Amy & Boys

Unlucky Cycle #3

2011-10-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

Well cycle # 3 was not lucky for me at all. I took soy isoflavones this cycle. I was hoping it would help me O earlier but it did not. I still didn't O until CD 28 and ended up with a 40 day cycle. I felt like my CM wasn't great either. The B6 seemed to still help with my LP. It is not great but I did get to 12dpo again. Hopefully if I keep taking it I will eventually make it to 14dpo or more importantly a BFP. I felt like I really struggled to O this cycle. I had a feeling that despite our olympic BDing around O it would not be enough. My body tried to hard for to long and I am sure the quality of egg that popped out wasn't great.

I do not think I will use soy again this cycle. I don't feel like it did me any good so why put myself through it again. I want to continue until the end of the year with charting, OPKs and my fertility monitor. DH wants me to call the RE ... TODAY and get the ball rolling. I am not sure I am ready to go there yet. I want to give it until the end of the year to try on our own. They said we only had to wait 3 failed cycles but I feel a little better going in and saying we have been TTC for 6 months and it is not working for us again. I don't know. Maybe DH is right and I should at least make the phone call. Maybe they will tell me Wyatt is to young and I need to give my body more time to heal. Maybe they will tell me my weight is to much and I need to lose some weight first. BTW my RE from last time never said a good gosh darn word about my weight or DH's. But it is still a fear because one of her coworkers did say something to me after I got pregnant with Wyatt. I guess I don't really know what I am afraid of. Just hearing some one say no we will not help you have another child yet. I would like a chance to try Weight Watchers again and maybe lose some weight. That would be another thing I could go in saying "I know I am fat but I have been working on losing weight and I have lost X pounds while we were TTC". I don't know. I will have to sit down and talk to DH about it more tonight after work. Fingers crossed that this will happen for us and we won't have to see a RE again. I have one poof baby. Why can't I have two? LOL

Fun with the ring test.

2011-10-19T13:43:00.000-07:00

I was watching some of the vlogs I subscribe to today and one girl did this fun ring test to do the gender of her baby.

http://youtu.be/-k14-eeUyuk

She took her wedding ring and a piece of her own hair to hand her ring from. She asked yes or no questions first to get what means yes and what means no. If you watch the video you will see what I am talking about. I decided to give it a try for just regular yes or no questions to see what happened. I did it a couple of times and got the same result every time.

I used 3 objects and asked first if this object is (insert correct answer here) and my ring would swing back and forth. Then I would ask if the object was (insert incorrect answer here) and my ring would swing in circles. So back and forth meant yes and circles meant no. Once I had that down I started asking questions.

I held my ring over my belly and asked if I was currently pregnant. My ring swung back and forth. That is a yes! I then asked if I tested this weekend would I get a BFP. Again my ring swung back and forth. Another yes! I then asked if I was pregnant would this baby be a girl. Yet again it swung back and forth. Yeah baby girl! Lastly I asked if I am currently pregnant would this baby be a boy. I got HUGE circles! So that would be a no to a boy.

I made a couple of videos to show how it worked for me.

Video 1
http://youtu.be/aZEw_8huIiM

Video 2
http://youtu.be/fLTN7sr6mnQ

Lucky cycle #3 for baby #3?

2011-09-14T04:13:00.000-07:00

I am officially on to cycle number 3 of TTC baby number 3. Booooooo! This stinks! But I knew I didn't have much hope for this last cycle. I ovulated way late and then we only had sex on the day of ovulation. So it was pretty far fetched to think I would be pregnant now.

I woke up at 3:45 am this morning with some majorly nasty cramps. I got up and took some ibupofen and attempted to go back to bed. I was in to much pain to sleep and laying down made the cramps worse. So I went out to the living room to sit in the recliner while I waited for the ibuprofen to work. I drifted off for a little while and woke back up again at 5:30 am. I felt worse then I did before I took the ibuprofen. So I took some tylenol and that has helped a little bit. I still feel lousy but better then I did. I still think cramps are salt in the wounds. It is bad enough that you are not pregnant but now you have to feel like poop to drive home the point. UGH!

At least I have a plan for this new cycle. I can start fresh and hope that this will be our cycle. I bought some soy isoflavones to try out. I will take it just like I took clomid while TTC with Wyatt. I will continue with my prenatal vitamin, B6 and iron supplements too. The B6 helped lengthen my LP this cycle by a couple of days. The iron has been helping my energy levels. I have been getting a lot more done at work and at home. So I am going to continue those things and try the soy isoflavones also. Hopefully it will be the right mix and I will be expecting another June baby!

Catching up

2011-07-15T22:48:00.000-07:00

I obviously need to take some time to catch up. I get so caught up in the day to day business that I forget to keep track of everything Wyatt is doing.

Wyatt is 13 months old now. He is walking a lot. Wyatt took his first steps on Memorial day. By the 4th of July he was walking a lot on his own. Now he walks more then he crawls. It used to be the other way around. He is so proud of himself and is so darn cute. It is hard to yell at him when he is toddling away from you no matter how horrible the thing he is doing is.

He knows how to crawl up on to the furniture and get back down on his own. He often will climb onto the arms of the couch and has fallen off twice now. You would think he would learn but that kid is fearless. If you leave the recliner unattended for more then a few seconds he will crawl up into the chair and make himself at home. Wyatt will either be slamming his little hands on the keyboard of the laptop or throwing everything off the side tables. He does not care if you just opened that can of pop.

Wyatt is not talking much. He picks up a new word every now and then and will use it over and over and over again until your head is about to explode. Then he just stops using it and moves on to something else. For the longest time it was the word tree. Everything was a TREEEEEEEEE!!! While he may not talk a lot himself he does understand and respond to you. It is way to funny when you tell him to paddy cake and he starts clapping his hands. Throw it in the oven is by far his favorite part.

So now that our little one is well on his way to being a toddler I am getting the ache for a baby again. I know crazy. I miss snuggley cuddly baby time. Even if Wyatt was never much of a cuddler. He is just to darn busy to snuggle. At least a year ago he would hold still once in a while. So it is starting to feel like it is time to TTC again. We will see what each day brings. I am praying that we have an easy transition and get pregnant quickly. I do not wish to return to our RE if we don't have to no matter how wonderful she was. But at least we know where to start this time around if we end up needing the help. Fingers crossed that we won't need any help.

Bring on the teeth!

2011-01-19T15:00:00.000-08:00

Wyatt is teething again. He cut his second tooth yesterday morning. He now has the two bottom teeth in the front. He is working on the two front top teeth also. It has been kicking his butt! Wyatt has had a low grade fever and crabby and chewing on everything. It has been miserable. Wyatt has barely slept at all two nights in a row now. You can see his top gums are swollen and red. The two teeth are bulging at the gums. HURRY UP AND BREAK THROUGH! So my boy can get back to being a happy little man ... and sleep again!

3 year angel anniversary

2011-01-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

Today is our 3 year angel anniversary. I can not believe it has already been 3 years since I miscarried. It is one of those things that seems like it happened just yesterday and an entire life time ago all at the same time. We had tried so hard for 2 years to get pregnant. We were so happy and excited to finally be having our first child together. We had shared the wonderful news with all of our family and friends.

But shortly after sharing the news cramping and spotting began. The doctor told me to lay down, rest and drink lots of water. Hoping that was all I needed to do to stop what I knew was happening I spent a few days in bed trying to rest. But it did no good. Our baby had no heart beat on the ultrasound. 3 years ago today the contractions started and we lost our child ... our dream ... a member of our family who we already loved more then life itself.

I wish I knew then what I know now. It would not have cut the pain. I lost a child. My baby died and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Nothing makes that better. But at least if I had known 3 years later I would have an amazing baby boy to hold and love I would have had hope. Back then I had very little hope.

Every holiday is at least a little difficult because I know we are missing a family member. I look at Bob and my heart aches for the baby who should be his age. The child who should be a big brother or sister right now. But then I look at my boys and I am grateful. I am grateful that I had the strength to make the choice to keep and raise Bryan. Despite all that has happened I have never for a single second regretted my decision to parent. I am grateful for the gift of experiencing pregnancy, birth and raising a child with my wonderful loving husband. Something I was worried I would never get to experience. I am grateful for this beautiful, high energy and extremely happy baby boy. Wyatt is every thing I dreamed off. He is everything I thought I lost that day. He is my light. He is my hope. He is my joy. I am grateful for my husband and my sons and my sweet angel baby in heaven looking down on us. We love you and we miss you every single day. You are never forgotten angel. Until we meet again we love you.

On the move!

2011-01-11T06:05:00.000-08:00

This boy is all over the place now! I was pumping yesterday. I watched Wyatt army crawl (because he hasn't yet figured out that he can go forward on his hands and knees) around the side of the couch and out of my line of sight. So of course I had to turn the pump off and figure out what he was up to. Because every cord in the house looks like it needs to me wrestled and eaten ... NOW! Because the chihuahua is Wyatt sized and her ears are fun to pull and her eyes even more fun to poke. Because the carpet is coming up in front of the recliner and apparently Wyatt has taken up the art of carpet removal. Can some one teach him to mop or vacuum instead? Because people throw things towards the bathroom garbage can but make no effort to pick it up when they miss by a mile. So I turn off the pump and walk around the couch. Wyatt was in front of the bookcase playing with the movies on the bottom shelf. He had pulled one out. I informed him that he was far to young to watch Resident Evil and told him to get out of there. But instead of backing up are turning around he gets on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth. Then screams in anger when he cracks his head on the book shelf over and over again. *sigh* It is a good thing he is cute.

Separation Anxiety

2011-01-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

Separation anxiety has set in ... lucky me. Don't get me wrong I love snuggling the baby. But he wanted to be in my arms for large amounts of time yesterday. And if I wasn't snuggling him while sitting in the middle of a pile of laundry that I only got half folded and that he was wiping his nose on then I was chasing him around. He does not crawl yet but he does creep. He pulls himself around on his belly with his arms like some kind of tiny little zombie child. (He bites with that one little tooth so be careful) It gets him around and it gets him there pretty fast. And the Christmas tree is still up. I have been sick. He decided that his big brother's Christmas ornaments and the string of lights looked like fabulous things to chew on. With out the presents there to block him it was a free for all. My tree skirt is no longer under the tree. He pulled it out, rolled around in it and left it for dead in the middle of the living room. *sigh* Why are boys so messy?

6 months old

2010-12-30T11:01:00.001-08:00

I am so far behind on blogging it is crazy. Wyatt and work have been keeping me so busy I just not had time to sit down and write. Which is sad because I love writing. So here is a quick update on my little baby boo!

Wyatt is 6 months old ... almost 7 months old now. He is rolling every where and creeps around the floor. It is not exactly crawling because he is on his belly not his knees. But he gets to anything he wants to get to and a whole lot that he isn't suppose to be getting to. I am so happy to see him playing with toys. I would be a little more happy if he wasn't launching them across the room half the time. Wyatt loves his jumparoo. He can jump and play with the toys on the tray for hours.

While Wyatt is still mostly just on milk he has started solid foods. He isn't the biggest fan but slowly he is accepting more and more food. Wyatt LOVES the mashed potatoes at one of our favorite restaurants. We usually run out before he gets full. I am looking forward to giving him finger foods soon. I think he will do well. Everything else ends up in his mouth. Why not a little food every now and then. I continue to pump breast milk for Wyatt but I do not make much. A bought of the flu recently made a bad situation worse. So I only pump a few ounces a day. It is very frustrating that my body is weaning long before I am ready to. But I am happy that I have given Wyatt almost 7 months of breast milk. Even if it is largely supplemented now with formula. I will continue to pump until my body gives up completely or Wyatt turns one year old. Which ever comes first.

We have had some rotten illnesses lately. It sucks pretty bad when Wyatt is sick. He just lays there and whines non stop. Very exhausting and frustrating. I wish I could explain to him that sleeping will make him better. Moaning at the top of his lungs not so much. But of course he doesn't understand that.

So we are doing well. Wyatt is growing and developing well. His weight is on the low end but Bryan was the same way. I am sure Wyatt will catch up too. Until his next appointment at 9 months I will just have to fatten the baby bear up.

Update on Wyatt's metabolic disorder

2010-09-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

Ethan called and talked to the geneticist this morning. We have been waiting for several weeks for the test results from the skin sample (Wyatt's foreskin) that they were using to do more extensive testing. The blood tests that they were doing were not giving them a clear answer. The man who made the test for the newborn screening said Wyatt does not have VLCAD. But they wanted to do more testing. The tests came back negative. Wyatt MIGHT be a carrier of VLCAD like Ethan and I are. But he does not seem to have the disorder. The doctors of course still won't give us an absolute. I personally don't think they want to admit they were wrong. Wyatt appears to be healthy and maybe the newborn screening test was to sensitive and needs to be adjusted. I would never want another family to go through what we have been through.

The good news is we have been given the ok to treat Wyatt like a normal baby. I no longer have to wake him up to eat ever 4 hours at night! They still don't want him to go longer then 8 hours with out feeding. I can't imagine him going that long during the day at this age. And 8 hours straight at night would be a blessing! I can't wait to let Wyatt sleep as long as he wants! I am sure I will be nervous tonight and maybe not sleep so great. I have no idea how long Wyatt will actually sleep. He is so used to getting up every 4 hours to eat he might wake up on his own out of habit. But I broke the eating every 2 hours habit. So hopefully he will eventually start sleeping longer now that I can let him sleep. I look forward to being more rested!

Another perk is we no longer have to test his glucose. We were not doing it often. Only if we were worried about him or if he accidentally went longer then 4 hours with out eating. His blood sugars have been great. So the doctor gave us the ok to stop completely. Of course if we are worried that Wyatt is showing signs of low glucose we can still test him. If for no other reason then to make us feel better. But we don't HAVE to anymore.

The geneticist told us we still should be careful if he gets sick. Illness can be a trigger that could cause him to have some kind of metabolic disorder flare up and get really sick. If Wyatt is not keeping anything down or has not been able to eat for more then 8 hours we are suppose to call his office. He would prefer we call him instead of our family med doctor because he obviously knows more about metabolic disorders. He will instruct us where to go and what to do to help Wyatt. But he wants the ER to be our absolute last resort for Wyatt. He admitted that the ER handled Wyatt's situation HORRIBLY and Pediatrics wasn't much better. The Dr. does not want us to end up in the same miserable situation. So if Wyatt is sick enough to contact a doctor he wants to be that doctor. He will be available to us at all times. I trust him when he says that because he was when Wyatt was in the hospital. He called every 2 hours from his home all night long. He fought for us to go home with Wyatt when the other doctors wanted to keep him jacked up on glucose water. It is nice to know that we have some one in our corner.

The geneticist said he is having a conference this afternoon. There will be a bunch of doctors from the Mayo Clinic there to discuss Wyatt. It is weird to think there is an entire conference happening today because of our little Wy Wy. I hope that our story can teach other doctors and help any family that might some day be in our position. Hopefully they will never have to go through the hell we went through.

Thank you to every one for your prayers and positive thoughts. They truly helped Wyatt and got us through a tough time. I reaffirmed two truths. The power of prayer and the power of mother's milk are amazing and healing! Thank you!

2 months & 12 years

2010-08-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

Bryan and Wyatt had their well child visits today. It went very well and both boys are healthy. They both had to have shots. No fun! And they both got weight and measured and poked and prodded. I am glad it is over and that they are both doing great.

Wyatt went first. He is 9 weeks old today. Wyatt weighed 11 pounds 3 ounces. He is 21 inches long and his head is 15 inches around. The doctor said he is short but gaining weight very well. That is a good sign considering we still do not know for sure what is going on with the metabolic disorder. Bryan was pretty short when he was little too. And look at him now! Wyatt is growing steadily and the doctor says that is more important then where he technically falls on the growth chart. All things I have heard before when Bryan was a baby but still nice to hear again for reassurance.

The doctor checked Wyatt over and said that every thing looked good. There is no longer a click in his hip. He has a swollen lymph node but it is no big deal. I asked him if he thought Wyatt's right testicle was descending yet. It has been hanging out pretty high but I knew it was there. He said that it was down. WHAT?! I told him it was not down when we left the house to come to the appointment. Well isn't that a nifty trick? The doctor laughed and told Wyatt he had pretty good timing! I swear they live to prove you wrong!

I asked about the reflux too. He said it was pretty normal in babies. He is not worried about Wyatt puking some of his feedings up as that is also pretty common. We should just continue to do the things we are doing (keeping him upright during and after feedings, burping him really well, the gas drops as needed) and he will out grown it very soon. Wyatt's digestive system should start maturing more in the next few weeks and the reflux will likely go away on it's own before we know it. I hope it is soon ... I am sick of getting puked on. LOL

I asked how long Wyatt can go with out pooping and the doctor said 5 or 6 days is not uncommon. We can try a little juice after a few days but otherwise don't worry about it. Being that Wyatt drinks breast milk only if his BMs become hard and pebble like then I should give him a call. But otherwise he should be good.

The doctor asked several questions about different milestones Wyatt should be meeting. He was doing them all which is always a relief. The doctor asked if Wyatt laughs yet. I said not really but I have heard him giggle a few times while he was asleep. He asked if Wyatt was smiling when he laughed and I said yes. The doctor said then that counts! Wyatt must have been having a really good dream. LOL He says that Wyatt should start doing it while awake in the next few weeks. But even him laughing in his sleep was a good sign. Good to know!

Bryan was up next and was fairly simple. He is 5 feet 1 inch tall and 140 pounds. That puts him in the 75% for height and 97% for weight. The doctor said while the percentages look a little scary he does not think Bryan is over weight in anyway . Because of his height it kind of counter balances his weight. Yes he is heavier then most kids his age but he is also a LOT taller then they are too. And visually he could see that Bryan is not at all over weight. So he felt there was no concern. Bryan has hit puberty a bit early and it shows in his measurements. It was hilarious to look back through his records and see how he was in the 8% for height and 23% for weight when he was 2 years old. 10 years later he is a moose! HA HA HA

I thought it was pretty funny to watch the doctor doing similar movements to check Bryan's hips as he does with Wyatt. Makes you realize just how long Bryan's legs have gotten. I always feel bad for the kid during the hernia check. The first look of terror comes when the doctor tells him to drop his shorts. Then again when he tells Bryan to turn his head and cough. LOL

The doctor asked him a bunch of questions. Does he play any sports? How much TV does he watch? How much time does he play video games? I mentioned that we live on a farm and that Bryan does help with the chores. The doctor was happy to hear that and said farm kids tend to be pretty active kids. So he was happy with that even though Bryan shows no interest in sports. I have a geek not a jock. I am fine with that. Especially since my geek could probably bench press most of the jocks his age ... he he he!

They both got shots. Bryan got 3 and barely flinched when he got his. He made it look far easier then it was for Wyatt. Poor baby! Wyatt also had 3 shots but boy howdy did he scream! The first one went in and he didn't react right away. You saw this slow realization of pain, his face turned red and then WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! The boy was NOT happy. The nurse said "And that was only the first one!" She rushed through the other 2 so I could pick him up to calm him down. I felt awful for the poor kid but also couldn't stop laughing. He would wail in this funny siren like increasing and then decreasing and then increasing again pattern. He was pretty ticked off for a while after that. I am glad he doesn't need any more shots until 4 months. I wonder if he will be more or less dramatic at that point. LOL

So the boys are good. Wyatt goes back again in 2 months and Bryan goes back in 6 months for a second dose of the Hep A vaccine. We are still waiting for more info on the VLCAD situation. There doesn't seem to be anything new in Wyatt's records and the geneticist has not called us back yet. So we will have to continue to make sure that Wyatt does not go past 4 hours with out eating. But then he wakes up every 3-4 hours anyway so it is not a stretch and not like I am waking a sleeping baby or anything. Hopefully we will know more soon. Hopefully it will be nothing and we can put that whole mess behind us soon.

6 week postpartum check up

2010-07-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

I had my 6 week postpartum check up today. I can't believe it has already been 6 weeks! I remember when OB called my room in the maternity ward the day Wyatt was born. I could not believe they were already scheduling my check up. It seemed SO very far away. And now it is here and gone! LOL Time goes by crazy fast when you get no sleep. HA HA HA

Everything went very well. I brought Wyatt with me. The nurses oohed and aaaahed over him. One commented on how the 6 week check ups were always her favorite part because she got to see all the cute little babies. Wyatt of course would not be ignored. He ate while I waited for the midwife to come in. Wyatt "talked" during the entire exam. The midwife held him for me while I changed back into my clothes. As soon as we were done and started heading back to the car he passed out fast asleep. LOL Wyatt my little attention piggie! If you are willing to hold him and snuggle him then you will be his best friend.

They made me fill out a survey for postpartum depression. I must have passed because they never said another word about it. I was honest and admitted to the midwife that I still struggle with anxiety from time to time because of Wyatt's stay in pediatrics during his first week. She said that was perfectly normal considering what happened. As long as the anxiety was not keeping me from normal activities or allowing Wyatt to participate in normal activities then it was fine. But of course if it ever got to be to overwhelming then I should call them or Gyn or my regular doctor and let them know. I have my bad days of course and I am utterly exhausted most of the time. But over all I feel great and am very happy to have my little Wy Wy. So I think I am doing well.

