Tuesday, September 27, 2011

34 Weeks and a Giveaway!

Today was my 34 week appointment and more than likely my last ultrasound. Everything went amazingly well and I even got a 4d peak at baby Holden. He appears to look a lot like Mr. London and has a head full of hair. Which if the old wives tale is correct, would explain why I have had so much heartburn this pregnancy. London had very little hair when he was born and I only experienced heartburn with him twice my entire pregnancy.

Here are a few pictures of the little guy. He really didn't cooperate well with the picture taking portion of the 4d ultrasound. He kept his hand up over his face for most of it but I caught a couple peaks at his cute little lips and nose. Oh and there is NO DOUBT that he is a boy, he was quite proud of showing that off. Typical man. :)



A few other things I learned at this appointment.

-I've not made anymore progress since 24 weeks, still hanging out around 1-3 cm dilated depending on which Dr checks me.
-Holden has not "dropped yet" although my suspects that when he does I will probably go into labor pretty quickly afterwards, if not immediately (based on my cervix).
- Holden is already weighing in at a healthy and chubby 6lbs.
-He is also head down (which I pretty much knew) so as of right now it looks like I won't be needing that much feared c-section.
-Next week I get to come off all my medications and restrictions! WOOHOOO!!

So now.... ON TO THE GIVEAWAY!


I've decided to do a little guessing game for my readers. I'm 34 weeks today, so lets take some guesses on when baby Holden will actually make his arrival. I'm giving away a $10 Amazon Gift Card to the person who comes closest. Below is a Rafflecopter giveaway form with 3 questions. Guess the date he will arrive, his weight, and then the time he will be born. The giveaway winner will be determined by whoever is CLOSEST to his actual birth date, and then I will be using his weight and time as a tie breaker in case we have multiple correct guesses. :)

A few things you may want to know before guessing...

-My actual due date is November 9, 2011.
-London was born at 37w4d (17 days early) at 3:17am and weighed 6lbs13oz (water broke spontaneously)
-I will be stopping all medications to prevent preterm labor next week (First week of October)
-Holden is currently estimated (via ultrasound) to weigh 6lbs (34 weeks)
-I weighed a whopping 10lbs9oz when I was born and Mike weighed 5lbs when he was born.

Go start guessing!

Anyone who guesses that I will go past 40 weeks will be automatically disqualified. HAHA! Just Kidding!


If you have any trouble with entering via the Rafflecopter form below, just leave your guess in a comment and I will add you manually. Please make sure to leave me an email address so I can contact you :)




Thursday, September 22, 2011

33 Weeks

Nothing terribly exciting to report here. I'm still pregnant, yay!!. I still have cankles, boo!! And  now I officially  can't sleep anymore. I know I know, I should feel very blessed that I haven't experienced any problems sleeping up until now but man this sucks. I guess it's my body's way of getting me ready for baby, but I really don't want to practice the sleepless nights without a newborn to cuddle.

I'm getting less and less mobile these days too. Getting up and down from the couch is next to impossible. So is leaning over to pick up one of the million Thomas the Trains that litter my floor. As you can imagine, my house is a mess because of this. I'm starting to think investing in some sort of 'Go Go Gadget Arm" wouldn't be such a bad idea right now.


Well this has been a quick whinny update from me! I have an ultrasound next Tuesday to check baby Holden's weight and position, so I will be sure to update again then. :)

Until then, here I am at 33 weeks. 

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

C-section fears

So today while I had some down time, yes I actually had some down time, I was reading through this chat board. Some might say I'm a bit of a troll for message boards. While most of the information is helpful, you would be amazed the crazy infertility questions people ask on some of these boards. My personal favorite has got to be when I found a thread about taking unprescribed clomid. The author asked if taking 250mg for 7 days was too much. WTF? I almost died! (For my non infertile readers, the starting dose of clomid is almost always 50mg for 5 days.) I tried to set the author straight, but I have a sneaking suspicion she probably ended up in the hospital with OHSS.

Anyway...I found this thread about the rising rate of c-sections these days. As I was reading, I went into full PANIC mode. OMG, what if I have to have a c-section this time? I've really never even thought about this as a possibility after my extremely quick and easy delivery with London. However with every pregnancy there is always a chance.

I have no idea why the idea of a c-section sends me into cold sweats. Tons of women do it everyday, however it skeebs me out! (Skeebs is a word right?) Why is it necessary for me to be awake while a doctor slices me open and digs around in my abdomen pulling out my child.

Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT anti c-section. I know there are tons of reasons why they are medically necessary. I'm just SCARED of them. Ghosts, Zombies, and IVF don't scare me at all. (Yes, I just put IVF into the same category as Ghosts and Zombies). C-sections on the other hand send me screaming and running. The process, the recovery, the staples. THEY PUT STAPLES IN YOUR STOMACH! That can NOT be good! I once accidentally stapled my finger and it HURT, I can't imagine staples (PLURAL!!) in my stomach. I really need to stop talking about this before my blood pressure goes through the roof and I require c-section.

