Good news at the ultrasound

So last week I let you all know about my lack of weight gain and measuring small. The doctor wanted us to have a growth scan to make sure the baby is getting all the nutrients she needs. Yesterday we went in for that scan. Good news! Not only is the baby happy and healthy but she is measuring right on track! She's even measuring a few days ahead of schedule. She weighs a healthy 3lbs 5oz. The scan did confirm how very low the baby's head is already. She is ready to make her appearance. Modified bedrest continues.
It's hard to believe that I have a little human inside of me. At the anatomy scan nine and eleven weeks ago she looked like a little baby. Which is what we wanted but yesterday she not only looked like a little human but she looked so CHUNKY compared to the other scans. I know her job right now is to get fat and gain weight but its so weird to see an almost fully baked baby. Not just see it but know its inside of me and I get to take her home in a few short weeks.
In other news, we started working on the nursery! We got the paint and have started clearing out the room. Ok I haven't started clearing out the room but I'm good at directing where things should go. I'm not allowed to do much so I don't feel too guilty about it. We bought and painted the letters to go on the wall for the nursery.
Now on a more serious note, I really thought the scared anxious feeling would go away when I came this close to the end. Lots of women have this feeling early on in their pregnancy. That's why there is this idea of you don't tell people you are pregnant until 12 weeks. No guarantees. But like I said I really thought it would go away over time. However, every time I have an appointment with the doctor or an ultrasound I'm still afraid something will be wrong. Maybe its because of the miscarriage last summer or the scares we've had so far but I can't help feeling this way. For example, yesterday when we went to the scan I was afraid that the cord would be wrapped around her neck. Seems irrational right? Except that there are no guarantees. I do believe this little girl will be a very welcome addition to our home but anything can happen and I can't help but think about that. I'm not ashamed of this. It's just a confession/ observation. I want the next 6-9 weeks to go by quickly.
Now for your viewing pleasure, my chunky baby and the beginning of our nursery decor.

 

No more strict bedrest!

I had my appointment today and because my contractions have pretty much stopped she decided modified bedrest was fine. YAY! The baby is still really low so she doesn't want her to descend even further but I'm still closed so that's good. She's hopeful that I can make it to 36 weeks. I'm hoping for even longer. 38 sounds good to me.

She said I can leave the house once in awhile but to for sure limit my activity and take it easy.

Other things, it looks like I'll be going in every week or two from now on to keep checking the cervix. She's concerned about my weight gain because I'm not gaining any. Finally, she measured me and she is concerned the baby is small. So I have to get an ultrasound.

She asked Kevin if I was eating enough and he completely thew me under the bus. I eat! I may not eat as much as him but I don't know anyone who could. I love that man but way to support me hon.

Oh and she said that if I were working right now she would make me quit so I guess all the problems I was having finding a job and how down I was about it was actually a blessing in disguise. Maybe there was a higher power saying "you can't work if you want a healthy baby."

That's how I am choosing to look at the work situation. It may be difficult financially but we'll get through this and have a beautiful baby girl when we come out the other side.

One last thing, I have a 30 week belly pic for you! I'm ginormous!

Exciting trip to labor and delivery

Maybe exciting isn't the right word for it. Irritating? Annoying? Frustrating? All good words. Needed is probably the best word.
So for those who don't have their lives revolve around me and my pregnancy I will be 30 weeks along on the 23rd. (which means I only have ten more weeks and I can't wait!) Yesterday I was having some pretty uncomfortable braxton hicks contractions. The general consensus is that if you have more than five or six an hour then you need to lie down and drink a lot of water.
So I started having some at about 5:30 yesterday evening. I did my rest and drink some water thing and they didn't go away. At first it wasn't too bad. Two or three an hour. By about 8:30 I started having a lot more. I was feeling them one right after the other and had probably five in a half hour.
Kevin made me call the after hours number and speak with the on-call doctor. He told me I really needed to go into the hospital and get checked out. I was really against this. I didn't want to go in. I've gone in before and its always nothing. We got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors. The baby is just fine. She was active and her heartbeat was really strong.
I on the other hand was not doing so hot. Turns out I was really dehydrated and the baby was already in the right position and low. Its a little early for that. The monitor wasn't picking up the contractions very well either. That was frustrating because I wanted them to see what I was feeling and how often.
The doctor sent me home after making me drink a bunch of water. About 96 ounces actually. I was going to the bathroom every hour all night. Doesn't make for a pleasant nights sleep. She also made me go on bedrest. Its sooooo boring. I'm allowed to get up to go to the bathroom and to refill my 32oz cup of water. If I'm home alone I can go to the kitchen for a sandwich but that's the extent of my day for the foreseeable future. Oh goody.
I go into the office on Thursday to see if I have to continue the bedrest. Hopefully I don't. I need to get the nursery done and I need to get some laundry taken care of before this little girl comes along. I know I still have ten weeks but if I'm required to take it easy or more until she gets here its going to take that much longer to get it all done.
I feel fine. I'm still having some contractions but they have slowed down and I'm being good. Drinking lots of water and doing my job of staying put. I decided to finally get back to working on the afghan I started working on for Elizabeth back at 11 weeks. If I actually finish it before she arrives I will post pics. Its going to be adorable if it turns out right.

