33 Weeks

I actually got a picture at 33 weeks!  YAY!

You've got to learn to celebrate the little successes in life :-)

I thought I would post this photo with the most recent to compare... same shirt at 20 weeks.  It is working much harder now.  Happily, I will most likely have to put it to the real test at almost 40 weeks when the Gators are in a bowl game.  So happy we smashed FSU today!  Go Gators!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

  To save myself and my sister from lots of cooking and stress, I suggested going out for Thanksgiving dinner... 

We went to the Grand Ole' Lodge in Forest Grove for their buffet dinner and had a pretty good time with Emily, Steve, and the girls.  The food was very good but alas...no leftovers :-/  They also ran out of the really good rolls at the end (Emily and I were trying to get another one)  The best part though was no clean-up! 

Here are a few photos from dinner... it was Rebecca's first Thanksgiving!

 

This week was really great for me...I started getting over my cold, had tons of time to relax, and even got some shopping done!  My cousin Amy should be having Leo's second cousin (Luke) any day now.  In some ways, Luke's arrival is a marker for me of how close Leo's arrival will be.  Our due dates were only a little under 7 weeks apart. :-) 

“We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
The One who is and who was and who is to come,
Because You have taken Your great power and reigned."

Revelation 11:17 NKJV

32 Weeks

I failed to take my picture this weekend due to immediately changing into comfy clothes every time I walked into the apartment.  So tonight I gave in, here it is... a picture IN my comfy clothes.  This past week has been very difficult.  It should have started out with a couple of days over the long weekend to relax but did not end up that way.  Plans with family and friends interrupted my relaxing time (I loved spending that time with them though!) I could feel a cold creeping up on me but kept on trying to push through it.  There are also still lots of things to do in preparation of Leo's arrival so I have been trying to cram that stuff in during my "free" time as well.  Starting on Monday I took an extra shift at Sylvan because one of the other teachers was absent. On Tuesday, I met Emily, my mom, and the girls for brunch before taking my mom to the airport and then heading to an appointment with my dietician. She set me up with a glucose meter for testing 4 times a day because the midwives are not sure if I have gestational diabetes or not. After all that, I went to work at Sylvan.  Wednesday through Friday I had sub jobs lined up and right when I thought I had a day to relax, Evan reminded me we had plans with some friends on Saturday night.  (Again, I love hanging out with them!) Sunday was finally a day to rest...except no, I forgot that I had to take one of my teacher certification tests in the afternoon.  Monday I had another sub job and today (Tuesday) I had to work at Sylvan.  Needless to say... my cold caught up with me.  By Saturday night I wasn't feeling very good and to top things off I was getting crazy readings on my blood sugar.  After doing a little research it sounds like getting sick can cause it to do that but I just hope it won't ruin my averages in the midwives' eyes.  Between my Monday evening and this morning, I was able to get enough rest to be feeling somewhat normal again.  My blood sugars also seem to be leveling again.  The best part is that I do not have ANY responsibilities outside of the house tomorrow!  YAY!  

I am hoping that I can get a lot of things off my checklist over the 5 day break! 

Leo is very active these days, I often get a foot in my ribs and a lopsided belly because he really likes to hang out on my right side.  It can downright hurt at times since it feels like he is trying to stretch out parts of my stomach purely by movement! Last week while working at Sylvan, I am pretty sure he was bracing his hands and feet against the back of my uterus and pressing his back against the front of me.  It lasted for 2 hours and after that he took a rest on my right side making me feel like I had a bad stitch in my side as I tried to eat.  :-/  We had some words...

It is hard to believe that Leo will be here in absolutely no more than 9 and a half weeks (that would put me at 42 weeks which is when they would induce if I wasn't in labor yet). I'm looking forward to seeing him for the first time, holding him, and counting those cute little fingers and toes.  Probably one of the top moments I am looking forward to is seeing Evan hold him for the first time.  He is going to be an amazing dad and I can't wait till those first moments of seeing him hold his son.

Just this past week, he had a dream about the birth...nothing specific about the baby, it was more about trying to fight for me to have the labor and delivery I wanted.  I love that I have his full support in trying to have a natural birth and that he is obviously gearing up for the experience.  In this week of thanks giving I can say I am thankful that he is the one I have beside me throughout this pregnancy and will have beside me while raising our son.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

 

 

31 weeks

I still can't believe I am in the 30's!  9 weeks left!

