29w3d - We have a future birthday!

I finally got a surgery date today from my OB's office. We are going to meet the Bean face to face on Saturday, July 7, 2007! Yep, we got our 7/7/07 birthday for him. So excited!! This makes it seem even more real too.

Guess that means we should get the nursery finished, huh? Right now there's all the stuff that was in the guest room and office dumped in there. The crib is set up, and the dresser is still there since NSWO was using them up until very recently. But, there's still a bunch of stuff in the attic that needs to be brought down and sorted out. The swing, the carseat, the bouncy (I think that may have broken, now that I think about it), the baby tub, etc. all need to come down from storage, not to mention the rest of the baby clothes so I can get them washed and put away. I think I may have unintentionally tossed out a bunch of extra baby-sized clothes hangers too, and since NSWO's clothes still fit on them, I really DO need them still. Hoping they're just in a box in the attic too. Just gotta get Hubby to be home long enough to get up there to get the stuff down. Hmmm, I guess this is the beginning of nesting, ya think?

Got my mom's flight booked so she's all set for coming out to stay with NSWO and to help us all out and enjoy baby time with the Bean. She'll be here about 3 weeks total, I hope she's not sick of us by the end. :wink:

My SIL (Hubby's little sister) is getting married this weekend and we're all headed out to enjoy the festivities - should be a blast! NSWO is the ring bearer and I think he's getting excited about it. Everyone send sunny-vibes to South Carolina for Sunday, ok?? I think SIL would really appreciate it.

28w4d - belly pic & lab results

Here's the latest belly pic. I swear this kid has had a significant growth spurt cause the belly seems/feels soooo much bigger. I pulled together a progression of all the belly pics I've done so far and I'd say there's a pretty big jump from 26 weeks to 28 weeks. What do you think?

Sorry it won't show up any larger, can't figure out how to get it to do that.

Got a call from the OB office yesterday with my lab results from my appointment last week. The glucose came back at 88! Not sure which is more shocking - that the lab reading was so different than my glucometer reading (which was 102) or that it was just so darn low. With NSWO, my 1 hr reading was 175. That's a huge difference. Wow. My TSH is lower than the 2nd trimester which is wonderful - means my thyroid is functioning better. Turns out I'm pretty anemic though. The nurse asked me if I had been feeling tired and I really haven't been all that tired. I do get short of breath easier, but I just figured it was The Bean putting pressure on my lungs. Guess not. Anyway, started iron supplements today, hoping for even more energy once the iron kicks in.

Still haven't heard back from my OB about scheduling a date for the c-section, hoping to hear later this week. My mom will be coming out to help out with NSWO and we'd like to get flight info figured out soon.

Sleeping is getting tougher and tougher lately. Not only is it tough to roll over and get comfy thru the night, but I'm just so darn hot all night long. Hubby is like a flipping heating pad in that bed and I spend 90% of the night with no covers on at all and the ceiling fan on medium. SOOOO glad we got central air conditioning installed for when it actually gets hot outside.

28w0d - Oh Happy Day!!!!

I had another OB appointment today with a growth ultrasound as my OB wanted his office to do one so they could see just how big the Bean is getting. I'm 28w0d today and his average measurement based on head circumference, abdominal circumference, femur length and maybe one more is 30w2d. He's now over 2 weeks ahead. His head circumference measured 32w5d! Eeek, it's a damn good thing I don't have to push that out! LOL My belly is measuring 31 weeks. His estimated weight is already 3lb 4oz. I still have 11 weeks to go of the biggest growth period. I met with the NP today as the OB was out of town, I need to call on Monday to try and get him to nail down a c/s date so my mom and I can get her flight figured out soon. Blood pressure was good, urine was clear, weight gain to date is 17lbs (3lb 4oz of that is just baby!!) so I'm very happy with all of that.

The best part of the appointment though was that I did the 1hr glucose test today. I brought my glucometer from home and checked with that right before they drew my blood. They want the number to be <140 to be passing. I am so happy to report that my number on my finger prick (which shouldn't be too far off from what the lab shows) was a mere 102. I can hardly believe it, but I'm not diabetic with this pregnancy!!!!!! Oh happy day!

