Nano's Check up (25w5d)

I just got back from my OB appointment and everything is going well.

I had to wait about 25 minutes past my appointment time until I was called because an 11 day old baby boy was getting circumcised in the back by my doc/the nurse. I had NO CLUE that my OB did circumcisions and that fact was really cool to me. I told him that if we have a boy we want him circumcised but we actually want to wait until he is 8 days old. He was fine with that and just told us to make an appointment with the office and he would do it for us. I don't have anyone else I'd want to have do it on my child if we do have a boy so I'm excited that he was willing to do it.

Annnnyway...back to my appointment. I gained 5 pounds in the 3 weeks and 2 days between my last appointment and today. That puts me at +6 pounds for this pregnancy. Not bad for almost 6.5 months pregnant, but it surprised me a bit. Both the doctor and the nurse are happy with my weight gain and said that every pregnancy is different, and that some women don't gain at the beginning but rather at the end.

Today was the 2nd time that the nurse only had to take my blood pressure one time to get a good reading. And, although I didn't ask the exact numbers, the doctor said my blood pressure was great, even better than last appointment's. I'm so happy that I DON'T have diabetes and that I DO have good blood pressure. Less stress/potential for problems with baby that way.

The baby's heartbeat was strong. I didn't get to hear it because (much to my delight) my OB decided to use the fetoscope instead of the doppler. Less ultrasound waves to the baby=better for baby and me. My Bradley instructor suggested that we have the doc use the fetoscope instead of the doppler and I was going to ask him about, yet he just did it without me having to ask. Very cool.

The fundal measurement was big...yet again. I measured 29cm and should be about 25/26 centimeters (because I am 25 almost 26 weeks preggo). I asked him if that was ok and he said yes, that it's not an exact measurement but that he wanted to double check and make sure at my next appointment. He told me that doing another ultrasound at my next appointment (in just 2 weeks because I'm diving into in the 3rd trimester soon) would help see the baby's size and more accurately decipher the weight/height/measurements. So, July 8th I'll be getting to see Nano again... I'm SO excited for that! :)

That was the extent of my appointment, and I left quite happy :)

Also, we got word from some friends of ours (the wife is a nurse) that my OB is one of the favorite OB's at the hospital we are delivering at. Apparently that is a GREAT sign if your doctor is well known and one of the "favorites." That reassured me even more that we had a great doctor! :)

Ok enough for now... gotta pack for Hawaii! :)

~Heather

General update 1/2 for today (25w5d)

I have sucked at posting...i know. A few things have happened since last time I wrote, and I have an appointment today to see how our Nano is doing. (Picture to the right is an overhead shot of my belly poking out at 25w3d pregnant).

First of all... at 23w3d pregnant I got to SEE Nano move for the first time while sitting on the couch watching TV. It had to have been a foot or a hand because it was just a small area on my stomach that pushed up 3x or so in conjunction with the kicks I was feeling inside. Such a cool thing to see! Since then I have been noticing it more and more often and it's more visible than a subtle shift....now I can see it out of the corner of my eye. Nick has yet to SEE Nano move but is still getting to feel him/her. Nano is now big enough where if I am laying in bed I can see a lump on the side where the baby is and Nick and I can feel a big hard lump in my belly where the baby is pressing against. Pretty neat.

My belly button is getting shallower and shallower. I don't know if it will ever actually pop out but it's still weird to see it shrinking!

I had to take my 1 hour gestational diabetes glucose test last Friday (24w6d). It was a frustrating experience and I was very hormonal. I had to wait 50 minutes just to drink the orange drink. They said the nurse would be out in a few minutes but she never came and several people who checked into the lab after me went before me...including another pregnant lady who was getting the same thing done. Then, I had to sit and wait ANOTHER hour just to get it read. I was starving and shaky since I hadn't eaten anything since dinner the night before and it was 10am by the time I got breakfast. I was supposed to get the results on Monday from my doctor and finally called at 4:30pm when I hadn't heard from them. They said they didn't have the results and it may take a week, which was not OK with me. So, I called Lab corp directly the next morning and got a guy to manually override the fax machine and send a copy of my results to my doctor (apparently they sent them Saturday but were never received). About 15 minutes later I got a call from my doctor with the results. My gestational diabetes test came back "normal and everything looked good." I was SO happy for those words because I was fearing the worst in my head. I had craved sweets for the first time in pregnancy the entire week before the test (and you are supposed to avoid sweets) so I thought that would make me fail. Also, I am obese and have a higher chance of getting GD because of that as well. Praise the Lord I am fine!

In other news, we are making headway on the house...probably one more weekend of painting is needed and then we can put in the kitchen cabinets/counter and lay the flooring for the house. I am so hoping to be in there by mid/late july. I want to set up the nursery really bad! :)

Hawaii is in 2 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is Nick's and my first vacation since our honeymoon and we are so incredibly excited to go. It works out as a great "baby-moon" too since the baby will be here in less than 100 days (give or take a week or two). I am looking forward to laying on the beach, relaxing, and spending some much needed downtime with my love. He has been working so hard for our family and every free moment is spent on house/baby/side jobs it seems. I am really excited Nick can just take a break from everything and slow life down a bit.

Like I said, I have an OB appt this afternoon so I will have more updates on Nano then. :) Stay tuned to another short post this evening.

~Heather

Life is good! (23w2d)

Life has been busy busy but oh soooo good! I had an appointment last tuesday (so 22w3d) and Nano is still lookin great. I FINALLY gained weight, which I'm not happy about but knew would happen eventually. I gained 3 pounds, putting me currently at 1 pound above pre-pregnancy weight. From now on I will just be saying "I've gained ___ pounds" since I'm in the positive. Nano's heart-rate was 150, which is perfectly normal and for ONCE my blood pressure was great the first time they did it (usually they have to do it 2x).

At 22w5d Nick felt Nano move for the first time! That was an exciting experience for the both of us and now I really feel like we can connect even more because both of us can feel our child. Yesterday (23w1d) Nick felt Nano move again. We were at Mi Ranchito and sharing a chocolate milkshake and Nano was going nuts! I put Nick's hand on my lower stomach and Nano gave him a nice strong kick, which he announced to me by saying, "I felt THAT...did Nano kick me?" I nodded and smiled.

The house is coming along great but we have so so so much more to do. We have the baby room, our room, and the living room painted. The colors turned out better than I thought they would. We bought the cabinets last weekend for the kitchen and are working on doing some patching and more painting before we get flooring and redo the kitchen for good. Hopefully we will be in the new house in July sometime (maybe for my birthday?) and can spend the rest of the summer trying to stay cool and hanging out with friends. Our main goal is to get the inside livable, move in, and then work on the outside slowly as we have the time/money for it. The whole outdoors needs a repainting, some siding needs to be done, and we need a new roof. Not to mention cutting back the gynormous pepper tree, making the backyard party friendly, putting grass (fake or real....not sure yet) in the front yard, redoing the gate, fixing the carport area, and planting some stuff in my garden area. It is going to be a work in progress for a while, but we are so blessed and excited to be moving there.

In other news, my grandparents from Kentucky who I ADORE got into town yesterday and I am planning on spending lots of time with them catching up and hanging out. We are all going to Barona Buffet tonight and I am going to chow down on delicious grub....nuff said. I might go over to the house today to start emptying and reorganizing the crud in the 2nd shed since we have a dumpster and I want to make good use of it. Maybe I can convince my sister to help????

Ok, it's now time to get back to general clean-up around this house. I have laundry to do and desperately need a shower! :P

Til next time,
~Me

Wiggle Worm! (21w5d)

Since the beginning of my week 21 (21w1d specifically) Nano has decided to kick like 10x as much as he or she was previously. I don't know if this week is filled with a special growth spurt or what, but seriously, I feel KICKS and DANCING whereas before it was flutters and flicks. Two separate days for varying amounts of time Nano actually was positioned feet down and definitely was kicking me directly in the bladder. It is the weirdest feeling ever but also the coolest because I know my baby is OK when those kicks and dances happen.

