18 weeks preggo.

Hello readers, are any of you out there?

There's not much to report this week. Maybe the bills that are piling in? Its stressful because I wasn't aware that insurance wasn't going to cover some of my blood work we had done with the testing, specifically, the cystic fibrosis testing. That alone is about $400, and then we have two ER visit bills. BAH! Oh well, its all worth it, right??

We're still settling in the new house. Morgan cleaned out the old house tonight and got a little emotional over leaving. He messaged me saying that he was spending time in each room thinking back about the memories we created in the house. He texted me while I was in advanced stats and told me, of course, being pregnant, I cried!

I am having a little difficulty in dealing with getting bigger. I think all women do, some just keep it hush. Or so, that is what I will keep telling myself. I mean really, what woman wants to get huge? While I am not showing a ton, I am definitely starting to pop, more so at night than in the morning, I wonder when that will stop and I will be the same size all day long?

I bought some clothes for the baby this weekend. I should probably stop and save the money for medical bills! :)

I've really been missing having family near lately. Really, this is nothing new for me, but it paints a whole new picture when you're pregnant and picture your labor and delivery and don't see any of your family there and only a few visitors. I just really hope I don't get too emotional over that when I am delivering. Guess I'll just need to deal with it, eh?

Overall though, I have been feeling really good and have been happy. I think its normal to feel the emotions I am feeling. I told my mom today that if my stomach wasn't growing, I would probably forget that I am pregnant because I've been feeling really good. However, on that note, I have been having excruciating back/hip/butt pain. Its all in my left butt cheek/hip. Sometimes my leg literally locks up and I can't move it forward or backward. It's frustrating. I know that I just need to exercise and stretch it out, but hey, I am lazy. I am going to prenatal yoga this weekend with Vanessa. I hope its as relaxed as it was with Annie. Guess I shall see! It will be nice to get out with fellow preggos.

I'm still calling the baby an "it" rather than he. I am still a little weirded out calling the baby by name, even if we're decided on a name, it still feels weird. I'm sure it will change for me. I am anxiously awaiting being able to feel the baby move, more so on the outside so Morgan can feel and feel like he is more involved and a part of the pregnancy as well.

On a totally unrelated note, I just heard the Viking's horn in the background on a good play and all I can think about is how excited I am for football.

Not much else to report.. sorry the blogging has been boring lately!

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

17 weeks preggo.

We've been busy moving and unpacking. The new house is really nice and I did not get emotional about moving like I thought I would. I think it was a time for that chapter of our lives to come to a close. We're welcoming the change in the new house with open arms. So far, all of the furkids are adjusting really well. I thought it would take longer than it has. But, we seem to be all settled in.

The baby's room was easiest to unpack as we only had a romper outfit, tshirt, bedding, small blanket and a couple decorations. It is nice to have most of our living spaces unpacked. The garage? Still chaos, but we'll get there.

There's not much to report on the baby front this week. We did go buy our first clothing items for the baby. Morgan picked out a shirt that has a motorcycle on it that says "young rebel" and I picked out a blue and brown romper.. not sure if romper is even the right name for it, but its what I'll call it.

I am pretty sure that I felt the baby move for the first time on Thursday. I felt a "pop pop pop" almost like one of those "snap its" that you throw on the ground around the 4th. Im not sure if that was the baby, but if not, I am not sure what else it would be! I am also really starting to show. Even in the mornings I have a bit of a bump, but it is really out there by the end of the day. Morgan likes to point out that you can "really notice it" on a daily basis.

I had my midwife appointment last Friday and it went well. She somewhat encouraged me to test for spina bifida but to be honest, I just don't think that I can go through anymore testing and the stress that can come with it. The heartbeat was in the 150s, still, and I gained about 3 pounds since my appointment 2 weeks prior. I have a feeling the pounds are going to start piling on. We'll see what happens. I definitely have more of an appetite and can eat a lot more than I did earlier on.

Enjoy the ultrasound pics and a picture of me at 17 weeks!

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

16 weeks preggo.

