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Calling all the Pregnant PS''ers

StacylikesSparkles

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Dec 8, 2011
Messages
1,304
Tammy, I agree that this part of the pregnancy is pretty awesome! Not a ton of nausea, I'm starting to have a little belly to rub and I'm just enjoying things. I had some issues with my bloodwork and ended up having to see a perinatologist (the 3 days leading up to that appointment were terrifying because I wasn't 100% on what was going on and google was giving me all these super scary possibilities!) and after some additional testing, everything looks great and the drs are all happy with how the baby is looking. Other than that, life is good with the little bump!

I'm so glad to hear that you're realizing that at this point, you don't have much control and that its much better for you to just go with the flow instead of stressing. While I know all the testing they do is helpful, it can be super stressful to have too much information and it's totally possible (and pretty likely) that you're going to have a perfectly healthy baby without any worry. They tend to freak you (read: ME!) out with all of their knowledge of the possibilities and I think sometimes they should just let it go until they really do find a need to worry us.

Ltl, oh yeah I don't mind the chipotle splurges every now and then and I am totally of the mindset that I'm less likely to binge eat if I can get some of my food wants met from time to time. Mostly I crave good for me things, but dang it, sometimes a girl just needs a ton of calories from a burrito bowl lol..how are you feeling?

Octavia, I just started to notice the belly start to come in within the last 2 weeks. We took some pictures last week and I was like 'oh, so that's what I look like form the side now?!' I feel like I ook more chubby than pregnant, depending on what I wear, I've been living in my SIL's maternity leggings, but when I wear a regular, non-maternity short, you see a little belly coming in :) I love it! If I wear a maternity shirt, I feel like I look chubby lol..oh well, at 19 weeks pregnant, I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to look like my 'normal' self, so I'm just going with it. DH has been telling me that I'm rubbing my belly all the time now, which I totally am and completely love doing! I feel more pregnant looking then lmao

Next Monday we have our anatomy scan, so we get to see baby again! :) I'm taking my Mom with me since it's about 45 minutes away and I like the company, PLUS, she;s sort of obsessed with the baby already lol..seriously, I will be chopped liver after she gets here! Oh and my Dad is pretty freaked about me being pregnant and told Mom that I should be staying home when I hit the 8 month mark..either that or going to stay with my aunt or cousin who live about 5 minutes from the hospital. Bahaha! He also said I can't come stay with them at Christmas (we spend Christmas eve at their house like I do every year) because he doesn't want me going into labor! That man is hilarious! Mom and I just laugh at him and tell him he is crazy. He is my step dad and I met him when I was 9 and he hasn't ever been around babies or pregnant women (well, close to him, anyway) so this is a huge first for him! We all joke that he doesn't want to hold the baby until she is about 2 years old. :lol: But I'll be damned if I'm not coming to Christmas! This is my last Christmas as the baby and I'm milking it!!
 

NewEnglandLady

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 27, 2007
Messages
6,299
Hi, all! I'm now out of my first trimester (at 14w 6d) and thought I should make the transition over to this thread! I really loved this thread last time I was pregnant--it's exciting to see everybody progressing and I get a little weepy over the birth stories.

I'm currently pregnant with a girl (just found out last night). My husband and I also have an 18-month-old girl named Katie. I am finding things to be much different with this pregnancy than it was with my first. Namely, this pregnancy is flying by about 100x faster than my first one. And I feel like I have zero time to prepare (though, admittedly, there is much less to do).

Unfortunately, I'm still pretty nauseous (still on Zofran), but I'm hoping it will get better any day.

Anyway, excited to join and follow all of you along on your journeys!

Tammy, I know this is late, but just wanted to tell you that when I was pregnant with K, they found an abnormality during the fetal anatomy scan that was a flag for Downs (and some more seriously disorders) and I was really upset about it. My husband and I spent hours in the genetic counselor's office and they were being a little pushy about having an amnio, though I wasn't 100% comfortable with it. In the end, I opted not to have the amnio and K ended up being perfectly fine. I was frustrated since I obviously worried about during the second half of my pregnancy, but after talking with many of my friends about it, I realized that many had gone through something similar. I feel like it's becoming more and more common for these "flags" to pop up. In any case, I'm sorry about the stress and I understand. I hope you're feeling better now that some time has passed!
 

