Second Ultrasound

Baby girl wasn't playing nice at the ultrasound yesterday at my doctors office.  We didn't get any good pictures of her this time.  She would not stop moving!  It was really fun to see my parents faces as they watched her on the screen.  My dad was in awe, and I could tell my mom was already in love. 

The doctor wasn't able to confirm the sex, but did say that he's 70% sure its a girl.  We didn't tell him that we'd already found out, because I didn't want his opinion to be biased (yes, I'm paranoid, deal with it).  The tech at the first ultrasound was 99% sure it was a girl, so I'm thinking we're safe.

All of baby girls organs looked good, and she's measuring about 4 days ahead.  The doctor wasn't able to get a great veiw of her heart, so we'll be having another ultrasound at the next visit in 4 weeks. Darn.

NuMom2B Study Visit Two

I wasn't as nervous for the second study visit as I was for the first.  I know what was going to happen, and this study visit pretty much followed the last one.  I think the reason I was nervous was because I was going to find out what we were having, boy or girl.

When I got there, I had to give my urine sample, and then do the vaginal swabs.  No big deal.  After that they took two vials of blood, and luckily I got the same nurse as last time, so I didn't have to reexplain my stupid veins!

After the blood work, they asked me a whole bunch of questions, some of which were repeats from my last visit.  They asked about my racial background, my husbands racial background, and then the background of each of our biological parents.  (Which quite honestly seemed silly to me, as if my background came from someplace other than my biological parents)

Then came the fun part: the ultrasound!  They found the heartbeat quickly and measured that.  Then they determined the baby had two hands and two feet, a head and other things.  I'm not sure what all they were looking for or at, I just stared at the image of my baby on the screen.  They kept saying things like "There's his hands" or "He's being so stubborn."  I thought that was how they were going to tell me what my baby was, by referring to the baby with pronouns.

But then the tech moved down to the baby's bottom, and she said "It's definitely a girl!" and I was floored.  A baby girl!  So much for a mothers intuition!

After we found out what we were having, the tech used the ultrasound to measure the blood flow in both of my arteries that flow to the baby.  She turned on the blood flow part of the ultrasound, and I could see the red and blue on the screen that showed my blood pumping.  It was a really neat experience.

Then I had to have a vaginal ultrasound to measure the length of my cervix.  They didn't tell me what it was, but they didn't look like I was in immediate danger either, so I was ok with that.

After all the ultrasounds were done, I was weighed, and had my blood pressure taken.  Then I was asked more questions regarding how I handle stress and conflict.  All in all, not an unpleasant hour.

I also got a dvd of the ultrasound, and a bunch of pictures to bring home.

Bubbles Big Reveal - Updated with Picture

We had an 8am ultrasound appointment today.  Yeah, 8am.  I'm still yawning, but that could be because I was to excited to sleep last night.

Me and The Husband drove separately, and The Husband was late.  Since it was a NuMom2B study visit, they did all the other fun stuff first.  But I'll write another post about the visit so that I can get into more details.  (on a side note, I can't tell you how many blog hits I'm receiving because I'm writing about this study!)

So we do all the other stuff, and then The Husband is there.  And we start the ultrasound.  It's not the in depth one where they measure everything, that one will be Wednesday.  But they take all their measurements, listen to the heartbeat, and then ask if I want to know what we're having.  Um yeah!!

And here's the fun part.  My intuition was wrong.  Intelligender was wrong.  It's a girl!!  Anna Beth.  Anna after my mom's middle name, and Beth after my grandmother.  I can't wait to meet her!

I'm still in shock.  I've been using the wrong pronouns.  I was so sure!  The Husband is thrilled.  He's been saying girl since the day we found out we were pregnant.  I'm thrilled as well, but like I said, still in shock.

What a fun birthday it's been so far!
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I'm hoping to get better pictures at tomorrows ultrasound, but here's a profile picture of Anna.

New Page

I've created a new page just for Bubbles stuff.  Look up and you'll see where to click!  So far I only have one belly shot, but more will be coming.

If I ever get brave enough to post a ticker, that's where it will be.  I feel like I'm jinxing myself enough already by having a page for Bubbles.  Yeah, I have issues.

Another Dad Update

My dad had a few tests run last week because of his hospital stay earlier in the month.  (For background on the story click here, here, and here.)  He's doing better as far as the blood infection is concerned, but his blood pressure has spiked several times since he's been home (200 systolic over 115 diastolic) and the doctors couldn't figure out what was causing it. 

He's had several tests done, and seemed to be very healthy.  He's had brain scans, an echo cardiogram, chest x-rays, and lots and lots of blood work, and everything comes back normal.  So the doctors decided to check his kidneys. 

While they were checking his stomach area out, they noticed gallstones, a small hernia, and an aortic aneurysm.  I'm not a doctor, but I recognize the danger words, and aneurysm is one of those.  Which led me to Google.  Basically, his aorta has a bulge in it.  The doctor that reviewed his test results told him that they don't do usually worry or do emergency surgery until the bulge reaches a 6.  My Dad's is at a 5.5.  So this Friday he gets to go see a specialist.  It's likely that he'll have to have surgery to repair the bulge.  But we won't know for sure until the visit on Friday.

Honestly, I'm scared out of my mind.  It's been a long journey for us to get to the point where we're pregnant.  I've wanted so badly to be able to have my dad see his first grandchild, and having him in and out of the hospital makes me worry.  I know he's not getting any younger; he's 70 for crying out loud.  And yes, I realize I'm being fatalistic, and he's more then likely going to be ok.  But I worry, and I cry.

I realize I've asked for more than my fair share of support already.  But I'm asking for more.  Please keep my Dad in your thoughts and prayers, again. 

Just in Case you Didn't Realize I'm a Nerd

Happy National Pi Day!

Go celebrate by doing some math, or eating a pie, or doing math while eating a pie.  Be creative, and have fun!

Bubbles' Reveal Date

We've got our appointment for Bubbles' big reveal.  We'll actually, we've got two appointments!

The first is March 28 (which also happens to be my birthday!) for the next NuMom2B study visit.  They told me that they would tell me then what I was having if I wanted to know. 

The second is March 30 with my OBGYN.  Yeah, two days apart.  I tried scheduling them farther apart, and even tried to convince the NuMom2B study people that they wanted to do my ultrasound early.  It didn't work.

I will be 19 weeks pregnant for the visits. (Holy crap, 19 weeks?!)  I'm super excited to find out what we're having, and super nervous to about possibly finding out something is wrong with Bubbles.  Mostly, I'm focusing on the excited.

I had my 16 week blood work done last Friday.  I elected not to get the screening test for abnormalities done.  The Husband and I decided that regardless of what the results said, we were keeping Bubbles.  And the test was more of a "you could have this" rather then "you definitely have this".  I was really torn about it before Friday, but I'm really comfortable with the decision I made.  Any big problems will show up on the anatomy scan at the end of the month. 

That's about all I have as far as updates go.  But honestly, I don't mind being boring.  It's relaxing.

A thank you to infertility

I know.  It seems strange.  But I really did find a reason to appreciate infertility.  No, this is not a post where I wax philosophical about my life changes and how IF made me a stronger person.  I may be pregnant, but in my mind IF is still the devil, and still the hardest battle I've fought.

No, the reason I'm thanking IF is because it taught me that Dr. Google can give you lots of information.  Not all of that information is welcome, and in fact most of it freaks you the hell out.  Thanks to that knowledge, I didn't Google blood infection whilst my dad was in the hospital.  I didn't want to know.

But you know what I did yesterday?  Once I knew my dad was home and feeling better?  Yep.  I Googled the hell out of it.  And after what I read, I was grateful to IF for giving me the sense to stay away from Dr. Google while my dad was in the hospital.

Because guess what Interwebs?  Blood infections are big, scary, and sometimes deadly diseases.  Yeah, I'm really glad I didn't know that earlier last week.  And I'm really glad that the doctors all played it pretty close to the chest.  No one at the hospital let on that we were facing such a scary thing.  True, they seemed really concerned about dad, and there was someone in there visiting him at least twice an hour, but heck, I've never stayed in a hospital, and I figured it was normal.  Why wouldn't the interns and doctors check up on my dad every thirty minutes?  Why wouldn't they take his blood every two hours to run tests on it? Why wouldn't they do an echo cardiogram on his heart to make sure that there was no infection in there?  (BTW, they didn't print out a picture of his heart.  I was bummed.  I figured we could put his ultrasound picture next to Bubbles')

Again, thanks to everyone for their support, prayers and positive thoughts.  Dad is on the mend.  And double thanks if any of you knew what blood infections could do and didn't tell me.  Because I really didn't need to know until he was better.

Dad update

Well, my dad is out of the hospital.  They released him late last night.  He's at home with orders to rest and take more antibiotics.  He was so excited when they came in and told him he'd be going home, he started taking off his hospital gown right then.  Made me smile.  Being a hospital, it took them about half an hour before he was finally released.

Here's what we learned.  The blood infection was "most likely" caused by the root canal.  The doctors also say that it could have just been a coincidence, but I don't really buy that. 

We also learned that although it doesn't happen often, sometimes when people get epi.nepherine with their dental work, that small amount can make it into the blood stream and cause panic attacks.  The dentist has assured my family several times that its rare, and that we shouldn't worry that it will happen again.  But, I'm all for my dad finding a new dentist.  That's two strikes in my opinion, and I'd hate to see what would happen with a third strike.

Thanks everyone for all the thoughts and prayers. 

Quick Update on my Dad

They've discovered that he has an infection in his blood.  They did some cultures and found bacteria, so they are treating him with a general antibiotic until they can figure out what kind of bacteria it is.

He will be in the hospital for at least one more night while they run more tests.

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers!