Week 20

The scheduler messed up and they didn't have me down for a 20 week ultrasound. I am scheduled for next Friday 6/5.

I was having some spotting again, so I went in for an ultrasound of the placenta on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the placenta moved down instead of up. Now I have full previa instead of having a partial previa. So now I am on pelvic bed rest for at least the next month. There is still time for the placenta to move up as the womb grows.

The ultrasound tech had a hard time looking at the cervix. The baby's bottom was covering the cervix. The baby was also not very cooperative. I had to roll over a couple times to try and get the baby to move its bottom. Then the lab tech tried to take some pictures of the baby for me. However, the baby would not hold still long enough to get any good pictures. It is amazing to me that the baby can be moving around like that and I still do not feel it. The tech thinks it might be a girl, but wasn't sure. I guess we will find out in another week or so.

The baby's heart beat was 140 BPM at my appointment yesterday. The nurse said the baby was really active when she checked the heartbeat. The nurse could hear the baby moving around on the doppler.

Pictures from Tuesday's Ultrasound. I know it sounds awful but these pictures sorta remind me of Skeletor from He-man.

Weeks 17-18

Nothing too eventful has happened with the baby the past two weeks. I still haven't felt the baby move yet. However, we have had some other exciting things happen.

I was glad to finish my semester with 3 A's. It was hard, but I managed to pull it off. Duane finished his semester with graduation. He is glad to be done!

We have both enjoyed a nice visit with his parents. They came up the day before graduation and will be going home tomorrow. Duane will go down with them for a couple weeks and help get the garden started.

I decided to take the summer off from school. It feels strange not having any school work. This is the first time I have taken a break after nine consecutive semesters. Now I just have to decide what to do with my time.

We have our next doctor's appointment in 10 days. Hopefully the baby will cooperate and we will determine the gender.

CONGRATS DUANE!!

Week 16

Made it to the fourth month mark! We don't go back to the doctor for another month. Duane and I are anxious to find out if we are having a boy or girl. We don't care either way.

I received a call from the OB doctor. He said, my B12 level is outside of the normal range, but not in the low range. On something like the contingent range. I am not sure what that means. The doctor was going to prescribe me 100 mcg of B12 injection. I told him that I was already taking a 1,000 mcg injection every month. The doctor was surprised by how high it was and didn't want to increase it. He also didn't seem really sure what to do or know too much about it.

I am going to go by the hospital and have a copy of the report sent to my doctor in Pennsylvania. He has a lot more expertise on the B12 anemia and how it should be handled. I will be curious to see what he has to say about it. My stomach must not absorb the B12 very well at all. I have been drinking a lot of milk and eating other foods that are rich in it. All this along with the shots.

It isn't very common for people to have B12 anemia because the liver stores a 3 year supply of it. I think it only occurs if the stomach doesn't absorb it correctly.

It has been really hard sleeping. I went two nights of waking up every 30 minutes. One of the mornings I had a little vertigo from moving back and forth so much. The third night I was so exhausted that I slept through the night. Sleeping on my sides is so hard because the bursitis in my outer hips. I have been putting a body pillow under my back, so I am not completely on my side. That helps some.

On the light side of things...between me and my pillows, Duane has about a foot of space in the bed. He is such a good sport about it. Sometimes Duane will lay right up against me and that makes my back feel good.

Duane presented his senior design project today. I went down to the student union building to observe. He did such a great job and I was so proud of him. He worked so hard on this project for months. I am glad that I went and shared that experience with him. Duane has one final that he will finish on Monday. Then he will be done! Yippee.

I took a test yesterday for my HR class (BUS412). I didn't do as well as I would have liked. I studied so hard too. The test consists of a lot of memorization, which has been hard for me this term. There is an optional final. If my grade is boarder line, then I might go for the optional final. I know that I will be really disappointed to get a B, especially if I am close. I have had A's in all of my classes here at the U of I. So we will see.

I have two seven page papers to write. One I haven't started and is due on Tuesday. The second paper I am about half way through. I have an outline for the second paper and just need to elaborate on my points. I have two more weeks to get that one finished.

Then I will be taking a little break. I am thinking about taking psychology for the second half of the summer. It is a 100 level class, so it should be easy.

Placenta Previa

I had some bleeding yesterday, so the doctor had me come in today. They did an ultrasound and said that I have a thing called placenta previa. The placenta is lying unusually low in your uterus, next to or covering your cervix. This is bad because it can cause bleeding and premature birth. The placenta has to be delivered after the baby. So it causes problems with delivery. So we will see.

Hopefully the placenta will migrate up away from the cervix. I still have time for that to happen. In the meantime, I have to take it really easy.

If there are no problems, we go back May 28th. It was neat seeing the baby. It is a lot more developed than last time. It actually looked like a little baby.

