32 Week Appointment

Yet again everything was fine at the appointment today. I had my hemoglobin tested to make sure my iron levels were satisfactory. I have had low iron levels in the past, before I was pregnant, so I was a little anxious for the outcome. It was a quick 2 minute test where the result needs to be over 11. Mine was luckily 12.5.

The Doctor listened to the baby's heartbeat, and good consistent baby was still at 150bpm. I had put on 3lbs over the past 4 weeks which puts me at 23lbs in 32 weeks. The Dr seemed very pleased.

I have been having minor cramps over the past few days and I was told to make sure I am not having more that 4 an hour. If so I have to call the Dr or go to the hospital as this can be a sign of pre-term labor. My next appointment is August 27th.

My energy levels are continuing to go down and it's starting to get more and more exhausting to do simple tasks around the house. Wednesday my mum will be here so I will put her to work!!

Next Saturday is my baby shower which I am very excited about and looking forward to it alot.

This weekend we plan on finishing the babys room, even though we keep saying that!!, by putting up the border and moving the furniture into place.

30 Week Scan

Tuesday we went for our 30 week scan. The baby still looks great. He is approximately 16 inches long and should be weighing about 3lbs 3ozs. The ultrasound technician surprised us though by saying based on the babys current measurements, his estimated weight right now is 3lbs 11ozs. She thinks I may deliver as early as September 26th with a birth weight of at least 8lbs!! Late September means he could be sharing a birth date with one of his grandfathers!!

We managed to get a lot of new pictures and also another DVD of him moving around, even though he wasn't too active.

All his organs look great and he had a nice full bladder and stomach.

My placenta and the umbilical cord are still intact; I never realized that the umbilical cord was about 2 1/2 ft long.

My next appointment with the Dr is August 13th. There are only 5 Doctors at the practice which deliver and I'll be seeing the 5th and final one on this appointment.

Next Tuesday, 3rd, we start our child birthing classes at the hospital. We also get a tour which we are both looking forward to.

Painting the nursery

Yesterday we started working on the baby's room. We chose the border a couple of months ago and 2 weeks ago we went and bought the paint. We chose http://www.freshairechoice.com/ as it is the only completely non toxic paint. Lots of paints say they are non toxic however once you add the tint to the paint, it's the tint which contains the toxins.

The walls were in fairly good condition to start with so all we needed to do was to fill in a few small holes from previous picture hooks. After sanding the areas which we filled in, removing the walls plates and AC vent, taping the whole room and finally marking the line for the border, we were ready to start.

The top part of the room is painted in Tomorrow's Daybreak and the bottom half in Northern Pear Tree. The border we are using is a jungle theme.

Now the painting is finished, the next step is to add the border, then furniture and accessories. We have most of the furniture already, though just need it to be delivered whenever we wish.

The results came back today from my gestational diabetes test and the additional blood work and everything was normal!!

Gestational Diabetes test - 28 weeks

Today, July 14th, marks the start of my 3rd trimester. This means there are just 12 weeks to go! Today was also my 28 weeks doctors appointment to test for gestational diabetes.

I had to eat breakfast at 8:45, drink the icky bottle of glucose solution at 9:45 and then have blood taken at 10:45. It tasted like super super sweet but flat orange soda. It wasn't the nicest thing ever but much better than I had expected.

After the blood had been taken, I had a regular appointment with yet another new Dr, Dr Goldin. I was weighed as normal and my blood pressure was taken. The Dr seems happy with my weight gain so far, 20lbs in 28 weeks, and she was very happy with my blood pressure.

She measured my belly and said it was measuring spot on, and we also listened to the babys heartbeat. I'm not sure what it was today as I forgot to ask, but it sounded beautiful as usual! It's always such a wonderful sound to hear.

My next appointment is July 27th, for our 30 week ultrasound. It will be amazing to see the baby again as the last time was 20 weeks.

This weekend we are going to paint the babys room. We bought the paint and supplys 2 weeks ago. Once the painting is done, we need to wait a week or so and then we will put the border up. It's so exciting!!!

24 Weeks

My 24 week appointment was June 15th. Once again I saw a different Dr as I have to meet all of the ones at the practice as I won't know who will be available when I deliver.

Today was Dr Dominicis, who was very nice and kind. So far i've only seen one who I didn't really like!! I'm sure he's a good Dr, he just didn't have the nicest bedside manner.

My blood pressure is still awesome; he seemed really happy with it. The babys heartbeat was 150bpm, as usual!! We also got lots of information regarding banking the babys cord blood.

20 Week Scan

Everything looked great. The ultrasound technician checked all aspects of the baby - his heart, kidneys, stomach, bladder, umbilical cord, lip (to rule out the chance of a clef), bones, brain, spine, nose and many more parts which I can't remember.

First the brain and skull was checked and measured. We saw all the parts of the brain; some bits were meant to be black, and they were, and some bits were meant to be white and they were!!