I waited until today to update because I had my level 2 ultra sound this afternoon and figured that I would wait to write so that I could give the news either way. Luckily this weekend went by pretty quick with our preparing to move. We're pretty excited to get all moved into the new place. We still have quite a bit of packing to do including but not limited to the entire kitchen, all of our clothes and the linen closet. Ah well, we have until Thursday evening!

Get to the baby details, right? So, our appointment was at 3pm and I had to work until 2:30. Around 1:30 I started feeling very anxious to where I could literally feel my insides shaking and I felt very nauseous and just couldn't sit still. Morgan was able to come so we met there before our appointment. Of course I was assuming the worst. I think I was most scared of them pushing the amnio or just assuming that I was going to do it and I would feel uncomfortable telling them that I did not want it. I really need to learn how to be my own advocate and not be afraid to speak up.

So anyway we went back to the examination room and as soon as the ultra sound tech came in I asked about the amnio and when that would be brought up in the appointment. She said she would do the ultra sound and the doctor would come in after he reviewed the ultrasound and talk to me about the amnio. Well, she did the ultra sound and unfortunately most of it was out of my line of sight but Morgan was able to see the whole thing. I saw some of it. She did her measurements and later showed me certain things. The baby weighed 5 ounces which is right on with where it should be. Most of the measurements (head, brain, legs, arms, etc) were right on with where I should be and put me around the 45th percentile, so pretty average. She said that things looked fine but that she would have the doctor come in to look at things. 

The doctor came in and said that he thought everything looked great and talked to me about the amnio and the risk associated with it. He said that according to the ultra sound, he would decrease my risk from 1/170 to 1/300 and that my risk for miscarriage with an amnio was 1/250 - 1/300. We had decided prior to the appointment that unless there were severe markers during the ultra sound, we wouldn't do the amnio. The doctor said that they look for 5-10 markers of down syndrome and the baby had 0. This was great news and it felt as though 500 pounds had been lifted from my shoulders and my chest. 

Sooo, more news. During the ultra sound she asked if we wanted to know what we were having if she was able to tell and we said that we did. She pushed a little bit and all of sudden says "theres a little boy in there" - WHAT!? A boy!? Morgan literally said "What did you say?" HA! When the doctor came in he asked if she told us what it was and we told him yeah, it was a boy, and he was like, "of course, theres the penis!" - it was pretty clear as day. I was told to look for a hamburger for a girl and a turtle for a boy, it surely did look like a turtle.

 We were soo sure that it was a little girl. We both initially really wanted a little boy but after almost every single person told us we were having a girl and the first ultra sound indicated that it was likely a girl and the heart rate was always high, we thought for sure. We're both ecstatic that we're having a little boy. I'll be honest and say there's a little part of me that is sad that I won't have the little girl I had been picturing since we were convinced it was a girl. We were likely going to name her Margaux. But, it's not a girl. I'll get over not having a cute little tulle skirt on the first birthday :) But yes, we're very happy that it is a boy and most of all, that he seems to be very healthy and baking well. I can't really express how happy we are.

So, we also bought the crib and changing table this last weekend. I found one that I really like and it was on sale so we grabbed it. It should be delivered later this week. Morgan says we can't put it together for awhile. The only reason we bought it this early is because of the deal we got on it. I'm very excited :D 

Let's see, what else. I am definitely starting to show now. It still looks similar to a beer belly, but its growing outward nonetheless. I bought a pair of maternity work pants this weekend and they were so much more comfortable than my pre-pregnancy pants. 

I'd love to scan the ultra sound pictures and post them but we already packed up the scanner. I will be sure to post some later on. I am a little sad that this is my last ultra sound since they consider this to be my 2nd trimester scan and will not get one at 18-20 weeks like others usually do. I think in 10 weeks or so we will pay for the 3d/4d ultra sound so that we can have more pictures and something on CD to show the baby later! 

That's about it for this week. I have an appointment Friday afternoon with my midwife. I think we are just going to go over the results from my exam today, should be a quick appointment. Hopefully I gained a couple pounds so my midwife is happy. I do feel relieved that although I haven't really put on much weight, the little one is the right weight and height. That's what matters. 