27w4d - Feeling more cranky, and how are you?

First off, thanks for all the kind words about the handstand. I almost didn't post it because I don't want people to think I'm trying to toot my own horn. I was just so excited about being able to do it! Ava, you're right, it IS a mind over matter thing. Once you decide that your arms are strong enough (they probably are now) then you kick up one leg and make the 2nd one follow. If that 2nd leg wimps out and doesn't follow thru, it won't happen. I still can't hang my head to look toward the center of the room because that just gives me vertigo, but apparently, according to yogajournal.com looking at the floor is the more advanced version so yippee for me! LOL

Now, on to the meat of the posting. I'm sure all you other preggos out there are getting a bit tired of the question, "How are you feeling?" No one really wants to hear all the nitty-gritty and we know that, so we don't usually tell them the full details. Usually, my answer is something like - "I feel great! Much better than I remember feeling with my son's pregnancy by this point, so that's good." And usually, that's true. Unfortunately, the last week or so, I'm feeling something other than 'great'.

Physically, I'm still feeling quite good. Some beginnings of 3rd trimester (oh yeah, did I mention I'm in my 3rd trimester now? When in the hell did that happen???) discomforts that I know are to be expected. Mainly, I'm starting to feel my pubic bone separating. Sounds comfy, don't it? The front of the pubic bone is connected by ligaments and the relaxin that helps the hips to open up for birth can also affect the front of the pelvis. So far, it's mild and I sure hope it stays that way. It feels like I got kicked in the crotch. If it gets worse, climbing stairs is going to become very interesting. I'm hoping that my chiropractor will have some ideas on things to help keep things stable. Yoga does seem to still be helping so that's good. I did a lot of walking yesterday with a friend and that seemed to make it worse. Will know to take breaks and rest more next time.

Emotionally, I'm not doing quite as well. Part of it's hormones that just zap my patience. Part of it is that Hubby has been very busy with work lately and has also been out of town for work so I've been doing the parenting thing mostly alone for at least a couple of weeks now. Normally, this would be tiring, but not that big of a deal. Apparently, at this point in the pregnancy, however, my reserves of patience are just not that deep. Add to that, NSWO is being, well, a pretty typical 3 yr old and you've got a craaaaanky mommy. Hoping it gets better soon. Hubby gets home in a couple of days, so that should help.

Glucose test coming up on Friday - keep your fingers crossed for me, would ya?

26w5d - updated bump pic & yoga pic *edited

I'm just getting all picture happy on my blog lately aren't I?? Well, not much else going on really.

Here's the latest belly pic for 26 weeks.

I thought it might be tacky to take a picture of myself in yoga class to have something to remember this time by, but my teacher said he thought it was a great idea. So, I brought the camera in with me yesterday and got a few pics snapped while I was in handstand. 6mo+ pregnant and I can still do this. Crazy! Don't tell my chiropractor though, he was less keen on the idea of me doing it still, but I swear yesterday it felt better than ever. I was upside down for a lot longer than I usually can do and the energy boost it gives me is incredible!

Here's my Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand).

Edited to add: Ok, so after posting this and noticing the differences between
the pic on yoga journal's site and my pic, I decided to focus in class today on
lengthening thru my sacrum up thru my heels. Much to my complete and utter shock my heels came off the wall and I was balancing on my hands. I was so surprised I literally said out loud, "Are my heels off the wall? Am I balancing??? Holy cow!" And that's about how long it took before I came down the rest of the way. Who knew that not only would I still be doing yoga at 6mo+ pregnant, but that I
could still do handstands and that (SHOCKER!) I would be able to make progress
with my practice? I certainly never would have expected that. By this point in
my pregnancy with NSWO, I was feeling so tired and heavy that I had pretty much
given up yoga. Now, I feel like a totally different woman. By the way, The Bean
liked the handstand today and was dancing around in there for quite some time
afterwards.

