The 2nd trimester

So this baby is already getting a lot less personalized attention, or at least as quantified by the individual number of blog posts per child. Hopefully she will forgive me. At least posts by Dad will be equal (Lily=0, baby #2=0).

I mentioned some time several months ago that we had a few complication early in this pregnancy that could have meant the beginning of a miscarriage or could have meant nothing. Luckily for us, they turned out to be nothing. Bleeding is fairly normal when that embryo is burying itself nice and snugly but it sure doesn't feel normal when it happens to you. The only positive is that we got to see our little bean when it was no bigger than a bean. We never saw Lily this early so it was new and it was so reassuring to see that little heart beating away in there. (I had sort of convinced myself that the doctor might tell me that I wasn't pregnant and that I never was--defense mechanisms. It's amazing how quickly that bond forms.) But here's what baby #2 looked like at almost 7 weeks gestation (which is only 5 weeks post-conception, figure that math out!).


Then at about 20 weeks we were able to see the baby again and found out that #2 is a GIRL. Of course this is exciting. My sister and I weren't the best of friends through our junior high and high school years, but it's pretty nice to have her around now. It's too bad we lived so close to each other then and now we're 3,000 miles apart!

Lily joined us at this visit. There were some toys in the room so she went back and forth between playing, vying for her Daddy's attention, freaking out a little bit about what this strange woman was doing to Mommy on the exam table, and watch the baby on the flat screen TV on the wall. She was definitely interested in the baby and even she could recognize that it was a baby on the screen. Once again I was wrong and this baby turned out to be a girl too. I was basically only going on the idea that I thought this pregnancy was different than Lily's so maybe that meant it was a boy this time. Daddy was right, he thought it was a girl. I still hope we might have a boy some day if we decide to have another baby but I'm really glad Lily will have a sister. She already acts like a big sister to her rabbit and all her stuffed animals. I think she'll be great at it.

Here's a picture of our little angel.

Although I can say that, in utero, she's pretty feisty so far. So much so that the ultrasound technician asked if I could feel her jumping around and had to chase her with the ultrasound wand. She's quite active. He favorite times to jump around are when I just in get bed for the night and as soon as I sit down to relax after doing any activity. A typical fetus, she get's put to sleep by my movement and when I sit still, she wakes up. She gave me heart burn a lot earlier than Lily though.

I can feel the 2nd trimester coming to a close. The "honeymoon" is officially over. Aches and pains are starting to set in and pregnancy is losing it's fun factor. Allegedly my uterus is about the size of a soccer ball right now and it's starting to feel like it. But we still have a long way to go, so there's no sense in complaining yet. I will be very excited when June rolls around though. I'm quite convinced this baby won't be here until early June (despite the May 28th due date).