Motherhood

Let me be completely honest here. Being pregnant and the mother of a toddler is hard. I've been lucky enough so far to have a relatively easy pregnancy so far. Yes, I had morning sickness for the first half, but I rarely actually threw up. Once I hit the 18-20 week mark I've felt pretty good. The most negative aspect of pregnancy until recently had been that I failed my one hour glucose test two weeks ago. (I did manage to pass my 3 hour test, but man was I crabby to have to take that!) Now that I've hit the third trimester the real fun has begun. (If you don't to hear me whine, feel free to skip to the next paragraph.) Since I've finally started to put on the baby weight, I've started to have back pain. It has become increasingly worse this week since I've been sitting in the most uncomfortable folder chairs ever in training all day, everyday this week. Tomorrow is the last day of training, so I'm hoping the lack of extreme sitting will help my poor body. To make life even more fun, I've also been waking up with leg cramps. Two nights ago, it was so bad that they woke me up at 4am. I've increased the amount of calcium and potassium, so hopefully these should lessen. I get heartburn from everything (or even nothing). And since I'm sleeping less, I have very little patience for naughty toddler behavior. But, after one of the moms in our preschool class lost her baby at around 34weeks, I try to remind myself whenever I get crabby about being pregnant about how lucky I truly am to be pregnant. In less than 12 weeks, I'll (hopefully) have a beautiful baby boy to snuggle.

Oh Boy (s)!

Baby Daisy bud is a boy. While we are thrilled to be having a healthy little boy, I will admit that I was feeling slightly disappointed at first that it was not a girl. Mainly over the fact that we really don't need to buy much of anything for this little guy. I was really looking forward to picking out all kinds of cute girls rompers and jammies. Now that I've gotten used to the idea of having another little boy, Little Daisy Bud #1 and I picked out a few new outfits for his little brother. Mr. Daisy Bud and I also decided on a name for our little bud. We are planning on calling him Jackson Curtis. It's funny because this was on my list of potential names for little Daisy Bud #1 and I'm pretty sure Mr. Daisy Bud hated it then. There's something about having a name for him that just makes him so much more real.
And since I'm usually pretty bad about adding pictures, here is a 26 week bump shot.

Countdown to the Ultrasound

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. :) Somehow life seems to get in the way of my blogging. I honestly can't tell you a whole lot about what I've been doing for the last couple weeks. At least nothing too exciting. Little Daisy Bud has been sick with a cold and also extremely crabby from getting his two year molars in. He has given up most of his verbal skills in favors of shrieking every time he wants something, so it's been noisy around the Daisy Bud house.
I'm hoping that I'm pretty much over morning (all day, in my case) sickness. I still have food aversions to almost everything and haven't yet seen all that energy that is suppose to come with the 2nd trimester.
I had a doctor's appointment on Friday. Mr. Daisy Bud's work schedule got changed around, so I had to bring Little Daisy Bud with me to my appointment. Somehow he managed to be a little angel for my whole appointment. He flirted with the nurses and showed my doctor his treat. Otherwise, the appointment was somewhat uneventful. I didn't lose any more weight (yay!) and was steady from my last appointment. My hemoglobin levels also were good. We heard baby Daisy Bud's heartbeat again. Because the heart rate is definitely faster than Little Daisy Buds, my doctor's guess is that Baby Daisy Bud is a girl. I guess we'll find out March 4th if she's right! I can't wait!

Relief

Last Thursday I tripped while taking some laundry down ours stairs. Now I know better than to go down the stairs in my socks. Wood stairs are just too slippery for that. I luckily only fell own 3 stairs, hitting my butt and back. It definitely scared me. Since I wasn't having any cramping or bleeding there really wasn't any reason for me to go into the doctor.
I had just began to feel the baby fluttering in the last couple weeks. When I hadn't felt the Baby Daisy Bud flutter all weekend, I started to worry. So we decided, while I was probably worried over nothing, it was worth calling the doctor anyways this morning. They said I really didn't have anything to worry about, but if it would make me feel better I could come in and have them find the baby's heartbeat on the Doppler. Knowing that I would worry until my next appointment, I decided it was worth taking Little Daisy Bud out in the snow, to hear baby. The doctor found baby's heartbeat after just seconds of looking. I had worried over nothing.

Pregnancy love list

So it's crazy to think that I'm already more than a third done with this pregnancy. I'm really hoping my energy will return soon. I'm pretty good at trying to avoid caffeine, but some days after my early morning shifts I'm not able to function without a diet coke. It is glorious!
I'm dying to shop for baby stuff with all the amazing clearance sales going on right.

Some of my favorites this time around are:
Bubble baths: I take one pretty much every night. It is the one thing that seems to help relieve my back pain.
S'mores: Microwave s'mores are my obsession. I make them all the time. For some reason they taste good pretty much all the time.
Mott's natural applesauce: I try to only only eat applesauce without added sugar to make it healthier. Mott's is the only natural one that tastes any good.
Yoga pants: Pretty much my uniform when I'm at home.
Oberweis Chocolate Milk: Simply amazing. I'm not a huge milk drinker, but it just tastes so good.

