33 weeks

I haven't much recently and I haven't been doing much commenting, although I am reading.  I just don't have much time with work and everything.

I'm 33 weeks as of yesterday.  I'm doing pretty well, except for rib pain.  Sometimes it feeling like Baby Blondie is trying to come out of my ribs, which as you can guess is not a particularly pleasant feeling.  It's sometimes hard to find a comfortable position to sit or whatever in.  Sitting in a car for long periods of time (anything longer than local drives) gets to be quite uncomfortable.

Last weekend, D worked on the nursery and got everything that we have so far organized and I've washed what we have so far clothes and towels-wise.  We have the big shower in Houston next week so once everything is put up from that shower, I'll post some pictures.

I'm still not sure I have my head wrapped around Baby Blondie most likely being a girl.  Part of it is how long we thought boy and we've also both imagined our first child as a boy even before I got pregnant.  D was so happy that the baby was a boy and I feel like I've disappointed him (yes, I realize that there's nothing that I did to make it happen or can do it change it).  I have little brothers, and I've mainly taken care of little boys as a nanny, so I really was excited about having a little boy first.  We aren't planning to find out in future pregnancies because of this experience.  It didn't help that the same appointment where we got the news that it could be a girl was the appointment where they were concerned about my fundal height being behind (everything is fine; the baby is actually measuring ahead).  I think that the worry about the growth has tainted my feelings about the baby being a girl.

D and I went to a wedding yesterday for some local friends.  It was a lot of fun and we danced a lot.  Weddings are the only place were D (after a couple drinks) lets his guard down and is willing to dance.

My progesterone is finally back in Zone 3 so I get a break from shots (was doing double shots since it was Zone 1) until my next draw.

I can't believe the baby will be here in about 2 months.

Updates, possible ob switch?

I'm still having lots of nausea, but the actual morning sickness has not made a full appearance yet.  I have to pretty much eat constantly to keep the nausea at bay and it generally returns pretty quickly after eating.  I have a small bowl of snacks on my nightstand so that when I wake up to go to the bathroom during the night, I can eat something.  Ginger seems to help a lot; I'm almost done with my second box of ginger chews.  Meat in any form doesn't sound at all appetizing.  I tried to have fish on Sunday, but I couldn't finish it.  I'm having to pretty much go vegetarian with lots of beans, grains, and I'm eating spinach quite a bit.  I had some weird pressure for most of Monday in the area of my ovaries, but it seems to have calmed down.  I tend toward insomnia anyways, but I'm having even more trouble sleeping than usual.

My ob appointment is in 5 days, on Monday, but that seems so far away!  I'll have an ultrasound, and hopefully we'll be able to see a heartbeat (I'll be 6 weeks, 2 days).  I've got quite a few questions for my ob about how comfortable she is with minimal intervention during labor and delivery so we'll see if I'm going to stick with her, or switch to a different ob who would be more natural birth friendly (and I've got some leads on that).  I have found out which hospital in the area is most natural birth friend, and she does have privileges there.  Whether I switch obs or not, I have decided where I'll deliver.  There aren't any midwives in my city and I don't want really want to drive 45 minutes for prenatal care or delivery, especially since I'll probably have the little boy I nanny at most of my appointments.  I've contacted a couple of local doulas, but I'll have to see whether D is willing to spend the money.

I called to find out about our insurance coverage for maternity and I learned that for 2010, since we already met our deductible and out of pocket maximum for the year due to my surgery, all we really have to cover is copays, ultrasounds will be covered at 100%.  For 2011, we will have to deal again with meeting the deductible, and then they will pay 80%.

When we were on the way home from our friends' daughter's baptism, D brought up how he is excited and ready to meet our little one, but he also wants to experience all of the excitement of going through the pregnancy.  He can't wait until our ultrasound, and he's really ready to get out of the first trimester.  He's a bit freaked out by the fact that the loss rate is higher in the first trimester.  He has started reading the blog somewhat regularly, so if you have any reassurance that would be great.

D and I will be calling Baby Blondie SC until we have the gender ultrasound.  SC comes from the boy's name and girl's name that we have picked out.  We picked out names about 3 months after we started dating, so we've had them decided for a while.  I probably won't share the name until after the birth.

Beta #2, Bras and more

I got my second beta drawn this morning, P+17, and it was 1104.  That's almost double and the draws were less than 48 hours apart so I'm feeling good about it.  The doubling time, according to this handy beta doubling calculator, was 43.22 hours, which is about what is expected.  I also had them run the ob panel now so that I don't have to get any extra blood draws, since I've already had 3 blood draws in the last 10 days and  I'm going to be getting blood draws every two weeks.   Last night I got my first PIO shot.   The mom that I nanny for taught D how to give the shot (I have been so lucky with my nanny jobs).  D did really well, and it didn't hurt until later.