This past week it has started to really feel like winter...particularly the weekend.  I went for my Dr's appt. on Friday with my mom...so she could hear the heartbeat and see the hospital.  So besides the fact that nobody there knows why I failed one GD test and passed the other one is frustrating but they spent 3 weeks NOT calling me despite repeated attempts to contact them and now they are asking me to track my blood sugar levels every morning and an hour after every meal to see what is going on.  They want to review the results of this investigation at my Nov. 30th appt.  If the results point towards me having GD then they would put my on a GD diet...  I am going to do all this but wouldn't it have made more sense to have me doing this for the past 3 weeks and getting on the GD diet now (if needed).  When there is only a month left is it really going to make that big of a difference in Leo's size??  I can't imagine it would...

As far as my appt. went, I am measuring on schedule for 31 weeks and Leo's heartbeat sounded good!  I know his movement has been great.  I often wonder what he is doing in there and have gotten a foot or fist stuck underneath my ribs several times now.  I still love the feeling but some of his movements or positions have gotten to the point where they are VERY uncomfortable.  He particularly likes my right side and will shift his entire weight over there which makes for some lopsided stretching.  I usually try to move him over when he tries to settle there for longer than a few minutes (which happens at least once a day).  

On the baby front, my cousin Amy is expecting her second baby but first boy (Luke) in just a couple of weeks so really it could be any day now!  I am excited that he will be here soon!

Also, my best friend from high school, Sarah just announced her pregnancy during Halloween.  I am so excited that she is pregnant and that her LO will be pretty close in age to Leo.  She is due in May which also happens to be around the time Evan and I are planning on bringing Leo for his first trip to FL so I will hopefully get to meet Sarah and Ben's LO when we visit!  

Well I'm off to wash more baby clothes!

Love to all!     

30 weeks

 For week 30, I forgot to take a photo so I'll use my awesome Halloween costume picture (which was taken at 29 weeks, 4 days).  :-)   This week was busy as I worked all week at both of my jobs.  Kudos to all the women who work full-time jobs throughout their entire pregnancy.  I've been working quite a bit the past two months but as a substitute I have the option to occasionally take a day off if I need to.  Of course, I try to coordinate those days with Dr's appointments and such but most women do not have that luxury.  I had fun with Halloween even though I didn't go anywhere but my sister's house.  I just wanted to take advantage of the pregnant belly.  I got the idea from a website but there wasn't a picture so I am happy the total effect came out so well.  At my mom's suggestion we placed my "crystal ball" on the table which worked even better!

With my mom in town we were able to get our room set up a little better for Leo's arrival.  We have his bed up and in place as well as our furniture rearranged so that everything fits better.  The next step is to wash the remainder of the clothes that we have and hang some decorations on the wall.  I feel more and more prepared with each task that gets done but I still feel like there is a ton to do before Leo arrives.  I just have to keep checking things off the list! 

29 Weeks

This week there isn't too much to update since I just wrote in the middle of the week...

I have been trying to think of a fun Halloween costume to highlight my pregnant belly.  I don't want to do anything that takes too long or too much money as I don't really have anywhere to wear it but I thought it would be fun just the same.

This week has brought about a miserable night in which I was very uncomfortable, had indigestion, and ended up in our recliner so I could actually sleep. I hope there will not be more nights like that but I am sure there will be so I will just take them as they come...

My 3rd and final baby shower was today and was hosted by my sister, Emily.  I had a lot of fun and am so grateful to Emily for putting it on, to my mom for helping out, and to all the guests for coming! It was nice to get many of the new friends we have made since moving here together in a setting outside of work.

I can't believe it is almost November...when December hits it will really feel like the countdown has begun.

On another note, I've been enjoying getting to plan my birth again.  After the placenta previa diagnosis I basically tried to avoid any and all information about natural birth.  Now that it is clear, I can go on with my planning!  I am very excited!

28 Weeks

This week started out with my glucose tolerance on Monday (see my 27 week post) and on Tuesday I received a phone call saying my numbers were just slightly over the cap for normal levels... 

So while GD is not the end of the world...it felt like I had been dealt another blow and had just one more thing to worry about.  It took a lot to ignore the added stress and concentrate on studying for my elementary education teacher license which was scheduled for the end of the week. 

