22 weeks

Posted by Me Sun, 24 Sep 2006 16:49:00 GMT

I am 22 weeks today. Baby G has been making himself more known by kicking up a storm. It’s still pretty subtle and usually only more apparent in the middle of the night and early morning, but I love it. :) LOML was able to feel a couple of kicks the other night but as said they are still pretty subtle and you kind of have to concentrate to really feel them. Either way it’s nice to feel those little thumps once in a while. I hope he keeps it up.

Life has been busy. My work contract got extended until whenever I decide to stop due to Baby. As of right now, I plan to work until beginning of January and then take some time to get ready for when baby comes. Work has been supportive but really busy. The project I am on is taking a beating so all the powers that be are slightly freaking out. Oh well, luckily I work remotely and don’t get the full onslaught of the chaos that seems to be running rampant over there. The beauty of being a contractor in a different state. :)

When not muddling through test cases and excel spreadsheets, we’ve been busy preparing the nursery. We finally cleared the room out and LOML even put a few fresh coats of pain in there – a pale yellow on the walls and a light blue on the ceiling (official names: Convivial Yellow & Byte Blue). I guess you could say it is coming along slowly but surely. We were also able to finally clear out and organize the garage which we had been putting off for 3 years. Now, there is actually room in there. I still have to clear out stuff from the guest room, but figure that’ll have to wait until we get back from our vacation.

Yes, vacation! We are leaving Oct 4th for our long-awaited trip to Hawaii. We are so looking forward to it. :) It’ll be nice to get a little break and enjoy some time together before the baby arrives. I still have to do a bunch of stuff before we go but that’s to be expected. I am a planner by heart afterall so procrastinating is not a word in my vocabulary.

In any case, today we have a lunch scheduled with LOML’s grandparents to look at cribs. They generously offered to pay for it so hence we are making a trip to our local Babies R Us and show them the one we like.

Health-wise, I am feeling better though only if I take my B6 vitamin concoction in the morning. My belly is getting bigger but still have that ridge at my belly button. It hasn’t smoothed out yet. I haven’t taken any belly shots though people have asked to see some. I don’t know – haven’t really felt like it. I am sure we’ll take some pics when we are out in Hawaii so those will have to do. I don’t know…I have never been one to just pose each week with my belly exposed. Oh well.

I have another Doctor’s Appointment on Oct 2nd. Hopefully, all is well. It should just be a general check-up. On Nov 2nd, we have our second u/s where we check on the marginal placenta previa and the cysts in our boy’s brain. Those two things are on my mind, but I am not spending my days worrying on it. I try to focus on the kicks and all the other stuff that is going on…praying all is well with baby.

As a whole I am doing good at keeping my natural worrying at a minimum, I was stupid enough to watch the Season Premiere of ER the other night and couldn’t help but freak out a little at Abby’s predicament … delivering her baby 2 1/2 months early and then undergoing a hysterectomy! Yikes! Now that I am this far along I do occasionally worry about the “preterm labor” risks and all that jazz. I know it can happen and since I haven’t gone through pregnancy before all those things are things that pop into my mind. I know it doesn’t mean that it’ll happen to me, but well with my history you can’t blame a girl for wondering and/or worrying.

However, as said, I am trying to keep those at a minimum. Working and thinking about the nursery and stuff is keeping me busy. Since we are going with a “Curious George” theme room, I got the Jack Johnson “Curious George” soundtrack as a motivator. LOML & I love Jack Johnson’s tunes so it was just perfect that he wrote the score for the movie. :) We’ll be listening to it on our way to Hawaii and hopefully our little Jack (name is not set yet – but in my opinion – still the front runner!) will be soothed by the tunes like we are. So far, I haven’t had any complaints so I think we are good. :)

As mentioned, no final name has been picked. We bought some more Baby Naming books and plan to bring them along to Hawaii where we will have some time to sort through them and see which names we like. So, we’ll see if we come to some agreement by the time we get back! :) My mom is constantly bugging me as to whether or not we have picked one out yet. I told her about Jack and I am not sure she likes it too much – but really it doesn’t matter. LOML & I will pick the name we like. I could just do without some of the snarky remarks people make when they ask about names you have thought of and they answer with “Really? – Oh ok, it’s your kid afterall so you can name him whatever!” Yeah – people and names are funny. EVERYONE has an opinion. Sometimes it seems like it would be easier to just not say anything since clearly when they ask at times they already have an opinion. As with my Mom, she’d say “Ok, Jack or James!” Let it be said that neither LOML or I have ever considered James as a name nor plan to. I just find it funny how she’ll get sneaky and throw that in there like that name has always been in the running! Oh well!

In other news, weather in Vegas has been perfect – long gone are the 100+ temps and we have now settled into the nice 80’s/70’s. Sunny and at times breezy. Fall & Spring are really nice here. Winter isn’t too bad but it does get pretty cold here since we do live in the desert and temps are pretty extreme. It makes being outdoors so much more pleasant.

I can’t believe the year is just whizzing by – before you know we’ll be starting a whole year! Where has the time gone. In Nov/Dec, LOML & I are scheduled for some classes at the hospital – the traditional childbirth education classes, a class on Basic Infact Care and Safety, and on Breastfeeding since I do plan to nurse. Hopefully, those will be entertaining.

