Me, I’m in my 14th week, had an ultrasound 2 weeks ago, which was amazing. Heard the baby’s heartbeat for the first time today, which was of course very cool.
No morning sickness, just super-tired.
Have already bought way too many maternity clothes. 
I’m showing a bit but I’m convincing myself that no-one can tell yet, 'cos mainly I just look extra-pudgy.
How about you …?
S.
16 weeks, just saw the OB today. Haven’t heard the heartbeats yet, because it’s apparently pretty difficult with twins, but we saw them and their little hearts are going just fine. I have a Level II ultrasound scheduled for next week; we opted against invasive testing (amnio, CVS) so this scan will look for any signs of defects. Hopefully we’ll find out the genders then, too.
My tummy is expanding, but I’ve only bought a couple of maternity things–Target, by the way, has THE CUTEST maternity clothes–mostly making do with my husband’s shorts and big t-shirts for the moment.
The morning sickness has eased up, though I’m still pretty tired. I’ve been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately–what the heck is up with me waking up at 5 AM almost every day? Sheesh.
Hi Geobabe … glad to hear all is going well with you and the twins! Have to admit, I was hoping for twins too, but there’s just one little booger in there.
They will do a Level II ultrasound here if the Triple Screen blood test indicates a possibility of Down Syndrome, but if you want to know anything else, you have to have amnio, which is a little scary. Still undecided about going down that road. My Triple Screen isn’t until the end of May, so we have a little while to decide how we’re going to deal with it if the results are anything but ‘normal’.
They won’t usually tell you the gender here either, even though I would love to know! McDeath would prefer a surprise, so I guess he’ll get his wish, unless they slip up at the next ultrasound in a month.
I’m having the same sleeping problem … except for me it’s waking up at 4:30, then getting back to sleep around 5:30-6:00, shortly before the alarm goes off. Then by 2:00 in the afternoon I’m ready for some serious napping.
No Target stores in Canada, but I did check one out in Seattle - the mat. selection was pretty small - 3 racks I think - but I did get a few things. Unfortunately work requires me to dress up a bit, so that is consuming my wardrobe budget right now. I also bought some stuff on eBay and a couple of things at Old Navy and Motherhood Maternity. Not a lot to choose from in our small town, so I’m hoping to get to Vancouver in a few months to pick up some more things.
My boobs are still pretty tender, but not as bad as a month or so ago. Need to find some more comfy bras - I’m used to going braless most of the time, but that just isn’t cutting it anymore. For now I’m making do with tanktops that have a built in bra.
The thing about amniocentesis is to try to find out the complication and misscarriage rates for the place you go to. They used to say there was a 1 in 400 chance of having a miscarriage, now the rates I find most often is 1 in 200 and even 1 in 100. A study a couple of years ago found that the actual misscarriage rate at different places they looked at with different doctors varied to as low as 1 in 38 with 1 in 200 being about the best they saw.
Thanks** lee** … we’ll definitely do as much research into it as we can … and we’ll use the results of the triple-screen to help us decide if it’s even necessary, which of course hopefully it won’t be.
I wish I’d found this great guy years ago so I could’ve gotten started sooner on this baby-making business!
Not that 35 is old, but they sure make you feel old and rickety … yesterday my dr. called me an “elderly mother”. Geez!!! :rolleyes:
I was 34 when I got pregnant with Loren. She has been perfectly healthy from day one and now at age two she is starting to show signs of reading!!!
I was very cautious during my pregnancy because it was such a miracle.
I’m 23 weeks, 2 days. Hanging in there. The projectile vomiting and nausea from hell seems to be over, but the burning, searing throat pain from acid reflux has kept me up many a night.
The baby is kicking, and quite forcefully. My husband finally got to feel it a few weeks ago, and now he’s pawing me all the time - although not in the usual way 
I’m really happy he’s so excited about the baby. I rapidly cycle between excitement and terror.
We had our one (and probably only) ultrasound at 19 weeks. The pregnancy dated to exactly when I told them it would. I don’t know the sex because the bastards here won’t tell me
We did not do maternal serum testing because of the high rate of false positives. 19 of 20 positives for a possible problem prove to be nothing, but most people go on to have amnio to make sure everything is okay. I’m not comfortably with the rate of miscarriage for the procedure, especially when the odds are heavily in favour of nothing being wrong. Regardless, it wouldn’t affect my decision to carry to term. I certainly wouldn’t discourage other people from having screening or amnio done, of course. I felt in our case it would only increase our anxiety, not lessen it.
So, lots of aches and pains and bizarre sensations. Really stressed out for a multitude of reasons, but the pregnancy seems to be progressing well, even if I am not at my best.
Stainz, I hear ya on the “old” thing. I’m 32, and my mother continually tells me I’m having such a hard time because of my age. :rolleyes:
So happy to hear all you pregnant dopers are doing well!
lee … how wonderful to hear about your beautiful (& brilliant!) daughter!