I'll do my best to upload pictures next week. We'll see how the moving and unpacking goes!

See you next week

xo, mommy to be (to a little boy!!)

15 weeks preggo.

Football is on, that is so exciting. I call it now, football makes me go into labor, I will go in labor on a Sunday. I love football. Hope that I am not late and miss the superbowl because of the baby! :)

We did a lot of packing today and feel as though we had a really productive day. I think that I will be feeling it tomorrow as I am already feeling it in my thighs, hips and back. Poor Morgan has to lift and move everything without me. I just pack and organize boxes and that's about it. We only had one box for the baby which has its bedding set, sheets, a blanket my brother's coworkers made for us and a giraffe that Morgan's parents got us when they were out here in June.

Speaking of things for the baby, we bought a car seat and a stroller for the baby last week. I really like the look of the more modern streamlined strollers, like the Bugaboo, but cannot afford 800-1300 on a stroller. I found one similar on Craigslist and I absolutely love it!! I didn't really think that I would be so excited about a stroller, but I am. I posted a picture of it above, except ours is "aqua" in color, rather than plum. The funniest part was when we tried to figure out how to get the car seat off the base. We honestly spent about 10 minutes pushing and pulling everything we could find on both the car seat and the base and while I was resorting to Google to figure it out, Morgan found the obvious 5 inch button/pull on the back of the car seat. Then, we tried figuring out how to get the seat off the stroller so that we could convert it to put the car seat on and we basically tried everything, resulting in the wheels falling off. Hilarious. We're not first time parents or anything!

This morning I took part in a prenatal yoga workshop with Annie, she is the wife of one of the attorneys in the office I work in. I've never done yoga before so I was a little nervous. I really, really enjoyed it, though. I wish that I had the money to take part in prenatal yoga classes. But, I did buy that video so I think I will just stick to that and maybe treat myself with a class every now and again. It felt really good, physically and emotionally. 

I should probably update regarding the baby, eh? Well, the best news I have to share is that we found out last week that Morgan is not a carrier for Cystic Fibrosis, which is great and a sigh of relief. So, at this point, our baby has a 1 in 4 chance of being a carrier for Cystic Fibrosis, but has 0% chance of actually having CF. I almost cried when Morgan called and told me as I was just so relieved.

I had my appointment on Friday with the midwife. The appointment went pretty well. I actually lost a pound since my last appointment so she said she would like to see me gain 5 pounds by 20 weeks as she likes to see a 5-10lb weight gain when women reach 20 weeks. Im just going to continue doing things as I am and actually, I will probably start incorporating some exercising so I don't know if I will gain the weight she wants. Im definitely not starving myself by any means or even dieting, I think my appetite is just decreased, I eat when I am hungry and stop when I am full.  I do think that I make better choices than I did before, which is better for me. I think my change in eating habits and the pregnancy are offsetting each other. I did gain about 5 pounds right before I found out I was pregnant, so I will count that as a gain :)

She didn't seem too concerned about the down syndrome thing and said so many people have false positives and with my age, she isn't concerned. She said my NT fold measurement was 1.3, which is great and is usually a great marker for down syndrome. However, she did say that due to my elevated levels in my blood work, this puts me at risk for preeclampsia, low birth weight and/or preterm labor. She suggested that I take a baby aspirin every day, so I am doing that. I guess it keeps my blood thinner and will help prevent clotting in the placenta. 

The most exciting part was that Morgan and I heard the bean's heartbeat for the first time! She felt over my stomach, "soft, soft, soft, hard, there's your uterus!" She put the doppler on my uterus and we heard the whoosh immediately. The bean had a hr of 150bpm. Carol said that it was too close to call boy or girl - that's just an old wive's tale anyhow! We're pretty convinced it is a girl. I think we'll be shocked if we find out it is a boy, but we would be ecstatic with either a boy or girl.. I'm not sure that we even have a preference at this point; just want a healthy baby.