StacylikesSparkles

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Dec 8, 2011
Messages
1,304
NEL and Tammy, it IS super common for them to come up with possibilities of things being wrong with baby and it does nothing but freak the mother (and father) out! We had my blood work come back saying that we were at high risk to have a baby with downs. Basically I freaked out, cried and did WAY too much Google-ing and it didn't help. We met with some amazing people at a perinatologist office who eased my fears a bit (seems like the drs office gives you just enough info to freak you out, but surely not the whole picture). After discussing all the options, we did a sono, found no markers and opted for the 'cell free dna' blood test, which was 97% accurate, instead of the amnio. I was never pushed to have the amnio and the blood test (which was super cool..took my blood, flushed out my dna and used the remaining info left over from cells that have broken off from the placenta that are floating around, to them count the baby's chromosomes) came back saying that with their accuracy level, things looked good for us. We just did the follow up anatomy scan yesterday and the perinatologist said she doesn't think we need to see her anymore and that everything looks great! Bottom line, try not to worry until you have all the info! It's so hard not to (I know!), but I found that I got myself all worked up for nothing and that wasn't great for baby anyway.

Phew, anywho, welcome NEL!! :)
 

Bella_mezzo

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Messages
5,760
I guess since NEL came over I will too :cheeky: ...I am just over 15 weeks and we are team GREEN.

We have a 4 (almost 5!) year old son "B" who joined our family through Ethiopian adoption in the summer of 2011.

I work full time (and will continue to do so after the baby comes) and DH is a full-time premed student and volunteer EMT.

I have followed these threads for years but still have lots of questions as I am a second-time mom, but this will be my first time going through pregnancy, L&D, and the birth-age 2 phase.
 

Missy0483

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
Messages
844
Jumping in from JBP!

I'm 15 weeks 2 days today. Most of you know my story already...we lost our 6 month old son in December 2012. So this is our rainbow baby. We were team green with him, but will be finding out with this baby hopefully in about 4 weeks or so. We had the NT scan 3 weeks ago and everything came back low for genetic disorders (1 in 10,000) I have my monthly appointment this afternoon. My blood pressure was a little high at my last few appointments so we're watching that. I have several things against me...white coat syndrome, family history of high blood pressure, and I do have left pulmonary artery stenosis which is a narrowing of the artery leading to one of my lungs which was found in January this year which can sometimes cause high blood pressure. My cardiologist is seeing me once a year unless I start having symptoms and an echocardiogram/blood work once a year as well. So that's me in a nutshell! Glad to be here with you ladies!! :bigsmile:
 

tammy77

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 23, 2011
Messages
1,442
Woohoo, welcome ladies!!! :bigsmile: I'm excited to have more of us here! It's not a fantastic time for me to do a long post because I'll spend too much time claiming about rashes, sore throats, crazy fast weight gain for no reason and being ready to pop. :tongue: I'm going to try though and just call the above my merciful version of my AFM! Haha

NEL, I have to say that I LOVE being a mom of two girls so close in age. Mine are 25 months apart and really are best friends, at least so far! They're not quite teens yet though, so I'm aware that it may change at least temporarily! I'm so happy to hear that your tests came back great too. I missed it, did you get them via Maternit21? Thank you by the way for sharing your u/s experience. I hope that ours turns out to be nothing too.

Missy, yay! It's wonderful seeing you over here. I can't wait to hear what you're having too. Also great news about your tests! I have the opposite problem with blood pressure, mine is 110/55 and I often freak the nurses out because by all rights, I look like I should have high bp if anything (I'm overweight). Hopefully yours stays down for the pregnancy!

Bella, your pregnancy is just flying by! I admire your patience, I couldn't wait to find out what we were having. :oops: I absolutely love the idea of a surprise though and wish I could have done it too.

FPS, wow I didn't know that you had to deal with the u/a freak out too. I'm SO happy to hear that everything is fine! My follow up u/a is tomorrow and I'm surprisingly calm about it. I guess at a certain point we realize no matter how worked up we get, it's not going to change anything (at least not for the better). That said, I really do feel like she's okay. With all the reading I've done and as active as she is in there, I just can't fathom her being one of the rare cases of disabled microcephaly kids. I'll have to come back to update you guys tomorrow night though. :)

Oh I forgot to say to Bella and NEL, I really hope your ms calms down soon!! I feel so badly for both of you. ;( I'm glad you have zofran to take the edge off at least though!
 

Missy0483

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
Messages
844
My blood pressure was great today!!! 124/80 which they were very happy with! I had a 13 pound weight gain in 15 weeks though. Yikes. She started to comment but got distracted and I didn't bring it up again! Anatomy scan is scheduled for 9/16 :razz:
 

tammy77

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 23, 2011
Messages
1,442
Awesome, Missy!!! :bigsmile: If it makes you feel better, I've somehow managed to pack on 5 lbs in a week. :-o The rational side of me knows I'm not eating twice what I should be, so it isn't REAL weight gain but still...what the heck?!?!?! :errrr:
 

StacylikesSparkles

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Dec 8, 2011
Messages
1,304
Tammy, it was certainly freaky, especially since they found it in my blood work and not through a scan. I felt like the actual blood work was a bit more accurate (even the tech said that with new technology, they tend to find new things 'wrong' and in 5-10 years it's nothing) and thus, I was in a panic! Apparently I was about 1 in 137 of having a baby with downs...if that isn't enough to scare the crap out of you, I don't know what is! BUT, we looked at things rationally (after meeting with the amazing perinatologist people!) and decided we couldn't terminate (I'm already in love with this baby!), so any information we learned would be to better prepare us. You're taking the right attitude in thinking positive and calmly about it because whatever is going on with our kiddos, we can't change at this point and can only make ourselves more stressed and crazy. I choose to believe she is perfectly healthy and will come out and be just as much a pain in the butt as her mother was to her Nana! ;-) I hope you have a great u/a and everything looks terrific for you and baby!

Ladies, when you're gaining the weight, what does the dr say? One of my friends got a good bit of a lecture when she gained 'too much' during the first and second trimester (I think she was at 10lbs by 12 weeks) and I'm wondering if that is the norm. How much total did they tell you they want you all to gain? Me personally, I'm still hovering around 8-9lbs total and I'm at 20 weeks. I don't really know what I'm doing to maintain that because it feels like I'm eating ALL THE TIME!! My midwife told me she would like me to have gained about 10lbs by 20 weeks, but ya know what, I feel good, I don't feel like baby is lacking or not growing (from the appt with the perinatologist at 16 weeks and the appt with them on Monday, baby has gained 4 oz and is coming in around 12 oz total right now!) and my belly is really starting to come in, so I'm not going to stress the weight so much! I'm sure it'll start coming on with ease within the next few weeks/months, so I'm not going to worry with it so much. One funny thing though is that I was visiting a mommy friend and we were chatting about babies when her husband came in. He asked how far along I was and I told him about 20 weeks and he goes 'wow, you're really small for 20 weeks' and my friend just glared at him. It was kind of hilarious! She did laugh it off with me later and tell me that he would be sleeping on the couch that night! Bahaha! Opps! Also, one of my cousins is a nurse and mother of two. When we were first talking pregnancy, she stressed to me that she would NOT allow me to gain the 65lbs that she did with her first, so she has been asking me every time I see her where I'm at, weight wise. I find it funny that she is more worried about the weight than I am. My Mom constantly tells me that since the age of 7, I have always said how I wanted to be 'fat and pregnant' so weight isn't even a worry of mine at this point! I just want a happy, healthy baby :D

Edited to add that weight is a sensitive subject and I just sort of typed this all out without thinking about if it would offend anyone. Feel free not to answer or yell at me if I said the wrong thing...I tend to do that from time to time. Bottom line though, EVERY woman is beautiful, especially the pregnant ones, so screw the scale!
 

Missy0483

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
Messages
844
Well, I was originally told no more than 25 pounds total gain. I told the doctor at my first appointment that I gained 40 with my first pregnancy. She said ok...we'll shoot for no more than 35 then. I lost all of the baby weight with my first. I think they just want to keep my weight gain on the lower side to lower the risk of high blood pressure, which I think I might have issues with anyway!

I forgot all about the Quad screening...so I have to have blood taken next Friday for that.
 

tammy77

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 23, 2011
Messages
1,442
FPS, I didn't even take the second screening. I took the one at 12 weeks, the MaterniT21 and my anatomy scan. I may regret it but with everything coming back fine up to that point I just didn't see a huge value in further testing. I really hope that your LO doesn't have any issues, I'm sure all is fine! Thank you for the well wishes for today too. :)

Regarding weight, I gained about 60 lbs with the first two girls and at almost 33 weeks I'm up more than I wanted but not nearly that bad. I've gained 28 lbs. this week was a challenge though because an antibiotic I was on made me balloon up 6 lbs in 4 days. I've managed to drop 2-3 of them though so far and hope it keeps up to get me back to normal.

Missy, I think my ob was feeling similarly re: my weight and bp. Once she realized that my bp would be fine, she's barely even bothered to weigh me and isn't worried at all. I hope it stays that way, hah. I'll see tomorrow. :oops:
 

tammy77

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 23, 2011
Messages
1,442
Hurray!!!!!! While I'd love to report that her head has grown above the 3rd percentile, I'm elated to say that the peri is absolutely not concerned at all! She's continuing to grow on the same curve and he's released us from monitoring. She weighed in at 4lbs 7oz and I'm 32 wks, 5days. She's a bit of a peanut but my stupid uterus contributes to that. She's still breech and its highly unlikely that she'll flip. It's really too bad, pushing out that smaller head would have been ideal. :lol:

So that's our update. I haven't been this relieved in an ultrasound since our first one At 6 wks when we saw her heartbeat. Happy day!! :appl:
 

Missy0483

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
Messages
844
Tammy that is great news!!! Sorry to hear that she's breech, but YAY for a healthy baby!

Attaching a bump pic! 15 weeks 2 days

cam00740-1.jpg
 

StacylikesSparkles

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Dec 8, 2011
Messages
1,304
Tammy and Missy, the higher blood pressure and weight gain concerns make total sense now! I've never really worried about high bp, so thank you for explaining it :) I say that as long as that looks good, there shouldn't be too much pressure on gaining a little over their goal for you. I added my 20 week bump for you ladies to see..woohoo!!

img_20130817_132017_882.jpg
 

tammy77

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 23, 2011
Messages
1,442
Awww you both look so cute!! :)) I'd share mine but 1. I haven't taken one recently and 2. I don't want rid are you all! I'll think about it though. :bigsmile:

In other good news, perhaps I was still worried. Last night I slept a total of 7 hours! That's double what I have been getting lately. :-o
 

gem_anemone

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 21, 2011
Messages
682
Looking good, ladies! :appl:
 

taovandel

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Mar 22, 2008
Messages
1,434
Hi ladies! I haven't posted in a while, but wanted to give a quick update.

37 weeks tomorrow! I've gained about 2-3lbs this pregnancy, and Dr.'s aren't worried about it anymore since the measurements of the baby came back fine at 28 weeks. We had a growth scan at 36 weeks and baby weighed in at 6lbs 1 oz. So measuring exactly like my two previous babies. We managed to maintain our team green status throughout the pregnancy, so now I'm ready to meet this baby and find out what I have baking in here.

I've been having contractions for the last couple of weeks---I'm assuming they are Braxton Hicks, because they aren't painful and definitely aren't anything to time together (anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes apart) and go away for a bit and then come back again.

Hoping to make it to September 1st, but in all honesty, I'm so over being pregnant right now, that if it arrived in the last couple of days of August, I would be okay with it! Three babies in 4 years is a bit rough on the body!
 

StacylikesSparkles

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Dec 8, 2011
Messages
1,304
Ltl, how are you and the babies doing?

Ladies, I find that I spend most of my day sitting wherever I am and just rubbing on the belly. DH thinks it's pretty hilarious when I do it in public, but I can't seem to help myself. I sort of love this little belly and especially the little lady inside of it! How are you all feeling these days?
 

LtlFirecracker

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Feb 29, 2008
Messages
4,837
Wow this thread really picked up. It feels like there is too much for me to comment on!!!

taovandel - you are almost there!!!!! I am so excited for you.

Tammy - I am so glad the head is measuring normal and that you are feeling more at ease. I will say to you what everyone says to me, I am glad you are sleeping while you can!

Missy - your bump is looking so cute!

FancyPantsSparkles - your bump is super cute as well!!! There are different weight gain guidelines based on your status pre-pregnancy. My situation is way different. I was told to gain 40 lbs. My pre-pregnancy BMI was low normal, so I probably would have been told to gain about 30 with just one baby. Last week I reached the 30lb mark, which my doctor is happy with. The long and short of it is that everyones situation is different.

NEL - I hope you are doing well, has the nausea calmed down yet?

Bella - so glad to see you over here!!!!!

To anyone I forgot, hi :wavey:

AFM - I will be 32 weeks tomorrow!!!!! I have my first non-stress test tomorrow. I will be getting those weekly now. My next growth scan is not for a week. That will be the true test on how things are going. I really hope the babies do not continue to go their separate ways on the growth curve, because the OBs might want to take them early. I went to a birth/breast feeding class yesterday. My husband was with me, and both feel like we benefited from it. I met the owner of a 3D US placed, and he agreed to see us in the evening and try to get pictures of our twins. I originally was not going to do a 3D US because my twins are so hard to get pictures of, but this guy seems pretty experienced, so hopefully we will have luck. Other than that, we are trying to get everything ready as quickly as possible in case they come a little early.
 

NewEnglandLady

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 27, 2007
Messages
6,299
So fun to see everybody moving along and getting closer to their due dates.

Ltl, I can't believe you're at 32 weeks with twins! How are you feeling? How often do you have to see the doc? Do you have to start going more often earlier when you have twins? Let us know how the growth scan goes next week!

FPS, get all of the belly rubbing in while you can!! And your bump is looking super cute.

Tao, woohoo for full term! Do you feel ready? Just doing that final stuff so you feel prepared? I know you're on team green, but do you have any feelings about the sex? And I can't believe your minimal weight gain...I think I gained 2 lbs. within hours of being pregnant :)

Tammy, did the 7-hour sleep trend continue? And I'm right there with you on the lack of pictures. I was planning to post a bump pic...I just have to take one first! Oh, and fabulous news that the doc isn't concerned about the head msmt.!

Missy, you're looking great!

Bella, how are you feeling these days?

AFM, I think the nausea is starting to wane. I'm still on Zofran, but I think I'm going to try to stop taking it tomorrow (I'll be 16 weeks). If I still need it, I'll get a refill and take it for another week. Overall, the waves of nausea are slowing down and I don't find myself eating so much to keep the nausea at bay. I think I'm turning the corner!

Feeling okay physically, but starting to feel a little overwhelmed with the planning. Even though this is our second, I feel like we have a ton to do and with the holidays inching closer, I just want to start getting things checked off of our list. I know it will get done, but finding time is tough!
 

StacylikesSparkles

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Dec 8, 2011
Messages
1,304
Thanks, ladies!!

Ltl, so excited to hear that you're chugging along at 32 weeks! Hopefully you have tons of luck with the 3D ultrasound and get some good baby shots :)

NEL, so glad to hear that the nausea is (hopefully) letting up a bit! Also, I TOTALLY feel you on getting a bit overwhelmed and worrying about holiday stuff. I will be 8 months pregnant at the beginning of December, so I have been trying to push the hubs into starting our Christmas shopping NOW instead of waiting. I don't think he understands that I will not want to be out in those crowds when I'm full in pregnant and of course he would totally be fine with picking up everything last minute, but it would probably be weird stuff from the grocery store lmao...needless to say, I don't trust him to Christmas shop without me!

