How much does the baby weigh now?

I had my 22 week follow up Level II ultrasound with the perinatologist today. Chris couldn't make the appointment because of work. I thought it would be fun for my friend, Bonnie, to come to the appointment since she's so close to the hospital.

I drank some orange juice on the way to the appointment to try to get the little guy moving around. So far at every ultra sound, he's usually sleeping!

We had to wait forever to get in to see the doctor. The waiting room was full which is unlike this doctor's office. I soon realized why it was so crowded. One girl brought her entire family and friends to the ultrasound. There were 4 other people with her!

Patches was kicking before the appointment started but he settled quietly in for the scan. I guess the sugar rush from the orange juice wore off! He's measuring a little ahead at 22 weeks 6 days instead of where we were at 22 weeks 1 day. His heart rate was 160 (maybe from the OJ?) so that again doesn't follow the old wives tale about high heart rates indicating girls.





They estimated the fetal weight to be 1 pound and 2 ounces. I was concerned that weight might be a little high from what I've read in the baby books but the doctor reassured me that it was completely normal. In fact Patches appears completely normal and healthy! Thank God.

Now for the pictures!

We got our first 3D picture of Patches. The tech couldn't get a real good view of him but you can see one of his arms up by his face and his nose and mouth pretty clearly. She told me that in 6-8 weeks the 3D would be closer to how he'd really look when he's born. Right now he doesn't have enough fat to fill out his skin so he's a little alien looking. But still cute in my opinion! :)

Here's a profile of Patches. His head is on the left and his little legs and feet are sticking up in the air. Probably getting ready to kick on mommy.

And just because Patches is an October baby, here's another face on shot where he looks like Skeletor. Tilt your head side ways. The top of his head is on the left and his eye sockets are above the bright spot which is his nose. His mouth is the black opening below that.

When we were looking at this angle, he opened his mouth really wide and then closed it like a yawn. It was super cute.

After the appointment, Bonnie and I went out to lunch before she had to get back to work. I cut one of the ultrasound pictures off the strip so she could take it with her. She usually sees Chris several times during the day so I knew she could give him the photo. I wanted him to get a surprise after a hard day's work and he'd have an excuse to show off his son! :)

New bedroom furniture and a trip to the ER

We needed a new bed. Our old platform bed wasn't going to make it any longer. Chris finally realized it was important when he saw me struggling to roll out of bed every morning at 4 am to pee. It was also time to down size so we'd have room for the baby's crib since we don't want to turn the second bedroom into a nursery yet.

Our new bedroom furniture got delivered this afternoon. Chris and I spent the entire morning taking down the old furniture and moving. I ended up helping lift a headboard bookcase that he couldn't handle alone.
Around 11 am I started getting sharp cramps. I worked a little longer and then gave up to rest on couch. I drank 2 bottles of water and started working on my a third.
Around 4 pm, DH told me to call my OB since the cramps weren't letting up. My own doctor wasn't on call so I spoke to another. That doctor said if it was bad enough that I called him, then I needed to go to the ER. I really wasn't expecting that. I thought my OB would just reassure me and give me some guidelines to follow if it got worse or didn't improve. I don't run to the doctor over every little thing and going to the ER was the last thing I wanted to do!
During the 30 minute drive I had 5 of the really sharp cramps. I had a couple more while we went through security and check in. I ended up being sent to L&D. That totally freaked me out. It felt so strange to walk through those doors into L&D triage. This isn't supposed to be happening until October! I felt like an imposter on that floor.
They had me drink 32 more ounces of water. The nurse had a hard time finding the heart beat with the fetal monitor because the baby is so small. She finally had to get the doppler out to locate him. Then she strapped me up to the fetal heart monitor and did a NST (non stress test). They can't do a ffn test to see if preterm labor is likely to start soon until after 24 weeks. By that time I wasn't having any more intense cramps. They were just minor twinges. The NST strip just showed one contraction and some uterine irritability. My urine analysis came back okay as did the other tests.
They sent me home with the elastic strips that they use to hold the monitors on my belly. Whenever I come back (whether for another check or for the birth), I'm supposed to bring them along! They also gave me a sheet on preterm labor which basically said to do what I did. You're supposed to lay down on your side, drink 2-3 glasses of water, and call if you don't feel better in an hour. Well, I had waited 5 hours at home but I didn't rest the entire time. She told me not to feel bad for coming in, that it's better safe than sorry. I still feel kind of bad. If I had just waited another hour resting completely, the cramps would have gone away.
So, I'm supposed to take it easy, stay hydrated, and only supervise any more work on our bedroom. I follow up with the perinatologist (pregnancy high risk specialist) on Wednesday.

