A Great Day for Appointments

Despite it being only 4 degrees (with wind chill of -11), it turned out to be a wonderful day for doctor appointments.  Our first stop with MFM.  Before we even started the ultrasound, I told the text that he is very much awake and active.  This was one of the first ultrasound baby was breech.  We did a little bit of moving, but let the text get in all of her measurements and we even got 2 beautiful 3D pictures.  You can see his hands were at his mouth in one of the pictures. Then we she unfroze the camera, we were able to watch him suck his fingers and see him swallow on the screen.  It was so neat!

All of our measurements came in good.  My cervix was just 2 mm shorter than last time but still long and closed.  We were use to seeing a head pushing on my cervix, but this time it was little legs moving in the screen shot.

Next, I had my OB appointment.  After the u/s, that's a rather uneventful appointment.  He just listened to the baby's heart and measured my belly.  All done!  I will have another appointment with him in 4 weeks, but I'll have to go in before for my gestational diabetes test.

Mommy/Baby Stats
Weight:  I'm .10 of a pound below my ppw.  I think I'll get there this week since I'm still off of work and not so active.

Sleep:  Been doing real good!

Symptoms:  None!

Cravings:  Ice cream whenever I can!  I don't know how so much time as gone past, but Baby will finally have his first taste of crab legs and lobster tomorrow night for New Year's Eve!!!  I'm so excited for both of us!

Movement:  He is very active.  He had a schedule going, but I think with me being home for Winter break, it is all thrown off.  Now, I just feel him moving and rolling all throughout the day.  Some kicks have been hard enough to see my stomach move and for the kids to feel.

Next Appointment: January 13 for another cervical check.

Baby size: Personalized to him this time- he is estimated to weight 1lb 5 oz and measured about 3 days ahead.

22 Weeks

Yesterday, marked the beginning of week 22.  For my past 2 pregnancies, this has been the point of heartbreak.  This coming Monday (12/23) will be the longest I've been pregnant since over 2 1/2 years. I am so grateful that everything is going in our favor.  Now on to 24 weeks when we reach viability!

We had another cervical check last week.  Everything was closed and measured fine. Baby again continued to be difficult.  He refused to give us a good picture. Once the tech got the good view, he threw his arm up to cover his face.  Then turned his head into my placenta.  We'll just have to wait until next week.

Mommy/Baby Stats:

Weight:  I'm still below my pow, but I'm getting closer.  By the time we are done with Christmas, maybe I will have gained that last pound.

Sleep: I getting longer stretches of sleep several nights a week.  Still wake up throughout the night, but not staying up that often.

Symptoms: Doing pretty good with the indigestion.  Sometimes it gets hard to stay sitting up for 2 hours after eating.  Itching is probably my biggest issue right now.  Between stretch marks on my stomach and eczema every where else, the itching is making me crazy.

Cravings/Aversions: nothing exciting

Movement:  He moves quite a bit.  Haley has been able to feel him move once, but he won't budge at all when Chase comes around.  Baby also gets really excited at loud events (school Christmas Concerts).  I've also started doing kick counts (trying to feel 10 kicks in 2 hours).  Most of the time, I feel all 10 kicks in less than 1 hour.  I'm started to learn his wake patterns and he's pretty active between 7:30pm-8:30.

Next appointment: On Dec 30, I'll have a cervical and a growth check with MFM.  Then, we'll go to OB for the last monthly appointment before we move to every two weeks.

Baby's size: He should be about the size of a large banana, weighing about 1 lbs! He has eye brows and lashes and maybe even a little hair is starting to grow on his head. He can hear my heartbeat and my voice as well as recognize out voices.

Anatomy Scan

Today was a busy day with 2 doctor appointments on completely different parts of town.  The first appointment was with MFM for my anatomy scan. It went great!  Baby was perfect.  I laughed at how it used to be that as soon as the baby was born, mom and dad checked to make sure that baby had 10 fingers and 10 toes.  Well, we were able to do that today!

My placenta moved, so placenta previa is no longer a concern and  my cervix was also long and closed. Now, it looks like I'll only have to more visits to check cervical length and then my visits will be more for monitoring his growth.

Baby at 19wks 3 days

Then after a quick ice cream stop, we headed to my OB appointment.  This was another quick and uneventful appointment.  We listened to the heartbeat, which is now easy to find because he is getting so big.  I'll have one more appointment with Dr Saikie in 4 weeks, then I move to every 2 weeks.

Mommy/Baby Stats

Weight: I'm still down albs from my ppw, but I think the chocolate chip cookies the kids and I were eating and then Thanksgiving helped with my gain last week.

Sleep:  Still keeping strange hours.  Can be up for an hour during the middle of the night and other times can sleep straight through the night (expect for bathroom runs).

Symptoms:  Some form of indigestion everyday, usually pretty mild.

Cravings/Aversions:  Cravings very, but nothing strange or unusual.  Aversions- still no McDonalds (except for a large Hi-C orange) and now no Cousin's Sub (the seasoning is suddenly disgusting).

Movement: I feel baby move several times throughout the day. It was fun to see what he was doing on the ultrasound as I was feeling the movements.  He is partial to the right side of my stomach. My stomach can be visibly lopsided at times.

Next appointment:  So far my next MFM appointment is scheduled for Dec 16.   Luckily no more tests for a while.

Baby: He measures about 6 inches and is about the size of a mango!  He is also about half a pound.

More to Watch For

After a long month, I finally had an ultrasound where I was able to see the baby!  I had my first cervical length check today.  Baby was active as usual with his legs just kicking.  He was butt down today and my inner monolog told him to get that all out of his system now and be the right way when it's time.  My cervix measured over 3 cm (Dr couldn't remember exact amount by the time she came to talk to us).  But of course, there is a negative for that positive.

It was discovered that I have a low-lying placenta.  This means that my placenta is less than 2cm away from my cervix. So now with my biweekly cervical checks, they will also be looking to see if the placenta is moving.  The hope is that as my uterus expands, the placenta will move further away from my cervix.  If it doesn't then I will have to have a c-section.

When the doctor was going over things that could happen as a result of this placement, I asked if this could have been the cause of my bleed a few weeks ago, and she said yes.  She warned that I could have more bleeds.  Therefore, I am on pelvic rest, no strenuous activities and no heavy lifting.

More good news- a picture of baby at 16 wks, 4 days!

Mommy/Baby Stats
Weight:  I was pretty stressed last week and ended up losing about 3 lbs.  Working on putting it back on.

Sleep:  I've created a weird sleeping pattern.  I go to sleep when I put Chase to bed between 9-10pm.  I'll sleep for a few hours and then wake up between 1-3am and take my night meds/vitamins, maybe some ice cream and go back to bed.  I'm feeling that I need to stop this.

Symptoms:  Things have been pretty calm this week.  Mild nausea one day, but that's been about it.

Cravings/Aversions:  Just ice cream (not really that different)

Movement:  Random.  It figures since the placenta is in the front, I'm missing some of the action.

Next Appointment: Still have to schedule them.  My next appointment for the cervical check will also be my anatomy scan, so that will be an interesting appointment.

Baby: He is over 4 inches long from his head to butt and weighs over 2 ounces.  His legs are now longer than his arms and he is started to grow finger nails.

15 Weeks

Day 1 of week 15 has been nice a quiet. Today was my first day back at work since getting my cerclage.  I had the cerclage put in on Tuesday evening.  The actual procedure was better than with the last pregnancy.  The best part was that the room wasn't an ice box this time.  Unfortunately, I experienced more abdominal pain afterward this time.  Dr. Mastrolia gave me 2 types of medications that were really appreciated for that first 24 hours.  I've only had 2 pain pills today, so that's pretty good.

Baby continues to get nice and big.  I'm able to find him very quickly using the doppler. I haven't been that obsessive with it as my husband feared.  I only take a listen one a day!

