The Blog

Things are progressing pretty normally with this pregnancy. Just a couple more weeks left to the 2nd trimester. I have had 2 doctors appointments since the last post and one of them included an ultrasound at 20weeks. I will get the pictures added later (they are at the lake house right now). At that visit I had gained about 13 lbs, right on track despite the belief from most people that I have not gained much weight yet. Scrub shirts hide quite a bit
Here are some pictures of what my belly looked like at 20wks complete

The ultrasound tech was able to get all the images she needed so little Resnik was very cooperative. Except in trying to get a 4D profile shot… he or she was holding its hands up by the face thus blocking the profile. We did get a cute full face image and the usual 2D profile. The heartbeat was 158 and weight was 13oz. The measurements were showing and adjusted age of 20 weeks 5 days. However, the doctor did not mention moving up the due date. I think at an earlier visit she said it would have to be more than 5 days to change the official due date.
I’m feeling good except for the occasional leg cramps. I had a really bad one early this morning and hours later the leg is still sore when I go up and down the stairs. I started feeling definite movements at 16.5 weeks and since then the acrobatics have continued to get stronger and more frequent

Well since my last entry, we have started spreading the news. We told the parents and immediate family on Easter and the next weekend I had our annual CKC scrapbook convention with the girls so I told them the news. Most of them are out of towners so I wouldn’t get another chance where we were all together. The next batch of people to tell was the work crowd and I told them this past Tuesday. Mostly everyone has been excited, my office manager groaned and mentioned that she better get working on the schedule. But she said it with a smile! My 12 week doctors appt. was short and sweet, I got to hear the heartbeat so we know the baby is still in there. We are sticking with the due date of October 28th. She said the measurements had to show a 5 day difference before they adjust the due date and my ultrasound only showed 3 days earlier. Oh well, what is 3 days anyway. At least it maximizes my time to go into labor on my own, since if I don’t I have to have another c-section. Aidan has taken to asking me the last few days if I still have a baby in my belly. I haven’t figured out yet where he thinks the baby would have gone. I tried to show him an ultrasound picture of what a baby looks like for this point in the pregnancy today. Maybe that will help him understand.
I have noticed a slight change in the nausea and generally blah feelings of pregnancy in the last few days. I don’t feel as constantly hungry or that I will be sick if I don’t eat all the time through the day. I also found that if I don’t drink milk too late in the evening my stomach feels more settled at night. I’ll have to get my milk drinking in during the daytime I guess. I did almost gag yesterday when our neighbors boy blew his nose and left a big pile of snot still hanging on his face. Yuck! still makes me kind of sick just writing about it. On another note, apparently I’m already showing enough for people to notice. I had a nurse that works on another floor ask me Tuesday afternoon while I was waiting for lunch if I was pregnant. She hadn’t heard yet, she just noticed a slight bulge in the tummy and decided to ask. Of course I knew I was showing but was hoping the scrubs were still baggy enough that you couldn’t tell. This probably means patients are going to start noticing also. Good thing we started telling everyone!
That’s it for now.

I went to see the nurse practitioner this past Thursday and by official counts I was 8 wks complete. This is calculated based on a average 28 day cycle. Pretty boring visit, they just talk to you and explain what not to do and what is ok to do. The good news was that she said since I had a previous miscarriage they would do an ultrasound to make sure everything looks good and is developing ok. So I got to go back in Friday morning for the ultrasound. The tech said everything looked good and she had no complaints about this baby! We got some pictures that I swear looked clearer on the screen but once I got them home just look like a curvy blob. She said there is a heartbeat but I must have missed it. I trust her training and experience though. So the baby measures 1.98 cm from head to rump and the adjusted age per ultrasound as of Friday is 8wks 4 days. Which matches what Web MD calculates per my shorter cycle length. That gives us a due date of…October 25, 2010. Looks like Scott may be taking Aidan door to door this year for trick or treating

So this week I have noted lots more nausea than I remember from my pregnancy with Aidan. In discussing with my co-worker and co-conspirator, Stephanie…we have decided this is definitely a good thing (as it is a sign that the pregnancy is holding strong) and that it could also mean I am having a girl this time. Of course that doesn’t really matter to me, I would just like to hold on to this pregnancy:) It probably means more to Scott and by that I mean he would rather I have another boy. He claims girls are more trouble. On the secrecy end of things, even Aidan is trying to give me up! He announced to Betty (our babysitter) Monday morning that “My mommy is going to have a baby!” The funny thing is, we haven’t told him anything yet for that exact reason. You can’t expect a 3 year old to keep a secret. So, where did he get this idea from? I don’t really know. He keeps asking me when I get another baby if he can hold it on the couch and if I can take it outside so they can play together. Here I just thought we were talking hypothetically but he seems to have taken these conversations to mean it is a sure thing. Well, luckily it is easy to discredit a 3 year old for the moment. All I had to do was look shocked and ask “where did you get that from?” and he said “I don’t know” and that was the end of that. So, mostly feeling nauseous and only a little bit more tired and those things tend to make me a little bit more grouchy at times. Still not falling asleep on the couch at 8pm yet. The tired feeling seems to hit more in the afternoon so maybe I’ll be able to nap when Aidan takes his naps. Yeah, I know wishful thinking:)

Guess I’ll try this thing again. Jenn inspired me with her blog. I have some catching up to do… First of all I have to say thanks to everyone for your support and prayers for Scott and I in our quest to have a second child. They seem to have finally worked! Yep, that’s right we finally got a chance to use the digital pregnancy test I have been holding onto for oh, I don’t know maybe… 8 months. (Of course, we have been trying longer than that if you count the miscarriage last year) After what has seemed a very long time to me, since we were pregnant so easily with Aidan, on Feb. 19th I decided I was late enough to try the test. And… it very quickly (less than the 3 min the tests calls for) stated I was pregnant! Now for the hard part, keeping it quiet until the first trimester is over. Because as most of my family and friends state, if I’m not drinking I must be pregnant. As evidenced by the events at Luke’s 4th birthday party on Sunday the 21st. Let’s back track just a bit…We went from the lake house Saturday morning to Megan’s 1st birthday party in Columbia where my friends did not question me one bit about not drinking. And it was a Saturday afternoon where one would be much more likely to have a beer or 2. Then we went home that afternoon had a relaxing evening and woke up to get ready for the next party of the weekend. Time to deal with the family. I figured this would be easy, after all, I got through the friend event no problem and this was a Sunday event starting at noon. Really, I’m not that much of a lush! Well, I course I couldn’t be that lucky. I think we had been there for 45min at the most and my dear sister in law Theresa says to me, off to the side, “why aren’t you drinking? Are you pregnant?” I try to play it off by saying, “Theresa, it is Sunday and the middle of the day, I don’t usually drink on Sundays”. She replies, “But are you pregnant?” I can see she is just not going to let it go, so I finally say, “You don’t want to ask me that right now”. “Oh, it’s too early yet” she replies and thankfully we leave it at that. Since then I have thought of a great excuse but have not had to use it yet. See, we are in the middle of Lent and all I need to tell people is I gave up alcohol for Lent. Then, I figure they can choose to believe me or not but I know it is an answer I can stick with.

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.