What to Expect at 28 Weeks

Kayla and I just went in for her 28 week appointment. It was a fairly interesting one this time. 28 weeks is when our gyno does the glucose testing. Testing for glucose is used to screen for gestational diabetes. When we first arrived at the doctors they had Kayla drink this orange sugary cocktail. She said that it tasted like a mix of Tang, and orange soda. After she drank this mixture we then proceeded to see the doctor as normal. We listened to the heart beat again, and our gyno measured her belly baby bump.

Since Kayla and I are both O- blood type, she was supposed to recieve the rhogam shot. This shot is to protect your baby from HDN or hemolytic disease of the newborn. According to rhogam.com if your baby's Rh blood type enters the mothers blood stream, the mothers immune system sees the babies blood cells as foreign and produces antibodies against them. Getting a rhogam shot at 28 weeks is necessary to prevent this from happening. Studies have shown that the rhogam shot will not cause harm to the unborn baby. The only way to make certain of a babys blood type is an invasive percedure. It is best to just administer the shot to all Rh- women because it won't cause harm even if your baby is not also Rh- . This link is a great place for any questions you may have about the rhogam shot.

Since the blood type is fairly rare, and the rhogam shot expires, we had to wait until the doctors next order came in. Kayla got her shot about two days later and she said "it was a painless shot in the hip."

After an hour had passed (for the glucose test) Kayla had to get two small viles of blood drawn. This gets sent to a lab to test for glucose levels. If her glucose levels remained high after the hour, then she would have to recieve a plethora of tests and blood draws to confirm whether or not she has gestational diabetes. Also, this is a wonderful place to get more information on gestational diabetes. This is about it for what you should expect at 28 weeks.

Be ready for a longer appointment this time. From now on we meet with our gyno every other week!!

Going through Changes

It took about a week or so for Kayla to start having morning sickness. She would just randomly vomit a few times a day. It was not like the text book puke sessions that you see in movies. It was more of just not being able to hold certain foods down. Overly greasy foods were usually what triggered it. This was also not limited to the morning either. This sickness subsided just a week or so later and she has been fairly well ever since. It was pretty nice I must say. It is important for you (the man) to be there for her during these times. Nobody likes throwing up. If shes anything like my wife then the door will be locked and I cannot get in until after she is done puking. That does not mean that you can't be waiting outside the door with a glass of water in hand. That shows that you are doing everything possible to comfort her.

During the first 2 months acne reared it's ugly head and started to spread over her back and shoulder blades. Nothing too extreme but all to reminecent of those teenage years. This will soon be under control but, it is important not to make ugly faces at them. Remember when people called you pizza face? Not too much fun huh! Some soothing lotion and maybe some acne cream will help get this under control. For info on what is safe during pregnancy check this out.

At this point she will be starving and wanting to eat everything under the sun, only to throw half of th emeal away or puke it back up. This is a frustrating time to go out to fancy restraunts. An important tip for this is to learn to cook home cooked meals. This will lessen the burden of feeling like shes wasting money throwing up her $20 plate of lasagnia. Also you can control the amount of grease, ingredients, and portion size to fit her needs.

Depending on the woman her sexual desire may decrease, increase or fluctuate. You may feel that you are riding some extreme roller coaster in the bed room but, I say ride that roller coaster my friend it is better than having no desire at all. Men are usually always primed to go anyways. I wont go into to much detail in this department out of respect for my beautiful wife and family reading this. This is where books like What to Expect When Expecting come in handy. If you are anything like me then you wont really be into reading a lot of books (does'nt mean mommy to be would'nt enjoy some light reading).

There will be a part II to this post because we still have half a pregnancy to go!!! A lot has changed from where this post is at to where we are at now... Believe me.

Next: Telling friends about the news

How do I tell my family she's pregnant?

This is a really sensitive area. personally I wanted to call my parents up that day, but that is just the relationship I have with them. I forgot to mention that I now live about 1700 miles away from my hometown. I joined the Air Force in fall of 2010 and got stationed in the midwest. The reason why we kept it our own little secret is because the first couple of weeks are very crucial. A lot of complications can arrise in the first trimester. Pregnancy is broken into 3 trimesters and each trimester is roughly 3 months long. 3x3=9 months. My wife and I didn't want to have to tell everyone if something went wrong. It is pretty traumatic to have a miscarriage and it would have been too hard to explain it to all of our friends and family. I know that we still arn't out of the woods but you have to tell them sometime. A misscarriage can happen at any stage but less likely in the later weeks. So we kept it on the downlow for almost a month. After her first doctors appointment we felt comfortable letting the cat out of the bag. I also feel it is important to get your feelings straight before you start getting input from every direction possible.

My parents happened to be visiting for Thanksgiving so we sat my parents down on the couch and gave my mom a gift bag. Inside my wife had wrapped a cute frame that had a not in it that said something like "this frame will be filled july 2012." It also had a picture of the pregnancy test (positive). My parents reaction was wonderful. They were both very happy to hear the news. My mom had a little moment of shock afterwards but everyone handles important news differently. After informing my parents we called Kayla's family and told them over the phone. Which was not the best way to do it but it's not like we could just fly home that day. Everyone was overjoyed to hear that we would be adding another person to the family.

One large piece of advice is to not be nervous about their reaction. Even if you don't happen to be married yet. Parents would much rather hear about it from you then after you try to hide it from them. The majority of the time your parents situation was far worse then your own. In the end they are your parents and will have unconditional love for you nomatter what. It is human nature. Also, don;t get upset if they don't react the way you hoped right away. Emotions cause people to do and say crazy things in stressful situtations. Understand that they may just need some time to deal with it in their own way.

Next: The wonderful changes she's going through