Baby Update, Vol. 2

A quick update after my appointment today....the bedrest seems to be working. My blood pressure was at 130/88 (a little lower but still considered high) and the protein levels in my urine went from 441 to 275, meaning that my kidneys are functioning more efficiently. The bloodwork all came back normal again so that's really good. The doc recommends another week of bedrest until my next appointment, scheduled for Wednesday, October 1st. I am officially on a medical leave of absence from work now. Throughout all of this, Mike has taken EXCELLENT care of me. He has stepped up to his new responsibilities without complaint and has shown me what a caring, compassionate, and patient father he will be (like I didn't already know)!
More updates to come next week.....

Baby update

32-weeks (taken on Sept. 13th)

I had hoped that this blog would only be used for all the happy updates but truth be told, it's been a rough couple of days. It actually started about 3 hours before my 32-week checkup on Tuesday. I was at work and I noticed that my watch felt really tight so I went ahead and loosened the band. But within minutes I felt it get tight again. So I immediately went to the nurse and asked her to take my blood pressure, just as a precaution. Turned out my blood pressure was 140/95 (which is high for me). She showed a bit of concern--told me to get off my feet, go do some paperwork and come back in 30 minutes to have it checked again. Half an hour later, it was 134/90. I was just about done working anyway but I decided to go home right away. I called my doctor's office and told them what my blood pressure was just minutes before and they had me come into the office immediately, about 2 hours before my scheduled appointment time. At the office, my blood pressure was 144/84 (at my last appointment on Sept. 2nd, my blood pressure was 106/60). Everything else was perfectly fine--no protein in my urine, weight was okay, and Baby's heartrate was in the 130s. The doctor was clearly concerned though--he had me go right over to the hospital to have some labs drawn, then ordered me to bed rest for 2 days until I came back for an ultrasound today.

So Mike and I went back this morning and had the ultrasound done right away. Luckily, Baby is still doing great. They estimated his weight at 4 lbs. 8 ozs., placing him in the 40th percentile (which is exactly where he was at 24-weeks). They said the fluid levels and heartbeat were okay too. Then we waited for over half an hour in the waiting room before the nurse called me back to check all the normal stuff. She found that I had lost 2 lbs. in 2 days (which didn't surprise me at all--I haven't had an appetite) and my blood pressure was still 144/84. Then we got to wait for at least another 15 minutes before the doctor came in to see me. He went over the lab results and said that the bloodwork all came back okay but that the 24-hour urine sample revealed high levels of protein. I guess the normal amount is 10 (units?) and mine was at 441, meaning my kidneys are stressed. He said that at this point, that number is okay but that they definitely don't want to see it go over 500. So the only treatment is rest. It sounds like I may have to be on bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy but that he will re-evaluate my status weekly. This means that I will have to go back to the hospital to have the labs drawn every week and I'll have to do a 24-hour urine sample every week. He made it sound like if the numbers go down, I may be able to start introducing some activity. For now though, I'll be on complete bedrest until my next appointment on Sept. 25th. They will be doing ultrasounds every two weeks to make sure that the Baby's growth isn't affected by these complications. And the doctor also said that I will most likely not carry the baby to my due date--that he will mostly likely be inducing as soon as both Baby and I are "ready".

The doctor was very patient and took the time to answer all of our questions fully. He reassured me that things are okay at this point and that this is a fairly common complication (affects about 15% of pregnant women). He also reassured me that I was in no way at fault for this and I couldn't have done anything differently to prevent it. So I shed a few tears (a lot of tears actually) and am mourning the loss of the "perfect pregnancy". But I am starting to accept that this is just a means to an end--the "end", of course, being healthy Mommy and healthy Baby. I realize it could be much worse but I ask all of our family and friends to please keep me, Mike and Baby in your prayers. I'll be sure to add updates as the weeks pass (God knows I'll have the time)!!

Fun times in Plano, IL

31-weeks
The Birthday Girl getting ready to dig into some cake

Emma literally digging into her very own birthday cake
Emma, Alyssa, and Andy opening Emma's first birthday present ever
Alyssa, Emma and me Me holding Emma and Emma starting to cry (that's how it always goes for some reason)
Me holding Paige, Gretchen's 4-week old daughter

For starters, my mom has requested that I start taking more belly pictures as I near the end of my pregnancy. So I attempted to use the timer on the camera to take some self-portraits this morning and these were the best I could get.

I took a trip to Plano, IL today for my friend Alyssa's daughter's first birthday party. Emma was the cutest birthday girl I've ever seen and I had a great time seeing her devour her first birthday cake and open her presents. I also enjoyed visiting with Alyssa's family.

Since I was already in Plano, I decided to visit Gretchen, another college friend, who has a 21-month old son and a 4-week old daughter. I haven't seen her for nearly a year and a half so it was a treat to visit with her and her family. I especially enjoyed holding her 1-month old daughter (although it freaked me out a bit to think I'd have one of my own in just a couple of months)!

Another appointment down...HOW many more to go?!

Well today Mike and I went to my 30-week checkup. It was business as usual--check my weight, blood pressure, urine and Baby's heartrate. Everything looks good still so I'll be back in another 2 weeks on Sept. 16th (unfortunately I'll have to go solo to this next one as Mike will be in Lake Geneva on business--butthead)! Anyway, I asked the doctor about this annoying pain I've been experiencing under my ribs on the right side. No surprise there--it's from the weight of my growing belly and better posture is the best remedy. Other than that, I don't have many other complaints--just that I'm so HOT!!! And I forgot to ask about the results of my blood sugar screening but they never brought it up so it must have come back within normal limits.

On a different note, I'm going to be a tease and say "I know something you don't know and I'm not going to tell!" Friday night, after months of deliberating, Mike and I finally agreed on a name. Of course, we're keeping it a secret but I wanted to let everyone know that we are 99% sure that we are happy with this name so people can stop asking, "Do you have a name yet? Do you have a name yet?" We do--you just won't know it for another.....let's see.....67 days! NAH-NAH-NAH-NAH-HA-HA!! ;)

And next on the list of "things-to-prepare-for-Baby's-arrival" is an introductory breastfeeding class tomorrow night at the hospital. I figure the more educated I am on the subject, the more likely Baby and I will be successful with it. So I hope we learn something.....

Childbirth Classes

This weekend, Mike and I took a weekend series "Prepared Childbirth" class at OSF St. Joseph's. It was a one weekend deal, which was nice to get it done but that meant that the classes were 5 hours each yesterday and today. The class is usually 10-12 couples but it was only us and three other couples. I have to say that the first day we weren't very impressed because it was more of common knowledge stuff like anatomy and warning signs for preterm labor and the stages of labor--stuff we had already educated ourselves on prior to the class. The one highlight was touring the birth center and getting a better understanding of how the hospital stay would go. I guess that some of the other couples also felt like the first day was pointless because only half of us returned today, leaving our class with only two couples. Today was more informative with information on medical pain management and Cesearan deliveries and what to expect after the baby is born. Although we were still pretty well-informed about these things, it helped to relieve some of my anxiety to know what to expect and how to deal with it. I was getting to that "feeling bored with being pregnant" stage coming into this final stretch but now I have lots to day-dream about! And if we got nothing else out of the class, we at least got a gift certificate for a family pleaser from Monical's!!! :)

7-Month Checkup

I had my 28-week appointment this morning. An hour before my appointment, I had to drink the high-glucose stuff so they could test for gestational diabetes. It wasn't that bad--just tasted like flat orange Crush soda. I thought that they would just do a finger prick to get my blood but nope-they took 4 viles of it straight from my arm. So I did not get instant results but they gave me the ol' "No news is good news" bit--if I don't hear from them by the end of the day tomorrow, I am in good shape. As for the rest of the checkup, things continue to look great--my weight and blood pressure have all been okay and Baby's heartrate was 142. Now I get to go every two weeks so my next appointment is scheduled for September 2.

7 Months Preggo!

Well, today I officially hit the 28-week mark--and the start of the final trimester! Mike and I had a wedding to go to for one of his co-workers so I'm all dressed up in this month's pictures.

I'm still feeling pretty good overall but I've developed a few of the common pregnancy "symptoms" for this trimester. For one thing, I've been having difficulty getting comfortable making it harder for me to fall asleep (and stay asleep). This, in turn, is making me feel more irritable and less patient (God bless Mike--he's been the patient one!). My back and feet are aching more frequently now too. Luckily there is some solace in knowing that there's only three more months to go. On the other hand, there's STILL three more months to go--YIKES!!!

My 7-month checkup is Monday morning at which point I take the glucose screening test for gestational diabetes. I am kind of nervous about it only because I had problems with my blood sugar dropping at the start of my second trimester. Luckily from what I've read, there is no correlation between hypoglycemia turning into hyperglycemia. I'll be sure to share how that appointment goes on Monday.