This is my second pregnancy, so, let’s be real, I’m probably not going to be consistent at getting updates up. However, pregnancy is beautiful and I want to remember everything about each baby I carry so I’m going to try my best to blog about it every few weeks and when I have updates on my health.
How Far Along? 17 Weeks
How big is baby? Baby is as big as a pomegranate!
Symptoms? Still some lingering nausea, headaches, migraines, heartburn, stomach aches, digestive issues, backaches, stuffy nose
Craving? Corn dogs, strawberries
Gender? 2 1/2 weeks to go!
I know the second trimester is supposed to be easier. And while I do have my energy back (thank goodness), and my nausea is starting to fade (although unfortunately, not completely gone yet), I have a whole new slew of problems that are making this trimester feel not so easier after all. My stomach was really messed up for almost an entire week where every time I ate my stomach would just kill me for hours afterward. I started taking the probiotics I mentioned in a previous post, and drinking Kombucha, and that seems to help a lot as long as I’m consistent with it. However, if I forget to take my probiotics, all hell breaks loose in my stomach.
I’m also dealing with a really achy back, but laying on the heating pad helps. I still get nauseous for a little bit a few times per week, but definitely much less, which is nice. I’m also starting to get heartburn at night again, exactly like I did with Sawyer at this point in the game. And it didn’t go away until he was born! I also had a “pregnancy cold” pretty much my whole pregnancy with him and this pregnancy seems to be following suit.
We get to find out the gender in about 2 1/2 weeks! I’m getting really anxious to know. Kurtis is convinced it’s a girl. I don’t really have any strong feelings either way, although I did have a dream last night it was a girl. We have a girl name picked out (keeping it under wraps), but not a boy name. I really don’t think I would be disappointed if it was a boy. I think brother’s this close in age would be really fun. My sister and I are 2 years apart and we’ve been close our whole lives. But obviously, a girl would be new and different so that would be fun too! I think Kurtis just really wants a girl so we can have one of each and then be done. I’d need some more convincing, haha.
As far as my health, my doctor has been doing baseline preeclampsia tests every 4 weeks to check my liver function. It basically just shows us how my body is handling the pregnancy, and while it can’t predict preeclampsia, if I were to get it later on, we could look back at the tests and know why.
The first 2 times I tested (at 8 and then 12 weeks), my liver enzymes came back slightly elevated, which was not a great sign. I pretty much started preparing myself for them to just slowly climb every test until I eventually got preeclampsia again once I was far enough along (preeclampsia doesn’t exist until the 3rd trimester). I was also preparing myself for this to probably be my last pregnancy. It was sad, but I just wanted to be prepared for the worst.
However, at my 16 week appointment last week, my liver functions came back NORMAL! For the first time this whole pregnancy. I was shocked and so relieved. Now I have a little bit more of a positive outlook, and while I still always want to be prepared in the back of my mind for the worst, I’m a little bit more hopeful now that maybe I can actually have a normal, healthy pregnancy. How crazy would that be?
Now to just keep praying that my levels stay normal.
That’s pretty much all I have for week 17. Next time I update we’ll probably know the gender! Yay!
xoxo.