Its only been 4 months-ish

That's only almost half a year. Not much happens in that amount of time right? Lol. Ok so I've been a total slacker but I promise to update regularly from now on. Lets start at the very beginning. Thankfully I've been a bit more diligent about writing in my personal journal so at least I can pull from that and hopefully I won't leave out the important bits.


As you all know the last post was exciting because we were able to see our baby for the first time. That was wonderful. The following month was a bit crazy. We packed up and moved back to St. Louis. That in and of itself was hard. I never want to move across the country while pregnant again. It was ROUGH. I mean utterly awful when I say rough. I was super tired and just wanted it to be over.

One of the things that most concerned me was finding a new doctor or midwife. I would have loved to get another midwife. I had such a good experience with the practice in Utah that I was hoping for the same atmosphere with a new office. Thankfully I succeeded and I have a doctor I love. Go me! I decided to see if the doctor I had before I moved would be able to see me and she could. One of the best things about her is that not only do they already have me in the system but because of the medical park atmosphere my general practitioner is on the same floor as well as the pediatrician we plan on using. How could it get any better than that? I can just schedule all of our appointments on the same day and just never leave them alone.

Another thing I love about my doctor is that she was willing to listen to what I wanted for the birth. Now I'm not one of those crazy hippie birth plan people but I do have specific things I do or do not want for my labor and delivery. Obviously the baby may not have the same ideas I do but I see nothing wrong with trying.

When I was 20 weeks along I went in for the all important anatomy scan. I have very strong opinions about this scan. For a lot of people its as simple as "we get to find out the sex!" For the doctors its "lets make sure this baby is healthy." I agree with the doctors on this one. Yes, finding out the sex is fun but when the doctor came in and said they found something on our baby's heart it was the last thing on my mind. The doctor told us there was an echogenic focus on the baby's heart which is an indicator of downs syndrome. We decided to get additional testing called a quad screen so we could have more definitive results and thankfully our baby is just fine.

Additionally during the scan our baby was being quite stubborn. They weren't able to get all of the measurements. The spine, lip and sex was hidden from view. They did say they were pretty sure because of a small glimpse that it was a girl but it was still just a guess. Now this was right before Christmas and Kevin and I had decided that we were going to tell the family on Christmas Eve by baking gingerbread cookies. Little boys or girls. We decided to go ahead and bake the cookies based on what the doctor said but I ended up ruining it before I brought out the cookies anyway. Reveal idea fail. The baby kicked me and someone asked me what was wrong and I said, "Oh she just kicked me." Of course they all picked up on the she. The cookies tasted good at least.

We went in at 22 weeks for our additional scan and we got all the measurements and confirmed it was indeed a girl. As much as I thought it was a boy I am over the moon excited about having a little girl. We've decided to name her Elizabeth Josephine and want to call her Eliza. Some have said that her name is too common. Too normal. I don't care. I love the name. Its classic and timeless. Heaven forbid we pick a normal name. Call me crazy but trendeigh and youneek names are not my style. I don't feel the need to pick a name no one knows how to spell or can't pronounce. Call my boring. I'm ok with it.

Not much else has else has happened. A few of my favorite things about being pregnant are feeling her move around and watching my stomach. She is spunky and very active. I have to admit I like the attention I get from my amazing husband. He is caring and sweet. He is always willing to help me up or get me something I might need. He may grumble or moan a bit but I know I can count on him.