Cyros - I was hoping to hear how things were going with you … I’ve been having a bit of heartburn (for the first time in my life) so although I can’t fully sympathize, I would imagine your acid reflux is 100 times worse to deal with!
The way the triple-screen test here was explained to me, is it tells you the odds of having a baby with Downs Syndrome (e.g. 1 in 200 or 1 in 20000), spina bifida, and one other one that sounds quite rare but also quite scary and, from what I understand, is normally fatal. They’re not sophisticated enough here to have the quadruple-screen, which is too bad. 
I’ve been doing the reading about the pros & cons of the test - I’m sufficiently freaked out and will definitely have it, and then my husband and I will decide afterwards, with the assistance of the doctor, how to proceed. We are both VERY curious types and really want some reassurance that baby is okay.
They won’t tell gender results at our hospital either, although there are some clinics on the Lower Mainland (about 3 hours away) that will do it. I want to know, but McDeath doesn’t, and there’s NO WAY I could keep it a secret, so I guess we will both be surprised on the big day!
I’m really looking forward to feeling the baby move and kick … I’m just so impatient … November 20 (or thereabouts) seems SO far away!!!
Maybe. For us, the concept was scary. The reality turned out to be not that intimidating: MrsSqueegee was relaxed and joking with the techs the whole time, barely noticed the procedure. I, on the other hand, nearly fainted when they produced and then used that bigass needle. :eek: YMMV.
Hopefully, your heartburn won’t get any worse. I found Tums to be useless, but found out I could take Gaviscon as needed and Maalox occasionally. As well, apparently if it is severe enough, they can prescribe medication. If you have a doctor’s appointment coming up, you may want to ask what you’re allowed to take in the event that Tums don’t work. Good to know in advance!
Yup, it’s a screening test, not a diagnostic test. I was offered it at 15 weeks, I believe. My OB said that sometimes the numbers are skewed due to something completely harmless, such as incorrect gestational age, multiples, maternal infection. So a “suspicious” result does not necessarily mean anything is wrong. In fact, odds are, it’s not.
Totally understand. Half the people on my online group are getting the testing because they would like some reassurance and hope it will lessen anxiety. Although I didn’t get the testing, I know getting the ultrasound results made me feel a bit more secure.
I know time has seemed to move much more quickly now that I’m out of that dreaded first trimester. Hopefully it will be the same for you! I think I felt the first little flutters around 15 weeks (only after having something sweet and lying on my stomach). I felt definitive movement at 18 weeks, and kicks at about 20. This week, I’ve actually seen my belly move a few times. Sugar seems to be baby’s drug of choice.
Maternity clothing is in short supply in my area, but I discovered something today: I can buy larger, but still kinda stretchy T-shirts at Penningtons (plus sized clothing) for much much less than maternity T-shirts. Do you have a Penningtons, Stainz?
Good advice on the heartburn remedies Cyros - I’ll ask my dr at the next visit. It would be great to be prepared …
I’ve found my appetite to be weird these days - consistently hungry but nothing tastes quite right and I’m not craving anything in particular, like I usually do. Plus, my usual favourites just aren’t tempting anymore. Probably why I’ve actually lost a few pounds since my first weigh-in.
Yep, we have a Penningtons here … I haven’t checked it out yet though. I did buy a couple of pairs of pants and capris that are a size or two bigger than my normal size - they’re getting me through, but are too big in the butt so they kind of hang back there … not too flattering but at least I can zip them up and not feel like I’m being cut in half! I’m actually looking forward to wearing my maternity clothes - I’m such a keener!
At one store they had the ‘belly’ that you strap on, I put that on under one outfit and it was the WEIRDEST thing to see myself looking so pregnant … hard to explain but it really gave me butterflies.
Ginger helps nausea. A little bit of ginger ale or ginger candy will do.
OOHH! I just thought of a Big Tip! Your bones will start to soften. Your feet may spread. It is not just water retention, your feet may actually get bigger during pregnancy. DO NOT WEAR TIGHT SHOES! That is a good way to give yourself nasty bunions.
I asked my doctor what tests would show something that I could do something about, other than an abortion. Ultrasound was the only test that fit that criteria for finding out fetal defects.
[Anecdote]Warning: I worked with a woman who had tried to get pregnant for years, and finally managed to do so. She was talking about she was going to have amniocentisis and sneered at me when I said that I would not get amnio because of the dangers. She miscarried and pretty much lost any sanity she had as far as I can tell. She dropped out of work after that.[/anecdote]
The one situation I can understand is when the pregnancy is a real danger to the mother’s health. I can quite understand not wanting to continue a pregnancy thay may not be viable when your own health/life is endangered by doing so.
By starting to read, I mean that she knows her letters and is starting to identify some words soley by what letters are in them and not from pictures. The first one was “like” and there have been more since. She can write O’s, Q’s, and L’s on request.
I had my visit with the perinatologist yesterday. As I said in my earlier post, we’d opted against having amnio or CVS, due to the risk of miscarriage–we’d been trying for a couple years, with a couple miscarriages, and since I’m 40 now, this is pretty much it, so we were going to continue the pregnancy no matter what, barring a risk to my health.
