Out of the 'Danger' Zone

Great news!  Another successful perinatal appointment is behind us.  We are only down to 2 left, yippee!  And the last one really isn’t even a necessary one as it’s literally the day before I deliver but I think she just wants to see me and wish me well since she’s gotten to know us at these appointments.  These appointments are pricey so if it wasn’t for the fact that we will already be hitting our insurance out of pocket max for the year, I’d probably say, ya, I don’t need a ‘farewell’ appointment.  BUT… my perinatal doctor has been awesome and I really feel like she is part of this journey with us so it only seems right that we have a ‘farewell’ appointment.

Baby C’s growth is still a week ahead of schedule, weighing in at 4 lbs 2 oz.  We made it thru weeks 29-32, otherwise known as the danger zone.  My doctor said that she really expected that something would have popped up by now if a problem was tied to my elevated AFP.  So it’s looking really, really good that this baby will be born just as healthy as our little Annie is.

Of course, I still keep my optimism in check, as I know that with Annie, my preeclampsia didn’t start showing signs until around 32 weeks but good news is my blood pressure has been really good so far.  And also my non-stress testing will begin weekly starting next week so those results could always change the course of things but right now, I have no reason to believe that things won’t continue going well.

   

I still daydream and cannot wait for the day when I’m sitting at home, watching my 2 healthy girls playing, I’m back to feeling ‘normal’ and life just feels as if everything shook out exactly as it should have to God’s great plan.  When we are on the other side of all of this that will be the day!  I can’t wait for that moment when I can sit back and smile and say we made it.

Although I went into this appointment again with lots of confidence, I always leave feeling humbled and overjoyed that God has really been good to us thru all of this.  Never once have we even been given a slightest bump in the road in these perinatal appointments where they are like you know what something small looks just a tid bit off, we better just do an extra look to be sure.  We’ve NEVER had one of those, each perinatal appointment we leave with full confidence that everything looks great and there have been ZERO signs otherwise.  This baby is in good hands, His hands.  I joked with Aaron on the way home that this baby is already fighting for attention over her sister.  Little Baby C just wants to be known, she wanted us to get to see her sweet little face more often and for her Mama and Dada to have a lot more breakfast dates before doctor appointments.  Thank you Baby C… but really, you are costing us a fortune with all your extra appointments but your health is certainly priceless to us.  We will do anything for you and are, whatever it takes!  So you certainly have our full attention little girl. 8 more weeks until we get to see your precious little face enter this world! 

Babymoon 2016

After scheduling my last perinatal appointment purposefully before our Babymoon to ensure everything looked good pregnancy-wise, we headed out that Wednesday to Chicago to enjoy some down time for just Aaron and I to relax in our favorite city.  Aaron was heading to Chicago for his annual work conference so it worked out well that I tagged along and extended the trip thru the weekend while Annie got to enjoy some time with her Grandparents.

 

Wednesday was a long travel day; we dropped Annie off in Waterloo, got her all settled in and then continue our trip to Chicago from there, so we didn’t end up arriving to our hotel until 8:30 pm.  We stayed at Hotel Felix, where we stayed last time.  This hotel is great, it’s situated perfectly on the northern end and a few blocks off from Michigan Ave, which is the better end in my opinion for shopping and dining.  It has self-park right across the street (aka saving a net of $15/night in valet parking), it’s clean and has a nice restaurant/bar access attached.   The rooms aren’t huge but they are big enough.  And the best part this time around was the super deal I got.  I had Expedia points I cashed in that gave me a credit and since this hotel is VIP status with Expedia, it doubled my credit!  That is right my friends, 3 nights in PRIME location downtown Chicago for $37 for our entire stay!!  My saving strategies are outta this world, I kept reminding Aaron to praise me for this savings and he kept reminding me that I’d likely just offset it in my shopping.  

Price breakdown: Room price: $322.59/ 3 nights

19,991 Points Used: -$285.68

Total trip after taxes: $36.91

I thought the 'do not disturb' signs were comical 

Nice touch Hotel Felix!  This was a really nice complementary leather luggage tag and truffles sitting on the bed when we arrived and a free drink ticket that went unfortunately unused. 

Wednesday night we headed off to Eataly, which fun fact, Mario Batali co-owns.  This place is really neat, its 2 stories made up of restaurants, markets and food/beverage counters.  Tons of dry pastas, sauces, wines, cheese/meat counters, fresh fish, coffees, a bakery, drip coffee/espresso bars, wine tasting counters, Nutella custom order crepe station (what!?!), chocolates, etc!  This place is packed with so much goodness everywhere!  The original plan was to eat at La Pizza La Pasta but we kinda screwed up and ended up eating at some counter that we thought was La Pizza La Pasta but then found later wasn’t.  Which was a bummer because I ended up with deep fried pizza, which isn’t my thing at all instead of La Pizza La Pasta’s fire grilled oven pizza, which is my jam.  But anyways, we got fresh made mozzarella and then a sun dried tomato dip that I did not like at all and wasn’t sure what was in it that I despised so much until Aaron figured out it was mashed up green olives, gag! I hate green olives! 

I wanted a Nutella crepe pretty badly but I was so incredibly full that the intent was to come back later in the trip but never did.  We took 2 different kinds of tiramisu back to the hotel, one in which was amazing and the hazelnut tiramisu not so much, the cake part was dry and I’m wondering if it was because we got the gluten-free version, which has a tendency to be drier than I like.  Aaron got coffee and wine, which I was envious because I had already had my allowed allotment of daily caffeine while pregnant and of course I’m not drinking wine.  The walk to/from Eataly wasn’t far from the hotel, but it was FRIGID!  It was frigid all weekend in fact, the coldest it’s ever been in the years we’ve gone to Chicago.  I forced my coat to zip and was not in the business of looking ‘city cute’ but rather staying as warm as possible all weekend.

Ugg!  Unpasteurized cheese is a no-no in pregnancy, I wish I could have tried them all!

Waiting for our food

Mozzarella and sun dried tomato dip with the those gross green olives in it

Touche!

Fresh dry pasta counter

Deep fat fried pizza 

The bakery

Thursday we headed over to the Disney store, I really wanted to get Annie something since she is super obsessed with Minnie and Mickey and having the mom guilt already, I had to get Baby C a t-shirt even though she does not need any clothes whatsoever, I can’t hardly buy a gift for one kid and not the other even if she isn’t born yet.

Annie would have had a hay day in this Disney store!

After that, I lured Aaron into Tiffany’s.  I only intended on looking but ended up walking out with my Mother’s Day gift and a Push Present (er..birth present), now that was a good start to the day I must say! 

We headed over to Gino’s East for our favorite pizza spot then Aaron had to head back and get ready for his work conference.  I did a little more shopping but the best part of my day was the 2 hours I had pre-booked at a spa.  A much needed prenatal massage and facial, I left feeling more refreshed than I had in months!  And was a good way to get out of the bitter cold.  I finished up shopping at all the places I knew Aaron wouldn’t want to go, which I honestly didn’t have a lot of shopping to even do.  I didn’t need more maternity clothes, I’m not buying any post maternity clothes at this time, Annie has so many clothes she doesn’t even wear half of them and baby C gets to acquire all her clothes in which I’m running out of room to even put those!  Now shoes is another story J.  Annie is so rough with her shoes that I think we are good on shoes for Baby C until we hit that 6 month size, Annie’s shoes are a little rough for hand me downs from that size on but hate to start buying 6+ month shoes this early not knowing how quickly Baby C’s feet may grow.  So... I bought myself a scarf and that was the extent of my weekend shopping for myself. 

Spinach and artichoke dip is the best at Gino's East

Given that we had pizza for lunch, I need to keep my diet in check with my pregnancy so I headed over to a restaurant called Wildfire Steaks Chops & Seafood for a protein packed grilled chicken entrée and it was the best dang chicken I had in a long while!  Aaron had a work dinner with his clients after his conference so it was just dinner for one that night, which I enjoy days to myself like that occasionally.

Wildfire Steaks Chops & Seafood 

Friday we headed over to Meli Café for breakfast.  I ordered blueberry pancakes, which were tasty as my cheat meal for the day but regretted it, I have been having protein heavy breakfasts for the last few months and carbs for breakfast was not a good start for me.   Aaron on the other hand had the mushroom swiss spinach egg breakfast bowl, which was the better choice.

Meli Cafe

Meli Cafe

After breakfast, we both wanted to get our nails done.  Yes, my husband enjoys a good mani/pedi from time to time.  SpaO was right down the street and we had scoped it out the day prior.  I chose to do the manicure/pedicure with the 15 minute add-on massage and Aaron did the mani/pedi with the hour men facial add-on.  They did a really good job!  My 15 minute massage was amazing and Aaron kept admiring how great his pores looked, ha!  I personally don’t like having a spa day with Aaron as I like to sit back, relax and enjoy the quietness; he on the other hand prefers to carry on long (purposeless) conversations with the estheticians.  But I’m a total sucker for a spa day of any kind!

   

SpaO

Loved my gray/brown/purple nails - felt hip!

SpaO

One place I really wanted to go was Restoration Hardware Baby and Child.  We looked it up on map and it was a no-brainer that we couldn’t bear that far of a frigid walk and needed a cab. This RH was like none other I’ve ever been to; it was set up more museum style in an old 4 or 5 story brick building.  It was really, really upscale, even with valet parking out front just for this store.  They had their own restaurant and Aaron and I stood drooling over the food they were bringing out, wishing we would have had lunch there and not at the mediocre bar/grill we had just came from.  They even had a small bakery and an area with a large piano that looked like it was set up for live entertaining on most evenings.  We walked around imagining and dreaming of affording such nice furniture.  We got up to the Baby&Child floor and I was like could you even imagine owning this nice of stuff for Annie?!  It was fun to look around though.

