On the Downhill Slide

I'm officially in my third trimester, and I can now say that I have a pretzel baby. I had my follow-up 28 week ultrasound yesterday to check the position of my placenta. We discovered, in the process, that Bekah is currently sitting butt down and folded in half with her feet by her head. No fetal position for this kid! Yet another thing we're going to have to keep our eyes on as her birth nears. Hopefully she'll turn around on her own.

Things are looking good and my placenta is no longer covering my cervical opening. We're not out of the woods and I don't have the "official" word from my OB, yet, but we're heading in the right direction! I'll know more on Friday after my follow-up appointment but it's looking as though the threat of bedrest is no longer looming! Other than that...she's beautiful and healthy.

First of the photos

Okay...the first baby bump photo is now up. This was taken on Friday at 24 weeks and 4 days. Officially halfway through my 6th month. It's flying by!

Kicked back 4

I got some reassuring news from my OB almost two weeks ago. My placenta is still mainly posterior (toward my back) like it should be, but the end of it is covering my cervix. Originally, I was supposed to go in for another ultrasound this Friday. However, after meeting with Dr. Christen, they cancelled that ultrasound and moved it back to 28 weeks. This is good news! I was originally looking at the possibility of bedrest beginning in October, but now I don't have to worry for another month...unless I have any bleeding.

It's been neat to feel her moving around. She is kicking the crap out of me daily and starting to develop patterns as to when this happens. Justin (when he's not in bed early) is able to feel her kicking around after I lay down in bed for the night. The other night she kicked/punched him HARD and I made sure to let him know just how much fun it was to have her do that to my bladder. It can take my breath away, it's so hard!

I've finally started to show and am officially in maternity pants. Most of my shirts stil fit considering what I wear tends to be loose or stretchy, anyway. It was strange how quickly I went from not really showing at all to needing to be in maternity pants completely. I have to say they're a LOT more comfortable than regular pants at this point! Plus, I found a really cute pair of jeans that I love. :) My stomach is now hard and round and I can feel her kicking higher in my belly. Time to break out the camera for those embarassing belly pics for the scrap book! I'll consider posting one soon.

On another note, I'm looking forward to a girls day with a good friend on Saturday devoted entirely to catching up on scrapbooking. I'm SO far behind and really excited to get a handle on things. I'm going to have to be picky about what I scrapbook at this point, so I'll be starting with the cruise to Alaska we took in September of 2007 and then possibly moving on to our Disneyland trip this past May. It's so easy to get behind, but a fun way to catch up!

A busy and stressful week

One week ago, Thursday, we found out that we're having a little girl! We went in for our ultrasound early in the morning. I barely slept the night before, but it was worth the tiredness the next day. I was so excited to know who was finally growing in my belly. We've had names picked out for years so we knew right away what her name was to be. I have a little Rebekah Elizabeth growing!

Now for the stressful part. In the midst of a lot of work stress - shutting down the summer and starting up the school year - I got a call from my doctor. They needed to see me as a follow up to my ultrasound and didn't want to wait until my appointment next Thursday. Okay...something must be up. After some phone tag with the doctors office I went in on Thursday for my appointment and got some possibly scary and stressful news. I have complete placenta previa. What that means is that where a woman's placenta would normally place itself at the upper back side of her uterus, mine has planted at the bottom and is completely covering my cervix. If I were to go into labor with it like that I could hemorrage and bleed to death and the baby could die. Not my idea of an ideal pregnancy here!

I'll go back in in a few weeks for another ultrasound. In the mean time, they're hoping that while my uterus grows to accomodate Bekah's growing little body (which is perfect and healthy) my placenta will move out of the way. Otherwise...I may be looking at bedrest and an early c-section delivery.

Just over 14 hours...

Has it really been four weeks since I last blogged? Man...I really suck at this whole thing! Here's to improvement, right?

Today I am 19 weeks and 3 days pregnant. My pants are definitely becoming uncomfortable, but there's no way that maternity clothes would stay on my body right now. Really, if you passed me in the grocery store (and didn't know I was pregnant) you'd never know it. Sleeping is starting to get uncomfortable now, and has been especially difficult this last week with the anticipation of our ultrasound tomorrow.

In the last couple of weeks I've been feeling a lot of movement. Some patterns beginning to develop but nothing consistent, yet. In the late evening I can lay in bed and feel the baby flopping around and kicking. On Sunday I had Justin put his hand on my belly to see if he could feel it. I had thought I'd felt it from the outside but wasn't sure if I was feeling it because I could also feel it on the inside so I decided to test it. I didn't say anything and allowed Justin to sit and feel and tell me when he felt things. He definitely was feeling the waves of baby pushing and kicks. Then, I swear, the kid did a summersault. I jumped! What a strange and cool sensation! It's neat to finally be able to share in what I'm feeling. I kind of felt like I was hogging the experience.

Tomorrow morning at 7:15 we have our second ultrasound. I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're really keeping our fingers crossed that we can tell the sex of the baby. It will be neat to finally put a name to the kicking and a "he" or "she" instead of "it" or "baby". We've had our names picked out for years (I'm talking about 9 years or so) and it will be neat to finally know who we will be meeting in January!

15 weeks and 4 days...and counting

I'm a couple of weeks into my second trimester, now. I'm finally beginning to feel somewhat human again. Luckily I don't spend all day, everyday nauseous anymore! I'm only getting nauseous when my stomach gets empty or when I get too hot. My energy level is also slowly improving - I can stay up past 8pm, now!

It's so hard to believe that the little peanut we saw on the ultrasound a month ago is now the size of an apple. I'm just starting to show (the extra padding that I have has delayed this process) but not even close to maternity clothes, yet. You can especially tell when I am lying on my back. I definitely have a baby bump, then! A little over a week ago I started feeling some movement...it basically felt like someone tapping me from the inside. No flutters or butterflies, yet, but this should start in the next couple of weeks!

I had the joy of going to the hospital yesterday to see my best friend's newborn baby, Addison. She's beautiful and Lisa was a champ as this is baby #3 for her. She only had to push for 7 minutes! That was one ripe baby! :) As I was sitting there holding her I couldn't help but think about what our baby is going to look like. Whose hands will he/she have? Whose hair? Whose nose? I'm getting excited and I have so long to wait! Even though it seems like an eternity before the baby will be here, the last couple of months (though gruelling) have gone by quickly and I know the rest of it will, too. As difficult as some parts of this pregnancy have been, I'm really trying to enjoy the entire experience. I have to admit...I'm not so sad the puking is over!

OOPS!!!

I realized today, while driving home, that I hadn't blogged in...well...eons. I just went back and reviewed my most recent blog. Hmm...March. A LOT has happened since then! I'm kind of upset with myself that I allowed this to happen. I thought that this blog would be a cool way to document our quest at parenthood. It would be good to follow through with this, if that is the goal. So, here we go at a SERIOUS catch-up session.

The last time I blogged was in March, a month before I got pregnant. I was dealing with my body going haywire and the possibility of the fact that I may have polycystic ovarian syndrome. That's a tough blow to deal with normally, but when you've actually been trying to get pregnant...it's like telling a 16 year old that yes, they have a car now, but no license to drive. It took another three weeks before I finally started my period. It was 11 weeks between cycles. That was the first time EVER that I had gone that long between periods. Something was obviously wrong.

Justin and I talked, and though I was distraught, we agreed to just keep trying, work on getting healthier, and things would hopefully work out. Time went by after my cycle finished, and we were headed on vacation in a matter of weeks - DISNEYLAND HERE WE COME! We were so excited to be headed to Disneyland for some fun and family time we just couldn't wait. In the midst of all of the planning I actually got excited that I wasn't pregnant because that meant I was able to go on everything I wanted to. No restrictions, no waiting while everyone else went. I was on the coaster alongside for the ride! My period was due again while we were on vacation, but I didn't think twice when it didn't come. I mean, hey...last time it took 11 weeks. What's one?

We had an amazing time in Disneyland/California Adventure. We got up early and stayed out late each night. Got to meet up with some close friends for an evening of fun together, and all around had an amazing vacation. It was definitely one for the record books! We got home on Thursday, May 21st. I had taken the whole week off and planned to just sleep on Friday. Justin had to work, but when he arrived at work in the morning, they didn't realize he was coming in. He "reluctantly" came home for a day of movies with me. On Saturday we went back to SeaTac to pick up his mom from the airport. She had flown to Arizona for his brother's law school graduation (the reason for the trip to Disneyland - to celebrate - in the first place) and was coming home. We headed out a bit early and planned to pick up some coffee when we got to the airport before his mom's flight came in.

On the way home, I was feeling slightly nauseous. We stopped at Denny's for a late-night meal and nothing sounded good. I forced myself to eat a BLT thinking that maybe it was just because my stomach was empty and I had only the coffee. I felt better after eating so I thought nothing of it. Sunday morning I woke up nauseous again and thought that I was coming down with the stomach bug that my sister-in-law and brother-in-law had on the trip. We had just a quiet day at home with a lot of rest, hoping that it would go away. On Monday, Justin and I went to go grocery shopping. He offered to stop for coffee, but it just didn't sound good, so we didn't. Tuesday morning Justin got up an made coffee like normal, but when I came downstairs to get my lunch ready for work, the smell made me nauseous. All I could do was turn off the coffee pot and walk away. Tuesday morning he asked me if he should even bother...to which the answer was "no". All the time, this nausea was not going away. I was having to force myself to eat because if I didn't it got worse. However, the thought of food was making me nauseous, too. 6 of one, half dozen of the other. We were beginning to get suspicious...and hopeful. I was trying not to get too excited, though, because of the last time(s) we thought I was pregnant.

By Thursday, I was really sick. I came home from work and forced myself to eat a small dinner. It made me feel quite a bit better, and I even got hungry again a bit later, so I ate an apple...ALL of which came back up again about 10 minutes later. At this point it's about 9:15 at night. Justin is sleeping, but woken up by my gastrointestinal pyrotechnics. He asked if I was okay...then told me I should pick up a pregnancy test on my way home.

Friday at work one of my co-workers asked me how I was feeling (I wasn't looking too hot). When I told her I had been puking the night before she smiled and asked me, "Are you pregnant?" I told her I wasn't sure, and that we were going to take a test that evening. I picked up a test on my way home after depositing Justin's paycheck in the bank. Justin was already home waiting for me. We took a deep breath and headed upstairs for the life-changing moment that was ahead of us...