Lots of Moving!!!

Hello all! I've discovered that not too many people read my weblog, so I'm going to start copying what I post and pasting into an email message for most of my family. But I'm not going to quit posting, I know that several people do come visit the site.

Anyway, not too much going on these days, just lots of stuffy noses, and less sleeping because of it. This nasal congestion is the worst part of this pregnancy for me. It set in right after we found out we were pregnant, and has been a daily thing so far. It would wake me up at night, because I had to breathe through my nose. That would make me dehydrated and the discomfort of a dry mouth and tongue would wake me at 3:00am. Then of course I'd get hungry and have to eat a granola bar before going back to bed. I tried all kinds of different sleeping positions, but nothing helped. I finally bought some Breathe Right strips, and they have helped immensely. Even though it's better not to, I have to sleep on my back to breathe the best, but so far, that's not caused any problems. Some days, though, I still wake up dehydrated and have issues breathing during the day. Yesterday was one of those days. I just felt like I could not get enough oxygen, even breathing through my mouth. I got out of the house, and the cool air helped, along with the bottle of water that is never far away. Trying to drink the amount they say I'm supposed to is a daily battle.

It seems like that is the only pregnancy discomfort I've been experiencing. I'm not constipated, like a lot of women get. I can eat anything I want, as long as I eat small meals throughout the day. Smells get to me more than usual, but I've always had a sensitive nose. I'm not nauseous since the first trimester, and even that wasn't very bad. I do find myself going to the bathroom more often, but that can't be avoided, even in the best pregnancy. Plus, all the extra water I have to drink helps with that detail.

This has been a nearly uneventful pregnancy for us. All of our tests so far have come out great, no problems. I even had an early glucose screen because of the family history of diabetes, and that was fine. The baby seems to be growing okay. I did have to go to Urgent Care because of a pain I was experiencing, I was worried it might be appendicitis. But the doctor told me it was likely just a bowel backup because of the position of my uterus. I've had no problems since. And it makes things seem to be going so incredibly slowly!!!

The only real news I have as I hit the halfway mark (FINALLY!!!) is that I'm feeling baby moving around a lot this last week. I usually only feel it at night, when I'm relaxing in front of the TV and when I'm trying to sleep. Last night I was sitting on the couch, and it felt like baby was doing somersaults in my stomach! Most of the sensations are in my lower abdomen, it feels like baby is punching down at the bottom, trying to make more room. I would feel one movement toward the right, then one in the middle, and one on the left. And the baby is just as vigorous at night when I'm trying to sleep. I have been able to feel the movements with my hand over the right area, but Bryan's hands aren't quite as sensitive, and he hasn't been able to feel it. He doesn't seem too upset by it, though, he knows he'll be able to feel more once baby gets bigger.

We're hoping to be able to find out the gender soon, but we don't know if that will happen or not. Military insurance only pays for ultrasounds when there is a medical necessity for one. Finding out the gender does not qualify. We go back for our 24-week visit on February 20th, but I imagine we will only get an ultrasound if the heartbeat can't be detected with the Doppler machine again. If we don't find out by the end of March, we may go to a local college and pay for one to find out the gender. Baby showers are going to be held in April and May, and we really want to know. I want so badly to give this child a name. It seems so impersonal calling the baby an "it," and I feel I'm not as attached to it as I would be if I could call it T.J. or Aurora. Plus, I want to be able to walk into the newborn clothing and imagine what a certain outfit would look like on this baby. It's really difficult not knowing right now.

Anyway, I guess that's all for this update. I know some of this is repetition for a few people, but I felt it might be good to have a synopsis as I reach the halfway point.

TTFN!!!

Baby Won't Show Off!!!

