This blog will be put on hold for awhile while I focus on updating Being Andrew and Being Jake! My goal is to eventually merge those two blogs into a "family" blog which will be this one. So in the meantime please check out my other two blogs for family updates and information!
Being Andrew
Being Jake
Week 36 - Almost done!
Well it has been awhile since I have posted about the new baby and I am happy to say that hopefully this pregnancy is almost done! Over the past 6 weeks my belly has continued to grow and my nights have continued to get more and more uncomfortable as sleep has become more and more a luxury! The anemia level for the baby ended up leveling out at about 1.25 which isn't an issue (according to the doctors) and starting this week I have also stopped taking the aspirin which thins my blood during the pregnancy to combat blood clots.
I have met with my doula multiple times, created my birth plan, and am overall just PLAIN OLD DONE with this pregnancy! I delivered Jacob at exactly 37 weeks and would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have this baby in a week too, but something tells me that just because I really want that, I won't go into labor until week 40! UGH!
I haven't gotten any pictures of the baby for the past 4 weeks due to the fact that he is already head down and facing my back and has usually had either his foot or hand covering his face (just like his brother did). Yesterday during my measurement scan the sonographer couldn't even get a good measurement on his head because he was sooooo far down the birth canal and face towards back. She measured his head in the 80th percentile but told me that she wasn't confident with that measurement. His overall percentile ended up being in the 61st percentile, but the 80th with the head padded the percentile and he is probably more likely in the 50-55th percentile.
Hopefully the next post I make will be a birth announcement! Cross your fingers!
Week 30 - Almost There!
We had another ultrasound last week but with the events of Jacob's fractured leg I am a little behind updating everyone. We actually got excellent news! The anemia level that they measure for the baby dropped last week from 1.31 to 1.2 which is excellent. They took about 5 measurements and as I stated in the last post they take the highest of the 5 which was 1.2. The doctor said that he is now not overly concerned about the intrauterine fetal anemia since there has been no significant increase nor steady incline over the last month. Now this doesn't mean that the new baby won't be born anemic because most symptoms of ABO incompatibility don't present themselves until after birth, but it is nice to know that everything with the baby is going well. They will still be monitoring the baby every two weeks and still measuring the anemia level each time, but without a drastic change I will most likely give birth before the anemia level would get up to 1.5 which is indicative of moderate anemia.
Next week we get another ultrasound with measurements so it will be exciting to see where the baby is in terms of his estimated weight and percentile. He was in the 59th percentile for size at 27 weeks and this will be month later. By this time with Jacob we were well into the 60th percentile and if you have ever seen Jacob he is always mistaken for at least 6 months to a year older than he is. He is a big boy and definitely looks older than he is. I will be curious to see if this little one follows in his big brothers footsteps.
We got a few good ultrasound images with this last scan and even got a good 3D image. Now I will warn people who aren't good at "viewing" ultrasounds that you will probably think this next image is just a blob, but I will have another image below it to try and help you out. Paul and I are now ultrasounds experts since between Jacob and this new baby we have probably been to over 60+ ultrasound appointments.
Two fingers under nose, eyes just above, righ arm up to the side of the head.
Arm up by side of head, hand under chin, clear image of nose and pouty mouth.
Week 27 - Good News
Well we got through our doctors appointment yesterday and after 8 different tests of the babies anemia level we got the good news that it only went up to 1.31 which the doctor said was pretty much the same as two weeks ago and was good news. The even better news was that my doctor always takes the worst score and uses that, he likes to err on the side of caution and unlike most doctors doesn't average out the score from all 8 tests but takes the worst one. I actually like that about this doctor because I would rather know the worst result then have a false sense of security with an average. But because of this that means that 7 of the 8 results were lower than 1.3 which is great! If all 8 results would have been in the 1.3 range than that would indicate a truer level of anemia, but because only one result was 1.3 that is great! We have been bumped from high risk to extra high risk now though and will be getting ultrasounds and retests every two weeks to make sure the baby doesn't hit that ever dreaded 1.5 mark.
The coolest part of the exam yesterday was that the sonographer we got worked for 6 years at the University of Maryland and actually worked with the intrauterine blood transfusions. She proceeded to tell Paul and I that in the 6 years she worked there they NEVER lost a baby and only once did they have a complication where they had to do an emergency C-section but the pregnancy was at 36 weeks and the baby was born fine without any complications. That makes Paul and I feel a lot better about the possibility of having to go through that procedure.
