Holy Big Baby Batman!

So we had another NST today and Miss Skyla did very well. Then we had our growth scan to see just how big she is measuring. According to all the measurements the lady took today we have an EFW of 6lbs 10oz as of today at 34w4d. Our last EFW was at 25w2d and she weighed 3lbs 8oz. She has gained 3lbs 2oz (estimated of course) in 5 weeks and 2 days. We have 5 weeks and 3 days left until our due date. So if we make it to 40 weeks and she keeps growing like this .. she's gonna be another big'un. She is sooooo cute though. You can really tell she is filling out in the pictures I have today compared to the last profile picks I have. The u/s tech thinks she looks like me .. so we will see :) I definitely think she has mine and Chip's nose. Oh and she is up to 88th %tile .. so if she gains 2 more %tile points she will be considered macrosomic. She looks really great though.

Skyla had her first NST today

And according to the NST tech and I quote "Your daughter is beautiful!!!". Apparently she behaved herself very well today despite my fears. Skyla has a history of being hard to track down so I worried that it would be stressful. However Marie had a bead on her within 30 seconds of putting her hands on my belly. Marie said she likes to see atleast 2 accelerations (where the little line jumps up) in the 20 minutes that they monitor the baby. Miss Skyla had 3 accelorations within the first 4.5 minutes I was on the monitor. She continued to perform her little feets for the rest of her 20 minutes. Marie said she lost count of how many accelorations there was so many. Already she is an overachiever! Must get it from her daddy! So then we go and check the fluids surrounding her on the ultrasound. The tech said we have plenty of amniotic fluid right now so she did well on that too. Then I waited for like 45 minutes to wait to work me into get to see the Dr. because of my upper respiratory infection. Well I finally get into see the Dr. and she says she doesn't want to give me any antibiotics and to get some Robitussen to help make it easier. BLAH. I was like gee I waited 45 minutes for this??? She did talk with me about Skyla's size. She said that it wasn't even worth measuring my belly since last week I was measuring 41 weeks already. She said that she wanted another ultrasound on Thursday for a growth scan to see how big she is right now. She told me that back at 29 weeks when Skyla measured 3lbs 8oz she was already in the 80th %tile and that once a baby hit 90th %tile they are then considered to have macrosomia (basically it just means .. really big baby). I told her I knew this all because Chip was born weighing 9lbs 1oz at 3 days early. She said that when a baby measured to have macrosomia they liked to induce but because of my history of c-section that they wouldn't want to do that. I told her I was aware of that. I let her know that I realize that I have to go into labor naturally .. or either I end up with a c-section. There aren't really any other options at this point. She seemed to understand that I have done my research and I know the pros and cons about everything and I mentioned the fact with Skyla being a female that hopefully even if she is big she won't be built like a linebacker like her big brother was at birth. She said that's a good point because girl babies and boy babies tend to be built differently. It should be very interesting to see how big she is Thursday. I am feeling huge and miserable .. and everyone keeps telling my my belly is sticking out farther with Skyla than I was with Chip at the end and I am only 34 weeks, so it's a little daunting. But whatever size she is. She is almost here!!! I can't wait!!! 7 weeks at the most. I know they won't let me go over more than a week past my due date without wanting to do a c-section. So we are down to short time!!!

No wonder I feel like a beached whale!!!

So I went to my Dr. appt. And I LOVED the Dr. I had today. He was awesome. Totally VBAC pro, totally thought I was doing a great job keeping my bp under control with the meds and bedrest. Didn't even sweat the fact that we have big babies. And he was HOT!!! I didn't know guys that looked like that became OBs. LOL. Turns out when he was a resident .. he delivered my best friends second daughter Averiegh!!! LOL. Melissa and I had fun talking about him when I got back to her house to pick up Chip. Oh and back to the beached whale comment. I am 33w1d .. but he measured me today and I am measuring 41 (ACK) weeks already. Baby girl is apparently on miracle grow suppliments in there. Oh and I weighed 2lbs less than my starting weight (and this was after feeding my face with Pizza, chocolate-chocolate chip muffins, and cherry cordial hot cocoa at Melissa's valentine's party ..sssshhhh don't tell my Dr. !!!). So that definitely explains why I am soooooooo incredibly uncomfortable these days. Starting next week we are going to start bi-weekly NSTs and weekly Biophysical profiles.

