Tuesday, September 20, 2005

27 weeks



I had my most recent OB appointment last Thursday (9/15). All my vitals were good and I've gained a total of 21 lbs so far. I also had the 1-hour glucose test, which wasn't too bad. I had to drink a sugary liquid and then have blood drawn 1 hour later. I was supposed to be able to choose between a lemon-lime or orange flavored drink, but never got the choice. I was handed the lemon-lime and told, "Here you go!" It actually tasted pretty good; it was a lot like Sprite and didn't even taste flat.

On Friday, I got a phone call from the doctor's office with the results of my blood test. First of all, I have low iron, so am now on a supplement called Icar-C. Second of all, I have to go back for the 3-hour glucose test tomorrow (Wed., 9/21). I don't expect it to be too bad...just long and I'll be starving since I can't eat anything after midnight tonight. I just really hope that I don't have Gestational Diabetes...for mine and Christopher's sakes!

Christopher's movements are now getting a bit stronger! Over the last couple of days, it can get a bit uncomfortable when he moves as he's leaving elbows/knees/whatever poking into my stomach! It wouldn't be so bad if he'd just move on, but he stays in that one spot for a little while or until I make him move. It feels a lot like a muscle that's cramping up. Shad finally got to feel the movement again last night for the first time in a few weeks. Any time he would try, the baby either wasn't moving to begin with or he quit moving just as Shad tried to feel. Shad still says it weirds him out. I asked him how he's going to react when we see a hand or footprint on my stomach! He said that it'll probably weird him out even more!

I finally started working a little bit on cleaning out the nursery, but haven't accomplished too much. I worked for 2 hours one evening and filled a 55-gallon trash bag to the top! It's taken us 2 trash pickups to completely empty the bag, so now I can finally get going again. By looking at the room now, though, it looks worse than before I began! I need to start making some progress soon, though, or the guy who will be helping us won't have time to paint and decorate the nursery.

A couple of weekends ago, we started working on the dresser that will go in the nursery. We stripped, sanded and primed it, but decided to leave the painting for another day. We're planning to wait until the paint is decided for the nursery first. I'm thinking that I want a blue jean shade of blue since my theme is Blue Jean Teddy, but will wait for the opinion of the professional. We still need to prime and paint my old study desk that will be converted into a changing table, too. Ahhhh...so many things left to do and the end is approaching ever so quickly!

The Fall co-ed softball league has begun again. Just like last year, Shad is a sub for when they don't have enough male players. They could really use me as a sub for when/if any of the women aren't there, but under the circumstances, I'll have to sit out this season. I've already told Shad that if it's AT ALL possible, I'm playing in the Spring! I'm sacrificing playing in the Fall, so he may have to sacrifice playing in the Spring. I guess we'll see when that time comes.

Between get-togethers and UT football, it looks like we'll be keeping pretty busy for the next several weekends. This weekend is Shad's 10-year high school reunion, so we'll be attending a cookout on Friday night with one of his old classmates and then the reunion on Saturday night. It'll be interesting seeing some of these people that he's spoken about. We'll be spending one night away from home, which will be a nice getaway for me since it'll probably be my last for a while.

I almost forgot to mention that we've had our friend's 2 Samoyeds for almost 3 weeks now (in addition to all his stuff in our garage!). Let me just say that THIS is why I don't want big dogs! One of them (Honey) is the mother and is a couple years old; she's the good one! The other one (Fluffy) is the 8 month old puppy of the first. It's the puppy who's digging holes in our backyard, taking things off the patio into the yard and then demolishing them, and completely shredding any stuffed toys our neighbor is so graciously giving them (thus leaving white stuffing ALL OVER our backyard). I wouldn't mind having just Honey, but put the two of them together and they LOVE to BARK...especially in the middle of the night. I'm surprised the neighbors haven't said anything yet! Poor Brinkley has decided that the dogs have overstayed their welcome, too. The first couple of times he was around them, he did just fine and played hard with them. Lately, though, he basically ignores them except when they're in his face. Then, he growls at them. Now, I LOVE dogs, but these are just getting on my last nerve! Pregnancy is NOT the time to have new dogs around! Our friend is supposed to close on his new house this week, though, so hopefully the dogs won't be staying much longer.

Well, that's about all around here. I'll post again once I find out the results of my 3-hour glucose test.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

25 weeks

Today officially starts my 25th week...only 15 more weeks to go! Christopher has his active and not very active days. On Sunday morning in church, he was squirming around quite a bit. I informed Shad who was then able to put his hand on my stomach and feel for a while. He seemed very excited and ready to brag!

Our Labor Day weekend was pretty busy. On Saturday, we went to Knoxville to watch the Vols play University of Alabama at Birmingham. It wasn't a very pretty game, but we won. I did enjoy it, but I'm definitely glad it's my only game for this year! Unless I can be airlifted into my seat, I'll watch the rest of them on the big screen with my dad or at home. I was so worn out that I was still recuperating on Monday!

After the game, while in Knoxville, my dad and Patti joined us for dinner. Patti had been yardsaling and wanted to give me a small box of stuff that included a bunch of baby clothes ranging in size from birth to 9 months, 2 pairs of baby shoes (1 for walking and 1 for before he starts walking), some cloth diapers to use as spit-up rags, 1 maternity shirt, 1 maternity blouse and a pregnancy pillow wedge. I couldn't help but ooh and aah over the baby clothes and shoes! They're SO cute! I can't wait until Christopher comes just so he can wear everything!

My father-in-law, Richard, has offered to have a friend of his who is an interior decorator come over and help us with our nursery. I am so excited about having some help! However, he can't start until we clean out the junk, so I guess I now have even more motivation to begin that not-so-fun task! I'm hoping to start a little bit at a time each evening this week. The majority of items will probably just get tossed in the trash, but there will still be plenty to keep. All of that will be moved into our garage closet. Unfortunately, DH agreed to let a friend keep his stuff in our garage for a week or two. I'm just hoping that we won't need the garage as overflow space of our own! I have some "before" pictures of the soon-to-be nursery. After we're finished with it, I'll have to post both the "before" and the "after" pictures just so everyone can see the major difference!

A friend in our Sunday School class had her baby on Saturday. The baby weighed OVER 9 lbs! Last we heard, she was in NICU because of a breathing problem and a bacteria infection. She could be there anywhere from 7-21 days. Please keep the mother, father and baby in your thoughts and prayers; they're names are Neal and Jennifer and the baby's name is Briley Rae.

How 'bout those gas prices! In my town, I saw them as high as $3.29! Thankfully, they're coming back down again and are around $2.99 today. That 3 hour trip to Knoxville sure didn't help the pocketbook! Plus, I had to drive 1 hour each way to drop Brinkley off at my mom's who dog-sat for us while we were out of town. Ouch! I have NO plans to drive very far again...at least for a couple more weeks anyway! Shad's 10 year high school reunion is September 24, so we'll have to drive about 1.5 hours to get there. The next UT home game isn't until October 1 and then they'll be more frequent after that.

Well, I think Christopher's using my bladder as a trampoline and my gut as a punching bag, so I'll end here. I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend!

Thursday, September 01, 2005

24 weeks 2 days - Definitely Movement!

Well, it's definitely movement! Christopher sure has been squirming around a lot and kicking up a storm over the last couple of weeks! Thankfully, it's not bothersome yet. Also, he doesn't seem to be too active at night, either. Shad's been able to put his hand on my stomach and feel the movement a few different times already. I'm so glad the baby isn't playing shy when Shad wants to participate! I made a comment to him the other night as we were going to bed about how active the baby had been that day. He put his hand on my stomach and right away was a HUGE kick! Shad's eyes got really big and he asked, "Was that it?" After keeping his hand on my stomach a few more minutes, he was able to feel a lot of different kicks and punches. As we were turning out the light, he confessed that feeling it kinda freaked him out. He said it reminded him of the movie "Alien" where the alien was coming out of the woman's stomach! I found that TOO funny!!!

I had my most recent OB appointment back on Monday, August 22 (22 wks 6 days) with the Nurse Practitioner. Everything went well. I had my blood pressure taken (102/50), weight checked (9 lb gain from last visit...net gain of 16 lbs), Christopher's heart rate checked (approximately 135 bpm), and my stomach measured for the first time (right on track @ 23 cm).

I'd had a very minor itching rash for a couple of weeks, so decided to mention it at my appointment. I was referred to a dermatologist, which I saw on Thursday, August 25. I was diagnosed with Pityriasis Rosea. I was told that it is not pregnancy-related, although I'm convinced it is since the doctor said it depends on your immune system whether or not you get it. My immune system has always been fine, so I figure that being pregnant must have lowered it. I was also told that the rash would go away on its own in 6-8 weeks and was given a prescription for an anti-itch cream. I've only had to use the cream once and now all the spots are going away with no new ones appearing. I'm glad this turned out to be nothing major!

Well, football season is upon us once again! Shad, his dad and I have season tickets for the UT Vols! Unfortunately, I'm probably only going to be able to attend the first game, which is this Saturday (Sept. 3). The next home game isn't until Oct. 1 and I figure it'll be a lot harder for me to make it through the day and the possible heat by that point. This week's game is against University of Alabama at Birmingham.

My next appointment is Thursday, September 15 @ 11:30 am. It'll be the usual routine with the addition of the Glucose Test. I'll also need to get the RhoGam shot, but will have to wait until my 28th week.

Symptoms: Besides FINALLY feeling the baby move, nothing else is new. I've had the occasional heartburn and will occasionally have a heartier appetite. Neither are always consistent though.