16 Weeks Pregnant

It seems that I might finally be feeling better after having a yucky cold for a week and a half. Carter and I went to his friend Hunter's birthday party today and had a blast hanging out with all of the girls I used to work with and their cute kiddos, and eating yummy food. It was definitely nice to be out and about after being house-bound for the past few weeks!

Carter's newest obsession is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney Channel, which he refers to as Myna-Mo. He absolutely loves this stupid show, which we are watching right now. I try not to let him watch too much television (for my sanity as much as his benefit), but he is certainly insistent when he wants his Myna-Mo fix. He has also starting calling 3 of our 4 cats by name...Bailey is Bay-e, Kenny is Ken-eh, and Sophie is Phie-Phie. He hasn't come up with one for Zoey yet, nor has he mastered my mom's name, Grancy. I think he was calling her Sissy or Sassy when we were driving to her house on Wednesday, but nothing with consistency yet. I'm sure she's anxious to finally have a name...though I will point out that I showed him a picture of me and my grandmother, who I called Nanoo, months ago, and he instantly picked her name up! :) I guess Nanoo is just easier than Grancy!

Best Moment of the week: Getting lots of flutters and kicks...I can't remember if I already recorded this or not, but I felt him so early this time...at 13.5 weeks. I let myself have one soda a day and he always goes nuts afterward, and I also feel him every night when I lie down in bed.

Epiphany of the week: If they decide to induce a week early with this pregnancy, there's a good chance he will share his birthday with our wedding anniversary. I'd like to avoid this if possible so Glenn and I actually have a chance of going out of town for our anniversary at some point in our life. :) Is that fate's way of telling me not to induce?

Entertaining question/comment of the week: Can't think of any.

Obsessions: Names, names, names! Glenn and I have a list, but he doesn't like my favorite and I don't like his favorite. We both loved Carter's name, so we're determined to find another name we both love for this little guy. But of course we will keep it a secret when we finally pick one. ;)

What I am most looking forward to this week: As of next Friday the 1st, I will finally have maternity coverage on my health insurance, phew!

What I miss the most: Nothing, really

Symptoms: Definitely some crampiness from round ligament pain. My belly is showing more and more by the day. Finally starting to feel GOOD, which is so nice after a long few months!

Milestones: Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. Carter LOVES avocado ("cado"), so hopefully he will love his brother, too!

Weight: I know most people will cringe that I'm adding this, but since it's something I want to keep track of and this is basically my pregnancy journal this time, I'm including it! I started out at 133, went up to 135 the first couple of weeks, then down to 124 at my lowest when I was sick last week. I haven't been under 130 since high school, so this sure has been strange for me! This morning I was 127, which is the first upwards movement on the scale in a while...I've actually been hungry for the first time in a long time and I'm trying to take full advantage of it...poor baby must be starving in there, and I'm sure he will be glad that Mama is finally feeding him!

15 Weeks Pregnant

Since my last post there have been so many germs in my house, it's ridiculous! After going almost an entire year without getting sick (he had croup when he was 4 months old), Carter got his first fever on Monday evening. He was up around 102-103 for the next couple of days and we just kept him on Motrin to help keep it down. Poor little guy felt lousy! Wednesday night the seal cough and rough breathing started, and sure enough, it was croup again! After getting a steroid injection the next day and a lot of rest, he finally started feeling better when Friday rolled around, phew! We had a great weekend, but then Monday hit. I woke up a little congested and by the end of the day felt like I'd been hit by a train. I have a nasty cold and have been sick all week, which is especially fun when you're preggo and can't take any good medicine...the Mucinex made me wired so I couldn't sleep for two nights, which was even worse than being sick! I'm still congested, but am finally feeling more human today, which is good, because today was a big day!

We went to Look Who's Kickin' this afternoon for our gender reveal sonogram! And guess what? It's TEAM BLUE all the way in the McKay household...we're having ANOTHER BOY! While the part of me who loves tea parties, princesses and ballet is a teensy bit sad, I'm excited for Carter to have a little brother who will be so close to his age. We have a huge box of clothes he'll be able to wear again, which makes me feel way less wasteful. And the boys will be sharing a room, whether it's in this house or the house we hope to move to this year, so all of those questions of how the heck to integrate boys' and girls' things into one nursery have been eliminated. We're good to go with our orange and blue room as-is!

Here are the sonogram pictures from our session today. We got a video as well, but I have to figure out how to get it off the CD first (it doesn't play on my Mac, so I have to get Glenn to do it!).

The first thing she checked was the gender. And sure enough, I knew it before she even told me since I'd seen that same shot before!


He was "standing" on his head the whole time with his feet up, so here you can see his profile down low on the left side looking up with his spine heading upward.


Here you can see his beautiful heartbeat.


And here's his little face in 3D. They still kind of look like aliens at this point, but hopefully he will look a bit more human by the time I get my 20 weeks sonogram! :) You can also see his arms.


He has become SO active over the past week and a half! With Carter, I had an anterior placenta, so I couldn't feel any movements until about 18 weeks, but this baby made himself known at 13.5 weeks! I've been feeling him more and more over the past few days, and he was SO active during the sonogram since she was pressing down on my belly with the wand. He was punching up a storm, and it was neat to be able to see him do it and feel it in my belly at the same time! It really is amazing being pregnant...especially now that the morning sickness has subsided! :)

Let's wrap up this post with an update:

Best Moment of the week: Finally finding out who's in there!