I'm feeling pretty good.  I have to eat pretty much constantly, but it's keeping the nausea at bay.  I did stand up too quickly earlier and I got dizzy.  I feel a bit bloated too.  I think the fatigue is starting to kick in too.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I had to buy a new bra on Saturday since I manage to leave mine at home.  I'm concerned that this bra will not fit very long (I of course went and got an expensive VS bra since they actually carry my size).  The bra was snug when I bought it and it's feeling even more now.  About long was it before any of you ladies had to get a new bra and how many have you gone through?  Any other bra advice?

D was reading some of my blog yesterday and was asking about various acronyms.  He was also asking about betas and their doubling.  He's be reading the book I got him and has learned quite a bit already.

Does anyone need a bottle (it's opened) of sustained release B6?  I just bought a new bottle less than a week ago and I'm not going to be taking it for quite a while.

I'm going to post my meds, etc. I was on this cycle tomorrow.

I'm probably going to take a commenting break for a little while.  I'm still reading, but really can't pull anything together to say.  I'm still out here praying for all of you.

Improvement (and some other random stuff)

I've had a better start to this cycle compared to previous ones.  I didn't really have cramps, just some back pain.  I stopped bleeding on after CD7, which is a huge, let me say it again HUGE improvement since I've been going to CD 10+ most cycles.  I don't know if the antibiotics had anything to do with it, but if they are the reason I'm not still bleeding (and I'll be even more impressed if I don't have post-ovulation bleeding) then I can deal with a funky stomach and metallic taste for another 6 months.

I told D that I was done bleeding and he laughed at how happy/proud I was, but he doesn't have to wear feminine hygiene products for 2/3 of the month (ex. last cycle with 20 days of bleeding out of a 30 day cycle).  If I manage to make it to P+14 or 15 (which is of course a long way off), I may actually get my hopes somewhat up.  However, even if we don't actually conceive, I will be thrilled just to not be bleeding all the time.

Prayer buddy (and all the rest of you wonderful ladies), please pray that the bleeding will continue to stay away.  Also, please pray for my first cousin once removed, she has Stage 3 breast cancer.  My grandma is really worried about whether she'll lose her sister (my great aunt) if her (my great aunt) daughter loses her cancer battle.  We went to visit my grandparents today since we were in town (they live about 6 hours away so we always try to visit when we come even for other things), and she started crying when she was talking about it. 

Thursday and Friday, D and I went with a friend and his kids (plus his nephew) to a great waterpark in Central Texas (I bet any Texan would know where I'm talking about).  We had a great time, but it was hard to see D with our friend's almost three year old since I haven't been able to give that to him.  The good news is that D and I could definitely handle taking a 3 year old to a waterpark, just the two of us.  I got slightly sunburned and so did D (even after putting on sunscreen), but it's not too bad.

My mom is in from overseas and is at our house for the next week.  Last time she was in was for my surgery, and I spent most of the time sleeping or feeling nauseated.

The baby, a little boy, that I'm going to nanny for was born earlier this week.  I'll probably start working in about a week since the dad will be out of town for flight stuff and her mom won't be able to come to town.

Happy Birthday, D

In honor of D's 28th birthday, here are 10 random things about him:

1. He's a very hard worker.  D not only works very hard at his main job, but also works on Saturdays so we can have some extra income.  He hasn't taken a single day off for being sick (even when he's been sick) in the more than 5 years we've been together.
2. He's very loyal.  D is the type of person who would work for one company for the rest of his life.  I don't know if that will end up happening due to the size of the company he works for and the fact that we'd like to move back to Texas, but he's definitely not a job-hopper.
3. He's got a great sense of humor.  D is always trying to make me laugh, even when I don't really feel like it.  He likes to hide and pretend that he's left without me and other silly things like that.
4. He'll eat pretty much anything (except strawberries since he's deathly allergic).  I never have to worry about D not being willing to eat what I make for dinner.  He even eats the things that don't turn out well, which are relatively few.
5. He loves sports.  Since he works lot, he doesn't get to play them as much as he would like.  He played soccer and basketball in high school.  He's looking forward to the upcoming softball league with some guys from work.
6. He's very smart.  He and his best friend love to have deep intellectual conversations.  He says that he wishes that he'd applied himself more in high school and college.
7. He's very good with our finances.  He's in charge of paying bills and is very good about it.  He does our monthly budget and has a spreadsheet of past years and the plans for the next year.
8. He's a great son.  He especially loves his dad and calls him with questions about things.
9. He's very handy.  He hasn't done much work on our house due to our lack of funds, but he built our TV stand, replaced all the locks when we moved in, and put in a path to our garage.  I expect that once we can afford it he'll be doing lots of projects around the house.
10. He's got the same hair color and eye color that I do so every once in a while, we get asked if we are brother and sister.

