Catching up........

I am such a bad blogger. Well, here’s a quick (or not-so-quick) update on everything that’s happened since my last post (ohhhhhh so many moons ago).

Feb 26 – was my amniocentesis day (as my last post indicated).

March 11 – we got the results of the amnio. With 99% accuracy, the baby does not have Down Syndrome or either of the other two chromosomal abnormalities they test for (and I forget what they are). We also found out we’re having a baby girl. :-D

March 20 – 20-week ultrasound. I had wanted Rob to definitely make this one, but his students had a field trip/concert for school that he couldn’t miss. I then asked the grandmoms if they wanted to come; my mom was able to make it, but Rob’s mom was not able to take off of work either. This u/s went pretty well; they take all these “growth” measurements (length of femur, crown-to-rump, etc). Apparently, another “growth” u/s down the road is conducted and the measurements from the 20-week are compared to that later one to make sure the baby is growing. I’m like “Hellooooo – look at my belly!!” :-D At this 20-week u/s, they were unable to get a good look at her stomach, though. Apparently, my girl had just “processed” some amniotic fluid. Her (full) bladder was visible plain as day, but she had no fluid in her stomach (and the lack of fluid was preventing the stomach from “showing up” on the u/s). So, I had to schedule another u/s – just so they could see her belly. Better to be safe than sorry, I suppose.

April 3 – follow-up u/s to see the baby’s stomach. Yup, it’s there – and it’s on the correct side. Wonderful. Now, I have to come back at 28-weeks for the follow-up “growth” u/s (where they compare measurements to the 20-week ultrasound). I’m beginning to think I should just get an u/s machine installed in my house!!! Coincidentally, on this same day, I first felt the baby move (more like “thump”) inside me. Crazy feeling.

The majority of April and early May has been spent getting shower stuff ready. My cousin, Wendy, is hosting the Shreve shower and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law are hosting the Bowden shower. Negotiating shower dates has been interesting since Rob’s cousin and his wife are also expecting (due July 25) and I have a cousin and SO who are also pregnant (due August 25). Also, one of my Shreve cousins is getting married August 2 – so I would imagine her bridal shower is sometime this summer too. LOTS of baby/bridal showers going on!!

We also received the baby furniture (crib, dresser, and changing table) delivery. Rob did a wonderful job of putting everything together. My mom and I shopped for a glider/ottoman combo that Mom graciously purchased as my shower gift (thanks Mom!!). Rob and I picked up the glider from Babies R Us in late April. So, all of those items are now up in the baby’s room (ottoman is still on back-order).

I also have been a bad girl, and have been buying baby clothes. LOL But, hey – if I see a sale or a good deal, I have to take advantage right? Here are some pics of items that I have purchased already.

May 2 – Rob stayed late at school to see his students perform in their spring musical. While he did that, I nested. LOL I moved all the baby furniture to the middle of the room and got the walls brushed down/dusted and the carpet vacuumed. I moved some things around and finally have things settled in there (I think). I have some pictures too. Ignore the black entertainment
center – that won’t be staying.

Upcoming schedules (and hopefully updated posts):

• May 6 – breastfeeding class at St. Agnes (oops -- already completed this!!)
  
• May 12 – 28- week ultrasound at St. Agnes
• May 20 – ob/gyn appt
• June 28 – childbirth class at St. Agnes

While these things are going on, I will be: tweaking the registries as necessary; attending baby/bridal showers left-and-right; checking out pediatricians (any recommendations are welcome) etc. I also hope to get a weekend in with Rob and his parents down at their beach house. However, from May 11 weekend to July 4 weekend, I have something scheduled on Saturday or Sunday for every weekend but one. I’m going to be exhausted well before I even go into labor!!!

February news

Let's see -- the final week of February was pregnancy week #16 for me. I took some "baby bump" pictures the weekend of the 23rd-24th. I also took some at week 12, but they were icky. The 12-week pics were bare belly (i.e. icky). These 16-week pics are "clothed" so they're safer to look at. hahahhahaa










On February 26, I had an amniocentesis. That was a little bit painful, but not too bad. As part of the amnio, they did another ultasound and I got more pictures. These are much better than the "blob" pictures I got at the 12-week u/s.











The amnio results should be back in about two weeks, and we'll have more info about the baby then. Ohhhhhhh -- the baby's heart rate is 140-something (148, I think). So, if you need that info to make a "guess" as to the gender, now you have it. :-)

In the meantime, things are still going well. The fatigue is still with me, but I'll take that any day of the week over morning sickness!!!

