Week-by-Week Journal
38 weeks: My cold is pretty much gone now, and I’m feeling good. I keep waiting to get really uncomfortable and miserable like everyone says I will in the last weeks of pregnancy, but so far I feel about the same as I have for the last month or so. I do get more contractions here and there, but they aren’t really painful. I’m sleeping well, usually only getting up once during the night to go to the bathroom. I’m very happy to still feel so great, but at the same time I’m ready to get the show on the road and meet this baby!
37 weeks: I have a cold this week, but I’m still doing well for the most part. Matt and I are still walking for 20 or 30 minutes every morning. I’ve noticed this week that it takes more effort to turn over in bed than it used to, and it’s also a little harder to get up when I’m sitting on the floor or in a deep chair. It seems like the baby feels heavier in my pelvis, but I don’t know if it is because he is starting to engage or just because he is getting bigger. The midwife estimated that he weighs about seven pounds during her exam this week. Towards the end of this week it definitely felt like the baby dropped. My belly seems lower, and I feel more pelvic pressure than I did before. His movements feel lower as well, and I don’t feel him right under my ribs anymore.
36 weeks: I’m still feeling good this week except for sore feet and calves. I have gotten cramps in my left calf during the night a few times this week, which is no fun. It hurts when it happens, and then it leaves my leg sore for the rest of the day. The baby has been doing this funny thing where he shifts himself over to my left side sometimes and my belly is way asymmetrical because he’s all on one side. He moves a lot all through the day, but his movements are pretty small because I think he’s pretty cramped at this point.
35 weeks: At my midwife appointment this week everything was fine and normal. My fundal height was 36 cm. My systolic blood pressure was a little high (130ish), but I was a little stressed while we were there because Matt went with me and we had to wait a long time to get in because of an emergency. She said that it was still in the normal range and the diastolic was good, so she wasn’t worried. I’ve felt pretty good this week except just still having sore feet a lot of the time.
34 weeks: This week started out bad with a lot of aches and pains and fatigue, but by mid week I was feeling good again.
33 weeks: I’ve been feeling very tired during the day this week. I have taken a nap a couple afternoons, which helps. It’s just hard for me to get back up, and I literally have to talk myself into getting up and not just falling back asleep. I have also started having some mild nausea in the mornings after breakfast, which feels about the same as it did in the first trimester but not quite that bad. Mild heartburn in the evenings has continued, but it goes away with Tums. I’ve had some days of my feet and calves hurting this week, and I can’t be on my feet for more than a few minutes if I’m barefoot.
32 weeks: I got a weird, severe pain in my hip/lower back/buttock area one night this week. It came on kind of suddenly and progressively got worse over 10 or 15 minutes until it was bad enough that it was making me kind of sweaty and lightheaded. I lied down on my side with a heating pad on the area, and it subsided after about 15 minutes. I couldn’t really say if it was joint or muscular pain or what, but my guess is maybe something related to the sciatic nerve. Whatever it was, it was weird and I’ll be perfectly glad if it doesn’t happen again. Since then my pelvis has been kind of sore, like I have been horseback riding. All of that is probably related and has to do with my joints expanding or something. Also this week, I had a couple instances of mild heartburn in the evenings, but it went away with Tums. I switched from my wedding ring to a ring that Matt gave me years ago when we were dating because my wedding ring was getting tight.
30 weeks: Being able to see my feet when I look down is definitely a thing of the past. I’m still feeling like my belly is pretty small though. I thought I would be huge by now! The baby did decide to start hurting me occasionally with his movements, but it’s not too painful and not too often. He is moving all day long now, but only every once in a while does he stretch out and push so hard that it’s uncomfortable. At my appointment this week my fundal height was right on track at 31 cm.
29 weeks: The baby hasn’t hurt me with his movements since that one day last week. I feel him consistently all day long, but his movements are pretty gentle and never uncomfortable. I’m starting to get very eager for this pregnancy to be over, not because I don’t like being pregnant but just because I’m impatient to meet our little boy.