My c-section incision has healed well. I still have a very small opening between my ab muscles right below my belly button. She said a few crunches every day should heal that up in no time. She did a pelvic exam and said my uterus is back to normal. During the pelvic exam she commented on how strong my stomach muscles were. She laughed about just telling me to do crunches every day and then having a little trouble finding my uterus through all my muscles. HA HA HA YEAH ME! My weight is down 25 pounds from my pre pregnancy weight. She was shocked to see that not only did I not gain any weight while pregnant but I am also skinner now then I was when I found out I was pregnant with him. That is always fun!

I have had some pain in my breasts. She checked them both for signs of infection or clogged milk ducts and found none. She thinks the pain is simply my breasts refilling with milk and should go away as my breasts adjust to being milk makers. That is a relief. I did not think I had any infection but was still worried about the pain. She praised me for being an exclusive pumper. That was wonderful to hear. Some people can be very judgmental about not breastfeeding even if you are pumping. She said it is easier to do one or the other. Either breastfeed or formula feed. But to pump AND bottle feed takes a lot of time and dedication. She said a lot of woman do not stick with it. I told her I was dead set on pumping for his first year and then feeding him from my freezer stash that I plan on building up until that is gone some time during his second year. She said that was a great idea and made me feel really good about my decision. It is nice to be complemented and recognized for your hard work sometimes.

I got the ok to return to my normal pre pregnancy life. I can lift and work and other fun past times. *wink* *wink* I loaded Wyatt back up into his car seat and we headed back out to my car. I got us all settled back in and was about to leave when I realized that I had forgotten to get my doctor note to return to work. Crap! So I unload and head back up to OB. I tell the nurse at the desk that I needed a note. She got a little snotty with me and acted like I had just asked her for a kidney. She also seemed very surprised that I needed a note. *shrugs* I didn't think that was an odd request but what do I know. The nurse said that all of the midwifes were in a staff meeting and I would be unable to get my note then. I could wait and come back later. Ummm ... no ... I am paying for parking as long as I am here. So I asked her if I could call back later with the HR fax number and have some one fax my note for me instead. Again she acted like I now needed her other kidney. UGH! So I guess that will be fine.

So everything is well. I don't have to go back to the doctor any time soon. The boys have check ups in August. But other then that it is life back to normal!

5 weeks old

2010-07-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

Wyatt is now 5 weeks old! He is 9 pounds even and 20 1/2 inches long. He is doing well and getting so big already! I can't believe he has started to out grow his newborn clothes. I know that is a good thing. Especially since we are still waiting to find out the results of that final test for metabolic disorders of what ever kind me MIGHT have. It can't be bad since he is growing so well.

Wyatt has had some trouble with reflux. It can be kinda rough sometimes. He screamed this afternoon for I don't even know how long because his belly hurt. I did my best to get all the bubblies out and try and make him better. But it took a while and a lot of walking and patting and bouncing up and down to get enough of the gas out. Then he slept like an angel! We have been feeding him sitting up, keeping him sitting up for 30 minutes afterward, letting him sleep in his bouncy chair (it keeps him upright) and using gas drops when he gets really fussy like he did this afternoon. It all seems to be helping. Wyatt hasn't thrown up in days. The fussing is getting less and less and he is sleeping much better at night. WOOHOO! I can't wait for him to out grow this. I want to avoid prescription medications if we can. So far I think we will be able to.

Wyatt is developing well. He is holding his head up more and more. I don't put him on his belly us much as I should. But he does push up from my shoulder while burping him. When I do put him on his belly on the floor he tends to stick his butt in the air instead. LOL Wrong end buddy ... wrong end. Bryan was playing with him today while he was sitting in my lap. Wyatt was watching Bryan and was able to track Bryan's face from side to side several times. I was pretty impressed that not only was he able to focus on Bryan's face so well but to keep moving just his eyes back and forth over and over again. Good job little man!

Wyatt has always been a noisy baby. (As I write this he is laying in my lap groaning) He just "talks" a lot. Wyatt is always grunting and groaning and making this weird noise that reminds me of the T-rex from the Jurrasic Park movie. LOL He is just starting to coo during the last week. He only makes short little sounds. But he is starting to make them. That is good. This morning he made one of those short cooing sounds and I mimicked him. His eyes got big and he did it again. We will just have to keep talking to each other. I can't wait for the full on cooing. I remember how cute it was when Bryan did it. I can't wait!!!

I am still pumping breast milk. Wyatt will occasionally breast feed. It is getting more and more frequent. But he will only do it for a few minutes. Then he gets mad and screams until I give him the bottle. He does not have a lot of patience to wait for my milk to let down. So he quickly gets frustrated and fusses. He can be a bit opinionated so if he is fussy and my milk isn't letting down fast enough in his mind then all hell breaks loose and nursing is a bust. If I try early in the morning around 6 am when he is the most alert and calm then it works better. Also around 10 pm when he is settling down for the night. But other then that he just gets mad and refuses the breast. But I am pumping 3-4 times a day and making 30 ounces. That is enough to feed him every day and freeze a little bit. My pump is awesome and I can get it done in 15 minutes or so. I plan on continuing to pump breast milk and bottle feed Wyatt until he is a year old. 1 month down 11 months to go!

Everything is going well and Wyatt is great. I could not be more happy and feel more blessed. I am exhausted but totally in love with my little man. Being home with all my boys every day is amazing. There is nothing I love more then being a wife and a mother. An amazing dream come true.

Tests and Doctor Appointments

2010-06-21T10:16:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a lot of follow up appointments and tests to be done. It was annoying to be back and forth between home and the clinic so much. But the running around is far better then being stuck in the hospital like Wyatt's first week. Thankfully everything went well and we got done all the things we needed to get done.

Wyatt had a check up with his Family Med doctor. This was his first time meeting Wyatt. He has been my doctor since I was 14 years old and Bryan's doctor since birth. So I am happy to have Wyatt under his care also. This doctor is kind and calm and has a level head. Which is something we need after all the other doctors who just jumped off the deep end and assumed the worst. Our Family Med doctor, we will call him Dr. A, looked Wyatt over. He said Wyatt looked very good. The yellowness of the jaundice was fading. Dr. A did not think we needed to run anymore blood tests to check Wyatt's bilirubin levels. YEAH! He said that he could hear the click in Wyatt's left hip. Dr. A wanted to have an ultrasound done to check on the hip. If Wyatt's hip was not formed right from being stuck breech and it was not treated it could lead to arthritis as he gets older. If something was wrong it would be a simple fix with a brace to help ball and socket form properly together. Other then his hip Wyatt looked great. He had already gained back his birth weight at just over a week old. Dr. A did not think it was necessary for Wyatt to come back at 2 weeks for the usual well child visit. He thinks Wyatt is doing great and can wait to come back for his 2 month check up instead.

After meeting with Dr. A we had an appointment with the Geneticist to discuss where to go from here with the metabolic disorder hoopla. He asked us what Dr. A said and looked Wyatt over. He agreed that Wyatt looked like he was doing well. He felt that Wyatt's glucose readings at home were high enough and steady now. We were given the ok to stop taking his blood sugar at home. YEAH! I was so happy to not have to play vampire every 6 hours and prick poor Wyatt's tiny little feet anymore. The Geneticist reminded us to make sure that Wyatt went no longer then 3-4 hours with out eating until we figure out what is going on. The newborn screening is looking more and more like it was a false positive. But until we know for sure we need to play it safe. Keep Wyatt fed and feel free to check his blood sugar anytime he seems to be acting weird.

Thursday we went in to repeat the ECG. The first one showed a small glitch. The Pediatricians at the hospital said it might be a normal thing that happens to a lot of babies who are under a week old. But they insisted that we rerun the ECG after Wyatt is 7 days old to make sure. Thankfully the test was normal and everything was ok. Wyatt has a strong and healthy heart with no heart murmur. That is a HUGE relief for me. I am so happy both my boys have healthy hearts.

After the ECG we went to have the ultrasound done. Wyatt slept through most of it. He is so mellow that way. LOL The ultrasound came normal. Wyatt's hip looks good. Apparently the click is just left over from being breech with no fluid to move around easily in at the end of my pregnancy. He will eventually outgrow it. No need for a brace or anything. WOOHOO!

Friday we went back up to the maternity ward for Wyatt's circumcision. We wanted it done when he was 3 days old like they normally would do. But after the paperwork mess that happened on day 3 and Wyatt being in the hospital canceling the appointment we had to get it done on day 4, *sigh*, it just never got done. So thankfully we finally made and kept an appointment to have him circumcised. It went smoothly. Again Wyatt slept right through it. You have to wonder how it is that he can sleep through any procedure they seem to throw at him. I am just relieved that he has that ability. LOL We had to stick around in the family room for an hour afterward. A nurse came in to check on Wyatt every 30 minutes to make sure he was not bleeding to much. Then we were able to go home. Wyatt was pretty mad for the rest of that day. I can't blame him. He was sore and tired and had been through enough since birth.

The Geneticist wanted a skin biopsy to run one last test for VLCAD. He said it would just take one stitch. That made us cringe. Ethan asked if we could instead use Wyatt's foreskin from his circumcision instead of doing yet another procedure on Wyatt. He said yes that would work fine. He just need some skin to grow cells to use for the DNA test he wanted to run. Also with the skin he could grow and regrow cells as much as he wanted to. That would mean Wyatt would not need to keep being poked to collect blood to run various tests. It gives him the option to run what ever tests he wants as often as he wants to try and figure this puzzle out. So he was there at the circumcision waiting off to the side with a collection cup. It looked like a large to go soup cup. LOL I assume there was some kind of sterile collection cup inside the soup cup. He asked if we wanted to see it after it was done. ICK! We said no thanks. It drove me nuts the way he kept walking around and talking to us with this cup-o-foreskin in his hand! We appreciate everything you have done for us and we are happy to let you run the tests that you want to run but please take the cup with a chunk of my son in it and LEAVE. LOL It was mildly disturbing and yet funny.

So we are done with tests and doctors appointments and get to just stay home and relax this week. As long as nothing goes wrong anyway. Fingers crossed that Wyatt stays healthy and happy and we sail right through the next few weeks until his and Bryan's next appointment. Then sadly it will be time for more shots for both boys. Hopefully they both will do well and be healthy. Until then we are just going to sit back, relax, enjoy the last of our leaves and love up on our adorable little baby boy.

Wyatt's first week the hardest week of my life.

2010-06-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

Wyatt's first week has been much harder then I ever imagined it would be. It is not Wyatt's fault. He is an amazing baby. Wyatt sleeps well, eats wonderfully, only fusses when hungry, he is a very calm and alert baby. I was worried that Wyatt would be a hard baby because Bryan was such an easy baby. But Wyatt is easily following in his big brother's foot steps. Unfortunately our trip home was short lived and utterly ruined before we knew what was happening.

Wyatt and I were both doing great on Wednesday. My OB preformed an exam on me and said that I was healing well. He said that a lot of repeat c-sections heal faster and are able to go home sooner then first time mommies. I was doing just fine and he gave me the ok to go home when ever I was ready. Wyatt was examined by the pediatricians and also given a clean bill of health and the go ahead to go home a day early. We got all checked out of the hospital and gladly went home in time to meet Bryan when he came home from school. I was so happy to finally have my family of four together. Seeing Bryan hold Wyatt in our home, on my own couch brought tears to my eyes. I was finally seeing the dream that I had dreamed for the last 12 years coming true. I had a safe home, a supportive husband and now two beautiful children. What more could I have ever asked for?

But the joy was short lived. We were contacted by a Genetic Specialist from Mayo. He told us that one of the test results on Wyatt's newborn screening was elevated. It is called VLCAD and is a metabolic disorder that makes digesting fatty acids and using them for energy difficult. He wanted us to go to the ER immediately so that he could get a blood sample to rerun the test and so the doctors could do an exam based on the new information. He said we would be in and out in no time. So after only 4 hours home we rushed Wyatt to the emergency room.

I will try to make a painfully long story as short as possible. Wyatt is extremely difficult to get blood drawn from. It took a very long time to get a sample. They also did a blood glucose test as one of the symptoms of VLCAD is low blood sugar. I had been taking a nap when the doctor contacted us and it took so long to get the blood drawn that it had been several hours since Wyatt had nursed. His glucose reading was low. They gave us a small amount of time to nurse before taking a second glucose reading. After the drama of the blood draw Wyatt seemed to shut down and try to sleep. I was unable to get him latched on to nurse so that he could get anything in his belly. So of course the second glucose reading was also low. The doctor insisted that we get an IV into Wyatt immediately and start giving him glucose water to raise his levels. They spent nearly 2 hours attempting to put an IV in Wyatt's arm but were unable to get one in.

We were admitted to Pediatrics were they inserted and NG feeding tube in through Wyatt's nose. They administered 3 ounces of glucose water into Wyatt's stomach every hour. As you might have guessed between the trauma of the blood draw, attempt at the IV and the belly full of sugar water Wyatt had no urge what so ever to nurse. It had been hours since he had any breast milk. His numbers stabilized some but still were not good.

Thursday after talking to the genetic specialist and the pediatricians we were talked into letting them try the IV again. We did NOT want the glucose water to begin with and had already said no to the IV once before on Wednesday night. They were able to get a nurse from the NICU to come and she thankfully was able to get the IV in after 2 tries. Wyatt has jaundice and the doctors decided that since he was spending another night in the hospital then they might as well put him under the bililights in order to help bring his bilirubin levels down. At one point poor Wyatt had an NG tube in his nose, an IV in his hand and was naked under the lights in the bassinet. It was the most heartbreaking sight I have ever seen. It was like a nightmare.

While Wyatt was on the IV he finally was able to eat something. But he had no energy what so ever. Wyatt laid their in our arms, barely eating, not crying, not responding to touch or to pain. He was just there. Our healthy, happy, alert baby that we walked into the ER with on Wednesday had turned into what looked like a little kids limp doll by Thursday. The IV made it so he was able to start eating again but he was not strong enough or alert enough to nurse. I had started pumping breast milk Wednesday night and we were feeding Wyatt bottles of my breast milk instead.

After much argument we were able to convince the doctors to try to wean Wyatt off from the IV glucose water so that we had a chance in hell of going home anytime soon. They cut the amount in half and his glucose level dropped. It fell a lot but was still in the normal range. The over night doctor told me that he wanted to raise the glucose back up to full force. I told him no that Ethan and I did not want him on the glucose water in the first place and that we would not turn it back up now. I tried to convince him to give me an hour to feed Wyatt and recheck his glucose levels. If they still were low then we could turn the glucose up again. He said no it needed to be done now. I told him that I would not make the decision with out speaking to my husband. This was OUR son and it was OUR decision to make not mine. I wanted to call Ethan and ask him what he wanted to do. The doctor told me that we did not have time and if I waited to talk to my husband I would kill my baby. Yes you read that right. He told me that I was KILLING MY SON. I told him to leave NOW and I called Ethan to come back to the hospital. Ethan did not want to leave us there at all. But he needed to leave to get Bryan and go home. Poor Bryan's life had also been thrown into a tailspin and we wanted to at least get him home and in his own bed before school the next morning. Ethan had not even made it out of the parking ramp before I called him back in.

The doctor came in as soon as I hung up with Ethan and tried again to tell me the damage I was doing to my son by waiting. I threw him out of Wyatt's room so fast I don't think he knew what hit him! Ethan came back in and the doctor came to talk to both of us. We stood firm and told him that we never wanted the glucose water to begin with. That no one had listened to anything we said and just did what they thought was the right treatment. We told him nothing about this felt right to us. We just wanted to give Wyatt the chance to stabilize his blood sugars on his own with the help of breast milk. We told the doctor how angry and disappointed we were with his behavior and the care we had been receiving since we walked into the ER Wednesday night. I told him I had never been more insulted in my life then I was by his accusations that I did not care about my child and that if he died it would be my fault. He had no idea the hell we have been through to finally have this child and he could never understand what being Wyatt's parents meant to us. He did apologize but it is still little consolation to me.

He finally agreed to my first idea of feeding Wyatt a bottle and giving it an hour. I am sure much to his surprise Wyatt's glucose levels jumped up to the 70s. He held stable there and they slowly cut back the glucose levels through out the night. The less sugar water they pumped into him the more breast milk he drank. The more breast milk he drank the higher his glucose levels were and the more he returned to normal. We had a few levels dip down low again every time they cut back the glucose water. But Wyatt was always able to return to a high level again in 2 hours for the next reading.

Friday morning they unhooked the IV and he was on just straight breast milk. His bilirubin levels had come down some and they allowed the bililights to be turned off. It was so nice to be able to hold him again for longer then the amount of time it took to feed him a bottle. All we wanted to do was hold our son and we could not do that all Thursday night. That just made everything harder to deal with. They took 3 glucose readings after the IV glucose water was turned off and Wyatt was taking in only breast milk. All three of those readings were nice and high. They finally gave us the ok to go home. You could tell that they did not want to let us leave but no longer had a valid reason to force us to stay against our will. Which is what they had been doing since Thursday morning. There were some stipulations to us going home. Wyatt's glucose needed to be checked every 4-6 hours. Thankfully I have a meter at home and am trained in taking blood sugars. Wyatt needed to be fed every 3 hours or less. Even if that meant waking him up and forcing him to eat something. Easy things to do in exchange for the chance to go home. We were finally able to pack our stuff and go home at 4pm Friday.

They took large quantities of blood from Wyatt to run all kinds of tests. At one point his arm was taped down to a board while nurses surrounded him holding him still, getting an artery stick to draw blood from and three nurses handing off empty tubes as the filled the other ones. They did an echo cardiogram and an ECG to check his heart because the thought they heard a heart murmur and because VLCAD can cause heart issues. I have a heart murmur so it would not be far fetched for him to have one too. Wyatt does NOT have a heart murmur. Thankfully that is one less thing to worry about. They ran the test for VLCAD three times. All three times they did not get a positive result. The geneticist says there is something there but he could not figure out what it was. He called the man who designed the test and spoke to him about Wyatt's results. The maker of the test says that Wyatt does NOT have VLCAD or one of the lesser forms MCAD. He is not sure what his test results mean but he is sure that Wyatt does not have the disorder that the newborn screening read as high.

We thankfully got to spend some time at home over the weekend with Wyatt. It was extremely hard to relax after everything we had been through. But at least we were home. I finally realized that oh ya! I just had a baby and a c-section and had fallen behind on my pain medications a few times over the last few days. I was so worried about Wyatt and what was happening to him that I must have blocked out my own pain and the need to heal. I spent most of Friday night just laying in bed and crying from the pain. The pain medication I was given at the hospital was not working. Ethan rubbing my back was the only thing that calmed me enough to get any sleep. My recovery has become a little slower then it had started out because of all this. But at least I am healing now.

Bryan came home Sunday night and I thought for sure I would start sobbing when he walked through the door. I had missed him all week and was sad that he was not home over the weekend when Wyatt came home. I can not explain to you the feeling of happiness and relief to finally have both my sons home with me and my husband. Our family of four was FINALLY home all together at the same time. For more then 4 hours!

Tuesday we had check up appointments for Wyatt. First we saw our Family Med doctor. He has been my doctor since I was 14 years old and Bryan's doctor since birth. He is calm and comforting and it made me feel safe to have him take over Wyatt's care from here on out. I know that he will not over react and blow things out of proportion. He is a very level headed man. He checked Wyatt out and gave him a clean bill of health. Wyatt's skin and eyes looked good and he did not think it was necessary to run another blood test to check his bilirubin levels. His hip still clicks from being breech in the womb. We will have to look further into that with an ultrasound. But it is an easy fix and should not cause Wyatt any problems down the road. Wyatt is one week old and has already regained the weight he lost after birth. The doctor said it usually takes a baby 2 weeks to regain that weight. So Wyatt is well ahead of that and obviously eating well. He poops and pees like a champ. Normally they see like to see newborns at 4 days, 2 weeks and 2 months for check ups. Since we were in the middle of that 4 days and 2 weeks appointments and because Wyatt has already regained his birth weight we will not have to go back next week for the 2 week well child visit. The doctor thinks he will do just fine to wait for the 2 month appointment. We scheduled Wyatt's 2 month check up and Bryan's 12 year check up for the same day. So I can kill two birds with one stone and get the boys checked out and all the immunizations they need. Woohoo! Bryan is thrilled ... or not. LOL

After the Family Med appointment we headed over to meet with the Genetic Specialist. He came out to the waiting room and got us for our appointment. He looked Wyatt over and discussed with us how the Family Med appointment went. We agreed to let him take a skin sample in order to grow some tissue so that he can further check into what, if anything, Wyatt has on a DNA level. We are going to have Wyatt circumcised and he agreed to let us use the foreskin for testing instead of taking a sample from some where else that would require a stitch. We had always planned on circumcising Wyatt and this will make for one less procedure to be done on him. The geneticist said he will be waiting right there with a sample dish if need be to make sure that they don't just throw the skin sample away.