Oh Baby!

So I completely forgot I was going to do an update after my 11wk doctors appointment on December 30th. Somehow I manage to update my personal blog, but forgot to add my update here. So here goes!

Little Daisy Bud's new brother or sister is due July 20th, 2010. For those of you who remember, his due date was July 20th, 2008. It's so crazy that we ended up with the same due date again. I had my first actually appointment with the doctor December 30th. So far everything is looking good. It took forever for the doctor to find the little stinker's heartbeat because it kept hiding. We did in the end hear it. The due date is probably one of the only things that my pregnancy with Little Daisy Bud and with this baby have had in common. With Little Daisy Bud, I was nauseous pretty much in the morning. I threw up every once in a while. With this baby, I am nauseous almost every afternoon and evening but mornings are fine most of the time. I've only thrown up once. With Little Daisy Bud, I couldn't stand the smell of chocolate or pretty much any sweets (Christmas was rough that year). With this baby, I love sweets. With Little Daisy Bud, I craved protein and loved hamburgers (as long as I didn't have to see raw meat.) With this baby all meat grosses me out even when cooked. I can stomach chicken sometimes. Gatorade was my magic trick to make it through the day with my first. This baby seems to think it's far too sweet.

Mr. Daisy Bud and I joked with the doctor about her 4th of July weekend plans (since she was out of town that weekend when Little Daisy Bud came). She said as long as it could avoid the U2 concert on June 27th, she'd be there this time.
We are still up in the air on whether we will attempt a VBAC. That's one of the best things about my clinic, the choice is mine as long as a c/s isn't needed for safety reasons. The plan right now is to wait until much closer to my due date to know exactly what we're dealing with. I just don't want to get it in my head that the birth will go one way, when in fact things could change at the last minute. My tentative thoughts at this point are to set a c/s date at 39 wks. If I go into labor before that and things look good, I would attempt a VBAC. From what I've read so far, the success rates of VBAC lessen after 39 wks and c/s are the safest at that point. It also looks like inductions will never be an option for me. I'm also at a higher risk of having another breech baby since Little Daisy Bud was breech. (I can't find any good statistics on this to know how much more likely this is, but I did read it in a legitimate medical article, so this means it would have to be statistically significant.)

Christmas

Little Daisy Bud ended up getting sick, so most of our Christmas plans had to be canceled. I was disappointed to not get to spend the evening with my family. But it was really nice to spend the day with just the three of us, especially since there will be four of us next Christmas. So instead of the holiday meal we would have had at my Aunt and Uncle's house, we made some homemade chicken noodle soup and snuggled up and watched movies. It was a good reminder for me to take a step back from all the stresses of life and just enjoy my family.

Bad Blogger= Me

Life has been rather crazy lately. My work shifts were moved from their regular 5:30am start time to a 4:30 start time because of the store opening earlier for holiday hours. Messing with a pregnant woman's sleep does not lead to good things. On my days off, I still wake up at 3:30am, which is starting to drive me crazy!
As far as pregnancy news, there's not a whole lot to share. I'll have to take a belly shot soon because there is no denying I'm pregnant now. This baby refuses to hide. :) My secret fear is that there is more than one in there. And not that it would really be a bad thing. It would just make life a little more challenging.
I still feel nauseous most afternoons and evenings, but I haven't thrown up at all. Probably my worst complaint is that I have food aversions to pretty much everything. Hopefully this will lessen as I get farther along.
I have my next doctors appointment Dec 30th. I am so anxious to hear the baby's heart beat. Once I hear that I'll be able to relax a little bit.

Interesting first appointment

I had my first appointment on Monday. Because it was just for lab work, I had Mr. Daisy Bud stay home with Little Daisy Bud. The appointment started out well with me turning in all my medical history paperwork. We talked about the H1N1 shot and decided I should get it.
Then came the blood work. I am very squeamish and tend not to do well with having my blood taken. I also have fairly small veins and quite often the lab techs have difficulties finding them. So the lab tech tries my left arm first. She gets nothing. (We think I was dehydrated.) At this point, I get dizzy and nauseous and make friends with the trashcan. The lab tech decides that it make work better if I lie down and drink some juice before she tries again. I start to feel better, so she tries again. She gets a tiny amount before it stops. Not wanting to poke me again, she decides to look at my file to see who was able to successfully take my blood the last time was in. Lab Tech #2 then tries the first arm again with little luck. She then decides to use my hand instead. I had never had blood taken there before. It was painful!
My next appointment is December 30th. We should hopefully get to hear the heartbeat then. I can't wait!

6 weeks already!

Time is flying by. I can't believe I'm 6 weeks already. It definitely didn't go by this fast first time around. I have a little bit of m/s, so before noon I pretty much live on Gatorade and cereal bars. Nothing else sounds good.
My new job involves a lot of physical work which is exhausting! I'm not sure how long I will be able to keep my pregnancy a secret. I kind of think one of my male co-workers might be on to me. (His FI is pregnant.) He offered to help me with a bunch of the heavy lifting today, which I greatly appreciated!
We are planning on telling Mr. Daisy Bud's family about the new little bud on Thanksgiving. I am a little nervous about telling them this early (FIL has a big mouth!). SIL had a m/c 2 years ago, so I know if anything happens, at least I have her support which will be nice.