Spent the morning in L&D

So Charles and I DTD this morning, and when we were through he looked down and said "Holy Shit!" there was blood everywhere, him, me the bed. I started freaking out. Called Drs. office they told me to go to L&D. So go to L&D and they monitor me and the baby, I'm not having any contractions, baby was moving so the woman had to stand and hold the fetal monitor the whole time so she could keep a bead on her. The CNMW comes in and talks to me, gives me the whole speculum treatment (medieval torture device at its finest), then a manual check. Cervix is tight and long. She did see some more blood around the cervix and tested it for infection. It came back fine. They then gave me a vaginal ultrasound to check and make sure I didn't have any placental tissue near my cervix. Then they gave me a regular abdominal u/s to check on the baby. They did a biophysical profile on her. Out of a possible high score of 8 .. she got an 8. She she is doing perfect. We also got another confirmation that she is still a girl. :) And a picture to proove it. She is head down and now face down so I didn't get to see her face but got a cute photo of her right ear. So CNMW said that everything looks good with both me and Skyla. Oh and my instructions were to go home and play checkers (in other words .. no fraternizing with hubby until after my regular appt on the 14th).

I found a doula

that is willing to assist my birth for free. She hasn't yet completed her Dona certification so she is going to assist my birth for free. I found her on a site that links up women donating their services to moms. I wasn't sure whether or not she would go to the hospital that I am delivering at but she said she would be delighted. She seems really awesome. Been chatting via email and trying to arrange a meeting for this week as weather permits I am super psyched. Right now money is tight so I couldn't have afforded to chunk out an extra 600-800$ for a doula .. and had given up on it until a friend shared the link of free doula's with me. I am excited because I know having a doula on my side .. my odds of getting my VBAC increase!

Hunkering Down for the winter weather!

Chip, Skyla and I are hunkering down for the winter weather expected today. Calling for snow and ice. FUN FUN FUN. Charles got stranded out of town and won't get back maybe until after the weekend :( He was going to come back last night but then his car wouldn't start. So this morning he works on his car and gets it going, but by the time he was through fixing it, the ice and sleet had already started. His car is a 2 wheel drive and he needs new tires. So looks like he is going to be stuck there for a bit. Chip, Skyla and I should be okay .. but really hoping we don't lose power!! Because if we lose power .. we lose heat. Oh and all my family is towards the part where things are supposed to be even worse .. so going there would be no help. Plus I don't exactly need to be out driving in ice and snow when 7 months pregnant and supposed to be on bedrest. Especially with a 2.5 year old toddler in tow. So keep your fingers crossed that we don't lose power.

Bawling my eyes out

Discovery health is showing a show today called Baby Lab. It's got stories of different couples going through IVF.. I am crying like there is no tomorrow. So many of my friends have had to go through this process .. and reading their messages and emails .. I knew it was hard .. but watching it on TV .. just makes me realize how hard all of this has been on them. Several couples' IVFs didn't take .. and 2 couples did. One even had triplets!!! It's just such a crapshoot. It's so not fair that it works for some and not others .. and no one knows whether it will be them that it works for .. or it will be them that it doesn't work for. I just wish I could make it succesful for all that tried it.

Met the first Dr. at Duke that I didn't like today.

Ugh .. I hope I don't see her much. She made a couple of comments that just irritated me. And she is the first one I have run into over there that acts like she isn't totally up on the whole VBAC idea. Oh and she thinks epidurals are great. Not what I want to hear when I am wanting a natural birth and a VBAC .. oh and she is already starting the whole your pelvis might not be big enough to birth a big baby .. the woman hasn't been near my pelvis .. so how in the world would she know??? Not to mention .. we all know women who have 9 and 10 lb babies all the time. I'm a big woman and I have a large frame .. why the heck wouldn't my pelvis have plenty of room? Heck .. my 5'4 125lb SIL had a 9lbs 2oz baby girl no problem. I just don't like it when the first things out of the Drs. mouth is hemmin and hawing about negative stuff. I've spent the last 3 years researching VBACS .. I know the risks, the things that make it more likely to happen or not happen. I figure .. if we can keep my BP under control with the meds, I actually dialate on my own and my body goes into labor on its own.. and we skip the whole preeclampsia thing .. who cares how big the baby is .. atleast give me a trial of labor right? I am really hoping to avoid this Dr. in the future. I really like the other ones I have seen and they all seem very pro-VBACs and having that positive outlook is a definite plus in my opinion.

Ohhh and she made a crack about my weight too! Which didn't make me like her any better. We discussed the anterior placenta and I told her that finally explained why we hadn't been able to hear the heart beat via doppler for Skyla until 19 weeks. She told me it wasn't because of the anterior placenta that it was because of my weight! I said "well that's funny since I heard Chip's heart beat at 14 weeks and I weighed 20lbs more when I got pregnant with him". She did say that they would pay special attention to the location of the placenta during my next growth scan (aka ultrasound because they think I'm growing a monster baby in there). She said that more than likely that the anterior placent wouldn't be a problem when it came to giving birth .. so we will see.

Thank you Jen!!!

After seeing that amazing photo of Jen wearing Miles in her new Hotsling. I became obsessed with finding a pouch sling for Skyla. I checked out Hotslings and liked the idea of the pouch sling but none of the patterns she had quite jumped out at me. So I obsessed and obsessed and found all kinds of places where WAHM's made pouch slings. I decided to try ebay. I hit the jackpot there. I found a lady who makes custom sized pouch slings for you, she pairs up the fabric .. you win or buy it now on ebay. You pay .. she get's your measurements .. and whammo .. in 2 weeks you have your own personalized pouch sling!!! I went ahead and bought it now and paid shipping at it came out to a total of get this 22.95!!! What a great deal. Oh and it's reversable. Here's the auction

I totally love that it's got a bright and vibrant fabric on one side for when I want to pep up my outfits .. and it's got the solid blue panel on the other side so that I can wear it that way to tone it down when I need to. I think both Skyla and I will LOVE it!!!

Remind me not to Google anything about pregnancy again!!!

ACK!!! I noticed on the u/s print out that the woman had put on there that I have an anterior placenta. I wasn't sure exactly what that meant, so decided to Google it. Well I found that there seems to be no problems with an anterior placenta UNLESS you have had a previous c-section. Which ofcourse I have had. Here is what a Dr. told a woman on some medical board.

Anterior placentas are extremely common and generally do not cause complications. The exception is if you have had a prior c/section. Then, in some cases, the anterior placenta can attach itself to the old scar in the uterine muscle, a situation called placenta accreta (or percreta or increta, depending if the placenta goes deeper into the muscle, or even through the entire uterus, respectively). This can cause hemorrhage with delivery, necessitating blood transfusion or even hysterectomy. Fortunately, if you have never had a c/section, this is quite rare.

ACK!!! Just how I needed to start off my day!!!

Great appt. and u/s today!!!

So I had my first uneventful appt. in I can't even remember how long today!!! Dr. did tell me she wanted me to drink some gatorade to help with the BH cxs and the leg cramps I have been having. Then I had my ultrasound and Miss Skyla is looking great :) She's weighing about 3lbs 8oz so she is a good sized one for 29w2d. She's measuring closer to 30 weeks. She is quite flexable already and had one foot under her butt (well maybe over it since she is head down still) and then one all cocked over funny. Oh and she has big feet!!! LOL .. the u/s tech was quite impressed with her long feet. I told the u/s tech that she came by it honestly because I wear a 10 in womens and DH wears a 12 or 13 in mens. LOL. Then I went over to my friend Melissa's to see her and her 2 girls after my appts. We had lots of fun and Melissa was sweet enough to give me a truck load of girl clothes!!! She says she still has more but they need to finish going through garage before she will find them. Annmarie and Avereigh were so cute and decided to help us go through the clothes. Hehe. A great day all around :)

An internet baby shower!!!

Not for me .. For Julia and her sweet baby girl Hannah who was born yesterday. You can check it out here.

HALLELUJAH!!!!

Julia had Hannah!!! And the Drs. saved her UTERUS!!!

That is the best news I have heard all week :) I am so happy for Julia and Todd :) I can't wait to see photos of Hannah. I know she is BEAUTIFUL just like her mama!!!

I know there is a collective sigh of relief around the blog world tonight!!!

Saw this on Kether's Blog and thought this was kewl.

Stollen from Kether who stole it from :

The year in review
From The Unproductive Reproductive:This was taken/stolen from Journey Woman1.

What did you do in 2004 that you'd never done before? 2004 was the first time I ever lived in a state other than North Carolina. Lived in Arizona/Nevada for 6 months.
Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?I got pregnant .. so yes :) This years resolution is to be the best mom and wife I can be.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yes, my sister in law gave birth to my beautiful nephew Evan.
4. Did anyone close to you die?Yes, my grandfather died.
5. What countries did you visit? we lived like an hour from Mexico but never went .. oops.
6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004? a healthy Skyla!!!!
7. What date from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? July 22nd the day I got my :bfp after a year of TTC after my miscarriage
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?Carrying this little girl :)
9. Did you suffer illness or injury?Only morning sickness .. well all day sickness
10. What was the best thing you bought? Skyla's 140$ cradle for 20$!!!!
11. Whose behavior merited celebration? My husband has been a rock through my being on bedrest and having BP problems. He's done the shopping the cleaning .. alot of taking care of Chip.
12. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Seeing all the trolls out there attacking my blogger friends when they least needed it
13. Where did most of your money go? Moving back to NC
14. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Finally getting our little girl!
15. What song will always remind you of 2004? Can't think of anything right now
16. Compared to this time last year, are you:i. happier or sadder? Happier!ii. thinner or fatter? MUCH fatter!!! iii. richer or poorer? richer.
17. What do you wish you'd done more of? lol .. cleaning!
18. What do you wish you'd done less of?worrying
20. How will you be spending New Year's? I spent it sleeping!!!.
21. Did you fall in love in 2004?Yes, with our daughter to be .. and more in love with my husband than ever
22. How many one-night stands? I'm a married woman!
23. What was your favorite TV program? A baby story
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?Hate? Can't think of anyone
25. What was the best book you read? Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon
27. What did you want and get? Skyla
28. What did you want and not get? I got everything I wanted
29. What was your favorite film of this year? 50 First Dates
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I cried. I got a BFN and granddad was dieing. 2 days later got my BFP .. next day granddad died
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Can't think of anything
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?Fat and pregnant .. does that give you a hint?
.33. What kept you sane? My husband and my blogger and message board friends
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Julia Roberts has always been a hero and inspiration of mine. So happy for her and her twins!
35. What political issue stirred you the most? The presedential Election
36. Who did you miss? Always my dad who passed away in April 1999
37. Who was the best new person you met? Can't think of anyone
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004? That good things come to those who wait.
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: She will be loved.

Doing the Happy Dance!!!

Well finally something went my way!!!! I don't have GD!!!! YEAH!!! I am so freaking relieved!!! I wasn't looking forward to 3 months of low sodium diet AND low carb diet .. low sodium by itself is bad enough!!! The Lab person I talked with said my #'s weren't even close to being in the GD range :) One less thing to stress over.

Starting BP meds and I may have GD

So I had my appointment today. My BP was 153/93. My urine had glucose, protein and small keytones. After 2 hours of sitting in drs. waiting rIoom then in the exam room they took my BP again. It was 142/99!!! The bottom # is the one that they really stress over the most and it went up after 2 hours of inactivity .. it normally goes down but this time went up. So on to BP meds 30 mg of Procardia? I think .. it's being filled right now. I take one pill every morning .. should last all day starting tomorrow. The dr. also mentioned the keytones in the urine and told me I needed to drink more water .. I told her I had been chugging water all morning. She said that along with the glucose in my urine tended to lead her to think I may have GD this time. So Thursday I go to check my BP (because of the new meds) and have a 3 hour GTT (I have a habit of flunking 1 hour one so going straight to 3 hour). 2 weeks from tomorrow I have another Level II scan of Skyla to keep a check on how she is growing .. with the BP issues, possible GD and our history of big babies .. her growth is a major concern for them. BLAH!!! Why is it that I never seem to get those boring uneventful appts? I saw the nutritionist today and she said that if I flunked the GD test that I would be seeing her again .. and that we would work hard on coming up with a diet for someone who has to be low sodium and low carb. Ought to be interesting. Oh and I still weighing in at 1lb below where I started out this pregnancy .. which the nutritionist said was amazing seeing I have been on bedrest for 4 weeks. She said it normally goes the opposite way on bedrest.

Merry Christmas to everyone (Happy Holidays no matter what Holiday you celebrate!!! I know I have some Jewish readers also!)

This has been a very interesting Christmas. The first Christmas in 27 years that I haven't done the whole family thing. It's just Charles, Chip, me and ofcourse we can't forget baby Skyla (she won't let me forget .. lol .. she keeps kicking me .. she's gonna be a martial artist or a Rockette one with all these high kicks).

There are several reasons for why we aren't doing the family thing. For one my mother is in Georgia with her husband and his kids (a whole nother post there!!! GRRRR.. I can't get over how she keeps asking me when I am coming to see their new house!!! Um hello mom .. did you forget I'm on bedrest to try keep me and your only granddaughter safe and sound and maybe a 6 hour car ride isn't the best thing in the world for us right now?). My brother is spending his little boys first Christmas at their house in Greensboro, which is totally understandable, their first Christmas only comes once. As for all the other family functions that we have been invited to that we are skipping alot of it has to do with the bedrest and my low sodium diet. I stay so tired and exhausted all the time and I am not supposed to really do anything so traveling to family members places and doing the whole loud hectic Christmas thing well it would probably be too much for me this year. Not to mention thanks to my diet .. I couldn't eat anything anyone cooked if we did go .. because no one on either sides of our families does the whole low sodium thing .. so it would totally be torture for me not getting to eat anything. I tried eating at Thanksgiving thinking one meal wouldn't kill me .. it sent my blood pressure sky high and I got dizzy and almost threw up. So I learned my lesson then. Another reason is we have been having crazy weather in NC lately .. hot cold hot cold and it's prime sick weather and with the flu going around and me still not having been able to get my flu shot we just didn't want to risk it. After miscarrying 4 days after getting the flu last year .. well we are a little paranoid .. even though I am much farther along now with Skyla .. we are just scared to take a chance.

I am a little sad not to be seeing so much of my family this year .. some of which I only get to see once or twice a year anyways. But all in all .. knowing that I have my wonderful husband here with me, my son who is the light of my life , and Skyla my little miracle growing strong inside my belly .. I have everything I ever wanted for Christmas this year.

Our 25 week U/S!!!!

We finally found out the sex (after 4 ultrasounds). The ultrasound looked great.
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A beautiful healthy baby girl!!!! OMG .. I can't even get over it. I really really wanted a girl, but I was scared to get my hopes up because I didn't want to be dissapointed. So the baby's name is Skyla Rayann (finally after 5 years get to use the name .. woo hoo). The u/s was great!!! She is absolutely beautiful (no longer have a scanner and camera batteries are dead so you will have to take my word for it). She is measuring just right for our due date of April 3rd every except she has long legs (they are measuring like a week or so ahead of dates). I got to see a great shot of her face .. and I think she is going to look like Chip. I am so thrilled. Dr. decided not to put me on BP meds just yet and I don't have to go back until 2 more weeks!!! All in all a wonderful wonderful day. And the best Christmas present I have ever gotten.

