Paul & Sarah

So this week has been kinda a rough week, with Paul’s job going bust and all. (It was a hellish 2 weeks, actually.) Combined with our slight annoyance/disappointment that we didn’t get confirmation of the baby’s sex at this week’s appointment; and well…. we were looking for a happy.

I was looking into 3D ultrasound places here in Las Vegas and found one with great rates AND a coupon! They were able to get us in this morning at 10:30 for a basic package of 2D and 3D images and a guaranteed gender confirmation. (Seriously, if they can’t tell 100% for sure you get to come back for free and if they’re wrong you get your money back or another free 4D session. We were pretty stoked about our chances of finding out with policies like that!)

So this morning our friends Sibyana and Cheri met us at Miracle in Progress (it was like 5 minutes from their house – on the other side of the valley for us) and we had ourselves a little viewing party! The tech was really great – more gentle than the nurses at Dr. Schwartz’s office to tell the truth. She ended up working with us for 30 minutes instead of the 15 minutes our session was supposed to be. She wasn’t able to really do any of the 3D or 4D stuff because of the placement of the baby in relation to the placenta. The baby was laying *on* the placenta, using it for a pillow. But she kept trying and trying to get the baby to turn and “look” at her so she could get some 3D images.

So even though we only got one 3D image, we’re still stoked because we got the one thing we came for:

It’s a boy for sure. I commented on the ‘tiny wang’ and the tech replied that it wasn’t small at all. Paul, ever the proud Papa, was beaming as we all collapsed into giggles.

We got a great view of our son as he waved his arms, yawned, gulped amniotic fluid, kicked, and wiggled. It was the first time that I’ve watched him moving around and was able to feel some of it. SO COOL.

So we have a DVD of the whole 28 minute session, and a CD with some pictures. I’ve culled the best of the pictures and put them in a gallery. I label one picture and then place the original behind it in the gallery so you can flip back and forth to see what’s what. For most of the session, the baby kept his back to us, so that’s why some of the best shots don’t have his face in them. (We’re gonna see about editing down the DVD of the ultrasound and posting some of that. A lot of it is kinda boring, but some of it is amazing – like watching him yawn right at us.)

Afterwards, we had brunch with Sibyana and Cheri, and then Paul let me hit the nearby Target to add blue things to the registry. :)

But yep. We’re having a Boy. And no, we have no idea for names yet at all.

I felt the baby kick this evening!! I was hunched over my laptop – trying to read the screen without my glasses on, and I felt a [something] from inside. Well, they’re right – it would be pretty easy to dismiss it as a gas bubble if I wasn’t looking for it. So I stayed in the same position, and a few seconds later I felt it again in nearly the same spot. A few seconds after that, there was a quick succession of three kicks.

And now at just after midnight as I type this… baby is kicking me again.

I am so happy.

Great appointment today. Confirmed something important about our baby: it’s a little punk. Misty (Dr. Schwartz’s nurse) spent a good 15 minutes trying to coerce the little critter to show us the goods. We were looking up at it’s bum, like we were under the invisible little chair it was sitting on. But the baby just wasn’t about to open it’s legs and confirm what we thought we saw. The baby was flip flopping and bouncing around (maybe because of the two sips of OJ I had right before the ultrasound) but not about to show us what we wanted to see. DANGIT. Next time… (Misty and I both thought we saw something, but she wasn’t confident enough to call it.) It continues to seem odd to me to see the baby doing crazy acrobatics and I still can’t feel ANYTHING. Hopefully soon.

Dr. Schwartz was great about answering questions today, having been prepped by my e-mail last week. We covered a lot of things today:

• I only gained half a pound!! Holy cats! I was totally shocked. I was honestly expecting a gain of 4-6 pounds because my clothes are totally fitting different (way tighter) and well…. I’ve been eating more than I ever have cuz I’m starving all the time!! Dr. Schwartz was happy to see the small gain, but cautioned me that I need to make sure that I actually am eating enough since the baby does need a fair amount of nutrition for all the growth it’s doing these days. He totally gets that my brainmeats are making it hard for me to eat as much as I apparently need to. At my next appointment he’ll be checking to make sure that the baby is growing and gaining weight as expected. But he was supportive (as always) that I must be doing things pretty well as far as nutrition and calories because my blood sugars are consistently improving, and my a1c results (like a 3-month diabetes report card) were down to 6.0 (from 6.5 and 6.3 the last two times it was checked.)
• Speaking of proper nutrition, my Muscle Milks are TOTALLY FINE. Contrary to what the morons at GNC and Vitamin World yelled at me last week, there’s NOTHING of concern whatsoever for pregnant women to have protein shakes. The L-Arginine in the shakes (as a form of protein) is also found in most nuts. L-Arginine has been found to help with placental growth retardation, as well as preeclampsia: both of which I’m at risk for! (The lady at GNC was yelling at me that I was going to have a GIGANTIC, over-grown baby because of drinking protein shakes, and that my doctor was stupid for allowing them. Dr. Schwartz asked which GNC it was cuz he wants to have a word with them.) So I can happily keep drinking my yummy High-protein, Low-carb, vitamin-rich shakes. Hooray!!
• The swelling in my ankles/feet is nothing to worry about yet. Dr. Schwartz thinks I’m just prone to swelling. (I’m getting a fair amount of swelling in my wrists too.) He encouraged me to continue to keep my feet up as often as possible. He agreed that striving for good hydration is a good idea, but that it won’t help this kind of swelling as much as it does for regular hot-weather swelling. He cautioned that it’s not gonna be fun towards the end of my pregnancy when it’s hot, cuz then I’ll have both types of swelling working together. Oy. (Oh, and apparently a restless legs / ants under the skin feeling in the evenings is normal too. Wheeeee.)
• He also commented that towards the end of my pregnancy, he expects to see me twice a week for nonstress tests and whatnot. So I’m gonna have to work something out with him for scheduling, and work something out at work so that I burn as little of my paid leave as possible. (Maybe I can just not take a lunch EVER AGAIN.) I’m really concerned about my maternity leave. I’m taking as little leave as possible for my appointments, but any leave I take comes directly out of what I’ll be able to take when the baby is born. I have to take 8 weeks off because the daycare won’t take infants under 8 weeks – but there’s no way I’ll have that much paid leave saved up – especially if my appointments move to once a week or more. Unfortunately, we need both our salaries – so I’m not sure what we’re gonna do for several weeks that I’m gonna have to take off unpaid. I guess that’s what credit cards are for, right?
• So, because I’m doing so well (blood pressure was lowest it’s ever been, blood sugars are consistently lower, weight gain is very small) I’m cleared for another 3 week appointment. No changes to my insulin or blood pressure meds for the 2nd appointment in a row! So I’m set for Wednesday March 24th at 3:00pm. (Dr. Schwartz is taking me as his last appt from now on so I can burn as little paid leave as possible – he just has to leave by 4:00 to catch his flight home.) Edit: I changed my appointment to the first of the day at 8:00am, because I actually lose less work time by going in the morning. Those first-thing appointments go fast tho, so I can’t always get them. There will be a full ultrasound at the next appointment to check growth and (hopefully) confirm sex for us.
4 Comments | Tags: changes in me, clothes, development, Doctor Appts, testing, Ultrasounds

Wow, my last post seemed kinda whingy. Don’t mean to be. All in all I’m really enjoying this pregnancy thing. Just wish certain aspects of it would hurry up and get here.

We made progress on the nursery this weekend. Guest room too, actually. The biggest part of both of those jobs is clearing out both the rooms. The guest room currently holds about 80% of all the clothing we own in baskets. So sorting through it is really quite a task, either folded into a dresser, hung up or put in the goodwill pile. This weekend we got through more than a third of it (and did a ton of laundry!) Paul brought baskets to me on the bed and I folded and sorted. It was amazing to see that if I stay in bed all day, my ankles don’t swell at all! hahahahaha

Paul is working in the office to clear out the stuff in there. Mostly it involves unloading shelves into boxes and hefting the boxes out to the garage. Not something I can really help much with. But he’s making good progress on what is honestly a crappy job.

But once the office/nursery is cleared out, we can PAINT! And speaking of paint, we finally picked colors! We’ll be using two colors, but not sure how. Probably whole walls of color, not top & bottom or something.

Honey Beige	Mother Nature

Feels good to have that sorted out now. (Oh, and we’re going to just repaint all the baseboards white before all the carpet goes in.) I’ll get the paint in the next week or two. We need to have the painting done before the carpet goes in, and I want the carpet in by April. (So local friends reading this: we’re gonna be asking for help in the next few weeks!)

Also, since Paul cleared out the closet in the nursery I could put some of the baby stuff we’ve accumulated in there. Yesterday I bought two packages of baby hangers. They’re neon pink, but whatever. It was so nifty to hang up all the little outfits and sleepers I’ve bought, and the stuff that Caroline at work has gifted me. Hanging up the little outfits made me even happier than buying them. I never thought I’d be hanging baby clothes up in my house. It’s been real for me for a long while now, but it’s stuff like this that makes it exciting. I can hardly believe that in just over four months there will be a little baby for me to dress in these dinosaur sleepers.