RH Restaurant

RH staged room - this was actually one of the less formal rooms

When we left RH, it was only 2 pm but the cold was too much for me to handle so I told Aaron I can’t do any more walking around and needed to go back to the hotel.  He had more shopping to do so I took a much needed nap while he went to a few more stores.  Later, we got super unmotivated to head back out into the cold but I had dinner reservations already set up at Rosebud on Rush for our Valentine’s Day dinner.  So we bundled up and headed back out for another brutal 6 block walk.  Dinner wasn’t so great, the setting was perfect, very romantic but I didn’t love my chicken marsala and Aaron wasn’t loving his carbonara so we cut dinner pretty short and headed back to the hotel.  We had pre-purchased tickets to the Second City Comedy Club for the 8 pm show that night and Aaron and I were really wondering if we should just waste the tickets and stay in but again choose to head back out and if we just were too tired, we figured we could always leave early. 

Rosebud on Rush 

Rosebud on Rush 

 We LOVE Second City!  Just about every time we are in Chicago, we hit up this Improv Comedy Club.  It’s a guaranteed good time and when the show started, we perked right up and really enjoyed it and were glad we didn’t forgo our tickets.  Best part of our Valentine’s Day date for sure!

Saturday we woke up, hit the French inspired restaurant Troquet, attached to our hotel, which does an amazing breakfast; we ate there twice during our stay.  Then we checked out and headed to do our suburbia shopping that is a tradition when visiting Chicagoland. 

First stop IKEA.  We loaded up, a completely full cart and a pallet at check out.  Most important items on the list were dining room blinds and a console to organize our basement toys.  Then we headed off to Aurora to our favorite outlet mall.  My feet were killing me before we even got there so Aaron and I split up to shop separately to be more efficient, plus it was pretty cold out so being at an outdoor outlet just made me move quickly from store to store, my shopping overall there was pretty short and sweet - I bought nothing and was ready to get on the road back home. 

IKEA Haul 

Overall, we had a really good Babymoon.  We needed a ‘get-away,’ in 2015 we only took a long weekend to Kansas City and took Annie with us and can count on one hand the number of dates nights we had last year.  On top of that, both Aaron and I have had a really crazy busy year at work so we were certainly overdue for this vacay.  Now since we are back from this trip, no more trips slated between now and when Baby C's arrival. 9 weeks to go!

*Disclaimer: my pictures above are terrible quality, I have a super shaky hand and only used my phone camera the entire time... but you get the jist!  And I failed to get any pics of Aaron and I together but had no shortage of food pics... #priorities. 

Baby C 27.5 Week Update

Another successful perinatal appointment is behind us!  It is always a huge relief to leave those appointments with amazing news that Baby C is healthy and looking great!  She is actually AHEAD of her growth schedule, weighing in at 2 lbs 7 oz (I find that just amazing that they can tell me exactly how much my baby weighs), which is roughly 5 days ahead of the growth chart, already over the 50^th percentile.

3D image of face at top, bottom is a profile pic and she is trying to suck her thumb

  It’s crazy how much the tone of my appointments have changed.  That very first appointment, there was a lot of concern in my doctor’s voice as to what lies ahead.  Now she walks in with so much positive energy saying every now and then (like a few a year) we just get a case of unexplained elevated AFP levels and I think you are just one of them.  I think she seems convinced that I’m looking to be out of the woods here and comments at how amazed she is at my baby’s growth.  Although thru the excitement, I did catch her saying that weeks 28-32 is the most critical for when growth may signal a slowdown but given I’m ahead of schedule, she’s optimistic that all is going to be okay.  I’m just approaching my 28^th week.

days out from my 3rd trimester 

Baby C is on the move too!  I remember one of the things that I got tired of was Annie moving, Annie was an intense mover and I literally could feel sores on my insides because she was such a strong mover. I don’t think I will ever say Baby C moves too much, I absolutely love feeling her move around.  It just makes me smile and think my baby is healthy in there.

These appointments have just gotten easier.  Walking in, I feel a lot of calmness.  I know I’m growing, {hence not being able to zip my winter coat anymore} and I feel her moving more and more which are just reassurances for me in between appointments.  Although I’m far more confident and assured all will be okay, when we walk into the patient waiting room, I’m always reminded that we are lucky and blessed and others here aren’t so much.  The mood of the Perinatal waiting room is far different than the mood of my Ob’s office.  They have this garganteous sign in the corner reminding all of us that we are here because we are at risk for serious complications.  As I sit, I always look at these other pregnant mothers, wondering what brings them here and that is where I’m really reminded that we are very fortunate that we have not been dealt any bad news that have become a reality.  I can’t even imagine what some of these other mothers may be dealing with, I don’t even know how I would be able to cope.

This sign is like 12 feet tall, it's a little too much

So I’m off the hook for another 4 weeks with the perinatal doctor!  They will start fetal stress tests at around 31 weeks at my regular Ob appointments just as precautionary and I have my gestational test next Monday, which I don’t mind the juice I have to drink for it, the key is to chug as fast as possible before it gets warm, that’s the key!

Aaron and I are taking off for our babymoon within days and the whole trip was riding on the outcome of this appointment.  What a relief to have the all-clear, I cannot wait to have a little time away from work and everyday life to do some fun things and do a little shopping for my girls!  

Annie's Antics

I’ve always said that Annie was born into this world as a ‘terrible 2’ and never has stopped.  Her strong willed personality is a daily conquest for us.  I’ve read lots of words to describe a child as mine but the one that makes me chuckle a little is ‘spirited.’  Yes, Annie you are indeed spirited!  It’s such a nice way to say your child is strong willed, opinionated, feisty, relentless and the opposite of laid back.  Let me divulge you in a few short stories to give you some insight into our daily lives living with a ‘spirited’ child.

Let’s start with my favorite moment of just last week {insert sarcasm}.  Annie had her 1^st dentist appointment, which I knew was going to be a real ‘treat’ for me to hold her down for.  But what I didn’t realize was the real struggle was going to take place in the waiting room.  We arrived, I get Annie settled playing with some toys and I’m filling out this ridiculous, elaborate paperwork that is asking for a full medical history for a 22 month old.  A mom and her child exit the back dentist office and head for the door to leave and all of a sudden, Annie freaks out, runs towards this lady and is saying “Mama! Mama!” and latches onto her leg.  I grabbed my spirited child and going “Annie, no get over here.”  This lady is stopped in her tracks while I’m trying to unlatch my child from her leg.  This mom leaves and Annie goes NUTS!  Screaming and pounding on the door saying “Mama! Mama!”  Every time I try to grab her to comfort her, she hits me in the face.   Then she starts running over to everyone in the waiting room, doing the same thing.  ‘Mama!’ and latching onto these other Mom’s legs.  I’m grabbing her and am right in her face saying, “Annie, I’m YOUR MAMA!!”  And she kicks and hits me making me look like a child abductor of my own child.  Then the dentist comes out to talk to another parent and she runs over, latches onto his leg screaming DADDA!  Oh ma gaud was I mortified by this point!  So I grab her, pin her underneath my arm, sideways across my lap and grab the clipboard and start filling out the paperwork as quickly as possible with her trying to escape my arms.  At this point, I have zero tolerance and she is pretty much hanging upside down off my lap while I’m vigorously filling out paperwork and she is screaming at the top of her lungs.  What a sight.  Needless to say the actual dentist appointment went pretty well, given she was screaming, the dentist had a great view of the inside of her mouth and we were in and out pretty quickly at that point.  Moment of the year right there.

 

My spirited child is also a real joy at dinner time.  If she’s not presented with a hot dog for each meal, she arches her back, screams and throws her plate on the floor.  Lovely.  I use to give in and give her whatever she wanted but I’m so over the meal time battle and have gotten to the point where I don’t care if she goes to bed without eating dinner.  It’s a rare occasion when she will actually eat good for us.  What she likes one day, she refuses the next.  I always try to give her 3 items at meals, 2 of which I know she has ate in the past and maybe 1 new item so it’s not like I don’t give her options.  She used to love macaroni and cheese and now I can’t get her to even taste it.  We waste way too much food at our house because my 22 month old will purse her lips and refuse to even try stuff.  I would never make her eat something she doesn’t like but what kills me is she won’t even try it, and I mean at all.  I’m pretty sure she would eat a 12 pack of hotdogs in one day if I’d let her.  Kid’s obsession with hot dogs is a little strange.

While we are on the food topic, how about my banana story?  We keep bananas on the counter and Annie will run over to them, and point and say ‘banana’ so I give her one and she was eating them when she asked for one.  Then one day, I grabbed one for her and peeled it and she instantly threw herself to the floor screaming .  “Annie, what the heck, you just asked for this?!”  So then I was stuck eating about 3 bananas a day because this is what she would do each time.  We finally figured it out.  One day I grabbed the bananas off the counter and just handed the whole bundle to her, she grabbed the banana she wanted and ate it fine.  I’m stunned, thinking…all this time I’ve been eating all these bananas and it’s because she wanted to choose which one it was, so many struggles could have been avoided if I knew this.  What 1 year old is that picky over which banana out of the bundle they get?  Well my spirited child is.

Annie normally eats a cup of individual yogurt every morning.  I happened to have a pint of yogurt that was getting close to expiring and wasn’t going to eat it myself so I had a hunch that Annie wouldn’t eat it if it wasn’t in her usual container of yogurt so I took one of her individual cups and washed it out and spooned the left over pint of yogurt into it and tried to give it to her.  Nope, she saw me do it and was not having it, wanted a fresh one that was sealed.  The next day, I then tricked her, pulled out an individual cup, pretended like I was taking the seal off of it for her and then quickly swapped it for the old cup of the other yogurt I had from the previous day.  She had a hunch something was up but didn’t actually see me make the switch.  That kid examined that yogurt cup so thoroughly, looking for any signs of my tampering.  I couldn’t believe the way she looked it over.  I was on pins and needles waiting for her to throw it on the ground, yogurt splattering everywhere while she goes into full tantrum mode.  Luckily not the case, I ended up fooling her and she did eat it but it’s just mind boggling how she is on to us all the darn time!

