A Day of Change

Today marks the first day of Tom going back to second shift. It feels weird. I'm sure Han and I will get used to by the end of the week. Both Tom and I have all new daily routines and I think it is a little bit more lonely without him around at nights.

We officially own the house that we live in, yay! Settlement went very smoothly and we have no worries. I did get to thinking while I was there that Tom and I really need a will set up in case we both croak. I'll have to put that on my to-do-list.

I was stunned to hear that Hannah jumped out of her crib today. Tom was in the shower and she decided she didn't want to wait in the crib for him to finish. She jumped out landed on the floor and kept on trucking into the bathroom. I believe Tom said she didn't even cry!

I'm anemic now with this pregnancy. I've been taking iron for about two weeks or somewhere close to that and still feel very tired so I guess I'm just tired. I will also have to have ultrasounds every week until I'm due which begins this Wednesday. This is just to measure the size of the baby and to make sure nothing weird is going on since I have diabetes and HBP.

"Now You Know The Birthdate"

A strange way to think about it but makes perfect sense. I received a call from the OB's office yesterday, the surgery scheduler was calling to let me know my C-section is scheduled for December 14th at 1:30pm. I had a rush of nervousness and excitement come over me. It will be exactly three months until I have another child, I don't know why but it scares me just a little.

I know this time is going to fly by, I will cherish this pregnancy as much as I can. This will most likely be my last.

An Ultrasound Day

Here is my little guy, he is doing well. Everything measured well and whatever was going on with the blood flow to my uterus seems to have cleared up because she said it looked fine today. He weighed about 1lb and 5ozs.



The front of his face, just the nose, lips and chin.

Thursday 5/21/2009

The baby is doing very well! The heart rate was 185. Today was cool, you could see the head, legs and umbilical cord. While we were looking in on him you could see him wiggling around and kicking his leg! So magical!



Yolk sac is the white ball with the black circle. Next to that you can see the bottom portion of the body. The umbilical cord is leading down. Head is to the far right-furthest from the yolk sac. The leg is right on top of the umbilical cord. Measured 8 weeks 5 days.

For The Birds

It's official, I have morning sickness. Never experienced it with Hannah and this time around had been no different. Until this week...

I started taking high blood pressure medicine on Tuesday and ever since I have been sick in the mornings. I thought it was the medicine but it didn't happen at night when I took the second pill. Then just to try it out I hadn't planned on taking the medicine until later in the day. No such luck, the sickness kicked in about thirty minutes after I woke up.

Clearly I was not missing out on anything first pregnancy around. Maybe this time I am having a boy?

Fun Times or Something

• Hannah had a fever that lasted from Thursday until Sunday


• Therefore she woke up Friday morning at 1:30am and did not go back to bed until 7:30am


• I called out of work Friday


• I am still feeling sleep deprived


• Had a super nice day for Mother's day (Thank you Husband and Hannie)


• Went to my first OB appointment today


• NO: Sex, exercise, lifting heavy objects, caffiene or artificial sweetners


• I will be having another C-section


• My blood pressure is high (it's no wonder, see above!)

Thursday 5/7/2009

I had a very good appointment today! Everything is looking great and all of my blood work is really good! My hemoglobin A1C is a 5.6 which is super good!

I got to see the baby's heartbeat today! It was a moment of shear joy! I could also tell he had gotten much bigger since last week. He is starting to take shape!

The heartbeat was 124!

Here is a pic of the little guy:



I am measuring six weeks three days, giving me a new due date of 12/29/2009. This date is the official date and should not change in the future.

I do have to say this, I had to get an exam today while I was there. I hadn't had an exam with them since 2007. So they have me get undressed and put the gown on. Clearly this gown was Hannah's size. It was squeezing my fat little arms and it literally half covered the front of me. Ridiculous. It reminded me of Chris Farley and David Spade in Tommy Boy, "Fat guy in a little coat." I survived it but if memory serves me I think these people gave me a tiny little gown last time too!

Thursday 4/30/2009

Last week's appointment went very well! Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me!

All of my blood work looks really good and the RE will continue to monitor me until I am 12 weeks. They estimated that I was about five weeks last week. My estimated due date is 12-20-2009. The lady that did my ultrasound sound said that may increase by a few days since it does look like I am five weeks and they will be able to measure the embryo next Thursday (the 7th).

The lady also hoped that we would be able to see the heartbeat this week! YAY!

Unfortunately, Tom is with Hannah so he hasn't been able to come to the ultrasounds with me and I don't think we will be coming to any.  :-(   At least that is how it looks so far.

Here is the little bean at five weeks:



I don't see two sacs in there so I am going to assume we dodged the twin bullet!  ;-)

Looking UP!

