23W5D Ultrasound

We had our ultrasound this morning and it was great! The placenta has moved up more so it's pretty far from my cervix and they couldn't find the remaining clot, so either it broke up or was reabsorbed into my body. Looks like we're in the clear for now, woohoo!!! Nola looks great too. She's measuring right on target and her heartbeat was around 138bpm. The tech took a few 3D shots and I think she's going to look a lot like Embry. The tech said you can't see if a baby has dimples on 3D ultrasounds, so we'll be eagerly awaiting her arrival to see all her cute little features. Mmm, I love her so much. The tech also made sure to point out her 'hamburger bun, patty, and bun' which I thought was rather humorous. Nola was putting her foot in and out of her mouth most of the time, it was so cute to watch. I have an appt with my OB next week, but I think I'll be calling her sooner to see if she thinks we can stop the pelvic rest now that things look good. She said last time that it'd be over if the bleeding stopped and the clot dissapeared, so things are looking up in that department.

23 Weeks (1 day)

23 Weeks
Taken 7/22/10

I'm actually posting 'real' belly shots for the first time this pregnancy. I hadn't because, well, I've got stretch marks and then some more on top of the old ones and it just isn't pretty. Now I figure, who really cares? Nobody except me, I'm sure, so whatever.

I'm 23 weeks along and feeling Nola move a ton. She jumps around, punches, kicks, etc all the time. You can even see it from the outside now, it's great. Tony's felt her move a number of times and watched it from the outside too. It's so exciting to be constantly reminded that she's growing, developing, and still alive in there.

I stopped bleeding about a week ago. I was hesitant to say anything because I figured it would just start up again, but it hasn't. I'm thinking this is probably a good thing, but it also means the remaining clot isn't passing, but it might just be reabsorbed into my body. Our ultrasound is on Tuesday and I'm looking forward to seeing if the clot has grown, shrunk, stayed the same, or gone away. I'm guessing the placenta will just keep moving away from the cervix, so I hope I'm right about that.

Embry: sleeping in her big girl room is going great! She even got into bed all my herself the other night without me plopping her down in there. We need to move her bed so there's more wall space and then I'd like to move the bookshelf out of the nursery and into her room and paint it pink. I've been working on potty training her the past couple of days...it's umm interesting. She had started telling us when she'd poop and pee about a week ago, so I figured now was as good of a time as any to see if we could make some progress. She hasn't peed in the potty at all yet, only on the floor, but she did poop in the potty once. It was more of an accident than anything, but I still made a huge deal of it and gave her m&m's. She looked at me, made a weird face, said poopy and I quick threw her on the potty and out it came. She was actually a bit shocked I think. Then she warmed up once I started clapping and cheering, etc. She tells me when she's going or when she just went, but not beforehand...I guess that's the whole point of potty training.

21 Weeks

3D Face shot

3D profile, arm and ear

profile

another profile with foot above stomach

the remaining clot

21 week belly shot
taken 7/8/10

a foot

profile with hand above belly

3D shot of eyes, nose, mouth and arm next to face

We had an ultrasound on Wednesday and it was great! The news was that one clot has passed and the other one is still about the same size (like 1.4cm x 3cm) but it has moved a lot further away from my cervix. So that's all good, but my placenta has only slightly moved. Before the edge of it was just over the cervix and now it's pretty much right next to the cervix, still almost on it. So it is moving in the right direction, just very slowly.

The ultrasound tech was awesome and spent about 30 minutes just looking around. She got some great 3D shots and wouldn't give up until she got a good profile picture. That made me happy :) and not to toot my own horn, but my baby is so cute! Based on ultrasound pics, I think Nola will look a lot like Embry. Looks like she has the same nose and lips from the profile shots. I love her. I just want to hold her and squeeze her and give her lots of kisses!

I don't think I ever mentioned that I stopped nursing Embry after we got back from Maryland. I'm proud of myself. Although recently she's been having major issues (I think due to teething) and I sometimes wish I could just fix it, but I can't. She'll fall down or something, which normally doesn't phase her, and then cry uncontrollably for 30 minutes while I hold her. Nothing will calm her down...except maybe Elmo.

She won't share no matter what. She will take every toy that someone else has even if there are 100 other toys to play with. Then I have to rip it out of her hands while she throws a fit and give it back to the kid who had it in the first place. It's rather embarrassing, although I'm sure most parents understand since they go through the same thing themselves. I took her to the stay and play at the library on Tuesday and she had a great time, I think we'll be going semi-regularly from now on. They had just open play for about 45 minutes, then songs and dancing and instruments, it was fun. Last friday I had the girls over from my mops discussion group for swimming and pizza...besides embry stealing everyone's toys, it was a lot of fun! Today I'm going to clean up and then have some ladies over from the mom's group for swimming and snacks, I'm looking forward to it since Embry is being a complete crankster and swimming brightens her mood. :)

Oh ps, our white car stopped working. I knew this was bound to happen sometime soon. Argh. Tony's dad is coming over on Saturday to take a look at it. Basically when you stop or turn, then press on the gas, it won't accelerate and then all the lights on the dash come on. Then you have to pull over and restart it to get it going again. I pray it's an easy and inexpensive fix. We need a van. I'm so serious. Speaking of small cars, I was at costco the other day and I came out and a smart car was parked next to me...I stood there thinking, I can't fit my stuff from costco into my car, what in the world are these people getting that will fit in a smart car?!

Oh Also, we've been working on getting Embry's 'big girl room' all set up. It's sooo adorable, I want to move in there! I'll post pics once it's done, but for now, we left 2 walls orange and then painted the opposite walls hot pink. Her toddler bed is from Ikea and a bubble gum pink with red feet. Then my mom helped me sand down the dresser (which was very ugly from the 70's) and she watched Embry yesterday while I primed it and painted it the exact color of the bed (bubble gum pink). Now I need to get cute drawer pulls to put on there, like flowers, or red knobs or something. I also got these awesome curtains that are vertical striped with white, hot pink, light pink, lime green, blue, red, yellow, and orange. I can't wait till it's all done!

Update #2 (18 weeks)

Went in for my OB appt this morning. Tony came home from work and picked me up. The dr measured my uterus and listened for the heartbeat with the Doppler. She found the heartbeat pretty quickly after Nola kicked the monitor a couple times. Tony breathed a sigh of relief.

I asked the dr a bunch of questions. Here's what we found out. The bright red bleeding was most likely the edge of the placenta separating from the cervix as the uterus grew or could have been caused by some trauma. She didn't seem very concerned about the blood clots because now I'm having dark brown spotting which would indicate that the clots are slowly dissolving. She said I could gradually increase my activity too. Swimming, walking, picking up Embry are all ok as long as there's no more bright red blood. If there is, then it's back on bed rest. Basically I shouldn't do anything to jar, jiggle, or disturb my placenta as the uterus continues to grow.

I asked her if she could give me a percentage of people who have this same issue and have a good outcome. She said that knowing what we know now and having the time passed that has, she'd estimate I have a 99% chance of a good outcome. So hallelujah! That is such a relief!

I'm going in again in a week to hear the heartbeat and just check in with the dr. It didn't take much convincing for her to push up my ultrasound because she wants me to have peace of mind. So we should be going in for another one around July 6 which will be 3 weeks after the last one. Basically it will be to check if the clots are shrinking and mostly to see if the placenta has moved away from the cervix.

She also said my lack of weight gain is fine since the uterus and baby Nola are measuring right on target. She asked if I was eating a lot and I reassured her that, yes, I am eating a TON of food. Tony also agreed, haha. He knows I can really pack it away if I want to!

So all in all, things are going really well and we couldn't be happier. I feel so blessed.