Week 23, and it's gonna be a boy!

This morning's weigh in: 220.4

Had several appointments yesterday. Started with my OB. Everything looks good, growth is good, bp is good. She's not even concerned with my weight. It cold very well be that since I'm overweight anyway, my body is balancing the baby accumulation with a loss of fat weight. I'm sure I'll eventually reach a point where the baby is growing faster than I'm losing, and so I will surely gain some weight, but the OB estimated that it would probably only end up being 10-15 lbs (instead of the almost 40 I gained with Brendan, and the 55 my OB gained with her son). The only concern she had at all was pretty minor: when they did the 24-hour urine test (to make sure my kidneys were functioning appropriately, since I'm hypertensive), I did have protein in my urine. That indicates that my kidneys aren't functioning at peak efficiency. But it was well below the cutoff for pre-eclampsia, so she wasn't particularly worried.

Then I spoke with a genetic counselor, who went over the results of my quad screening (for problems such as Down's Syndrome, spinal bifida, and Trisomy 13 and 18). My odds are quite good, the same as a 28 year old. So it was a very brief visit, because everything looks so good.

Then I had my ultrasound. The tech took measurements and checked all the bits and pieces to make sure everything was where it should be. She said everything looked fabulous, as did the maternal fetal medicine specialist (I saw him last pregnancy, too). He said he had absolutely no concerns at this point at all. So that made us feel pretty good.

And we finally got a gender determination. It's a boy! Which honestly surprised both of us, I think. I had expected it to be a girl, just based on the fact that I've had the eating issue (where I haven't really felt like eating much) and the weight loss as opposed to the constant eating and weight gain with Brendan. And I think my husband had made that assumption as well. We're both completely fine with another boy (although I think my husband might be a tiny bit disappointed that he isn't going to have a "daddy's little girl" to spoil). But we've got all the boy clothes and stuff like that, which will save money in the long run. Thank goodness for hand-me-downs.

So now we have to come up with more boy names. We had pretty much isolated the girls' names we were interested in, and hadn't really given much thought to boys' names. So we don't have much of a list or any real idea of what we want. It's been a lot easier to decide what we DON'T like, rather than come up with things that we do like. At least we've got several months!

Week 22, I'm such a slacker

Wow, I haven't posted since the beginning of January. I am such a loser.

First of all: 222.4

This is the first time I've weighed more than 220 since I bottomed out on my weight. I don't know if this means I'm actually finally gaining weight, or if it's just because I had a big dinner last night. Guess we'll see.

Brendan is a wild man for sure. He had his 15-month check up at the end of January, and he weighed 23 lbs 6 oz and was 32 inches tall. He's still long and skinny, 50th percentile for weight and 75th for height. Hopefully he'll continue to grow. Some days he eats really well, and some days not so much. But I'm realizing that he needs to be eating more than just baby food. Really need to make the transition between baby food and more solid foods. Also need to get better about giving him a chance to feed himself with a spoon. He doesn't do very well right now, but he'll never get better if he doesn't try. He did hit an unwelcome milestone the other day: his first real injury. He was looking out of the back window of the living room while standing on a toy. The toy went out from under his feet, and he went forward and hit his lower lip on the window sill. His little teeth in there are sharp, and one of them cut the inside of his lip. He started crying, which I expected, but when he turned around to reach for me I realized he had blood running out of his mouth and dripping down onto his shirt. As all head/face injuries, it bled a lot for being pretty small. I grabbed a washcloth out of the clean laundry and jammed it onto his lip, trying to stop the bleeding. It stopped in just a few minutes, but it sure bled enough to make me more upset than he was. He calmed down pretty quickly, and it doesn't seem like it has really bothered him at all since then. I'm just glad I didn't get woozy or pass out; the blood of my loved ones has that notorious effect on me.

He also seems to be leaning towards the dubious milestone of napping only once per day. Usually on weekends he only naps once each day, but it's because we let him sleep in as late as he wants. But now on weekdays, even though he gets up at 6:30 each morning, he has been really resisting the afternoon nap. It has made him a super grump in the evenings this past week, but I guess this change is inevitable as he grows up. It just means I need to take full advantage of the times when he does nap.

As for me, not much has really changed. I'm still not eating a whole lot, although I do find I've been eating a lot more sweets lately, candy bars and ice cream. I need to make sure I get enough vegetables in there, and grains. I have noticed that the fetal movement has become a lot more noticeable, which is always a good thing. I've got a checkup and another ultrasound scheduled for this Thursday, so hopefully we'll have a better idea of how everything is going after that. Also, I hope we'll have a gender!

Boy, won't this be fun!

Well, I had my ultrasound a couple weeks ago, and we found out we're having a boy! I know there's always a possibility the ultrasound tech got it wrong, but based on the picture she showed us, she's got good reason to think it's a boy (there's a pretty obvious pee-pee in the picture). As far as names go, we're still leaning towards Brendan James, which we had nailed down early. Girls' names are so much more challenging! Guess it's good we're having a boy!

Anyway, I scored big at my sister-in-law's house a few weeks ago. She was ready to unload a bunch of baby stuff she'd been holding for quite some time (my nieces are 7 and 9, and the youngest kid in the rest of the family is at least 3). She gave us a crib, a bassinet, a stroller, three car seats, a breast pump, a highchair/swing, and tons of toys, baby clothes, and assorted linens and things. Hopefully this will save us quite a bit of money in the long run.

I filled out a baby registry at Babies R Us the other day, and I had to put out a plea to my friends on Facebook who are parents, to see what I had missed. It was so overwhelming! I had no idea what to put on the list. I still have to go through a couple of boxes that my sister-in-law had given me, to see what I have vs. what I still need. But we're starting to prepare ourselves. We assembled the crib last night and got it set up in the bedroom we'll use for the baby.

So we're on our way! I'm 25 weeks pregnant right now, so I've got 15 weeks (or less) left. I'm still feeling really good, although I'm uncomfortable at night (I can only sleep on my sides, and my hips and shoulders hurt when I lay on them too long), and I'm getting bigger every day. Yowza!

Day 104 - 4/14/09

Today's Weigh-in: 198.2

I think; honestly, it was so long ago this morning I hardly remember. But that sounds right.

Started my rededication today. Since it's been 100 days with no progress, I'm basically finding myself starting over. So this morning I did it right: weights at the gym for an hour before work, and a 30-minute cardio workout during my planning period. Now it's back to the gym for more cardio. Wonder if I can keep this up?

I had an interesting discussion with my husband. We were joking about the potential gender of our potential children (no, still not working at the whole preggers thing; still just trying to lose the weight), and I commented that it was all up to my husband. "No," he said, "Women can influence the gender of the baby." I was unbelieving, but he said, "Look it up. It's all about eating cereal."

And gosh darned if he wasn't right. Well, it isn't ALL about cereal. But I've found numerous articles online that suggest that women who eat diets that are high in potassium, and women who eat higher calorie diets in general, are more likely to have boys than girls.

Sweet. So, I shouldn't be avoiding calories at all then--I should go on the Twinkie diet!

Not really, but I would like to have a boy at some point. I'm not good with the girly stuff. I have two nieces who are all about the pink and purple and sparkles. No thanks. Not that I don't love my nieces, but I wouldn't want to have to braid hair every day. Sheesh.