8 Months

This week. 32 weeks pregnant. So thankful. 

It feels like since the baby shower that time is just speeding ahead! Next week I will begin my weekly NSTs at my OB’s office. I will do them every Wednesday until baby arrives. Im really happy to be getting the extra monitoring late into the pregnancy as I did early on in it. Its as if it is coming full circle now. I have been having some of the same symptoms I did in the first trimester again-light cramping, waves of nausea, fatigue. Im really hoping that baby boy holds off for a little longer still despite these symptoms. 

Other symptoms?

In addition to the nightly snoring, I have now added in talking too! Go figure. Hubby reports to me some of the wackiness I ramble on about, other times I catch myself actually talking when I wake to pee. Peeing is on an hourly schedule now throughout the night. My carpal tunnel has only gotten worse but has decided to radiate mainly in the 2 fingers on my right hand when I sleep. Before it was the whole hand/wrist area. When I wake up, I cant bend them at all until I massage them out a bit. Its odd. Appetite isnt as strong as it used to be, probably due to the lack of room in there. Braxton Hicks still coming daily, along with lots of movement. I am really enjoying all the kicks, rolls, punches, and jabs now. I havent used the doppler in quite some time as his movement has been giving me peace of mind. 

We did our maternity photos this past weekend. I must say I am really pleased we decided to do them after going back and forth about it for awhile. Im also happy I decided to wear the fancy lace gown I ordered online. I was starting to doubt whether or not I should wear it as the session got closer & closer. I just wasnt feeling so lovely in it. However hubby & mom talked me into it, and Im glad I listened. The dress was most awesome because of how it could be worn various ways…we changed it up throughout the session as a skirt, tube top, shorts, etc. 

I told our photographer that I think I did more physically at the shoot than I have my whole pregnancy! We did a sunset beach session and walking around in the sand totally kicked my butt! By the end of the hour, both hubby and I were in the water splashing around trying to wash off, while freezing our laughing butts off at the same time. It was a lot of fun! My favorite part had to be the sky towards the end of it…it literally looked like a rainbow. We all just stood in awe of it for our rainbow baby. We got a few pics as a sneek peak and we are so in love with them already! I cant wait to see them all! 

Whats next?

Our CPR class at the hospital, along with the car seat safety inspection we scheduled at the local police department. We also made a list for our hospital bags (thanks for all your help in my last post) and hope to get started packing in the next week or so! Mom & I have been washing away blankets & clothes this week, which makes it so much more real that he will be here soon. We are so excited! 

Hospital Bag

Id like to pack a hospital bag within the next month, and would love suggestions of what to bring from you all! So far, I have seen some of these items on different lists —

• Nightlight
• Rolling pin (seriously has anyone ever used one of these???)
• Essential oils/diffuser
• Stress ball 
• Nursing pads
• Breastpump
• Pillows
• Lip balm
• Circumcision receipt
• Stamp and baby book for footprints
• Sports bra 
• Music 
• Birth plan 
• Snacks 
• Coming home outfits
• Phone charger

Of course, items likely vary from vaginal to ceasarean delivery. We dont know which we will have yet, so please advise of both!  Ive also heard of having a separate his/her bag. Anyone do that? Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Diary of a Pregnant Woman, Vol. 5

I passed my 1 hour glucose test! One less thing to worry about! My iron levels are also in the appropriate range, along with the rest of my blood levels from my 28 week CBC. So happy to hear all of this! 

Other happenings-

• I have gained a total of 30 lbs. at just over 30 weeks, but not much in the last month. Talked with my OB and MFM about this and they assure me it is okay as long as baby boy is still growing as he should. Most of the 30 lbs. I packed on were on by week 20! Anyways, looks like Im on track to gain about 40 lbs. total. 
• I am snoring soooo bad at night. Oink, oink. Hubby actually had to leave the room for the first time as he could not get any rest last night. Not only am I snoring, but Im like choking on my snores and waking up panicked because Im having trouble breathing. It is scary! I brought it up at my appt today because I thought I might have some weird pregnancy sleep apnea (if that even exists?). The midwife seemed to brush it off though, told me to elevate myself more, & use nasal spray before bed. I will give the elevating a try in bed, if that doesnt work, looks like Ill be headed to the recliner to sleep soon. 
• Hubby & I have been keeping busy putting together all the stuff we were blessed with at the shower. We couldnt wait any longer to do it, we have been waiting for almost a decade now for all of this to happen! So, each day we assemble something different. Its so fun. So far we have configured the Baby Trend pack and play, Baby Trend bouncer, Fisher Price rock and play, Chicco stroller/carseat, & mamaRoo swing. We also filled the bookshelf with all the books we got at our shower. Everything fits perfectly in it. Next up is setting up the monitor we got! 