The Level II ultrasound revealed no major defects, doc said she couldn’t find a darn thing wrong with either baby, which is a huge load off of my mind.
Oh, and it’s two boys. What with the husband, male dog and male cat, I’m completely outnumbered in this household now!
I’m still feeling good; still having trouble sleeping, but I’ve decided to look at it as preparing for when the babies come. I’m not gonna get any sleep then, for sure. My tummy is getting noticeably bigger, and I’m starting to look pregnant rather than just chubby, which is nice. Starting to have a little trouble bending over–walking the dog is going to become an adventure, because we have a Corgi. I’m going to have to put a chair by the front door so I can sit down to clip his lead on.
Geobabe - that’s great news! I’m so glad for you … and the boys!
We’re hoping to be sent for a Level 2 ultrasound as well … they don’t do them in our city, so we’ll have to go to Vancouver - I believe their machine is the only one in the province.
I’m looking forward to getting to the “looking pregnant rather than chubby” stage myself. I’m not gaining any weight yet which surprises me because I sure FEEL bigger and of course my clothes are fitting differently. My doctor says it’s because I’m probably paying much more attention to what I’m eating now and making healthier choices.
Congratulations Geobabe!
Stainz, I have my fingers crossed that you can finagle another ultrasound. I’ve had my only scan already, but I must admit, I’m dying to know what’s going on in there.
I’m 24 weeks and a few days, and I’m starting to get really uncomfortable. It feels like the baby is as low down as humanly possible, and it is kind of painful, whether I’m lying down or sitting up. It feels like a large rock sitting on my pelvic bones. We went to the mall to pick up a couple of things yesterday, and I had to sit down several times. For some reason, when I’m standing for any period of time, my belly starts to hurt.
Everything seems to be fine, however. Lots of movement, lots of kicks.
Ugh. I would really like to hibernate from now until September.
So, I had a dentist appointment today because I have a toothache, and he refused to take an X-ray despite my OB’s approval. He insisted he would be able to see if I had a cavity, and came to the conclusion that I need a root canal. I’m frustrated… and suspicious.
I am nauseated again. Why? Because we’re having seasonal temperature for the first time this Spring. It’s only 23…but in my un-airconditioned apartment, it’s ten degrees hotter. When I think about what the Summer is going to bring, I just want to cry.
The baby must be positioned oddly. S/he feels like a rock lodged between my pelvic bones. It’s hard to walk, can’t get comfortable. My back aches and I’m just tired. I expected this to happen at the end of the pregnancy, but I’m only 25 weeks. The thought of three and a half more months of increasing “discomfort” is disheartening to say the least.
Gestational diabetes test tomorrow. I’ve got my fingers crossed. Truly don’t think I can handle more crap right now.
Awwww **Cyros ** … that sucks … I hope your test goes well today and that it’s the beginning of an upswing for you!
((((hugs))))
I should hear results by Monday. The drink itself wasn’t so bad, but after about ten minutes, I became incredibly dizzy and had trouble focusing. No idea if that is because I was so tired, or stressed because of a ridiculous wait at the lab or what.
Baby’s heart rate has slowed. Nothing to be concerned about (used to be 150, now 135), but if the old wive’s tale holds true, that’s supposed to indicate a boy. We’ll see, I guess.
Another pregnant one checking in here.
I’m just over 17 weeks. To say this pregnancy has been difficult would be an understatement.
Its my first pregnancy - and possibly my last.
I’ve been out of work on disability since March - basically when I found out I was pregnant. In the beginning it was severe hyperemesis - basically severe morning sickness. That came with dehydration and weight loss of 15 pounds in about a month. That finally leveled out around week 11/12. My weight gain started and then the bleeding started.
I basically bled for three solid weeks. Unexplained bleeding is VERY scary. I had to have two additional ultrasounds during that time - so now I’ve had three. They can see where I am bleeding from, but can’t tell why I’m bleeding. So that was interesting. The bleeding has stopped for a little over a week (knock on wood.) The unfortunate part is I’ve been on bedrest for basically three months.
That has taken its toll on me (and my housework.) It is EXTREMELY boring here. And not being able to do anything at all doesn’t help. I go to my doctor weekly at this point…and will have another appointment tomorrow AM. I’m hoping with the bleeding being stopped that he’ll let me go back to work.
I have tons of cute maternity clothes that I’d love to wear! Another suggestion for some things - relatively inexpensive is Fashion Bug.
I’m glad to hear all the other pregnant dopers are doing well. What an exciting time!
I’m sorry it’s been so difficult. I must say, I’d have to have a wicked case of amnesia (and win the lottery) in order to consider another pregnancy. Even if we decided we wanted more children, I don’t think I could go through this process again.
I’ve got my fingers crossed that you’ve turned a corner and everything improves. At least the second trimester has a few bonuses…feeling movement and kicks has been very satisfying. Makes it seem more real, somehow.