Hubby helped me get one of the storage boxes of baby clothes out of the attic to start going through them. Surprisingly, things are more stained than I recall and several items are yellowed from storage. I guess I'll try cleaning them again and maybe even sunning them to get them stain-free, but I might not have quite as much baby clothes for this one as I thought I would considering The Bean's due date is just 3 days before NSWO's due date. Oh well, I've gotten a few things already myself and I'm sure the grandmas are itching to do a little shopping. (Don't worry grandmas - if you don't want to shop, I still think I've got plenty.)

Picked up some yarn at the craft store and a pattern to do a 'simple cable knit blanket' for him too. I've been knitting a bit for a couple of years, but nothing beyond knit & purl, so now I'll try to add a cable stitch to my repertoire. Grandma Jan, I may be calling you for help!! That extra cable needle is a bit intimidating right now.

26w2d - Happy Easter

Things are going well, we had a lovely Easter this year with 2 different egg hunts for NSWO and absolutely gorgeous weather. Sorry to all of you stuck in a freaky spring freeze. It was in the 70's-low 80's here and the weather held just long enough to enjoy the hunts outside. By 3pm today, the clouds had returned, the temps dropped, and the rains began to fall yet again.

Our neighbors had us over for brunch and took some lovely photos of the entire family.

NSWO decided it would be sweet to give his brother a kiss, but unfortunately, with a dress on, it just looks - well, odd. It was the thought that counts.

25w2d - Big Boy Room is finished!

I've been slowly working on NSWO's new big boy room for a couple of weeks now. The furniture arrived this weekend, so now it's 'done' and I can post pics.

Here's a pic of the bedding - aka the inspiration for the room.

Before pic - originally, the room was all the tan color that's at the bottom, including the ceiling. I painted the ceiling white, then did the blue and the red stripe. Next, I sketched on the trains around the room. Here's a pic of the train nearly completed.
Next, I finished the trains and outlined everything in black like the bedding design.
Here's a pic of NSWO running around his new room.
And here are a couple with the new furniture in place.

I think he likes his new room.

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.

19w5d - Starting to feel better & latest pics

First, the pics.

Here's the nearly 20 week belly shot. Look at that bump grow! Weight gain is still at only 8lbs, don't ask me how cause I don't know, but I'll take it! LOL

Here is NSWO in the tub the other night, just being cute per his usual.

I'm finally feeling like I'm going to be well again. I woke up at 3am this morning to go to the bathroom and take more meds and actually felt normal again. It was quite a shock. I would say I'm 70% better today and hope for even more improvement tomorrow before the flight. NSWO and I are planning on going for it and hoping that mommy's ears stay clear for the flight. Soooooo excited to see my best friend, haven't seen her in person in over 4 years now. Doubtful I'll be updating this blog while I'm gone so I'll have to check in on everyone once we get back next week. I've got my tylenol, sudafed (the real stuff, not this new crap they sell on the shelves*), mucinex, and saline nasal spray. I'm set! Oh, and a whole bunch of tissues!

*Don't know if you've needed to purchase REAL Sudafed lately, but it's quite the ordeal now, at least out here anyway. Not only do you have to take a card from the shelf to the pharmacy, but then you have to show your driver's license and sign a form including your address. Worth it for meds that actually work. The new stuff just makes me jittery but doesn't help my congestion much at all. The real stuff makes me jittery too, but at least it helps the congestion. I know it's worth it to stop or at least slow down meth production, but man I'm sure sales have slipped tremendously due to all the hoops you have to jump thru.

19w3d - Being (sniff) sick (sniff sniff) sucks! (ACHOO!)

NSWO is doing much better by now. Still got a gunky nose, but even that's clearing up today. His fever kept spiking up to the 103's - 104's for a couple of days there, but seems he just runs hot I guess. Good strong immune system that one has.