From here, we wait until August 16th when I have my level 2 ultrasound to see how that goes. I will be following up with the midwife the following Friday, the 20th (also moving day!). 

Cravings as of late: hot dogs and watermelon. 

Also, I just wanted to say that I feel so lucky and thankful to have Morgan by my side. I really couldn't ask for a better husband, best friend, support system and daddy to be. He's the best. 

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be. 

14 weeks preggo.

Not a whole lot to report this week. Obviously we found out about our bad test results as posted in my earlier entry. I'm feeling a little better about it and just try to focus on the positive rather than the negative, or the unknown. It is so true when I say what will be, is going to be. I really have had a pretty good week and think that the day of crying and self pity was much needed. Sometimes we all just need those days and mine was calling.

I had my first bout of morning sickness last Monday where I threw up 3 times at work within about 4 hours. I've definitely had a few other moments where I had to stop and breathe and focus so that I did not throw up.

We will find out the test results from Morgan's cystic fibrosis screening this week, likely on Thursday or Friday. I have a checkup with the midwife on Friday, so I should have more news to report next week.

I bought two prenatal workout dvds on Amazon and am anxiously waiting their arrival. I bought a yoga dvd which I think will help A LOT and then a lifting/sculpting dvd. I am going to try really hard to take more frequent walks or just get general cardio in.

We move in less than 3 weeks which both makes me sad and excited. We've been in our house for 5 years now and have made a lot of memories here. But, we will make a lot in our new home as well.

Well, I think that is all that I have to report this week. I keep saying that each week I am going to start taking pictures but I swear I am not showing (at least until night time - and that doesn't count) so maybe I will start next week. Ive definitely grown around my midsection but its not a bump yet, just looks like I've eaten one too many doughnuts.. mmm doughnuts. :)

See you next week.

xo,
mommy to be.

13 weeks preggo: keeping calm and carrying on?

Well, I spoke too soon about finally having an excellent appointment. We got a call yesterday from the testing unit and my lab work came back abnormal making the baby at high(er) risk for down syndrome. Seriously?

I am still somewhat shocked by my lab work. The NT scan alone was great (measured in at 1.1 as previously posted) but something must have been completely haywire with my blood work. I think going into the appointment I was expecting something to show up as abnormal because that seems to be the streak that we are on. But, when they showed so much optimism after my ultra sound, I was sure that everything would be just fine. So, the worry went away and when they called to give me my risk ratio, I was expecting something similar to 1:10,000, but ended up with 1:170, which is quite a difference.

Now, when you take 1:170 into a percentage, it is only like .58% which is SO minimal, but, it was enough for them to ask me to return to have a 2 level ultrasound and suggest an amniocentesis. We still haven't decided whether or not we are going to do the amnio. Its hard not to look at 1:170 and only see the 1, implying there's that chance. That's all we seem to see and consider; there's that chance. It's like in Dumb and Dumber when Llyod asks Mary what the chance of them ending up together is:

Lloyd: What do you think the chances are of a guy like you and a girl like me.. ending up together?

Mary: Well, Lloyd, that's difficult to say.. I mean, we dont really..

Lloyd: Hit me with it! Just give it to me straight! I came a really long way just to see you, Mary. The least you can do is level with me. What are my chances?

Mary: Not good.

Lloyd: You mean.. not good like.. one out of a hundred?

Mary: ... I'd say more like one out of a million ....

Lloyd: .... .......... ....... So you're telling me there's a chance.... (!?!) YEAH!!!!

No really, not to make jokes, but it is really hard not to focus on the fact that there is a chance. I think the chance of the down syndrome on top of the chance of cystic fibrosis on top of the chance we had of losing the baby due to my subchorrionic hemorrhage is just.. really overwhelming.

I went into work today and ended up leaving early because I was really upset, crying, and wasn't able to focus on anything other than everything that is going on.

