Our new little boy :)

So we had the ultrasound this week to see if there were girl parts or boy parts. We had no true preference as there are pros and cons of each.

The pros and cons:

Girl pros: Would be fun to braid hair, buy dollies and cute little dresses and have one of each gender.
Girl cons: Would need whole new set of clothes, would eventually have to have her own room and we would have to figure out a sleeping arrangement where one kid wasn't on the same floor as us.

Boy pros: Been there, done that, have all the clothes and would not have to figure out an alternative sleeping arrangement.
Boy cons: We are done at two kiddos and so we wouldn't know what it was like to parent a girl and how much fun that could be.

Only one person who would venture a guess had actually guessed boy but many had hedged and said they didn't know or wouldn't guess.



This is our new little boy nugget. He looks so much like his brother did - but I guess the ultrasound pictures aren't very high resolution are they :)



(PROFILE)

Thankfully little nugget is growing as he should, is moving around and doing all of his normal things. They could see almost all the parts they needed to and it all looks normal. We will have one more ultrasound in a couple of weeks so they make sure they can see ALL the parts they need to. Then we may not have another ultrasound at all ;)

Oliver will have an awesome time playing with him and having a buddy to share his love of trains, animals, drums and Pet Sounds (the album by the Beach Boys - he asks for it by name and has favorite songs - "no not that one!")

They can share the same room until they are teenagers now which will be nice. They can also share clothes and toys and cribs and car seats, etc.

This little nugget is already kicking and reminds me to slow down or lean backward and take it easy. Could he possibly be more active than his brother?? I'm glad he will have a big brother to play with if that is the case!



(FOOT)


I will be woefully outnumbered by men in my house :) It is fun parenting this little boy so I am looking forward to the next one! Only 19 more weeks to go.....

Low Risk

Sorry for the delay in posting the next update. We had a round of blood and ultrasound testing the end of July to see if this little nugget has any increased risk of having Trisomy 18 or 21 (Down Syndrome). We met with the very lovely genetic counselor ahead of time who went through our family history.



What is reassuring is that there are so MANY health family members. To a genetic counselor that is great news. Things that run in families or tendencies towards problems tend to show up in large families.



My mom is the youngest of 7. My dad is the 2nd of 4. Tom's dad is somewhere in the middle of a large Catholic herd of 13 or 14. Only his mom is the only child. We have cousins upon cousins upon cousins and they have kids and so and so forth and there is no major issue that anyone has found.




My risk of having a baby with three copies of one of the above genes based only on my age is about 1:200.

After the blood testing, it is estimated at about 1:10,000!



This little nugget is certainly behaving him/herself. Thank goodness since mama is too busy to worry right now.

Today is week 15. Only 25 more weeks left to get the house, job and finances in order. A challenge?? Bring it on :)




The pictures above are nugget sticking tongue out, nugget's hand with 5 finger - he/she showed us both hands and feet and all fingers and toes, nugget's leg - very athletic looking :), nugget profile and a close up of his/her foot

Here come the crazy dreams......

So I normally have some pretty bizarro dreams, but when I am pregnant they really elevate to a new level.

The other night I had a dream that when nugget was born, they gave me a choice of whether I wanted it to have a regular mouth or a duckbill. Of course what mother in their right mind would want a regular old mouth when they could have a super cool duckbill on their newborn so I opted for that.

Breastfeeding a duckbilled child proved a little bit more of a challenge...... the dream then started to get super weird as I was back in Grants Pass and teachers from high school kept wafting through the dream, but I nevertheless wished I could have that regular-mouthed little newborn back :)

We have our meeting the perinatologists on Friday and will be doing some blood and ultrasound testing to see what our statistical risk of having a baby with some sort of birth defect is. Duck bills aside, this is a little bit more concerning as I am now maternally elderly.



We have no family history of any significant issues on either side but have had some very sweet friends who have had a baby with some problems that were not detected prior to being born prematurely. Their struggles to help their little sweetie be without pain and even to find a clear diagnosis has raised my appreciation for the one very happy healthy little boy that we have.

It has also made me wonder if I would be able to endure the mental and emotional toll of having a baby with special needs. Logically I know of course we would deal with that we needed to deal with, but I'm still putting all my positive thoughts that nugget is without significant issue - and certainly without duckbill! We're not those Duck Fans - Sheesh!

Nesting already???

So fatigue has plagued me for the last 4 weeks but now the last two days I have a slight spring in my step. I started last night by going through all the maternity clothes that I had left over and inherited from various sources. Cleaned out winter clothing. Cleared out several drawers. Set aside stuff for Goodwill. Cleaned up the closet. It was a very productive hour or two. Tom wisely stood back and watched. Oliver decided if I was piling clothes - nicely and folded on the futon that he should pile all of his things in one place and then put my nicely folded clothes on top. It was still fun and one thing crossed of my to do before February list already :)

Today after seeing patients this AM, Tom and I attacked our yard. He set about reclaiming our driveway and the road in front of our house from the ivy and I weeded. Now it looks much better and he is finishing mowing as I type! I am very happy to be more energetic and hope it holds out. Lots of hard work in the house, at my office and on our finances before this little nugget comes into the world!!

By the way, nothing more sexy than having your husband be happy about the cleanliness of your home - or helping you do the work to make it that way!

9 weeks have slipped by and only 31 until due date. Head down and go go go!

Surprise!

For those of you who are unaware, I started my own clinic in November 2010. I have been working 6-7 days per week fairly consistently since then at either my place or one of several other places to fill in the difference in income and keep up my mortgage. About April when stress levels were high, my husband and I decided to go to the coast for a weekend. I also decided that it would be a good time to finish with birth control pills. I had not had a real issue with them prior to my Oliver pregnancy but have found since then that I am more moody, stress affects me more and I have a decreased libido. NOT FUN!!!

We weighed the pros and cons. I actually fear having to do IVF again. Our embryos do not like petrie dishes. We do not need multiples and those eggs are getting older and older with each passing day making the chance of genetic defect higher and higher. It's a lot of time and money and stress over many many months! But a good try at natural conception is free and fun so what the hay!



End of April done with pills - I cannot even remember the exact date. I figured that it would take a few months to get back into the swing of things. Oliver was almost 2 so worst case scenario is that we got pregnant right away but even that was not a horrible thought. About two weeks after I stopped the pills, however, I had some buyer's remorse. The business is going well but I am still having to work a lot and I wasn't sure that this would be a good time to get pregnant. Again, I reminded myself how long it took to get pregnant with Oliver and figured that we had a long road ahead of us anyway.


I have been running since January and my running partner talked me into doing the Run Like a Mother 5K for Mother's Day. I have to admit I felt the best I have in a long time at the beginning of May. I had lost about 10 pounds from January, had energy and set a personal records at the run! Apart from my silly foot which would not let me train too many days a week, I felt really good.



We went to Grants Pass for my nephews' birthdays in mid May. My brother-in-law's sister who graduated high school with me told me about a dream she had where I was pregnant again. How did she even know we were trying? I actually had taken a pregnancy test a couple of days prior due to tender boobs but it was negative.

Hubby was enjoying his new off-hormones-and-now-much-more-frisky wife. "Stress relief" sessions hit an all time high. Life continued to be good. There was a day or two I remember having signs of ovulation. I even asked Tom to take measures to maybe avoid pregnancy but lost in the heat of the moment, we neglected to do anything. And I honestly didn't think much about it.

End of May now and training for a sprint triathalon with my sister. I had been increasing my swimming but right around Memorial Day had a bad swimming session. Felt like I was sucking in chlorine air. I called my sis and she was swimming much faster and easier. I figured I would continue and get better. Starting to tire more easily with running as well but I have a patient running partner.




Then June 2, 2011. Did a routine physical on a woman who had an IUD. Could not see her IUD strings. We were both worried about where they were. She had a negative pregnancy test but we sent her for ultrasound to make sure it was still there and the strings were just out of sight. I thought about the tender boobs, lack of energy when exercising and the latest sharp pains in the right lower abdomen when I stood up too fast (I had that with Oliver's pregnancy as well) and said well maybe it is time to check.

Sneaking into the bathroom at my office with a pregnancy test stuffed in my bra was pretty silly and I figured that it would be negative like all the other times I thought there may be a chance and it was negative. But um this time two little pink lines appeared on the test. Really? Really? At this high stress, not really trying, no hormones, literally 1st month off birth control pills, my previously infertile self was pregnant. I felt like calling up Blue Cross and telling them their denial of coverage for insurance due to infertility could now safely be put to rest.

Completely distracted for the rest of the afternoon - sorry patients! - I tried to focus on the tasks at hand until I could get home. I sneaked another test an hour or so later. Still positive - well DUH!

When I got home I told hubby. He was pretty surprised and happy but said the nicest thing about this was there was no pressure on a successful pregnancy. We had a beautiful little boy so if this was ectopic or ended in a misscarriage or had three eyes it would be horrible and sad but NOT like it was before when we were trying for the first.

I called my OB friend Laura and she scheduled for me to come in the next day and start having hormone levels checked. She figured it was early and so the first level would be close to the lowest needed to show positive on a pregnancy test (around 35). It came back at 463! Due to my history of ectopics, we checked again in 96 hours - it should have been roughly 4 times that - or 1882 but was instead around 2600. Checking again in 48 hours should have doubled to 5200 and it was 6300. "I wonder what the possible reasons for that could be?" she laughed as she told me.

So apart from twins and just normal variation between singleton pregnancies, the other possible causes are ovarian ectopic and hormone producing cancer. Too much knowledge is not a good thing in this case and I spent the next week googling all of those plus how to fit three carseats in a Ford Escape Hybrid.

Only a few people knew at this point, need to know basis only! I have learned that telling lots of people early although fun is not always a good idea. I would wait until there was a heartbeat and we knew that the pregnancy was in the uterus first. No point getting a whole bunch of people excited about something that wasn't going to work out. Mostly it was people who tried to feed me alcohol for my birthday who found out as they wondered why I wouldn't be having my favorite cocktail on my special day.

Ultrasound on Tom's birthday - June 14th. One beautiful gestational sac with yolk sac and small little embryo aged 5 weeks 5 days so just before the heart movement is visible on ultrasound. No twins. No horrible cancer. Just one little nugget. Wow! But still no heartbeat and that is a big deal to me. So we scheduled our next ultrasound and waited. And spent the next two weeks completely surrounded by our family and unable to tell them :)

June 28th, still one beautiful gestational sac, smaller yolk sac and bigger nugget with a heart beat of 158! Due date February 10, 2012 (Math wise it is a great due date! 2 + 10 = 12 - yes I am a nerd!)



Crazy! Now I get to eliminate my prejudice against "those people" who accidentally get pregnant or get pregnant the first month they try. It will be a good lesson and a good way to experience all sides of this strange experience called mommyhood.

Now the planning really begins. I have had a great pregnancy so far. Fatigue is my nemesis and I have to eat like a cow - small constant - to avoid nausea. I will have to work harder longer than I had hoped to make sure we can take a maternity leave. Thank goodness I got the short term disability in place and have an awesome PA who can see patients in my stead!

So here begins the second pregnancy!
I will update every so often as developments occur.

Tom is already training Oliver to say "Help daddy with baby!" and Oliver says he wants a "brosister" so hopefully we don't have a hermaphrodite ;)

Life is a constant challenge to keep up with that is for sure!

Wow how time flies - especially when you're busy making plans!

What a year this has been! Oliver will be one year old in a few short days! He has been such a joy to watch as he changed from a smiling little dude to an active toddler who waves and almost walks and plays peek a boo.



How can I summarize a year of experiences? I am SO HAPPY to have such a great husband who really has taken this job of being a daddy to a new level. It would make me jealous or sad that Oliver sometimes wants to go to dad when he gets upset if it weren't so darn cute to see how Tom loves his role as awesome daddy! How did I luck out to have two awesome guys in my life?



It has not been easy to spend so much time away from him and I think the lack of posts in the last few months is in no small part due to the next major development in our lives - I'm planning to open my own business in the fall about 4/10 of a mile from our house! Things are getting close to finalized and this will be by no means a reduction in my work. For the next few years, I will be working more hours and my patients will be taking a much bigger part of my life. However, in the grand plan, this will give me a chance to build something that allows me to have flexibility and passive not just active income. I may have the option to purchase the building I plan to lease which will even further increase the chance that I can become a smarter worker not just a hard worker ;)




And all of this is because of this little dude who smiles with a big toothy grin as soon as I walk in the door. He waves and smiles at strangers and friends alike. I love his late night and early morning snuggles when he buries his head in my chest (even if it means I get snots on my shirts). I am so excited for each new day that I get to spend with him. I am hopeful that changing some things in my life will allow me to be there for all of his important milestones. How can you look at this face and want to do anything but spend as much time and energy with him as possible?

Head bonking

So here is where I come clean about any IQ points my son may have lost over the last few weeks. He is a head bonker. He loves to explore and pull himself up to stand and sometimes, lately, that has meant his little precious head smacks with quite great force onto a hard surface if we are not within arm's length. He thinks his freedom is great. We hope his head is strong enough to make it and that mild concussions are not occurring daily. We are pretty convinced at this rate he will not be able to play football because the total damage his head has sustained by the time he is old enough may be too great.



Oh and did I mention that he loves Cheerios? Loves them! Can't get enough of them. And this allows us to eat dinner in peace. Until he choked on one the other day. He looked at me while we were eating our respective dinners and his mouth agape, I could almost see the stuck Cheerio. I asked him (as if he could answer me even if he weren't choking) "can you breathe?" He looked at me mouth agape as if to say, "um not really". In one calm sift move, he was out of his high chair and had several firm blows between the shoulder blade and not 5 seconds later that suspect Cheerio was lying partially soggy on his high chair tray. He made one little scream as if to say - that was a little bit scary and then smiled. I looked at Tom who had his cell phone in hand, staring at it and trying to figure out if 911 needed calling. Oliver immediately demanded more Cheerios and I obliged. The lesson I learned is that Oliver is not to eat Cheerios without supervision. The lesson Tom learned was that Oliver is not to eat Cheerios unless mom is home ;) Cheerios are henceforth to be known in these parts as Chokios.



And yet I worry about the most unlikely of fates for my child. I do not fear that he will chew through an electrical cord (he loves them by the way), choke on a Cheerio while we are not looking or bonk his head into oblivion. What I really worry about is what would happen if he fell down the stairs while I was carrying him and broke his neck or contracted some rare cancer or got caught in a fiery inferno car accident while I struggled to get to him. I do not worry about him falling out of the tub seat onto his head and knocking himself out (he did fall head first into the empty tub this AM, cried and then smiled). I can keep him from chewing on cords and the many gates and baby proofing devices we are erecting should help slow his pursuit to bang up and bruise his beautiful little face. I can certainly provide Heimlich and other choking cures. No what really worries me are the things over which I have no control, the really scary things that I cannot see and cannot prevent. So I try to find ways in my imagination to prevent, control and plan for them the best I can. And I remind myself that it is not up to me and I do not have control over what he does all of the time. I will try to let it go. After all, he seems to really be a happy, healthy and well adjusted kid. I wouldn't want to mess him up ;)