Oh my goodness - I got NO sleep last night. Yes, I still need to update my blog with my last ultrasound. Yes, I still need to update my blog with my last doctor's appointment. Yes, I still need to update my blog with my latest pregnancy symptoms. Yes, I still need to update my blog with the progress that we are making in getting ready for our precious little girl. But, all of this seems so unimportant when overshadowed by my latest news...
Carissa had her baby girl last night!!! Yes! It was her actual due date and she is the second friend this year that has given birth ON her due date. I could not sleep a wink last night! I am so excited - you would think it was me that just had this baby!!
We went to dinner with Carissa and Adam on Monday night after our weekly run/walk around the trail at Rice University. We knew it could possibly be the last time that we saw Carissa pregnant with this baby. Adam said he would call us as soon as anything happened. Sure enough when I saw his number on the caller ID around 7:30 last night, my heart skipped a beat! I usually HATE answering the phone but, I was happy to pick this one up. He said that her contractions had been coming regularly at 5 minute intervals for about an hour. She had her first non-Braxton Hicks contraction about 3.5 hours earlier but, they had been mostly sporadic up until this last hour. Their labor coach was on the way to their house and he wanted to call and let us know that it was happening and he would keep in touch. He called again around 10:30 to say that they were on the way to the hospital. Her contractions were less than 3 minutes apart!!! He gave us a few people to call and spread the news to, which we did.
Then, he called again at 12:15am to say that she had the baby!! It all seemed so quick! My husband answered the 12:15am call and got no details for me so, I did not sleep at all!! I wanted to know the DETAILS, of course! Luckily, he did find out that the baby is a girl (they didn't find out earlier). But, what time was she born? This was important because I wanted to know if she was born on May 25 (her due date) or May 26! How big was she? Did Carissa do it without an epidural? What was her name? And the rest of the night, I thought, "I can't believe Carissa's a mommy!". These thoughts kept me up ALL NIGHT LONG. So, this morning, on the way to work, I called Adam to find out the details:
Lillian May was born on May 25, 2005 @ 11:29pm - just one hour after they arrived at the hospital! Carissa was dialated to a 9.5 when they got there. She did not use any pain medication. Lily weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She has bright red hair - which no one expected...and our daughters are going to be best friends for life!!! :)
Now that I got that all out, let's see if I can buckle down and get some work done in hopes of leaving early this afternoon to make a visit to the hospital!!
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Not Worrying
I can’t believe it has taken me this long to update on my doctor’s appointment last week. Things have been busy with working, doing things around the house, and going to NC over the weekend. But, I must talk about what happened at the appointment last week. First, my blood pressure was back down to 128/74, the baby’s heartbeat was at 152 bpm, and my fundal height was 20 cm (the appointment was at 20 weeks). It also turned out that I had lost ½ pound since the appointment at 16 weeks. I could attribute that to a few things: being a lot more aggressive about keeping a good workout schedule and being more cognizant about what and how much I was eating. I also find that I don’t always eat when I’m hungry if it happens to be inconvenient at the time (i.e. in a meeting at work, etc.).
It turns out that I have to have a follow-up ultrasound in two weeks. Apparently, the radiologist is a little concerned that the baby’s abdomen measurements may be lagging behind the head and the leg measurements. Now, the doctor didn’t seem worried at all and it doesn’t make too much sense to me either. The measurements from my first ultrasound were as follows: head = 17.3 weeks, abdomen = 17.1 weeks, and legs = 17.6 weeks. I asked the doctor if everything was as it should be. She said all her anatomy looked good and my placenta is in the “back” which is perfect. Since the doctor didn’t seem concerned, I didn’t think a lot of it and just took my form to order the ultrasound and left the office.
On the way back to work, I started thinking about what I had been told. Of course, I unloaded on the Internet once I was here. I started researching to find out what the big deal was. It turned out that a high head/abdomen ratio could mean that she is experiencing “nutritional growth retardation”. So, combine that with the ½ pound weight loss over 4 weeks and a first time mother-to-be starts to worry just a little bit. Am I not eating enough? Am I exercising too hard? Am I not getting enough rest? Several people have worked to convince me that I should wait until the ultrasound before I try to adjust anything. I read that one of the treatments for this type of retarded growth is bed rest so, I admit that I have been trying to get a little more sleep – back to the daily nap of the first trimester.
It turns out that I have to have a follow-up ultrasound in two weeks. Apparently, the radiologist is a little concerned that the baby’s abdomen measurements may be lagging behind the head and the leg measurements. Now, the doctor didn’t seem worried at all and it doesn’t make too much sense to me either. The measurements from my first ultrasound were as follows: head = 17.3 weeks, abdomen = 17.1 weeks, and legs = 17.6 weeks. I asked the doctor if everything was as it should be. She said all her anatomy looked good and my placenta is in the “back” which is perfect. Since the doctor didn’t seem concerned, I didn’t think a lot of it and just took my form to order the ultrasound and left the office.
On the way back to work, I started thinking about what I had been told. Of course, I unloaded on the Internet once I was here. I started researching to find out what the big deal was. It turned out that a high head/abdomen ratio could mean that she is experiencing “nutritional growth retardation”. So, combine that with the ½ pound weight loss over 4 weeks and a first time mother-to-be starts to worry just a little bit. Am I not eating enough? Am I exercising too hard? Am I not getting enough rest? Several people have worked to convince me that I should wait until the ultrasound before I try to adjust anything. I read that one of the treatments for this type of retarded growth is bed rest so, I admit that I have been trying to get a little more sleep – back to the daily nap of the first trimester.
Friday, April 15, 2005
My First Peek!
Yesterday we had our first ultrasound. Our appointment was at 10am so, we were supposed to be there at 9:30am so that I could start drinking water. They wanted me to have a full bladder for the ultrasound.
We woke up around 7:00am and just laid in bed until about 7:25am. After being in Mississippi for 4 days for my Grandmother's funeral, we've gotten a bit lazy about getting out of bed this week. We decided while laying there that we would try to visit one of the day cares on our list prior to going to the hospital for the appointment. That worked out well. We visited a place and thought it was fine but, we don't have anything to compare it to quite yet.
We finally got the hospital right at 9:30am and had to get our insurance verified. That seemingly took forever but, we were back to radiology by 10am - just in time to wait for 30 more minutes. Yes, my bladder almost exploded. So much so that when the technician first put the wand on me, she said my bladder was too full. She allowed me to empty it before she took any of the anatomical measurements of the baby. What a relief!!
It took her a while to get the measurements that she needed because the baby was too active for her. After about 20 minutes, she called my husband in and we got to both watch the baby on the screen. She showed us the heart, arms, hands, feet, legs, etc. But, every time she tried to see the sex, the baby kept crossing it's legs. She said that she had seen it while taking the measurements so, she knew but, couldn't get a good angle to show us.
The baby spent most of the time on its back and finally flipped over so that we could get a good look at the profile of the face and the little hands and arms curling up to the face. Then the doctor came in to take a few more measurements and also attempt to see the sex. The baby was very active but, none of the activity involved spreading the legs!! The doctor caught a glipse but, couldn't duplicate it for us.
But, the conclusion that both the tech and doctor came to is that our first baby is A GIRL!! How exciting! I knew all along but, hearing the "professionals" say it makes is so much more concrete.
So, we are so excited about her and can't wait to meet her in September!
For those of you who are wondering this Chinese Birth Calendar accurately predicts that she is a girl (I turned 26 in February and she was conceived in December). I have to admit, though, I ran across 4 Chinese charts before this one that said she would be a boy. :)
We woke up around 7:00am and just laid in bed until about 7:25am. After being in Mississippi for 4 days for my Grandmother's funeral, we've gotten a bit lazy about getting out of bed this week. We decided while laying there that we would try to visit one of the day cares on our list prior to going to the hospital for the appointment. That worked out well. We visited a place and thought it was fine but, we don't have anything to compare it to quite yet.
We finally got the hospital right at 9:30am and had to get our insurance verified. That seemingly took forever but, we were back to radiology by 10am - just in time to wait for 30 more minutes. Yes, my bladder almost exploded. So much so that when the technician first put the wand on me, she said my bladder was too full. She allowed me to empty it before she took any of the anatomical measurements of the baby. What a relief!!
It took her a while to get the measurements that she needed because the baby was too active for her. After about 20 minutes, she called my husband in and we got to both watch the baby on the screen. She showed us the heart, arms, hands, feet, legs, etc. But, every time she tried to see the sex, the baby kept crossing it's legs. She said that she had seen it while taking the measurements so, she knew but, couldn't get a good angle to show us.
The baby spent most of the time on its back and finally flipped over so that we could get a good look at the profile of the face and the little hands and arms curling up to the face. Then the doctor came in to take a few more measurements and also attempt to see the sex. The baby was very active but, none of the activity involved spreading the legs!! The doctor caught a glipse but, couldn't duplicate it for us.
But, the conclusion that both the tech and doctor came to is that our first baby is A GIRL!! How exciting! I knew all along but, hearing the "professionals" say it makes is so much more concrete.
So, we are so excited about her and can't wait to meet her in September!
For those of you who are wondering this Chinese Birth Calendar accurately predicts that she is a girl (I turned 26 in February and she was conceived in December). I have to admit, though, I ran across 4 Chinese charts before this one that said she would be a boy. :)
Thursday, April 07, 2005
A Loss
My grandma just passed away 35 minutes ago. I am so sad that my dad has lost his last parent. I'm so sad that my child will never know his/her Great-Grandma Madie. She has been sick for a very long time but, it's amazing how it can still hit you so hard...
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Moving and Expanding
So, I’m sitting at my desk around 11:25 this morning. All of a sudden, I start to feel a lot of pressure in the belly region. I reach down to put my hand on it. Then I feel a definitel poke from inside of my belly! I’ve been thinking that I feel movement since Monday at work (baby only moves when I’m sitting at work for some reason) but, today is it. I know that is the only thing it could be! How exciting!! And now “she” is having a field day. I feel like "she" is rolling around and changing positions constantly over the past 15 minutes. I feel pressure for a minute and then “she” backs off. This is so fun. I realize that this will become increasingly uncomfortable as “she” gets bigger but, right now I must bask blissfully in this milestone…
So, distinct movement coupled with the comment that I got last night at Chili’s makes me realize that this is really happening! Last night, I decided to pick up some chips and queso from Chili’s to eat with a few girls that were coming over. Yesterday, I happened to have on a maternity shirt and pants. Although I had tucked the shirt in at work (most people here still don’t know I’m pregnant), I relaxed and took it out at home. So, when my husband saw me, his comment was, “Wow – you really look pregnant now!”. The next thing out of his mouth was, “Make sure you’re wearing your rings when you go to Chili’s”. He is paranoid about people thinking that I am a single parent. Anyway, at Chili’s when I only ordered the chips and queso, the cashier asked me if it was a craving I had been having. That is something you only ask a pregnant person! So, I must be officially showing...
So, distinct movement coupled with the comment that I got last night at Chili’s makes me realize that this is really happening! Last night, I decided to pick up some chips and queso from Chili’s to eat with a few girls that were coming over. Yesterday, I happened to have on a maternity shirt and pants. Although I had tucked the shirt in at work (most people here still don’t know I’m pregnant), I relaxed and took it out at home. So, when my husband saw me, his comment was, “Wow – you really look pregnant now!”. The next thing out of his mouth was, “Make sure you’re wearing your rings when you go to Chili’s”. He is paranoid about people thinking that I am a single parent. Anyway, at Chili’s when I only ordered the chips and queso, the cashier asked me if it was a craving I had been having. That is something you only ask a pregnant person! So, I must be officially showing...
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