So with our news yesterday, we decided to go through with the cystic fibrosis testing. Morgan will be going in this afternoon to have his blood drawn and we will know in a week or so. I go back August 16th for further testing regarding the risk for down syndrome. I have quite awhile to wait before that happens. It's going to be a long three weeks.

At this point, all we can do is keep calm, and carry on. What will be, will be; but that still doesn't make it easy.

13 weeks preggo.

I feel like I have a little more to update this week than last. So, I mentioned in my last post that it turned out that I was a carrier for CF and we were going to have Morgan tested. Well, he went to his appointment and of course, it's not covered by insurance. So, we came to the conclusion of just not going through with the testing. On Friday, Morgan's parents graciously offered to pay for the testing so that we could find peace of mind with the whole situation. I am still 50/50 on it, possibly leaning more towards not finding out. I feel like I have semi come to terms with our baby having the chance of having CF. However, Morgan's friend, his wife has CF and they suggested that we find out. While finding out now isn't going to change anything for the baby we have brewing in the belly, it may change things for the future when we think about having more kids. If Morgan is a CF carrier, we may rethink having additional kids. I think that since the test is graciously being paid for, we may as well take advantage of it. If it turns out that Morgan is a carrier, we can research more on CF, educate ourselves a little more and prepare as much as possible for what may be. And if he is not, we breathe a sigh of relief.

We had our nuchal translucency test on Friday. I do have to admit that I was pretty nervous going into it. We were referred out to a special testing office that would do all the testing for us. We got in the room and they got right to work. They put the thing on my abdomen and I saw the baby up on the screen (they had a TV on the wall for you to see what was going on) immediately.. and at first I did not see any movement and of course, got nervous. But, all of sudden, we both saw these arms just moving all around, the head moving up and down and the legs kicking back and forth. It was absolutely amazing and both Morgan and I sat there with our bottom jaw to the ground. The nurse was asking questions and I couldn't even answer because I was simply so amazed by what I saw on the screen. I thought that seeing a little heartbeat at 6.4 weeks was exciting - this was just amazing. For the first time, we saw what actually looked like a baby and saw movement and could actually tell what the movement was (ie: arm, leg or head movement). I think we were both shocked and weren't expecting what we saw.

The doc came in after the sonographer finished and she said that everything looked great! I asked what the measurement was and she said it was 1.1, which, from my research, seems really good (however, now I am wondering if it measured too small for 13 weeks?). Either way, they drew blood and will come up with actual risk ratio and call me on Tuesday with the results. They do a combination of measurements, my age and my blood results. If I remember correctly, she said the baby measured in at about 6.7cm (ultrasound said 7.3 so I am not sure what to believe) and if I remember correctly, the heartbeat was around 158.

We received more great news from my appointment; the doctor said that she could not find my subchorionic hemorrhage!! This is great news. With the massive amounts of brown blood I was passing, I was hopeful that it meant that my clot was resolving itself, but it looks like it did! I am not 100% sure that it is gone, but the fact that she did not see one and they look for any kind of abnormalities on the ultrasound, I think we are in the green :) This is a huge sigh of relief for us.

Up until Friday, I was having a pretty hard time accepting the pregnancy as real and that the baby really was going to come. I also struggled with connecting with the baby growing inside of me because I was so afraid that we were going to lose it that I was constantly preparing myself for the worst. However, when we saw that little bean moving around like crazy, I found myself immediately protective of this little human developing. I have this new found sense of excitement about the baby and it all seems a lot more real to me that we will be mom and dad to more than 4 fur kids in about 6 months time! I can't wait until my next ultrasound appointment. Also, can't wait until we hear the heartbeat for the first time since we haven't been able to do that yet!

What is great is this perfect timing. Today is my 29th birthday and it is also my milestone of making it to the 2nd trimester! What a great birthday present that is.

Also, above are the two pictures from the ultrasound on Friday. The first one is belly down (how the baby was laying throughout the ultrasound) and you can see the little legs and possibly an arm (and what a belly!). The second picture is a shot front-on of the face (head to the right). It looks very alien-like, my, what a huge forehead you have! If you turn your head to the right you can make it out a little better.

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.