It's a Boy!

We had our 20 week ultrasound and anatomy scan on Monday afternoon, and it's a boy!! I'm so excited. A boy was what I wanted. Now we can adopt a little girl, and I won't have to have another...unless there's an "oops" baby.

The follow-up appointment yesterday went well also. According to the preliminary results of the anatomy scan, everything appears normal and healthy. The midwife didn't have the full results, but seemed confident that all was well.

And, I hadn't gained any more weight since my last appointment on March 26th. I actually lost 1.8 lbs! So now, I've gained a total of 18 lbs since my last menstrual period. I'm still at my heaviest I've ever been (at 133 lbs), but I'm pretty confident that I can get this weight off after the baby is born while training for the Las Vegas marathon in December.

The nursery is going to have a monkey/jungle theme. I'm planning on painting the walls a light blue color because most of the decorations I want have mostly green with some blue in them.

Robby wants to keep the name a secret until the baby comes. We have picked out a very special name, and I can't wait to be able to share it.

Emotional Easter

Yesterday was an extremely emotional Easter service for me. It probably had a lot to do with my pregnancy hormones, but I cried three times during the service. All of these were tears of joy, of course. Rob's parents purchased an Easter lily in honor of Baby Simon, and when I saw that in the bullitin, I cried. When we sang Amazing Love, I cried. When the paster shared a story about a little Down Syndrome boy and how he really knew the meaning of Easter better than his classmates, I cried. I probably looked a mess!

But Easter and the Day of Atonement for me are two of my favorite days of the year. They really make you stop and think about the huge sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross, and about His ultimate power over death and Hell to bring us into a relationship with God. We cannot stop to thank Him enough for the pain, torture, humiliation, and rejection by God that He had to go through to take on our sins as the perfect sacrifice.

Sick and Bleeding from Everywhere

First of all, there is no need for concern. The title is a little misleading.

Last week I traveled to Dallas for work. While there, I started feeling congested and just generally yucky. I couldn't sleep a couple of days because I had to get up ever few minutes to blow my nose. It was no fun.

I assumed it was just allergies. I don't normally have bad allergies, but do get them mildly in the spring. I was hoping the congestion would go away when I got back to Georgia.

No such luck. I'm not feeling as bad as I did in Dallas, but I'm still congested and now have a bit of a cough starting too. I don't want to take anything because 1) even if it's supposedly safe for pregnancy, it's still an adult dosage, which isn't good for a human being that is only half a foot long and half a pound heavy, and 2) a child's dosage wouldn't work well enough for me.

Yesterday, I blew my nose, and tons of blood came out.

I don't ever remember having a bloody nose before. I remember Amy having them often growing up in Ohio, but I wasn't ever a victim. I may have had one here and there and just not remembered, but it sure didn't happen often.

So now, I'm spotting off and on, bleeding from my nose when I blow it hard, and bleeding when I poop.

I really don't like this whole having double your normal volume of blood thing.

Running truly is the cure

So yesterday I was still spotting. It had been two days. Sure, the doctor had pronounced me healthy and said I was fine, but when it happens you still wonder.

So last night I decided to go for a run. It worked last time to stop the spotting, so why not test the theory again.

Rob was kind enough to walk me down to the basement to make sure the boogie man wasn't there. Yes, until we get an alarm system, I'm scared of the basement. The basement and the laundry room are the easiest places for a burgler to access our house because they are hidden from the road and easy to get in. Hopefully we'll get the alarm system put in by the end of the month.

Anyway, so I went downstairs and ran five miles on the treadmill my in-laws were so very kind enough to give me.

Today I have no spotting.

At my next doctor's appointment, I am going to make them put that in my records. My theory is that exercise stops spotting. I'm sure this has never been tested, because when I called the advice nurse, their advice was to take it easy, put my feet up, etc. If they knew anything about me, they would know I wouldn't do that anyway.

I bet they tell everyone that, so they have never tested the theory that exercise is actually good for you when you're spotting.

My thoughts are, if you are having a miscarriage and that is the reason for the spotting, there's nothing you can do to stop it anyway. By the time you have the spotting, it's a done deal. So why make yourself more depressed by sitting around doing nothing?

Spotting again

So Monday afternoon, I had a little bit of spotting. I know this happens frequently during the first trimester, but I didn't know how common it was during the second trimester. I didn't have any other symptoms (cramping or anything), so I wasn't too concerned about it, but thought that perhaps I should call anyway to find out.

I called the KP advice line yesterday during lunch. After waiting on hold for 30 minutes, the OB nurse finally came on. She took my information and asked me a bunch of questions. She said the doctor would look over it, and someone would call me back.

They called back and said that the doctor wanted to see me within 24 hrs. I still wasn't too concerned, because the spotting was light and I had no cramping. But I agreed to come in right after work.

I was about 15 minutes late for my 4:30 appointment (gotta love Atlanta traffic). They took all my vital signs and brought me to the ultrasound room. The doctor came in, asked some questions, and did an ultrasound. The baby's heart was beating just fine, although the baby wasn't moving around at all - must have been sleeping. She examined my cervix and said that it was swollen and had some blood streaks on it, but nothing to be concerned about. She pronounced me healthy.

I don't think I would call this a scare. I was really not that worried the entire time, since I didn't have any pain or cramping. But I did get to see the little one again. I also found out that I needed to schedule a separate appointment for the 20 week ultrasound with the radiology department prior to my next OB appointment. So the ultrasound is now scheduled for April 5th and the follow up exam for April 6th.

MIA lately

So, I've been a little busy lately.

Last week was my first major travel since finding out I was pregnant. I went to Dallas for our departmental strategy meeting. That wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't just moved the weekend before. And I still haven't been sleeping well. I wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep.

On February 19th we closed on our house. We moved the stuff from our apartment to the new house on February 20th. So I spent two nights there before packing my bags and flying to Dallas for a long week of meetings. To top it all off, our flight got delayed due to mechanical difficulties, and I didn't arrive home until 11pm on Friday.

After spending a week out of town, the last thing I wanted to do was unpack the stuff at my house, so instead I went for a 12.5 mile run and stayed out of the house as much as possible.

Last Monday, it finally caught up with me. I woke up dehydrated with a headache and was more exhausted than when I went to sleep the night before. I ended up staying out of work and sleeping most of the day. I felt much better on Tuesday.

Tuesday, yesterday, was our doctor's appointment. We got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. Last time the doctor looked for five minutes and ended up not finding it. This time the doctor pressed on my stomach a little ahead of time and it seemed like as soon as she put the Doppler to my stomach she had found the heartbeat. The doctor said it was 140, which she was very pleased with. It was a nice little "whoosh, whoosh" sound.

So all is good thus far. We scheduled our 20 week ultrasound for April 6th. We should find out the gender then. I can't wait!

Belly Bands

Today was the first day I had to wear a belly band to work. For those of you who don't know what a belly band is, it is a tube-top looking thing that you wear around your waist over your regular pants to cover the fact that you don't have your pants zipped and/or buttoned. You can also use it if you buy maternity pants too early and need help holding them up.

I was able to get my regular work pants on just fine this morning, buttoned and all. But after I finished my breakfast, they were so uncomfortable that I had to unbutton them.

In general, I still don't look pregnant with clothes on (especially in the morning). But after a meal, my belly is sticking out so much, I could be five months pregnant. There is just no room for the food to go, I guess.

In other news, we close on our house tomorrow and move on Saturday. My next OB appointment is March 2nd, where I'm hoping to hear the heartbeat for the first time.