I, on the other hand, have a somewhat suppressed immune system (Thanks to the Bean!) and have not fared quite as well. It started as a scratchy throat on Thursday and quickly progressed to a misery of congestion, sneezing, coughing, body aches, ear aches etc. by Sunday. First thing this morning I call my GP to get an appointment only to be told that they are closed for President's Day. WHAT?? Is that a real holiday? I thought it was just an excuse for school's to be out and banks to be closed. My OB is closed too. By now I'm thinking that the only way I'm going to be seen by a doctor today is to pack up NSWO and myself and schlep to an ER or urgent care facility full of other sick miserable people. NO, THANK YOU.

Luckily, Hubby works for a great company with awesome benefits and one of the new benefits they are trying out in a pilot program is MD house call service. Yes, you read that right, you can still get a house call. Turns out, for many non-emergency urgent cases, it's cheaper to send an MD to the patient's home than to have them go to an ER. So, I make a phone call to the 24-hr nurse hotline, ask for the MD service and within 15min the MD is calling to get my info and let me know how soon he can make it out my way. SCORE! Not only do I NOT have to sit around in a dirty, contaminated ER all day, but neither does NSWO thereby keeping us from being exposed to even more germs. Plus, I can do what I need to do in the comfort of my own home while waiting my turn in the cue. Very nice MD comes to the house, does some basic insurance paperwork and starts his assessment. As I suspected, I have a sinus infection. I was surprised to learn that I also have the beginnings of a double ear infection as well. Lovely. I started amoxicillin this afternoon and cannot wait to start feeling better.

NSWO and I are supposed to be flying to San Diego to visit my best friend and her twin girls later this week, but if either of us is still sick, we have to postpone since we don't want to get her or the premature babies sick. I do not need that on my conscience.

18w6d - Our Budding Artist

NSWO isn't into art projects as much as other kids in his preschool class. He'd much rather play with the cars or in the play kitchen than to put on a smock on and paint a picture. When he DOES actually do some art though he's sooo proud. It's cute. The other day, totally unprompted, he got out his little Magnadoodle and drew this pic. Since it wasn't on paper to be preserved for posterity we had to snap a picture. How cute is he???











Poor guy has been home sick the last couple of days with croup. Nasty stuff that croup. Luckily I got him to the doctor yesterday morning and he got a dose of steroids to help keep his throat from closing up overnight. What do you get when you take a 3.5 yr old boy and add steroids? You guessed it - the tazmanian devil! Thank goodness Granddad sent that trampoline so he could bounce off a lot of the excess energy. (Thanks Granddad!!) Given his reaction to croup last time he got it a couple of years ago, I was expecting a hard night last night of him coughing up a lung and being unable to breathe well. Hubby slept in the guest room so NSWO could room in with me so I'd be there if he woke up with an episode. Glad to say there were no episodes, but man, now I remember why we don't co-sleep with him. He fidgeted for two hours straight before I finally made him go back to his room and I hooked up the old baby monitor to listen in. We both slept better after that.

Today, he's in what I call the "sort-of-sick crankies". That's when the kid is not quite well enough to go back to school, but not so sick that they want to sleep. They just bounce off the walls instead and have ZERO patience. I had to take away his small legos today because it took him two hours to pick up about 7 of those little buggers before I had had it and cleaned them up for him. We'll try bringing them out again in a few months when he's better about cleaning things up. (I know all you moms of older kids are laughing at me right now!)

Luckily, he's got swim class tomorrow so we won't be stuck staring at each other all day long.

The Bean is doing great, nothing new to report there.

17w6d - Movin' and a Groovin'

Not much going on these days with The Bean. We're still on the hunt for a name, but I think we're narrowing it down. I won't be able to announce on here the name for the baby because my in-laws and maybe my parents read this blog and we keep the name secret from most people, including family until after baby is born. Since we find out the gender, we want to keep something as a surprise. Add to it that I had a scheduled c-section with NSWO and will again with this one, even the birthdate is known ahead of time. The name is the only thing we can keep secret. So, sorry, no name announcements on here until July.



Even without a name yet, this kid is definitely moving around in there. With NSWO my placenta blocked much sensation of movement until 20+ weeks, but this one doesn't have that pillow in the front so I'm feeling lots of kicks, punches and even some rolling several times a day now. I love it! Now, granted, when I get closer to delivery, I may wish I had that pillow to block some of the stronger kicks, but for now this is so much fun!!!



My weight gain is staying well within control and that makes me happy too. As of this morning I'm up 8lbs total and the books say that it should be between 8-14 lbs for a singleton pregnancy so I'm happy to be within normal but at the lower end. I only gained 28lbs with NSWO and I'd like to keep the weight gain with this one nice and healthy too. Even with only a 28lb weight gain, I was still HUGE at the end. I don't think I've posted this pic before on here (forgive me if I have - preggo brain!), but this is from the night before NSWO was born. The little white squares on the cabinets are post-its labeling what's in each cabinet so anyone who was staying with us or visiting wouldn't need to ask me where to find stuff. If you know me IRL, you'll know that's soooo me! It was pretty much the extent of my nesting with him. Anyway, see how big my belly was? It was about the size of a blow-up beach ball. My OB guessed he would be 10lbs - luckily she was off by 1.5lbs.

16w5d - Boy oh BOY!

Had the big ultrasound today and we were right, that was a penis we saw 3 weeks ago! He's still all boy and looking great! Measuring about 1.5 weeks ahead and bladder looks good too.



This is the "money shot". I'm not good at photoshoping to put a nice arrow at the right spot, but if you see the black area that's sort of shaped like a crescent wrench, in the crescent area - the white part is the penis.


Here's a cute shot of his left foot.




And here's a nice profile, head on the right. That's his arm laying above his tummy.






Now, to find a name for this guy. He had the hiccups during the u/s and we've got a VHS tape of it, but have to get Hubby to encode it to digital so we can share it.

Speaking of Hubby, poor guy has the flu. Not the tummy variety, but the "Did you get the license of the truck that hit me?" type. Luckily, he listened to me and went to the Dr. yesterday and is on an antiviral now so hopefully he'll get better soon. NSWO and I both had the vaccine, so hoping this strain was covered by that. Especially since I can't take anything for it if I do get it.

16w1d - Belly pic & NSWO update

This was taken today 16w1d. By the end I'm going to be HUGE again!

I got my first official kick on Thursday. I've felt little thumps and bubbles and even some rolling, but that was the first decent kick. Made me smile. It's odd to think that with NSWO I didn't feel anything until after 20 weeks and now I'm already feeling this much. I'm also getting some mild Braxton Hicks contractions too. Didn't get them this early with NSWO. This pregnancy is just so different.

In other news, NSWO was so cute yesterday. I was busy vacuuming downstairs and he was upstairs being a bit too quiet. At one point, I turned off the vacuum and he came to the stairwell to give me a status report. "Hey MOM! I was playing with your shoes and trying them on, and then I was jumping on your bed, and then I turned on my favorite movie in the office!" I had to stifle my laugh at ratting himself out and asked him to 1) put my shoes back on the shelves, 2) remind him of why we don't jump on beds, and 3) ask him if he had turned off the TV. How can you get mad at him for doing 3 things he isn't supposed to do when he so excitedly tells you about them?

We are getting him a new bed soon. After the u/s on Wednesday we'll hopefully know for sure which room he's going into (staying in his if this one is a girl, and moving into the current guest room if it's another boy) so we can schedule delivery of the furniture. I found a killer deal on a twin bed with trundle drawer, nightstand and 5 drawer chest for less than $900! Sweet! And it's neutral enough in finish that if this one is a girl (yeah, right!) she can use it in the future. If it's another boy, they can share a room too and The Bean can sleep on the trundle. I had to remind NSWO that if he jumped on his new BIG BOY BED that he might get hurt or he might break his bed. I told him that the only thing he's allowed to jump on is a trampoline, asked him if a bed is a trampoline ("No.") and said he'd have to wait until he gets a trampoline someday. Little does he know that there is one on the way right now from Grandad! (Thanks Grandad!) We tried to get it last year for christmas but it was backordered. Same thing this year so we bit the bullet and decided to go for it anyway and it should be here next week. The kid is going to have sooo much fun! Here's a link to it: http://www.leapsandboundscatalog.com/product/118/490758/118.html

Too bad it only goes to 88lbs. Bummer.

