Snapshots from the 23rd Month

Our morning routine... sippy, blankie & "Super Why"

"MOM! WAKE UP!"

Vacuuming

Helping put the groceries away

Tonight's snack: String cheese. YUM!

"Gracie!"
(The dog that lives across the street.)

"Fix Elmo puzzles."

Looking at his scrapbook.

Building tall towers.

In a deep theological discussion.

Helping "fix" (translation: replace the batteries) in a toy.

Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus visited our house last night, as he always does when children will be away from their homes on Christmas day, right? :) So Drew sat out cookies for Santa last night, and woke this morning to find that Santa had left him many gifts. Here's a peek into our morning...

A "Super-Sized" 27 Weeks

Back to the doctor yesterday for another "OB check," as they like to call them.  Here's the nitty gritty...

Glucose test came back normal.  YEA!  No diabetes!

I have yet to plateau and am still measuring six weeks big.  Lucky me.  

I did ask about the potential of an early delivery.  My doctor said that certainly, given my large size and the baby's large size, and the fact that Drew weighed 9 pounds at birth, I could go into labor early.  There could also be the possibility of inducing early.  He is going to leave that decision until after I have my next ultrasound with Dr. Egley, the perinatologist, at the beginning of January when they measure the baby again.  

All in all, everything is as normal as it can be (minus the plus-sized baby and super-sized uterus!).  As my doctor said yesterday, "you feed these babies well."  Umm, yeah, you bet.  

Relief!

I had my appointment this morning with Dr. Egley, the perinatologist I was referred to last week. After taking some beautiful pictures of our baby, the doctor entered the room and said "I have no bad news for you today." What a relief! Sure, baby measures a little big (especially in the noggin!), but everything looks great. He also said that the heart "calcification" is nothing of concern and that if I were his daughter, he'd tell me not to lose sleep over it. The kind of problems they see with the heart are ones that are found in the actual muscle (indicator of Down Syndrome) but that the "sparkle" they see on our baby's heart is not located in such a spot. Everything the doctor had to say basically told us not to worry, that things look great, and he'll see us again for another ultrasound in 4 weeks to do more measurements to check how things are progressing.

Whew!

Of course, he couldn't tell us just from looking at an ultrasound if I have diabetes or not. I'm still waiting to hear the results from the glucose test I took last Monday. I follow-up with my doctor on Monday, and will hopefully know by then. I'm relieved to know that even if I do have gestational diabetes, baby is doing just fine.

The ultrasound was in the usual grainy black and white 2-D images that they normally are...until, much to our surprise, the technician made a "click click" on her machine and all the sudden the images changed to 3-D! It was totally wild, and she captured some beautiful portraits of our little one!

Our technician even captured a short video of baby's movements. So amazing!

We still don't know the baby's gender... what do you think? If you haven't voted already (which many of you haven't!) please vote on our poll, posted to the left.

Mommy's Little Helper

Drew is quite the helper. He enjoys getting his little hands into everything I do. He helps feed Luci, unload the dishwasher, vacuum, and sweep. Last night, he was helping me fold towels. He's really quite good; I fold, he hands me the next towel to be folded. A few weeks ago, when we were folding towels, I asked Drew if he would take a stack of hand towels into the bathroom to be put away. He proudly said "ok" and proceeded into the bathroom where he stacked them (as neatly as he could) on the bathroom counter. So last night, I asked him to do the same with one hand towel. He took the towel very carefully and disappeared around the corner into the bathroom. He reappeared moments later, and I didn't think anything of it.

Later on, then, as I was getting ready for bed, Brad came into the bedroom and asked "Is there a reason there's a towel in the toilet downstairs?"

Ok, so my little "helper" isn't so helpful ALL the time. But he sure provides some comic relief when I need it!

"Called for the Doctor, and the Doctor Said..."

Back to see my doctor today for the follow-up from last Monday's discovery. I feel like I heard a lot of information, so I'll try to convey it here the best I can.

Drank the glucose drink (not as tasty as I remembered it from last time!) and had my blood drawn. Will have to wait a few days to receive the results. From what I understand, this test may or may not have indicators for diabetes. It if does, I have to do a 3-hour glucose test to find out if I have diabetes. If it doesn't, then I'm ok as far as that's concerned.

Had the ultrasound. Conclusion: I'm growing another big baby! I am now 25 weeks pregnant; baby's head measures at 28 weeks, and his/her belly measures at 26 weeks. They can also measure the amount of amniotic fluid, and that is normal.

However, this still does not answer the question as to why I am measuring 6 weeks bigger.

My doctor says that because baby is measuring big, it could be an indicator of diabetes. Having a larger baby also puts me at an increased chance for pre-term labor. Also, on the ultrasound, he saw a small "sparkle" on the baby's heart. He referred to it as a "calcification" and reassured me that he is not concerned about it. He explained that it is located around the heart's valves, and made it sound like he's seen it before with no indications of there being problems. (Baby's heartrate was normal, in the 140s.) But because of all of these things (most prominently the large baby paired with my large belly), he is referring me to a perinatologist located in Peoria for a more technologically advanced ultrasound (hmm...that sounds familiar...I think I had to do that a few times with Drew...) to look into these issues further and catch anything now rather than later.

I'm waiting to hear back from my clinic on when that appointment is scheduled, and I go back in two weeks to see my doctor so he, too, can keep an eye on things.

On a super-bum note: I gained 4 pounds this last week. And that's just from Thanksgiving...wait until Christmas! Yikes!