Tag Archives: development

Getting Bigger (17w3d)

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I’ve been trying to find ways to make the baby more real to Paul, since all the books say that this whole thing won’t be real to him until he can feel it kick. (Which I guess makes sense… since he doesn’t have to second guess every move he makes based on what it might do to the baby.)

So based on my weekly e-mails (and that nifty little fruit widget on the right side of the website) I find things in the house that are the same length and weight of the baby. It’s been a neat thing for Paul to be able to hold something in his hand that’s the approximate size of the baby. (And then holding it up against my belly really puts it in perspective that there’s something *growing* in me.)

Tonight it was the 3/4 full Mrs. Dash container. (5.5″ long and 6.5oz) Two weeks ago, it was the container of poultry seasoning (4.5″ 3.5oz). Prior to that, there’s been convenient fruit to approximate our baby. It seems amazing to me that in a matter of weeks it can go from a tiny clementine orange to a seasoning container.

I don’t know if I’ve felt it move yet or not. I may have felt some flutters, but they’re not regular or anything. Neat thing though… I can feel my womb now. It’s high enough out of my pelvis that I can feel it when I’m laying down. I hope to start feeling something soon though. That’s gonna be so neat. I cannot wait until Wednesday. Here’s hoping the little critter cooperates and tells us what it is. I wanna start looking at Pink or Blue things. :)

No news on sex, but good info (13w6d)

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Quickest appointment yet today. But I guess I’ll be having more like this for the next couple of months.

Took a quick look at the baby, mostly to check the heart rate (160, just like it has been.) Didn’t get a measurement, but the critter obviously bigger than it was two weeks ago! (According to the intertubes, it’s 3-3.5″ or roughly lemon-sized.) It was just kicking back, with it’s arms up, like laying in a hammock. The tech got two pictures, but they’re pretty fuzzy. It was bobbing it’s little head, but not dancing like last time. (This appointment was at 3:00pm, whereas my others have all been before 10:00am… so maybe afternoon is siesta time?)

Dr. Schwartz went over my 1st trimester screening results with me and things are looking great.
Downs Syndrome result is 1:4800 (chances of the baby having DS are one in 4800 similar births.) The baseline chances for someone of my age with my health profile was 1:320, so the actual test results tell a MUCH better story.
Trisomy 18 result is 1:2350, which I guess is very good. Dr. Schwartz says anything over 1:100 is fabulous.
Based on these numbers and the great results on the nuchal fold screening, there’s no need to seek further testing (like a CVS or amnio) at this time.

My a1c is down to 6.3 from 6.5 when I first got pregnant. (The a1c is like a 3 month report card on my blood sugar control. Anything below 6 is non-diabetic territory, so I’m doing fabulous in this regard which basically negates any diabetes-related risks to the baby.) Thyroid is creeping up a little, which is expected. My thyroid meds will prolly get adjusted at my next visit, if for nothing else than to negate the fact that I’ve got 30% more blood volume now. My blood pressure was lower than it has ever been – which means the new med (Methyldopa) that was added to my regimen last time is working. Still on the high side, but Dr. Schwartz was happy to see some movement on that, finally.

I e-mailed Dr. Schwartz yesterday with a couple of questions, so he’d be ready to be interrogated. Got some surprising answers, not what I was expecting from the reading I’d been doing in books and online.

Delivery: Currently Dr. Schwartz is planning on letting me go to 39 weeks – so delivering around 7/10/10. (If I went to 7/11, this would be the 3rd kid in my family with that birthday, which includes my brother!) He wants to avoid a C-section if at all possible. Vaginal delivery has a lot of benefits to the baby, but mostly he doesn’t want me to have to deal with recovery from abdominal surgery. He feels that at my current weight and as a diabetic, recovery would be less than optimal and that I would be in a lot more pain & have a longer recovery than average. He’s totally open to a C-section if it becomes necessary, but has every intention of inducing me first and letting me at least attempt to labor. He said that actually he expects me to do well with a vaginal birth. So YAY for that. I’m not all crunchy granola and ‘needing’ to try to push the kid out – but I’m totally open to the experience. I am also totally open to the epidural as soon as they’ll let me have it. :)

OMG pains: Apparently mostly what I’ve been experiencing in the last two weeks has been “low pelvic pain” as opposed to “round ligament pain” My pelvis is splitting apart and it’s totally normal. Hurts like hell and scares the crap outta me when it takes my breath away or wakes me up in the middle of the night, but it’s normal. So whee and hooray for being pregnant.

Bedrest: Currently not a big concern. Dr. Schwartz says I’m doing fine and that he avoids complete bed rest if at all possible. Apparently high risk pregnant women are at higher risk for DVT (blood clots) when on complete bed rest. He didn’t rule out modified bed rest for the last month or two though – which would mean that if I’m not at work, I’m home with my feet up. (Honestly other than the fact that modified bed rest would mean baby/house prep has to be done sooner, being ordered to go home and put my feet up sounds pretty good actually.)

