Time for a new ticker

That whole "au natural" pregnant lady on the old pregnancy ticker at the top was freaking me out - then when the glowing baby appeared it had to go. Hopefully the new one will provide some laughs. :)

Good News!

I spoke with the doctor's office yesterday and all of the tests came back negative! They did not find any signs of the birth defects that they test for with the quad panel test - fetal trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome), fetal trisomy 18 (Edward's Syndrome), open neural tube defects and increased risk of Turner Syndrome, tripliody, trisomy 16 mosaicism, Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome and steriod sulfatase deficiency. I am so thankful and grateful to God that she is healthy and will not have to struggle with these obstacles in life!

Things are starting to pick up

I think that things are going to start going very quickly pretty soon here. We have a crazy schedule starting soon between work, birthdays, school and the maternity classes that we have scheduled.

Today I set up a tour of the maternity ward at the hospital in October, a prepared childbirth (lamaze) class for Nov/Dec which meets once per week for five weeks and a breastfeeding class in January. We also set up our 3D/4D Ultrasound for November 25, which should be really exciting! My busiest time of the year at work starts around October 20 and goes through December 5. When I say busy, I mean BUSY. Last year it consumed an ENTIRE weekend (morning to night) and kept me at work for several 12 hour days. Hopefully it will be a little easier this year, but I have to prepare for the worst - which should be over by November 14. My grad school classes start up again on November 11. They will end just in time for me to have the baby (2 1/2 weeks before her due date) and the professor has already agreed to work with me if anything happens earlier than Jan 20 - which is the last day of class.
In November we have our annual manager's trip to Las Vegas. Doesn't that sound like a fun trip for a pregnant lady?? :) I'll have to make sure to pack my comfy walking shoes! No heels for the dinner this year. And then we will be going to Colorado for Christmas - and some time to relax!

My doctor's office said that women usually take off of work starting 4 weeks before the baby's due date, but I think I'm going to try to work as long as I can. Only part of the leave will be paid, so I want to make sure we don't have to go without it for too long. That is going to be here before I know it, so I'm already working on tying up loose ends at work and making sure that everything is in order and organized for my absence. It's crazy how much needs to happen between now and then - I'll have to remember to take a little bit of time to rest and relax before I have to adjust to sleepless nights. :)

Butterflies

At the beginning of the pregnancy, I was seriously thinking that I did not want to ever go through this again. I told Andy (and I was serious) that this might be our only child. Of course, he is wonderful and supportive and understanding, so he agreed that if I continued to feel that way we would consider only having one. But I have to say... I think I'm changing my mind.

I am really enjoying this part of pregnancy. Feeling her move throughout the day is so fun. I have heard that it gets annoying after a while, but for now it stops me in my tracks each time so that I can focus on her and enjoy the flutters and butterflies. I love them. I can't wait for them to be apparent enough to be felt from the outside so that Andy can enjoy them, too. That is the one part of this that doesn't seem fair to me - that the dad doesn't get to experience the flutters the mom gets to feel. I'm sure if you asked most of them they would give that up to not have to go through morning sickness and childbirth, though! I can't wait for her to be big enough to for Dad to feel. I guess I shouldn't rush it since that means she will probably be kicking me harder, huh?

I put her ultrasound picture up on my desktop at work and every time I see it, I can't help but stare in amazement. What an amazing God we serve - He is fashioning her and forming every cell in her body so that she is just as He intends for her to be. And it's all happening so quickly! I am amazed that He knows her already and knew her before he even began creating her. It's such a miracle to watch the progression from the little bubble on the first ultrasound to the images of her on this latest one - and to feel the rush of love that comes from seeing her move during the ultrasound. I don't understand how some people can not consider this a life and can look so non-chalantly at abortion - or even believe evolution theories over Creation. It just doesn't make any sense to me - especially not after these experiences. I don't mean to turn this into a political statement - just a note about how infatuated I am with her already and a prayer of thanks for bringing me through the tough part of the first trimester and letting me experience these little daily joys. I'm loving it! I'll try to hang on to this feeling as the discomforts of the third trimester quickly approach...

We're half-way there

Today (Thursday) marks twenty weeks - we're at the half way point! It's hard to believe that - but easier when you consider that the first five and a half weeks we were unaware that we were pregnant. Then it seems like it's been even longer. Things are moving along beautifully and she is growing every day - as you can now tell very easily from my profile! I think I get bigger by the minute. In another twenty weeks or so we'll have a little munchkin to love on. I can't wait!

Our Covergirl

Here are the pictures from the ultrasound. It's so much easier to see the baby when it's on the screen than when it's in the pictures. The movement is what really makes the difference. But pictures are all I have to post so they will have to do!

The heartbeat was at 143 bpm... just right!
The side view of her head and body - she's facing down. You can see her spine running along her back and up into her head (head is on the left).
Her little bootie and legs. The arrow is pointing out the gender parts, while you can see her right leg underneath it. The bone is bright white.
Her Cover shot... She's even blowing a kiss! :) Just kidding, but her mouth is open a little and she has her hands drawn up under her chin. So cute.
We will be probably be having a 4-D ultrasound somewhere around 27-29 weeks (we're at about 20 weeks now). Can't wait to see more of her!

The verdict is in...

It's a GIRL! And she is wonderful already. She was so cute in the ultrasound - she kept flipping over, punching and kicking. Andy noticed that she was even making what looked like a walking motion with her feet. The picture we got of her is so cute. Her little hands are drawn up under her chin - almost like she was posing. At one point she actually turned her head straight toward the "camera" - indicative, according to my Mom, that this IS definitely my child! I think she got the hiccups toward the end of the session because her little body would jump up all at once (we had a profile view with her laying facedown) and then float back down.

This ultrasound was definitely the best so far - we could clearly see her heart beating, her spine, her hip bones - everything we were hoping to see! She is just amazing already and more than ever - I can't wait to meet her and hold her. This was my moment. Everyone talked about hearing the heartbeat for the first time and how lifechanging that would be. I was starting to feel like maybe there was something wrong with me because it wasn't as momentous as I expected it to be. It was neat, but it still didn't feel that real. But now... now it's real. And it's amazing and wonderful and it makes me want to hold and rub my stomach all day long! I can't wait to hold her.

I will post the ultrasound pictures as soon as I can get them scanned in. Last night was full of excitement in getting the news out to our parents and close friends and tonight I won't be home until late. Hopefully we can get them up soon so you can see my little Covergirl.

18 Week Appointment

We had an interesting appointment yesterday, to say the least. After checking in at 9:15 for our 9:20 appointment, we sat in the waiting room until almost 10:00. Once the nurse finally called our names, she explained that one of the doctors had been called out for a delivery and the other doctor was handling both case loads. The way the practice works, we alternate doctors each visit so that we know them both and are comfortable with either one doing the delivery – so it wasn’t a stranger. Still – odd that they didn’t notify us when we signed in like they normally do.

Once we were called in to the nurse’s station, the strangest thing happened. The scale was wrong! Oh, wait… no. Unfortunately it was right. But I’m not doing too bad. I think I’ve gained about 9 pounds at this point. But why do the doctor’s office scales always read higher than the scale at home? I’m not changing mine. Theirs is wrong.

Anyways, when they took my blood pressure the machine malfunctioned. Isn’t that weird? I mean, I could see the cheapie ones that we have at home malfunctioning, but I don’t expect that at the doctor’s office. The second time she took it, she got a good reading. “Very good,” in her words. BP – 119/78. Thank goodness Andy has a good memory because I just had to email him for the reading - I couldn’t remember.

Next was the urine sample. They make you leave one at every appointment. As I’m sure you well know, that requires peeing in a cup – which is not so hard when you can see the cup. With an increasingly protruding belly, however, this task gets more and more difficult to maneuver. This is the first time I’ve had a hard time and I’m sure it’s just going to get worse.

Next we were escorted to the room. We got the bigger room at the end. I love the room at the end! That’s where the ultrasound machine is. When we go to the other rooms, the doctor just uses a little hand-held Doppler to listen to the heart beat. It’s still neat and amazing, but I love seeing the baby so much more! We were not scheduled for an ultrasound, so when I got in there, Andy and I were looking around for the Doppler that the nurse usually leaves on the counter. No Doppler! Maybe she’s going to use the ultrasound machine?? Sure, enough…

The doctor was in a hurry with such a heavy case load, so she went straight for the ultrasound machine. She was listening for the heartbeat only, so she blew that up on the screen. Healthy, quick beat… music to our ears. I don’t know why, but my breath always catches a little bit right before I hear it. For a moment, I fear that the sound won’t be there. But God is good and it was there. So was a little picture-in-picture of our little baby! I could see it moving – even in that tiny little picture. I tried to hint by asking the doctor if that was the baby (duh!!) and she obliged by making the picture larger. She seemed to be having fun as she moved the handheld device around looking at the (big) head, the curve of the body under the neck and then the two little legs sticking straight up in the air. Full view.

“Do you want to know what you’re having?”

“Yes! We’re dying to know!!”

“Don’t take my word for it… this is not my specialty, but I will tell you what I think I see.”

“Yes, please!”

“What do you want it to be?”

“We’re hoping for a boy, but will be thrilled no matter what – we just want to know…”

Then she told us what she thought. But Andy made me promise not to tell until the “official” ruling next week. The doctor was really not confident and told us not to go out and start buying anything in gender specific colors – she could be wrong and the ultrasound tech is much better at it than she is. With that said, we don’t want to make an announcement and then retract it later. So we wait… it’s going to be a long weekend! Those that know me know that I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut – I’m already going crazy.

Before the doctor left, I asked about travel. We booked tickets to go to Colorado at Christmas time about a month ago. I did this after much online research suggesting that most doctors recommend no flying after 36 weeks. I’ll be way less than that ("way" meaning three weeks, as Becky pointed out), so it shouldn’t be a problem… right? Wrong. Dr. Gamm was not on board. She said that they recommend no flying after 32 weeks. She left it up to us to make the decision, but notified us that flying any time after 32 weeks can induce pre-term labor. Great…

The last thing was the blood test. For some reason the nurse had a really hard time drawing my blood. Blood drives usually love me because I’m so easy to draw blood from – I’m usually up and off the table in a fraction of the time of everyone else. Not so yesterday. She couldn’t find a vein in my right arm, so she had to go to the left (after removing the needle from my right, ofcourse). Even there she couldn’t get the needle into the vein to just draw one full tube of blood. It was strange. Finally, after several minutes of pulling the needle in and out, she had enough in the tube to test – even if it wasn’t full.

The reason for drawing the blood was to do the screenings for birth defects like down syndrome. I haven’t really worried about anything like that until they did the test for it. Now it occupies my thoughts a little… I know that God will give us exactly what we need and in no way would it affect our love for the baby if something was wrong, but we are definitely praying for a healthy baby and there is a slight awkwardness in waiting for those test results.

“How long until we find out the results?”

“Just three to four weeks – we’ll tell you at your next OB appointment.”

Oi…

Boy or Girl?

I scheduled the ultrasound for September 16 at 3:00. Hopefully we will find out the gender at that point. I don't want to get my hopes up TOO much because I know that sometimes the baby crosses its' legs at just the right time... but I can't wait!

Any predictions?

First Belly Pics

We got some fun belly pictures this weekend. The first was at Disneyland in front of the train station... The others were at the NASCAR Pepsi 500 - one in front of Victory Lane...

And one in front of pit row...