Long time, no see

Well, at the rate I'm going -- I'll only end up with 6 or 7 blog entries before the baby gets here. LOL

Let's see what's happened in the past 3 weeks or so. On January 29th, I had my first u/s. That was the coolest thing ever!! My appointment was scheduled for 1pm, so Rob and I figured we'd grab lunch afterwards. OY. They took me back to the u/s room about 20 after 1. And then, the baby was very uncooperative. This u/s wasn't a run-of-the-mill u/s. They were trying to get the nuchal translucency measurement, which a measurement of the neck area of the baby. Well, my uncooperative and stubborn baby was tucked into a corner of my uterus and was not coming out of that corner!!

No lie -- I went thru three different technicians and two different machines/rooms before they were able to get a decent picture for the nuchal measurement. Total time spent on u/s was almost 3 hours!!! Needless to say -- our "lunch" ended up being more like "dinner."

Anyway, here are the u/s pictures. They're difficult to decipher, since the babe just looks like a blob. The darkness in the pics is my uterus. The top picture is the top of the baby's head, and the bottom picture is a side view of the baby (one side of the peanut-shape is his head, and the other is his butt).

The following day (January 30) was another pre-natal appointment with my ob-gyn. That was fairly non-eventful (as most of these appointments will be). After both of these appointments, we gave the family an all-clear that they could spread the word.

So far, everything is still going well. Still no morning sickness. ::vigorously knocks on wood still:: My fatigue is easing a bit (although I can still take a looooooooonnnnnnngggggg nap on the weekends). Not much else to report at this point.

In February 26th, I have an amniocentesis and February 27th is my next ob-gyn appointment. As part of the amnio, we are going to find out the gender of the baby. It usually takes a week or two for the results to come back, so I figure by St. Patrick's Day we will know if we're having a boy or girl. Yay!!!!

Hi there!

Well, most folks won't see this entry for another couple weeks -- so I'm just fooling around for now. So far, I've (hopefully) been keeping this news in close circles. On December 1, 2007 -- my hubby and I took a home pregnancy test and the result was a positive. Whoooooo-hoooo!!

Since I am hyper-paranoid (not to mention "advanced maternal age" (which sadly, is the real medical terminology)), I've been trying to keep this glorious news limited to just immediate family. We've had some misunderstandings and "leaks" along the way (I really don't know how celebs keep their news under wraps), and some other "outside" folks do know -- but I feel better now that we're approaching the first trimester milestone (beginning of February). And with that, I decided to start a baby blog. I'm sure I'll have lots of crazy stuff to post through-out this adventure. Don't worry -- when there's TMI stuff, I will warn you all.

So, where to begin? We got the hpt+ (translation: home pregnancy test, positive) on Dec. 1. We decided to keep the news to ourselves for a couple weeks and tell our families at Christmas. My mom was diagnosed with shingles about a week after our hpt+ -- and pregnant women should not be around anyone with an active case of shingles. Soooo, Christmas was a bit messed up since I couldn't see my Mom. We did tell her and Dad (although the news was shared over the phone rather than in person). We told Rob's family at their annual Holiday Party. Everyone was very happy for us. I called my brothers on the way home from the family party and passed the news onto them.

I called my ob-gyn on December 3rd to get scheduled for my first pre-natal appointment -- which they (not so) promptly scheduled for December 28th!!! It's a good thing I've been reading up on pregnancy and knew to take pre-natal vitamins and stuff.

So, December 28th marked my first appointment. Rob was off of school that week for Christmas holidays, so he was able to go with me. He didn't need to, though, since the appointment was pretty routine. No cool stuff happening quite yet. LOL

We're now into January, and as of this writing, I am about 11 weeks along. 2 more weeks to get to the first trimester milestone!!! Whoooo-hoooo!! On January 29th, I have an ultra-sound (hereafter abbreviated u/s) appointment. I get an u/s this early on due to my aforementioned "advanced maternal age." Apparently, age does have its privileges. LOL This first trimester u/s is to test for nuchal translucency, which is an early indicator of Down's Syndrome (my advanced maternal age strikes again!!). The following day, January 30th, is my next pre-natal appointment with my ob-gyn.

Aside from that stuff -- not much going on so far. I've gained a little weight. I'm not having any morning sickness. ::vigorously knocks on wood:: My only major "symptom" is fatigue -- and a lot of it. Most weekends, I could sleep late, get up for a couple hours, nap for 1-2 hours in the afternoon, and then go to bed early. LOL It's crazy. Somehow, I manage to make it through the work-week, but again -- I'm going to bed no later than 10pm (and usually earlier). I do feel great, though -- aside from the fatigue.

So, you're now caught up on the "baby news." I'll try to post regularly -- and try to keep the gross stuff out of the blog. LOL