New Developments and 26 Weeks!

Well it's been a heck of a week. Last Tuesday I was complaining to Andy that E would be climbing out of her bed soon. Wouldn't you know it she did it that night? So we had to scramble to switch her to a toddler bed so she didn't fall 4 feet. Our video monitor broke so there was a lot of anxiety that first night, but it wasn't too bad. There's been an adjustment period. She threw a terrible tantrum one night. Most of the time it's OK, except she has decided she doesn't want to be in bed unless she's ready to pass out. So when I put her in bed, even if I can tell she's exhausted, she'll cry. I usually just leave anyway, not because I want her to cry. I don't really agree with CIO? But because she'll keep crying unless I leave. Once I leave she'll stop within a minute or two. It's like she just needs a minute to herself to realize "Hey I really am tired". She's always been that way though. She hasn't really gotten out of bed in the middle of the night, and for the most part I find her in bed in the morning even if she's awake. That is until this morning, when my mom went in and she'd torn her room apart. She used her mini rocker to get to the top of the dresser and pulled all the tissues out of the box and pulled the lamp down. It wasn't plugged in and the cord was tucked away but she somehow got it anyway. So I guess we have to find new places for all of that stuff. And that means I desperately need to clean my room so we can get the new baby's room sorted out. There's a picture of the carnage below.

It was also my birthday and E was great. She was so good at dinner and went to bed well for her daddy so I got to go see The Hunger Games!!! It was great! And she enjoyed a piece of cake lol.

Then this weekend we went to Rehoboth beach to see some family I'm very close to but never get to see. Evie got to meet 3 of her (distant) cousins and they all loved each other. They're 9, 7, and 5, and thought Evie was so cute. They'd rented a beach house with a middle level that was a living room and a hallway of bedrooms. E would just run back and forth and the kids would chase her. I've never heard her laugh so much and it was nice that she was interacting with other kids. Last saturday we had to take her to Urgent Care and discovered she had an upper respiratory and double ear infection, so she's been on antibiotics and feeling so much better. I'm so glad she got to spend that time with them. Of course I got the infection, so now I feel like crap.

The good news is I'm 26w3d and huge haha. But my BP is great and everything looks good, so I get to keep this baby boy in for at least a little while longer!

De-Cluttering

My blood pressure seems to just be getting lower. Last night my diastolic was 54, which is too low period. I've been exhausted and dizzy when I stand up. I had an OB appointment yesterday, but when I got there they told me it would be "at least a half an hour" again (which really means 45+) and E was sick and I rescheduled. I really hate that office. I'm not sure if Evie is sick or teething. She's always got her fingers in her mouth, tons of drool, and she had a fever and more snot than I've ever seen in my life. She's got all her first molars, but the second should be coming in any time, as well as the cuspids. She slept surprisingly well despite that.

This weekend I really need to do a lot of work. Some of it in E's room and some of it in my room and baby boy's room. I just need to find a way to not be so tired I pass out when E's asleep. I don't know yet if Andy will be working, but if he is, she's going to have to watch some TV while I go through her toys. We have way too much stuff and not enough space in our house for it. We need to donate some of her old toys that we probably won't use for the new baby, and I need to organize her stuff. I can also go through all of her old clothes and pick things out to donate or sell. I need to clear out baby boy's closet and start getting all his stuff hung up. We'll clear out the room in December and start moving everything in there and get E's toddler bed set up. It feels like so much to do, and I'm always so tired I don't want to do any of it, but I really need to. I think if I can just take an hour each day this weekend I can get the toys done and baby boy's closet.

Things are also getting overwhelming with all the Christmas stuff. I just want to get E everything, so she's already got a ton of stuff, and I still need to get her The Little Mermaid and her Bubble Guppies chair. I can't wait until after Thanksgiving when we can start getting the Christmas decorations out and get everything set up. I think E is going to like it this year. I can't wait to see her sweet face Christmas morning!

Musings and a Photo

Today I'm 24w4d and I'm feeling posty. This morning I noticed I was feeling kind of dizzy and "off" when I stood up, so I went to get my blood pressure taken at the nurse and it was 115/66. While this is a fabulous BP, for me, it's pretty low. Especially the 66. I'm going to let my doctor know tomorrow and see if he wants to do anything about it. It's like I'm either 150/85 or under where he wants me. It's sort of frustrating, but I THINK this is better for the baby? I have no idea. For now everything is going well otherwise, and there is no reason to think baby will be coming any time soon. I still have 7.5 weeks before I can deliver in my hospital so I'm still pulling for that and then at least 4 more. I don't think 36 weeks is unreasonable to strive for.

I wonder if my BP is OK if I can go back to every two week visits. Weekly visits with my OB and monthly with MFM seems so excessive. I know it's probably not but... I do have to work and save as much time off as possible! Plus I start NSTs at 32 weeks. That's 3 appointments a week and that's just insanity. But I'm glad to be coming up on 25 weeks with a healthy baby in there and things looking better! So here's me today. There's definitely a baby in there.

24+3 and Yesterday's News

I spent most of the weekend trying not to worry. I was mostly successful. Andy was supposed to sign paperwork for his new job yesterday so he couldn't go to my appointment with me, and my mom went instead. My BP was high, as usual, but not like it was last week. I had an ultrasound first and got to see baby boy. He ended up with his little feet over his head just like his sister always had. The good news is he looks great. They didn't see any anomalies, and his growth is right on track. He was measuring 24w1d and I was 24w2d, but that's by LMP which might have been off by a day. They said he's just around the 50th percentile, which is great, and weighs about 1lb 7oz.

After the ultrasound we had a consultation. The doctor said he does not think I have Pre-E right now, but because it's so difficult to tell the difference between that and my kidney issue, I need serious monitoring. He said he won't induce prior to late pregnancy without concrete evidence that it's Pre-E, which means I might have to have some hospital monitoring. I'm OK with that since I want this baby to stay in unless he HAS to come out. He upped my BP meds again and said we have a lot of room before we're maxed out. I'm going to have LOTS of doctor's appointments and lots of blood tests as well, and he made sure I knew all the warning signs so I could head to the hospital if I thought things were going downhill. He said he will not let me go past 39 weeks (which happens to be E's birthday) but he indicated that we all know I'm not getting that far. Like "I can't predict the future, but...". And I knew that anyway. So it's kind of a "wait and see when you develop organ failure" game right now. Cool, huh? But at least I'm being closely monitored.

Right now I'm awaiting a call from the doctor. He was going to talk with my OB and let me know who I would be seeing. He actually called yesterday but I'd fallen asleep. Unfortunately he also said he got my blood tests back and I needed to call him. And that's never what you want to hear. So now I have to wait until they open and find out what happened with my blood work. I'm not excited. I will update when I hear!

For now, have a 3D photo of my son, who looks exactly like his daddy:

Edit: I finally got a hold of MFM. He and my regular OB decided to “co-manage” me. So I will se the regular OB every two weeks or so, and MFM every month. I have to send him my blood pressures every week, and will continue to have growth ultrasounds every month. He said right now my blood work shows NO signs of Pre-Eclampsia, and my creatinine has actually gone DOWN a little (1.53 to 1.4) so that’s good news, and now we have a good baseline to tell if it’s really going up. Also from yesterday, baby boy is measuring 24w1d (at 24w2d, but that could easily be off if I ovulated a day later or had my LMP wrong [obviously I wasn’t keeping track since I didn’t think it would matter!]) and he is 1lb7oz and in just about the 50th percentile which is GREAT news. Plenty of fluid, cervix long and closed, so basically no signs that this baby will be coming any time soon. That could all change very quickly so he gave me all the warning signs to know when I need to head to the hospital, but for now, things look good! YAY!!!

23w6d and Problems

Tomorrow is viability day. I've been waiting the whole pregnancy for this day, and I'm so glad and relieved that it is almost upon us. Unfortunately, V Day doesn't come without complications.

I went to my regularly scheduled OB appointment yesterday. My appointment was scheduled for 4:15, and at 5:00 I was told there were 3 other people ahead of me. I thought about leaving because Andy wasn't feeling well and I wanted to see Evie before bed time. I decided to stay to check on my blood pressue, and I was put in a room at 5:25. I was told at that point that my blood pressure was 160/96. She asked if I was uptight, and I said yes, I was a little pissed that I waited over an hour. When the doctor came in, I asked him to take it again himself. The nurse's reading seemed ridiculous, so he agreed to do it. It was 160/90. At that point, he told me I was a troublemaker, and decided to listen to the baby. He sounded great! But the doctor was very unhappy.