Nothing is more ‘fun’ then the daily outfit battle we have every morning.  I know having a girl especially sets us up for these battles but to have it start around 20 months old?!  Seems crazy early.  She wakes up fine, eats her yogurt and then when I start pulling out clothes from her dresser, that’s when it goes downhill from there.  As soon as I reach in, she runs over and gets really mad.  I’m open to seeing what she wants to wear but most of the time it’s the craziest outfits and I’m not letting her out of the house looking ridiculous.  Over the summer I don’t know how many times I had to tell her no, you cannot wear your swimsuit to church today.  Many mornings, getting her dressed involves pinning her down and forcing the clothes on her while she is kicking and hitting me in the face.  I’ve tried the whole laying out 2 outfits to let her decide and with no luck she goes straight to her dresser, not happy with my narrowed selection.  Once she is dressed and I have sweat running down me, then comes the shoes.  Sometimes the shoes is worse than the outfit battle.  She has these really cute Ralph Lauren hot pink shoes and they’ve become a favorite of hers.  The problem is that she drives her daycare teacher nuts because she they are too easy for her to take on and off constantly all day long.  And let’s face it, hot pink shoes does not go with every outfit.  At night I’ve gotten to the point where I let her wear whatever she wants to bed, go ahead spirited child and wear polka dots and stripes, I don’t care!  But she thinks she should then get to wear her hot pink shoes to bed.  We’ve tried slippers and she is so demanding on those darn pink tennies!   Then we have to fight her to get those darn shoes off before bed.  It’s totally exhausting.

Then there are the car rides.  Nothing is worse than being in a small enclosed space with a spirited child screaming on the top of her lungs.  We try to plan any long trips around her nap/bedtime schedule because it is just brutal riding with her for long periods of time.  She isn’t one who likes to sit still so being strapped down is the main issue.  And for the life of us, we can’t figure out how she at times can escape out of her car seat straps.  It’s like watching Houdini escape a strait jacket, totally mind boggling how she can do it when they are on her tight when we strap her in.  Even strapping her in is an ordeal at times when she is fighting hard against being put into her car seat.   We’ve been thru 3 different car seats with this child, it’s not the car seat, it’s her.  Recently, my car dvd player stopped working, making the 15 minute ride to and from daycare especially brutal lately.  She loves it when I sing Old McDonald Had A Farm to her but let me tell you, 15 minutes of that song gets old fast but ANYTHING to keep her content I’ll do!

Restaurants, church and places where kids should sit still are also a joyous event for us.  Anymore, the idea of having a child sit perfectly still or to color quietly I’ve learned is an impossibility.  I don’t care if she is running circles around our table at a restaurant or playing in the aisle at church.  As long as she isn’t being too disruptive to those around us, then I’m the one with the child on the loose.  It’s far more disruptive to try to pin her down and make her sit quietly than it is to let her run around.   Kids just want to be kids. 

We rarely take Annie with us to grocery stores.  Why?  Because again she, likes to run around.  Running around is okay but she wants to touch everything or eat a random chip off the floor and that’s when I start hyperventilating.   Won’t sit in the child seating of the cart, won’t be good if we move her to the cart area, but for whatever reason she wants to ride under the cart which I hate.  First off it’s gross under there.  And not to mention I’m always terrified I’m going to run over her finger or a foot because she’s goofing off down there.  I’m always enamored when I see these kids her age sitting contently in the child seat of the cart.  I turn my back for a second and Annie has figured out how to get out of the seat strap and is standing up, ready to fall to her death.   I usually leave the store forgetting 10 things and end up having to go back.  It’s just too much work.

She normally follows me around the house.  But the other day she was really getting into everything.  I was trying to get ready in the bathroom and I step away for literally maybe 30 seconds because heaven forbid I had to pee, which is just in a separate part of our bathroom and I come back to the main bathroom to find the bathtub running and no Annie to be found.  That stinker turned the water on and then ran and started tearing all my shoes off my shoe rack.  Everywhere she goes it’s just like bombs are being set off behind her. 

The one morning I decide to have brunch with my friend’s, which never happens and is like a treat for me, I get a text from Aaron saying “Annie just completely erased my entire phone.”  Um how?!  Apparently there is a special combination of buttons that if you press exactly in sync, your phone will say in the display ‘erasing’ and Aaron tried to stop it and shut it off but it was too late, it erased every single thing on his phone.  Thankfully he had mostly everything backed up but it still took him nearly a half a day to recover it all.  Good work Annie {insert sarcasm}, it was impressive to say the least. 

Our next child has to be laid back and the complete opposite of our first born spirited child right?!  She has to be!  It can’t get worst?!  Annie does make the thought of caring for a newborn look easy compared to a day chasing her.  Or maybe the more honest and terrifying thought I have is the one of having to care for a newborn while Annie is running loose and out of control doing who knows what.  I know Annie’s spit fire personality will mean she will do great things and have lots of drive and passion in life but to be honest some days it’s hard to remind myself of that.  Sometimes at the end of a day, I reflect on that screaming car ride home or the fact that she threw her plate of spaghetti on the ground hollering for a hot dog or that she leached onto another Mom’s leg making me look crazy and I just sit and chuckle to myself and I think my God do I love that kid!  I can’t imagine her any other way. Everything she puts us thru sure does make life interesting and her spirit is what makes her my Annie.   Can’t wait for the REAL terrible 2’s to begin…. now those will be the stories!     

Baby C Update

Great news -- my second perinatal appointment went great today!   As I had mentioned in my previous post, I felt more confident and reassured going into this appointment because I feel like my tummy has grown and Baby C has been on the move, which were all good signs to me that all is well.  The ultrasound tech at this appointment actually was telling me during the ultrasound that everything was looking  good, which I know they really aren’t obligated to say one way or another how the ultrasound is going but she was giving me reassurance thru the ultrasound and even told me that Baby C was measuring right where she needed to be.  Wheew!  What a relief, I actually felt like I could relax and enjoy watching the ultrasound this time around.

When the doctor came in, she further confirmed all looks good and they checked again for any open tube defects and again none are present.  At this point, she says it’s pretty rare and highly unlikely that Baby C has an open tube defect, what they won’t be able to determine until she is born is if she has a closed tube defect, but again the chances of that is less than an open tube scenario.  It sounds like to me that closed tube defects aren’t nearly as scary or life impairing as open tube from what I’m gathering.  Again, I refuse to put any trust in Google and have made a promise to myself {and to God} that I won’t Google anything unless we are certain we have a need to further educate ourselves in something that becomes our reality, in the meantime ‘what-ifs’ research does no good and only creates unnecessary stress and worry.

The doctor also made an offhand comment that made me realize again that her growth and health is still nothing short of a miracle compared to my AFP levels.  She said that when she started to review my ultrasound results she didn’t realize it was for my ultrasound, then when she realized it was for me, she ‘gasped with excitement’ – her words.  So basically again since my AFP levels are so bad, she’s beyond thrilled that I’ve made it over half way thru this pregnancy with no issues.   It is beyond humbling to me to know that I’m truly fortunate and that God has answered our prayers. 

I don’t need to be seen again by my perinatal doctor until another 4 weeks from now – or basically at the beginning of my 3^rd trimester.  Until then, I’m going to remain hopeful, optimistic and prayerful that all will continue going well.  And especially prayerful that I continue to feel growth and movement because that to me was one of the signs in between my last appointments that gave me the most comfort.  Who knew getting bigger in pregnancy could ever make me feel so good?!   Since my last appointment I did change my diet substantially and am eating a lot more protein and a lot less junk.  It hasn’t been completely perfect (i.e. doughnut yesterday for breakfast) but I think my significant improvements certainly have helped the cause too. 

So that’s my update – I hope I continue to only provide similar great news for future appointments! 

RESTORED Health

New year, new you, right?  I’ve never been one to stick to a resolution but usually have a few that I’d like to accomplish but never more have I had a strong desire to actually fulfill this year’s resolution, summed up in these words: RESTORED HEALTH.  I have felt like garbage for, well about the last 10 months and I’m tired of it!

 

2015 started off fine.  I felt great and all was good.  I’ve always had anxiety all my life but it was always mild and never really interfered much with my life.  The week and months following Annie’s birth, my anxiety ramped up big time.  In 2014, about 6 months after Annie’s birth, I finally felt like myself again and my anxiety subsided.  Continued to feel great until around late Spring 2015, I’m not quite sure what set it off, I think it may have been the idea of building a house possibly or the fact that I had a few blood pressure readings that came in high at routine doctor visits but my anxiety came back on and it really inhibited many areas of my life.  Then it started to subside but in July it hit hard again, I think it may have been the idea of expanding our family that may have triggered it – not sure but regardless I was really struggling and my anxiety made me think that I had more health problems than I actually did.  Reassuringly, after lots of blood work, a few EKG tests, a neurological exam, several x-rays, a rush to urgent care because I thought I was having a heart attack (btw, found out you don't go to Urgent Care, you go to the ER if you truly think you are having one - duh. Also found out it's a good way to get bumped to the front of the line)… doctors confirmed that I’m just an anxious nelly, creating my own false health fire drills and I just needed to chill out.  Point taken!  Geesh, I felt like a looney, crazy person.  Stop being a hot mess and pull yourself together already, I’d tell myself.

Middle of the year, my boss left his position.  I was handed double duties at work and the stress of getting everything done at work was overbearing.  I was never told I couldn’t take PTO or time away but felt like I really couldn’t.  The stress of work continued pretty much up thru the beginning of December and now my new boss is starting to alleviate my work load and things just recently started feeling more manageable at work. 

Backing back up to the middle of the year, I got pregnant.  On purpose.  Good timing right?!  If I had to do a re-do, I would have maybe waited another year but fact of the matter is, I got pregnant and if it wasn’t meant to be, then God wouldn’t have given me another pregnancy when I deliberately asked for one.  Then came the 1^st trimester woes, fatigue, nauseousness but worst of all were severe headaches.    I’ve never been a headache sufferer nor did I have them when I was pregnant with Annie but these headaches left me where I felt dizzy and faint almost daily.  Insert anxiety with our house transition and I would say my overall health was suffering.  I felt like garbage, all the time.

 

Fast forward to second trimester.  We finally get all moved in and settled and my headaches are becoming less severe, I’m starting to have moments when I feel like myself again and my anxiety had been manageable.  Life starts to feel normal somewhat.  Then I get a call about my pregnancy blood test, you know the one where my alpha fetoproteins levels are off the chart and my baby has a chance of having a neural tube defect?  I crashed and burned for a solid 2 weeks.  My headaches got out of control; I’d lay in bed and cried a lot.  Let’s not forget about those fun pregnancy hormones.  And oh ya, I’m still puking because my gagging reflexes/nauseousness is still out of control and never went away after the 1^st trimester.  Then I got a severe head cold so on top of not sleeping because of my stress/depressed state, I couldn’t sleep if I wanted to because I was so congested.  What an awesome way to start the holiday season.

Last half of December, we were delivered good news, well actually miraculous news about our baby’s health, but still was coping with the fact that rocky roads still lie ahead in this pregnancy.   As soon as our last Christmas with family was all over, I finally got all the rest I needed and the stress just started to subside, along with the headaches.  I still have this crummy head cold but overall I’m just doing a lot better.  Like 100 times better!

I actually have my next perinatal appointment tomorrow.  Rather than feeling anxious, I’m feeling hopeful and optimistic.  I feel like my belly has grown quite a bit over the last few weeks and I’ve never been so comforted by the fact that my pregnancy belly is growing because it likely means Baby C is growing, which is what we need the most in this pregnancy.  I also feel her moving quite a bit now, which also brings me joy and comfort, I just feel like these are all signs that she is healthy and well and I’m optimistic that our appointment tomorrow will go well.  Please keep us in our prayers that we are delivered good news.  I really am just starting to get to a good place physically and emotionally and the last thing I need right now is a setback.

I know that as I near my 3^rd trimester (which is a good month away yet), I do remember all too well from Annie’s pregnancy how ‘unfun’ the 3^rd trimester is and how miserable I felt last time.  I also remember the complete debilitating feeling of what a C-Section recovery all entails so that is why my resolution for 2016 isn’t GOOD health but RESTORED health.  If this baby is born in late April, it will take until mid-June to be fully recovered from my surgery and so I’m not expecting to have my health restored until the latter half of 2016 so it will take time but after feeling like garbage for the last 10ish months, you can only imagine how badly I want to feel normal and healthy again. 

Not only do I want to be healthy again but I want my whole family to be healthy.  I’ve never put such an importance on health more than I have over the last year.  My 2016 goal summed up in 2 words: RESTORED HEALTH.  And I’m confident and more determined than ever to make it happen.  Oh and maybe in 2016 let’s make a goal that I will have less depressing posts!  Seriously, can I just blog about something a little less intense for a change?! 

It's A Girl!

Although Aaron and I were never in a big hurry to have kids, we talked about our ‘imaginary’ kids as if they existed at times; it was always ‘well someday Jack and Annie’… or ‘when Jack and Annie do this or that’…  We always talked as if we were having a girl and a boy.

 

When I was pregnant with Annie, Aaron said he just had this feeling we are having all girls.  I would say before we found out Annie was a girl, I felt 75% sure the gender was a girl and Aaron felt even more confident it was a girl.  I secretly was hoping for a girl when we found out although before pregnancy, I would have told you I would have wanted a boy first.  What’s better than a big brother to a little sister?

Of course having a girl first, I was pretty goo-goo-ga-ga over all the girly stuff.  I was in my element.  Getting pregnant this time around, I somewhat wanted another girl again but a particular experience solidified my want for another girl.  I was in Palmer’s, a deli style restaurant downtown, about 2 months after Annie was born.  I was by myself waiting in line at one of the deli stands and there were these 2 little girls, under the age of 5 that were chasing each other around the island deli stand.  Their giggles were the best thing I think I’ve ever heard in my life, I can still hear and see them to this day.  I just stood there and watched them chase each other with the biggest grin on my face at how adorable they were; thinking OMG…Annie has to have a sister!  I immediately got in my car and called Aaron to tell him that we had to have 2 girls.  At this point forward, all I could envision was 2 little girls.