Anyways, I have written a novel and need to get ready for our lunch date with the grandparents. Hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday! I hope the baby keeps growing and staying healthy. As Bekah mentioned in a comment, it’ll be good to make it past 24 weeks – viability stage – still dangerous but still a nice milestone to keep an eye out for. :)

All righty – hope everyone is well!

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Half-way!

Posted by Me Tue, 12 Sep 2006 14:33:00 GMT

I am 20w2d today. Woohoo! Half-way there! :) Thanks for all the congrats on our little boy! Yes, LOML & I are thrilled and feeling like all this is more real. I know we have a few things to keep our eye on but as said I am not going to spend my energy worrying about what can go wrong but continue to pray and hope that our little boy will be born healthy. :) I can’t control the outcome but I can do my best to enjoy and be grateful for every day we have right now. So, that’s the plan.

Last weekend and this week we have been busy clearing out what will become the nursery. It’s been mainly a storage room ever since we moved into this house 3 years ago. Let me tell you – we accumulated a whole lot of junk in those years! We are making headway though – slowly but surely. Clearing out this room has also made us work on the garage so we can store some of the things we don’t want to throw away. Suffice it to say our house is a big mess right now with stuff all over the place. I guess it’ll get worse before it’ll get better. :) My goal is to have the room at least all empty before we head out for our trip to Hawaii in a few weeks. I started to panic a little the other night wondering how it’ll all get done. I know it will but still – I am not a procrastinator and don’t like things hanging over my head – so I just need to breathe and take it one day at a time.

LOML & I have started to look at nursery furniture. His grandparents have offered to buy us a crib so that’s been really nice. I think we have one picked out at Babies R Us along with a matching changing table/dresser which my MIL & FIL plan to get for us. I am touched by their generosity and overall by everyone’s excitement for little Baby G.

As far as a theme for the nursery, we’re thinking Curious George. It has always been a favorite of LOML’s and I thought it was a cute idea. Also, the author was originally from Hamburg, Germany and he spent a lot of time drawing animals at the Hagenberg Zoo which is just cool because I was born in Hamburg, Germany and know that zoo all too well. :) I think it will be a fun theme.

The next few weeks will just whiz on by. Work is as busy as always and with all the cleaning/cleansing stuff going on right now time will just pass on by. However, we feel blessed to be able to spend our time like this. I feel more fluttering in my tummy – usually in the middle of the night. I do believe it’s our little one making himself known. Still going through baby names though I am still a fan of Jack myself. LOML wants to go through a few more before settling on one so we’ll see.

Other than that, nothing much else going ok. Trying to get rest and staying productive. Praying that cysts go away and my placenta moves up.

Thanks again for all the congrats and best wishes. We appreciate it. All righty, another work day awaits and I need to start on some laundry as well. :) Hope everyone is doing well.

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As promised...

Posted by Me Thu, 07 Sep 2006 20:53:00 GMT

Well – we had our big ultrasound today. Everything overall looked good with Baby G. We only had two things Dr H. and the Tech wanted to keep an eye on. One- I seem to have a marginal placenta previa, meaning my placenta is lying a bit low. It is hanging over my cervix ever so slightly. Neither Dr. H or the U/S Tech seemed overly concerned. They both said that it should move up as the Baby grows. However, I will have another ultrasound in 2 months to check on it.

The other thing they noted was that Baby G has 2 small cysts in the brain. They said that every baby starts out with them but usually they see them gone by this point in time. Again, they say it’s nothing to be concerned with. They both have never seen this turn into something especially considering that all my other markers came out negative. The Tech couldn’t find any other issues during the examination that could up the odds of any issues (like Down Syndrome). Both said in all of their years of practicing they have never seen it progress. However, just to keep an eye on it, they will review it again in 2 months when we come back for our ultrasound.

So, I figure I could worry about it but I am choosing not to. Baby G looked great. Moving around – waving little hands and feet. Heart pumping blood like a champ. I know I could read into it all and drive myself crazy researching the internet, but I also know that all my other tests came out negative and Dr H. is keeping an eye on it.

In any case, those are the things that they discovered. It would have been even better if they found nothing – but alas it wasn’t that way. I feel rest assured that everything else looked perfect.

Also, we were able to find out the sex of the baby and we are proud and happy to announce that we are having a BOY! :) :) We are very thrilled at the news. We didn’t have a preference – the only thing we wanted was for the baby to be healthy and we are continuing to pray for that. :)

Everyone was convinced we were having a girl so when I told my Mom she was shocked and elated. I think the news brought on some happy tears! :)

I have gained a total of 11 lbs thus far and am 19w4d along – close to half-way through the pregnancy. Baby is measuring 11 inches and weighs about 1 lb. He’s got large feet according to the Tech – 1 1/2 inches and as said was waving his hands and feet throughout the ultrasound.

We hope that the 2 things to note will work themselves out – placenta moves up and cysts disappear. In the meantime, I am going to be grateful to be where we are at and continue to prepare for the arrival of our little boy. We don’t have any names picked out yet nor have we done anything to the would-be nursery. All in due time. :)

Ok – I must work – it’s been a disruptive (but very happy!) day! :)

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