21 Weeks

Appointment today went very well – nothing abnormal to report from the bloodwork I had done 2 weeks ago and the ultrasound looks good to the doc.

My due date has not been adjusted much – they tweaked it to a day earlier, so we’re still on target for the first week in August, just in time for Mom and Dad’s 34th wedding anniversary.

Baby’s heartbeat was strong and steady in the 150s.

I’m weighing in at 241lbs, which is just about right for baby weight gain at this stage.

Measuring right on target too at 25cm fundal height.

Got my paperwork for the GD test – need to do that between April 17th and May 8th and needs to be done at least a week before my 28 week appt. I’ll probably do that the last week of April on a the weekend so that I don’t have to have a blood draw done the day of, or the day before Vic’s birthday party. Doc is tracking my thyroid more closely this time – they want a test done on that every trimester, so I’ll get that done when they do my GD test too.

After my next appointment, we start going every 2-3 weeks instead of every month and in early July we’ll start going every week.

PBK Registry

Okay. I went ahead and re-posted the link to Vic’s old Pottery Barn registry, with the caveat that I’m probably going to edit it pretty fiercely to get it back down to just the stuff that’s within the realm of the reasonable.

I did a fair amount of pipe-dreaming on that registry, especially in the furniture department, so there’s a lot of items on there that need tweaking. Otherwise it’s just crazy y’know? Heh.

Eggs

The craving for eggs is back, with a vengeance.

I ate three, over-easy with whole wheat toast for dinner tonight and boy were they ever good.

The spinach wanting is there too and we don’t have any.

Repeat after me:

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

Pip made his/her presence felt off and on today – again generally not long after a meal. I think that unless I’m eating, this kid sleeps most of the rest of the time, or contemplates his/her navel.

When there is kicking and flailing going on though, it’s strong.

Registry Foo

I went through the bins of baby clothes this week and figured out that we really, really don’t need much in the way of clothing for this baby.

Because Pip’s due date is so close to Vic’s birthday, the sizes will even match up to the weather for the most part, so we don’t have to do much in the way of replacing.

That said, there are some things that wore out or were badly stained by Mr. Eats-A-Lot, mostly in the ‘daily use’ category.

Hence I’ve populated the registry with some very basic, basics. Plain white onesies. A couple of extra hooded towels. That sort of thing.

I also did a bit of shopping at Basic Brilliance since they’re having a sale, and beefed up our selection of cardigans-and-pants and baby gowns since I gave a lot of the ones we had away to friends.

Doing the shopping has made me feel a lot better. We’ve had so much going on that we haven’t paid attention to Pip’s potential needs as much as we did to Victor’s. I guess that’s partly normal, with a second baby, especially when you’ve got plenty of Baby Stuff already squirreled away in the closet. But I’ve been feeling the urge to do Pip-specific shopping lately and now I know we’re just about set.

Oh yeah. Except for socks.

I need to go to Rockridge to stock up on Tic Tac Toe baby socks.

In the meantime, Pip continues to display mellow behavior, though I am feeling more and more kicking and arm-flailing and hiccuping. The activity tends to take place mostly very early in the morning, after mealtimes and as I’m going to bed at night. So far though, no middle of the night “YO MOM WAKE UP” kicks as with big bro Vic.

I’m starting to feel pretty good now. The only issue is Vic’s own sleeping patterns, which haven’t been terribly good lately. He stays up too late, and then wakes up thirsty very early in the morning and then has trouble settling down, which leaves me often trying to get my engine revved on less than 6 hours of sleep. At least my energy levels overall have increased, so it’s not as dire as it was a few weeks ago. This means I’m starting to nest though, and keep eyeing the corners of the apartment with an eye towards baby, rather than toddler safety.

I tidied up Vic’s room today, stowing all the toys, collecting various things he’d strewn around the apartment and am fairly pleased with the results. This also means the space is in better condition for dealing with finding places to put the baby’s stuff too, since we only have the one dresser in there for Victor and it’s … full.

Ultrasound

Pip is a very mellow baby. She/he did not oblige us with a view of relevant parts for identification of gender. In fact, Pip pretty much stayed put in one place, happily hanging out waving an arm at us, yawning or hiccuping the entire time.

There’s a perfect little heart beating as well as everything that should be, where it should be, working away. Growth is just about right on target, though Pip is measuring ‘ahead’ by about a week. The tech said that Pip weighs 13oz give or take 2, so we’re just shy of the pound mark. Pip is also already firmly head down – he/she really didn’t move much during the entirety of the ultrasound except to wave in irritation when the u/s wand would stay put for too long. At least, that’s what it looked like to me. This probably explains why I’ve been feeling flutters in my stomach – when Pip is active, those little feet are pummeling away at my innards! Babies can still flip around a lot at this stage, but it’s pretty heartening to see the kiddo so attached to the head-down position

We also stopped by the lab (and waited forever) to get a bunch of lab work done that I should have done a while ago. It’s all taken care of now … seven vials of blood later. Sheesh.

Here’s two face shots of Pip:

And here’s Vic’s 18 week face shot: