Praise God! I had an ultrasound yesterday to measure Baby, and he/she's gained a whole pound in the last 2 weeks, putting us in the 15th percentile!!! Baby now weighs around 3 lbs. (up from 2 lbs.) and is in the normal range, which means no more specialist appointments. We loved that doctor's office, but we're glad we don't need to go back. Just in case you needed a reminder: God still answers prayers, and this is a great example of that. Whether or not you've been praying with us, take a moment today and thank God for helping Baby to grow. I always tend to run to Him in the hard times, but a goal of mine in the last few years is to thank Him for all His provisions and blessings as well. We have so much to be thankful for!
Oh, and the funny part? The ultrasound tech said that it's the baby's head that helped so much with the weight gain! Thank you to all you mothers out there who just gave a sympathetic groan. What can I say? We did pray for a growth spurt!
Next regular OB check-up: today (Thursday, Jan. 22nd). We'll be back on the 2-week appointment schedule from now until the last month.
Thanks to everyone who reads our blog (or "stalks" the blog, as a few of you have told me you do) :)
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Baby Shower, Appointment Update, and Nursery Pictures
Where to start? Wow! What a busy week. I'll start with last Sunday, with our church baby shower. We feel SO incredibly blessed by all the people that came, and we now have so many wonderful things to put in the nursery and use when Baby comes. I have had way too much fun organizing things (nesting anyone?) and have gone to bed too late a few nights, but it's a blast. Thank you again to all of you who brought us gifts and to those who mailed them. We love you all! And thanks to Beth (Davey's aunt), Whitney and Julie (sister-in-laws) for making us feel so loved and special by hosting the whole thing. Your servant hearts are amazing.
This past Wednesday (Jan. 14th) we went for our weekly appointment and ultrasound at the specialist. Everything looked great (heart beat, cord blood flow, practice breathing) and the doctor said we'll do measurements next week to see the growth progress. They don't do them every week because it's not enough time in between to get a good idea of the change. I know that this kid is definitely getting stronger based on the movement I feel. And Baby gets hiccups a few times a day now which we found out is really practice breathing - another sign that Baby is doing great.
I came home from work on Thursday and noticed the nursery light on (Davey did this on purpose because he knows I obsessively turn lights off, and if I saw it on, I'd go in there). Well, he had put the rocking chair together as a surprise! We'd picked it up the day before along with the changing table. I had assembled the changing table (Davey helped but said I looked like I was having fun doing it myself so he didn't interfere :) but figured we wouldn't have time to get the rocking chair done before he left to go out of town. So, you can imagine my surprise when I saw it sitting there. Of course, that motivated me to move things around and do more organizing. Can you tell I love this? Here are the latest pictures of the progress. I still have to hang pictures and put things away, but it looks pretty good for now considering I'm not due for another 10 weeks. Speaking of which, it's crazy that I'm 30 weeks pregnant this weekend! Even though our due date gets closer and closer, I still don't think it really seems real that we'll actually have a son or daughter sleeping in this room before we know it.
This past Wednesday (Jan. 14th) we went for our weekly appointment and ultrasound at the specialist. Everything looked great (heart beat, cord blood flow, practice breathing) and the doctor said we'll do measurements next week to see the growth progress. They don't do them every week because it's not enough time in between to get a good idea of the change. I know that this kid is definitely getting stronger based on the movement I feel. And Baby gets hiccups a few times a day now which we found out is really practice breathing - another sign that Baby is doing great.
I came home from work on Thursday and noticed the nursery light on (Davey did this on purpose because he knows I obsessively turn lights off, and if I saw it on, I'd go in there). Well, he had put the rocking chair together as a surprise! We'd picked it up the day before along with the changing table. I had assembled the changing table (Davey helped but said I looked like I was having fun doing it myself so he didn't interfere :) but figured we wouldn't have time to get the rocking chair done before he left to go out of town. So, you can imagine my surprise when I saw it sitting there. Of course, that motivated me to move things around and do more organizing. Can you tell I love this? Here are the latest pictures of the progress. I still have to hang pictures and put things away, but it looks pretty good for now considering I'm not due for another 10 weeks. Speaking of which, it's crazy that I'm 30 weeks pregnant this weekend! Even though our due date gets closer and closer, I still don't think it really seems real that we'll actually have a son or daughter sleeping in this room before we know it.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Baby Update, A Few Pictures, and Thoughts on Being in the 3rd Trimester (wow!)