Patches has stuff!

The first thing I received (and the only thing I got for Mother's Day!) was from my friend, Stephanie. It was very special that she sent me something since I'm not quite a mother yet. And I appreciate it even more so because of what she was going through herself. She sent a cute Mother To Be card and a great story book for our baby. That was the first book we read out loud to Patches at bed time. Hey, the baby book said the baby could hear by then!

At our big ultrasound at 18 weeks, we found out we were having a boy. So right after the doctor's appointment, we went shopping to celebrate. JCP had Carter's onsies on sale for $3 a piece. Here's a picture of the four that we bought that day. Patches has clothes! It's official, we're expecting to have a baby boy in October!

My new friend Jeanette,sent me some cute little things for Patches and quite a few maternity clothes. She said that she had one outfit and ended up sending two jackets, three shirts, two dresses, and a jean skirt! WOW! I was overwhelmed.

Jeanette sent a nice card, a Just Add Milk onsie, a cow finger puppet, a waterproof pad, and What To Expect The First Year. Everything was so cute perfect!

I'm very thankful of those things that have been sent to us. And most importantly for this little baby growing inside me.

Hopefully a preview of what's to come in October...

This is Christopher holding his not even two month old nephew, Zachary, back in 2002. Isn't it cute? A big guy with a little baby. Zack looks comfortable but Chris is questionable. Actually he's doing pretty good holding a newborn. Babies are pretty scary after all. :)

I'm sure when it's our own son, Chris will get the confidence and be holding him like a pro in no time. He's already being a great daddy to our little one. He loves to talk to Patches and even read to him his first bed time story.


Just to flash forward from the first picture, here are the twins Zachary and Amber playing on Mother's Day 2008. Zachary is so tall that he looks like an 8 year old! And Amber is an absolute doll. ;)

Mother's Day is when we told Christopher's entire family. We were at the Sea Watch restaurant which is right off the intercoastal. The restaurant has wonderful sea food and the views of the water are awesome.

Here's some pictures from that day.

The family enjoying the ocean air behind the restaurant after lunch.

The view from the front of the Sea Watch.

Some of the seating is open but you still get great views from the enclosed areas plus air conditioning! Chris is here holding my purse. What a guy. He wouldn't do that 5 years ago.

And it's a...

...healthy baby!

I'm 18 weeks and 1 day today and so far the baby looks perfect. The u/s tech was a sweet heart. She started off by asking that if she got a good shot did we want to know the sex of the baby. We laughed and looked at each other. It's been an on going debate. Do we want to know? Would a complete surprise be better? Or would knowing so we can buy gender specific clothing and nursery items be better? If we find out, are we going to keep it a secret from friends and family? We told her that we did want to find out. We decided to try to keep it a secret from family and friends. I'm not sure if we can do that or not! Chris isn't very good with secrets. :)

So then the u/s tech asked Chris what he thought the baby was. Chris has been saying girl all along. I went with that at first but the past month or so I've really thought it was a boy. So one of us was bound to be correct! The tech asked if we had any bets riding on the sex of the baby. Chris is a little gun shy on bets right now after losing two in a row. (Ask him about the words to Hang on Sloopy and what color Charlie Brown's shirt is. One of those got me a vacation in the Keys and one a dinner and I movie!) The tech tried to goad him into taking a bet but he wouldn't budge. She said that she would save that and tell us at the end of the scan.

