Back Home

Posted by Me Tue, 24 Oct 2006 15:41:00 GMT

LOML & I are back from our lovely Hawaii trip. I meant to be more prolific in my blog writing, but alas I ended up avoiding the laptop except for the morning email checking. In any case, we got back on Sunday and are already back in the full swing of work. Ahh, lovely! It’s taken me a bit of time to get back into it all especially since we took a red eye flight back to Las Vegas so Sunday was spent trying to unpack, start laundry, and in general just catch up on some sleep before work started up again.

However, I think we are settling back into everyday life. Amidst work tasks, I am finishing up the last bit of laundry. Woohoo! :) Jack (yes, we settled on a name!) is kicking along on and off all day – but particularly at night. It’s lovely and comforting and I pray that he continues to do it more often and consistently. I have even gotten to the point where I can watch my belly move when he kicks! It’s crazy cool! :)

My fingers are still swollen and a bit achey. I think I have a case of pregnancy-related carpal tunnel syndrome. I haven’t been able to wear my wedding band or engagement ring for a week now so I look like some knocked up single chick! Oh well! :) My joints are a bit achey so I am going to try to take some breaks between my computer tasks. Hopefully, that will help. I plan to talk to my Doctor more at my next week’s appointment. Speaking of the appointment, I am nervous about it. It’s a big one. I have to do my glucose test and hope that I don’t get sick when drinking the super sweet stuff. Also, I pray that I pass! I sure hope I don’t have gestational diabetes. Ulgh! In addition to that test, we have our big ultrasound that day that will check on Jack’s cysts and my marginal placenta previa. Of course, I also hope that they find nothing else.

I have been pretty good about not worrying myself to death throughout this pregnancy, but admittedly as of late I find myself worrying a bit more. I worry about something going wrong. I worry about doing things wrong and harming our baby. I worry about not going full-term and then at times I worry about not being a good mom when he is born. I know none of these worries help anything, but I can’t help it. I have this anxiety building up, especially about this next appointment. A lot of things that will go on that day. Ulghh! I hope all goes well. I hope all checks out okay. Ok, I am going to stop now. We’ll find out soon enough.

Anyways, on a good note, I am 26 weeks and 2 days today. My belly is big. Jack is moving. I have heartburn practically all the time (not a pleasant thing, but still). Hawaii was fun. It was great to spend relaxing days with LOML. We even experienced some excitement with the earthquake that hit Hawaii on October 15th. Luckily, we weren’t on the Big Island but Maui which experienced no damage. We were without power for 4 hours, but other than that all was well. Jack got into the excitement by bouncing around when it all happened. I never experienced an earthquake before so I had no point of reference but LOML who has noted that it was a significant one at 6.7. I was up but it sure got LOML out of bed. Talk about a rude awakening! :)

After that, we just spent the rest of vacation enjoying Maui. It was quite hot which didn’t help with my swelling any but oh well. Maui was great, but it is nice to be back home again. I could do without all the chores but a minor price to pay for all the comforts of home. I have to tackle some guest room clean-up in the next few weeks since my folks may be coming to visit in a few weeks. I still have to focus on some nursery decoration stuff (like sewing curtains etc), but hopefully will get to it all in due time.

For right now, I am continuing to focus on staying healthy. I am trying to eat better and get rest whenever I can. The weather has been really nice here in Las Vegas so LOML & I have started on some evening walks which is always a good thing. I don’t try to overdo it but figure some exerxcise is a good thing.

Anyways, that’s how things stand. I continue to pray and hope that all is well with our baby. I want nothing more than for him to be healthy and happy. I hope I am doing a good job.

Oh well – speaking of job, I have to get back to mine. Loads to tackle. Hope everyone is well. Have a good day/week everyone!

Posted in , , , ,  | no comments | no trackbacks

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! :)

Posted in ,  | 4 comments | no trackbacks

Moving Along

Posted by Me Mon, 28 Aug 2006 16:02:00 GMT

Two Weekends’ ago we made a trip out to LA to visit relatives and celebrate my cousin’s 18th Debutante Party. It was quite the affair – complete with big dresses, lots of dancing, and food/drink fitting for such an event. My parents flew out from Florida for it and it was great to see and spend some time with them.

All my aunts (I have 5 aunts and 2 uncles on my mother’s side) were thrilled about our news and it was great to see everyone so excited. Nausea was abated pretty well and I was thankful to feel almost human again while out there. It was an active weekend so I was tired by the time we trekked on back to good ole’ Vegas on Sunday.

After our whirlwind trip, we arrived back at home to a fun-filled week of work and such. Work has still been really busy. I finally “came out” though at work so at least I don’t have to worry about that anymore. We have our next appointment with Dr. H on Sept 7th where we will hopefully find out the gender of the baby. I am still convinced it’s a girl for some reason (as is everyone else who ventures a guess!). I guess we’ll see at the ultrasound (provided Baby G cooperates).

Other than that, nothing new to report. I had planned to start clearing out the room that would eventually become the nursery this weekend, but alas a relapse to throwing up in the evening kept me rather immobile for the weekend. :( I had tried to stop taking my B-6/Unisom remedy only to go back to awful nausea and puking. So not fun! I ended up going to bed at 8pm on Saturday – waking up at 2am (starving!!!). Tried after a slice of toast to go back to bed at 3am – discovered that was futile and thus ended up watching TV at 3:30am until 5am. My stomach was still real wobbly so it wasn’t much fun. No puking though so that’s good! :) Eventually, I managed to venture back to bed at 5am and woke up at 7am. Ullgh! Nausea combined with puking & insomnia is so not fun! Oh well – you win some – you lose some.

I am currently 18w1d! Yowzers! We still have our handy dandy doppler and hence are able to keep an eye (err, rather ear) on Baby G’s heartbeat. Oh what a lovely sound to fill a room! I am nervous about the ultrasound next week since I hope all is well and the tech/Dr doesn’t see anything abnormal! I just want Baby G to be healthy! All I want is Baby G to be healthy and sticking around until it’s time to come out! :)

Anyways, that’s the latest update. We haven’t picked out any names nor made any moves towards the nursery. I think once we make it through more milestones we’ll feel more comfortable making strives towards that stuff. It’s crazy to think that we are close to being half-way through the pregnancy already. :) I pray that all continues to go well.

Posted in , , ,  | 2 comments | no trackbacks

16w2d

Posted by Me Tue, 15 Aug 2006 22:34:00 GMT

Yup – I am currently 16w2d and have been meaning to update my blog for eons. However, my days have been crazy busy with work and by the time I have some free time I am so tired all I want to do is crash.

To your question, Bekah, morning sickness is not completely gone, but seemingly has gotten better. I no longer throw up consistently. I still get the queasiness and difficulty finding things that are appetizing to eat, but at least I am no longer throwing up so I guess things are getting better. :) I am still waiting for that day my SIL told me about where I wake up and feel great. It hasn’t happened yet. Yesterday, I woke up and was so tired even though I got a good night’s rest. I was also sore and achey – I think I was way more active this past weekend than in the past. I am better today…at least my eyes aren’t drooping. I have a headache, but other than that am doing all right.

Baby G is taking up more room. Though I don’t think I look pregnant yet (just look like I got a serious beer gut), I have started to wear more maternity shorts to be more comfortable. I think it is starting to pop out more and up and hence give me more of the “pregnant” look rather than I just can’t control eating. ;)

We had our OB/GYN appointment a couple of Mondays ago. All was well. Measuring right on target. Despite all the crazy nausea in the first trimester, I managed to gain 6lbs! 6lbs!!! The nurse told me “Good job!” ;) Dr. H was as nice as always and answered all our questions. We listened to the heartbeat (a nice 156 bpm) and then ushered me to have 8 vials of blood taken for the prenatal check-up and the Triple Marker Screening test. Overall, the appointment was uneventful – which given my history – I gladly welcome. :)

This Thursday LOML and I are driving out to LA for my cousin’s debutante ball (fancy 18th birthday party). My parents are flying out from FL so it’ll be nice to spend some time with them. I also plan to see my Best Friend while we are out there. I pray that whatever lasting nausea I have gives me a break while I am out there. Though I miss food – eating freely, it’s all good as long as Baby G is healthy and happy and hangs out until January of next year. Nothing is more important than that! :)

We go back to Dr. H’s Sept 7th for the big ultrasound. Hopefully, Baby G will cooperate and we’ll be able to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. We’ll be happy with either as long as s/he is healthy. My Mom and I both have a feeling that it’s a girl. I don’t know…just an instinct I guess. :)

I still have my handy dandy Doppler and been occasionally listening to Baby G’s heart. So far so good. Dr. H said we could use it twice a day. I don’t use it that often but it is nice to have it. I haven’t felt Baby G yet, but I think it is still too early. I can’t wait til s/he kicks and it’ll all feel more real.

On a different note, LOML and I have booked our long overdue vacation for October. We thought we could both use one given all the IVF stuff. We will be heading to Hawaii for a nice 2 week vacation at the beginning of October. Dr H. thought it was a great idea and said he didn’t see any issues traveling during that time. It’ll be nice to get away for a bit and relax before Baby G arrives. :)

Other than that, life is going on as normal. Work has been insanely busy. I am going to tell work folks this week that we are expecting. It’s all a bit weird “coming out” to people. I still get worried, but am also excited. I cherish the journey we are on right now and feel grateful for every step we get to take and accomplish.