Finally got a call back today about my blood-work from Monday. My progesterone is way up thanks to the Prometrium! Went from 7 on Thursday with no meds to 36 on Monday! YAY!

They have me taking two pills in the morning, one pill mid-day and two pills at night. I'm quite thankful that it is working well!

I will be monitored by the RE until I am at 12 weeks. My first ultrasound will be Thursday at 9:00! I am super excited!!!

I have been uber paranoid about having twins this pregnancy. On my dad's side of the family there are three sets of twins. My grandmother had twins, her sister had twins and one of my cousins has also had twins so far. There is a pattern though. Your first baby is a single child and then the second time you get pregnant it is twins. So this will be my possible shot at having twins, lol! If this were to happen I would have a heart-attack, seriously!

So far my one best friend has decided that I am not having twins but that I am going to have another girl. My other best friend has decided that I am having a boy. My MIL has decided that I am having twins one boy and one girl. Since I have not yet fine tuned my psychic abilities I am unable to predict at this time what I will be having! Really I think I need someone to pinch me because I still am in shock. I was darn grateful to have been blessed with Hannah and to have another one on the way just seems so unreal. Maybe it will sink in when I see with my own eyes Thursday.

NO Bread, NO Red, NO Cheese

This is my latest challenge. I really need something to just get me to drop a bunch of weight. My trainer thinks this is something that I really need to pray on and be focused.

The challenge is that for thirty days I will not eat bread, red meat or any cheese. Now if anyone out there knows me, knows that I LOVE all of these things!  With my PCOS it really is poison to my body when I eat any type of carbs such as pasta or bread. I am not kidding, if I were to eat a small portion of pasta or white bread I will gain at least a pound if not more. I have cut out all white bread and have only been eating wheat but now I am just cutting it out completely.

Cheese mine enemy, I love it! I wouldn't say I eat it at every meal but I will usually eat cheese once or twice a day.

Red meat, my favorite meat this is where we will part ways. I will now be eating chicken or turkey like that's my job!

Surprisingly I am feeling really good about this. I thought I would be taking it harder but so far so good!

If anyone would like to take the challenge with me I would love that!!! Just let me know if you are going to do it too so we can be there for each other!

Another thing I have been working on is cleaning up my mouth! Man has this been a challenge. Try as I might I can't quit cussing, I think I am going to start with one cuss word at a time until I work them all out of my mouth. Wish me luck!

Fat? Homely? Poor? Oh My!

Last Thursday as I wrapped up my shopping trip in Walmart accompanied by Hannie and my one of my BF's. I am getting rung up by the cashier and as she swipes my formula can she says:

Cashier: Do you have your WIC card?

Me: What?

C: If you have your WIC card you can get your formula for free.

Me: I make too much money to qualify for WIC.

C: Oh okay.

Later on as I am riding back to my friends house I got to thinking. Do I look poor? Then we both enjoyed a good laugh at that WTF moment in the Ghetto-Mart.

Next day, I went to have my blood work done for the Diabetes Center. Please note Diabetes Center.

Lab Tech: Why are you bouncing that baby?

Me: Just 'cause.

LT: Well stop it. If you keep doing that she won't understand the difference when you do it when she is upset.

She rambled on more about this topic and then stopped. Okay as unwanted as her advice is I can see her logic.

A few seconds later:

LT: Do you have diabetes?

Me: I had Type 2 before I was pregnant and now they are telling me that I am in a pre-diabetic state.

LT: That's weird, I have never heard of that

LT: Let me tell you a secret

Me: (Oh dear Lord what now) What's that

LT: Gastric bypass cures diabetes

Me: Oh (Thinking to myself no she didn't)

LT: My sister had it and girl let me tell you she is so skinny and she is a baby making machine!

Me: Good for her

LT: You should get it, insurance will pay for it just like that (snaps fingers)

Me: Oh, hmm (How freaking rude!)

LT: My sister she so fertile she had to terminate three of her pregnancies, she just kept getting pregnant and finally they told her she had to get her tubes tied.

Me: Mmm

What the heck! I do not want to hear about your sister's abortion, I do not want to hear about her diabetes and I don't want your skinny ass telling me to get Gastric Bypass! Mind your own business!

She also informed me that she knows how hard it is to lose weight because she has been trying very hard to lose ten pounds since last year and she just can't seem to do it. "She is just not movitvated enough to get up and exercise."

I wanted to tell her that is so sad for her it must be hard to be a size four and ten pounds over weight, how does she possibly manage to get out of bed every morning.

