24 weeks and a trip to triage

This post might be a hot mess I'm going to try usethe speech to text feature on my smartphone ....yeah..its not so smart.

this morning I woke up with sharp pain in my lower abdomen it came and went last for a couple hours so I put in the usual call and as suspected was sent into labor and delivery from monitoring was really worried because I wasn't feeling contractions and the first hour I was in there pretty much confirmed that but then the doctor came in and did a fetal fibronectin test along with a cervical check which must have kicked something into gear bevause up those contractions started.

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Yeah...that was too much effort last night, though maybe not as much effort as fixing whatever gawdamn keyboard issues my laptop seems to have developed.

Anyway....yesterday was long and exhausting to say the least.  I woke up with a low sharp pain that came and went....kind of like the old implantation/stretching pains I had in the beginning, but combined with feeling off the past week I made the call to my OB.  I thought they'd bring me in to rule out a UTI first, but they said to go to triage.  Since I had no actual contractions at that point, I wasn't really worried, but at the same time it was frustrating to be in pain  with no answers.  My urine came back clear, and the Dr. came in to do a cervical check and a Fetal Fibronectin test.  I am not sure if that triggered something or baby was just sick of the not so comfy position options I was in on the triage bed, but shortly after contractions started registering regularly.   At that point they were no different than what I was told was "practice contractions" at 34 weeks with C.  They went up to around a 4 on a scale of 1-12 (though I am pretty sure that isn't reliable strength wise because of monitor snugness errors, positioning, etc).  It was now about 3 hrs in to my visit and of course my phone was near dead so I just sat there wondering what the next steps would be.  The answer came when the nurse walked in with an IV.  Up until that point they'd been talking quick discharge, so that was my first oh shit moment.  And of course they couldn't find a stupid vein to get the needle is so they gave up and waited for the next check by the doctor.   Contractions never really went away for the duration of my stay and even spiked to an 8 once or twice, but cervix was still closed and an ultrasound with the specialists down the hall that I see regularly showed it was still above a 4.  FFN test was negative and even bloodwork came back great, so I was discharged with "Threatened Preterm Labor".  While waiting for blood results, my on call OB decided that I should go ahead and get the steroid shots now...which was my big oh shit moment and by then I thought I'd end up being admitted.

Last night was a rough night, between being on edge and being sore from 5+ hours in a hospital bed with sciatica pain, I just didn't sleep well at all.  I've had a few small contractions and some low back pain, but nothing like yesterday so I am hoping it was just a freak thing that we won't see a repeat of anytime soon.   .I was semi-mentally prepared for complications as I got further along, but not this early.  I figured 30 weeks would be my mark for increased swelling, back pain, whatever.   6 more weeks...ugh.   Today puts me 10 weeks from the day I was admitted with Colton exactly.   And I thought 5 weeks early left us unprepared....I spent half my time in triage trying not to freak out about the medical health aspects and freaking out about all the stuff we haven't done yet instead.   Poor C will be 2 in just over 2 weeks and the kid will be lucky if his cake even slightly resembles cookie monster. 

So the comfort of hitting 24 weeks and viability, while still a great milestone, isn't that reassuring right now.  Here is my pic from monday (tuesday?).  I think it is time to find a new shirt for pics.

23 weeks

Well, 23w3days to be exact.   We had our fetal echo this morning and everything looked great.  As I mentioned before I wasn't really worried, and, just like with C, it was all I could do not to fall asleep during parts of it.  Some extra good news (I think) is that she is only measuring about a week ahead right now, going off of what I wrote down for C at this estimated weight.  C weighed 1.7lbs at 22w3days and this little girl is about 1.8lbs at 23w3days.  They weren't concerned about C yet this early, but I'm hoping if she isn't as far ahead as he was she won't have her own plans to come as early either.  My cervical length still looked good....down to about a 4.7, but still plenty long.  As long we don't see a continuing drop we are good (me saying this, the doc just said it looked totally normal).    This scan was the first time someone has brought up my tilted uterus since we went through treatments for C.  The tech said it was a hard cervix to measure and that baby's head was actually tucked down behind it.   So the lowest part of my uterus is actually below the cervical opening, putting pressure on my lower back and SI joint, which is killing me.

