Pregnancy Update: 26 weeks

And another 4 weeks of pregnancy have passed! I will say this pregnancy is going pretty quickly. When I was pregnant with Paul I remember people commenting on how fast the pregnancy was going and I wanted to say, "FOR WHO???' Ha. But this time around, I can say it is going by pretty quickly! 

Baby size:  the baby is compared to the size of a bunch of scallions - guessing that's the length comparison because last week it was the size of a rutabaga. The vegetable comparison are so weird! He's close to 2 pounds and 14" long. 

Here are a couple of bump pics. I'm sooo much bigger than I was with Paul! I carried small with him, and I'm probably still smaller than the average woman thanks to my height/long torso, but I feel HUGE. Excuse the hair in the photos below. I tend to take these bump pics before showering so my hair is always a mess!

24 weeks

26 weeks, although I look smaller than 24 weeks in this photo, probably because I'm not wearing a maternity shirt?

Sex of the baby: boy! 

Name progress:  We have 3 potential names but are leaning towards one. We haven't made a decision and probably won't until closer to the birth. But I'm glad we at least have some options we both like. There have been a lot of vetoes in this process! I really wanted Samuel (shortened to Sam) but Phil hated the alliteration (our last name starts with an S)! Oddly, I really liked the alliteration! And Phil really wanted Peter but I said no way, Jose. Peter and Paul is just too cutesy. I mean there is a children's song about birds named Peter and Paul. Plus it's just a bit too biblical for my liking, and I can't handle another P name! I already will say Phil instead of Paul and vice versa so I was a hard no on another P name! We won't be sharing the name until the baby is born to avoid people's strong and at times rude opinions!

Symptoms/RA management: My RA has been OK. I've had a few flares but upping my prednisone dose and icing takes care of them. I've also been having some back pain so have been seeing a chiropractor who specializes in prenatal care. Some of my low back pain is related to weakness in my left hip/glute. I wasn't surprised to hear about that weakness because that is the hip that I had surgery on in 2016 to repair a labral tear.

Recent/upcoming appointments: I had my 24 week appointment 2 weeks ago and all went well at that. We talked about the plan for my c-section. She's recommending we take Paul out of daycare and isolate for 7-10 days before delivery, and have anyone who is caring for Paul isolate during that time as well. It's good to know this ahead of time so we can plan and make sure my parents (they will take care of Paul while we are in the hospital) also isolate. They could spend Thanksgiving with us, though, but we'll see what plan we come up with. I also have a back-up plan in case the baby comes early - one of my best friends whose kids go to the same daycare said they'd love to be our back-up option!

My next appointment is at 28 when I enter the 3rd tri. I'll have the glucose test which I KNOW I'm going to fail since I'm on prednisone (it raises your blood sugar). I'll also have a growth ultrasound to make sure the umbilical cord attachment issue that was detected at 20 weeks isn't impacting his growth. I doubt it is since my stomach sure is growing!

Sleep:  I continue to deal with intermittent insomnia. I probably get up during the night to read about 3-4 nights/week. It's annoying but insomnia is super common in pregnancy. Usually I can fall asleep after 10-15 minutes of reading but sometimes I'm up for over an hour which is very annoying. Weekend naps are a life saver!!

Cravings/favorite foods and aversions: I don't really have any cravings but I have been enjoying more sweets than usual knowing that I'll be on a strict gestational diabetes diet come mid-September. I'm not going overboard, I'm just letting myself have ice cream, GF muffins from my favorite coffee shop, PSLs, the occasional mocha from Caribou, etc. The GD diet is very restrictive - I will basically eat no sweets and have to watch my carb intake super closely, including things like fruit. So I feel I earned some care-free weeks leading up the third tri!

Exercise:  I still haven't fit strength training into my routine yet but I still hope to do that. I think when the weather cools down I will do some strength training in the basement while Paul plays with his toys down there after school. Right now we try to be outdoors if it's not beastly hot out! I'm also counting all the acorn sweeping/pick-up/raking I've done as a workout. Oak trees are pretty but dang they are a mess! I try to take a walk 5 days/week and those feel great and really get my heart rate up. It doesn't take much to get your heart rate up when you are pregnant! For example, my resting heart rate is about 72 right now but normally it's around 58-60 when I'm not pregnant!

Recent baby prep/decisions:  The baby's room was painted while we were at the lake but that's all we've done with that room. We'll wait until January or later to move furniture around because for now Phil likes to use it as his office on the days he works from home. Eventually, we'll move Paul's changing table into that room, and move the dresser that is in the office/baby room into Paul's room. And then we'll wait and see if we need to buy a crib. I'm going to guess we'll need to because Paul shows no signs of being done with his crib. He's never attempted to crawl out of it and loves his crib so we'll keep him in there as long as we can!

Mood: Pretty good except I was feeling so OVER SUMMER last week when it was so hot and humid. Sorry to all the summer lovers out there! I'm just ready for cooler fall temps but drier air has arrived and it's been beautiful lately!