16 weeks ♥

How far along are you?
16 weeks

-Weight gain/loss? 
 I did only gain one, yes ONE additional pound for a grand total of TWO this pregnancy! Water helps, I'm sure and eating better, so my goal is to continue after the baby's born and get this extra weight I've been carrying OFF!

What symptoms are you experiencing?
At the moment, heartburn --yuck!
headaches
fatigue

How are you feeling?
tired, moody :(

Any Dr. appointments/ultrasounds/tests this past week and how did they go?
Had an appointment Monday 2/22 and it went well. Quick. Heard the baby's heartbeat and scheduled the anatomy ultrasound for March 22. The doctor also said we'll do growth scans every 4 weeks to make sure she's growing appropriately.

Anything big happening in your personal life (moving, work related, family, etc.)?
We're actually considering finding a new house, so we have just begun looking, which is exciting and scary all at once!
In the last few weeks we have had an upheaval with our custodial time with R, so that.

Any belly pics or ultrasound photos from this week?

Any food cravings?
Terrible.

Favorite thing about your pregnancy this week.
Hearing her heartbeat!

What has been the most surprising thing about this pregnancy?
Honestly, how quickly it feels like it is going at times... 16 weeks already????

Random Question of the Week:
Have you experienced "Baby Brain"?
I cannot remember anything. If you know me, you know how detrimental that is. It's super disturbing to me!

Doctor Visit, 15 weeks

Regular visit today at 15 weeks, 2 days.

Saw a new doctor who was on today and LOVED him! He was so friendly and actually is good friends with the doctor who performed my CVS last month.

We talked a little about the CVS and the results. I actually have something occuring in this pregnancy that affects the placenta, but not the baby. As a result, they want to do growth ultrasounds every 4 weeks from 20 weeks on, for the rest of my pregnancy.  I've read a lot about it and talked with the doctor about what I have read, in addition to the fact that this baby girl measures about 4 days ahead in both ultrasounds that we've already had, we're not worried about it. But seriously, leave it to me to have some random thing occur!  The good thing is, we get to see her every 4 weeks the rest of the pregnancy! Plus, in the 1st ultrasound we had, my placenta was REALLY low in front of my cervix, but just a few days later in the next one, it had already moved up headed to where it's eventually supposed to be.

All of this testing and my miscarriage made me realize even further just how fortunate I was to have a simple pregnancy with A and honestly that I was naive enough to believe that women just got pregnant easily, had easy pregnancy and had babies because that was my experience 10 years ago.

So back to this growth scan check every four weeks...My doctor just wants to make sure this baby girl is growing as she should be and that the placenta is continuing to move as it should be. 

We talked about the anomaly scan, which is basically "the big ultrasound" done around 20 weeks and scheduled it for March 22. Since we already know we're having a girl, we'll just get to see her again, get a DVD of the ultrasound and they'll check her anatomy and make sure all is well.

The doctor asked me how I was feeling, any cramping, bleeding, all the standards and then we listened to her heartbeat! I told him the last time I was there, the doctor had a hard time finding it, but rest assured right away there it was! 165 swoosh swoosh swoosh

Next visit = ultrasound and regular check.

Fortunately, then it will be SPRING!! I can't wait!

12 Weeks, 4 Days

How far along are you?
~12 weeks, 4 days

What symptoms are you experiencing? 
~Seriously could sleep ALL day!!!
~sore boobs
~a little bloated

How are you feeling?
~great other than tired and having to pee constantly

Any Dr. appointments/ultrasounds/tests this past week and how did they go?
~None this week, but after last week's multiple appointments and testing, I'm GLAD!! 


Anything big happening in your personal life (moving, work related, family, etc.)?
~Nothing big, thankfully! :)

Any belly pics or ultrasound photos from this week? 
Whoa. Yesterday, all-uv-ah sudden, out popped the belly.