• Our maternity photos are this weekend at the beach! Im excited to get them done but also nervous. I hope I look okay in them, hubby told me to embrace it so I am going to try and do so…Belly out & all! My mom is coming along for the pics too. I will post some of them next week! 
• We only have 3 classes left at the hospital (2 more labor & delivery, and one CPR)…which means the homestretch of the pregnacy is upon us. In just 2 months, our rainbow will be here with us! 
• Can I tell you how much Cobra insurance sucks?? We had to dish out 2 months worth of it until I go on hubbys insurance in January. Please tell me how one can justify paying $600 a month for an individual just to maintain their current coverage?!? Joke. Like its not bad enough already that we get NO infertility coverage here in Florida. I guess the silver lining would be I have long ago met all out of pocket deductibles for the year so no more cash upfront other than the Cobra has to be dished out. 
• Hubby took off 2 weeks for baby’s arrival. Im looking forward to this time we will have together as a family of 3 (well, 5 if u count the furbabies) We hope to keep the amount of home visitors during this special time to a minimum. This isnt to say we dont want any visitors, we do, but we want the majority of our time at home to be spent learning the ropes and in all honesty, just taking it all in… If that makes sense.  Who knows if we will change our minds, but this is where we are right now with it. 
• We are already planning our first family trip! Sounds sort of crazy considering baby isnt even here yet, right?! When he is about 5 months old (early June 2017), we plan to head north for our nephews high school graduation. We are so excited to see all of our family & friends & show off our little Miracle to them! As of now, we think we will be driving and staying about 2 weeks, but Im sure that could easily change due to numerous factors. 
• I am proud of myself for getting all of our handwritten shower thank you notes done already! I just dropped them in the mail today. Can we say awesome for not even a 2 week turn around time?!? 

A Hurricane, Baby Shower, Growth Scan, & Day of Remembrance

Despite our fears of Hurricane Matthew ruining our baby shower, all turned out perfectly! We were so blessed to have just been missed (literally by about 30 miles) from the storm making landfall here in South Florida. Compared to Haiti, Northern Florida, & the Carolinas, we were spared majorly.  I think everyone here woke up feeling a sense of gratitude the day after the storm. 

This isnt to say Matthew didnt bring plenty of stress last week leading up to his arrival…we ended up having to board up our house with hurricane shutters, family and friends had to reschedule their flights in for the shower, gifts being delivered were delayed, doctor appointments, along with beauty ones all cancelled. I was quite emotional to say the least. I was most worried about keeping the baby safe, as I have never been in the direct path of a category 4 storm, only a 2 and a 3. Those were bad enough! Needless to say, lots of tears were shed. 

Hubby, the dogs, & I decided to ride out the storm at my moms house who was also all shuttered up. I wanted to be around as much family as possible God forbid something happen. I ended up staying up all night as the winds were just way too loud for any rest. Its a hard noise to describe if you havent been through a storm of magnitude before. Its definitely no ordinary thunderstorm! We were able to maintain power all night (thank God!) and had no damage to our area when we went out in the morning to assess the damage. Nothing like the storms that hit us back in 2004 that left so much damage and power outages for weeks. 

The location of our baby shower also kept power and thus, the shower was still on! And what a beautiful day it turned out to be, thanks to my mom, aunt, and cousin and all their hard work setting up. The cake was to die for (so hard to cut such an adorable dessert into pieces!) and the flowers just as I imagined. The food was delicious too! Guests had a choice between 3 entrees, all which we sampled prior. We ended up just shy of 30 people and were so spoiled by all the gifts! We got everything we wanted, even more importantly that we needed. Carseat, stroller, bathtub, changing pad, MamaRoo swing, pack and play, rock and play, Bumbo seat, play mat, monitor, diaper bag, Ergo 360 carrier, clothes, diapers, bottles, blankets, toys, books…need I go on?!? Im still in awe of how generous everyone was to us. Seriously. 

We also had our 30 week growth scan at the MFM this week and Miracle is almost 3 1/2 pounds! So exciting to hear. If he continues to grow at this rate, they say he will likely be about 7 lbs at birth. Perfect! My cervix is long (over 3.75) and closed. I was really (happily) surprised by this…I figured it would have shortened some by now but it hasnt. Baby boy is currently butt down, but has time to move into proper position still. I head back to my OB next week for routine stuff, but not back to the MFM for another ultrasound until Im 34 weeks. 

I dreamed of the day where our pregnancy would enter in the “30” week range. It brings a sense of comfort to me although there are still obstacles ahead. So far, we have made all of our goals since we found out we were pregnant-

1. Increasing betas
2. Heartbeat on ultrasound
3. Get past the furthest we ever made it in a previous pregnancy (10 wks)
4. Get through the first trimester
5. Feel the baby kick 
6. Have a good anatomy scan at 20 wks
7. Make it to first viability milestone at 24 wks
8. Make it to second viability milestone at 28 wks 

Focusing on these things helps me stay positive. We are about to approach one of our last goals of viability, 32 weeks. I thank God everyday for this blessing. I also pray everyday for everyone still struggling, especially this month as pregnancy and infant loss awareness is remembered and honored. 

Last year on October 15th, we lit 7 candles for all the babies we lost over the years. This year on October 15th, we will light 8 candles, one added for Isaac’s twin that we lost with my tube back in May. Will have to post more then…in the meantime sending love to all. 

Hello 3rd Trimester

Its hard to believe both October & the 3rd trimester are upon us! Less than 12 weeks to go now.

I had my 1 hour glucose test this morning. I actually did a 2 hr test back when we were trying to figure out the cause of my recurrent pregnancy loss, so I was prepared for how yucky it is. This time I didnt get a flavor choice (boo!) and got stuck with orange. I did lemon lime the first time and it was much better! The orange burned as I was chugging it down and gave me a slight headache accompained by minor nausea. 

The nurse drew my blood for this and also did a CBC, my results should be in within the week. The midwife measured my fundal height which was between 28-29 weeks, and I am 28 weeks + 3 days so that was all good. She also did the doppler and his heartbeat was as usual. We chatted about movement, which I have noticed just in the past week has picked up a lot. I dont find myself needing to count like I was because its pretty consistent throughout the days now. I am happy about this bc counting sort of drives me mad! 

We also discussed vaginal v. c-section birth. I explained my fears both ways, and told her I just want to do whatever is safest for my baby. She listened and offered some personal stories in regards to my concerns. Long story short, she told me to prep for a vaginal birth as long as he isnt breech, or too large.  Our first labor class starts tomorrow and I am anxious for it. They told us to bring a yoga mat and 2 pillows…hopefully we will gain some valuable knowledge from these sessions! 

In other news…all good things must come to an end. Let me explain. We had our fresh IVF cycle back in March 2014, in which 7 out of our 8 embryos were frozen at that time. Since that time, we have had 4 total transfers (1 fresh + 3 frozen). Thankfully all of our embies have been kept free of charge at our RE’s office. We havent paid storage on any of our frosties, which has been wonderful as storage fees can get pretty pricey. Well, as I said, all good things must come to an end! We got a call this week from the storage company informing us that we need to update our forms on file as they will be picking up our one & only embryo at our RE’s office. I must say I was a bit sad, I loved our embryo being right where I know it is, safe & sound. However, I realize this is protocol and we got away with it for over 2 years now. Time to cough up more cash…nothing new in the world of IVF. 

As Im sure many of you know, the embryo storage forms make you think of morbid things like death of one partner, death of both partners, divorce, etc. In the middle of filling out the forms, I burst into tears. Thanks pregnancy hormones! I told hubby in the case I should die, I want him to have ownership of our embryo. I suggested that should he ever marry again, he could (have the option to) transfer our embryo into his new wife. He looked at me in disbelief, and thats when I lost it. This may sound odd to some, but its how I feel. We also agreed on the same should he pass before we transfer again. And if we both die, we elected to donate our child. Sounds really weird typing that. We couldnt come to terms with disposal, and we didnt want to transfer ownership to anyone and have that on their shoulders either. We will pay storage quarterly, and then revisit transferring Uno December of next year. 

My OB appts are now every 2 weeks, not sure of the MFM frequency as of yet. I see them this week for a growth scan, and I want to bring up a few things like NSTs and biophysical profiles. I dont want to fall to the wayside because things have continued to look good. I want to make sure we stay on top of things, especially monitoring later on as this can help prevent stillbirth. 

My baby shower is this weekend!!! How insane. I am super excited about it, but also anxious at the same time. I cried yesterday to hubby about it, and he reassured me that I deserve this shower. My aunt is flying in today, and then others follow throughout the week. I feel like I have so much to do still (thank God for cleaning ladies) before the shower…stop by the flower shop, finalize games, get my wedding ring cleaned, eyebrows waxed, nails done, etc. Im sure it will all come together though. Will post an update of it all soon!