Growing up my sister and I were roughly 4 years apart; which is a little too far apart to really have common friends or really know enough about each other’s social lives.  If I was going to have sisters, I wanted them closer in age.  My sister and I fought a ton when we were young and we didn’t just fight, it got really physical and we literally beat the living daylights out of each other.  And for being 4 years younger than me, my sister was tough; I did not have the upper hand!  As we got older, sharing a bathroom was the worst thing to ever have to endure with a sister.  Even sitting in the car, if her knee touched my knee, it would send us into a fight.  I can see why we drove my mom nuts at times.  But you know what?  We are good friends today and outgrew petty fighting.  My sister has called me in desperate times and told me stuff she has not told anyone in our family and I have been there to help her.  When she comes to visit, she actually is the most helpful family member when it comes to giving me a hand with Annie.  We actually are complete opposites to this day but I see her for who she is, which is a really caring and compassionate person with a big heart.  We have a great relationship and her visits now are the best.  She lives in Colorado and I miss having her around more often.  Having a sister in life really is a treasure not everyone gets to have and I’m pretty lucky to have a good one to claim and be proud of.

My sister and I at my baby shower she threw for me when pregnant with Annie.  And look, we are touching shoulders without fighting or pulling each others hair, we survived all those years of fighting! #bestsistersever

When I got pregnant the second time, Aaron was 110% certain it was a girl.  I was about 64.7% certain.  And Aaron was perfectly content with having all girls, never disappointed at the idea.  With Annie, we had a nice dinner out and opened the envelope and found out together it was a girl and called our families.  This time around, I wanted something different but yet special to find out the gender.  I know these over the top gender reveal parties are a big thing right now, I think they are fun and cute but they seem like a lot of work.  I did not want to go to a lot of work for a party being we just moved and this pregnancy has left me feeling less than ideal on most days.  We had been recommended by a few people about this place in Des Moines called Prenatal Vision.  They have professional ultrasound technicians on staff and they provide the ultimate experience for live gender reveals.  So we set the appointment and invited our close family. 

When we walked into Prenatal Vision, they have a really cute boutique baby store up front.  After some paperwork, we were called back to the ultrasound room.  It was a very spacious room with soft cushy couches and chairs for our family and a huge viewing screen.  The ultrasound technician was great, I thought it was the most in-depth (2D and 3D) ultrasound and she explained very slowly everything we were seeing and what our baby was doing then she said are you ready for the reveal?  And flashed up the screen in big letters was GIRL!  Of course my family all cheered and it was so fun to all find out together.  Annie was running around the room with her cousin and we were all telling her she was going to have a little sister.  I was ECSTATIC!  My eyes were watering I was so happy.  Of course I would be happy with a boy but all I could see was those little girls running around together and my heart was full!  When we left, we had the full live ultrasound on a dvd we could play back at home along with more print out images of our baby girl.  It really was the perfect experience.

17 weeks pregnant, can't wait to find out! 

Annie and her cousin Eli playing in the waiting room

Heart!

IT"S A GIRL!! 

3D of our baby girl's sweet face

It was also really special for my Grandparents and even my Parents, they had never seen a live ultrasound like this before, back in their times, they just didn’t have that technology so this felt like a gift to them to ‘meet’ their new granddaughter in a way they have never experienced before. 

Annie checking out her sister

Annie helping the tech out

Right before we left, I whispered to Aaron… “Should we tell them the name?”   And we decided it was the right moment to tell our family the name of our baby girl.  To all my readers, you will know her as Baby C (first initial) until her arrival comes.

First family pic of 4

And thank goodness it was a girl because we were struggling with boy names.   So as you probably have figured out from the beginning of this post, many years ago we wanted Jack for our boy name.  Then it became so popular that we changed it to Jackson.  Well then that became popular and so we changed it again to Jaxon (basically pronounced the same but we could use Jax for short).  Aaron was in love with that name and as my friends started to have more and more Jackson’s, I started to lose interest.  My top 3 up to our gender reveal was Hudson, Micah and Jaxon.  And we had no good middle names that went with those options.  Aaron wasn’t big on my other names, apparently because of the Hawkeye football player, we couldn’t have a Micah Hyde.  And even though I loved Hudson, Aaron was still stuck on Jaxon.  But when it came to girl names, it was a no-brainer.  We had the first and middle name down before she was even conceived (and I get the credit for her name btw, luckily Aaron loved it).  So having a girl just took the stress out of the name game.  We never even questioned the name Annie Ashton, we had her name way before too so girl names just seem easier for us to agree on.

What also makes having a girl fun is all of Annie’s old clothes we can pull back out for Baby C.  I’m a little in love with Annie’s wardrobe and can’t wait to dress Baby C in them.  Being that my due date will put them at 2 years and 1 month apart, the seasons should match up pretty well.  We are going to get started on Baby C’s room soon, I think we will keep it pretty close to how Annie’s room is designed, which is white furniture, light grays and pinks. 

And although they will have to share a bathroom, they will have separate sinks – sister fights are inevitably in our future… but the treasure of sisterly love will withstand the test of time.