Tag Archives: ultrasound
It’s A Boy!
Just in case you missed the news yesterday, we found out that we are having a little boy. And trust me, we – along with the ultrasound tech – are very sure… like 99.9999999% sure.
Only a few minutes into the ultrasound and her checking his position (where his head, heart, legs, etc…) were, she asked “Does anyone want to guess what we think it is?â€. My sister-in-law said “boyâ€, but I couldn’t hear her, and she looked at me and I said “Well, we’re hoping for a boy, but what do you think?†(I didn’t want to say “BOY!†and be wrong… silly, I know). We were staring at the screen for what seemed like an eternity for those couple of seconds of silence. Then she moved the wand just a little to the side and there you could see all of his glory there on that 43†TV screen on the wall and said “Yep, you’re definitely having a boy!â€. I’m sure if anyone in the waiting room could hear, they would have heard the squeal of my sister-in-law and mother-in-law over in the corner. My sister was there too, but I don’t know if she was in with that squeal or not… we’re not really the squealing type… but I know I looked at her and she was smiling big.
He was squirming all over the place at one point. Moving, playing with his hands and kicking all around. Then at one point he curled up and kicked hard, which moved the wand on my stomach. Erik couldn’t believe it. “I knew you said he was kicking you, but man! He just reared back and kicked the mess outta ya!†I laughed and said “SEE! I told you he was kicking me!†which made him move even more.
Erik, of course, was happy – but he honestly would have been happy either way, boy or girl. We both were more worried about how the baby looked and wanted to make sure everything looked like it had formed right as far as his heart, brain, all that good stuff. From what the ultrasound tech could see, she said that he looked great – no problems from what the ultrasound was showing her at this time. His heart was beating away – all 4 chambers looked good and she even showed where his little bladder was getting full, as sign that his kidneys are working just fine. Thank the Lord!! 
After the ultrasound, my inlaws and my sister left and off to the waiting room / lab area we went. My labwork had already been done at my endo’s office (we stopped by there to drop off last week’s bloodsugars) so that didn’t have to be redone, but they weighed me and my weight gain is right on track which is great.
We were put into a room and a few minutes later the doctor came in. He looked at my blood sugars, wanted to see my pump and what basal rates I’m on, asked about my bolusing and wanted to be sure I’m bolusing for meals at least 3 times per day. I’m sure my face turned red because I didn’t quite understand him because I responded, “Yeah, I bolus with every meal… at least 20 minutes ahead.â€, thinking “duh, I’m pregnant and I have cravings, so yes, I eat MORE than 3 times a day!†And he looked at me and grinned and said “At least 3 time a day, right??†Then it hit me.. he was making sure I’m eating enough. Which, I am… and I told him too… my meals are spread out all day so I’m either snacking or having a small meal just to try to help keep the bg spikes to a minimum, all the while trying to space them out so I’m not insulin-stacking too – something Dr. C (the endo) warned me about at my last visit. I asked why he wanted to see my pump settings since that was handled by Dr C, and he said they just wanted a base-line for when I’m in the hospital, they know what’s going on and all. So, I guess I’ll be printing out my pump settings report along with my bg’s to bring to them too.
We were going to start me on going every 2 weeks after this appointment, but he said that things are going so well that I won’t need to come back for another 4 weeks, and then he’ll bump me up to every 2 weeks. He also said that he’ll do another ultrasound at the appointment after next (6 weeks from now), so that eases my mind a little bit too.
So it was an awesome visit, though it’s still sinking in…. A boy. We’re having a boy. Our very own son.
Oh and the voting results?
Thank you all for voting. It was fun to see the results as they came in. You guys are the best!!!
16 Week OB Appointment
Monday we had our 16 week checkup at the OB’s office. Things are looking good so far.
I actually gained back a pound of what I had lost according to the scale, but I’m not sure if that’s right or not since all of my appointments have been first thing in the morning and this one was last thing in the afternoon. My blood pressure was right on target as always, and my blood sugar at the time was great, even though I had a nasty 36 while driving. We were going to pull over for Erik to drive, but we were in the bad part of town when I tested and only had a little ways to go before getting to the hospital, so I drove on with him “at attentionâ€. They asked if I had another A1c yet, which I haven’t since the beginning of January, so they ordered another one, and I’m hoping to have the results in by the end of the week.
I also found out that I have an Rh negative blood type, so at 28 weeks, I have to get a shot just in case the baby happens to be a positive blood type and in the event that it’s blood mixes with mine at some point, my body would recognize the Rh positive blood as a foreign body and attack it by producing antibodies towards it. This can be bad because if anything happens while I’m pregnant now, it would cause my body to attack the baby’s blood, ending in miscarriage. It could also prevent future pregnancies if that baby were to be Rh positive. I also have to get a shot at the time of delivery as well. So, yet another reason to have to take shots. But for this reason, I’ll gladly be punctured.
We waited our turn and got to a room rather quickly. The nurse came in with her little doppler machine and listened around for the baby. I know this sounds weird, and I know it’s another one of those “Uhhhh, DUH, Sarah!â€, but it’s so weird feeling like there’s a ball in my stomach. I’ve always known what it felt like on the outside from feeling other pregnant tummies, but to feel the pressure inside is weird to me! Anyway, back to the story, she placed the little wand with gel on it on my stomach where it’s now all pooched out and round and she put it right where I thought the baby was – on my left side. Within seconds, she got a reading of 137. Of course, this being my first one, I kinda freaked because that was lower than the 145-147 we had gotten before. Not to mention, it sounded like it was my heartbeat, not the baby’s, that it was picking up. So, she tried again.
Only this time, the baby had moved. She tried to massage around to find the baby, and put the wand on my stomach again. She got a reading for a few seconds and the baby moved again. She spent a good 2-3 minutes just trying to track the baby down long enough to get a good reading. Finally, she got it again at 135, and it read mine at around 80, so we knew it had to be the baby’s. I wasn’t thinking about mine being louder, both on the doppler and in my own ears, and that the baby may just not have been right below the wand to get a good, loud sound. But knowing that the baby was moving THAT much was also reassuring.
We saw the doctor, who was “okayâ€, but also, I was still bothered by the heartbeat enough to not really worry about some of the other stuff he was asking me. I completely forgot to ask him about my allergies and also about some leg cramping I’ve been having. I felt like a complete ditz when I left. He was going to schedule me for a 3 week followup, but that would put me at 19 weeks, and apparently they strictly do not give the second ultrasound unless you’re 20 weeks (which I would have only been a couple of days off from that). So, he put it at 4 weeks so we can have that done.
We’ll be going back on March 21st to have the ultrasound and (hopefully) find out if this little bean is a boy or girl. I’ve added a little widget to the “Cast Your Vote†section on the left that shows the days left. So, if you haven’t already, cast your vote and tell me what you think the baby will be! I’ll update everyone the night of the ultrasound with a special post.
Ten Weeks
See? I told y’all he/she had gotten bigger since the last ultrasound! Though I can’t help but think each time I see the picture of how it looks like a little monkey! I feel terrible for thinking that way, but I can’t help it. Of course, most of the time, all I do is stare at the baby’s chest, remembering seeing that heart beating away. It’s what makes my day better.
Things are going okay today, and I am doing much better. The spotting is pretty much gone, and my biggest hurdle is the lows I’ve been having today. No sooner do I come up, I’m back down again. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, the every-few-days headaches will subside and I can go back on the Dexcom full-force with no breaks so we can do some more basal tweaking. I’m now on half my basal at night and my regular basal during the day. Weird, huh? Oh, and the total weight difference now from the start of pregnancy is about 9-10 pounds lost, yet my clothes are still fitting like they did, so maybe it is more than just my fat pudge making my waist band a little tight these days!
I’ll be 11 weeks Saturday. Just a week and a half to go to get to the 12th week mark. Then I’ll be starting my second trimester (yey!).
I hope everyone has a good weekend.
Say Cheese!
Here’s a picture of the sonogram from yesterday. You can’t see much here, but you could definitely see it on their high-resolution machine there. (For those of you who have never seen a sonogram picture before, the baby is the little bean in the middle of the black circle!
I finished the 24 hour collection this morning and dropped it off thinking that was all I had to do. Nope. They had to get another 3 –yep, count ‘em, T-H-R-E-E – vials of blood from my arm. This time I thought I’d see if they’d get it from my right arm. Very few have been able to successfully get one vial of blood from that arm without a vein blowing, so I was surprised to see her get all three vials from that arm! Go phlebotomist! I go back on January 4th for a short follow-up, and then I’ll be seeing him every four weeks as well. I’m going to see about getting the dates for his appointments as well as my endo’s appointments on the same days if possible. Right now, the appointments are exactly one week apart.
I have a call put in to my endo’s office to see if they’ll call me with the A1c result. I’m hoping they call back today. I know this one will probably be higher than the last (5.8), but as long as it’s not above 6.5 I’ll be happy. I know I slacked off in October and November some, but from what I can see, my Dexcom still has the average at around 133, so that should keep me in the low 6’s if I’m calculating right.
Depending on how things go, I may or may not be blogging until after Christmas sometime (unless it’s a short one to tell you the A1c result). Don’t worry. I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth or anything. Just need to have all the time I can to clean and get ready for Christmas!
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas, y’all!!!