Next she checked the lip to see if there were any signs of a clef, and also the nose for signs of Downs.

The spine was then checked to make sure it was correctly joined at the base of the skull and then was intact all the way down his back. Everything looked great.

Next was the kidneys, stomach and bladder. The kidneys had to be very pale and gray and the stomach and bladder had to be dark as they were both meant to be very full, and they were!

The stomach was then measured and the umbilical cord was checked and also the length of the femur. All bone measurements are based around the femur; if that's the correct size, then all other bones will be too.

The 4 chambers of the heart were verified and checked and we got to hear the heartbeat again - 150bpm.

The placenta and cord were both checked to make sure they were both in the correct position; both were.

Finally came the part of reconfirming the babys sex; something the baby was not very happy about. We had one very uncooperative baby, however the sex was reconfirmed at what they had told us at 16 weeks! She was 100% positive!!

Based on the measurements from the machine, he currently weighs 12 ozs and was measuring at 20w3d (October 4th) though my due date remains at October 6th.

The first kick!!!!

For the past few weeks we have been in England. Josh returned after 8 days there and I stayed on another 6 days.

I was nervous about flying as I knew I had to get up and walk every 30 - 60 minutes (doctors orders) to keep the circulation going to the baby. This meant no sleeping on the plane or extremely short naps. We left when the baby was 17 weeks 1day and I returned at 19 weeks 1 day.

One of the most exciting aspects of the whole trip was when I finally felt that first kick. I had been feeling odd sensations for a week or so but that definite first kick was on Sunday May 9th, 18 weeks and 4 days. Since then I have felt kicks everyday. Each kick feels a little different to the previous one. Some are little slight popping sensations in my belly, like popcorn, some feel like a little wiggle and some feel like a definite kick. They all feel so amazing and incredible. There are some kicks that make me feel a little nauseous. Strange as it may sound, some feel like how you get turbulence on a plane or that roller coaster ride feeling. I think it must be when the baby is turning!!

Next step is Thursday when we have "The Big" ultrasound. They will measure and check every aspect of the baby and we get to take a recordable DVD with us and they will record the whole ultrasound - can't wait!!

Thursdays appointment - April 22nd

This was just a routine checkup with the Dr. He tried listening to the baby using the Doppler and this time it worked, though it did take a few minutes to find a heartbeat. This was really all we had come to do. It was so great hearing the heartbeat as I had not heard it for 4 weeks, and Josh 5 weeks.

I asked him about different stretching pains and also whether I had to start sleeping in a certain position. Apparently after 24 weeks I have to avoid sleeping on my back, and start favouring my right hand side.

I mentioned to him how at 12 weeks the U/S technician had said if she was available she would do a quick gender U/S scan to see if the baby was cooperating and we could tell the sex. Off he went to find out and luckily she was free!!

She was able to tell us almost immediately (good cooperative baby!). The babys heartbeat was 150bpm. I'm not going to post the sex here as there are some people who follow this who I know do not want to find out!!

We had already been looking at bedding for the nursery so that night we went to make our final choice!!

First round of test results

During my last few appointments I had a ton of tests done. The first was for my thyroid and the result came back today as "Your TSH, thyroid-stimulating-hormone, was in normal range." Yippee!!

The second lot of bloodwork done was relating to the Nuchal Translucency test. Todays results was "Your first trimester blood test done with the nuchal thickness ultrasound was normal".

On Thursday I have my final part of the screening. They will measure my blood level of four pregnancy-associated substances, alpha-fetoprotein, estriol, HCG, and inhibin A.

Also on Thursday we hope to find out the sex of the baby!! For a long time I thought it was a girl, now I'm not so sure. We truly don't mind; we just want a healthy and happy baby.

Next Thursday, 29th, we are meant to be traveling to England. Hopefully the clouds of volcanic ash will have all cleared by then as after 24 weeks I'm not allowed to travel. As it stands right now, if we do go, then when I return I will be just over 19 weeks so we really can't leave it too much later. Fingers crossed all will be ok.

Starting the 2nd Trimester

I am now at the point of starting my 2nd trimester. It seemed like it was going to take forever to get here.

The baby is now mainly developed, it just needs to do alot of growing.

My next appointment is April 22nd, when we meet with the Dr for a checkup. I will be almost 17 weeks at this point. We are hoping to go to England the following week and would like to know the sex of the baby before we travel so we can go baby clothes shopping there!! Hopefully the Dr can do a quick scan and tell us.

I found this Day by Day guide of the stages of pregnancy online. It has a countdown of how many days have gone by and how many left!! - Day by Day guide. It seems unbelievable the amount of time which has already passed by.

Nuchal Translucency (BUN test)

Today I had the test for Downs Syndrome. I was very anxious prior to the test though confident that everything would be fine. Everything was in my favour, especially age.

The baby was not as active as the other week, though it was in the best position for the test.

First the babys nose is checked to see if there is sufficient bone the whole way down. Babys who have Downs only have a dot of bone at the end of their nose. In the first picture you can see that there is a white line down the whole length of the nose which is the bone.

