Pregnancy recap

Ok... time to compare pregnancies... also a good chance to jot down some thoughts so I won't conveniently forget them.

With Sydney, there was the bleeding, the morning sickness, the gain of 60 lbs, retained so much water at about 6 months. Sydney didn't move around a lot. I ate horribly compared to now. I had no cravings but I LOVED pizza. I didn't work out AT ALL! She took 24 hours to come out, but that wasn't all bad. Just the last 2 hours were difficult, the pushing. She was a week late and we were going to start induction on Sept.1. Then on August 31 at about 6:30pm my water broke in the kitchen (trickle actually). Got to the hospital and was able to last through the contractions until about 4am. I was more comfortable on my side and they couldn't find Sydney's heartbeat on a continuous monitor so they wanted me to move to my back. Since the contractions were so bad while on my back they forced the epidural on me. Hind sight is 20/20. I'm now told that they did that for their own sakes... I could have opted for periodic monitoring where they come in periodically and hook the monitor to my stomach.

During the actual delivery (2 hours long) I had Nathan on one side and a nurse on the other helping me through the pushing. My neck strained a lot and I started getting shivers. I was so weak to hold my own legs (but that was recommended). Sydney was stuck in the canal. Doctor was almost going to suction her out but gave me about 10 more minutes. He told Nathan to talk me through it so he came down, saw Sydney's head was RIGHT THERE and told me to grab my legs and push. She was out in 2 pushes. I just got tired of people telling me, "She's almost there.. she's so close." I kept asking, "Somebody needs to explain that to me in terms I understand because those adjectives don't mean squat." I decided if I was to ever have another, I'd have the mirror down so I can see.

Ethan has been completely OPPOSITE! Didn't know I was pregnant for 8 weeks, no morning sickness but I did have bad indigestion. I'll need to remember how I couldn't eat anything fattening because the fat caused diarrhea and horrible stomach aches. I could only eat salads. I craved red meat. I worked out almost every day. Lost about 8 pounds the first trimester because I couldn't understand why I wasn't losing weight so I went to a nutritionist and I lost a lot in 2 weeks. All-in-all a great pregnancy up until the 26th week when I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Got that under as much control as possible. I've never eaten better. Can't eat anything really unhealthy but loved peanut butter toward the end. It has protein and fat and just melts in my mouth. Now at 33 weeks I've got a pelvic muscle ache. I've kept up with Pilate's and yoga to help with the stretching and muscle development but even yoga is hurting me a bit. I could barely get up the stairs today. And at 33 weeks, no water retention.. at least not noticable.

Notes to self (and others if you read this and are considering having a baby):

• The second one was a much better pregnancy but the pain of the pelvic issues really hurt
• You really do forget everything from the first.
• That muscle pull on the side, the one that feels like you just drank a gallon of water before a mile sprint, is normal. Yep... hurts like a knife cutting through you... don't call the doctor, just take Tylenol.
• Boys kick harder than girls
• Boys don't sleep in the womb.

Another interesting point... my girlfriend Cat has an interesting hypothesis where if the baby is unplanned and is that wonderful surprise... it's a boy. I've seen this be true in all cases I know of as well... just an interesting point to ponder.

With all the pelvic pain I'm debating again on inducing. I'm going down to weekly doctor appointments now and on Thursday I'm going to bring it up again. I want to induce on October 31st, 37 weeks exactly. Not sure if the doctor will go for it... but I'd get a smaller baby and he'd be a Halloween kid!