But I didn't and I never do say anything rude back to people even when they are rude to me. I guess my parents raised me better than that.

Wordless Wednesday-Go Cards!

 

Nursing No More...

Last week I stopped pumping and nursing altogether. The baby was not wanting to nurse good ever since I went back to work, she seemed to become lazy and only wanted the bottle. Then when I pumped I got the most minuscule amount of milk, I used to get an ounce per boob then it got less and less. It was so low that last week when I would pump I only got about an eighth of an ounce. That's when I knew it was time to call it quits. As a result I have been really sad lately. Like, start crying for no apparent reason sad. I tried to tell Tom how I had been feeling today but he doesn't understand I guess. Gosh, even right now I'm starting to tear up.

I'm assuming that I am going through some hormonal change to add to the guilt of no longer breast feeding. I never thought it would be so hard. Everyone says you have no problem nursing and I think that is a bunch of crap. It rates right up there with having no problem getting pregnant! Ha!

I guess I better hit the hay, I have a long day of work ahead of me.

Birth Control.

It really doesn't even belong in my vocabulary.

I decided long ago that birth control was the devil and screwed my body up. No doctor has ever given me reason to think this but I do. I haven't been on birth control now for five years. (Wow as a side note, I never stopped to realize I haven't taken birth control for five years, that is a long time!) I stopped taking it a year before I got married, the year I found out I had PCOS. Taking birth control after learning I had PCOS seemed pointless to me so I just stopped taking it.

But, since I did somehow manage by the grace of God to get knocked up without the use of fertility drugs, I better do something to prevent a possible second pregnancy right away.

With that being said I resigned myself to the fact that *gasp*condoms would need to be used. Gross. I've never been a big fan of condoms and after talking it over with a girlfriend she agreed that she also hated them, which oddly enough made me feel a lot better. So I drug myself to the drug store, baby in tow, and headed towards the condom aisle. For a second I felt like a high school-er sneaking off to buy condoms. I probably stood there a good fifteen minutes staring at all the different varieties. It was a tad overwhelming. I finally made my selection and sat the evil condoms in the cart, next to Hannah. I laughed at the irony of that situation, me with a baby and who'd have thunk I now have to use condoms (you know, just in case. HA!).

I guess it is better to be safe than sorry, I am all for having more kids but I would just like to wait until Hannah is bigger, like two years old bigger. Maybe God will bless us with more children, maybe He won't. But I don't want to be that person, you know the one that gets pregnant as soon as she has her baby. That my friends would be so not cool!

Must Not Fall Asleep

The baby has no clue what night and day is, for the most part she sleeps all the time. However, since Tom has returned to work on Monday she likes to stay awake, all night. Now anyone that knows me knows that Heather with no sleep is not a good combination.

 She literally did not sleep a wink all night, I think she had a sensor installed on me. As soon as I had her quieted down and what appeared to be sleeping, I would put her in her bassinet and climb into my bed. At exactly fifteen minutes into me laying in my bed she would start to whimper which then turned into crying, all night. I was really ready to shoot myself when 5:00 rolled around and she still had not gone to sleep for any real amount of time.  

I know this is all normal baby stuff but it is going to take me a little bit longer to adjust. I took a fairly long nap today so hopefully if she wants to fuss all night I won't have a nervous breakdown.

She went to the doctor's today and gained a little bit more weight, she is at 5.12. Not quite birth weight but getting there.

The Beginning of the Next Three Months

Today was my official last day at work! Wa-hoo!

I took four vacation days prior to the induction because I wanted to. I don't really have anything to do that I can think of. I might just straighten the house up a bit, hang out at the mall and finish up doctor's appointments. Good times! Once I have the baby I will be put on maternity leave and I don't have to go back to work for three months (12 weeks)! So far it seems strange. I have worked there for five years and have never been on a leave of absence or anything over two weeks at one time...This may take some getting used to.

I was actually a little sad when I left! As unbelievable as I thought that would be...I even got a little weepy in the car. The same thing happened last Friday when I went to the Diabetes doctor. When I left I had this overwhelming feeling of sadness...I guess it's that whole things coming to an end. I'm feeling much better (for) now.

Tomorrow will be my last ultrasound/bio-physical and we will find out how big the baby is! I made a bet with Tom that she will be 7.2 and of course he tried to price's-right me and make his bid at 7.4. He's a sneaky one. I'll probably be closer because the OB said she is about 7lbs. There probably won't be a good pic of her tomorrow. Now that her bones are hardening it creates dark shadows and makes it near impossible to get a clear picture.

I guess I'm done rambling now  :wink:

Really? Nothing?