The baby was sitting on it's bottom in a breach position. We didn't see the baby moving around so I didn't relax until she dopplered the heart. That's aways a sweet sound no matter how many times you've heard it. 143 bpm. That's about what I get at home, usually around 149 or so.

She started first by measuring the baby's brain, upper lip, and heart. The heart took some work to get a view of all four chambers because one of the baby's arm was creating a shadow. According to the tech, the baby had it's hands together like it was praying. I had trouble seeing that but I'll take her word for it. She tried all kinds of different angles and finally jiggled my tummy. She said, "Come on, baby, this is war!" We all started laughing. But I felt bad for the baby! If it was sleeping, who were we to disturb it?

She then checked both arms and legs, measuring the bones. She also checked to make sure the feet were straight. I'm glad she told us what she was looking at because most of the time I didn't have a clue. But I did catch a peak at what looked to be between the baby's legs. It pays to look at other people's ultrasound pictures online! I didn't say anything though because Chris was enjoying the show.

She checked the baby's stomach, kidneys, and bladder. Blood flow looked good. The baby measured normally at 8 ounces.

She then said that she'd get us some profile shots and the gender. She put it on 3d a few times but wasn't happy with the views. The baby isn't really filled out yet so she said it would look better in a few weeks. Chris was happy with one of the
3d pics but she questioned him and then didn't print it for us.

She gave us what she called the baby's first porno shot. I wasn't thrilled with her calling it that. But actually when people say money shot, it's also a porn reference. Yech.

Here's the pics! Can you tell what the baby is?

IT'S A BABY BOY!!

So then the doctor came in and reviewed the ultrasound pictures and we got another mini scan. This time the baby had flipped head down. How come the baby will never move on the screen? I had even drank some orange juice on the way down to the doctor's office. The doctor said the baby looked perfect! He didn't see any soft markers for genetic problems. Since I'm 37, he spoke to us about having the amnio.

According to the NT scan and bloodwork my risk for the baby having downs syndrome is 1 in 890. So that's good considering for my age the risk is 1 in 140.

According to my age the risk for having a baby with other genetic problems is 1 in 89. That's scary but it's still not that high, 1.1% chance. For 89 babies, 88 will be healthy.

The risk of miscarriage for the amnio is 1 in 200. If we had seen something that was a soft marker for a genetic defect, then we might have proceeded with an amnio. At this time, I don't see any reason to risk a potentially healthy baby to a miscarriage from the amnio. We wouldn't terminate the pregnancy any way. So the doctor had me sign my refusal to the amnio. He wasn't intimidating about it, just matter of fact. He did stress that at this time the baby showed no signs of any problems. So we're going with that!

I do have another Level II ultrasound scheduled with this same specialist in 4 weeks. The baby will of course be bigger then so a more thorough scan can be done. At 18 weeks today, it was still on the early side for the anatomy scan. So I get another treat at 22 weeks.

I will soon be unemployed

And I guess it's a good thing. I'd rather keep working but my employer is unable to accommodate our need to work locally.

My husband and I drive a tractor trailer for a living. We have a scheduled run from south Florida to Atlanta five days a week. It's 7,000 miles of driving every week with no time off or at home. We're constantly moving.

My OB has been okay with me driving as long as I promised to get up and walk every two hours. Pregnancy is a state of hypercoagulation which means blood clots are more of a risk. Add that to me sitting 11 hours a day and you have a risky situation. My OB stressed this to me, reminding me of the NBC news correspondant, David Bloom, who died while riding along with an infantry division heading to Baghdad. I had just watched a television documentary on the initial days of the Iraq war and I remembered his story.

