Maternity Pics!

Here they are. We took pictures with our Photographer, with whom we became great friends with after our wedding. He did such a great job on these. We couldn't love him more. Check out his work at www.rephotodesign.com

38 weeks - Update

OK I am really bad at making sure I update my blog. I just realized it's been 2 months!

So I'm 38 weeks. I am officially on bed rest. I went to my normal OB appointment on 4/22 and my Blood pressure was high. Fast forward to two L&D visits...now I am on bed rest to keep my blood pressure down. It's strange because when I go to the hospital my numbers are normal, then in the office it always seems to be high. What gives? I have no idea. This has been such an easy pregnancy until now.

The doctor doesn't think it will develop into preeclampsia, but she is keeping a very close eye on me. I have to see her twice a week, or more if something is wrong or I don't feel well. So I've been out of work for 2 weeks. I have to admit I am getting bored. I am catching up on much needed sleep, but other than that it's boring. Daytime TV is such a drag. Maybe, I need to get into a soap opera?

All of Alanna's things are put together, car seat is installed and the nursery is done. (see pics). We have everything ready...now we just need a baby! Hopefully she will make her appearance soon. We are all really anxious to meet her. And me, well I'm ready to not be pregnant anymore. I am terribly uncomfortable now. SO sweetie, if you are ready...Mommy is ready!

We got maternity pictures taken. I am going to post those later tonight or tomorrow. So stay tuned!

30 Weeks!

I can't believe it! 30 weeks! How did this happen? It has seriously flown by. I can't believe I only have 10 more weeks of being pregnant. And, that we will be able to meet our little girl so soon.

I must tell you that I am not one of those women that will "miss" being pregnant. Don't get me wrong, I love feeling this little girl swishing and rolling around inside of me. It is a feeling you cannot describe. You must feel it to understand the sheer joy of it. I WILL miss that. But everything else, not really. This has been an easy pregnancy thus far. No real problems, just minor stuff like carpal tunnel and heartburn that won't quit. But, lately I am really tired and the pressure of the baby just makes it harder and harder to do anything really.

I cannot wait to meet this little girl. Only 10 more weeks! Here is the belly shot. No more bare ones. The stretch marks are so out of control, I can't even begin to describe them!

Nursery is Painted!!!!

Well the nursery is all ready for the furniture. It won't be here for another 3-5 weeks, but all the painting is done. We got the woodworking done over the weekend and the painting was done today. I am SO in love with her room. I just can't stop staring at it! Now we just wait for her furniture to come in!!!!

Here are some work in progress and final pictures.

28 weeks - Glucose Test

We are back from Puerto Rico! We had such a great time. I can't believe we actually debated a babymoon. I recommend it to anyone. It was so nice to get away and have time to ourselves for a few days.

We had our OB appointment today. We are at 2 weeks OB appointments, now which means the end is VERY near! We got to hear the heartbeat. That sounds just NEVER gets old. I asked the OB about why I still felt kicks really low. I had a feeling she hadn't turned yet. The OB felt around and said she is pretty sure she laying across my belly! This could be because 1. She is just REALLY comfortable right now or 2. She is maneuvering herself around a fibroid I have on my right side., which may be getting bigger. The OB says it's not a problem now, but we will probably do an ultrasound to take a look and see what is going on. I am super excited that we may get to have a peek at her again at our next appointment. Crossing my fingers!!!

I had my 1 hour glucose test and passed! My number was 123. She said the cutoff is 135 so she said my number was really good. Whew! I must admit I was really worried. I have gained 35 lbs in 28 weeks! I knew a high weight gain with pregnancy puts you at a greater risk for Gestational Diabetes. But, there is no worrying about that! Thank goodness!

We will be starting work on the nursery and painting soon. I will post pictures soon!

25 weeks and Leaving to Puerto Rico!

Well I am 25 weeks...26 weeks on Thursday! I can't believe how fast time is flying by! So far so good. No real complaints. This pregnancy has been pretty easy so far. Only things I can "complain" about are 24/7 heartburn and carpal tunnel. It has gotten so bad at night that I am wear wrist splints on my hands. Michael thinks I look like a bowler! But, They are totally helping. I was suffering through pain in the middle of the night. I would wake up with my hands asleep. I felt like I could cut them off and I wouldn't feel a thing! Other than that, smooth sailing. No issues. Um except the weight gain. OB says its still fine and she isn't worried. Almost 26 weeks and I have gained 30 lbs! We have some major walking to do this summer. I must go back to WW when she is born. I don't care about the weight gain....it just MUST come off after she is born. No excuses!

We are leaving for our Babymoon on Wednesday morning. We are going to Puerto Rico for 5 nights. Our last vacation alone. Funny, we always talk about how much we can't wait until she's here. We can't wait for family vacations, Disney, sand castles etc. Next summer should be interesting. We plan on taking her to Portugal to visit family!

So off in a couple of days. I will be sure to post pictures when we come back.

Here is my lovely 25 week belly picture. Don't I look further along? And you see those lovely stretch marks? Yeah BS cocoa butter doesn't help. I put it on religiously, and NADA! Still got them!

24 weeks! = We have Movement!

So for about 2-3 weeks I have been feeling this butterfly feeling in my stomach. It's sort of felt like that feeling when someone runs up behind you and spooks you. But nobody is doing that! So I knew it was her moving around in there. But today...24 weeks on the dot I felt my first kicks! I couldn't believe it.

First off I can't believe how low it is. I imagined I would feel kicks right in the gut around where my belly button is. WRONG! Its sooooooo low. I second guessed it for a minute. It felt like a muscle spasm at first. But, when it kept happening I knew I was feeling kicks. My mom has been able to feel it and a friend at work. Every time I try to get Michael to feel it she either stops or he isn't around or asleep. Seems like this little girl is already playing games with her Daddy! For now I will enjoy it and hope he gets to feel it too.

Ordered the Nursery Furniture

So we finally ordered the nursery furniture, our stroller and bedding. This was such a process. There is a small Baby Boutique in town. We went there first and found a set we loved! But it was super expensive. And, when you have a husband who runs a company and is always looking at the bottom line and how to save money...well you know where this is going. He wasn't satisfied with the 10% discount they offered us. So we took the brochures on the furniture and went on our way. We called about 5 other local stores (NY, NJ and MA) to compare what their prices were on this set. Well, this boutique was the most reasonable. They had the lowest price on everything. After 3 visits total, Michael spoke with the owner and got him to agree on a 18% discount on everything we bought! Sweet! Although, this didn't come without a huge blowout. We got into a major fight about it. But it blew over. We got everything we wanted at a price we were comfortable with. And, our mom's agreed to buy the nursery furniture, my mom also bought the custom bedding. Mike and I bought the stroller, glider and ottoman. No we just have to wait about 10 weeks for everything to come in, be delivered and set up. Now to start painting! Well here are the pictures of the furniture, and the nursery we are literally copying. I found it online and fell in love with it. We custom ordered the bedding to almost match it exactly! And, the stroller of course. I have coveted the Bugaboo Chameleon since before we even started trying to have a baby.

Picture #1 is the Stroller (Obviously)
Picture #2 is the Furniture
Picture #3 is the Nursery we are basically copying with a few minor changes.

20 week Belly

Here it is. Against my better judgment I am posting this. But here goes nothing. Here it is in all it's glory!

Nothing much to report except 1. A darn stretch mark appeared this morning. I guess what they say is right. All the cocoa butter in the world won't help you with genetics. My mom got them, and I guess I will too. 2. I have a new lovely pregnancy symptom. My hands are falling asleep while I'm sleeping. I read it's pretty common. But, seriously? It's so annoying. I am hoping this is only temporary.

Sugar and Spice...

Sugar and Spice and everything nice. That's what little girls are made of.
It's a girl! We are beyond thrilled. We are so happy we decided to find out what we were having. It was so much fun to see her on the screen again. This was a very long ultrasound. Almost an hour long. So we got to see her for a long time. She was on the move! She kept moving, rolling. She was really cute. Everything went well with our anatomy scan. The doctor says everything looks normal. We are so excited! I think Mike fell in love with another girl today!

