Saturday, February 22, 2014

28 weeks tomorrow

In one hour from now, it will be Sunday, and I will officially be 28 weeks pregnant!!  This is the milestone that I am always holding my breath for.  I like the viability milestone, but I really feel safer only after 28 weeks, and especially safe after 32 weeks.  I am incredibly blessed and to some extent still shocked that I am pregnant and so far along.  This little boy was very tenacious from the beginning, given that he started life as an embryo that did not look so hopeful, and he has never given me much trouble.  I hardly had any problems during this pregnancy, aside from the (usual) bleeding in the first trimester.

I am starting to wonder whether I will be making milk with this pregnancy.  I had both primary and secondary lactation failure with Emma, primary for whatever unknown reason, and secondary after my massive hemorrhage that happened two weeks after my c section.  Despite both obstacles, Emma breastfed until she was almost two years old, and she still loooooves my boobs.  She got a lot of supplementation, as I was only making one oz of milk at each feed (if that!) and I was blessed to have breast milk from my friends and good hearted donors.  This time, I think I will just have to make do with formula, as I am new in my town and don't have the same support from the girls there, or a best friend nearby that is lactating.

I don't feel too big yet.  I should post some pictures, soon, but looking back at myself pregnant at 28 weeks with Emma, I think I was a little bigger.  Despite that, I weigh about 191 lb, similar to what I did back then.  I have gained a total of 22 lb from the beginning of the pregnancy.  I have not been too careful lately, and over the past two to three days I have indulged in over 2000 calories a day, a great majority of which were bad carbs.  I went out to a bread shop with my friends, then had a girls get together over pastries, etc.  We all know how this works.  I have to start being very careful from now on, as I remember just how much my plantar fasciitis killed me when I was pregnant last time, and how uncomfortable excess weight gain was.  I love myfitnesspal for calorie tracking, and I am pretty religious about logging everything in.  My goal for the third trimester will be 1800 calories, possibly plus 200 cal extra if I don't gain weight at all in two weeks.  I am aiming for one pound every one to two weeks, which will put me at just under 200 lb at delivery.  Much better than my previous 220 lb.  This is just an aim, who knows where life will take me.

So far, I am enjoying the relative safety of this third trimester and hoping that my uterus does not tear. I had an ultrasound about six days ago, and my cervix was 4.3 cm, with no funnelling.  I don't know how big the baby was, or the amniotic fluid index, as nobody told me anything, I just got the measurements from watching the screen.  I am seeing the OB this Wednesday, and hope to find out baby boy's weight :)  Emma was 1.3 kg at about 28 weeks.  I will post after the OB visit.

I am not swimming as much as I thought I would.  I got a pass, and went twice in the last week, both times in the evening.  The first time I swam 1 km in 30 min, which is a fairly relaxed pace for me, and despite that I was very sore that night and could not sleep.  The second time, I swam about 800 m at the same pace, and had less pain but still could not sleep. I should try to swim in the mornings, but I don't have my mom to look after Emma then.  I would have to put her in the gym's daycare for an hour, and I don't know if Emma will like it.  Come to think of it, she really could use a change of scenery, and she probably will play with other kids that might be there.  It is worth a try.