I am feeling great pregnancy wise. I have to pee more often but that is to be expected with the bladder getting more and more squished. I also seem to have a shrinking stomach capacity sometimes, and can only eat half of what my usual intake is at a meal. I think Nano likes to squish my stomach sometimes hehe! I still take a nap almost every day but I did many days before i was pregnant too so I can't really say how much MORE tired I am from pregnancy. I do sleep worse at night and wake up a million times to reposition my aching hips so that has something to do with it I'm guessing. Besides that, no symptoms to report. I'm sure I'm very hormonal at times (ask my husband) and that occassionally I complain of something else but it's not bad at all for me. I am so blessed.

We just started looking at names today and actually think we have it narrowed down to a few boy and a few girl names. We like to make things happen quickly and go with gut decisions from a researched list. Right now I am writing various spellings down of the names we like most to see if we are going to choose a different spelling of the name to make it more unique. We'll see. I am pretty sure we will keep the names a secret til birth as well, since I don't like when people give their 2 cents about something involving OUR decision. :O) I guess I'm just selfish that way.

I will make an aside here instead of writing another whole post. The news which I have been sitting on for over 2 months can finally be revealed! Nicholas and I bought a house!!!! It closed on Tuesday and we are going to be over there doing repairs most of the weekend. It is older, built in 1945, but is very cute and has a GREAT backyard. There is even a room for Nano, which I am STOKED to decorate and put together. I will post pictures of the inside after we get some more stuff done, as we have to replace the flooring, paint, trim, the entire kitchen, etc etc. We are hoping to be in the new house in July sometime.

Life is so amazing right now and I feel like everything is falling into place perfectly. School is done for good, we have the house for sure and have a list of things that need to be done before moving, I completed my AWANA journey and earned my Citation Award last night, more baby stuff is being decided, and I am in an amazing bible study to further my walk with Christ. Annnnd to top it all off Hawaii is in a month!!!!!

Til next time,

Me

Belated 20wk ultrasound post (21w5d)

A week ago I went for my 20 week ultrasound. I was actually 20w5d the day we went and had my hubby and mom join me in the room since they had the ultrasound hooked up to a TV for easier viewing. The appointment was way down in San Diego and when we got there we had to wait about half hour to be called back. Let's just say by the time we got in the room for the ultrasound I had to pee! :O)

When the tech came in he introduced himself and seemed really nice. For some reason though, when he started the ultrasound he became all business and barely talked at all. He would just say, "This is baby's head, this is baby's arm, this is baby's leg..."

It was a bummer because I was hoping for a very interactive experience where we saw great pictures of baby and got a few good keepsakes. He just printed pictures randomly (6 total) and I couldn't even tell what 4 of them were because he didn't label them and they were extremely blurry. The receptionist said the appointment would be 30 minutes up to an hour, yet the ultrasound lasted only 10 minutes. When the real doctor came in to see me he said that everything looked structurally fine with baby, and that I was measuring a week ahead (tho still in normal range and not enough to change my due date). That reassured me at least.

We had the tech record the session on VHS for us and took that with us when we left. They want me to come back in a month because they didn't see EVERYTHING they wanted to, but I'm not going to. They said they would call me the next day to make another appointment but never did....another fail on their part.

Anyway, I went home and watched the video a few times and was able to (with instructions from my hubby) convert the video to DVD and then capture stills from the video to get "better" pictures. I'm happier with these ones, and will take em. I'm going to mention to my OB on Tuesday (my next check up appt) that I was dissatisfied with my experience and maybe he will feel sorry for me and give me a pity ultrasound. If not oh well, I get to see my baby in less than 20 weeks!

For all those who wondered if baby would flash us, s/he didn't as far as I know. I suck at reading ultrasounds and that was to my advantage since I had to go through the who video to get the pictures. Not showing the video to anyone else in case they see because we want Nano's gender to be a surprise. It still is!

I will be posting 2 more posts today about other shenanigans in my life but for now, here are some pictures from the appointment: