We WON the photo contest!!! Thank you everyone who fully supported us and voted their hearts out for us! Y'all are awesome! To view the photographer's blog about the win click HERE. And, to see more of Amanda's work go HERE. She is awesome, does fabulous work, is a Christian, reasonably priced, and a mom to twin girls (to give a little important background information on her). So, now we will get pictures done when Baby Wicker is born in August. Yay!
I had an appointment at the OB last Friday, and Baby Wicker was looking great. . . moving lots, strong heartbeat of 179, and all looked well. About the heartbeat . . . I've been thinking it was a boy because I haven't been as sick this time around as with Cameron. However, that heartbeat looks like a girl as our girls have distinctly faster heart rates than our boys. Our boys are always in the 150's or slower and our girls are always upper 160's to 180's. We shall see. . . anyway, I go back in about 2 weeks for another ultrasound. They will measure the nuchal fold to get an idea of if this baby is at risk for certain genetic abnormalities such as downs, etc. Some of you may know that we did the full 1st trimester screening with Cameron, because of the the cerclage surgery. The doctor wanted to rule out Trisomy 13 or 18 as most of the time those babies die in utero and the cerclage would prevent my miscarrying the baby naturally. Anyway, they did blood work, ultrasound measurements, and we met with the genetic counselor. The results came back that Cameron had an increased chance of Down Syndrome. We never really knew the whole pregnancy whether or not Cameron had Down's and while it didn't change our feelings for her we did wish that we could have prepared ourselves it if were the case to best care for her. So, obviously she was fine and the results gave a false positive. So, this time I've opted to just have the measurement done as my high risk OB likes to do it to prepare parents. The ultrasound is the most reliable way to determine such risks.
Okay, for all of those that want to know the other medical details of the pregnancy and my high risk factors . . . when this ultrasound is done they will start measuring my cervix. My OB is hopeful that the cerclage will work again, just as it did with Cameron. However, there is a chance that it may not tighten down correctly and some changes may have to be made to it surgically. So, he will continue to check my cervix, via ultrasound, and should know if it is working correctly by 18 weeks. Then, he will follow it closely until I reach about 28 weeks when he will stop checking all together. He will be checking my "Big E" antibody this pregnancy, monthly, just as with Cameron and the triplets. To remind you it stayed 1:16 and 2:16 all of Cameron's pregnancy, but if it goes to 8:16 (the 1st number doubles, so it will always be an even number 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 etc and can go from 2:16 to 8:16 in one month) they may decide to do a blood transfusion on the baby during the pregnancy. I acquired this antibody through carrying one of Chris' previous children (Bradley or a miscarriage before the triplets). As long as it stays low there are no big concerns. They will check, through ultrasounds, to make sure that the blood flow to the baby looks good the last half of the pregnancy as it can cause issues. Then, there is my small Protein S Deficiency which puts me at high risk for blood clots during pregnancy. You may have heard of things like this where women take shots of blood thinners daily, but I'm able to be controlled by daily baby Aspirin. Next, is my gestational diabetes which he doesn't expect to rear it's ugly head until 20 or 22 weeks at the earliest. So, until then I'm going to do a one or two day trial every couple of weeks of all day blood sugar testing (fasting in the am and 2 hours after every meal). The placenta produces a hormone starting around 20 or 22 weeks and peaks at 28 weeks. This hormone causes some women's pancreas, such as myself, to not work properly. So, this is why I shouldn't have issues until after 20 weeks. I'm already trying to watch what I eat and not carb overload, but this shouldn't have anything to do with the outcome besides going ahead and getting my mind in the diabetic way of thinking. I'm almost 11 weeks and haven't gained any weight- yay! They always want me to shoot for about 40lbs, so I know it will come later especially when insulin is added to my daily regimen as insulin causes people to gain 10-15 pounds. I will start to have weekly ultrasound and non-stress tests after 28 weeks just as with Bradley and Cameron due to diabetes. So, that is about it. This pregnancy continues to be amazing as far as God providing for everything- sickness, childcare, etc. I'm not too sick to take care of the kids everyday, my doctor continues to work around Chris' schedule for my appointments, and God just continues to provide in every way. So, I know that all this other stuff above will be taken care of too, and I'm going to give it ALL to God.
Now, we have to come up with a boy and girl name. Leave your comment or email me and weigh in with your opinion as we'd love to hear it. Do you think we should "go on down" the alphabet to a 'D' name or should we stick to an 'A, B, or C' name since all of our 5 children have had names starting with those 3 letters and allow the kids to continue being our A,B,C's??? Coming up with a name for a 6th child, after naming our 5 children, is getting kind of tricky! :-) What a great problem to have though! "Thank you Lord, how could I ask for more!"
Know this song? Check it out! How could I ask for More by Cindy Morgan- great song played on WMHK often.
No comments:
Post a Comment