Yesterday's crappy Dr. appt

Still don't really know anything. Yesterday's appt SUCKED A$$. Charles and I dropped Chip off at Melissa's house to play with the girls for what we thought would be a couple hours (Melissa was so sweet to keep him!!!) so we could go to the appt. and find out whether or not they were going to put me on BP meds. First off I peed in the cup. They took my BP .. it was 142 over 82 which wasn't as bad as on Tuesday but still not great. Then they tell me that I still have protein in my urine and now I have large Keytones and that I am dehydrated and need to drink lots of water. So they make me drink water. Then it's well over an hour and a half before we get seen by the resident Dr. We talk to her and she goes over all my medical history and how I am doing .. and she listens for the baby. Sneaky baby .. still took over 20 minutes to find with the doppler but sounded great. Then regular Dr. came in .. and we talked some more about my medical history. They still don't know yet whether they want to put me on meds yet. They want a more conclusive test on the proteins. They made me pee in a cup again before leaving. Then they wanted a 24 hour urine collection. But at this point it's too late in the day to do so. So they schedule me for today to come in. Then she want's blood work. So they send me to the lab for labwork. Well the lab was backed up because of only one woman there and they were having problems with something that had happened a week before and lab results getting lost (great huh? real reassuring). So she called for another phlebotamist. When finally it gets my turn I apologize in advance for any trouble my veins give her. So she sticks the needle in .. then has to dig around because the vein rolled. She finally get's the vein. Gets about a vile and a half of blood (they wanted like 4 viles) and the vein collapses. So then she had to stick me in the main vein in my hand. OUCHIES!!! It hurt really bad. But she was able to get the rest of the blood. So by the time all this was over ... we had spent 4.5 hours at Duke. I felt so bad that we had been gone so long but I hadn't stuck Melissa's phone # in my purse (DUMB ME!!) and couldn't call her to let her know what was going on. So we go pick up Chip. Apologize to Melissa for not calling and letting her know what was going on. We head home .. My explorer starts over heating (this is wondeful because Charles's car needed fixing but he hadn't fixed it because he was going to Dr. with me). So he started fixing the broken hose on my explorer this morning. He gets it all put back together and then test drives it .. and realizes another hose is broken. ARGH .. So I had to call and cancel my appt for today, and reschedule it for Monday because that would give Charles time to fix the car this weekend. Well when I called the receptionist said I can get you an appt for the 17th!!!! I was like look my Dr. wants to see me ASAP .. I'm only not going today because I have no ride!!! I said let me speak to my Dr. since you can't seem to help me. She was like I can't do that, but I can let you speak to the Nurse line. So she transfers me and I get the voice mail for the nurse. So the nurse calls me back in like 5 minutes (now that's some service .. normally at other places it takes like an hour to get a call back). The nurse was very sweet and said that she could get me in at 8:45 am on Monday. She did tell me that my labwork looked good from yesterday but Dr. still wanted me to come back in on Monday. So there's my story .. we still don't have any news really about whether I'm going to be on BP meds or not. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

So I'm on bedrest now.

Went for my BP check today at Duke. It was 147/91 and they made me do a urine test and I now have protein in my urine. So I am on bedrest now and have to go back Thursday afternoon to see the Dr. If they can't get my bp down with bedrest it may mean I have to go on Blood pressure medicine for the rest of the pregnancy to try to keep it under control. It's so crazy .. my blood pressure is so good when I am not pregnant .. but get me pregnant ..and it goes through the roof. If you are the praying type say some prayers for me and little bit that we get this blood pressure thing under control. I will be 23.5 weeks pregnant like tomorrow and we still have a ways to go to get this kiddo big enough and healthy enough to be born.