Time to Guess!

OK, I'm looking for guesses for my baby pool. The game name is Flipper, in case you need it. The prize is going to be a $10 gift card to somewhere (possibly Kwik Trip). The winner can pick some place as long as I can get to it fairly easily. The deadline to sign up is this Friday, June 19 at 8 p.m. Good luck!

Heading down the home stretch

Well, no baby news to report yet from us, but a couple pictures and an update so here we go.

First picture is from Dana Paul's baby shower. Dana (left) is married to Nate's best friend Ryan. Her due date was two weeks before mine but as you see in the next picture they beat us by quite a bit! The other preggo there is the wife of Nate's other good friend, Terra. She is due in early September.

Dana and Ryan's little boy came a little early on May 20. Hank Brian was 6 pounds, 8 ounces so pretty good size for more than three weeks early.

He's the world's cutest newborn, at least until mine gets here. ;)

I'm doing pretty well, taking my blood pressure meds and trying to eat a little better with the gall bladder thing. Pretty much I'm either nauseous or having heartburn most of the time, but at least the abdominal pains haven't bothered me much. I'm hoping this just goes away after the baby is born. Annoying, yes, but I don't feel like I'm miserable enough to need the thing taken out. My blood pressure had a little episode a few weeks back and went up over the 140/90 mark. I spent a few hours at the OB wing at the hospital. Some rest and TV and it went back down on its own. I think it had a lot to do with not sleeping well the night before (once again, nausea and heartburn did that in...) I've been trying to put more emphasis on getting enough rest since and my BPs have been lower, 120s and 130s over 60s and 70s.

I got checked the first time last week and was pretty surprised to find out I'm starting to dilate. The baby is still very, very high, I haven't been having much for contractions and nothing else is happening in that department so I don't think it will happen anytime in the next week or so. I got checked again today and there was no change, so I got clearance to head to Cumberland this weekend for a wedding, about 2 hours away. Only thing she said was "Don't over do it." It'll be a nice little getaway.

Other than that, not much new to report. Jacob spent a long Memorial Day weekend visiting Grandma Debbie and the gang down south. We finished all the planting on Memorial Day so that's a great feeling. Nate's been cutting hay this week and the chopper is ready to go so that should start tomorrow. The cows are milking pretty well right now, but like always, the better the cows milk the worse the milk price is. That's not going to stop me from doing a little car shopping tomorrow while Nate's truck is getting its oil changed at the dealership. We've completely outgrown the Grand Am and, well, after six years and 167,000 miles, I think it's paid its dues. Plus, we might have a buyer for it but I'm not getting rid of it before I have something else lined up, so better not wait too long.

I'll try to post some more frequent updates since we're into the last month. Most days I'm OK with being pregnant, but on some I just want this thing to be over with!

A look back

Cindy and I were chatting about a woman in the Twin Cities who is going to document her entire pregnancy online AND (and this is the kicker) allow a live web cast of the birth. Don't think I'll be doing that. No video and no cameras pointed in my direction in my delivery room.

But, I will do this again. Here's the most pregnant I was with Jacob, taken a little over 12 hours before his birth. 40 weeks and 5 days. Yes, I was eating baby carrots because I was hungry, they were in the fridge, I knew it might be a while before I got to eat again (it was almost 24 hours) and I figured they wouldn't be all that bad to throw up later if I needed to (I didn't). That's a 8 pound 15.2 ounce baby in there and I don't think I'm anywhere near that big now, so either I'm going to have a smaller baby or I'm really going to explode in the next six weeks.

Monthly post

Since it's the last day of April, I guess it's time for the April summary. Hope I can remember back that far...

Sometime at the end of March I found out one of my best friends, Jen, and her husband Chris are expecting their first in November! I had a feeling that before I was done being pregnant, she would be.

We spent Easter with Nate's family in Eau Claire. Jacob got royally spoiled by the Easter Bunny once again. Thank God he'll have a little brother or sister to split the booty with next year. We still have candy in the house.

I had a wonderful bout with a cold/allergies in mid-April. Missed a little work and felt pretty much like crap for about a week and a half. Nate ended up with it too and Jacob had some sniffles. I'm glad to be past it.

I had three doctor's visits this month, two scheduled and one not. At my early April one I gained too much weight in my opinion (doctor didn't say anything) and my blood pressure creeped up more to 136/81. At the second visit, I did the glucose tolerance test to check for gestational diabetes, and as predicted, I digest sugar like a pro. I also lost two pounds between visits (again, no comment from the doc) and my blood pressure actually fell, a lot. It was 98/62. I asked the nurse if that was right.

Then comes the fun stuff. This past Sunday I started having low back pain and in the afternoon it became a sharp pain in my side. I thought here we go again, since with Jacob I had to spend the night in the hospital for a kidney infection. I wasn't running a temp at all, so I waited to call the doc until Monday morning and they had me come in right away. First I did a screening for a UTI, which came back all normal so no kidney infection. After feeling around my right side and checking my blood pressure which was even higher again at 140/81, my doc said it was probably one of two things. The first was HELLP syndrome, a serious liver condition which would require immediate delivery of the baby. (&*$!@#^&*). It made it more possible because high BP makes pregnant women more likely to get it. All the needed to confirm it was a little blood. The second was a gall bladder disorder which could be diagnosed with an ultrasound and how to treat it would depend on how bad it was, but basically surgery is the only cure for that.

So I did the blood test and worried about having an infant 10 weeks premature in a NICU. About half an hour later, the tests came back that it didn't seem to be HELLP so I was not having a baby that day. I went in for the gall bladder ultrasound Tuesday and got the results this morning. Meanwhile, the pain is now nearly gone and I'm feeling lots better. It turns out I don't have any gall stones, but the test showed the walls were thickened meaning I do have an irritated and inflamed gall bladder. Basically, that means pain control when I need it with hopefully just tylenol and try to cut as much fatty food out of my diet as possible. If it gets worse or I get a stone, then I might have surgery. If it doesn't go away after the baby is born, we'll talk about having it removed.

So that's pretty much all the excitement for the month. In May I'm hoping to do a little traveling and visit some friends before I can't go too far for a while. Plus I'd like to recruit some help to get some plants in the ground and my flower beds looking nice before I get too huge to move. Two months to go!

Ultrasound and more

Nate and I went in for the "big" ultrasound last week Friday. We let the tech know we weren't going to find out the sex right away, so she didn't even take a peek because she didn't want to accidently spill the beans either. Watching an ultrasound is like one of those magic pictures, I think. You are staring at screen really not knowing what you are looking at, then the trained eye starts pointing out what things are and by the end you can actually tell it's a baby and it has 10 fingers, 10 toes, and all the other necessary parts.

Since we're keeping the gender a surprise, there weren't any huge revelations, but we did learn a few things. As of last Friday, the baby weighed about 1 pound, 7 ounces, and the ultrasound measured a due date of June 30 plus or minus 10 days. Since that's a little off from my original July 13th day. My doctor's office called this week and let me know it is officially changing to June 30. I don't particularly enjoy being pregnant (although the outcome is definitely worth the means) so knowing I have two less weeks of it is good! We also found out I have an anterior placenta, meaning the baby is attached in the front. This explains why I haven't felt a ton of movement even with such a big baby already. I am noticing the last day or two that I'm feeling less little pokes and more big movements like Flipper's rolling around in there. Still no painful kicks so I'll take these as long as I can have them!

I also had a regular visit after the ultrasound for weight, labs, BP, etc. Everything is still good, and my blood pressure even went down a little to 130/76. The little brown pills must be working. I'm still not down to normal (my first visit was 116/60) but it's below the 140 danger zone. I asked my doctor what the prognosis for pregnancy-induced hypertension is and she said my BP is likely to go up again later in pregnancy, so they'll be keeping an eye on it more closely as I go along. I also asked if it was possible that it was actually chronic high BP, and she seemed to thing that was pretty unlikely, although she won't know for sure until after the baby is born. Next visit is the first week in April.

Kaitlyn came to visit last weekend and helped me paint the office/baby's room. The office is kind of small and I don't see why Jacob can't share a room, boy or girl, but for the first few months I wanted to have the baby separate so Jacob can sleep. We painted it a pale yet somewhat brighter green. I think the color was called Melon something. We also got paint for the backdoor entry way where Nate comes it. Kaitlyn is home for spring break starting yesterday so she came home to help me finish it. We painted that area a greyish brown called Coffeehouse. It reminds me of a cup of coffee with cream in it.

Kaitlyn took Jacob today to spend the week with Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Jerry. Whenever he goes I always feel a little bad for a few days, then I start to enjoy the quiet house where things stay where I put them. I requested a vacation day next Friday, so I plan to head down there Friday morning to spend the weekend with my family, then come back with Jacob Sunday morning. Who knows if I'll have the time and permission from my doc to drive 3 1/2 hours away later this spring, so I wanted to get at least one visit in.

Time to get something done!

P.S. In the pic, Flipper has his/her hands over their ears. If I had to make a guess, I'd say boy!

An update

Well, I don't really have too much to write about, but it's been two weeks since an update so I better come up with something.

Let's see... NAte spent the weekend ice fishing with the guys Feb. 20-22, so I took the chance for a little getaway with Jacob to Eau Claire to see my college friends, Jen and Cindy, their husbands and Cindy's now two-month old baby, Baby Nathan (they called my guy Baby Jacob for at least two years so I get to do the same now.:) We met for an early dinner, then headed to an arcade place called Action City for some games. Jacob's getting a lot better at them now that we've been there three times, so he had a blast. Baby Nathan has gotten a lot bigger since I saw him six weeks before! He's getting to be a little chunk and growing out of his scrawny newborn-ness. Jacob also gets a kick out of seeing him since we don't really get to see little babies too often. Guess that will change in a few months!

I'm starting to think Jacob will actually make a pretty good big brother, though having to share attention is probably going to be a shock to his system. He seems to understand Mom has a baby in her tummy and will sometimes give my belly kisses. "I'm kissing the baby!" he said. Melts my heart. Flipper is moving around more now, though maybe not as much as I want. I feel little nudges mostly in the very top or bottom, which makes me wonder if I have an anterior placenta because I don't feel anything in the middle. I'll find out Friday at the big (and possibly only) ultrasound. We won't find out if Flipper's a boy or a girl, but I'll be happy to get some pictures and reassurance that he/she is healthy. Since my hypertension diagnosis that's a thought that's been bothering me quite a bit. I also have a regular OB appointment after the ultrasound, so I'm hoping my BP is in the normal range and no protein!! I haven't gained a lot of weight in the last few weeks, may a pound or two, but that's find with me. I wanted to lose a few pounds before getting pregnant, so I'm home to stay closer to the normal 25 pounds instead of the 48 I gained with Jacob.

In other news, Nate did the outhouse race again this year. His team came in 3rd overall out of 15 teams and they took home a trophy (special roll of toilet paper) for 2nd in the under 39 teams. They changed the course a little this year, and Nate wasn't so beat to hell when they got done like last year. I'll post pictures when I have high speed sometime. My pictures just don't load with dial-up!

This and that

Here's a few things since last time.

––Pregnancy is going OK, not great, but OK. I've developed high blood pressure so I just started meds for it this week. I've been having annoying back pain, and I've had to switch to maternity clothes for most things. However, I will be at 20 weeks next Monday, so here's to being halfway!!

––Nate and I took Jacob ice fishing twice. We caught a grand total of two fish. Actually, we didn't catch any because Nate's borther caught one and Nate's mom caught the other. I've got ice fishing out of my system for the year.

--Nate got me a beautiful bouquet of roses of Valentine's Day. He surprised me at work Friday. I was a little ticked though when I accidently found the recipe when doing laundry last weekend. Oh well, it made my month.

That's about all I know today, and I didn't have much time to write but I figured it was time for an update!

The Big News

Well, lots of people know this by now, so might as well make an official announcement: Nate and I are expecting a new addition to our family in July.

Here's the details if you want to know more. We found out around Halloween, but were able to keep it quiet for the most part. My due date is July 13th, also my little brother's birthday, but I told him not to plan on it. I think only about 6 percent of babies are born on their due date. We told our families at Christmas and have been telling other friends and family since. A few found out before, like the group we went to Vegas with. Hard to hide something's up when you're turning down free drinks. There seems to be quite a baby boom this year and lots of people we know are also expecting babies between now and the end of summer.

I've been feeling a lot better lately. For a long time I was queasy all the time, then the puking starting. I was so sensitive to smells, but mold and sour stuff seemed to be the worst. I had a real tough time trying to clean the fridge after we got home from Vegas, and I've been a little reluctant to work on it since so if you come over, don't look there. I had a bit of a cold the weekend after new years, and I hit the magic number of 13 weeks about the same time, so I've been feeling a lot better since then.

Nate and I went for my second appointment last week and got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. I've gained about 5 pounds so far (trying to avoid the 45 pound gain I had with Jacob), and everything looks good so far. The baby was really active that day when the doctor was chasing him (I'm saying he or him instead of it) so Nate's nicknamed him Flipper.

Unlike Jacob, we decided to keep the gender a surprise until he or she is born. Now I have to resist the temptation to ask! I want to know more than Nate does, but I promised I'd let this one be a surprise this time. I've got a few girl names in mind, but I'm stumped on boy names. Oh well, we've got another six months or so to figure it out.

Jacob seems to be taking the news in stride. I think it's more than his three year old brain can handle right now. He does say he wants a little sister. I've been trying to teach him that "Mommy has a baby in her tummy" so he doesn't jump on me when he's goofing around. It's only working so-so. If you ask him what mommy has in her tummy, you'll likely get this answer: "A baby puppy!"