16w0d - Neo ain't got nothin' on me!

You know the scene in The Matrix where Neo dodges the bullets? Well, he's not the only one with this skill. Heck, I even had a dream about dodging bullets a few months back. Apparently, it was more prophetic than I thought.

A bit of history first. This pregnancy resulted from a dodged IVF bullet. Then, we had the scare with The Bean's bladder, but turns out we dodged that one too. Now, I have a third (and hopefully last) bullet that we've dodged.

After my OB appointment last Friday, I got a call from my OB. He'd been going over my records that were transferred from the MW upstairs that I'd seen at 8wks. At that appointment, the MW had me do the basic OB bloodwork panel. In those test results my new OB saw that I had tested positive for the anti-Jk antibody. (Huh?) He wanted me to get some more blood drawn to double check and to measure the amount of antibodies in my blood. I was taking NSWO to swim class so I didn't have time to ask much more so I got straight to work researching this issue when I got home. What I found wasn't very good.

Bear with me, this is fairly complicated, but I'll try to explain as best as I can. Most people are aware of the Rh blood grouping system. Most people are positive for Rh (A+, AB+, O+, etc.) but some are Rh negative (A-, B-, O-). There is a protein on the red blood cell's surface that determines your Rh status. There are other proteins on the red blood cell as well and one of them is called Jk, from the Kidd group. About 15% of the population is Rh- and the number of people with blood that is Jk- is far smaller (maybe 1-2%). If the mother is Jk- and her partner is Jk+ there is a chance that the baby could be Jk+ as well. If the blood between mother and fetus mixes, the mother's body will see the presence of the protein as a foreign invader and develop antibodies to it. Most women who are Rh- get an injection called Rhogam to prevent these antibodies from being formed by her body. Unfortunately, there is no equivilant injection for people who are Jk-.

If the mother develops antibodies to the blood of her fetus, it is more likely to affect subsequent pregnancies if the next fetus is also Jk+. The antibodies she makes are small enough to pass thru the placenta to the baby and they start attacking the protein on the fetus' red blood cells causing them to explode. This causes anemia for the baby because it has too few red blood cells to carry oxygen to the body's cells. Depending on how much antibodies the mother is making it can have anywhere from no effect up to a severe effect on the fetus. If the level of antibodies gets too high, they have to monitor the baby for effects. The old way of doing this was repeated amnios every few weeks. Luckily, there is a better way that isn't nearly as invasive. Using doppler imaging with ultrasound they can measure how fast the blood is flowing thru the middle cerebral artery of the baby. If it's too fast, that means the blood is too thin so the heart is working harder to get the oxygen where it needs to go. If that happens, they will often need to perform an IUT (intra-uterine tranfusion - giving the baby new blood via the umbilical cord while in utero) of the baby to give it less anemic blood that the mother's body doesn't see as an invader (Jk- blood). Over time, the baby's bone marrow will replace the baby's blood and the mother's antibodies will attack again. IUTs may need to be repeated until the baby is big enough to be delivered early, often around 34 weeks gestation. (Full-term is 40 weeks). Sometimes, the baby will need another transfusion after birth and can suffer from HDN (hemolytic disease of the newborn) including severe jaundice as well as the other risks associated with premature delivery. These babies can spend weeks in the NICU trying to recover. Most do well, but it isn't an easy road for the pregnancy or the newborn.

So, after all that doom and gloom, back to my original point, we dodged another bullet. The lab results came back from Monday's blood draw and apparently there are no anti-Jk antibodies in that sample. Since the original test went to a different lab, there's a chance that it was lab error or perhaps there are so little of the antibodies in my blood that they are not showing up at this point. In any event, we have been cleared of this possible complication and couldn't be happier about that. Now, I'm just hoping that we don't need to dodge anything else, but at least I'm getting good at it.