Baby Boy ~ 22-22 Weeks

We have happily reached 22 and a half weeks and I have some seriously mixed emotions this week.

First off.... we found out we are having another boy!!!! We decided to do a low key surprise reveal for our parents one Sunday night. We had the ultrasound tech write the gender on a card and place it in an envelope that we took to the store to have them place balloons in a box and seal it. We took it home, wrapped it up and invited our parents for dinner. It was so much fun to surprise them with a small gender reveal and everyone was so excited to see those blue balloons pop out of the box. 

Oliver was born at 22 weeks one day. I now have tangible memories of holding a baby the same size as the one I am growing in my belly. I have a visual of what this little man looks like now and kind of wonder if he looks anything like his big brother. This little guy is now officially older than one of his older brothers. The whole thing has me feeling bitter sweet.

At 20 weeks we had our anatomy scan done at the Lois Hole Women's Hospital. We will be seen by the perinatologists there as a result of our history so we are considered high risk. The ultrasound went well and our little guys was perfect, but they did find an issue with his cord. He has something called a hypocoiled umbilical cord which means that it is slightly less coiled than the average cord. This means that he cord has less tensile strength than the average cord and could be more prone to kinks, knots and being squished. Apparently is quite common and the doctor does not seemed concerned at all.... but that doesn't mean that we are not going to be monitored more often. The combination of our history with CDH and the new cord issues mean that we will have regular ultrasounds at the Lois Hole. Not optimal. 

On the plus side, he looks so sweet in his ultrasound photos and he even gave us the best thumbs up. 

In terms of a bump update... here is what I look like now....

I feel huge but everything seems to be pretty standard as far as how I feel while pregnant. Cravings are all the same as they were with the other kids ( Mexican food, anything spicy, chocolate and CITRUS). I have been eating my weight in grapefruit. The kids could not be more excited and the great name debate has begun. We are going to have a VERY difficult time agreeing on names this time. Wish us luck!

Mrs. E