Update on me

Sorry I haven't blogged in a few weeks....so here it was has been going on with me. I am now 18 weeks!

I had my latest OB appointment last week. I got weighed in (My least favorite part)...I gained 9 lbs in 4 weeks! OMG! I was totally panicked. I had no idea how this was happening. I told her I was following the eating guidelines I was given at my first appointment. So she had me go through my menu. I didn't get past breakfast, and she put the breaks on.

I have been drinking whole Milk (3- servings of dairy like I was told)....I started to drink whole milk when we started IF treatment and Acupuncture. Well I never stopped. I thought I was doing a good thing. Yeah I must have missed the fine print on the info packet I was given. LOW FAT!!!! Ugh what an idiot. So fast forward a week and a half. I have totally cut out whole milk and switched back to skim milk and cut out OJ all together. And what do you know...I actually lost 2 lbs! So I have found the culprit of my expanding backside. Damn Whole Milk! The goals is the maintain the weight I gained in the last 4 weeks and not gain anymore. 1.5 weeks down and still doing well.

In other news. We did our NT testing a while back in the first trimester. When we got our results we were 1 / 2020 for Downs. DH was totally satisfied with the results. There is a second blood test called the Triple Screen we were offered. Mike thought it was silly and since our chances were 99.95 that everything was fine, we didn't need to do it. I talked to the OB and she said there is no harm in doing it...just do it. So I go against my better judgement and have it done. A week later they call me. The genetic counselor says "I'm surprised the risk went up since your first set of numbers from the NT scan were so low. It's still a negative result, but now its 1 / 234". I almost died. It took me a full day to relax and stop being a basket case. So our chances of everything being fine are now 99.5 %. The chance of the baby having Downs are less that a half percent. Looking back, I wish I would have listened to Mike and just passed up on the Triple Screen.

12/26 is the BIG ultrasound! We have our appointment scheduled. We are praying the baby cooperates and will let us peek. More updates on that next week! Hopefully we will have some good ultrasound pictures to post!

13 weeks!

Nothing much to report. But being a total AW...13 weeks! I can't believe we made it here. There were days I was so afraid we wouldn't get here. But here we are, finally in the 2nd trimester. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I can finally breathe a bit.

It's so weird...for the past 4 weeks I have felt horrible. So tired and morning sickness (all day). My cousin told me I would wake up one day and suddenly it would be gone. And you know what? She was TOTALLY right! I woke up 2 days ago and it was like the switch had suddenly been turned off. Hardly and dry heaving, headaches seemed to subside and a felt a bit of energy. It's amazing! I am trying to sit back relax and enjoy the next three month bc I know months 7-9 are going to be horrendous again.

So for now we are just relaxing and FINALLY starting to enjoy this pregnancy!

Genetic Results In!

We had our genetic testing for Downs Syndrome and Trisomy 18. Our numbers for Down's were 1/2020 and for Trisomy 18 they were 1/99,000. They doctor said there is a 99.95% chance that the baby is perfectly fine. We have decided to do the second set of blood work just for peace of mind and since insurance pays for it. Why not right?

This was not a fun visit. Although we got to see the baby again (we are really spoiled) Mike was completely out of control. I told him we were getting genetic testing done. I told him what it was for, but he must not have been listening. When we sat down and the genetic counselor began talking about what there were going to test for, Mike lost it. He didn't flip out...but I could totally tell he was terribly uncomfortable and could not wrap his head around the "worst case scenario". She was really good at calming him down and talking things through with him. I just didn't know how to react.

This whole time I have been the one who has worried, but now he was totally feeling out of control. Welcome to my world! He is obviously much better now that we got such good numbers. But I think this was his wake up call and now feels a bit of the worry I have been feeling for the past 3 months.

3D Alien Baby!