We also asked TONS of questions and we also asked if Jacob had been given the same doppler exam when I was pregnant with him. The doctor looked up Jacob's records and told us some very interesting news. When I was 28 weeks pregnant with Jacob he was a 1.1 and the ultrasound that happened at 36 weeks 6 days (4 days before I gave birth to him) his level was 1.4!!!!! And he was born without any complications from anemia. He did have the bad jaundice and was in the ICU for 5 days but didn't need any sort of transfusion! So that just shows us that although his level wasn't as high as this babies it did get pretty high right before he was born. So hopefully this baby will continue to only increase by these teenie tiny amounts and not get past 1.4 before he is born.
I will keep everyone posted and our next appointment is June 12th. The baby is growing great and is in the 59th percentile! He is weighing an estimated 2.4 pounds and is kicking me regularly!
Thank you for all of your prayers and Paul and I ask that you keep them coming!
Nothing is ever easy! (25 weeks 1 day)
May 20, 2009
Paul and I learned last week that nothing is ever easy, and pregnancy certainly follows this rule. Not that Paul and I have ever thought having a child was easy. We are the perfect examples of how NOT EASY it is. We tried for 6 years to have a baby with two miscarriages and failed fertility treatments. When we finally did get pregnant with Jacob because of a blood disorder that the doctors found out I have I was on aspirin throughout the pregnancy only to find out once Jacob was born that Paul and I also have a condition called "ABO Incompatibility". This is where the baby has a different blood type than me, resulting in my body creating antigens against the babies blood. Imagine if you went in for a blood transfusion and they gave you the wrong blood type....your body would treat it as a threat and try and rid itself of the foreign blood. Luckily the placenta stops most of my anitigens from getting to the baby and causing serious problems, but some antigens get through. Some problems that can arise from an "ABO Incompatibility" are mild to severe jaundice and mild anemia. 95% of the time these problems do not occur until after the birth of the child. However in very rare cases (less than 5%) the anemia can occur while the baby is still in utero. With Jacob we were lucky and he only suffered mild-medium jaundice and was in the NICU for 5 days.
This week we got a doppler test of the babies cerebral artery in its brain (I was told they use this artery because it is the largest, not because it is the brain itself). If the results of this doppler test are above 1.5 then that is an indication that the baby is becoming anemic in utero. Our baby came back with a score of 1.3. We were told that this is fine as long as it doesn't go above 1.5 and that we need to understand that the score although mathmatically very close to 1.5 will need to go through all of the increments (1.31, 1.32, 1.33, etc...) before it gets to 1.5 so we will probably be OK since I am at 25 weeks. If the baby gets to the 1.5 level at or after 34 weeks the baby will just be delivered early and if a transfusion is needed then it will be given then. If the 1.5 is achieved before 34 weeks then an intrauterine transfusion will need to take place and we will have to travel to the University of Maryland to have this procedure done.
So needless to say I have EVERYONE I know praying that this will not happen and that the baby will stay well below the 1.5 score. We go back again on the 29th for another scan. The doctor did say that if this score was going to rise that it will consistantly rise throughout the next 10 weeks so if the score is still a 1.3 on the 29th we don't have anything to worry about because it more than likely will not rise enough for concern before the baby would be full term and can be delivered.
So whether you know me or not, or are religious or not, please pray for the new baby and a safe and FULL TERM healthy pregnancy!! We have been through enough and are ready for an easy pregnancy.
Week 21 - LONG LEGS!
This week was my 21 week scan and the baby is looking great! Unfortunately we didn't get any great pics because the baby was facing down towards my back so the ultrasound couldn't get any good profile shots. But that is OK because I am going back again on May 15th and hopefully by then he will have moved his way around for a good profile shot. One of the best pics I have of Jacob was his 21 week scan so hopefully we will get one more good round of ultrasounds before the baby gets too big to really see anything.
One funny thing about this baby is that he had his legs perfectly straight and was in a pike position (for those of you who know what that is). Jacob too would always be in this position. I remember when we got our 3D pictures of Jacob and instead of sucking his thumb like some babies will do Jacob was sucking his toes!!! Looks like this baby is set to do the same thing....hhhmmmmm wonder who they get that from.....
