See Me Grow

baby
Our little sweet pea

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

30 Weeks

Statistics:
30 Weeks 5 Days
Starting Weight: 135
Current Weight: 165
Issues: I can't sleep through the night.

Well, Christmas has come and gone and we had a great one. I really enjoyed seeing my family in California. It seems like so much has changed every time I go back "home." I ended up sleeping on the couch the majority of the time because my sister Kellie's bed just can't compare to our Tempur-pedic bed. It's not that it's a bad bed. Cody slept fine. But because I have to sleep on my sides, it wasn't too kind to my hips. To be fair, they are still pretty sore. I find myself waking up numerous times throughout the night to re-position myself. Sitting in a vehicle for six hours probably doesn't help much either.

We had an ultrasound yesterday, the 29th. Payslie is looking good. She has decided to be like her big sister though...she's very content in a breech position. Health wise everything looks great. She is a little on the petite side. The average of all of her measurements has her at about the size of a 29 week old baby...not a 30 1/2 week baby. However, they assured me at this point that it is still perfectly normal. She is in the 30th percentile...meaning 30% of babies at this gestational age are approximately her size. Considering Brooke was not a huge baby, I may just "grow" smaller babies. They estimated her to weigh 3 lbs 1 oz right now.

I had my favorite ultrasound technician, Kim. I request her because she is very thorough and is always honest about what she sees. She says my placenta looks great and we checked the flow of blood through her cord. All is good. We also checked to see if the cord was around the neck. Because Brooke had hers 3 times around her neck, I am very concerned about that crazy cord. Fortunately, it's just floating in front of her and is slightly going around her abdomen...definitely not tight or constricting and it is NOT around her neck. This was SO reassuring to me. So now that I know that the cord isn't keeping her from turning head down, I am content for her to remain in a breech position.

We are still looking at delivering around 38 weeks by repeat c-section. I will post on here as soon as I know the date my doctor has scheduled for delivery. In the mean time, I begin my non-stress tests next Monday. After the first NST, the following week I will begin doing them 2 times a week...Mondays and Thursdays, and on Mondays they will conduct an AFI in addition to the NST. The AFI is a test they do via ultrasound to measure the amount of amniotic fluid surrounding the baby. We also have another growth ultrasound on Monday, January 26.

I just want to say again how grateful I am for all of your prayers. Heading into the "final stretch" can be very emotional. I feel like my faith is being tested all over again. We are getting so close...and as we get closer, my heart is just so afraid of going through that pain again. I am so thankful for the care I am receiving medically, but also the emotional support as well. Please keep Cody in prayer as well. I am sure that he has some of the same fears...however, he holds himself together a lot better than I do. He has truly been SO supportive.

We are hoping to begin setting up her nursery tomorrow. My camera is broken so I need to take it in for repair. I will take pictures and post them as soon as I get it fixed. Thanks again everyone!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

28/29 Weeks

Statistics:
29 Weeks 5 Days
Starting Weight: 135
Current Weight: 162
Issues: My hips are getting super sore at night from sleeping on my sides.

Sorry it's taken me awhile to write a new post. I'm sure you all know how it is getting ready for Christmas. I spent all day Sunday baking cookies...and man, did my back feel it! Fortunately it was just a temporary soreness and it's gone away. Cody and I are going to California tomorrow for Christmas. I am super excited to see all of our friends and family. :)

Last time I posted I wrote about my 3 hour glucose test. Praise God! My results were normal...so I can continue to eat all of the Christmas cookies. :)

I had a doctor appointment yesterday that went very well. Payslie doesn't like to sit still to get a good reading on her heartrate. She always tends to manuever close to my pulse so the doctor picks up both of our heartrates. My doctor believes that she is head down right now. She is scheduling my non-stress tests to start next week. We also discussed delivery. She said that she normally schedules repeat c-sections at 39 weeks (one week before due date), but because of my history, she is going to schedule mine for 38 weeks. This means most likely that I will not get my VBAC. Honestly though, I am just getting to a point where I just want her to cook and get out of there. The important thing to me is that my baby comes home with me...it's not as important as to how she comes into the world. So she was going to have her staff schedule my non-stress test and my c-section and she said they would call me with dates.

Cody went with me to the appointment...sort of. He asked me what they were going to do at the appointment and when I told him, "the usual", he asked if it would be OK if he dropped me off and went and got my Christmas present. Haha. You have to understand...being in Wickenburg, everything is like 30 minutes away, so when you make a trip to the Valley, you need to make all the stops.

So Cody picked me up after my appointment and we headed over to Babies R Us to pick up Payslie's furniture. It is absolutely beautiful. Of course, we took it all out of the packaging at the store to inspect the quality...our first experience with trying to pick up the crib was disappointing. There were scratches on the finish, so we had to send it back. Fortunately, this time the crib and the dresser were in tact. We wrapped everything back up, loaded it in the truck, and drove home in the rain. We plan on setting up her nursery next week. I'm very excited to do this!

Of course the big highlight of next week is our ultrasound on Monday. This is another growth ultrasound, meaning it will be a long one. My last one was almost 90 minutes long, and this one will be no different. They spend a lot of time going over EVERYTHING to make sure all is good. It's very reassuring and it will be fun to see how big she has gotten.

Ok, and here is finally another baby bump picture. More next week...

29 Weeks 2 Days

Monday, December 8, 2008

27 Weeks

Statistics:
27 Weeks 4 Days
Starting Weight: 135
Current Weight: 157
Issues: Nothing to really complain about.

So I've been writing mental notes in my head all week about stuff to include in this blog. I think it's going to be a long one. I am so looking forward to Christmas and have already begun some of my Christmas shopping. Fortunately I don't have to do too much. It really hit me the other day...I have a little less than 3 months until my due date! So exciting!

Ok, well what is there to share? If you look at the side of this blog, you will notice that I have embedded a link to Babies R Us. Even though I kept everything we received for our precious Brooke, I still have a registry up and going for Payslie. While I look forward to letting Payslie use all of Brooke's "hand me downs (haha, brand new ones)", I also think it's important for her to have some stuff of her own, as this helps me emotionally separate her from Brooke. You can find our registry simply by searching by either my name in the registrant category or Cody's in the co-registrant. I have included items that I do not already have, and would be very much appreciated. I do not plan on having a baby shower prior to Payslie's birth, but I know that a "meet the baby" party is in the works following her arrival. More details to come about that.

If any of you are wondering, I have finally found some cute maternity clothes. I bought my first pair of maternity pants at Old Navy 2 weeks ago and I absolutely LOVE them. I just ordered another pair along with some long sleeve maternity shirts as my summer maternity clothes just won't work in these colder temperatures.

I called my perinatologist last week to schedule another ultrasound. I just love her office. Originally I was not supposed to have another ultrasound until 32 weeks, but I really wanted to have my ultrasound sooner than that, just to make sure she is growing properly, to check my placenta, and to make sure her fluid levels are good. They were more than accomodating and moved my ultrasound up by about 2 weeks to December 29. It is going to be another 90 minute growth scan, which is great. I have another regular doctor appointment this Wednesday, as she is now seeing me every 2 weeks. Hopefully she will have the results of my 3 hour glucose test.

I ordered Payslie's crib last week and I just got a phone call that it is in. YEAH! I am going to be ordering her dresser this Wednesday, as I had two coupons for 15% off, one for last week and one for this week. That coupon saved us about $60 after taxes, so we were very grateful for it.

And now for some entertainment, I have included my saga of getting my 3 hour glucose test done last Thursday. I posted this to my cafemom webpage, so I hope you enjoy.

THE GLUCOSE TEST

Oh my! It's a good thing they didn't tell me before hand what that would entail because I most likely would have never shown up. I HATE having my blood drawn....like, seriously, HATE it. So I have to share with you all the humor of my day...

I picked up my orders for the 3 hour test yesterday from my doctor's office. Now, keep in mind, my doctor's office is an hour away, but since I was going to Babies R Us to order Payslie's crib, I thought no big deal. So I got the orders and noticed it was for a particular lab. This lab's closest building to my house is 35 minutes away, so I immediately called our local community hospital lab and asked them if they could do the draw and then send the samples via courier to this lab, to which they happily replied they could.

I knew that I would need to fast for the morning, so I didn't eat anything after 8:30 last night. So I got up this morning and stopped by the local community hospital, thinking I would just go in, get my blood draw, go get something to eat, go to work and come back in 3 hours for another draw. I was SO wrong.

I got to the local hospital and they told me that because these orders were written specifically for the other lab and there was no doctor's signature on the order that they couldn't pull my blood. They said I could call my doc and have her fax her signature over and then they could do it. I thought, "Well, it's only a 35 minute drive, so I'll just go get it done at the lab in Surprise." I called my boss who is super laid back and informed him about what was going on and that I would keep him posted. So off to the lab I go.