Mommy/Baby Stats
Weight: I still have about another 1.5 lbs to gain before I get back to my pre pregnancy weight.

Clothes: Barely fit into my last pair of jeans.  I did get a new pair of pants that fit really nice and they aren't maternity.  I may have another 2 weeks left in those.  Otherwise, it's maternity all day every day.

Sleep:  Can't complain.  The Vicodin the last couple of nights have helped me sleep all day and night.

Symptoms: The morning sickness is much better.  My stomach gets a little uneasy ever so often, but nothing horrible.  I had 2 bad days of heartburn, but my problem now is mostly indigestion.

Cravings/Aversions: I haven't had much of an issue with food lately.

Anxiety: Just hoping to make it through each day without any medical issues.

Movement: I have been feeling little flutters for about 2 weeks now. I'm starting to wonder if I'm starting to notice more.

Next Appointment: I have an OB appointment on Monday and then my first cervical check on Nov 12.

Baby: He is around 4 inches long, about the size of an apple or navel orange.  He is a little shy of 2 ounces.

Until next time- Prayers for a quiet, uneventful week!

Scary Day

Everything started off fine today.  I had a little pain on my side at the bowling, but it went away after I started walking.  We got to the car and drove right down the street to Target.  As I was getting out of the car, I felt something come out that didn't fell like pee.  My first thought was to make it inside Target and go straight to the bath, but I changed my mind. I reached down the back on my pants, checked my hand and saw blood.  I look at Terry and said I need to go to the hospital right now.

At the hospital, we got our first bit of good news after the pelvic check.  I wasn't actively bleeding and my cervix appeared closed. The nurse eventually came back to check for baby's heartbeat. She warned us that she is not an OB nurse, so if she can't find an heartbeat not doesn't mean anything is wrong.  I told her my own OB doctor couldn't find this boy's heartbeat and gave up and just did an ultrasound.  She was able to find it 2 two times for about a second each time, so we ended up having to do another ultrasound.  I wasn't able to see the ultrasound, but Terry was.  He said baby was bigger than the last time and still just as busy.

They checked the baby, the placenta and throughout my uterus-everything was fine.  Bad news-they couldn't find any cause or reason for the bleed.  Therefore, the diagnosis was a threatened miscarriage.

So, I was sent home for bed rest the remained of the weekend.  I have to call and check in with Dr Saikie on Monday morning and still get my cerclage Tuesday afternoon.  The Doctor also said no strenuous activity "for the next 6 months"! He stressed things like cleaning floors and laundry...I wonder who will do them.

2nd Trimester

I am now 13 weeks and officially into my 2nd trimester.  After waiting for over 2 weeks, I finally got my results from my Maternit21 test yesterday.  Baby is perfectly healthy, no T13, T18, or T21

Mommy/Baby Stats
Weight: I'm still in the negative for weight gain.  I'm down 3.4 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight.

Clothes: I'm down to only 2 pair of jeans that I can fit and comfortably close. I'm starting to fit into my maternity yoga pants without them falling down.  All maternity shirts are quite comfortable.

Sleep: I've been going to bed when I put Chase to sleep lately.  I sleep to about 1am and then get up for a few before returning to bed.  I'm currently exhausted because we've had parent conferences at school, so I'm there late and then get home and still have to help the kids finish up homework before I get to go lay down.

Symptoms: Morning sickness is becoming less frequent, but it has been bad on a couple of mornings with painful dry heaving. I haven't had to drink much prune juice the last week, so that is good!

Cravings/Aversions: I haven't had any cravings lately. I'm finding that I can no longer eat McDonald's. We just don't really get a long anymore.

Anxiety: Trying to find a name for this baby!  Suggestions?

Next Appointment: EKG in a few hours.  Then cerclage on Oct 29.

Baby: My baby is now almost 3 inches long and around .8 ounces, about the size of a peach.

Gender:I found out the gender when I got my genetics results.  Funny thing is the baby told me that morning during a dream what sex it was.