Halfway Done!!!

Woo hoo! I made it to the 20 week mark! So excited...that means it's all "downhill" from here! And can I just say that while I may not be the biggest fan of my Dr (no, I can't change and no I didn't pick her) I LOVE my Nurse Practitioner. She is, in a word, awesome! When I asked my Dr. about weight gain, she responded with "my patients only gain 20lbs on average." Ok, according to the National Institute of Medicine, women who are overweight should gain 15-25lbs, and obese should gain 11-20lbs. I am neither overweight or obese. In fact, pre-pregnancy, I was at the low end of the "normal" BMI weight range. So, according to the NIM, I should gain between 25-35lbs. My Dr. didn't even take into consideration my case...and the number she gave me is not applicable to my height/weight/BMI. So, when I asked my NP about this (did I mention I love her) she said that based on my height/weight pre-pregnancy, I should gain around 30lbs. And I'm right on track for that. Good.

At my last ultrasound they also saw a soft marker for Down's. This raised the risk from 1/2400 to 1/1200. At that point my Dr. immediately started trying to discuss amnios with me.  Ben and I already agreed that we will not do an amnio. When I talked to my NP, she said not to worry about it...that 1/1200 is less than a 1/10 of a percent chance, so essentially nothing to worry about. She also said that since they started looking for the soft marker they saw on my ultrasound, 75% of the patients she sees have it. And their babies are fine. Great.

Finally, in a little less than 2 months I get to go in twice a week for monitoring. Basically I go in, sit in a recliner with monitors strapped to my belly checking for contractions. Good thing I've got a Kindle...at least I won't be bored!

And now for will power to kick in.

So, had my anatomy scan today. Everything looks great...and our little guy or gal gave us the thumbs up!

 

Now here's the hard part: waiting for  Ben to get home so that we can find out the sex! The tech did put those pictures into a sealed envelope for me, so I have it sitting in my house taunting me, daring me to open it early and then attempt to re-close so no one would know. Right...I'd like to think I'm that smooth. I know that if I tried it would all go horribly wrong...paper would rip, and with my luck somehow the pictures would get damaged to the point where there is no hiding the fact that I opened the envelope. I'd better play it safe and not open it, but that doesn't mean it will be easy!

 

On another note...the Dr. thinks I may have a kidney stone, thus explaining the pain I've been in. If that is the case...I'm kind of SOL. I just have to wait it out and deal with it. OK, fine...but the thing there is that even if I did get better pain killers, the way this pain has been going by the time they kicked in the pain would be gone. I can't even try to preempt the pain, because I never know when it's coming on!

Ow. Ow ow ow ow ow.

So, I woke up at 3am Saturday morning in EXCRUCIATING pain coming from the general area of my right kidney. Of course, my first thought was: Kidney Infection. Wonderful. I knew Monkey was OK, because I could/can feel him/her moving around like crazy. Yay for finally feeling fetal movement! I went to the restroom, thinking that may alleviate some of the pain. Nope. It lasted for 10-15 minutes, and it was so bad that I seriously thought I was going to throw up. The pain from my miscarriage, when they essentially put me into labor with medications, wasn't that bad. I was sweaty, couldn't stop moving, and GOING to throw up. Then, suddenly, it faded away. This lovely episode repeated itself 3 more times: at 4am, 5am, and 7am. Each time I went to the restroom, drank some water, and dealt with it. After talking to  Ben  I finally decided to call the Dr.'s answering service around 10am when I was still having pain, although nowhere near how bad it had been.

When I heard back from the Dr (who I had seen 2 weeks before) she a) didn't remember me...not surprising, her interpersonal skills aren't the best and b) told me (after I told her everything) that she suspected a mild kidney infection, but since I don't have any other symptoms, like a burning sensation when using the restroom or a fever, to keep EXTREMELY hydrated and keep my bladder empty. My instructions are to keep doing that, and as long as the symptoms don't get worse and/or I don't develop a fever, I should be OK until my appointment on Wednesday. I seriously hope that I get some relief then, because this HURTS. It's not as bad as the first night, but definitely still happening.

Ready For a New Week!

This week has been LOOOONG! And it's not over yet! It's not even that I didn't have things to do...there have been (and still are) lots of phone calls to make, meetings to go to, business to sort out, etc etc etc, and it's not all done yet. However, it's been one of those weeks where I constantly feel like it should be a day further (ie Wednesday feels like Thursday etc). So I REALLY feel like today is Friday, but it's not.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the "big" prenatal appointment is next Wednesday, the 22nd. Of course, I won't know the sex of the baby after that one...that information will be given to me in a sealed envelope so that  Ben and I can open it together when he gets home. It's my choice, but that doesn't mean that waiting is easy! I really want to know so that I can start shopping and making things...less than a month more wait won't kill me, right?

Why do so many people have trouble with spelling/grammar?

I'm starting to worry for the future of children when it comes to spelling and grammar. For one thing, people can't spell. At all. Example: "Loosing" is not the word you want when you cannot find something. Same goes for "Loose". I think you mean "Losing" or "lose."  Why is that so hard. I have also seen "starring" for "staring" and "werid" for "weird" (my husband is guilty of that one. We have decided that I will be the English Homework Helper for our children). I also get tired of people using "text speak" when writing about things and they are not text messaging. I'm sorry, but I cannot read "Ur kdng me. Thts crzy. U shld try sumthng dffrnt." It takes me at least twice as long to read that as it takes me to read "You're kidding me. That's crazy. You should try something else." Not to mention it kind of makes me think you don't know how to spell and use "text speak" to cover it up. And please, please, PLEASE learn to use punctuation. I have seen people type an ENTIRE paragraph (anywhere from 4-10 sentences long) and not use one single form of punctuation once. Here's a thought: I can't understand what you are saying if there is no differentiation between one thought and the next. If I can't understand you, I will not respond. Period.

Oh, and "I seen _____ the other day" is not correct. FYI.

Or maybe it's just me!

Oh, and why do people insist on calling a pregnant woman "preggers" or "preggo?" I am not a spaghetti sauce, thank you very much!!

I know that I cannot say these things to the people who do them every time it comes up, but seriously? Our children are doomed.

Cervix and Heartbeats and Gas, Oh My!!!

I had my second perinatologist appointment today. It's a busy office, so I consider myself lucky that that I was only there for 2 hours. I had my cervical evaluation first. This was what was going to determine if I am allowed to exercise again or not. The verdict: All's good, go for a walk! YAY! I've been really feeling this whole no exercise thing, so starting tomorrow I'm back on the bandwagon (well, walking at least LOL). I also discovered that based on the last ultrasound I had they moved my due date from Feb 20, 2011 to Feb16, 2011. That means I'm a full 4 days farther along than I thought, so today I'm 16 weeks instead of 15 weeks 3 days! Almost done with month 4!

We also looked at Monkey and the heartbeat (although it's not like I haven't been listening to it every day with my own doppler anyway!). Official heart rate: 154bpm...all's good. Of course Monkey was standing on it's head...the first view we got was of the back of a skull and the spine! We eventually got some pictures, but none of them are super clear. In the picture you can clearly see the spine and back/side of Monkey's head.

Of course, they gave me pictures, but they're all pretty bad quality. Because this is mostly back view, you can only see a little section of one arm. The legs are all bunched up in front of Monkey, so this picture looks like it has no legs, but I assure you, they are there!

Then on to blood work. You would think that once I answer all the standard questions once, I wouldn't have to answer them again. After all, if they would just look it's all in my chart. But no...we went through it all again. To the point where she verified that I was Caucasian. She's new. My blood pressure was at 120/70...good. Weight...well, I'm at 10lbs, but now that I can exercise hopefully I'll slow the train down a little. If not, maybe I can at least stay somewhat toned!

I wasn't super impressed with the Dr. I saw today. She seemed rushed and not very invested. She did answer my questions, but as I asked she kept edging toward the door...I mean, I get that there are a lot of patients to see, but really? She didn't even let me get through all the questions! No biggie...my next appointment is in 3 weeks, and when I see my Nurse Practitioner (who is awesome) I'll ask her.

Now, apparently one thing my body has decided to hate is dairy. Grrr. I love ice cream and cheese, and cook with cheese a lot (I know, not the best thing, but it's so yummy!). I had ice cream last night...10 minutes after I finished I had gas pains that almost had me in tears. Tonight...chicken chili with cheese. Same deal. I think tomorrow I'm going to drink a glass of milk (ick, but I have to test the theory) and see what happens.

Next appointment I *could* know what Monkey is, but I'm having the results put in a sealed envelope so that B and I can open them together when he gets home. It's going to be a long stretch between now and then...willpower needs to be there, or else I'll fail!