I had my 6 week post-delivery doctors visit yesterday. It's the last visit connected to the pregnancy and I'm now officially done with everything pregnancy connected. So I figure it's time to wrap up this pregnancy with one final post.
I know I complained a lot and it was hard to always see the good things, but there
were good things. I don't want to forget those.
Here are some of the things I liked about being pregnant:
- I loved maternity clothes. The maternity pants were certainly comfy as were the big spacious tops. I have always been a fan of the empire waist but sometimes wearing clothes with one, made me look pregnant. However, that wasn't a concern when I was pregnant. :) For the first time ever, I felt like it was okay to wear clothes that were more clingy and showed my curves which was very freeing.
- After I got past the morning sickness and got back my appetite, I didn't stress as much as I did pre-pregnancy about what I was eating. Don't misinterpret this, I still paid attention to what I ate and made sure I was making healthy choices because I didn't want to gain a bunch of unnecessary weight. So, I didn't go crazy and only eat pizza and cake but I didn't have the same guilt if I had a slice of cheese on a burger or ate a late night snack.
- The scale went up and it was okay.
- I embraced my pregnant body and felt good about my curves. I didn't suck in my stomach (I couldn't if I tried) or hide behind big loose clothes.
- I got lots of compliments on how good I looked. People would say that pregnancy looked good on me and I was able to take the compliment.
- I looked forward to visits with my OB-GYN. Dr. Suzette Boyd in Frisco, TX was amazing. She was the perfect doctor for me and was supportive, encouraging, compassionate, and realistic. I left visits with her feeling better than when I arrived. I had a partner in this pregnancy who answered all my questions, never made me feel rushed, and made me feel important. I will miss seeing her each month.
- It was great how pregnancy was a universally accepted excuse. :) I didn't have to move heavy boxes, I didn't have to take out stinky trash, I could leave an evening work function earlier because I was tired, I could sit in the back of meetings and leave frequently for bathroom trips, I could bring a snack with me everywhere, I could wear less fashionable but comfy shoes, forget something? blame pregnancy. No one questioned me (especially women who had been pregnant), it was all okay because I was pregnant. AWESOME!
- Sometimes it was fun to feel the baby moving inside of me (sometimes it was awkward, weird, or uncomfortable but not always) and I especially liked when he had the hiccups.
- My hair was not as dry as it was pre-pregnancy.
- My fingernails and hair grew at super speeds.
- I didn't stress about flossing because even trying to put floss inside my mouth made me gag or throw up. (This may not seem like a good thing but I don't like flossing or trying to remember to do it so it was nice to just give up on it for awhile for the sake of not throwing up.)
- I enjoyed Peter being affectionate with the baby aka my belly.
We tried to take a picture each week once I started showing. We missed some but oh well. Here's the progression (p.s. NO JUDGEMENT! These were not photo shoots.)
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| 14th week (I wasn't ready yet to show the belly) |
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| 16th Week |
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| Belly - 17th Week |
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| 18th Week |
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| 23rd Week |
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| 24th Week |
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| 25th Week |
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| 26th Week |
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| 27th Week |
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| 29th Week |
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| 30th Week |
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| 32nd Week |
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| 34th Week |
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| 35th Week |
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| 36th Week |
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| 37th Week |
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| 38th Week |
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| 39th Week |
The last thing I want to make sure and document about the pregnancy is what my weight, blood pressure, and the baby's fetal heart rate was at each doctors visit. (Not fascinating for you but I want to remember it.) I'm not going to tell you what weight I started at, instead I will just tell you how many lbs I lost or gained from that starting point. Keep in mind that based on me being overweight, my doctor and I set a goal for me to gain less than a typical pregnancy.
Here is the format - #1 - date of doctors visit, #2 - how many weeks along based on an estimated date of conception of 12/7/10 and due date of 8/30/11, #3 - lbs up or down from weight at date of conception, #4 - blood pressure, #5 - fetal heart rate (beats per minute)
1/10/11, 7th week, down 2 lbs, 100/60, I don't have the fetal heart rate for the first visit
2/7/11, 11th week, down 4 lbs, 100/60, don't have the fetal heart rate for this one either
3/7/11, 15th week, down 1 lb, 107/70, 152
4/11/11, 20th week, 0 lb up or down, 124/60, 148
5/9/11, 24th week, up 5 lbs, 108/72, 163
6/6/11, 28th week, up 9 lbs, 116/62, 156
6/21/11, 30th week, up 11 lbs, 106/60, 145
7/11/11, 33rd week, up 14 lbs, 110/70, 156
7/25/11, 35th week, up 16 lbs, 122/68, 154
8/10/11, 38th week, up 17 lbs, 130/82, 161
8/15/11, 39th week, up 15 lbs, 130/70, 144
9/1/11, 2 weeks post delivery, down 7 lbs, 110/70, n/a
9/27/11, 6 weeks post delivery, down 12 lbs, 110/70, n/a
The last time we measured which was pretty close to the end of the pregnancy, my belly was 50 inches around. My goodness!
Based on my scale at home, my pregnancy weight gain peaked at 18 lbs and then the first time I weighed myself after delivering was 5 days after and I was only 3 lbs up. I'm pretty dang happy about that and working to keep those pounds coming off (thank goodness for breastfeeding calorie burns). Now that I have clearance from my doctor, it's time to add in some exercise! Now, where do I find the time to do that???
