Hellobee Boards

Update for a new page! Looks like girls are winning this month so far...I wonder if it will even out?!

November 2019 Mamas
10/17: Umberto (#2)
11/8: Mrs. RV (#3)
11/19: chuckles (#2)
11/21: nwm (#3)
11/23: lemonjack (#3)
11/27: rattles (#4)
11/29: karenbme (#1)
12/2: Beebeeholiday (#4), bees_knees (#4)
Always in our hearts
schubro3, sweetcaroline, raspberries

@karenbme: I know it’s *technically* up to the men, but there is also research talking about how a woman’s diet can influence sex. (Boy or girl depending on feast or famine, etc) I think that the egg is less of a passive bystander than we think! I’m excited to see what you’re having!!

@karenbme: hahaha I never even bought about weird genetic mutations! I vote both

@Ms. RV: we never attempted shettles, but for 3 of my 4 we only had one BD in our fertile window, and shettles...apparently does not apply to us

O-3 (or O-4) : Boy
O-1: Boy
O-2, O-1, O: boy
O-1: girl

I guess technically it “worked” for 50%, because I think DS2 and DS3 would both be boys as predicted by Shettles.

@Ms. RV: I'm totally going to tell my husband that our family isn't the only one where there are multiple generations of just girls. Of course if we really wanted to test it we'd have to get a larger sample size, because we could just be the two random cases, but in this non-professional statistician forum I'm calling it plausible. I'm also curious to know if shettles says boy or girl for you this time.

@bees_knees: At least you know it doesn't work for you.

@nwm: Thanks for checking in. Appointment is tomorrow morning. I'll let you know what they find. I've only had brown discharge since Friday night, so hopefully no new bleeding and a shrinking amount of blood in my uterus. I also found out that my sister in law had three similarly large hemorrhages with her first that started at 13 weeks and then happened every 6-8 weeks through the second trimester, and now that baby is a smart, active 7 year old, so fingers crossed.

@nwm: np. I hope you're able to get in. This process is so stressful, especially when things aren't going super smoothly. I would also seriously recommend getting a doppler. Whenever I feel like I need to (the past few days it's been 1-2x daily) I can get that reassurance that baby's in there doing his/her thing. It is hugely helpful for peace of mind.

So things looked ok with my SCH at the doctor today. She described the remaining amount of blood in my uterus as small. But the risk of repeat hemorrhage is still there and no one can predict if/when that might happen.

Originally I had made this appointment so that they could take measurements based on my surgical history to ensure everything was ok with my uterus going into the second trimester (I had an early stage uterine cancer removed in 2014). The surgical site in the body of my uterus looks fine, but they did find that my cervix is very short, which puts me at increased risk for second trimester miscarriage and pre-term/very pre-term delivery. Everything I can find shows that the mean for normal pregnancies is ~4cm, and mine measured 2.6-2.7cm. If/when it gets to 2.5cm they'll want to intervene. There are interventions that have shown results, but nothing is 100% effective. All of the SCH recommendations are also cervical incompetency recommendations, and I was told if it were 2009 instead of 2019 I would probably have been put on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy, but all the evidence says that's not effective.

I know that there are some things that have gone right in this pregnancy--as of now I'm growing a healthy baby--but it feels right now like there's no way this is going to end well with everything just stacked on top of each other like it is.

@karenbme: same. i'm sorry.

@karenbme: I’m really, really sorry. I was at risk for preterm delivery and other complications last time, and it sucks so much joy from the process, even if everything ends up fine. I’m glad your little one looks healthy so far, but I hope you can be kind to yourself and get some clarity from your docs in the meantime.

@karenbme: how are you doing? Did you get an appt with a MFM?

@karenbme: nice! so glad they fit, and glad you are at least feeling a little better. agreed it's so much better now that bed rest isn't relied upon as much anymore. how was the weekend?

i'm doing pretty well. i had my scan on thursday. i was very glad to see the babe moving around and the news on the SCH seemed good. it's shrunk and they say it looks like old blood, so no current flow. they basically said it will likely get resorbed or i'll have a little more spotting but it's not a big concern based on how it looks now. they also spent a lot of time looking at his feet because he was holding them at an angle for a while and they wanted to rule out club foot. eventually they felt comfortable that it didn't look like club foot, but said we'll take a closer look at the 20 week scan. overall i was left kind of feeling like the earlier anatomy scan is not for me--i was grateful to see the baby and to check the SCH, but this is my first time doing "early anatomy" and it just felt like they had to spend a lot of time to see things that show up easily at 20 weeks, and ended up just introducing a bunch of uncertainty that feels a little unnecessary (they also scared me about thinking i had placenta previa for a minute before concluding i didn't).

i also just blatantly skipped the associated blood test because i had already been out of work for two hours and there was a separate line to wait for the blood test. i was going to have to miss an important call! hoping i can do it at my OB's office at the next check up.

