New Routine

So last week it was time to go back to work. I was off a total of 11 weeks, 3 prior to delivery and just short of 8 weeks after. It seems like forever! It was hard to leave my boys, but honestly I'm used to working too! It's been absolutely crazy at work since I got back. December is always busy and this year is quite literally at least twice as busy as a typical December. I spent a day or so sifting through some of the over 1000 unread emails and then I threw myself into the first of several huge projects. One of our major customers needs all of their invoices for the rest of the year by Monday. It was around 150 invoices total. A coworker in Missouri has been doing some and I am doing the rest. They are the most complicated and time consuming invoices I do, so it's been interesting! I'm almost done and the deadline is Monday afternoon, so it looks like I'll be doing some work from home this weekend! AJ is thriving--he's getting so chubby and he's starting to smile more and more! He's been absolutely vicious about his bottles the last few days--growth spurt? That's difficult because he tends to eat pretty often anyway and now feedings have been as close as 1.5-2 hours! He was supposed to go in for his 2 month check up this week, but he caught a nasty cold, so we had to reschedule for next week. I'm not looking forward to shots! Hopefully it won't bother him too much, but I'm taking the afternoon off just in case. He's finally starting to do a little better at night too. If we feed him around 10 pm he is usually just getting up once a night to eat and then he lasts until 6 am. He still fights going back to sleep some mornings, but we are improving. Tyler is super excited about Christmas! We're taking him (and AJ) to see Santa tomorrow and he can't wait. He's been pretty good lately, especially since I went back to work and mom has been adjusting to taking care of both boys by herself. I'm trying to come up with some ideas of "treats" or something so he has some special times while he continues to get used to AJ being around. So I'm working tons and I still have lots of Christmas shopping to do! I can't believe it's almost Christmas and it really feels like just yesterday I was wishing for a baby for Christmas! I didn't quite get my wish last Christmas, but I have my present this year! I am especially grateful for my babies tonight after hearing about the horrific school shooting in Connecticut. I think the whole country is grieving. It's senseless. My thoughts and prayers are with all affected. There are a lot of new little angels in heaven tonight. God be with their family's as they bear the burden of a holiday without them.

Thankful

I see a lot of people on facebook listing something they are thankful for--one thing for each day in November. Since my time is limited these days I figured I'd write it all out in one blog post instead of trying to commit to remembering to post something every day. I apologize in advance if some of this is corny! Here they are, in no particular order:

1 and 2. I am thankful for my children, Tyler Nicolas and Alexander Jacob. Tyler is hilarious and adorable, He is one of the best things that has ever happened to me and he has taught me so much. I want so badly to be the best mom I can for him and he doesn't seem to mind that it's a struggle for me to try to get there! I fought so hard to conceive AJ and I am so grateful to have him in my life! His little smiles remind me of that every day!

 3. I am thankful for my wonderful husband Adam. He is the most patient, sweet, genuine, laid back person I have ever met in my life and I am so lucky to have him. I can't imagine anyone else that would put up with me and the craziness that my life sometimes is. I don't know what I would do without him. He is my rock. And he has given me such precious gifts in our children.

4. I am thankful for my mother. She is my best friend, the person I look to for advice and reassurance. She has survived so much in her life and it inspires me. She is a huge part of my life and I can't imagine not having her around.

 5, 6, and 7. I am thankful for my big sisters Nicky and Michelle and my twin sister Angie. Although I never met Nicky, I have loved and missed her for my whole life. Knowing of her has taught me to appreciate what I have and to never ever forget those I've loved. Michelle has been the quintessential big sister--always there to take care of me, watch out for me, and comfort me. We are so much alike and I love that I can talk to her about anything. Angie makes me laugh like no one else in the world can. We are so different but somehow that makes us have so much more fun together. We have a bond I can have with no one else.

 8. I am thankful for my job. It's not always paradise, but I truly enjoy the people I work with and the benefits of my company have helped me out immensely.

9. I am thankful for my home--my hometown and my actual home. I can't imagine living anywhere else.

 10. I am thankful for my family. I love them all!

11. I am thankful for my friends, too many to list them all separately. Whether they are real life friends, "virtual friends", facebook friends or some combination therein, they each bring something special and irreplaceable in my life. Support, comfort, understanding, humor, and so much more. I couldn't exist without them!

 12. I am thankful for music. It has helped me through so many rough days!

 13. I am thankful for my education--it cost my parents (and eventually it will cost me) a lot, but I don't know where I'd be if I hadn't had the opportunities I've had.

 14. I am thankful for my struggles, because they've made me who I am.

15. I am thankful for humor, whatever way I can get it!

 16. I am thankful for butterflies. They hold a deep meaning for me and I can't see one without smiling. Beautiful and free.

17. I am thankful for the people in my life that have changed me, sacrificed things for me, and taught me things.

18. I am thankful for the teachers in my life--teachers by trade (Mrs. Redding and Ms. Joseph especially) and the family and friends that have filled that role in times.

19. I am thankful for experiences--trips I've taken, things I've seen, heartbreaks, and triumphs.

20. I am thankful for chocolate and frozen cokes!

21. I am thankful for coworkers that have understood me and supported me (Michele, Sherry, Tod, Toni, Barb, Kerry, Mandy and many others).

22. I am thankful for my struggle with infertility. It has opened me up to a whole world of special woman. I feel blessed to know their stories and have felt their support. To share something like that brought some amazing woman from all over so close to me.

23. I am thankful for my creativity. I'll probably never make a life out of it, but it brings me so much enjoyment to belt out a song in the car or finish a story or poem.

24. I am thankful for stories. I love to be brought to laughter and tears by a great book or movie.

 25. I am thankful for my family members that have died. My sister, my great aunt, my grandparents...the memories I have of them are priceless.

26. I am thankful for my health and the health of those I love. So many are not so fortunate.

27. I am thankful that I am able to share what I have with others.

28. I am thankful that I am a little bit of a sap, because I think it means I enjoy things that others don't notice.

29. I am thankful for inside jokes and old family stories.

30. I am thankful I have so much to be thankful for!

AJ's Arrival!

WARNING--this post contains details of my labor and delivery and might be a bit TMI for some.

As of Tuesday (10/9, the day after my due date) my cervix was still long and closed. I left the doctor's office discouraged and fully expecting to come back in a week to make a final decision between induction and c-section. 

I felt completely normal Wednesday and Thursday, so imagine my surprise when I woke up at 2:30 am on Friday, rolled over, and felt a gush.  Then another.  I got up and went to the bathroom.  My underwear were soaked with fluid.  I was pretty sure it wasn't urine, it seems thicker somehow.  There was a tiny bit of blood on the TP as well.  I sat there for several minutes, unsure somehow of what I should do!  I felt crampy, but I didn't think I was having contractions.  I cleaned up and went back into the bedroom and woke up Adam.  I told him what was going on and we lay there for a few minutes until I realized I was having some small contractions and we should probably start timing them.  Adam got my phone for me and I started to try to track my contractions.  They were very mild, but coming about every 3-4 minutes and lasting 45-60 seconds each.  Adam started googling labor facts on his phone while I timed for about an hour.  It seems like this was the real deal, so I called my doctor's office to have the OB paged.  There are three doctors in the practice and one of the two I don't know well (Dr. B) was on call.  She called me and said I should definitely head to the hospital and they could check me out and make sure it was my water that had broken and see if my cervix was changing.

It was strange.  I don't know why, but I just never though my water would break, much less at home without any warning signs before.  But we pulled ourselves together, got dressed and threw a few extra things in my suitcase.  We went downstairs and woke up my mom so she could keep an ear out for Tyler.  We said we'd call when we knew if it was real or not and off we went.

On the drive to the hospital, I was getting more sure that this was really happening.  I had a few contractions that in my words "weren't fooling around".  We got to the hospital about 4:00-4:30 and filled out some forms and then they took me to the triage room.  I changed into a gown and the nurse did a quick check.  She said it was definitely my water that had broken and I was 1 cm dilated, so I was definitely being admitted and we would have our baby definitely within 24 hours!

They moved us to our own room and got me all hooked up.  AJ was looking good, so they said they'd let us sit tight and see if I could make progress on my own.  I would have liked to be able to get up and walk to help the progress along, but Dr. B said no because my water had already broken.  Apparently when the water has broken there is risk of the cord prolapsing if you're up and moving too much.  So at about 6:00 am the checked me again and I was 2-3 cm.  I was happy because that meant no pitocen yet!  They waited a few more hours and while my contractions were good I hadn't progressed, so pitocen was started.  I really hate that stuff!  After a few hours I'd progressed to 3-4 and the contractions were getting really painful.  I decided to go ahead and get my epidural.  Everyone was sent out but my nurse April (who was awesome) and the anesthesiologist.  He placed my epidural and my heartrate went up and my blood pressure went down.  I could feel my heart racing but I felt okay otherwise.  The doctor said it was possible that the needle hit a blood vessel, so to be safe they wanted to take it out and redo it.  The second time I started to feel lightheaded and faint.  They put me on oxygen and after a few minutes I felt a little better.  The doctor said the first epi didn't hit a vessel (no blood when he removed it) so it probably had something to do with the baby's position in the uterus.  I didn't seem to "like" being on my left side and the doctor said that could effect the epidurals effectiveness on my left side, but we'd see what happened.  Things calmed down a little after that and my family came back. Tyler was even there, he was so excited that "his" baby was coming!  For awhile, the epidural worked well and I felt okay.  My cervix was progressing but baby wasn't coming down very quickly.  After awhile I started having pain low down on the left side, so they decided to let me try to lay on the left for awhile.  Then I ended up laying too flat for awhile and my left arm and upper back were getting numb, so they sat up up and turned me over again.  The nurse checked me and thought I was probably about 7 cm, but she couldn't feel my cervix on the right, so she had another nurse come in to check and she said I was completely dilated!  They had turned down my epi a bit because of the extra numbness up high, so I was starting to get more uncomfortable again.  The anesthesiologist and I had a few words about pain vs. pressure, to which I assured him I knew the difference.  Dr. A was on by then (still not my usual doctor, but very nice. She was on all weekend so I knew she'd end up delivering AJ) so she came in and we got set up to start pushing.  I noticed right away that pushing wasn't bringing the relief I remembered from my labor with Tyler.  When I was in labor with Tyler, it felt so much better to push with the contractions.  This time I didn't feel better at all, in fact it seemed to hurt more.  They were also having some trouble keeping track of AJ. Sometimes they thought they might be getting my heartbeat instead of his (because mine was still high) but they weren't sure, so they put an internal monitor on his head, but they were still getting some low numbers they were a little concerned about.  I pushed for about 2 hours total, and we tried to labor down for awhile, which sucked because by then I was feeling a lot of pain and the contractions were really close together. 

We pushed awhile longer and Dr. A told me that I was pushing really well, but the baby wasn't coming down and they were pretty sure he had turned face up.  Babies are usually face down, which allows them to pass under the pelvic bone more easily.  AJ was getting caught on mine, making my contractions more uncomfortable and causing him some stress.  Dr. A tried to turn him while I pushed (OW) but it just wouldn't work.  I finally took a moment and came to the tearful decision that the risks to the baby and me were too great at this point to continue.  Dr. A asked if I wanted to keep going or switch to a C-section and I agreed to have the surgery.  I was scared that something was going to go really wrong.  Once the decision was made I just wanted it to be over!  It took awhile to get everything set up though. By then I was feeling every contraction, one on top of the other.  I was scared and in a lot of pain.  It felt like ages before the took me back to the OR. I'd been sweating and terribly hot all day and the OR was, of course, freezing.  I was shaking too, from the medications.  A new anesthesiologist was on by then (thankfully) and he was amazing!  While they got me prepped and everything he talked to me about what was happening and assured me they were going to make sure I was good and comfortable very soon.  We'd been worried that since I didn't seem to react quite right with epidurals that it might be a problem for a csection.  He assured me that it's a different kind of medication and they'd be very sure it worked before they started.  Fairly soon after that the medication kicked in and I couldn't feel the contractions much anymore.  Adam came in, all garbed up and he and the anesthesiologist were up near my head reassuring me and comforting me.  I can't say enough about how awesome the anesthesiologist was.  It was such a blur during the surgery.  It took longer than I though, really.  But at 5:05, AJ's arrival was announced!  He was brought to a warmer up in corner of the room.  I could see him a little (his feet) and Adam could see him pretty well.  His first cry brought tears to my eyes. I was so relieved it was over and he was safe!  They held him up and at very first glance he looked just like Tyler, although strangely that's the only time I thought so.  Now he just looks like AJ, to me.  They cleaned him up and weighed and measured him.  I was shocked he was so much smaller than Tyler was and WAY smaller than the 8 lbs 14 oz that I'd been told 10 days before he was born.  He'd had meconium like his brother too, but luckily they think it was after I had stopped pushing, so he didn't breathe or swallow any.  His first APGAR was 8 followed by a 9, both great numbers. Before long, Adam was holding him and showing him to me.  He was perfect and his hair was sooooo dark! Even darker than Adam's! 

After that, we just waited while they stitched me up and all that.  They got me some warm blankets because by then I was like ice.  Then they took us back to our room and got us settled.  My mom and sisters and Tyler got to come back for a few minutes before they needed to get Tyler home to eat some dinner and get some rest--it had been a long hard day for all of them.  Tyler's face was PRICELESS when he saw his brother!  I'll never forget it! He just lit up! We stayed in the hospital until Sunday night. They gave me the option to stay until Monday or go home Sunday. I wanted to be home with both of my boys and it was easier when no one had to split time between home and the hospital. AJ is now two weeks old and we are starting to get settled into something resembling a routine. He likes to fight sleep, like his brother. He likes his bottles and his paci and being swaddled (sometimes, though he likes to wriggle his arms free so he can use them to keep himself awake). While Tyler was always a little heater, AJ seems to be more apt to get cold. We visited our doctors office last week and he was up to 8 lbs 6 oz already! Our PA, Amber (who I adore) said he looks wonderful. I'm healing up pretty well after my c-section, although I'm still pretty sore. The first few days were rough but after that I actually found the recovery easier than I had with Tyler when I had the fourth degree tearing! And that's the big story! I'm officially a proud mommy of two boys! Oh and here's a few pictures!

He is here!!!!

Alexander Jacob "AJ" was born October 12, 2012 at 5:05pm via c-section. He weighed 8 lbs and was 21 1/4 inches long with lots of dark hair! We are home and doing well! Full story to come!

Waiting

Yes I'm still pregnant.  No, there are no signs of labor yet.  I've been getting a lot of phone calls and texts and every time I call anyone they think it's "the call". LOL  But no, even though I'm technically over 40 weeks pregnant I have not have my baby.  In fact, according to yesterday's appointment, I'm still not making any progress.  My final appointment is Tuesday and at that point we will schedule eviction.  I think it's sort of ironic that first I couldn't get pregnant, and now I can't seem to get un-pregnant!  LOL It's only a matter of time and I'm not in a huge hurry, but obviously there are concerns so I'm just anxious for everything to be done and over and him to be here and healthy!  AJ is still doing well and passed the NST and BPP well.  He's still pretty active and everything looks good. So we wait.