CD 1...Cycle 28

Today is CD 1.  My surgery is in exactly 5 weeks so we'll see how my cycle falls but unless I don't ovulate until after CD 23 again, I should be in a new cycle for the surgery.  I had a 12 LP with no spotting, so that's good.  I'm not really upset about CD 1.  Our timing wasn't great, I still have endo on my ovaries, and my surgery is coming up soon.  I'm just hoping that we'll have a chance and decent timing in April.

I could tell all day yesterday that CD 1 was coming, but it pretty much just taunted me all day long.  The cramps kicked in early this time.  I usually don't have cramps until about CD 3-4, but they started late last night, and are in full force in my back.  I'm really hoping that something can be done about the length of my period because I don't want to deal with 10+ days of bleeding (yes, it's better than the 21 I'd been having, but still not normal).

D and I had a big blow-out on Friday night, but we've been communicating much better since then.  We had some interesting conversations on Saturday and I'm glad that we got some of the stuff talked about finally.  We have a tendency to get annoyed, but not ever say what the issue is and we talk about some of that stuff.

D isn't talking to me

It's not as bad as it sounds, but it is a bit funny.  At some point on Tuesday, D said that he wasn't going to talk to me so he won't get in trouble (not completely sure what had caused this).  On Wednesday, he didn't talk to me at all and I thought that he was mad at me.  He finally wrote out that he wasn't going to talk so he won't get in trouble.  He will write and use gestures or sign language but he has not actually talked to me since Tuesday.  I'm trying to think postively about it, even though I'm not quite sure what to think.  I'm also curious to see what he does when we are around other people over the weekend.

Nothing yet

I haven't yet received anything from Dr. Hilgers.  I knew that there was only a small chance that I would be getting my response by today, but I was hoping that it would come.  I guess there's a possibility that testing could get started this cycle, but I think that every day that goes by makes it less likely.

I've had pretty strong cramps all day.  I don't know if they bothered me more since all I had to do today was get the kids I nanny for to and from school (the parents are out of town and grandma is watching the little one during the day).  They seem stronger than what I've had in the last few months (although there in line with what I've had before).

D played basketball yesterday, and he went to go work out after work today.  Hopefully this is the beginning of a good habit.  Now I just need to get him to take his vitamins regularly; he's horrible about remembering.

I finally got around to registering at our parish.  I started going to Mass regularly in September, but D had said that he might look for a new job and we might move (not in the cards for now).  I put on the registration that I'd be interested in VITA, the pro-life ministry.  I hope that I'll be able to find a good way to volunteer and also get to know some people at church.  Currently, I only know the teachers at the church school and the parents and students I taught for 2 months last year (before realizing that teaching is not how I want to spend my life).  

N, the oldest child of the family I nanny for, is in the grade with the kids that I taught.  It's funny to spend so much time at that school now.  S, the 3-year-old girl, is in PK-3 there too.  S has been have more behavior problems at school after Christmas.  She had some problems with listening and following directions at the beginning of the year, but she had been doing pretty well before Christmas.  However, it seems like she has reverted during the break.  Since I'm the one who picks her up, I am the one who hears about the day from her teachers (they send a note as well when she has a "red" (poor behavior) day).  She is a very willful girl, and doesn't do to well with respecting authority.  She is very smart so she is the youngest in her class, which can be a big deal at 3.  The little boy, W, is 16 1/2 months and is very funny.  He talks a little, but get very frustrated when you don't understand or take something from him.  He's generally very sweet though (despite headbutts of love).  He always comes to me when I come over, even when it's not for work, and wants me to hold him or hug him.  

I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life (careerwise).  I hope to be able to be a SAHM after we have kids, but I'll probably go back to work once they are all in school.  I don't know what I want to do then , but I'd like to figure it out in the near future.  It's something that I try to remember to pray about.

Cycle #16

Yesterday was CD 1, as expected.  I was praying yesterday at Mass that I would at least have a clear CD1, since I've been bleeding for more than a week.  I said a prayer of thanks that my prayer was answered.  

D read a little of my blog yesterday.  He has known about my blog for a while, but he hasn't read it before.  I don't think that he found it very interesting, but I guess I'll find out if he keeps reading.  

D has been trying to lose weight off and on for a while.  He gets down close to his goal, but has problems maintaining.  He seems to sabotage himself (especially by having too many beers).  I have been praying for guidance on how to help him to be able to stay on track and that God will help him stay on track.  Note: the next part is not bragging just information.  A small bit of the problem is that I'm at or under the weight that I need to be, so I'm trying to figure out how to help him while keeping myself where I need to be.  I cook homemade meals except for one day a week, but he often goes out for lunch (partly stress relief).

D is going to start back with basketball, but I need to figure out how else we can both stay active.  I have gotten back into doing yoga after stopping for a couple months, but D doesn't like the same type of yoga I do.  

I know that I shouldn't be worrying about this, but there's only 3 more cycles for me with a chance for a 2009 baby.