@romanigypsyeyes , been thinking about you the past couple of days when checking the boards. Hope all is well.
@cgpm59 thanks. Doing ok. Some days are better than others but since they still seem to be doing fine, all is well.
I tried incorporating a little meat back into my diet and that was basically a catastrophic failure lol. After spending most of my life not eating meat, I psychologically couldn’t get over it. But I think I’m ok regardless.
Updates:
Officially in my second trimester. Waiting on that mythical second trimester burst of energy any time now lol.
2nd NIPT came back again without enough fetal DNA to do testing so we have an appointment with the genetic counselor at the fetal dx center on Monday. I’m trying not to be nervous but it’s difficult.
I’m still losing weight (down ~13 lb). I’m at the lowest I’ve been in well over a year but again, docs don’t seem concerned especially since I started off the pregnancy obese. I’ve never been an unhealthy eater and I haven’t really been able to force myself to eat more so I’m just burning more calories than normal.
Despite losing weight, my jeans and dress pants no longer fit. I live in leggings now and I refuse to buy maternity clothes yet since I’m doing all right with my regular and prednisone clothes.
Weird thing that’s happened - I’ve had a handful of people legitimately angry at me for not finding out the sex of the baby before birth. “How do we know what clothes to buy? How will you know how to decorate the nursery?”
I’m getting clothes from all 4 niblings so they’re going to wear whatever’s clean and fits. I don’t plan on actually buying clothes at all if I can help it. And it’s a baby - get it whatever you want! They don’t care. They’re just going to poop on it anyway.
And the nursery is going to be sci fi/fantasy themed. I wasn’t aware that I had to get a specific light saber color based on sex.
I don’t know - it’s just absolutely bizarre to me. And what’s even weirder is that while I get these reactions, my partner gets the exact opposite. His work friends and gaming friends think it’s really cool. shrug
^ Sorry people are giving you a hard time @romanigypsyeyes . It is entirely up to you and your partner to choose whether you know the baby’s gender or not. Personally we chose not to know with either of our children.
We never found out either of our kids’ sex beforehand. I loved being surprised both time. And both times, I was right! Just ignore people who think you need to know.
In my chest of drawers, I still have three unisex newborn onesies. I love knowing that both of my kids wore them. I plan to give one to each kid for their own children, and they can fight over the third.
Glad you’re doing well Romani.
It’s amazing how presumptuous people can be with expectant parents.
Glad to hear you are doing well. I had a coworker who had a net weight loss by the time she delivered. She was eating so much healthier than she did before, so she lost body fat.
I will be thinking of you Monday and hoping for good test results, @romanigypsyeyes
My wife wanted to know the sex of our children and I didn’t. Guess who won? But when I went with for the ultrasound I would tell the person doing it I didn’t want to know the sex
Just that it was healthy kinda thing. I could go out of the room and my wife could know. So each time they did the Ultrasound it was like they had no memory and just blurted out… Oh look, it’s a girl… Agh.
Anyway all the pink stuff and painted room etc would of given it away
. Lol
So sorry you can’t accommodate people’s shopping needs - Geez!!!
Glad to see instead your focus on the health of you and your baby - exactly where it should be.
I hope you have a good next three months. Have you started nesting?
we loved not knowing the sex of our 4. I remember wanting a daughter so badly; and #2 came so quickly - and I had no idea what was going on or what I had, but I heard the words “sweetie” in the background and started crying. 
there’s 4 ways to look at it; and all are right! tell sex, not names; tell names, not sex; tell both; tell nothing! Do whatever you like!
Finding out the sex is up to you and Mr. R & should be nobody else’s concern. My GD wore alot of neutral colored clothing as an infant (actually still does as a 2yo) - grey, yellow, navy, so others should be able to find plenty of clothing if they choose. Her room was decorated with planets and dinosaurs, and they knew they were having a girl. Nothing should be boy-girl specific.
Wishing you the best at your next appt.
H and I didn’t want to know the sexes, and he was a radiologist in training and his friends gave me extra ultrasounds after hours when I was having twins. They ALL thought it was 2 boys and they were wrong, lol.
Once the girls were born, I got some very gendery clothes as gifts, which is fine except for stiff lace around the neck. Babies don’t have much neck! I ended up cutting off all lace. I had no problem buying them boys clothes sometimes too because they liked choo-choo trains and dinosaurs as much as the next kid. Boys shouldn’t be doomed to wearing dull colors all the time either. Have fun mixing it up!
We didn’t find out the gender with either baby, either. Room was primary colors. Had we had a daughter, she would have been wearing blue anyway. And a sci/fi-fantasy room is awesome.
Glad to hear things are going well!
When my son was a baby he wore some hand-me-downs and I was unexpectedly annoyed when people misgendered him. By the time he was two, he liked pink, so he often wore pink, and when people mis gendered him I just corrected them.
Congrats on your second trimester!
Tell your family and friends to buy you stuff from Hanna Andersson. Lots of cute, gender neutral stuff, well made and cozy.
Our society is definitely too gender obsessed.
Thanks, everyone for your well wishes. My parents didn’t know the sex with me. Everyone was convinced I was a boy. Surpriseeeee lol
@bgbg4us I have not but Mr R has. We’ve had some projects that needed to be done for months (annoying things like a door that sticks and boxes that needed to be moved down to the basement, etc) that he’s decided to just up and do all at once.
I’m not a fan of a lot of feminine clothes - especially for kids. (Another reason I don’t want to buy maternity clothes - they’re so… feminine. I’m not a fan of flowers and things like that. I just want plain clothes!) I don’t like lace, bows, pink (I don’t like yellow or orange either), blah blah. But if that’s what my kiddo wants to wear then of course I’ll let them.
My 2 year old nephew loves this tutu that he found at a resale shop. Both of his grandfathers threw a fit about him wearing it (his mom shut them both up real quick). People are so weird about gender.
@doschicos I’ve never heard of that company so duly noted!
I think I’ve said this before but we’re going to pick a gender-neutral name but the middle name will either be gendered (if it’s a girl, I’d like to pass down our family middle name that women in my family have had for generations) or Mr R’s last name (I think he’s decided that that will be a second middle name if anything).
Oh yeah and doggo definitely knows I’m pregnant. She’s gotten so much clingier. She also now likes to lay on the pillow in between me and Mr R at night. Poor Mr R is going to get kicked out of bed pretty soon between me, my belly, the dog, and my pregnancy pillow (which, by the way, is like the greatest invention ever).
My advisors want me to get two of my four dissertation chapters done before I go on maternity leave. I have one due in a few weeks (eek!) and then they want another one in early April
Because I’m not planning on going into academia, I have a little less pressure on me for a super theoretical dissertation. Instead, they want me to write it more towards a general audience so that I can turn it into an accessible book. My dissertation is really now focused on the history of institutionalized children in Michigan and how it’s led to the current mass incarceration of young people. They want my book to be primarily geared towards education and carceral officials - which is fine by me. They need it way more than other academics do.
Our ultrasound was wrong on the sex, too. I imagine the technology has advanced a lot since then, though.
We really wanted to know with our two. One was never positioned in a way that the ultrasound technician could tell with certainty. The other was so obvious that we didn’t really need the technician to tell us.
Congratulations on your second trimester !
Love the update! (Well, not the part about the frustrations with friends and family.) But so glad you’re doing well!