I can’t wait.

• The raging psoriasis on my arms is gone. Apparently it’s a common occurrence during pregnancy because of the elevated estrogen levels. (I was surprised that it wasn’t from the progesterone, since that stuff seems to be responsible for everything else!) The stuff on my head is not nearly as bad, but I have been using a medicated shampoo for the first time ever – so I’m not sure what’s fixing that. (For those who don’t know, I have really horrible psoriasis on my arms: unsightly and extremely painful.)
• I’m still not feeling anything from the baby. Really beginning to bug me. I think I’ve felt a flutter or three, but nothing more than that and not for over a week. Dangit, I’m more than halfway done with this process…. I wanna feel something! Plus, it’s just disconcerting to not feel anything. I want some sort of confirmation that everything is OK in there. I poke and poke at my belly, and I can feel the honeydew melon in there… but no response from it’s tenant. Wah.
• Speaking of that honeydew melon… bending over is a thing now. Like, I avoid doing it now. It doesn’t hurt, but it’s not comfortable. And I figure if it’s not comfortable for me, it can’t be enjoyable for the baby. I’m noticing it more when I get into bed too these days. We have a fairly high-up bed, so it’s a bit of a climb to get in. Lifting my leg up that high kinda shoves everything up. Maybe it’s time for a little step-stool.
• I have an appointment to see Dr. Schwartz on Wednesday afternoon. Dr. Schwartz said we could take another look and see if we can find out the sex at this upcoming appointment. I really hope the baby cooperates this time. I’m gonna drink orange juice on the way over to the appointment to wake the kid up. I REALLY wanna find out the sex. I’m pretty sure it’s a boy, but confirmation would be great.
• I’m gonna talk to Dr. Schwartz about a bit of swelling I’m having in my ankles. Most days my ankles are a little swollen by the time I get home from work. If I put my feet up for a little while it goes back down, but it’s a little worrisome. I’m really concerned about pre-eclampsia, so I’m on watch for any symptoms.
• Lastly, I’m STARVING. Like all the dang time. Doesn’t seem to matter what I eat, I’m ravenous again within 2 hours. I’m trying to make healthy choices, but it’s still worrisome. I’ve never been this hungry, this often in my whole life. It’s hard to deal with, cuz I know I’ve gained weight. Granted, I know that some weight gain is expected – cuz ya know, the baby is growing… but when you live your entire life trying to avoid any sort of weight gain, it’s hard to get right with this gain. (Plus the books and websites say I should gain somewhere between 0-14lb for the whole pregnancy, which short of living like I’m training for a marathon doesn’t seem possible or realistic.) I wake up a couple times a night to pee and most nights I’m starving for at least one of those trips to the bathroom. Usually I just ignore it and go back to bed, but then come 7:00am’s alarm I’m so hungry I’m nauseous. But eating in the middle of the night just seems so wrong. So yeah, there’s that.
3 Comments | Tags: changes in me, development, Doctor Appts, emotional hoo-ha, movement, Ultrasounds

In response to a question posed in a comment, here’s a little about what is currently planned –

Dr. Schwartz has suggested that I be induced a week before my due date for a couple of reasons:

• Diabetics tend to have very large babies (10lb+ isn’t uncommon.) The baby is full term anytime after 38 weeks, so pulling it a little early just means the baby is smaller. Smaller babies have an easier time being delivered vaginally, and have fewer blood sugar issues after they’re born. It’s common for large babies of diabetic women to have higher than normal blood sugars for a few days after delivery. The smaller the baby is at birth, the less this is a problem. We’re still expecting the baby to be ~8lb on delivery.
• Dr. Schwartz really wants me to have a vaginal delivery. He feels that at my size, recovery from a c-section would be harder than average. Also, there’s a lot of benefit to the baby by being delivered vaginally. It releases hormones that finish maturing the lungs and helps to ‘wring out’ junk and fluids from the lungs and sinuses. Neither of us are opposed to a c-section if it becomes necessary, but a vaginal delivery would be preferred.

At this point, I have no problems going along with Dr. Schwartz’s plan. Whatever he feels will be best for the baby (and me) is what I want. I trust my OB to guide me in this. (Gotta say, I really LOVE Dr. Schwartz. I can’t imagine going through this process without such a great doctor.)

Oh lord. I haven’t bought anything, but I’m enjoying the heck outta looking. (Paul made the horrible suggestion that I go look at Etsy… I had been specifically avoiding that site.)

Stuff I’m currently lusting after:

A HandsFree Mei Tai carrier in “Marie”:

It comes highly recommended by my most babywearing friend. I’ve e-mailed with the owner of TogetherBe and found that the (padded) straps are long enough to fit me just fine. Most other places I’d looked at for Mei Tais charge extra for longer straps that wouldn’t end up being long enough anyway.

Tie-Dyed onesies from TwirlyToes on Etsy:

Fortunately, not much else on Etsy strikes my fancy… or at least not enough for what folks are charging. I’m enamored enough with the adorable Carter’s and Circo onesies on the registry that are 5 onesies for the price of one Etsy onesie.

Lastly, there’s just 10 days before Spring Training starts… and just less than two months before Opening Day. Need to make sure the wee one is properly outfitted to cheer for the Dodgers!

With this set of Home & Away onesies, the little one would be all set for the rest of the baseball season!

This is how I entertain myself when I’m on the couch with my feet propped up above my heart when I come home with swollen ankles. Fortunately, I’m still able to show some restraint and not buy anything. (yet. hehe)

I just strapped a 5lb bag of flour to my chest. I was a dork and didn’t grab a new 10lb bag of sugar at Costco. (I was too distracted by the Carter’s stuff, again…)

But for a first time tryout of my new SleepyWrap, I’m hella impressed. It’s gonna take some practice to get it on by myself, but it’s not hard. It ties in back on me, but ties in front on Paul.

I’m gonna keep practicing, and looking for heavier things to stick in there. Paul seems pretty interested too. I showed him pics of men wearing these wraps from their website, and he totally gets why I need to get comfortable with it. (I hurt my elbows catching a falling computer several years ago. As a consequence, I can’t carry anything more than a few pounds for more than a few minutes without significant pain – and when I’ve carried something for too long, I loose my grip and drop it with no warning. So using wraps is gonna be a necessity for me – I’m terrified of dropping the baby.)

Now I just gotta figure out what other colors we want. I’m thinking orange or brown or gray to go with the dark green I already got. OR, there’s several other styles of carrier (like ring slings or MeiTeis) that could work for me too. WAY too many options, but it’s fun to get to choose!

I am half-way through my pregnancy. Yes, 20 weeks is the usual half-way mark, but seeing as I’m not going to go to a full 40 weeks – I did the math and the magic day is today! (currently Dr. Schwartz is aiming to induce me a week early on July 10.)

There is SO much to do. We’ve made a little progress, but between Paul’s work schedule and me getting totally sick (and now Paul is sick) it’s been hard to get things done. Plus, while I’m not exhausted like I was during my firxt trimester, I am pretty beat after a full day at work, so I don’t have much left after getting home, doing homework and getting dinner made. But I have faith in us.

We’re hopefully picking wall colors for the nursery and baseboard colors for the house. I think once we have the paint purchased and in-house it will lend a new sense of urgency to getting the office emptied and getting the guest room cleared out.

But… Um, yeah. I’m half-way through this. Hopefully that means that I’ll start feeling something soon. I’ve felt a couple of flutters, but I’d like to start having poking contests with my kid in the near future.

I had a moment (or two) of weakness. Costco is to blame.

I got really good at ignoring all things baby in the last 7 years or so. So when I found myself in Costco on Friday picking up supplies for my office, I was surprised as heck to find myself swaying in the breeze in front of a table piled high with Carter’s rompers and sleepers. I guess the blinders are off for good.

I managed to get out with only a couple of rompers and a few sleepers in sizes 3mo and 6mo. But um… I forgot to get coffee, so I had to go back to Costco today. And um… they had onesie sets. Yeeeeah. (And let me just say the prices at Costco are fantastic, especially for Carter’s stuff.)

And if that wasn’t enough… I found an awesome website for secret sales on baby/kid stuff. And I had a coupon. So here’s what I got (in a 3-6mo size) for a smoking deal:

(In case you can’t tell, it’s an Asian print of Koi and Dragons in oranges and blues. The cardigan, hat and booties are embroidered.)

Yeah, the stuff I’m getting is kinda boy-leaning. I think it’s a boy, but even if not I’d still have no problems putting a girl in the stuff I’ve bought this weekend. (The sleepers and rompers have dinosaurs, froggies, monkeys, and bugs on them. OMG, dinosaurs and froggies!!)

But I’m done shopping for clothes, at least until after the shower. (Which will be on May 15th, BTW) Friends have already told me it’s understandable, but I’m a little nuts for buying anything. I have a tight grip on my horses now. But it was really, really cool to be able to buy things for MY baby. (Paul thinks the stuff I got is super cute too!)