Annoyance of the day...I didn't get paid.  When I called to investigate, the quickly discovered it was just an issue of the approval being misplaced and therefore not processed.  They cut a check by the end of the day and Adam picked it up before coming home.  Trouble is, the number didn't seem quite right to me, to the tune of $180.  I compared two of my paystubs and realized it was a tax issue.  According to our corporate office, short term disability is taxed differently than regular pay.  A LOT differently.  GRRR Uncle Sam!  I'm going to check on this, and I think my mom is going to check with the IRS, because that just seems pointless and unfair.  It would have been nice to know this soon, right?

*sigh*

At Peace with the Plan

So I saw my OB today for another cervical check.  Still no progress on dilation and she wasn't able to strip my membranes, although she tried very hard.  I did lose my plug when she checked me though.  I'm frustrated about the lack of progress, but I feel so much better because she was suddenly totally on the same page as me.  We are giving it more time and we will induce at 41 weeks if I get that far.  I'm still hopeful that things will change and progress quickly and naturally, but I am at peace with this plan and that feels good!

Final Countdown Frustration

Well, I have made it to October!  And how!  Tuesday I went to the doctor and discovered that I've made zero progress.  My cervix is long, closed, and posterior.  I was really really disappointed.  My OB asked me if I want a C-section.  I do not want this at all.  I was totally taken aback, I'm not even to my due date yet.  The NST and BPP had gone fine, AJ seems to be doing perfectly fine, just no interest in being born yet!  They are estimating him as 8 lbs 14 oz.  I know they are concerned for me to delivery a baby of that size, considering the fourth degree tearing I had with Tyler, but I know that the estimate can be wrong, even way wrong!  Plus, there is no reason to think I'll have that problem again.  Last time I agreed to using the vacuum, something I won't do this time. I think that really contributed to it.  And why are we jumping to c-section, not discussing induction?  Granted, I don't want either one, but I'd rather try induction again than major surgery.

My OB suggested I come back Thursday to be re-checked.  I don't really expect a lot of progress, given that it will only have been two days.  I'm doing what I can to encourage progress, but I still haven't dropped and haven't noticed any physical signs that I might be progressing, so I'm prepared to tell them that I don't want to consider a c-section or induction until my due date has passed.  I have an appointment Tuesday and we'll see where we are then.  I also want them to explain why they are so concerned and why they think I need a c-section. I'm not scared to tear again.  I don't want to, obviously, but if it happens I can deal with it. I really doubt it would be really terrible.  I know there is a chance of some real damage, but I don't think that will happen. I also get that with NO progress at all, induction might not be effective, but couldn't we try?  We could always switch gears later, if nothing happens or AJ doesn't tolerate it. 

It's frustrating. Of course I want my baby here.  But I just wanted this to happen they way it's supposed to, without drama.  I am determined to give it a little more time.  Then I will consider my options.

So for now, me and my watermelon sized baby are enjoying pineapple (with the core), raspberry leaf tea, and LOTS of walking.  I don't assume any of this is a miracle fix, but it can't hurt, right?

And if my blog world could send some labor vibes my way, I'd appreciate it!  Come on AJ, let's do this!

Pumpkin Pie

I went to look up how big AJ is this week and found out he's the size of a pumpkin!  And now I want pumpkin pie! 

I went to the doctor today and things are about the same!  My uterus is "irritated" and they are picking up contractions on the NST, but my cervix is still long and he's very high, so she didn't fully check for dilation, but I assume I'm not making a lot of progress.  He was hanging out on my right side today, which isn't the norm, but he's still head down and she said she couldn't see his face because he was facing down, so at least he's going the right direction.  I don't think he's really dropped at all though!

Being off work has helped my pain a lot.  This morning was the first time I started fretting about work--I woke up at some point last night and starting thinking about something I needed to call my boss about.  Trouble is, I don't remember what it was now! 

So I'm measuring 41 weeks--whew!  They didn't estimate the baby's size this week, so we'll have to wait until next week for an update on that.  Aside from that, we're getting some things done around the house--not that I'm helping much!  All the baby clothes have finally been washed and we moved Tyler's playhouse to the garage to make room for the pack n play.  Hopefully the baby's room will be pretty much done and set up by the end of next weekend!  My bag is partially packed and outfits have been bought for coming home from the hospital. 

Another purchase, thanks to my big sister, AJ's Halloween Costume!!

HOW CUTE IS THIS?!

That's about it for updates...Just sitting around waiting for things to start happening!  Oh, one last thing, if I could ask for some prayers--one of the dear friends I mentioned in my last blog got bad news regarding her pregnancy today....it's not viable.  I'm absolutely heartbroken for her...she's been through way too much, most of it in the course of the last 12 months.  Sometimes life is so unfair...if any of my readers could say a little prayer or send her some good thoughts, I'd really appreciate it. My heart breaks for her. :(

Until next week, unless I have anything exciting to report until then! :)

Something to celebrate!

37 weeks and we have officially made it to term!  Baby is as long as a stalk of swiss chard.  Sunday my mom and sisters threw me a baby shower to celebrate.  We had a lot of fun!  We took on some ambitious projects--we love these, but so often they don't come out right. This time I was thrilled with the results!  Take a look:

Fruit cradle!!!  SOOOOO YUMMY!

Baby cupcakes

Gotta have chocolate cake!

Having fun!

It was a fun party and it was nice to celebrate AJ's coming arrival!  I got some adorable things too!  His room is shaping up!

A gift from big brother!! Tyler painted this!  I love it!

Friendly monster from Aunt G!

Love these sparkly letters from Aunt Patty!

Monster decals!

This adorable blanket is super soft and matches the set we picked out for his room. Thanks Auntie Roxy for sending it!

Frame, monster book and toy!

I also got a huge surprise at work!  My coworkers pitched in and gave us a great new glider for the baby's room!  We had just agreed that we were going to have to make due without a second glider because we just didn't have the extra money right now.  I was so surprised I cried!

LOVE IT!

Tuesday I had my OB appointment.  AJ was lazier during the NST this week, but they got what they needed and he aced the u/s.  He's estimated at 7 lbs 10 oz and measuring about 40 weeks already!  Apparently some contractions were showing up on the NST so that give me hope that my body will do what it's supposed to!  My belly measures 38 weeks and my blood pressure and everything looks fine.  However, my OB decided that it is time I slow down and stay close to home, so I am officially on maternity leave.  It was hard to go to work and set everything up and know I wasn't going to come back until after the baby is born!  It was harder than I thought to let it go and leave!  I'll miss my coworkers, but staying home has already improved the pain I've been having and it's nice to be able to get some extra rest while I can!  Tyler is enjoying having me home and he likes to come in and "visit" me!

I can't believe how close we're getting to AJ's arrival!  I feel so lucky!  The last couple of weeks has brought some great news to several of my wonderful online friends that have had terrible struggles with infertility and pregnancy loss.  Four friends that have have had devastating losses are expecting again.  One has had a ton of miscarriages and the terrible loss of her son who was born at 23 weeks.  Another gave birth to her son early in the second trimester.  A third has had too many miscarriages to count and the fourth had an ectopic, two chemical pregnancies, and then a horrific loss of her baby daughter at around 20 weeks, who had a severe heart defect and chromosomal problems.  These ladies are true survivors, but they have been through hell and I am praying my hardest that these pregnancies will result in healthy babies for them.  My rainbow baby will be here soon and I hope they will get this same this time.  It really reminds me just how lucky I am!

Final Month!

36 weeks pregnant and we're into the final month (hopefully) of this pregnancy!!!  In some ways I can't believe how fast it's gone and yet 4 more weeks seems like a lot!  AJ should be the size of a crenshaw melon this week, whatever that is.  My guess is that he's already closing in on the watermelon sized full term baby!  No weight estimate this week, but odds are he's about 1/2 lb more than this time last week, so he's probably 7 lbs 4 oz by now.  Just 1 lbs, 3 oz more than his big brother weighted at birth!  If he puts on weight at the rate of 1/2 lb per week (and if he's born around his actual due date) he might weight around 9 lbs 4 oz!  WHEW!  We'll see!

