18 weeks

So I've been waiting and waiting to feel some baby karate in there. There have been a few times when I thought I may have felt it but nothing for sure until today. I sat on the couch curled up to the coffee table playing around on my laptop and I'm pretty sure I felt some break dancing. Apparently this little one doesn't want to be squished. I'm 18 weeks today. This is all starting to feel a bit real. In 8 days we will (fingers crossed) know whether we have a baby boy McCabe or a baby girl McCabe. I really want to surprise the kids with the gender. They'll be in school when we find out so I'm considering throwing a mini gender reveal party. I've seen some really cute themes and ideas but I'm having a hard time choosing one. Number one in the running is a "HE or SHE, what's it gonna bee?" theme. Mainly yellow and black decorations and possibly a pink or blue balloon release. The other theme, in a close second, is a monkey theme with the words "Boy or Girl? We're gonna go bananas if we don't find out soon!". I don't have quite as many ideas for that one though. I have a week to get it all done. Oh yea and to finish up the odds and ends for Abby's slumber party. Oy vey!

There is a tenant in there!

This morning at 10:10am I had my monthly appointment with the midwives. My usual midwife, Becca, is out this month and next month because she had her hand operated on so I saw Amy. She's very nice but very quick and to the point. Becca is much more chatty. I gained 1/2 a lb and am up to 264.5lbs. My blood pressure by the nurses definition was a bit high (140/82), but Amy said that was fine and wasn't worried about it. With that she had me hop up onto the table to take a listen with the doppler. I held Alexa in between my legs and within a couple of seconds we heard this little peanut's heart beating nice and loud. I've had ultrasounds where we heard the baby's heartbeat but it always makes the pregnancy feel more real. When we couldn't catch it at my 12 week appointment I was very disappointed. Since then I've been waiting to feel any sort of movement in there but sadly I have yet to feel that either.

It's hard to believe that by my next appointment we'll know if Scooby Snack is a boy or a girl. My next appointment is October 10th. Boy! Boy! Boy! We need some more blue around here.

I can breath again!

At 6:24pm I got the call that took a giant weight off my chest. I've been super stressed thinking about the health of this little Scooby Snak. I couldn't imagine getting through the emotional wreck I would've been had I received bad news. Monday's blood draw went great. Patty the nurse who does the blood draws is exceptionally understanding. She knows how worried I am with every pregnancy since the twins. She knows why I'm a super neurotic patient and she's ok with that. We talked about how my risk ratio was very similar to the risk ratio I received with Alexa. She calmed me down a bit and promised to call with the results as soon as she got them. She said the earliest would be Thursday but that the office had off on Friday so I may not hear from her until Monday. She did however instruct me that if I didn't hear from her on Thursday that I should call early on Monday morning. She wouldn't be able to call me until the end of the day but if I called her she said she'd have to take the call and could then give me my results. I couldn't have been more surprised when I received the call from her tonight, 1 day after the blood was drawn. She started by saying "I have good news for you!". I said "Really good news? Like I can breathe again good news?". She said "Yes!". My new down syndrome ratio went from 1:140 to 1:1,200. Woo! Woo! My T-18 ratio stayed the same at the lowest possible risk of 1:10,000. My spina bifida ratio (which I never received last time) is 1:1,400. All of my ratios came back better then my age related risks. I couldn't be happier right now. I feel amazing!!!

Getting close

Today I go in for my second blood draw. I'm praying on a daily basis that in a couple days I hear back from the nurse with fantastic down syndrome numbers. I pray that this worry and nervousness will soon pass and I can once again enjoy this pregnancy. I feel as if I've been in a bit of a standstill. I'm still too worried to really feel like I'm pregnant even though every Monday this little munchkin is growing bigger. I'm trying to let myself get excited about being able to feel him or her kicking soon. I think I was 17 weeks pregnant when I felt it with Alexa. I know this baby is super active so I look forward to lots of movement. There's been a couple times when I thought I might have felt it.