He told me he needed to consult with my high risk OB (MFM). He said he was "going to let [me] go home" and call in the morning after they talked. Which basically means he was considering sending me straight to the hospital but decided not to. I then reminded him that I was supposed to travel to St. Louis next week for work. He looked at me like I was insane and said he'd talk to MFM about that. MFM had cleared me two weeks ago to do it.

I went home with all sorts of scenarios in my head. I just wanted to know what they wanted me to do. Fortunately he called me at about 9:30 this morning. He said they'd talked, and they are thinking it might be a better idea for me to exclusively see MFM. He said he's having trouble noticing the differences between Pre-E and my already existing kidney problem, and he thinks I need someone more specialized to follow me. They wanted to bring me in for another MFM consult and take my blood pressure again. He also told me that I WILL develop Pre-E this time, the question is simply "when is it Pre-E vs. kidney problems"? At this point my BP is elevated, I'm swelling, (which I just noticed when I got home last night) and my protein loss has risen a little. He also told me they both said "absolutely do not travel" so I had to cancel those plans.

I called right away to schedule an appointment. I was told he didn't have anything until the following week, so she went to talk to him and he wanted to fit me in on Monday. He didn't have any appointments, and was on call at the hospital, but he felt it was urgent enough to bring me in, so I'll be talking with him and getting an ultrasound on Monday. I'm nervous because he must have thought it was very important to make that happen. I'm glad that it's not a dire need situation just yet, though.

I have so far to go before I'm comfortable having this baby. My first real goal is 32 weeks, and that seems so far away. It's 2 months! I am 32 weeks on January 4th. It's scary to think he could be born this year. He needs more time. And maybe I'm blowing things out of proportion, and they'll just switch up my meds, but I doubt it. With Evie, my urinary protein got LOWER. I was on half the medication, and I still didn't develop any issues to worry about until 32/33 weeks. My BP was high but it didn't get this high until later. I'm trying to prepare for bed rest. I can't imagine he will just add more meds. He added meds last week and apparently it didn't do anything to help. I'm grateful that I'm already at 24 weeks tomorrow but I just want my baby to be safe. Andy keeps checking on me and we know we'll get through it, but it's hard. It's tough when your doctor tells you you're guaranteed a life-threatening condition. I know I had it with E, but I already had the induction planned and I was almost 37 weeks. She didn't need the NICU or anything. And this time my problems are starting two months earlier. I just pray this baby stays in and my BP can be controlled. This situation really sucks. Please say prayers for us.

23w4d and Updates

Things are rolling right along in our lives. Evie is up to her adorable self, generally being cute and accomplishing new tasks. She's become a very picky eater right now, which I'm hoping is just a phase. She's also waking up and bouncing and playing in her crib for hours at night. She's so silly. She LOVES bouncing, swinging, being lifted in the air and throwing herself about the couch. As long as she's free to do that she's a happy girl. She's still in LOVE with Bubble Guppies. She walks around saying "Bubble" a lot because she wants to watch it all the time. We try to limit it, but some days she gets a lot of episodes when I'm having pregnancy issues! The most impressive thing (to me) that she's started doing is counting. She knows that "three" comes after "one, two" so if you say "One.. two..." she says "FWEE!". I was so impressed when I saw it I couldn't get over it. I was starting to worry a tiny bit that she's not saying a ton of new words, but it's clear that she's picking things up. She's so smart. She LOVES stacking toys and puzzles and logical things. But she's so incredibly independent. She refuses to "perform". She's always been that way. If we're playing and I ask her to point at something, she'll do it sometimes, if it's her perogative, so I know she can, but then most of the time she'll just ignore me haha. She's so silly.

I'm 23w4d with baby boy. There's a picture from yesterday at the bottom. I feel huge, and it hurts already! I'm just very achy and waddling already lol. So far things are looking OK. My BP meds were upped again, and tomorrow I'll see how I do at the OB. I'm waiting patiently to hear that things are getting worse, but I hope it's not for a while. But I'm SO close to V Day and so excited about that. He's a little mover and shaker and reminds me so much of his sister already. I think they're going to be like twins. We'll see though. Here are a few photos of Evie being Evie. I love her so freaking much.