Sunday, June 24, 2007

We have a name!

Our little girl will be named...

Stephanie Juliet !

We like the name Stephanie and Juliet is to honor my friend Julie. Stephanie Julie sounded a little funny and Juliet had a better flow to it, while still being able to honor Julie.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

It's a girl !




So in we went to the ultrasound. We have a girl, and the tech is quite convinced that there are no dangly bits hiding anywhere. This little girl was not shy about mooning us all, and rolling around to where the tech got a perfect view at all angles, and pointed them out to us, baby butt crack, baby legs, nothing between the legs. The tech even took a picture of the baby's bottom so we can see, it is a girl. LOL! The baby was awake during the scan so she was running around all over and we got a facial picture of her on the fly, with her hands curled up by her face. I will upload it. At one point, the baby laid her head on one of her opened hands and I said she looked jut like Steve! That's how he lays, when he sleeps--on his hand. The baby has a 3 vessel cord, as is normal, a 4 chambered heart, 2 kidneys, a full bladder and tummy, and has a cute little face.

We did some shopping, and we registered at BabiesRus. My mom was so excited to be there and see it, and go shopping and help me decide which item to "doot doot" next on the registry. It was odd to register, since this is baby number three, but my kids will be 7 and 11 when the baby is born, and I have no more baby things left.

Today my mom took Jonathan home for a three week visit, and so my little boy should be up in the air on his first flight ever, right now. Of course he is not so little anymore--he will be 11!
That's about it for me right now. Steve took Katie to her baseball game and I am having some quiet time, putting my sausage feet up to keep the swelling down.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Belly pic at 20 weeks


So here I am at 20 weeks. I was waiting at the airport for my mom's plane to land--she s here visiting for a week. Ignore how wrinkly the shirt is, ok?
People have been asking me if I think it is twins, because of the two-heartbeat thing? I am of two minds. Either it is twins because sometimes I feel movement in two places at one time, and I hear two distinct heartbeats in two separate areas of my belly--far right, and low left, OR I am feeling gas and am too stupid to tell the difference between gas and movement, and the doppler is just really sensitive and is picking up an echo of the same heartbeat.
Who knows? We will find out on Friday! Whether it is one baby or if we are doubly blessed, I will still be thrilled with one healthy child of either gender. After 5 losses, I'm happy to be pregnant at all. Even with my sausage feet! A second baby would be the best bonus though!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

It was just a joke! Now it's not funny anymore!

OK I need a swift slap of reality.

I started teasing Steve that we were having twins, saying my morning sickness should have let up by now, and when his mom had twins, she said she was so sick, for so long. I also got a flier in the mail from a local car dealership that said, "we will buy your vehicle, if you buy one of ours." I told Steve to go trade in our sedan for a minivan, since we were going to have twins. Ha ha ha, right?

Then I had a dream that I carried to 38 weeks, and I was excited--that's a nice time to deliver! In my dream I was able to see that the baby was a girl, and weighed 5 pounds, 5 ounces. I thought it was odd that I carried the baby later than my other 2 pregnancies, yet the baby was smaller, and the dream kind of hit "rewind" to my big ultrasound (which hasn't taken place yet). There we were--me on the table, Steve, my kids & my mom, and the screen shows *two* babies. Cue shouts of disbelief and happiness! What a nice surprise! What a big shock!

Then the dream hits "fast-forward" back to my delivery, where it showed me the baby girl and her small-for-a-singleton-but-nice-for-a-twin birthweight. I woke up before being allowed to see the gender of the second baby.

I woke up and told Steve that if my dream was right, I would carry until 38 weeks. I held back the other information for a while but it eventually came out. He is less amused by the joke now, and is afraid of my dream.

So we have a doppler lent to us by a friend. I listen every day to the baby's heartbeat. The baby's heartbeat was between 150 and 160 when we first started listening, but lately it is 155 or so, and then the baby will swim away and when we find the heartbeat again, it is 140. What?

The other night we were listening and I would have sworn I felt the baby kicking on the opposite side of my belly where we were hearing the heartbeat. The baby is not long enough to do that yet. I started laughing and teased Steve more.

