6 months!

I can't believe it!  I'm 6 months, and I'm officially a little over a week past viability, at 25 weeks 3 days.  It's amazing, and I love it!!  I'm finally gaining a little weight, and I'm officially up 14 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, which is up 4 pounds since my last OB appointment a little over 2 weeks ago.  I finally have gotten past the stress related weight issues I think!!!

Work is still insane, still very stressful, and I'm still trying to work on hiring.  I've interviewed some good candidates, but I don't want to hire until I've interviewed everyone I'm interested in, and HR is taking their sweet old time.

K and I have had a couple of counseling appointments now, and everything is going good.  The counselor thinks that we are heading down the right path and we are working very hard on the open lines of communication.  I really appreciate everyone's sweet words on my last post, it means a lot to me.  We are going to work through this and come out stronger on the other side.  It won't be easy, but we will make it.

K20 is moving like crazy, way more than Bug ever moved around.  I've got insane heartburn and am ALWAYS exhausted.  I'm more uncomfortable at this point then I was with Bug, I just feel like this baby is constantly pushing out all sides of my tummy.  I think I'm having some braxton hicks contractions too.  Otherwise I'm feeling great though!

Bug is doing awesome.  We've had the second early intervention appointment, and they said that she is doing 3 year old things on all her other skills, but they can already say she'll qualify for help on the speech (has to be less than 25%, but I don't know her stats just yet).  We will have another appointment with them on October 15, and then we'll start once a month appointments with them.  We'll have to start weekly speech therapy as well, and unfortunately I do not think it will be covered by insurance.  I don't know that for a fact yet, it all depends on how it would be coded, but from my years in the industry I suspect that it will be coded in a way that translates to learning disability (not that she has one; it's all about coding here), and that is something that isn't covered in Ohio (other states I know mandate some level of coverage).  The biggest bummer about that is that we are struggling financially right now, and K is about to start losing hours as the weather gets worse out and he has less students able to fly, which means less money.  Then when I'm on maternity leave I'll only get 2/3 of my pay.  But that doesn't matter - we will do whatever we have to for Buggie, and to get her the help she needs!!!

I love that little girl more than anything in the world.  She can be tough some days and leave me in tears, but that's OK.  She's such a sweet, good natured little girl.  I know her tantrums are from the speech issues, and we'll work through those.  Otherwise she loves to giggle and roll around wrestling with daddy (not so much mommy these days, the tummy is getting in the way).  She's been such a mama's girl lately, and it's SO sweet!  Tonight when I was putting her to bed, after our whole routine I asked her if she was ready to go night night.  She shook her head yes, but then when I went to put her into the crib (we are working on getting her more comfortable with her BIG GIRL BED) so we do our singing and cuddling there right now, but haven't fully done the transition, yikes, she didn't want to go.  So we sat on the glider and cuddled for a bit longer.  It was so precious, and I held onto it so tight, knowing it won't last forever.  Then I put her in the crib and she went to sleep.  Oh man do I love that little girl.

So yes, we bought her a big girl bed.  It's crowding her room along with the crib right now, but we're hoping a slow transition will make it easier.  I figure right now we are looking at 6 months before we'll need the crib, between finishing out the pregnancy and K20's time in the bassinet.  So if we can get her transitioned within the next 3 months, then we have 3 more months of her getting really used to it and over the crib so that she won't feel as if the new baby is stealing it.

I can't believe she's 2, we're working on a big girl bed, and I am 6 months pregnant with our second miracle.  We may be going through some rough personal times right now, but I really do have an amazing life.  That's how I know we will work things out because this life, this family, this EVERYTHING is worth it.

Checking In

Oh man, the last couple of weeks have been crazy.  At work my openings were finally approved to fill.  So I started interviewing this week, but it's gonna be a few more weeks at best before I have people picked and offers out to them.  That's OK, it's moving.  I'm still really stressed at work, but I'm trying to take deep breaths and just keep plugging away.

I had my checkup on Monday, I am now 23 weeks.  My next appointment will actually be in 5 weeks, at which time I'll do the glucola screening (yuck) and get my rhogam shot (ouch).  It'll be fun ~ not.  But, I'm almost to viability, so that's amazing!!

So, the doc has worries about my weight gain.  I've only gained about 10 pounds from my pre-pregnancy (and pre-IVF) weight.  That's not much considering I'm pretty thin and short.  I'm at the point where I should be gaining about a pound a week, and that's just. not. happening.  I'm eating, I swear.  But I'm stressed.  I don't have the same appetite that I did when I was pregnant with Bug.  The doc said my fundal height is measuring on, so she feels the baby is growing as he/she should.  Her worry is that because I started out so thin I won't have a lot of stores, and what I do have the baby will take, leaving nothing for me.  I know she's right.  So she told me to find a place to add in more calories each day, and if I think to myself 'I probably shouldn't eat that,' that I should go ahead and eat it.  She said we're just going to keep an eye on it for now.  Otherwise, K20 is great.  Nice strong heartbeat, EXTREMELY active, in general doing well!

On the other hand, I'm dealing with some pretty crazy personal stresses.  K and I will be starting counseling again Monday night, and we definitely need it.  I'm not going to get into what's going on, but it caught me very off guard and I've been a wreck for the last week.  So, I have a feeling that between the work stresses and these new personal stresses, that is part of my weight gain problem.  Especially since over the last week I suddenly feel like I'm not handling much of anything very well, I'm really really struggling.  I feel horrible because it feels like I have a shorter fuse with Bug, not that I'm snapping or yelling at her, but more just that I feel like I'm giving up easier, like when she starts to throw a tantrum.  I try and then I feel like I just can't anymore.

We did have her early intervention meeting yesterday, and they did agree that there is some level of concern on her speech.  So we have another evaluation on 9/24.  Her hearing has been checked out, and that is fine.

So, that's it for now.  A lot, and I'm sorry that I'm not posting more often.  Please hang in there with me!!