Week 20

He's around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — about the size of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. 

He's so big! I can feel pretty much all of his movements and kicks. He's very active at night, because he knows that's when daddy is usually around and puts his hand on my belly to feel kicks and talk to him. When bedtime comes around, baby boy starts going wild. Then when I lay down and my husband puts his hand on my belly, baby boy kicks gently a couple times and rests under his hand while daddy talks to him. Every single night for the past 8 or so days. And if for some reason Corry falls asleep before I do, baby will kick and move like crazy all night long or until I ask Corry to put his hand on my belly and say hello. It's so precious and makes me absolutely melt with love for both of them. Last night Corry expressed to me that he is so excited to play with the baby and hold him when he's born. I can already tell that those two are going to have a special connection when he's born. 

This past week I have also had dreams every night about being in labor or giving birth to our son or being home with him. For a while I've been praying about a water birth. I have to be in the hospital when I give birth, but the Family Birth Center offers water birth options in the labor/delivery rooms. I've been praying about it and thinking about it and my husband and I talked about it as well. I already use water for pain relief/ ache relief, and to take the weight off my legs/ lower belly. I swim a lot and water is very helpful for me already, so I think it is a good option for my first birth. Also, last night was the first "birth dream" I've had where I was given a birth pool (I think that's what it's called) or tub in the hospital room. I have to talk to my OB about it, but it looks like that's my birth plan. It also depends on how things go when I get there. There are signs and little things that could prevent me from having that water birth, but I would like for that to be the plan.

My belly is getting bigger and bigger each week. It's now pretty much impossible for me to sit up in bed without using my arms and rolling a little. My little body frame all of a sudden has this huge massive belly to carry haha. No joke, if you look at my body minus the hips and belly (and maybe boobs) you will understand what kind of stress my poor legs are under to carry it all. With belly and pregnancy weight, I am still 153 pounds. Without it, my doctor said I'm probably in the ballpark of 146 pounds. I haven't been that light since I went to Russia on my religious mission when I was 19. 

Anyway, things are good and I've kind of got my sickness under control. I am currently experiencing what some describe as some pretty intense morning sickness, but not quite hyperemesis again. I've become good at managing it though. I know that I have to take at least one of my nausea meds at 6 AM every morning before I get up, and I have to eat something like steel cut oats or plain cornflakes in almond milk within two hours to keep the nausea meds working. My gluten/wheat intolerance has gotten worse and it actually makes me sick to the point where it feels like hyperemesis pain. So I stay away from breads and cereals and such with wheat in them. I have been doing well with dairy, but now that I can eat a bigger variety of foods, I am cutting back on it quite a bit again to help with inflammation in my gut. I had cheese yesterday so I don't feel any difference yet :) But I do know it helps keep some nausea away. I also try to drink a crud ton of water, almond milk, and juice to stay hydrated. If I go a couple hours without drinking something I get sick. 

**I am finally finishing this post now that I'm 21 weeks. I start classes somewhere in between the 11th and 14th (online starts a little earlier than main campus) and so I may not be as diligent at the beginning of the semester with my posts as I have been. But here are some precious ultrasounds for you to look at :)

 We got a lot of ultrasound pictures this time again, but I wanted to just post three of my favorites. This one is a picture of his right foot. He currently loves to kick hard, especially when mama lays down to rest :)

 Here's a picture of his left hand. It looks a little creepy in my opinion, but it shows that he has all of his fingers and even though we didn't get a picture of it; the ultrasound tech showed us he has all his fingers and two thumbs. It was kind of sweet to see his hands because he was moving around. Just another evidence that he's real, alive, and growing!

Here's a sweet picture of our little man. Ultrasound tech and my OB both said that everything is developing well. No cleft palate, all the fingers, toes and limbs are present, and organs are developing/developed well. In this picture if you look close, you can finally start to see the outline of what his precious face looks like. We saw, but didn't get a picture of his face. They said no cataracts or anything either in the eyes. We were thrilled to see how much he has grown. We have another ultrasound on the 16th to check on my placenta previa and we can't wait to see our love again!

19 weeks

19 weeks (almost halfway there!)

