24 weeks and a belly pic

I am at 24 weeks! I have reached the magical stage of pregnancy where if I give birth prematurely, the hospital will actually try to save my baby! In fact, I did some research (morbid, maybe, but it made me feel better) and if a baby is born at 24 weeks, it has a 38 % chance of survival...at 25 weeks it goes to 50% and at 28 weeks it shoots up to about 80-90% (can't remember the exact numbers). So, though I don't expect anything to go wrong at all (I feel great and everything looks great) I think those are pretty good stats!

On to a belly pic. We took these yesterday but they aren't wonderfully clear. I'll probably end up taking another next week to get a clearer shot. I did finally get asked by a relative stranger (an instructor at the Y) when I was due! That was exciting...of course, I was also in my speedo at the time so letting it all hang out, but I was still excited to look pregnant and not just pudgy! I look bigger all around but I think that is actually a lot from the fertility meds before pregnancy because I've only put on about 10-12 lbs, depending on what time of day I weigh myself at (and whether or not I've pooped, lol, something that is getting rarer and rarer these days....my one pregnancy complaint!). So, here are some pics...

It was a beautiful day...and we finally did some cute decorating for Halloween...

A close up (eeek)

So, I'm getting there! I will be honest...I didn't think I'd be someone who really loved being pregnant just because I am very active usually and am used to being relatively thin. However, and I know I am writing this in the "honeymoon period" (aka the second trimester) but I LOVE it. I can't say that enough. I think my belly is so cute. I have no complaints at all...my back feels fine, I only have had acid reflux issues once or twice, and I'm sleeping pretty okay. Then again, maybe I expected it to be much worse and therefore think it is amazing (my own personal brand of optimism, I think). I expected my back to be killing me because of that arthrtitis but it has felt great, except for those bad days with no pooping then the back aches a little, I expected to not be sleeping at all and I do get up maybe 6 times a night- 5 times to pee and at least once to get a snack,but then I fall right back asleep, and I expected to be super emotional and cranky and I've had a little crankiness and teariness but nothing compared to the stim cycle of an IVF...so I'm probably feeling the best I have in years...because those years were years of ongoing infertility treatments! In any event, I seriously love it and am looking forward to her birth and then doing a few retrieval cycles so we can have some siblings!!! Granted, I thought I'd be pregnant younger but "if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans"!

~

Besides that I am freaking out about the H.1N1 virus. It seems that everyone has it. A good friend's son just got diagnosed, another friend's daughter is home from school today with flu-like symptoms and I hear from the teachers that they have an average of 8 kids out a day with some kind of illness. I do know I have to get the vaccine but surprisingly my county hasn't got any doses in since those early doses for medical workers. I have an appointment at the OB's office on Friday for a supposed shot for this virus since they think they are getting a shipment in "by the end of the week" and I hope they are. I am in the high high risk group because not only am I almost in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy but I also have asthma. So, my chances of the flu turning into something major and very life threatening are very high up there....though I still think my immune system is working great and I could fight off the infection, I am scared for my little one. She is so active and we worked so hard to get her that it really does scare me. Oh well, I'm hoping the vaccines get here...

Nursery (yes, I know it is early)

We finished the nursery, for the most part. I realize that 24 weeks is a little early to have gotten it done but if you think that we've been anticipating this for years and stopping family from buying us stuff for years too, then you understand why we went ahead and did all this. Not to mention the height of nursery decorating was likely to happen in holiday season when we will be way too busy to think about it...then throw in Brett, lol. He is the absolute greatest husband and a beautiful optimist. When we got pregnant I had to do all I could to stop him from doing the nursery until after the first trimester. Then, once I hit 13 weeks I had to say, lets do it. So we did. You see, he has this forward momentum thing when he gets excited and that momentum was pushing the nusery forward...after all, we were gonna have a baby, right? And, though I was hesitating because I'm constantly terrified about something bad happening...if something terrible were to happen at this point, a finished nursery would be the absolute least of my worries. So, here is some of our pics. We made the letters ourselves and just put them up this past weekend when we were sure we were having a girl...whose name will be Teagan Marie.