My body is still taking quite a beating at this point.  The hip and pelvic pain has gotten really bad, especially when I first get up from sitting or lying down.  I'm walking around work fighting a grimace a lot of the time!  Also on Saturday morning I woke up at 4:30 am with a horrible charlie horse in my left calf, followed by waking up at 7:00 am with an identical one in my right calf!  The muscles are still really sore!  Ah, late pregnancy :)

This week I met the second of three OB doctors at the office I go to.  They like to schedule each patient with an appointment with the other two doctors during the last month of your pregnancy so that you are comfortable with whoever happens to be on call during your labor. She was nice, but I felt a little rushed, so I didn't really get the chance to ask questions.  She didn't even mention what I was measuring.  I was at the OB's office almost 3.5 hours today, but my NST and BPPs went great and AJ looks good and is still head down, though not engaged yet.

So we're plugging along!  AJ does lots of rolls and I feel him high and low--he's really stretching out in there and running out of room!  He gets the hiccups a lot too!  I even think sometimes I can see him practicing breathing as my tummy rises and falls--it's too quick to be my pulse, too slow to be his, so I'm guessing it's his little chest rising and falling!  Sunday my mom and sisters are throwing me a small baby shower, so I'm excited about that.  I'm getting very anxious to meet my new little man!!!

Two miscellaneous things I wanted to mention...Though I'm reaching the end of my pregnancy and obviously pretty removed from my infertility struggle, I have not forgotten what it was like.  Although it was more documented in my countdowntopregnancy.com blog, it was mentioned here and I have shared some of that journey.  That struggle has opened me up to an huge online community of forums and blogs.  I am an avid reader of at least a dozen blogs of woman who are or have struggled with infertility.  One of those dear women suffered a devastating loss last week. So here's a tiny shout out to Sometimes.  My thoughts and prayers are with her.

Finally, I can't post on this particular date without acknowledging it.  Eleven years ago the world changed forever.  That day and in the days since, our country and the world lost thousands of innocent people.  Today my heart goes out again to the people effected by the events of that day and the war that has ensued.  For my "where were you" post, go here.  God Bless America. I will never forget.

Lwaddling

This week AJ should be the size of a coconut.  According to our ultrasound this morning, he weights around 6 lbs 12 oz.  He aced his NST and BPP and was really active after a quiet weekend!  My belly measures 37 weeks and I had group b strep test.  The nurse also checked my cervix but it’s still long and thick, so AJ should be staying put awhile longer.

I'm feeling okay, but I am having a lot more pain and discomfort this time around!  My hips, back and pelvis are really sore all the time.  Today in particular I'm having trouble walking.  I'm  limping AND I'm waddling.  I'm Lwaddling.  I imagine it's comical to watch!

We finally made some progress on AJ's bedroom! We finished clearing everything out and cleaning and yesterday we painted the walls and ceiling.  We are doing a theme called “Peek A Boo Monsters” and we will be stamping and painting accents on the walls later to go with some decals we are going to get.  The background is basically white with a tiny tinge of blue (called Ice Castles).  I am so glad we finally made some progress!  Adam was a trooper, spending hours taking down the one wall of wall paper and painting the ceiling and my mom and twin did a ton of painting too.  Tyler and I helped as well before succumbing to naptime!  Still left on the to-do list is putting up a chair rail and adding our stamps and accents, plus cleaning the floors and bringing in furniture.  My mom also came up with the idea to let Tyler paint his own picture on a canvas to put in the baby’s room, a present for his brother!  I’m really excited about that!

5 more weeks!

I need someone to come up with post titles for me.

Whew!  34 weeks and I'm carrying a cantaloupe around what used to be my waist!  It feels like much more than that!  My appointments went well and AJ cooperated nicely with the NST and ultrasound.  I saw my OB as well and so far everything is looking good.  My belly measures about 36 weeks and my blood pressure and AJ's heartbeat are both perfect.  She agreed that I'm probably having quite a lot of braxton hicks contractions.  Of course her recommendation is to rest and lie down and drink lots of water.  I can't really rest and lie down at work, but I'm trying to be good and drink more water, as much as my body protests all the long walks to the bathroom.

I have all the typical complaints of a heavily pregnant woman--fatigue, back, hip and pelvic pain, bouts of nausea and indigestion, etc etc etc, but for the most part things seem to be going smoothly.  I am very happy to be finished with the most hectic parts of work this week--this was the week I needed to get through the most at work.  We are preparing for an upgrade of our system, so month end was rushed up a bit.  I also finished writing up procedures for literally every task I do and most of the people who will be doing them in my eventual absence have been trained.  I am relieved to know that if something happens and I have to be out tomorrow, I've done what I can to responsibly prepare everyone as well as I could.  For now, I don't have any immediate plans to be out of work, but it's nice not to worry about it.

We're hoping that the long holiday weekend (and the huge amounts of rain we are expecting thanks to Tropical Storm Isaac) will allow us to make more progress on the baby's room.  My personal goal for the weekend is to clear it out completely and get it totally cleaned.  I'd love to have the wall paper removed from the one wall (who does that?) so that it's ready to paint too, but we shall see if we get that far!

Next week yet another OB appointment (of course with NST and BPP including another weight estimate) and the dreaded Strep B test :-P  I officially see my OB (or one of the other OBs on staff--they want their patients to meet all three OBs so that we are comfortable with whoever is on call when we deliver) every week from now on.  Unbelievably I have only 39 days until my due date!  8-O  It's hard to imagine being a mommy of two!  I hope I'm ready!

Check Out Baby Big Head!

5 points for knowing the movie this post title is from :D

33 weeks pregnant!  Little Alexander is the size of a honeydew melon this week, according to my ticker.  According to Tuesday's ultrasound, he's estimated at about 5 lbs 12 oz--in the 95th percentile for his gestational age.  Overachieving little chunker!  He's doing well and my fluid measured fine for the second week in a row, which makes me think the first high measurement was probably off.  He was nice and active for the NST too--a little too active, he kept running away from the monitor which makes the test take forever.  That and the fact that the medical assistant kept leaving the room and coming when he'd been off for awhile.  I'm going to start "finding" him again myself when she's not in the room.  No OB appointment until next week, but so far everything looks good.

I think I had some braxton hicks contractions yesterday.  It occurred to me I never had any contractions with Tyler until they started me on petocin, so it's sort of new to me.  My belly got tight and I felt like I needed to catch my breath.  Luckily, drinking some water seemed to make them go away.  And resulted in a few extra trips to the bathroom during the night.  *sigh*

AJ finally showed his face during the ultrasound!  He has chubby cheeks and I think he was sucking his fingers!

So cute, right? :)

Another week, another appointment

32 weeks pregnant and baby is the size of jicama (google it!  I've seen them use it on Chopped!).  Today was my first non-stress test and biophysical appointment.  Well, it was actually supposed to be yesterday. I called on Monday to ask the receptionist a question about my appointment schedule and she casually mentioned that I had an appointment on Wednesday.  I told her that my paperwork said Tuesday.  She looked again and informed me that the appointment had been rescheduled because the ultrasound tech was sick.  I was annoyed, first of all because they had rescheduled me without even informing me (she claimed that they may have planned to call me later in the day), and secondly because they rescheduled me not for my usual morning appointment, but rather for 3:00 pm in the afternoon.  That causes issues for me with transportation, since Adam and I carpool to work up north and my doctor is on the south side.  Anyway, there wasn't much I could do about it, so I accepted the new appointment time.

