19 Weeks

I'm getting so big each week now, it's happening so fast! This was taken the day before 19 weeks:

And this was taken the next day:

I'm officially about half way to my c-section! This week has been very easy going. No real aches or pains, just slightly out of breath when I'm moving around too much. I've been able to catch up on cleaning the house and laundry. My maternity clothes are beginning to fit better as my belly grows.

Emily has also been moving around! I don't feel her regularly but at least every other day now I feel a few little jabs or rolls from her. On Monday night I felt her start kicking and had Daddy lay his head on my belly, and to our surprise he actually felt her kick his head a few times! It meant so much to me that he could experience that right now <3. I feel her move the most late at night and early in the morning. At 5:00am this morning I felt her feet kick one side of my belly and her hands punch the other side, like she did a jumping jack in there. I can't believe how much I've missed this feeling.

Daddy and I also found this onesie at the store the other day and it was the only one they had in stock, so we had to buy it. We love our girls so very much <3.

Anatomy Scan!

I would like to formally introduce our perfectly healthy baby girl, Emily Claire <3.

Our anatomy ultrasound looked her over from top to bottom. They looked at her heart, kidneys, brain, bones, umbilical cord, placenta, etc. She was in perfect health in every area, which I am beyond grateful for! Our little Emily weighs in at 9 ounces and is roughly 9 inches long from head to toe, with a heartbeat of 150 BPM. It was very hard to get a good profile picture because she was head down and right next to my hip bone hehe, the poor lady had to really push around it to get a good shot! Also my placenta is looking to be a bit away from my previous c-section scar which was a big concern of mine, so I am very happy to know that it has moved up and away from it.

This scan also helped reduce her odds of having Down Syndrome because they didn't see any issues in her organs (otherwise known as markers). So instead of 1:200 chance, I'm likely to be 1:400 now. I did have my blood taken anyway just to be sure. I should hear back from the lab in about 7-10 days. Whatever the results may be we absolutely love this girl, and are thankful that she is healthy in all areas!

My next real visit will be for another cervix check (it's still looking perfect!) in two weeks. But, if it hasn't changed at all still, I will be going every 3 weeks for checks instead. Eventually I will be tapered off of these checks if all looks good and my ultrasound visits will be less and less as time goes on. I will miss seeing her pretty face so often! I will have my cerclage removed in the office around 36-37 weeks and at that point we will see how soon thereafter will be my c-section date. I am starting to get really excited now!

Oh, back tracking a few days here, at 18 weeks and 2 days (Tuesday) I felt her really kick for the first time! Not once, but FIVE times in a row against my hand! I was a little startled by how strong they were, I didn't expect to feel them like that for a few more weeks! It was a lovely surprise. Soon Daddy will be able to feel her kick too, I hope!

18 Weeks

Sunday marked 4 1/2 months :).

 
I am getting noticeably bigger every week now, and my husband enjoys pointing that out lol! I can no longer fit into any of my jeans comfortably and I have a little bit of a waddle walk. This week has also brought me a LOT of energy, I actually was able to clean the whole kitchen from top to bottom for the first time in months, and it felt great! Baby is doing well and every now and then I get a good thump from her in my belly, but with having an anterior placenta (in the front instead of the usual place on top/in back of the uterus) it makes it much harder to feel movements right now unless they are very strong or out to the side, almost like there is a pillow between her and the outside world. She's gotten me pretty good a few times though so I can't complain <3.

On Thursday we will have our anatomy ultrasound as well as my blood test and third Progesterone shot. I can't wait to see her again!

More Blood Testing

Around my 12th week I had the NT scan and first trimester blood test done for chromosomal abnormalities. My numbers came back a week or so later showing that my chances of the baby having some serious conditions were about 1:5000 (so VERY unlikely), but baby's chances of having Down Syndrome was 1:200ish, which means that they estimate that 1 in every 200 babies COULD have DS. This blood test is kind of notorious for having false positives though so they sent me in for another test two weeks ago to rule out some other issues and check for DS again. The day before yesterday I got a phone call with my results and again, baby is VERY unlikely to have conditions such as Trisomy 13 and 18 and Spina Bifida, but the Down Syndrome numbers are still just under the limit to cause concern. They would like my ratio to be above 1:270, but it is just under at 1:200ish again. According to my blood test I am more in the range of that of a 36 year old woman's risk for DS.

