Baby Brother

Today I had my monthly ultrasound check-up and since it was at 8:15 in the morning and didn't interfere with nap time we decided to take Riley to see if it helped her understand that her baby brother is on his way.  Riley has been acting up lately and we think it's partly because she's feeling the pinch of baby brother's arrival since we've been getting his room ready.  We hoped that getting her involved would help her grasp that baby brother was coming.  Riley wasn't quite sure what was going on but when the Dr came in she got totally into in.  The Dr went straight to his face so that she could see and we got some great pictures of his face.  The Dr even printed off a couple so that Riley could take them to school for show and tell during circle time.  Riley clung to the pictures the entire way.  When we got to school Riley ran into her class and straight to her teacher yelling "Look at my baby brother!"  All of the kids crowded around and Riley showed the picture of her brother who is "in mommy's tummy!" 

Our little man posing for us

Riley asked baby brother to move his hands so she could see his face

Proud big sister showing all of her friends at school her baby brother

All went well at the ultrasound, I've been having contractions so they checked to make sure I wasn't progressing and all looks good so they are just Braxton-Hicks so that's a good thing.  The baby is actually on the small side for the first time all pregnancy.   I was worried at first that we were headed down the same path as we did with Riley but the Dr said he looks great, he's only measuring 2 days behind his due date and that we probably just have small babies and that's ok.  He's currently weighing in at 4lbs 7oz (at 33 1/2 weeks) which is what Riley weighed when we brought her home from the hospital so he'll be bigger than she was, just not 8lbs, which I suppose isn't a bad thing for me! 

And our little adventure seems to have worked because for the first time Riley referred to her brother as her brother and not her sister and called him by his correct name!

Karma?

What's my karma for having a 4lb 14oz baby the first time around?  A big boy that at 30 weeks already weighs in at 3lbs 13oz, just a pound less than Riley was when she was born at 36 weeks!  BIG FAT OY!  We had our 30 week ultrasound today and all looks good.  The ultrasound tech kept saying "Oh, you have a good sized baby in there."  He was seriously freaking me out.  We finally asked what that means, he said "Above average."  Above average indeed, this kid is 62nd percentile and is measuring over a week bigger than his gestational age!   We asked and "average" is 6.5-7.5 lbs, they're thinking like 8 lbs for him!  Can I order my epidural now? 

But in all seriousness, it all looks good in there, I was getting worried because I wasn't feeling as much movement, just twists and twitches in the last week but my OB said that was probably because he was running out of room and sure enough, he's doing just great in there, amniotic fluids are good around him, he's growing quite nicely, and mommy only gained a pound this month.  And yes, he's still a boy, 100% confirmation on that front! :)  Oh and he's cute as a button, he had both hands in front of his face for most of the ultrasound but we got a few cute shots of the little, er, big guy! 

When Average Is Good

Today we went for our monthly ultrasound to check the little guy's growth and everything is going perfect!  He is measuring average, at the 52nd percentile (average) which puts him in at 1lb 14oz and still has him measuring a day ahead of his due date.  Everything else looks great too, the fluid around him looks good, he's still super active, he's now head down and he did not like the ultrasound wand pushing against him.  We also saw him open and close his eyes which the tech doing the ultrasound said that you normally don't see at 25 weeks so that was pretty cool!

Here are some pictures of our little man, I think he's looking less like Riley and Marc in these than in the previous ultrasounds.  Yes!  My genetics may actually stand a chance!

His profile with his feet up at his mouth, quite impressive!

Face with hand up by his eye

He sure does like his hand up at his eye

And the Hits Keep Coming

Yesterday Marc and I went in for what we thought was our last ultrasound. Our Dr (the perinatal specialist) basically wanted to see what we chose to do to treat Riley's feet since he's the one who diagnosed us and he likes to find out what his patients choose to do so he can pass along the info to other parents who get the diagnosis. He also said he would measure her and let us know how big he thought she would be if she went to 40 weeks. Our appointment was at 8 and we left at 10:30 if that gives you any indication of how the day went.

Riley was of course head down in my cervix like we expected, we didn't really get to see her face because she is facing my back (which is a good thing for delivery) and we saw bits and pieces of body parts. She gave us the thumbs up as she has done since she started flexing her fingers. We didn't get to see her feet because she was all tucked up and her back was facing my front. We couldn't really see much of the whole her because she's gotten so much bigger she doesn't all fit on the screen. The good news is all of her organs are where they are supposed to be and blood is circulating through her body like it should be. There's still enough amniotic fluid so that wasn't a concern. Now the bad news...she's not big enough. She's basically about 4lbs right now which means 90% of babies at 36 weeks are bigger than her. (Marc thought she was barely 4lbs but I thought I saw the measurements predicting her to be about 4lbs 14oz currently which is almost 5lbs) Either way if she went the full 40 weeks (which she might but at this point since I am 3cm and 70% effaced she probably won't) she wouldn't even break 6lbs for a birth weight (she should be gaining a 1/4 of a pound a week) so the Dr. was worried she might not be tolerating being in utero anymore.

He moved us to another room for a non-stress test (which is enough to stress you out!!!). Basically they hooked me up to heart monitors, then they hooked up a fetal heart monitor for her, and then they put another monitor on me to track my contractions. Essentially they were looking to see varying heart rates and how she was tolerating my contractions. I was contracting quite often but since they are still so mild I didn't feel most of them. They measure contractions on a scale of 0-100 and my strongest was a 35, so nothing too uncomfortable. Riley did fine for the test, of course she was stubborn and kept moving so it was hard to keep the monitor in the right spot to get a consistent read on her heart beat so we were there forever. At the end of the exam the Dr told me right now she looks like a small, healthy baby. I now have to go Tuesdays and Fridays for the rest of the pregnancy for these non-stress tests. So we will know more next week as they monitor her more, I like to think of yesterday as a baseline for her monitoring. As long as she keeps tolerating varying levels of activity and assuming she grows they'll let her stay there until she's ready to come out on her own, if she can't tolerate it in there then they will deliver her early and hope that she does better outside in the nursery. The Dr. did say at 36 weeks were golden as far as development goes, they just want to figure out why she's so small. Tuesday we have another non-stress test (NST) and then Friday we have another NST along with an ultrasound to see if the amniotic fluids are still at a normal level. If she's still not born by Jan. 30 then we go for another ultrasound where they will measure her again to see how much she's grown.

So the hits keep coming! I was really hoping that this time around we would get a good report, since at 27 weeks she was right on schedule in terms of predicted weight. I've also always measured about where I should be when I go to the Dr. except for this week when I was measuring 34cm instead of 36cm but since Riley had dropped into my cervix my Dr. had attributed the smaller measuring to the fact that she was in birthing position. Part of me wants her to be born because I think we will only know what the deal is once she is here (plus I am so uncomfortable) but the other part of me wants her to stay put to ensure she grows and is healthy. All I can do is trust my Dr.s these days and hope for the best, but still I wonder, why us? Why do we get the baby with all the problems? I have done everything right this pregnancy (other than being a excercise slacker), I always take my prenatals, cut out bad foods and still we get stuck with the constantly worrying about one potential problem after another. And why her, she's just an innocent little life. Meanwhile crackheads give birth to perfectly healthy babies. Is this my punishment for wanting her so badly?

Well here are the two pictures we got of her:

Her chin, lips and nose:

I know her hand is in this one for sure, I just can't tell what everything else is, I think her head is in it too (you might need to click on this one to make it bigger, I labeled where her hand is):

Rollercoaster

Emotional rollercoaster that is!

We had a rough weekend. Friday we went to the perinatal clinic for our routine 20 week ultrasound where they do an anatomy scan of the baby. All was going well, the baby was cooperating, moving around a lot, they looked at her genitals and she was indeed a girl, and she grew a ton. Then the ultrasound technician went to get the Doctor and he came in and started focusing on her heart and brain and didn't say much to us. We started to get a little worried but then he said he sometimes gets in his zone and forgets to talk to his patients and it gets them worried. He asked me who my OB was and what I did, made chit chat with us. Then he dropped the bomb that no new parent, or any parent ever wants to hear...."Your baby has some birth defects that have me concerned." We were in shock, 7 weeks ago they told us we had a perfectly normal, healthy baby and Friday our baby girl had birth defects. He then showed us what he was seeing. Our daughter has 2 clubfeet and another condition called clinodactyl, which basically means her pinkies curve in instead of being straight. The fingers aren't considered a birth defect but since she has curved fingers and club feet he was concerned. If he had seen one but not the other he wouldn't have been worried but since he saw both conditions he wanted to do an amniocentisis to test for Down's Syndrome. Marc and I were in a state of shock, two weeks ago I was my OBs star patient and now we were talking birth defects.

So we did the amnio, I hide in Marc's arm and cried the whole time, mostly because it hurt. The Doctor said he's done 4,000-6,000 and this one was text book and she didn't even know he was there. Marc later said he watched it on the screen and he went in between her legs and took the fluid while he legs were wiggling around it. They showed us the fluid, which looks a lot like pee, and they told us it was clear which is what they like to see. Then we met with the Genetic Counselor who was super nice and explained everything they were looking for, the office there is so compasionate and the Doctor came in several times to see how we were doing. I kept asking how this could be happening to us since I was only 29 and our first trimester screening gave us a 0.1% chance of having a baby with Down Syndrome. So we went over what they saw on the ultrasound and basically the only thing that worried them were her feet and her pinkies, everything else was normal, her brain, her heart, and her limbs (which usually show signs of Down Syndrome). At 5:30 we finally left the clinic, my appointment was at 2:45 and I was sent home on basically bed rest for the weekend to reduce the risk of miscarriage that amnio's can cause. We went home in a state of shock. The weekend was absolutely draining for us as we tried to wrestle with the fact that we could possibly be the 1 baby in 900 (the odds they gave us in our first trimester screening). I hardly slept, Marc was a wreck, Homer was a sweet boy, I think he sensed our moods. We told our neighbors who were so supportive and both brought me a bouquet of flowers.

Then it was Monday and it was the waiting game. At 10:30 I got off of a conference call and walked Homer because I was going crazy sitting around waiting, I worked at home since I didn't want to get the news in the office. Marc had confiscated my cell phone because I was too afraid to hear the news myself. While I was walking Homer the call came, and the news was what we had hoped for. Based on the amnio she has a 99.96% chance of not having Down Syndrome, Trisomy 13 or Trisomy 18. And she's definitely a girl. We're still waiting to hear about Spina Bifida but they were less concerned about that because we have seen her move her legs in the ultrasounds and her spine looks fine in the ultrasounds. So next week we get the full results but they are confident that we have a healthy baby with club feet.

So what does that mean? Treatment on clubfeet is very successful. Before she's born we will meet with a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and talk to him about the ultrasound and talk about a treatment plan. She will most likely be in casts her first 6 weeks of life as they gradually work her feet back into position (fortunately clubfeet is caused by tight ligaments and tendons and not deformed bones), they will have to change her casts every week in the first 6 weeks. After that she will have her casts changed every 2 weeks until they are in the proper position. Then she will have to wear braces at night. When she starts standing and walking she won't have to wear the braces as much because her ligaments will be strong enough to stay in place. Within a few years no one will know she was born with clubfeet. Kristie Yamaguchi had club feet and several NFL players were born with it as well so her treatment looks good, especially since we hope to start it shortly after birth. My mom is happy because that means lots of dresses (which I normally wouldn't put her in) because of the casts. There is no treatment for the fingers, but it won't affect her motor skills. We also have an appointment on Friday at a pediatric cardiologist for a fetal echocardiogram since Marc had a heart murmur. They are just sending us as a precautionary measure since Marc was born with a heart murmur even though they didn't see anything wrong with her heart.

One thing Marc and both learned out of this whole ordeal is how incredibly much we love this little person! We also learned what a wonderful support system we have, we have the most supportive family and friends and we and our baby girl are so lucky.

So all iss well that ends well and our little girl is going to be just fine!

Here are Marc and Homer taking a nap, I saw them when I was coming downstairs from my nap and I couldn't resist, they looked so cute together.

Here are the two pictures they gave us of her, the top is her profile and the bottom is confirmation that she's a girl...it looks like a real tooshy now!

And at long last and after many requests, a picture of my baby bump at 21 1/2 weeks!

Finally in the Cards

Well the cards finally aligned and the baby finally opened his/her legs, well enough to see the gender, and it's a...GIRL! We knew within a few minutes of being there and we got 3 pictures confirming her girlness. We're very excited to finally know that we are having a daughter and now are on pink, brown, and sage green mode. :) Her room's sage green, which we painted even before we decided to start trying and figured it would be good for a boy or a girl so now we get to accent with pink.

We ended up doing the 3D ultrasound to be sure we got the detail to confirm the gender and it was really cool. Of course she still looks so skinny because she's just starting to accumulate fat but I think she has Marc's full cheeks, so cute, and I am sure we are going to love mutchking (Yiddish for cuddling) them! We saw her swallow a few times and she stuck out her tongue, it was so cute. The lady doing the ultrasound said it was pretty common for babies to stick out their tongue when they swallow in the womb. She also opened her mouth which we were able to see. We also saw her sucking her fingers and thumbs and we got a few smiles from her. Of course she loves to have her legs crossed and feet tucked under her bottom. I realized the other night that I sit like that on the couch when I watch TV. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

At dinner Marc and I were talking and he asked if I was excited to have a little scrapbooking partner and I got really excited. I've been thinking of all the fun stuff I could buy to create her scrapbooks but I never thought that one day we can scrap together. I got so excited, it's going to be so much FUN!

So here are some pictures we got of our daughter (I'm leaving off the three photos that show she is a girl - I don't want to embarrass her too much)! It still amazes me that 8 weeks ago she looked like a jelly bean and now she looks like a real baby. We have an anatomy scan in 4 weeks so it will be fun to see how much she has changed in a month.

Just Posing:

Striking another pose:

A picture of her smiling:

We got lots of smiles from her:

When she swallowed amniotic fluid she stuck out her tongue a few times:

Stretching:

Finally, sucking her thumb

Things I've Already Learned

Marc and I decided to surprise my parents for their 40th Anniversary by taking them to a 3D ultrasound place so that they could see the baby and also so we could find out the sex of the baby. We thought it would be a nice present for them, plus we would benefit by finding out if we were having a son or daughter (yes, slightly selfish but it was a win for everyone - or so we thought). I did all my prep work, ate a healthy breakfast an hour and a half before my appointment and then drank a bunch of juice a half hour before my appointment to ensure the baby was active. Unfortunately the place was running about an hour behind so all of that did nothing for us. We decided to just do the 2D ultrasound because my Dr. wasn't too keen on us doing a 3D ultrasound and receiving medical advice from someone other than her or the Drs at the perinatal clinic. So we decided on going on the 2D route.

We got into our appointment and my parents' first view of their grandchild was his/her back. Yes, what a great first impression, the only nice part was we could see all of the bones that have developed over the past month. Apparently our child is camera shy, something we will change when it's born, he/she wanted nothing to do with showing us his/her stuff. No matter how hard I willed the baby to move around he/she insisted on keeping his/her legs crossed, knees bent and feet tucked underneath his/her bottom. Hey, at least if the baby is a girl, she's modest! I mean for crying out loud, I am going to change it's diaper 9-14 times a day when it's a newborn, the least the baby could do is let me know what I am going to be looking at. So again, our baby was stubborn. My parents got to see the spine, heart beating beautifully of course, we saw the baby swallow for the first time (I've read the baby has started swallowing amniotic fluid to practice digesting for when it is born so that was super cool), and we even saw the baby flex it's fingers like it was waving hi at us. The baby has grown so much since our 11 week ultrasound, it's really amazing. And what amazes me most is that we saw the baby stretch his/her legs out and I had no idea other than the fact that we saw it stretched out. I am sure soon enough he/she will start poking me all over. Unfortunately, we left still not knowing if this child of ours is our son or our daughter. The place agreed to let us come back Tuesday night for another go.

So things I have learned about parenthood so far:

1. Impending parenthood makes you overly fiscally responsible. I spent $100 last month on my credit card, the lowest my balance has been since I was in college! I guess it helps I can't really shop since most clothes either don't fit or won't fit soon. I could still buy shoes which I must admit has been tempting but then guilt sets in and I decide to save the money for stuff for the baby. I feel like one of those State Farm commercials, "I'm there."

2. When you are a parent, or are waiting to be a parent you have no control whats-so-ever over anything! This has been the hardest lesson for Marc and I to learn as we embark on this adventure. For two people who work so hard to shape their own destiny and pave their paths the way we envision it there are so many variables that we have no control over and it is very hard for us. No matter how hard we try we can't control what the baby will be (i.e. boy or girl), how our appointments will go, whether the baby will cooperate at appointments, and most importantly that the baby is developing ok and is healthy. For two ubber planners this has been a hard lesson for us to learn. The unpredictability of everything can be almost too much to bear for us at times. But we are learning. :)

3. No matter how much you will your child to do something, it's going to do what it wants to do. I semi-learned this lesson at the perinatal clinic when the baby wasn't cooperating there, I apologized repeatedly for our baby's actions, or lack there of, and they told me to never apologize for our baby's actions. Yesterday was yet another example of how no matter how much we will the baby to cooperate or want the baby to do something, the baby is going to do what it wants. Our mission is to guide the baby in later life so that he/she channels his/her strong-willed/stubbornness and uses it for success.

Stay tuned and cross your fingers that little baby Margulious cooperates for us on Tuesday!

Here are some pictures they sent us home with yesterday:

Baby's Profile, so cute!

"Hi Mom & Dad, guess what I am?"

"I'm not telling nahnahnahnah!"

The baby is already doing "Tummy time"