Ultrasound Pics and Updates!!

Last Wednesday, I had my 20 week ultrasound.  It was SO much fun!!  My mom, sister, and Caleb came with me.  Nobody needed to look away, and nobody saw anything that they could even guess what the sex was.  Yippee!!  :) 

UPDATES:

I got a call Wednesday evening from one of the nurses at the doctor's office.  She said that the baby looks good, but I have a low lying placenta (not placenta previa, but close to the opening).  I will most likely have another ultrasound in about 4 weeks to see if it has moved up.  Hopefully it does, or else I will have to have a C-Section.  I have read online that only a VERY small percentage of women who have this have placentas that stay low.  Please pray that it moves up!!

I am calling the doctor on Monday to see if there is anything that I shouldn't do with my low lying placenta.  I still do personal training twice a week (weight training) so I need to find out if I can still do that.  I hope I can!!

Caleb came up to Nebraska to be with my family on Christmas (after doing 24 hour officer staff duty on post).  That night, he felt the baby move!!  Merry Christmas to us!!  :)

Questions and Updates

How long before your due date did you start nesting?  I have been in a cleaning mood lately... or is it just something that is normal for this time of year.

Also, do you get Christmas presents for your close friends?  I feel bad because I got their kids gifts, but not them.  Should I find something for them in the next few days, or is that okay?

For my other updates, I feel like doing a list:

1. All the baby clothes that I have are in the dresser ready for baby to come.
2. I want to move everything baby that I have in the garage into the house to have everything ready to go and so I can reorganize our garage.
3. My family is still coming to stay with us with the dog and hopefully it turns out okay since their dog doesn't get along with my dog.
4. My mom has promised not to look at the screen during the ultrasound, so I'm feeling better about that.  Now I have to worry about my husband driving me crazy about him possibly looking because he knows that I will make a big deal about it.  I'm pretty sure he won't though... I hope.
5. I'm feeling the baby more now.  The ultrasound tech told me that my placenta is in front and it may be a while before I feel baby.  I'm thinking that this is why I only feel the kicks really low... but I just felt the baby kick and roll which felt SO weird!
6. I am really hoping that I get the ultrasound tech that I like (I have had her for every ultrasound since I went to that doctor for my second opinion when I miscarried).  She's awesome!!
7. I'm pretty sad that the one baby store in town is closing... although the sales are nice!  Now I have to go 1 hour to go to Babies R Us and 2 hours to the nearest natural baby store.  :(
8. I've only gained 4.4 pounds (according to my home scale) since I got pregnant.  
9. I'm still not really showing yet and I can fit into the two pairs of pants that were one size up from my starting pregnancy size.  
10. I'm driving my husband crazy with the things I'm eating: pasta, Reames egg noodles, egg sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches.  I will eat some chicken, but I don't ask for it. 
11.  I LOVE chocolate milk.  And another craving of mine is golden delicious apples with salt.  Mmmmm!!

What the Doctor Wants...

Is for pregnant ladies to be calm.  He says it will make for a healthier pregnancy.  Well, luckily this year I'm not stressed by deployment or my ballooning weight (yet) or my blood pressure being through the roof (yet... but hopefully that won't happen).  Nope, this year first we had my mother stressing me out (turns out I was taking her joke the wrong way and she will obey my wishes of NOT FINDING OUT THE SEX), and now we have maternity leave problems (plus now my sister will be coming to the ultrasound, too so yet another person to worry about looking). 

I work at Kansas State University in the Serology Lab there.  I do tests on animal serum.  I have a lot of fun with my job... mainly because I love the people!  I started in June.  Well, my friend (who is also pregnant) went to talk to the HR person about maternity leave yesterday and she reported back to me that people who have not been employed here a year are not covered under the FMLA so they don't get the 12 week maternity leave.  I'm due May 10th... just a month before my 1 year mark!!  I'm meeting with the HR person on Friday to discuss this further, but right now it looks like I will only get paid for the vacation, sick, and comp time I have saved up, then I can take up to a month of non-paid leave without losing my job.  I'm not sure how much leave I'll have saved up by then, but say it's 2 weeks to a month.  I REALLY don't want to leave my 6-8 week old baby!!  :(  Has anyone else dealt with this?  What did you do?  Thanks!!

Ultrasound Worries

My 20 week ultrasound is exactly a week from today.  Now, I have had the worries in the past that: a) my baby would be dead, b) something is wrong with my baby, and c) that I will be able to tell the sex of the baby (I want to have a surprise).  But, I called my mom last night, she's coming into town for the ultrasound, and she asked what would happen if I saw the baby's genital area and knew what it was.  I told her that I was planning on looking away.  To this she said, "I'm not going to look away."  Really Mom?  Thanks a lot!!  Now, not only do I have to worry about myself and Caleb seeing, but I have to worry about you seeing, too.  She says she could keep a secret, but no, not going to happen if I can help it because this is her first grandchild and I just KNOW that she would slip up at some point and say something or buy me gender specific clothing... thus ruining my surprise.  Can you tell I'm super worried about this and kind of mad at my mom for saying this?!?!  But, I'm hoping everything goes well, and I'm actually hoping that the baby is cross his or her legs!  And, PLEASE let me have the ultrasound tech who has done every ultrasound on me since the day that I went in for my second opinion on my miscarriage.  That is all!!  :)

Dreams

In pregnancy they say you have crazy dreams... well it's true!  I have had 5 so far that I have remembered once waking up... be ready to cock your head at how weird they are and laugh at me!!

1) I was working in a zoo with one of my friends from work (Alex).  We worked with a lion and we lived connected to its pen in a dorm-like place.  My boss from work was there, too (Dr. Hesse), and he lived in his own separate dorm also connected to the lion's area.  Taking care of the lion was easy, we would let him out to roam the neighborhood at night and then let him back in the next morning.  We were getting ready to go to a conference and the dorms and lion area were going to get fumigated.  We were moving some of the furniture out into the hall and leaving the others in the dorm.  I was worried about the lion because we would have to let him out for the whole weekend, but there had been sightings of two other lions in the neighborhood recently.  Sure enough, I looked outside and there were two red and black lions roaming the neighborhood.  (Then I woke up.)

2) At work we get a discretionary day.  I was going to use this and then use two other days of leave.  Then, Angie (from work) told me that since she has been working longer than me, she has a discretionary day, and Iowa day, and a Missouri day.

3) I was getting ready to play indoor softball at  a bar or something (there were tables that looked like kitchen islands at either side of the place).  We didn't place with softballs though, we played with these small mint looking things.  I was the pitcher and I had to get used to using them instead of softballs.  I wanted to store the extra ones in a trashcan so they didn't roll off the table.  The players had to hold these paper cut outs so they could catch balls, and we had to wear cleats even though we were inside.  My coach was Matthew Morrison from Glee and one of my teammates was Sean Goodin from grade school and high school.  Our opponents coach was Jane Lynch from Glee.

4) I was hired to be a waitress at a bar.  I was learning how to do it.  A kid came up to me wanting apple juice and I had to ask if I could give it to him.  I didn't go behind a bar for the drinks, it was more like a kitchenette.

5) I was at PWOC at Fort Riley with my name tag on sitting in the front row surrounded by my elementary school teachers.  Then, a rain storm came through and it had REALLY strong winds and up to softball sized hail.  After the hail, I went outside to check my car for dents and realized that the windows were rolled down and water flooded everywhere.

Now, since I'm sure you enjoyed your laughs, if you know anyone who knows what dreams mean, please let me know.  I'd love to know what these dreams mean!

This is the first glimpse we had of Baby Riggs.  I woke up in the middle of the night (September 2nd at 3am) to go to the bathroom and decided that was as good of a time as any to do a pregnancy test.  POSITIVE!!  This was the 4th or 5th test that I had taken... the previous ones were all negative and I was about to give up hope.  But, the test on this day was the answer I wanted!  I went to tell Caleb, and luckily he was not on the phone this time!  HA!!  His reply was, "Seriously?!"  It was an AWESOME day!

This ultrasound was done at 6 weeks 1 day.  I had had some of the exact same pains on the Thursday and Friday before this day as I had had last time I was pregnant.  Of course I was shaken up about the pain.  I remember getting a call from the nurse about scheduling the ultrasound while I was out to lunch with Caleb.  I was crying and I definitely could not eat.  I went in for this ultrasound and we could barely see the baby (it's the little speck over to the left side of the black area), but we could see a strong heartbeat.  YAY!!

The next time I saw anyone at the doctor's office was at 9 weeks.  It was the appointment where they take all of your, your husband's, and your family's medical background information.  I was SO proud when my blood pressure was 118/55!  Last pregnancy it was REALLY high (one of the signs of Triploidy).  And, I knew that my blood pressure before I lost my 53 pounds was not good anyway.  Lose weight, people, it is the best thing you will EVER do for yourself, your life, and your family!

These 4 ultrasound pictures are from yesterday.  I am 13 weeks and 1 day today, so yesterday I was 13 weeks exactly.  The first one is Baby doing a headstand.  The second one is Baby's feet.  The third one is Baby's leg and hand.  And, the fourth is a profile laying down shot (you can also see a hand).  The ultrasound was SO awesome.  I LOVE Stephanie, one of the ultrasound techs at The Women's Health Group in Manhattan.  I've had all my ultrasounds with her (fetal demise, follow up after D and E, cyst, 6 week 1 day, and now 13 weeks).  She tells me exactly what I'm looking at and she is SO thorough.  Plus, she doesn't care that I mess up her good shot when I laugh!!  This ultrasound was done because I walked into my appointment wanting to get the first trimester screen to see my chances for genetic abnormalities.  Dr. Priddle (in my opinion the BEST OB/GYN EVER!!  and he's cute... don't tell Caleb) convinced us not to do that since I DO NOT want an amniocentesis by any means (since it increases your chances of miscarriage).  But, he still let us get the ultrasound and see what the nuchal translucency (one part of the first trimester screen) of the baby was.  It was 1.5 = normal!!  Baby's heartrate on the doppler before the ultrasound was 159 bpm and 161 bpm during the ultrasound.  (Too bad they proved the heartrate and gender prediction wives tale is false... I secretly [or not so secretly] want a girl!) 

My next appointment is December 1st.  I don't get to see Dr. Priddle, so hopefully it will still be a good appointment.  I will hopefully remember to update between now and then (at least you got 2 today)!!  I am having a FANTASTIC day!!!  Hope yours is just as great!

I'm Thankful for...

My miscarriage. 

That may be strange to say, but really, both Caleb and I would not be where we are today without it.  Let's look:

- I would never have lost 53 pounds.
- I would not be working at my job and meeting new friends there.
- I would not have found the BEST OB/GYN ever!!
- Caleb would not have gotten to meet his son/daughter until 5 months old.
- Caleb would not have gotten to be around for the pregnancy (appointments, feeling kicks, etc)
- I would not be eating as healthy as I am now.
- My blood pressure would not be AMAZING (116/54).
- Caleb and I became closer because of it.
- My faith got stronger because of it.
- My friendships grew because of it.
- Caleb and I would not have gotten to do some of the things that we have done recently.
- I would not be enjoying this pregnancy as much without it.
- Certain things in life would just not have meant as much without it.

Thank you, God, for giving me Hope even if just for a short time.  You had a plan for me before I was ever born, and I'm so thankful!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Romans 15:13 (NIV).