11 Week Check In

Oh what a week!  We went on a trip to Portland, which was so nice.  Just R and I went without anyone else.  Even Pickles stayed at home.  It was really relaxing to just go enjoy ourselves with our friends without having to do any loading, unloading, caravaning, etc.

However, when we got home on Sunday things started to go poorly.  I noticed that my right implant was looking strangely shaped and was feeling softer than the left side.  I was hoping it was no big deal, so I went to bed.  The next morning it was obvious that my implant was leaking.  I am starting to go concave and misshapen on that side.  I called my OB and my plastic surgeon's office to discuss what my options were.  I had been told that if one of the implants leaked, I would need to come in for surgery right away so that I wouldn't have to go through expansions again.  The OB said that I could go through surgery but she would prefer I wait until the 2nd trimester.  The plastic surgeon said that there is no way they will do the surgery while I am pregnant and on blood thinners.  So, I will need to have a prosthetic until little one is born and then I will get an expander placed, go through the expansion process and then have a second surgery to replace the expander with an implant.

I am happy to do whatever is best for baby, and I certainly don't want to have surgery if it is risky for my little one.  I am really worried about trying to go through all of this while learning to be a mom and taking care of a newborn.  I am going to have to try to have the first surgery during my maternity leave since I won't be able to take any extra time off.  I am also worried about how R is going to cope with taking care of the baby, me and the animals while I recover.  Ugh.  What horrible timing!

I ordered a Doppler last Friday, so I can listen to baby's heartbeat in between appointments.  It was supposed to arrive yesterday, but the shipper used the wrong kind of shipping and it won't be here until next week.  I know it is a little thing, especially compared to the other stuff going on, but my fuse is pretty short and I am frustrated beyond belief.  I was really hoping to hear little one today.

The only thing that went according to plan this week was getting my new phone, which actually rings when people call me.  At least there is that.  I am really hoping next week is better.  I have my NT scan and next OB appointment a week from tomorrow.  Fingers crossed!!

Weekly Check In:

• How far along?: 11 weeks

• Total weight gain: Won't know for another couple of weeks.  Sometimes I feel like I have gained and somedays I feel like I have lost.  I guess we will see.

• How big is baby?: Baby is the size of a lime this week.  I can't believe how big s/he is getting.

• Maternity clothes?: Fully in maternity clothes at this point.  They are so comfortable.

• Movement: Still way too early.

• Stretch marks?: Just the ones I already had.

• Sleep?: Still exhausted and still waking up in the middle of the night at least once for a bathroom trip.  I have also been having some crazy dreams, which are making it hard to sleep consistently..

• Symptoms?: Exhausted, heartburn, heightened sense of smell, frequent urination, gassy, constipated, decreasing nausea at this point, really vivid dreams, food aversions and round ligament pain.  I am most excited about that last one.  I feel like it is good evidence that LO is growing away in there.

• Food cravings:  Gyros, chocolate and garlic bagels are the only things that sound appealing, at least at this particular moment.

• Belly button in or out?: Still an innie.

• What I miss: I am missing sushi at the moment.  Oh!  And sandwich meat.

• What I'm looking forward to: My NT scan and next OB appointment are a week from tomorrow!!  We are taking a day trip to Mt Rainier on Saturday, which should be a lot of fun, and we are hosting a BBQ on our roof for the 4th of July, which will be a lot of fun too.

• Best Moment this week: This has been another bad week.  Again, nothing to do with baby.  I have been mostly feeling confident this week, but the closer we get to 13 weeks, the harder it is going to be.

• Milestone: Baby's fingers and toes are no longer webbed and hair follicles, nail beds and teeth buds are starting to form!

- J

Baby's first trip to Portland and other updates.

We went to Portland last weekend for the annual Solstice party.  We left Friday night and got there late, but avoided all of the traffic, which was a great start to the weekend.  People were still awake when we got there, so we spent some time sitting around the fire and chatting.  I finally went to bed around 1:30 am when I couldn't stop yawning and immediately passed out.  R stayed up chatting longer and ended up drinking a little too much.  He told a friend of ours about little one.  We had talked about it, and I wasn't really upset, but since we hadn't decided for sure, I was a little surprised.  I was more upset when he got drunk the next day at the party and told everyone.  While I am thrilled for the love and support that everyone is giving us, it makes me nervous to have so many people know at this point.  I miss the naivete that goes with never having experienced a loss. 

In other news, it looks like I will be having surgery.  Yesterday night before bed I noticed that my right implant was looking weird and was really soft.  This morning it became obvious that it has sprung a leak.  It is deflating rapidly and I am already starting to look concave.  I had been told in the past that if my implant were to leak, I would need to have surgery to replace it as soon as possible to avoid having to go through the expansion process again.  I called both my OB and my plastic surgeon today.  The OB said that I could have the surgery once I am out of the first trimester and it should be safe for baby.  The plastic surgeon's nurse wasn't as sure.  She said for sure there would be no surgery until the 2nd trimester at the earliest, but they may want me to wait until after little one has arrived.  I want to do whatever is safest for baby,  but I am concerned that waiting will make me require multiple surgeries, a painful re-expansion process (which will be incredibly difficult with the newborn), and could cause scar tissue problems since that is the side that is more prone to scar tissue.  She couldn't tell me for sure what the surgeon thinks because he was in surgery, so now I have to wait until tomorrow to hear back. 

Here's to waiting to tomorrow I guess...

- J

Weekly Check In

It's that time again!  Before I get on with the good news, I feel like I need to acknowledge some bad news from this week.  A good friend of ours, who we both worked with and who was a regular part of our social circle, is now a convicted pedophile and child porn maker.  We are both in absolute shock.  No one who knew him had any idea.  It's like mourning the death of a friend and trying to adjust to an alternate reality all at the same time.  I feel like I don't know who we can trust at this point.  I am so glad we are going to Portland this weekend and can enjoy our friends and relax.

Anyway, on to the weekly check in...

Weekly Check In:

• How far along?: 10 weeks

• Total weight gain: Won't know for another couple of weeks.  Sometimes I feel like I have gained and somedays I feel like I have lost.  I guess we will see.

• How big is baby?: Little one is now the size of a date.

• Maternity clothes?: Fully in maternity clothes at this point.  They are so comfortable.

• Movement: Still way too early.

• Stretch marks?: Just the ones I already had.

• Sleep?: Still exhausted and still waking up in the middle of the night at least once for a bathroom trip.  I have also been having some crazy dreams, which are making it hard to sleep consistently..

• Symptoms?: Exhausted, heartburn, heightened sense of smell, frequent urination, gassy, constipated, decreasing nausea at this point, really vivid dreams, food aversions and round ligament pain.  I am most excited about that last one.  I feel like it is good evidence that LO is growing away in there.

• Food cravings:  Nothing sounds good now.  In fact, more things sound bad than good.

• Belly button in or out?: Still an innie.

• What I miss: I'm still missing coffee, but also sandwich meat, sushi and the other foods I can't eat right now.  It's already difficult with my food allergies, but to add more restrictions makes it really hard.

• What I'm looking forward to: My NT scan and next OB appointment on July 8.  Mom gets to come with me and I am so excited!  I am also really looking forward to going to Portland this weekend.

• Best Moment this week: This week has been pretty bad, but not because of the pregnancy or baby.

• Milestone: Baby is now officially a fetus!

- J

9 Week Update (A little late)

So sorry about the late update.  Work has been crazy and our weekends have been packed, so I have had far less "fun time" online lately.  I am going to fill out my weekly check in as if I had done it on the correct day.  I will try to fit in another update this Thursday as well.

Weekly Check In:

• How far along?: 9 weeks

• Total weight gain: Won't know for another couple of weeks.  Sometimes I feel like I have gained and somedays I feel like I have lost.  I guess we will see.

• How big is baby?: Little one is the size of a green olive this week.

• Maternity clothes?: Fully in maternity clothes at this point.  They are so comfortable.

• Movement: Still way too early.

• Stretch marks?: Just the ones I already had.

• Sleep?: Still exhausted and still waking up in the middle of the night at least once for a bathroom trip.  I have also been having some crazy dreams, which are making it hard to sleep consistently..

• Symptoms?: Exhausted, heartburn, heightened sense of smell, frequent urination, gassy, constipated, increased nausea, and really vivid dreams.  I am still loving each and every symptom.

• Food cravings:  Same as last week, but I have also been wanting chocolate, tomatoes and orange juice.  I have been wanting cheese too, but I think it is more of a calcium thing.  I have been drinking almond milk with chocolate syrup, which has more calcium than milk.

• Belly button in or out?: Still an innie.

• What I miss: I'm still missing coffee, but also sandwich meat, sushi and the other foods I can't eat right now.  It's already difficult with my food allergies, but to add more restrictions makes it really hard.

• What I'm looking forward to: My NT scan and next OB appointment on July 8.  Mom gets to come with me and I am so excited!.

• Best Moment this week: There haven't been any huge stand-outs, but I have been loving feeling pregnant, which is making me feel more confident about this pregnancy..  

• Milestone: Baby is now officially a fetus!  

- J

2nd Camping Trip and Ultrasound Picture

First, I apologize in being remiss with my posting.  I meant to post Baby's latest ultrasound picture, but haven't had time.  This was the first chance that I have had, and it is almost a week later.  So without further ado, here is our little one:

Now, on to our camping trip.  Talk about a comedy of errors!  We got started far later than anticipated, each stop took much longer than it should and as a result the person we were following got a little heavy footed.  We were just coming down out of Steven's Pass and we both got pulled over for speeding.  The person we were following is going to pay our ticket, which is fantastic, but I am worried about the hit on our insurance.  After that little debacle, we got a call from someone who had already made it to the site.  Apparently there was a mud slide and the road to the site was closed due to fallen trees.  Our hostess was devastated.  This was her special place.  But I think that the site will be fine as soon as they clear the down trees.

We ended up finding another site that was large enough for all of us and was also very beautiful.  It was right off of the river, which was gorgeous and so relaxing.  The only problem is that there were mosquitoes everywhere and I was basically eaten alive all weekend.  I am covered head to toe with bites.  Everyone else was pretty much okay, but I couldn't use the bug spray because of little one.  I am so incredibly itchy!

Other than that, we had a very nice weekend.  The weather was beautiful and the company (for the most part) was excellent.  Our next camping trip is in just under three weeks.  I am hoping that everything continues to go well so that I can go along.  Next weekend we have a wedding to go to and we are going to visit my parents for Father's Day.  The following weekend we will be down in Portland for Solstice.  It is going to be a very busy few weeks.

- J

8 Weeks

I missed last week's update and I don't have a lot of time today, so I will try to make this as detailed as I can.

Last week's ultrasound went perfectly.  Little one was measuring 6 weeks 2 days and I was 6 weeks 5 days along, so pretty close.  Most importantly, baby had a clear heartbeat of 105 bpm.  Dr S told us that the risk of miscarriage at this point is less than 10% and she released me to my OB's office.

This week I had my first OB appointment.  I was supposed to see the nurse practitioner, but there was a cancellation, so Dr J was able to see me.  She was so thrilled I was there.  We went over the plans for this pregnancy and everything sounds pretty normal except that I will be getting an early Glucose Tolerance test in addition to the normal one at 28 weeks.  She will also keep my on the Lovenox until 34 weeks when she will switch me to Heparin instead.

I was able to get another ultrasound and little one was measuring at 7 weeks 5 days, which is exactly how far along I was.  She didn't measure the heart rate this time, but estimated it at between 140 - 160 bpm.  She said that everything look perfect at this point.  I am so thrilled.

I scheduled my NT scan and next OB appointment for July 8th, and Mom is going to come with me.  I can't wait.  I am sure I will get far more nervous the closer we get, but I am feeling really positive and hopeful right now.

I will post the latest ultrasound pictures later.


Weekly Check In:

• How far along?: 8 weeks

• Total weight gain: I got a baseline weight at my first OB appointment, so I will have a way to compare in a month when I go back for my next.

• How big is baby?: Little one is the size of a large raspberry today.  At my ultrasound on Tuesday, the measurement was 1.42 cm.

• Maternity clothes?: Fully in maternity clothes at this point.  They are so comfortable.

• Movement: Still way too early.

• Stretch marks?: Just the ones I already had.

• Sleep?: I am still exhausted all of the time and I have started waking up 2-3 times a night to go to the bathroom.

• Symptoms?: Exhausted, heartburn, heightened sense of smell, frequent urination, gassy, constipated, very mild nausea, and really vivid dreams.  I am still loving each and every symptom.

• Food cravings:  Fruit, carbs and gyros.  Gyro meat seems to be the only animal protein I actually want to eat.

• Belly button in or out?: Still an innie.

• What I miss: I miss coffee, but I have found a coffee free frappucino that I really like.

• What I'm looking forward to: My NT scan and next OB appointment on July 8.  Mom gets to come with me and I am so excited!.

• Best Moment this week: This will be the two week version, since I missed last week.  Last week's highlight was seeing our little one's heart beating away for the first time and finding out that the risk of miscarriage is less than 10% at this point.  This week's highlight was having my first OB appointment.  

• Milestone: Baby is starting to make spontaneous movements, although I can't feel them.  Also, little one's heart is continuing to form as are the eyelids, ears and facial features.