21 week survey

Better late than never, right? :) Things have been so busy with school, and I'm so exhausted when I get home, that posting online hasn't happened much.

How far along? 21w4d (picture taken at 21w1d)
How big is baby? As of a week ago, Baby B weighed 12oz!
Total weight gain/loss? Officially on the doctor's scale, as of Monday, I've gained about 7 pounds total. Not too bad for being 21 weeks in!
Maternity clothes? I think I'm going to stop answering this one after this week - because I'm loving my maternity clothes. Aside from just a few shirts that still fit, I'm only in maternity stuff. And I'm not sure that I ever want to go back to non-maternity pants. The maternity ones are so comfy!
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep? It's okay. Still waking up every couple hours, but I'm usually able to get right back to sleep.
Best moment this week? Well, I'm going back to last week - finding out that Baby B is healthy and "perfect!"
Movement? I feel something most every day, but usually when I'm sitting still. Baby B seems to be most active (or I feel him/her the most) mid-morning and in the evening.
Food cravings? Not really, just what sounds good at the moment. I'm still liking the occasional root beer.
What I am looking forward to: We are spending the long weekend with our small group from church up in Wisconsin, and I can't wait. We had such a great time last year, all in one big house in the middle of nowhere, just hanging out and enjoying the community we have with each other. We leave Friday after work and come back on Monday.
Weekly wisdom: If the doctor isn't worried, you shouldn't be either. (lesson learned about looking things up online - low placenta can bring up scary things, but most of the time, things are fine. I'm not worrying about it until the doctor seems worried - and neither the specialist nor my regular doctor are worried yet).
Milestones: Baby's eyebrows are present now. And in fun news, according to a pregnancy book I'm reading, baby's hair is all white right now because it doesn't contain any pigment at this stage in gestation.

Ultrasound pictures

Here are some pictures of Baby B from our level 2 ultrasound on Monday. The tech got some pretty good ones for us!

Tiny baby foot! Love it! This is Baby B.'s right foot.

Baby B.'s left hand - we got to see this hand open and close during the ultrasound. I love how you can see the individual fingers. So neat.

Profile shot - we finally got to see Baby B.'s face!

I think out of all the pictures we brought home, this is my favorite. It's from near the end of our ultrasound, and after much pushing, pounding, and other weird manipulations of my stomach so the tech could get the measurements she needed. I love his/her hand up by their head. It's like he/she is saying, "Geez, enough with all the pounding and pushing. Just leave me alone already!"

So busy!

It's that time of year, when things in our house are crazy busy. I'm wrapping up week 2 of school tomorrow, and Matt's been in the midst of busy season for a couple weeks as well. What does this mean? It means that we don't really get to see each other much, except on weekends, because Matt's working late most weeknights. And I'm getting up early and staying at school well beyond contract hours to work on things for my kiddos. So we're both pretty much exhausted all the time :) Thankfully, things usually settle down after a bit and we fall into a routine. Busy season ends for Matt around the middle of September. And while there are always plenty of things to do at school, things are much crazier at the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, our yard and flowerbeds need some serious attention, our pantry is sort of bare, and laundry is only happening on the weekends right now :) Oh, and I've been going to bed early. And by early, well, let's just say that most nights last week I was in bed and asleep by about 8:30 or 9:00. And I think I'm heading to bed as soon as I finish this post - and it's not quite 8:00.

The good news is, my class this year seems pretty awesome. I'm really enjoying getting to know these 25 young children. They're curious, most of them are excited to be at school, and they're already learning a ton of stuff. As exhausted as I am by the end of the day (even when I'm not pregnant), I do love my job and the kiddos that I get to spend my time with. I'm looking forward to what I'm pretty sure is going to be a great year!

Ultrasound pictures are coming soon, as soon as we can get them scanned into the computer!

Happy almost-Friday!

Good news! and a smaller concern now :)

We had our appointments today with the genetic counselor and the maternal and fetal medicine specialist. In the doctor's words, Baby B looked "perfect!" Praise God! There are still 2 cysts hanging out in Baby B's brain, but both the doctor and the counselor said these by themselves are not cause for concern. They are benign and will affect nothing, and still have a very high chance of going away on their own. So today's ultrasound, coupled with the results from my bloodwork, put our chances of having a baby with Trisomy 18 at 1 in around 37,000. Pretty good odds, especially considering we went into today's appointment with 1 in 400 odds. Baby B was awake and moving around a ton. We got to see his/her hands opening and closing, the stomach full of amniotic fluid (good and normal), toes, fingers, a profile shot of their face, and their heart. It was so amazing to be able to see the valves on his/her heart opening and closing. So while the doctor cannot tell us with 100% certainty Baby B is fully healthy (only an amniocentesis can do that, and we're not willing to have that procedure done), she is fairly confident that Baby B is just fine. Hooray!

However, today we also found out that the placenta is only about 2 cm from my cervix. It's not placenta previa (where the cervix is completely covered), but it's a bit lower than they like to see. There is a good chance the placenta will move up on its own as our little one grows. The doctor explained this kind of a like a balloon. There's a spot where the "balloon" attaches to the wall (like the spot where you'd blow up a balloon). As the balloon gets pushed on, the spot where it's attached stays the same, but the balloon can move up or down. Most of the time, low lying placentas move up as the baby grows and presses against the placenta. This is what we are hoping happens. However, if the placenta does not move or moves down, this isn't so ideal. It can cause bleeding later in pregnancy, along with some other complications. And it would most likely result in requiring a c-section because the placenta would be blocking the way out for the baby. Not ideal, but I suppose if I need to have a c-section I'd rather know ahead of time than need to have an emergency c-section and have the baby and/or myself be in distress. I have another appointment in 8 weeks to check on the location of the placenta. The doctor said while we're there, they'll check to see if the cysts have gone away, but that if we didn't need to come back for another ultrasound to check on the placenta, we would not need to follow up on the cysts.

And I just have to say, all the doctors and nurses we've seen and talked with have been great, especially over the last couple of weeks. They've all taken their time with us, been willing to answer any questions, been gentle with not-so-great news, reassured us, etc. I feel like I'm a person to them, and not just another patient. It's really nice, and much appreciated.

We got some fun shots of Baby B today! Once we get those scanned into the computer, I'll post some to share :) Thanks again for all your prayers, support, and encouragement! God is good :) And hopefully at our next ultrasound Baby B has pushed that placenta up out of the way :)

Half baked!

As of yesterday, Baby B is half baked! 20 weeks down, 20 to go! I think Baby B was having a little party for him or herself yesterday, celebrating making it to the halfway point. He or she was moving around like crazy for most of the morning and early afternoon, and I saw my stomach move for the first time yesterday! It was just a quick little outward motion, but it definitely moved. I am really looking forward to Matt being able to feel and see this little one moving around.

Speaking of seeing the baby moving around, we do have our ultrasound tomorrow with the maternal and fetal medicine folks. We meet with the genetic counselor at 2:00 and have the ultrasound at 3:00. Please, please be praying that Baby B is healthy. We are feeling fairly confident things will be okay, and are looking forward to another chance to see our little one moving around. Hopefully he or she is awake this time, and cooperates so we can see their face! We will keep everyone posted as to what we find out tomorrow. We do appreciate all the encouragement, support, and prayers over the last week or so.

(all dressed up to go on a double date to see a friend in "Hairspray.")

How far along? 20 weeks 1 day!
How big is baby? a banana- roughly 10 ounces 10 inches long. At the last ultrasound, just over a week ago, Baby B weighed 9 oz.
Total weight gain/loss? Well, I weighed myself yesterday morning, and I'm not sure I've gained anything since the last time I went to the doctor. I have my monthly appointment on Thursday, so we'll see what their scale says.
Maternity clothes? Pretty much exclusively. I still have some shirts that I can wear, but outside of those it's maternity stuff all the way.
Stretch marks? Still none yet
Sleep? Still waking up about every 2-3 hours to go to the bathroom. And my hips still really hurt when I wake up.
Best moment this week? Seeing my stomach move! And hitting the halfway point!
Movement? Still not super consistent, but most days I feel something. Usually it's when I'm sitting still, especially in the evenings.
Food cravings? Lately I've been really enjoying root beer (caffeine free). One every couple days has been a nice change from just water, milk, and juice.
What I am looking forward to: Seeing our little one again tomorrow (and hopefully getting great news)
Weekly wisdom: Eat. All the time. Because even though you think you're eating a lot, you still get hungry. (This is especially true now that I'm back at work - I eat before I leave the house, have a snack when I get to school, a snack during my prep, lunch, and an after school snack - and I'm still super hungry by dinner.)
Milestones: 20 weeks down, 20 to go!

some good news

I got a phone call from my doctor's nurse yesterday that the bloodwork I had done this past weekend came back normal. Hooray! I have an appointment with the maternal and fetal medicine specialist next Monday afternoon, so hopefully that goes well, too.

