Rule #1: Don't scare mommy!

I feel the baby move on a very regular basis and have since about week 19. Every 2 or 3 hours I feel something. Sometimes it's just a little kick but most of the time it's several. Last night I was sitting on the couch and I even told Jonathan, "wow, he's getting stronger" because I got some big movements.

Then today I didn't feel anything. At all. All day. At first I was thinking that maybe he was having a lazy day but even on lazy days I feel something. So I called the doctors office and they told me to come in.

The nurse put a monitor on me, at first she couldn't find the heart beat which just about made my heart stop, but she did find it. Thank God. The nurse tracked it for about 5 min and it was fine. The doc came in and did a sonogram and baby was moving.

So, my placenta is at the front and it always has been. Until last night, his feet had been down and his head by the placenta. Last night all those big movements I was feeling was him turning head down and now his feet are kicking the placenta, which is why I haven't felt anything.

Anyways, everything is fine. I have felt a few little movements since I left the dr's office but not much. The doc was glad that I came in and told me that I did the right thing and that that's what they're there for. I love my doc.

24 weeks - Viability!

This is the best picture we got at the sonogram the other day. He was wiggly and stubborn at the same time. The other clear picture we got was of his boy parts. There is no doubt about his gender. The white blob in front of (above) his face is his placenta. The placenta is high and in the front so his head is right around my belly button and his feet are down. He seems to like that position right now. Sometimes I'll feel him kick towards my left side, which I prefer to him kicking straight down, but it's always one of the two.

We are now officially at 24 weeks which is considered viability. What that means is that if the baby were born now they would do everything possible to keep him alive. The chances aren't great and the risk of having long term problems are high so we wan't to keep him cooking for a while longer but it is a big milestone.

I have a runny nose and a headache. Everyone seems to have something right now so I guess it was just a matter of time before I picked something up. Hopefully this is as bad as it gets. This is the down side of being pregnant during the winter instead of the summer, there are so many more germs and the chances of getting sick are much higher. And when you are sick, all you can take is Tylenol, Sudafed, or Benadryl.

The child birth preparation class yesterday was okay. It was good to find out what happens in the hospital and what the standard procedures are. It just re-confirmed that I love my doctor. All of his staff has been with him for a long time, and as long as everything is ok medically he lets the patient call the shots. He's very big into making this my day and even though things don't always go as planned he does everything he can to help the plan happen. He also delivers 90% of his own patients. All during the week, even in the middle of the night, he's the one there. If I have the baby on a weekend it's whom ever is on-call, so we're shooting for a week day.

We are also back to not knowing which hospital we're going to be at. The nurses have all been talking like it's going to be up north. We now need to take a tour and pre-register at that one just in case.

This week:

• Bring on the bulk! Baby gains about 6 ounces this week. The weight is in muscle, bone mass and organs.
• His body begins to fill out with his appearance increasingly becoming more like a newborn.
• Taste buds begin to form. If mom drinks something strange or bitter, baby may be observed showing his distaste.
• Little creases have appeared on his palms. The muscular coordination of his hands has improved as he sucks his thumb.
• Over the next seven days the sweat glands will be forming in the skin.
• His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" and cells that produce surfactant, a substance that helps the air sacs inflate easily.
• This week your baby is officially considered viable.
• Baby weighs 1.3 pound (600gm) and is 11.8 inches (30cm) long -- almost the length of a ruler! (ours is 1.4 lbs, according to the sonogram)
  

Sonogram

I haven't put the pictures on my computer yet but the sonogram went really well. Our little guy looks perfect! He's measuring about 3 days behind but they said that was perfect. All of his organs looked great and his body parts are all there. We saw him swallowing and sucking on his hands. He was also a bit stubborn, the sonographer was trying to get a cross section of his spine and he wouldn't move. I have no idea where he gets the stubbornness from...

After the appointment we walked over to the hospital and took a tour of labor and delivery. We also signed up for a child birth preparation class that's tomorrow from 9 to 4, so it's going to be a long day.

My belly is really sore now from having it poked, prodded, and shaken around for so long. I don't think the baby liked it either, he sure did kick a lot during the process. Hopefully it will be better in the morning.

Dr's Visit and Sonogram

Todays sonogram was by far the neatest thing so far. On our way to the office we stopped at Thundercloud and got sandwiches to eat while we waited. Luckily we were there right around lunch time so the wait wasn't long. I hadn't even considered eating right before a sonogram would make it more interesting. The baby was awake and moving around, it was SO cool. He/she was flexing its finger and looked like it was waving at us. From one angle we could see all 4 limbs moving at the same time, it's a very active little squirt.

And what's really great is that the subchorionic hemorrhage is almost gone! It's half the size that it was 2 weeks ago and only 1.2 cm big now. So it's 1/4 of the size as it started out and a little less than 1/3 the size of the baby. The doctor said, "the chance of miscarriage is next to nothing now." Needles to say it was the best news we've heard all year.

I completely forgot to ask if I can be off of "restricted activity", we were just too mesmerized by watching the baby move to think of anything else. I'll call tomorrow and ask the nurse and if I can, I'm headed to the pool. I'm so out-of-shape it's pathetic, it would be nice to just be able to do a little.

The picture doesn't do what we got to see justice. The babies head is down and the body is above it. The little bitty thing to the right of the baby is its right hand waving. The baby is now 3.32 cm big, about the size of a prune. And the blood clot is so small you can't even see it in this picture. In 2 weeks we go back for our level 1 sonogram which measures fluid at the base of the babies neck and is an indicator of downs syndrome and a few other genetic deformations. While we were there the doc measured it today, he said we are looking for a number that's 3 or less and right now my baby is a 1. Yay! We have to wait until it's officially time to measure to double check and confirm that everything looks good but I'm not worried, this baby is doing great... and is kind of a show off too :-)

8 week sonogram & doctor's appointment

Today was the day they took our genetic history, did all kinds of tests, and gave us the doctor's pregnancy "guide" book. We waited in the office for over an hour before they even called us back, it was a full 1.5 hours past the appointment time before we saw the doctor... and we had Cooper with us. Luckily he did really well, all things considered.

The great news is that the blood clot is only 1/2 the size as it was last week! The doctor was thrilled and he expects it to keep shrinking and completely go away. I could tell he was relieved and he thinks that everything is going to be fine. We are SO excited and relieved. I'm not out of the woods yet but we're definitely headed in the right direction. And as long as I don't have anymore bleeding, I don't have to go back for 2 weeks.

Now for the picture: It looks much more like a baby this week. Its head is down and body is above it, and it doesn't have a tail anymore. It grew .55 cm in 5 days. On another angle we could see two arms and two legs. I think it looks like Jonathan... it has his big head!

7 Week Sonogram

Everything looked good.  The clot is the same size, no difference.  But the baby is now 1.22 cm!  It has more than doubled in size in the last week, and it still has a strong heartbeat.  It's amazing to see how different it looks in just a week.  As much as I don't like what's going on with the clot, it's cool to get to see the little one every week.  

To explain the picture: the black blob on the far right side towards the bottom is the clot.  The black thing in the middle toward the top is the baby's sac.  Towards the bottom of that sac you see a peanut shaped thing, that's the baby.  The small ball just above it is its yoke sac.  On last weeks picture the yoke sac and the baby were the same size but now the little squirt is much bigger.  The baby's head is on the left side.  You can't really tell from the picture but on the sonogram itself we could even see where its tiny arm buds are, very cool.  

I go in next Tuesday for my "first visit" that I've had set for a while now.  It will include a sonogram and some other tests too.  I'm hoping to avoid having to get blood work done given that I've already had it run once.