It's been too long

I'm sorry if there is anyone out there left reading. I'm right at 37 weeks now and haven't updated in God knows how long.

Since I was last on here I've been diagnosed with gestational diabetes (which blows during Christmas, New Years and Valentines Day), passed my strep B test and baby has slowed down growing.

She is now measuring in the 50th precentile which means I'm no longer looking at a 9lb baby. Hooray! That hasn't stopped my body from exploding though.

I'm hoping to keep baby in until Monday, March 3 as that is when my OB is back in town as well as my sister from her trip to Florida. I felt like yesterday may be the day as I had contractions for about 4 hours, they weren't consistant nor measurable but they for sure were there until I went to sleep.

22 Weeks

M's Shirt

I am 22 weeks as of tomorrow. I haven't written much cause there isn't much going on. This weekend we celebrated M's 6th birthday and Friday went to my parents for their birthday. The plan was to bring cupcakes with frosting on the inside that indicated the sex of the baby since we found out last Wednesday but since my family are GIANT PITAs they found out Wednesday (I also have little self control). M picked out baby's second shirt.

I say second shirt cause when I found out I was pregnant with my ectopic I bought the cutest shirt but it went unused. My sister took it from me shortly after my surgery and the bad news cause she said it created bad juju. She gave it back to me this weekend.

I spent some time going through boxes this weekend and I'm kinda glad we lugged around all the baby stuff from M cause it leaves very little to buy.

For those of you who are not picking up the clues of being able to reuse M's stuff and the VERY pink shirt we are having a girl. M is super excited she wanted a sister.

The baby wouldn't sit still long enough to get a good profile picture but to the left is a front view of the baby's face. You can see eyes, nose and mouth.

My OB took a short time lapse to see something on her face but instead caught her sticking her tongue out.

I know its hard to picture but in the picture to the right the top picture you can see her eyes (on left of the circle) then the nose (middle circle) and mouth (open gap right in the middle of the picture under "2 OB"). Then in the bottom picture you see the same face but the mouth is no longer an open gap it is filled with white. That white is her tongue. Since it isn't tongue shaped it is hard to imagine but on the time lapse you could see it go in and out.

Baby is as far as we can tell healthy. There are no physical abnormalities. The big ones associated with IVF and ICSI is heart defects and she has all the heart parts she is supposed to.

I promise to try to think about updating more often ;)

Everything is OK

As stated before I had to have my gallbladder looked at. Everything looks fine (no stones) and the radiologist thinks it is "just heart burn." I know in pregnancy heart burn is a given but being diagnosed with GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease ) I know what heart burn feels like. I have heart burn every day of my life. I have also been asked "are you sure it is just not a pregnancy related stretching thing?" That I know it is not because it is only in one spot and it is way higher than my uterus even sits AND I have it while not pregnant too. Its just a burning right under the skin that goes to my back. Gets worse when I eat (especially fatty foods **oops had McDonalds last night**). I did a little search on Dr. Google and with the help of a coworker found that lemon water and apple cider are both supposed to help with gallbladder issues. I have been drinking those and while it may just be a power of the mind thing it seems to hurt less than it did.  Yesterday I didn't feel it at all.

In the rest of my life I have had an everlasting energy the past two weekends. This weekend I did 5 loads of laundry, cleaned the dog room (again), mopped the bathroom and kitchen (again), scrubbed the bathroom sink, toilet and tub, cleaned the livingroom and got M to her normal weekend activities. This was all on top of visiting my parents/sister on Saturday.

Unfortunately yesterday was day 2 of 15+ hour days and today won't be any better. I work my normal job 6-12 (with conferences at 10), go to work at daycare with the schoolagers as they are out of school for MEA until 6:30 then I have to race M across town so she can be at football game for dance. They need to be there at 6:30 and they won't dance until 8ish. To make a kindergartener do this just seems cruel to the parents. She is normally in bed at 8:30. Not a great way to insure they get a good preformance out of them but she is super excited so thats all that matters.

I would also like to point out I SCORED big on an infant swing! A folding up travel swing for $20!!! That will make trips to the parents easier!

Why can't it be easy

I would love an easy pregnancy. I'd love to get pregnant easily, stay pregnant easily and have a normal/healthy pregnancy. NOPE that's not who I am I guess. I brought up to my OB at my visit today that I've been having pains right under my right breast that starts at the edge of my ribs and wraps around to my back. I've noticed it since I was pregnant with M. It would hurt when I ate something I shouldn't but would go away. Since I got pregnant with this baby it has been a constant ache. Not really painful just annoying. It gets stronger when I eat and if I eat greasy foods but never bend over pain and hasn't put me into tears yet. This is the dialogue from my visit:
Dr: How you feeling today? Any new and exciting symptoms happening?
Me: Well I've got this pain, right about here *points* that goes into my back but its not sharp more like someone is rubbing sand paper inside against my ribs
Dr: Does it get worse when you eat
Me: Yes
Dr: Does it get worse when you eat greasy/fatty foods
Me: *between my teeth* Yes
Dr: OK you get to have an ultrasound today....
Me: Really yay!!!
Dr: On your gallbladder you may be having it removed.

Then he asked me to hop on the table, used to doppler to find the baby and the heartbeat is 154 and then pressed where the pain was. I let out a not so pleasant sounding noise and he called in the nurse to set up my ultrasound.

Since I had a bagel for breakfast they scheduled me for an ultrasound at 2 which will be sent to a surgeon to see if I get to have it removed. I was told as long as I was under 20 weeks they would still be able to do it. OB said until then avoid: fatty, greasy, cheesy, white and yellow foods. Unfortunately that takes away almost all of my food.

In all this fun excitement I forgot to go down to lab to get some blood work done so now I get to do that too. I am going to try to get the tech to just take a quick peek at the baby see how it looks while we are there! Fill ya in later how it went.

HAPPY TUESDAY.

17 weeks

Ok I'm lying I am actually 17 weeks on Wednesday but I figure I'm close enough considering baby has always measured 2-3 days ahead. I was going to come on and give some Canadian a little hell cause I still didn't get a comment even though I created a personal post but upon logging in blogger tells me someone left a message. Ooops my phone apparently doesn't alert me of that anymore. STUPID TECHNOLOGY.

I've mentioned before that I was a part of an online board for people with infertility correct? Yes? Great! Though I still frequent there I have been hanging out on a board for people who are due the same month as I am. Some due at the beginning of the month seem so far ahead of me while others due at the end of the month seem so far behind. Mostly it is filled with very heated debates over breastfeeding/formula, circumcision/intact, co-sleeping/not (don't know what the opposite of co-sleeping is called), vaccinations/non vax,  natural birth/medicated birth, OB/midwife/doula and I'm sure there are others but this is enough. Those topics get heated and never seem to end. They go in waves where someone will post about vaccinations and there will be 6-7 spin off threads about vaccinations. Then the next few days will be all vaccination questions. After that fizzles out they will pick up the next controversial topic. Other than those it is a lot about poop (happy it isn't you anymore Margie?), share food porn (please DON'T google it!!!) and pictures of shirtless men. There are the occasional "what is going on with me"  post explaining symptoms that are odd or new and the occasional "should I go to the ER" where it is clearly apparent they should and which diapers/bottles are better. It passes the time, makes me not take a sledge hammer to my house and at times **rarely** I get to give sound advise about child support/paternity/custody/step parent adoption and other things I have been through so it makes me feel good. **UPDATE** Just as I was typing this someone asked if anyone agreed that paternity tests should be given immediately after birth. I responded with "Nate and I joked about a paternity/maternity test cause who knows if this baby is even mine" and the response I got back was CRAZY. "you know it is yours cause it is in you" "how do you not know if it is yours? you are pregnant right" "THE BABY IS IN YOU ITS YOURS." If they read my signature on my post it says "IVF- 2 rounds of transfers" they would see that it is possible it's not. Baby was created in a lab and labs can screw up. **Announcement** We will NOT be getting a test done it was just joked about.

I also want to give a shout out to friends of ours J and B who had their babies on Sept 26. YES I said BABIES!!! They started IVF at the same time I found out we were in the trial and their twins were born at 32 weeks. From what I hear it was an eventful birth with a helicopter included but babies are already out of the NICU and should be able to come home by the end of the month! Congrats to J and B and babies B and J... Ohhh I see what you did there!! Just figured that out... I'm not bright lately

I have an OB appointment tomorrow. I promise I WILL update after that! maybe

AND NOW SOME PICTURES!!!

16 weeks the sign says 24 weeks to
go and baby is the size of an avocado.

This is my Halloween shirt
Nate thinks I'm a loser
M thinks it's actually the baby



So you don't have to Google it. This is food porn.
Food that makes you go "ooohhhhhh"



HI NATASHA!!!

Natasha is a friend of my sisters. I have never met her. For all I know she could be an imaginary friend from childhood that showed up again later in life to solve a life crisis and brought Canada mittens instead of a sweater stripey. *Drop Dead Fred Anyone* I know Natasha (real or imaginary) reads this blog because Mr. Google tells me so. She has never left a comment even though she is more than welcome to. I just get reviews from her through Margie. Come on Natasha show yourself!

So Hi Natasha! This one is for you!

Saturday I decided to cut off all my hair. It doesn't matter a whole lot that I cut it as my hair is normally styled in the ponytail fashion. 8 inches was cut off and when I went to go show husband he didn't even notice. Again cause it is always in a ponytail. Below are the before and after of the hair transformation. 

Before

After

Another before/after is that of my belly. I just so happen to be wearing the same outfit today as I did the day I officially found out I was pregnant. I see a bit of a difference. I feel quite a bit bigger than I was when pregnant with M. Granted I did start out a bit more fluffy this time (thank you fertility meds!)

19weeks with "M"

When I found out at 3w5d

Now at 14w5d

Sorry for the photos being all askew I'm working on an older than dirt computer and it won't let me format them.

P.S. id love some Canada mittens

Tuesday's appt

Went on Tuesday for our appointment. Nate thought we were there for an ultrasound but joke was on him it was just a standard visit. We heard and recorded the heart beat (I cant figure out how to put it on here) and it was at 174. I thought M would be more excited about the heartbeat but she just asked why the baby want talking. I have another appt in 3 weeks and on November 6th , should be able to find it the gender.