38 weeks

This morning was my last doctor's appointment before our c/section on Sunday.  I am ready to have this baby!!  I had no weight gain this week (thank goodness) and my blood pressure is still great.  I am pretty huge these days and am hoping that this boy weighs more than Carter did (8 1/2 lbs) since I will be four days farther along when I deliver.  They did note on the ultrasound last week that I had a lot of amniotic fluid , so that is instant weight loss waiting to happen!  Yippee! 

I was feeling pretty good about myself until the past 24 hours.  Yesterday at lunch I had to switch from a booth to a table because I literally couldn't fit into the booth.  My belly was getting squished against the table.  Kind of humiliating, kind of funny.  Then today (also at lunch) a woman looked at me and said "Sooooo, obviously you're having twins, right?"  When I said "no" and gave her a look that dared her to say anything more, she tried to dig herself out of the hole by telling me that I didn't look pregnant from behind.  I was proud of myself for cracking a smile.  As Sean would tell you, that could have gone badly.  At this stage in the game, my politeness factor is sorely lacking.  Thankfully, we only have a few days left of useless contractions and getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night.  I am anxious to meet this little boy & bring him home to introduce him to Carter!

37 weeks

This morning was our 37 week OB visit and last ultrasound.  We found out that this little boy is now vertex!  He must have turned sometime in the last week.  We are still planning a c/s on the 22nd, the only difference now would be if I happened to go into labor before then we would see what happens...
They estimated his current weight to be 7lbs 11oz.  My amniotic fluid volume looks great & there is no cord around his neck.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a good pic of his face today so I don't have anything to post. 
Sean and Carter went with me to the appointment and then we went our for lunch afterwards.  I don't think Carter was too impressed by his little brother yet, but I'm sure that will change!  For those of you who are not on Facebook, I found out on Monday that Carter will not be able to come to the hospital to visit me due to our H1N1 visitor limitations that are hospital-wide.  I was holding out hope because our manager had been allowing the children of antepartum patients visit weekly for a couple of hours, so I thought maybe they would pull some strings for staff.  (Especially since Carter has had his seasonal flu vaccine & gets his H1N1 vaccine tomorrow.)  No such luck.  Absoulutely no visitors under age 18 allowed.  I am pretty disappointed and will probably try to at least go down to meet him in the parking garage while I am there.  But, he will have to wait to meet baby brother until we get home.  That should be interesting!
We have our last OB visit next week.  Yippee!  I am working this weekend and then possibly Friday the following week (keeping my fingers crossed that I get cost-contained that night!). 

36 weeks

My appointment this morning went well.  I was having a lot of contractions last night after my big night on the town, but they had died down by this morning.  Baby is still breech and we are on the books to deliver on November 22nd.  One of my good friends (and former preceptor), Julie, will be my nurse.  I am really excited about having her there on our little guy's birthday! 
We are now going for weekly appointments and will have an ultrasound next week.  Sean and I are looking forward to seeing our son one more time before he makes his grand entrance into the world.  In the meantime, I have a list of projects for Sean.  He has already tackled painting our living room.  It looks SO much better!  He did a great job.  I will post pics when I get the room put back together. 

34 weeks

Today was another uneventful OB visit. I am 34 1/2 weeks now & this little boy is still breech. My blood pressure was great today and baby's heartbeat is still good. I'll be going back in two weeks & then it will be weekly appointments until delivery at 39 weeks.
I have no major issues except that by the third night of work I am not a lot of fun to be around. By that point my back is already hurting at the beginning of the shift & you can no longer tell I have ankles. It's pretty awesome. I asked Sean if he could get a promotion or something so that I could quit working now & he just laughed. I took that as a "no". So--four more weekends of work for me. Let the countdown begin...

32 weeks

Today's visit was very uneventful. We are about 32 1/2 weeks and things continue to go smoothly for this pregnancy. I only gained 2 lbs in the past two weeks--yippee! Baby boy is still breech and his heart rate sounds good.
We feel so fortunate to be having an easy/healthy pregnancy and I keep trying to remind myself that it is a blessing I can still work...so many of the patients I work with would love to trade places with me. I will keep telling myself that at 3AM during my third night at work when all I can think of is putting my feet up and laying my head on a pillow!
We have less than 7 weeks to go now. Guess we'd better decide on this little boy's name!

30 weeks

I went to our 30 week OB visit this morning and everything looks great. Baby's heartbeat sounds good and my blood pressure was normal. The baby is still breech, which didn't surprise me since I have been feeling a lot of low kicks. Dr Johnson was encouraging me to take some time off before the baby comes to mentally prepare myself for being a mommy to TWO. However, I feel just the opposite...I think denial is the best way to deal with it. I know I have enough love for two little boys, just not sure where I will find the time to sleep! Oh well, I guess that's what Starbucks is for.
Our next appointment is in two weeks...stay tuned for updates.

28 weeks

Sean went with me for our 28-week OB visit this morning. Baby's heart rate is good and the ultrasound showed that his development is right on target! His estimated weight is 2 lbs, 14 oz., and is about a week ahead of my due date, but nothing to be concerned about. As I suspected, his head is measuring big (just like Carter's).

We also found out that this little guy is breech. Again, just like Carter was...I think Carter finally flipped at 32 or 34 weeks. My amniotic fluid level is good, so he should have plenty of room to turn around.

We will plan to do a repeat c-section at 39 weeks unless I go into labor (fingers crossed!) before then. Of course, if he stays breech the c-section will not be optional. (Although my OB did a beautiful breech delivery a few weeks ago. I think I'll pass!!!) Either way, hopefully we will all be eating Thanksgiving dinner at HOME! We got some great ultrasound pics today--enjoy!!!

Great profile pic! I think he looks just like his daddy & big brother! Look at those lips!

What a cute face!

Another face shot with his right hand (fingers) showing by his cheek/chin.

See the foot? It is upside down in the top middle, the heel is on the right with the toes pointing to the left.

Special thanks to my wonderful husband for scanning these pictures in for me. I know he would have rather been studying for the PE exam. Thanks, honey!

24-weeks!

We reached the 24 week milestone on Sunday and today was my 24-week OB appointment. Nothing too exciting, just lab work for my 1hr glucose tolerance test. I should find out on Monday if I "passed" or not. They also dopplered baby's heartbeat & everything sounded great! He was very active again but the PA had no problems finding him today. We have our next appointment scheduled for 28-weeks & I think we'll have another ultrasound at that point. Can't wait to see how much our little boy has grown! One of these days I will figure out how to post the ultrasound pics...hint, hint Sean!

It's a...

BOY!

We had our 20-week ultrasound this afternoon and found out we are having another boy! Carter is going to have a little brother and we couldn't be more excited. I'll admit that I was pretty surprised when they finally told us it was a boy (we had two docs and a new sonographer in the room...both the docs knew, but they were waiting for the sonographer to announce it & she wasn't as sure as they were. It seemed like forever before she finally said "boy"). Anyway, this whole pregnancy has felt different, so I was sure we were having a girl, but I am so happy to have another little boy. We love Carter so much & I think it is so much fun having a boy! Two boys are better than one, right?! Hopefully our two boys will grow up being best friends. Bring on the cars, trucks & trains!

Now that I know we already have everything we need for this little guy, I am going to get busy trying to find a double stroller...that's pretty much all we need! I've got to have an excuse to shop for something!

Oh, and by the way, everything checked out great with the baby. He is measuring right on-target and is developing just as he should. He was so active during the ultrasound that it was hard for the sonographer to follow him around. What a healthy little guy--we are so thankful!

16-week OB visit

Today we had our 16-week visit at Dr. Johnson's office. Sean couldn't come today, so I took Carter instead (much more work than taking Sean). We heard the baby's heartbeat & it was perfectly normal, but they had trouble finding it at first because the baby was so active (I had just eaten lunch). We could hear movement, so I wasn't worried at all, but we almost ended up in the ultrasound room to visualize the heartbeat instead. Finally, the third nurse that came in could hear the baby's heartbeat with the doppler.
They drew blood for routine lab work and we scheduled our next appointment for 20 weeks, that's the BIG one where we get to find out this baby's gender! I hope the baby decides to cooperate more on that visit!

12-Week Doctor's Appointment

This morning we had our 12-week appointment. There was a bit of a mix-up in that at my last appt, I thought the PA told me to schedule an ultrasound visit for 12 weeks, so I did. Today she said "Why are we doing an U/S today?" and I said "I have no idea!". She has a newborn and a toddler at home & I have been pretty spacy since this pregnancy started, so who knows what either one of us was thinking! In any event, she went ahead and did the ultrasound and we were able to see our tiny peanut move! Pretty amazing. I have a picture that I will try to post later, but it is not as clear as seeing it in real time. Everything checked out just fine and we will go back at 16 weeks.