AFM, DH cleared out the nursery yesterday (it was previously our guest room) and he will be taping everything up so he can paint the walls within the next month or two (he is working on our front room now and I want all attention going to that room...which should be done in the next 2 weeks). And yes, I have offered to help with both rooms and got a big fat NO from him, so I'm doing my best not to nag lol I've been working on our online registry (www.myregistry.com) and having some fun with that and I'm just really hoping it isn't like our wedding registry where it wasn't utilized hardly at all because people bought us what they wanted us to have and not what we wanted to have. I'll be doing an in-store one as well, but I'm having trouble narrowing it down to one store. Suggestions? I REALLY like the online option because I'm finding the lowest priced options and adding them. Plus, we're going to be doing cloth diapering and there can be some great deals to be had online! We're looking to have the shower in either late October or early November, so I'm just really excited about it and trying to figure out what we 'need'.

Ok ladies, we need more belly bump pictures! Get yourself pretty and take some for us all to ogle at!
 

Bella_mezzo

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Messages
5,760
No belly pics here, but trucking along:)

I have a Drs appt tomorrow, so maybe I'll have an update then.

I've been feeling a little better, but still very much need the Zofran. Hoping that in a week or two I'll be off it, but I'm really not sure. I also have started getting light headed spells which are not fun, and am still very tired. Sheesh, it is hard work growing a person!

LtlFirecracker-I can't believe that you are almost there!!!!!

Tao-Can't wait for your little one to make his/her debut.

Nel-I hope that this is it and you feel better soon.

Missy and FPS-Your pics are so cute! I like to rub my little belly too:)

Tammy, so glad that the head measurement thing doesn't seem like an issue!
 

LtlFirecracker

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Feb 29, 2008
Messages
4,837
Hey guys,

Just a quick update. I went for my non stress test and I was contracting. They checked my cervix and it is at 3 cm. so now I am admitted and on meds to try and stop the labor. Wish me luck, I really hope things turn around!
 

NewEnglandLady

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 27, 2007
Messages
6,299
Oh my gosh, Ltl, I'm sending labor-stopping dust your way! Keep us updated when you have a chance!
 

tammy77

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 23, 2011
Messages
1,442
Ltl, I hope they're able to stop the contractions and keep the babies baking a while longer! Big hugs and positive thoughts/prayers heading your way. Keep us posted when you can!
 

StacylikesSparkles

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Dec 8, 2011
Messages
1,304
Ltl..goodness! I hope everything stops with the labor until those babies are fully developed and ready to go. Good luck!
 

LtlFirecracker

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Feb 29, 2008
Messages
4,837
Thanks everyone for the kind words!

Quick update. They stopped checking how dilated I was last night (as that can accendently rupture the membranes or introduce infection,is what they told me) after I was steady at 4 cm. my contractions stopped last night, started again this morning and look like they have stopped again. I just got my second dose of steroids. At this point the OBs will be happy if they get me to tomorrow afternoon (to get the full steroid benefit for the baby's lungs) and will be very very happy to hold me longer. Of course I want these guys to cook as long as possible. I have a feeling I will not be leaving here until the babies are born. I am on strict bed rest and a clear liquid diet. Not fun. But I am glad things at least are holding.
 

StacylikesSparkles

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Dec 8, 2011
Messages
1,304
Ltl, scheesh! Well I am keeping you and those littles in my thoughts and hope they stay in there as long as possible for you. Stay rested and keep yourself as relaxed as possible (yeah right!) and just know that you've got people cheering for you!
 

monkeyprincess

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Nov 24, 2009
Messages
2,873
Firecracker, sending lots of thoughts and prayers your way! Hoping your contractions stay away and the little ones stay put awhile longer, but I just wanted to let you know (even though you are probably more informed about all of this than you want to be) that my co-worker delivered twins at 31 weeks in May. They were in the hospital for about 6 weeks I think, and they are doing fantastically today.
 

JGator

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Nov 27, 2010
Messages
1,422
Firecracker, thinking of you and the babies. Hope they stay in for a long as possible.
 
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