It will take roughly 5 weeks to get the results from that test back. In the mean time Wyatt is doing very well on breast milk so the doctor does not think it is necessary to put Wyatt on the special formula for babies who have metabolic disorders. Wyatt's glucose readings have been stable at home and he says we no longer need to take his blood sugar. That is a huge relief for me. Taking blood sugar readings and taking blood sugar readings from your own tiny baby are two completely different things. Even though Wyatt tolerated the testing well it still broke my heart to stick his poor little foot several times a day. And I hated the suspense and fear Ethan and I would feel every time we took a reading. If we have any reason to be concerned we will still have to take it. But at least it is not all day every day anymore.

I had such high hopes for breastfeeding this time around. I failed miserably at it with Bryan and ended up pumping breast milk and then formula feeding. Wyatt nursed wonderfully and I thought for sure it was going to be an easy go the second time around. But being in the hospital messed that up horribly. I did nurse Wyatt once after we returned home. It went well but I spent the next few hours terrified because I had no way of knowing who much milk went into him. And after spending days calculating and recording just how much milk went in and urine and poop came out of him I could not relax with out a number. Ya sure he nursed for 10 minutes. But how many ounces went in? I could NOT relax and enjoy nursing anymore. I am sad that it was ruined for me again. But I promised myself that if breast feeding did not work again I would not beat myself up this time around. I am pumping breast milk and we are all feeding it to him from a bottle. It gives us all a wonderful chance to bond more with Wyatt. The pump I had was only meant for the occasional pumping when I returned to work in August. So we purchased a new and very nice breast pump. I was amazed to go from spending an hour pumping to empty both breasts to just 10 minutes. TEN MINUTES and I am done pumping on both sides and have an ample supply of fresh breast milk to feed Wyatt. I have even been able to pump extra to start a freezer stash. No, I am not breast feeding anymore. But Wyatt is still getting breast milk. That is the most important thing to me. Look at how amazing the power of mother's milk was for Wyatt in the hospital. I truly give it up to mother nature for giving me the ability to provide something so healing to my son. While I still think formula is a perfectly good form of feeding a baby. It certainly never harmed Bryan. I will never doubt the power of breast milk again. I look forward to providing milk for Wyatt for the next year.

So Wyatt is doing well now. He is back to his healthy, happy, alert little self that we brought home from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon. I wish that we could erase the drama of the last week and just enjoy our newly expanded family. I am angry that we were put through that hell. But happy that we looked into something that could have been a problem for Wyatt. I guess I would rather all that hell be for nothing then not know and have something very bad happen to him. If nothing else the experience has brought Ethan and I closer, both of us closer to our children and brought us closer to God. Never once did we blame God or ask him why he was doing this to us. We trusted in him and prayed that everything would be ok. Thankfully our prayers were answered and Wyatt is doing well. Continued prayers that everything goes well, that Wyatt does not have any kind of metabolic disorder and that he will grow and thrive from here on out. Maybe now we can start resuming a normal life with our boys.

Wyatt Larry Has Arrived!!!

2010-06-09T06:02:00.000-07:00

Wyatt Larry was born on June 7, 2010 at 10:43 am. 37 weeks gestation. He weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces and was 19 inches long.

We checked into labor and delivery early Monday morning. It took a long time to get us back because anesthesia was backed up. Then it took forever to start the surgery because they had a heck of a time getting my spinal block in. I remember they had a really hard time also when I had my c-section with Bryan. Guess my back just stinks for that kind of stuff. Once I was all set up they went and got Ethan and sat him by my head. Wyatt was born about 15 minutes later. They lowered the sheet so that we could see and to my surprise Ethan jumped right up and started taking pictures. I thought it was funny since he said he didn't want to see anything on the other side of the screen up until that moment. He got some great pictures of Wyatt as he emerged butt first of course. Ethan followed Wyatt over to the bassinet and trimmed his cord. It took a little over an hour to sew me back up. I got pretty nauseous and almost threw up while they were working on me. Me and anesthesia just don't get a long well. They gave me more meds to settle my stomach down again and then I was fine. I got to watch Wyatt while Ethan held him. He was very alert and looking around. Wyatt was sucking his fingers and rooting around. He came out more then ready to nurse.

Wyatt did have some funny looking legs when he was first born. I would post a picture but they almost scare me. LOL His feet had been up by his face for months now. And they wanted to stay that way after he was born. LOL After a few hours he was fine. The pediatricians stopped by this morning to check on his hips and they were doing much better this morning. The clicking in his hips was gone and he is pretty good about getting his legs to stay down now. They said it was pretty normal and he should be just fine.

Other then his hips Wyatt has not had any problems. He latches on pretty well. Wyatt nursed fantastically the first day. Now I am having trouble keeping him awake so that he is not just snacking all day and all night. That made for a long first night. LOL He is pooping like a pro and I am so glad the nurses are cleaning those ones up. LOL

I am doing pretty well already. I have gotten up and been out walking. They let me eat right away as long as I promised to take it slow. No problems with eating or drinking. They unhooked me from all the dodads and monitors now. My catheter is out and I am getting up to use the bathroom pretty well on my own. It is amazing to not have to pee every 30 minutes or so! LOL I am getting ready to go take a shower and can not wait. I remember how fantastic that felt after Bryan was born. I am hoping to get to go home tomorrow afternoon. But I won't push it either. If I need to stay until Thursday afternoon I will. But I would really love to get us home and get back into my own bed.

Here are a few pictures of Wyatt from his first day in the world!

37 Weeks

2010-06-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

Today is my last full day of this pregnancy. I am 37 weeks pregnant and this baby is coming out Monday morning. I am more excited then I have been about anything in a very long time. I went back and forth on how I wanted to spend my last day. I could go into uber nesting mode and make this place spotless. And myself exhausted so that I might actually get some sleep. Or I could lounge around all day and do nothing but gestate and pig out while I still had a good excuse to do so. I picked some where in the middle. I did some light housekeeping. A little laundry and I picked up the house a bit. I cleand out my car so that it was ready for the ride home in a few days. I told Ethan he had to bring my Explorer cause there was no way I was going to try and get in and out of his Jetta after having surgery. That car is just way to low to the ground. I was up early this morning. I have had a strange need to be up early since I went on maternity leave. I can't explain it. But I wake up anywhere between 6 am - 9 am and acan't go back to sleep to save my life. This has become a very strange phenomenom since I have always been a sleep until noon kinda girl. But lately I have enjoyed the peace of the early morning when every one else is still in bed or upstairs. I laid back down and took a nap for 2 hours in the afternoon. It felt good to just lay down and rest. When you are this pregnant you don't sleep through the night and you just can't get much rest. And it doesn't get any better with a newborn around. LOL I put my feet up, played on the computer, watched my Netflix movie and lifted my shirt to watch one last good show that Wyatt put on after lunch. They boys worked hard outside all day so I pretty much had the house to myself to just relax and enjoy. I think that is the first time I have watched a horror movie in the middle of the day in a very long time. After the boys came in I went out and got us some supper. We munched on chinese food and watched tv. Bryan got to play WoW for a while and got himself to 80! WOOHOO for him! Ethan randomly mentioned cake at one point and I went into full blown cake and milk pregnancy craving. Luckily for me my dear sweet husband obliged and headed to the grocery store for one last pregnancy craving run.It was very nummy. And now I don't have to worry if there is milk in the house while I am in the hospital.

I was given special antimicrobial soap to wash with the night before and the morning of the surgery. They don't know if it really helps to avoid infection or not. But heck it is worth a shot. I was surprised to see that it was cherry red in color. I don't really know what I was expecting. But I guess RED was not it. LOL It smelled mildly medicine like with a hint of perfume to it. I did not think it would be that hard to wash that area. I haven't seen hide nor hair of that side of my belly in months. And I guess I haven't spent much time trying to wash it either. LOL Luckily for me I have my previous c-section scar to guide me. I just washed the general area around my scar and halfway up my belly. Nobody told me exactly where to wash with this stuff. The pamphlet says the area of surgery. So I am guessing around my scar is as good of a spot as any down there. I have to repeat the process again in the morning. I plan on getting up at 5:30 am so that I can fit a shower in again before Bryan gets up at 6 am. Maybe if I am lucky my hair will have driend from this shower by the time I take my shower in the morning. LOL That is a down side of having long and thick har.

It is a very bitter sweet night tonight. I am looking forward to being done with pregnancy. 9 months is a very long time to be pregnant. And as they grow it wears on a person's body. Everything aches, you are tired all the time, nothing in your body works right anymor, my allergies have gone haywire, my pelvis is in so much pain it hurts to even walk, I have had morning sickness, restless leg syndrome, carpal tunnel and had the poo scared out of me more then anyone needs in the last few weeks. It has been a crazy ride and I am ready for it to be over. But of course I will miss all the good things. I love feeling him move inside of my belly. When he is not two stepping on my bladder anyway. I enjoy listening to his heartbeat and movements on my doppler. It is fun to watch my belly wiggle around while he puts on a show. I enjoy rubbing my belly and having Ethan lotion it up for me. There is a closeness that I share with this baby that no one else gets to experience. I will miss all of that. But I am so looking forward to him being here. I want to see him and hold him in my arms. I look forward to sharing this experience with Ethan. I can't wait to put him in his crib for the first time. There is this whole room full of baby stuff that I can't wait to use. I want my child here safe and sound and healthy. It has been a very long road and I can't wait to move on to the next step.

I am a lot calmer then I thought I would be. Maybe that will change in the morning. I don't know. This is my second time so maybe that brings some calmness. I am not nervous about the surgery. I am a little worried about pain management afterward. But I know there are plenty of pain medications. I just need to speak up this time and not try to play the hero. Breastfeeding does make me nervous. It did NOT go well with Bryan at all and we were both miserable. Bryan and I both were much happier once I started pumping breastmilk and bottle feeding him. I truly want to make the effort this time to breastfeed. And luckily I have a longer maternity leave this time to work on it. Not to mention a supportive husband. Support was something I was SERIOUSLY lacking last time. And I know that I can pump breastmilk because I did it with Bryan. So there is always that to fall back onto. I won't formula feed this time around at all. Unless there is some medical reason that we have to. Fingers crossed we will not have any issues and Wyatt will latch on like a champ.

We are ready to go. I just need to eat a little something tonight. I can't eat after midnight. And it will be a bit before I can eat anything in the hospital. Thankfully for me the rules have changed. I was not allowed to eat solid food until the day I went home with Bryan. There is only so much jello and tea one person can stand. Now the rule is I just have to fart. Once I can pass gas they will allow me to eat solid food again. So I will be doing my best to fart with out blowing my stitches out. LOL Pleasant thought isn't it? I don't care cause I want real food! LOL

Hopefully everything will go well and we will have our baby in our arms in no time.

Last OB Appointment

2010-06-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

I had my very last OB appointment today. It went well. Which was a relief after last night of course. We got there super early. I told Ethan that just doesn't pay off. And of course they proved me wrong. We got in a while half hour early. Ooops!

First was the ultrasound. He scored well again today. My fluid levels have increased since Tuesday from a 4.6 to a 7.2 level. Anything about 5 is good and this 7ish level is the best it has been since 32 weeks. I had the same ultrasound tech that I have had for the last few scans. He joked about how I have become an old pro at the whole process. I joked that it is bad when I am starting to be able to not only spot the fluid pockets but even notice when he found a good sized one. LOL He estimated Wyatt's current weight at 6 pounds 15 ounces. Pretty good size for 37 weeks. He showed us that Wyatt has hair. The tech thinks that not only does he have hair but it looks like it might even be wavy! Bryan had a lot of hair but it was straight. I had a ton of hair and I have wavy hair now. Ethan says he had wavy hair as a baby. So I guess we will see just how hairy this baby is when he comes out. I make hairy babies. HE HE HE

We met with a different doctor then my regular OB. He was very nice and had an interesting German accent. It was neat to hear an actual German pronounce our last name. I was tempted to ask him how to properly pronounce my maiden name too. But I didn't want to be a goober. He went over everything with us about prepping for the c-section. I signed the consent form today so that it was one less thing to worry about on Monday. He checked my cervix and it is closed up nice and tight. I am not at all dilated. I am not at all effaced. Now if I was not scheduled for a c-section on Monday I would have to admit that I would be pretty upset by that fact. You can bet I would have started the eviction process this weekend so that this kid might actually exit the building before July! But this kid is coming out Monday morning whether he likes it or not. The doctor said that it is good that I have made no progress what so ever. That way if I were to start labor in any way over the weekend I would hopefully have a little extra time to get to the hospital. Depending on what day it was we might even be able to keep our c-section schedule. I hope nothing exciting happens this weekend and he just relaxes in there until Monday morning.

So that was it! No more appointments. I won't see that office again until my 6 week postpartum appointment. It was weird to walk out after my appointment and walk right past the appointment desk. It was a bitter sweet moment. But a good feeling also. Our check in time is 7:30 am on Monday. That is perfect because I don't have to get up to early. Maybe a half hour early so I can shower with the special soap again. Then get Bryan up and out the door for school. Ethan can have a chance to have some breakfast if he is hungry before we leave for the hospital. I will be sure to update as soon as we can. Hopefully this weekend is relaxing and uneventful. And fingers crossed that Monday goes well for us.

Spent the evening in Labor & Delivery

2010-06-03T22:56:00.000-07:00

We spent the evening in labor and delivery Thursday night. Baby and I are both fine. We just had a little scare. A combination of things made me uneasy and Ethan and I thought it was best to go in and be monitored. Better safe then sorry. We are both glad we went in and are thankful everything ended up being ok.

So here is why we went in. I spent all day not feeling well. I was overly hot. There was nothing I could do to cool myself down. I went to the library and had the AC cranked in my car and was still sweating. I was feeling very fatigued and hot and was totally unable to sleep because of the discomfort when I tried to take a nap. I took my temp and it was 99.0 which isn't very high. But I felt much hotter then that and my face was flushed. There is feeling hot because it is summer. There is feeling hot because you are pregnant in the summer. Then there was what I was feeling. I was just way to hot and worried about fever and infection. Because we don't know what is causing my low fluid levels my OB told me to come in any time I was running a fever. Just in case there is a small leak that we have not seen. Then there would be a risk of infection and we wouldn't want to mess around with that.

Plus I have been having all that pelvic pain. My OB confirmed that it is just from SPD and is nothing to worry about. Thankfully my discomfort will be short lived since my c-section is on Monday. But to be on the safe side and because of the fever feeling I thought I better ask.

Third and the biggest reason I went in was because of lack of movement from the baby. Usually in the evenings after eating dinner he is pretty active. Breakfast and supper make him the most wild. He was fine this morning but had gradually gotten quieter as the day went on. After supper he didn't start moving. I did a kick count and he had only moved twice in 2 hours. And they were not his usual strong kicks either. They were more like nudges. This child doesn't nudge ... ever.

So between the pain and my not feeling well all day and finally the change in movement from the baby we decided to go in. Those were the warning signs my OB had told me to come in for. So we dropped Bryan off at my in laws house and headed to the hospital.

They got me right into a room and I got changed. The nurse came in and asked what brought me in tonight. And I started sobbing. Not sniffle sniffle tear I am a little worried cry. Nope I did the ugly cry. I started sobbing and apologizing for sobbing. She was SUPER nice to me and told me not to be sorry. Pregnancy hormones are hard enough to deal with but then you add in worrying about baby and it is all very over whelming. She calmed me down pretty quickly and I was able to tell her what was going on. By the time Ethan came in I was just sniffling. And him being there calmed me enough to stop crying.

The nurse hooked me up to the monitors and a blood pressure cuff. Of course as soon as I was hooked up to the monitors this little stinker decided to prove me wrong and put on one heck of a show. He was all over the place. A doctor came in to take more info from me. He started palpating around my pelvis to find out where the pain was. He was about to give up when he hit the spot. I almost smacked his hand. I was like no ... no ... no ... OUCH! People came in to take blood and I gave a urine sample. A different doctor brought in an ultrasound machine to check on fluid levels. They were of course very low.

Luckily for us my OB just happen to be working over nights in labor and delivery this week. He came in to let us know what was going on. He said the baby looked great on the NST. Like I said he put on a show. He looked good on the ultrasound despite the lack of fluid as usual. My OB said yes the pain was from SPD but I am lucky cause it will be short lived pain. All my blood work and urine samples came back ok. There was one left they were waiting on. But he said I should be able to go home as soon as it came back. He did not think there was any reason to deliver tonight. We would just continue with our plan of last appointment on Friday and c-section Monday if I was comfortable with that. At that point I was fine. Baby looked good and I didn't seem to have an infection. So I was happy to go home and rest instead.

I can not tell you how happy I was that he was there and came in to talk to us. I really love my OB and he definitely puts me at ease. He said he was happy that I came in even though everything was fine. I did exactly what he told me to do if I was concerned. And thankfully there was a good outcome. Ethan and I both agreed that we are happy that we went in for nothing. Verses not going in and something being wrong with me or the baby. I would rather feel dumb and over protective then have any regrets. And my OB agreed with that.

So it was a long wild ride. It took forever to get that last lab back so that I could go home. But I am so happy that everything is ok. I will go to my last appointment Friday afternoon. Then I am going to try and take it easy all weekend. Rest, relax and prepare for Wyatt's arrival on Monday. Let's hope that is the last of the drama for this pregnancy and little Mr. Wyatt.

Nothing new

2010-06-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

Nothing new to report today. Nothing exciting happened at my check. And I am NOT complaining! LOL My fluid levels did go down from 5.3 on Friday to 4.8 today. But that is not the lowest it has been. It is still close to normal. And Wyatt seems to continue to do fine in there. I saw a midwife today since my OB is working overnights in labor and delivery all week. I am glad he felt comfortable enough to let me see a midwife. And she is super nice so I don't mind seeing her at all. She said as long as I wasn't having contractions then she didn't need to check me. Which is good too. Who needs all those people up their hoo ha? So everything seems to continue to be fine.

I scheduled my next appointment for Friday afternoon. It will be my LAST appointment before Wyatt arrives on Monday. HOLY CRAP! That was really exciting and scary and just plain wild all at the same time. Friday we will do another BPP. They also want to do one last growth scan on Friday. Just going to check and see how much he has grown in 2 weeks and give us a guess as to how big he will be on Monday. Sometimes they are WAY off and sometimes they are dead on. So I guess we will see what happens. As long as he appears to have grown since the last one all is good. They will give me the low down on what I need to do to prepare over the weekend for my c-section. My OB and I kind of went over it at my 34 week appointment when we scheduled the first c-section. Jeez ... I just realized I am on my third scheduled c-section. First one was for June 21st, then May 31st and now June 7th. Let's hope everything goes well for the rest of the week and we can just stick with that last one.

36 weeks pregnant

FINALLY GOOD NEWS!!!

2010-05-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

We have finally got some good news at today's check. Baby is still doing well on NST. He slept through the first 10 minutes. Then the nurse turned on the radio and he instantly started bouncing around in there. I guess he likes Taylor Swift. Or hates her ... either way that is twice now her music has got him moving around.

I went for the ultrasound next. The tech said there seemed to be an improvement from 3.2 on Wednesday to a 3.7 today. Then he jumped up and yelled "Wait a minute ... WAIT A MINUTE!" Scared the crap out of me but he looked happy so I wasn't to worried. He showed me a very nice pocket of fluid that he found once he convinced Wyatt to move around a little bit. This pocket measured at a 5.3 level. He said that was REALLY good and sent me on my way to see my doctor.

I met with my doctor and I told him the tech and told me he found a good pocket. So my doctor pulled up the results on the computer. He jumped back in his chair and cheered! HA HA HA That is the most excited I think I have ever seen him and he is a very up man. He said that anything between 5 - 25 is considered "normal" and a 5.3 puts us back in the normal range! He thought last week when we were pretty much at a 0 that it would take a miracle to get my fluid levels back up to an acceptable level. Well I guess we got our miracle. Thank God!

So we have a new game plan now. I go back on Tuesday and Friday next week to be monitored. He wants to continue to make sure that baby is doing well. He wants to check to see that the fluid level is either increasing or at the very least holding steady. Fingers crossed that it does. Because we don't know what caused this, why it is reversing or if it will happen again he still wants to do a c-section earlier then first planned. But he thinks it is safe to let baby stay put until 37 weeks so that he can make it to full term. We scheduled the c-section for June 7th at 7:30am!

The only bad news was that I did test positive for group B strep. Bummer! But all that means is they will give me antibiotics at the time of the c-section. It is rare for it to get to baby during a c-section but we are not taking ANY chances with this baby's health.

So woohoo!!!! Thank you to every one for the prayers, well wishes and finger crossing. It worked and we got the miracle we were looking for. Thank you!

Wednesday Update

2010-05-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

Everything is pretty much the same. The NST went mostly well. They had trouble keeping track of him again. The first lady did a great job. The last two have struggled a bit. I have a squirmy child that just doesn't want to be spied on. He had good accelerations but afterward he decelerated a few times. My doctor is going to just keep an eye on that. He is happy that at least he accelerated first. So for now it is just watch and see.

The BPP went pretty much the same. He has gained a little bit of fluid. On Monday he was at a 2 and today his fluid level was at a 3.2 which is better. It is still way to low but it is an improvement. If we can get it up above a 6 my doctor might put let him stay inside a little bit longer. But he is not holding out hope for that.

I go back on Friday and Monday. They are booked all week for c-sections so I will have to be added on some where. My doctor is trying to get a hold of the OB I had during my last pregnancy to see if he would be willing to come in on the holiday to assist with the c-section. He said with it being a holiday on Monday they number of people around will be lower then normal. He would feel better if he could get just one more doctor in with him since this will be a preterm birth. Better safe then sorry he says. So there is a chance Wyatt will be delivered Monday afternoon. It all depends on how things go over the next few days. Of course if at any point he is not doing well they will do a c-section and get him out right away.

After my appointments I went and had lunch and then headed to my work's main office. I needed to speak to some one in HR. I dropped off my paperwork to approve my maternity leave. I let her know what was going on and had her adjust the dates of my maternity leave. She told me if I need any extra time beyond the 12 weeks I am taking to just let her know. If baby is not ready for me to return to work or if I am not ready to leave him mid August then we can work out a couple more weeks of personal leave. I have more then enough sick time and PTO to cover 12 weeks and a couple extra if I need them. So I will still get paid all summer and my insurance premiums are covered too. I made sure she knew I wanted to use sick time and PTO for my leave. So that will kick in this pay period. I am so glad I got that all taken care of. She was super nice and understanding of what is going on right now. It was a HUGE relief to get that all squared away. Now I can relax a lot more and just worry about baking this baby longer.

35 week update

2010-05-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

I went back to the clinic for testing again today. Everything is pretty much the same as it was on Friday. There still is little to no fluid around the baby. But he continues to tolerate that well.

I had a biophysical profile done this afternoon. He scored a 6 out of 8. The tech said he would have scored a full 8 out of 8 if he had the proper amount of fluid. But he has almost none. So that is why his score was a little lower. How ever his heart rate looked great. She showed me the rise and fall of his chest as he practiced breathing. He continues to have fluid in his belly and bladder. So there is some in there some where because he continues to pee it out and swallow it again. Isn't it nummy that babies do that? Ick! LOL

The NST today was a royal pain in the toosh. It took the lady forever to find his heartbeat. I am glad I had the ultrasound first or I would have started freaking out. Every time she would find it he would shift and she would lose it again. She buzzed him once because she didn't think he was awake enough. *eye roll* That didn't help at all. LOL My entire belly was covered with that ooey gooey ultrasound gel. I was laying back and half on my side propped up with pillows for 40 minutes. And she still didn't have a great chart. But my doctor came in and watched for a bit and saw two great rises while he was there. So he was satisfied that he was doing well.

My doctor did the strep B test. That was lovely (said with as much sarcasm as possible) It wasn't awful but it was weird. I could do with out it and I am glad it is not something they do every single time.

My urine test was negative. So no protein in my urine. WOOHOO! My blood pressure while still a tad elevated is lower then it was last week. Also a good thing. So no preeclampsia which is a good thing. But that was the only thing they had to go on for the fluid loss. So now we are back to having no idea why this is happening.

My doctor joked that I need to give him just one more reason to take this baby. JUST ONE MORE! LOL Anything else along with the low fluid and he would take the baby out. But both baby and I are doing fine despite the fluid issue. He is stuck between wanting to get this baby OUT because of the fluid levels and wanting to let him stay put until 36 weeks to give him a better chance on the outside world. He asked for our opinion and I told him as long as baby as well then I really want to make it to 36 weeks. But we are not comfortable with going past 36 weeks with no fluid. I just don't know how well he can continue to do and for how long. And my doctor has no idea either. So I guess it just continues to be take it one day at a time and try and get to a safer place.

So back to the clinic every other day. Continued monitoring. Next Monday we will meet again and decide what day next week Wyatt will be delivered. Hopefully he can make it until then safe and sound. And hopefully he will do well when he comes out. Fingers crossed and keep praying. It seems to be working for us. Thank you!

Update and Game Plan

2010-05-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

I feel like the last 2 days have been a blur. Things changed so quickly. Thankfully they do not seem to be as bad as we had feared and we have a game plan in place now.

The first ultrasound I had done showed a small pocket of fluid. The ultrasound I had done today how ever showed no fluid at all. He does still have some in his stomach and bladder but none around him. There is a chance there is still a pocket of fluid underneath him that the ultrasound was not able to find. But we are not counting on that. The ultrasound showed him measuring at 5 pounds 11 ounces right now with great breathing movements.

My OB checked me for signs of rupture. My cervix is still closed nice and tight and there was no sign of amniotic fluid leaking. He does not think my water broke but does not have an answer to where all that fluid went. There was more then enough fluid 2 weeks ago when I had an ultrasound to check position of baby. Now there is none. He consulted with a few doctors from his practice and they are baffled as to both what happened to the fluid and what is causing the fluid loss.

My blood pressure was still elevated today. My urine test from Thursday was negative for protein. I will be doing a 24 hour urine collection over the weekend to make sure. Since my blood pressure is still elevated and I have had puffy hands and feet they are worried I am on the verge of developing preeclampsia. That is the only explanation they can come up with for the fluid loss. But even that is just a guess.

The NST showed that Wyatt is tolerating the lack of fluid very well. They only need two rises in 20 minutes. He had like 4 in 5 minutes. I lost count of how many rises he had by the end of 20 minutes. The nurse commented after a while on how at first it was great but now he is just showing off. LOL His heart rate is great and he is still moving around a lot in there. Both good signs.

I will be going in to the clinic every few days for monitoring. Hopefully he will continue to do well with out fluid. If he does not then he will be delivered right away. If they find protein in my urine he will be delivered right away. One stress on the baby they can deal with. But they are unwilling to put him through 2 stresses at the same time. The plan is to keep him in until he reaches 36 weeks and then deliver him. They don't want him in there to long with out any fluid. But as long as he is still doing ok they want him to stay put until 36 weeks. That way he will have a little more time to grow, lungs to mature more, for him to get stronger and bigger. If by some miracle my fluid levels go up to at least a 6 then they will allow him to stay put longer. 38 or 39 weeks if possible. But they do not think that will happen. So it is just a matter of getting through the next week and a half.

Hopefully if he makes it to 36 weeks he will be fine. Maybe a day or two in the level 2 nursery but he should be able to avoid the NICU all together. God willing he will be able to come home with us when I am released after my c-section. If not hopefully only an extra day or two in the hospital. Bryan was born at 36 weeks and 6 days and came home with me with no problems. Hopefully Wyatt will do just as well or better. (Bryan had a little trouble regulating his temp right after birth)

I have started my maternity leave early. Because of my blood pressure and the low fluid levels I need to relax as much as possible. I'm not stuck to my bed or anything. Just lay low and drink lots of fluids. I had two weeks left before my maternity leave started but not anymore. We all agreed it would be better for me to quit working early so I can rest and try to keep my blood pressure down. I would have only been able to work one more week before he was born. So I was giving up at least one week anyway.

I have a big list of things I want to complete before Wyatt comes and little more then a week to complete them now. Thankfully I have Ethan and Bryan to help me. Bryan is a young strapping boy who can do all the bending and heavy lifting for me. LOL I checked out some books from the library so I can read up on preemies. Hopefully he will be just fine but I want to be prepared just in case there are any problems. Fingers crossed and prayers if you have to spare that everything will turn out ok for us.

34 Week OB Appointment

2010-05-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

I have good news and bad news from this mornings OB appointment. The good news is we finally scheduled the c-section! I will be having a repeat c-section on June 21, 2010 at 10am!!! I am SOOOOO excited to finally have a date set! I have been well aware that I would need another c-section for a while now and trying to prepare for it. But I didn't have a date. Which was driving me totally nuts. Now I have a date. I know that no matter what happens in the next few weeks he will be here in a month from tomorrow! WOOHOO! I am still hoping I go into labor on my own before then. I don't really want to go to 39 weeks. Bryan was born at 37 weeks. So I am hoping this baby will come some where in between those two. 38 weeks would be perfect! Fingers crossed! LOL

The "interesting" news is that I am still measuring WAY ahead. Since 28 weeks my fundal height has been measuring 5 weeks ahead. I will be 35 weeks tomorrow and my belly is measuring at 40 weeks today! EEEK! I am going back to the clinic this afternoon for a growth scan ultrasound to see just how big he really is. My doctor thinks it is because he is breech and just sitting very high in my pelvis. But I told him I thought that he had dropped recently because the kicks have been MUCH lower then usual. I have also had a lot more kicks to my bladder, cervix, rectum and now what feels like the inside of my hip bone. So he wants to clear it up and find out if it is just position or if he is actually as large as a Mack truck. LOL I am excited to see him again. Maybe I will get lucky and get some pictures again. Fingers crossed again!

The bad news ... ick ... is my blood pressure is elevated. It was 146/84 the first time the nurse took it and 136/84 half an hour later when the doctor took it. I noticed on Saturday that my hands and feet were feeling really puffy. I took my blood pressure at work that night. One of the perks of working in a health care setting! It was in the 140s/90s but went down as the evening went on. It has been elevated the since then and I was well prepared for it to be up at this appointment. And unfortunately I was right and it is elevated. ICK! I had a headache yesterday and it is still lingering a bit today but it is not a bad headache. But then I have suffered from migraines since I was 14 years old. So I may not be the best judge of what is painful. I can put up with a lot of head pain before I am down and in bed. So when I come back for the ultrasound I will do a urine test.

After both I will meet with my doctor to go over the results. Hopefully no protein in my urine and not an overly large baby. LOL I swung by work to let my supervisor know that I would be late coming to work today because of the appointments. She thought I was coming in to tell her I was going on leave 2 weeks early. LOL She was so relieved when I told her I was going to be 1 or 2 hours late for work today. HA HA HA Fingers crossed that I don't have to come back later and tell her I need to go on leave early cause of x,y and z. I will update later and let everyone know how things turned out. I won't be able to do it until after work. But I will as soon as I can!

Prenatal Massage

2010-05-12T13:35:00.000-07:00

I had my very first massage today. It was my birthday present to myself. The massage was fantastic! They had special cushions for me to lay on so that I could lay face down. The cushions had enough of an indent for my belly with out making you feel like you were going to fall through to the floor. I forgot how much I love laying on my belly. *sigh* When she was done with my back I flipped over and she worked on my face, neck, shoulders, arms and legs. She spent extra time on my arms and hands because of the carpal tunnel I have been suffering from. I had no idea how amazing having my arms, wrists and hands massaged could feel. I think that was my favorite part! I was bummed when it was over. The room was warm, quiet, dark, the table was comfy and the tangerine aromatherapy smelled awesome. She helped me sit up. Which was interesting while being this pregnant. I started laughing. I sat at the end of the table not wanting to get dressed and leave the little cocoon she had created. But ya can't stay there forever and the best part was over with. I think I have decided that from now on I will get a massage for every birthday. It really was an amazing way to treat myself on my special day.

Baby Shower!!!

2010-05-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

I had my baby shower on Saturday thrown by my friends. It was really great and I had a lot of fun. I was so happy to see the people there and so thankful that they came to celebrate with us. My mother in law, mother and grandmother were also able to join us. We played games and ate yummy food and cake. I opened presents and got all kinds of goodies. We are set for diapers for a while now. I hope. LOL The grandmas got to open their gifts from baby Wyatt.

On my way out to the shower I noticed that it began to rain. Not heavily as it had been doing off and on all morning. Just a nice light sprinkle. I am sure most people get upset when it rains on special days. But it makes me very happy to see the rain. In my teens a song came out called Holes in the floor of heaven. Steve Wariner sang it. The chorus is:

"'Cause there's holes in the floor of Heaven
and her tears are pourin' down
that's how you know she's watchin'
wishin' she could be here now
And sometimes if you're lonely
just remember she can see
there's holes in the floor of Heaven
and she's watchin' over you and me"

Ever since then I have noticed when important things happen to me it rains. Graduation, Bryan's birth, our wedding day. It flooded in Nevada the night we got married! LOL So when ever it rains it just reminds me that the loved ones who have passed and can not be here physically are still very much with us for the important events. And so when it started to rain on my way out there I sobbed. LOL But it was a happy cry because I felt them with me.

Between baby showers, gift cards and me getting up far to early for Wal-mart shopping trips, I am pretty sure we are ready for this baby. We have every thing we need. He just needs to bake for another 3-4 weeks before he can come out. 7 at the absolute most! LOL

So I share with you some pics from the shower!

Beth, Tracy and Ruth

Janet, Candace, Samantha and me

Mom, Grandma and Jane

Grandma Judy

Grandma Janet

The nursing cover Candace made for me.

Birth Review Class

2010-05-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

We had our first child birth review class tonight. It went pretty well. There was only one other couple there. I was worried they are going to be fruit cakes but they were really cool. They were a tish older then us but still close enough to enjoy our time with them. It was nice to have a smaller group because it felt more personal and we got to ask what ever questions we wanted to. The other couple also had a c-section the first time. So it was nice to have that in common with her. She had to give birth very early last time. So she hadn't gone through any labor like I had last time but we still had a lot in common.

We went through the general stuff like anatomy and the different phases of labor. The teacher took us for a tour of labor and delivery, the maternity ward and both the level 1 nursery and the level 2 nursery. There is a NICU but it is in a different building across town. Hopefully we will not have to ever see that nursery. I remember the recovery area very well. That is where I spent all of my time before Bryan was born. It doesn't really look any different 12 years later. LOL

Last time I had decided not to get a private room. It cost extra money and I thought it was silly to pay extra for a private room. Well I was horribly wrong. It sucked sharing a room with some one else while trying to recover from surgery. They only had 1 tv per room back then. So I had to give her the tv so she could watch her baby in the NICU on the monitors. How could I have possibly told her no? No matter how bored out of my flipping mind I was. So I made sure to say that YES I wanted private room this time around. Well tonight just confirmed that idea. We didn't really get to look into the private rooms much. They were all full tonight. How ever we did get to tour the double rooms. They are TINY. The room in general is not small. But when you put 2 strangers in that room it is far to tiny. Ethan would be unable to spend the night ever if we have to share a room. But he has the option to stay the night if we have a private room. He may or may not stay with us but it would be nice to at least have the option. Plus being there for 4 whole days really just makes me want my privacy. Even if we don't get a private room right away we may have a double room to ourselves. And if a private room opens later we would have first dibs on it. Fingers crossed that the maternity floor is not busy when we get there and we can just have our private room from the start.

So it was fun and we learned some new things. I enjoyed the tour. The other couple seems pretty cool and the teacher was easy to talk to. I hope to have her job some day. I have wanted to be a labor and delivery nurse for years. I think it might be fun to teach a birthing class some day too. If I ever finish school maybe it will be an option. LOL But for now I am uber excited about birth and our first few days. I can't wait to go there and get to meet Wyatt finally.

32 weeks

2010-05-03T20:36:00.000-07:00

I am rather slow on getting this blog post out. It has been eventful but all in good ways. I am now at 32 weeks. Wyatt should be roughly 4 pounds at this point. We are both still doing well thankfully. I had my doctor appointment today with a midwife. She was wonderful. I was worried since this was my first appointment that was not with my OB. But the midwife was great and made me very comfortable. My blood pressure continues to be great. Which continues to be a relief to me. My weight is down again by 4 pounds. While most woman are gaining a pound a week I seem to be losing a pound a week instead.

My belly is again measuring big. Last time I was 28 weeks but my belly was measuring at 33 weeks. This time I am 32 weeks and my belly is measuring a whopping 37 weeks! Crazy! He might be a little big but they think it is mainly because he is breech and still sitting very high in my belly.

The midwife did an ultrasound to double check and yes he is very much breech. I told her about his efforts to flip himself over and how much they hurt. She said that it sounded like he was at the point where he will be stuck head up. I go back in 2 weeks to meet with my OB. We will then set up a birth plan and schedule the c-section. I am starting to get excited about it now. It is so much easier for me to have a plan then to just leave it all up in the air. I hate that.

I have been suffering from carpal tunnel pretty bad in the last 2 weeks. I have trouble sleeping and wake up very early due to the tingling. numb pain. It is in both wrists but by far it is worse in the left wrist. I have been wearing braces at night and that has helped a lot but not completely. I asked the midwife today for any more ideas besides Tylenol and the braces. She recommended that I ice my wrists. I can put the ice right over the top of the braces if I want to. I am suppose to do it at night before I go to bed and first thing in the morning when I get up. Or PRN when the pain is really bad. She said the ice should help reduce the inflammation that is causing the carpal tunnel symptoms. If that does not work and I just can not bear it anymore she will get me in for cortisone shots. But the pain is still bearable now and I am assuming with the ice it will be better.

I explained to the midwife that I was starting to have some pain on the right side of my face. I have had a couple of sinus infections in the past. Allergies suck! This feels like the beginning of another one. The pain started Sunday morning. She went ahead and wrote me a prescription. I am really glad she did. I took the first of 3 doses tonight. A few hours later the pain got worse. I don't feel horrible but I am in more pain now then I was before. Why does it seem like those buggies feel the need to put up a fight once you introduce an antibiotic? I'm melting ..... ha ha ha! So anyway I hope that I will be feeling better in the morning. Hopefully we have nipped it in the butt before it had a chance to really put me in pain and misery.

I dropped my maternity leave paperwork off at the front desk. I guess the secretary fills the paper work out. Then takes it to your doctor to sign. Then they mail it in to where ever it is suppose to go. I will have to check with HR in a couple of days to make sure they were completed and turned in. But that is one less thing on my mind for now.

After my appointment I went down to the registration desk. We are now preregistered for the birth. WOOHOO! Check another thing off my to do list. She asked if a private room was available would I want one. It costs extra and the extra cost is not covered by insurance. I said HECK YA! I hated sharing a room last time. It was miserable. So if I get the chance and I really hope we do. I would really love to have a private room this time. Especially after a c-section. It is just no fun to try and relax and heal and bond with your baby when somebody else friends and family are busy visiting on the other side of the curtain. People are rudely loud at 8 am. LOL

I meandered over to the next building. That is where labor and delivery is. Also the maternity ward and nursery of course. Our birth class is right across the hall from labor and delivery. We start our classes on Wednesday. I am really excited and wanted to make sure I knew where it was I was going. So I just snooped a bit. I didn't actually go up onto the floor. I just found the elevators and checked out the map. I am pretty sure I know where we are going now.

After all of that I headed to work. I thought I was going to a work meeting. I really didn't want to go since it was my day off. I was tired and really just wanted to go back home and go to sleep. Or at least go pick up my prescription and shop a little bit. But I dragged my butt in there. And I am really glad I did! They through me a surprise baby shower! I had no idea it was happening and really had no idea it was going to be during the meeting. The first part was the shower and the second the meeting. So I totally got paid for attending my own baby shower! LOL There was food and cake and gifts. It was really great. A few of my friends that used to work at that house but had moved to other houses showed up. It was really sweet and I almost cried. I got some great baby gifts and had a really good time. Here I was afraid I would not get a single baby shower this time around. Now I will have had two!

I really appreciate every one coming and helping me celebrate. Even if I was totally unaware it was happening! LOL

Pregnancy Dreams

2010-04-29T03:37:00.000-07:00

Pregnancy dreams are notorious for being wild. I have had plenty in the last 32 weeks. I enjoy the fun ones. Wink wink ... they have happy endings. I have been able to go with the flow with the more odd ones. Dreams of the baby's arm hanging out of the side of my belly are odd but pretty darn funny once I wake up and look back at them. How ever there are dreams that are not fun. They are wild and not in a good way.

I have had nightmares many times. I don't really remember many as a kid. And most of the ones I have had as an adult are about unpleasant situations. Mostly being cheated on by some one I love or some one important to me dying. They wake you up in a cold sweat and feeling icky afterward. Usually after a few hours or the opportunity to talk it out with some one you feel better. This was not that kind of nightmare I had this morning. I had an actual monster in my house kinda nightmare. And it lead to me yelling in my sleep! I don't think I have ever yelled in my sleep before. Ethan had to wake me up. That is a first too. Once he figured out it was me making that odd wailing noise. LOL I was laughing after he woke me up and had trouble stopping the laughter. Partially because I was embarrassed that he just had to wake me up and partially because of the pure relief I was feeling that it was only a dream. So here it goes. The dream that made me yell out for the first time, that I am aware of anyway, in my entire life.

In my dream it was dark out. I think it was night time. Bryan was gone and Ethan had just gone to bed. I always stay up way later then anyone else in the house. For some odd reason I thought it would be a good idea to color. In the dark. ??? I don't get it either. So I went into Wyatt's nursery and grabbed a coloring book and a box of crayons and headed to the couch to get comfy.

Now I have to explain to you one of my worst fears. I have been this way all of my life. No matter where I live I have this fear that I am going to look out a window and see some one or something staring back at me. People used to walk through my mother's yard when I was a kid at night and jump the fence to get into the next neighborhood. I think that is where it stems from. It was bad at my mother's house and the apartment Ethan and I had many years ago now. But it got amped up to a whole new level when we moved out here to the farm. In town if you rolled over to see some one staring in your window it would be horribly creepy but not far fetched. How ever out here it doesn't just mean that some one was wandering through your yard to get some where else. It means some one is in your yard, in the middle of the night, out in the middle of no where and they are up to NO GOOD! Grab your gun and your German Shepherd and show em why your proud to be a redneck! LOL

I sometimes wonder if I have seen to many Friday the 13th movies in my life. I have these ideas of big bulky kinda sorta dead guys with machetes wandering past my window too. It took me a long time to admit to Ethan as to why I INSISTED on the shades being drawn at night. Even when we have a fan in the bedroom window at night I have to have the top part of the window above the fan covered with a curtain. It's not that I am a vampire and hate the sun. It's not that I don't want people seeing into my house during the day. I just have an irrational fear that some one or something scary as hell will be watching me while I sleep. It may be time to lay off the Stephen King books. Ya never know. So on to the rest of the dream ....

So after gathering my coloring goodies I head to the couch. I look up to see what looks like the shadow of a human figure in the kitchen window above the sink. Anybody who has been to my house might be aware of the fact that the window over the sink is actually up pretty high from the ground outside. In order for me to see a person's body they would have to be 8 feet tall or as I quickly became aware of hovering outside the window. AHHHH! I step closer to see this figure looks like a dead dusty corpse. Remember the crypt keeper from the Tales From the Crypt movies and TV show? Ya it kinda looked like that. It wasn't moving and it's head was hanging unnaturally with it's jaw resting on it's chest. Once I realize what it was I start to scream. I for some reason can't turn away from this thing and run into the bedroom to Ethan. So I am standing in the middle of the living room screaming at the top of my lungs in hopes of waking Ethan up so he can come and save me. Well .... I guess I was really calling out to him. LOL I remember being in the dream and thinking what is wrong with my scream??? I was making the attempt to yell as loud and as high as I could to wake him up. But instead this very odd wailing sound was coming out of me and I couldn't figure out why. Thankfully my wailing woke Ethan and he was able to wake me up from the nightmare.

It was odd and disturbing and yet funny as hell. That has never happened to me before. I totally blame the pregnancy hormones. They truly mess with you. It is just plain crazy. I didn't even try to go back to sleep after the dream. I just got up and went into the living room. Not before peeking my head out into the living room and making sure that nothing was watching me from the kitchen window. Yes I really checked. I am a dork. I know it. LOL To my relief nobody was out there so I was safe to come out. I am tired and would really like some more sleep. Hopefully I will not have another nightmare while home alone. And if I do and start yelling again I hope that Bo wakes me up. He is a good dogger that way. LOL

Dental hygeine is important during pregnancy

2010-04-28T21:21:00.000-07:00

Bryan and I had dentist appointments today. It was our first appointments at a new dentist covered by Ethan's insurance. I was nervous about going to some one new but it went wonderfully. Bryan did very well. No cavities, got a cleaning and a fluoride treatment and he is good to go for the next 6 months.

I did well too. No cavities but I do have to have a filling that fell out refilled. The dentist says it is fine to wait until after Wyatt is born. But he does do a "prenatal" cleaning. A hygienist gets in there really deep. Not just the teeth but really under the gums as much as possible. Gum disease can be a trigger for preterm labor. This dentist likes to do this type of cleaning some time during his patients pregnancy. It is usually done earlier then I am going to have it done. But he still thinks it would be a good idea for me to do it now. Plus then I am set cleaning wise for 6 months also. I look forward to having a deep cleaning of my teeth and to get it done and out of the way before Wyatt comes. I can do the filling at any time so no rush.

It was weird to sit in the dentist chair while pregnant. This was my first time. He asked if I was OK to sit half upside down like they make you sit. I said I was fine. Wyatt didn't agree. I guess he just doesn't like being upside down. Maybe that is why he is still breech. LOL He started wiggling and kicking. At one point he planted his feet on my pelvic bone and pushed up as hard as he could and very quickly. It gave my whole belly a jolt towards my head. It was pretty funny.

My dentist's wife is also pregnant. She is due 1 week after I am. Small world! He joked about seeing us at the hospital when the boys are born. Ya never know! He seems like a great guy and a very good dentist. He had no problem sitting down and talking through things with me and Bryan. He set up a game plan for me and one for Bryan and some adult teeth he has growing over top of some baby teeth. We even discussed when it would be a good time to bring Wyatt in for his first appointment. Don't worry Wyatt. You still have a good 3 years before you have to start going. I am very happy with the switch and hope it continues to go well for many years to come.

30 weeks

2010-04-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

We have reached the big 3-0!!! 30 weeks pregnant! Another great milestone in a healthy and relatively easy pregnancy. I complain about aches and pains and how tired I am getting but truthfully things have been very easy. It could be so much worse and I am so grateful that things are going well still.

Wyatt is doing well still. His movements have changed. He is still active as ever. Wyatt's movements used to be a lot of punches and kicks. Now that he is bigger and running out of room to move it feels more like rolling. He will apply pressure some where and then slide that body part across my belly. It is a weird and neat feeling. Unfortunately my belly button seems to be pissing him off. I don't know what his beef with it is but he beats on it often. All day today he has been punching my belly button from the inside. That area of my belly is tender and sore from all the abuse. LOL His feet have slipped down into my pelvis now too. He has started kicking my bladder and cervix again. Only this time his legs and feet are bigger and stronger. Sometimes I would swear he was about to kick his foot right on out of my cervix! That would not be cool. LOL

Wyatt often gets the hiccups now. Every single day. I remember how much it drove me nuts with Bryan and Wyatt seems to be following suit. I try really hard to move around and reposition him so that he is not bumping the same place over and over again. But it doesn't work. So I end up with him kicking my pubic bone over and over again. It might be annoying but at least it means he is practicing hard at breathing so he will be ready when he is born. Which will hopefully not be for another 7-10 weeks.

If Mr. Wyatt decides to make his appearance as early as his brother did he could be here in 7 weeks. WOW!!! That is just unreal! It seemed so far away not that long ago. Now it is just a matter of time before he gets here. Thankfully we have the nursery almost done. I am going to pick up the changing table after class today and get it set up. The room has been painted. The decorations are hung on the wall. The crib is put together and ready for Wyatt's first night at home. We have the important stuff bought so we are pretty much ready to roll. Here are a few pics from Wyatt's nursery.

It turned out perfectly and I am so excited! It is just how I imagined it to be. Fantastic! The red and white give it a very nice, warm, homey feel to the room.

I am looking forward to May. We have so much going on. OB appointment, baby shower, Mother's Day, birth classes, the end of the semester and before you know it June will be here and I will be starting my maternity leave. WOOHOO! I can not wait!

3 hour glucose tolarence test

2010-04-08T21:59:00.001-07:00

I took the 3 hour glucose tolerance test on Wednesday. It took 4 hours. *eye roll* I got there at 8 am and got called back a few minutes later. I got the really hot male nurse. He was perdy and he smelled amazing. I hope I wasn't blushing to much. He spent 15 minutes poking and prodding and searching both of my arms for a good vein to put the IV in. It wasn't working. I ended up with 3 nurses standing around me, all of them with their fingers poking at my arms, and none of them having much luck. They put little hot packs on my arms and then wrapped them in warm blankets. My chair was tilted backwards in hopes of coaxing some more blood down to my arms. FINALLY the lady who did my 1 hour draw managed to get the IV in my arm. It took 30 minutes. UGH! I hate having sucky veins.

Then I went back out to the waiting room to join the other preggos for our hourly blood draws. There wasn't a crazy lady to entertain me this time. Well OK there was a kinda crazy lady but she stayed in her chair the whole time. Except when she got up and sat in the seat I was sitting in while I was in the bathroom. ??? Was my seat warmer then yours? A prettier color? I have no idea why she got up and sat in my chair but she did. She was really rude and demeaning to her husband. She was talking to him like he was a little kid. I felt bad for the poor guy. He snipped at her a little bit once because she wanted to go eat lunch and it wasn't even 10am yet. He said no not yet and she blew up at him. When she wasn't giving him crap she was on her cell phone telling every one she knows and God how is tests were going for the day and just how his illness in general is stressing her out so much and she is just so run down and life is so hard for her. Ummmm ... yes I am sure it is but it is your husband who is sick. At least show him enough respect to not gossip about him to every one on your contact list. So I guess I did have one crazy lady to entertain me for 1 of the 4 hours I was there.

The blood draws went pretty well. I got yelled at by once nurse because I came in carrying my purse on the shoulder of the arm the IV was in. Then I bent my arm to do something stupid like itch my nose or something anyway. She yelled at me again for bending my arm. OY! So then I felt awkward because it felt like I was walking around like a zombie all morning trying not to bend my arm.

I went back for my last draw and she took the IV out of my arm. I was not expecting my arm to explode! She took the IV out and was reaching to put it all in the red bin when BAM blood spurted out of my arm and started pooling in the crook of my elbow. I could tell she got a little frantic but I was just trying not to laugh. They had a hell of time getting blood out of me in the first place. Then when they don't want it I blow up! LOL

The nurse told me that if I failed the test they would call either Wednesday night or Thursday morning. But no news was good news. Well the clinic never called so I am assuming that means I passed the test. If they call me Friday morning and tell me I failed and need to come in to see the diabetic dietitian I will be uber pissed. LOL That would so be my luck. UGH! But as far as I know I passed and everything is good!

7 month OB Appointment

2010-04-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

I was up bright and early this morning. Actually I barely slept the night before. I had heartburn and then I just couldn't settle down since I was nervous. Top that all off with a dog who always barks at the worst times outside your bedroom window. UGH! So anyway I had my 1 hour blood glucose tolerance test this morning and my 28 week check up with my OB.

I got right in at every appointment today. I went back and talked to the lady about what would happen during the test. She gave me a big glass of clear liquid that tasted like a very flat Sprite. It was suppose to be cold but it actually tasted room temperature. Maybe that was because it was so flat. Anyway I had 5 minutes to drink it but I got it down in 1 minute. It really wasn't that bad. Just not something I would drink for fun. I remember a toxic orange drink that was smaller but much nastier when I was pregnant with Bryan. I guess they have improved the drink over the last decade. Taste wise anyway. I went and sat down to kill an hour. I forgot my book in the car and for some reason my Blackberry just wasn't keeping me entertained.

Although the large girl who I eventually figured out was another one of the preggos there for the nasty 3 hour test was entertaining. It took me a long time to decide if she was in fact a she. Then I really didn't think she was pregnant until one of the other 3 hour preggos said something to her. She was nuts. Maybe the glucose drink was making her insane. I don't know. But she started grabbing random chairs from around the room and putting them where she wanted them to lean on or to put her feet up on. I saw her kick of her shoes and lay across one love seat and into another nearby chair. Then she disappeared and I thought she had gone to the bathroom around the corner. Nope she had plunked herself down at one of the check in computers and was attempting to access the internet. OMG! Who does that??? Some little old lady nurse comes over and tells her that the computer is for staff use only and was she trying to get on the internet? That was very much not allowed. A normal person would say oh I am sorry I didn't know, turn red and get the heck out of the chair. No not this woman. She refused to get up and just keeps repeating "but the girl back there said I could use this computer" over and over and over again. NOBODY CARES! You are not suppose to be on the nurse's computer trying to access your Facebook. GET OFF! She eventually did give up and wander back to the den of chairs she had made. But not with out sulking and stomping her feet across the room. UGH! And this woman is having a baby??? OY! I am scared!

Anyway I did pretty good with the test. I felt a little shaky some where in the middle. But I felt fine by the time I went back to have my blood drawn. I have impossible veins and hate getting my blood drawn. Not because it hurts or because I don't like blood. Just because it takes FOREVER for anyone to find a good vein. And it always takes at least 3 sticks to get any blood out of me. This woman poked and prodded and alcohol wiped my whole dang arms I swear. BUT she struck blood on her very first try! I give the blue scrub lady mad props for a job well done. HA HA HA

I had some time to kill so I wandered between buildings at Mayo. Looked through the shop in the Ghonda building. The coffee smelled amazing but I didn't want to be the preggo with the coffee that all the people were giving dirty looks to. So I kept going. I stopped at half the bathrooms between the Mayo Building and the Charlton Building because the had given me a large glass of ice water while I waited my hour. She said it was all I could have until after the test. So I sipped on that bugger for an hour and of course now I had to pee every 5th step. UGH!

My appointment with my OB wasn't until 10 am but finally by 9:30 I had gotten bored and just went upstairs to the waiting room. I checked in and sat down with my bottle of water and the granola bars I had brought with me to eat after the test. I thought I had plenty of time since it was still a good 25 minutes before my appointment. I scarfed one down and had started on the next when my pager started buzzing. I grabbed all my stuff and walked over to the nurse with a face still stuffed with granola. LOL She just laughed. I apologized and told her I had just done my glucose test and thought I would have enough time to eat something quick. She told me not to worry. She saw pregnant woman snacking in the waiting room all the time. Good. I am not the only idiot. LOL

The appointment went well. My blood pressure continues to be good. Wyatt's heart rate was 146 bpm. Fantastic! I have gained a few pounds but considering how much I have lost it is not a big deal. I am still down 10 pounds from my starting weight. My OB didn't even bring it up. He measured my belly, got a weird look on his face, looked back at the computer, grabbed a new tape measure and measured again. I am 28 weeks right now. My belly measures at 33 weeks. OY! He did some poking and prodding around of my belly. He said that the baby is breech and riding rather high in my belly. Wyatt did measure 1 week ahead at the time of my ultrasound so we knew ahead of time that he was a bigger baby. But 5 weeks seems a bit extreme. My Dr. is sure it is just because he sits so high that my uterus is stretched up more then it normally would be at this point. And who knows that may have something to do with the malformation of my uterus. Either way baby seems to be really healthy with a good heart rate and a lot of movement. So he was not worried. I will have an ultrasound done at my next appointment at 32 weeks. He will be able to get a few measurements then to see how big he really is and what position the baby is in. He is breech now and if he stays that way I am going to have to have a c-section again. Like I have said several times before due to my malformation it is impossible to safely turn my babies from the outside. He did mention that if baby is a LOT bigger then he might not let me go to my due date and I would have to have a c-section. He is not comfortable using pitocin on woman who are attempting VBACs and I agree with him. No matter what my situation was I am not a big fan of pitocin and do not want to use it. My mother has given pitocin when she was pregnant with me and over due. She said the drip started and a contraction started. It DID NOT STOP until the turned the drip back off. I have pretty much said heck no since she told me that story. LOL So I guess we will know in another month what his birth should be. But right now between him being breech and being bigger I am looking more and more at another c-section. Which really is fine with me. As long as we are both healthy that is all that matters.

My doctor thought my lab results would be up by the time I got to my appointment but they were not. He said they don't take long to get so a nurse should be calling me at any minute with the results. 3 hours later I had not gotten a call so I called the nurses desk. And I got laughed at. UGH! She said that the results are not usually in until late afternoon and they don't call woman back until the next morning. Oooooooooooh well don't I feel like a dummy. I apologized and told her that my Dr. thought they would be up right away and told me I would have the results soon. I didn't mean to be a pain I was just hoping to get my results right away. She laughed a lot and very loudly. Geez! She said she would have some one look it up for me and call me back to let me know if the results were up or not.

Well I got the call a little bit ago. And sadly I failed my 1 hour blood glucose tolerance test. Booooo! Hisssssssss! The number had to be under 140 and my number was 169. So it was not horrible but still with in the range to order the 3 hour test. The nurse gave me the phone number to call to schedule the next test. I called it right away and I guess threw them off guard. The nurse who I had talked to was just walking up to the appointment desk with the order for the 3 hour test as I was talking to the appointment desk lady. LOL Again I hate to be pushy but I just wanna get this done! So I have it scheduled for 8 am on Wednesday morning. I do not have school or work that day so I can easily spend my morning chugging that flat pop again and twiddling my thumbs as I wait. I will NOT forget my book in the car this time. LOL I am bummed but so many people have failed the 1 hour and passed the 3 hour test. So fingers crossed that I am one of the lucky ones who gets put through the glucose ringer for nothing.

28 weeks

2010-04-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

28 weeks
7 months
3rd trimester

It's been a long time coming but we are finally here! The last leg of this pregnancy is upon us. Baby Wyatt continues to kick and grow more every day. He should be roughly between 2.5 - 3 pounds now and 13-15 inches long. He is able to open and close his eyes. I hear that he might even start turning his head toward lights bright enough to see through my belly. He is able to recognize familiar voices like mine and Ethan's.

Wyatt has been unable to decide which way he wants to face. Right after my 24 week OB appointment he flipped head down and stayed that way for roughly 3 weeks. But the other night he flipped himself back around and is breech again. UGH! It hurts when he flips because he is running out of room to do so. But I would rather he gave it one more good flip and get himself in the proper position for me to attempt a VBAC. But for now he enjoys planting his feet on my pelvic bone and pushing his round little melon up through the top of my belly. It is so weird to be able to feel now exactly where his head is when he stretches. I remember that with Bryan but even that was years and years ago.

I noticed for the first time a few nights ago Wyatt had the hiccups. He kept kicking my pelvic bone over and over and over again rather rhythmically. It didn't hurt but it was driving me nuts. Eventually I realized that he was not doing it on purpose. He must have been having hiccups that were making him bump into me. It has happened every day for the last couple of days. It is still in the cute and interesting phase. But I remember how annoying hiccups can be when the baby is bigger and pretty much shakes your belly every time. LOL Bryan had them all the time. As soon as he quit I started up. Let's hope Wyatt doesn't have them to often. The good news is that hiccups mean he is practicing and improving his breathing so his lungs will be strong when he is born. The bad news is it drives you nuts and there is nothing you can do about it. LOL

I am doing pretty well. I am getting tired a LOT faster. I hate feeling winded all the time. Even an overly exuberant conversation can make me winded. Drives me nuts! I don't feel much like walking any where any more due to the lack of energy and the lack of ability to breath well. So I try to do things in short spurts and rest in between. I constantly feel like I am running behind and that stinks. But I do what I can and try really hard to get some one to help me with the rest.

I had a horrible revisit of morning sickness. I hear it is pretty common in the third trimester due to more hormonal fluctuations. I woke up yesterday morning, got dressed, walked out to the living room and puked. I had to cover my mouth to keep it in long enough to make it to the bathroom. I went from hmmm my belly doesn't feel so good to barfing my guts out in 2 seconds flat! NOT COOL! LOL I have my queasy moments but at least I am not having the constant all day every nausea I had during the first trimester. So of course I am now covered in stress induced hives on my face. UGH! Why can't I just puke, rinse and move on with my day like normal people? Small price to pay ... I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

I have my next OB appointment on Monday. I start the morning off with that horrible little sugar torture they like to call a glucose test. Fingers crossed that I pass the 1 hour glucose test with flying colors and I don't even have to think about the 3 hour one. BLAH! A lot of people I know are failing one or both tests and being diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Not cool. Let's hope I am not next on that long list. My 28 week OB appointment is shortly after the test. My doctor said he should have the lab results ready to pull up on the computer by the time I make it to my appointment. So hopefully I will know right away what my fate is. I just hope it is good news and my appointment goes smoothly.

26 weeks and just 99 days left

2010-03-18T05:35:00.000-07:00

On Friday I will be 26 weeks pregnant. Today I have 99 days left until my due date! That is so exciting! I have FINALLY made it down to the double digits. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. It doesn't seem so far away. I can't wait until 2 weeks from now when I am 28 weeks and also in the third trimester.

We still have to paint the nursery and get some of the bigger furniture items. My mother offered to buy the crib and I plan on buying the matching changing table. Other then that we are mostly ready. Once we get those few big things out of the way it is just a matter of gathering all the little dohickies you need a long the way. Hopefully we will get those things covered at the baby shower.

Currently my next step is the glucose testing. I will do that in 2 weeks at my next OB appointment. I would say I have to get up bright and early but I am already up that early on the weekdays anyway. I have to make sure Bryan actually gets up on time and out the door to meet the school bus. He is generally pretty good at it. I only have to wake him up once in a great long while. Some days I wonder why I am still getting up with him. He is getting so old. But then the day rolls around that he forgets to set his alarm and I am glad I still get up with him. Plus it is nice to see my boys off to school and work every day. So I will be up that morning anyway. I have to remember not to eat anything before I go and to bring a snack with me. The nurse said I can eat something after the test and before my OB appointment. So I will have to find a quick and easy snack to stuff in my purse for that day. Fingers crossed that everything goes well and I pass my glucose test with flying colors. I have been keeping track on my own at home once a week. So far my blood sugar levels have been very good. Let's hope they stay that way after all that sugary drink I have to guzzle down.

Wyatt is strong and active. I am pretty sure he is head down now. I feel most of the kicking up towards the top of my belly and around my belly button. I am no longer feeling kicks in my bladder or cervix. I still feel pressure to my bladder. But I am assuming it is now his head putting pressure there. It is a longer more constant pressure that comes and goes instead of the quick and sharp jabs I was having before. When I use my doppler I can hear his heartbeat down pretty low. It is below my belly button and off to the right side now. Instead of being up above and around my belly button. So hopefully he is in fact head down and stays head down until birth.

I am doing pretty well. It is getting hard to move around. The act of getting off the couch these days is ridiculous. I am having trouble bending at the waist. UGH! Good thing I bought new shoes that do not require me to bend over to tie them. LOL Cause I might just be walking around with untied shoes all day.

Braxton Hicks contractions suck. Some days I don't have any at all. Most of the time it is only on the nights I work. They do not hurt but they are uncomfortable. I know they are normal but they always put me on edge. I am looking forward to being closer to my due date so I can relax a little bit about them.

My stomach muscles are killing me these days. All of the pulling and stretching that my ever growing belly does to the muscles and ligaments are taking it's toll. My belly aches after a long day. I find it hard to just sit down and put my feet up while the nesting urge is strong. I just want to get things done. But my belly says otherwise and I have to sit and rest and rub out the kinks. I am trying not to be one of those weird pregnant ladies that rubs her belly all the time. BUT it does help a lot when things are sore.

I am starting to sleep better at night. The last two nights I have slept great. I probably just jinxed myself by saying that. Let's hope it continues. It probably won't. My belly will get bigger and bigger and BIGGER over the next 3 months and so will my discomfort. But in the mean time I am going to enjoy the deep sleep I have been getting the last couple nights. If all else fails my doctor has OK ed the use of Unisom for sleep and relief from restless leg syndrome. Who knew that Unisom would be my best friend this pregnancy. It got me through the worst nights of morning sickness and the most annoying nights of RLS.

Just 2 more weeks left of the second trimester. I am excited to be heading into the home stretch. I am curious to see how large my belly will get. And most of all I can not wait to meet our son! Grow Wyatt GROW!!!

6 Month Dr. Appointment

2010-03-08T09:55:00.000-08:00

I had my 24 week OB appointment this morning. It went very well. Everything is still looking great for both me and the baby.

My blood pressure is still down and doing well. I have lost 1 pound since my last appointment a month ago. That is not an amazing loss but honestly any loss during pregnancy is different. Being that I am a plus size mama it is perfectly ok for me to lose some weight. I really didn't expect it to happen. I thought I was going to have to struggle to keep my weight gain from getting out of hand. But Wyatt is growing bigger and stronger every day and I lose a little more weight every visit. It might change by the time my third trimester rolls around. I gained all of my weight in the last month of my pregnancy with Bryan. So it is still possible I will gain weight some where down the line. But at this point I have an almost extra 20 pounds of leeway for my total pregnancy weight gain.

The doctor had me hop up on to the table to check out the baby. Well maybe hop isn't the best word these days. LOL He checked my fundus (top of my uterus) and it is nice and high. Maybe a little on the high side but Wyatt has been known to ride a little high in my belly anyway. He is going to have to start growing OUT cause he really doesn't have much more room to grow up anymore. LOL His heart rate was in the 140s which is fantastic!

We did discuss Wyatt being breech at this appointment. He spends a LOT of time with his feet kicking my bladder and cervix. While he does flip over every know and then and kick my belly button he spends most of his time head up and feet down. He has presented breech during my last couple of ultrasounds. It is still possible for him to settle in head down so that I can attempt a VBAC. But my doctor warned me not to get my heart set on one type of birth or the other. There is a good chance that due to his frequent breech positioning and the malformation of my uterus that I will have to have a repeat c-section. He will do an ultrasound at my 32 week check up and we will make the decision then. So while there is still a chance at a VBAC he is leaning more towards a c-section. Only time will tell and he hopes that I get my chance at a successful VBAC. But we are not a normal case and we have to do what is best for me and the baby. I am perfectly happy either way as long as baby and I both come out of this birth experience healthy.

I have to admit on my way out of the parking ramp I started crying. Maybe it is the hormones or maybe it is just everything we have been through. It is most likely a mix of both. But I cried. We have been through so much. We have tried so hard for so long to have a healthy baby. There have been so many obstacles and loss and heartbreak to get to a healthy baby. We are not there yet but we are well on our way. This pregnancy has been fantastic and Wyatt is so healthy and strong. Hearing the doctor tell me today that I am doing a great job and we are both healthy and to see him so optimistic that this pregnancy will have a happy ending takes my breath away. Every baby is amazing and a miracle. But I just don't think people can truly understand what a unbelievably amazing miracle a healthy baby is unless they have struggled to achieve that baby. I know I took Bryan being so healthy for granted. I could not have understood back then what a healthy baby really means. We are so very blessed to have one healthy son and another one on the way. We are blessed!

24 weeks

2010-03-04T20:56:00.000-08:00

I am 24 weeks pregnant! Time is flying and yet my due date seems so far away. Things have been going pretty well. Wyatt is roughly 12 inches long now and about 1 1/2 pounds. He is the size of a papaya. I don't really know how big that is. But I have read else where that he is the size of a football. That makes more sense to me. I definitely feel like I have at least a football in my belly.

Wyatt is a wiggle monster. He has settled down in the mornings over the last 2 weeks. But it picks up around noon and then game on! He kicks a lot and pretty hard sometimes. My bladder seems to be one of his favorite targets. But he has also taken a liking to my belly button. Now that is a new kind of pain. Getting your belly button kicked from the inside. Shocking! I am glad he is sleeping in more now but I wish he would go to bed earlier also.

The other night I was awake until 4am. Don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoy the show he puts on. It is amazing to feel. I can even see my belly move every now and then when he kicks good and hard. But 4am! That is far to late little man! I was having a tough night as it was. I could not get comfortable. Every position had it's down falls. Even with pillows I still felt my stomach muscles were being pulled by my ever growing belly. The only position that I wanted to lay in was on my stomach which is obviously out of the question these days. When ever I would finally settle in he would kick HARD! He was kicking constantly but it was as if he heard/felt the silence and decided to spice things up a bit. I guess at one point I was laying to much to the front. I could feel him kicking the mattress! LOL

He responds to Ethan's voice pretty well. Wyatt will kick and push with his feet in the direct of Ethan's voice. It is pretty funny. I am waiting for the day when he hauls off and nails Ethan in the head with those jabby little feet. LOL Or the chihuahua ... she is kinda pushy when on my lap.

I am getting bigger. For the most part I look pregnant. Sometimes when I just wear a regular shirt I think it might be a question. So I try to wear shirts that are obviously maternity shirts. It works pretty well most of the time. I have decided I am going to miss the elastic pants when this is over. They are so comfy. Who ever invented the button/zipper combo should be slapped around a little bit. We all might be less crabby if we always had the comfort of elastic waist pants. I am totally keeping these pants for future use. Eventually I will have to deal with bloated, crabby, PMS kind of days again. And I will be prepared with my stretch jeans!!!

I have my 24 week appointment on Monday. This appointment has come a LOT quicker then any of the others. At least it feels that way anyway. Pretty soon I will be down to every 2 weeks ... then once a week ... before ya know it he will be here! I can't wait!!!

22 weeks

2010-02-22T21:35:00.000-08:00

You will have to excuse me. I am a little slow on my roll this week. I was sick last week. Between the nausea and the headaches and the body aches and the general exhaustion absolutely nothing got done. Including blogging but not Facebook. I would have to be almost dead for that. HA HA HA So here we go on week 22!

We decided on a name for this little guy. His name will be Wyatt Larry. Wyatt just because we like the name. Larry after his grandfather. So from now on I will most likely be referring to our bouncing baby boy as Wyatt. Unless something catastrophic happens and we change his name. But then I don't foresee anything wild happening.

Wyatt and I are doing well. This week he is the size of a papaya. Which means very little to me as I have never had one before. So I have no idea how big that is. LOL But it means he is roughly 11 inches long. Almost a whole foot now! His face is fully formed. Which we got to see at the ultrasound. It was really neat how she could look closely to make sure he did not have a cleft lip. He is slowly growing hair on his head and his eye lashes and eye brows. Let's hope he has a full head of dark hair like Bryan did. Babies are so cute when they come out with a little mop on their heads. But now that I said that he will come out bald as a cue ball. HA HA HA

It is getting more and more difficult for me to get around. Bending over to tie my shoes is just getting ridiculous. I looked for some back less shoes but have not found any I liked so far. Backless or no laces or what ever I don't care. I just remember how nice it was to have the backless tennis shoes while pregnant with Bryan. Getting up from chairs or off the couch requires a pregnancy groan. LOL Everything requires a pregnancy groan! I have my days where I feel very large and other days where I feel pretty normal.

Wyatt has been kicking up a storm. He has always been a very active baby. At every ultrasound the technician commented on how much he moves. I started to feel him moving pretty early on. The stronger he gets the stronger the kicks get. Which is humorous most of the time. And down right painful other times. LOL Ethan was resting his head in my lap this evening. The sound of his voice must have woke Wyatt up and got him wiggling. It started with nudges. Wyatt would put what I assume was his foot on my belly right next to Ethan's head and slowly push out. Then the nudges turned into kicks. Ethan did not feel the kicks but he did say that he could hear a little thud when Wyatt kicked. It was pretty funny. And how cool is it that little Wyatt is responding to his daddy's voice already?! Pretty darn cool I think.

Here is my 22 week picture. My belly is getting bigger and I look more and more pregnant. I am even starting to get the sweet smiles from little old ladies as they pass me by. There is of course always the half blind and deaf old man who seems to see nothing but the next aisle and has no problem running us all over. But for the most part it's nice people smiling and offering a little extra help.

Ultrasound time!

2010-02-11T15:12:00.000-08:00

We had our ultrasound today! It went perfectly. Except for the part where I had to pee so bad I was practicing labor breathing and trying not to tinkle on the table. That tech was nice enough to let me get up and pee about halfway through. Everything looks great and baby is very healthy. Baby is measuring 1 week ahead of my due date but the doctor decided to just leave my due date where it is. Everything is measuring well and the baby weighs 1 pound 1 ounce. Which is also a tad big for this week but I am not complaining. All of the body parts were there and looked great. We got a close up look at hand, feet, legs, arms, the brain, the spine and my favorite part the heart. It was fantastic to see all four chambers of the heart moving just they way they should be. Baby's heart rate was 158 bpm which is a very good strong heart rate. It was great to see the baby moving around and flipping back and forth. It was really neat to see the baby about to kick me and then BAM feeling the kick just as you see it hit the side of my uterus in the picture. The placenta is on the top and the back of my uterus. Which would explain why I am so easily feeling the baby kick. The placenta looked good and we even got to see the blood flow through the umbilical cord. So everything looks great and it was a lot of fun to get to see baby and get some new pictures.

Then there was the fun part. We got to see the gender of the baby. I had a feeling several times that I could see what sex the baby was. But I didn't want to say. I am not the professional. I could be wrong. But nope I was right. I saw what I saw and this baby is a BOY!!!

We are having a baby boy! I am the mother of not one son but two sons! While it would have been nice to have a little girl it is also great to have another boy. I have already been raising a little boy. I know how to take care of baby boys. There is a certain comfort level there. And it means we get another chance to try for a girl next time. LOL

I am still doing well. I lost a few more pounds since my last appointment. Which I will be honest I was a bit stunned over. My appetite has been through the roof and I feel like I am constantly eating. But I am now down 18 pounds with out even trying. I don't know if it is all the water I am drinking or if my metabolism has just finally kicked into gear for once. What ever the reason is I am not only not gaining weight but I am losing weight and hopefully in the end that will help me avoid gestational diabetes or high blood pressure. So far my blood pressure is still good. Let's hope it stays that way. But the way this pregnancy is going I am not to worried about it. Unless there becomes a reason to worry I will not worry.

Baby is head down now. Hopefully he stays that way so that I can try for a VBAC. It will still be a few weeks before we know for sure. And the way this kid wiggles and squirms it is always a concern for me. So fingers crossed that baby stays head down until delivery.

So everything looks great. Baby boy and I are both doing well. I go back in 4 weeks for my next appointment. Then at 28 weeks I will do the glucose testing and hopefully pass with flying colors. I am so glad the ultrasound is done and I can once again relax and enjoy this pregnancy.

20 weeks Half Way There!!!

2010-02-05T11:21:00.000-08:00

I am 20 weeks pregnant today. We have reached the half way point! I am halfway through my pregnancy. Only 20 more weeks left give or take a few obviously. Bryan was 3 weeks early. So I am still shooting for some time in June. While a July 4th baby would be uber sweet I would really like to stick in the June range. Anyway we are halfway to our baby coming into the world. I am so excited!!!

It is a wonderful feeling to make it this far and have baby and I both so healthy. So far there have been no complications and no health issues. Baby is growing more and more every day. He/she is now the size of a cantaloupe. Yes you read that correctly a cantaloupe. Another article I read said they are currently the length of a banana from head to toe! Baby is getting big and so are the kicks. He/she has been moving non stop every single day. The second I sit down the baby starts moving around. Every morning after I get Bryan off to school and Ethan off to work the baby starts moving and a shaking. It's like dance party USA in my uterus. I hope this isn't a clue into this baby's sleep schedule when he/she comes out. Mama is not a morning person sweet pea so learn how to sleep in. LOL But I do enjoy the show every morning. It is fun to feel the baby twisting and turning and flipping over and punching and kicking. Oh the kicking! One minute I will be getting my bladder kicked like crazy and then I feel the baby flip over and then my belly button is getting kicked and then FLIP back to my bladder. And it is a double edged sword cause when the baby is kicking my bladder I have to PEE. But when the baby is head down and kicking my belly button he/she keeps kicking the scar tissue from my surgery in August of last year. So that can be a little sore and painful jabs. But feeling the baby moving around is the most amazing feeling and I will gladly take the painful bumps from now until June. But if July comes around baby you will be receiving an eviction notice. So don't get to comfortable like Kimmy's baby did. LOL

I have read that the baby has working taste buds now. He/she can taste the food that I have eaten recently in my amniotic fluid. What I eat now will decide what things the baby likes after birth. I get the feeling this baby is going to like KFC mashed potatoes (yes I am on another potato kick) and steak. I guess that would explain why Bryan likes corn so much. I LOVE CORN! So I better bone up on my veggies that I enjoy so I can keep buying them when baby is bigger. This child will have a love for asparagus I promise you that! And steak cause lets face it when I am pregnant nothing sounds better then a big bloody steak. I was that way with Bryan and I am totally that way with this baby. Which is good considering we have a hamburger farm. (That was what Bryan used to say when people would ask what kind of farm we had.)

We are now less then a week away from the big ultrasound! I can not wait! I am going completely crazy I tell you! Next week I will hopefully be able to use he or she not both or it. I may even start using the baby's name too. Oh course everybody called Bryan by his girl name Morgan before he was born. So it was a bit weird to make the change over from Morgan to Bryan. Maybe I should have just left his name Morgan. It would have worked both ways right? LOL Anyway we are hoping to have an answer soon and we pretty much have names picked out. A girl's name for sure and most likely a boy's name. I guess if we see a little hot dog down there on Thursday then we will have to start deciding for sure. I can't wait to see! Of course I am looking forward to seeing that the baby is healthy and hopefully everything is measuring right. I look forward to seeing the baby's heart beating and getting to see all 4 chambers. That was the part that made me cry during Bryan's ultrasound. Considering my family history on my father's side it is the BIGGEST relief to see a healthy strong beating heart from my babies. I am probably gonna cry again this time. I just want them to be healthy and strong. Bryan is and I will continue to pray every day that this baby is too.

So here is my halfway point pic. My baby belly is getting big and my coworkers are commenting on how I finally look pregnant. WOOHOO!

19 weeks

2010-01-29T10:24:00.000-08:00

I am 19 weeks pregnant today. We are quickly approaching the halfway point! WOOHOO! The baby is 6 inches long and 9 ounces heavy. Before we know it this baby will be a full pound! Baby is the size of a mango or a large heirloom tomato I read. I don't like either one of those. I need a better fruit to compare baby to. LOL The baby is starting to be covered in vernix. From now until the baby comes he/she will be covered in that white gooey stuff in order to protect the baby's skin and to keep the poor thing from looking like a prune at birth! Most of it will be gone by then but there is always a little goop left in the creases.

Baby is doing well and getting strong. The kicks have gotten very strong this week. Every once in a while they kind of hurt. Most of the kicks are down low and in either my bladder or my c-section scar. OUCH! Baby is very opinionated about just how much pee I have in my bladder and how often I should run to the bathroom. It makes for interesting sleep patterns.

I am very impatiently waiting for our ultrasound. Most of the woman in my expecting groups have had their ultrasounds by now and know if they are on the pink team or the blue team. And this is why is sucks to be due at the end of a month. I am always 2 steps behind these woman. I am tired of the he/she and him/her references to the baby. And of course the worst IT. I hate calling this baby IT. I don't mean to rush things but HURRY UP! I just want to get to the ultrasound and see that everything is ok and what we are having. Yes this is a baby ... no we don't think there is a puppy in there ... no more comments from the peanut gallery. HA HA HA

I am also looking forward to a bigger pregnancy belly. I want to look pregnant and not just really fat. LOL Cause some days I just feel really fat. The baby grew up this week instead of out. So now my belly had kind of flattened out a bit. LOL I just keep reminding myself before long I will be as big as a house and wishing for a smaller belly. But for now GROW BABY GROW!

18 weeks

2010-01-22T14:27:00.000-08:00

I am 18 weeks pregnant this week. WOOHOO almost half way through! The baby is now the size of a sweet potato or a bell pepper. Depends on what I am reading at the time. Mmmmm ... I love peppers. The baby's reproductive organs are formed, in place and working now. If we had our ultrasound now we would most likely be able to see if this baby is a boy or a girl. But we still have a couple of weeks left before we get to take a looksy.

The baby is moving around more ever day. It tends to be an every other day kind of thing though. One day will be filled with strong kicks, punches and tumbling. Then other days it will be just a jab or a bubble here or there. A glass of orange juice and snuggling into bed usually gets me at least a couple good swings out of this kid.

I have discovered this week that baby likes deep male voices when listening to music. Trace Adkins and Jason Micheal Carol get some pretty big reactions. I read some where a long time ago that babies are better able to hear low and high tones. Hence the reason most people speak to a baby in a high pitched sing song voice. It's instinct to speak in a voice that the baby can hear well. So it makes sense that the deeper singers get a better response. And maybe the baby thinks it is daddy. LOL Babies love Ethan's voice and are always turning their heads in his direction. I guess we understand why now right!

I have been suffering from restless leg syndrome this week. It has been awful. I am exhausted from lack of sleep. But my legs will feel the desperate need to move and wiggle and RUN. It usually happens some time after midnight. I did some research on the internet and have tried some of the pregnancy friendly ideas. I started taking my prenatal vitamins before bed so that I get that rush of vitamins right before bed. Iron and calcium deficiencies can be a cause of RLS. So I am hoping the introduction of those vitamins right before trying to sleep will help my symptoms. Also dehydration can irritate symptoms. So I have been having a bottle of water with that vitamin before bed. It means I have to pee a lot during the night. But I do that anyway. And I can fall right back to sleep after a late night pee break. I can not fall right back to sleep while suffering from RLS. Also if things get really bad a warm bath or shower is recommended. The warmth is suppose to help relax the muscles so that you can sleep. I will have to try that next time I am really suffering. So far the other tips have helped.

Other then the RLS I have been feeling well. My nose is still running non stop but I get the feeling that won't quit until after this baby comes out. Thursdays are exhausting because I have lab and lecture all day and then I work all night. I am pretty pooped out by the time I get home. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't just take the semester off. Why am I going to school and trying to grow a small human being ... AGAIN!?!?!?!?! But I really love anatomy and am having fun so far in the class. I am hoping it just doesn't get to difficult as my belly grows.

I went shopping at a local second hand store. I spent $45 but I got SO MUCH STUFF! And 95% of the stuff I got looked like brand new stuff and was from Carters. Which to me is one of the best baby clothing companies. I love their stuff. It is so cute and soft and just looks snuggly. I bought some pink things and some blue things. But most of what I got today and what I already had is green or yellow. I have a thing for the little yellow duckies! So I got a ton of clothes and burp clothes and even a really nice purple blanket for $1.99 ... TWO DOLLARS! And the onsies were ONE dollar a piece! How could I resist?! God knows I have spent more then that on the same types of onsies at a regular store. So I got some great deals and a whole stack of baby hangers for a buck. I had some from Bryan but figured a few more couldn't hurt. I know it is still a while off before this baby comes. But it makes me feel so much better when we are prepared. So far we are doing well and have a lot of things already bought. I think the only thing left that we NEED is a crib.

20 more days until we find out if this baby is a boy or girl! WOOHOO!

17 weeks

2010-01-15T04:13:00.000-08:00

I am 17 weeks pregnant! The baby is now the size of an onion. The baby's bones are starting to harden and fat is starting to accumulate around the baby. The average baby is now 5 inches long and weighs 6 ounces.

All is well here. I have been feeling a lot of movement some days and not much others. You just never know when this baby will kick up his/her heels and start dancing! I am back in class for the semester and the baby likes to squirm during class. Which can be kind of distracting. But still fun anyway.

It is getting more and more difficult to bed over these days. I bend over to far and I play squish the baby. Either my uterus pushes into my bladder and makes me have to pee or the baby kicks back and nails me in the bladder and I have to pee. LOL So either way I end up having to pee. It has just become easier to squat down to work then to bend over. But I am sure it is just a matter of time before that because difficult too.

I am surprised and mildly annoyed by the insomnia. I can not sleep for more then a few hours. Day or night. It is frustrating. I hate feeling this tired all the time. Hopefully over my weekend off I can get more rest. But I doubt it with a "holiday" party coming up.

My appetite is up! I am hungry ... well pretty much all the time. Not good for the weight but it is nice to be able to really eat again. I just wish I could find the bottom to this stomach now. LOL

We are trucking along right into the 5th month now. I can't believe we are this far and so close to halfway through. I am working on the nursery little by little. I still have time so no rush. But it feels good to see that room slowly turn into a clean baby's room and not a messy spare bedroom/storage room. The doorway between our room and the nursery is clear now. The dresser moved over and the bookshelf is on the other side of the room. Now if I could just sell the treadmill and get the boys to move the twin bed and side table up stairs. We could really start pulling it together. No crib or changing table yet. But we will get there soon enough. Or not soon enough. Sometimes I feel like this is going to slow and then next time it seems to wiz right by. I am excited to have this baby here and in my arms.

16 weeks

2010-01-08T13:26:00.000-08:00

I am 16 weeks pregnant today! The baby is about the size of an avocado this week. Roughly 4 1/2 inches long and 3 1/2 ounces heavy.

I am feeling pretty good. I am starting to have more energy and wanting to straighten and purge and fix the house up for the baby. I have months before this baby comes. But I am still starting to feel the urgent need to get everything worked out now. I can't wait for the desperate need of nesting that comes right before the baby is born. My house will be spot less then! LOL

I can feel my uterus right under my belly button. My belly is firming up and widening. I am not really rounding out much yet. But I am getting to the point where maternity clothes are just more comfortable. Plus the point to the fact that this is a baby bump not just some extra cheese on my burritos!

I can't wait for my next check up and the ultrasound. It will be so much fun! Hopefully the time will go quickly. Then we will not only be at the halfway point but also time to find out if this baby is a boy or a girl. I need to find something to keep me busy until then ...

4 month check up

2010-01-04T23:06:00.000-08:00

I had my 4 month check up today. Every thing went very well. The nurse took me back and weighed me. I am down 3 pounds from my last appointment. That makes for a 13 pound loss total since I found out that I am pregnant. My doctor was very impressed with that considering we just got done with the holidays.

She took my blood pressure and it looked great. Right in the normal range. I am so happy that my blood pressure is staying down so far. Fingers crossed that I can keep it down and avoid any need for medication all 40 weeks.

That's when it got sucky. My appointment was scheduled for 3:05pm. The nurse left at 3:03pm and said the doctor will be in to see you in just a few minutes. My doctor didn't come in until 3:50pm. I was suppose to be back to work at 4pm. UGH! I text messaged the coworker who was covering my shift and let her know that I would be late. I was mad but in walked my doctor. He is so kind and sweet that my anger instantly melted. Sly little bugger isn't he?!?!?!

I got up on the exam table and he felt around for my uterus. He said the top of my uterus was right under my belly button. Which is exactly where it should be at 15 weeks. He pulled out the doppler to listen to the baby's heartbeat. Now remember at this point I had been waiting 45 minutes for him to come in and see me. And I am pregnant ... and peeing all the time. Not to mention some terribly annoying amount of gas today. UGH! The things we endure during pregnancy. But at least they are well worth it. So anyway he starts running the doppler over my belly and I am not sure if I am going to pee on the table or fart in his general direction. Either one or even both were a dangerous possibility! Thankfully I did neither. He started down low on my belly and all he found was my heartbeat. UGH! So I am trying very hard not to freak out. But the longer it is taking him the more nervous I am becoming. So he switches and moves it to the top of my uterus right under my belly button. Sure enough there it was! The baby's heart rate was 140 bpm. He said that was fantastic and every thing was looking really good.

I asked about the position of the baby. Was he/she still in the breech position since he had to find the heart beat up top. He said yes most likely. I asked him due to my uterine malformation when would we know if the baby is head up or head down and if I need a c-section again or if I can try for a VBAC. He said for me the cut off date will be 30 weeks. If the baby is still head up by then there will be little to no chance of the baby flipping on his/her own and he/she can not be turned from the outside safely. *sigh* BUT it is still early and there is still time for the baby to flip around. He said to drink lots of water to help keep a good level of fluid in there. The more fluid there is the more room baby has to swim around and flip over. So I guess in another 15 weeks we will know if this baby has settled in with his/her head stuck in the right uterine horn like Bryan did or if they got their butt stuck in there. LOL

Over all everything went very well. My doctor is excited that I have been feeling some flutters and said it is a great sign of a healthy baby. Baby and I are both healthy and doing well and he told us to keep up the good work!

I scheduled the big ultrasound today after my appointment. We find out if this baby is a boy or a girl on February 11, 2010!!! I can't wait to see the baby on ultrasound again!!!

Gender Prediction

2010-01-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be fun to play with the gender prediction wive's tales to guess at what we are having. The ultrasound that may tell us is still a few weeks away. But I thought it would be fun to see what happens in the mean time.

I did the wedding ring test. You dangle your wedding ring over your belly and see how it swings. In circles means girl and side to side means boy.
Result ~ BOY

Next I tried the needle test. It is the same as the ring test but with a needle instead.
Result ~ GIRL

I took the old wive's tale questionnaire. There were 15 yes or no questions that you answered and then they gave you a percentage of boy and girl.
Result ~ 60% GIRL & 40% BOY

The next test I took was the Chinese Gender prediction test. It is based on your age at conception and the month you conceived.

Result ~
Get your own gender prediction!

And last but not least is the Intelligender test. I bought it online. You are suppose to pee in a cup and then add your urine to the test crystals. After 10 minutes you read the results. Green means boy and orange means girl.

Results ~ ORANGE ~ GIRL

Ethan says maybe orange. LOL It was orange. From what I have heard it is usually pretty green if it is going to be green.

So far we are looking like a girl. Not that it matters. But it was fun to run these little tests anyway!

15 weeks

2010-01-01T08:49:00.001-08:00

I am 15 weeks pregnant today. The baby is now the size of an orange or roughly 4-5 inches from crown to rump. The baby now has functional joints! All the better to kick me with. The baby has well formed fingernails and even has his or her own unique fingerprints now! I hear the baby can make faces like squinting and frowning. If this baby is a girl her ovaries are moving into position and are getting ready to start making the billions of eggs that will some day ... very far away ... become our grandbabies!

I have been keeping track of things like blood pressure and blood sugar lately. Hypertension and diabetes are both things that I am more prone to as a plus sized mama. So I do a little check in every week to make sure things are still looking good. That way if something does start to come up I have a chance to at least attempt to nip it in the butt. Hopefully I will be able to get it back under control before it escalates to an issue that requires medication. But so far so good! Blood pressure and blood sugar are both with in the normal range.

My weight is down another pound this week for a total of 13 pounds lost since the test came back positive. I am not trying to lose weight. I am trying to keep my weight from jumping sky high as that can cause some above mentioned health issues. I have been eating better and switched from pop, pop and more pop to water, water and did I mention WATER! I love ice cold water. It is like a pregnancy craving for me. And the good side effect is that I am losing a pound or so a week instead of putting on a pound a week like most women do in this trimester and beyond. No complaints there from me or my doctor. As long as I am eating well and the baby is growing then it is safe for me to continue to lose weight. But knowing my luck the pendulum will swing the other way before I know it and I will be packing on the pounds like every other pregnant woman. But for healths sake let's hope not.

My uterus is getting bigger and I can actually feel it now. I lean up against things and go OOOPS! It kinda hurts if I am not paying attention. Laying on my stomach is starting to get uncomfortable. I start out fine but then it becomes a nagging round ball in my lower abdomen that won't let me get comfortable. So I think pretty soon I will have to give up laying on my tummy and learn to fall asleep on my side. Good practice for when my belly is to big to do anything else.

Along with my uterus popping out has come the wonderful and more frequent flutters of the baby. I have felt the baby every day, a couple of times a day for the last few days. It has been great to feel movement. It makes me feel more safe and confident that every thing is ok down there. So keep on shaking baby!!!

I have been struck by the unfortunate last dribbles of morning sickness. I for the most part feel really good. But when I wake up first thing in the morning and start moving around I have been feeling very sick. I have still managed to only throw up 1 time during this pregnancy. But this last week has really tested that status. I am usually fine after 30 minutes or so. But for that first half hour and I am gagging and burping and drinking gallons of water in attempt to keep the early morning stomach bile down. UGH! Let's hope that goes away this week.

I have a doctors appointment on Monday. I will be 15 weeks 3 days then. I am hoping to get to hear the baby's heartbeat with a doppler. I have seen the baby's heartbeat on ultrasound 3 times now. But I am really looking forward to hearing it for the first time. Then I should be able to schedule the BIG ultrasound for 18-20 weeks. We will get to see if we have a hot dog or a hamburger in there! Most of you all know that I am pretty wary of determining the sex of the baby by ultrasound. Bryan is a BOY no matter how many times they told me he was a GIRL. So unless I specifically see a twig and berries or a very obvious clam and not just a black void, I am not buying pink or blue. But I am hoping that we do get a good view of what we got baking in there. I can't wait! I can't believe I am so close to being half way through this pregnancy and so close to the big ultrasound. Sometimes it feels like this pregnancy is just crawling along and other times it feels like it is zipping by! Before you know it we will have a healthy little spud to hold. I can't wait!!!!

15 weeks down and 25 weeks left to go!

A mover and a shaker!

2009-12-30T13:45:00.001-08:00

I was already getting so bored in the second trimester. I know crazy. Why am I complaining right? I still feel pukey in the morning but other then that the morning sickness is gone and the fatigue is mostly gone. I have been just sitting around ... waiting for something ... anything interesting to happen.

I have been good and avoided coffee for the most part but I decided yesterday on my way to work that it was COLD ... not just cold but FRIGID COLD. So I swung by a gas station near work and picked up a hot chocolate. Their coffee totally sucks but I figured it was pretty hard to screw up hot chocolate. I got a small cup and happily wrapped my freezing hands around it.

Well I guess even a small amount of hot chocolate is a large amount of sugar to the baby. I sat down after finishing my cup and felt something. It was right below my belly button. BUBBLE BUBBLE ... WIGGLE WIGGLE ... holy crap I think the baby is moving ... WEEEEEEEEEEEEE ... yep that's the baby!

I have felt the baby move before. But it was very rare and I had to be absolutely still and laying on my right side. Don't ask me why the right side. That was just how it worked. But yesterday the baby was a moving and a shaking and a wiggling all over the place. Yep ... definitely your father's child aren't you?!?!?! He is just as wiggly outside me as you are inside me. Anyway I sat there and enjoyed the movement knowing that those moments are few and far between this early. But I must say I was impressed that it was happening with out me laying on my right side still as a statue. It was so great to feel him/her in there!

I was not expecting to be feeling anything again any time soon. But sure enough when I got home last night the baby started up again. And then this morning there were the bubblies again! As I was getting my shoes on I guess I bent over to far and squished the baby a bit because he/she fought back. I think I got kicked for the first time by this baby! THUMP! I shot straight back up and started laughing. Ooooops! Sorry babe! I didn't mean to play squish the baby. My bad.

I am so excited that I am starting to feel things. I am also so glad that you feel things moving and shaking in their earlier if you have already had kids. My uterus is stretched out more and I know what a baby moving feels like. So I am far more aware. It is great to feel the baby moving. I can't wait for it to happen again. I especially can't wait for the baby to kick Coco off my belly. She is hell bent on laying on the baby for some reason. Not on my lap but on my belly. Right over the baby. One of these days this kid is going to say "bad puppy" give once fierce kick and send the Chihuahua flying. And I have to admit I am going to be laughing my butt off!

Potato Salad!!!

2009-12-27T09:17:00.000-08:00

I think I have officially had my first pregnancy craving. I have had a few minor cravings here and there over the last few months. But nothing that made me feel like I NEED THAT NOW! Friday night I was hungry. I went to the fridge and decided potato salad sounded good. Buuuut it was Ethan's and I didn't want to munch on his food. So I left it there. I sat on the couch with my mind and belly just spinning! I wanted that potato salad and the more I ignored the urge the worse it got. So I hopped up and got the container. I ate the entire container of potato salad. It was so NUMMY. But I was not full. So I ended up licking the container of potato salad clean. LOL Yep I licked it clean and I STILL was not satisfied. I decided because of the bad weather it would not be a good idea to head to the grocery store in the middle of the night for more. But I did decide that I was going to buy more on Saturday. I didn't have time to grab some on my way to work. But my wonderful sweet and loving hubby stopped by the store and picked up a BIG container for me! I could not be more in love with him right now. HA HA HA It is funny how easy it is to please a pregnant woman. With Bryan I craved apples all the time. In any form. I just wanted apples. This baby I seem to so far be craving potatoes. Mashed potatoes taste like white fluffy heaven to me. LOL I realize that potatoes are not as healthy as apples to crave. But I figure I am making up for it by drinking water all the time. I do allow myself the occasional pop. But for the most part I drink bottled water. I have almost had cravings for it. A nice cold bottle of water from the fridge makes me pretty happy. Which is definitely a step up from the gallons of Mountain Dew I drank while pregnant with Bryan. Hey I was young and dumb then! I am older and better read on the pregnancy journey this time around. LOL Anyway I am going to go back to my potato salad now. Hmmmmmm .... potato salad ....

14 weeks

2009-12-25T21:24:00.000-08:00

I am 14 weeks pregnant! The baby is now the size of a lemon ... or my fist. Depending on what book I am reading these days. I am doing well. Things are rather ... uneventful right now. I am ecstatic to be in the second trimester. I knew that things would be less dramatic at this point. But I guess you never fully expect it to just drop off so quickly. I am still tired but not as much or as early in the evening. The morning sickness is pretty much gone. I gag every now and then in the morning. But other then that I am feeling well. My joint pain is easing and almost gone now. My left knee still hurts and even pops when I keep it bent for to long. But at least I don't feel like crying every time I move my legs now. We have been celebrating Christmas. Baby's first Christmas ... sort of anyway. I had a ridiculous craving for potato salad. It was to the point that it was humorous. I ate all of daddy's potato salad and was tempted to put some pants on and head to the store for more! I have resisted the urge to go myself or to send daddy running to the store. LOL Things are well. Nothing much is going on which is weird. But I suppose no news is always good news. We will just keep trucking alone. Hopefully some day soon I will be able to feel more then just the bubblies in my belly and the kicks will start.

13 weeks

2009-12-18T10:45:00.000-08:00

I am 13 weeks pregnant. Saying good bye to the first trimester and hello to the second trimester! Thank God! I am doing my best to enjoy every moment of this pregnancy. Even the morning sickness. It has been such a long time and so many prayers coming. But I have to admit I am happy to see a milestone that I have not hit in YEARS. It is very exciting and relieving to see the second trimester.

The baby is now the size of a peach. Everything is going pretty well. The morning sickness has eased greatly. I still have the occasional bought of nausea every now and then. But for the most part smells don't make me gag over and over and over again. Strong smells still do. But not the little things anymore. I even had my first cup of coffee in months! Decaff of course. But God did I forget how wonderful coffee tastes! Even though it was decaff and I didn't get an energy jolt from it I remembered how much I enjoyed the relaxation of drinking the nice warm nummy fluid. Ahhhhh!

The fatigue is getting better too. I am still tired of course. Making a tiny little person is hard work. But I don't feel half dead to the world anymore. I am feeling better and looking forward to the day again. I see why woman enjoy the second trimester so much again.

My nose is still constantly running. And now I am sneezing all the time. It is a really tough symptom to have during cold and flu season when you are not yet really looking pregnant. Every one looks cross eyed at me. Sorry folks! I can't help it. And I am just not going to explain to every person that it is just because I am knocked up. LOL

My newest and so far most annoying symptom is knee joint pain. Yes it is worse then the morning sickness. LOL My knees are stiff and sore and just plain killing me most of the time. It makes getting in and out of bed and chairs and the couch hard. I am slow and sore and glad I don't have to walk to far to often. But then oddly enough wandering around the clinic made my knees feel better. So who knows. Maybe I should be walking more to work out the stiffness. I of course Googled the symptom. I read that most woman who have first trimester joint soreness will start to feel better in the second trimester. Then by the third trimester it is gone just about the time that other woman are just starting it. So fingers crossed that it will go away in a few weeks.

We have officially announced to the world that I am pregnant. We made this announcement on Facebook on Tuesday, December 15, 2010:

We are extremely happy to finally announce that I am pregnant! Our first child together is due June 25, 2010! The baby and I are both very healthy and doing well. Bryan can't wait to be a big brother again! I am happy to see the end of the first trimester and look forward to being morning sickness free hopefully some day soon. LOL

So now most of our friends and family know that our little baby blackberry is on his/her way! I am so very happy to finally have been able to share the news. It was such a relief to spill the beans. We have gotten lots of congratulations and well wishes. We thank every one for their kindness and their prayers. It truly does mean the world to us and has helped get us through the hard times and the rough and long road to a healthy baby. Thank you!

First Trimester Screening

2009-12-15T09:45:00.000-08:00

I had the First Trimester Screening test done yesterday. All went well ... a little longer then need be but still well. First I talked to the genetic counselor. She was super nice and explained everything to me. I even got to see pictures of the fluid in a normal baby's neck and the fluid pocket of a baby with Downs Syndrome. That was really nice. I felt more informed and prepared going into the ultrasound. I knew what the technician was looking for and what we did NOT want to see.

I am by no means a professional but I thought every thing looked good. My bladder was not full enough at first for the ultrasound. The baby was laying asleep in such a way that she could not get a good profile view in order to view the baby's neck. So she handed me my bottle of water and told me to drink up. I was instructed to lay on my side for a while and move around in an attempt to wake the kid up and get him/her moved into a better position. HA HA HA She had no idea what a bad idea that was! Maybe I should have warned her! She said she would be back in 10 minutes but didn't come back for 20 minutes. UGH! I really had to pee by then and was mildly scared of her pushing on my belly with that ultrasound wand. Thankfully I did not pee on the table. The second time the baby was WIDE awake and moving all around. As soon as she would settle in on a good place to take the measurement the baby would start wiggling and spinning around to put it's back to the tech. So she would go around to the other side of my belly and the baby would wiggle and spin some more. LOL She commented on what a mover this baby is. Like I said I probably should have warned her that waking the baby up was only going to make it harder to get a good picture! She did manage to sneak in some pictures to take the measurements with and do the general check over of the baby. Heart rate was 142 and the baby is still measuring right on time. And obviously the baby is moving about well on his/her own. LOL I got a few pictures. Still not great pics but what can we expect with a mover like this one! LOL

I went down stairs for the blood test portion. I HATE getting my blood drawn. I have miserable veins and it takes many pokes and several minutes to get blood out of me. Yesterday was no different. They stuck me 3 times in the arm with no luck. The lady asked if she could try the vein in my wrist because it was the only ones they could see and really feel. It worked. It hurt a lot but it worked. The guy that usually takes my blood starting cheering. She does have blood! She does have blood! HA HA HA The lady told me next time I should make sure to drink lots and lots of water before hand. I held up my empty bottle of water and said "Sorry ... I just came from an ultrasound ... I have been drinking water all afternoon." She looked like she wanted to pass out onto the floor. LOL I walked out of there looking like a suicide victim with my wrist all bandaged up. But at least my blood draw was done.

I got the call with the results this morning. I could barely function I was so nervous. I had dreamt last night that they had called me back but refused to give me the results over the phone. I was stuck at work and couldn't get away to go to the clinic to get the answer from the genetic counselor. It was a horrible dream and really shook me up. So when I finally got the phone call with the results I held my breath until she told me. The test was negative! I am NO increased risk of carrying a baby with T18 or Downs Syndrome. My age puts me at a 1/850 chance of a baby with Downs. But after this test my chance is 1/3,000! She said everything looked great and the baby is healthy! I let out a huge gasp of air that I had been holding in. I almost started crying I was so happy!

I have jumped through all of Ethan's hoops. So now I get to tell the world! I am waiting for him to respond to my message on his phone first. I want him to know first that the baby is ok . Then I will put it on Facebook. So soon everybody will know. I can't wait to share the good news!

Here are some pics from the third ultrasound.
The first is a side view of the baby. You can see the head to the left and body to the right. The baby has it's hand up by his/her face. Almost sucking his/her thumb.

The second is a back view of the baby. Again head on the left and body on the right. You can see the baby's spine.

12 weeks

2009-12-10T22:24:00.000-08:00

I am 12 weeks pregnant! The baby is now the size of a plum. This is my last week of the first trimester. I can't wait to put it behind me. It has been a very long time since I have made it into a second trimester. I am looking forward to it very much.

I thought I was in the clear when it came to morning sickness. I was so very wrong. I had 3 or 4 really good days. Things were looking up. I was feeling great! Then BAM morning sickness came back and knocked me clean on my butt. CRAZY! I am hoping that in no time it will be gone for good.

