Pregnancy Update (for the curious at heart)

Today I am officially 33 weeks pregnant and every day I'm getting more and more ready to meet little Madison. This pregnancy has been so extremely different than my pregnancy with Abbigail, I thought I should record the differences on our family blog.

When I was pregnant with Abbigail, I pretty much had a picture perfect pregnancy.  My fun pregnancy symptoms included: two small bouts of nausea at the very beginning, but no morning sickness; I had a few food aversions, but nothing life-altering; occasionally some minor constipation, hemorrhoids, swollen/sore breasts, and edema.  This was pretty much the extent of my ailments during my first pregnancy.

This time around...things are SO different.  Shortly after I found out I was pregnant, I began feeling exhausted all the time.  I barely had any energy to do anything.  Just drudging up our stairs wore me out.  With the exhaustion I also got nauseated at every turn.  I had close to no appetite, and lost a couple pounds right away.  Thankfully, I never threw up.  This is one symptom I have always been so thankful for NOT getting.  My nausea did get quite horrible, though.  It was to the point that just thinking of a certain food made me feel sick. Sometimes movement did the trick, too. 

By my second trimester, I began having some light issues with hemorrhoids again and constipation.  I did, however, get my appetite back around 5 months.  As would make sense, the constipation got worse after my appetite came back.  I did begin to get more energy, but my back began giving me issues right around the beginning of my second trimester.  Not so much my back, but my pelvis.  I've had this pinching pain just to the left of my spine just north of my tail bone for quite some time now, causing me loads of frustration.  I tried a belt for my hip/lower back area, but that didn't seem to make any difference, in fact, my back hurt more after wearing it for long.  I tried adjusting it, but Madison is so darn low, too, that it is just so uncomfortable.  The last thing I need is to make myself more uncomfortable right now.  Also in my second trimester I got the pleasure of experiencing heart burn for the first time in my life.  Acid reflux actually had me paralyzed in pain for a day and a half over Easter weekend.  After a late night trip to the emergency room and a nice GI cocktail, I go to feeling a little bit better and learned how seriously painful acid reflux can be.  Since the I've been sleeping with a wedge under my head at night--not an easy task when not allowed to sleep on my back.  Headaches also became a problem during my second trimester.  One of my midwives actually said to drink some caffeine, so I did and, amazingly, it helped.  I've since included little bits of caffeine in my diet when I felt necessary to ward off headaches...or as preventative maintenance against headaches, whereas with my first pregnancy I pretty much never drank caffeine because it would GIVE me a headache instead. 

For the first two weeks of June we went on vacation  back to Missouri and during this time I grew in size, weight, and discomfort.  I'm not sure if it's because I was quite active while there, or because our sleeping arrangements were not the same as they were here in Colorado, but I got to add a number of symptoms to my list.  Along with the pelvic pain I was blessed with a pain in my back, right ribs, just below my shoulder blade.  I've wondered if this is from my sleeping at an angle for so long.  I also began having issues with leg cramps at night.  Multiple times a night, either or both of my calves would try to cramp up.  After a week or so of this, the rest of my leg would want to cramp up as well because I was overusing it to flex my toes up every time my calf began to cramp (a trick that saved me from many full-on leg cramps).  I also had MANY hip issues while in Missouri.  I chalk this up to the bed we were staying on.  At home in Colorado we have a pillow-top mattress.  In Missouri we did not...traditional spring mattress with a not-so-soft top.  My hips were sore every night and morning.  After finally getting to sleep, my hip would begin to hurt, so I'd switch sides, in the process getting a Braxton-Hicks contraction, I'd breathe through that, then somehow get back to sleep, only to be awakened again by either a leg cramp, or my other hip hurting.  Every time I'd try to get up out of bed I'd get a contraction and have to breathe through it while trudging down the stairs to the bathroom and back.  It was a trip to say the least.  Nearing the end of our stay in Missouri, I also began to notice edema--swelling in my feet.

