Baby Audrey/ Ultrasound Update

We had an ultrasound today to check my cervix for changes and I met with my doctor afterward.  My cervix was measuring 2.6cm, which is a large improvement over my 30 week cervix with Emily, which was 1.5cm.  I was pretty much so thrilled!  The technician was SUPER nice and let us sneak a peek at Audrey girl (who is still a girl, by the way!) even though we were really not supposed to be looking at her at all.

So after the ultrasound poor Paul had to go back to the hospital- they have been SLAMMED lately and he was getting page after page.  I waited to see Dr. R.  When she came in she was not super happy about the cervical length like I had hoped she would be- she said the normal range for 30 weeks is 2.5-3.5cm, so me being at 2.6cm wasn't exactly what she wanted.  She is not making a huge deal about this though.  She is having me come back next Thursday for a fetal fibronectin test which will give her a clearer idea of whether my body is actually preparing for labor, or if I just happen to be someone whose cervix thins out a little earlier than expected, but is not ready for labor.  I am confident that things are OK- I am not contracting this time nearly as much as I did with Emily, and while Audrey is head-down now (we saw on the ultrasound), she is not engaged in my pelvis like Emmy was.  So I'm hoping for good...no...great news on Thursday. 

In other news, on Saturday we took Emily to Charlotte to do a little shopping.  We stopped at the Carter's Outlet and bought her a few things for fall and one precious outfit for Audrey.  We also found an adorable pink giraffe "silk" that Emily instantly proclaimed belonged to her.  However, Saturday night she said I could put it in the room with Baby Audrey's things because it was for her little sister. I just about melted right there. 

Except then Sunday morning rolled around...and Emily saw the silk in the basket with Audrey's stuff.  Up pointed that little finger of hers and she said, "MOMMY- what is my silk doing up there?! That's Emily's giraffe silk!"  I reminded her that she had said it was for Audrey and she looked at me with stony eyes and said, "That silk is mine" and held out her hand.  Looks like Baby Audrey lost out on the giraffe silk after all!!  :)

28 Weeks and Our 5th Anniversary!

Today I am 28 weeks pregnant with sweet Audrey Grace.  I have to say that I am still feeling good for the most part...but I am steadily feeling worse by the end of every day.  My back and hips are KILLING me.  I was literally in tears yesterday telling Paul that I hate that this is our last pregnancy and I'm not able to enjoy it as much as I did with Emily because I am hurting so badly by the evening/ late afternoon every day.  It is really, really hard being pregnant and having a toddler too.  I don't know how people do it who have lots of children....I am not sure my body could handle another pregnancy after this one!

I had my glucose screening on Tuesday and a doctor's appointment.  I haven't heard anything from the office about my test results but they said it would be about a week or so before I did.  I really hope I passed because if I didn't, I will have to do the 3 hour screening one morning, and I really don't have any mornings free (because of teaching Summer School starting Monday) until the 1st week of August, and I feel that's a little late.  So, cross your fingers that I passed!  Dr R was glad to hear my Braxton Hicks contractions are still infrequent and set me up for an ultrasound on July 21.  I will have a cervical length measurement taken.  It was 3.5cm long at my 20 week appointment so I am crossing everything that it hasn't thinned down yet.  (For comparison's sake, when I was 30 weeks with Emily it went to 1.5cm, and then the following week at 31 weeks it measured 4mm..yes, millimeters!)  I am so hopeful that things will be different this time, especially since I don't think there's any way Audrey is engaged in my pelvis yet...she moves around way too freely, I think, to be head-down yet.  Emily was engaged by about 26 weeks and was putting a lot of pressure on me.  I am scared a little because even if I had to do bedrest this time, that would really only keep me from being at work....I still have a house, a husband, and a busy toddler to care for at home, so there would be little "resting" going on.  I am just thinking positively and hoping for good news on July 21. 

Today is our 5th wedding anniversary!  It seems so crazy to think that we have been married for five full years.  I am so lucky to have a wonderful husband like Paul who is not only so good to me but an amazing Daddy too.  Our girls are so, so fortunate.  To celebrate this milestone we're heading back to WV today to our old town-- going to hang out with some friends, eat dinner at one of our favorite restaurants (we haven't picked it yet) and look at some potential houses with one of the realtors I used to work with.  I am so excited!  My in-laws are gracious enough to come care for Emily this weekend so Paul and I will have 2 nights of uninterrupted sleep and hopefully no waking up at 6am (or 4:45, as was the case this morning, haha).  I will miss our sweet girl but she would not enjoy this trip at all.  She is so excited for her Granny and Grandaddy to come to pick her up from school today....she ran right in and told her teacher all about it this morning. 

Have a great weekend!  I'll post some more pictures next week.

Who is BabyFerg?

This morning we dropped Emmy off at daycare and went to the OB office for my favorite visit....the Big Reveal Ultrasound! I am excited to announce that BabyFerg has a gender-specific identity now....



we are having another sweet GIRL! Sweet Audrey Grace will be arriving somewhere around the end of September.



Now...I don't usually get this "real" on the blog....usually it's just sunshine and roses and rainbows around here as I tell you about sweet Emily and how great our life is. But I have a tiny confession- I have been a nervous wreck about this baby for literally months now. Like, scared to death that today was going to come and we would find out he/she had some horrific birth defect, or a huge disability, or SVT like Stellan, etc. etc. etc. It's been so bad that I haven't *really* let myself "bond" with the baby a lot because I was sort of convinced that today would come, we would get some awful diagnosis, and we would have to make a lot of really hard, terrible choices.

So let me say what a HUGE relief it is to know that she is A-OK! The cervix is looking great- over 3.5cm right now which my doc said was "totally sweet" (lol LOVE her!) Audrey was sitting straight up and down in the uterus SOUND ASLEEP on the placenta...it was so funny! It looked like she had been watching TV or something and nodded off the way she was leaned up against it. She said my cord is nice and high and nowhere near the cervix. She did say Audrey is sitting squarely on top of my bladder which made me feel better about these trips I'm having to let out a cough medicine cup full of pee! She weighs 12oz.

The tech was having a super hard time with the sex b/c she was sitting down in there. FINALLY she got to a position where we could sort of see and I saw 3 little lines flash SUPER fast and blurted out- "It's a girl!" Paul looked at the u/s tech and she had a little smile on her face....she was like, "I am trying so hard to get you a clear picture of this..." and then she got it again and said, "Yep, Mommy, you are right- she is all girl!" I was so excited (this was towards the end of the u/s when we had seen all her other organs and everything looked good) I was almost shaking b/c it was too good to be true- she is perfect and healthy and CALM (for now...we'll see if Emily doesn't rub off on her).

I feel 1 million percent better about this pregnancy than I did before. It's like I needed everything to be OK today to "let" me let myself get excited, if that makes sense. Paul and I went to brunch after and I just gushed out, "She's our little Audrey, and I already love her!" He looked at me like he was surprised I was just feeling this way but I have seriously had a little secret wall up against this because I was convinced something was going to go wrong. So far, so good though. I loved Emily right from the very second she was "discovered" but I feel like now I am a lot less naive about pregnancy than I was before. At any rate, I am rambling like a loon now so I'm going to stop. We are so excited to have our precious 2 girls!!

We had our 32 week appt scheduled for today after our ultrasound, but we never made it- I was admitted first! We had the biophysical profile and it looks like Emily is tipping the scales at about 4lbs 3oz, give or take some. We got the 4D u/s and got two semi-decent pics of her face, but nothing really great. She's awfully smashed in there! Then we did an u/s to check my cervix, and that's when things got interesting.

It seems during the past week I have lost 1.5 cm of cervical length and I'm now down to 6mm (yes, millimeters) left. The maternal fetal medicine doc was called in to interpret the u/s and started talking about me being admitted to lay upside down in the hospital from now until Emily is born. At one point in the conversation I finally stopped her and said, "So when are you talking that she might come out- are you thinking like, tonight?!" And she said it was a possibility because I had such little cervix left. She insisted I be driven across the parking lot to the hospital and I had to ride in a wheelchair up to the L&D floor...which is looking like it will be my new home while Emily cooks a little longer. If we can make it to 34 weeks they think that is another major hurdle, although personally I'd like to get her to 35 or even 36.

When I was admitted tonight they hooked me up to the ctx monitor again and apparently I've been having little weenie ctx (I haven't felt them) that have been as detrimental to my cervical length as the bigger ones I do feel. I am on magnesium sulfate to try and stop them- they'll do this with me for the next 2 days and then they'll quit. At that point, the ctx will either stay stopped or they will start again. If they start again I guess I'll just be monitored for dilation and we'll think about delivering her if I get started dilating.

The good news with all this is that she's already gotten the steroid shots for her lung development and also she's a girl, which I didn't know but apparently girls have an easier time with being early than boys do. It's totally scary to me to think that she could be here in days or weeks....months I guess are totally out of the question.

Tomorrow's my birthday and it looks like I'll be spending it right here, in home sweet hospital. Funny how life throws curves, huh? It definitely looks like I will NOT be returning to work before she is born- they don't even want me "serving my time" (bedrest) at home, b/c they don't think I'll be compliant enough. Truthfully, as terrible as it's going to be locked up in the hospital, it would be very difficult to completely rest-- there's just too many temptations. This is honestly the best place for me, even if it's hard to deal with.

Keep our girl in your prayers- we really need some more time to cook and hopefully we won't meet her until the last week in September or early October.

20 Weeks- Halfway Cooked!

We had my normal OB appt last week (for 20 weeks). As usual, I am a member of the Walking Dead with a BP of 88/56. Yep, barely standing..lol. I still haven't made it back to my pre-pg weight (still 3lbs under where I started) and my doc said he's giving me until next month (24 weeks) to gain weight or we'll be having "serious talks". I am eating, people! :)

Then we got some GREAT news- he wasn't satisfied with some of the u/s shots from my 18 week u/s, so he wrote for another one!! We went back the same day and got good pics of her heart, spine, profile, foot, and double-checked that she's still a lady- and she is!
Her nursery will be completely done by the end of the summer. Paul and I have already bought her crib and changing table and are looking for a dresser (we didn't like the one that matched her set). Look for pics of the nursery sometime before school starts again.

Other than that, no news. She is moving like a wild woman every day and Paul can feel her on the outside now...yay!

The Big Reveal- Who's Inside?!

Today at 3pm we had our ultrasound to find out our baby's gender. I will start out by saying that I was very close to driving to my perinatal center last night and sleeping on their doorstep because I was so excited to see our little one today! All day at school I was so distracted- thinking about the baby, who it would be, what it would mean for us when we found out, my usual nervousness about something being wrong, etc. I started drinking a bottle of Mountain Dew at 2 pm (*interesting fact- I found out the other day that it takes about 1 hour for nutrients to reach the baby) so I began 1 hour prior to the appt and ate a couple small pieces of candy too. Apparently caffeine and sugar make my baby extremely wild, because we had an AWFUL time trying to get pictures!! The baby was moving so much it was almost impossible to get decent pictures-- the tech even commented several times that it was the MOST difficult scan she's ever done! Haha!

We got all the major anatomy done- everything EXCEPT gender- and the tech tried to explain to me that she was going to do a vag u/s to try to get that picture (the baby was completely breech, with genitalia facing down). The conversation went something like this:

Tech: "Allison, I don't think I'm going to be able to get the gender--"

Me, with HUGE tears in my eyes: "B-but, I can't LEAVE without knowing!! You have to try again!"

Tech, laughing at my interruption: "What I was going to say was that I don't think I can get the gender without doing a trans-vag on you. "

Me, leaping off the table: "OMG- I'm sorry! Let me go take off my pants!"

So then I run and use the bathroom (this makes the THIRD trip during the u/s!) and lost my pants. As soon as she "wanded me", you could see ALL of baby's genitalia.........and we are new members of the P-I-N-K team!! There was no denying it, once we were in the right position. Paul and I are so excited and I was personally so relieved to know-- Paul even commented to the tech that he was so thankful she tried hard for us, and that he "didn't want to go home with her [me] if we didn't know because of all the tears that would follow!" He knows his wife, that's for sure.

I am thrilled to know for certain and so excited to begin looking for things for a little lady. We will call her Emily Claire (Claire is my middle name). We have had her name since we were dating- which is nice, since we didn't have to think about it at all. It was so nice to finally know "who's inside"!! Woo hoo!

PS- Sorry for the suspense in getting to the final answer. I figured after how hard she was on me I had to build up to it, know what I mean? :) So there you have it...our little girl! :) Yippee!!