Tag: pregnancy

Bonus unscheduled belly shot

Do I look like I’m shrinking? I think it’s a combination of the “slimming” black and maternity jeans that are sucking in my belly. They worked a little too well and I had to ditch them for pj’s early this evening because my tummy hurt. I actually laid down and kept track of the time wondering if we would be making a trip to L&D at Ridgeview. 10 minutes later, I felt better.

19 weeks!

I’ve made it to 19 weeks! Only one more week until our ultrasound.

Babycenter.com says that Baby is about the size of a large heirloom tomato and is about 8 1/2 ounces. I’ve been feeling lots of movement. I can’t wait to find out what clothes I need to save for this little one. I’m getting very anxious to sort clothes and get rid of stuff and set up the nursery. I’m starting my lists of things I need to do!

Baby names

I’m looking for ideas for baby names. Let’s hear your ideas for names that sound like they fit with our current names: Ethan and Audrey. Should we stick with vowel starting first names? We’re not going to actually tell everyone our choice until the baby is born! And if you already know the ideas we’re kicking around, don’t list those!

Audrey is singing “Hallelujah” right now. Isn’t that cute?

Pregnancy update- 18 weeks

The whole family went together to my OB appointment yesterday. Having a family doctor has it’s advantages- like having toys in the exam rooms! Once the toys lost their appeal, tongue depressers kept the kids happy.

I had a late day appointment. Those are always a gamble. Sometimes doctors can be running behind by the end of the day. Yesterday was great though. As soon as I checked in at our station, my nurse told me I could come right back. No waiting. I’m back up to my prepregnancy weight and my blood pressure was good. I always worry about the blood pressure which tends to work against me since I should just relax so they can get a good reading! Found the heartbeat right away. It was 150 and she found it right where I’ve been feeling movement. 150 sounds like “boy” to me! She measured me at 17 weeks. Within normal range for being 17 weeks and 5 days. My due date was changed last time to June 19. I thought it was changed to the 18th so I’ve been off by a day for a month. On Friday I’ll be 18 weeks.

I asked her a few questions about my past deliveries. She told me that she thinks I don’t really feel early labor like most women. It’s not that I have such a high pain tolerance, it’s that it presents differently with me than traditional timeable stomach pain. With Audrey, my hips hurt. I thought they were going to pop out of joint just a few hours before “going into labor”.

Our ultrasound is scheduled for Feb 2 at the hospital. The next OB appointment is on Feb 18.

Pregnancy post

Almost 18 weeks here. I guess that could mean I could be half done– or very close to half done. Wow! I felt good for 6 days in a row and then got sick on the 7th. I think it was because I overdid it with the food. I just can’t overeat like I used to with my digestive system moving at a crawl.
I’ll be calling to schedule my OB appointment. I’ll try to get in this week or next. Then we’ll only be a couple weeks from our big ultrasound. Yikes! I’m so nervous this time. I’ve started feeling the baby move. I’m sure we’re still a few weeks away from being able to feel the baby move from the outside, but it’s still cool.

The kids have colds. It looks like I’ll be wiping noses all day today! We spent a couple days in Cottage Grove with my dad last week. He volunteered to give me a break. It was nice to be able to get some extra naps. *sorry, I had to run to the kitchen because Audrey informed me the “Ethan puked”.*

More snow today. Will it ever stop?

Feeling better

I don’t want to jinx it, but I think I’m feeling better. Yesterday was a really good day. I feel like I may be ready to rejoin society again!

Ethan and Audrey had fun playing with water colors and play doh for a lot of the afternoon. We ventured to Target in the morning and got some Christmas shopping done. I have not felt up to that for a while. It was nice to get out. While there, I actually saw the OB who did my ultrasound! Not being very excited about shopping in general, I didn’t last long before deciding to head home.

I don’t remember if I mentioned the baby’s heart beat in the last post. For those of you keeping track, it was 160. I weighed in at 3 lbs below where I was when we I found out we were pregnant. I was surprised to see that there was a digital display on the scale at the doctor’s office.

The kids seem healthy. Audrey is over her stomach flu. Ethan is fine except for a runny nose. Audrey wants her diaper changed all the time. Once the holidays are over, we’ll start working on potty training. Hopefully, we can be done with diapers for a few months.

Doctor Appointment today

Today was my initial OB appointment with my doctor. She didn’t need to see me until I was 12 weeks and I hit that milestone last Friday. Nathan was looking forward to going and hearing the heartbeat. However, that didn’t work out so well. Audrey was up for several hours throwing up which meant we couldn’t bring her to our friend’s house. Nathan planned to just stay with the kids and go to work after my appointment. Before I could call Marie and tell her that the kids wouldn’t be coming over, she called to tell us that 4 of her kids were sick!

The first OB appointment is much longer than the subsequent ones. It generally includes a full physical which accounts to much of the extra time. We discussed my experience with Ethan and Audrey. I mentioned my concern that I had an infection that may have helped lead to my preterm labor issues. They found that I did have it with Audrey when I went to the hospital with preterm labor and I’m pretty sure I had it and it was undiagnosed with Ethan. She screened me for underlying infections today and will start screening me again after 24 weeks. It feels good to be proactive about it.

Then she asked me about Audrey’s delivery. Looking back at my chart, she said I was 5cm when I was admitted in labor with her. She asked how long my labor was (1 1/2 hours), how long I had to push (a minute- maybe), and how far away from the hospital we were (25 minutes). She said that in cases where they worry about patients being able to make it to the hospital, they will sometimes induce them when there is evidence that the baby’s lungs are ready. If we know we’re having a girl, she would consider doing an amnio at 36 weeks. If baby is a boy, she would wait to 37 weeks (I’ve never made it that far). The results of the amnio should say whether the lungs are developed enough to deliver. If they are ready, she would induce.

Given my situation, she wanted to be very sure on exactly how far along I am because every single day makes such a huge difference in the development of the baby. So, she said she wanted me to have an ultrasound. I just needed to finish my bloodwork and wait for the OB (I see a family doctor) to have a few minutes to squeeze me in to his schedule. Finally, he had a few minutes and they jellied up my belly and looked for the baby. I’ve never experienced an early ultrasound before. The clinic machines aren’t as good as the hospital ones, but it was still cool to see. It turns out, our little one is measuring about a week ahead of where we thought. I thought we were 12 weeks and 4 days and the baby is actually measuring 13 weeks and 5 days! That moves my due date to June 18. I didn’t scan our photo, but this is a photo I found online of a baby at the same stage of development. Baby is the size of a shrimp right now.

Hard day

I’m so tired of feeling sick. Morning sickness and a horrible cold and sinus stuff if miserable. Feeling like this is so overwhelming and depressing. More than anything, I just want my mom to come and take care of me.

I miss her so much. I can’t even begin to tell you how much my heart aches. I’ve been sitting here crying for the last half hour. I keep thinking that I’ll run out of tears soon, but they keep coming.