Today we saw the high-risk doctor, the perinatologist. They did another ultrasound and checked Baby's growth. Baby's heart rate was great, and the cord blood flow looked great as well. Also, we were able to see the baby "practice breathing" which is something they do in the womb. The only thing to take into the lungs now is amniotic fluid, but it gets them ready to breathe air later. The tech said that was a great thing to see because it's usually hard to catch that on an ultrasound. We could actually see the baby's chest cavity moving up and down, so cool! As far as Baby's size, we're still in the 9th percentile which indicates a steady weight gain, but still on the small size according to averages. At this point the doctor will check the baby weekly just to be on the safe side. He thinks, along with the nurse-midwife at my OB's office, that Baby is small because of genetics. I have a lot of small people in both sides of my family, so it makes sense. It is going to be a little inconvenient to have so many doctor's appointments, but it's b
etter to be safe.
I never posted any Christmas pictures of Rudy, so here's one of him sound asleep wearing his new present - a hiking backpack. I guess all the Christmas fun wore him out. Now when we go camping/hiking he can carry his own stuff (like plastic bags for...well, you can figure it out).
This is a picture taken from Pike Place Market in Seattle from our recent trip. So much for weather forecasts...look at the blue sky! (The stadiums in the distance are Safeco Field where the Mariners play, and the Seahawks stadium - I think.)
This is the baby t-shirt we purchased. Since the baby has actually been to Seattle now, we wanted to have a souvenir of the trip!
This is actually a belly picture from the week before last, since I forgot to take one this past weekend. But since I haven't posted a picture of myself in a while, I figured I'd put it on here anyway. This past Monday when I got my belly measured, it was right on.
Davey and I are both amazed to be 2/3rds of the way finished already. It's hard to believe that we only have about 12 weeks to go. I feel really great and haven't gotten uncomfortable yet. I'm still as hungry as ever, but I have to eat more slowly and in smaller amounts more often because I don't think my stomach has enough room to expand like it did before. I'm still sleeping well at night, which is nice. I'm going to enjoy the sleep while I can. I have noticed a few subtle changes about moving around, however. For example, it's not quite as easy to reach for things now, especially if I have to bend over. And standing up from a squatting position is getting harder too. A fun new thing is being able to push and feel different parts of the baby. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's either the baby's head or butt that likes to hang out to the right of my belly button because it feels really hard right there. Davey loves that he can actually feel the baby now. Sometimes Baby pokes back at him too! I first felt baby hiccups a couple of weeks ago, and I feel them about once a day now. None of Baby's kicks have hurt at all, but his/her feet really tickle my right side sometimes! It makes me laugh.
This evening we visited our friends and their 10-day-old baby girl. I got more excited thinking about how that's going to be us before we know it. Davey looked so cute holding her. I can't wait to see him with our own child and see him fall in love all over again.
etter to be safe.I never posted any Christmas pictures of Rudy, so here's one of him sound asleep wearing his new present - a hiking backpack. I guess all the Christmas fun wore him out. Now when we go camping/hiking he can carry his own stuff (like plastic bags for...well, you can figure it out).
This is a picture taken from Pike Place Market in Seattle from our recent trip. So much for weather forecasts...look at the blue sky! (The stadiums in the distance are Safeco Field where the Mariners play, and the Seahawks stadium - I think.)
This is the baby t-shirt we purchased. Since the baby has actually been to Seattle now, we wanted to have a souvenir of the trip!
This is actually a belly picture from the week before last, since I forgot to take one this past weekend. But since I haven't posted a picture of myself in a while, I figured I'd put it on here anyway. This past Monday when I got my belly measured, it was right on.Davey and I are both amazed to be 2/3rds of the way finished already. It's hard to believe that we only have about 12 weeks to go. I feel really great and haven't gotten uncomfortable yet. I'm still as hungry as ever, but I have to eat more slowly and in smaller amounts more often because I don't think my stomach has enough room to expand like it did before. I'm still sleeping well at night, which is nice. I'm going to enjoy the sleep while I can. I have noticed a few subtle changes about moving around, however. For example, it's not quite as easy to reach for things now, especially if I have to bend over. And standing up from a squatting position is getting harder too. A fun new thing is being able to push and feel different parts of the baby. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's either the baby's head or butt that likes to hang out to the right of my belly button because it feels really hard right there. Davey loves that he can actually feel the baby now. Sometimes Baby pokes back at him too! I first felt baby hiccups a couple of weeks ago, and I feel them about once a day now. None of Baby's kicks have hurt at all, but his/her feet really tickle my right side sometimes! It makes me laugh.
This evening we visited our friends and their 10-day-old baby girl. I got more excited thinking about how that's going to be us before we know it. Davey looked so cute holding her. I can't wait to see him with our own child and see him fall in love all over again.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Flying Colors
I haven't had much time to update over the holidays! We've had a wonderful Christmas season, spending lots of time with friends and family, and it's been a true blessing. Baby is growing, along with my belly. I'm seeing the doctor every two weeks now that I'm in my third trimester, wow! That's crazy. I love being pregnant (as if you didn't know already), and every kick and wiggle is just another reminder of this miracle.
Last Monday, my doctor's office called and said my glucose screening came back high. Around 26 weeks, they make you drink this nasty sweet stuff and then check your blood to see if you're at risk for gestational diabetes. If the first one comes back too high, then you have to go for a more thorough 3-hour test to tell if you actually have it. It goes like this: can't eat after midnight, have your blood taken, drink twice-as-nasty glucose stuff (100 mg of sugar), take your blood, wait an hour, get stuck again, wait another hour, get stuck again for a grand total of four times. Fun. Fortunately, they had an appointment the next morning (Tues, Dec. 30th) which I readily took thinking the sooner the better. At today's appt., (Mon, Jan. 5th) the nurse-midwife told me I passed with flying colors! We'd been praying all week that the first result was just a weird random thing and that this test would be completely normal. I was so excited to hear this. No special diets or pricking my finger for the rest of the pregnancy. I can just be normal (and eat!).
Last week, Davey and I decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip to Seattle. We stayed with my Grandma in Olympia and had a wonderful time. We were able to see some dear friends while we were there, and would have loved to see a lot more family and friends, but we only had so much time. It was nice to be in a place where it's actually winter instead of 65 degrees every day like it's been here in Georgia. In fact, Seattle and the surrounding areas have had an abnormally high amount of snowfall this year. It was fun to see it and have a reason to wear a coat and scarf!
Wednesday we go to the high-risk doctor for another ultrasound to check Baby's growth, so I'll let you know how that goes. With the way this kid is moving and kicking more strongly every day, I seriously doubt there is anything wrong. Plus, my weight gain and belly measurement are right on track. I guess the doctor's approach is one of precaution, so better safe than sorry.
Happy New Year everybody!
Last Monday, my doctor's office called and said my glucose screening came back high. Around 26 weeks, they make you drink this nasty sweet stuff and then check your blood to see if you're at risk for gestational diabetes. If the first one comes back too high, then you have to go for a more thorough 3-hour test to tell if you actually have it. It goes like this: can't eat after midnight, have your blood taken, drink twice-as-nasty glucose stuff (100 mg of sugar), take your blood, wait an hour, get stuck again, wait another hour, get stuck again for a grand total of four times. Fun. Fortunately, they had an appointment the next morning (Tues, Dec. 30th) which I readily took thinking the sooner the better. At today's appt., (Mon, Jan. 5th) the nurse-midwife told me I passed with flying colors! We'd been praying all week that the first result was just a weird random thing and that this test would be completely normal. I was so excited to hear this. No special diets or pricking my finger for the rest of the pregnancy. I can just be normal (and eat!).
Last week, Davey and I decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip to Seattle. We stayed with my Grandma in Olympia and had a wonderful time. We were able to see some dear friends while we were there, and would have loved to see a lot more family and friends, but we only had so much time. It was nice to be in a place where it's actually winter instead of 65 degrees every day like it's been here in Georgia. In fact, Seattle and the surrounding areas have had an abnormally high amount of snowfall this year. It was fun to see it and have a reason to wear a coat and scarf!
Wednesday we go to the high-risk doctor for another ultrasound to check Baby's growth, so I'll let you know how that goes. With the way this kid is moving and kicking more strongly every day, I seriously doubt there is anything wrong. Plus, my weight gain and belly measurement are right on track. I guess the doctor's approach is one of precaution, so better safe than sorry.
Happy New Year everybody!
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