Well, I had a doctor's appointment today. Nothing too extraordinary to report. According to the doctor, you can feel my uterus up past my belly button. Thankfully I'm not feeling the baby up quite that high yet, but I'm sure my time is coming. She's certainly been active today and even the doctor said she was hard to keep track of while she was trying to get her heart rate. I, of course, was unsurprised by this since I know full well that this is one active little girl. Her heart rate, by the way, was 156 bpm. This is fairly normal.
Originally, my doctor had wanted me to have blood drawn today because of my history of high blood pressure. However, I also take my blood pressure nearly every night and brought all of those recorded readings in to show the doctor today. Because my blood pressure has been pretty close to normal (120/80), she decided that the blood draw was unneccessary today! Yeah! Unfortunately, she still wants to do the tests, but I'll have to be stuck at my next appointment anyways because it's the dreaded "Glucose Test" appointment. I guess that it was at least nice of her to not have me stuck twice. :)
I'm also happy to report that I had not gained any weight since my last appointment which was at the beginning of the month. I guess the daily walks with my mom (and sometimes dad) and the two times per week of water aerobics must actually be helping. I have also noticed that I have not been able to eat quite as much because someone is squishing my stomach. I'm beginning to think that for weight loss you might always want to have someone squishing your stomach because it certainly forces me to stop eating MUCH sooner!
Mom and I did make it to yet another consignment sale over the weekend. We really only bought more clothes. We also stopped at Once Upon a Child, a local resale shop. On Sunday we ventured down to the Prime Outlets at Jeffersonville. While I certainly spent some more money on the baby, I also splurged a little on myself and bought a dress at GAP and was jean capris from Motherhood Maternity. Hopefully both will make warmer weather a little more bearable down the road. Additionally, I bought some new shirts for Adam to wear while he is biking. I don't think I have previously shared that my crazy husband is taking a week off in June for something he is referring to as his "bike vacation." For the "sane" person, this week of bike riding does not in any way, shape, or form resemble a vacation. But, one of Adam's endearing qualities is his "insanity" in regards to biking. When we met, he was biking an average of 60 miles per day. For the past two weekends, he has begun to return to old habits and biked at least 40 miles for 2 days in a row. This "bike vacation" is actually an organized event called GOBA (Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure) and he'll be biking with a "pack" of riders all around Ohio. I have to admit that I am quite happy to be pregnant because Adam had previously asked me to accompany him on this crazy adventure and I'm sure that as his dutiful wife I would have attempted it. Thankfully, this lovely little gift of a baby girl has saved me from this event. Hopefully she'll be able to save me in the future too! :)
Well, that's really the update around here. We're having Ohio Achievement Tests this week so I've been kept quite busy today making sure all of my students are receiving the proper accomodations so that they can hopefully pass this test. Today was reading and we have math, science, and social studies still to come. Maybe if everyone keeps their fingers crossed it will provide a little extra luck for my students!
Okie-dokie! Take care everyone!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Big baby - not a big surprise!
Well, today I went in for yet another ultrasound. Not surprisingly this little girl was wiggling around again and making it challenging to get her measurements. Today's ultrasound was a medical ultrasound to get measurements and to make sure that baby girl is healthy. Her head, you'll be especially happy to know Amy, is right on target for her current gestational age (20 weeks and 1 day), but in other measurements she is longer and chubbier than expected (21 weeks and 4 days). This could potentially push the due date up to August 24th. Hopefully she'll hang on a little longer than that because I really need to get in at least one day at school and our first teacher day is August 22nd! Oh my goodness!
In addition to actual measurements, we got to take a peek at all of her parts. Her brain looks great. She has both hemispheres of her brain, a perfectly formed cerebellum, a well-formed brain stem, etc. She has all four chambers of her heart. She has ten fingers and ten toes. This is all very good, of course, and pretty exciting.
The only mildly disturbing thing that we also learned today is that I have a fibroid. A fibroid is basically a ball of muscle tissue and grows inside the uterus. These usually grow in women of child bearing age and are typically discovered prior to pregnancy. However, pregnancy can also trigger them to grow (or sometimes shrink) which may be why I've never noticed the fibroid before. Fibroids pose no real risk to the baby and mine is very high up in the uterus which means there is not likely to be a complication with it getting in the way at birth. Plus, at this point it is only about the size of a golf ball. While this sounds alarming, a large fibroid can be as big as a grapefruit! The only real side effect of the fibroid is one that will be an effect to me. They can be quite painful. However, since I don't know anything different, this is baby number 1 after all, I guess I'll just attribute most pains to "normal" pregnancy. The most important thing is that the fibroid should not affect the baby in any way!
Well, nature is calling - or rather baby girl is kicking my bladder and making nature call - so I've got to run. Take care everyone!
In addition to actual measurements, we got to take a peek at all of her parts. Her brain looks great. She has both hemispheres of her brain, a perfectly formed cerebellum, a well-formed brain stem, etc. She has all four chambers of her heart. She has ten fingers and ten toes. This is all very good, of course, and pretty exciting.
The only mildly disturbing thing that we also learned today is that I have a fibroid. A fibroid is basically a ball of muscle tissue and grows inside the uterus. These usually grow in women of child bearing age and are typically discovered prior to pregnancy. However, pregnancy can also trigger them to grow (or sometimes shrink) which may be why I've never noticed the fibroid before. Fibroids pose no real risk to the baby and mine is very high up in the uterus which means there is not likely to be a complication with it getting in the way at birth. Plus, at this point it is only about the size of a golf ball. While this sounds alarming, a large fibroid can be as big as a grapefruit! The only real side effect of the fibroid is one that will be an effect to me. They can be quite painful. However, since I don't know anything different, this is baby number 1 after all, I guess I'll just attribute most pains to "normal" pregnancy. The most important thing is that the fibroid should not affect the baby in any way!
Well, nature is calling - or rather baby girl is kicking my bladder and making nature call - so I've got to run. Take care everyone!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
It's a Baby. . .
GIRL!!!!
I know, I know - she looks a bit strange. She is only 20 weeks old and she is very skinny. Obviously, this will drastically change before she is actually born. At this point, she's just been working on growing a body and getting all of her parts to form. Now that she's got all of her parts she can work on getting fat!
Here you can see a sneak peak of her face, her arms and hands going up towards her face, and a little bit of the umbilical cord twisting its way from the bottom left of the photo. She kept trying to hide her face behind the placenta and she was fairly successful. I'm absolutely amazed that you can see things as clearly as you can. If you ever have a chance to go to a 3-D/4-D ultrasound, I highly recommend it. It's even more exciting to actually be in the room and have the ultrasound technician pointing things out to you.
Here she is flexing her muscles for us! How cool is that! She may not have any fat, but she's got some muscles! You can also make out some of her facial features - bulging eyes, squished up nose, pursed lips, and you can even see the definition of her chin!
Adam, our parents, our siblings, and I are all very excited. This will be the first grand daughter for Adam's parents and, obviously, the first grand baby for my parents. My dad thinks she may be a little spoiled because of this. Oh darn! Adam and I already went out to Babies R' Us last night to add a few more things to the registry and Mom and I are planning a shopping trip out this afternoon. Adam's mom and her sister are taking a shopping trip on Tuesday. She's only half way to being born and she's already the star of the shopping world! Awesome!
Well, hope you all enjoy this as much as Adam and I are! We're actually having another ultrasound, this time a medical one, done on Monday, so I'll probably have more to post then. Take care!
I know, I know - she looks a bit strange. She is only 20 weeks old and she is very skinny. Obviously, this will drastically change before she is actually born. At this point, she's just been working on growing a body and getting all of her parts to form. Now that she's got all of her parts she can work on getting fat!
Here you can see a sneak peak of her face, her arms and hands going up towards her face, and a little bit of the umbilical cord twisting its way from the bottom left of the photo. She kept trying to hide her face behind the placenta and she was fairly successful. I'm absolutely amazed that you can see things as clearly as you can. If you ever have a chance to go to a 3-D/4-D ultrasound, I highly recommend it. It's even more exciting to actually be in the room and have the ultrasound technician pointing things out to you.
Here she is flexing her muscles for us! How cool is that! She may not have any fat, but she's got some muscles! You can also make out some of her facial features - bulging eyes, squished up nose, pursed lips, and you can even see the definition of her chin!
Adam, our parents, our siblings, and I are all very excited. This will be the first grand daughter for Adam's parents and, obviously, the first grand baby for my parents. My dad thinks she may be a little spoiled because of this. Oh darn! Adam and I already went out to Babies R' Us last night to add a few more things to the registry and Mom and I are planning a shopping trip out this afternoon. Adam's mom and her sister are taking a shopping trip on Tuesday. She's only half way to being born and she's already the star of the shopping world! Awesome!
Well, hope you all enjoy this as much as Adam and I are! We're actually having another ultrasound, this time a medical one, done on Monday, so I'll probably have more to post then. Take care!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Costly Kitty: A Child Preparation Lesson?
On Sunday night around 8:00 pm, our middle kitty, Parry, started getting sick. This sickness continued about every 15 minutes throughout the night and into the next morning. Parry couldn't keep anything down - food or water. This had happened to Parry once before. At that time he had been diagnosed with something called Megacolon. Basically this means that Parry's colon doesn't work correctly to help him get rid of his solid waste.