The picture above if you can't tell are of those LOOONNNNGGGG LEGS! To the right is the bootie, and to the far left are his feet which are crossed at the ankle. I have put a smaller image at the bottom that if you click on it will show you all of the labels for the image if you are one of those people who just can't figure out what the heck you are looking at with ultrasound images. We did get to see both feet, and both hands including being able to count all ten toes and all ten fingers. I don't quite know why they sonographer didn't print those images out but for some reason she only printed us out the legs and another shot of the "unmentionables" which I will spare my son the embarrassment of posting that on the Internet!
The baby still doesn't have a name, but Paul is working hard to come up with one. We decided that with this baby that if it was a girl I could pick and if it was a boy he could pick. However I am a planner and I have given him a deadline of June 1st because I need to start decorating!!! hehehehehehehehe We have a few names that we are throwing around but haven't decided anything yet.
The baby is kicking up a storm and I can now feel him every day some days stronger than others, but the doctor told me that when the baby is facing towards my back (which it was a few days ago) that I won't feel it very much cause it will be kicking into organs and my back and not forward into my stomach where most kicks are felt.
The baby measured 4 days more than what I am so he measured 21 weeks 5 days instead of 21 weeks 1 day. Jacob also ALWAYS measured about 4-7 days bigger than where I was, and if you have seen Jacob at 20 months he is 32 inches tall and 30 pounds. So it looks like Paul and I are going to have another big kid on our hands!
Cravings....
April 2, 2009
Well it has begun, the cravings.....oh the cravings.....sitting here thinking about cravings, makes me want to go out to the local Starbucks and get my craving for this pregnancy. If you haven't figured it out my MAJOR craving for this pregnancy is a Tall Java Chip Frappacino from Starbucks. Now I know that traditionally caffeine is forbidden during pregnancy, but to my defense (and elation) the FDA recently released a new study that shows that pregnant women can have between 150-200 mg of caffeine a day. That is great since the Tall Frappacino that I get only has 100 mg!!! YIPPIE! Plus unfortunately or FORTUNATELY I live about 20 minutes from the closest Starbucks so my quantities are limited to only about two Frapp's a week.
It is kinda funny with what cravings I get during pregnancy. With Jacob my HUGE craving was McDonalds french fries and for those of you who know me you will attest to the fact that I NEVER eat french fries. I am actually not a big potatoe fan at all other than mashed potatoes so seeing me licking the containers of McDonalds fries was quite a site for some. Then towards the end of my pregnancy with Jacob the fry thing died off and was replaced by the intense craving for Peanut Butter, Banana, and Grape Jelly sandwiches ON TOAST! Now that might not sound too weird but I only craved EXTRA CRUNCHY peanut butter (you know the kind where it is 99% peanuts with 1% butter holding the peanuts together), and it had to be GRAPE jelly and it had to be on toast! I was going through about 2-3 of those sandwiches a day during the last 2 months of my pregnancy with Jacob.....hhhhmmmmm wonder why I gained 45 pounds!!! ((GRIN))
So this pregnancy is starting off a little different but slightly similar. Different as in you can't get any more opposite than Fries and coffee, but similar as in I am NOT a coffee drinker just like I wasn't a french fry eater. I am one of those people who will occasionally (1-2 times a month if not less) get an overly sweet, overly flavored coffee type drink. The true coffee drinkers in my family usually can't even stomach one sip of what I call a "coffee"!
So we will see where this craving ends, and what other horribly nutritious thing replaces it in a few months! Do you think I could crave carrots?? Salad?? NAH!!! Then what would be the fun of being pregnant!!!! BRING ON THE HORRIBLE JUNK FOOD!!!!
And we have a.......
(March 21, 2009)
Well I am 17 weeks preggo now and we had another ultrasound yesterday. Of course at first all of the important things were looked at that could jeopardize the safety of the pregnancy. All was well so the blood thinners I take during pregnancy are doing their job. Next the main items of the baby were measured, we got the feet, hands, femur, humorous bone, brain, 4 chambers of the heart and the head. Then I had to take her word for it but she showed me the bladder, both kidneys and the stomach. Sometimes I wonder if the sonographers are just teasing us sometimes when they tell us what we are looking at because honestly sometimes it just looks like shades of grey.