I arrived there at approximately 9:30 to a full waiting room. I was STARVING and when I checked in, the receptionist informed me that they could do the test, but that I would have to remain there the entire 3 hours and that I could not eat or drink anything (not even water, which I LOVE to drink water) for that whole time period. I was shocked and she asked me if I wanted to make an appointment for another day, but I figured that since I was already fasting and I had just driven 35 minutes, I would stick it out and do it. I also wanted to get this test done ASAP because I want to know whether or not I have GD so I can appropriately treat it.

Of course, here comes the mommy in me and I start crying in the waiting room because I feel so bad that my baby has not gotten anything to eat since last night. I go in for my first draw, which wasn't bad at all. The guy did a really good job. Then he whipped out that delicious orange drink (NOT). I thought, well, ok, I'm glad that's done with. Only one more draw. Oh no, he kindly told me that they would have to draw my blood 3 MORE TIMES...once every hour. Oh my....

One hour later they go to stick me again, except it was a different person doing the sticking and she stuck my right arm. I hate having blood drawn on my right arm because it just hurts. I know I'm a total baby, but OUCH, it hurt. The lady informed me AFTER I started crying that I should have told her to pull from the left, and I told her that I didn't say anything because I assumed they had to pull from the right since they pulled from the left originally. Needless to say, the next 2 draws came from my left arm.

So I was finally "released from prison" at 12:45 and I headed straight to Sonic and got a burger and some tots....I was so glad to have real food and to be able to drink water.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

26 Weeks

Statistics:
26 Weeks 6 Days
Starting Weight: 135
Current Weight: 155
Issues: My ribs are getting sore from sleeping on my sides.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Cody and I really enjoyed having 5 days off of work and we had a great Thanksgiving. It POURED here last Wednesday night, much to our joy since it's a nice change. By Saturday the weather was back into the upper 70s and it was just beautiful. I ate quite a bit of pie (the sweet stuff of course) and all the other food.

I had my 1 hour glucose screening at my doctor appointment last Wednesday. I got the news yesterday that my levels were elevated, and my doctor wants me to go in for the 3 hour test. BOO! I was very concerned at first, especially since I didn't have this issue at all when I was pregnant with Brooke. However, I am glad that the doctor is on top of it and also after speaking with a few women, I've heard it's not so un-common to fail the 1 hour test. 96% of women who fail the 1 hour test end up passing the 3 hour, so I hope that is the case.

If I fail the 3 hour test, it means that I have gestational diabetes. From what I've read, it can be well controlled during pregnancy and the effect it could have on Payslie is a high birth weight (a.k.a. fat baby) and some insulin issues directly after birth. I'm trying to be humorous about the situation: what a time of year to get diagnosed with diabetes. All the cookies and pies and oh my!

However, I am still extremely grateful to be pregnant with Payslie and I will do whatever I have to do on my part to make sure she is healthy. After next Thursday, I will officially be in the third trimester...an exciting and yet if I allow it to be, scary time.

My doctor's visit went well and she is going to be seeing me again next week, the 10th. My appointments are now every 2 weeks and she said that she is going to begin my weekly non-stress testing at 32 weeks (early January). She says that if they do it any earlier, the baby really hasn't settled into a consistent heart rate pattern yet and any discrepencies (indicators of stress) are best picked up after 32 weeks. I also need to call the perinatologist to set up my 32 week ultrasound/growth scan. So that's the update on that.

I will post another update next week.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

25 Weeks

Statistics:
25 Weeks 5 Days
Starting Weight: 135
Current Weight: 154
Issues: Battling a cold this week.

Yeah for Thanksgiving! As I am writing this, it is cloudy outside and I am two days away from eating to my heart's content. The weather forecaster says we should be getting almost an inch of rain which makes me super happy. I am spending Thanksgiving with Cody's side of the family. I am in charge of making pies. Ohh...yummy.

I am so glad my doctor appointment is tomorrow so that way all of my weight gain from this weekend will not show, haha. I don't really know what to expect at tomorrow's appointment. I will be doing my glucose tolerance test which is a screening for gestational diabetes. I didn't develop it during my last pregnancy, and I have gained less weight this time, so I am hoping the results will be the same. I do not look forward to having my blood drawn though...eeek. Please be praying for clarity and strength for me in discussing all of my third trimester monitoring with my doctor. At my last appointment, she told me they would begin doing weekly non stress testing somewhere between 28 and 32 weeks...I am going to be very firm in asking that it begins at 28 weeks (which is in 2 weeks). I also want another ultrasound done, just to make sure Payslie is growing OK and that there are no issues w/my placenta or the cord. I do honestly get a bit intimidated once I get in the exam room, so please just pray for strength for me (and Cody) and that I won't have to put up a fight, not that I anticipate that, but you just never know.