To start out, let me tell you what's been going on the last two weeks. First, I went back to babysitting full time. Julie's dad started his new job on the third, so I worked that day and the rest of the week. She is most assuredly a totally different kid than the one I was seeing three months ago. Granted, I'd been watching her here and there all three months, but it wasn't all day. I go to work at 5:00am, she gets up around 7:00am, and her dad comes home around 2:00pm. It's not a horribly long day, but she's not used to my rules anymore. And I certainly am not used to how she likes things either. Her food tastes have changed, her routine has changed, and I wasn't ready for that. Plus, it was a spur of the moment, can you be here tomorrow kind of start. So I didn't get a good briefing on nearly anything. By Friday afternoon, I was in tears, at the end of my rope. I realized my depression was not as gone as I had thought. Stress triggers it, and a little girl in the throes of the terrible twos is quite the stressor. I called Bryan to talk to him about going back on antidepressants. I told him I felt my only two choices were going back on meds or quitting. Something had to give somewhere, I just couldn't handle it. But I felt he needed to know what was going on so he could decide whether he felt it was worth the risk to the baby to have me back on medication. He asked me what I wanted, and I truly didn't know. I didn't want to put her parents in a bind by saying I couldn't do it, and I didn't know where I stood on the issue of medication and this baby. But Julie didn't deserve what I was doing to her. I was getting onto her for every little infraction, and I had changed so much of what she had gotten used to with her dad being home. I had a long talk with her mom when she got home, and we sat down and worked out a new routine for Julie and me to follow. It incorporated much of what I used to do with her, and also allowed for some of the things she was accustomed to being allowed to do with her dad. I decided to wait a couple more weeks, implement the new routine, and see where things stand after this transition period. If I'm still having trouble, I'll make an appointment with the doctor and look into getting back on low dose antidepressants. I'm just hoping that her dad will stick to the routine. He has a bad habit of ignoring the rules that Julie's mom and I set for her and doing things his own way. It's been two weeks now, and things have settled down considerably. But, Julie's dad threw another wrench in things yesterday, the 17th. He changed his work schedule. Instead of me going to work at 5:00am and working until he comes home, I am now going to work at 12:30pm until her mom comes home. I'm going from nine hours a day to three or four. I don't mind, it just seemed like we had finally gotten things under control, Julie and I were having a good time during the day, getting used to our routines. But, at least I can sleep in again.

We went for our 18-week group class at the hospital on January 8th.. It wasn't nearly as long as the 6-8 week class. First, we weighed and took blood pressures, then we each went into the exam room for individual sessions. The midwife asked if we had any concerns, I mentioned that I'd been having lower abdominal pain. She had me lie back on the exam table so she could try to find the heartbeat. As she searched with the device, she explained some of the things I can do to combat constipation, which was my assumption on the cause of the pain. She couldn't find the heartbeat, so she told us to stick around after the class was over, and she'd do an ultrasound to make sure everything was okay. Then she asked me about my depression. I told her about going back to work and the problems with Julie, the lack of consistency. She told us about some of the problems and risks associated with antidepressants in newborns. I was glad Bryan was there to hear it, because he'd wanted to know more about the discontinuation effects seen in newborns. Apparently there are some withdrawal symptoms, but it's not true withdrawal, since they are never truly addicted. But we talked more about my test results, which came back negative on both the cystic fibrosis carrier screening and the glucose tolerance test. No problems on either front. I was very happy about both of those. Since diabetes runs in our family, and my mom contracted hers while pregnant, I wanted to check. We finished up with the midwife in the exam room, and took our seats in the classroom. When everyone had their turn, she came out and sat with us to talk about some common concerns we seemed to have. Lower back pain and swelling of the feet and ankles seemed to be on most people's minds. I've been having lower back pain, but no swelling. She also talked about safe medicines we can take for pain (Tylenol, Tylenol, and Tylenol) as well as other ways to combat swelling and back pain. She talked about ultrasounds, and where in the civilian world we can go to get one if we haven't been able to discover the child's gender. Military insurance does not pay for routine ultrasounds, you have to have a valid medical necessity to get an ultrasound done. Not being able to find a heartbeat with the Doppler was a valid medical reason. She also talked about other medical reasons for which you could get an ultrasound at the hospital. We all were asked if we wanted to fill out and sign the form for the Maternal Analyte Serum Test. It is a blood test for neural tube defects such as spina bifida and encephaly, and for Downs Syndrome, and can tell you if your baby might have a condition where its abdominal organs are growing outside the body. She talked about the cutoff date for termination if you find out that your baby will not live outside the womb, but also told us that the hospital does not terminate pregnancies. After that, the class was over. We, of course, didn't leave, because we still had to get our ultrasound to be able to detect the baby's heartbeat. There were two other women who also needed to get ultrasounds for one reason or another. So we got our ultrasound. Bryan got to be here for this one, for which I was very glad. He finally got to see the baby move, and to hear its heartbeat, which was 154 beats per minute. She tried really hard to find the genitals, to be able to tell us the sex of the baby, but baby wouldn't show off to tell us. We knew she couldn't stand there all day, so we were given this picture and sent on our way.

In other baby news, I think we've finally decided on a middle name for the baby if it's a girl. Her name will be Aurora Rachelle. Bryan was against giving her a middle name that started with R-o, because that would almost be like a tongue twister trying to say her whole name. But he's okay with this one, and I love the name. I'm pretty sure we're going to end up having two baby showers, one here for the friends here, and one at home, for the family and friends there. I figured we'd have the one here in March, and the one at home in April. We're planning a trip to Missouri in April to go job- and house-hunting. We're probably going to be there a couple weeks, so it'd be a great time to have a shower. We'll probably end up having it at the restaurant Bryan used to work at. We had our engagement party there, and it's easily accessible to nearly everyone, unlike Bryan's parents' houses. As far as the one here, a friend of mine offered to host it at her house, since they're moving from their apartment the same month. We'll see how it works out. Unfortunately, our apartment is probably too small to have everyone here. Plus, if I can have it somewhere else, Bryan won't feel so overwhelmed by the amount of estrogen floating around. I have to talk to Bryan more about it, but I've been considering pushing back the shower here until May, that way the parents can give their gifts first. I don't know, though, that's getting awfully close to baby's due date. Speaking of the due date, Bryan's still making fun of me about the due date the first ultrasound gave us. He's still telling me that I'm going to have this baby on my birthday. I should tell him that if this baby doesn't come by the fourteenth, I'm going to have them take it by C-section on the fifteenth, just so it's not on my birthday. Exciting news!: I'm feeling baby moving! I mostly feel it at night, when I'm lying on my side, trying to go to sleep. It almost feels like baby's doing jumping jacks on my side. Last night, I could actually feel kicking through my stomach with my hand. Unfortunately, Bryan had already fallen asleep, so he wasn't able to try and feel it too. But it's really exciting! I also had my first experience with someone touching my belly without asking permission. It was kinda strange. We went to our neighbor's house for dinner on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and her mom was there. I sat down next to her, and she patted my belly, talking about how I was showing. I just looked at her, dumbfounded. It was the first time anyone had done that, and I really respect this woman, so I didn't know what to say. I mentioned it to my neighbor, who said that her mom probably didn't think anything of it, and was I offended. I said no, just a little surprised, since it was the first time anyone had done that.

I also have to write about my Urgent Care experience. The night after our group class at the hospital, the lower abdominal pain I had been feeling got pretty severe. Nothing I did would help, changing positions didn't help, and neither did Tylenol. I tried massaging the area, which usually works for me if I'm constipated. But I could barely touch the area. Bryan told me that I was going to the doctor the next day. So the next day, I got online and tried to make an appointment with my primary care manager (PCM), my doctor. There were none available. So I called the appointment line, which didn't have anything either, but I was able to be transferred to the clinic directly. Come to find out, my PCM no longer works at that clinic, and they didn't have anything available with anyone else that day either. I asked to speak to a nurse or physician so I could describe my symptoms. I was worried that I would need to go to Urgent Care. So a Colonel Williams gets on the line, and I say I'm having lower right abdominal pain that has localized into one spot that is painful to touch. I'm not having any bleeding, fevers, or nausea. Colonel Williams tells me to go to Urgent Care, and takes down my information so that it is documented that I called there first. So we went to Urgent Care. Now, my experience with military emergency rooms has always been the "hurry up and wait for three hours" type. But the waiting room only had two people in it. I came in, handed my ID to the guy at the desk, and told him why I was there, including the fact that I was 18 weeks pregnant. Five minutes later, I was back for triage, where they take my vital signs and get more information about my condition. I had to laugh when the gentleman asked for the date of my last period.

"September sixth," I chuckled, "I'm 18 weeks along in my pregnancy."

"I never assume that about anybody," he said. Smart man. Soon another man came in and took over so that he could move on to the next patient. I showed this man where the pain was, and he said that wasn't a good place to be feeling pain. He asked the same questions that the colonel at the clinic had asked, and I answered them: no bleeding, no nausea or vomiting, no fevers, no other symptoms besides the pain. He finished with his paperwork and told me to go take a urine sample. I finished doing that, and brought it back out to him. Twenty minutes later, I was brought to an exam room. A Dr. Flanagan came in and examined my midsection, palpating my uterus to see that it was right where it should be, as big as it should be for my stage of pregnancy. He asked about an ultrasound, I told him I'd just had one done on Monday, two days earlier, and the baby was indeed in my uterus, not in one of my Fallopian tubes. He left to go see if he could get the ultrasound, and while he was gone, a nurse came in to listen for the baby's heartbeat. Unlike two days before, she was able to hear it on the first try. Again, it was 154 bpm. The doctor came back in and asked who had done my ultrasound. He had thought that I had gotten it done at Radiology, when it was Women's Health that had done it. But he told me that he didn't think it was appendicitis, which was my worry, but instead it was likely round ligament pain or constipation. Another nurse came in with my discharge instructions. It turned out I had been diagnosed with Round Ligament Pain, Constipation, and IUP. IUP means Intra-Uterine Pregnancy. The instruction sheet that I was given stated: "It has been determined that you are pregnant." We still laugh at the fact that I was diagnosed with pregnancy at 18 weeks along. But that was my Urgent Care experience. I'm still feeling a little pain in that spot here and there, but not nearly as bad, and I'm not constipated at all anymore. In fact, I'm back to being fairly regular. Anyway, I'll upload the latest ultrasound picture, then I have to take Bryan to work.

TTFN!!!

Our Happy New Year

Well, here it is next year already, gone by so fast, so much has happened: A wedding in April of one of my best friends from high school, our neighbor's little girl turning one, a summer full of babysitting three kids at a time. But the end of the year has brought about so incredibly much for us! We found out we were pregnant, one of our neighbors had a baby, I quit working, another neighbor found out she was pregnant, I got back in touch with my dad, our cat had kittens, not to mention all the pregnancy-related changes for my body and mind, and my relationship with my husband! Since October, there's been a lot going on!

As for New Year's Eve, it went very similar to how it did last year. We had dinner at our neighbor's house, followed by board games and card games until 11:30, when we turned on Dick Clark's New Year's Eve show. The only difference from last year was that this time, there was no alcohol, since both wives are pregnant. It went pretty well, except for the people outside shooting off fireworks and firecrackers, both of which are supposed to be illegal around here. The buildings in this area are too close together to be shooting off fireworks, so much of a fire hazard, it's not even funny.

January 2nd was a very sad day for us, however. We took the kittens to the pet store to find new homes. Our neighbors Mark and Ashley decided they were going to take one for their little 3-year-old girl, so we got to hang onto one little female for a few more hours. But the poor little babies, the other three we put into a soft-sided carrier for the trip to the store. They didn't like being confined. They started crying, and trying to claw their way out. It nearly broke my heart. I tried so hard not to get attached to them and still socialize them. I didn't give them names, which was the biggest part of that, but hearing them cry like that nearly made me break down in tears. But I made it without tearing up. I'd drawn up a document with a picture of each kitten and information on their personalities, along with some information on how they were raised and their development. We also brought along some toys from home, and a bag of the food they'd been eating, to help with the transition. Doing all that made me feel much better about taking them, so I didn't feel like I was just abandoning them. Unfortunately, I didn't escape the night without crying. I started worrying a lot about the fate of the last kitten. Her new family was supposed to go buy supplies for her that day, and take her that night. But they never called to ask what kind of food she ate, if she was on soft or hard food, what kind of toys she liked, etc. We had planned to send some toys with her, but we didn't have any extra food, so to ease my mind, Bryan agreed to go out and buy a bag of her food to send with her. That helped keep the tears at bay. Also helping ease my aching heart was the fact that we were going to tell them that if they had any problems with her at all and decided they couldn't or didn't want to keep her, we would take her back, no questions asked. Both of us forgot to mention that, but I'll see Ashley tomorrow and will tell her.

Some other sad news yesterday: My friend Auvery, who just got married in April, found out she was pregnant in early December. Our friend Christy called me yesterday to tell me that Auvery had miscarried. Apparently there was a chromosomal abnormality with the baby, but her chances for a subsequent full-term pregnancy are still good. The only other good news in that was that she'd only known she was pregnant for three weeks before she miscarried. She was only five weeks along altogether. She found out very quickly about the baby, because she and her husband were trying to get pregnant, and so she was checking for pregnancy around her fertile days.

Today it seems like everyone is sick: The little girl I babysit for has a cold, her mom has head congestion, which I seem to be getting as well, and Bryan has had a headache and slept most of the day. Today was also my first day back at work, which could account for my headache. Since Julie's sick, she's a little more difficult to deal with because she doesn't feel good. Plus, I now have to be at work at 5:00 in the morning. I haven't gotten up that early and stayed up in a very very very long time. I used to get up that early to make lunch for Bryan, but I haven't done that in months, and I always went back to bed after he left for work. I go back to sleep after Jason leaves, but it still takes me a bit to fall back asleep, and Julie wakes up between 6:45 and 7:00am. I'm just going to make sure that I nap when she does, otherwise, this schedule is not going to work out for me very well without sleeping for a few hours when I get home. Bryan's enjoying my discomfort right now, because he's still on holiday leave. He normally gets up about 4:45 to 5:00am every morning for work. He goes back on the 12th, so he doesn't have much more time to sleep in.

As far as my pregnancy goes, I'm finding that my belly gets a little in the way when I bend over. The heartburn's not as constant. I've still got the blasted nasal congestion every morning. And the accompanying sneezes still make my abdomen hurt from round ligaments stretching. But I can feel the bottom and sides of my uterus when I palpate my stomach. That was an interesting discovery I made a few days ago. I still find myself lying on my back to sleep, which isn't supposed to happen after the fourth month is over. It seems to be the only position in which I can breathe. I know here in a month or so, my belly's going to be so heavy that it's going to squeeze my insides if I keep lying like that, but we'll have to see what happens. I'll improvise if I need to. My last resort is sleeping on the couch propped up by pillows. I don't want to do that to Bryan.

We also added a couple more things to our baby registry the other day. We realized just how much we really couldn't add until we find out the gender. So we've only been able to add furniture and various unisex or non-gender specific items for now. We'll probably add more once we know whether the baby's a boy or a girl.

I had a baby dream the other night. I hadn't really had any since we first found out about the pregnancy. Bryan asked me if the baby in my dream was a boy or a girl, and I told him I didn't know. I thought it was a girl, but I wasn't sure at all. All of my dreams in the beginning were of boys. They were never babies, always toddlers in those dreams, but always of boys. I doubt we're going to discover the gender at Monday's appointment, since it is a group appointment, but I think I'm supposed to have a private appointment a couple weeks after that, so hopefully, we'll find out soon. Everyone's on pins and needles waiting to know.

Well, I can't think of much more to write, so I'm going to end this for now. I'm not feeling the greatest today, so no picture for this post, but maybe next time.

TTFN!!!