welcome to the third trimester

27 weeks

today marks the beginning of the end of this pregnancy.

it is crazy how fast the last few months have gone,

but at the same time it feels like forever since i got a positive pregnancy test.

for the sake of documentation i am going to go back over the last 6 months.

(feel free to skip over... for some this may be tmi)

...

month 1: j and i had officially been trying since july. october was our last chance because i didn't want to have a baby in the middle of my last semester of school. when i was two weeks late, but had a huge pile of negative tests, i decided to go to the health center. my apt was on tuesday, november 2nd, and again, it was negative. i was pretty frustrated. j was so supportive and positive about it. 

a few days later, we were at my parents and i was dieing of heat while everyone else was fine. j kept teasing that i was pregnant, but i didn't want to get my hopes up. that was sunday. the hot flashes continued on 24/7 (which actually made the freezing weather bearable). monday night we went and bought a few more tests. 

tuesday morning at 6:30 a plus sign finally showed up! i started dancing and singing, u-huh u-huh u huh.... j was waiting outside the door and thought i was crying. when i opened the door he was surprised to see me smiling and dancing! we immediately said our good morning prayer to thank our Heavenly Father for this blessing! 

month 2: i remember bragging to j about how lucky i was that i wasn't sick. well within days the morning sickness kicked in. i was doing my clinicals up at primary children's and did my best to not pass out / loose my breakfast in my kiddo's rooms. those were long mornings with a lot of self talk - 'i will not throw up.. i will not throw up'. no one knew yet and i wasn't about to start each clinical with, 'hi i am a byu student, and i am pregnant'.. haha. i think one of the hardest things was carpooling up there. my friend sarah drove a full mini-van full of us up to slc. those drives were soo not fun. i was squished, and sweating, and nauseous. then there was trax.. those wonderful stinky, crowded, trains.

we took a trip to arizona for thanksgiving with j's family. we got caught by his sister and brother-in-law one morning when j snuck to the kitchen to get me a throw up bowl... haha. the rest of the week, john did all he could to sneakily bring up babies and pregnancy, and watch j and i squirm as we tried not to make it obvious in front of the other family. by the end of the week, j's parents knew too, and caleb also.

we told my family (well other than my mom- she was the first person i told) at my dad's 50th birthday party the first week of december. that was so fun.

i was living off of peppermint tea, sprite, and saltines. and lost 10 pounds, but i survived finals and made it to our first appointment. i thought that i was 12 weeks along, so the midwife did a full physical and we listened to the baby's heartbeat. she scheduled an ultrasound for the next day to determine baby's age, and my due date.

at the ultrasound we saw our little one dancing around, and found out he was only about 10 weeks along. making my due date july 15th. at this ultrasound, they also found that i had a few small subchorionic hemorrhages. i was advised to take it very easy. i wasn't bleeding or cramping, so the midwife wasn't too worried about it, and would follow-up with me at my next appointment. me on the other hand - i was pretty nervous especially about telling people. my next appointment was in 3 weeks. and boy those were a long few weeks.

month 3:

christmas came and i spent the morning sick, but trying my hardest to have a good time. every year for christmas the asays make a dvd of pictures from each family. j and i decided last christmas that we would volunteer to make it because we were hoping to be pregnant and it would be the perfect way to announce it. well our plan worked out. we added this little clip at the end of our pictures:

 

i went in for my next appointment and everything looked great. baby's heartbeat was cruising along, and there were no signs of any problems. they reread the ultrasound report and it said that the hemorrhages were probable and tiny... so i was worried for nothing.

at the end of my third month, i was back in school and back to clinicals. by this point most everyone knew, so my classmates were all helpful and sympathetic to me having to leave every few minutes to find something to be sick in. i caught a nasty cold during this time too, that really made things bad. 

while being sick is not fun, i was kind of okay with it because it was the only proof i had of being pregnant. it was almost comforting to know that it was real. (and by this point (7 months), i have kind of forgotten all about it)

month 4:

ah, the second trimester was my best friend. around week 14, my morning sickness stopped. i went through a stage of denial because i didn't look or feel pregnant. there were little changes that started happening though like the lovely hair that started growing on my belly... seriously, why didn't anyone warn me about this? i was borderline depressed about the new layer of fur i was exhibiting. and the flashbacks to puberty when my chest throbbed from growing pains. i craved fruit like the dickens and made numerous smoothies.

around week 17, i started to show with a little bump. it seemed to be rather low, making my regular jeans out of the option anymore, but i didn't quite fit into the maternity ones. i started to feel a little bummed out about gaining weight, and loosing my figure. i hated that awkward phase of looking chubby not pregnant.

i was constantly online looking up cribs, and strollers, and all that fun baby gear. we tried really hard to find out the gender this month but it didn't happen.

o, and i started to feel him move. i am not going to lie, i didn't like it at first. it sort of weirded me out. it was distracting in my classes, and uncomfortable. 

month 5:

this month started out with us going on our cruise. we have all already heard about that and how fun it was.

we found out in the middle of the month that our little baby was no longer an it, but a little boy! the 20 week ultrasound was heaven. i could have laid there all day with that cold gel, just to watch our little man. it was so fun to see all his little features. the sweetest face, and cutest lips.. his little arms and legs. everything looked great and right on track, except he did have a little calcification on one of his heart valves. they had a perinatologist come and look and she said it was 1) pretty common 2) it most likely will go away on it's own 3) it does not effect the function of the heart at all but 4) it might increase the chance of him having down syndrome (from like 1 in 100,000 to 1 in 20,000). j and i decided we were not going to worry about it. everything else looked fine and if he has down syndrome, he has down syndrome, and if that is what Heavenly Father wants, we would feel even more privileged to be his parents.

going to the ultrasound and seeing our little man really put things into perspective. i felt so selfish for being down about my body, because it really isn't about me. this is about the miracle of building a child. it is a sacred ability that i have been given to literally bring a new human being to earth. to build a body for a spirit child of God.

this month also brought more changes. more growing pains: achy hips, sore abs, and a loss of energy. i think school really caught up with me - all the early morning / 12 hour clinicals, all the late night assignments. on top of my struggle to get comfortable at night. some days were not fun.

month 6:

i think the second half of pregnancy is much better than the first. during this month, i really started looking pregnant. i got used to having a little ninja in me, and actually grew to love his little kicks and jabs. josh could feel them lots too.

he started being more predictable. there is a pretty set pattern of movement. his personality is starting to show too. for example, he hates it when i lay on my right side. he will nudge me over and over again until i roll over. he likes to hear josh talk and will often stop moving to listen. 

i went to washington dc and survived the long plane flights.

on the way over a lady said to me 'i wonder if there is anyone on the plane who knows how to deliver a baby if you needed them to'. i was not comforted by that statement.

school slowed down for me this month as i switched to my psych clinicals. sleep has gotten a bit easier too. we got his crib. and a few other baby supplies. we are working on finding a place to live before he comes. it is a bit stressful, but we are hopeful that things will work out.

month 7:

starts today!