28 weeks

GREAT NEWS! Baby girl is starting to cooperate! She is now head down, not breech anymore! Also, my placenta has moved off of the cervix. However, to get “cleared” of the diagnosis placenta previa, the placenta has to be a certain distance from the cervix. Mine is still too close so I am considered to have marginal previa now. I will take it! Baby steps! We will get another ultrasound at 34 weeks to make sure that it has continued to move away.

I also took my 1 hour glucose tolerance test last week, this is the test that will diagnose you will gestational diabetes. They want the level to be less than 135. My level was exactly 135. So they had me do the 3 hour test this week.  Boy that test was cruel and unusual punishment. I had to be fasting from the night before. I was ready to puke from not eating before I even left the house. I got blood drawn as soon as I got to the office, then had to drink that “yummy” sugar drink. After that I got blood drawn at 1, 2 and 3 hours after. That’s right folks, that 4 sticks. She stuck me in the same 2 spots too. I am bruised the heck up now. Not to mention while they were doing the test, I was told I couldn’t leave the building but just had to wait until my next blood draw. I found a couple of dark rooms, that no one was using to be able to nap in(I had to work that night, so I was up for any napping I could get!). But as the day went on, more patients were in the office and there were no hiding spots. I had to just sit there and watch the clock. I went straight from there to get some lunch! I couldn’t get out of there fast enough! To be considered to fail this test you have to have 2 of the values high. I only had one(the 2hour test), so I was just told to watch my carbs! Will do…watch them go right in! No, just kidding, I will be better!

I am still measuring appropriately! Which I am very excited about, because with Caleb he has already been diagnosed with LGA(large for gestational age…BIG!) and with poly(too much fluid). Right now she and her fluid level are right where they need to be! Thank you Lord!

Here is the sweet girl with no name. She is snuggled up to the placenta(which is on the back wall of my uterus/“womb”) with her left hand in her mouth. Her head is resting on my right hip bone, with her butt about at the top middle of my belly and her legs in my right ribs.

Profile shot. The top of her head is on the right, again sucking on that hand. The ultrasound lady tried to poke her to get her to move her hand so we could see her face better, but she would have nothing to do with it.

A more zoomed in profile shot. Same position but with her lips puckered.

Comparison purposes: Caleb on the left and BabyGirl on the right. Caleb’s picture is amazing thanks to his bigger size and extra fluid(I guess there was some benefit to those problems!) I can’t decide if they look similar or not. I am thinking not, except for the hand placement! Seeing Caleb’s picture again makes me want to go back and get them to redo her pictures, surely they can get better shots! It will be really interesting to see if they end up looking alike a birth!

Comparisons again: My belly with Caleb on the left and my belly now on the right. Similar size?

And, just because he is a cute big brother!

MRI

Today was our repeat MRI, for comparison purposes. We had to be there by 8am but Caleb wasn’t allowed to eat or drink.  He did amazing considering! We were admitted straight to the pediatric ICU. Caleb was all smiles until the nurse started doing vitals. It was over after that, he lost it every time she came into the room. She was very considerate and applied EMLA cream(a numbing cream) on his non-thumb sucking hand(a momma request to start the IV so he could still suck his thumb- which was successful) and then on his other arm(just in case) prior to starting his IV. She also was able to give him part of his sedation meds prior to the IV so that the IV wouldn’t be so traumatic for the boy, seeing as just taking his temperature under his arm was drama!

Waiting for the EMLA cream and oral meds to kick in so we can get the IV started and get down to do the MRI. Still happy at this point(as long as his nurse wasn’t in the room!) I guess I will always be his favorite nurse!

They warned us that the medicine given can make people feel drunk, some people are happy drunks, some mean drunks and some sleepy drunks. We were hopeful for the sleepy, happy drunk boy. Which thankfully he was!

On the way to the MRI. Sleepy boy.

Because I am pregnant, I was not allowed in the room with him. They put me in a waiting room all alone. But there was this one “mirror” which I quickly figured out if I smooshed my face up to I could see the control room and then into the MRI room! JACKPOT! I was so excited. And being a nurse I was very excited to be able to hear the machine as well as his heart/oxygen monitor. A was very reassured to hear his little heartbeat as well as the machine(which meant that there were not problems as long as it was still running!) Caleb wake up immediately after the testing was done and was placed in Daddy’s arms. Last year it took Caleb all day to wake up so we were very surprised that he was awake,very drowsy,but awake so soon. We headed back to the ICU room, got another set of vitals, gave him some of his pediatlyte and were discharged. We were home by noon. WoW is all we can say.

He fell asleep again on the way home but was making some weird snoring noises so we made a pallet on the floor so we could closely monitor him. He had to sleep off the rest of the medicine. When he finally woke up at about 2:30pm he was able to eat for the first time in almost 24hours! We started simple with pedialyte and baby oatmeal(both favorites).

Here is our little home ICU bed.

It took a little more awake time for him to really start acting like himself(a little tipsy when sitting or crawling). But by dinner he was back to his old self again. The doctor’s office called and our neurologist hadn’t seen the films himself but that the preliminary results from the radiologist was that it was UNCHANGED! Although we were praying for a miracle- that  the spot would have totally been gone. This is great news! (the difference between calling the spot on his brain a cyst vs a tumor is that a tumor grows and changes.)

I will update you all when we get the official results from Dr. H. But for right now I am just glad today is over!

Carwash

Just helping my Daddy…

… and loving it!

The S family

“Lan”, Abby and Allie. What a difference 15 years makes!

 

We were able to sneak in a little visit. I used to babysit the girls and Saturday night they were able to babysit my Caleb. Love it! Thanks again, Girls!

The blonde headed boys-Caleb and Andrew

Just being as charming as ever. “TONGUE!”

Mike and Deb, you have an amazing family! I am honored to be apart of your lives.

Thank you S family for opening up your home to us. We had a great time.

Keeping Cool

Trying to keep cool on these hot-afternoon-not-even-quite-summer days involves LOTS of water…

and of course easter eggs, kitchen bowls, sand toys, measuring cups and wooden spoons!

His favorite part was dumping! I could hardly sit down before I would have to refill his buckets!

When Caleb is crawling so much outside he has to wear big, long cargo shorts or we have to sag his pants like a gangster to give his little knees some protection. Usually we go for the cargo look but when we run out gangsta style it is.

What do you do when your baby pool gets a hole in it and your Daddy uses all your play sand for a yard project?

Get Mommy to put water in your sand box!

Taking a water break to go exploring.

This is the face we get when we say “CHEESE”! The head tilts back and the mouth opens wide!

See what I ‘m saying. CHEESE!

Being a boy and turning a clean activity into a messy one. He found some of his play sand, mixed it with water from his “pool” and voila a mess!

Although we are having some good fun at home we are excited for our pools and splash parks to open. (right now they are just open on the weekends!)

Beach Music in the Park

Mommy was so excited about being able to go to this week’s Beach Music in the Park.  We picked Daddy up at work and drove downtown, hoping it was  not going to be “too” hot. The entire park was in the shade (because of the downtown buildings) and it was very pleasant for a upper 90’s kind of day!

Wagon packed and ready with one happy boy and some loot to keep him that way!

BALLOONS!

Our wagon converts to a bench that adults can even sit on. Under the seat is some great toy storage, a small cooler and 6 cup holders too(same amount as our car!). Caleb enjoyed climbing all over it, pulling out all the “loot” from the storage and just having a place to sit and read.

C was so excited about all the balloons. He kept pointing them out and saying something similar to “balloons”.

Caleb and Daddy(and some balloons behind Mommy!)

 

Sweet and happy boy! He had a great time with the music, people, dinner and of course balloons!

Happy Mommy and Happy Caleb.

Cheese!

Dancing!

Just a fun family night! Can’t wait to be able to go again soon!