I hope the morning sickness goes away completely soon and I get my energy back – not to mention better appetite. After the LA trip, I hope to take some prenatal yoga classes at the hospital provided I feel better. I need to incorporate some exercise back into my life. We’ll see how things go. :)

I hope everyone is doing well out there in the vast Internet world! :)

Posted in , , , , ,  | 2 comments | no trackbacks

Update

Posted by Me Wed, 02 Aug 2006 13:40:00 GMT

So, it’s been a while since I last posted. Thanks, Bekah for the check-in! I thought I’d respond by doing a quick “Update” post. :)

We have our second appointment with Dr. H next Monday, the 7th of August! Wooohoo! I hope all goes well then. We won’t have an ultrasound so I think the appointment won’t be too long. Either way it’ll be nice to see the Dr and make sure all is going as it should down there.

I would like to say that now that I am in the second trimester that I woke up one day and magically all my nausea went away and I feel “GREAT!!!” as my SIL once told me it happened. Alas, not quite yet. I made it through a week or so without the consistent evening puke event but had a recurrence this past Monday when I got that all too familiar feeling and ran for the nearest bathroom. Tuesday I felt better and we’ll see how Wednesday goes. I am still a bit queasy and taking the Dr’s advice and taking my B-6 Vitamin/half a Unisom tablet combo twice a day to remain functional throughout the day. I have tried not taking it or varying its combination always with less than stellar results. :(

A week ago I had a little scare when I found some brown spotting in my undies. I called the Dr’s office and D, the trusted nurse told me not to worry. Brown Spotting is ok. Bright red is bad which I knew. The spotting only lasted one day…really one morning, but of course, I was freaked and made LOML order a doppler right away so we could check on Baby G. We did and were able to discern the heartbeat which allowed me to sleep a little easier without visions of impending miscarriages. I haven’t used the doppler since. I don’t think Baby G likes it very much since the next day I got super nauseous again. I figure we have the doppler for emergency purposes. Since I am so used to Dr BT’s schedule going 4 weeks without some other kind of reassurance can drive a woman batty. However, I also promised myself not to go super neurotic and use that thing every minute of the day. :)

Despite the on-going nausea, I have been able to gain some weight. I think I am up to 3 lbs now, maybe 4. Haven’t weight myself recently. My belly is getting bigger and I have been forced to resort to buying some maternity wear which makes me look more pregnant than just fat I think (or maybe that’s just wishful thinking). Sleeping has gotten a little bit more complicated since I am trying to sleep mainly on my side. I have pillows everywhere which makes it look like I am sleeping in some kind of fort.

Work has still been insanely busy. I haven’t “come out” to work people yet, but plan to sometime next week. Since I don’t work in an office and am a freelancer, I didn’t feel the urgency to tell anyone right away. Most of my clients I never even met face-to-face so it’s a bit odd to share something personal. However, share I will since eventually it will impact my availability to work.

I don’t think I have “felt” Baby G yet. I have felt some flutterings but can’t discern if it is just gas or things moving around in there or actually the Baby…or lastly again it’s my mind playing tricks on me which is entirely possible. I haven’t looked at any Baby stuff yet – still feel it’s too early in the whole process. I have, however, made some Pregnancy Books purchases from Amazon. I am skipping around them all and they did come in handy when I had my little spotting scare. Though honestly, one book gave me no information, one scared the crap out of (“What to expect when you are expecting!”), and the other was actually very helpful (“The Pregnancy Bible”). In any case, I enjoy reading the week-by-week books since it’s cool to find out what’s happening with baby. :)

Since work has been so busy and I don’t usually take naps during the day, I crash pretty darn early…like 8pm early. It is actually quite pathetic. I adopted this early bedtime during the height of “morning sickness” where I was just tired of feeling so sick that eventually I figured going to sleep might give me some relief. Now, I do it partly for the initial reason and also cuz after a full work-day I am just tired and need to sleep. I am trying to take my prenatal vitamins again so I can get the right amount of iron in me to hopefully keep away any potential anemia. I have been relegated to Flintstones ones for a while there (recommended by Dr H) since they were easier to take while dealing with the all-day nausea. I tried a new “real” prenatal vitamin today since the ones I used to take just don’t become Baby G anymore (meaning – send me invariably to the bathroom for a puking session).

So, that’s the update. We’re doing well. I am trying to worry less and trust that all is as it should be. I am trying to feel more comfortable that this baby will stick and am grateful for the miracle that is growing inside me. Even though the morning sickness has not been pleasant, I’ll endure this and much more if it means that Baby G is well since ultimately that is the most important thing right now – our baby’s well-being.

I hope everyone is doing well out there in the Internet world! Wish us luck at our appointment on Monday and hopefully we continue to good news.

Posted in , , ,  | 2 comments | no trackbacks

Older posts: 1 2 3 4