I am feeling the bubbly butterfly rumbling in my lower belly. I know they say that when you have more children it is easier and earlier that you feel the baby start to move. I am impressed by how early I am feeling something. It is not all the time. Just once in a while. Like Wednesday morning at 6 am. I was trying to fall back to sleep but I was totally fascinated by the rolling feeling in my lower belly. It would seem to be to much movement to fast. Except I saw this moving like crazy at my last ultrasound. So I know he/she moves that much and that fast. It goes away as quickly as it comes. I look forward to being able to feel the baby moving more often and with more force. The butterflies almost tickle right now! LOL

I have my first trimester screening on Monday. Hopefully everything will go wonderfully and the baby will be healthy. Then we can finally announce to the world that this baby is on the way. Fingers crossed!

11 weeks

2009-12-05T09:16:00.000-08:00

I am 11 weeks! The end of the first trimester is closing in. The baby is the size of a lime now. I am sure she/he is dancing up a storm down there. I look forward to being able to feel all the movement. I am slowly starting to feel better. The morning sickness and fatigue is starting to lift. I am still queasy. But I am no longer sick as a dog day in and day out. Plus with the help of unisom I am not getting sick over night either. That has been wonderful. I have been getting up earlier and earlier the last few days. I was up at 8 am today and started cleaning the house. Bryan asked why we were cleaning the house if no one was coming to visit. I told him I was feeling better so we had cleaning to catch up on. He was not happy. Especially when I told him in a few more months I will to large and tired to clean much. So it will be his and Ethan's responsibility to clean the house. Again not a happy camper. LOL Things are going well still. It is daddy's 30 birthday today! Happy birthday daddy!!! Next year this baby will be here to help celebrate with us.

First OB Appointment

2009-11-30T20:44:00.000-08:00

I had my first OB appointment today. It went very well. The doctor did the usual pelvic exam and pap test kind of stuff. He went over my results from the blood and urine tests I had done last week. Everything looks great. The best part was the ultrasound! I am so glad he decided to do that. He thought it would be a good idea to check in on the baby and make sure he/she is growing properly and still had a heartbeat. The baby looked great! He/she measured at 10 weeks and 5 days. A little ahead of my calculations but pretty darn close. The baby's heart rate was 167 bpm. Which is a fantastic heart rate. The old wives tale says if the baby's heart rate is above 160 it is a girl and below is a boy. Which would be funny because Ethan keep referring to this child as a he. LOL The baby was once again bouncing around like a mexican jumping bean. Ethan and I both were surprised by how much this baby moves around and bounces of the walls of my uterus! While the doctor was trying to get a decent picture the baby spun around and turned his/her back to us. At one point we could see the baby's arms moving around. The kid is already dancing around and doing the wave down there! So things are looking great. We didn't get great pictures because like I said he/she won't hold still. But here is what we got to share!

This is a front view of the baby. You can see the head and body and little arms and legs.

This one is a side view. Mostly you just see the head and the curve of the baby's back.

It is amazing how the rest of the world just fades to black when you are watching your baby on an ultrasound. Ethan and the doctor were talking to each other but I barely noticed either one of them there. All I could see was that little bundle of energy bouncing around and that fantastic little flicker of a heartbeat. I was in heaven.

So all is good. Ethan keeps trying to push back when we tell people so as not to jinx this pregnancy. I am going CRAZY because I want to share our wonderful news so much. Especially now that we know things are going very well. But I guess I will have to just continue to wait ...

10 weeks

2009-11-27T20:21:00.001-08:00

I am now 10 weeks pregnant. The baby is the size of a prune. This kiddo is growing pretty quickly right now. I am still sick as a dog and dead tired. I swear it has been getting worse instead of better. Hopefully in another few weeks both will ease up. But it is all for a good reason. So now complaints.

We told our parents for Thanksgiving. They are excited for a new edition in the summer. Still cautiously optimistic.

I had a penicillin allergy test. It was thankfully negative. So that is one less thing to worry about for now. I am hoping I will not get any infections while pregnant. But if I do I know that penicillin and amoxicillin are safe for me to take. Which is good because they are both safe during pregnancy and pretty darn cheap. So that is a good thing.

My first OB appointment is coming up soon. Fingers crossed that it will go much better then it did for my last pregnancy. This is kind of one of the last milestones I want to pass before I can relax and breath more. We have made it past the first ultrasound and the nurse's appointment and the point of loss from last time. Now to get past this appointment which is when I found out during my last pregnancy that something was wrong. And of course making it to 12 weeks and heading into the second trimester. I can't wait to get into the second trimester. Fingers crossed that it will go smoothly.

9 weeks

2009-11-21T13:03:00.001-08:00

I am 9 weeks pregnant! I have officially made it past the date of loss from my last pregnancy. It is time for a mini celebration.

WOOT WOOT!

I read some where the other day that early pregnancy symptoms peak at around 9 weeks. I don't remember where I read it. I read a lot of things from a lot of different sources. I am a bit of a book worm. Anyway things like fatigue, morning sickness, sore breasts and so on and so on, all of the typical first trimester symptoms of pregnancy will peak at 9 weeks and then slowly start declining. Some where between 12-14 weeks they should disappear. I know it is different for everybody but boy howdy it appears to be true for me in this pregnancy. The last few days I have been SICK. More sick then I have been so far at all. I am constantly shoveling in small snacks to keep the vomiting at bay. It seems the only cure for my morning sickness is a snack. But not just any snack. It has to be the right snack or meal. And they could turn on me at any moment. What was heaven 5 bites ago is now making my eyes water and threatening to all come back up! It is hard to hide this too. Not a lot of people know yet. So when I am suddenly unable to eat something I have to fake being full. I really am not. I could probably eat a horse. But only if it had the right marinade on it. LOL I am not complaining about morning sickness of course. I am just saying ... BLAH!

The fatigue has kicked in worse too. I get up and get the kid off to school and go back to sleep. I get up and go to class and come home and go back to sleep. I get up and go to work and day dream about sleeping all night. Then I come home and try to unwind with a bedtime snack. With out the snack I will be up in a few short hours trying not to heave stomach acid all over the poor sleeping unsuspecting hubby. Then ... you guessed it ... I sleep. I sleep until morning when I get back up and do it all over again. I am just flat out pooped. It makes doing home work and house work very difficult. Cause I would rather be sleeping!!!

The pregnancy dreams are starting to kick in too. I have had a few over the past few weeks. But not much. However the last few nights have been jam packed. I don't remember most of them. Just the very intense real feeling I get afterward. Like the dream where I couldn't remember who the father was. Or the one where I went back to work just 1 week after the baby was born. YA RIGHT! I am taking 3 months off this time around! I have the paid time off and definitely the desire to just stay home and be a mama and a wife for a little while.

I have moved to stretchy pants. I don't really need them. My regular pants still fit. But OMG the stretchy pants are like a little slice of heaven! I am not allowed to wear pajama pants to work because of our dress code there. How ever we are allowed to wear jeans. These pants look like jeans but feel like jammy pants. It is the most amazing feeling. I will have to go back to Wal-mart and buy more. No doubt about. I am not sure they will last me the entire 9 months. They have a very stretchy waist but I am not totally convinced they are THAT stretchy. Only time will tell. But for now they are magnificent. And it's the little things you have to enjoy when your head is in the toilet.

We told Bryan

2009-11-16T22:54:00.000-08:00

Since my last pregnancy ended in miscarriage Ethan and I decided to hold off on telling people that I was pregnant again. This also meant my 11 year old son. I just didn't want to get his hopes up right away like last time. He has a brother and sister on his dad's side but has been wanting one (or two as he said) on my side.

I took Bryan shopping with me today. I decided it was a good time, since we were having a little mommy and me time, to tell him about the baby. He asked me why I was looking at jeans with a stretchy waist and I thought what the heck! I probably couldn't ask for a better ice breaker. LOL I told him because my belly was going to be getting bigger over the next few months and I needed bigger pants to cover the baby. Luckily he caught on to what I meant right away. I asked him if he wanted to be a big brother again. With a huge smile he said yes he could be a big brother to one more sibling ... or two more. What ever works for me and Ethan. HA HA HA

I explained to him that it was still early and the baby was not due until June. There was still a chance that something could go wrong and that the baby could die. We want to wait to tell people until after we are a little more comfortable that the baby will be OK. So he had to keep the secret until Christmas.

He seemed very happy and was making jokes the rest of the night about the baby. He tried to tell me that the cure to morning sickness is meaty pizza. LOL I hate meaty pizza! HA HA HA Bryan seems excited and that makes us happy. Let's just hope he still feels that way when he is back to helping with dirty diapers!

8 weeks

2009-11-12T22:25:00.000-08:00

I am now 8 weeks pregnant. Things are still going well. I feel more and more sick every day. Morning sickness is kicking my butt. But I am doing it with a smile. LOL The fatigue has gotten pretty bad too. I am ready for bed by 7pm most nights. Which is not a good thing since I work until 10pm. The sinus issue has gotten better but not 100% gone. Or maybe I have just gotten used to sniffling and don't notice it anymore. LOL Ethan is already asking when the fatigue and morning sickness ends. Sorry hun! We still have at least a month left of the pucky sleepy Amy. HE HE HE Hopefully some time around 12 weeks it will subside and I will start to have more energy. And less gagging. LOL I am thinking about putting a roll of poop bags from the dogs leashes in my purse. That way if I feel the need to barf in the car I have something to barf into. I am pretty sure I would be unable to drive my car if I get the pucky smell in there. My sense of smell is still far to strong. The preggo brain farts are INSANE. I can't remember anything. It's so crazy that it is funny most of the time. One of these days my coworkers will smack me. But probably not until the baby comes out. LOL

This week the baby is the size of a raspberry. Or maybe even a .... blackberry ... he he he. Yes we are going THERE. I am pretty sure from now on I will call the baby our little blackberry. It's cute and well we are crackberry freaks. So yes from now HELLO LITTLE BLACKBERRY!

Ultrasound

2009-11-11T14:22:00.001-08:00

I had my first ultrasound on Monday. Everything went great! This baby is measuring well and has a nice heartbeat. I can not begin to explain how much of a relief that was. My last pregnancy I had no idea anything was wrong with the baby until the first ultrasound showed no heartbeat. It was horrible and had me absolutely terrified this time around. But thankfully everything went well Monday. The baby refused to hold still long enough to get a good picture or to record it's heartbeat. Brings on a whole new meaning to mexican jumping bean. LOL But things look good. The baby appears healthy. I got the OK from the fertility clinic to move on up to obstetrics! So now I can see a normal OB for the remainder of my pregnancy. WOOT WOOT! Aside from the morning sickness let's hope the rest of this pregnancy continues on as smoothly as the last few weeks have gone.

7 weeks

2009-11-06T22:10:00.000-08:00

I am 7 weeks pregnant. The baby is the size of a blueberry this week. Things are going well. I am exhausted and queasy as all get out. But that is a good thing. My nose has been running none stop. I am constantly sniffling and blowing my nose. I guess the increase of mucus is coming from EVERYWHERE these days! LOL

We just returned from our vacation. We had planned this group vacation a long time ago. I had joked that since we got engaged on our first trip to Vegas and married on our second trip then I should either be pregnant or get pregnant the third time. Well sure enough! And boy howdy was I pregnant on this trip! I went on vacation to Florida while pregnant with Bryan. I have to admit traveling while 7 months pregnant was much easier then traveling while 7 weeks pregnant. The morning sickness came and went often. I never knew when it was going to strike. I could be feeling on top of the world one moment and sick as a dog the next. My stomach turned on my so many times I think I got whip lash! LOL The fatigue was crazy bad. We were go go go all week. Which is great but exhausting to say the least. I did not get a chance to nap every day either. And those were the hard days. A pregnant lady NEEDS a nap. But ya it just didn't happen sometimes. Our friend took video of the trip. You can tell on what days I was decently rested and what days I did not get to nap. The dark circles under my eyes looked horrid! BUT as I always say and continue to believe it is all a small price to pay. I pray this baby is healthy and that will make all the discomfort well worth it. I have an ultrasound on Monday. God willing everything will be ok and our little blueberry will have a strong heartbeat. Fingers crossed!

6 weeks

2009-10-30T06:25:00.000-07:00

So this morning I was reading my email updates that I get every Friday now when I become another week more preggo. I am 6 weeks today. I like reading about what size the baby is now. Well today I was told the baby is the size of a lentil bean! A BEAN! Wasn't this baby a poppy seed just the other day? LOL They grow so quickly! Another website said the baby is the size of a sweet pea. Awwwww! I think a sweet pea is the same size as a bean anyway. Sweet pea sounds sweeter to me. But bean is fun too. LOL

So far so good. I am tired a lot. I have my good days and I have my days where I don't wanna roll out of bed for anything. I was feeling a little queasy before. But when I woke up yesterday morning to get Bryan off to school I learned just what real morning sickness can feel like. I have been sick as a dog or just over 24 hours now. It is off and on but the queasy is always on. I almost puked yesterday morning. Of course I was trying to get out the door and off to class. But I had to stop and drop my backpack and run for the potty. I did not puke thankfully. I suffered off and on all day yesterday. And I woke up sick again this morning. I made some breakfast and feel better now. But I feel mostly better while sitting and resting. I fear when I get out of this chair it will all disappear and I will be pukey feeling again. BUT it is well worth it if it means the baby is healthy and happy tucked away in there.

Just a week and a half until my first ultrasound! Fingers crossed and prayers raised high that everything will go well that day. Until then I am going to enjoy my lovely vacation with Ethan and our friends. It should be oodles of fun!

Slowely creeping in

2009-10-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

Pregnancy symptoms are slowly creeping in more and more. Every day I feel more sick and tired and my boobs get bigger and more sore. It is crazy. I spent all day today on the verge of falling asleep. I actually dozed off in the car on Saturday while we were driving around. I am just pooped out all the time this weekend. I didn't get out of bed until 11am on Sunday. Laid back down for an hour nap until 7pm. I was ready for bed again by 9pm. I would be sleeping right now if I had remembered to wash Ethan's uniforms. UGH! That boy has got to start washing his own uniforms. I am to tired for it these days. Saturday night ... or should I say Sunday morning I was up from 3-4am because of morning sickness. Ya that was some seriously early morning sickness. And not at all fun to wake up to. BUT I am not complaining. We worked hard to get here. It is all worth it as long as we come out 35 weeks from now with a healthy baby. That is all that matters. OK I am going to go snooze on the couch until the washing machine is done so I can put his uniforms in the dryer.

Ick

2009-10-21T22:42:00.000-07:00

It is late. I am exhausted. I have to be up in 5 hours to get Bryan off to school. I have class in the morning. But the "morning" sickness is keeping me up. I use the term morning very loosely. The last 2 days I have been feeling queasy. But not in the morning. Nope! My "morning" sickness appears to be running wild in the afternoon and evening and even late night. I prefer the name progesterone poisoning to morning sickness. Morning sickness just sounds like a horrid lie. I think I might go lay down on the couch for a while. My tossing and turning won't disturb Ethan. It is a quick sprint to the toilet if need be. And maybe if I am lucky I will doze off there for at least a little bit.

Last of the bunch

2009-10-21T12:12:00.000-07:00

These are the last tests in the bunch. OK I am kinda lying. I do have one test left. It is a digital test. All those do is say PREGNANT or NOT PREGNANT. So they are more exciting in some ways and less exciting in others. I don't know what I am going to do with that one. I am sure at some point I will decide to pee on it. LOL

This first test is an internet cheapie test. I got them off from eBay ... well I don't know how long ago. Some time when I bought a bunch of OPKs from there I am sure. Anyway these tests are annoying because they take so much HCG for them to give you a decent looking positive test. It makes me want to scream. No wonder they are cheap. They are crap! You are dang near squatting the kid out by the time you get a BFP with one of these! But they come free with the similar and far better working OPK tests. So I had a few laying around.

The next one is just your average run of the mill + or - test. The blue dyes always work less effectively for me. I don't know if it is me or if every one has problems. But the pink colored tests have been working much better for me this time around. That is why I held out on taking this test. I wanted to see a nice strong dark + sign. Well I got my wish.

Well that is it. No more tests left. Unless I go out and buy more which I am pretty sure would drive Ethan over the crazy cliff. LOL I think I have met my pee stick quota for ... well for a life time. he he he Now I just get to sit and agonize over how the ultrasound will turn out. Good thing they don't sell those in Wal-mart. We would be broke in no time ...

No need

2009-10-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

I know there is no need for this. But I have tests left. So I shall pee on them!

But when you have waited for so many years and tried so hard it is hard not to fall in love with that sight. OK I will go back to my homework now. he he he

Fantastic Shopping Trip!

2009-10-16T13:59:00.001-07:00

I had today off. No school and no work. I dropped Bryan off with his aunt for the weekend. I had the entire day all to myself! So I went to the mall. I found tons of baby clothes on sale. I received an email while I was out shopping. It said that today the baby is the size of a poppy seed. Hmmm ... I think these clothes might still be to big. LOL I am looking at clothes for a baby who is as tiny as a POPPY SEED! That is a crazy thought. And why if the baby is only that big do my jeans already feel tight? Add bloating to my pregnancy symptoms. Small price to pay!

I headed to Motherhood Maternity to see if there was a snow balls chance in hell that they might have pregnancy sleep bras or nursing bras for a plus sized girl like myself. Much to my surprise since the last time I was pregnant they have expanded to actually have a plus sized section! It's not very big. Just a few racks. But it was an improvement over the last time I was in there. And there on the wall was exactly what I had been looking for. Ginormous nursing and sleep bras made just for ginormous boobies like mine. WOOHOO! I don't need them yet. But it was nice to know that they actually do exist in town and not just on the internet.

The lady who was working in the store asked me how I was doing. With out thinking about it first I said "tired". My mind instantly went CRAP! Why would this lady even care that I am tired? Who did I think I was talking to? She smiled and said "Well of course you are tired! Your body is very busy right now!" Boy is she lucky that I am actually pregnant. HA HA HA I couldn't help but smile. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy. When you are not pregnant and you say you are tired everybody says things like "Oh you think YOU'RE tired??? Let me tell you something!" or "You don't know the meaning of the word tired until you ..." It can be kind of annoying sometimes. But for once I got away with just being tired. I had a good excuse and somebody acknowledged it. *sigh* That was fabulous!

And of course for fun I have a HPT pic for the day. You would think after 4 at home pee tests and 1 blood test I would be satisfied. And I am. But I have a bunch of tests left over. So it can't hurt to take one every few days and enjoy watching the plus signs get darker! And here is today's BFP (Big Fat Positive) for your viewing pleasure! OK for my viewing pleasure and daddy Ethan's cause nobody else knows about this blog yet. But someday I will let the rest of you in on the secret!

Beta Test Results

2009-10-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning I went to the clinic to have blood drawn. My RE requires a positive blood pregnancy test before they will allow us to schedule the first ultrasound. So I headed off to the vampires and made my donation of blood. Infertility has really made me sick of getting poked by needles. But I know it will not get an better during pregnancy. Oh well! Small price to pay!

I called the nurse later that afternoon for the results. She said a positive test was anything above a 5. When they typically do these tests on woman 50 is a very good number to have. Well my HCG levels were at 74.5 on Thursday!!! The nurse said considering the fact that I had not even actually missed my period yet that was a fantastic number! Maybe all those jokes about Clomid twins weren't so far off. Be careful what you wish for. LOL

I scheduled my ultrasound for Monday, November 9, 2009. That is right after we get back from vacation. I would have done it on the 6th but we would still be in Arizona that day. So that would not have worked. I look forward to getting a chance to check in on our baby. Hopefully everything will be healthy and we will get to see a heartbeat. Hopefully there won't be a whole litter of babies in there. Octomom I am not nor do I care to be! One healthy baby ... maybe even two if we are REALLY lucky is all I am asking for.

Fingers crossed and prayers raised high that this is just the beginning of the good news and a healthy pregnancy.

Announcement!!!

2009-10-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentleman we have an announcement! I am pregnant! Ethan and I are having a baby!

WHEW! That felt good to get off my chest. Now shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! You can't tell anyone. At least not yet anyway. I am only 4 weeks pregnant and it is far to early to share this news. That is part of the reason I started this blog. I have a blog. http://amy3lynn3.blogspot.com/
I have talked all about being a mom and a wife and living on a farm and our struggles with miscarriage and infertility. Eventually I will also post these posts on that blog. But for now in an effort to keep our little secret quite until the second trimester I created a new blog here. It just for me and the baby!

Once we reach the 12 week mark. And God willing we will get there this time. We will tell ALL of our friends and family. I will be in my second trimester by Christmas time. So we are hoping to tell our parents for Christmas ... again ... only this time I will be MUCH farther along. So we should be in the clear by then.

Part of the reason I created this blog is to give friends and family a place to go to keep up to date on us. See how we are doing. Read any good news we have to share. And to know what is going on when ever they have time and the desire to check in on us. I will post pictures of what ever I can as often as I can.

Because it is fun.

And I really enjoy doing it.

So be prepared!

Our baby is due on June 25th and I am currently 4 weeks along. So I still have a long way to go. Fingers crossed that it will all go smoothly and we will both come out healthy and happy 36 weeks from now!