Friday rolled around with a lot on the schedule.  My exams started at 8 am and lasted until 11:15... fun!  I then had to go eat and head out to OHSU for my ultrasound to see if the placenta had moved at all.  Evan also had a busy day with a meeting in Hillsboro at 9 am and a Mercy Corp speaker in Portland at 11:15, then he had to meet me for the ultrasound at 2:15.  In order to manage all of these things, we borrowed Emily and Steve's car (Thank you!!) which they offered so willingly.  :-)  It is so nice to have family living close by!

I was nervous about the ultrasound because I felt sure that the placenta would not have moved and that I would have my hopes dashed that it would ever move... well that was not the case.  After an anatomy scan the perinatologist came in to check for the placenta.  After some maneuvering, (baby Leo likes to sit with his head resting directly on the cervix) they were able to see and amazingly.... the placenta had moved to almost 4 cm away from the cervix!  It isn't even considered a low-lying placenta anymore!  I was stunned and in shock.  I was half crying, half laughing when the Dr and tech left us.  I could scarcely believe it... 

Of all the emotions that followed, relief was the greatest.  I am so extremely thankful that I have been granted mercy on this particular burden.  It felt a lot like someone had diffused a ticking time bomb that I had been carrying around for 2 months.  We also got some detailed pictures of Leo!

His little fist!

His little foot!

His other little foot and his cute little toes. :-)

Another profile pic

and one of the coolest, and creepest, pics.  He almost looks doll like in this image.

On the GD note... I asked my Dr. if I could take the test again and she said it would be okay seeing as how my numbers were so close.  I failed by only 2 pts on one of the blood draws.  Since I was late writing this post I can give you an update on how my second test went... I PASSED!  This week (from Friday to today) has been amazing as far as good news goes.  For those that may come across my blog looking for information on glucose tolerance test numbers I am listing my numbers from both tests below.  

Test #1                                Test #2                   Normal Range (for my lab)

Fasting-               92                                         85                               <92 br="br">

1hr -                   182                                       153                              <180 br="br">

2hr-                    123                                       133                              <153 p="p">

The only difference I can tell is that on my 2nd test I did not eat an apple with nutella and drink a glassful of orange juice right before beginning my fast and going to sleep immediately after.  (I did all of the above before my 1st test which of course was stupid in hindsight)  Hope this helps someone...I had an extremely hard time finding any information about the 2 hour glucose tolerance test which is fairly new as it was only recommended by the American Diabetes Association in 2011 and not many practices have started using it over the traditional 1hr than 3 hr GTT.  

Well, I'm off! Hope the Gators beat Georgia this weekend!  Go Gators!

     

27 Weeks

27 weeks! Before I know it I am going to be in the 30s. I was recently trying to figure out when the 3rd trimester started so I found a trimester calculator and went to town.  According to this, I started the 3rd trimester on Oct. 14th!  YAY!  It's hard to believe I am in the home stretch...

This last week was mainly subbing and some more laundry (Leo's and ours) Evan also scored some storage containers for clothes and such, which is great since I had already run out of room for Leo's clothes and don't really want his 12-18 months clothes hanging out in the most accessible space.

It is hard to imagine that in a year from now he will very possibly be in 12 month clothes and I'll have an almost 1 year old!  I am so excited for the coming year(s)...

So even though it is in my 28th week...I wanted to update everyone about today's appointment.

I had to go in for my glucose test today and it sucked! Most places do a one hour then a 3 hour if you don't pass the first one.  My clinic just does one, 2 hour test.  I'm hoping I pass!  I also had to get a Rhogam shot because I am negative (blood type) and Evan is positive so if Leo is positive than I would develop antibodies that would make me miscarry any future "positive" babies... or at least I would without the Rhogam shot.  The other thing is that my Dr (a new one this time) put in a referral to a physical therapist for the pelvic pain so hopefully that works out.  Last but not least is that I have an ultrasound for this Friday to find out if the placenta is moving or has moved.  Even if it hasn't moved there is still a chance that it will move and they would do a repeat ultrasound at 34 weeks.   Prayers and well wishes are welcome!

Love to all!

This picture showed my bump better than the other one but was too dark to have as the main one.