My mom went with Paul and I to the ultrasound, with Jacob my mom didn't go until the summer when I was 30+ weeks pregnant. If any of you have ever had an ultrasound in the 8th and 9th month the baby is so cramped that you can barely tell it is a baby. So this pregnancy we planned on my mom coming to an early ultrasound where the baby is small enough but formed enough that she would get some good pics.
So you are all probably wondering if we found out what gender of the new baby is......
When I first asked the sonographer to see if she could tell us what the gender of the baby was she said yes, but that is was early and she made me promise that I wouldn't start decorating the room until after the next ultrasound at 21 weeks. Well here it was the moment I had been waiting for for well.....17 weeks for.....there's the bootie, there's the legs....and there is an unmistakable......BOY!!!!!!!!!
Yep my spidey senses must have been on the fritz with this baby cause I have been calling girl from day one. But you know what? Now that I know we are having a boy I am really really really excited! I think this will be great. Jacob will always have a playmate and although I am not delusional in thinking that they will always get along I do hope that they will be close.
After the sonographer saw the image of this baby spread eagle for us to see the goods, she looked at Paul and I and said that basically we could decorate the room because this baby was not shy and she was 100% sure that this baby was a boy!!!
So now that I don't have to buy tons of girl stuff I will be able to focus on the new babies room and how to decorate it!!! YIPPIE!! My favorite thing to do!!!
More tests, UGH!
Just got back from the doctors and I am 16 weeks preggo! I got what they told me was the last blood test for this pregnancy which is great! I have horrible veins and the phlebotomist told me how horrible my veins were as she wiggled the needle in my arm and then got mad at me when I flinched in pain....what nerve I have!!!!
I am now one week away from the ultrasound that could tell Paul and I what gender our new baby is. Of course as I said in a previous post I have a feeling I am having a girl but who knows!!! The doctor today listened to the heartbeat and said....."hhhmmmmm I think you are having a girl!" when I asked him why he said that he said that in his 30 years of experience he has found that most girls have a faster hearbeat than boys. This really shocked me because usually doctors are so "by the book" that they never give in to old wives tales. I don't really believe the whole heartbeat thing because if you research it on the good old Internet it says anything over 140+ is a girl.....well someone should tell my bug picking, dirt loving, vroom vroom truck playing boy that he is a girl because his heartbeat was always in the 160's the whole pregnancy. But we will see what this baby is, I am praying he or she doesn't have their legs crossed next week.
I still can't sleep very well, like the cartoon above if I am not having weird strange dreams of what this kid is going to look like then I am awake because I am worried about having another kid and how Jacob is going to react and what I need to buy if we have a boy versus having a girl (which would be CLOTHES!). My mind just doesn't seem to turn off anymore. What kind of minivan should we buy, how much is that going to cost, can we afford it, why is my belly as big at 4 months as it was at 5 1/2 months with Jacob.....HOLY COW! if my belly is this big now what the HELL am I going to look like at 9 months pregnant!!! AAAAHHHHHHHH
Well I am off to try and take a nap which I am sure will only be in vain!
Second Trimester Here I Come!
Well I have officially made it to my second trimester so I am hoping that some of my pregnancy symptoms start to go away. Actually I shouldn't say symptomS because I honestly only have one real symptom and that is not being able to sleep. For some reason with this pregnancy I can't sleep. I am up around 1:30-2:00 EVERY night and usually can't get back to sleep until between 4:00-5:00 in the morning. Then of course Jacob gets up between 7-7:30 so the hours aren't long between getting back to sleep and having to wake up with a raring to go 1 1/2 year old!
The doctors appointment went well this week. We got our "First Trimester Screening" test done which measures this pocket of fluid behind the babies neck to see if it is too big. I have researched this process and the have found that over the past 10 years or so they have determined that children with Down Syndrome have common characteristics even during the early stages of pregnancy. One of them being excess fluid behind the neck and also the absence or malformed nasal bone. They also take a small finger prick of blood and check protein levels and when they take all of the measurements they can give you a "percentage" chance of your baby having chromosomal abnormalities. Before the blood work came back we were in a 1 in 1200 range which is great, but after the bloodwork comes back the doctor feel we will be even better. The baby has a great nasal bone and with the measurement of the fluid behind the neck we shouldn't have anything to worry about.
The baby was moving around like crazy and as you can see from the ultrasound photos the difference in just three weeks in amazing. We actually saw all five fingers on one hand and saw two little feet as well. The baby is about 3 inches long right now and it still amazes me that it can be formed so perfectly and be so small.
