29 weeks, How'd this happen??

I'm still surprised at how fast all of this is going, I'll say it again, it seems like just a few weeks ago we found out we were pregnant.

This past week has been very good. We had our 28 week visit on Friday and on Monday we had our last ultrasound with the specialist. The visit with the OB went well, more questions, and more reassurance that everything was normal and he is doing good. At our ultrasound on Monday they were able to see everything they needed to with his heart. Usually, since February 15th, when we leave they want to schedule another ultrasound, but not on this visit. It was a bittersweet moment. It's been great to see him every four weeks, but knowing he's healthy and not having to make that additional stop to schedule another ultrasound was a good feeling too. I'm not sure when we'll get to see him again though which kind of makes me sad. I was lying on the table while the lady was rubbing the transducer around, yes I know the official name now, looking at him and thinking about our first ultrasound at 10 weeks and was amazed at how much our little boy has grown. When we first saw him he was barely an inch long and now he is a bit over 15 inches. All of this is truly a miracle.

On Saturday night we went over to our friends house for a little party. Before we left, I was trying to find something to wear (I think I changed outfits about three times) and once I did I needed help just tying my shoes. I called for Marcus, he was downstairs at the time, and he helped me get them tied. We had to go pick up some drinks and chips for the party and on our way to the way to the grocery store I was thinking about how I was pregnant and no one else at the party was and how I couldn't even tie my shoes without help and almost had a breakdown right then and there. Then, I opened my phone to see how we were doing on time and when I did there he was. The 3D ultrasound picture is my wallpaper and suddenly none of it mattered. I didn't care that none of my clothes seemed to fit (although I know they do), that I can barely tie my shoes now, and everything seems swollen. He was there looking cute as can be and seeing him was all I needed to make me smile again. Once we got to the house they surprised us with a few things we had registered for for him. It was a wonderful surprise and we appreciated it soooo much : )

We leave on Friday to take a road trip to see our family in New Mexico. I'll keep this updated as best I can. Thanks for reading and keeping up with us!!!

Third trimester...maybe?

Ok, so from the various pregnancy books that I have and the weekly updates I receive, I am either one week away from, at the beginning, or one week into my third trimester. I'm not really sure which one it is, but for arguments sake, we'll say I've just entered my final trimester. We've had some welcome and not so welcome changes in the past couple of weeks regardless.

Welcome changes include the following:

• My desire to eat meat again. Maybe I am indeed in my third trimester. I was driving home one day and had the strongest desire for a McDonald's cheeseburger (unhealthy I know) and was thinking that since I was on my way home anyway I might as well pick one up. I still have some of my morning sickness medicine so if it made me nauseous I could take a pill then. Oh my goodness it was wonderful. I made some chili this week too, yes I realize it's May, but I had wanted some to eat for so long that it didn't really matter. We even went out and got steak last night. It was the best meal I've had in a very long time.
• The incredible, edible egg is now back in my diet. Marcus used to either have to douse his eggs in hot sauce or eat his eggs in the kitchen because the smell was so nauseating. But, once again, they seem to have come back into my diet in welcome fashion. I'm not too great at cooking eggs, but he is always more than willing to cook some for me. Also, I'm now a fan of turkey bacon : )
• I've read that at a certain point, babies can come to know their mother's voice and I like to think he does now. I feel somewhat guilty when I'm reading and not reading aloud so he can hear me and I think he now can. If I start reading and he has been fairly calm he'll wake up and roll around a bit or if he has been super duper active sometimes the reading will even calm him down. It was a very cool moment when all of this started happening.

Maybe not so welcome:

• Sleeping is becoming more and more difficult. Between him wanting to practice his kicking and punching skills at all hours of the day and night and the return of heartburn sleeping is becoming more and more challenging. I've read that if you try and lay on your side while sleeping it helps and the baby is more likely to be docile, not so with my sweet boy. I'm not supposed to sleep on my back so I'm pretty much out of options and at his mercy for when he decides to move around. This also means more fatigue during the day. I thought that was something we only had to go through in the first trimester, nope. My mom got really bad leg cramps with me and so far I've surpassed that joy (I should probably find some wood to knock on now).
  
• Soreness. Enough said. My lower back is not feeling that great. I read that it can hurt if you sit too long, walk around too much, and lift or bend more than you should. My concern now is what is there left to do. That list pretty much describes anything I could/would do on a daily basis. I'm thinking it's pretty much inevitable now. I gently suggested Marcus might want to get me a prenatal massage as a present for Mother's Day and I think he got the hint. I'm pretty excited for that.