Now I need to go finish getting ready for my first day with kiddos!

an update of sorts

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Things have been a little busy with preparing for the start of school, Matt's job picking back up, and some family things. This past week was a fairly regular week for Matt, and the next two months or so will be really busy for him. I go back tomorrow and my kiddos come on Tuesday. It should be a good year, and I'm looking forward to it - it's just always time consuming getting my room set up and prepared :)

In lieu of a normal weekly update on Baby B (who is now the size of a mango), I'm going to do a little bit more serious of an update. We had an ultrasound this past Wednesday, what's traditionally the 20 week ultrasound but we did it at 18 weeks 4 days so that I didn't have to miss work. And no, we did not find out if Baby B is a boy or a girl! We still want to be surprised when he or she arrives in January! Baby B weighed 9 ounces and had a good heartbeat of 143 beats per minute. We got to see all 4 chambers of the heart, baby's brain, both kidneys, and a foot. Unfortunately, Baby B was also a little stubborn :) He/she was facing my spine and despite the orange juice I had that morning before going in and the ultrasound tech's pounding on my stomach with her wand thing (I don't really know what it's called when they're doing an abdominal ultrasound), Baby B was content to stay facing that way instead of rolling over so we could see his/her face.

This past Friday, two days after the ultrasound, I got a phone call from my doctor. And well, you know it's never good when the doctor calls you. I'm not scheduled for another appointment for 2 more weeks. First, the good news - Baby B's heart looked good, kidneys looked good, heartbeat was good. The not so good news - Baby B has a cyst on his/her brain. Most of the time cysts like this go away on their own by about 28 weeks or so and mean nothing. Baby is completely fine. From what I found online, it's just a little pocket of fluid that sort of gets "stuck" and then dissolves as baby grows. That's what we're hoping happens with Baby B. Because if that cyst doesn't go away, it can be an indication that Baby B has Trisomy 18, which is when there are three copies of chromosome 18 present rather than 2. And unlike Trisomy 21 (also known as Downs Syndrome), babies born with Trisomy 18 don't come home from the hospital. Needless to say, after getting off the phone with my doctor on Friday I was scared and I called Matt near tears. However, today we're in a much better place than we were on Friday, and here's why:

-Over 99% of the time these cysts dissolve on their own. Those are pretty good odds.

-Since finding out, we've also heard from 3 couples who went through the same thing with their children when they were pregnant. All 3 are now happy, healthy children.

-There are tons of stories online from women who were told the same thing at their 18/19/20 week ultrasounds, and then went back a month or two later and there were no cysts to be found. Their babies were just fine when they were born.

-My doctor (who, by the way, is pregnant and went through the same thing a few months ago at her ultrasound) said that she's never seen one of these cysts not go away.

So, here's the plan. The only thing that would tell us for sure if the baby does, in fact, have Trisomy 18 is an amniocentesis. That's not a test that we are willing to do, due to the risks that come with that procedure. Because regardless of what the tests show, this is our baby and we already love him/her. Finding out that we may not have much, if any, time with them when he/she is born won't change that, and we will not do anything to end this pregnancy. So we opted for two non-invasive tests to at least get a better idea of what our odds are, and what we may (but hopefuly aren't!) dealing with.

I had some bloodwork done yesterday. They'll use that to screen for the likelihood of certain conditions. I'm not sure when I'll hear the results from that. I should also hear back this week from the maternal and fetal medicine specialists (basically a high-risk doctor). I'm not sure when they'll want me to come in, but they will be doing a very in-depth ultrasound with better machines and more specially-trained technicians than the ones in my regular doctor's office. They will not only be checking to see if the cyst is still there, but will also be looking for other indicators (or lack thereof) of this condition. We are encouraged that Baby B's heart and kidneys looked good, as heart and kidney conditions are also often present in children with Trisomy 18. They will also be looking for things like clenched hands (we also didn't see his/her hands at our ultrasound last week), rounded feet, misshapen head, and various other markers. And they'll take a ton of measurements. Hopefully Baby B cooperates and shows us his/her face at this ultrasound, as a cleft lip is also an indicator - so seeing the absence of one would be awesome. Neither the blood test nor the fancy ultrasound can tell us for sure if Baby B does have an extra chromosome or not, but we can at least find out what the odds are and be able to prepare ourselves either way.

So right now it's just a waiting game. While we're still a little worried and scared, we are also trying hard to be hopeful. Because really, the odds are in our favor. Over 99% of the time things are fine. Those are fantastic odds! And there was just one cyst, and the doctor said it was small. Also good! Heart and kidney function looked good. Woo hoo! Weight was good. Awesome! But if you could join us in praying for Baby B's health and continued growth/development, that the cyst would dissolve on its own, and just for our peace of mind as we wait, we would really appreciate it. Thank you!

I got kicked!

Yesterday, as we were on a plane getting ready to fly back home, I felt two little kicks just before take off! I've felt some movement off and on, but what I felt yesterday definitely weren't just the twitches and flutters I'd been feeling. They were kicks! I kept hoping it would happen again, but it didn't. I love feeling the baby move around and am looking forward to feeling it more often!

It's been kind of a crazy week, but there's a weekly and just a general update coming in the next couple days. In the meantime, I need to head in to school to work on my classroom some more. One week from today is my first day back!