We don't have another ultrasound for 4 weeks but should find out what we are having at the next appointment!
A face only a mother can love!
(January 30, 2009)
OK first let me say that I know that 99.9% of the people that read this blog will have no clue what the heck they are looking at in the above sonogram even with the labels, but I wanted to post our latest picture. It still amazes me even though I have now gone through a pregnancy how quickly a baby grows and changes. Just two weeks ago my ultrasound looked so completely different my baby was just a blob (literally) with a heartbeat. Now just two weeks later you have arms, hands, legs, feet, and a definite head on a short body. There is still a huge proportion problem but all of the major parts are there. The baby was even moving (twitching) and during the moments of movement you could really see the arms and legs very clearly. Of course ultrasound pictures are always easier to see when you were there and not seeing them scanned into a computer and posted online....but hopefully some of you will be able to see what I see in the image above!
The baby is now a little over an inch long and has all of its major organs and a 4 chamber heart....CRAZY!
Everything is going smoothly and other than the fact that this pregnancy is keeping me up at night, making me feel nauseous, and overall has me feeling different than I did with Jacob there isn't anything wrong with the baby in terms of my scan and with a heartbeat of 176 and a measurement coming in at 10 weeks 3 days when I am 10 weeks 1 day is very exciting!
We are due back for another scan at 13 weeks and by then look out I should have some awesome pics of an almost perfectly formed little baby!
Mothers Intuition
January 21, 2009
When I was pregnant with Jacob I remember having this overwhelming feeling that I was having a boy. So much so that when ever someone would ask me I would immediately say "I think I am having a boy". Lucky for me that is what I had, but now that I am pregnant again and am starting to have those same "feelings" I wonder if Jacob was just luck....I mean hey I have a 50/50 shot at guessing right. Or do women really have "a feeling" on the gender of their babies?
This time around I am having the feeling that I am going to have a girl. I could honestly care less, on one hand having another boy would be great because I already have EVERYTHING for a boy and know how to work having a boy. But of course being able to have one of each would be great too, and we all know that little girls clothes are sooooo much cuter than boys clothes!
I am curious if I will be 2 for 2 on the "mommy intuition" this go around, and am curious how often mommies-to-be have these intuitions and how often they are right....let me know!
My little bean!
(January 13, 2009)
Today Paul and I had our first ultrasound for the new baby. Since I am considered High Risk we will get an ultrasound at 8 weeks (which I am), 10 weeks, 12 weeks, and then every 4 weeks after that. I have a whole book of ultrasounds for Jacob and it was great being able to see him every few weeks. Since losing a few pregnancies it is nice to be able to have my stress relieved every 2-4 weeks by seeing a heartbeat or seeing a little moving baby.
My next appointment is in two weeks and by then maybe my ultrasound will actually look like a little baby, it was kind of a blob today so I am not going to be posting the ultrasound picture this week. But my little bean had a heartbeat of 167 and was measuring right at the proper length.
Paul and I will be finding out the sex of the baby because honestly I am HORRIBLE with surprises and with having an ultrasound every 2-4 weeks even the best person would be hard pressed not to sneak a peek at the "unmentionables".
I am having different feelings with this pregnancy that I didn't have with Jacob. With Jacob I had ZERO morning sickness (thanks mom for the great pregnancy genes) but I have noticed with this pregnancy if I have an empty stomach I will be extremely nauseous. I also have gotten my "bloodhound nose" (as Paul calls it) back. I can smell smells a mile away. I remember once when I was pregnant with Jacob that Paul came to bed one night and the smell of oranges was so strong that it actually woke me up, when I asked him if he was eating an orange he informed me that he had eaten one over 2 hours before but I could smell it as if he was holding it under my nose. I am DEFINITELY getting that particular symptom back!!!
The new baby is due on August 27, 2009 so Jacob and his little brother or sister will be exactly two years apart. That is a really good age difference so I am happy about that. One really neat thing that we found out today at the doctors is that we got our very first ultrasound of Jacob at 8 weeks on January 12, 2007 and got this babies first ultrasound at 8 weeks on January 13, 2009....pretty cool!!!
I will be documenting this pregnancy as things come up and trying to keep up with Jacob's blog too! Happy reading!