So, even if this is all a false alarm and a slight cause of concern for my genetic counselor we do have a 99.5% chance of NOT having Down Syndrome. The good news is that when I went in for my Progesterone shot I had a long sit down discussion with the genetic counselor. My next blood test is relatively new and will replace the last two, less accurate tests within about a year or two because it is much more accurate. They will take my blood at my next visit on Thursday (along with a cheek swab from Dylan just in case they need it). Apparently, inside the womb, baby continuously sheds skin cells into the amniotic fluid, and the placenta sheds cells that have baby's DNA, which gets absorbed into my blood stream somehow during pregnancy. This blood test will look at my blood and separate my chromosomes from baby's and they will be able to look at all of her chromosomes and especially look at the 21st pair which is where Down Syndrome comes from. If all looks normal, I will get a call a week later saying that I have a less than 1:5000 chance, but if baby does have it, I will be told that there is a greater than 99% chance that she has Down Syndrome. There is no middle ground with this test so it is very accurate.

Dylan and I are not exactly worried about my past results because like I said there is only a 0.5% chance that there is even a problem. We will absolutely love this baby no matter what the result is, there is no question about that! There is a medical concern however if the results come back again positive because babies with DS have roughly a 50% chance for heart defects and may need extra medical attention before and after birth, so we would all like to be prepared if that were the case.

All I can really do in the mean time is continue to keep calm and know that I am in wonderful hands at my specialist's office. They are constantly there for me and have helped ease my worries while keeping us informed about every step we have taken to ensure baby will be born healthy. Hopefully the next test will completely ease our worries <3.

17 Weeks and Mother's Day

I turned 17 weeks on Mother's Day Sunday, and I cannot be more thankful for everything and everyone in my life. My round ligament pains have eased up quite a bit thanks to some walking around that I've been doing, and my belly seems to have really grown in just a week's time.

 
My husband made my day so special, it makes me happy knowing that my happiness makes him happy hehe. He gave me a nice back massage (which I desperately needed!) and then decided to take me out for the day. I indulged in a half-caffeinated coffee from my favorite place and that little bit was beyond tasty since I switched to decaf when I was around 12 weeks, and I'm a coffee freak. Then we picked up my sister in law and we went out to another favorite restaurant of mine for lunch, mmm pizza!

After we ate he took us shopping and had me try on a ton of different maternity clothes. The day before was my first time this pregnancy where my regular pants were just too tight that I needed to wear my maternity shorts, so I was in need of a wardrobe update. I also had a moment just like I did when I went shopping while Evelyn was in the hospital on Mother's Day (2012) and I saw a shirt that said  "Hot Mama" that I loved, and it was the only one of it's kind and happened to be in my size, then I found this shirt yesterday (again, only one they had):

So now I have a shirt for each of my girls to commemorate the special day <3.

Later on after we went shopping at two different stores we met up with my mother in law and showed her our ultrasound DVD since she wasn't able to be with us on Saturday. I didn't realize how sweet the DVD was, we picked out Rockabye Baby Beatle's music to go with it and it was just so perfect. The music brings happy tears to my eyes. After we watched the DVD and gave her our gift we took her out to eat and I had some more yummy food!

On our way home in the car Dylan and I were talking more about picking out a name. We told some family that we liked Kimberly, but I wasn't set on it. My reasoning is that I thought of this name before even getting pregnant, and I do like it but it doesn't seem right for this baby. He agreed though that as pretty as it is he wasn't sure on it either. Then be mentioned the other name that I LOVED that I never even told him, so I think we will be going in a different direction. I won't share, though, until we agree on both a first name and a middle name :).

It's a GIRL!

To my complete surprise, my gut intuition was very wrong this time! We're having another girl!

She was very open about showing us her parts, but she decided to keep her pretty face completely hidden hehe. She was facing my spine and had both hands up on either side of her face, almost as if she were saying, "SHH I'm trying to sleep!" The ultrasound tech told me to try and cough or poke my belly a little to get her to flip over, but she was being stubborn (Me? Have another stubborn little girl? Of course not!). We did get a little peek at the side of her nose and her ears. That's okay, she has lots of photoshoots as it is and deserves a little break!

My husband and I are beyond thrilled with the news. Even though I was hoping for a boy because that was what I felt my gut was telling me, maybe I was just scared to have another girl for some reason. All I know is that this little darling is being well looked after by her big sister and if she were here I know they would be inseparable <3.