Any food cravings?
~Dr. Pepper. :(  I hate Dr. Pepper.  I have been so good about drinking water and milk, that I have allowed myself the occasional Dr. Pepper. Gross.

Tell us your favorite thing about your pregnancy this week.
~Knowing that she's healthy, and a she!!

What has been the most surprising thing about this pregnancy?
~How quickly my belly popped out and that it was seriously not there Monday, then all of a sudden there Tuesday night!

Random Question of the Week:
Has being pregnant changed your relationship with your significant other, or family and friends? If so, is it better or worse?
~No major changes. Finding out we're having a girl this early has been exciting for our kids too and I've observed them talk about the baby and what it will be like when she's here with us.  G and I have endured a living hell for the past few years in one aspect of our lives, so we know we will endure anything together. We are thrilled to know everything is ok with our baby and have spent a lot of time just talking and being close. It's been really sweet. ♥

It's a Girl!

Can I just say S-T-R-E-S-S?!?!?!!? ACK! Let me tell you how we got to find out it's a girl this early...

Genetic Testing is WAY different for this pregnancy than it was 10 years ago! (Yeah, yeah the "AMA" rears its head again.) When I was pregnant in 1999 with A, I had the option of a screening test for Downs by a blood draw. I opted not to do it because it had such a high false positive rate that I knew I couldn't handle the stress of that option. As it turned out, he was healthy and no worry anyway.

Now at the ripe old age of 36, it's a more detailed screening called the Nuchal Transluceny (NT Scan) which checks through ultrasound for a translucent pocket of fluid behind the baby's neck and then blood is drawn (from mom) to test for 2 proteins in the blood (HcG and PAPP-A).  They combine all 3 results with your age for your results for a risk of chromosomal abnormality with the baby.

We met with the genetic counselor to explain the process with us and to ask any questions we had. She was wonderful and G was so thoughtful in his questions and discussion, it made me really happy, as I know how hard our miscarriage was on him too. 

We had the NT scan
last Monday and measured beautifully at 1.3mm!   We were soooo relieved! Hearing the words, "You're well within the normal range" was truly like music to my ears!

After our miscarriage at 11 weeks last summer, we had a lot of anxiety of reaching that point as well. So, hearing our baby's heartbeat and finding out this NT scan came back "well within the normal range" released a lot of stress for us.  The genetic counselor had indicated that we'd hear back on our blood results if there was an issue by Friday.

Got a call Tuesday (the next day) that my blood work had come back testing positive for "increased risk".  

1 in 16 for Downs. 

At my age, my risk should "normally" be 1/166. So we were pretty freaked. Even though we knew and read how the positive result was mostly statistical and there are MANY "false positives", it is still scary to hear.

We had the option of doing nothing, a CVS, or amnio.  

The CVS is a test where they can insert a catheter into the placenta and pull out tissue to then test the chromosomes to make sure there are 2 of each and no extra or missing.

We scheduled my CVS for last Thursday and it went extremely well--just uncomfortable, not much pain. The doctor who performed the test was wonderful! I had some slight spotting, but nothing alarming and the doctor assured me that I would have it, as he nicked a capillary when the cathetar went into my cervix.

I rested all day and tried not to stress and worry. 
Keyword: tried.

We waited all day to hear back from the genetic counselor with the preliminary results--which were to come the next day. Thank God!

I was anxious, worried, stressed and a MESS! 

Crying a lot and just praying.

G didn't sleep much.

Honestly, if I had to do it over again, I don't think I would have done the screening...

So, we got the call Friday afternoon that all was chromosomally normal! Yay! And since they test tissue containing chromosomes, they are able to tell xx or xy. :)
 
Yay Baby Girl!!!

We are now 12 weeks, 2 days pregnant, beyond our genetic testing, past the date we miscarried and we have seen our baby and heard her heartbeat so we are FINALLY really able to enjoy this pregnancy!!!

We both are excited about this little girl and are happy to know this early in the pregnancy that she is she. :)