32 Weeks, FINALLY!!!

This Thursday (yesterday) we officially hit the 32 week mark!!! I know for most pregnant women this is not a huge milestone but for us it's BIG for many different reasons! First of all, during my last hospital stay and month of bed-rest 32 weeks was the ultimate goal (originally it was 28 weeks but we blew past that one so 32 is the next big marker). The second real reason we (I) have been waiting for week 32 is that starting yesterday I have the official okay from my doctor to deliver at MY hospital! She told me that if I could make it to 32 weeks she would manage my labor at Northwest (barring any major unexpected complications). I know that this may seem minor but it is such a huge relief for me knowing that if anything happens, or I have complications, or questions, or go into labor I can call MY doctor, and be evaluated at MY hospital and not have to face the uncertainty of figuring out which doctor to call, which hospital to go to, and risk going to one hospital and then being transferred by ambulance (again) to a different hospital!

In all the uncertainty that we have been faced with lately it is so comforting to me to have one piece of the puzzle that feels like it is certain, something I can count on! As most of you know, this hospital is also the one that I work at; my unit, my co-workers, delivery rooms I've spent countless hours in, and doctors I work with on a daily basis. I know this is a luxury that most delivering mothers don't have, and they do just fine, but with everything we've gone through over the last few months you it is so nice to be able to take advantage of a perk of the job!!!

Okay, enough with my ranting and on to photo updates like I promised. A few weeks ago (at 29.1 Weeks) we had another ultrasound to monitor Asher's growth and he is HUGE! He is head down like a good boy but that made it difficult to get a good photo of him so I only have one (see below). But he looks like he is doing well. Overall he is measuring in the 98th percentile, most of the measurements they took put him at the size of a 32-33 week gestation infant. As far as his weight goes, he was supposed to be measuring at about 2 pounds 10 ounces (to be in the 50th percentile with most other infants his age) but they estimated his weight at 4 pounds 7 ounces!

Here's our 'little' man, sucking on his wrist!

The ultrasound tech was a little nervous and kept redoing the measurements, finally she told me that she was going to have to go get the doctor because Asher was measuring too big for his age and she just wanted to double check. I told her that he had always been big and she asked if they have ever given me a percentile for his growth and when I told her that last time he was in the 95th% she gave out a huge sigh of relief and said "Oh good, because I can't get his measurements to give me a percentile below 98% and it was making me think something was really wrong." Needless to say there is nothing majorly wrong with him, he is just very big, like always!

Two last photos I want to put up (mainly for my sister) are of my fetal monitor strips from the last two weeks. To avoid having to go in for Non-Stress Tests weekly my doctor has agreed to let me put myself on the monitor during my breaks at work and show them to her at my appointments (another nice perk that is saving us thousands of dollars). So below are my strips from week 30 and 31. The squiggly line on the top is Asher's heart-rate (he has been looking great) and the hill shaped mounded line on the bottom are monitoring my contractions. The dark red lines each mark 1 minute with 5 lighter lines in between each marking 10 seconds.

Week 30

Week 31

As you can see I'm still contracting pretty frequently (irregularly but frequently) usually when I'm at work the contractions come about every 3-5 minutes, in the 31 week strip above they were coming about every 2-3 minutes. This, as you can imagine, is super annoying but they are not doing anything (aka I'm not actually in labor) so there is nothing much the doctors can do about it. Needless to say we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of this little man. It has been a long journey for sure but he needs to cook a little bit longer so he can be our 12 lb Thanksgiving turkey like he's supposed to be! I will try to be patient (Charlie's doing better than I am most days) but am really looking forward to posting ACTUAL photos of him sometime in the next 5-6 weeks!

I hope you're all enjoying the fall weather. Charlie and I are going to try to make it to our church's All Church Retreat next weekend up in Camano Island at Fort Casey so I will hopefully be able to post some pictures of our time there when we get back next week!

-Cait

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Long Overdue... Update

I have been informed by my youngest sister (and various other family members) that I am the worst blogger EVER!!! (I do believe you were all forewarned however  See original post. so I don't feel too guilty). But I decided to post a few photo updates of our summer so far.

Up until last week it has been a crazy busy summer for Charlie and I; lots of work, travel, weddings and family time for both of us! It was good but it has also been very nice just to be home for a week. I just started my new work schedule (major cut backs) which has been a huge blessing for both my health and sanity (I think Charlie would agree)!

Charlie and I took a day trip up to Fairhaven for our 6 month wedding anniversary in early May. 

Ezrah and her uncle Charlie in Wisconsin for Kier and Jacob's Wedding at the end of May.  

Charlie and his brothers (doing boy things) down in Alabama in June. 

Charlie and I in DeSoto State Park
I went off-roading for the first time, it was stressful, Charlie loved it!
(P.S. Driving around in our Toyota Camry rental car on a dirt road probably doesn't actually qualify as off-roading but it was enough for me!)

Walking Charlie to work we saw the Jeep he thinks is cool so I decided to take a picture of it with my new camera that he got me for my birthday!

Taking a break during walk around Green Lake on the 4th of July.

In Colorado for my mom's wedding in July. 

Okay well that's all I have for now. I'll try and get a little more on top of things in these next few weeks and maybe get you some updates about our little one soon too!

-Cait

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Anatomy & Gender Ultrasound

In-spite of all the craziness I was able to get to my ultrasound before they admitted me to the hospital. They didn't go through the results with me much before they shipped me over to the main hospital but they told me that the baby looks good and all of the 16-week checks they did were normal. One other important piece of information that I did get from the ultrasound however was the gender! 

SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to know the gender of our little one please don't keep reading, or do,  just be warned...

I did get some cute pictures of the little guy! He's getting too big to fit all in the same screen but I think I have a cute profile shot to post. Enjoy!

This is apparently a photo of his feet, they looked much clearer on the ultrasound. 

P.S. Charlie was right all along, it is a BOY!

Look at him! He is getting so big. 

...and I might be biased but I think he's pretty cute!

STRETCH!

 That's his left hand across his face looking down from the top of his head.

That's all I've got for right now. I'm still hoping for an early discharge but it looks like I might have to be here till at least 8pm... sad. 

-Cait

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Fun Updates for Week 12

First off I want to thank you all for all the encouragement I've received from you guys in the last week its been so nice to hear from family and friends that I'm so far away from! 

I feel like I'm trying to be on top of things but I'm behind already! I assured my family that this post would be up by last night but instead of writing I watched the original Planet of the Apes movie with Charlie (he said it was some sort of American right of passage that I clearly have been deprived of). Anyways, On to more important things! We have had a pretty good week this week. My blood sugars have gotten more under control (after 2 or 3 more changes in the last week), the extreme lows have almost entirely disappeared and now i'm just having to deal with baseline numbers in the 150's to 180's which I personally don't like to see but my doctors assure me that both baby and I are safer sitting at those numbers than we were when I was in the 20's and 30's, which makes sense. The plan is to let me sit kind of high for a week or two until the numbers creep up further (showing signs that I'm moving out of the 'honeymoon' period of lows into the 'insulin resistant' upswing of highs that should start around week 15). Overall my diabetes/pregnancy is right on track as far as where my hormones are leading me which I guess is reassuring although at times overwhelming. 

As far as typical first trimester stuff is going I'm slowly starting to feel better, getting a little bit more energy (which likely has more to do with the fact that I'm not crashing into the 30's three times a day, than it does with anything else but I'll take it!) We also had an ultrasound with my high risk docs at Swedish yesterday that Charlie was able to come to which was really exciting for both of us! The little guy is doing great and according to the tests he has a much lower risk of developing Down's Syndrome than they had originally though. This was reassuring to us although I seriously had no idea they were that worried about that in the first place but apparently they were (some things like that are better left unknown I decided). See a picture of the little guy below. He was quite a stinker, moving all over the place arching his back and changing directions. He also refused to move either of his hands away from his face so that they could check his nasal bone but I really don't blame him; they were squashing his face, he was just trying to protect himself!

The little bean at week 12

 Before he took up is defensive boxer stance and covered his face!

So there you go! We're doing well. I feel a lot better not having to cover up and try to hide my growing belly, it makes life easier for all of us! Our next appointment with the high risk docs and Ultrasound isn't for 4 more weeks so I probably won't have as many pictures to post but I'll try and keep things updated as I can. 

P.S. I almost forgot, he's 6 cm long now, almost twice the length that he was at my 10 week appointment! Growing fast!

-Cait

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