Before we left for Missouri, I had my 1 hour glucose test and a call from the midwives on our way to Missouri said that my levels came back high and they needed me to take the 3 hour test when I returned.  Just last week I tried to take the 3 hour test--I ate what they told me for three days prior, I fasted the night before, and after drinking a whole darn bottle of the orange glucola that morning, I was only able to keep it down for about 20-30 minutes before puking it all up.  Needless to say, I had to reschedule.  Next week is the redo and I'm going to try the lemon-lime glucola. 

Since our return to Colorado, my hips aren't hurting like they did at night, but I do still have pelvic pain and back pain.  The edema has gotten worse, but not quite to the extent that I remember it being in my last month with Abbigail.  I'm sure it'll get there though.  This time around it seems to be more prevalent in my legs as well, unlike with my prior pregnancy.  The Braxton-Hicks contractions are still extremely uncomfortable and come quite often, but nothing regular yet.  Madison is kicking and moving all the time.  In fact, early this morning, while I was still somewhat asleep in bed, she startled the heck out of me by doing some sort of strange acrobatic feat in my belly.  It actually almost hurt!  I jumped!  I'm still having issues with heartburn, constipation, hemorrhoids, leg cramps, overall aches and pains, and even swollen breasts.  Of late, memory issues have clouded my thoughts, and I've begun to get tired again.  If only I could sleep better I think the tiredness wouldn't be so bad, but...I'm sure I'll get back to better sleep sometime in the next 6-12 month.  Ha!  Hopefully!

As for what's been going on with Madison:
We had an ultrasound at 13 weeks and she was measuring around 12 weeks.  Our 20 week ultrasound said she was measuring around 19 weeks.  The doc had us return for another ultrasound at 24 weeks and she still measured small.  On our way to Missouri, we got a call saying that the doc wanted another ultrasound around 32 weeks to check up on Madison's growth.  A week after our return from Missouri, at 32 weeks we had our fourth ultrasound.  This one showed her head circumference had improved and was measuring around 32 weeks, where it should be, but her arms and legs were measuring behind now.  Her 24 week ultrasound put her in the 15th percentile, but her 32 week ultrasound put her in the 19th percentile.  Doc said that if she were to drop to the 10th percentile or below, they'd be concerned about some sort of syndrome or something.  BUT...she seems to be growing healthily now and she's moving like crazy all the time.  I am NOT concerned.  God is creating for us the baby He wants us to parent.  Big or small, she's our child and we love her.  The doc also said he'd like one last ultrasound at 36 weeks to make sure that she's still on her same growth curve.  He said the reason they were concerned at all is because my blood screening came back with one elevated hormone (or whatever) that suggested possible growth restriction in the late third trimester.  I wish I'd been told this before, because I'd wondered why they were so insistent on another ultrasound.  No one told me about my blood screens.  All I'd heard was that they were fine.  So we look forward to seeing baby Madison en utero in a few weeks.  Hopefully, she'll be at a good healthy weight for a 36 weeker and no one will be raising flags at us. 

And so I finish here.  I'm sure I'm forgetting something in here, and if I am, so be it.  That's how it goes.  It is so extremely true that every pregnancy is or can be different!  NEVER expect them to be the same.  I'm just hoping my little Madison is as good of baby as Abby was.  She may be in her horrible threes now and testing us in every way possible, but...overall, Abbigail is a WONDERFUL child!  I am so happy to be blessed with another child...our little Madison Lucille Grubbs...she's already so EXTREMELY loved!  I am so excited to meet her!  Although, I do have to say that I am more nervous this time around in anticipating Madison's arrival than I was waiting for Abby.  I think that's because I'm going to have to somehow find the energy to parent a newborn AND a three year old at the same time!  God brought us to this point...He won't just abandon us.  He'll help us all the way!  Thank You Lord! 

Madison Lucille at 32 weeks

Here are a couple of pictures of our little Madison at 32 weeks.  A profile of her face and a face shot.  While admiring her profile during the ultrasound, we traced her "hand" (the pancake-looking thing just above her forehead) back to its source and found out it was actually her FOOT!  She had her foot stretched all the way up in front of her face!  We also noticed when viewing her facial movements from the front that she seems to have some full lips!  We'll have to wait and see if this is true, but wow!  What a beauty!  Enjoy!