What's up with me!?

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted, especially with everything that's been happening.

I'll kind of sum it up for y'all...

A couple of weeks ago, the week of Oct 18, I started having increased spotting (I'd already been having some, but not enough to be worried enough to make an appointment) and cramping. That had me worried, especially after my miscarriage. ** Let me pause here to say that everything is okay!! ** Of course all of this started on our way to Athens, Georgia, where Matt was going on a business trip. Evan and I were going along for fun, who would have thought it would turn out so badly!? I called the nurse the next day and she said to come in for an ultrasound......except I was 4 hours away from home and couldn't leave since Matt was working!! She said it would be okay to wait until that Friday for an ultrasound unless it got worse. She also said to go on pelvic rest (which I had already put myself on pelvic rest since I found out I was pregnant! lol). I was still having cramping that night. I called my mom and told her, she arranged for my sister to come pick me up the next day. But thankfully Matt was able to take off work so we left the next evening and I changed my u/s to Thursday in the early afternoon. That way my sister didn't have to drive 8 hours in one day to take me home.

I was SO SO SO nervous, I can't even describe. But we immediately saw the baby on the ultrasound and the u/s also picked up the sound of a healthy fast heartbeat!! I was even measuring a few days ahead. The baby was sleeping, the u/s tech tried to wake him up, but s/he wouldn't have it. Just like big brother Evan!

Anyway, it was determined that the spotting was from the cervix and normal and that the cramping is from my uterus expanding. The midwife said not to be concerned about the cramping and only call if the spotting turned to heavy bleeding. I had cramping that night, but ever since then I haven't had any cramping OR spotting. Thank the Lord!

We've been so busy this past month with traveling and visiting with family and friends. One weekend we went to my grandparents' house, then a birthday party one weekend, then we went to Athens, then to Savannah, and then there was Halloween. Evan dressed up as a dinosaur (of course!) and was ADORABLE!! He started completely walking on Oct 27 and I'm so glad he was walking for Halloween. I LOVE that he's walking. It's so much easier and now we can go outside all the time since he isn't dragging his knees and feet around in the dirt and on the concrete.

I gotta end this post for now, but I'll leave you with some pictures...

ultrasound

The ultrasound went well on Friday!!! *big sigh of relief*

We saw and heard the baby's heartbeat. It was 92 bpm. I'm measuring what I thought I was measuring, but it's about a week earlier than they thought. So I was 5 weeks 6 days. My due date is officially May 14.

I haven't scanned the ultrasound picture yet, but I will post it soon. :-)

33 Weeks & Ultrasound!

My little Evan!!

A profile of his head. He's on his back facing the left. His face is right up against my placenta, but you can kind of make out his nose and lips and see his hand curled up on the far left.


Another profile of his head. This one is more distinct, you can see his nose, lips, and chin as well as that cute little curled up hand that he's holding up.


A side view of his foot. It's upside down facing the right. You can see his heel, the arch, the ball of his foot, and his toes.


His cutey foot. Check out that big big toe! He gets it from his daddy.


Yep, he definitely has Matt's feet!


A 3D of the lower part of his face. you can see his chin near the bottom, lips, his fingers that are curled up next to his lips, and his nose up near the top.


A 3D looking down at his face. You can see his eyes, nose, and his hand up by the left side of his face.


A 3D of his face. He's slightly turned and facing the right of the picture. So his forehead is at the top, his cheek is to the left, you can see his eyes, nose, and lips. He has one hand up by his forehead and the other in his mouth. :-)

I never wrote about my appointment on Monday, when I was 32w5d. Everything went great! We had an ultrasound first to see if my placenta moved up, which it has. The ultrasound technician was great, she not only checked the placenta and his growth, she also had some fun letting us see Evan and did a 3D ultrasound even though we didn't ask for one (or pay for one)! At first Evan wouldn't let us see the front of his face, he had it pressed against my placenta. So she couldn't do it, but after getting all of the measurements she needed she said she couldn't stand it, she just had to see if she could get the 3D of his face again. When she tried the second time he had shifted a little bit and we were able to see his face some! He had his hands up around his face at that point, but that made it even cuter!

She had us estimate how large we thought he was and I guessed 4.5 pounds (which is what the book says he should be around 32-33 weeks). The ultrasound tech said that he is measuring 6 lbs 3 oz, plus or minus a pound!! She was convinced he is around 6 pounds though, kept talking about how much meat he has on his bones, how chunky he looks, etc. I was really worried, but when we met with my midwife after the u/s she insisted that there is no way he is that big. She said there's a lot of room between him and my ribs, a normal amount of fluid, and my fundal height is normal. Obviously those measurements can be off as well, but it is true that I still look pretty small and haven't gained all that much weight.

Speaking of weight, I gained back the pounds I lost, plus a pound! I've been feeling so much better the past couple of weeks too. I can tell I'm getting enough to eat. Now I've gained about 21 pounds, right on track. My sugar levels have gone down and have evened out. I'm glad about that, but my dietician said not to be surprised if they start going crazy the next few weeks since the pregnancy growth hormones peak around 35 weeks and that can affect blood sugar levels. But at least they are okay for now.

So I've been pretty nervous the past couple of days about having a huge baby, but as Matt keeps saying, there's nothing we can do about it, so I shouldn't stress. We're having another u/s at 38 weeks to see what his measurements look like then. If he's measuring large, a c-section or induced labor at 39 weeks will be an option. The midwife said they aren't going to do anything before 39 weeks unless it's dangerous not to, but I'm hoping he'll come earlier than that on his own. I actually think it would be great if he comes before 38 weeks, then I won't even have to worry about making decisions like c-sections, inductions, etc. We'll see!!

The nurse gave me a chart to start counting movements. I'm supposed to count 10 distinct movements and time how far apart the first and tenth are. It should be in at least 2 hours. If he gets slower and slower or doesn't move 10 times in 2 hours at some point in the day (especially after dinner) I'm supposed to call the midwife. I was worried that this would be added stress, but so far it's been easy. I've picked around 10:00 - 10:30 AM to count his movements since he usually wakes up about then. So far the longest it's taken him to move 10 times is 6 minutes and that's because I missed his most active phase (I was busy and couldn't count properly or look at a clock). This morning he moved 10 times in 2 minutes, that's his record so far. He's crazy!!

It's a....

BOY!!!!

The ultrasound was amazing! It was awesome to get to see so many details. Everything is perfect and he's even a little big, everything measured over 18 weeks but it was all within 5 days, so he's not big enough to change my due date, just big enough to be healthy. :-)

When the technician first started, he was sleeping, being so still, but his heart was beating at a healthy 161 beats per minute. She started measuring things and checking out the heart, liver, brain, spine, etc. Everything looked great and she kept smiling really big and saying how perfect he looked. After she measured most of the things she needed she decided to wake him up so that we could see him moving and she could try to get a better view of his gender parts since he had his hands between his legs (of course). She started digging the ultrasound wand around in my abdomen and it did the job. He started squirming and waving his arms and legs!! After 30 minutes she finally got a view between his legs although he didn't make it easy since after he moved his arms the cord was right in between them. She had me turn on my side and then asked me to go to the bathroom so that my bladder would shrink and make more room for him to move around. After that she showed us something that definitely looked like 2 little dots...some important boy parts. ;-) So exciting!!! It's such a great feeling to know what he is and to know his name.

When we arrived in the ultrasound room Matt asked the technician about recording it and she said it was no problem and grabbed a blank tape to put in. She didn't record the whole thing for some reason, just part of it, but it is SO COOL! We watched it last night with Matt's family and I couldn't stop grinning, just like when we saw it the first time. It's on a VHS (and we don't own a VCR), but we're going to transfer it to DVD and then I'll be able to put it on the computer too!

Just after the appointment (which was overall great, my blood and urine samples were healthy and I've gained 6 pounds since my first visit) we went to register at BRU. We only spent an hour there so we didn't get much done, but it's a start and it was something fun to do to celebrate our little boy! We ran home, grabbed the things we were taking over to the in-laws and then immediately left and stayed at their house until late last night. I returned home SO tired which is why I didn't update y'all right away.

So, you want to know his name? We've had it picked out for a l.o.n.g time, definitely over a year, maybe even more than that. Say hello to Evan!


Here you are supposed to be able to see some of the gender parts although the cord is in the way, so I'm not sure if they are obvious (they aren't to me in this pic, I only saw a glimpse when the tech pointed it out). He's facing towards the left, this is a full frontal view, and he has his legs curled up so his knees are sticking out.





This is a profile of his head and abdomen, his head is on the left and he is on his back. If you look closely you can see his nose and lips.

Here's a view of his perfect little legs!! Once again, he's on his back with his head to the left.


A profile of his head with his arm stretched in front of his face. His head is on the left and he's on his back again.