Trimester 3

Holy cow people. Pregnancy is no joke. But guess what?! We are on the homestretch!!! We are finally in our Third Trimester, and we could not be any more excited! This has been such a long road, we can definitely say that we are ready for little man to be here!

To read about our First Trimester click here and our Second Trimester click here :)

But it wouldn't be a Petrellese Pregnancy without a little bumps in the road, right? The third trimester started out with our appointment for our ultrasound to check on my placenta issues. The tech did their thing, then called the doctor back in to finish up. As always, when the doctor is checking things out, everyone is quiet, so we were just waiting for some answers. Good news! My placenta moved away from my cervix, so no placenta previa-yay! And my placenta had not grown into my uterus, so no placenta acreta and no hysterectomy needed-double yay!! Mike and I looked at each other and were beaming, we were so ecstatic to receive good news! Then the doctor said she found something else. She said that our baby has what is called an umbilical cord varix. There are many different variations, but our particular varix is that the connection of the cord into his belly button is enlarged, and they are worried he wasn't getting the nutrients he needed, which increases the risk of still birth. And any mamas out there knows, when you hear the word stillbirth, it causes your heart to stop. I, no surprise, started to cry, and then the doctor assured me that this rare. They wanted me to start weekly Non Stress Tests to monitor the baby, and if at any time his heart rate isn't what they want, they will send me to Labor and Delivery, and then they will take him out immediately if needed.

Although it was originally scary, the weekly testing has been a blessing in disguise. I get to hang out in a comfy chair and listen to little man's heartbeat for 30 minutes, and those have been some of my most cherished moments of this trimester. Of course it's always in the back of my mind to be mindful of him and his movement, just to make sure he's doing ok in there, but the weekly testing has been nice.

Other than that, this trimester has been exciting! My work threw me an adorable baby shower, my family threw us an awesome baby shower (separate post to come), we took maternity photos (separate post to come), and we are on the home stretch of completing his nursery! I am very big, very round, and very excited!! We just cannot wait to meet this little man, and I know that all the hardships we have been through this pregnancy, will be MORE than worth it!!