Randomness (28w5d)

Holy cow! I seriously did not realize how long it has been since I have updated! I haven't forgotten about all of you or blogging, it just seems the days go by so fast and by the end of the day I am totally exhausted. Since I seem unable to form a coherent paragraph I will do my update in a list form:

• All continues to go well with baby Noah. He is most active at night and still breech with his head just under my ribs on the left and feet firmly lodged into my bladder. I REALLY want him to turn! It is much easier for others to feel him kick when he isn't kicking my bladder. For now though it seems he likes this position. Lets just hope he decides to turn before the big day!
• The last couple times I have went to the doctor I have been measuring two weeks ahead. I have another doctors appointment so we will see if I am still measuring ahead. The funny thing is in the last two weeks I haven't gained any weight at all. The doctor isn't concerned though so neither am I.
• We had our first growth u/s on Thursday. All looks well and baby was measuring 2 lbs. 14 oz. and was measuring 27w5d which was actually a couple days behind. I will ask my doctor but I don't think it is a big deal for him to be measuring a few days behind.
• I have been having some serious indigestion and heartburn over the past two weeks which is making it difficult to follow my diet because the things I am supposed to eat give me heartburn. For example, I have found that if I eat anything other than eggs and some sort of meat for breakfast my sugar goes up. However, I have been unable to eat eggs because they give me terrible heartburn. I'm not talking about mild heartburn and indigestion, I'm talking about pain and pressure so severe in my chest that it travels into my neck and jaw and makes me feel like I'm having a heart attack. This usually is the worst at night which makes it very difficult to sleep. I have been taking the Zantac and I am up to two pills a day and I am only supposed to take one a day. Even the two a day isn't enough and I am miserable half the day. I have an appointment today at 11:30 and I'm going to ask the doctor if there is another medication I can take. The only thing my tummy can tolerate is bread which is a big no no for me.
• It is less than a month until my shower and I am so excited! I actually hate baby showers (what infertile doesn't) but I guess because this one is for me it is different. I just cant wait to see everyone and celebrate our little one and I can wait to see all of the cute items that we get for him. Shawn's close family is having a private shower for us also because they said they bought too many items and didn't want to make the guests of the big shower sit through me opening all of their gifts. I'm a little behind on finishing the diaper cake centerpieces so I will be working hard on them this week so that we can decorate them.
• We have done absolutely nothing to get our house ready for the baby yet. The nursery is still currently a storage room and the "litter box room." It's just one of those things that I was afraid to do for fear of "jinxing" myself. But now I realize it's time to get moving. We will need to have a spot to store all of our shower goodies soon. So this weekend we will empty the room and shampoo the carpet. We don't really have anything to put in there yet. We are still waiting for the crib which should be in in the next couple of weeks. We have a changing table that we are sanding down to stain to match the crib and we still have to purchase a dresser. Seems like we have so much to do!
• I have some belly pictures but I have to get them off the camera. I also plan to take before/after pictures of the nursery.

That's really all I have for now. When I look at my ticker and see that I only have 79 days until my due date I begin to freak out a bit! I will update again today after my doctor's appointment.

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Double Digits!

Today I am 27 weeks pregnant and according to some sites I am in my third trimester. So I’m calling it the start of my third trimester today! We celebrated this morning by doing something that I have been putting off for a while. I took my left over Follistim (two 600iu cartridges, unopened) and a few vials of leftover Menopur to my fertility clinic and donated them. I was so nervous about giving up the meds but they expire in December and I knew that someone else would be able to use them. They promised me that they will give them to someone who needed it financially. It was also good to see everyone at the fertility clinic that I had grown to know and love. I felt nervous about going in there with a pregnant belly but I hope that the people that were there saw it as a sign of hope and not something to hurt them. I guess I just wanted to make sure I didn’t hurt anyone. But I guess they don’t know my story, they don’t know that we tried for almost six years for this little miracle. I also got to see my doctor who came out just to say hi. I brought some ultrasound pictures to show him. When I left, I left in tears. It’s not easy to forget all of the times that I left that office devastated due to a cancelled cycle or a negative beta. But this time was different, I have a warm feeling when I visit, because if not for them my little Noah wouldn’t be bopping around in my belly. I am thrilled to be where we are. I’m not going to lie, I’m still scared something could go wrong, but I’m starting to get used to the idea that this little miracle might actually come to meet us in 10-13 weeks. We have another ultrasound scheduled for October 23rd. It’s a growth ultrasound to make sure that baby isn’t getting too big because of the diabetes. I will be having growth ultrasounds every three weeks or so. I will also be starting NSTs sometime soon. All in all I feel pretty good. My belly is sore feeling which I guess is from the growing and stretching. I am also feeling some BH contractions (at least that is what the doctor said they are) a few times a day. Usually I feel them at night but I did have some this morning too. Noah is still breech because I feel all of his kicks directly on my cervix or bladder (hurts!) Every now and then I feel a punch up high and yesterday when he was bouncing trampoline style on my cervix I could feel his head in my upper belly. So weird! I have some pictures to post (belly pics) but I have to get them off of the camera. I have nothing to compare it to since our other camera was stolen but I will try to take them every week. My MIL is mailing out m shower invites this week so I am really going to start registry stalking like crazy! Well, I wish I had more to say, I’m not doing much but working and getting ready for our dinner theatre at church. I continue to follow all of your blogs and try to comment when I can. I will try to post some pics in the next couple of days.

25w2d

I know, my title sucks, seriously, I can never think of a creative title. Well, as the title says we are now in our 25th week. Almost to the third trimester! Craziness! Baby Noah is still doing great, bopping around like crazy. He is definitely a night owl just like his Daddy. He doesn't really wake up until around 10 or so and is busy as can be at 11 at night. I love watching my belly wiggle and I love seeing the look on Shawn's face when baby gives him a swift kick in the palm. I still feel like I am living a dream. I have to convince myself that I really am pregnant and there is actually a baby in there. I still find myself surrounded by the same fears though. I'm still fearful something is going to happen to the baby. I know that I am doing the right things though and that ultimately it is all in God's hands. I have finally gotten my blood sugars under control. My fasting numbers are still high so we are still adjusting my evening insulin but as far as after meal sugars go they have been great! I have cut bread out of my breakfast and that seems to have done the trick. If I start out with good numbers after breakfast everything else seems to follow unless I eat something very carb heavy. I'm actually really proud of myself. I have never been able to follow a diet. Hopefully after baby is born I can continue to eat this way. I have only gained 12 pounds so far since the beginning of the pregnancy and I think that is pretty good for me. So far my fears of exploding into a huge fatty haven't been realized, lets hope I can keep it that way. I'm feeling pretty good. My back hasn't been giving me much trouble which is great. I'm still feeling pretty tired by the end of the day and the house still isn't as clean as I would like it. Now I have come down with some sort of cold and I am feeling pretty awful. Right now it seems to be a sore throat and a "sick feeling." This usually turns into a chest cold for me so lets hope it doesn't this time.

Last Friday Shawn and I got an unwelcome surprise in the form of a knock on our front door at 6a.m. It was our neighbor to tell us that his car and ours had been broken into over the night. They didn't steal anything from our neighbor's car but they did however steal our digital camera which we stupidly left in the car. I was so upset! It wasn't a cheap camera, it was a $600 camera! It still had the pictures from our day trip as well as several belly pictures. Images that I will never get back again. We did file a claim with our homeowners insurance but we have a $500 deductible so we only got less than $100 back for the camera. So now we have no camera at all! Luckily, MIL will let us borrow her small digital camera. All in all, I'm glad they didn't break into our house but it still pisses me off!

Well, that's about it for now!

24 Weeks & 6 Years

No, I don’t mean it has been 6 years since I have posted (although it seems like it.) Again, I apologize for the lack of posting. I have been so busy at work and exhausted by the time that I get home that I haven’t had much energy to sit down and type a post. Nothing exciting is going on here, same old same old. We hit 24 weeks yesterday! I had a bit of a stomach virus yesterday so I had to call out of work. I ended up sleeping all day and I feel better now. Baby Noah is moving around like crazy and his kicks are getting stronger and stronger. I have noticed his “busy time” seems to be in the evening from about 7 to 11 p.m. he kicks during the day but is really active at night. I hope this is no indication of his sleep pattern when he is born but I have a feeling it is. Shawn is now able to feel him move from the outside and he gets the most amazed look on his face when he does. It is so cute! I have also noticed that he prefers the left side and sometimes when he sleeps my belly is lopsided to the left! My blood sugars are doing okay. We have had to continue to adjust the insulin and will probably have to do so throughout the whole pregnancy but the doctor said even though my levels are higher than normal they are still pretty good compared to other people. At my last appointment I asked my OB what the future holds as far as any tests that need to be done. She said that I will have a growth u/s every 3 weeks to make sure baby isn’t getting too big or not growing enough. We will continue to do them every 3 weeks unless they notice he is not growing properly and then they will do them more often. I will also be doing an NST at every visit from here on out to check on baby’s well being. I’m not sure what this entails so if anyone has had one and wants to share their experiences let me know. I can’t believe how close we are to the third trimester! I hope and pray that everything continues to go as well as it has been. I know it hasn’t been perfect but I’ll take it!

I also found out my shower date is November 22nd! I am so excited! My MIL let me look over the guest list and she is inviting about 70 people! My bridal shower was huge and it was loads of fun so I am sure the baby shower will be the same. Someone or several someones have already purchased our entire nursery set! I told my MIL that the shower doesn’t need to be co-ed but I want it to be a shower for both Shawn and I. I want Shawn to be a part of it because it is just as much his baby as it is mine. Plus, if there is going to be 60-70 people there I will need help opening gifts. I also told my MIL that I will help her make the center pieces. She is planning on doing a diaper cake with a different theme for each of the tables. She showed me the invites (there isn’t much about this shower that is a surprise but that’s the way I wanted it) and they are Noah’s Arc theme, too cute! I suggested the diaper lottery as a game (each person bring a pack of diapers and enters their guess for the birth date and wins a prize if they get it right) but my MIL wants to do the thing where you ask people to bring books instead of cards. I would much rather have the diapers than the books but she is planning the shower so I didn’t say anything. Either way it will be great and I love to read so I will have lots to read to the baby.

Shawn and I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary on September 14th. That also marked 6 years since we began trying to have a baby. We didn’t really do much to celebrate and we never get each other gifts. We did take a day trip this Saturday and that was nice. First we went to Arlington cemetery and took some pictures of some of my family member’s graves for my family tree. Then we went to Mt. Vernon (the place where Washington lived and is now buried) and toured the house and the grounds. It was nice to get out of the house for a change. This weekend will be an in the house weekend though because our house is a mess due to my laziness and needs a serious cleaning! We also need to start emptying out Noah’s room to shampoo the carpets and clean out the closet so when the furniture arrives we will have somewhere to put it. Right now the room serves as storage and the “litter box room.”

Well, that’s about it for now, I wish I had more to say. I will definitely try to post more often. If you could, let me know you are still reading so I know I still have some readers out there somewhere!

22 Weeks & Ultrasound Results

Wow, we had a busy day today! We had two different ultrasounds done today. For the first ultrasound we had to travel to the University of Maryland Fetal Care Center to have the fetal echo done. Noah was his usual anwry self and was stubborn when it came to showing the tech what she needed to see. But after a stern talking to from me (and me doing a couple of jumping jacks for good measure) he finally decided to behave. The tech said that all of his little parts look perfect and his heart looks perfect too! He is still currently breech, sitting head up, feet down. His little head is up by my belly button and his little feet, ankles crossed, are sitting directly on my cervix (which explains the pain when he kicks.) We also learned that he weighs one pound! The second ultrasound that we had was at Kaiser and was a follow-up to the "big" ultrasound. This tech was much much nicer and did let Shawn in the room. She also explained everything she saw and what she was doing. Noah was wired during this ultrasound and moved all over the place! He kicked me several times in the cervix during the ultrasound which made me jump off the table and scare the crap out of the ultrasound tech. He waved his little hand at us and let us see his little fingers and his little feet (too cute!) He also let all three techs that looked at him see his "boy parts" so he is definitely a boy! I will have to go back to the Fetal Care Center every month for ultrasounds to keep track of his growth but for now everything looks perfect. Anyway, I know you really came here to see pictures so here they are:
This first one is a picture of his "boy parts." It was much clearer when they were showing it on the screen but you get the idea.
This one is a picture of his face looking forward. You can see his little eye sockets and nose.

This one is a picture of his little legs and feet. You can see his thigh to the right of your screen and his little ankle and feet to the left. Too cute!

This one is one of my favorites! This is a picture of one of his little legs and foot. He was hugging the placenta like a pillow and if you look closely you can see his little fingers too!

This is a profile shot. Hopefully this one is self explanatory.