I have my next, and probably last, ultrasound next week. I'm hoping, wishing, and praying that everything looks good, and we can continue with our plans for a vaginal delivery.

33 weeks! Only one more month until I'm considered FULL TERM! WOOOHOOO! I'll update with a belly pic later this week!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

"Before the Baby Fun"

This weekend we had our last bit of "before the baby fun". I have a feeling we are not going to be able to be this spontaneous after Holden gets here.

Mike called me from work on Friday and said he had been given 2 tickets to the South Carolina vs Navy Football game on Saturday. Neither one of us were fond of either team, we are UGA and Army fans, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go to the game. I quickly scrambled to find a sitter, and my sister thankfully stepped up and offered to take London.. So we met halfway (she lives 2.5 hours away) and she took London down to Savannah for the weekend. 

Our seats at the game were incredible, and only about 20 rows from the field. It was a great game too, which we were not really expecting. It was a blast. Well until we hit 1.5 hours of traffic trying to get 5 miles to the movie theater afterwards. Yep, we decided to really take advantage of our child free status and go to a movie after the game. Mike wanted to see Drive, and how could I possibly pass up a Ryan Gosling movie? 

Don't worry we were not the only ones having fun. This is what London was doing while we were at the game. 

Lori said he refused to take the helmet off. :)

However it wasn't all fun and games. London and I both eventually paid for our weekend of fun.

First my feet decided that they did NOT enjoy the football game quite as much as I did. I will be honest, I really didn't walk around that much. We had parking pass from Mike's company that allowed us to park right next to the stadium. So I didn't even have to walk a full block to get in. Then at the game, I made myself comfortable and sat for most of the game. Really only getting up and down for bathroom breaks. :)
These were my feet today. They were WAY worse last night, but I couldn't take a picture then. 
See I told you I had cankles.

OMG!!! Isn't there supposed to be a bone sticking out right there? 


Then poor London fell on the corner of a table at Lori's and got this beauty on his face. The top is really bruised, but other wise it just looks like a big scratch. Goofy kid! Lori said he didn't even cry. I bet he wishes he had been wearing his helmet then. :)


So there you go, that was our big weekend, and a nasty picture of my cankles. Aren't you glad you decided to read my blog today? Hahaha!!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

32 weeks and Cankles

I've made it to my next goal of 32 weeks. My Dr even cheered when she walked into the room at yesterdays Dr appointment. 32 weeks is quite the accomplishment when we first started with a shortened cervix at 20 weeks.

Now with all of that said, I have an announcement to make...

I have cankles!!

WTF?!?!?!

How did this happen to me? I have calves and I have ankles. I DO NOT have cankles. 

I'm not quite sure if it is from swelling (hopefully) or if it's from pregnancy weight gain (18 lbs thus far). Either way I don't care, I just know that jeans have now become my new BFF. I've got to hide those big boys some how. 

In another glamorous pregnancy news, my feet have grown a full shoe size. I've gone from an already large size 10 to a small row boat in just a few months. I swear I can't even wear my flip flops anymore. Did I mention my feet are swollen/fat too? What am I supposed to wear now? 

Thankfully these nice Chinese ladies agreed to make me some new shoes, because I'm pretty sure my days of shopping off the rack are OVER!

At my 32 week appointment the other day my Dr  made a plan to pull me off all my meds at 35 weeks. WOOOHOOO!!! I love having a plan. It gives me something to look forward to, ya know besides having a baby hahaha! 

And here is a crappy cell phone pic of my 32 week belly!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Reflections

Tomorrow I will be 31 weeks pregnant...with baby number 2! Where has the time gone? I feel like just yesterday I was gearing up for IVF #1, never even thinking about IVF #2. I still look back in awe at where my life has taken me over the last few years. A lot of that journey has been thanks to good ole infertility.

Recently I had a friend ask me to write her an email about what she can expect during her upcoming  IVF cycle. I keep meaning to write that email, really I do. I swear I'm going to get around to it, however it seems that my life is crazy busy now thanks to the miracles of in vitro fertilization.  I have the family I never would have had without it. I know I have said it here before but without IVF I wouldn't have MY London. I would probably have another child whom I would love just as much. Maybe we would have gotten pregnant on our own, probably not though. Maybe we would have adopted, or maybe we would still be waiting to adopt. The "maybe" list could go on and on and on. But one thing I know for SURE is that I wouldn't have London or be expecting baby Holden in the next nine weeks with out going through the ups and down of infertility, IUI, and finally IVF.

Maybe I'm just hormonal right now, but the what-if game kills me every time. I can't imagine my life any other way than it is right now. OK so I take it back, there is no maybe involved here, I am DEFINITELY hormonal right now haha! I just cried a little during the most recent episode of Hell's Kitchen.

I'm going to go before this turns into one big sob fest. See, this is why I haven't been updating my blog all that regularly the last few weeks. I don't have much to say that is isn't whining and crying. Oh I can't wait for postpartum depression HAHA!!!