I'll upload pictures later...maybe even later this weekend, because the sciatica/SI pain is so bad right now I have trouble getting up off the sofa.  And going up and down stairs, to the bathroom, getting in bed, etc.   I went to change C's diaper on the floor earlier today and was seriously in tears because I couldn't figure out how to get back up because even crawling to the couch was excruciating.   I did go back to physical therapy this morning before my u/s, and she said I was way out of line in my hips and really inflamed, so it might take a few days of rest before seeing any improvement.    Meanwhile, I think I'll have to move into our spare bedroom because it really is too hard to get in our master bed (mattress is about waist level with our 4 poster bed frame, I use a step stool while pregnant).  I'm struggling with this because I feel like it is the beginning of the end and we'll just cycle downward to barely feeling like a couple those first few months after baby arrives.   I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here, but looking back I realize I had PPD to some degree, in that I had irrational levels of resentment toward R at times, and it changed just like that when I weaned.   I really need these last few months of normalcy to help make sure my head is in the happiest spot possible before I'm smacked with whatever hormones may come.

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bump pic!

22 weeks

Starting to feel more like my belly is out front now.  Every now and then I even catch myself starting with the pregnant waddle.   Everything still looks good.  My last cervical check measured me at a 5, so still nice and long.  I've had a few contractions here and there, but nothing to be concerned about.   Only 2 more weeks until baby hits viability.

In the next month or so I will probably be seeing the most rapid change in belly size.  I never made it past 35 weeks with C, so I don't know what the end feels like.   I think it was around 24 weeks that I started getting some swelling too.  I'm hoping being a lower weight will help this time, but paired with the arrival of summer I'm sure I'll get some.  Once that happens, monitoring weight gain will go right to hell.  I'm still doing pretty well....around 12-14lbs gained depending on the degree of water retention.  I've got a little more retention already than I realized....this past weekend was a little crazy and I didn't get around to eating lunch until almost 3pm one day.  Between 7am and 3 I lost about 3lbs of water weight.  Whoops.

So here are my last 2 bump pics.

"Popping tags"

It is resale season and I've been hitting them hard.  I picked up one lot of about 25 items from a fellow local moms...it was an all or nothing deal for $12, so some of it is showing a bit of wear, but we had the same with hand me downs for C and used the hell out of most of it anyway.   Today I went to one of the few BIG resales in our area and picked up everything you see below for $25.....and $8 of that was 3 sets of PJs for C (harder to score cheap deals as they get bigger).  Most of the onesies were 50 cents and show little to no wear! 

 

We also got a big storage bin FULL of clothes for C from one of R's co-workers.  The child is seriously set for the next year as long as he is in 2T.  So I'm pretty sure, with the exception of a few heavier winter items, I am set for kid clothes until Christmas.  Score!

20 weeks (and 19 because I'm lazy)

And the blog slacking continues.  Not much difference between 19 and 20 weeks though so I'll just mush it all together.   Our anatomy scan was last week and everything looked great.  I wasn't really worried, while it isn't a logical approach, part of me felt like since everything was fine with C, the same would go for this one since they are from the same batch of embryos.  Silly, but it made me feel better.   However, this little gal gave the tech a run for her money.  1.5hrs of trying to get all the right measurements, with the hardest shot being the face.  I guess they need a single picture of the mouth and nose, and she kept turning or blocking her face.  I almost asked if something was wrong after the tech spent almost 30 minutes trying to get the shot, but I could see in split second flashes that there was no abnormality so I kept quiet.  On a fun side note, we had to bring C with us because our appt was at 7:30am....thank goodness for streaming video.  I never thought we'd be the parents entertaining our kid with a smartphone, but sitting in that dark room we didn't have a lot of options.  He was a champ and made it through with only one or two attempts to flee down the hall.

Here is our little girl!

 

They also did the usual cervical check and things still looked good there.  Baby is measuring around a week ahead and estimated at 11oz as of `19w2days, so right up there with her brother.  Hopefully she doesn't have his plans of arrival in mind, but I am still starting to feel the pressure of time running out.   We will be moving C to the bedroom next to the nursery and keeping the nursery mostly as is.   I'll devote a whole other post to this, as my ideas keep piling up, but C's room will be transportation themed and I'm hoping to have it ready for him by the end of May.   I've started buying some girl clothes here and there at resales and I'm lacking a staging area for all this.  We don't want to move C over until at least June because his new room will have a twin bed, but I want her clothes sorted and ready by 34 weeks, which is mid-July.  34 weeks is when I'll be stopping this progesterone shots.  I've done 4 so far and unluckily each one has been progressively worse.   The first 2 were easy and I thought people were wussy for whining about them, but Monday's shot burned like nothing I've felt from a shot before.  One more shot left in this vial before ordering more, hopefully it isn't a continuing trend.

 

Not much difference in bump size between the 2 weeks, but here are both anyway.

18 and Team....

PINK!!!!  So very excited to be expecting a little girl.  Of course we would have been thrilled with another boy, and that certainly would have made many things easier, but now we will have the best of both worlds!

We did the reveal on Saturday, and after a little more effort than I had imagined was needed in finding a big box, it went really well.  Our neighbor did a great job putting it all together and I think we got some cute pictures.   I normally don't put full pictures here, but I guess I'm at the point where there is enough identifying info here anyway that if someone knew me, they could put 2 and 2 together, so I may as well AW it up.

We saved the balloons and told our families on Easter by having C walk in with a pink balloon.  Simple but fun.  We've told several of our friends as well but haven't made it "facebook official" yet.  I only got the pictures yesterday and at this point we might just wait for extra confirmation next week at our anatomy scan.

On a less fun note, I'm still not feeling right half the time.   I went back a re-read entries from this point with C and I honestly can't remember if I felt this way with him or not this early.  The amount a stretching and pressure I feel in my lower belly is what I remember in 3rd tri with C, but more odd.  It is like someone is pushing on parts of my belly sometimes, but it isn't clear contraction tightening so I don't know WTF is going on.  I'm going to really work on upping my water intake for the next day or so and hope for an improvement, otherwise I guess I'll call the OB.  Baby is still super active so I know she is fine in there for now....I even saw movement last night!  A good kick I'm assuming, right around my belly button.  I guess I'm finally in the showing more than the first time through stage, so maybe that is part of it.

17 weeks

This has been the first of hopefully not that many "hell weeks".  The week when all my doctor appts pile up on top of an already busy schedule.  This week I had 3 appts, a vet appt for my diabetic cat that decided to stop eating, an easter egg hunt party, a birthday party and of course Easter this Sunday.   Next hell week will be late April, when all my appts once again pile up in front of a busy wedding weekend.

So Monday was my first cervical check appt.  I know I had them with C, but the were paired with a regular monthly u/s so they weren't as boring.  This was just going to be a 3 minute monitoring of only my cervical length, without the baby even visible on the screen.  Luckily the tech was cool, and when I asked if we'd be looking at the baby because we didn't know the sex yet, she said not normally but took a peek anyway.   So here it is:

No, I haven't looked yet.  The card is actually in the hands of our neighbor now.  She is going to put either pink or blue balloons in a box and we'll open it on Saturday if the weather cooperates.

Today I had my monthly OB appt, which wasn't anything unusual, my weight and blood pressure look great.  I told my doc. that I haven't been feeling real great the past 24hrs, but since my cervical check went great, the pressure I'm feeling is likely normal.  Maybe it is because I've really popped, or maybe my muscles are weaker because I haven't actually worked out in two weeks, but it feels like a cross between after you've eaten way too much and that sick stomach feeling after you get the wind knocked out of you.  Not fun and just enough "off" to keep that little voice of worry going.   My other irritating symptom that is new to me is itchiness.  I'm guessing it is probably because of the sunburn, but it wasn't that bad so it has to been hormones or something too because this is awful!   My back, chest, belly and the front of my upper legs itch all the damn time.   My doc. said to use Aveeno lotion but so far it doesn't help much.

And, finally, the good old weekly bump pic:

16 weeks - vacation!

We are back from vacation and overall we had a great time.  The day before we left and that first day were rough for me, but I did better than I thought and only really cried after dropping C off with my inlaws.   He was an angel while we were gone, and my MIL left a message for me first thing Monday morning letting me know that he went to bed and slept through the night without a peep that first night, so when I picked up that message during our layover it really made me feel better.  

 

So this was our 3rd time vacationing in St. Thomas with my friends, and each time has been great, but not without glitches.  The past 2 times it was just other guests that were near impossible to get along with, this time it was just bad travel luck.  Nothing huge, but I don't have many pictures to share because R's waterproof camera decided to stop being waterproof, so all we had were our phones.  Here is my 16 week bump pic, taken on the south terrace of the place we stayed.

 

So that was the day we arrived, and I really think I popped while we were down there.  R commented on it several times.  I am proud to say that I did rock a bikini a few times!  

 

I am not sure if baby hates flying or loves it, but movement during the trip was pretty sporadic, except during flights....when baby moved almost non stop.  The very first leg of travel brought on some cramping too, but thankfully that was my only worrisome moment.   I will also say that the increasing number of differences between this pregnancy and Cs are making me start to think girl.  With C I had to be very careful of sunburn, but I got the most beautifully even tan I've ever had in my life.  This one?  Random splotchy burns no matter how many times I reapplied the 50 spf.  At one point it looked like little baby fingers/handprints all over my back.  My friend thought that was cute, but it creeped me out.

Movement!

At last!  I realize in the grand scheme of things it is still early, but I've been feeling the swishy rolling-like movements for almost 2 weeks now, so I've been waiting!  Just like with C, I thought I felt a thump here and there the past week, but nothing definite.   Just as I sat down to go over all the information documents we are taking/leaving, etc, I felt a poke, and then another, and another.  Feels like someone is poking me gently with their finger from inside.   Perfect timing too, just as I'm feeling really, really sad about leaving C, it is like this one is speaking up and saying hey, I'll help you through it!

15 weeks

Ugh...this week has been rough!  As we are closing in on vacation, I've had a ton of stuff on my plate and last week I was doing a great job of getting stuff accomplished.  Good thing too, because Sunday I was hit with a nasty cold and more or less stayed in bed most of the day.  Tuesday I thought I had it beat, then yesterday it was so awful I was nearly in tears.  I *think* I've seen the worst, but we shall see.   Nothing knocks me down a few pegs on the positivity ladder faster than feeling like shit and not being able to breathe without pain.  I actually felt depressed for a little bit earlier in the week, but I managed to pull myself together enough to do a few things that on my endless list that cheered me up.

Saturday I've got a bridal shower, a baby shower and a St. Patty's day dinner.   Did I mention R will be out of town?  Yeah, I'm probably insane, but my mom is watching C for the bridal shower, so at least he'll have had a nap.  Anyway, this is my first opportunity to show off what little bump I've got going and I decided last week to pull together a pretty cute outfit.  I started with a green dress that I bought a month or so ago, then found the perfect belt on amazon, already had the necklace, and I made the earrings Tuesday night.  I love them...so pretty and sparkly.  Shiny things make me happy.  Don't hate.

And speaking of things that make me happy, the other week a friend posted on facebook about Coach Outlet's sale....so of course I looked, just to see.  In general, I am not a designer girl.  I'd like to be I suppose, but my wallet doesn't agree (nor does my logical side).  But since we had just broken down and invested in fancy smartphones...I bought a little wristlet wallet.  But in order to do that I had to give them my email, and then they had an even bigger sale....
So after trying to ignore the 50% off clearance email for half a day, I looked again...and found that the $300+ baby bag that I see everyone carrying was now $136.   I mentioned it to R, thinking I'd get "the look", but he basically said go for it, so I tried to add it to my cart and it wasn't available!  BUT, I called the two outlet stores somewhat nearby and one had one, so C and I took little road trip down to the beach.

 

And while we are on a picture roll, here is my weekly "bump" and the pic I put up on facebook this evening!

 

T minus 3 days before we drop C off at my in-laws and head for St. Thomas.  Excited but hoping I can hold myself together over leaving him.

14 weeks

Its funny...I really thought I was starting to show, but my weekly picture really doesn't look all that different than last week.

My butt looks like it grew 3 sizes again though....stupid camera.   I had my first round of Braxton Hicks at 13w5days....much earlier than I expected but there was no question that is what I was feeling.  A sudden tightening like my whole uterus just turned into a ball, but with no pain.  It happened twice and then nothing.   In the evenings when I'm resting on the sofa I'm getting odd sensations too, somewhere between uncomfortable clothing and flip-flopping stomach, even if I'm wearing loose pants and not feeling any m/s.  I am pretty sure this is the precursor to real movement because I remember this around 15-16 weeks with C.

Announcing to my friends didn't really go as planned, but that seems par for the course this time through.  Of my 5 close friends, one moved to Texas last month, so obviously she could not be there in person, but the remaining 4....one had to work, one texted an hour before the party that she was sick, and one wasn't sure she'd make it at all (did end up coming late).   So I went ahead and put C in his big brother shirt for the one friend that did show up and ended up texting everyone else.   At least that is it for planned announcements because I'm over it.  We'll put it on FB in the next week or so.  I was going to do it this week, but a friend just had her 2nd failed IVF for #2 and I feel it is in bad taste to do it right now even though she already knows our last cycle worked.

13 weeks - 2nd tri!

Late in posting, again, so at 13w4days I'm officially in the 2nd trimester!  Starting to feel a little better and I've actually had a few 4-6 hr stints at night without waking up to pee.  Of course, when I do wake up I'm all crampy from a full bladder but at least it helps in the sleep department.   We've lifted the gag order on family, so word is now beginning to spread.  I think I waited a little too long to tell my friends though:

 

And that was 4 days ago before eating any breakfast...another quarter inch and my belly will be preceding me into a room.   Oh well, we are having people over for my birthday tomorrow anyway, so I think I'll just throw the Big Brother shirt on C and see who notices what first.  For people who don't know I've been working out and trying to lose weight pre-baby it still isn't noticeable.  I wore a fitted shirt to my book club last night and only 2 people out of 14 said anything and even then it was a "are we okay to assume what we think?" question.  Another person told me I look great so I guess it is a crap shoot whether it will be immediately obvious to my friends.

 

And I'm still fighting with the bella band muffin top for now.  My neighbor re-lent me all her maternity clothes again, but bottoms wise everything is too big, particularly at this point.  Motherhood Maternity is also all over the place with their fucking sizing BTW, so I can't even order online.  I've got 2 pairs of borrowed size large pants that basically fit if I roll the waist down (otherwise they are penguin pants), one pair of my own mediums that look okay except very bunchy around the waist....so I think I'm stuck somewhere between medium and small.  And don't get me started on jeans...they all suck.

12 weeks - NT scan

I was going to title this post Doctors, doctors, doctors, but I decided that was slightly overdramatic.   I won't be getting that 6 week downtime of no Dr. appointments though.   

I was kind of nervous going in to the NT scan, since this was FET literally nothing has changed since I had C, but I guess that waiting for the other shoe to drop feeling never really goes away.   This time the appt went a lot faster than I remember with C, and thankfully everything looked great!  The nuchal measurement was somewhere around 1.6 and the nasal bone was present.   Combined with the bloodwork I had already completed, my age (the embryo's age in this case) based risk dropped from 1 in 651 for DS/1 in 1185 for Trisomy 13&18 to less than 1 in 10,000...the lowest result you can get.   Baby was moving like crazy most of the scan, but we still got some good pictures.

 

Still no change in me, though crappy eating sent me up 2lbs this week.   I am committing to some type of exercise, even if it is just a few arm strenthening moves, every day until we leave for St. Thomas.

 

 

I had my initial consult with the nurse at my OB last week...mostly just paperwork and going over stuff I already knew.  She did say they would most likely put me on P17 shots, and that they are referring me to MFM to be followed as high risk for pre-term labor.  Mind you, I've already got a referral from the RE to followed because of IVF, but my monitoring now starts at 16 weeks rather than 24ish weeks.  Better safe than sorry of course, but I was looking forward to a few weeks of a doctor free schedule.   So I have my monthly appt. with the midwife on Thursday, then my next u/s with MFM the 25th, right after returning from St Thomas, and I'm guessing my next OB appt will be that week too, then our anatomy scan on April 10th at 19 weeks.

11 weeks!

And yes, this post is totally backdated.  I'd say I've just been too lazy, but I actually have been pretty busy this week.  My back is still giving me a lot of trouble, so by the time I really have a moment to sit down, I don't feel like transferring pictures, editing and uploading them just to make a post.    I still haven't done our most recent u/s photos, but seeing as I haven't added last weeks yet either I'll just bump the new ones to another post.

