21 weeks pregnant...

Had my follow up visit with the perinatologist/maternal fetal medicine specialist. He did a REALLY long u/s looking hard for soft and hard markers of chromosomal abnormalities, along with any physical defects. Nothing, zero, zip, zilch, nada. While it doesn't mean that the baby doesn't have any chromosomal defects, it certainly lessens our chances. And in any case, it means that baby is nice and healthy! Baby weighs a whopping 12 oz, about the same as a bottle of pop. Oh, and both u/s seemed to indicate that it is a baby girl! Wood was right, I was wrong. He said to go with the trend, I really felt it was a baby boy! Asrat and Grace have gotten over their momentary dissapointment over wanting a boy and are quite excited to be welcoming the 4th girl to our family. We will have 4 girls and 1 boy, ranging in age from almost 23 to newborn!

Physically, this pregancy is hard on me - I'm not a spring chicken anymore. I've developed SPD, so walking, standing and doing stairs is painful. Working full time really tires me out. I really want to work right up until the very end, so that I can take as much time off as possible WITH the baby after she is born.

18+ weeks pregnant.....

Had my 18-20 weeks anatomy u/s today. Hopefully, I can get results from the radiologist by tomorrow. To my (untrained) eyes, things looked great. Admittedly, the last pic (4D) is more than a bit alien looking. Tech said they come out much better after 30 weeks, and I can come back then and they'll do a few for me no charge.

I've gained about 8lbs or so (baby weighs a whopping 9 oz, so where's the rest of the 7.5 lbs??)

I've started pulling the babies room together. G&A, although they technically have separate rooms now, only sleep in the same room. So I'm taking over A's room for the baby. We're doing a Dr. Seuss theme (works for boy or girl),with Horton as the main theme "A person's a person, no matter how small".

G&A were in a mall fashion show last night representing my workplace. They had fun and looked oh so cute!

15 weeks pregnant...

Feeling much better these days. Only gained 3.5 lbs, but am huge already. Have my big anatomy ultrasound on August 20th. All I want to know is that everything is ok with the baby, and that the placenta previa is at least starting to move up!

I'm starting to get reluctant to share the news about my pregnancy with those who don't know yet, as most folks are utterly shocked by it, and hardly congratulatory. I don't know if it's because it's our 5th child, or that we are "older". Either way, I think people should keep their comments to themselves. If one more person tells me how old I will be when the baby graduates high school I think I will scream. HOw old will I be in 18 years if I wasn't having a baby???? Thanks for doing the math for me, really, that was sooo helpful.

The other one that gets me is the "better you than me" comment. Yup, for the baby's sake, I'm glad it's me and not you either, since you obviously are so turned off by the idea of adding another child to your family.....

About my dad.....

I wrote some time ago about the brain infection my dad had late last winter, triggered by his powerful Remicade arthritis drug, which suppressed the immune system. My dad, still never fully recovered from his lengthy illness, and compounded by worries that as a GM retiree that he would lose his pension/medical benefits with the recent GM bankruptcy and would go broke with medical bills, decided to take his own life.

It is very difficult to think of someone you love completely losing hope and feeling that this is the only option left. It is alarming to feel that perhaps he was not even thinking clearly, as his illness caused erratic behavior.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been made, as his body has not yet been released by the Medical examiner due to the nature of his death. Just home yesterday from Milwaukee for G's appts at Children's hospital, we are headed downstate this afternoon.

My father has died...

I received the news late last night that my father has died. Will post more later.

unsettling news...

Got a call from the dr's office this morning, with my u/s results. I wasn't worried at all - after all, Wood and I saw little woodlet moving and squirming all over the place. Baby is perfectly fine :) However, it seems I have a complete placenta previa. This is when the placenta decides to make it's home smack dab over the cervix. I'm now on some restrictions (no lifting, exercise, etc) and I have a referral for July 2nd for the perinatologist who visits our remote and rather rural location 1x per month.

There is still time for it to "migrate" into a higher position. While the placenta doesn't move, per se, as the uterus stretches, the possibility exisits for it to migrate to a higher position as time goes on. If not, it means a definite C-section several weeks before term. It also carries a higher risk of preterm labor (I already have a history of this), hemmorrage, growth restriction for the baby.

What causes placenta previa? Oh, let's see: Age over 35 - yup. 3 or more previous pregnancies - yup.

So I have a regular OB appt on June 25th, I see the perinatologist on July 2, and we got to Milwaukee on July 13th, for both G's checkup at Children's hospital in the am, and I'm having a Nuchal translucency scan in the pm (they don't do those up here at all - Wood and I just want to be prepared for all contingencies. Some trisomies are associated with heart and other defects, and if we were to find out something like that, we probably wouldn't deliver at the hospital here in the UP.)

Praying that the previa moves up and out of the way, or this could be a complicated pregnancy.

G and A are going to be big sisters.....

A work in progress…….a bit of geography for these hard to look at u/s photos –

Round circle on the right hand side is the yolk sack. Directly under that is the baby’s head, which is about ½ of the body at this point.

If you look closely, you can see the little arms and legs – baby is laying on his/her left side facing forward. Right arm is just below the head,

about halfway down the body to the left. Bumps at the bottom are the legs.

We could see the baby squirming around today, reaching it’s arms towards it’s head. Kinda cool! Heartbeat was 167 beats per minute.

The dynamic due want a boy only.....we'll see!

Morning sickness (actually all day sickness) is starting to subside. However, I'm asleep by 8 or 9pm every night now!