Fo Real...

La felt the baby move for real this morning. She thought she had a couple weeks ago but figured out today that she really had. Our pea pod moves around all the time. I love it! We put up a little guessing game for the date/size etc... so take a guess.

We are reading a few childbirth books--- I.na Mae Gaskin's Guide. The Br.adley Method. Hyp.nobirthing. I am thinking about taking the hypnobirthing class. Anybody have any experience with hypnobirthing? I have not had many patients use it but I like the philosophy the best so far. La said she is fine with hypno 'as long as we can be in a group class. I don't want it to be just us- up in some crunch bugs house with incense lit'. I don't know what to do with her sometimes. I think the only class that will work with our schedule will be private. Better start burning incense at home now to get her used to it :-)

Belly shot progression... Note for next pregnancy. Use the same or similiar outfit each time.

Grateful

19 week belly shot

We are back from a wonderful vacation! We talked and laughed and read and ate and walked (well, me just a little) and basked in the sun and cool breeze. La gave me a soft pink shirt on Mother's Day with the word mom on it. It was so sweet! I love it and I love you, La.

This morning I woke up in my soft bed to feeling our sweet baby moving around inside me.
Life is good... I am very grateful! :-)

Blame it on the fibroid

Just got home from the MFM doctor. It appears the culprit is Ali's fibroid. Before pregnancy it was 2cm x 3cm and it is now 5cm x 6cm, about the size of the baby's head. It is positioned between the back of the cervix and the rectum. The good thing about that is that it prevents in most cases the cervix from opening because in a way it blocks it and the bad part is the discomfort of having this thing push on her rectum and all the nerve fibers that run along the sacrum. That would explain Ali's description of feeling like there is a "knife in her butt". So they will watch the growth of the fibroid... hopefully the baby grows faster than the fibroid and moves out of the way. The doc said in 1% or less of these cases the fibroid grows and doesn't move out of the way and obstructs a term vaginal delivery. We are not even worrying about that... we'll just roll with whatever. For the discomfort, Ali can use M.ot.rin as needed and lots of hand and knees positioning to get the 'knife out of her butt'.

For the fun part... our baby looks beautiful! He or she was rolling around, doing flips, swallowing fluid, sucking his/her fist. Heart and brain looks wonderful. Cord, limbs, nuchal fold -- all normal. Weighs 8oz.

Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. We so appreciate them!

Contractions

The contractions started around 5pm every 4-5minutes. We went to triage and saw Dr.G who prescribed terb and vi.sta.ril. Ali is still contracting and has cramping. Dr. G will call us in the morning to have us go for our formal ultrasound tomorrow instead of next Wed. No vag check tonight...she didn't want to irritate things more...FHR 160's..will update when I know more.

Scared...Need To Breathe...Triage *Updated*

Ali has been cramping all night long. She describes them as bad period cramps.....We are worried sick. Waiting on a call from the Dr. to tell us what to do. Dear God....I pray and pray and pray.

**UPDATE**

Ali was seen yesterday by Dr. G who said cervix was nice and closed and she was measuring between 18-20 weeks...listened to the baby's heartbeat..all was good and very active. So glad that happened yesterday, because it did help to ease some(not all) fears today. Ali had such horrible cramping all night...she couldn't get rest and then she did she dreamed her water broke...great. We called the Dr. this am and since she was just seen yesterday she prescribed bed rest and plenty of fluids and if cramping got worse, call, and she would be seen. Cramps are still there, not worse, just there. Ali has felt the baby move(thank God) so we feel good about that. We did get in touch with the midwife...she told her to drink plenty of cranberry juice and if not better to come in tomorrow for a urine sample. She is resting.....Thank you for all your words of support. We have our formal ultrasound next Wed and no peeking for parts......KJ :)

Going On 18 Weeks And Off For Our Babymoon

We are back from my parents and miss them already. I can't believe we won't see them again til Oct. They are headed up North to see their other grand kids. I told my brother he is gonna have to share my mom soon, so get in all the time he needs now. Granted he has 2 sets of twins 11 months apart (ages 6 and 7) and we will only have one. I just wanted to prepare him now.

We are 18 weeks tomorrow. Wow...time really flies! We leave again for the beach to celebrate our baby moon. We are going with our good friends S+K, who before we left for my parents had us over for dinner, and as we were greeted at their front door, they wanted us to know that they are not crazy...and that they are not planning on taking our baby, but rather love us and this baby very much...so we walk in and this is what greeted us..

There's more..............

and more......... I couldn't fit it all in.

S has offered to take care of our new little one on the one day a week we will need childcare. They have been collecting these things for the past couple years so that we can just drop off the baby and some breast milk and they have everything else... and I mean they have everything else. We said we could just move in with them and be set. The clothes in the closet are all labeled with the state and the year they were purchased. We are so blessed with wonderful friends. Now I am afraid we are going to need to find new peeps to hang out with because these people are obviously into babysitting :-)

Happy Birthday Mom!

We're here in Central Florida visiting my parents. They live in a very active retirement community, that we joke, it's D.isn.ey for 55y.o. and older. I hope I get around as great as they do when I'm their age. We have such a great time here and we can't wait til we can bring our little boo here too.



So Happy"69th" Birthday Mom and soon to be Grandmaw (again)!

Here we are heading to the pool