My Second Prenatal Skipped a column last week, things were totally hectic and crazy with so many activities and doctor's visits going on, and I was just too exhausted to write. Then this week, Sander's brother and his wife were visiting from the Netherlands, they are on vacation in Canada and spent a few days here too. So I was very busy trying to get the house in somewhat decent shape. And my pregnancy exhaustion is still very strong, the nausea isn't too bad though. They are pregnant with their first kid. We told them about our pregnancy, it was nice to be able to tell them in person instead of on the phone or via email. My second prenatal was pretty uneventful. We chatted for a while about how things were going, then we did the peeing, weighing and blood pressure thing. I had gained 5 lbs, must be all the brownies! LOL The pee surprisingly contained white blood cells, which has never happened to me before and could indicate an UTI. Although it also might just have been contamination from a yeast infection I am having. So she wanted me to pee again, so that she could send it in to the lab to have it checked out more thoroughly. Of course, I didn't have to pee anymore, so she gave me two big cups of water and we did the rest of the visit. Then at the end I was able to pee. My blood pressure was still on the high side of normal, but she wasn't really worried about that. The uterus was exactly the right size for 12 weeks. That really reassured me, because I am suffering less from morning sickness than with my other pregnancies, I am also kind of worried whether everything is going OK. I mean, not deeply worried, but it still makes me wonder. The midwife thought that maybe things were a lot less stressful this time, last time we were moving around so much during the pregnancy and had tons of stress and my nutrition was pretty bad. This time we are settled and my nutrition is pretty good (well, apart from the brownies :-) And of course, different pregnancies can be different, but after five pregnancies with pretty bad morning sickness, I had expected the more severe variant again this time. She asked whether I wanted to listen to the baby with the doppler, but I declined that, so she said 'OK, then you are not too worried yet', which is definitely true. I really want to avoid all ultrasound this pregnancy, I'll just be patient for a few more weeks till we can hear the baby with the fethoscope. My kids had a lot of fun playing with all the toys and listening to each others belly with the toy stethoscopes. They also kept taking each other's blood pressure. The other popular toy this time was the doll house. I chatted some more with the midwife and she told me they have an AquaDoula now, which is a special water birth tub, which I could use if I wanted. The last two time we used a kiddie pool, the first water birth was in a normal bath tub, since that one wasn't planned :-) On one hand, I would like to use the special water birth tub, just to see how it works. The advantages is that the water is deeper and that it can be heated. On the other hand, I am kind of emotionally attached to our kiddie pool too, since both Jane and Kate were born in it. Oh well, I don't have to decide yet and it is nice to have different options! Then afterwards I had an appointment at our family doctor for Jane and I kept having to pee, because I had been drinking so much water at my prenatal! Very annoying, but kind of funny too. The midwife called my on Tuesday, telling me that the results on the urine test in the lab were negative, so no UTI! I was glad to hear that. Of course, it makes me wonder where the white blood cells did come from. She said that sometimes the growing uterus presses on the bladder and that can irritate the bladder, which might be what is causing it. We will recheck for white blood cells the next time I am in. Then an unrelated topic: karate. All three kids had a great week there last week. Tara is still extremely enjoying it and got her first orange stripe. She was so proud, she carried her belt with her the whole afternoon, so that she could show daddy when he came home. Tim also got a new stripe, his second yellow stripe on his orange belt. And last but not least, Cees had an official belt test and tested for his blue belt and passed! He was very excited about it and very happy. This week is quieter, since the karate school has vacation, so I am enjoying not to have to get them there almost every day. Page design by mabear | Send email to Karen | Page last updated: Dec 29, 2001