The second test which is performed is a measurement is taken at the back of the neck to measure the nuchal fold. This should be less than 3.0mm. Anything between 3.0mm and 3.5mm is to be of concern. Our babys was measuring at 1.2mm, or perfect as the U/S technician said!

The babys heartbeat today was 156 bpm. I was meant to be 12 weeks and 3 days, though the baby was measuring slightly larger at 12 weeks and 6 days.

We got some great shots of the baby head on. There has been so much development in just the past 9 days with the bones. In the first picture the knuckles can be clearly seen on the raised hand. The U/S technician was able to show us the full spine with the vertebrae forming, clearer pictures of the legs and arms, and more bones of the skull.

Eventually the baby started moving more (I think we woke it up!) and like last week, it started spinning around - last picture.

Late night scare

On Friday March 19th, whilst at home, I suddenly noticed some bleeding. Even though its now such a habit for me to check each time I go to the bathroom, it was still a huge shock.

I phoned the on-call doctor who told me if it got a lot worse or became bright red, then I had to go straight to the ER. If there was no change by the morning, I had to come in to the doctors office and have an ultrasound done just to verify things were ok.

By the time I had gone to bed, everything was fine and I also checked in the middle of the night.

By the morning, I was having mild cramps and some back pain. We went to the doctors office at around 11am, both very nervous.

Everything was perfect. The doctor said it is probably still the placenta forming and it is just bursting a few blood vessels during the formation. The placenta, amniotic sack, amniotic fluid, and baby all looked perfect.

The baby was measuring at 4.3cm (11weeks and 1 day). We heard the heartbeat at 162bpm.

This baby was ACTIVE. It was kicking its little legs and waving its little arms and was constantly turning around. It was never still!! I dread to think how much sleep I am going to get in the last part of my pregnancy!

The first picture shows the baby waving its arms and legs around.
The second picture shows the baby laying belly first with its butt in the air!!
The third picture shows the top half of the baby front on, with its little alien looking head.
The fourth picture shows the baby giving the royal wave!!

9 Weeks

March 11th was my first scan at the OB clinic. It was nerve racking as I was so anxious to see what the baby now looked like. The last time we had seen it was when I was 6 weeks, 3 days.

The new Dr was very friendly. I thought it was going to be a little odd having a male OB, but he was so kind and was one of the best doctors around; we wanted the best for our baby.

He started by doing a few routine checks and asking a few questions, and then tried to find the baby's heartbeat using the Doppler Machine, though not able to detect any HB, jut static. He said not to worry as finding it using the small machine at such as early stage is rare, and also the baby is still very low.

We went into the Ultrasound room, where he did an U/S, and bingo! One perfect heartbeat. The baby's arms and legs were just starting to form, they were just tiny little buds. It all looked so different from just 3 weeks ago. The baby was measuring at 9 weeks 6 days.

Unfortunately I was unable to get a picture as it was so quick!

Not too keen on this Morning Sickness!

I started to feel sick very early on, around about 5 weeks, though things definitely got worse around 6 1/2 weeks.

Luckily I have not really been sick that often, though permanently feel like I have just stepped off a roller coaster!

There are definitely certain foods which make me feel nauseous more than others. Bananas and crackers have become my best friends, however any kind of Italian tomato oily rich sauce is enough to turn my stomach; the smell, the thought, anything! So long are my little pasta and sauce lunches I was taking to work - Josh is fed up with eating them!

Its all becoming reality

To start with it was all a little surreal and felt like a dream. This test could have been anyones. The following week, February 5th, I booked an appointment at the doctors office to have it all confirmed there, and of course it came back positive!!

The nurse presented me with a huge list of food which I can no longer eat/drink: Sushi, shrimps/prawns, lots of cheeses, soft centre eggs, canned tuna, caffinated drinks and of course wine!

My next appointment was booked for Feb 13th for a scan. The scan didn't show as much as we had hoped as I was about 5 days off the doctors estimation, so we had to come back for another.

My second scan was scheduled for Feb 22nd. This one was alot better. The baby was measuring just less than 7 weeks, and had a heartbeat of 150bpm. We could see the little tail that would eventually disappear and we saw the heart flickering. The best part of the whole examination was actually hearing the heartbeat. It even made me shed a tear. Finally I felt pregnant.

Result!!

January 30th 2010 was a great day. Finally a positive test! I did it really early in the morning. Unfortunately Josh had stayed downtown that night as he had a big project on at work, so I was alone, but of course I called him straight away!

It was a scary realisation, that something we had wanted for so long was finally coming true.

As this was a digital test, the result only stayed on the little screen for 24 hrs, so the following day I took a different type of test, one that I could keep, even though it is a little gross!

The preparation

Middle of January - The preparations were sad; end of a sushi era!! I certainly made the most of my last sushi meal.

I am certainly going to miss this more than the wine!