Prayers prayers prayers!! C'mon my healthy little baby!

15 weeks and counting

I've been slightly hesitant about posting here since I got a not so good down syndrome ratio back from the triple screen. Some inner instinct is telling me to keep my distance from this baby. How could I beat the healthy baby lottery a fourth time? I guess I'll know more when the results come in from the second set of bloodwork. I go on September 6th and will hopefully have the results within a couple of days. For now I'll keep this short and sweet.

Great nuchal measurement!

My appointment for the NT scan was scheduled for 10:45am. We, as usual, arrived 10 minutes late but were taken back rather quickly. This u/s we were taken to the back room which has a TV there positioned for the mama-to-be to see very easily. Immediately I could see that the baby had grown much bigger since the last scan. I could clearly see it's arms and legs. A couple seconds later I saw the heart beating away. Phew! At one point the tech held still and we watched the baby jumping around. It was so cute. It kept arching it's back to bounce up off of my uterus. I think this was the first time I really bonded with this baby. I must've been smiling from ear to ear. Before we were done I caught a glimpse of the NT measurement. It was 1.57 (mm I assume). Great! Anything below 3 is considered normal. Dr. Weiners assured us that everything looked good and that the baby was growing right on target for my February 19th due date. Again with that stinkin' due date! I asked him if he recommended cervical length checks. He said yes and said that we would start them at the 18 week anatomy scan. A little blood draw and then I scheduled my next two appointments. One for September 6th (blood draw) and the anatomy scan was scheduled for September 27th. So close yet so far away. Yesterday (Wednesday) I got a call from Patty the nurse with my results. My risk for Trisomy 18 was 1/10,000. Great! My risk for down syndrome was 1/140. Not so great! This isn't a positive result but it is a much greater risk then most women my age get. Again it just gives me something to worry about. I'm hoping at the blood draw on the 6th I'll get more info and it will ease my mind a bit. For now I just pray for a little bit of peace of mind and a healthy little Scooby Snack!

2nd appointment down!

Midwife appointment number 2! I've lost 2 pounds since my last appointment. Not bad. My blood pressure was great. And no urine sample. Yay! Amanda came with us for this visit. I think she wanted some time out of the house. We left the big kids sitting in the waiting room as I usually do when they come. Becca spent a little bit of time chatting with Alexa. She kept telling me just how beautiful she is. We once again went back and forth on when my due date is. The first ultrasound had me due on February 23rd. My calculations (based on our oopsie moment, May 28th) have me due on February 20th. The midwives due date (I have no idea what this is based on) have me due on February 19th. For now I'm sticking with the February 20th due date as that is on a Monday and that makes it easy for me to remember when to change weeks. Becca said "we'll go with that". Not much talk about Scooby Snack. We tried to hear the heartbeat with the doppler but no such luck. That of course put me on high alert. The only other time we couldn't hear the heartbeat at 12 weeks was when I was pregnant with the twins. For now it's just a teeny tiny voice in my head that says something might be wrong. By Monday, the day of my next ultrasound, that voice may be screaming at me and I'll be scared to death to go to my NT scan. My blood tests came back good. I'm not HIV positive, nor do I have any other STD's. Go me! Just joking. There better not have been any or somebody would've had a whole lot of explaining to do. She also told me I am O+ blood type. I have always been pretty sure I was but now I know for sure. Again it came up that I am not immune to Rubella. After I gave birth to Alexa they told me that there was a shortage of the vaccine so I never received it. After this baby is born I will receive the MMR vaccine. At one point we both had a good chuckle about the size of my chart. I guess it had gotten so big that someone decided to retire it and start a new chart for me. With 6 pregnancies, 1 miscarriage, 1 high risk pregnancy with conjoined twins, and 1 pregnancy ending with HELLP and pre-eclampsia I suppose there was a lot to chart. Not this time. I intend for this pregnancy to be completely uncomplicated and of course end with an amazing epidural and a beautiful healthy baby.