Epiphany of the week: I really thought that because I felt so sick with this pregnancy that it was a girl, because I didn't feel nearly this bad with Carter. Not the case! So even with two boys, the pregnancies have been different.

Entertaining question/comment of the week: "Are you finding out if there's a stem on the apple?" --Random woman in the waiting room at the sonogram place

Obsessions: Finding out the sex

What I am most looking forward to this week: Feeling better....from my cold. See ya later, morning sickness!

What I miss the most: Nothing, really

Symptoms: Still having headaches, starting to have some growing pains

Milestones: Baby now measures about 4 inches long, crown to rump, and weighs in at about 2 1/2 ounces (about the size of an apple).

Week 14 Update

I just got home from my monthly doctor's visit, and I was thrilled to hear the heartbeat on the doppler this time...strong and clear, hello baby!! At this visit with Carter's pregnancy, they weren't able to hear it on the doppler yet, but I'd just come from an ultrasound, so it wasn't a huge deal. While I wasn't expecting to hear it this time, I was so glad to have that reassurance that yes, someone is in there growing away! The heartbeat was 148 bpm for those of you who want to have a theory on what I'm having. (P.S. At this point, it's really too early to use heartbeat as any sort of predictor...it was totally wrong with Carter!)

I've decided to steal this fun weekly survey from my fellow preggo friend, Erin (hi, Erin!) to keep tabs on the pregnancy:

Best Moment of the week: Hearing that fantastic little heartbeat. I really did say, "Hello, baby!" when I heard it. :)

Epiphany of the week: Just because I'm in the second trimester doesn't mean I'm going to feel great yet.

Entertaining question/comment of the week: "So, you're doing this again, huh?" --Dr. Marston, who delivered Carter.

Obsessions: Feeling better!

What I am most looking forward to this week: Feeling better! Yes, obsessed.

What I miss the most: My appetite.

Symptoms: Some nausea (but thankfully not as much), killer headaches, congestion, clogged ears

Milestones: Baby has fingerprints and is 3 inches long, the size of a medium shrimp or a peach, depending on who you ask. And I'm officially in my second trimester, woo hoo!

Here we go again!

Hello again, friends and family!

If you haven't heard by now, SURPRISE!! I'm pregnant with McKay Baby #2! Glenn, Carter and I are all so excited to be bringing the fourth member of our little family into the world. I'm due 9/10/11, so the Munchkins will be a little less than 23 months apart...we were shooting for 2 years, but it was much easier to get pregnant this time around, so here we are!

It's funny how much more obsessed I was with my first pregnancy. I had a belly picture taken every week, blogged frequently about my experience, and could tell you pretty much to the second just how pregnant I was.

Well here we are, 13 weeks and 1 day into pregnancy number two, and this is my first blog post in a new blog that has yet to be actually designed. (Maybe I'll find a spare moment to do that at some point in the next 6 months!) I've yet to take a belly picture. But yes, I can still tell you just how pregnant I am...thanks to my Baby Center and Bump emails that magically appear in my inbox every Saturday. :)

My first trimester is officially over, and I wish it good riddance. I felt truly awful for a good 6 weeks during this pregnancy...like think of the worst hangover you ever had, and that's how I felt from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed. Just constantly nauseous, occasional throwing up, throbbing headache, food aversions. I drank Ensure for dinner for 6 weeks because I felt too sick to eat anything in the evenings...whoever coined the term morning sickness was obviously a man, because it got progressively worse throughout the day! My doctor prescribed Zofran for me, which is an anti-nausea drug they give to chemo patients. I still felt pretty lousy, but it took my gag reflex away, so that helped! And while I still don't feel great (soon, right?!?!), I feel so much better now, which is such a relief! I felt pretty lousy when I was pregnant with Carter, but I'd say this was that x 10.

Hence my prediction that Baby #2 is a girl. I say this with fingers crossed, because I would really like to have one of each! But it would be much easier to have another boy since we have a whole closet full of barely-worn Carter cast-offs ready and waiting. So either way, we will be thrilled. The goal is to have a happy, healthy baby.

I don't know how often I'll be able to blog, but I really enjoyed being able to read back through my posts from Carter's pregnancy, so I'm going to make an effort...despite the fact that he is currently trying to turn my laptop off as I type.

Carter update: At 16.5 months, Carter is such a bright, caring little guy! He runs around like a crazy man, talks a mile a minute, and surprises us daily with how much he already knows and understands. He knows a ton of animal sounds and motions and will recite them for me in succession. He loves our four kitties an chases them around, squealing and laughing with abandon. He eats off of a plate and is learning to use a fork...in restaurants he sits in a booster seat. He goes pee pee on the potty almost every morning, and we're getting ready to amp up our efforts again now that Mama is feeling human again...hoping he will be potty trained by September. (?!) Discipline is starting to become an issue as it's his main goal in life to get Mama's laptop, the cable box and (now broken) DVD player, and climb on the furniture...even if I'm screaming at the top of my lungs, or smacking his hand or butt, he gives me an evil grin or giggle and keeps right on doing what he was doing. But despite making my head explode on a daily basis, he is the sweetest, cuddliest little guy...he loves all of his favorite people and shares willingly. And every day, I thank my lucky stars that he chose us to be his parents. That's it for now!

Love, Jenni