If you haven't noticed my new layout reveals our baby girl's name. We've decided to name her Stella Grace. We love her name! We debated for awhile and then came to the conclusion that we couldn't name her anything else. We've been talking to her for months and we always call her Stella. How could we not name her Stella?
My appointment went well this morning. It was nice to have a normal, "I'm feeling great!" appointment. My bump is measuring right on track. I heard her heartbeat! I asked my doctor if there was any way to tell how she was positioned by feeling her move. I told her she was moving all the time and it feels like she's right underneath my skin. She replied with "Let's just look at see!" She whipped out the ultrasound machine and within seconds I saw our baby girl. One of her hands kept moving in front of her face. Her little mouth was opening and closing. My doctor said she was absolutely beautiful. I quickly agreed. I love my doctor and her spur of the moment ultrasounds!
Merry Christmas, a little late! Oh and Happy New Year!
Josh and I have been home with our families in North Carolina. It was so nice to "get away" for the week of Christmas. Now we feel refreshed and ready to take on the world again. Josh went back to work this morning. I went to our doctor's office for my three hour glucose tolerance test. I passed!
Here are my results:
* I couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight last night.
7:50 AM - My finger was pricked. My blood sugar level was 68. I had to drink two 50 mg bottles of "the orange drink." I only had ten minutes to drink both bottles.
8:00 AM - I finished the bottles on time...yuck!
9:00 AM - My finger was pricked an hour later. My blood sugar level was 156.
10:00 AM - My finger was pricked two hours later. My blood sugar level was 121.
11:00 AM - My finger was pricked three hours later. My blood sugar level was 56.
I'm going to spend the rest of the day packing up Christmas decor and cleaning our house. I want to start getting things ready for our baby girl. My parents bought her some closet organizers that I can't wait to get set up. I am going to start washing her clothes and blankets. I want to get everything organized. This is my only week off work before she arrives!
I've got an appointment tomorrow at 9:30 AM. It's my 28 week appointment. We've got appointments every two weeks now. Exciting!!!
Wow! I'm 26 weeks pregnant! I can't believe how quickly time flies during pregnancy. It sure didn't fly by when we were trying to get pregnant. I wish it were the other way around. I love being pregnant. As I'm typing right now she is moving and kicking. It's fun to watch. I decided to turn some music on for her. We're listening to a few songs from the Mamma Mia soundtrack. I'll take a video of her moving soon and post it.
Josh and I had an appointment yesterday. Everything went well. My bump is measuring perfectly -- 26 weeks. We listened to her heartbeat for a few seconds. I had my glucose test too. My doctor pricked my finger an hour after I drank that orange drink. By the way, the orange drink isn't that bad. It tastes like orange soda. My level was 140. She said it was right on the border so I am going to have the 3 hour glucose tolerance test after Christmas -- December 28th. It's at 8 AM. I'm not supposed to eat or drink anything after midnight. Then I think this following will happen at my appointment: draw my blood, drink the orange drink, draw my blood after an hour and draw my blood after two hours. If my levels are high then I'll be diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I'll have to go on a strict diet, prick my finger four times a day and have more monitoring appointments to make sure the baby isn't getting too big. I talked with a few girls at work today. Most said they had it or had friends that had it. They all said the babies that were born around 8 to 9 pounds, and were 2 to 3 weeks early. I'm not familiar with gestational diabetes. Any words of wisdom?
Here's a definition of Gestational Diabetes:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/gestational-diabetes/DS00316
I have wonderful friend that will become a mother through the miracle of adoption...in two weeks! Her name is Q and I've blogged about her in the past. We've both been there for each other during fertility treatments. It's a blessing to know that we will both be mothers very soon. Q is adopting a baby girl that is scheduled to arrive on December 29th. This afternoon we celebrated with a baby shower for Q and her daughter, Mary Katherine. It was so much fun! I can't wait to see Mary Katherine in Q's arms. Q will be an amazing mother!
It's been a hectic week at school. My entire first grade classroom has to be packed in boxes for a moving company by next Thursday. My school district built my school an early childhood center. It's wonderful and I can't wait to be in my brand new classroom but the move just didn't come at a good time. I'm supposed to be taking it easy. My mind is exhausted from thinking about everything I need to do but I can't do. I was literally almost panicky at work yesterday. Thankfully Josh came by to help after school. He tackled a lot of box building and packing. He's going to come again next week to finish packing. I'm required to work next Thursday night, Friday night and all day Saturday to unpack everything. I'll be calling on Josh again.