Our 28 week visit is on Friday. From now until July we will have them every two weeks and once July comes we'll have visits once a week until he is born. I never thought I'd enjoy doctor's visits as much as I do right now : )

No News....

So the old saying, "no news is good news" turned out to be true...

I had my glucose test scheduled for last Friday and to say I was dreading it would be a huge understatement. I had heard horror stories from my neighbor and articles I read on the internet about how horrible the drink is and I was dreading it like the plague. I even emailed my cousin asking her what I should be prepared for, she reassured me it wasn't that bad, but I still had my doubts. Before he left for work, Marcus opened the drink, smelled it and even begrudgingly took a little swig to calm my nerves. When I say little, I mean like maybe a half a teaspoon, not at all enough to make a difference. He told me it wasn't that bad at all, I took that to mean he was trying to calm me down so I would be able to choke it down. Turns out, he wasn't lying. I had imagined this horrible syrupy liquid that really just tasted a bit like orange Gatorade. So I followed the directions to a "T" (drank it all in five minutes, didn't eat anything two hours prior-very hard for a pregnant woman, and made sure I told them the exact time I finished it when I arrived at the doctor's office) and had the test done. The girl who did the test told me that I would hear back from them more than likely on Monday.

Monday came, no call. Tuesday came, still no call. I'm a bit of a worrier so when I asked Marcus if I should call today he said it might be a good idea (he knows me very well). Well, I made the call, and sure enough, no news is good news. We're clear on the gestational diabetes front! YAY!!!! I was waiting to post something on here until I got the results from the test : )

I know when I started this blog I mentioned that I got weekly emails from various websites telling me how big the baby is and how much he weighed in that particular week. I've been keeping tabs on this myself but I realized I hadn't posted anything about it on here. I was looking back at my first entry when I was 15 weeks along and in the 12 weeks since my first post he's grown quite a bit. He was four inches when I started writing my blog and now he is approximately 14 inches. Quite a growth spurt! I didn't put how much he weighed then (his weight was 2 1/2 ounces), but now he is up to a healthy two pounds and is scheduled to gain approximately half a pound a week from now until he is born. He's my growing boy!!

Double digit time!

I have been looking at my "days to go" calendar for some time now and this week we hit a milestone. We are in the double digits now. I can hardly believe it. It seems like we have so much to get done between now and July 25th. Time is flying by...and I can hardly believe how fast all of this is going. Marcus and I were talking this week about how it seems like a week ago that we were looking at that positive test result in November. Yet here we are, five months later and getting more excited and nervous as every day passes.

Good news this week on the epilepsy medicine front. My doctor's office called on Wednesday of last week to let me know that my levels were good and I didn't need to have any lab work done for another month. The doctor had increased it a week prior so fingers crossed everything will go ok. No more needles for a month! Woo Hoo!!! Wait, I take that back, I have my glucose screening done this Friday. I think I'm dreading this test more than any other one I've had thus far. Ok, awaiting the results of the quad screen was pretty rough, but not looking forward to this one either. The doctor's office sent the special "drink" home with me so I could drink it cold (supposedly this helps) and not have to wait in the office for as long. They check your blood an hour after you drink the yummy orange flavored sugar water. Can't wait!

It's getting more and more tricky to sleep now, evidently this only gets better as time goes on (sarcasm). I'll get semi-comfy and then he'll decide he'd like to be awake for a little bit and practice his kicking and just general movement of rolling around. Then I'll get semi-comfy and sleep for a few hours and he decides he'd like to play some more. I'm ok with it honestly, for now at least. After all of the worries we had about him, it just reminds me that he is healthy. Ask me again how I feel about this in June, I might have a different opinion. But for now, it's comforting to know that he is healthy and happy.

Good News!!!

We had our appointment with the specialist today. Everything went really well. He wasn't being too cooperative in the beginning, but by the end of the ultrasound he had moved himself around quite nicely. He gave me a few swift jabs for having to do so, but no matter, it was worth it. The ultrasound tech spent some time with us trying to get all of the shots she needed for the doctor. She couldn't get the one shot she needed, but the doctor came in and was able to get it taken. I have another ultrasound in four weeks just to have his anatomy checked, but the doctor said that unless my OB sees anything out of the ordinary, he won't need to see us anymore. Heart and spine are in the clear!!!

One of the best things about today's ultrasound was that the tech actually told us what was going on and what we were seeing. We got to check out his stomach and bladder as well as the other stuff they usually check out. She was so great! I think we'll have her next time too.

And now for the best part, drum roll please.......



HERE HE IS!!!!! It's a bit fuzzy, but I can still make out his little face. She completely surprised us by doing this. I had asked her if we could still see anything with a 3D one, I've heard that once the baby is past a certain point it can be tricky, and she said it could be. But, she was able to get this one for us!!!!!

He's quite the looker already!!!!

23 and 24

I seem to be writing these in two week increments now. We've had quite a busy last couple weeks with all of our traveling adventures so I'll use that as an excuse for now. We had a great time on our trip to see our families and friends in Tennessee and North Carolina and made some good memories with all of them.

I had my 24 week visit on Tuesday and my neurologist visit on Wednesday. Both visits went fantastic. I love my OB. Everytime I go in to visit her I bring a list of questions I have. Yes, I actually write them down and she asks me if I have my piece of paper : ) She reassured me that everything that I was feeling was normal. Aches and pains are starting up and she told me it would only get better which is fantastic, sarcasm oozing. My visit with the neurologist went well, maybe as not as good as the visit with the OB, but the visits with him rarely are fun. He increased my medicine, again. I had some lab work done on Tuesday and he went ahead and increased them without waiting for the results. I think it was a good decision for the both of us. I have to have my levels checked again on Wednesday of next week to see how the new dose is working and if it needs to be increased yet again.

We have our third visit with the specialist on Monday to check out his heart. One thing that's been awesome about these visits is that we get to see him every time. It's amazing how much and how quickly he's growing. I hope he is more cooperative so we can see his heart better and maybe his front side. We still don't know if they'll do a 3D ultrasound yet. That's kind of a wait and see thing. Fingers crossed he will be facing the right way. I want to be able to post some more pictures of him on here for you all to see.

I think that's it for this post. I'll post on Monday, aka week 25, after our visit with the doctor. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get to see him a little bit better and can get some more pictures up here of our handsome little boy!!!

Better Late Than Never!

Well, the 20 week visit came and went without any major drama. His heart rate was a little bit high, but my doctor and I had been talking and laughing so I'm pretty sure that got it up a little bit. Anyway, she didn't seem to be too worried about it so that eased my mind. On Monday we met with the specialist again. Good news/bad news there. Ok, more good than bad I suppose.

At this visit, we were having his heart checked out by another specialist. He was being a bit difficult though. Neither the technician nor the doctor could get him to move like they needed so they were unable get a good look at his heart. I had to move to my side and that didn't work and then they tried another ultrasound transducer and nothing then either. The good news is that, according to the doctor, if something had been wrong with his heart, he would have seen it immediately and he said his little ticker looked great. We have to visit with them again in April so they can get a few pictures of the heart that he couldn't see because of the way the baby was poistioned. Also because of the way he was laying we were unable to do the 3D ultrasound. I asked the technician about it and she said that if we had done it, all we would have seen was his little back side. Hopefully by our next visit he will have turned and they'll be able to see his heart better and maybe catch a glimpse of him too. We also learned from the test that he is weighing in at a healthy 15 ounces (he's probably a pound by now, that was a week ago) and he is breech. The lady who was doing my ultrasound reassured me that this is normal and he will more than like turn himself around. Fingers crossed he does : ) Or, he could be like his mom and stay that way....Oh, the doctor also said that his spine, which was our main concern after the results of last month's test, looked great. He actually used the word "perfect".

In the past couple of days he really has seemed to become more active. Certain things wake him up more. He really wakes up to time in the car, which he's had lots of recently, and, believe it or not, Chik-Fil A. I think he takes after his mom. I can tell a difference in his movement after I've had their food. He's also decided that once we're up, we're up. There have been a few mornings when I've tried to roll back over and go to sleep and he's not having any of that. He's not to crazy about when I try to lay on my back either. His gentle little "flutters" are a memory now, he is full out kicking. I was talking to Marcus last night and trying to decide if he's going to be a boxer or a soccer player. I think we both agreed on a soccer player. But, we'll have to wait and see.

We've had a busy week and a half since the visit with the doctor last Monday. Our appointment was on Monday and on Tuesday we boarded a plane, very early I might add, and came down to visit some family and friends in Tennessee. Nate, Uncle Nate now I suppose, greeted us at the airport and then we headed into the 'Boro and Nashville to spend some time with all our friends and family there. We got back in to East Tennessee on Thursday evening and have going non-stop ever since. Tomorrow, we will get to see Mom/Nana for the first time in months and spend some time with her.