One for the Memory Book...

One last snapshot of the "mutant" tooth for Karleigh's memory book! That silly thing gets wiggled out, as the dentist puts it, tomorrow at 2 pm. She's actually quite excited about losing her tooth again and I think she's become a bit self conscious about it. Even her pre-school director joked that she looked like a jack-o-lantern... I'm sure it was said with love but why draw attention to it? Bottom line is it's coming out to protect the health of her gums and the permanent tooth that is right up against it. She should have one interesting Kindergarten photo next school year though as her two bottom, middle teeth are loose too and I figure once one falls out, the other will be right behind it. She may have to give up her love for apples for a while in exchange for applesauce at the rate she's going!

I've been quiet because, frankly, I've been sick as a dog. No, I can't blame baby... I'm the baby. I have a cold virus that's got me all messed up - fever, headache, sinus cold that's working it's way into my chest, knotted up neck and shoulder muscles that keep me from holding my head like a normal person (thank goodness for the back up camera on the van!) Blah.

I hope to have a photo of the chicklet tomorrow after she gets that tooth taken care of - I'm sure she'll be happy to show off!

First OB Appointment...

Huh?! Yah, technically today I had my first OB appointment. The others were intake and ultrasounds. So, I went today... I hate how nervous I get before my appointments now but I guess that's going to be my reality. I went and they got me right back, urine sample, weight (already gaining like I did with Karleigh) and bp. I also had my pap and got my girls felt up (for a good cause of course). While listening to my heart, Doc C asked me if I was a runner... that is laughable! He said that my heart sounds like a runners heart so I must be in great shape. He did commiserate with me though about how "annoying" a heart beat like mine can be, he has the same thing. It has actually been bugging me a lot at night the last few days. Back in high school, my cardiologist diagnosed it as a "regular irregular heart beat". So it speeds up a lot, fills in with extra beats and it's very easy to feel it until it gets used to the increased blood flow - anyway, also explains why I was able to run long distances (though I don't particularly enjoy it) since it easily reacts to my body's increased needs... who knew?! He did not try to find baby's heart with the doppler today... instead he brought in the portable sono machine. Ahhh, there he/she was, wiggling a little bit with the nice strong flicker of the heart beat. Doc C also said that though the Subchorionic Hematoma is very unnerving for everyone, he wasn't positive, looking at it, that that's really what it is... and that's why all my sonograms are sent to the perinatologist's office. He thinks it looks more like a hypervascular area in preparation for a very healthy placenta. ... I like that diagnosis better but I will still continue to take it easy because to me, "hypervascular" also sounds like it could bleed easily. We all know that I don't want to see any blood even to the point that he gave me the option of opting out of my pap until my 6 week post partum appointment. I went ahead and did it though and so far so good.

Even though my nerves were on the high end... I think they will always be now, it was a good appointment. I go back again in two weeks. I wonder if they will be seeing me every two weeks from here on out or are just going to wait until all of us are feeling better about everything. For now, everything is good!

Here's today's pic of the blobby. I have no idea what the ufo over his/her head is... I don't remember that being on the screen so it may just be a glitch when it printed. The white arrow is pointing to the white spot that is the heart and the rest are labeled. Off at about 4-5 o'clock, you can see the shadow from a portion of the bleed. Like she said, it's substantial and is at least 3 times the size of the shadow and wraps around the gestational sac, along the top, to about 11 o'clock. I take comfort in the fact that she said it was already healing and I haven't had any spotting or bleeding from it yet so maybe I'll get lucky with this. I read a little saying today that said something along the lines of "If you're going to pray, why worry? If you're going to worry, why pray?"

Short Update...