As I posted under my issues section, I am battling a cold. YUCK. I started to get it last Friday when my mom came to visit. We went to the Women of Faith conference in Phoenix and we had a great time, although I wish I was feeling better. By Saturday night the cold was full blown. I remember that Sudafed (the real stuff, not the PE) was OK for me to take during pregnancy, but I am being much more cautious about what I put in my body this time around and to be honest, I just don't want to introduce something that in large amounts makes meth into Payslie's bloodstream. So I've been sleeping with the humidifier on, using lots of Kleenex, using a Netti Pot (which is very interesting), drinking lots of tea and eating chicken noodle soup. No fever, which is good. I've just got to ride it out. I hope it will be all gone by Thanksgiving. Right now I've pretty much just got a post nasal drip, but I don't have to blow my nose as often.

Payslie continues to be pretty active. She is starting to get into little sleeping patterns. I find that she is most active at night before bed and at about 5:30 AM she starts to get moving quite a bit too.

Well, that's about it for now. Happy Thanksgiving and I will post more next week!

Monday, November 17, 2008

24 Weeks

Statistics:
24 Weeks 4 Days
Starting Weight: 135
Current Weight: 151
Issues: Sleeping on my side.

Well, there's nothing really new to report on this week. Payslie continues to be very active and my belly is getting bigger. I was trying to avoid maternity pants because they make my butt look flat, but I'm thinking that I may have to give in and get some pants.

I'm thankful for cooler weather here in AZ. It's much easier to incubate a new life when it's not 100 degrees outside!

I have my next doctor appointment next week, the 26th. I will be taking my gestational diabetes test at that point (aka, they're going to pull more blood, yikes). If I remember correctly, the drink (which is pure sugar), taates like a flat Sunkist and it makes the baby dance like crazy in there. :)

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving next week and I hope everyone eats a lot of food and enjoys their time with friends and family.

Here is my most recent belly picture.

23 Weeks 2 Days

Friday, November 7, 2008

22 Weeks/23 Weeks

Statistics:
23 Weeks 1 Day
Starting Weight: 135
Current Weight: 149
Issues: Trying to stay on my sides while I sleep.

So I forgot that it has been over a week since I posted any information, so this is a combination post for 22 and 23 weeks.

I had a doctor appointment last week (October 29). Payslie is growing right on track and her heartrate varied in the 140s to 150s. I talked to my doctor about the possibility of doing another c-section. She said that if they do schedule a repeat c-section, they will do it at 39 weeks, which is one week before my due date. I explained to her my concerns about going into labor at home since I am 1 hour away from the hospital. Even though I know millions of women have babies every day and endure the labor process, I am very afraid of something happening to Payslie during labor. I asked her how many c-sections I could realistically have and she said 4 or 5 is usually a good number, which made me feel better since we would like more kids. I'm still undecided as to how I want to deliver...it's a good thing that I have about another 15 weeks before I need to make a decision. I think a lot of it will be based on how I'm feeling at that point and also how well Payslie is doing with all of the non-stress tests and biophysical profiles.

My doctor said that she will probably begin weekly non stress testing anywhere between 28 and 32 weeks. I would like to start at 28 weeks. I am much more vocal this time around about what I want done. I definitely want to take advantage of the medical technology we have to just have some kind of physical reassurance that she is ok.

Emotionally, I think my hormones are crazy. If you can't tell, I had MAJOR anxiety issues last week. It's so hard to describe what it is like going through another pregnancy after a loss. Women who have been in my situation completely understand. Once again, I had lots of tears and lots of prayers, and I am feeling much better now. I am just reminded that Payslie is ultimately God's child. He reserves the right to do whatever He has in mind for her. He knows how much we want to bring her home...I guess I'm just struggling with really getting attached to her for fear of the worst...not that it would make it any less painful to lose her, but the mind is a very strange and sometimes bad thing. Sometimes I get angry that that fear is there. Fortunately, God is always there for me and He just reassured me that everything is OK. My circumstances do not change who I forever am in Him.

On a positive note, she is back into her active phase. She feels different in there than Brooke did. I know that sounds weird. She's kicking more frequently and definitely lets me know when she is hungry. Her kicks are also getting higher. When I am sitting down, they are almost into my ribs. She still prefers the right side, but I heard most babies do.

Cody is hunting for deer this weekend. Oh my! I am hoping that we will go shopping for Payslie's nursery furniture within the next few weeks. I will get a belly picture up here probably next week. That's it for now. Thanks for all of your continued prayers.