Ultrasound update

My regular doctor's appt yesterday went well.  My blood pressure is normal and I've gained 10lbs in total since my first appt.  The baby's heart rate was in the 140s and strong and I'm measuring right on track.

Today I went in for my ultrasound to check the placenta location.  The last time they determined that the placenta was touching the cervix.  Fortunately, it has moved and is no longer a problem.  The tech confirmed it was a girl and let me see girl parts (for all of 2 seconds) and said she looks good.  She is still measuring ahead and is over 2lbs at this point.

The only cause for concern is the doctor found two signs that I may develop pre-E eventually.  One had to do with the placenta which I didn't catch what she called it and the other is that I'm already have swelling in both ankles and feet this early.  I have to go back in two weeks for them to check up on this and see if it is cause for concern.

And.... they still have crappy ultrasound pic taking skills.

27 Weeks

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I've rambled away on this blog.  For the record, not a whole lot is going on.  I think I'm having a pretty boring and normal pregnancy.  Which is good but also means there isn't a whole lot to talk about.  She started moving quite a bit more which is cool in one way but as a girl that has watched a lot of horror movies... well, let's just say that there is a definite creep factor there that I'm trying to suppress.  She's also a night owl.  During the day she is mostly still, but at night when I lay down... it is gymnastics time.  Unforunately, there have been several days when she has been so quiet that I've been on the verge of panic because I haven't felt her move in so long.  Fortunately, she usually moves right when I get to the point of calling my doctor and begging for a quick check.

I did have my glucose test a couple of weeks ago and passed that and the iron test.  They surprised me with the test.  No mention of it was made until I was there and they were handing me the orange colored stuff and telling me to drink it.  I worried about the results since I had a lot of sugary food and drinks that day.  It was a co-workers birthday so I had a large slice of chocolate cake in the early afternoon and then had a hot chocolate and yogurt right before my appointment.  Fortunately though, I passed both tests.  Yayy!!!  No need for iron supplements or having to go back for the three hour test.

I have my follow up ultrasound this week to find out if the placenta is where it should be or if it is going to require a c-section.  Other than that, things seem to be going along slowly but surely.  Each day seems to be passing pretty slowly but then I look back and I'm surprised by how much time has gone by and how little time is left.  I'm down to 89 days left already?  Wow.. I'm so not ready yet.  My aunt has gotten the crib and dresser for me so that is one worry down.  My cousin over bought for his own kid so I will have a stroller and car seat.  Now I just have to worry about the little stuff.  And doing the nursery.... which I haven't even started on.  Crap.  89 days.  I need to get on that. 

Marielle

Anatomy Scan...

Well, I went in for my anatomy scan this morning.  Didn't take too long overall.  The doctor said the baby was measuring 9 days ahead but looked fine overall.  The baby was also extremely uncooperative.  After 10 minutes of the doctor poking, prodding, and bouncing my stomach (which OMG! OW!!!), he finally said he was positive it was a.....

GIRL!!!!

Baby also seems to have inherited my aversion to picture taking because she spent the entire ultrasound in the above pose.  This was the best pic they could give me.  The other pic looks like an unidentifiable blob.

For comparison, the unidentifiable blob....

Marielle

Still moving along... slowly...

I don't have a whole lot to report.  Things are quiet around here other than the random things that are breaking down and costing money to repair or replace.   The a/c broke down so had to have someone come out and look at it.  They charged me $170 to tighten a loose wire.  Yep, that's right.  My a/c stopped working because it had a loose wire and to fix it they charged that much when they were at my house for about 20 mins.  I am so in the wrong business. 

Ugh.. then to just screw with me, my home owners insurance doubled for no apparent reason causing my escrow to go up $80 a month.  Seriously!!  Grr....  I've changed insurance companies, although the new one isn't as cheap as the old one before the ridiculous hike but it is cheaper than the current price.  I'll shop around more later on when I have the time and am not so hormonal that I keep crying on the phone with them.  I really could do without the crying at the drop of a hat.  It's very annoying.   I want to stop now please. 

Had my second prenatal appt yesterday.  The appt was maybe 10 minutes.  I had to wait a little longer than usual because my doc had an emergency c/s and was running late so I saw the other doc there.  She's nice.  She used the doppler but couldn't find a heartbeat so had me go for a quick ultrasound.  Ripley was fine and moving around and had a heartbeat of 150.  I didn't get any pics though.  I don't think they could have gotten a good one anyway.  Ripley was really moving around and she was barely even able to get the heartrate measured because of all the movement.

I'm so glad I decided not to get a home doppler.  I seriously thought about getting one.  Even went so far as to load it into a shopping cart but at the time I hadn't even gone for my first appt and was positive that I would get bad news so didn't want to waste my money on it.  By the time I realized I was being pessimistic for no reason, I had heard too many other big women had trouble getting a heartbeat with one so decided to not get one.  I'm now very glad I didn't get one.  Can you imagine the constant state of paranoia and fear I would be in not being able to get the heartbeat?  Yeah, not exactly something I want to be doing.

I need to start wearing nose plugs as well.  The world is a very stinky place.  Or maybe it is just people.  The really sad and bad part is that my bo or breath can make me nausesous, not just random other people.  And it isn't like I stink.  I shower daily, brush my teeth multiple times a day and I generally don't work up a sweat sitting at a desk all day but apparently at seemly random times I will think I stink or that I haven't brushed my teeth fast enough and have bad breath and then suddenly I am fighting the strong urge to gag.  Really?  I get finding other people's body odor nauseating.  But why oh why would I make my own self sick?  This is just not right.

My anatomy scan isn't until 21wk5d.  I live in a very large city with places that do ultrasounds like the 3.D/4.D and they also advertise doing optional gender scans.  I'm trying to decide if I want to do that before my appt so I don't have to wait so long.  Is waiting a few weeks for my actual appt and saving a few bucks the way to go or should I shell out the money and find out sooner???  Decisions... decisions...

And so this post isn't all about the whining and moaning...  My aunt is planning on providing the baby bed and my co worker is providing the mattress.  One less expense to worry about.  Yayy! 

For not having much to report I sure rambled on for a long time.  Will return to my hidey hole now.
Marielle

First Tri appt done

Well, I had my first trimester screen today.  It went pretty well.  The doc said the baby is right on track for being 12 wks 5 days and has a heartbeat of 153.  The scan showed 1.5 for the measurement and he said anything over 3.0 is a concern.  I did ask if they would look for the gender.  The tech who started the ultrasound said it was too early but would check, unfortunately the doc came in before she could and he just said it was too early and didn't bother checking. 

I've decided the baby's nickname while in utero will be Ripley.  Why, you ask?  Well, because the entire scan I spent seeing skeletor or an alien.  There were a couple of screen shots that I was convinced a second jaw was going to pop out.  (And yes, I'm aware that the ultrasound makes the baby look more alienish than it really is and the extended jaw wasn't nearly as extended as it looked.)  I also had to keep from asking the doc how long my baby would look like skeletor.  They didn't really look like the joking type.  Anyway, on way back to work Ripley got stuck in my head (because there is no way I'm going to go around calling my baby skeletor to other people) but I do promise not to actually name my kid Ripley.  Maybe.  So I might have a small obsession with the Alien series...  and a small, like tiny, very tiny case of hero worship for Ripley.  She's totally badass.  Anyway......

Ripley it is for now. 

Ripley didn't seem to really enjoy the ultrasound too much.  It very much looked like he was trying to get away from it.  Here is one of the pics I was given to take with me with Ripley looking very skeletorish.  I also swear that during the ultrasound it looked like they got a decent look at between the legs.  I would swear I thought I saw boy parts...unforunately this will not be confirmed or debunked until May 9th.

Telling the Family

So I'm sure every one's noticed that sometimes I tend to be a little over dramatic and expect the worst even when there isn't any reason to suspect the worst.  Back when I was first considering being a SMC, I wholeheartedly believed that at best I would get lukewarm reception from immediate family (dad, step mom, brothers) and although I didn't particularly care about the aunts and uncles reactions, I expected to get some negative reactions there as well.  Fast forward to this weekend when I finally decided it was time to inform the family.  To my utter shock and relieved amazement, my dad and step mom were more excited and supportive than my bio mother has been. 

I could hardly believe it.  I expected lectures on being a single mother and questioning my sanity and finances.  I expected to have to justify my decision... but none of that happened.  They were genuinely thrilled for me and can't wait for the baby to be here.  If you told me last year that they would be happy and excited for this, I would have laughed in your face and said whatever.  I have never been so glad to be wrong before.

So the family is told.  Work will be told today.  I hope they take it as well as everyone else seems to have taken it. 

Had a busy and productive weekend and even got my brothers to drive out and help moving furniture around.  Got a lot done but now I feel like I didn't get a chance to relax at all since I spent so much time doing stuff. 

In other news...  beginning to buy baby stuff.  I've started with cloth diapers since I figured even if I told people my preference they would tell me I'm crazy and just get me disposables.  It is very addictive.  I need to stay away from those sites for awhile before I spend too much.

Fortunately, so far I seem to have fairly mild pregnancy symptoms.  They're there but pretty mild overall.  I definitely have no room to complain about them.  I hope this is a trend that continues.  Unfortunately, I think weight will be an issue.  I'm already overweight but have already gained (too much) weight since being pregnant.  Will need to start watching that carefully.

Well I'm off to catch up on what I missed for my days off last week.

Marielle
edited to add:  I tried scanning to see if I could a better quality picture of the ultrasound.  Unfortunately, I think that photo turned out better than the scan so I'm not going to bother uploading the scan.

1st Appt

Well I got to meet Wanda. Interesting experience I have to say. Baby is looking good so far. Heartbeat was 167 bbm and baby measured right on track at 9wks 5days. Everything else looked fine. Will post ultrasound photo once I get to a scanner.

Here is a bad photo of the ultrasound pic.  I won't have access to a scanner until Monday.