Today I had planned to take our van to work and leave early for my appointment, but instead I ended up staying home with Tyler, who has a nasty sore throat and has been running a high fever.  Thankfully it's down to a reasonable level now, but boy is he pathetic when he's sick!  It just breaks my heart!

So first up today was my non-stress test.  If you have never had one, basically they just put a monitor on my belly where one part monitors for contractions and the other monitors the baby's hear rate.  They are looking for a certain number of accelerations within a certain amount of time.  The medical assistant hooked me up and left the room for a few minutes.  After maybe 10 minutes, she poked her head in the door and said "Your baby is boring."  Apparently AJ had chosen that moment to be napping.  She gave me a glass of ice water to try to perk him up, but it didn't really work. A few minutes later she had me roll onto my right side and drink another glass of water (I wish she'd have let me drink the water, then turn, I ended up with a wet shoulder from that move) and then gave me a sucker.  Finally, after much waiting and running away from the monitor, he gave them enough movement to satisfy them, since I was also going to have an ultrasound done.

Next was the biophysical, which is just an ultrasound where they watch for breathing and movement.  They also checked the fluid levels, which were much lower this week.  Then I had a quick appointment with my OB.  Actually, it ended up when they rescheduled me they set my appointment with a nurse instead of the doctor, but when I explained my confusion they had my OB come in anyway (*rolls eyes* communication please!).  She was pleased with everything they had seen and cautiously optimistic about the fluid level, although she noted that it's not an exact science and if the umbilical cord was in a fluid pocket it wouldn't be counted.  The bottom line is things look very good, but I will still be monitored with weekly biophysicals and non-stress tests and bi-weekly appointments.  Next week they will also check the baby's size again.  Let's see if he's still packing on the pounds quickly!

So AJ is doing well!  Tyler is on the mend, I think and I'm back at work this week and trying to get things in order to my upcoming maternity leave.  In other news the baby's room is still no where near done--really not even started--but I am considering a new theme of cute little monsters.  And that's about it for now!

Living large!

This week I'm thoroughly enjoying being off of work!  The week is flying by though, of course! Monday we went to the State Fair, a summertime tradition in my family!  It was pretty hot (though not as hot as it has been) and kind of crowded, but we had a good time!  The food was delicious!  I rented a motorized cart because I just can't walk very far without feeling pretty crummy!  Even so, my hips and back and even my shins have been sore all week!  I have found that if I stretch out my hips and back before I got to bed, I am sleeping better, which is a huge relief!  Tyler had a fabulous time, especially riding the kiddie roller coaster and the big slide on the midway. Thank goodness Daddy was there to ride with him!

Today I had my last regular appointment with my OB.  I'm 31 weeks pregnant now and next week I start going for my biophysicals and non-stress tests.  At 31 weeks, AJ should be as long as a stalk of bok choy LOL!  The appointment went well, my blood pressure is good and AJ's heartrate was in the 140's.  My OB read the ultrasound report and told me that they will be keeping a close eye on the fluid levels, since they were a little bit high. They measured at 22 at the ultrasound and anything of 25 is considered polyhydramnios.  Everything else looks good. I'm still measuring around 35 weeks and I really am feeling huge!

10 weeks to go!!??

30 weeks pregnant!  I can hardly believe it!  AJ is now the length of a cucumber!  Or is he?  According to the ultrasound I had last Thursday, he's probably a bit bigger than that already.  But let me start at the beginning of the story...

Thursday morning my mom, Tyler and I all piled in my van for my OB appointment.  They go with me because, well, they are there and I like to have a second set of ears around at my appointments.  Plus I was having an ultrasound and who doesn't want to see baby on ultrasound??  So we aren't two minutes down the road before we have to turn around because the road was closed due to construction.  While we were re-routing, the van started to overheat.  Very quickly.  So, new plan.  We rushed back home and I got in my mom's car. Since we didn't have time to move the car seat (and Adam wasn't there to do it) I went on to my appointment alone.

So back to my ultrasound...the tech started out by taking measurements.  Every time they take a measurement via u/s there is a little ticker thing that counts, in week and days, what the measurement is coming out to.  She measured his head, his belly, his femur, etc and each time the measurement was NOT showing up as 29 weeks, but rather in the 31-32+ week range.  She also measured the amount of fluid around the baby.  Then she told me that AJ is measuring at just under 4 lbs already!  WOW big baby!!!  I was actually a little nervous about that!  He's measuring solidly at about 32 weeks and in something like the 97% in terms of size.

So he's big.  He's also looking very healthy, which is awesome!  He was hiding the fibroid, so she couldn't see it very well, but she was pretty confidant that it hasn't grown, which is also good.

Next I had an appointment with the nurse, because my OB was on vacation.  Megan was very nice and assured me that it's okay that he's measuring a little big right now. That tells us that for now, the fibroid isn't restricting his growth, which is good.  Even though we'd check the heartbeat during the ultrasound, she measured it again with the dopplar--steady 140-150 range.  She measured my belly and I am WAAAAAAAAY ahead of the curve, measuring a whopping 35 weeks.  Remember, I was just over 29 weeks at this appointment!  Again she told me not worry about measuring big.  She listed these reasons for me to measure ahead:

1. Big baby--According to her, the ultrasound could be up to .5 lb off, but regardless, he's a good size baby for his gestation.
2. The fluid levels are measuring on the high side of normal.  Again, not a concern, but certainly a factor in a larger measurement.
3. Big fibroid--it's still there, measuring at least 5 cm.  Get out your ruler--that's a pretty decent sized thing in there.
4. Not my first baby--everything stretches out easier the second time.
5. Naturally larger physical build--I'm not a petite girl!

So all in all she said they would have been worried if I wasn't measuring "huge" (yep that was her word).  She said that they will continue to watch closely for signs of pre-term labor, a risk factor of having fibroids.  She seems to think that the baby being larger and me measuring bigger could also contribute to me going into labor naturally before my due date.  She said there will me more weight and pressure on the uterus and that can encourage things to start on there own.  Of course they would work to stop any labor that occurs before 37 weeks, but after that, they'd let the baby come.  Even though they seem to be pretty confidant that I will go into labor naturally, maybe even early, I can't seem to imagine it.  I mean, last time I was scheduled for an induction.  I just showed up at the hospital when they told me to, and they did their thing.  I can't imagine how it would be to go into labor at home or at work.  I just can't wrap my head around it!  I guess we will see though!  Hopefully my body does what it is supposed to do!

So everything looks good!  My blood pressure is good, no protein in my urine and AJ seems great.  This is my last week without a doctor's appointment!  Next week I have a regular appointment and then I start weekly appointments with BPPs and NSTs.  They have actually scheduled my appointments through my due date!

So, back to the van.  We managed to get it to a mechanic Thursday afternoon and unfortunately not long after we dropped it off they called me to say that it looked like we had a blown head gasket in the engine.  The mechanic was pretty frank at saying that to repair it would cost at least a "couple thousand" dollars.

Yikes. Not at all what I'd expected to hear.  Not at all what I wanted to hear.  We bought this van two years ago when Tyler outgrew his baby car seat.  We were driving a crossover (a Pontiac Vibe) at the time and discovered that our fancy convertible car seat, generously provided by my employer, was too large to fit rear-facing in the back of the car!  Since Tyler was way too young to be forward facing at the time and even a small car seat would leave us no room for passengers in the back seat, we decided to trade it in for a van.  We would have finished paying the darn thing off later this year, something we were looking forward to. It's been quite some time since we only had one car payment.

Adam and I have some savings, but we don't have THAT much.  After talking about it, we decided to have the van towed to a local dealership where my dad works.  We wanted to have their service center give their opinion and make absolutely sure about what we were dealing with.  Then, if the repairs were going to cost more than the van was worth, we'd see if we could trade it in.  We went to the dealership Thursday afternoon and evening to start filling out paperwork and taking a peek at options, just in case.  Tyler had a good time.  We entered one show room featuring a fancy red sports car and Tyler yelled "I like this!  We'll take it!" Such a boy!

