hair (well, Neil's beard more than anything else). I would love a red-haired boy! :) But anything is exciting to me. Will he have blue eyes, and will they be soft blue like Samuel's, or dark blue like Nathan's? Will he have grey eyes with some hazel like mine and Benjamin's. Or greenish eyes like Matthew's? Or BROWN eyes like Arthur?! We have a proper mixed bag to choose from, as far as the gene pool goes, lol! SO MUCH FUN every time to find out! :)
He kicks and wiggles much more strongly now, and quite often. He is gentler than some of my other babies, not very vigorous, although he's kicking strongly. I love feeling him move about in there! I can now feel his kicks very clearly with my hands, and can also see my tummy blip when he kicks. Matthew is (so far) the only other person to feel Elijah kick, as he laid his hand on my tummy when he was active (he isn't often active for very long at a time, and prefers late at night or even the small hours of the morning to really thump about in there), and felt some little blips to his hand. He seemed awed, but not as excited as I'd expected! ;) I can't wait until the movements are bigger and more predictable, and all the boys can feel him kick as the opportunity arises.
I haven't had an appointment since the scan, although I've had a urology follow up for my kidney stone (that I had in July) this past week. I am having side pain quite a lot, but they scanned my kidney and there aren't any particular changes, still just this small pocket of accumulated fluid which isn't concerning them, so they are putting it down to pregnancy. I AM getting a lot more ligament pain on that side than usual this pregnancy, and now that my womb is bigger and the ligament pain is higher therefore, I REALLY know about it when I tweak that ligament getting up too suddenly at the same time as twisting, for example. And that's when I realise that the ligament pain is a sharp nasty version of the dull pain I have fairly constantly. So maybe my ligament on that side is just kind of tired and stretched and unhappy this time around? Or being pressured by this pregnancy in a different way? I don't know.
The other thing that's different this pregnancy is that I STILL have morning sickness! Never had anything like it before! My other pregnancies have had morning sickness up until varying stages, but the very latest (by a couple of weeks) was Samuel's at 20 weeks. It was gone by then and didn't return. This time it hung around until 18/19 weeks ish, and then seemed to clear up, but I noticed it again by 20 weeks, though I presumed it was just tired/queasy feeling - it was sooooo mild, barely noticable. It has gradually got worse though, and this week has been quite yucky. I did wonder if it was just tiredness exacerbating something I otherwise wouldn't notice (I'm really tired and sleep deprived just now), but it's definitely proper morning sickness. After I eat, I get the usual few minutes (up to 5, no more) and then my mouth starts to taste a bit yucky and metallic and I start to feel nauseous. Then it stays. Always after lunch and dinner, not always after breakfast, but sometimes it is. The nausea isn't dreadful, like earlier in pregnancy, but it's bothersome now, and the yucky queasiness is dragging me down a bit in the evenings. Bleurgh! Oh well. I'm just glad it's totally manageable, and that I'm only 4 weeks away from my THIRD trimester (gasp!), so the end of the pregnancy seems pretty close all of a sudden, if it ends up continuing to the very end.
I have a nice little baby bump now, which I am extremely proud and fond of! :) I am really enjoying my maternity clothes, and looking pregnant! My bump has had a growth spurt two weeks running now (with a brief breather in the middle), and in that time I have really started to FEEL pregnant. I'm hurting in my pelvis and getting shooting pains to one side of my pubic bone now and again. My hips basically hurt most of the time, but it's not bad yet. I have had some sharp pain when putting weight on my right leg, in the back of my pelvis somewhere, but not all the time. Things are definitely loosening and under more pressure these days! I am also having to shift my balance now, and getting up from the floor is juuust beginning to become more difficult than before. I can't bend tightly over my bump without it being in the way (and hurting from the pressure!), but I'm otherwise able to do all the usual non-pregnant things still.
I am getting spots more often these past couple of weeks, and have had some crazy emotional moments recently! I can go from nothing to majorly over-reacting and tearfulness in a matter of seconds, lol! Absolutely anything slightly sweet or sappy can make me cry, and I want to watch my Anne of Green Gables DVD that I got for Christmas, but NO WAY am I opening that can of worms, lol! I don't think I can deal with the emotional onslaught! It will have to wait until my postnatal hormones have calmed down! ;)
I have scan pics to post from both the 17 week and 20 week scans, which I must/will get around to posting! But I just wanted to get an entry posted for now, otherwise it just won't happen. And now I need to change a few nappies, put Samuel to bed for his nap, and start school for the morning. I NEVER update my blogs in the mornings, but they're playing nicely and I was just sitting down with my necessary cup of tea (didn't sleep until nearly 2am AGAIN - having trouble with insomnia on and off this pregnancy - and then Samuel was up for the day AGAIN at 5am!!!) and thought I might just type a short entry to keep up, while it was all going well in the other room! ;) Now I've managed a pretty solid entry, so that's good! And right on cue, the boys are beginning to bicker about a combine harvester, so I must go! Back asap though, and thanks for being patient! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment