Sawyer in one of his BSRB diapers!

WOW! It's been a while

Well, quick update since I haven't blogged since right after Sawyer was born. He is doing great and came home after an 8 day stint in the hospital. He just turned 2-months-old back on the 8th and is growing like crazy! Don't remember Whisper being quite as big at this age. Daddy thinks he's gonna be a big boy! Tall and built well. Yay.....mommy's in for freaking out over her baby wanting to play football!
Not exactly 2-months-old in the picture since it looks like it's been a month since I loaded pics on the computer. Hmmm....swear it hasn't been that long!

Baby Jennings has arrived!

After a long day of somewhat irregular but progressively contractions on Wednesday we decided to head in to the hospital. I was in a lot of pain and due to our history was really concerned for the baby. Hubby called to see if we could go in and glad we didn't wait. They informed us over the phone that I was GBS+ with this pregnancy. Dunno why I was never told at my appointment since the test was done several weeks previous. We arrived shortly after 8pm that evening and after being examined by the nurse the on-call doctor had me admitted and started the antibiotics. I was dilated to 5cm, 70% effaced and my bag was bulging. My contractions were registering on the machine as coming more frequently than I had indicated. When I did feel them I was in a lot of pain. I eventually decided to get an epidural later that evening. That really helped me to feel better. At 12:40am Thursday morning they broke my water and for a while I progressed some more with the assistance of pitocin, but then I stalled for a good 4 hours even though the contractions were pretty intense on the monitor. Baby started having some decellerations as well but was recovering quickly. Stressed me out but the doctors kept saying he was okay. I eventually progressed to 8 1/2 cm and 90% but then my cervix started to swell. Ultimately the doctor decided a c-section was necessary which although not ideal I felt that it was the best way to go to get baby out safely. At 2:45pm our little man was delivered. He didn't do well on the apgars. First a 2 and then a 6 and he wasn't letting out that big loud cry that everyone wants to hear. His breathing was abnormal and he was grunting. Daddy did get to hold him briefly and show him to me but then they took him to the nursery while I was being finished up. They did bloodwork which indicated that he had an infection but they still don't know what exactly. They started antibiotics and the second round of bloodwork shows that his immune system is kicking in and working and the meds are working. The initial chest x-ray revealed nothing but the second one showed a tiny anterior hole. He's been under and oxygen tent but they've been progessively turning things down. They had to turn it up some Friday afternoon after some rapid breathing episodes. They repeated the chest x-ray fearing the worst but it came back clear with no sign of the hole. They were able to turn down the oxygen some more. I finally got to see ALL of him last night since I was finally strong enough to walk but still cannot hold him which is killing me. He let out some awesome cries last night while we were there. The first time either of us has heard him cry that well. Nurses said he's usually pretty quiet and the best baby in the nursery. Glad to hear him fussing though and we were certainly pissing him off. We had the nurse do his footprints in our baby book. As of this morning he's pretty much the same but the nurse told Eric that he did have some more rapid breathing and so far the pediatrician hasn't been up to see any of the babies. Hopefully we will know more soon. We were told yesterday to expect at least a 7-10 day stay for baby. I most likely will be discharged Sunday(tomorrow) so not sure I will get to hold baby before going home. Both the ped. and OB docs have recommended going home and try and get things back to normal before baby comes home. How that is possible is beyond me. Normal would be to bring baby home with me!

38 weeks and 4 days

So not a ton of progress other than baby's head is in the pelvis now and not off to the side. Yay! Unfortunately I'm scheduled for yet another appointment for next Friday with a different doctor in the practice. My doctor informed me today that he is out all next week. Yay..........more to stress about! I just want this baby out where he will be safe! So, if I make it to next Friday and believe me this stubborn little monkey probably will make sure of that, then they will schedule the induction some time for the week of the 12th! I don't want to freaking wait!

37 weeks and 4 days

So today's visit was a bit stressful. The stupid NST machine at the clinic is WAY too old! I wasn't even clicking the button indicating I was feeling baby move and it was marking that I had. The machine makes a click sound when you click it and if the wire connected to the clicker moved slightly it would register a click! Then it completely stopped doing anything. Plus baby decided he didn't want to cooperate. They had me downing ice cold water and poking baby. I had to pee so bad and peed several times after that while we wanted for the rest of my appointment. Next thing we had done was the ultrasound to check the fluid level. It is looking good and in the normal range. Baby has shifted some and is closer to heads down but not straight down. Close enough though and hopefully he stays that way!
I've made some progress from last week's fingertip dilated. I am currently about 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. Doctor says at least one more week. Praying we continue to make progress and baby stays at least mostly heads down.

Quick before I head to bed!

Appointment was quick today. Weight was up too much in my opinion but I think some of it is water weight.....I hope! Hb nice and strong and doc says my numbers look good. Got a slip for another ultrasound and scheduled that for next Tuesday. Another update on fetal growth and amniotic fluid.

Okay.....lagging behind a bit!

So I forgot post anything about my 34wk4dys apppointment. Nothing other than the usual everything looks good. Still doing good with the lovely GD. Well, other than dinner tonight and getting a 150 but I should have known better than to eat two biscuits with the sausage gravy! I was hungry and actually didn't eat the whole two since I gave some to Eric. Had apple too though which added to the carb load. So we are getting, or at least I am, quite anxious for this little guy to be here. I'm getting extremely uncomfortable. Something I do not remember experiencing with Ryleigh at all.

33 week 4 day OB appointment

My appointment went well today. Spent more time in the waiting room than in the exam room with the doctor. Everything is looking good. They got my u/s results from a little over 2 weeks ago. Baby was measuring then at 33wks6days which McKenna emphasized can be plus or minus so much. The estimated weight was 4pounds 10 ounces which again has a margin of error and the percentile was 42%. So he's not concerned about baby's size thus far. My belly is measuring on target as well. We also discussed not going past 40 weeks and he said that is usually the case but sometimes in the cervix isn't being favorable the question comes to letting baby cook longer or using the medications to soften the cervix. Though he said usually they do get things going around 39 weeks. That would be July 5th for getting things going which to me seems perfect! I see McKenna again next Friday afternoon and he said we will start the weekly non-stress tests in about two weeks. As for my sugar levels he said they look great. He only gets concerned when they are consistently high and like in the 160's and 170's. He says it doesn't look like I will need insulin since my #'s are looking great so far. Let's keep our fingers crossed! Well, think that's about it......and baby's hb was at 150 today.

Wednesday's apppointment, etc.

Forgot to post an update. Everything is looking good so far as we can tell. LOL........darn u/s results from the previous week were not in my file. Doctor said he would have the nurse look for them since the imaging center should have sent them right over! I go back next Friday so hopefully he has everything by then. Next week I start weekly appointments to make sure the GD stays under control and baby doesn't get too big, etc. I am so ready for baby to be here! Have a few more things to get ready but almost done. Nursery is all set up even though we won't be using it for more than clothing storage and the changing table. Baby will be rooming in with us as much as possible since we've also got the bassinet. So far the last thing we need for baby is to order the cloth diaper rental and whatnot from Nell. Don't need to do that for a few more weeks though. Still trying to get other things done around the house. Need to get the new stove soon and then get everything ordered for the fence that Eric is going in install in the front yard. Really looking forward to that. Then we will have a safe and dog poop free area for Whisper to play and enjoy the summer! The backyard is safe but I wanted a place for the kids that is completely dog poop free!

May 5 OB appointment

Gonna make this quick since dinner will be ready soon! The visit was a long one but necessary. I was stressed over significantly less movement. Long story short everything is fine and was about to be given jellybeans when he decided to kick things up a notch. Doctor wanted to see more accelerations and guess baby doesn't like jellybeans since when the nurse said she might just have to give me some baby decided to give us the readings we needed to be allowed to go home. Whisper got a jellybean though! Glad I didn't get any because I HATE jellybeans!
So my weight is down 2 pounds from a month ago. Stresses me out but doctor was okay with it. Because of the GD diagnosis I will be going in for an ultrasound within the next couple weeks. Will call and schedule that on Monday. As long as I go in enough time for results for my May 19th appointment everything should be fine. Currently measuring as I should but doctor wants to take extra precautions. I know it's too soon but I'm ready for baby to be here!

Feed Your Stash Friday

Today is almost over! Yay but tomorrow will suck too!

So I got the dreaded call this AM from the clinic and new what they were going to say before even picking up the phone. After all the letter that came with my 3 hour carb loading diet and fasting instructions stated that they would ONLY call if they had bad news. Yes I have gestational diabetes. So I've been referred to some education thing and they are supposed to take care of educating, getting my my equipment, etc. Was told they would be calling and to expect a class Wednesday evening...........which yes is tomorrow and we waited all day for someone to call and as expected NO phone call! My luck they will call tomorrow and say you have to be there tonight. Not a problem but uber annoying! As serious as everything and everyone makes this out to be you think they'd want to get things going right away!
So guess we will see what happens from here. The finger pricking will be bad enough but worse case scenario needing drugs, which mind you haven't been full tested or fully approved for pregnancy use, scares the crap out of me and as for insulin injections I don't think I could do it so pray it only needs to be done when Eric is here. Even then not sure I can handle it. I know it may be necessary and is for the baby but I don't do needles. Always have to close my eyes, turn my head and still feel like I'm going to keel over when I have blood drawn. Not from the amount of blood being drawn but the act of it being drawn, the needle, etc. So praying things can be kept under control with diet and exercise.
Everyone keeps saying relax, you'll be fine but that is a bunch of crap. You walk in the shoes I've been walking in for over a year now and then see how you feel. I was for the most part managing the stress/anxiety of this whole pregnancy pretty damn good until this whole GD thing. It was bad enough having to deal with the anxieties of something going wrong like they did last time and now this, which increases the odds of something going wrong. Even when things are monitored closely with or without the GD things can go wrong. Everything is fine one moment and then BAM! not the next. The online support boards have helped but there are also the stories that aren't so helpful. Reading the story of a mother who had all the monitoring under the sun, showing no sign of trouble, baby being fine during a NST and ultrasound one afternoon to be gone by the next morning doesn't help with being optimistic!
Good night!

Ordered my first fluff!

Well, figured today was the perfect day to take the plunge in to cloth diapering! Was planning on ordering a few accessories to begin with but due to really nasty problems, specifically at night time, I decided to try out a few of the one size grows with baby(8-35 pounds) AIO's and pocket diapers on Whisper. If she'll let me put them on her! Going to tell her they are special pretty night time diapers!
Even though we have a plan for newborn diapers already and hadn't planned on trying some others out in a trial pack where you can return what you don't like we decided it was worth trying a few right now at least for night time. Wish us luck! I think it will be a good change and at least we will be contributing less to the landfill!

4/9/2010 appointment

Just a quick update. Repeat ultrasound results are perfect as we expected! Heartrate today was at 147 and I'm measuring as I should. My weight gain is slowing down a bit but not too much. Thank God! Next appointment is May 5th.

22w2d doctor appointment

So all is well, or at least we hope so. Baby's heart rate is great and I'm measuring just as I should. The doctor has ordered a follow-up ultrasound. He wasn't happy with some of the images particularly the heart and umbilical cord insertion. He isn't overly concerned and said my quad screen came back fine which indicates that everything should be okay. So we go in on Monday for the follow-up ultrasound. Will update then.

20 Week Ultrasound

Went great! HB was at 142, estimated weight so far of 14 ounces and baby was stubborn and squirmy! Wouldn't give us a profile shot no matter how hard we tried but HE was certainly not shy about showing us that he is ALL boy!

18 week appointment

My appointment went well. Saw a med student today as well as my doctor. Med student did everything and then the doctor came in and we talked briefly. The baby's heartrate was 139. I had originally planned on taking the at home doppler we received from tinyheartbeats.org. This morning when I decided I should make sure the batteries worked against what I kept telling myself I decided to try it out. Of course, as I knew deep down would happen I only could find my own heartrate. So when Eric got home from work I confessed to him what I had done and that it was stressing me out so he said he'd give it a try. He immediately found the heartrate of the baby. It was 147 and then baby moved and he found it again and it was 155. So he's either a genius or he got lucky! I learned my lesson to never use it by myself and always have daddy do it!
I also went this afternoon to have my blood drawn for the quad screening. Hopefully that will come back fine. Otherwise I imagine we will be having other testing....ie advanced ultrasound. I know amnio is also an option but after reading about that I am choosing against that. It won't change the outcome of this pregnancy and the u/s should be able to see any problems.
I scheduled my regular 20 week ultrasound and have it scheduled for 20 weeks exactly on Monday February 22nd with a check in of 2:45. Cannot wait! Want to know that everything looks good with baby and find out if we are having a boy or girl.

Wants, Needs, Will Not's, Will Do's, Wishes, Etc.'s.....a list in progress that I will continue to add to as I think of things

Okay so here I'm finding myself unable to sleep, wide awake and thinking about a million things. I've talked about some of these things with Eric, well pretty much all of them. With some he has pursuaded me to change my mind from my orignal idea/thought to what I will list. Just a list of how I want things to be. Please don't take offense and if you have ideas or suggestions they are welcome. I just need to have some control over how things are going to be before, during and after the baby arrives. We had no control last time with how things happened so maybe I'm being a little crazy this time but I have every right to be. That Eric agrees with!


1. It is a given that I want this baby to be healthy so please don't be offended if I say something along the lines of wanting the baby to be born alive. It urks me to no end when someone says in regards to this baby and being born healthy, especially when they know about Ryleigh. Of course I want this baby to be healthy but Ryleigh was healthy too! She just wasn't born alive! Eric said saying "alive" sounds morbid but it's just the honest truth and when I explained to him what I meant he said it made sense. Healthy is a given. No parent is going to wish otherwise.

2. Whisper, MUST sleep in her own bed when we are at the hospital. Having this baby invading her life and turning it upside down is more than enough for her to deal with. Plus I've read horror stories of the older sibling staying away from home and then never wanting to go where they stayed while mommy and daddy were away. We figure since both sets of grandparents will be nearby that someone will be able to stay here at the house with Whisper.

3. We are going to need our own special time once the baby arrives. I've agreed with Eric that if people want to hang out at the hospital that is fine but we will be taking time just the 3 of us and when we are ready then people will be allowed in.

4. We'd really like Whisper to be the first to meet the new baby and have some time as the 4 of us. That is if she is even allowed on the maternity ward. I know right now they have rules against children under a certain age being on the maternity ward and ICU. Hopefully by July they won't be so strict or can make exceptions. So obviously someone will have to bring her in. As much as Kerry would like to be here she has jury duty in July so dunno that she is an option so maybe Auntie Amy. Just briefly to bring Whisper in. Otherwise it will have to be all of the grandparents and Whisper. Dunno who all will be hanging out besides grandparents but I personally have no desire for the whole world to crowd on in. Also, maybe I'm being crazy but in the case baby arrives via C-section I sure as hell hope I get to see baby before everyone else does. Read a woman's experience of everyone else seeing the baby and even holding the baby while she was in recovery. That's not cool. I'm fine with Eric sharing info but a woman should never be the last one to meet her new baby!

5. Family is more than welcome to be at the house and help out but visitors family or otherwise need to not show up unannounced. Also, since I will be attempting breastfeeding please don't be offended if you are asked to leave when baby wants to eat. I probably won't be able to physically haul my butt upstairs to the bedroom every time it's feeding time. So most likely the couch will be where I sit.
I will not have success at breastfeeding if others other than Eric and Whisper are in the room. I don't like an audience under any circumstances. Some people say once you've given birth once you really don't care but I do care! I won't be the woman who's story is in the birthing class video we have. The teacher went to see how one of her students was after having just given birth. She walks in to see an older gentleman that she knows isn't the father sitting in a corner looking terrified. The new mom is sitting on the bed in only her thong underwear, crosslegged and topless breastfeeding her baby!

6. I know some people may be against any type of baby shower or celebration for us and the baby but I really want one and want pictures and happy memories for the baby book. I know it's also probably against ettiquette to say what you do and don't want but there are so many dessert options there is no need for the nasty traditional cake with nasty sweet frosting. Nor is there need for the traditional games. Since it will be summer time I think some sort of BBQ or picnic type thing with an affordable main option and salads and desserts(ie. pies, icecream) would be fun. Of course I know the food for X number of people can get spendy and I'd rather have help with what we might need for baby so this is all just an idea but I'm sure we could come up with something affordable to do some time in late July/early August. This baby deserves to be celebrated and welcomed in to the family.

7. Please if there's a possibility of the child's name eliciting a nickname do not under any circumstances start calling the child by the nickname unless we do. Our top boy name elicits something I find quite rude and when we've mentioned the name in the past at least one family member has made fun of the name. I know it's something that will be said by stupid kids at school but pretty much with any name kids are going to come up with something. Family shouldn't be the one being rude with nicknames.

8. Please for the love of God blankets are awesome and so are stuffed animals but if another one comes in to this house as a gift I will regift it right back to you! We have so many and we won't need blankets in July and when the time comes to use blankets we have plenty and plan on using the ones that we especially made for Ryleigh. As for stuffed animals since we bought one special for Whisper when she came in to our home this baby will get one special one either from our personal collection or from the store if we can find one. Have looked but haven't found the right one. Also, there are a lot of items that we do have that we can reuse. What I think we may need the most of are cloths. Even if the baby is a girl all of Whisper's newborn stuff is winter time stuff. I know there are some items that will work but not everything. If you aren't sure what we might need do please ask. Even we aren't for sure since we need to go through what we have and see what will and what won't work. It will be some time until we do that because I mentioned wanting to find the gift basket of gender neutral stuff from Debbie, Kim and the girls and Eric said nothing was coming out until after the baby is born. He seriously meant nothing. Not even the bassinet!

9. At this point my WISH is for the baby to come some time after July 4th but before July 12th. Hoping for a planned induction and I've read a million and one opinions on going that route but after what we have been through and people's personal stories of loss I do not desire to go in to labor at home. I want it planned out and to be monitored from beginning to end. The doctor did mention doing it around 37 weeks but then we would have to consult with a second doctor to deem it medically necessary. I'm hoping the extra monitoring I will be having starting in another 9 to 11 weeks will keep me from losing my mind as we approach the week in which we lost Ryleigh. Making it to 39 weeks without going crazy is my goal.

10. Ummm, gonna leave it at this for now. I will either come back and add or add in other posts as things come up.

14 Week Appointment

Just letting everyone know that my appointment went well although my blood pressure was up from the usual. Nothing to be concerning though. Probably because I was stressed about having left my urine at home and what distracted me causing me to leave it at home probably didn't help matters either. I've never forgotten it but was distracted by a text message from Michelle.....friend and coworker from the day care. She said she got a call right before the holidays from L&I suggesting that she, Kim and Amber go to small claims court together to get their money from Shannon. Also somehow they got information that Kylie filed with L&I but withdrew her claim and that Mary and I didn't claim. I did and have the paperwork to prove it. Not sure why Mary wouldn't and as for Kylie she barely worked any hours in September and is friends with Shannon's daughter. She probably got her money.
Anyhow, this baby is going to make me fat and I've gained a lot more so far this time than I did with Ryleigh. With her I lost a few early on before starting to put it back on.
In 14 weeks according to the office scale I've gained almost 8 pounds. According to the home scale only just over 5 though. I do have to take in to account taking it at a different time of day but even with taking it in the mornings at home and afternoons at the office the scales have been on track exactly with each other until today. So maybe just a little bloated or something this afternoon. Dunno. For my weight/height range the recommendation is 15-20 total weight gain. I certainly have noticed the difference so far with needing maternity pants sooner and even those that I have seem tight in the hip and thigh area, but one size up and I'm swimming.
Anyhow, we have a mover, squirmer, dancer, racetrack driver.....dunno. Baby doesn't like to hold still! First time we heard the hb he had to ask to hold my pants down where he'd positioned them. The digital screen was facing my belly and he needed to turn it over. It read 147 and then baby immediately moved. So he tried again and baby held still long enough to get a reading of 154. So everything appears to be going well..........and my feeling better over the weekend was short lived. Threw up 3 times today! The most I've ever done in one day and although the nausea has really had me down through the whole first trimester until now, my official first day of the 2nd trimester, I've only actually thrown up maybe 4 times. So next visit is February 8th and I'll go get the quad screening bloodwork done then and will also get paperwork to schedule the 20 week ultrasound at Inland Imaging. If we are able to find out the gender we most likely will. Probably will share gender with friends and family but we don't plan to share possible names. That will remain a surprise and we don't even plan on settling on one till after the baby has arrived.

BabyQ

So I was reading a post on babycenter.com and just had to laugh. This is an awesome idea for those having babies in the summer time and I actually saw this on a Clifford episode I was watching with Whisper. They had a BBQ to celebrate the arrival of a new baby. I love the idea of having a BBQ with family and friends, yummy food, chatting, gifts for us and or the baby. Since we don't know if we are having a boy or a girl and even if it is a girl not all of Whisper's stuff will work seasonwise so we will definately need a few things especially clothing. Winter outfits just won't work middle of summer! Boo.
This time around I don't want a shower before the baby arrives and I don't want the traditional baby shower agenda, schedule.....whatever you'd like to call it! No cake, punch and games for me please! Honestly don't want to see or eat another cake till Whisper turns 3! Cake sounds really gross right now unless it's cheesecake!
I know some people like to stick to the traditional but we NEED things to be different this time and the whole BBQ idea sounds like a lot of fun. Of course it requires more work and definately have to send out invites well in advance to get a head count.