baby talk

I knew getting into this pregnancy that it was going to be complicated. Along with seeing my regular OB, I'm seeing a variety of doctors at a maternal fetal medicine clinic. This means that going a week without seeing a doctor is rare. While seeing the baby so often has helped calmed my fears, it does mean the doctors bills are starting to pile up.

When I last talked about the pregnancy, I was only a few months along. Here's a summary of what's happened since then.

• At an 11 week ultrasound, they discovered that the baby had a thicker nuchal neck fold than normal. We went off for Sequenom bloodwork testing on me and scheduled a NT scan for the following week.
• The next week, at the NT scan, the nuchal folds actually looked normal. What a relief! But it did mean that we had spent that last week panicking. Our bloodwork also came back normal, but MFM wasn't ruling out a heart problem.
• Oh yeah, and by the way, MFM told me I need to be doing vaginal ultrasounds every other week to check on my cervix. Because of a cervical biopsy I had done back in 2006 and because of my D&C last February for my first miscarriage, they wanted to keep an eye on my cervix. I've got two more scans to go before they let it go, but so far, my cervix has been long and closed. Woo.
• At a 14 week ultrasound, the ultrasound tech thought she might know the sex of the baby. She didn't want to call it but she told me her call. Then, a few days later, a different tech told me she knew for sure the sex. Another scan a few weeks later told us the same info, so at that point, we were pretty sure that we're having a GIRL!
• Cue our 20 week ultrasound, which takes forever and consists of over 100 images of baby girl's heart. Her heart is perfect, and in fact, the technicians and doctors love her heart so much that they're going to use her in a study they're doing. We're so relieved that all the drama about her development is finally behind us.
• At our 22 week cervical check-up a few days ago, during which we find my cervix is still long and closed, we see that she's still breech. Baby girl's shown up breech in every ultrasound since she was large enough to start noticing. Everyone reassures me that she has plenty of time to turn around and stay turned around, but certainly I'm a little nervous about it.

And that's about it!

Oh, I guess I forgot to mention some of the biggest news, beyond the fact that we're a girl.

We've named her! But you'll have to wait for that news. Because I'm mean like that.

no good excuses, really

I'm alllliiiiiiive.

Okay, it's been a seriously long time since I blogged. I could give you a whole host of reasons why I just haven't picked up the computer in the past almost two months.

1. I ran into end-of-the-semester business consisting of finals, grading, and a rush to finish my own classwork. 
2. The holidays wiped me out and I spent most of my free time sleeping.
3. As suggested above, this pregnancy has wiped me out. I spend G's naps getting a nap of my own, and I go to bed at 9:30.

Honestly, it's more likely that I just haven't known what to write about. I have a ton of things happening in my life right now, almost all positive, yet I've got a writing funk. I just haven't felt like dealing in writing with hosts of issues we've faced, from issues with the baby to Grayson's speech therapy. We spent the last couple of months unsure if we were going to be able to keep the little life inside of me. And, well, here is a picture of me as of a few days ago.

That's me 20 weeks pregnant. Yeah, I can't quite believe it myself either. I'll post more later this week about our baby, including if it's a boy or a girl (we know!), and the struggles we've faced. I promise I'll play catch up on our lives!

For now, here's a few pictures from Thanksgiving.

G and my mom.

 G and his great-Granny. This picture cracks me up so hard.

 And finally, a gorgeous picture of my Granny, laughing it up. I hope these pictures make her smile. :)

More to come soon!

wishin' and prayin' and hopin'

It's been a crazy month. I know I've been hugely slack on blogging, but now that I've left the first trimester behind and I'm hoping entering better weeks ahead, I'm hoping to get back onto my feet. I've been in a daze of doctors visits, speech therapy with G, toddler-raising, teaching, and taking classes.

I'm about to finish my seventh week of Lovenox shots to counteract my three clotting factors. To put it mildly, the experience has given me a whole lot of respect for people with diabetes. I don't know how they go through that may shots a day with no end in sight. At least I know my shots won't last forever. But it's amazing what you'll go through when you have no choice, when you have to do it, and especially when you have to do it for the health and life of your child.

So every time I stick the needle in, I think about the baby and how I'm one shot closer to holding him or her in my arms.

There are some things I've learned about taking Lovenox that I wish I'd known ahead of time.

1. Put the needle in slowly. You don't want to jab that half-inch thing in there. It seems terribly in theory to do it this way but trust me, you'll feel like you have more control. And don't worry about that weird bendy thing your skin will do before the needle finally breaks through your skin - no, it won't be difficult to puncture your skin.
2. Ice liberally before and after. Like at least ten minutes before and after. If you don't want it to sting like a mofo afterward, you'd better ice.
3. Oh yeah, the medicine will sting. It stings much worse than the needle going in (most of the time). The stinging will take your breath away, but don't forget to keep breathing and stay calm. When it hurts too much, stop putting the medicine in and wait a moment. It doesn't hurt to keep the needle in, so take your time when pressing the plunger. The first time, it stung for over 30 minutes. After that, I injected much more slowly and the stinging time has decreased.
4. You'll bleed so be prepared. Keep tissues handy and tiny bandaids if you get a bleeder.
5. Do the shots yourself. The hubs did mine for the first two weeks because I was a big chicken, but I swear, it's less traumatic to do it yourself. My hands were shaking so badly when I did my first one, but I feel like a pro by now.
6. It hurts, but it doesn't hurt forever. The stinging eventually fades and you'll get a reprieve until you have to do it again the next day.

Also, the experience of giving yourself a Lovenox shot changes each time.

Sometimes it's a bleeder. When you take the needle out, a big bubble of blood follows. Don't put too much pressure on it as the bleeding will eventually stop on its own and you don't want to cause too much bruising.

Sometimes it's a bruiser. Luckily, I haven't gotten many of these, and only one has given me a huge bruise.

Sometimes it stings so badly you think you can't stand it. Along with the stinger can come the oh-my-god-this-needle-is-huge moment when that baby burns all the way in.

And then, every once in a while, you'll get the easy. The injection that you barely feeling going in, that hardly burns at all, and the only way you can identify the injection sight is by the tiny red dot.

But I'll take stingers and bruises every time if it means a healthy baby at the end of the journey. I know these shots will be like labor, and the memories of pain will fade with time. I can't feel the baby yet, but I know it's in there, bouncing around on my uterus and wiggling those skinny limbs like a crazy monkey.

So I let out a long breath as I slide the needle in. And I make a wish.

so my reason is...

Okay, I promise there's an awesome reason for my absence the past couple of weeks.

It starts with "preg" and ends with "nant."

I'm pregnant!

I'm 7 weeks, to be more specific. We had our first ultrasound a couple days ago and everything looks great! Baby's heartbeat was perfect and we're so excited. Dave might have cried when we saw the heartbeat. Don't tell him I told you.

We weren't able to get any of our ultrasound pics, but we have another one this coming Wednesday. Maybe I'll have something to post then! I've also got a post in the works concerning my daily Lovenox shots, of which I've had three so far.

Mostly, I've been extremely tired and nauseous 24/7. That's mostly why I haven't been on. I spend most of my time trying to 1) not throw up, and 2) stay awake. I got some Zofran today, so I hope I'll be more coherent now.

But anyway, welcome to baby #5!