Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not skip lunch on Friday so that I would have time to get my nails done instead. A pregnant woman would NEVER choose a French Manicure over French Fries. Not me at least!

I totally did not forget to bring the beautifully wrapped gift to the wedding we'd been planning on going to for over a month now! And I definitely do not have a Type A personality that would allow me to be anxious about forgetting this present and keep me off the dance floor for a majority of the night. Not me!

It most certainly did not help that I thought I could fit my 6+ month pregnant body into an ill-fitting non-maternity dress. I don't think like that at all, not me! And since I would never think about squeezing myself into this non-maternity dress, I would definitely not have the pictures to prove it:

I would never think to ask Justin to cut me out of the dress at the end of the night because the zipper broke, and I didn't have the patience to wait for him to figure out how else to get me out of the extremely uncomfortable, non-maternity dress. I wouldn't just buy a dress to wear for one, single, solitary occasion . . . totally NOT ME!

Finally, I did not make Justin drive all the way to the mall yesterday, just a half-hour before closing, so that I could satisfy my craving for pretzel sticks. Those things are pure, buttery goodness . . . er, I mean evil! And I don't crave anything that is the least bit unhealthy, not me!

26 Weeks = New Pics and New 'Do!

I'm a little over a week late on this, but I was just waiting to have new pictures taken so I could post everything at once. Anyway, our latest maternal fetal appointment went really well. I wish the tech got some better pictures, but I'll share what I have anyway. Also, the current stats are:

1. My BP was 155/82 (starting to creep up steadily, but I was expecting that as I head into the 3rd trimester here . . . will probably be upping the meds soon) 138/100 at the OB's office less than a week later (it's a little all over the place, but they'll keep watching it closely)

2. Baby's HR was 156 (strong and steady!)

3. Baby weighed 1.5 lbs (35th percentile = on the small end of normal)

4. Baby's foot measured 2 cm (just under an inch)

5. They were able to look at the heart more closely again this time and were able to see everything that they couldn't see before. The doctor said "the heart is perfect", so yay! As always, a big THANK YOU to everyone who is continuing to pray for us and this baby.

See, It Snows in Georgia!

Okay, so it is starting to melt already, but we did manage to go out this afternoon and snap a few shots:

Pica

Pica is the persistent craving and compulsive eating of nonfood substances.

I read about this condition, or disorder, when I was pregnant with Dylan. It made me chuckle a little, but apparently it often happens to pregnant women. Now I'm not saying that I am craving inedible foods per se, but (I have to take a pause here to chuckle at myself, and perhaps I should be saving this for a Not Me! Monday post) . . . I have been craving malt powder.

If you're not sure what it is, think about the middle of a Whopper but in powder form.

Oh man, just the mere mention of it makes me want to go home right now and sneak a spoonful. And I want to sprinkle it on everything I eat, like it's a condiment or something. Last night, I had a small bowl of ice cream with a little chocolate sauce drizzled on top . . . and YES, I finished it off with a dusting of malt powder. I didn't even know they sold this stuff in stores. Curse Justin for knowing this kind of stuff! Anyway, I guess you can call it my "Random (And Completely Strange) Craving of the moment".

Not Me! Monday

So I will totally try this for the first time:

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not go to McDonald's last week for a free fry promotion because I've promised Justin that I will not eat McDonald's anymore, and I most certainly do not break promises to my husband. Who does that? And I definitely did not get hit by karma when on this supposed McDonald's trip, I totally got charged for the free fries (which is the only reason I would've gone there to begin with). And then I would never be the type of person to rush back to the office with my McDonald's lunch and promptly log onto their website to complain. Not me!

I did not forget to put my memory card back into my camera before leaving the house the other day. I would never leave my memory card sitting out on my desk, especially when we were making a special trip to the park just to take pictures. Forget? No way! Not me!

I did not go to the grocery store and buy reduced sugar cupcake mix and reduced sugar chocolate icing thinking that would get me out of having to worry about my gestational diabetes. I would never indulge in cupcakes or any other sweets while on my diabetic diet. Not me! That would be cheating!

Finally, I did not, even for a second, get excited about winning a photo caption contest on MckMama's blog last week. Why would I be the least bit excited about getting a quick mention on someone else's blog? That's ridiculous! I'm so not that easily amused. Not me!

22 Week Baby + Belly Pictures

We had a Maternal Fetal appointment on Friday. My bp was 140/90. Baby's HR was good. Baby currently weighs 13 ounces = good. The tech attempted a complete echocardiogram today, taking as many pictures of baby's heart as she could manage. Of course, baby was not cooperating (we were joking with the tech that Dylan's been giving Philipeanut some pointers). But every heart shot that they did manage to take looked fine. Here are some pics, as promised:

Half Way There

I had a quickie doctor's appointment at my OB this morning (just the usual: pee in a cup, stand on a scale, check my bp, measure my belly, and check baby's hr with the doppler).

My BP was good (again, "good" is relative to me): 138/90

Baby's HR was normal: 155-160 (and alot of movement going on down there, might I add)

The doctor told me before I left, "You're halfway there." I'm currently 20 weeks (21 weeks this Friday). I'm amazed, that's great! If Bon Jovi was right (and was he ever wrong?), I'm definitely "Living on a Prayer". Cheesy, I know, but as always thank you to everyone who's been thinking about us and praying for us. Please keep it up.

Random Craving of the moment: popcorn.

Blood Tests Results

The DNA confirms that it is Justin's baby . . . JUST KIDDING!

But to update those of you who are keeping up. The second round of our sequential screen blood test came back fine. We also elected to have some additional blood tests run for Cystic Fibrosis, Fragile X, and there was a 3rd one which my pregnancy memory has allowed to slip my mind, but all of those came back Negative too. (And Negative here is good).

And rather than leave you with such a short (and fairly uneventful) post, I'll fill the space with some nonsense. The following is an ongoing list of some random things I've had cravings for:

1. Oreos
2. Baked Potatoes
3. Clementines
4. Strawberries and Blueberries
5. Pears
6. Arugula
7. Godiva Creme Brule Chocolate (anything chocolate really)
8. Meat
9. Chili
10. Rice
11. Rice Crispy Treats
12. Cereal

And believe me, this girl (*me; NO, we're not having a girl . . . that we know of . . . so don't even think about reading into that) can eat! Although, right now, the whole Gestational Diabetes thing is keeping me disciplined. I guess that's a good thing . . .

Also, for a little laugh, I've been keeping an ongoing list of relevant words that I've made up during my pregnancies.

1. Hormotional - It's the crazy level of emotional that a pregnant woman (including myself) can tend towards
2. Sneed - (This one is probably TMI for most, but if you've ever been pregnant, you know exactly what I mean . . . go on, admit it) It's when you sneeze and pee a little . . . I do it all the time, even right after I've used the bathroom!

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!):