This is another profile shot. If you look closely you can see that his mouth is slightly open almost like he is smiling, you can also see a little leg too!

Here is one more profile shot of the little one with his arm above his head.

What else can I say ladies, I am so in love!

21 Weeks Down, 19 to Go!

Wow, I can’t believe we are already half way through this pregnancy. Sometimes when I look back it seems that it has taken forever and other times it seems like it has flown by. So you’re probably wondering what I have been up to lately? I’m not even sure if I have any readers left, I have been a crappy blogger and I know it. It’s hard because I am no longer doing treatments and I don’t have anything to talk about other than the pregnancy. Do all of you continually want to hear about that? My life just isn’t that exciting right now. However, in the event that you do care about my boring existence (and I hope someone does) here is what has been going on with me:

I’m feeling okay other than the back issues which I expect to have throughout the whole pregnancy. I have been feeling baby Noah kick stronger and stronger. Since about 19 weeks it went from teenie tiny taps to thumps. I still can’t feel him from the outside but I can’t really be sure because he never kicks in the same spot twice. He is a busy bee! I can’t wait until Shawn can feel it! It is the most amazing feeling in the world and I am in awe every single time that there is a living being inside of me. It feels so odd to feel something moving inside of you. I also think he likes to sleep curled up on the left side because I can often feel stretching or tightening on the left side and then I will have a small hard lump on my left side.

As far as the GD goes my sugars have been running a little high for my fasting sugars and also the one after breakfast. I saw my OB on Friday and he bumped up my insulin in the evening and also added 5 units to the mornings right before I eat. So now I am up to 2 shots a day. Not fun but I’m not complaining because I am thankful that everything else seems to be going well. I have to get a special ultrasound done on September 10th called a fetal echo. I believe it is an ultrasound specifically to look at the baby’s heart. The reason I have to get the ultrasound done is because of the GD. I am hoping that they look at other parts of the baby as well because I really want some updated pictures and a confirmation that he really is a boy since our “big” ultrasound was nothing but a “big” disappointment. I will feel much better when I know all is well with his heart because he has never been in a favorable position for them to check out his little heart.

I had my first (and hopefully last) unexpected visit to the L&D at 19w6d. I began having some tightening pains throughout the day that were becoming increasingly painful. I called my OB around 4:30 and they said that because they were about to close I had to go to L&D. They hooked me up to a contraction monitor and although I could continually feel the pains nothing at all was showing up on the monitor so I have no idea what the pains were and I haven’t had them since. They also did an internal (I HATE these things, they are painful as hell!) which showed my cervix was still nice and closed. They did a quickie u/s just to check the baby’s heartbeat. I didn’t get to see anything except for cute little feet and a beating heart. The most annoying part of the whole visit was waiting in the waiting room with a young couple who had to be the most annoying people in the world. I didn’t feel good and really didn’t feel like “chatting it up” with a pregnant college co-ed and her annoying boyfriend. She was there because her “calves hurt.” The boyfriend was asking us all kinds of questions and it took everything I had to not tell them to take their fertile asses over to the corner and leave me the hell alone. They acted like they were on a trip to the zoo or something, “oh, look at this” “look at that.” In the end I’m glad it all turned out fine and I hope that the next time I am there is not until baby is ready to come out.

I also found myself on “the other side of the fence” recently. It wasn’t so long ago that the sight of a pregnant woman would send me into an emotional tailspin and unfortunately I was the source of someone else’s pain recently. Shawn and I met some friends at the Fair a couple of weeks ago and Shawn’s friend’s wife’s sister (you got that all that right?) When we were walking around the sister suddenly burst into tears and rushed off. We had no idea why she was upset and I didn’t find out until about a week later. Apparently the sister and her husband were recently told that the only way they could have a baby was to do IVF. I don’t know the specifics but I do know it had something to do with her husband. Apparently my pregnancy made her upset and she had to rush off. No one in her family knew anything about them having problems conceiving and didn’t find out until they questioned her about why she was upset. It made me sad to know that my pregnancy could cause someone else pain. I guess I just always assumed that somehow because it took us so long that people would automatically know. Maybe I should get a tattoo or wear a shirt?

Lastly, we finally ordered our nursery furniture. We went back up to the Amish store and ordered it. It is made of oak and will be hand made just for our little one! They said it will be ready in 10-12 weeks which I think is perfect timing.