Went to the OB today...nothing going on there. I am neither effaced nor am I dilated. Really it kind of bummed me out. I had contractions for a good amount of time on Friday night and then again Monday night. I thought for sure that would start this ball rolling but, nothing.

I do have that Group B Strep thing. So when I am admitted to the hospital to give birth they will hook me up to antibiotics. When they did cultures in October I didn't have it but now I tested positive so I got a letter to take with me to the hospital. I am not really concerned about that, a lot of women I know had the same thing when they gave birth.

Tom's favorite thing to ask me lately has become, "Are you going to hurry up and have this baby yet or what?" We are probably the two most impatient people so you can imagine that after eight months of waiting we are ready to see the end result.

Today is the beginning of going to the OB once a week. That really makes it feel like this pregnancy is coming to an end.



Above is a pic of Tom and I that we had taken this past Sunday. It really does little for my self esteem to be photographed next to someone that has lost 80lbs. While my face is getting wider and wider his face has gotten thinner and thinner. But I am still proud of him!

Childbirth Class (Day 4)

Almost forgot about this day...

Last Tuesday we had our fourth class. It consisted of a tour of Labor and Delivery as well as the area you go after you have the baby. It was nice to be able to see everything and I was surprised to not hear any screaming or anything. I guess I just have an active imagination  :wink:

Then after that the teacher told everyone how having a child will put a strain on your relationship and that you need to set aside time once a month to be with one another. Blah, blah, blah. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would realize that you are introducing a new person that needs constant care into your life, of course your marriage won't be the same! It would be ridiculous to think it would be the same as pre-baby marriage.

Then we watched a video on post-partum depression and having the baby blues. I asked Tom what he would do if I had post-partum and he so loving replied, "I'd ship your ass of to your mother's house, I'm not putting up with that shit." And I so loving replied, "Ok, Tom Cruise!"

Me? Procrastinate?

I've never been a procrastinator but somehow I seem to be procrastinating! Even more shocking to me is that is just hit me that I am procrastinating.

Monday the nurse at the OB asked if I had my bag packed for the hospital...um no. She informed my I needed to do that. Then she asked if the babies room is ready...um no. Then I started to explain how we just bought a new house and are in the process of remodeling and I thought her eyes might pop out of her head. Clearly she was wondering if I was on drugs. So I guess I might get around to packing my bag...maybe tomorrow. The babies room is practically done, we just need to install the floor, slap some trim up and but the wall border on. Then after that is done we can put the crib and dresser together, no sweat! That will probably be completed prior to the Superbowl tomorrow so the men folk can go and enjoy the game.

My mom is hilarious, she asked if I started packing up the house yet....hahaha! Not even close. Then when I told her I needed to pack my bag, she said do you even have a bag? And thanks to my lovely and beautiful friend Laura I do have a bag! Approximately two Christmases ago she bought me a Vera Bradley duffel bag so I plan on taking that one with me to the hospital. See I have a slight game plan with all of this, I just need to put it into action! I think I might venture out tomorrow and buy Dreft so I can wash all of the babies stuff and put it away. At least then I can tell people the room is ready when they ask!

Ultrasound Day

What a fucking morning this has been.

It is my first day back after being out sick from work the past two days. Well as you all know Thursday is my weekly ultrasound. So I plan to go to the ultrasound,  have a look at the baby and then head back to work.

We start our appointment and everything is going good but the baby was extremely active more so than normal. Then the ultrasound chick checks the babies heart-rate and it is in the low 200's!  Well I immediately saw the concern on her face and just that time I hear Tom say, "That is kind of high isn't it?" Apparently I am blind because no where on the screen could I see the heart rate number. I asked what it was and the lady told me it was 198! I can feel the tears welling in my eyes but I tried to keep under control. The lady continues with the rest of the ultrasound and everything looks good...except the heart rate. So she says, "We might need to send you over to the hospital, I am going to go and look for the doctor and if he isn't in yet I will page him." Well all of this is starting to sound extremely urgent to me and as soon as the door closes I started to cry. I compose myself before she returns. She get back and tries to put a fetal monitor around my belly but the baby would not sit still long enough to get a good reading so I ended up being sent over to the office that is at the hospital. She didn't want to send me to triage for fear they would take too long. So Tom drives us  over there and I get all strapped in to the fetal monitor and we sit and watch. This child was going from 125 to 180 but eventually calmed down enough that we were allowed to leave.

The doctors didn't offer any reason for this mysterious heart rate craziness. It was all very upsetting. But we are both okay and she is doing well (as long as she doesn't have another baby freak out moment).

 Oooh, I almost forgot, she weighs 5lbs 2oz! YAY!

(No pictures today since we had the baby scare)