When I first had to start to think about my birth plan, I wanted to have a vaginal birth. When we found out I had placenta previa, that went out the window (or at least part way out the window). For those of you who don’t know what placenta previa is, it is when the placenta blocks the cervix so the baby can’t get out. If it does not move, you need an early c-section to avoid going into labor because it can be bad for the baby and mom. I wasn’t super disappointed because there are pros and cons to each delivery method. I had some hopes early on about the placenta moving but as time went on and it didn’t move, I started to hope the placenta didn’t move.

You already know by now it’s a girl but I thought I’d share some of the time leading up to knowing the gender…

I was headed home from New Jersey with a coworker and we were talking about Baby Vines. My coworker said something like “When she’s born…hm…I guess I think your baby is going to be a girl!”. Another coworker of mine also thought Baby Vines was going to be a girl because of a gut feeling.

I remember a week or so before the positive test, I was EXTREMELY exhausted. I was so confused at just how exhausted I felt. My brain felt so dead and I could barely understand what words were coming out of people’s mouths. I remember being on the phone with a coworker and trying to walk through some tasks she was working on. I had to say something like, “Sorry, I have no idea what you just said, can you please say that again?” I told her I was so exhausted and she said I was working too much. I told her I really wasn’t and I was getting a lot of sleep. I had no idea what was wrong with me.

I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to continue running and working out through my pregnancy so far. My doctor said I could keep up with what I was doing leading up to pregnancy but not to really increase anything. I was running 3 miles about 3-4 days a week, riding the Peloton and mixing in strength workouts through the Whitney Simmons Alive app. I haven’t been doing exactly that now but have been trying to stay active while listening to my body.

We made it past the 8 week ultrasound and then the next milestone was 12 weeks for the Nuchal Translucency (NT) ultrasound. This ultrasound uses a higher tech machine so they could review the back of the neck of the baby. Depending on the thickness at the back of the neck, you can have an idea of chances of down syndrome (trisomy 21), Patau (trisomy 13) and Edwards (trisomy 18).

I have decided that I want to keep track of my pregnancy journey so I don’t lose these memories. I invite you to join me. I am not quite sure how personal I want to get with this but I guess I’ll figure that out as we go.