Ultrasound Update

Okay, okay, I know (some of) you have been waiting for this...
The ultrasound yesterday went well.  It was long.  We were in the office for more than 2 hours and had three different techs checking Sprout out.  Seems she was pretty comfy in there and didn't want to move so they could measure her arm and heart properly. 

Did you catch that?

It appears we're going to be having a girl!  However, I still need to confirm that with the midwives as the techs made it clear that they weren't allowed to say anything.  The one that we spent the most time with did try to give us a view of the "bits" but neither Jen nor I could tell what was what.  The reason we're thinking girl, is that when showing us the close up on the sex, the tech pointed and said, "That is the cord you want to look here" and pointed again (Jen and I shrugged at each other).  Then later, when trying to get arm measurements, said something like, "I can't get her arm", whereas, like the other techs, up until (and following) that she had been very careful to say "the baby". 

While my mother's intuition may have been off, I am beyond happy.  As I would have been if we found/find out we're having a boy.   

So, do you want to see her?

Our beautiful baby: 

*Navalgazing* Reflections at Seventeen Weeks Pregnant

This week was fairly uneventful as far as the pregnancy goes.
We're in PA so it's been a busy time visiting with family, but we've also had a lot of help watching The Bean from Jen's parents.

I guess the biggest (potentially) pregnancy-related update is that I've been getting some pretty wicked headaches.  It's also been 100+ degrees here, so the heat could definitely be playing a contributing role.  I've had to take Tylenol a few times and even napped a couple of afternoons to try to keep the headache at bay (which worked while lying down, but not so much once I got up).  The weather is supposed to break soon, so hopefully I get some relief. 

Of course, I looked up "headaches in pregnancy" on Google and then proceeded to panic about high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes and the like.  Rational-me has tried to calm panicy-me and seems to be doing a doing a pretty good job for the time being.  Hopefully I get some more reassurance after the next midwife appointment (a week Monday) and ultrasound (the following Monday).

I've been thinking about the ultrasound quite a bit.  I'm excited to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl.  There are positives to both situations, so I will be happy either way.  I'm also a little bit anxious.  It was at this ultrasound that we got our first concerning news (the spina bifida scare) when Jen was pregnant.  Fortunately that turned out not to be an issue, but it still caused a lot of stress at the time.   And then there were the concerns about The Bean's growth and the subsequent ultrasounds and early induction.  Anyway, even though everything turned out just fine, I'm finding myself worrying that something will be wrong and we will have to go through a similar situation with this pregnancy.  I don't want that.  At the same time, it is weird to think that this may be our last ultrasound if everything is okay and proceeds as hoped for. 

I know that probably sounds crazy.  I blame the hormones. 

Now for this week's belly shot, which was actually taken at exactly seventeen weeks!

*Navalgazing* Reflections at Twelve Weeks Pregnant

First of all, HURRAY!  Twelve weeks!  I am officially done with my first trimester!  I am so, so glad that everything seems to be going along as it should be and that I am still pregnant.

This week I had some ups and downs in terms of how I was feeling nausea-wise.  Overall I'd still say I'm starting to have more good days, so hopefully that trend continues.

I may not be up much from my pre-pregnancy weight, but I am definitely noticing a change in my shape.  My lower stomach is starting to stick out a bit, to the point that some of the dress pants that I have to wear for work are getting to be uncomfortable now.  I'm very glad that this is my last regular week of work and that I'll be able to wear some comfier pants after Friday.  (We have a week of special events and then a week and a half of meetings, etc. where I can mostly get away with wearing jeans and shorts.)

Monday afternoon we have our genetic screening ultrasound.  I'm excited to see Sprout and hope that s/he growing as s/he should be.

We made our first Sprout purchase this week.  We found an awesome deal on Bumgenius diapers and we bought a dozen.  The Bean will use them quite a bit before Sprout comes along, and they'll share afterwards, but we probably wouldn't have bought them if we weren't expecting... that and we also returned a bunch of cloth diapers to my sister since her little guy is growing like crazy and can now fit into some of the larger diapers she had loaned us.  (We saw the baby today --he is ADORABLE.  A little chunker and he looks so much like his papa.  I can't believe how big he's getting.  The Bean was such a pipsqueak.  I wonder how Sprout will compare.)

That's most of the pregnancy-related news here.  Last week's belly photo is still on my camera and I'll get Jen to take another one today and try to get them uploaded soon.  I've been pretty bad with taking/uploading photos lately.

P.S. I forgot to include the most exciting news of the week: I felt a flutter!  Earlier in the week when I was lying in bed I felt a very distinct flutter in my lower belly.  I have no doubt that it was Sprout.  Nothing since then, and I really don't expect to feel anything again for a while yet, but still, it was very exciting!

*Navalgazing* Reflections at Nine+ Weeks Pregnant

Wow.  I've gotten really bad at keeping up with things here. 

The Bean had his 16 month "birthday" on Friday.  We have yet to do the update and his photos, but I will sneakily back post them when we get to it.

We did take a belly picture.  It may have even been Saturday that we took it and I did scribble a few notes in a notebook, but I've had a hard time getting them up on here.

It's been a busy week.  I had a job interview last Tuesday and had a call back to teach a lesson today.  I love, love, LOVE the school but I found out in last week's interview that it is a mat. leave and I just didn't feel right going ahead with the process without telling them I'm expecting, even though it is still a bit early.  So, I taught my lesson today: a discussion on how music affects people's emotions with a group of 18 SK girls.  They were lovely.  At the end we had a few moments and I asked them to reflect on what they liked about the lesson, many of them said they loved all of it.  It made me so happy and so sad at the same time.  I told the principal that I hope that if they don't hire me for this position (which I am sure they won't), that I can substitute there through the fall and that if something comes up later on down the line that I would be considered.  She was very kind and said of course they would and that she appreciated my honesty.  Still, though,  I'm a little heartbroken at the missed opportunity. 

In terms of how I've been feeling, I keep waiting to start feeling better.  I'm not sure if the medication isn't working as well as it did initially, but I find I'm feeling sick much of the time.  Not throwing up, but nauseated.  Super-tired as well.  I'm trying to figure out better timing on taking my pills as I think I'm waiting too long between my mid-day and evening pills and that that is contributing to the nausea in the afternoons and evenings.

Jen has been amazing.  She's really been stepping up to take care of The Bean and I haven't been able to do anything in return.

I've been reading along in the pregnancy journal that we kept when Jen was pregnant and comparing how I feel now to how she felt then.  It seems like it was around this point that she started having some better days.  My sister, on the other hand, continued to feel sick until about 16 weeks.  I guess we'll see where I end up falling.

In about a month things will really calm down around here.  The interview-y job stuff is over for the time being, but I still am working on an online course, have to finish out the school year and write report cards and complete e-portfolios for each of my students.  We're going to PA this weekend to visit in in-family.  I'm looking forward to it, but also sort of wish it were just going to be a quiet weekend.   I know The Bean will be over the moon to see Grandma and Grandpa (both of which he now says!) so that will make it all more than worthwhile. 

And since I might not be updating next week because of the trip, I may as well mention that we had our first midwife appointment.  It was really low-key.  With The Bean we had a list of 20 or more questions and this time I felt like we were just chit-chatting with an old friend (same midwife, at least for the beginning! Yay!).  Kinda' funny to think about, but also very nice to be less nervous about everything.  She booked us an ultrasound for the first week of June, so hopefully we'll get some nice baby pictures then. :) 

Updated with nine week belly photo:

Ultrasound Update

Yesterday's ultrasound went well.  (Phew!)  It was at the fertility clinic, and now that it's done we are officially discharged from their care.  We had my favourite tech, the one who did most of my monitoring.  The baby was measuring 7w1d, which is just a day behind where we'd expect it to be.  Heart rate was 144, which is just slight higher than The Bean's 140 at his initial ultrasound.  And, as expected, the EDD is December 16th.

Here the belly photo, taken yesterday:  

The Bean is still sick, so I'm home with him today, hoping to get him in to see his ped and make sure he doesn't have a sinus infection.  (He nose is disgusting.)  Poor little guy.  Hopefully he starts to feel better soon. 

Waiting for Baby

Happy New Year!

I'm excited for this coming year. There is a lot to look forward to.

Our nursery is nearly ready for baby's arrival...







... and it's a good thing, because this past Wednesday we were given an official diagnosis of IUGR and were told that we will potentially have to induce early. Perhaps as early as next week. For now everything looks fine but the baby is small. If future tests (yes, more tests) show that the baby is continuing to drop off in size (he's now in the third percentile) or that placenta isn't functioning as it should, that's when they would induce. We are now under shared care, meaning we still have our midwives but we are also under the care of a doctor from the hospital. From now until the bean is born we will have ultrasounds on Wednesdays and non-stress tests combined with our midwife appointments on the weekends. It's a lot of appointments, but I'm glad that a close eye is being kept on the bean to make sure everything is okay. I'm looking forward to meeting him, but hoping he can stay inside as close to his due date as possible.

Ultrasound Update

Our secondary midwife called again yesterday (our primary midwife is on holiday through the end of the month). She wanted to let us know that she's referring us to the "high risk" ultrasound clinic. Not exactly reassuring, but she did go on to explain that the technicians there are allowed to discuss results as they see them, so we won't have to wait and wonder how the bean is doing. I told her that we are getting anxious about having so many ultrasounds, but she indicated that they wouldn't recommend them unless they thought they were necessary and said we could talk about the risks involved at our appointment on Monday. Their concern is IUGR -Intrauterine Growth Restriction and that the baby is SGA -Small for Gestational Age. I'm still not sure another ultrasound is the right thing to do, but if we didn't do it and then there were a big problem that could have been detected I know I would regret it. *Sigh.* Jen seems a lot bigger this week, so my hope is that they'll do the fundal height measurement and say we don't need to have another ultrasound, although my feeling is that even if she is measuring bigger, they'll still send us for the ultrasound. I guess we'll see on Monday.

Ultrasound Results

So, we went to the ultrasound clinic again on Tuesday so that they could check on the size of the bean. He's still measuring small. Actually, he went from being in the 20th percentile at our previous appointment, to being in the 15th percentile at this one. Because of that, they did a biophysical profile measuring things like muscle tone, movement, breathing movements, the amount of amniotic fluid, and umbilical artery flow. All those results came back fine, but they still indicated that they want us to come back for another ultrasound in two weeks. We're not thrilled with having to go in for so many ultrasounds. We're sort of debating whether we want to do any more actually. Hopefully Jen and baby have a bit of a growth spurt over the next few weeks and it becomes a non-issue.

I just checked Jen's baby book and she weighed 6lbs, 10oz at birth and was 20 inches long, which is on the lower side of average. I guess it shouldn't be that unexpected that our baby might be on the smallish side too.

More Concerns

So, it's been a while since I last posted. (I won't count the one I just put up, because that was actually something I had drafted about a month ago and then kind of forgot about until just now.) Things have been busy here. We've been doing a lot of preparation for the bean's arrival and I have to say, I think we are close to being ready... or at least as ready as we're going to be!

I'm feeling a little bit anxious about his arrival. I am still overjoyed that we are having a baby and excited to meet him, but I'm concerned about how we will manage once he's here. I worried that Jen will suffer from post-partum depression and I won't know how to help her if she does. I'm also concerned that I will be overwhelmed and stressed out and possibly become depressed. I wonder if this is how many dads feel. I've never really heard any guys talk about it.

I'm planning on taking the first two weeks following the birth off of work, so that Jen and I can both be at home. I actually need to call today and see if I can take the time as parental leave (and get some money from the government) or if I will have to take it as unpaid emergency leave. Either way, I will take the time. Being a kindergarten teacher, I anticipate that I won't have the energy or patience necessary to do my job well during that transition time, but any longer than two weeks away would be too disruptive to my class.

Jen will take the 17 weeks of maternity leave, and follow with the 35 weeks of parental leave allowed by the government. (Or 33 if my two weeks count as parental leave.) I am SO glad that she will be able to take the full year. I know so many parents go back to work after just six weeks, but I can't imagine how difficult it must be for them.

Jen's mom is also going to come down for at least one week after I return to work to help out. I'm sure my mom and sister will also be around to help, but having Jen's mom here for a full week will be great.

I guess the only other news of significance is that we had a follow-up ultrasound to check on the bean's kidneys and everything came back clear. However, he was measuring in the 20th percentile, which is a little small, and Jen's belly hasn't been measuring bigger the past few appointments so yesterday our midwife said to book another ultrasound to make sure that his growth is on-target. Jen's kind of upset about it because people keep telling her how small she looks and it's really getting on her nerves. She was very slim before getting pregnant and is also long-waisted, so I think that contributes a lot to her not appearing huge, but when you compare pictures of week 4 to week 32 there is a BIG difference. The midwife said those two things in combination with the fact that the baby is already sitting very low might be why she's measuring small, so hopefully there is no reason for concern. I love seeing the bean, but I'm tired of worrying about things being wrong. Hopefully this will be the last ultrasound. We go in this afternoon.

In the Clear

The ultrasound results came back clear. THANK GOODNESS! Our baby appears to be healthy and developing normally. It also appears to be a boy!

Before we even started fertility treatments I was quite sure that we would have a boy. Then once Jen was a few months pregnant, I thought, "Oh my, what if it's a girl and here I've been thinking boy, boy, boy?" And from that point on I started thinking of our baby as a little girl. So, when we got these ultrasound results I was thrown for a bit of a loop. (As were most people we've told -it seems almost everyone thought we were having a girl.) We were cautioned that it is a little early to tell, and have an ultrasound scheduled at the beginning of Septmeber that is typically the one where you find out the sex, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to change.

I'm excited to know the sex, but also a little bit nervous about having a boy. What do I know about being a boy? Will he have good male role-models in his life? Will he grow up happy and well-adjusted? (A concern no matter what the sex.) I hope we're good mamas to our little guy.

Anxiety-causing News

I didn't plan on updating this soon, but we got a call from our midwife today. She had just got in our second set of bloodwork from the genetic screening we did and there was an abnormal result. Jen's alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels came back slightly high (2.38 vs. 2.30) which may indicate a neural tube defect, specifically spina bifida. She said that that level indicates a 1/631 chance of the baby having spina bifida. From what I was able to find out online, normal chances are about 1/1000. I'm trying not to worry, but spina bifida sort of runs in Jen's family. She had an uncle who died shortly after birth who had it, and also has a cousin with it.

The plan now is to go in for another ultrasound at the end of this week. I think they'll be able to see the baby's spine and determine if it does have spina bifida.

I cried after hanging up the phone and just kept repeating, "Please don't let our baby be sick." I then proceeded to look up information online and was somewhat able to convince myself not to worry... too much... at least not yet.

From what I read Jen did everything she could to prevent this. She took prenatal vitamins with folic acid in them before conceiving, and then took additional folic acid suppliments during the first month or two. She's been eating a lot of breads and leafy greens and eggs all of which are also supposed to contain folic acid.

This is going to be a difficult week.

I keep thinking of the last ultrasound and how excited we were to see the bean moving all around and how everything seemed so wonderful and amazing.

I really hope our baby is okay.

First Baby Picture

We went in this morning for some (optional but routine) genetic screening. As a result we got to watch The Bean move all around for about half an hour while the ultrasound tech took various measurements and screencaps/photos. It was so amazing! I could not stop smiling. In fact, I'm smiling just thinking about it. The Bean was not too co-operative in terms of positioning in such a way that the tech could get good measurements, but I think that meant we got to watch for longer, so I was okay with it! Maybe my favourite part was when The Bean appeared to be sucking on his/her toe. Too cute!

Here's our first baby picture:

First Ultrasound

Just over a week ago, on June 4th, we had our first ultrasound at the fertility clinic.

The ultrasound confirmed the pregnancy. An ultrasound tech was in the room with us, and afterwards one of the clinic's doctors met with us to discuss the results. It was a little bit difficult trying to figure out what everything was on the ultrasound. I knew I wasn't really supposed to, but I did ask the tech a few questions. I could tell where the embryo was and, when the view was correct, I could see the heartbeat. (I confirmed with the tech that that's what I was seeing.) Seeing the heartbeat made me tear up a little bit. I felt a little bit bad that Jen wasn't able to see it at the same time as me, but later on the ultrasound tech moved the screen so that she could see too. The tech didn't print an image for us. She seemed to think we'd be back soon-ish and that a picture of what we saw that day wouldn't really be as interesting as one from a few weeks down the line.

The doctor told us that the ultrasound indicated a healthy, low-risk pregnancy. The embryo is implanted in a good place (i.e. it is not an ectopic pregnancy). The heartrate was supposed to be over 110bpm, and was 140. And the size, 1.17cm, indicated that the embryo was 7w2d old. (A little different from our other calculations, but for now, we am sticking with our original age and due date predictions, just for simplicity's sake.) The doctor said that since everything looked good he was okay with not seeing us again, but that if we wanted to we could always book another ultrasound or appointment. We have our first appointment with our midwife at the end of June, so decided we wouldn't make any other appointments at the clinic unless we became concerned about something and wanted to come in to make sure everything was okay.

Since the ultrasound we have told many more people about the pregnancy.

Before the people who knew were:
-my in-laws
-my twin sister
-my best friend (who was visiting us when we took the positive home test)
-our friend, who we had considered as a donor
-Jen's old co-worker/close friend
-one of my co-workers, and later my boss
-two of Jen's co-workers, and later her boss and his wife
-some friends and the owner of the martial arts gym where Jen instructs and I train
(Goodness! That seems like a lot of people!)

Now we've told:
-my mom, dad, brother, Nana, and two cousins
-the rest of my co-workers

We will tell the rest of Jen's family when we go down to visit them at the end of the month. Following that we'll probably tell everyone. We should be at about 12 weeks by then, which seems like a good time to start sharing the news with anyone who doesn't already know.

The past few weeks we've been spending a good bit of time looking through "The Pregnancy Bible", which we bought around the time we started trying to conceive, and "The Pregnancy Journal" which Jen's old co-worker sent to us when she found out we were pregnant. We've also signed up for weekly email updates from babycentre.ca that show what's happening each week. All three have been great resources.

Oh, and finally, we've started calling our baby "The Bean", or just "Bean" for short.

We're feeling pretty good around here. (Minus Jen's constantly queasy stomach, but I'll save talking about that for another time, perhaps.)