25 weeks 

I know, I know. I haven’t posted in forever. Again. Sorry. But, now that I have entered my third trimester (29 weeks 5 days as of today), I wanted to come out of blog hibernation to give an update on my pregnancy and answer some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)!

Q: When is your due date?
A: My due date is officially February 6, 2015. However, due to a prior and significant myomectomy in my early 30s to remove multiple large fibroids, I have to have a Cesarean section at 36 weeks. My doctors don’t want to risk me going into labor or rupturing. So, right now, we are expecting our new arrival on January 16th! It’s kind of crazy for us right now as we were expecting it to be at 37 weeks! Though it’s only a week earlier, we know the time is going to fly with so many things to do, including holiday gatherings, Christmas shopping, showers, and nursery preparation!

Q: Do you know what you are having?
A: Yes. We have known since the last day of week 12.  We are having a girl :). We found out due to a relatively new, non-invasive screening test called MaterniT21 that tests for 4 different chromosome defects, including defects to the X and Y chromosomes. It’s a blood test and they are able to isolate the baby’s blood from mom’s in order to look for defects. I surmise that if they don’t find any Y chromosomes, it’s a girl and if they do, it’s a boy.

28 weeks

Q: Do you have a name?
A: Yes. We’ve had that since 13 weeks. But, we are keeping that one on the DL for the most part until little miss lady arrives :). We told our close family and friends though and most seem to really like it. It’s relatively unique, but not difficult or weird (we think. lol!). There is also a reason behind each part of it.

Q: How do you feel?
A: I have had a great pregnancy! Well, I should say, once I found out I was pregnant, I did! LOL!! The thing is, before I knew I was pregnant, I busted my head in the bathroom (slipped and hit my head behind my ear on the countertop), had a bad allergy attack for two weeks, eye infection, cold sore, and was horribly fatigued for two days. On day two of the fatigue is when I had a twinkling of hope … I went home after work and took an ovulation test (which can detect the pregnancy hormone) and it was positive when I knew I should be getting my cycle in a day or two.  Then, with bated breath, I a real pregnancy test with bated breath. Lo and behold, I was pregnant!!

Anywho, after that, other than being tired earlier than normal, I really have had minimal symptoms. I never had morning sickness, food aversions, rabid cravings, or mood swings. I’ve had sporadic heartburn, but Tums have been adequate to treat that and it’s never been horrible. On occasion, I’ve had a little back pain, which is usually resolved with a few pelvic tilts/ab contractions. The back pain is usually when I feel like baby girl is going through a growth spurt! That is really the worst of it … the distended, stretched, my skin can’t expand any further, stuffed like every day is Thanksgiving feeling that won’t go away with a nap or extended trip to the bathroom, if you know what I’m saying ;-P! LOL!!  But, knowing what symptoms others experience during pregnancy, I’m not complaining! Because, it really has been smooth sailing for the most part!

Q: What has been your favorite part of being pregnant?
A: Feeling and SEEING baby girl moving has been one of the most miraculous things. Weird. But miraculous. We KNOW that we are so truly blessed to be experiencing this. This is a first child for both Wei and me at 44 and 42, respectively. I always knew that I wanted to get married and have children, but wasn’t in any rush. However, as the years passed, I definitely became nervous, wondering if it would ever happen. The constant bombardment in the media with the “statistics” about getting pregnant after 35 didn’t help. And, I had seen friends and co-workers try for years and using fertility specialists to get pregnant. But, whenever I would feel down, I would see the stories of women having babies over 40 and call up Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT):

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

It would ground me every time. And at 42, in 5 months time, I was pregnant with a healthy baby girl. Some days I still can’t believe that I’m so blessed to be experiencing this. It’s still surreal and I’m awestruck every day. God is so good.

Q: Do you have stretch marks/how do you prevent stretch marks?
A: So far, so good. I haven’t gotten any stretch marks. But, from what I’ve read, it’s mostly genetic and not prevented by creams and/or butters. However, I do think that controlling my weight gain for the most part and keeping moisturized helps. At 29 weeks, I’ve put on about 16 pounds so far and I have been using a combo of lotion, an oil mix (coconut, jojoba, and castor), and shea butter to lube up each morning. Through the summer and early fall, I only used the coconut oil and shea butter. But once it started getting cool and dry, that just wasn’t cutting it, even when I added the thicker jojoba and castor oils to the coconut oil. My skin would be CRAWLING with itchiness. So, I started using the St. Ives Naturally Soothing Oatmeal and Shea Butter lotion as my first layer, prior to applying the oil mix and shea butter. That helped immediately.