 Baby Meyers is the size of a large mango!
 About 6 inches long and almost half a pound! The OB said he is measuring at the average 20 weeks size in length though so he's about 6 1/2 inches from his head to his bottom.
His lungs are not quite developed yet, but everything else is looking good. We did more genetic testing for spina bifida and I think neural tube defects. No phone call from the doctor and I did get it done yesterday, so that usually means nothing bad has been found.
My husband and I were just laying in bed resting about an hour ago and talking about evening plans. He had his hand on my belly and all of a sudden our little boy started kicking his thumb. I said "Did you feel that on your thumb?" He said "Was that another contraction?" I said "That was a kick" and as soon as I said it our boy kicked his thumb again and again. Corry kept asking "was that another kick?" Me: "Yep" Him "And that?" Me: "Yep." A little after that I asked him if those were the first real kicks he has felt, and he said yes. I thought he had felt some before, but I realize I've only really started to feel them more the past two weeks. It was a really special moment and it kinda made me cry to know that he finally felt kicks.

Here's the baby bump now in all it's glory. It looks huge in the picture, but it's not terribly big. If you saw my 16 week bump picture, imagine that with a few more inches around. Not much change since then. This is 19 weeks.

I still weigh 153.5 which is still about 22 pounds less than my weight at the beginning of the pregnancy. I am happy to be maintaining weight now instead of losing or gaining.

Well, not much else has happened this week. I decided to keep the newest ultrasound pictures off the blog until the 20 weeks post just to have good content each week. But starting tomorrow (Monday) we are officially in week 20 which means we are officially HALFWAY THERE! Scary thought that we are getting closer and closer to labor. My doctor and I just discussed my birth plan this week and I'll be submitting paperwork to reserve a spot in the family birth center around my due date. Exciting stuff! Maybe I'll talk about my birth plan in one of my posts. I'm sure I've already mentioned parts of it though.

Pink or Blue?

Don't get all huffy and puffy about "gender stereotyping" with the title. It's a happy post with happy news.

Blue!
It's a boy!

I am kinda proud of this picture. I took it with my iPhone, one of our favorite board games (scrabble), and the newest ultrasound pictures.
Yes, our little love is a boy! We had names lined up already for a girl and a boy, but we are keeping the name a secret until he is born. We told my OB though and she was so excited. When the ultrasound tech told us the gender, he first asked what we both thought it would be. We both said "Boy" and Corry excitedly kept talking about why he thought it was a boy. Then the tech goes "Well dad, you're right. It's a boy." We laughed and grabbed each others hands; we were so happy to know the gender. It's another thing that we feel like brings us closer to our first little love.
Baby boy is healthy and growing. His heartbeat is still in the early 140's. Everything is developed except his lungs and brain (brain doesn't fully develop until 25 years old). The lungs are no problem and will develop just fine, he's just a little behind with that one. But even though my due date is January 12th, he's measuring at 20 weeks instead of 19. We're still sticking with January 12th as a due date, even though it's really just an "educated guess". We will see how it plays out, but if baby boy is ready to come early, he might share a birthday with his uncle (my brother) or very close to that time. My brother really wanted a nephew too, so that would be pretty special.
When I called my dad to tell him, I said "it's a boy!" and he goes "A boy? Really?" He sounded a little surprised. I think it was excited surprise though. There are lots of girls on my side of the family, and it's about time another little guy joined in. I know my sister and my brother are excited to have a nephew. They will be a wonderful aunt and uncle.

Another super cool piece of news came on the day we found out the gender. Later that evening, we found out that I have been accepted to BYU Idaho! Online for now because we don't yet live in Idaho. When I did Pathway, I was "technically" a BYU student. But now I'm 100% a University student. It feels so good to say! It also feels good to already have a few credits done (15 credits) that are going toward my degree. Class for me starts on September 14th online, same day my nephew starts Kindergarten. He's excited we start school the same day. :) I'm only going to take 2 classes to start with in the Fall because Fall Quarter ends really close to my due date. I don't want to overwork myself and have no time to prepare for our little love to come into the world. But come Spring, after baby is born and we've established a little bit of a routine, I am set to continue class and then I think I will do 3 classes. After that, it will be time to transfer to the real Idaho campus! I'm excited to move to Idaho. And so excited to have our son.

