Hellobee Boards

I told work about my pregnancy, and it went well. I have had a frustrating week or so at work. I am not feeling cute. I am carrying so high that my bump is running into my now giant boobs, which have already gone up a good two sizes. I have not started to feel better at all yet, but I am grateful that my nausea and aversions have been intermittent. I should find out the sex towards the end of August.

@lauren0817: I had an epidural last time, as planned, and a doula really did not seem necessary. The only time labor was difficult for me was pushing, and I had a dedicated nurse with me at that time. I did have a relatively straightforward labor, which was not too long (12 hours from water breaking to giving birth). FWIW I was really nervous in advance, mostly about something going wrong, but a little bit about the pain, but I was completely calm while actually in labor.

@lauren0817: I have had relatively good success with Nordstrom Rack, I have found it to be the least expensive place to buy larger sized bras in person. I just tried on everything reasonable in the sizes I thought I might be, and bought the best ones. I think Nordstroms or a specialty store might be even better if you are less cheap, and I did get fitted in Nordstroms for a nursing bra. For me, underwire is a requirement, I feel like they look sad enough even with underwire, but fortunately I never found the underwire too uncomfortable.

@lauren0817: If the band size feels like a problem, you can use bra extenders. For a house bra, I liked the majamas sleep bra, which is a nursing bra. I found cheaper bras of any variety just not worth it, at least for the level of support that I need.

@lauren0817: Last pregnancy, I lived in Coobie bras. They're basically one-size-fits-all, so they grow with you. I'm about to break down and order some for this pregnancy. My regular bras are just getting too tight.

@lauren0817: we hired a doula for our first! Lifesaver... I had 2 days of back labor trying to go natural hypnobirthing but ended up having to do an emergency c section. She was a life saver and I had gone into labor on Christmas Day poor lady... I don't know what DH and I would have done without her. She was our rock.

@mdf106: @littlebug: @mrs.shinerbock: thanks for all the bra recommendations. I swear my boobs are bigger at 13 weeks than they were when I was 40 weeks! I had to pull out my nursing bras for something comfortable

@lauren0817: I didnt have a doula, but you should read The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin. I found its information (on labor, delivery, what's typical, and what interventions are/why they're used/alternatives) to be VERY helpful at making me more comfortable with the birth of my first child.

@mrs grapefruit: welcome!! so exciting to be a first time mom.

@lauren0817: i had a doula and she was a GOD-send. even to this day we're very close and she is like family to us. i would highly recommend getting one, especially if you are looking into a low-intervention birth, they are great at navigating you through all the options. so many patients get railroaded at hospitals when it comes to labor, and they are a great support. (if anyone is in NJ/NY and looking for an incredible doula let me know, i will PM you info.)

@sera_87: our ultrasound tech said she is 100% positive on sex at 14 weeks, but as standard practice she never makes an official call until the "anatomy scan". i went in last week at 12w3d and i was measuring 13 weeks. she had a very good guess it was a boy (the boy/girl bits are well defined at this stage). she showed us various angles and shots and it looks to be a boy for sure - will confirm in a few weeks. if they give you profile pictures of the body at your next ultrasound, but don't say one way or the other on the sex, you can google "angle of the dangle theory" to see if it looks like a boy or a girl - it seems to be very accurate.

@gracecat: @supernovaj: @cvwood: thank you so much for sharing your experiences!! I think my hubby and I feel reassured knowing there is someone there looking out for us that has done this before I'm sure my husband will be supportive, but this is his first time doing this so I'm sure it will be pretty overwhelming! Plus he is not great with medical stuff (even going into the hospital freaks him out a bit), so I need a backup in case he faints on me or something! I am also really excited about the postpartum support since I've heard breastfeeding can sometimes be very tricky to get the hang of.

@mrs.shinerbock: oohh great suggestion - I do love sales! Thank you

@joyfulkiwi: thank you so much for the book recommendation! I just added it to my Amazon wish list My birthday is next month, so I'm going to ask for some "getting ready for baby" stuff.