@karenbme: thanks mostly just venting. how are you feeling?

i finally pulled out all my maternity clothes and man, i'm sick of them all, ha! with it being summertime, i'm going to wear all of my loose-fitting dresses instead for as long as i can hack it. does anyone have lightweight maternity leggings that they love? my maternity leggings are just meh.

hope everyone else is feeling well!

@karenbme: me too! i guess everyone got a little busy. sorry to hear you've been sick, that can be the worst feeling on top of being preggo. but definitely nice to have a week with no doctors : )

i will admit that i switched to maternity clothes and for the first time in many weeks i feel skinny instead of chubby haha. my mat clothes are really stretched out and baggy on me at this stage.

that sounds like a smart plan! i love talking baby gear of course my main rec had been the rock n play so that one's out, but a few other key items include the summer brand infant swaddlers and perhaps my all-time favorite baby product, the keekaroo peanut changer. a must-have in my view also, i went through like 100 types of pacifier with my son before i found the ONLY one he would take, which is made by dr. brown's and generally comes attached to a lovey--it looks like the famed wubbanub, but it's dr. brown's. highly recommend. they sell them at target.

@nwm: I finally made the switch to maternity clothes this week. I had to buy a bunch of new things. With both of my previous pregnancies I was pregnant throughout the winter and early spring, so I didn’t have any shorts, and very few short sleeved shirts. I does feel good to be in maternity wear!

@LemonJack: same, ha! i basically have just work clothes and fall/winter clothes, but i'm trying to just cheat my way through the summer til i get to waddle stage in september maybe this is unwise.

@karenbme: Just lurking (I'm due in Dec) and wanted to suggest that with some of these things that babies tend to have strong preferences about, you may want to wait to grab them until the baby's here, unless you have a relative or something itching to buy it, to ease returns...

Contomo bottles were a disaster with my son, they have a fairly fast flow, some babies like that, others can't handle it well... would definitely recommend only buying 1-2 until you know your LO likes them. Ditto with bassinets. We tried and returned various ones because LO absolutely hated them. I feel like unless you have a super easy going baby who sleeps wherever, you will take any safe sleep arrangement that they semi-tolerate.... Babies accumulate so much stuff even when you try to be minimalist, I really like the option to return things they don't like but oftentimes the window is like 30 days....

What I ended up not being able to live without was the adapter to pop our infant car seat onto our stroller and the bundle me that kept LO warm in the infant seat (Jan baby). I almost didn't get this, because I thought I would just babywear, but then LO hated baby wearing and loved stroller rides....

@periwinklebee: I've been wondering about gear to keep a baby warm. If I go to my due date, by the time we're ready to emerge from the newborn cocoon stage it's going to be late Dec./early Jan. and around here (Northern VT) that means 0 to -10 degree temps all day. DH and I were just talking last night about having no idea what to do to keep a baby warm in that other than just never going outside

@karenbme: I'm in New England as well. When LO was a newborn, we used the jj cole bundleme which fits on an infant carseat. When he got older we used the 7am enfant, which is a total beast (your LO will not get cold in it!) but I think is a bit too large for a newborn. We dressed LO in a snowsuit. We got handme downs that are Patagonia and they work great, but there may be cheaper alternatives.

Fortunately the year LO was born we got a bunch fo the worst cold weather out of the way before he came in late January. With this baby due in December, I expect we'll have the full brunt of really cold temps. Going outside when the weather permitted was definitely key to keep my sanity during mat leave, and LO was so much happier outside... But obviously sometimes it is just too cold!

So, can we talk weight gain?

I am 16 weeks and have gained 6-7 lbs but it feels like a million. Not to be a whiny complainer but I have traded a SIGNIFICANT amount of muscle for fat, so even though my weight has not fluctuated a LOT, I feel like I look a lot different. This is the hardest part for me, when I feel like my bump still looks like a gut and everything just feels chubby. My boobs are humongous and achy and I think they must weigh 20 lbs each. I have gone up SEVERAL bra sizes in just a few short months.

Anyone else?

@Beebeeholiday: ughh i definitely feel you on this. having been on a no exercise rule on top of everything else, i feel like i have rapidly traded muscle for flab. i have tiny boobs so those aren't really noticeable though

if i get the go ahead from the doc next week, i was thinking of investing in the core guide from hannah bower. i've heard it recommended by a few people as having really great workouts for protecting/rebuilding your core and pelvic floor during and directly after pregnancy. i think at this stage i will be too nervous to run again until the baby is safely here, but it would feel great to do some gentle core work. on my third pregnancy in four years, i'm not even sure i have a pelvic floor anymore.