Fast forward 24 hours and the verdict was in.  Blown head gasket and probable cracked engine block.  Translation?  Strong possibility of needing a totally new engine.

So that meant it was back to the dealership to see what we could do.  It was a long night and not without stress (they wanted to give us very little in trade, which freaked me out into thinking we wouldn't be able to get a payment we could afford) but in the end, they made it work.  We drove home with a 2002 Honda Odyssey.  It's in good shape, with decent miles and lots of space inside.  My favorite feature is the automatic doors on both sides--our old van only had them on the passenger side and with another baby coming that second door will come in handy!  I'm bummed that we had to sign on for another 3 years of car payments and we'll be paying a little more per month than we will, but all in all, it worked out and we have two reliable modes of transportation, so that is what counts.

WHEW week 29 was pretty eventful!  Hopefully week 30 will be quiet, I need a break!  So much so that I have decided to take next week off of work!  I had a week of vacation left and there won't be much time left in the year when I return from maternity leave (and work will be insanely busy), I decided to go ahead and take it.  We're having a yard sale this weekend at the house and the State Fair starts this weekend, so hopefully the weather will be decent enough (read: not as hot as Hades) that we can go enjoy a day at the fair.  Adam is going to work most of the week, to save his vacation time for when the baby comes, but mom and Tyler and I will find some fun things to do and maybe I'll make some more progress on the baby's room!

Check out baby AJ's latest photo shoot!

He doesn't like to show his face, so this was the best we could get. The tech said he was snuggling the cord, it's up by his face.

BIG FOOT!

And me, 30 weeks and feeling huge!

Squashed

29 weeks this week!  My ticker--which I think I have figured out only changes once a month now--proclaims baby boy to be the size of a squash!  That's getting pretty darn big!  It says the baby could be 3 lbs or more by now.  My ticker also tells me I have only 77 days left until my due date.  That seems like a very short amount of time!

I'm still feeling decent.  Evening naps aren't an absolute must anymore, but I find that it's better to limit skipping them to just a couple of times a week or else I pay for it!   My discomfort level is rising fairly rapidly, between AJ invading my lung space and stretching pains along the sides of my belly.  I'm also more uncomfortable at night in strange ways.  My shoulder, ship and even my EAR feel bruised and sore after laying on them for awhile.  It's really bizarre!  You'd think I was sleeping on a wooden board instead of a pillow top mattress.  I'm starting to be pretty encumbered by belly as well.  Putting on  shoes and pants is starting to be more challenging.  I'm (sort of) glad it's warm because sandals are much easier to put on myself than shoes with laces and there is no need for socks EVER.  My stomach appears to be getting a little sensitive again...I'm hoping it's not signalling the full blown third trimester return of morning sickness--I had that with Tyler.  For now, it's sending me back to the Tums container and turning me off of food just a little bit from time to time.  Hopefully it doesn't get worse.

Thursday is my next appointment.  I will be having an ultrasound to check the baby's growth and make sure the fibroid hasn't grown.  My OB is on vacation this week, so I'll have an appointment with the nurse. I'm a little bummed about that, because of course now, two weeks after she told me I'm considered high risk, I have lots of questions to ask.  But I guess they'll keep until my next appointment.

We spent Saturday running errands and then worked on cleaning out the baby's new room.  We have almost everything sorted out, just two more small bookshelves (they aren't very full), the desk (very little storage, mostly just cleaning it off), and a file cabinet (just emptying it, the contents are old and will be put in a box and taken to a shredding place) and then we just have to move stuff OUT.  We're throwing out or putting a lot of the stuff into a yard sale.  We do have a few things that we're trying to figure out where to store.  Namely our board games and paperwork. I think we'll move the file cabinet to the garage, it's fairly small.  The games may have to go on the shelves in my bedroom closet, we just don't have anywhere else to store them.  There will be a few more boxes that may end up out in the shed until we move to a bigger place.  Hopefully we can finish it up soon. I'll feel a lot better when it's cleaned out and we can start to fill it up again!

We also had our anniversary date night on Saturday.  We went to eat at Texas Roadhouse, our favorite and it was delicious!  I ordered my favorite thing on their menu and was happy that I was able to eat it! Then we went to a movie (appropriately "What to Expect When You're Expecting").  It was nice to go out together and just talk, we don't do that very often.

So that's about it!  Update to come after Thursday's doctor's appointment!

Great Eight

Today marks my eighth year of marriage to my wonderful husband!  It's hard to believe that it's been so long, and yet look how far we've come!  It also means that we've been together for a whopping 10 years!  Amazing!  We'll have a little date night on Saturday so I'm looking forward to that!

This week I am 28 weeks pregnant!  A.J. is the size of a head of iceberg lettuce, apparently LOL.  No word from the doctor's office last week means that my glucose tolerance test results came back fine, so YAY for that!  (And BOOYAH to the mean old OB that thought for sure I'd have all kinds of issues because I'm overweight.)  Unfortunately, they also haven't called with my next appointment time.  Since I'm switching to every two weeks now and they want to do an ultrasound at my next appointment, they told me they would set things up and then give me a call. My appointment was last Tuesday, so it's been almost a week. I called the office this morning and they just told me that they are still working on it.  I'm anxious to know when it will be and I'm looking forward to a little glimpse at the baby!  Plus I want to see that pesky little fibroid and make sure it's not growing.

So that's about it for updates!  I thought I'd share a few pictures too, because I haven't recently.  First, I'm gritting my teeth and posting this bump shot--I take them weekly but rarely share them, mostly because I don't like having my picture taken. And then, some pictures of Tyler to distract you :)

28 weeks

Tyler at the carnival a few weeks ago, with Daddy

At our friend's wedding on the Forth--So handsome!

Having his first ice cream cone this weekend, thanks to Mommy's pregnancy craving for mint chocolate chip!

Hello Third Trimester

This week marks the beginning of the third trimester! I can't believe 2/3rds of this pregnancy are over, but I'm not complaining!  This week my little man is the size of a rutabaga.  I'm not super clear of exactly how big that is LOL, but I know he's also probably upwards of 2 lbs now!  He can hear and open his eyes and everything! So multi-talented already!

So yesterday I had my check up and glucose tolerance test.  If I don't get a call by the end of the week I'll know that the glucose test came back fine, which I expect it to.  I'm glad that's over (assuming the test is normal) because I don't enjoy eating a hard boiled egg for breakfast followed by a really sweet orange soda that keeps giving me brain freeze.

I expected the rest of my appointment to be fairly routine--blood pressure check, measure fundal height, and listen to the baby's heartbeat.  My blood pressure was fine and the baby's heartrate came in at a solid 150.  However, I'm still measuring a little big, around 29 weeks as opposed to my 27 weeks.  Most likely, this is due to the stubborn little fibroid that was first mentioned at my 13 weeks first trimester screening.  My OB says that because I'm measuring larger, because I have the fibroid, and because I conceived while taking letrizole (femara--the fertility drug I was using when I got pregnant), they will now consider me high-risk and we'll be doing additional monitoring of the baby.

Basically, this means that I'll have an ultrasound in two weeks to check the size of the fibroid, and then starting at 32 weeks I will be seen weekly.  I will also have bi-weekly non-stress tests and biophysical profiles done.  I had a non-stress test with Tyler, it just involved being hooked up to a fetal monitor that measured his heartbeat and registered movements and any contractions I was having.  The biophysical profile apparently involves a detailed ultrasound that looks at several criteria:  heartrate increases, breathing movements, body movements, muscle tone, and amniotic fluid volume.  The baby will get a score out of 10 in these criteria.  If we get a bad score it could mean there is a problem.  They'll also be watching his growth carefully to make sure that the fibroid isn't restricting weight gain and watching for signs of preterm labor.