So I am officially done with PIO!  At least, until 16 weeks when I'll probably start getting them once a week for pre-term labor.  A lot better than daily though.   Morning sickness has still stayed away for the most part, but the sciactica has quickly replaced that to keep me from functioning normally.   I really wish I could get back into a constant workout routine, I feel so much better in general when I do.   I'm still within reasonable weight gain, but just feel a lot more blobby.  I don't know how I'll ever feel confident in a bathing suit next month.  And did I mention my moment of insanity where I ordered a new bikini?  Yeah....I'm telling myself it is good motivation post baby for summer 2014 if nothing else, but we'll see when it gets here.

Not much change again this week...maybe a little more bloat.  I did start wearing the bella band for my smaller jeans, rather than dealing with sad butt in my looser pairs.   

 

And here is our little one at 10 weeks!  Everything looked great again and the heart rate was around 165.

10 weeks!

This week has hit me hard.  Today was a little better, but I have been completely exhausted.  I tried napping twice yesterday while C was napping.  It might be a more successful venture if I didn't have to pee within 45 minutes of laying down.

Anyway, not much else to report pregnancy wise.  I have started physical therapy for my back but don't see much improvement yet.  I was able to workout today for the first time in over a week.  I had to...I did my self portrait weekly bump pics and all I saw was my ass.   And I have to do something about that, because....we are going on vacation next month!  My friend invited down to her family's place on St. Thomas again.  Last time we were down was when I was 28 weeks pregnant with C, so I'm really looking forward to going without the excessive water retention.  But yeah....at only 16 weeks I'll be (hopefully) wearing my regular tankinis.  I highly doubt I will have the confidence to wear a bikini, pretty sure my boobs wouldn't fit in anything I've got anyway.

So here is the obligatory bump pic.  I thought about skipping this week, because sucking it in there is really no difference at all, but I'm including an non-sucked in bloat shot.  

 

It would also seem that a ton of people around me are pregnant too.  Most are further along, but I'm only just finding out now.  Some had trouble, others didn't....either way it makes me extra thankful I don't have to go through the left behind feelings again.  It would really sting about now....there are....9 family and friends pregnant right now.  Thankfully almost all are 2nd babies, because that would be waaayy to many baby showers for any sane person to handle in a matter of months.

9 week ultrasound!

So I royally botched things this morning and we dropped C off with MIL, drove all the way to the RE, only to find out my appt was at 11:45, not 9:45.  And of course R took time off work to make it.  Luckily MIL was fine with just keeping C for the morning, so home we went and came back at 11:45.

Well, I thought my RE was pretty up date as it was, but one of their ultrasound machines died last week, so they had to replace with a brand new one.  OMG this thing was amazing!  It was literally like watching one of those 3D computer animated fetal videos on the internet.  The slightest twist of the wand and I could see all sides of my baby.  A-maz-ing.  We could see the arms and legs wiggling around and the beginnings of facial features.   We got several awesome pictures too.

 This one kind of illustrates the amazing 3Dness of the u/s...you can really see that little arm in front of the body.

 

and look at the clarity of this one....that is the umbilical cord.

 

 

and finally, a shot that shows the brain development.

 

On a whim I also asked where my placenta was located.  I don't put much of any stock into gender prediction theories, but there is one out that supposedly is fairly accurate.  Dr. Ramzi claims that the location of the placenta at 6 weeks can be used to predict gender, with left locations = girl and right = boy.  I have no clue where mine was with C other than it was posterior, but this one is high toward the top of the fundus (uterus) and to the left.   Unluckily his theory is not quite as useful after 8 weeks because the placenta shifts as the uterus grows, but we'll see.

9 weeks!

One of these days I'm going to bend down to pick up a toy or feed the cats and I'm not going to be able to stand up again.  Yep, the sciatica has arrived.  I called my OB for a referral to physical therapy, only to find out the super convenient place I went last time was moved down by the hospital...another 30 minutes farther away.  Not a huge deal, but I'd rather not have one more reason to go down that way frequently.   I also really liked my therapist last time too.  I know she lives locally and we've got a mutual friend on FB through the local moms group, so I sent her a message asking if she still practiced locally.  Hopefully it isn't too creepy.