Phew! Baby is doing well, measuring right on to ovulation date now (I thought that first measurement two weeks ago was off but that's ok) heart rate was steady at 158 bpm. She doesn't know if they'll change my edd again or just leave it. I really don't care, I just want a healthy baby and in the end 5 days is nothing. She spent a LOT of time looking at my ovaries and cyst, even checking blood flow and things of that nature, external, internal, lots of measurements so that made me kind of nervous. She also discovered that I have a "substantial but healing" bleed. I really hope that totally resolves itself and I don't see any brown spotting because spotting/bleeding of any kind has never ended up good for me. So, in a nutshell, baby is great... I'm kind of a mess but baby is fine! Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers! I'll be back later with the pics!

Bad Blogger...

I've been a really bad blogger lately! Thanksgiving made this last week fly by, which I'm totally fine with. That coupled with all the Christmas rush and I'm behind. We do have our tree up but we're not going crazy with the other decorations this year since we won't have anyone else here to enjoy it anyway which is actually a nice change. We have a few gifts that we're waiting on to arrive, a few to send out and then we're done! I'll be glad to have it done. The meaning of Christmas certainly doesn't escape me but it just doesn't have the same feeling that it did as a child. I mean, I never expected it to stay that way but it still kind of bums me out. Blah.

Things still seem to be progressing just fine. I'm a little nervous because my docs office called this morning and said that they needed to schedule my appointments. I figured they just missed something since I already have one scheduled for Friday and I called the Maternal Fetal Medicine office directly when I scheduled my NT scan. But instead, she told me that they need to get me in for a viability ultrasound... "like now". Of course at first my thought was "Woohoo! Yay for being followed closely and another peek at this little one." So I scheduled the appointment for tomorrow morning at 8:30. Drinking that 32 oz of water at 7:30 in the morning should be fun to say the least. However, as soon as I got off the phone the negative thoughts started... "this couldn't have waited until I go in on Friday?" "What's wrong now?" The reality is, I can't imagine that there would have been much that they could have seen on that first ultrasound anyway and as I recall, that was technically a dating scan - I was just lucky to see a heartbeat - so now they can do the viability scan and it's coded differently for insurance purposes. That still doesn't ease my nerves though. Luckily, I won't have to wait a long time to know what's going on either way. But to say the least, my mind has been pre-occupied with having a scan sprung on me so quickly. I assumed that I'd go to my appointment on Friday and we'd attempt the heart beat with the doppler and then if we couldn't get it, I'd get a quick scan.

So, that's the newest update. Still feeling very "first trimester" and my nerves are back on edge a little bit more than they had been. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be nothing but optimistic again.

An Update about Nothing!

I can't believe it's almost been a week since I posted anything! No worries. As far as I know, all is continuing to go without incident. I'm certainly feeling what is typical for my pregnancies - tired, bloated, totally scatterbrained... but luckily I have, so far, *knock on wood* avoided any yuckiness that would be worth mentioning. I felt much more sick with Eli than with any of my other pregnancies. I have a theory about that. I wonder if the Clomid preps my body for the hormone rush so I don't really experience morning sickness to the extent that I did with my one unmedicated conception. Eh, just a thought, who knows, but I'm not complaining!

I've been preparing for Thanksgiving, which I'm hosting again this year and is fine by me. I can cook and the kids sleep so much better in their own beds. I've been working on holiday card orders that are rolling in and even got it together and have ours finished and on the way. The Christmas shopping is almost done which also feels great. It's been nice having something to keep my mind busy.

It's also been strange to continue to schedule appointments for the future. This week I made my appointment for my NT scan for December 31st. It's hard to keep the thoughts of "why are you even bothering to make the appointment?" out of my head. I just keep reminding myself that this is a different pregnancy. It is. I am trying to enjoy every day and every moment. We have let our guard down and discussed names, room arrangements, bedding thoughts and all of that fun stuff. I am a habitual planner so not doing some of those things would probably make me break out in a cold sweat. It's good. I should be doing those things.

I hope each and every one of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's hard to be thankful for the path that my life has taken this past year but I am thankful for where I am now and thankful for those who I have reconnected with and for those who have prayed for me and lifted me up through this time. Without going through the things that I have, I wouldn't have those things to be thankful for.

Beautiful...

Another beautiful sight today from the shores of Western Australia.