Adam graciously agreed to take Parry to the vet on Monday morning. This delayed Adam's plans for the day and made him have to delay his cycling later in the day. However, Adam put the needs of the sick kitty ahead of his own desires. (Won't he make a great dad?) Adam then waited and waited for the vet to call him on his cell phone so that we could figure out what was going on with Parry. When the vet finally called (around noon) they said that they had done an x-ray and Parry's intestinal tract and colon were about 75% blocked with hard, non-moving solid waste. She said that they would be giving Parry several enemas and a laxative and hopefully be able to get things moving. She said she would call again around 5 pm to update us.
The vet did call again around 5 pm on Monday night, but she did not call with good news. Parry had still not been able to pass any of his waste. She said they would be giving him another kitty enema and then keeping him over night for observation. (Lord willing we will never have this same problem with our own child!) She said that she would call again the next morning and update us.
On Tuesday morning the vet called Adam to tell him that Parry had still not been able to pass anything and the next step was to sedate him and manually remove the blockage. Without any other options, Adam made the decision to go ahead and permit this next step. (Unfortunately Adam forgot to ask about the cost of this procedure, but cost becomes somewhat irrelevant when you're dealing with someone you love, right?) The vet said she would call again later to update us. She called around 2:30 pm to say that Parry had come out of surgery but would need to stay the night again so they could continue to monitor him.
At this point I did a great deal of research on the internet about Megacolon. I learned that there is no known cause for this disorder and that there are a great deal of medications that cats can take that can help eliminate some of the problem. I had a little fear because one of the medicines, Propulsid (cisapride) had been removed from the human drug market for causing heart arrythmias. I made sure to note this so I could ask about it when we got to see Parry and the vet. I also learned about some of the other medications and how they work to treat this disorder.
On Wednesday morning we got a call from the vet saying that Parry was doing quite well and had actually eaten some of his food. The day passed and we got to actually meet with the vet when we picked Parry up at 5:00 pm. I asked her all of my questions and she thought I was a pharmacist because of all the medicine questions I asked. I explained that I was not a pharmacist, just a concerned "mommy."
In the end, this whole business was an expense, but not as much of one as we had anticipated. We also learned a little bit more about the sacrifices that we will undoubtedly be making in the years to come.
Only 2 more days until we find out if the baby is a boy or a girl! I'm sure I'll post again soon!
Adam graciously agreed to take Parry to the vet on Monday morning. This delayed Adam's plans for the day and made him have to delay his cycling later in the day. However, Adam put the needs of the sick kitty ahead of his own desires. (Won't he make a great dad?) Adam then waited and waited for the vet to call him on his cell phone so that we could figure out what was going on with Parry. When the vet finally called (around noon) they said that they had done an x-ray and Parry's intestinal tract and colon were about 75% blocked with hard, non-moving solid waste. She said that they would be giving Parry several enemas and a laxative and hopefully be able to get things moving. She said she would call again around 5 pm to update us.
The vet did call again around 5 pm on Monday night, but she did not call with good news. Parry had still not been able to pass any of his waste. She said they would be giving him another kitty enema and then keeping him over night for observation. (Lord willing we will never have this same problem with our own child!) She said that she would call again the next morning and update us.
On Tuesday morning the vet called Adam to tell him that Parry had still not been able to pass anything and the next step was to sedate him and manually remove the blockage. Without any other options, Adam made the decision to go ahead and permit this next step. (Unfortunately Adam forgot to ask about the cost of this procedure, but cost becomes somewhat irrelevant when you're dealing with someone you love, right?) The vet said she would call again later to update us. She called around 2:30 pm to say that Parry had come out of surgery but would need to stay the night again so they could continue to monitor him.
At this point I did a great deal of research on the internet about Megacolon. I learned that there is no known cause for this disorder and that there are a great deal of medications that cats can take that can help eliminate some of the problem. I had a little fear because one of the medicines, Propulsid (cisapride) had been removed from the human drug market for causing heart arrythmias. I made sure to note this so I could ask about it when we got to see Parry and the vet. I also learned about some of the other medications and how they work to treat this disorder.
On Wednesday morning we got a call from the vet saying that Parry was doing quite well and had actually eaten some of his food. The day passed and we got to actually meet with the vet when we picked Parry up at 5:00 pm. I asked her all of my questions and she thought I was a pharmacist because of all the medicine questions I asked. I explained that I was not a pharmacist, just a concerned "mommy."
In the end, this whole business was an expense, but not as much of one as we had anticipated. We also learned a little bit more about the sacrifices that we will undoubtedly be making in the years to come.
Only 2 more days until we find out if the baby is a boy or a girl! I'm sure I'll post again soon!
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