Overall I feel a little better now.  Still exhausted and not sleeping real well.  Last night it was mostly the back pain that kept me up, I couldn't lift my butt up to roll over at once (twisting is a big no-no because of round ligament pain).   No bump yet whatsoever, and thankfully I'm back down a few pounds.  A few pounds of what I'm not sure, because I still feel pretty puffy out front by the end of the day.   I went ahead and took my first progress pic, because this is where I started with C.  I promise I'm not this oddly shaped...I operating in semi fuck effort mode when I took this.

heard the heart beat!

I'd seen other 2nd time (or more) moms on the Bump finding heart beats earlier this time through so I thought I'd give it a shot.  No luck yesterday but after about 10 minutes of searching I found it loud and clear at 171!   Of course I went downstairs and tried to find it again so R could hear and had no luck, but I am so, so glad we are far enough along to have that extra reassurance here at home.

8 week u/s



Starting to look like a baby in there!  I had the good sense to schedule this u/s early in the morning, so no sitting around worrying.  Covered some of the usual pregnancy stuff, then did the scan.  No movement yet, but I could see that little heart beating away at 175!  The little white arrow is pointing to an arm bud...the tech showed me both the arm and leg buds, but unluckily the yolk sac is still visible and blocked a good picture shot.

 

 

Last week I set up my appts with my OB (did I already post that? I can't remember crap these days) for Feb 11th and 21st I think.  First appt is just paperwork, 2nd one is with my actual Dr. (midwife actually...I've got both the midwife I always saw pre-pregnancy for ladypart appts and the OB from my last pregnancy assigned to me this time).  So I got my medical records from the RE just in case they get lost in fax translation.  Naturally I looked through them...always a mistake.  C is here and healthy now, but random bloodwork levels were off over the past few years...indicating thrombosis at one point before my 1st IFV and rubella or lack of immunity to it last May!  The thrombosis thing must of been a fluke because it was normal in May, but I'll ask about the Rubella thing next week.  I'm not worried about it, but it goes to show non-medical people shouldn't try to read medical stuff.

 

Oh, and speaking of not being able to remember stuff...I really felt like I was losing my mind last night.  I couldn't find my car keys anywhere.  Both R and I searched the whole house, took flashlights and checked outside around my car and in it, etc.   This morning I picked up my purse to leave and they were under it....I watched R pick up my purse to check inside and I did that myself as well.  Neither of us saw them there.  WTF.   Now I'm only missing a giant bottle of Tylenol that I bought at BJs last week.  Chances are at this point that I left it in the damn cart.

 

On a much, much more somber note, I found out today that an e-friend was admitted to labor & delivery at 23 weeks and 3 days, 90% effaced with twins.  At this point they are just waiting for things to take their course and everyone is praying for a miracle for them.  If you have any spare T&Ps, please send them to these wonderful deserving people tonight.

8 weeks

You know that point when you can't decide if food will make you feel better or result in immediate puke?  No?  Only that one time when you were reaaaalllly drunk?   Well, that was me last night, and again this morning.  Food does help actually....for about 45 minutes and then I feel full and barfy.   It actually went away for a few days earlier this week, so much so that I was freaking out by the time I had my u/s on Thursday.  Thankfully one of my favorite nurses did this scan, so as soon as she walked in I felt better.  Everything looked good and on track, measuring 7 weeks 3 days exactly with a heart beat of 145!

 My bad feeling that something wasn't right turned out to just be slightly misplaced, and in the long run it wasn't a big deal, but the perfect plans to tell my side of the family were botched a little.  About an hour before dinner my mother called to say that she wasn't feeling great and my youngest sister was sick.  Now, my youngest is learning disabled and a chronic illness faker if there is something she doesn't want to do, so at first I was rather pissed, but supposedly she did want to come for dinner, so maybe it was some miraculous 24 hr stomach flu with no actual throwing up.   Anyway, my older sister and my father came and we decided to go forward as planned.  Of course, when C handed my sister the book she didn't really get it at first, but they were both thrilled when they caught on.  I ended up emailing my mom this picture and had her open it while I was on the phone.  She had already suspected it since I was insistent about them coming to dinner, so I didn't feel as bad doing it this way.