My ob emphasized that most of the time these fibroids don't cause any problems at all and that they just want to be extra cautious.  I'm glad that they will be watching things closely, but I can't say I'm not a little surprised.  I anxious to see what the fibroid measures at my next appointment and I guess I can just be happy that I'll get to see my little one on screen again.  I was wondering if I'd have another peek at him before the big day and apparently I'll get a lot more than that!

I am left wondering how this fibroid wasn't detected by my RE's office.  I had monthly ultrasounds with them, as well as an HSG test and an ultrasound when I was 6 weeks pregnant.  My OB even asked if I'd had an HSG and when I told her yes and that it was normal aside from my left tube not filling (which my RE attributed to cramping), she said it could have been that the fibroid is near the tube's opening and that is is actually closing off the tube.  She says it's not always easy to see a fibroid (especially one in the muscle, like mine is), especially in an HSG ultrasound, but she would have thought they would have detected it at some point.  I guess I can't be sure when this little bugger showed up, but it does make me wonder!

I also wonder what kind of concerns my OB has regarding my use of letrizole to conceive. She mentioned it when, but we ended up talking more about the fibroid and I didn't think to ask if she has any specific concerns or has seen anything worrisome in other patient's who have used the drug. I know it's not as widely used in the US as Clomid is (remember I maxed out on Clomid cycles and was using letrizole while we considered other more expensive treatment options), but my RE said it was very safe.  I guess I'll have to ask my OB at my next appointment.  The office is supposed to work on getting me scheduled for the next few appointments and then call me.

After I have the baby, they'll watch to see what the fibroid does and consider what (if anything) to do about it at that point.  Usually if they aren't causing problems, you leave them alone, but they can interfere with fertility, so we may have to address it at some point if we decide to have more children.

So, all in all not exactly what I was expecting, but the bottom line is all is well and baby and I will be watched carefully over the next 12 weeks.

Oh and yes, I believe this little one finally has a name...Alexander Jacob.  We all really like it and it lends itself to lots of possible nicknames: Alex, Xander, AJ...I'm leaning toward AJ personally.

'Til next time!

Goodbye Second Trimester!

26 weeks pregnant!!  Our baby is the size of a head of lettuce!  And his eyes may be opened for the first time!!  Maybe that explains the increase of ROLLING and SPINNING and HEAD-BUTTING I've been feeling!  A lot of girls in my due date buddies thread online have talked about the concerns of preterm delivery and it's got me very thankful that I've made it this far, since at 26 weeks the chances for survival soar to 80% from 50% and below earlier in pregnancy.  The strain of having a preemie would be terrible and scary, but it still lets me sleep a little better knowing that the baby would have a good chance! I've heard and read too many stories about late losses because the baby was too early. I can't believe I'm getting so close to the end of the second trimester!

In other news, it's still hot, which isn't really news as I'm pretty sure it's about this hot EVERYWHERE in the country right now.  We had a bad windstorm on Friday so I'm just thankful we never lost power or anything!  It's Fourth of July week, which means I only have to work three days!  Unfortunately it's a weird Monday, Tuesday, Friday work week, which means Friday will be long and boring, but I'll take it over the alternative!  One of my best friends is getting married on Wednesday, so we'll be celebrating that as well!  I stressed over what to wear, since my maternity wardrobe is pretty limited.  I considered buying a dress, but I ended up settling on a really pretty cream colored lace top and black capris--I hope it's not too casual!  Now I'm on the hunt for bright shoes and accessories to bring in some color.  Yeah, I know I'm running out of time.

I got Tyler to feel the baby moving the other day.  I'm not sure if he was freaked out or just not that interested in the whole thing.

Next week is my next OB appointment complete with glucose tolerance test.  My 8th wedding anniversary is also fast approaching!  It's going to be a busy July!

Feelin' hot hot hot...and not so hot

The National Weather service predicted a high of 105 degrees today.

I'm not sure if it's the heat, but I've been feeling crummy all day, just drained and nauseated and blah.  I'm beginning to think that even I may have underestimated the impact the heat this summer would have on a pregnant me.

25 weeks pregnant this week!  My little eggplant might be getting grilled in there with this heat, but he's getting more active every day!  In fact, I'm puzzled because I have been feeling him wiggle very low in my pelvis AND feeling bumps and thumps at the very top of my stomach--like the VERY top. I know he's not up there yet, so I can only guess that this is the result of kicks directed at the placenta that I can't feel and I'm getting some sort of shock wave from it or something. But I'd swear it felt like a fist or a foot!

Aside from today's not-so-hot state of being, I generally can't complain this pregnancy!  I have back pain and I'm still bothered by round ligament pains quite a bit (even though my OB said those usually go away by 20 weeks), and fatigue that doesn't seem to want to let go this time around, I feel pretty good for pregnant!  I guess when you spent nine months nauseated and miserable normal aches and pains and annoyances of pregnancy don't seem so bad!

Each week that ticks by makes me realize how much I have to get done for this baby!  He is still officially nameless.   We just haven't come up with anything we love yet!  We also have yet to really start his bedroom.  He will be sleeping in our room for the first few months in a bassinet, but I still want his room to be done well before he's born.  Our former office/spare bedroom is still full of junk, boxes, etc so we need to finish cleaning that out.  Then we need to take down the one wall of wall paper (Who does that?  Oh yeah, the lady that used to own our house), paint--right now I'm thinking about putting up a chair rail and painting a solid color below and doing stamps of dinosaurs or dino foot prints above--and of course bring in furniture.  We are going to swap out Tyler's bookshelf and use it in the baby's room because it's tall and not super sturdy.  We plan to transition him to a toddler bed before the baby is born (one less thing to do with a newborn in the house) and since that means he'll probably be getting out bed sometimes at night I want his furniture to be very safe.  We will move some shorter bookshelves into his room.  The changing table and at least one of the dressers will also move to the baby's room.  We will be purchasing a new chair or glider for the new babies room plus various decorative items.  We found a sort of baby dinosaur-patchwork theme set that I think we're going to use.

WHEW!  So, the to-do list is basically this:
-Clean out baby's room.
-Paint, decorate
-Transition Tyler to big-boy-bed
-POTTY TRAIN TYLER (that's ongoing, but I'm determined that it be done by the time the baby is born--Like I really have a say in that!)
-Go through baby clothes
-Check car seat to see if we can reuse it

I'm sure there is more but my brain is going fuzzy and I'm yawning so I'm done!

Viability

24 weeks pregnant and we have reached viability!  24 weeks is the earliest that most babies can survive if they are born early.  But no ideas, kiddo!  Keep on cooking in there!

Baby is the size of a cantaloupe this week!  Even though my ticker STILL says papaya!  I even generated the ticker again and it still says that, for the third week running. :-/ What's up with that?

My doctor's appointment last week was pretty uneventful. It was nice, for the first time, to not be worried about if they would find a heartbeat, since I could feel the little booger moving around!  As soon as my OB touched my belly with the dopplar, he kicked it! LOL  Heartrate was good, I've gained a couple of pounds now and everything else looks good.  My glucose test is in three week and then I start having appointments every two week!  I can't believe we're almost there already!

My sides ache since baby is stretching me out and I've having loads of fun trying to find a decent outfit for an upcoming wedding. :-P

In other news, my husband tore up the carpet in my mom's bedroom so we could lay new laminate flooring.  Unfortunately then she spent the rest of the weekend sick as a dog, even going to the ER at one point, so we didn't actually get to put the flooring in.  It only reminds me that I could never live in a house that was undergoing major renovations.  What a pain!  Hopefully we (lol he) can tackle it this weekend.  I've been watching Tyler the last two days, enjoying some time together while my mom tries to recuperate.  I realize that Tyler and I won't have that many more days with just the two of us! It's hard to wrap my head around that!

