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Friday, January 9, 2009

18 Week Update

Okay, some not-so-good news first. Don't fret, I was kind of expecting it. The nurse from my OB's office called today to let me know that I do, in fact, have Gestational Diabetes . . . AGAIN. Oh well (Liz, I guess your offer for Sweet Potato Casserole is no longer valid?) 60% recurrence rate, and all (and you know how our luck is with odds).

Anyway, now that that's out of the way, we had an AWESOME Maternal Fetal appointment today. First off, my blood pressure was 133/83 (which is slightly high for the average person but is out-freakin-standing for me)! And it's so difficult not to walk into this place an absolute ball of nerves for every appointment. In fact, when we first got into the U/S room today, I told Justin, "Wow, this is the same room we were in when we found out about Dylan's heart and had to do the amnio!" So our technician walked in and just started working away. She was great. I'm pretty sure they've got the words nervy or sensitive black-markered all over our file, so she talked us through everything. I remember how last time, alot of the techs we got never really talked to us or told us anything. Well, our tech today would find something, tell us what it was [sidenote: it amazes me how much/how well the U/S techs can decipher everything they're looking at; I'd have a better chance trying to stare at one of those pictures at the mall and finding the dolphins . . . but anyway, I digress], and immediately follow it up with, "and that looks good". Justin was cheering as if LSU just won the National Championship or something (goober).

So, as we stand right now, heart looks good (heartrate today was 161 = good), kidneys look good, bladder looks good, spine looks good, umbilical cord looks good, 2 hands/10 fingers, probably no cleft lip (still too small to tell for sure), fluid level was good, stomach was good and full (big, fat belly -- current weight is 6 oz.) etc. and so on. Bottom line, everything that we got to see today looks good. They'll probably do an echocardiogram at our next appointment to take a closer look at baby's heart, but so far so good! It felt almost like being in foreign territory. Our Maternal Fetal experiences with Dylan were so far removed from this (it felt like "bad news central" most of the time).

Well, one of the "benefits" of being deemed a high-risk pregnancy is PICTURES, so without futher adieu (I apologize the pictures are kind of blurry, the first 2 are 3-D, and I'm pretty sure there's some thumb-sucking going on in the last 2!):

7 comments:

Crystal said...

Holy cow - It really does look like HE is sucking his thumb. That is amazing. I don't know if you will know or not, but what is the angle of the 1st two pics. Out of all of the u/s I have seen I can not tell what I am looking at. Goodness. That is all great news for you guys and I will continue to pray for the little one to be healthy as a horse!!

Jus and Kat said...

The 1st one is the right side of Philipeanut's face. Baby's arm is up in the picture (which is probably what's confusing you). 2nd one is more of a top-of-the-head angle . . . let me know if you can make out the dolphins, too! :)

DG said...

That is a great perk of a high risk pregnancy, the pictures are GREAT! I love the 3D and how clear you can see the babies face. I love the sucking the thumb views too.

WHAT A BLESSING! I am glad that you can have both spectrums of experiences, you learned so much with Dylan, more than you should have had to but still so much. You can use that education to help you this time around too. Dylan prepared you both so well!!! What an answer to prayer that you kept hearing the words "looks good" I will keep praying for more comments like that!!!! CONGRATS!

PS...Do you think you will be able to make it without finding out the sex? That would be so hard. I was way too impatient with my daughter, I really wanted to not find out but I ended up giving it, I couldn't take the suspense! Good luck with it, I am sure ti will be hard. And I love the Philipeanut nickname, SO cute!

Anonymous said...

Well, I guess I will look into the sugar-free version. I gotta suck to you now so that you let me babysit that sweet baby!!

Sara said...

Great pictures! I love the thumb sicking. :)

Sorry about the GD - that sucks!

I know what you mean about being a ball of nerves- I am like that when I do to the doctor too. They all know my story, and all of the u/s techs were there when I was pregnant with Samuel - it just brings back a lot of memories every time.

Take care!

Cascia Talbert said...

Congratulations! I love seeing pictures from the womb. Sorry to hear that you have GD. Just take care of yourself and you both will be just fine.

I just found your blog and thought I would pay you a visit. You have a very nice blog here!

Anonymous said...

Even though 3D is cool, I love the thumb-sucking picture the most. So cute!