My least favorite things is much longer list that I will not bore you with. Ok I'll name a few. The horrible sciatic pain. OH MY GOSH! I've been feeling it for weeks. Since about 22 weeks actually. Six weeks of this and I'm not expecting it to go away so I'm not looking forward to the next three months. Oh and those little tricks and tips you get from pregnancy books don't work! I've tried them. You just suffer through it knowing you get a beautiful baby at the end of it. I keep telling myself its worth it. I do know that. Doesn't stop the tears of pain coming though. The no sleeping thing sucks too. I can't get comfortable. Ever. At all. To top it I'm always exhausted anyway. So yay for that. I can't sleep and I'm tired all the time. Having to go to the bathroom four thousand times a day. That's so annoying. Ok I'm done complaining.

Hopefully you all feel pretty well caught up. I promise to update more often and those posts will be shorter and more normal. In the meantime enjoy the few pictures I've taken in the time between posts.
My camera broke so 26 weeks was the last pic I was able to take. Hopefully we'll get that fixed soon. Thanks for reading this incredibly long blog post!

 

We're pregnant again

  This time I think we will get to bring our baby home. I'm due on May 4th. We are really excited. We found out in August and tried to keep it quiet just in case something happened again. So far everything is going really well. I am 9 weeks today and even though I've had some nausea and some awful bloat and exhaustion I am just so happy to have this little spud growing inside of me. Kevin and I were able to have an early ultrasound last Friday and when we saw that heartbeat on that tiny little baby the emotions were just overwhelming. We are truly blessed. I've been taking a picture every Wednesday to show the progress and my gosh! Today my tummy is out of control. I'll post them here every week. I think tomorrow I'll do a montage of the weekly belly pics so far.
  In other news, Kevin and I are still planning on moving. We've booked the moving truck and we officially leave in less than a month. Wow! There is so much to do and just no energy to do it. We are really excited to be in St. Louis before Halloween though. I have never seen my nephew Xavier dress up because I've been out here in Utah since he was a few months old. All my nieces and nephews are adorable and I can't wait to see them. I haven't even met my adorable new niece Rileigh. I just can't wait to see everyone again. Its only been 7 months but it feels like so much longer.
  Kevin also has a gig with his band next week. Its their first gig and hopefully not Kevin's last before we have to leave. Just call me Yoko. I hope Kevin can find another band when we get to St. Louis. He loves his music so much. I would hate to deprive him of that aspect of his life.
  Ok that's about it. Now for your viewing pleasure; our Spud. I have another appointment tomorrow so I may post a brand new u/s pic tomorrow or Friday.

I know its been forever since I last posted

I've been waiting for something important to write about. I think I finally found it. Tonight is the season premier of GLEE! Gah that's so exciting. I seriously love this show. It is witty and clever and the cast is so talented. I wish I could sing like that. Its incredible. Kevin has band practice tonight. Although I love my husband and his music I think I will be at home watching Glee instead. They don't need a groupie hanging around during practice tonight. That's really all that I am. I have no musical talent. Therefore I enjoy watching others with musical talent. In the form of the husbands band or an amazing television show. I'm picking the television show tonight. Sorry Honey. I still love you. My name is Staci and I am a Gleek.

Quick update

Well there's not a whole lot to update on but I thought I would say a few quick things.
Kevin and I have decided to move to St. Louis. We are going to miss everyone in Utah a ton but its just such a great opportunity for our family. He would be able to go to school and we would be able to save money. Our plan as of right now is to go to school and once he is done to head back out here. Its a compromise. I love my family but so does Kevin and he would be across the country from them. That's not totally fair. I wish in a way we weren't both transplants to Utah but I know we wouldn't have met if we weren't. So we leave in November. Not so far away. We have to give our landlord sixty days notice on our apartment. We would probably try to move out there in October if it weren't for that because of the weather. To be honest though, I'm glad I have the extra time. I need it to pack. We have a lot of crap and its going to be exhausting. I need that extra time so I can do a little every week.
Kevin's parents are coming to see us this week! They will be here on Friday and so we are pretty excited about it. I'm not sure what kind of activities we will be doing but its going to be fun. Maybe we will take them to downtown so they can see all the sites. I know they would like that and we didn't get a chance when they were here for the wedding.
Ok that's about it. Sorry its been awhile since posts. There just hasn't been a ton happening. Hope you all are well!