Joy

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Pregnancy Update - 30 weeks

Goodness!  I just realized I have not mentioned this pregnancy very much nor do I have a single picture of me pregnant with this baby!
So here you go, Baby 4# at 30 weeks.  I am pretty excited as this means I only have 7 more weeks to go. (IF his lungs are mature when we do the amnio!)
This pregnancy has been the easiest and seems to have gone by the fastest out of all of them.   I think this is mostly because I have had little to no back pain which is my usual nemesis.  (With Will it was so bad I had crutches to get out of bed) and because I rarely notice my growing bump - it is usually concealed under a jacket or sweater. 
 
In the summer,  it's just out there no matter what so I always noticed it.

 I am on heparin this time instead of Lovenox solely due to cost.  It may be a little bit of a pain to do an injection twice a day rather than once but it is literally a 6th of the cost so well worth it. (I was on heparin with Joy and Lovenox with Paige).

I noticed that as soon as I started the heparin I suddenly did not want sweets at all and I crave lemon juice and other sour things like crazy.  I also have hardly gained any weight.   I started out at 115 and am currently 124.  With Joy I had the same exact cravings and weight gain so I am wondering if that is how the heparin effects me.  If so, I love heparin!

My one complaint and downside to this pregnancy is my varicose veins.  These popped up for the first time with Will and with each pregnancy they've gotten exponentially worse.

This time around they are angry and very painful.
I mean, look at that one wrapping around under my knee!  I don't know much about veins but isn't that like 500 times it's normal size?! (it is named "The Hulk - it is the only one that has a name) I have to wear my compression stocking ALL THE TIME.  (Another reason I planned for a winter pregnancy.)  I can share this gross picture with complete confidence that they will disappear completely shortly after I give birth - they have every other time.  In the meantime my leg looks like that of a 90 year old.  Only my left leg is like this, the other one is completely fine.

Last week I noticed a hard pea-sized lump in a vein near The Hulk and was worried because I was told that if that happens it could be a blood clot and I needed to get it checked out right away.  So I called my Dr. first thing in the morning and they told me to go to the hospital right away to get an ultrasound of my leg.  It turns out it IS a blood clot but not a deep vein one so there is basically nothing that can be done for it and it isn't a problem.  

At the start of the new year I put myself on a no dairy and no gluten diet.  This is an attempt to have a happy baby for the first time.  Every single baby has been completely awful with Paige winning the "Spawn of Satan" title.  I do not think I can go through another year like our first year of Paige so I am trying to eliminate any factors that might make him cranky.
 
(imagine this, with sound, 24/7 for an entire year) ((while trying to home school and work part- time))

 I was told to go off dairy and gluten when I was breastfeeding Paige because she had terrible tummy problems and the doctors thought changing my diet would help.
BUT no matter how long I gave up those things I was always told it was not long enough.   They would say "You'll see a difference in a couple of days." Then, after no change in Paige, they would say "Well, you should try it for at least two weeks,"  which then turned into a month and then 3 months (still with little to no change).   That is a long time when your diet usually consists of coffee, cookies and chocolate!  So this last time around I am preemptively "dieting" so that when my milk comes in there will be no way that there is an offending food substance to cause a reaction.   If the baby is still a horrible, screaming, monster after this, I will know it is not my fault and go back to eating normally.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/7b/47/7b/7b477bc9f5d8aecbc01af3d39faea175.jpg
  I will just have to accept that Josh and I are genetically incapable of producing content babies and I will cry a lot for the next year.

When I hit 32 weeks I will have to start going in 2 times a week for biophysical profiles (ultrasound that grades the baby on different things) and non-stress tests.  Then at 36 and a half weeks I will have my amnio.  If his lungs are mature then we'll induce right away, if not I will have to wait a WHOLE WEEK before they will do another amnio to check for lung maturity again.  It is very important to me that we induce before I hit 37 weeks since that is when Will died.  Please pray that his lungs will be mature for the first amnio.  I am more nervous about this since he is a boy - they have a reputation for being slower in the lung development area.

We don't have a name picked out yet for the baby.  We have a few that are in the running but ultimately it is up to Josh - who apparently does not spend hours everyday dwelling on the subject as I do. It'll probably be decided after we see what he looks like.

The girls are getting excited now and are used to the idea of a boy.  We aren't getting anything out or ready for him though.  We'll have plenty of time to take the pink things out of the nursery and get his clothes out of the garage after he is here alive and well.

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Rain = Coffee

Warming up on this rainy day, 
with some coffee at Trader Joe's.
It goes without saying that we got some ill-favored looks when all three girls got a coffee.