24 Weeks

24 weeks, oh my! We might just be having a baby- like for reals even! Time is passing quickly in the slowest way possible, if such a thing can be imagined. I had an interesting weekend..my back started hurting on Friday at work, not painful but enough to say oh that sorta aches. Saturday it was still hurting and since it was in the kidney area I decided to go to the urgent care clinic thinking it could be a kidney infection starting. Urgent care sent me to Express care which sent me to the ER since I'm pregnant..all the while holding the urine sample I first supplied at urgent care. 4 hours later I was the proud parent of several kidney stones. I was sent home with a few perco.sets to deliver them naturally. And might I say, after not even having any alcohol since early October that perco.set got me hiiiiiiigh. And I got 2 days off work, so all in all not too bad. I had a major kidney stone a few years ago and it was quite dramatic, screaming, crying, lots of morphine required. These tiny stones were a cake walk compared to that.

I also began seeing the perinatologist last week and I have now added Lovenox injections to my nightly routine. The first one bruised terribly but the others haven't been so bad. I'm not a fan but if they thought walking across burning glass everyday would help I'd gladly light the fire myself. I also got a nice long ultrasound, she's right on target with size and weight, her fluid and cord are prefect- things I was pretty nervous about considering what my cousin just went through with her son.

And speaking of Baby B he is doing fantastic! He's up to 2lbs 8oz and bulldozing through all the tests and on a fast road to going home much sooner than his due date. We're going up there for her baby shower in April and we will hopefully get to see him! Now if I can keep my mouth shut about the skeevy guy my cousin started dating literally the day she was released from the hospital, we'll all be amazed.

In 2008 my cousin lost her daughter at 26 weeks. She had really high blood pressure from the start of her pregnancy and they think that led to the umbilical cord being small. At one point she actually had reverse flow in the umbilical cord, at which time they decided to go ahead and do a c-section but the baby passed away before they could get her to a hospital that had a nicu (they live in a very rural area about 3 hours from a nicu equipped hospital). When she became pregnant again they were prepared. Her and the baby's father moved closer to the hospital. She had monitoring and ultrasounds every week with progesterone injections. Last Wednesday was 26 weeks. It was a hard and scary day for her which I fully understand. On Friday they admitted her because the baby was too small and began monitoring the umbilical cord. On Sunday the cord was showing signs of reverse flow. Baby B was born Sunday night at 26 weeks 4 days at 1 lbs 12 ozs. He was taken straight to the nicu and placed on a vent. Monday morning he was taken off the vent and has been breathing on his own ever since! He still has many weeks to go since the earliest he can go home is June 5th, his due date. My cousin is doing well, relieved that her son is doing good but hating that he has to stay and feels guilty about him being a preemie, which I guess I can understand. If anything happened to my girl I'd feel it was my fault no matter what happened. For now our little puffer is doing good and hopefully he'll behave and get to go home in June!

Baby B, a few hours old

I don't like to think myself as being lazy and not posting I prefer to call it taking a pregnant pause. Things are surprisingly awesome. I've been having the lowest blood pressure I've had since pretty much ever. Energy level is good but the willingness to actually do stuff is another story. Now the random projectile vomiting, that I can do without. A few weeks ago I went to a friends Airman Leadership School graduation. Its a semi formal dinner and a pretty big deal. I looked really nice I thought and dinner went smooth. Halfway through the ceremony I had to make a dash for the door and only narrowly missed barfing on my commander. As if he didn't already think everyone in my duty section is a complete moron.

This whole having a baby thing is starting to get pretty real. There hasn't been any one thing that made me really realize it, a lot of small things have been building up to the total point. We keep the doors to the spare bedrooms shut just to keep the dogs out but behind one of those doors is a baby's room! There is a crib, a dresser/changer, a fancy stroller and loads of frilly clothes. Sometimes I go sit in there in the glider and stare at everything. I think I'm still in a state of shock sometimes. I can't quite wrap my mind around it all sometimes. I'm so happy we're having a girl. Of course we'd be thrilled either way but we both really wanted a girl. And my goodness but she already has her Daddy completely under her thumb. He feels I'm actually not shopping for her enough, his daughter must not lack anything! We should probably start a prom dress fund, I can't even think about what Daddy will pay for a wedding dress!

I've been feeling kicks and pokes for a bit now but within the last week they have gotten a lot stronger and noticeable. My first poke I got while driving and "singing" along with the radio. Either she really loves Styx (who doesn't?) or she doesn't like my singing (who does?). On the OB side, my blood pressure has never been lower! It was 112/80 on my last visit which just blows my mind. Even after I lost 100 pounds it wan't that good! And speaking of weight, at almost 20 weeks I've gained...nothing. The Doctor seems ok with it and to be honest I'm a pretty big girl so I'm on the right path to keeping the weight gain to a reasonable amount.

And in reward for hanging in this long:



Cute right?

We have a gender!

Our baby is very much a girl!

