Welcome! To You and to Third Trimester

We're Almost in the Home Stretch! 

I don't know who is going to read this silly thing, but I thought it would be fun for myself, future Baby Boy Hatcher, and any other new moms who are freaking out about the fact that there is a HUMAN growing inside of them and are about to push them out!  Take a chance and read my profile to gain some more insight.

I'm starting this now because I have kept a pregnancy book throughout my pregnancy for myself, my husband Clifton, and our baby boy.  I feel like this blog could be a good record of the days leading up to our first child's birth, as well as navigating through the first year as a new mom.  I'm going to try to fill in each week with special posts from the pregnancy itself, and not just the end, but this will mostly focus on the end result and being brutally honest!  I'm terrified, but I want to show that, because I don't think it's talked about enough.  So, enjoy!

I'll first give a little backstory into the pregnancy:

Clifton and I were very lucky with this pregnancy.  A lot of women on my side had issues getting pregnant.  This took us 2 months.  Based on symptoms, we're pretty sure I miscarried during the 3rd week in our 1st month, but I just thought it was my normal cycle and didn't think anything of it.  Which that means, is a pretty good sign for this pregnancy staying normal.  If you're not getting any positive tests yet and you're not late, YOU ARE NOT OUT OF THE GAME YET.  It took until I was 5 days late to get a faint line on a pregnancy test.  I just didn't have a high enough concentration of hormones for it to be detected.  Now, pregnancy tests are as bright as can be!  Keep your head up.  You're never out until Aunt Flo shows her face.  We're so excited about our child to be.  This is something we wanted together and to grow our family together.  There's nothing more magical, I swear.  It's amazing knowing what's going on inside my body each day and all of the changes I'll be going through.  I'll admit, everything is very scary sometimes.  I've always been on a thinner side, and now I know I may struggle with staying that way after baby for the rest of my life.  It definitely sounds selfish, but you can't help those feelings from creeping in sometimes.  I can't know though.  I could be lucky and bounce back, but I know I need to consciously realize it's okay if I don't right away.  Baby Boy comes first and foremost.

That baby speaks the truth!

Now, to the fun stuff!  Tomorrow, we are 29 weeks pregnant and really getting into the third trimester (which starts week 28, or 27 depending on your doctor)!  I hear this is not the most fun trimester, but I'm ready, because I want him here!  Now, we're having doctor appointments every 3 weeks, then 2 weeks, then every week until he's here.  So, let the countdown begin!  We're at 78 days until our due date.  I keep having this gut feeling he's going to come a few days early (at least, this is my hope for family reasons).  We're officially due on December 13th and baby boy is right on schedule.  He's CONSTANTLY moving.  There's some days where he finally sleeps, but as soon as mom sits down, he's having a party in there.  We've caught a few on video already!  I think that's been the coolest feeling this whole pregnancy.  I always wondered why women 'miss' being pregnant because my first and second trimesters were painful in many ways.  But, I know I will miss this feeling of my son and myself being as 'one' each day.  I was never very good at sharing!

The Dreaded Symptoms List

I'm sure you're thinking, why would you say this isn't fun?!  Let me explain: third trimester brings a lot of aches and pains.  Most women are correct in saying that second trimester is your blissful trimester.  I'll agree with this about 80%.  Every woman is different.  One thing I've learned is that I had to stop comparing myself to every other mother-to-be.  No one body is alike.  I'll agree that in the second trimester, I was able to get some energy back, but it wasn't a lot.  I was able to eat normally again (with pregnancy modifications of course) and smells weren't as intense.  I'm now one week into the third trimester and the list is becoming endless:

• migraines - STILL; I've been getting at least 3 a week since I became pregnant
• hip pain - oye, this is the WORST one next to migraines; this happens from walking to much, sitting too much, sleeping, laying on one side too long, etc.
• sleepiness - this comes roaring back in the third trimester; this is when your baby is growing the fastest; growing a human is tiring!
• appetite - oh man. I have never been more hungry in my whole life and NOTHING satisfies it!  I'm trying to be as careful as possible, but I'll be honest, it's hard!
• cravings - this goes hand in hand with the appetite. cravings don't disappear after first trimester; at least they didn't for me! They're really weird cravings sometimes, too.  I wanted a burger for breakfast the other day!
• heartburn - I'm listening to the old wive's tale on this one; this kid is going to have a HEAD full of hair!  I can't get rid of this heartburn so they finally placed me on Zantac.  It's incredibly painful and I hate when it strikes.  If you experience this and it gets worse, don't shy away from asking for something that's safe for you and baby; there's nothing wrong with it!

That's just the beginning I'm sure; plus the diagram explains a lot, too!  I'm taking it as best I can, but I know I'm bugging my husband a lot with all of my symptoms.  I think part of me just wants him to feel what I'm feeling, too.  I keep hearing from the doctors, nurses, and previously pregnant friends that all of the symptoms I feel just completely disappear the moment he comes out.  YAY!  What I ALWAYS tell myself, and you should tell yourself too, not all women are as lucky to experience pregnancy.  And I am eternally grateful that I have the ability to connect with my little man.

Third Trimester Tests

So far, I've only had one test!  I made it through the Glucose Challenge Test.  This is a 1-hour glucose test to see if you may have gestational diabetes.  If you fail the 1-hour test, (a number >140) you have to do a Glucose Tolerance Test, which is 3. Hours. Long.  I was SO incredibly nervous for 3 weeks over the GCT.  I didn't want to go anywhere near the 3-hour test.  We were the first appointment for the day.  After a 15 minute wait, they took me back and gave me 5oz of some really flat orange soda (not really, it's just orange soda flavored) and the first sip wasn't bad!  I love sugar so I was all for this.  As soon as I started chugging?  Different story.  It was literally drinking liquified sugar and it was AWFUL.  It coats your throat and it's just blech.  The nurse said it was 100g of sugar in 5 OUNCES.  That's a lot!  But, it's only 5oz and easy to suffer through.  After that, lemme tell you, holy SUGAR HIGH.  I was talking a mile a minute, laughing at everything, and literally couldn't sit still.  Baby boy was loving the sugar as well and wouldn't stop movin'!  After waiting for an hour and then having my blood drawn to test it, we finally went home.  And here's my warning for those who have never had this test or are coming up on their test: YOU WILL CRASH AND YOU WILL CRASH HARD.  I slept 6 hours straight in the middle of the day, developed a migraine, and just lost all energy.  Even after drinking 60oz of water and stuffing my face with protein.  Do what you can, but that crash is inevitable!  All in all, I passed with a 123.  Don't stress too much!  It'll add to a higher number.

Next, I will be getting the TDap vaccine for whooping cough and the flu shot when it comes out.  I don't normally get the flu shot after many years of failed ones, but I will do anything to pass antibodies onto our boy.

What's to Come

That's it for this week!  Tomorrow we hit 29 weeks, and I'm so excited to be almost out of the 20s!  Onto the last 10 weeks of being pregnant and almost meeting our boy!  Posts to come:

• Virtual Baby Shower - We can't fly home to be with the families for a baby shower, so Clifton's mom "Grammy" is throwing us a virtual shower!  Each person invited, if they can come, is sending us a gift that we can't open until October 8th while on FaceTime with everyone in the room on the other side.  Should be fun!
• Maternity Pictures - These are getting done on October 9th!  Whenever I have them back, I'll be posting some for fun.  We're very excited for our fall-themed shoot together
• Friend/Co-Worker Halloween Shower - An amazing woman at work is throwing us a shower here in Boston.  I couldn't be more grateful to her, because I was feeling very sad and lonely not being able to have a physical shower because of distance.  I can't wait to spill more on this one!  So far, everything's been a surprise and I love it.