The Blog

So, I had my ultrasound today and the baby has not moved from the breech position (no surprise).  The placenta is in an anterior position which means if they tried to manually turn the baby they would be pressing directly on the placenta.  That could mean trauma to the placenta and possibly cause the placenta to separate from the wall of the uterus.  You can imagine that this would not be a good thing and Scott and I felt it best not to take this risk.  That left us with the option of waiting till I go into labor and if the baby did not turn going ahead with a normal delivery except for the fact that the butt comes out before the head.  Sometimes the baby is unable to be delivered completely, the head gets stuck in the pelvis and they either use forceps or go and do an emergency c-section.  A completely unpleasant situation if you ask me.  Going through all that hard labor and still ending up with a c-section.  Or second option, going ahead and scheduling a c-section.  Can you guess which one I chose?  Yep, schedule that c-section!  This way I now know that in 10 days I will have a precious little baby in my arms.  Even if I go into labor before the scheduled day I still don’t have to wait past the 18th (that’s the day I’m scheduled for).  And, if by some miracle this stubborn child decides to turn before that day then we go ahead with the usual vaginal delivery.  So, the anticipation of when will baby Resnik be born is mostly gone but we still have the excitement of the gender and of course the ever present excitement of simply bringing a baby into the world.  Who could ever forget that   I have to go in next Monday the 15th for my weekly check and to get the detailed instructions for the c-section.  If all is well you will be getting calls and e-mails announcing the newest member of our family sometime late afternoon Thursday Jan. 18th.

 Wendy

For those of you who anxiously await news about my pregnancy, sorry it’s been so long.  The holidays have kept me pretty busy and truth be told there just wasn’t much to update.  My doctor’s visits have been pretty standard and quick as I described before.  I was in on the 18th and still on the every 2 wk cycle of visits.  Of course that put my next visit due on Jan 1st, obviously not going to happen.  My work schedule then pushed me back to the 5th, yesterday, since I couldn’t get someone to cover for me until then.  I am beginning to see the other doctors in the practice in case my doctor is not on call when I deliver, and yesterday I met Dr Haskins.  He is pretty nice and not as quiet as my doctor.  I went in knowing I was going to ask lots of questions, more than usual since the time is getting closer.  My biggest question was what position the baby was in.  See, we did another ultrasound just for fun at the office to get an idea on the weight of the baby (this was the Friday before Christmas).  I was 35wks and 2 days at that time.  The ultrasound showed the baby to be heads up not down, as most are at that time.  This really didn’t worry me because I had over 4 wks for the baby to decide to flip the right way.  I just knew that I needed to pass this info on to the doctor so he could monitor when and if the baby turned.  I did not rush right up and call my doctor the same day with the news, I figured I would wait for my next appointment.  Anyway, the news from yesterday’s appointment was that baby Resnik still has not turned and is stubbornly sitting with his or head up by my ribs.  He or she also finds it fun to somehow stretch the head farther up into my chest and it’s not the most comfortable feeling.  I know people often complain their babies kick them in the ribs, but the head being a little larger seems to be a more uncomfortable body part than a foot or hand would be.  Also this little one likes to maintain that position for what seems like an awfully long length of time in my opinion.  I thinks that is what makes this last month of the pregnancy the hardest for me even though I’ve had it pretty good.  No real heartburn, just feeling large and uncomfortable with frequent tossing and turning at night.  Thankfully for Scott, he has gotten used to the turning and seems to sleep through it, or so he tells me.  Back to the doctors visit… I did have an internal exam and found that I am nowhere near delivering (no dilation or effacement) and an appointment for Monday was made with my doctor to get an ultrasound to check placental position and various other things to determine if they can even attempt to manually turn the baby.  We also have to discuss if my doctor even recommends the turning procedure, as he still is not aware that the baby is breech.  So, I guess you guys will get 2 updates in a short period of time.  What a change So, everyone think happy thoughts and maybe we can convince the baby to turn on its own!

Thanks for reading,

Wendy

Just thought I would put in an update since my OB appt on Monday…Everything is going well and the heartbeat still sounds good.  A few of my co-workers have mentioned they think I have dropped recently.  I’m not sure if it is true or if I just look bigger and that is what they are seeing.  I am definitely feeling more uncomfortable these days especially when up and walking around and the need to pee is much more frequent than before.  I’m sure it will just get worse; after all, I still have about 7wks left!  I had a tip from my cousin to go ahead and get my hospital bag ready because you never know if you will go into labor early.  See, she delivered 3wks early, another cousin delivered her first baby 4wks early and lots of my coworkers delivered early also.  I guess she is right but lately my friends and family experience has been that babies are born within 5days before their due date or a little more than a week late.  I guess it is better to be ready than not.  On that note, we had my work shower and got lots of things I still needed and I think we are pretty close to being ready in the baby gear aspect.  We are still waiting on a web order to arrive and I’m probably going to go out today and use some of our gift certificates for the last few needed items off the registry.  We should be ready to go at that point.  I am not wishing for anything to happen until at least after Christmas, anything earlier than that and I would be worried for the baby.  I tried to send out a few e-mails about the baby pool game we set up on www.expectnet.com but I know I didn’t get it out to everyone.  If you want to play, click on the link- the game name is guessbabyr.  Pass the info on to anyone you think would be interested.  My next doctors appointment is Dec. 18th and I’m not sure if I go to every week at that time or if we have one more 2wk time frame left.  Until next time…