Oh and contractions! I had a couple last night while watching Dateline -- by the way, I just not sure if Amanda Knox committed murder in Italy, her conviction really bothers me, especially if she didn't do it, what do you think? -- I took my medicine and didn't notice anymore before falling asleep. I may have had one this morning so I'm staying in bed, on my left side, for a bit longer. I really want to get up, decorate our tree, clean our house, shop around town, etc. but I don't want to push it on my day off. Josh is making us breakfast at the moment. I'll be getting up soon!
I'll be posting pictures of our Christmas decorations. We actually decorated for Christmas about a month ago. We were so excited! Christmas is our favorite holiday. The only thing we haven't decorated is our tree. We just picked it out on Monday.
Have a great weekend!
I am happy to say that my test results from yesterday are NEGATIVE! If the results are negative there is a 97% chance that I will NOT go into preterm labor for the next two weeks. Josh and I felt a huge relief when we heard the news. We were also reassured that everything was okay after our appointment yesterday. My doctor checked my cervix and she did an ultrasound on my cervix. She said it felt and looked perfect for 24 weeks. We are so thankful. I'm back at work but taking it super easy. My doctor did give me a new, stronger medicine to take for contractions. It's called Terbutaline. She prescribed the 5 mg pill. It lasts for four hours. She said I can start by taking half a pill when I start to feel contractions. Last night I had a couple contractions within 15 minutes. I took half a pill and didn't wake up with any more contractions last night. So far it works and I'll only be taking it as needed.
Josh and I are home with our families in North Carolina. It's always so nice to get away from the coast and head the mountains for a few days. I've been taking it easy most of the week: laying on my left side, drinking tons of water and eating Thanksgiving treats. Even though I've been resting most of the week I'm still getting those uterine contractions. I had several yesterday that were close together. Those didn't bother me as much as a weird feeling in my cervix or at least I think it was in my cervix. It felt like pressure or something. It became more noticable when I was standing or walking around. It started to get worse so I decided to call my doctor. She wanted me to go to the hospital to make sure everything was okay. I had to break the news that we were a few hours away. But we figured out that I'm just a few minutes from the hospital where my doctor did her residency. She called the hospital's labor and delivery floor and told them I would be coming by soon. Josh, Mom and I arrived at the hospital a few minutes later. Most of their rooms were full so I had to go into a birthing room. The little wooden bassinet/warming table was in there. I thought how scary it would be to go into preterm labor and deliver early. The nurse put the monitors around my bump to hear her heartbeat and record my contractions. I had about five contractions while we were there. The monitor picked up each contraction. The doctor came in and did a couple exams to make sure my cervix was long and closed. She said it looked and felt great. We felt so relieved. She decided not to do any other tests. She recommended resting and drinking lots of water. She said I will probably have these contractions throughout my pregnancy and I will need to be monitored often to make sure my cervix isn't changing. She said if the contractions become more frequent, stronger or even painful that I need to come back to make sure everything is okay. I'm so glad we went by the hospital. I couldn't have slept last night because I would have been so worried. I still feel that weird feeling in my cervix so I'm trying to stay off my feet. I've been so lucky to be on a break from work this week!
First of all, and most importantly....
January is going to be a busy month for us! I called our hospital to register for the three classes that are offered during pregnancy: Lamaze, Baby Basics and Breastfeeding. Each class has two sessions. The sessions are two hours long. The Lamaze class focuses on everything related to the birthing process. The Baby Basics class focuses on everything related to the baby. I am super excited!
I've been on cloud nine throughout this entire pregnancy. I'm even more excited now because it's a girl! I went shopping for her nursery last weekend. I decided to accent her green room with PINK. Here are a few of my finds:
Enjoy -- and sorry we didn't take or post 17 or 18 weeks pictures! We've just been busy and haven't had time.
...we will know if we are having a boy or a girl. We are so excited! Josh is certain it's a girl. I'm starting to think it's a girl too but I'm not certain. Either way we will be so happy! When I think of all the wonderful things a girl would bring to our new family, I start to think of all the wonderful things a boy would bring as well.
We had our AFP test done a couple weeks ago. The results were all normal. We are very thankful to have a heathly baby.
If you aren't familiar with an AFP test, click HERE for information.
Don't you love the season of fall? I love the cool weather, beautiful colors and ANYTHING pumpkin. If you haven't tried a Pumpkin Spice Latte and a slice of Pumpkin Bread from Starbucks, you must. It's so tasty! It's my Friday morning treat. I'm instantly on cloud nine and ready to tackle to the day. Here's another pumpkin must have:
