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Friday, March 2, 2012

Anatomy scan: Take 2!

Our second attempt at the anatomy scan was a success! Not only was the sonographer able to get all of the pictures they needed, but she actually talked to us the whole time! And Mr. Rhody didn't leave my side for one minute! What a relief!

Everything seems to look good, though we didn't get the official word from the radiologist. One of the things I was worried about, since the other place said the baby was "small", and I am not gaining this time like I was gaining last time, was the baby's blood flow and growth. I was able to ask about that, and everything looks fine! Phew! I even got to see the blood flow through the heart, which was very cool.

We didn't get a variety of pictures. I will say this baby is a lot less active than my son! It makes me feel a bit better with not feeling him/her as often, though, this past week, I've been feeling a lot more! Oh, and we did manage to stay Team Green! Only another 20 more weeks or so until we find out!


2 profile shots. The baby was posing for the camera and all we really got were profile shots!

Leg! And what a cute leg it is. :)

Monday, February 27, 2012

20 weeks!

20 weeks! Halfway! After I made my last post, complaining about not feeling Baby Jersey enough, I started feeling him/her all the time the next day! I like that! I wish things worked like that every time I complained!

I have my repeat anatomy scan tomorrow. I am going to the hospital to get it done, the MFM unit. Bonus is that I will get to see the hospital where I'll be delivering for the first time.

I am still so much smaller than last time. I am happy I am not gaining a ton of weight, but I still have this nagging worry about the growth. Hopefully all my worries will be put to rest after the scan tomorrow.

I have been feeling a lot more sore this pregnancy than the last. I expected that being in better shape would make that easier, but I guess not. I do need to start working out so that I am in shape when labor happens.

I haven't written out all of the house stuff, but the short version is that it's a short sale. We first saw it in mid-November, couldn't put a bid in until mid-December. Even though we were the only bid at the time, a serious of missteps from the sellers side meant that extra delays happened above and beyond a normal short sale. Anyway, we did get approval last week, but they wanted us to close in 3 days. That wasn't happening. But we are moving forward, and I found out today that the appraisal is scheduled for Thursday. Hopefully things move quickly from there!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

19 weeks (and 1 day)

19 weeks! Getting there. I'm still not feeling Baby Jersey move as often as I did Baby Rhody, but I know I have an anterior placenta this time, and getting to feel him/her even occasionally is good. I just can't wait for the days when I feel him/her all the time!

I got my maternity clothes out of storage this weekend, and, much to my dismay, barely anything fits. During Baby Rhody's pregnancy, I was a size 10, M/L; now I am a size 6, S/M. I was hoping a lot of mediums would fit, and shirts do, but all but one pair of pants is too big. Bah! I hate spending money on clothes that I will only wear for a few months.

I did schedule a new ultrasound for next week, since I needed a follow up anyway. I am trying to pretend the first did not happen, and it really didn't, for me, because I didn't get to see anything and I still have a ton of questions. You know, I didn't even get to see the baby move? That plus the lack of feeling anything have me a bit worried, though I'm trying to forget about it. I also want to ask about blood flow through the cord and placenta. When they told me they couldn't get all the pictures because baby was too small, it made me think of IUGR, which is a risk of clotting disorders. All this anxiety simply because they didn't want to talk to me.

So I've been in bit of a funk recently. Between the house stuff (waiting to find out if we are going to get the short sale we bid on over 2 months ago or if we can move on) and this ultrasound stuff, I just want to curl up into a ball and make time go faster. I feel like I'm always waiting for something else to happen, and everything is out of my control. I have been having nightmares where I'm being chased around NYC by people that want to kill me. I joke that this is because I watch too much Law & Order, but I know it's really my anxiety coming back out again. I just hope I get resolution on some things soon.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Anatomy scan today

So, short version is that Baby Jersey looks good, I think. But the experience was awful.

Long version: Mr. Rhody and I got to the office right at 9 am, the time of my appointment. They didn't take me back until 9:20, at which point they took me back and the technician told me she would be right back to get Mr. Rhody. So she tells me to get on the table, and I say, "OK, can we bring in my husband?" to which she replies, "I'm just going to take a few pictures first and then we'll bring him in." I didn't like this, so, again, I asked, "Can we bring in my husband first?" "I'm just going to do some scans, and then I'll bring him in and show you guys the pictures." "I'd really like him to be here for that. I've gotten bad news at ultrasounds before." "I'll go and get him after I'm done. I'm just going to get pictures of the anatomy now."

I wish so hard that I had gotten up and walked out of the room at this point. Instead, I just laid there while she frowned at the screen I couldn't even see and treated me as a specimen instead of a person. I choked back tears when she asked me if this was my first pregnancy and told her it was, in fact, my 4th and we'd lost the first two. She ignored my comments and chipper-ly asked if I had a boy or a girl. "Boy, but we don't want to know the gender for this one," I choked, even though she hadn't asked.

After 30 minutes of this, she asked me to go to the bathroom to empty my bladder and finally said she would get Mr. Rhody. I asked if she could also get the Office Manager, which took her aback. Apparently she never noticed that I was silently crying on the table while she pretended I was not a human. She came back with Mr. Rhody, asking me what was wrong, offering that she was going to show us pictures now, when I asked again to see the Office Manager. By this point, the tears were streaming down my face. I'm sure she thought I was crazycakes.

Mr. Rhody came in, saw me crying, and had no idea what was going on, followed soon after by the Office Manager. I started by telling her that an u/s should be a diagnostic tool: I wasn't here to just see the baby; all I wanted to know was if the baby was ok. I told her that it wasn't right that I'd asked 3 times to have my husband in the room but was denied. She told me that the technicians preferred to do the scans without talking, so they could get all of the pictures they needed. I told he it wasn't right that I laid there silently for 30 minutes, didn't even get to see my baby yet, had no idea if everything was ok, and did not have the opportunity to even ask questions about my own child. She promised that the technician would walk me through the pictures *now* and I would get extra-special treatment of having the radiologist come in and read the scans then, instead of waiting for a report to be read and mailed to me.

The radiologist really wasn't much better. At first, he asked me about my losses, and I said I'd had 2 missed miscarriages, where I'd gotten bad news at ultrasounds, and he responded, "Well, you know, it's not that uncommon. They say that most women wouldn't even know they were pregnant." Seriously, at 9 and 13 weeks, I would have had a clue that I was pregnant. Thanks, doc. And then he faux-apologized later while looking at the scans with the technician for using "complicated medical terms". I wanted to snottily respond, "Yeah, it's ok. I went to college too."

So the baby looked ok, but I feel terrible that I could not enjoy the scan at all. And I found out they weren't able to get great pictures of the heart, so they want me to come back in 2 weeks (which is something I appreciate finding out now, in person, rather than in a letter a week or so from now). But I don't want to go back. I really don't want to go back. I don't know how this will work with insurance, if I can even go some other place now.

I keep wondering if I've overreacted, but Mr. Rhody assures me that I am not, at the least because 3 requests to have him in the room, even if we had to sit there silently, should not have been ignored.

Monday, February 13, 2012

18w!

18 weeks today. The belly did not want to take any good pictures this morning. Maybe it has to do with the funky shirt I'm wearing. The shirt itself I found on the Old Navy clearance rack for $5.50 and the jeans (size 6 skinny maternity jeans!) for $18. Total score. Losing weight between pregnancies was a bad idea because now I need to buy all new maternity clothes!

I have a midwife appointment in an hour, which I'm not expecting to be too exciting. Pee in a cup, take my blood pressure, feel the fundal height, any questions? Wednesday though is the anatomy scan, which I'm really looking forward to. Even though we are team green, just that reassurance and checking the baby out will make this all seem much more real to me.

I'm in kind of a blah mood at the moment with everything going on; I think it's just really overwhelming me. The more pregnant I get, the more anxious I get to be in our forever home, and not a "just for now" rental. Oh, well. It will come in time, I'm sure.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Hello out there?

I was just reading through old posts, and thinking how great it was that I have all of these thoughts and feelings down from my first pregnancy. Therefore--I have set a goal to resurrect this blog and start writing again!

Quick recap, my son is now 20 (almost 21!) months old. We have moved from RI to NJ, living in temporary housing while we try to buy a short sale. I am 17w+ pregnant, with a baby dubbed, appropriately Baby Jersey. Between all this, I have been pretty exhausted, but I am finally starting to feel like I am getting some energy back. I got crazy into diet and exercise before getting pregnant again, and, as a result, started this pregnancy 20 lbs lighter than my last, which I am very proud of and happy about.

This pregnancy I am not doing Lovenox, but am continuing baby aspirin, and it seems to be working. I will admit, I knew going in that getting a script for Lovenox would be difficult, which is why I challenged myself to lose the weight before getting pregnant again. I thought of it as preparing my body to give this baby the best chance possible.

As for this baby, I was told I have an anterior placenta, but I am skeptical. I found the baby on the Doppler at 9w, which was awesome. I started feeling the baby around 13w, but the movements are still here and there. I did ovulate early this time and didn't think we had timed it right, as I took off charting for a month, so I didn't test until I was already almost 5w.

Anyway, I know everyone loves pictures, so here's a comparison of this pregnancy vs the last!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

2 little milestones

Last night during his evening (sponge) bath, Mr. Rhody and I noticed that Baby Rhody's umbilical cord stump looked like it was barely hanging on. Before the night was over, the stump was gone. Yay! I'm excited to be able to give him a real bath, I'm excited to not have to fold over diapers any more, and I'm excited just that Baby Rhody is now sporting the cutest belly button in the world.

Also, we went for another pediatrician weigh in this morning. Our little guy is now back up to his birth weight! The pediatrician apologized for making us come in that often; he said they just like to be super-cautious with breastfed babies. He did say since we're doing so well and since Baby Rhody is looking so good, that we can skip the one-month appointment if we want. Mr. Rhody and I decided to keep it, since we figure we'll have questions by then, but we're happy that things are looking good!