24w5d - Ultrasound report

I had another ultrasound today to check on The Bean's kidney/bladder. Good news is that things are within normal limits at this point. The left kidney is still a bit big, but as long as it stays the same at the next ultrasound at 32wks, it won't be an issue. The bladder wall is also a bit thinner which means that it's draining more regularly too. Whew! He's vertex (heads down) and facing my spine still. Great positioning for a vaginal birth IF I WAS HAVING ONE!! Unfortunately, not so good for getting ultrasound pics so we only have one decent 3D pic from today. They even had to do a transvaginal one to measure my cervix as he would NOT move out of the way to let her see it with the abdominal transducer. Cervix is nice and long at over 5cm and no signs of funneling at the top. Also, he's measuring about 2wks ahead still. Overall, a great ultrasound. Here's the one pic we got that's decent (little stinker!).
Other great news from today is that Hubby got to go with me to the ultrasound which was great since he missed the last two by being out of town and sick with the flu. So frustrating how behind the office is though, today, we were only 30 minutes late for our appointment which is, sadly, an improvement. Oh well, what can you do. Also, my fasting blood sugar this morning was 78. They want to see it <95 and it's been around 85 or so most mornings. This was the hardest number for me to control last time, so I'm hopeful that this is a good sign for the future. We'll see.

24w3d - belly pic update

Doesn't seem to be much bigger than 2 wks ago. Weight gain is about the same too, depending on the day I'm up about 14lbs total. Blood sugar numbers still holding strong. Yay!

We have another ultrasound to check on The Bean's kidney on Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed that things are at least not any worse. Hubby will get to go this time which will be nice as he's missed the last two by being out of town or sick with influenza. We should be getting more 3D pics too.

Had a great time with my fellow bloggers at lunch on Sunday - thanks ladies!!

24w0d - OB appointment update

OB appointment went great. Blood pressure was 110/62, he's happy with the weight gain (14lbs total), and the fundal height (measurement from the pubic bone to the top of the uterus, should roughly equal the number of weeks pregnant) was 27cm. That's a whole 3 wks ahead folks! I grow 'em big! My blood sugar numbers are holding nicely and my OB was very impressed and surprised that I'm still doing handstands in yoga. Yay me! :) He wants to do an ultrasound next time at 28wks to see just how big he's getting. He and I are negotiating the c-section date too. The earliest he's readily willing to do it is 7/4, but neither of us wants to do it on the holiday so I am lobbying for either 7/3 or 7/7 (preferably 7/7) since 3 & 7 are my lucky numbers. Silly, I know. Plus, how cool would it be to have a birthday of 7/7/07?!?! Problem is, 7/7 is a Saturday, so he's going to look ahead at his schedule to see if he's going to be in town and is considering scheduling my surgery for 7:30 that morning - again, my lucky numbers!! We'll see, but I'm hoping that's how it works out.

I do my 1-hr glucose screening test next time too at 28wks. For the first time since I got pregnant again, I'm actually entertaining the idea that I just might pass this puppy! Four weeks is a long time from now and a lot of things can change, but we'll see and if the diabetes does come back, well, we'll just deal with that when it gets here. IF it gets here.

The other night, as we were laying in bed, The Bean was going nuts in there and I just watched my belly jump all around - such a trip! Hubby gets a bit freaked out by it, but he did glance over for a bit. I'm definitely going to have to get some video footage of this kid's antics for posterity.

My cold is getting better and my injured hamstring/hip is recovering well too. It's going to take a long time to get back to 100%, but it's not hindering my yoga practice so that's good.

I'm working on painting a train border on the walls of NSWO's new room and hope to be done soon. I'll take pics to post when I'm done. It's coordinating with his new bedding. I found wall stickers for The Bean's room that will work great and be easy to change once he's ready for a big boy room. I'd paint in there too, but I'd rather make it less permanent and I'm getting a bit tired of painting right now.

Very excited to be meeting a couple other fellow bloggers for lunch on Sunday too. See you ladies then!

23w2d - Happy Birthday to Hubby!

Yesterday was Hubby's birthday so we had a combo St. Patrick's Day/Birthday Party for neighbors and a few other friends. Lots of kids in the house and since the weather decided to be authentically Irish as well with lots of rain, we were all in the house. What a madhouse! So much fun though. I got a great idea to pull a small portion of NSWO's toys for the kids to play with and hide the rest of them. I also put the toys in the front living room so the adults could hang out in the kitchen/family room. Worked out great and later when we fired up the Wii (LOVE THIS THING!) there weren't tons of toys all over the floor. Only one toy got broken, but I think we can fix it, I hope. NSWO was soooo sad when he came over with his remote control spider and it's broken off leg. It was really sweet. Then again, he was really tired and overstimulated by this point.

Last week in yoga my teacher let me go up into handstand and it was so awesome! I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get up since it had been a while, but with him spotting me, I got up and it felt more stable and strong than ever. Next, I decided to try the forearm balance that I'd finally been able to do earlier this year and had a bit of trouble getting up with the belly in the way. I re-injured my left leg - the ligament that connects the hamstring to the bone got strained a bit last year while I was pregnant and it got re-injured - ouch! Seems to be doing pretty well so far. If I sit in one position too long the glutes get tight so I try to remember to sit on the heating pad for a bit to keep things loose. With the relaxin in my system it might take a long time for this to fully recover but if I'm careful it shouldn't be any problem.

I've got yet another cold - so over it. Hubby had something last week and I guess I picked it up too. Hoping to get over it quicker than the last one.

Oh, here's last week's belly shot too.

I know I promised no bare belly shots here, but the stretch marks didn't show up in this one so I thought heck, why not? Soon enough I'll look like a tributary map of the everglades, why not enjoy it for now? This was my 22wk pic. Only 12.5 lb weight gain and look at that belly! I'm gonna need to wear a weighted backpack by the end to keep from falling forward! LOL

21w6d - Feeling really good.

I am feeling a lot better at this point in the pregnancy than I remember feeling with NSWO. I'm nearly 22wks (tomorrow!!) and physically I feel really great. I'm so glad. Hubby and I went to the gym on Saturday and I got my butt back on the elliptical machine - man that was good! I had to go slow to keep my heart rate under 140 (per OBs orders) so it took 30min to get in 1 mile, but that still felt great. We're going again this weekend.

Yoga has been great too. I'm keeping up with everyone else in the class except for poses I can't do while pregnant and the only modification I have to do is to come out of the pose a little earlier than the others when my heart rate goes up. I did have to come down out of headstand early on Tuesday when this baby put too much pressure on my stomach and I could feel the stomach acid start to go up into the esophagus. Hope that doesn't continue, I really enjoy headstands and shoulder stands.

Got some great news today. I post on Fertility Friend and am in a few buddy groups of gals. One group of us got together when we were all gearing up for IVF in October and November. Nearly everyone got pregnant with their IVF. I got pregnant all on my own (well, Hubby helped, obviously) and all but 3 got their BFPs with IVF. Of the 3, one got her BFP on her 2nd round, 1 had a chemical pregnancy with her 2nd (hugs to you Shelby!), and one other was hoping for good results with her 2nd round as well. This particular gal also has stubborn ovaries like me and does not have the luxury of insurance coverage. I had a fridge full of IVF meds so I sent all my gon*alF to her for this cycle. I had 3600IU of that stuff (told you I have stubborn ovaries). She just posted today that she got her BFP!!!!!!!! I cannot tell you how amazingly excited that made me, it's almost as if I was getting mine all over again. I'm so happy for her I literally had to type my response thru my tears of joy.

Paying it forward - Good for the karma, and good for the soul.

21w0d - Ultrasound & OB appt updates

I had a faboo time in California with my best friend and will update about the trip more later with pics.

Got back Tuesday evening and had an ultrasound scheduled for Wednesday morning. We got some really great 3D images this time and like a dork, I forgot the DVD they were saved on at the clinic. I had to wait until today when I went back for my OB check-up to get the disc so I could update the blog. Pregnancy brain strikes again!!!

Anyway, the ultrasound went pretty well. His left kidney is still measuring too big, not extremely too big, but bigger than 'normal'. The Perinatologist (high-risk OB) said that he thinks the earlier scans where his bladder was too big was not a fluke and that there is some level of blockage/obstruction in the urethra. The fact that the bladder is now normally sized is good though b/c it means the urine can drain, it just take a bit longer than ideal. The bladder wall is also a bit thicker than normal, but that is expected with the blockage. As he put it, the muscle needs to build up thicker so that the bladder is strong enough to hold the increased amount of urine and the fact that it's happening is good and means that if the bladder gets backed up, it can handle it and is not at risk for rupture. Whew! We'll keep an eye on it with at least monthly ultrasounds and if the bladder or kidneys get 'too big' we'll assess then what to do. It could range from as minor as doing nothing or a simple round of antibiotics for him after birth or at the more extreme end, they may decide to deliver him early so they can go into the urethra with a scope to essentially clear out the obstruction (poor guy). If it gets worse than it is now, we'd probably meet with a pediatric urologist before he's born to figure out the game plan. If he were to need a minor surgery, they might decide it's best to delay the circumcision until then and to do them at the same time. Lots of speculation at this point, but none of the doctors are worried and neither am I. We'll see at the end of March how things look and we'll just keep getting to peek in on him to watch it. I'm ok with that.

The other news from the ultrasound is that he's measuring big! I was 20w5d by ovulation and he is already measuring at 22w5d! They estimated that he's already 1.5lbs - already! I'm only halfway thru this pregnancy and man oh man do I grow big babies! LOL He's heads down (vertex) already too so those thumps I've been feeling down low are his mean left hook and right jab apparently. We've got a future middle weight champion cooking here. Just getting ready to defend himself from big brother I think.

My OB appointment today went well too. My blood pressure is very good at 115/70 today and weight gain is 9lbs and Dr. was very happy with both of these.

Physically, I'm feeling really good, better than I think I felt at this point with NSWO's pregnancy which is great. I'm hoping that means I'll be feeling good longer too. I think the yoga, the lower weight gain and being in better shape in general are all contributing to that.

Ok, so enough rambling from me, time for some pictures! We got to do some 3D ones this time and here are my favorites. That face is so cute, I'm already in love!

This is the best one of his face.

He was doing a lot of yawning or swallowing or whatever and here's a cute one of that.This one is my favorite, I think I need to frame this one, it's just so precious.