So we went for our first trimester screening at the hospital today. The doctor quickly figured out we are still measuring 3 days behind and we were just a few days early to do the testing. But the doctor was so awesome and let us peek around for about 30 minutes and we got some great shots. We still have a really strong HB at 162...Girl maybe? So we have to go back in another 10 days to do the actual genetic testing. But for today we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. Music to our ears. It was so awesome. So I just wanted to share my favorite picture from today. "Our little Alien Baby"

We Graduated!

I had my last appointment with the RE today. We got to see the little bean again. I am measuring to date and we have a really strong heartbeat at 167! He says everything looks good, and I have been officially releaased.

I also went to see my OB today for my first pre-natal appoinment. Tons of bloodwork and lots of medical questions. No biggie. We go back in 4 weeks. This is the bitter sweet part. Being with the RE at only 9 weeks we already had 4 ultrasounds. But I am so thankful we got here and have been so blessed!

We have a heartbeat!

We had our ultrasound today at exactly 7 weeks. We got to see a beautiful little heartbeat on the screen. It was so amazing to see that little flicker on the screen. It was such a relief and such a weight off our shoulders. I had been so worried since I still feel really good. I have only been really tired. But, I haven't felt very sick. A few dry heaving episodes, but nothing else.

The heartbeat was 125 which I was told is normal. RE says I am measuring 3 days behind which is normal and expected since my HCG betas got off to a really slow start. We go back again in 2 weeks. If everything looks good, I graduate to my regular OB. I never thought I would be happy to see my OB!

Leaving the RE is actually going to be bitter sweet. I know we won't get the same individual attention that we get at our RE. Not to mention, we won't get so many ultrasounds at the OB. But we are so thankful that we have been blessed.

So everything is going well. Please keep us in your prayers.

Ultrasound #2

I had my second ultrasound today. We saw the sack, the yolk sack, and a tiny little embryo! She couldn't see the heartbeat. She says it starts beating around 6 weeks. I was exactly 6 weeks today. So she thought it could be a concern, or it couldn't. So I have ANOTHER beta done.

After about 4 hours of waiting for that darn call, the nurse called around 1:30. Beta came back at 6319. Progesterone was 41.3. She says the numbers look awesome. What a relief! So I go back in exactly 1 week. I will be exactly 7 weeks. Hopefully we will be able to see the heartbeat then. Lots of good vibes, prayers etc!

1st Ultrasound Fiasco

So today was our first ultrasound. I am 5 weeks 4 days. We were very excited. But, the RE said "Don't be alarmed, it's so early we may not see anything".

So we go in and the tech sets everything up...she says "By the wheel you are about 6 weeks. That may be off by 2 weeks. We should see a sack though. We might see the embryo and maybe a heartbeat". I already know 6 weeks is wrong since I know my exact ovulation date. But fine...proceed.

Again violated by the wand...she starts messing around. I usually know what the hell I am looking at but I was extremely confused. Then I saw what I "thought" was the sack. She looks around and says your left ovary is pretty big. It's filled with fluid and it looks like you have a cyst on it, but that is normal. She find the sack and says, "It's smaller than I would have expected at 6 weeks, but I think this is the yolk sack". After a few minutes of looking around, she says, "Ok I am satisfied with what I see at this point". She removes the wand and blood EVERYWHERE!

All I could think was, "Oh My God, it's happening again!". I said "OMG blood? That is NOT a good sign". She asks me if I have been bleeding at all. And I told her not since like 2 days before my last beta. This is a first, and it was tons.

Now the mood changes. She says get cleaned up. We are going to draw your blood and I want you to go to the imaging center. (Calling in the big dogs). She says "I want to get a better picture and see where the bleeding is coming from". Now my head is spinning, I look at DH who looks white and is seriously ready to vomit. I get cleaned up and they draw my blood. I am usually such a wimp with drawing blood. It always hurts. I felt NOTHING. I was numb. All I could think of was "I'm miscarrying, I can't believe this is happening" She gives me the paperwork to make the appointment for the imaging center, then we leave.

Fast forward about 45 minutes. I drop DH at the train station so he can go to work, and I go to work. I tell my boss I have a "follow-up" appointment again at 10:30.

So I go to the imaging center. They get me right in. I explain to the SUPER nice tech what is going on. I tell her I'm 5 weeks 4 days...not 6 weeks. I hadn't bled at all until the ultrasound at the RE. And I also tell her it stopped about 30-45 minutes after I left the RE. So I hop up and she starts to look around.

I immediately ask her "Can you tell me what you see?". She says no not really, the radiologist has to look at it, report to your doctor then they will tell you". Now I'm annoyed but I know it's not her fault.

She looks around for at least 20 minutes. Take all kind of pictures of stuff. She records the blood flow to my ovaries and lets me hear it. I wish she didn't because all I could think was "this is what I should be hearing next week". Finally at the end she shows me the sack and the yolk sack. She says it's still really early, and the blood work is going to be the key if everything is alright. I already knew this, but I hoped she would see SOMETHING. She wishes me the best of luck and says "I will have everything crossed for you". Best thing she could have told me. And I didn't bleed at the ultrasound! Score! So I leave there it's about 11:30 and go back to work.

Fast forward again to 3:00. RE's office calls. She says "Your blood work came back and it looks great, your beta is 1300. It has gone up nicely. The imaging center saw the same thing I saw. So RE wants you to come back again on Thursday for another ultrasound". So I ask her if my beta is normal for where I am, and she says "Yes it is".

So that is it. I get the scare of my life. I don't know what to think. I have no idea what Thursday will bring. So I sit in limbo until then. I am praying that this was just a scare and everything will be fine. I am hoping that we can see the fetal pole and maybe the heartbeat on Thursday. I will be exactly 6 weeks. I will have an update after my appointment on Thursday. We will take any prayers, vibes etc.

Telling the Parents...

So I told my parents on Wednesday the 17th. DH was in California. But, I just had to tell them. I couldn't keep such a huge secret from them. So I got two sets of booties (pink and blue) and two bibs. One said "I Love Grandma" the other "I Love Grandpa". So I got this shopping bag walked into the house and said oh you have to see these really "cute shoes" I bought. So they are both there...Mom grabs the bag....she looks in and jumps back...like there was a mouse in the bag...she takes out the booties and says "Oh my gosh how cute, who gave these to you?" I said "Seriously?" She says "No, really who gave these to you, the RE?" Now I laugh..I look at my dad who is smiling and obviously gets it already. But, he doesn't say anything and lets it sink in for her. I say "Mom look at the thing under the "shoes" ie the bibs...she grabs one and says out loud "I love Grandma". She looks up and says "No! Are you pregnant?" I couldn't even get the word "Yes" out. I just nodded my head she hugged me and we both started bawling. (My parents know all about our struggles).

Then DH came home on Friday morning. We told his parents on Sunday the 21st. We would have told then sooner, but we wanted DH home so we could tell them in person. For them, I got two bibs. One said "If Mommy says no, Ask Grandma". The other said "Rockstar". A bit of a backstory. DH's dad was in a band for a very long time, and he always wanted to be a "Rock Star". So we kid him all the time about how he thought he was going to be in the Rolling Stones. So very funny/appropriate bib.

So I put them both in a bag. DH handed his mom the bag and said "Melissa and I got you guys this gift". She digs in the bag. (She loves presents). She pulls out the "If mommy...bib" Same reaction..."No! Seriously! OMG!" Meanwhile his dad didn't see the bib and says "What is going on?". I start laughing like crazy, and she lets him in on what's going on.

So everyone is very excited. FYI DH and I are BOTH only children. So obviously this announcement was HUGE for our parents.

Beta #3 is in!

So I went for my third beta today. We are at 321! Progesterone was 30. So we have more than doubled in 2 days. They were looking for a 60% increase. So we are looking good so far. Our first ultrasound is schedueled for Monday morning. She already warned me that it will be so early, that they may not see anything yet. Hopefully we do. I am obviously worried sick!

So I will have an update Monday night!