One More Day!

Yesterday I had appointments with both of my doctors and they went very well. My first was with my specialist. I was only supposed to have an internal ultrasound to check my stitch but the tech. was very nice and wanted to take a quick look at the baby with a regular ultrasound as well. She said that she feels comfortable telling the gender after 16 weeks, and asked me if she could see anything, would I want to know? My reaction was, "OH YES PLEASE!!" Well, little one decided to be very shy and curled their legs all the way up to their cute little butt. The tech. said that she thinks that baby could be a girl, but she wasn't at all positive. I didn't see the famous three white lines on the screen that would show a girl, and any boy parts could have been tucked away. That's okay though because the scan was only for about 2 minutes which wasn't much time to see more, and tomorrow will be another chance for us all to see :).

Then she did the cervix check and that went well also! I'm still measuring over 4 cm and there is absolutely no change, everything looks healthy. My specialist came in and told us that from now on we won't be discussing measurements because things are looking so good, and unless there is a concerning amount of change I don't need to worry myself over numbers. I'm okay with that :).

I also got the go-ahead to get myself back to my normal activities. I put myself on mostly bed rest for the first trimester to make sure I didn't hurt myself or baby in any way, and was doing a little bit between weeks 11 and 13, and then went on full bed rest from weeks 13+6 until about last week. So, needless to say my muscle tone is pretty much gone hehe. As long as I am continuing to show no changes I will be trying to walk when I can (and rest when I need to) and do some very gentle prenatal yoga at home.

The last part of my visit there was quick. I got my first 17P shot in the behind and that wasn't so bad! The area is sore and the first day it burned quite a bit but now it just feels a little bruised. I also got a vile of blood taken for a second trimester defect screening (I can't remember what it's called).

We then made our way over to my regular OB/GYN and I had a nice visit there as well. I had a new male nurse check for baby's heartbeat (a strong 140+ after breakfast) and he asked me a lot of questions about my pregnancy with Evelyn. We had a long heart-to-heart chat about her pregnancy complications and how we lost her, and he was so kind and supportive to tell me that he has such a good feeling about this pregnancy, that my husband and I are very strong people (I so needed to hear that), and he agreed that she must be watching over this little one. I also learned that his wife is currently pregnant after suffering a miscarriage. It's amazing how sometimes opening up about our loss to strangers leads to a deep conversation and understanding between us about how precious life really is.

Overall my visits made me feel so happy and appreciative that we continue to have good health and fortune with this baby. Only one more day until we (hopefully!) find out what we will be naming our tummy tenant. I'm so excited to see him or her in a 3D ultrasound! The poll is leaning towards boy still at 13 to 8, only time will tell now :).

4 Months!

I'm officially in my fourth month of pregnancy. I'm so excited that every day is a day closer to this baby being born (in October, and not any sooner, you hear me baby?!).

I can no longer wear my jeans without using a hairband to hold them together hehe. My belly is feeling a little hard to the touch now, and my hips and pelvis aches a LOT after any duration of walking, most likely from round ligament pains. I'm still taking it easy though. When it comes to my cerclage I don't even feel it anymore, which is a relief after about two weeks of consciously feeling it. My appetite is out of this world, if it's in front of me, I will most likely be indulging in it! Also I am feeling little squirms here and there from our little one and some thumping but not enough to consider them big kicks just yet :).

Last week I was trying to set up a better time with my specialist for my appointment this week so that Daddy could make it for the gender ultrasound. As it turns out, the people at the front desk who set me up with the appointment were WRONG that this week would include the anatomy ultrasound, and when they asked my specialist he said he would feel more comfortable waiting until 18+ weeks for that scan. I'm not angry with them for being wrong, but I was very annoyed that I had gotten my hopes up for Dylan to be there with me for this one only to find out that I'd be waiting an additional two weeks. My visit this Thursday will only be a cervix check, blood work and my 17P shot.

The good news is that we ended up calling our local Miracle in Progress ultrasound place and they will be giving us a 3D scan this Saturday for the gender! Some family will be there and we will all get to watch this cutie squiggle and squirm and hopefully if they are not shy we will be knowing which name we will be using!

The poll is leaning towards boy, 11 to 7. Only 5 more days until we find out :).

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