Lots going on ...

It has been very busy lately. Morgan had his gall badder out over a week ago and my mom needs open heart surgery in the next two weeks. So its been a bit stressful with worry for me. The baby and this pregnancy seems to be going well. The pregnancy hormones make me cry at everything which is a bit overwhelming. Then having real life and death issues going on just makes it worse. Baby is kicking up a storm .. all day long every single day ... so I think we will have our hands full with these two kids ... whoa! I feel he is healthy and active and that's a beautiful thing. My body seems to be doing just fine. Not swelling much at all and blood pressures are normal ... although i choose to not take it last week due to the stress. But I feel pretty good physically so that's great. Im 23 weeks pregnant tomorrow ... wow .. it is going fast. I do feel its time to get baby organized ... Im a bit nervous that I have no baby boy things ... all in good time I guess. I have another ultrasound in a week to check the baby boy's growth. Things are going well .. i just need my moms surgery to go well next! Im sure it will. Malia and I drove to Santa Rosa for Thanksgiving and we had a great time .. she was the best travel partner ever!

A few good days ...

So the past few days have been much better. My swelling has been down and my blood pressures have been normal ... Yay! I have hope for a long boring pregnancy once again! Those bad days really scare me! We moved out of the studio this weekend with the huge help of the parents. So that will help to just rest and finish the loads of editing I have. I will be relaxing and editing from here on out. I am having a very hard time sleeping due to being uncomfortable and needing to pee constantly ... then waking up for my 4 am glass of milk. I swear the pee thing must be designed to get you used to getting up with the baby every two hours. I cant even nap these days. Ive been doing yoga with Malia .. only until i start swelling then I stop. But watching Malia do yoga is the cutest thing ever ... that girl is a crack up. She has gotten used to having a baby brother instead of a baby sister, she now corrects her self when she calls the baby her sister. I am going to take her shopping soon to pick out an outfit for the baby. It will be the baby's first purchase ... I want Malia to have the honor of selecting what to get. The baby is kicking up a storm ... all the time .. becoming very active as we go into our 21st week tomorrow. I can feel the baby move from outside of my skin .. crazy! I do believe boys must be more active than girls .. I dont remember Malia moving this much.

Times are a changing ...

So I hit 20 weeks and so have the swelling and high blood pressure. I feel this feeling in my hands and legs that I had with Malia. Im having headaches ... although I have my whole pregnancy. I officially have pregnancy induced hypertension. This is so scary ... here we go again. But this time we have a little boy to worry about vs. what rock stars girls are when born early. I need to make it to 28 weeks - January 7th for this baby boy to have a chance. Premature boys have a much higher rate of death when born early. If I can make it to 28 weeks than the baby has a 90% chance of survival. But before that the odds drop off. One thing I read said that they think boys develop more slowly in the womb than girls ... so where Malia was at 27 weeks ... this baby most likely wont be as far along.

I officially am now resting for the remainder of the pregnancy ... no more nesting ... no baby stuff ... its life and death. If resting will help keep this boy in at all .. I am going to try it. So send your positivity and prayers our way! It is really too bad that my body rejects pregnancy so much ... I just want our son to be ok ... that's all I want.

20 Week Ultrasound Photos

Baby Boy Profile

Baby Looking

Baby Penis! That little dot the arrow is pointing too

20 Weeks - The big news!

Today we had our 20 week ultrasound! It was very exciting ... we found out we are having a baby boy! We couldn't see much on the screen other than fuzzy body parts .. but we saw the baby kicking and heard the heart beat. She said she is 100% sure its a boy and pointed out his little penis. We had a doc appointment directly after which my BP was borderline high so I now i will start taking my BP at home a few times a week and keeping track. I am also doing a 24 hour urine collection for a baseline - for future possible protein showing up. The baby is growing appropriately and is 11 ounces! We will do the steroid shot at 24 weeks just in case things turn bad we are good to go. I will have another ultrasound at 24 weeks then another at 28 weeks - to check my amniotic fluid levels and the babies growth. This is crunch time ... I know Malia stopped growing at around 22 weeks so we will be on top of the ultrasounds and make sure the baby is growing fine. Time to think about a nursery! I am wrapping up a lot of loose ends right now. We are moving out of the studio this weekend. Then i will be home editing and nesting. I am in full nesting mode. I hated not having one thing prepared when Malia came into the world .. so I am determined to be completely prepared by 25 weeks with this one!

I came home and told Malia about her baby brother! Here is the video!

Week 19!

Wow I cant believe I am at week 19 now ... that is pretty scary because my to do list is still long. But im so happy that we have made it this far. Week 18 and 5 days I woke up with extreme vertigo ... out of the blue .. started vomiting immediately ... such an awful feeling. I cant sleep because I have to basically be at a 45 degree angle and on my left side. If I lay down flat it is much worse. I went to the ER and they said it sounded like positional vertigo. I went to my OB yesterday and he said its Maniere's Disease ... that is a scary name for vertigo. Im not sure I buy that its Maniere's Disease and that's that. So of coarse Ive been searching the internet for possible answers. Today i discovered something called Benign Positional Vertigo .. i think this is the closest to what I have. Plus it has a treatment of exercises. The meds the ER gave me dont really work for me ... which also says to me that it may be Benign Positional Vertigo. The good news is .. it has nothing to do with my pregnancy or the baby ... the bad news is .. i was trying to work as much as possible before November 15th to save money for the coming months. And now i really feel completely disabled. I cant function. As I type this my eyes cant focus and it feels like I am just not with it. Moving my head produces major spinning of the room and the immediate feeling of nausea and vomiting. Im so bummed. I really wanted to do all these last photo shoots and it looks like im done. I just need to finish up all my editing and get ready for the baby. I hope this goes away sooner than later!! Next Wednesday is the big day of discovering whether we are having a boy or girl .. I can not wait. My gut tells me its a boy. We cant agree on boy names and have a list of girl names.