28 weeks: This week two strangers commented on my being pregnant, which was a first. My belly is definitely growing strong, and I can tell I am looking more pregnant. At 28W4D, the baby’s movements hurt for the first time. It was really more just uncomfortable than painful, but it made me nervous about how much worse it may get since he is only three-ish pounds now and has to get up to seven or eight before the end. This week my linea negra showed up. It’s still pretty faint, but I think it might not get very dark because my skin is so fair.
27 weeks: This week I started feeling the baby get hiccups. I may have felt it very faintly a week or two before this, but I wasn’t sure if that was it. This week it is an unmistakable rhythmic tapping that happens every day or two. Matt felt it once too. I have started thinking the baby does cute things like waking up and moving around when I wake up or when Matt’s alarm goes off. He just seems more responsive now, more like an individual. I’ve also felt actual body parts pressing against my belly this week like a leg or foot. What has surprised me is that I have started having some anxiety about the reality of our baby’s fast approaching arrival. I am thrilled for him to be coming, but I think his more constant movements along with entering the third trimester have made it seem so much more real that the days of it being just Matt and I in the house are quickly coming to an end. Even though we have big changes ahead, I am sure that when the baby gets here we will wonder what we ever did without him!
From a physical standpoint, I am feeling really great. I am actually sleeping better than I was a month or so ago even though I am getting bigger. With the help of some great shoes, I haven’t had any more foot pain lately, even if I’m on my feet for a while. I have started getting calf cramps occasionally during the night, which is no fun. I have started having breast tenderness, and I saw signs of colostrum production for the first time this week. My weight gain has slowed down a little, which I am happy about!
26 weeks: My appetite is calming down a bit. I don’t feel ravenous all day long or after eating a big meal most of the time. This week at my doctor’s appointment my fundal height was 30 cm. I did my one-hour glucose screening test, and it came back normal. The baby’s movements are becoming even more frequent and much bigger.
24 weeks: At 24 weeks, Matt told me first thing in the morning that I was looking “enormously pregnant.”
23 weeks: This week I started to have numbness and tingling in a spot in my left upper abdomen. The nurse says it is a pinched nerve from my uterus growing and nothing to worry about. It basically feels like an area of my belly goes to sleep. That was really the only new symptom or development except for movement continuing to get stronger. I was also very hungry all week, and sometimes I was still starving even after eating a large meal.
22 weeks: Movement really increased this week. I started feeling much stronger kicks and squirms and could feel it while standing or walking, whereas in prior weeks I needed to be sitting fairly still to feel him. 22W6D was the first day I felt movement up around my belly button, and it was also the first day that Matt finally felt the baby kick.
21 weeks: This week I started having to pee a lot more. I kept hearing and reading that it would happen, but my bladder seemed to be pretty normal up to this point. Now I’m experiencing having to go sometimes multiple times in an hour or getting up more than once at night. Also this week I started to be able to see my belly moving with the baby’s kicks. I love that! This week we finished the majority of the setup in the nursery.
20 weeks:I felt the baby more this week, which was a relief after not too much movement the week prior. I still get happy and excited every time I feel him. Matt started saying this week that I am definitely looking pregnant, though I still haven’t had a stranger comment on my condition yet.
19 weeks: It has started to settle in this week that we are really having a little boy. I felt much less movement this week than the two weeks prior, and that was a little nerve wracking.
18 weeks: This was a very exciting week because at 18 weeks, 5 days we had our ultrasound and found out that we are having a healthy little boy! Matt and I went out to lunch to a diner and then went shopping for some baby boy clothes after the ultrasound. It was a very fun and special day together. I still felt movement on a daily basis this week.
17 weeks: I first felt our baby’s movements this week! It started out one night as a repetitive tapping feeling in my lower belly, and it was so light and so new that I couldn’t be sure that’s what I was feeling. Sure enough, I started feeling the same thing every day after that, especially after eating. I’m so happy to feel our little baby making first contact!
16 weeks: This week I went to Las Vegas with my mom. It was a very good time in pregnancy to travel because I don’t have any more nausea and am not big and uncomfortable yet either. We did a ton of walking, and I managed to keep up! Now I will be able to tell our little one that he/she has been to Vegas 
12 weeks: The nausea went away this week. Yay! This week we had our NT ultrasound and saw a very healthy baby. It was a wonderful experience.