I'll probably post the newest ultrasound pics later today or tomorrow. We have a family member coming into town this evening so we want to show him the ultrasounds if he wants to see them before I post them. I'll do a 19 weeks post with it and talk about how well things are going, but how we still have a bit of a ways to go. Things are getting easier though!
Thanks for reading, and sharing in our excitement. :)

18 weeks: smallish update

18 weeks
Baby Meyers is the size of a bell pepper!

Dang, this week has gone by really fast. I'm glad it did though, because I am beyond excited to find out what the gender is on Tuesday. (Day after tomorrow) I'm so excited for the ultrasound to see how big the baby has grown and to see more of his or her features. The last ultrasound we did was back at 13 weeks. 6 weeks of waiting to see our little love again. 6 weeks of growth and development. We are beyond thrilled for Tuesday afternoon.
There's not much to update anyone on. I'm still a little sick. Had a rough day the other day and the few days up to today have been less than desirable, but not awful. I still only weigh 154.8 pounds and my belly has grown 5 inches at least in the past 2 weeks. So, while I'm not putting on baby weight, at least I'm maintaining and at least I am able to eat more. I found this week that drinking lots of water and eating small meals along with all of my medications keeps the worst of hyperemesis away. Which is nice. I wish I could say it's helping a lot, but it is helping me enough to keep me (and my husband) sane.
On that note, I just have to really applaud my husband and express how grateful I am that he isn't a loser. That may sound weird. Let me explain...
I know some people with baby daddy drama and let me tell you what, those women do not deserve any of the crap being dished their way. Sometimes my husband and I have had little disagreements in this pregnancy, but never anything major. Seeing the hardships my friends have had to endure with their babies dads has made me so grateful for the man I am married to. Even though this was a planned pregnancy, he still could have made the choice to ignore me or decide he didn't want a part of it. Of course I knew 100% that he wouldn't make that choice. I had complete faith in him. He could have chosen to be freaked out or less supportive. He has so much to focus on already, but he chose to shoulder the yoke of new responsibilities with me. I am so grateful for that. I've learned so much from him in the past 4-5 months.
Anyway, not much of an exciting post. The excitement will all come on Tuesday. I'll post on Wednesday probably. We'll see.

Week 17

Baby Meyers is about the size of an onion

This week was a little difficult at the beginning. I did go back into the hospital on Monday night and was released on Tuesday morning. It was a little bit of a scary experience when the nurse blew a vein in my hand. I'm terrified of needles and I was essentially living one of my nightmares. But I was able to tough through it with the help of my wonderful husband and lots of praying. This time was a little different. Usually as soon as the IV goes in, I stop throwing up. This time that did not happen and I even threw up after a liter of liquid was in, and both nausea meds were in. I asked for the other one they also usually give me but they refused and sent me home before I stopped vomiting. I vomited within the hour after they sent me home. Luckily with lots of sleep and prayer, I woke up later that day feeling much better.

This week, baby's kicks became VERY noticeable. Hard to miss, really. My husband has been able to feel them finally when he puts his hand on my belly. They are still pretty faint to him, but let me tell you I definitely feel them! It's so wonderful to feel those movements and kicks. 

I went to a nutritionist on Thursday and got some really good advice on how to get calories and vitamins. I need to get into a better habit of drinking water though, so I have to be better. I bought a gallon jug again and my goal for each day is to drink one full gallon. 

 That's about it though. This week went by pretty quick and was a low key rest week for me. I got a couple of callings in my ward and I was able to make it through three hours of church this past Sunday and do one of my new callings. Relief Society Chorister! I love being a chorister. It's easy and I get to be involved with the music. My favorite calling I've ever had besides on my mission was ward chorister. I loved that so much and learned a ton from it.

