2nd Trimester

Yay!  I am now 13 weeks pregnant and in my second trimester!  I had a doctor's appointment this morning and everything went really well!  The baby's heartbeat was 162.  The doctor made a guess that the baby is a girl, but said that there truly is no coorelation between heartrate and sex.  What do you think?  Any guesses? 

The one thing the doctor wanted me to work on was gaining some weight before my next 4 week checkup.  I was down a couple pounds from the last appointment which isn't abnormal, but they generally see that when you have vomiting from morning sickness or a big aversion to foods, which I didn't.  In the next 4 weeks she said 5 pounds would be a good goal, yikes.  While I would like that to be a free ticket to go crazy on junk food and ice cream, she said not to alter my diet just eat more often and if that doesn't work to throw in some protein shakes.  I don't know what those taste like, but they don't sound yummy, so I'll see what I can do on my own.

I will go back to the doctor's on the 14th (about 2 weeks from now) to have an ultrasound to look at the cyst again.  I was surprised by this, because they originally said they wouldn't do one again until the big 20 week appointment.  The doctor just said that there was no reason not to just look one more time before then to make sure it isn't getting bigger.  If it's getting bigger they will look into removing it now, but hoepfully it will be getting smaller.  Say a prayer for that.  After that I will go back to the doctor 2 weeks later (4 weeks from now) for a regular checkup.

I got to ask all my questions, and I had a lot!  The doctor was great about making sure I had everything answered I wanted.  At this point if things stay the same, she said there was no reason I couldn't have a normal vaginal delivery, which was great news!  I also found out that if the cyst stays the same size and they wait to remove it until after I deliver, it will be at a seperate time.  The doctor said it would be about 6 weeks or so after the delivery.  This was good to know.  I also talked with the doctor a little more about having had H1N1 early into pregnancy.  I won't bore you with our conversation, but she told me that by breastfeeding I will give the baby some immunity to H1N1, which was great to hear!  I guess I kind of knew that b/c that's one of the positive reasons to breastfeed, but I had never actually made the connection to that specific virus.  I won't go into all the other details of my questions, but any mommies out there that want to offer some 'I didn't know this would happen' information and/or advice, I'd love to have it!

Baby Z had a great trip to Vegas and neither of us were bothered by the flight at all, which was great!  We enjoyed visiting with the grandparents-to-be and got to see lots of new sights and places!  It was crazy to think that we will have a 6 month old at Christmas next year!  I'm excited that our baby will get to see so many neat places and things during his or her lifetime!  There are some benefits to having our families live all over the country!

Keep praying for a healthy and happy pregnancy and baby!