It's been a struggle to stop and walk every two hours because of the tight schedule we're required to keep. It's been more of a strain on Chris because he's had to do more of the physical work than before. He's also been driving a larger share of the miles because I'm so tired. Obviously we couldn't continue doing this job forever. Eventually we need to be home for the baby! We've been trying to ask for different jobs for over 8 months. For one reason or the other (all legitimate) our manager has asked us to continue to do the run until the timing is better. Well with the economy, the timing isn't going to get better for a long while.


After my 15th week OB appointment, we decided to speak with our terminal manager again. This time I needed a firm date to stop driving. I had hoped to get an office position. I had done that part time four years ago when I drove locally so I definitely had the experience. But did they have an opening?

So we had the sit down with our manager. He congratulated me when I told him I was pregnant and would need to stop driving that run soon. He of course figured something was up with all the doctor appointments that I had. I actually told him that I had two miscarriages over the last year for some reason. My voice broke! That's the first time I've told anyone out loud other than very close family. I just didn't want him to think I'm a sickly person and normally needs a lot of time off. That last year has been the exception for my normal attendance.

There's a hiring freeze right now that actually may last until the end of the year. He can't create an office job for me, said he was sorry to lose a good driver but with the economy as it is there's just nothing he could do. I understand that and expected it. May 31st is expected to be my last day.

As for Christopher, the manager has been trying to create a new nightly run for a while. He's going to work on that and try to get two city drivers to take over our run. So hopefully Chris will either have a night job driving about 430 miles or he'll work in the day making city deliveries. If they can't find someone to take the job from the city, then Chris may be out of the job too. The night job would pay better plus it's less physical work.

Chris told me that he didn't want me to work any where else so that's a relief in part. If he doesn't get to keep his job then that may change. Now we wait and see.

We're prepared financially. The plan is for me to be a Stay At Home Mom. I guess now I'll be a Stay At Home Baby Grower. It's still intimidating though to think that I won't have a job for much longer. I've been working since I was 15. I've never depended on anyone else. A baby brings big changes!

Crying and Laughing...

Tuesday I went in for the second blood draw for the integrated screening. Basically this combines the results of a first trimester blood draw, the NT scan, and another blood draw in the second trimester to provide the risks of several genetic defects. It's a screening, not a diagnostic test. It has a much lower false positive rate than just the blood draws separately. I felt this was a good initial step for us to take because at my "advanced maternal age" many go straight for the amnio. The amnio carries a risk of miscarriage (perhaps 1 in 200) which was something I would rather avoid after having lost two babies due to miscarriage.

After the blood draw, the nurse said she would be calling me with the results in 3-5 days. That made me nervous and excited all at once. Originally I was led to believe that I wouldn't get the final results until my big ultrasound and genetic counseling on 5/28. I worried that if I got the results early and they were bad, I would have to another 12 days of torture for my actual appointment and ultrasound. On the other hand, if the results were good I would have a little more peace of mind the next two weeks.

This morning was the third day after the blood draw. I was downstairs listening to the baby's heartbeat on the doppler.

I thought I heard my phone ringing upstairs over the whooshing of the baby's heartbeat. I RAN upstairs. I missed the call but it was just from my dermatologist. As I was listening to the voicemail, the phone rang again. This time it was from the perinatal center. Thank God I got the first call so the phone was in my hot little hands already. That was one phone call I wanted to take live and in person.


I'm crying and laughing and thanking God all at the same time!

The perinatal center had the integrated screening results. The baby is screening negative!



The risk for down's syndrome is 1 in 890.
For my age (37) the standard risk is 1 in 140 so we beat those odds!

For trisomy 18 (a fatal genetic disorder), the risk is 1 in 10,000.

For neural tube defect (spinia bifidia), the risk is 1 in 3,000.

I know it's not a guarantee but those are all good numbers for my age!!
They consider 1 in 300 a "positive" screen.

Woohoo! Thank God.

Now we'll see how the baby looks at the big anatomy scan on 5/28. I'm praying that there are no soft markers or other problems and we can be reassured that the baby is healthy.