Some new pictures of Ryleigh

Once again I went to the doctors for my weekly tests. This week she was pleased with my blood sugar levels and told me that I no longer had to come in each week for the fasting glucose test... SWEET!

Of course I do still have to go in each week for an ultrasound to make sure there is enough amniotic fluid and a fetal non stress test.

This week Chris did not have to go into work until the afternoon so he went with me.

And this is what he did during my test.....

I guess I cant blame him, there is something relaxing about listening to a baby's heartbeat over and over and over again.

Ryleigh does not like to get her picture taken. She is head down and she was face down. We tried really hard to get her to turn her head but it was a no go. Maybe next week!!

However, she did show us quite clearly that she is still a girl.. WHEW!

And that she likes to have her hands up by her head. Gotta love the little fingers!

And that she has a big foot! I guess she is going to take after her daddy!


Other than that....

I lost another pound!! That makes less to lose after she is here!!
My blood pressure is good!!

And I go back again next week!!

Almost 33 week Doctors Appointment....

Whew long morning!!

My appointment this week was at 8:30am. I knew that they would do a fasting glucose on me and then I would see the doctor. I did get a nice surprise when I got in there and they drew the 1st sample of blood, they told me that I could stay or go out and get something to eat but that I needed to be back in the office by 10am. JACKPOT!! I was not confined like I thought I would be!

Well I guess I will take the good with the bad... OK not bad, just unexpected.

I go run some errands and enjoy an egg and cheese biscuit. It is kind of hard to enjoy the biscuit when I kept thinking... please let this not shoot my blood sugar up too much!

So, did some things I needed to do and was back to the office by 9:45. They called me back eventually. I went through all the normal stuff, got weighed (nothing gained), BP (120/70), they took my book where I record blood sugars (ick) and made a copy, then I headed into room 3. I waited for the nurse to come in for only a few minutes. She came in measured my big belly (measuring right on), listened to the heartbeat (beating at 148) and then looked through some paper work.

Here comes the unexpected... she told me that I needed to come in and have a fetal non-stress test done every week. hmmm Why?? She said it was protocol for gestational diabetes and that it should have been started at 30 weeks. Hmm, OK this is the 1st I have heard about this. I was told that they will hook me up to a monitor and then do an ultrasound to check amniotic fluid. One snag, no sonographer on Thursdays!!

So we go ahead and one of the ladies that works there takes me into a little room with a recliner, hooks me up to a monitor and then I ask how long I would be hooked up. She said probably about 30 minutes. WHAT! That's too long!! I told her that I needed to have blood drawn in 10 minutes (2 hours after I ate) and she said ok.

For the next 30 minutes or so I got to sit in a recliner, have the blood draw come to me, and have the doctor come to me. It was not so bad... quiet and relaxing!! I almost could have taken a nap!!

Doctor came in and said everything looked good. She was not worried about my sugar levels since I was still adjusting to the insulin (WHEW) and that I needed to come back for the ultrasound and another fasting blood sugar on Tuesday or Wednesday. Then she said I will do this every week!

Whew... get ready for some long appointments!!!

I think we all have a child that we can look at and say, "if you were the 1st, you would be an only child". Well I thought that I had that child already (love you Avery).... Nope..... this is THAT child!!

I have always joked that Avery was my challenge. Recently I have been joking how Kennedi makes Avery look like an angel. Now I am wondering what it will be like in 2 years.... will Kennedi look like the angel???

Ryleigh update.....

ahhh I cant wait until I can give these updates to a baby that is actually here!! But until I can I guess they are pregnancy updates.

A few weeks ago I talked about my gestational diabetes diagnosis (here it is). When I went back to the doctor last week she looked at my blood sugar levels and they were still pretty high, even after the diet they have me on. So of course what I dreaded was becoming reality and I was put on insulin. When I got to the appointment I had with the diabetes educator she went over everything on how to give myself a shot to the dosage. Whew its really not a low dose at all. But, I am doing as the doctor ordered and taking what they are telling me too.

The educator went over very thoroughly what to do if my levels got too low. So, when I got home I went over with the boys what they needed to do if my levels got to low. They were both good with it and time came to give myself the first shot.

Conner was home at the time and of course he asked if he could give it to me. Hmmm now why would my wonderful 15 year old son WANT to give me a shot?!?! I had to think about it, but, I let him do it anyway. I do admit that he surprised me, he did not hurl it into my arm like it was a dart (yes all scenarios went through my head). He did it nice and gently. I guess if he wanted to be a doctor he needs to get ready to do this stuff.... no wait, he wants to be a doctor so he will rarely need to do this.

I have learned that it is much easier to have the shot in my arm than in my leg. I will have to enlist Conner to help me more often since I cant reach the place in my arm.

OK anyway, so I have been on the insulin for about 2 days now and only once have my levels been in range. In fact, they are higher than they were without the insulin. Most of the time they are higher, I had a scare last night when I tested and it was a 72! It has never been that low. Of course that happened when I put Kennedi to bed, Chris was at work and the boys were at their dads. I called Chris a little freaking out about it and he told me what to do, I listened and when I tested a little while later it was only up to 77.

I guess this is going to be a long 8 weeks and a very up and down roller coaster!!!

Pregnancy update

I guess I will take a few minutes to update on the pregnancy as of the 29 week mark. Monday of last week I was at the doctors office for my routine 28 week appointment. You know the one where you get to drink the lovely tasting liquid and sit around for an hour waiting for them to draw blood for the glucose tolerance test (I wrote about this a few days ago)...

Well, I failed!!

On Wednesday I was back at the doctor's office drinking even more of the great tasting (sense the sarcasm?) liquid but this time I got to sit around for 3 hours while they drew blood four times. Lucky Chris was not able to go with me since he had to work. He does not like missing my doctors appointments but he did not seem too upset about not being able to sit around for 3 hours with me waiting.

Well, test results came back yesterday and once again... I failed!

This time only 2 out of the 4 tests were elevated but if two or more are raised they treat you as having gestational diabetes. Oh wonderful... bye bye Starbucks, bye bye ice cream, bye bye cookies.... at least for the next 11 weeks.

Maybe she will come early and I will only have to do this for the next 8 weeks or so... wouldn't that be great?!?!

Today I went to the diabetes counseling at the hospital and learned all about gestational diabetes. I also learned that this new way of eating is not going to be too bad. I would not want to do it forever but 11 weeks is nothing!!

So... I have followed the meal plans and eaten when I am supposed to and so far so good. I have to test two hours after every meal and the two times I have had to test I have been in range. Lets hope that continues.

I guess for now every time I want that cookie or that ice cream I will just think about how I birth almost 9 lb babies with out having gestational diabetes and will remember that if its not controlled this baby could be even bigger. That should put and end quickly to me wanting those sweets!!

sicknesses and failed tests.....

What a week, and it is only Tuesday!!!

Conner has bronchitis, Kennedi has an ear infection and I cant pass a darn test to save my life!!

At the moment, Avery is my normal child... wait, have I ever said that before?? Usually, Avery is my challenge or my tough one but right now he is my wonderful one! OK he is always wonderful, just like the others but he likes to throw some kinks in there. He keeps it interesting.

Now... back to the subject....

Many months ago I failed a test, the pregnancy test. OK so that is not really a fail but I was not thrilled about the idea of being pregnant again for the first few months.

Now I got the call that I failed another test....

Yup, that one hour glucose test. I failed! So... now what??

I get to go sit at the doctors for 3 hours tomorrow morning. I know you are jealous, that sounds so fun! To sit there, drink some horrible stuff and get poked with needles for 3 hours!

YAY!!

Whew, now I am used to test anxiety since I suffered from it in school. I think that test anxiety is even worse now knowing that the possibility is there and that I may have to give up some of my favorite things for the next 11 weeks.

Well, I guess we do what we gotta do and in the big picture 11 weeks is not that long but the test anxiety is definitely there!!

IT'S A(nother) GIRL!!!

Chris and I went to the 20 week ultrasound this morning and got lots of pictures of the new baby. I have not scanned them but wanted to get this one up!



We have known for a little while that it was going to be a girl but I wanted to be sure first. Chris could tell on one of the ultrasounds he did.

Everything looks great and we look forward to the new baby joining us in July. We do have a name, it is down to two spellings and we are just trying to figure out which one we like best! I asked the boys for their input thinking that we could go with the one they picked but they each like a different way.... so... still deciding!!

Is it a boy? Is it a girl??

I headed down to see Chris at work today and he had the ultrasound right there. Of course we had to take a look just to see what we could see. I have had a lot of anxiety about doctors appointments, ultrasounds and all that comes with pregnancy after losing a baby.

When we got in there I did not want to see the screen until Chris saw that things were Ok. It did not take him long to say, "there's the heartbeat"... WHEW!!!

So I looked. I could see the flicker of the heart and I could see it moving its legs and arms all around. I have not felt any movement at all so it was wonderful to see it.

Chris looked at the spinal cord and from what he could tell everything looked good. Of course he is not sonographer (if that is even a word which I do not think it is) in real life, he just plays one with my belly. Then he tried so hard to get a good look around the baby's legs. Why would the baby cooperate?!?! Hard headed??? Wonder where it gets that from?? (the answer is Chris of course)

So we stop for a few minutes and try again. BINGO! Chris is 75% sure of what he did or did not see. I would tell you all but I think we will hold off for a week or so when we can get an official word. I guess I will hold off on either buying more pink or starting over with blue.

But.... this morning we went to breakfast and look at how cute Kennedi was in her new Briar.Claire hat. Is she not just to cutest?!?! She loves it!!



Anyway... that is all for tonight.. I'm really tired and going to head off to bed to maybe or maybe not think of some baby names.

Here we go again!!!

Doesn't Kennedi look little in these pictures? Yes, for those of you that remember they were used once before (last May to be exact).




But it was so cute that we thought we should use them again. You know, since it did not work out well last time.

This time will be a whole lot better! We have made it farther than last time already. We went to the doctor today for our 12 week check and they heard a strong and steady heartbeat. Then the doctor let me know that after this point when they hear the heartbeat it is less than a 5% chance of miscarriage!

So we now proceed!

No it was not completely planned...but I guess things happen.

Yes we will find out what it is... when we can. Trust me, Avery would go crazy if we didn't. He is already very excited.

Yes I am hoping for a girl (just so it would be more convenient since we have all the girl stuff). But really just want a healthy baby of course.

As for Chris, he says it doesn't matter to him as long as it is healthy.

Being that I would like another girl, means that we will most likely have a little boy. That is perfectly fine too... but he may look funny in some of Kennedi's clothes.

Yes I have been sick.. but not near as bad a with Kennedi.

And the ETA for the last one will be ..... July 16, 2010.... NO BEACH FOR ME this summer.... WAAAHHHHHH

....and now Kennedi is sitting on my lap as i type, looking at her pictures above and signing "baby" like crazy. I do not think she realized those are of her!