@desertdreams88: yeah my boobs are completely out of control - it is really a bit scary actually! I haven't lightening boobs yet, but thanks for telling me that can happen so I'm prepared for that one

I've definitely felt baby! I felt it first on Sunday.

It's a new experience for me - I had an anterior placenta last time and didn't feel DD until I was 27 weeks. CRAZY.

I'm 90% sure I felt it this morning! Felt like bubbles popping.

@cvwood: great idea! That sounds right up his alley My husband has been pretty excited about the whole doula idea which surprised me a bit (in fact he keeps asking me if I've looked into finding one yet!). It makes sense that the doula is a great cheerleader for the husbands as well!

@lauren0817: We did not have a doula for our first. I had a natural birth in a hospital--had we not done a lot of research, natural birth classes and had my extremely supportive sister present for labor, I think a doula would have been amazing. It was just too expensive at the time though.

This pregnancy I am delivering with midwives at a birth center and will not hire a doula.

@travellingbee: just pokes on the inside! almost like a tapping at times. i notice if i attempt to sleep in my stomach at some point during the night i'll feel it. baby is probably like "Hey mom... stop laying on me" haha.

@lauren0817: we didn't have a doula and didn't find it necessary. With already paying thousands for doctor and hospital, there was no way we wanted to spend another thousand on a doula. But I was planning on an epidural and labor went as planned. If I were going to go natural, I might have.

I also did not do any contraction timing, and went to the hospital shortly after my water broke. FWIW my labor progressed somewhat similarly to my mom's first labor. Both began with labor breaking, and progressed quickly in the beginning (mine slowed because of the epidural). I am hoping our second labor's will be different, because my mom's second was breach (as was her mom's).

Many of my coworkers have asked if this pregnancy was planned. This is such a rude question, especially from a coworker.

On the topic of unnecessary questions, I've had at least 3 people ask me how much weight I've gained. WTF.
Other than that, no offensive questions.

However, EVERYONE asks if we'll be finding out the gender and our reaction is always "Of course" and I want to roll my eyes and say duh Everyone in my life knows I'm a Type A planner person so.... it should be obvious. No judgement towards others who are Team Green, just saying it should be obvious in my case AND I've gotten that question with EVERY announcement.

@kristinleigh: Just messaged you

@marym: I like your response about the weight

Just got back from a fabulous NT scan... It was SO much more detailed and time-intensive than I thought! Besides looking at the neck fold and nasal, the sonographer checked out the spine, brain, brain hemispheres, heart chambers, umbilical cord placement, placenta, and the arms/legs/hands/feet/fingers/toes! We got a CD of all the images. SO relieved! Officially in the 2nd trimester with a healthy baby! Oh how many times I thought this day might never come.... and I know some of you have had much longer journeys than I, but I know we all share similar feelings to a certain extent.

@MrsYellowJacket: I hope you don't mind - I saw you update in the bump thread so I updated the list here. Let me know if you do and I'll change it.

@bisous: that's great that your sister was super supportive and helpful! I think my sister would be a disaster in the delivery room hehe I contacted a doula yesterday and hope that it works out with her - right now I have no idea what to expect on the childbirth side of things, so this is going to be an interesting experience

@kristinleigh: That's awesome! Let me know how your appointment with the doula goes! I am hoping to meet/interview our doula in the next couple of weeks - I am so excited to meet her

@travellingbee: that is completely understandable - having a baby is so expensive! Thankfully our insurance covers pretty much everything for the labor side of things so we hopefully shouldn't have too many out of pocket costs there - we did have to pay for all of our IVF costs/meds out of pocket though so this is all getting very expensive!

@marym: how did the work celebration go? Work parties can be so awkward I hope no one spilled the beans!

@mdf106: that is a ridiculous question! I think I would cry if someone asked me that after everything we've been through to get here. People are so insane sometimes!

@desertdreams88: that is another completely crazy question! Wow people never cease to amaze me! Congrats on your wonderful NT scan! It is so exciting to be in the second trimester YAY!