Looks like Ziggy has no more inclination to come early than Nicki did. I had my 40 week appointment today, and despite a few braxton hicks, I’ve made very little progress. Of course anything can happen, I could go into labor over night, but it’s not looking likely so we went ahead and scheduled an induction. We’re less than two weeks from meeting our newest family member!

We are ready.

This past week I got the rock n play assembled, the bouncy seat assembled, and packed my hospital bag. It’s much smaller this time around – just a shoulder bag with a change of clothes for Ziggy and myself. Home is about a 10 to 15 minute ride away so Domingo can make a quick run if we need anything, but last time we really didn’t.

My parents have also arrived. They’ll watch Nicki for us when Ziggy comes. Nicki is over the moon excited about spending time with Grandma and Grandpa, even though she saw them just a few short months ago. She has been insisting that they sit next to her at dinner, give her her bath, and read her her bed time stories. At this point I’m questioning whether she’ll even notice that Mommy and Daddy have gone to the hospital!

Speaking of Nicki, she is clearly understanding that the “baby in mommy’s belly” is going to come out soon. She points out all of the baby’s things. A couple of weeks ago when we were running late for daycare I asked her if she wanted to feed her baby doll, to keep her occupied while I got ready to go. She fetched her baby bottle and held it to my belly button to feed the baby in my belly. The last few days also been singing happy birthday. Grandma asked her whose birthday it was and Nicole pointed to my belly.

Even though we’re ready, there’s still a lot I want to do around the house before Ziggy arrives. A home is never finished I guess. I’m feeling well overall, but my energy level is low. I’m not expecting to be able to post much in the next few days or weeks.

Last pregnancy I wrote a blog post about reaching the 35/35 point – 35 weeks down, 35 days to go until the due date. If we were counting until Nicki’s arrival it would have been more like 36/36 for me. I had my today 36 week check up and my OB confirmed my suspicion: while anything can happen, the two pregnancies are not entirely independent events. I’m likely to go late again. It might be another 36/36.

Here are my thoughts for being mostly through a second pregnancy:

I know each pregnancy is different, but I am constantly surprised at the ways in which each pregnancy differs. I expected different cravings. Last time I couldn’t stand apples, this time I love them. I’ve also been more sensitive to food in general. Black beans were the coolest thing since sliced bread, pinto beans made me ill. It doesn’t matter how they were cooked, I couldn’t stand pinto beans. Wierd no? I was also prepared for different in utero personalities. Ziggy is still more of a roller than a kicker.

One of the big surprises was in how different my sleep would be. Last time I loved my boppy pregnancy pillow. I can’t remember when I started using it, but I used it every night throughout the third trimester at least. This time I haven’t had a comfortable night with it yet! I’ve tried a few times, and each time the boppy’s been thrown to the floor after just a few hours later. I sleep much better without it.

Although both pregnancies I still want to sleep on my back. It’s been hard to train myself not to.

I have no belly button! Kindda. I *think* it can still be classified as an innie, but it’s getting close. If I stretch the skin around my belly button a little it looks like a small “popped” button. I keep wondering if this means my belly button will actually pop soon. It never did with my first pregnancy. It did flatten out last time, but I think not until much closer to my due date. It does still remind me of soft spot in fruit, though.

In other changes, as of 34 weeks I barely fit into my pre pregnancy jeans, and these days not at all. I might if I was carrying higher, but I can no longer button my pants. At least I can still wear my wedding rings. It’s one of those things that doesn’t actually matter, but makes me happy.

Infant car seats are a lot easier with modern cars. Ain’t LATCH systems great?

Going into today I’ve had four level 2 ultrasounds: a Nuchal Translucency screening for both Ziggy and Zippy, and 2 anatomy scans for Zippy. I have never once had a cooperative baby.

Zippy was so non cooperative but that our appointments always ran fifteen minutes or so late, and the reason for our second anatomy scan was failure to get all the required views the first time around. She was determined not to let anyone see that big beautiful brain of hers. I expected Ziggy to not cooperate, though my main fear was Ziggy’s propensity to stay curled up in a ball would prevent us from getting a gimps of gender. If she cooperated for all the other required photos, that would be it for us. We’d have to wait until she was born to know her gender. My fears were premature. Ziggy ended up the picture of cooperation.

Hello again, Ms. Ziggy!
Ziggy sure does like being curled up, I predict we’ll have a swaddle lover with this one.

Ziggy was so cooperative in fact, that not only did we have extremely clear confirmation of gender, but the technician was able to get a series of images that are typically omitted due to their difficulty. I’ve also gotten a lot better at identifying fetal anatomy too, and was doing pretty good at guessing what was on screen. Ziggy is the picture of health, the technician even commented on her “beautiful spine.” Guess I really was over worrying.

The down side of having a cooperator is no repeat anatomy scan scheduled for me. I will have to wait 20 or so more weeks to see Ziggy.

20 weeks with Ziggy, and looking a mighty bit further along (and a bit lumpier) than with Zippy.

Weight gain at this point was non-existent with Zippy. This time I’ve gained a little, so I think I will end up with a higher overall weight gain. At least I’m looking obviously pregnant. Or so thought my co-worker last Wednesday when he asked if we were expecting number two, much to my delight.

I wish I had tracked weight gain and migraines better with Zippy. It would be interesting to compare. One huge difference is how much time is flying. It still feels like we were just finding out Ziggy existed, and now we’re only a few weeks away from viability!