So tonight I was listening and Steve was snoozing. I heard the heartbeat on the bottom right as usual. Then I put the wand on the right side of my belly and what? was? that? It *must* have been an echo, right? Not a second heartbeat, right? I repeat this scenario a few times and I am starting to get the willies. So I just go back to the bottom right, and listen to that sweet sound. I felt movement on the left, moving toward the right. Then I thought I heard another heartbeat, and I felt a flurry of movement. The heartbeat would come in and fade out, over and over, and it was all over the place, anywhere between 138 and 158.

That is when I woke Steve up, and said, "OK, you are the voice of reason. You tell me the *second* heartbeat is just the baby moving around fast. And if I hear it in two spots again, you tell me I am just hearing an echo."

So I listen in the one spot for awhile, and the *second* heartbeat returns. I poke Steve to make sure he is hearing this. My heartbeat (when I pass over a blood vessel of mine) is a slow whooosh, whooosh, whooosh, about 80 BPM. The baby's heartbeat is woo-woo-woo, and when the *second* one came around it made it go from the normal woo-woo-woo to a new sound: too-too, too-too, too-too, too-too.

Steve was wide awake and with eyes narrowed, told me to turn off the doppler. It must need a new battery or something. I kinda laughed. Now he is asleep. I had a shower to wash off the goo and now I am kind of freaking out.

This was a joke! My HCG was never significantly high, but what can we tell from numbers? My progesterone was so low but I still got pregnant. My Beta didn't double properly but I still stayed pregnant. I've got a fighter in there but is it really possible that I have 2 fighters???

My SIL previously claimed that she had an ultrasound where the doctor said it was one baby, a boy. Turns out it was 2 babies, both girls, and the second baby had been hiding behind the first, except for a limb had been sticking up just a little to resemble a penis, and for the OB to proclaim it one boy. Now I take everything she says with a grain of salt, and lord knows I don't want to be like her, but is this really common?

I know all I can do is wait until my ultrasound in two weeks. I would feel doubly blessed with twins, but for right now, I am just saying to myself that I am a nutter, and it is an echo that I am hearing, and the baby is just moving around too much and is confusing the doppler, and it needs a new battery, and my numbers would have been higher, and I have had three ultrasounds already and surely the tech would have seen something, and that babies don't really hide behind one another. Run-on sentence, I know. Any opinions?

Side note--If you leave a reply, it will not show up right away--I have the blog set to where the comments come to my email and I have to click "Publish." This keeps the spambots and advertisements for Viagra and home loans at bay. Just so you know.

Jenn, who loves feeling the stronger movements coming from her belly!

Saturday, June 09, 2007

My appointment

So I had my appointment on Thursday, just a routine one. I went in, asked what was ok to take in terms of allergies & sinus pain, but other than that I have no complaints. I have felt the baby move & so has Steve and we can listen to the heartbeat anytime we want. I am happy. I told the doctor that our doppler has a digital display to tell BPM and he is jealous, LOL!

So it is "see you in a month" for another routine appointment with him. But I go to the ultrasound department for my bug u/s which is on the 22nd. It is weird to go to another area of the clinic and have an u/s done, because when I had Jonathan & Katie, the doctors did it themselves. Now it is "go and schedule your appointment, and then the tech will send me the results." Whatever, it is just down a few stairs.

My mom is here next week and she will be here for the big u/s and I am so hopeful that we find out what it is. Please, baby, be cooperative!

Well that's about it. I guess I should get some sleep (or try to) so i can clean the house tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

A busy few days

Yesterday Steve felt the baby move! We had to kinda squash the baby into one half of my stomach and then wait, but pretty soon the baby protested and did a big somersault tryihg to move around more! So funny!

Then today I got the doppler in the mail and used it right away! I heard the baby's heartbeat! I called everyone so they could hear, too! Then when Steve got home, we used the doppler again and found the heartbeat but the baby was awake and moving around and I had to chase him around! The baby kept kicking the wand part and it would make a "bloop" noise, and the heartbeat would fade, and the chase was on to find it again! It stayed steady between 150 and 160 BPM, both times.

This afternoon, I took the doppler outside and with a little glob of goo, I let all the neighborhood kids listen to their own hearts and they were amazed.

I have a routine OB appointment on Thursday. My big ultrasound where we will hopefully find out the gender is later this month. Whee!