Here is an article on the Placenta Previa:

http://www.babycenter.com/0_placenta-previa_830.bc?page=1

Pregnancy Test

I realized that we never wrote about how we found out I was pregnant. I guess I should preface this by saying, I have never bought or taken a pregnancy test before this baby. I never had a situation where I thought I was pregnant or anything like that. I know pretty pathetic at my age.

I started feeling nausea a week before I was late. The thing that seemed so strange to me was that the nausea started every evening at 9:00 p.m. It was like clock work. Then the unheard of happened, everything sweet looked gross. Now that never happens :) I am on a 25 day cycle, so when 25th day came and nothing happened...I was suspicious. Another thing that never happens.

So on day 27 I was in Wal-Mart shopping. I decided to pick up a pregnancy test. Holy cow was I surprised at the cost. So of course I bought the cheapest one. I get home and showed Duane. I was quite proud of my purchase. Then it turned out to be an ovulation kit. Yes pretty embarrassing. I am the female, I should know these things. Doh. So the next day Duane goes back with me to pick one out.

Since these tests are so expensive, we decided that we would wait a few more days to test(30 day mark). Well I made it to day 29 and couldn't wait any longer. It was around 10:00 p.m. So I gave it a shot. The little strip changed colors right away. Now I have heard horror stories about these tests. Like they are hard to read and you need a PhD to figure them out. So I thought it could not be this easy. So I am reading the instructions again and rambling. I was so anxious to find out, but the test took three minutes. So Duane made me leave the room until it was done. I set the kitchen timer to be sure and waited.

After the three longest minutes of my life were over, the answer was...YES! We were so happy. After five years of marriage finally our first pregnancy. I called the doctor the next day and it is has been a pretty crazy learning experience since then.

The hardest thing has been keeping it a secret for the most part. Only our family and couple friends know. We are planning to tell everyone once we make it another month along.

Weeks 12 - 13

At the begining of week 12 we had our next doctor's appointment. We were able to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. The baby's heart beat was 160 BPM which is good. We don't go back to see the doctor until April 27, 2009.

I was having cramps. It turned out to be spasms of tendons that attach in the front and rear of the pelvis. Prior to the pregnancy I had problems with my back and hips. I have tendon elasticity, which causes my hips to come out of enlightenment easily. They rotate forward and backwards beyond normal ranges. During pregnancy, hormones can cause the pelvis tendons to become even more movable. So the pregnancy has made my existing issues worse.

It seems to be the worst when I am laying down. When I lay flat on my back I can not move my legs at all. It is a strange feeling. I have to roll over to my sides before moving my legs. So pretty much I only lay on my sides anymore. I have a king sized pillow (about the same size as a body pillow) that I have been propping behind my back. It seems to help quite a bit.

I am in physical therapy and that is helping. My therapist has told me to try and walk now as much as I can. I may not be able to do much further down the road. My therapist also ordered me a special belt that is supposed to help stabilize the hips. So we will see...

I am starting to be less nauseated, which is great. I have actually been really lucky here. I have heard some pretty awful stories from other women.

Here is a link to my personal web-site where I embedded the audio file of the heart beat. From my personal site there is another link to click. Once you click on that link, it should pop up a download dialog box.

http://www.school.elgans.com/Baby.html

Weeks 10 - 11

Duane and I had a nice visit back east with family and friends. I picked up a bunch of maternity clothes, which I needed. I went shopping in Pittsburgh with my sister-in-law Diane. Diane was a big help picking out clothes that are more flattering to my body shape. We went to a couple stores and she ended up giving me some of her maternity clothes.

The main purpose of our trip back east was for a doctor's appointment. My body is creating a very high level of a hormone called gastrin. It only exists in two conditions: Atrophic Gastritis and Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. I saw about half a dozen doctors in the west who where unable to determine which condition was causing the hypergastrinemia. This was mostly because it is rare.

I found a doctor at the University of Pennsylvania who is an expert on hypergastrinemia. My appointment went really well. The doctor thinks there is a low risk of the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, which is good news. I will have to go back after the baby is born and have a test done that will conclusively determine the problem. There are some conditions related to the Atrophic Gastritis that can effect pregnancy. So I have to go and have some tests done to make sure those are not present.

Last weekend I started to have some phantom cramping. I guess it is common for some women in the earlier stages of the pregnancy when the placenta is expanding. I also think that I might be having some PH issues as well.

I have noticed a fluttery feeling in my chest sometimes. When I went to the doctor in Philadelphia, he mentioned a pregnancy heart murmur. I just need to check with the obstetrician to see if the murmur could have any impact on the dilated left ventricle in my heart.

We go back to the doctor on the 30th and I am excited about hearing the baby's heart beat.