She's Growing...23w2d

Today, Paul and I went to our second anatomy scan this morning. It was a lot harder to drink the water and keep it down! Once we got to the Imaging Center, I started to feel sick to my stomach from drinking so much water and then, deja vu happened.

The ultrasound tech that met me at the counter was the same tech at my ultrasound almost a year ago when I realized that the baby I thought I was going to have wasn't there. Obviously, he had no idea of his negative appearance in my mind, but my heart rate went up as soon as I saw him. Luckily, our negative meeting from 11 months ago was surpassed by a positive one.

Rylee's little heart was beating and she's grown so much in 5 weeks! He had a hard time getting her on the screen because she was so big! The top of her head is to the upper left (right if you're looking at me) of my belly button and her face is right under my belly button. He had to do some interesting positions with the transducer to get the pics the radiologist needed since the facial pictures were part of the problem with the initial anatomy scan.

He made sure that she is a girl, because I told him I would hurt him if he said anything different! HAHA! Definitely girl bits down there, or should I saw lack of boy parts!

Her heart rate was only 122bpm which worries me a little bit because she's consistently been in the 140's, and she hardly moved at all during the scan, but the fact is it was beating :) And I've felt her quite a bit since 11:30am so I'm thinking she was in a deep sleep and very relaxed. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

This tech told us more than the last one did. Her brain/skull is measuring at 22w3d even though I'm 23w2d, but he said there is +/- a week in the calculations, so basically nothing to worry about I guess. He told us she is weighing in at 1lb3oz, which according to the pregnancy application I use is right on target for 23 weeks! I can't believe she was only 8oz 5 weeks ago! She's growing so much, and she has a ways to go! She;s laying in a transverse position, basically left to right across my stomach.

Hopefully, I will hear something by next week about what the radiologist thinks of the scans.

Next week, I will be 24 weeks. Yay viability date!! Rylee could technically survive with the best doctor's and medicine, nothing I hope to depend on, but it's still a milestone I'm excited to reach. Also, next week, I have my glucose tolerance test on Thursday. I really am hoping to pass because I don't know how I'll do the 3-hour fasting test.

On a non-pregnancy related note, I go in for a single wisdom tooth removal on Monday. I still have all 4 because my dentist was confident that as long as they weren't causing me problems there was no need to have them removed yet. Well, my upper left one broke sometime recently, I had an panoramic X-ray and they consulted with a oral surgeon. The consensus is that I need to have the 1 removed ASAP using local anesthetic only, and then after Rylee's here I will need to have the other 3 removed using general/IV anesthesia. So that is now how I expected to spend a day next week, but it is necessary to prevent further breaking and possible nerve exposure.

Once my mom gets back in town, I will have her scan the pictures I got today and post them. I'll also update when I get the ultrasound and glucose results back

It's Been a Rough One

How far along? 21 weeks 1 day
Total weight gain/loss: -6
Maternity clothes? I've tried wearing some of my "regular" pants since I'm not showing that much, but they are just too uncomfortable in all the wrong places
Stretch Marks? I've noticed a few... let the lotion lathering begin
Sleep: HA! Not with the pain in my back and neck I've been having. I'm exhausted
Best moment this week: There's a 3 day weekend coming up
Movement: A little more everyday
Food Cravings/Aversions: I realized this weekend, I still can't handle hamburger meat. Yuck...
Gender: Girl
Belly Button in or out? In.
What I miss: Paul's back in school, so I'm missing him on Monday and Tuesday nights, in addition to him working nights Wednesday-Friday
What I am looking forward to: That 3 day weekend 
Weekly Wisdom: Keep the glass of water at the far end of the nightstand. Cleaning it up at 3am is NOT fun
Milestones: None this past week. Paul and I are ready for him to be able to feel her!

Due Date

Had my monthly appointment today, Rylee is sounding great! She was kicking at the doppler like always and trying to get far away from it. Doctor told me that the radiologist changed my due date from the 5th to the 10th. I would like to take this moment to say, the 10th is what I thought from the beginning! I know my schedule and what happened when, and the 10th is the day I had initially calculated. I like being right :) This makes me 20 weeks this week, so I've lost 5 days, putting me at 20 weeks and 2 days. So yay for being halfway through my pregnancy... again! haha

I go back to the Imaging Center on the 15th for another ultrasound, the pictures of Rylee's face and heart weren't good or clear enough so the radiologist said I needed another scan. Dr. Tran isn't worried at all, she said that at least 50% of her reports request a 2nd scan. Mom grilled her today and she withstood it very well. Mom also told on me for my lack of nutritional meals and exercise, Dr. Tran isn't too worried because I am still down 6 pounds, but she doesn't want me to gain a lot all at once.