Thank you Gilbert, AZ

Dear Random Resident of Gilbert, AZ who stole or bought my debit card number,
   I hope you enjoyed your $355.07 shopping spree to Ross, TJ Maxx, and Marshall's.  I really appreciated getting a call from my bank's fraud department at 4:00 pm on a Friday about possible fraudulent charges on my account.  And I appreciated having to leave work early--missing out on some of my hard earned overtime and making me late going home and thus getting stuck in traffic, so I could go to my bank and fill out fraud paperwork.  Great way to spend a Friday afternoon.  On the plus side, my bank won't pay for those charges.  On the negative side, it could take up to 10 days for the charges to be completely reversed, which totally screwed my weekend plans (because, you know, they entailed spending money that my bank account now shows as unavailable).  I even tried to nail your ass by calling one of the stores, where I suspect you bought a $100 gift card.  My banker said he's done this before and the store cancelled the gift card, rendering it useless.  But apparently, the Ross store doesn't mind being out $100, so I guess you win on that too.  Luckily, according to the fraud department, you'd tried to spend another $200+ somewhere and it looks like you finally got denied, thank Jeebus!  I hope it caused you at least a tiny bit of shame.  Probably not, but I can hope.  Now I find out that regardless of everything I did, the charges have actually CLEARED my bank anyway.  Fantastic.

  So thanks for ruining my weekend just a little bit.  Oh, and I hope you get hit by a bus.

Bite me,
Melissa


Yeah so that happened.  Fun times.

23 weeks pregnant!  My fun food/baby size ticker is still saying baby is the size of a papaya, which is what it said last week.  Lame.  So I googled it and found a site that tells me baby is the size of a grapefruit this week.  Night time is starting to get more uncomfortable, with my neck and back starting to complain more and of course the never ending trips to the bathroom!  Baby boy likes to kick me in such a way that makes me feel like I need to "go" even when I don't.  No flutters and gentle pokes for this girl!  Nope, it's the old 80's version of Batman!  BAM!  POW!  My belly is poking out and I'm carrying very high AGAIN.  But I can safely say, I look pregnant and not just chubby :)  I've also been condemned to grocery shopping from one of those old lady motorized carts, because for some reason Sunday mornings and the grocery store equals almost passing out.  I think it's the heat, combined with everything I can possibly eat for breakfast not having enough protein or something in it.  I feel stupid, looking (I think) younger than my 30 years, certainly not hugely pregnant yet, riding in a cart with no signs of injury, but I suppose it's better than actually passing out and the embarrassment that would bring!  Plus then I can usually avoid feeling like a puddle of ick the rest of the day.  Not that it stopped me from being a complete couch potato yesterday.

Doctor's appointment Wednesday!  Shouldn't be too exciting, probably just a bp and heart rate check, plus scheduling the glucose tolerance test.  Yum I can taste the orangey sweetness now! :-P

Make Lemonade

22 weeks pregnant!  Baby boy is the size of a papaya.  I need to check one out at the store, since I'm not familiar with them.

Today, I had a pregnancy craving.  I wanted lemonade.  I went out to get some lunch at a local deli.  I ordered my sandwich and grabbed a cookie to go with it.  I paid for my lunch and realize I'd forgotten to tell the cashier I wanted a cookie.  Oh well, I figured I'd just put it back.  But then the very nice lady behind me insisted on buying it for me--did she spy my baby bump?  So nice, right?  So I got my food and a nice big glass of lemonade and left feeling pleased.

That feeling was short-lived.  I pulled into my parking space at work and my lemonade tipped over and the Styrofoam cup was impaled by an unknown object.  A horizontal geyser of lemonade poured out of the hole and spayed around the interior of my car, filling the cup and change holders and soaking the carpet beneath the radio.

I stopped and threw my door open, holding the cup outside.  After a moment I realize it was a lost cause, so I opened the lid and poured out the contents.  Then I pulled the rest of the way into the space and cleaned up the sticky mess as much as I could.

*sigh*

I went into work and ate my lunch, sans lemonade.  About 2 pm I realized I still really wanted some, so I made the long walk to the back of building to the vending machines.  We almost always have lemonade.  Not today.  Orangeade yes, lemonade, of course not.

*sigh*

But now you'll excuse me because my husband has just returned with dinner and a big glass of lemonade.

*happy sigh*

ETA:  I'm very sad to report that Bob Evans has the most horrible lemonade I've ever tasted.  Even sugar did not help.  They also forgot my cole slaw and prepared a completely inedible BLT.  I lose today.

Quite a stretch

21 weeks and plugging along!  I'm feeling pretty decent physically, but I'm really feeling some stretching in the belly area! Little man is making room!  I'm not liking to be on my feet very long, since my sides and feet start to ache.  Last weekend it was really hot and simply torture to be outside!  I almost passed out at the grocery store from the heat!  It's going to be a long summer, I have a feeling LOL!

Baby is the size of a banana this week--I'm guessing this is going by length lol.  I feel like baby is more like double that right now!  I think we're getting closer to a name decision, so stay tuned :-D

IT'S A....

BOY!!!  Yes, we are having another son, a little baby brother for Tyler!  My ultrasound went well (aside from HORRIBLE back pain from laying flat on the hard table) and everything looks great!  He seems very healthy and was wiggling a lot, but he wasn't super cooperative, not giving very many good shots of his face and crossing his legs for a lot of it! I still have the fibroid, but it hasn't grown and probably won't cause any problems along the way.

Pictures:

 Little face

 Foot--Hi-yah!

And the money shot!

We are still thinking about names, we're very picky!  I'm starting to feel more little bumps and thumps.  Baby is the size of a CANTALOUPE this week!  How did we go from a sweet potato to a cantaloupe in one week?!  Doesn't that seem much bigger to anyone else???  But that's what my handy dandy ticker tells me.  I think the tech said he weighs about 12 oz. 

I'm so glad he is healthy and well!

19 weeks and counting!

19 weeks pregnant!  Last week, baby was the size of a sweet potato.  This week baby is mango-sized!  LOL hard to believe!  I’ve been feeling pretty decent the last week or so.  I’m not as sick to my stomach, which makes a nice change!  I still am not a huge fan of food, but I’m managing alright for now.  I’m starting to show now, with a little bit of tummy poking out.  And a few days ago, I became convince that I am indeed feeling our little baby move and wiggle in there!  It usually happens a half dozen times or so a day and the number seems to be going up.  He or she has been pretty active in the last hour even!  It is great to have that little bit of reassurance and to feel that special bond, knowing that I’m the only one that can experience this right now. It’s like a sweet secret!

Speaking of he or she, big anatomy screening on FRIDAY!!!!  I can’t wait!  I don’t know how I’m going to make it until Friday at 3:30 pm!  Expect a big post Friday night or Saturday :D  Assuming baby cooperates!!!

Time flies...sometimes!

17 weeks pregnant!  In some ways I can't believe that!  My pregnancy is almost half over.  This week baby is the size of an onion (you missed lemon in week 15 and avocado last week).  I still don't feel anything in there and I'm starting to get really anxious for a few of those fun little flutters!

I saw my doctor last week and everything is good.  She found the baby's heartbeat right away this time, hanging out around my belly button.  She also scheduled me for the BIG ultrasound on May 18th.  Time is NOT flying to that date!

Also speaking of time flying...I am 30 years old today.  That's sort of mind-blowing.  I don't have big hang ups about 30, but it is something of a milestone.  In a lot of ways, I am where I want to be.

One more thing....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TWIN!!!!  Thanks for sharing your bday with me, since I shared mom's uterus with you!  Love you much!