A lot has happened since I last did an entry. Things are progressing normally with the pregnancy, my doctor says my abdomen is measuring appropriately for my weeks of gestation. So that means at this time the baby is not unusually large as so many of you are afraid of. For those of you not around us much, I’m referring to Scott and the bartenders at Cicero’s who keep trying to scare me by saying I’ll never be able to deliver this baby naturally because Scott is such a big guy and I’m a small gal. Unfortunately, my passing this knowledge from the doctor has done nothing to stop Scott from continuing to voice his belief. My theory is that the baby is going to take after me and be small (I only weighed 5lbs 12oz at birth and Scott weighed under 9lbs, per his mom). I’m now going in to see the doctor every 2wks and the next appt is Dec 4th. There is usually nothing exciting to report from these visits. He asks if the baby is moving, listens to the heartbeat, measures my abdomen and asks me if I have any questions. I’m usually in and out within 20min. I imagine this will be the routine until the last few weeks before my due date when they start checking for dilation and effacement.

As to other things going on around here in prep for the baby’s arrival…I finally got the nursery cleaned up thanks to the help of Scott, my mom and my brother. We put up new shelving in the closet so I had a place to store excess Longaberger items instead of the floor Mom generously helped me with putting these things away on Thanksgiving day, after doing the same thing at her own house earlier that day. We moved the spare mattress out of the room and into another room as I try to figure out where we will store it long term. Anyone have extra storage space? The baby was generously “showered” with presents on the 19th and we got quite a few things that were much needed. One thing for sure, this baby will be very warm, as we got some great hand made blankets and quilts and some very soft, pretty, store bought ones also. Which is great since he/she is arriving in the middle of winter. Now, I just have the shower my co-workers are giving me next week and we’ll be ready to go. I’m sure I will be going and picking up a few things before the big day but all in all we are good to go if this baby decides to make an early entrance into the world. Although, unlike Scott I’m not getting my hopes up. At this point I would prefer the baby stays put and continues to grow. Don’t get me wrong, I am very anxious to meet baby Resnik but I don’t look forward to hanging out in the NICU for weeks before I get to bring him or her home. Scott just wants to have the baby on Dec. 31st so he gets the tax credit for this year, and he says he is tired of having a pregnant wife And on that subject, you can look and see how pregnant you think I look with these next few belly pics… you can see the one prior to this by clicking on the my pictures link on the right.

I just had my glucose tolerance test today and passed with flying colors! Well, that’s my interpretation since I got to see the results before the doctor actually did. Yes, there are benefits to working with the doctor that is your primary. See, instead of having the lab done outpatient at the hospital I get to have it done in the office where I work and that requires me to submit it under my primary; which so happens to be the doctor I work for. I was just happy the stuff I had to drink was very tolerable, and I got to choose what flavor I wanted: cola, lemon lime, fruit punch or orange (chose orange). My doctors visit Friday was pretty routine except this time they started measuring my belly. So I assume next time they will be telling me if the baby is growing appropriately. So far I have gained 12lbs and they aren’t telling me to try to gain more so I can only assume he is happy with my weight gain. I just had someone at work notice that I was actually showing. I told her she just hasn’t seen me in a while. The belly has certainly been growing in the last few weeks, but you will have to wait 2 more weeks for another picture (I am only doing them every month). I think I have finished registering and we have ordered the crib (about 2wks ago) since it could take 4 months to arrive. If you want to see what it looks like go to http://www.babysdream.com/Products/Georgian/Default.htm We chose the heritage cherry stain which should blend well with the darker furniture in the room. Now on to the task of finding an upholstered rocking chair for the room that will hold up well and not cost over $500! I know, good luck! I’m hoping for somewhere around the $250-$300 range.