On the 23rd I have my next monthly appointment. I will do the 1 hour Glucose Tolerance Test then which I really hope I pass! I definitely don't want to do the 3 hour fasting test!! I'll also find out then if I'm too anemic, my prenatal vitamin doesn't have iron in it but Dr Tran doesn't want me to take a supplement until we get the results.

Quiz Update

How far along? 20 weeks 1 day
Total weight gain/loss: -7
Maternity clothes? There still big, but all the time!
Stretch Marks? Nothing new
Sleep: Not needed as much, my energy is finally returning
Best moment this week: Getting Rylee's bedding in and deciding on a paint color
Movement: Sometimes, she's pretty chill until you use a doppler or ultrasound machine
Food Cravings/Aversions: Nada
Gender: Girl
Belly Button in or out? In.
What I miss: reading just an everyday fiction book, I've been obsessed with pregnancy books, and have stopped reading another book because of it
What I am looking forward to: painting Rylee's room this weekend and the JBF sale
Weekly Wisdom: If something is too stressful, remove it from your life is possible. Life is too short to stress over stupid things that can be easily removed.
Milestones: 20 weeks!!! Half way there!!!

It's A.......

GIRL!!!!!

Dr. Tran was right, now I get to buy all the pink I want to! The anatomy scan was so cool! We got to see so much, and the ultrasound tech was amazing at telling us what we were looking at, and she was really patient in trying to verify the sex. The baby is still sitting pretty low in my pelvis, so it made it hard to see anything. But the tech got her to move up just enough to verify that we are definitely having a girl. Paul and I are thrilled and can't wait to bring our little girl home in January. We will find out if everything the tech saw was normal at our next appointment in 2 weeks. The tech can't technically say if something is wrong or not since they aren't "qualified" to make that assessment. She was bouncing and kicking away in there! Once I start feeling her movements more, I have a feeling there will be a lot of them! She even flipped directions while all the measurements were being taken. The tech did say she's feet first (breech) right now, but that's no big deal, nor is it uncommon, this early on.

We've decided on the name Rylee (or Riley or Rylie, no set spelling yet) Elise. Though it's not the favorite of some family members, we love it and that's what matters. Here are some pics we got from the ultrasound today:

For Some Friday Night Fun....

How far along? 18 weeks 3 days
Total weight gain/loss: -8
Maternity clothes? Just about everyday. If not maternity, then workout clothes
Stretch Marks? Nothing that I didn't already have
Sleep: As much as I can
Best moment this week: We we potentially decided on a little girl name
Movement: Increasing flutters and a few "pops"
Food Cravings/Aversions: Not really, just always hungry
Gender: Hopefully we have a cooperative baby on Wednesday
Belly Button in or out? In.
What I miss: a nice glass of White Zinfandel
What I am looking forward to: Wednesday's anatomy scan
Weekly Wisdom: If dinner isn't good, find something else to eat! If not you wake up at 2am starving and can't go back to sleep!
Milestones: Feeling the pops have put a huge smile on my face every single time this week. Also, having a name picked out is quite a feat for us.

Blood Work

Great news! Blood work for the Quad Screen came back normal! There's an extremely small chance of any neural disease or Down Syndrome. Now we are just waiting until the anatomy scan on the 11th. Just 8 more days until we get to see our little baby again!

The bump that I have, though not too noticeable, is moving upwards. I noticed it was higher today than it has been. I normally rub the bump (I know, I love it!) and had to rub a lot higher than I have been lately. Also, I have been feeling more flutters lately and I think I might have felt a "pop" or two but I'm not sure. I'm so ready to feel the baby for certain!

Paul and I have been working on girl names and we're getting nowhere! It's proven to be very difficult. Nothing has given us that "feeling" that makes us want to call our baby for the rest of our lives. We have picked out bedding, if it is for sure a girl. I can't wait until next Wednesday to know for sure, even though I'm not looking forward to the 32oz of water/full bladder situation!