Here is the crib area with her name up top! (and the cheap on clearance, $5.99 lamp from Target in the right hand corner that is already broken!!!) The crib that my friend (and fellow IFer Carrie) helped us purchase with a very generous gift card! This crib is so sturdy that all of my weight leaning back over it couldn't tip it, so it passed the 'boxer' test.

Our deep discount rocker that is oh so comfy and a beautiful antique hand-me-down dresser from Brett's family...(with Harley sneaking in).

The crib again with the cute fluffly little white rug I fell in love with (that Sherman has decided is a bed he can actually try to fit his entire body on in a tight little ball).

Here's the cute little face (notice the obvious lack of pink dot on his nose! there is still a little white/pink mark but that growth is gone WITHOUT SURGERY!!!):

my cheekbones and fetal arrhythmias

We had another OB appointment today and, since I ate a few grapes prior to the ultrasound, our baby girl wiggled her way through the ultrasound and totally cooperated with the tech. We DEFINITELY have a girl...she gave us several opportunities to see if she had dangly parts...and she doesn't. Her spine was beautiful and fully closed and her brain and head measurements were perfect. We got some great shots of her profile (Brett insists he sees my cheekbones!), some beautiful images of her little eyelids and facial features and even some cute shots of her little feet. We didn't get as many pics this time, but I will post a few.

Here is a cute profile pic (it is so much clearer on the machine!). But you can see her head to the left and her little ribs/belly region to the right. See her cute little button nose and mouth?

This is a picture of both of her feet. Somehow the ultrasound tech got them both in the shot...cute.

For now, she is breach. However, it is still so early and she's got tons of room in there to move around and flip right-side up and all that. I've been wondering how she is sitting since she really moves and I feel lots of kicks and flips and punches lately.

I met another doctor at the practice who seemed very nice. However, she did use the doppler and we discovered that our baby girl has a small heart arrhythmia, meaning that every once in a while, her heart skips a beat. I was initially worried because I don't ever remember hearing this on my home doppler and I was actually born with a heart defect, so it has been a concern of mine from the beginning. However, her heart has looked perfect from the beginning and the doctor told me that she sees this all the time and it means nothing. Also, if it turned out to be the same type of defect I had, it isn't all that scary. My heart defect was an atrial septal defect that my pediatric cardiologist thought I'd outgrow. I didn't. At the age of 12, I had open heart surgery. The thing is that atrial septal defects are not uncommon and since I was 12 (in 1986) lots has changed and the current repair does not require any real surgery at all...just a small incision to insert an umbrella like structure through the blood and to the heart. Not a huge deal. The doctor went on to say that they do not usually refer patients whose babies have heart arrhythmias to the fetal cardiologists because they don't want to see them. In fact, she gave me a handout from the local pediatric cardiology group that is a letter asking the OB practice to not send anymore of these patients over and says "Irregularities of the heart rhythm without sustained tachycardia or bradycardia are usually due to premature atrial or ventricular contractions, benign arrhythmias that require no evaluation or treatment before or after birth." It also says, " the incidence of birth defects of the heart in the fetus with an irregular heart beat was not significantly higher compared to the average fetus." So, needless to say, we are not worried. However, due to the fact that I had a defect upon birth, the OB did refer me to this pediatric cardiac group in order to have a fetal echocardiogram. The OB office tried to make me an appointment and the cardiac group seemed reluctant, again because they don't want to waste their time on these cases. However, they are still working on it so we can have some piece of mind. Not scared...just being cautious I guess.

Overall, it was a great appointment and I was sent home with the glucose drink to have before my next appointment when I get the gestational diabetes test...something else I worry about due to family history. However, I'm not overly worried since our baby girl weighed in perfectly (1 lb!) and seemed actually on the smaller side for now (the total opposite of what she'd be if I had GD). On my side, they said I only gained 1/2 lb between last month and this...but their scale is wacky. At my last appt I thought I was up 5 lbs (according to the home scale) and they had me up 7lbs!!! This time, I thought I gained another 5 lbs (put on the weight this month, for sure) and they say it is only 1/2 lb. But, I am at a good 11 lbs for the pregnancy so far, so within healthy normal limits.