25 weeks: Linea nigra in effect, but stretch mark free.

Q: Has your navel popped?
A: Y’all, I was not feeling my deep innie belly button popping. Like for real, the idea of it was freaking me out! I’ve heard mixed things on this. Some say their navel never popped, others said it didn’t pop until the last few weeks. There’s a little bit that is out on the top edge of mine, but I think it’s only going to stretch flat as there doesn’t seem to be anything that can pop now. Guess we’ll see!

Q: Have you continued to exercise?
A: Yeah … no. At least, not consistently. I was working out when I first got pregnant, would fall off a couple weeks, start again, stop again, start again, stop again … I’m still on a stop. I just haven’t been focused enough in the morning to get going and at night, I’m too tired. I’m promising myself that once I’m pulled out on disability that I’ll walk at least 15 minutes a day and do yoga as well. At least I can get a month of working out in before the little lady arrives as I know I won’t be able to do too much in those weeks immediately following her birth and the C-section. Fortunately, Wei will be home to help me.

18 weeks when I was “on.”

Q: What about your diet?
A: Yeah. That hasn’t been the best either. It hasn’t been horrible, but I definitely could stand to eat a lot more fruit and vegetables. Though I haven’t had crazy food cravings, I have caved to my sweet tooth far more often than I normally do. Meaning … almost daily. But, I can’t eat a lot at one sitting or I’ll suffer the consequences, so I think that has helped with portion control. That is probably why I haven’t gained excessively. I also tend to have a protein shake with almond milk most mornings, green smoothie style sometimes, water is a must, and I take my pre-natals religiously (I get the free ones from Shoprite and take DHA separately; I take them at night because they made me feel off/a little sick if I took them during the day … plus fish oil tasting/scented burps? Not cute). Oh, and I do have my one cup of instant coffee every morning.

Q: Has your hair grown a ton?! 
A: LOL! So, as a hair blogger who has researched a lot, I knew that pregnancy hormones can cause the hair to “freeze” in the anagen (growth) phase (it’s not the prenatal vitamins ;)). However, I hoped that my hair would continue its normal shedding so that I could be spared post-partum shedding (i.e. the telogen phase resuming en masse 3-6 months delivery). Ummmm … I don’t know how that is going to work out for me. Though my hair has continued to shed, it does look like it’s a lot less than normal. The length hasn’t changed much, but it feels denser in the upper half. So, guess we’ll see.

After 8 weeks of straight hair.
Only washed it twice in that time.
Hence, why it was straight.

Q: Is the nursery ready?
A: No. No it is not. LOL! We know our colors (pale teal and coral, NOT pink) and we have a crib, dresser, rug, bookcase, and paint. But the room and condo still have furniture that needs to go to make room for baby girl (a dresser set, leather couch, coffee table, ottomans, drafting table, and a Lot of size 6 1/2 women’s shoes are up on Craig’s List, if you live in the NJ area and are interested :)!!).

Q: Are you registered?
A: Okay, so I put this one here because I feel like someone is going to ask, not to be self-serving! But, yes, we are registered. It took some doing, but we registered at Buy Buy Baby (with a “personal shopper” in the form of an awesome friend) and Amazon. And let me add this little disclaimer. Weusi had been losing his mind and adding things to both registries late at night, unbeknownst to me. But, I do think it’s cute that he’s so excited and looking forward to our new addition. Oh, and our ground rules? No princess, pink, or glitter. But Batman items are welcome any day in my book ;)! LOL!!

Already got gifted a Batman sleeper and Batman onesie with tutu.
Don’t think they’ll be a dirth of Batgear! LOL!!

Q: Are you scared/nervous?
A: We are excited and nervous at the same time. We are preparing as best we can. But we both know that we only know that we don’t know. That being said, we are surrounded by friends and family who support us enormously and know our faith will carry us through. So we ask that you continue to pray for us and that we will bring a happy, healthy baby into this world in a few weeks time. We thank EVERYONE who has shared prayers, a kind word, positive thoughts, encouragement, well-wishes, love … all that. It really means the world to us!

And that’s that! Hope I answered some questions and gave hope to those ladies who may have started to become discouraged due to age and/or relationship status. I’ll leave you with another verse that resonates for me and pray that it will bless you, Isaiah 64:4:

For since the world began, no ear has heard
and no eye has seen a God like you,
who works for those who wait for him!

Lata Gatas!!