On an ending note: Scott finally got to feel the baby move the other week! The kicks are getting stronger and certainly more frequent as the days go on. There seems to be pretty reliable schedule also of when I feel the movements. Although, there are certainly some suprises in there too. Well, back to work until the next time…

Wendy

Well, almost 5 months (2 days away). For those of you anxiously awaiting an update, sorry it took so long but this is why I hesitated to even start this process. Knowing myself, I knew I would rarely find time to do these updates. And it is only going to get worse once the baby comes! But really, there hasn’t been to much to say. I’ve been feeling good so far, I’m not really as tired as I was in the begining. As a matter of fact I was able to stay up reading last night past 11pm. Although, I’m still known to fall asleep before 10pm on Dave and Jenn’s couch We had our 20 week ultrasound on Sept 8th and everything is going well. Or so I assume, since the Doctor hasn’t said anything different (you have to ask really specific questions with him otherwise he doesn’t offer much info, typical male). We still don’t know the sex of the baby and still don’t want to find out for those of you still wondering or secretly hoping we will change our mind I’m planning on registering this weekend with the help of my sister-in-law and have been shopping for a crib. The nursery is still a wreck and needs to be cleaned out so there is room for all the baby stuff. I just haven’t been motivated to do that yet and I’m not sure where I’m going to put all my Longaberger stuff. It’s a good thing I still have a few months left.

I’ve been feeling the baby move alot lately which is nice because it reminds me that everything is going well and that there really is a life growing inside me! Sometimes that is hard to believe especially when people say I don’t look like I’m very big yet. I just tell them to wait, I’ll be there soon enough! It was a pretty cool moment durring the ultrasound when I felt the baby kick and saw the kick at the same time. We also got to see the baby wave to us durring the ultrasound. After multiple prying questions the doctor estimated the heartrate to be upper 140’s and another ultrasound (thanks to my friend Pam at Patients First) calculated the rate to be 148. Pretty consistent. Well I guess that is all, enjoy the ultrasound pictures and the early belly shots!

Thanks for reading, Wendy

Ultrasound Pictures:

Belly pictures:

Seems like a wierd title huh? Well if you read Scott’s entry it might make more sense to you. What I mean is, my turn to try out this blogging thing and my turn to be pregnant. He was right, I couldn’t wait (of course I never really wanted to wait, that was his deal). If he had his way I’d probably never be writing about this life changing event. For those of you wondering how he feels about the pregnancy now that it has happened you’ll have to ask him or see if he ever writes more about it in this blog…

I’m not sure what this is going to contain because for most of you who will be reading it you have already had the experience of Jenn’s Blog. She gave all those great weekly updates from Web MD on babies’ development, so I’m sure you don’t want a repeat of that. Of course I’ll put ultrasound pictures up as I get them. Or should I say, Scott will put them up I’m sure I can find something else to talk about though for the next 24 weeks…

I guess I need to update everyone on the basic details to bring you up to speed. Maybe there are a few of you who didn’t know we’re expecting yet. But, the way my Mom was off and running with the news only hours after we told our parents I somehow doubt that you’ve gone this long without knowing. As of this date I have finished 4 months of pregnancy! Just so you know we are going on the less popular timeline of pregnancy lasts for ten months, not nine. I’m not going to give a detailed explanation of why this is, because frankly, it won’t make sense anyway. Short version: normal pregnacy lasts 40 weeks and it is easy to divide into 4 week increments which is the closest I can come to the fluctuating lengths of the month. I’ll also be referring to the number of weeks along I am so that will be easier to follow. On to the fun stuff… The last many of you heard our due date was Feb. 22nd. So, you may be doing the math and be confused. Well, I had my first ultrasound at what I thought was in the 9 wk mark of my pregnacy and we were a bit surprised by little Resnik (who wasn’t as little as we thought). We could see actual arms, legs, hands,and feet all clearly defined and moving around like crazy! For those of you who don’t know, at this time we were only supposed to see a little blob with stubby arms and legs (kind of like a teddy bear). My first comment when they turned the monitor towards us was “that’s not a 9wk fetus!” Of course I’m not going to argue about moving up my due date one little bit and was very excited to hear that I was going to get to see this little one about 4 weeks sooner than expected! So that gives us a new due date of Jan. 24th. I’t ended up making sense to me because what first made me do the pregnancy test was not a missed period but all those early pregnacy symptoms like tiredness, sore breasts and larger breasts (probably the only thing that excites Scott about this pregnacy). So, let me tell you, I thought wow am I in tune with my body or what! Well, I wasn’t as in tune as I thought I was, because instead of finding out when I was only about 2 weeks pregnant I was really about 6 weeks pregnant. Oh well, I’d much rather be farther along than in tune with the changes in my body! I feel like I’m writing a book here so I think I’ll save something for the next entry. I guess that is what you get when you wait 16 weeks to start a blog about pregnancy!

So, went with the wife to the doctor today. Got to see our soon to be child. The good news is that I think it has my personality ’cause it looked like it got pissed off when the doctor was messing around with the ultrasound doohickey. If it weren’t half the size of the utrasound thingie I’m sure it could have taken it.

In other news, I gave the wife author access to the blog, so now she can blab on and on about the miracle of pregnancy, and how much she’s looking forward to having our child. Personally, I think it’s peer pressure again. Hell, that’s how we got into this situation. See some friends of ours got knocked up and this one couple was the final straw. After my wife found out they got knocked up, it was time to start making babies here.