My poor puppy...

Today was the big day for Sherman's (the boxer boy) surgery...and for the little chihuahua, Katie, to get her teeth cleaned. I brought them both to the vet this morning. As I am talking to the vet tech about Sherman's growth on his face, I point out to her how much better it looks since yesterday. She says (get this...), "that kind of growth does that. First it appears, it growns big fast, bleeds a lot, scabs up, and then the scab falls off and it goes away". Now, it hit me as strange but, for some reason, I left him there for the surgery anyway...I was literally a few blocks away when I pulled to the side of the road and called the vet's office to ask them to speak to the doctor. I wanted to know why I am spending $500 (at least) and putting my dog under anesthesia for something that is going away. In the end, they were nice about it, but I had to go back and pick him up. Unfortunately, they already gave him the groggy shots and a benadryl in anticipation of the surgery. It may be stupid of me to have cancelled it since it may still not really go away and I will probably have to pay more out of pocket b/c of the meds he already got, etc, but I got mad that they didn't tell me all of this weeks ago and I just can't see him going in for surgery when it is starting to improve and likely will go away....am I nuts?

So, here are some pics of things we got this weekend. We were told by my mother in law that they were going to have a small brunch at the bed and breakfast we were staying at to celebrate our good news and my sister-in-law's recent wedding. It was going to be small in that only a few close family friends would be invited. Well, it turned into a mini-baby shower with 25 in attendance! I knew about 4 of the people in the room (intimidating, no?) but it was really lovely and very sweet. Though I was nervous about it (when I found out the day prior...), it turned out to be a fun morning. People were expressly told not to bring gifts, but of course they did. Here is one of the funniest from my SIL, Amy...

Now, anyone who knows me knows my biggest fear is raising a cheerleader. It is totally a personal prejudice that I recognize and is probably based on life experience and some erroneous beliefs. However, there it is. I was always the very girly one who was athletic and getting dirty in my pink ruffled dress. So, its not the girlyness I don't like. It is more the cheering for someone else as your athletic outlet. I want my girl to learn that she should be cheered FOR not cheering for the boys all the time. I also know that there is a general thought about cheerleaders themselves and their role in society and I also know that it is a VERY dangerous "sport". As a result, I'd much prefer a soccer player or volleyball player or softball player. I mean, even football and hockey players get padding...cheerleaders don't. So...after geting some ribbing from my husband's family this weekend at the Football game about my unfair prejudice, this shows up in my gift pile at the brunch:

Okay, frightening in so many ways! But it is just so CUTE! She will wear it on saturdays while dad sits in front of the TV cheering them on. And, yes, if my daughter decides she absolutely wants to be a cheerleader, I won't stand in her way...but I do have issues with it. Sorry.

To my SIL's credit, we also got these (and keep in mind, she is a State fan so it must have been hard for her to buy this stuff). (its a 3 pack of MI onesies!)

Other cute pics of outfits:

I am going to have so much fun dressing her up! In any event, we had a great weekend with the family!!!

Deed is done:-) and unfortunate belly pics...

These pictures are terrible, but I wanted to document my donating my hair to locks of love. So, here they are...oh! and the belly has made an appearance!

Before I left for the appointment, in my bathroom mirror...the hair is starting to look damaged (all that swimming at the Y probably!)

And, a close up of the belly (21 weeks, 3 days). I personally think that the butt still outweighs the belly's appearance but I still think my bump is cute!

At some point this morning, it occurred to me that maybe I'd put off the haircut again...but then I realized that my hair is still pretty healthy and all that chlorine from the pool is not helping so if they can get a good 10 inches from my donation, then they should do it, even if it leaves me with really short hair...so here is a later pic....

And, a close up...for once in my life I have cleavage!

Besides the big drama of the hair donation, we had a great weekend in Michigan with family. I am going to dedicate a post to our weekend because we had a little bit of a surprise brunch baby shower with some fun gifts that I want to post pictures of. The reason we travelled this weekend was that Aunt Amy (Brett's sis) got us tickets to the Michigan v. Michigan State game (there is a huge family rivalry) and though Amy's team won and our's didnt, we had a great time anyway....