Tired Mama and Growing Belly

  My doctor told me I would be really exhausted the next few days because of trying to get rehydrated and because baby is growing at a furious pace, my body will need some time to relax and catch up with hydration and getting vitamins.
  Well we went to sleep early last night at about 9:30, woke up at 6:30. After Corry left for school at 8:30 ish, I decided to take a nap before lunch and my next round of meds. So I did and woke up at 2:30... Oops. Since last night I have slept about 12 hours. I finally feel like I have more energy though and I'm feeling good. Mama just really needed some sleep to let her body catch up and heal.
  The past two mornings when I wake up, I feel like I've done an incredible ab workout. My belly is stretching a lot which means our little love is growing. I can't remember but I think around now or close to 20 weeks is when a big growth spurt usually happens with baby. I know that my doctor says those growth spurts are when I will probably experience hyperemesis again for at least a couple days because of all the hormones and growth and such. My body can't process those hormones in the amounts they're being produced so it makes me pretty sick. The hyperemesis I experienced this week was about a 3 day thing and I can feel a difference in the size of baby. At least now I can prepare a little by taking vitamins, swimming, going for walks, drinking lots of water, and trying to eat food that will help keep me nourished. I'm grateful that we've kind of narrowed down when hyperemesis will strike again. I've felt really good and then all of a sudden it strikes and  strikes hard for a few days. Both times at great growth spurts of the baby. So the in between will be periods of preparation for the next attack, so to speak.
  But that's why I am so exhausted. I just finished a storm of hormones that made me so sick. Don't you feel pretty tired a few days after a major flu or illness? I learned that means it's time to refuel and recover. Tomorrow I have to go in to a nutritionist. I've never been to one. But we will be planning for those in between recover days to pump as much hydration and nutrients as we can before the next round of hyperemesis. I think we will probably also talk about what to eat or drink while the sickness part happens. We shall see.

Welcome to Week 17!

  I posted within the past couple days about how hyperemesis was back. Well yesterday it got bad. I couldn't keep any fluid, meds, or food down. So, last night at about 10:30, I called the doctor on call and she told me to go in to the hospital family birth center again for meds and fluids. When I got there, the nurse really didn't have a clue what she was doing. She took 20 minutes unwrapping the IV fluid and hanging it and charting that I was about to receive it. THEN came the worst part. A real nightmare for me. I am terrified of needles. I am always afraid they'll pop a vein, and that's essentially what happened.
  She searched both arms for a good 15 minutes. Finally she settled on my hand. I was very dehydrated but it was very easy to see the veins in my hands. She put in the needle which hurt really bad this time. My husband was holding my hand, trying to distract me from my fear. I had my eyes shut tight and was trying to breathe calmly. But it hurt, bad. I kind of started to panic a little because I knew and could feel her digging in the vein. All of a sudden I hear "oh no, crap. Well, I blew the vein." I felt dizzy and couldn't understand what she was saying. Then she says "I'm so sorry honey, all that for nothing." Which I understood meant I had to get poked again. I prayed for sstrength and patience because this was exactly why I am afraid of needles. I was living my nightmare when it comes to that fear. Somehow I kept my calm and as she kept apologizing I found myself saying "it's okay, accidents happen." and "It's all okay." I think I was saying it both to her and to myself.
  So she brought in another nurse, Molly I think her name is. She's been my nurse before and still remembers me :) Because the vein blew in my right hand, it became entirely unusable for an IV. Molly admitted that I was very dehydrated and it was going to hurt again pretty bad, but she would make it quick and take care of me. While she prepped, my husband went into their little snack room and brought me my favorite ice and vanilla ice cream. I love that man. I was feeling very faint and dizzy and was having a hard time breathing, so he fed me some ice water and a couple small bites of ice cream. He continued to make jokes which actually helped a lot :)
  Molly did get the IV in without blowing the vein but she had to take her time because my veins were small. It did hurt a lot, but I am very grateful they got it. I am so grateful my sweet husband was there. I didn't cry, but I was about to pass out and I was really afraid. He was so helpful and stayed the whole night with me.
  I was discharged around 6:30 AM I think. I didn't get any sleep because I was throwing up a lot all night. My husband got a little sleep, but was up until 1 with me while the IV drama ensued and wrapped up. My poor guy had to leave for school half an hour after I was discharged. And as I write this, he's napping on the bed.
  I did sleep some this morning and when I woke up I felt great.  I started eating saltines, but after 6 I felt sick again. So I've pretty much been sleeping, eating, sleeping, drinking water with meds, and sleeping all day long.
  I am so incredibly grateful for Corry. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. He is superman. A wonderful guy.
  And that's how we rang in 17 weeks haha. As of today I am 17 weeks along. Almost halfway through pregnancy (crazy) and 14 more days, or two weeks until we find out the gender of our little love.
  Life is good. Sometimes facing fears is hard, but I got through it with the Lord and with my sweet eternal companion.