Next appointment is first thing in the morning on Wednesday the 27th. Dr. Schwartz says we’ll try to figure out the sex at that appointment, but if we don’t get an answer then we will for sure at the next appointment which will be the “big” anatomical ultrasound. So hopefully we’ll know soon!

Dancefloor (12w2d)

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It amazes me reading about what’s going on with the critter right now. Mostly because it’s moving around now. And with this week’s ultrasound confirming this fact…. I was amazed watching our baby do somersaults, flip from side to side, kick and wave – and I couldn’t feel any of it.

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Some of the pregnancy forums I’m lurking on have women in their first pregnancies saying they’re already feeling the baby move. All the books say I won’t feel anything until at least 16 weeks, and probably not until 20 or 22 weeks because I’m so big already. That’s kinda depressing. I’m sure folks will say that I’ll get sick of being kicked and prodded fairly quickly; but I don’t think I will. I’m trying to really *live* every moment of this pregnancy, because I figure I’ll get told not to have another kid after this. So I wanna get all I can out of this experience.

Just kinda feels weird to know I’m our baby’s personal little dancefloor and I can’t even feel it yet. I’m still taking time every day though to just lay my hands on my belly and connect with the little critter. I’m certain that one of these days I’ll be focusing my thoughts on my little one and I’ll feel a little prod back. Just wish that day would get here sooner.

Little Dancer (11w6d)

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We have quite a little dancer on our hands. It was flipping and wiggling and kicking and WAVING at us. But it behaved just beautifully for the ultrasound tech – even flipping to the other side to give the tech a better angle for the Nuchal Fold screening.

Paul was just slack-jawed the whole time. I was pointing out what we were seeing on the screen and he was just amazed when he finally started to see the little critter on his own. It was pretty awesome! I was laughing and giggling like a loon every time it waved at us! I couldn’t believe how active the little shrimpy thing is!

12 Week profile, over 2 inches!

There’s new pictures in the gallery, and we’re working on putting up the little movies they gave us. (The tech made us a DVD instead of printing out pictures this morning; how cool is that?) Just click the above picture to get to the gallery (or click the “Gallery” link at the top of the page.)

Nuchal Fold screening went just great. The tech & Dr. Schwartz discussed which picture/measurement to submit for review and the “official” measurement. They decided on the largest measurement she could get, which was 1.21mm. Anything under 3mm is just great, so we were very pleased with these results.

They took a bunch of blood for the 1st trimester screening panel, and gave me supplies to (ick) capture all my urine for 24 hours. So Sunday will be fun. But they gotta check for protein and something else, and this gives them a baseline.

Insulin got bumped up a little more (2 units) and Dr. Schwartz is adding another BP med since I don’t think the Labetelol is really doing anything. But he’s OK with my BP where it is, and is happy to see my blood sugars where they are. Nobody had mentioned my weight to me at any appointments so far, so I asked. Turns out I lost 2lb this time, which seems odd to me, cuz I feel puffier than ever and can’t fit into some of my jeans already.

All in all, great appointment. Paul and I are so stoked!!

Prenatal Testing (11w4d)

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Round and round. I think my scholarly tendencies to study everything to death are doing me a disservice at this point.

Wednesday’s appointment is supposed to get us some good profile pictures of the critter because they’re going to do the Nuchal Fold screening test. Presumably they’ll also do some bloodwork at the same time that has some chromosomal screening stuff in there too. The bloodwork screening stuff is done during late 1st trimester and early 2nd trimester.

Depending on what these tests say, we’ll be presented with other testing/screening options. First would be CVS (chorionic villus sampling) which is akin to amniocentesis, but is slightly less invasive and can be done sooner than an amnio. CVS & amniocentesis screen for chromosomal abnormalities like Downs Syndrome and other genetic conditions. Amniocentesis can also screen for neural tube defects like spina bifida as well. Both have the bonus of telling the sex of the baby with 100% accuracy.

There’s a decent chance I’ll need an amnio later in the pregnancy anyway, depending on when Dr. Schwartz determines the baby needs to come. Amniocentesis is commonly used late in pregnancy to determine how far along lung development is. (How they tell that from amniotic fluid is beyond me.)

But I just can’t stop thinking about these tests. Do we even want them? What about the slight elevation in risk of miscarriage? What would we do with the results? Does it make me a terrible person to even be wanting this screening done? A lot of women choose not to have these tests done at all because the results wouldn’t matter to them either way. What does that say about me that the results *would* matter? And lastly, what if – God forbid – the results came back in a not-good way? What would having to make that decision to to Paul and I?

Round and round. This is part of the training to become a parent, right?