24 wk pictures

I have been slacking in the update department. First of all, here are my 24 wk belly shots. I am getting bigger......Don't mind the pj's.

I also have another good shot. At Dh's family Christmas there were 3 of us pregnant. His cousin's wife Robyn is due on March 21, me due on April 15, and Jenna his sister (my SIL) is due on may 30th:
It will very nice to have all of our kids so close in age.

the new black friday

Work was a zoo today! We were definitely busier than black Friday. I am glad it is over. Hopefully tomorrow won't be as busy. I am exhausted, does it ever end? The thought of having 3 days off next week excites me very much. Nothing new on the baby front. I go for my next appointment on January 4. I am hoping for a extremely uneventful appointment. I feel that I have had plenty of excitement in November and December to not need any of it this month. I am tired and rambling, so I am going to go to bed. I will write more tomorrow when I can actually form sentences that make sense and sound like an adult is writing them.

I am a bad blogger!!

First of all, my computer sucks. For those of you that use the reader, mine won't load. I have cleaned out my cache and cookies, and still nothing! Any other suggestions? So, I've barely been able to read updates, much less comment on other peoples blogs. We are still working on it. Work has been crazy. It's the holidays, I work retail, so this isn't a shock. But with the economy, it's even harder. And to make matters harder, I have a cold from hell. I have no air movement in my nose. I know it sounds gross, but I can't breathe. I constantly feel like I need to blow it, but nothing comes out, yet it's running. I am miserable!! I look like Rudolf, my nose is red and kind of scabby from tissue.

This morning I woke up to 9 inches of snow on the ground, yes folks 9 inches. And it is not supposed to stop until around noon, by then we will have around a foot. We were supposed to open this morning at 9 am, and the store is opening at noon instead. I have no idea how people are going to get to work much less to the malls. The roads are barely plowed. We are supposed to get another storm tomorrow night, and then again on Tuesday. Thank god we have a snow blower. As I write, the plows just went by and the pile at the end of my drive way is at least 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall. I am praying that my neighbors do a good deed for the day and plow or shovel me out, because that is not something I can do at this point. If not, I guess I won't be going to work until my Husband gets home and digs me out.

On the baby front, things haven't really changed. I am still having a lot of problems with my rib cage. My neighbor is a physical therapist, and she had been working on stretching them. It has helped dramatically, but the problem isn't something that is going to go away. Her main goal for me it to make it bearable, which for the most part is working. But I can't sit for extended periods of time. I am a little nervous because we have tickets for the Wisconsin/Texas game on Tuesday and I really want to go, but don't know if I will be able to get through it. I am fine when laying down or standing, it is just sitting that bothers me. I also feel him a lot more, and all over my abdomen. I was only feeling him in my lower abdomen in the beginning, and I also know that my uterus wasn't that long. Now, he is all over the place. I also feel him standing, sitting, laying, it really doesn't matter. Before, I was only feeling him if I was laying or sitting. I am still really tired, I am assuming the anemia is a big cause of that. And then you compound my cold and my job with that and that spells e-x-h-a-u-s-t-i-o-n!

We are getting ready to travel this weekend for some holiday celebrations. On Saturday night we head to my family's house to spend a few days. I will be working on Sunday and then that night we will celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family and my immediate family later that night. It is kind of weird to me to be celebrating before Christmas, but we will enjoy it. Then later on Monday we will head back home for a few days. On Christmas eve we will head up to Dh's parents house to spend the holidays with them. Both Dh and I have to work the day after Christmas, so unfortunately we won't be able to stay anywhere to long. We both dream about having "normal" 8-5 jobs someday, when we can actually enjoy the holidays!! Actually I thing it bothers him more than me. I grew up with parents that worked holidays, so I don't know any better, and my job is pretty cushy!!

I changed my background, yet again. I was getting some complaints that it was hard to read. So for those of you that don't use google reader and actually go to my page let me know if this is better. In case I don't get back on here before the festivities, I hope you all have a great and safe holiday. I know I have so much to be thankful this season!!!

finally some good news!!

I took the dreaded 3 hrs glucose test today. I got there around 8:30 this morning, already starving. I was trying to figure out how I was going to do this. I started fasting the night before around 7 pm. They took the first blood draw. Then I got to drink the famous sugar syrup. Now, the first time I did this, I got to take the orange flavored drink home and keep it in our refrigerator. All of the nurses and techs told me over and over how much better it is cold, and of coarse just easier to get down. So to my surprise, the tech goes into a cupboard and pulls out a clear, but warm drink. I instantly gave her the look of death. She asked me if there was something wrong-YES, I AM HERE, IT'S 8:30, IT'S MY DAY OFF, I AM HUNGRY, THIRSTY, DID I MENTION A LITTLE PREGNANT! But I nicely said no. She then told me start drinking and they would start the timer as soon as I was done. So I opened the glass container and started to drink. I also got up to go into the waiting room, but was stopped quickly. The Tech informed me I had to drink the whole thing in front of her. Okay, no big deal. The drink was so thick and was warmer than room temperature-I could have puked. The flavor of the day was lemon lime. Now, I would say that it tasted better than the orange, but it needed to be cold!!! And it didn't help that the tech stared at me as she tapped her pen against the table, and took a glance at the clock every few minutes. I finished as was sent into the waiting room. Now keep in mind my ribs and back hurt like hell after sitting for about 30 minutes. And I was told I could not walk around because that would speed up the digestion of the liquid. It SUCKED!! They took blood every hours for the next three hours. My left arm is shot! I look like a drug addict with needle tracks! I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there. Well I am glad it is over. But the best part of it is I passed all 4 blood draws, all of them were with in normal range!! YIPPEE!! But they did find that I am anemic, so I was put on a iron supplement. Can 't wait for that constipation!!! But hell, if that is the worst of it, so be it, bring on the hemorrhoids!!

perinatology appointment

Here is what I have for a update:

We met with the genetic counselor this morning at 10:30. The Choroid plexus cyst information I had was about half true. They don't really relate it to trisomy 21, down syndrome, they feel that there is not strong enough evidence to correlate the two. But they do relate it to trisomy 18, which is Edwards syndrome. If it was a isolated case, our chances are around 1/432, if it is not isolated than it would 1/92. The kidney problem is called hydronephrosis, which is fluid in the kidney. This problem is related to downs. Once again the normal range is between 1-4mm, we measured at 5mm on our last ultrasound. By 32 weeks the normal range is 5-10mm. With having a boy they didn't' seem quite as concerned about the slightly higher range. With what they found originally my chances were 1/510, with my age it dropped to 1/200. If they found other "markers" then my chances fell to 1/92. At this point my mind was a little over whelmed with numbers so basically if there were other markers for any of the above my chances were 1/92 if there were none they are 1/432. DO YOU HAVE ALL THAT??

We went into our u/s and she did the pictures she needed with my bladder full-let me tell you how unpleasant that was. In fact one of her first comments to me was "wow, your bladder is really full" NO SHIT!! That part took about 15 minutes. At one point she was scanning my lower belly and the baby kicked really hard. I jumped a mile! She asked me if I was okay, and I told her the baby kicked and I thought I was starting to pee my pants. Her and Dh got a pretty good laugh out of that, I on the other hand couldn't laugh or I would have pee'd my pants. After that I got to go to the bathroom. When I came back she scanned more structural parts, hands, feet, legs, etc. Both Dh and I had heard a lot about hands, so we kept looking for fists, which is not a good sign. She also spent a lot of time on the feet, which scared us to death. After all that fun was over, she switched to 4d and got a few good shots. Then we waited for the Doctor.

The doctor came in and reviewed the results. She looked at the the kidney's first. In her opinion, she didn't feel that it was anything to get to concerned about. Next the cyst. As she explained it is very small, only one, and really didn't seem to concerned about that either. What she really wanted to see is if there were other markers such as heart problems, hands, feet- and there were none. In fact she said the heart was beautiful-she couldn't have asked for it to be better. At this point we could breathe. As she stated, there is still a chance, but very small. Normally they want patient back in 2-4 wks and doesn't want to see us for 12 wks. So I don't go back until 32 wks, and that is just to double check everything. I was instructed to just try to enjoy my pregnancy and not to worry. So now we wait, and try to get back to truly enjoying this together. So I leave you with a few pictures:

I couldn't get this to rotate but it is 4d profile shot

This one is has the baby covering his face up, but you can clearly see the nose and lips

profile, normal u/s

This is the original u/s 2 weeks ago

can I just get 1 break

I FAILED the glucose test. You have to be below 139 and I scored a 141. So next week, I will be spending another day at the clinic for a 3 hr test. I have to show up at 8:30, get a blood draw, then drink and have my blood drawn ever hour, for three hours, afterward. I am thrilled let me tell you!! And this time I do have to fast for 12-14 hrs before hand, the only thing I am allowed is water. I think this will be the worst part of it because I am always hungry!

I also got more info on my u/s. The information that they gave me is a choroid plexus cyst which I described on the previous post. The other thing that was found is prominent bilateral renal pelvices. To my understanding this is enlarged kidneys. The normal range is up to 4mm, and the baby's were 5mm. So it is a slight enlargement, the info I can find it is more common in baby boys. There is not a lot of info out there about this that I can understand. It is supposedly another "soft marker" for downs, but I don't know what is true and what isn't' anymore. So much of the information out there is 10 years old, which doesn't reassure the accuracy since I have found a lot of conflicting information. My doctor this morning wasn't overly concerned. As she stated, she can't tell me not to worry because there is risks, but in most cases she has seen, it has turned out to be nothing. That is great news, but any mother would worry. She did go over the rest of the test results which all seemed to be normal. In fact we were in the 80th percentile or above in everything but leg size. The leg size was in the 50th percentile, which is still normal. That is all I know for now.

I wish I could say I am more at ease, but I am not. I do know there is nothing I can do until next week so it doesn't pay to work myself up. I am just trying to keep my mind busy. I just wish it was Monday already.

why me?

I know that I am not the only one that seems to have struggles in there lives, but I don't get why everything has to be so hard. Why do some people get to have children so easily and others have to try so hard.

On Monday, I received a phone call regarding the results of our ultrasound last week. I wasn't able to get a hold of anyone that day, so I finally got the results yesterday. Apparently the baby has a choroid plexus cyst on his brain. We are being refered to a perinatoligist for further testing and treatment. So far the only information I have about it is this:

The second trimester ultrasound examination (sonogram) will sometimes identify a cyst or cysts in the choroid plexus. The choroid plexus is a tissue in the brain that produces cerebrospinal fluid. Fluid-filled cysts, called choroid plexus cysts or CPCs, are identified by ultrasound in approximately 1-2% of all pregnancies scanned between 16 and 24 weeks gestation. In the majority of cases, CPCs disappear by the 28th week of pregnancy with no effect on the baby. However, a fetal CPC is considered a “marker”, indicating that the baby may have an increased risk for a chromosome abnormality. When observed as an isolated ultrasound finding in women under 35 years of age, the risk for trisomy 18 is increased, but remains low (less than 1%). The risk is higher for women age 35 or older. Additional abnormal ultrasound findings significantly increase the risk for trisomy 18 .

On Thursday, I go for my 20 week Dr's appointment. At this point we will get a little bit more information with what we are dealing with. I am not expecting them to be a big help because as we talked yesterday on the phone they weren't able to give me a lot of info. They more or less read literature that they had in front of them and told me I can ask the perinatologist more questions and they would be able to give me more answers. They warned me to stay away from the Internet, because there is to much information that will only upset me and make me worry more. In some sense I agree with that, but how can you expect a couple to wait a week before getting more information on their unborn child. I am extremely annoyed that it took them a full week to call me and give me this information, although I don't think I would have wanted it any earlier since I have to wait to see the perinatologist. We go see them next Monday. We meet in the morning with a genetic counselor for a hour then we will have a level 2 ultrasound, which is all done in 4D. They will do the same ultrasound they did last week, but they will be looking in more detail for abnormalities which would be markers for trisomy 18 and 21. At this point, if they find some abnormalities we will have the option of having a amnio or just waiting it out-boy aren't those great options.

Needless to say I am a mess, it is just one more thing for me to worry about. I went from being on cloud nine, to not wanting to even get out of bed. I am numb, I wanted to do some baby stuff yesterday-scrapbook, finish my registry, etc-and I couldn't bring myself to even think about it. I am just devastated. I know I have to stay positive and relax, but that is so hard to do. I am not a patient person, so the waiting game is going to kill me. Yesterday, I also took my first glucose test. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I was on a total sugar high and couldn't stop crying from the results of u/s, so I felt as though I was going to have a heart attack.

So I am asking anyone that reads this to please pray for us and our little one. I believe in the power of prayer and right now we need them. Also if you know anyone that has experienced this please comment or email me about your experience. I know this is fairly common (1/100) so there has to be others out there that have been through this. Thanks for your support!