10 weeks: My constant worrying about whether the baby is OK combined with this weekend being what would have been our original due date (4/30) drove me to call my doctor’s office to see if I could go in for a heart beat check just to know that the baby is alive and well. They kindly squeezed me in for a quick check at 10 weeks, 1 day. I went in and the nurse said that since it was still early in the pregnancy she would do a quick ultrasound instead of a Doppler check. I was very happy to hear that and elated to see our baby! This was a huge turning point for me in this pregnancy. Seeing our baby look like an actual baby with a head and arms and legs was amazing, and seeing it move around made me realize that this is for real. The baby measured perfectly (a couple days ahead actually), and the nurse said the baby is “a keeper.” What a wonderful experience — I only wish Matt could have been there, but the ultrasound was an unexpected surprise!
9 weeks: Not much to report this week. Still feeling queasy all day long, and still very nervous about whether the baby is healthy or not.
8 weeks: At the beginning of this week I was feeling sick pretty much all day every day. Still no actual throwing up, which is good. You won’t hear me complaining about the nausea because I know it’s a good sign that the pregnancy is healthy and progressing well. I did have a few days towards the end of the week when I felt normal, but then the queasiness came back. While I should have enjoyed the pardon from feeling icky, all I could do was worry that it was a sign that something was wrong.
7 weeks: This week had a very bad start but turned out OK. At 7 weeks, I had a terrifying morning because I had some spotting. This was the exact same day of pregnancy that I started spotting with the miscarriage. I just knew it was happening again and was devastated. I called the nurse, and thankfully she had me come in shortly for another ultrasound. It was only two days after we had a good ultrasound, and I hoped that our baby would still be OK. Matt met me at the hospital, and we waited to find out. We did not get a very friendly or forthcoming ultrasound tech, but we did see pretty quickly that the baby’s heart was still beating away. That was such a relief. It turned out they found a very tiny hematoma in the uterus that was likely the cause for the bleeding but not cause for worry. I was glad everything looked OK, but the confidence I felt after the first ultrasound was gone. I was again very afraid of losing the pregnancy. Luckily, I didn’t see any more bleeding at all for the rest of the week.
We told our immediate families this week about the pregnancy by mailing them custom-made greeting cards with a picture from the first ultrasound and the baby’s due date. Also, by the end of the week the all-day nausea had set in on a daily basis.
6 weeks: It was a nerve wracking wait for the ultrasound, but at 6 weeks, 5 days we finally got our first glimpse of our baby! I was so afraid to look at the screen during the study because the only ultrasound I ever had before was the one telling me that I was losing my first pregnancy, so I was so afraid of seeing bad news. Thankfully, after just a few minutes we saw our little embryo that looked like a peanut and its beating heart! It was one of the happiest and best things I have ever seen, and it was such a relief. I started to think that this pregnancy is actually going to last this time!
5 weeks: This week I had my blood drawn twice (once at 19 days after ovulation then again at 21 days after) to check my beta hCG levels. These numbers give us some information about how the pregnancy is going. The hCG is a chemical produced by the embryo, and the number should double about every 48 hours. My first value was 972, and the second was 2257! That more than doubled, and we were thrilled. I also started feeling slightly nauseous this week, and that combined with the good numbers made me hopeful that we had a healthy baby this time around. I did have several freak out moments this week though because my pregnancy symptoms were still coming and going.
Nearly 4 weeks: We found out I was pregnant again just before I was four weeks along. (The weeks of pregnancy start at the first day of your last cycle, even before conception happens.) I got faint positive results beginning at 9 days after ovulation, but the lines were only visible in certain light at certain angles so I thought I might be hallucinating because I wanted to see two lines so badly. I didn’t feel any symptoms at all before my positive test this time around. At 12 days after ovulation (3/16/06) I got a definite positive result and we were sure that I was pregnant. It wasn’t the straightforward excitement that we felt when we found out I was pregnant seven months earlier because we were nervous about another miscarriage. We were still very happy to finally be expecting again and hoped for the best.
