16 Weeks

Here's a quick photo of me at 16 weeks. At this point, similar to my pregnancy with Hannah, what I wear really changes whether or not I look like I'm pregnant - and this side view makes me look a lot more pregnant than "normal." I haven't gained much weight yet - it's just shifting around, but my doctor is fine with everything so far. For the most part, I'm still wearing my regular clothes, but have started to use a Bella Band to make my pants more comfortable. I think I'll be breaking out the bin of maternity clothes soon.

Speaking of maternity clothes....I have a 20-gallon bin of maternity clothes that likely won't work this time around. When I was expecting Hannah, I bought sweaters, turtlenecks, and jackets to wear at work with dress pants and corduroy pants since I would primarily be pregnant in the winter.....unfortunately, my detour to the hospital meant that most of what I'd purchased (fortunately, secondhand) was never worn (at least by me). In fact, one suitcoat that I received for Christmas when I was pregnant with Hannah (after I was already in the hospital and banned from work) still has the tags on, despite my clothes being loaned out to a friend who used them for two pregnancies in between mine.

When I was in the hospital, I had a nurse who told me how hard it was for her to never get to wear her maternity clothes (she delivered at 24 weeks), and I didn't really think about it much at the time, but as I packed up my maternity clothes at home the week after Hannah was born, I really felt a sense of "loss" at not getting to wear them. It's funny how by the end of a pregnancy most people are so sick of maternity clothes they never want to see them again....but if you never get there, you mourn (yes, I think the word choice is appropriate) the loss of not getting to wear this new wardrobe. I realize that most people who have term babies won't understand these feelings, as they do seem weird, but they're real. I also really struggled with seeing pregnant people for months after Hannah was born because I never really looked pregnant. I absolutely hated to go to Babies R Us because there were always pregnant people there. Fortunately, between counseling and other preemie moms, I've had my feelings from that time period validated as being normal and have been able to work through those feelings.

I made a quick shopping trip to the secondhand store where I get a lot of my maternity clothes and bought some "summery" tops to wear this time around. If I'm still wearing size small and x-small maternity stuff this fall before this baby arrives, maybe I will get to wear some of my "Hannah collection." We'll see - a lot of my friends went up a size in that last trimester, so we'll see what happens with me. It certainly would be nice to get a little more use out of those clothes!

On a health-front update, my doctor hasn't seen any signs of problems, but we're going to start doing ultrasounds every 3 weeks to get me through the time period for when we started to have problems the last time. We're not that worried about placenta problems since you get a new placenta with each pregnancy. My doctor thinks my pre-term labor was tied to the placenta problems, so "we" aren't going to worry about that this time around (however, they are going to monitor me for it, since once you have it you have increased risk to have it again). Apparently, one of the symptoms of a placental abruption is a fast and relatively painless labor, which has my doctor thinking I delivered just before completely abrupting (which would have been bad). Thank goodness there were a lot of people praying for us and Hannah came just on time (even though we thought she was 10 weeks early!).