We had planned to go next weekend to an ultrasound place here in town but I ended up having to work that day so the very nice woman was able to squeeze us in today. I took my Mom, MIL and my Grandma. Baby was not having anything to do with being looked at and it took a lot of poking and rubbing to get her to uncurl. Right then Husband called and was on speaker phone when she saw the bits and said "It's a girl!" Our moms both cried, his mom only had boys so she's been waiting for a while. I gotta say- I wasn't a bit surprised. I've just had a feeling for a while that it was girl. I've been dreaming about her for months. After we left my mom and I went straight to the mall and got the cutest outfits, I've been dying to but something but gender neutral stuff just doesn't seem to exist.

I can't wait to meet Amelia Maeve in July!

Alone again, naturally

Well he's gone. Deployment 2012 started Friday morning when I dropped him off at the DCC* about 0830. I went grocery shopping right after then went home and put some stew in the crockpot and did abou 9 loads of laundry (mostly linens). The first few days and weeks aren't that bad really, you get so used to them being at work for long hours or short training trips so you can almost convince yourself that's what is going on at first. Then you hit your groove and everything is smoothe: you work, you come home, chores, dinner, tv..it's your choice! No compromise about what to eat or watch. I once ate sushi every night for 2 weeks because when Husband's home I never get it. I can read all night long in bed without anyone bitching about the light being on at 3 am. These few weeks are actually enjoyable IF you let them be and you should! Then comes the down swing..You miss him so bad it hurts. Everything pisses you off because you have to do EVERYTHING yourself. Tantrums are frequent. Bitchiness abounds. And then one day you wake up and realize, hey he'll be home soon! Followed quickly by: I haven't done any chores beyond basic housework in weeks, I haven't shaved my legs since the night before he left and there's no food in the house since I've eaten out pretty much ever other night for the last month. Homecoming outfits must be planned and shopped for. Hair, manicure and pedicure appointments must be made. And then finally you wait in a hangar for a plane to touch down and of course your spouse will always be the last guy off the plane..and it's over! You made it, you survived another deployment. Some experiences may vary, if you sat at home the whole time crying about how bad your life is..well yeah, it will suck worse for you. nobody is having a good time but how you choose to spend your time is up to you.


So that's that. On the baby side, we finally got to hear the heartbeat! It took him forever to find it, I started to panic and get upset so when he did find it I still wasn't very calm and didn't get to bask in it like I hoped. Then it turned into a full fledged panic attack- the Dr ended up giving me a low dose xan.ax because once the panic train has pulled out of the station for me there is no stopping. Then I felt worse for being an overreacting spaz. I think it was a lot of things that had been piling up and it taking 5 minutes to find the heartbeat just did me in. But in the end all that matters is we got to hear it, it was nice and strong! Ooh..gender reveal on Feb 18!






*DCC- Deployment Control Center, where all deploying troops gather to drop their bags off, get copies of orders, get issued any extra equipment or weapons ect. Its one stop shopping for outbound troops. Spouses and such aren't allowed access to the building so there is a lot of PDA in the parking lot.

My child is already showing its ass. That is pretty much all we could get a shot off. Every time the lady would move the paddle The Dark Passenger would flip over and face the other way. Camera shy just like me! I was a bit worried when she started, I wasn't seeing any movement and the tech wasn't saying anything. I finally had to ask "Um, is it moving??" and she said "Yep". Thanks for the reassurance lady! Everything looks good, heart rate was great and they moved my due date up 3 days.

My new thing is telling my husband we're going to have a homebirth. That we're gonna move the coffee table, throw down a tarp and inflate a pool right in the living room. Order some pizzas and a pay-per-view, invite the whole family! I'm only half kidding actually..the only thing is I'm not sure I'll be able to clean my house well enough to have people over. Maybe!

Wearing the maternity pants wouldn't be so bad if I looked a wee bit pregnant. I still look like I had a big lunch. And a big breakfast. Like I stored up fat for a long winter even though I live in tropical climate. I even lost 4 pounds since this whole thing started! Which is good because you only gain 25 during pregnancy right? Cuz that's all I'm gonna gain. well, actually 29 pounds since I'm negative 4 pounds. I'm pretty sure that's how math works.

Our ultrasound got moved up a week since the rotator (the huge ass aircraft that they pile all the troops and their gear in for an 18 hour flight to their theater locations) is leaving much sooner than we thought. Fun Fact: no actual clue when it leaves we only get about 48 hours notice to his departure time but we get strong hints. Its probably the best part of being part of a special ops base and its secret squirrel tactics. So we get to on monday and see the Dark Passenger..I'm nervous. A million bad things are all I can think about, really just one bad thing. Nothing but seeing a live person bopping around in there will fix those fears. And I'm a fearful and guilt ridden wench these days. I feel like I betrayed my tribe a bit. I sort of expected these feelings but it doesn't make me feel better though or less guilty about being pregnant which is probably a stupid thing to say and it's ok if you just called me a retarded whore. I think it's the hyper awareness that not everyone gets to go on this trip and for some it doesn't end well. Just a big ball of angst over here.