Friday, January 21, 2011

It's a girl.....still!

Because of my GD (gestational diabetes) and what my OB considers "borderline hypertension" I now get to see a perinatologist once a month. The good side to this is that we'll have LOTS of ultrasounds. The bad side? From my experience, the wait in a peri's office is never less than an hour in the waiting room. It sucks.

Brad took the day off to go with me to this first appointment because it was my BIG "20 week (even though I was 18.5) ultrasound." It's the one where they take a really close look at everything - particularly all of the parts of her heart and the different lobes of the brain. It's also usually the time that you find out the sex, though we already knew.

The ultrasound was great. Abby looks perfect. She's measuring exactly where she's supposed to, and her heart rate was great. She looks SO much like Emma did in her ultrasound pictures. She has a completely different nose though. I'm pretty sure it's mine. She was doing all sorts of flips and tumbles and liked to keep her feet up by her face. It was pretty funny. When the tech looked at her brain I said "OH! Thank GOD! It's not empty, so she definitely took after her Mama!" The tech cracked up, as did I. Not sure Brad found it that funny. ;)


We got to wait for a referral so that we could see the perinatologist himself. Not sure why, but hey. About 30 minutes later, after having to call Brad's sister in a panic because our appointment ran so long that my mom had to be back at work, we saw Dr. Eller. He was great. He said that my glucose levels look good so far and that he'll want to see me monthly for ultrasounds to check on Abby's growth. GD babies have a tendency to be big. If she's any bigger than Emma, I want no part of it! He said my blood pressure looked great to him, and that if I had any issues with it later in my pregnancy, he may want to see me bi-weekly. I'm hoping that that doesn't happen, but you never know what will creep up. With Emma it was my heart rate and I saw the cardiologist. With Abby it's my blood pressure and a perinatologist. Yay!

Here are some pictures of my little bug. Isn't she precious?? She's 10 oz. according to their calculations. I have felt several small kicks, but nothing as strongly as I did with Emma. At the ultrasound I found out why - I have an anterior placenta. That means that, rather than the placenta stretching along the top of my uterus, it's across the front. It makes feeling fetal movement early on a little harder because it's padded, but otherwise has no danger. Hopefully I'll start feeling some bigger kicks soon, though I do remember what it was like when Emma would wake me up at all hours of the night kicking me!



Little feet


19 week belly pictures. Emma had just woken up from a super long nap and was a little crabby. Can you tell? ;)


Monday, January 17, 2011

It's a........


GIRL! Well, most of you probably already know that by now, but I'm still excited! I couldn't wait until 20 weeks to find out at my "big" ultrasound, so I scheduled a gender reveal at the 3D ultrasound office. She's ALL girl! I knew already. Honestly, everything in my head, heart, and body told me that our baby was a "she." With Emma, I started out thinking girl, then changed to boy, and was honestly surprised when we found out she was a girl. With this one, the ultrasound was mainly to prove it to Brad!


She, just like her big sister, had NO issue showing us the goods. No pride, I tell ya. She was just precious, even without fat under her skin. She was constantly moving and flipping around and the ultrasound tech could barely let us listen to her heartbeat for a few seconds because she kept moving. Just like her big sister already!

Her name will be Abigail Marie Gilchrist, and we'll call her Abby. Abigail was just a name that Brad and I both loved. Marie was my grandmother's (Dad's mom) middle name, as well as mine. I love that my 2 girls are named after such strong, special women.


Shortly after finding out the good news, I found out that I failed my 1 hour glucose test. After an agonizing 3 hour test (4 blood draws from my arm, and a good 3 hours waiting around the waiting room), I found out that I failed that one too. Not by a large margin, but enough to earn the diagnosis of "gestational diabetes." In all honesty, part of me has always wondered if I may not have had a slight case when I was pregnant with Emma. I passed both of my tests then, but she was 9lbs, and had low blood sugar at birth, which are both signs of GD in the mom.

So today I had my "diabeetus education" class. It was fascinating. Actually, it was as boring as hell. I learned a lot, but much of it was common sense and it was a LONG day. So now I get to continue testing my blood 4 times a day. Thanks to my sister-in-law who has type 1 diabetes, I had been checking my blood for about 2 weeks now with her borrowed monitor. I am on a special diet that includes counting carbs and eating every 2 hours. It's quite a life changer for me. But, as I told Brad tonight, I'd do anything for my girls.

I also had my regular OB appointment this afternoon which, conveniently, was just one floor down from the class. The doctor said that everything looks great with Abby and he wants me to stop taking Metformin (which I've been on since I was trying to get pregnant with Abby - it helps women with PCOS to ovulate). This may make my glucose levels a bit more unpredictable than they have been. We'll see. He also told me that he would be the one dealing with my GD, which made my day. I trust him SO much and have such a good relationship with him. I have my "big" ultrasound on Wednesday with the perinatologist. I'll apparently be seeing quite a bit of him as well, as they like to keep an eye on the baby's size as she grows. LOTS of medical intervention this time around, as it was with Emma. At least it's the perinatologist and not the cardiologist this time!

I know from experience, and from having a tough pregnancy and delivery with Emma - once you look into their eyes, it makes EVERYTHING worthwhile.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Merry Christmas/Happy New Year!

We had SUCH a great holiday break! It was very busy, but fun. We went to the Christmas Eve mass that was the children's service at 4:00, and then to dinner at Brad's parents' house after. I wish I could say mass was a success, but Emma is at the age where she has no interest in holding still. We had to leave before communion :( Maybe next year!


We celebrated Emma's Grandpop's birthday with him on Christmas eve as well, and he read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to her. I wish I had more pictures of that event. Emma was exhausted from a very busy day, no nap, and it was way past her bedtime. She listened like a good girl for all of 30 seconds (long enough for me to snap one picture) and then fell out like a demon overtook her little body. She arched her back, she screamed, she did her best imitation of the girl from The Exorcist. It was hysterical!


We looked at Christmas lights on the way home - one of Emma's favorite things to do. She sits in her carseat (that now faces front) and says "lights!!!!" She went to bed like a good little girl, but woke up earlier than usual. I think she was too excited to sleep.

We had the BEST time on Christmas morning. She really got excited this year. She still doesn't understand Santa (but is terrified of him, nonetheless) but she certainly understands presents! She had no interest in opening packages this year, but loved playing with her new toys that Santa left her.


Once we played for awhile and got dressed, fed, and ready to go, we headed to my parents' house to celebrate. We opened presents and had a great lunch - you can't go wrong with Honeybaked Ham! I think my parents just adored watching her open presents. She's really gotten into imaginative play lately, and got several "cooking" toys. She loved a Melissa and Doug cookie decorating kit, and brownie making kit (they're all wood). She had a blast.


We headed home for a nice nap, and when we got up it was time to head to Brad's parents house for Christmas #3. They got Emma a kitchen for Christmas! She adored playing with it with her Aunt Stacie. They had so much fun.


We had a few days to recover, and then left for Richard B. Russell State Park for a few days with them. If you are wondering where that is, head up 1-85 and once you start seeing nothing but cows and signs for South Carolina, you're nearly there. It was quite a ride!

We had a great time and it was such a nice getaway. We had one cabin and Brad's parents and Stacie had a cabin next door. It was great because Emma had her own room. She has a really hard time getting to sleep in new places. She's a creature of habit and her bedtime routine at home is IDENTICAL every night. I credit that with how good of a sleeper she is. Once she fell asleep, she slept through the night until around 8:30 both mornings. We celebrated Stacie's 25th birthday while we were there, and Emma certainly enjoyed her cake!

She has just been amazing us lately. Brad and I talk and talk about how much her speech has developed just over the last week or so. She says "bite" when she wants a bite of something. Here are a few others so that I can remember them down the line:

juice
Brobee (a character from Yo gabba gabba)
puppy
night night
car
no
more
down
grapes
cracker
cookie (as in "cookie monster")
Elmo
Abby (from Sesame Street)
Mommy
Daddy
Mimi
water
nose (she can identify all of the parts of the face, and some body parts)
flower (comes out "flow-ah" SO cute!)
hot
diaper
baby


She's just incredible. She's SO smart that it just blows my mind. The other day she pulled a step stool over to the stove at my parents' house when my Dad was cooking - we're in trouble!

I felt the baby kick for the first time yesterday! I think I had been feeling some little bitty kicks for a few days, but they were more pronounced yesterday. I felt even more today - this one likes to kick my bladder more than Emma did at this point! We find out the sex tomorrow, if baby will cooperate. Emma never had an issue with that - she practically sat on the ultrasound probe every time I had an ultrasound!

Can't wait to see whether Emma will have a brother or a sister!