Bloated!

I am currently 5weeks 2 days pregnant. So far, I'm feeling pretty good. I've had a couple of days where I've felt somewhat nauseous. I'm almost always tired, but that could also be from taking care of a toddler or working at 5:30am. Bloating is my biggest issue. I feel huge!
It's crazy, but we might have already figured out our name choices. At this point, if Baby Daisy Bud is a boy his name will be Logan Curtis and if it's a girl her name will be Allison Marguerite. I'm amazed that we came up with ideas for names this early. Little Daisy Bud didn't have a name until after 3owks. We have our first appointment November 30th.

BFP!!!!

So I wasn't going to POAS until Saturday morning at the earliest. That didn't last. I've been so cranky and irritable the last couple days. This morning before taking my shower I remembered that I had a couple OPKs sitting around. I know some people have luck using them as HPT, so I decided, why not? I tested and then took my shower. When I came out I noticed two very solid lines. Being I had a digital test sitting around, I decided to confirm with that. After waiting for what seemed like forever, pregnant showed up.
DH and I are excited, nervous, scared and thrilled. Baby Daisy Bud is due July 20th. :)

11 DPO

I'm already 11 DPO. I can hardly believe it! I'm wondering that since I'm charting and way less stressed out TTC and life in general if that's helping things. My cycle looks like it will be around 32 days instead of the 46 days of my last cycle. That alone makes me happy.
My goal is to wait until 15DPO to test. We'll see if I can actually hold out that long. I keep searching FF's charts like mine. Today it's showing 50% pregnant, 40% ovulatory, 10% m/c. My odds just keep getting better. The real tests is what my temps do on 13 DPO. If they significantly drop, the game is over.

Charting

My chart this month looks very similar to the pattern of temps in my BFP chart. Pink is my BFP Chart from before. Blue is my current cycle and green is the cycle before my BFP. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but it's hard!

4DPO and not crazy yet!

I'm 4DPO and trying to keep busy during the 2WW. I'm so thrilled my cycles are starting to get back to normal lengths. For some reason, I just feel like this is my lucky cycle.
Life is getting busy with the addition of a part time job at a local movie theater. If I end up being pregnant this cycle, I'm not sure how long this position will last. I had horrible morning sickness when I was pregnant with Little Daisy Bud #1. I'm not thinking the smell of popcorn would help this any.

What Next!!!!

We just got the news that the cost of health insurance at Mr. Daisy Bud is going to skyrocket and the coverage is going to be much less. So much less that we're not sure if we will be able to afford to continue the insurance with them. That's where the trouble lies. All of the private insurance plans require you to be on them for 18 months before being pregnant. Plus with the additional medical cost I don't know what we should really be doing.
I guess we'll just have to see what happens this cycle since I'm within a day or so of Oing anyways. I really don't want to have to stop TTC, but I'm really not sure of any other options.

Coincidence?

An interesting coincidence about this cycle is that the cycle that we conceived Little Daisy Bud 2 years ago started on October 13th, which happens to be the same day this cycle started. I'm hoping this is a good sign.

Plan of action

Last night I let myself cry, mope and feel sorry for myself. It was not pretty, but much needed. I'm doing much better today. I made myself an action plan to make myself feel better.

My plans/goals:

1. Make ob/gyn appointment so that I can discuss my concerns and figure out if we need any further testing. I need to do my annual anyways.

2. Start working out again. It'll make me feel better and should hopefully be positive for my fertility.

3. Work on healthy eating habits.

4. Do everything that I did the month I got pregnant with Little Daisy Bud. This includes charting, CBEFM, green tea, and Mucinex. It worked once. :)

5. Make time for myself everyday. As a SAHM I really don't get any time to myself. This should hopefully lower my stress level too. If the laundry doesn't always get done, oh well.

AF Arrived

I'm seriously depressed. I honestly thought that this was our cycle.
I'm avoiding my favorite message boards because of the large influx of BFPs in the last couple days. I want to be able to be able to be happy for these girls, but I just can't at this point. I am just so darn jealous and so sad for myself. 15 months of not preventing, almost 7 months of trying. While I know this is almost nothing, compared to how long other have waited and struggled, my heart aches. Will we ever get to have another baby? Is there something wrong with me?
Tonight is my night to mope. Tomorrow I will be strong again and keep myself busy enough so that I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. Life goes on.

Scared

To test. I'm 15 DPO with no AF yet. AF should have arrived already. I have zero tests on hand to prevent the temptation to test early. I'm scared of either possible results. BFN means that it's highly likely that we might have some issues. BFP means I have to deal with morning sickness and a toddler at the same time.
And it's snowing here. The thought of having to get Little Daisy Bud bundled up in his little snowsuit and in to the car seat makes me cringe. I may have to brave it so that I don't have to wait in indecision much longer.
Symptoms so far (whether they are AF, in my head, or pregnancy related): Extreme bloating, tiredness, slight nauseousness.