Party POSTPONED?!?!

I think I've discovered something very important over the last couple of weeks--with kids, nothing goes according to the plan!!!!

I was getting pretty pumped about having this gender reveal party. I'd gotten ideas for decorations, food, games, etc. We'd even picked out the day we wanted to have the party. Our idea was to have the party on September 15th around lunch time. We'd have a big cookout, cut the cake, and then watch the Alabama-Arkansas game with anyone who wanted to stick around. I'd designed the invites on my computer. They were all ready to be printed and mailed. It was going to be great!

Well, I mentioned last time that we had our two envelopes (one from each doctor), but we weren't sure if they agreed with one another. One was 95% sure, and the other was 90% sure. Pretty good odds, I thought. So, we mailed the envelopes together to Mollie, who'd agreed to make the cake for us. Tuesday night, I get a text...."Um, we may need to postpone the party....".

THE ENVELOPES WERE DIFFERENT!!!! One said "boy", and the other said "girl". I couldn't believe it!!! Especially for them both to claim to be pretty sure they were right.....someone was definitely wrong! I didn't ask Mollie what each one said, but I guess we'll find out soon enough who was right and who was wrong.

So, the party will definitely not be on the 15th, and at this point, I'm seriously debating whether or not to just scratch the idea altogether. We go back to the doctor on September 21st for another visit and ultrasound, and surely by then, they'll be able to get it right 100%. The problem is that the next few weekends after the 21st are already booked up with stuff to do, so the earliest we could have the party would be October 13th. I just don't know if I can wait that long!!! We'll have to talk about it and decide what to do, but I'm leaning toward just finding out on the 21st and not doing a party. When I told Mom what happened, her reply was, "Well, kids definitely teach you patience....you're just getting that lesson a little early!" I think I could stand to develop a lot more patience, so maybe this is a good thing :) Thanks, Baby Grant!!

Since my last post, I've talked to/heard of a lot of ladies that I know who had to do the Lovenox shots during their pregnancies. It made me feel so much better to know that they did it too and got through it just fine! After doing the shots for a week, I can definitely say it's gotten a lot easier. It still hurts but not as much, and I've only got a couple of small bruises that I can see. I've still got a long way to go, but I think I can do it! :)

Yesterday at work, I had my very first comment from a stranger asking if I was pregnant. It took me by surprise because even though my friends and family are noticing my "bump", I don't really think it's necessarily obvious to someone who doesn't know me. I guess it's more obvious than I thought! This person asked if I was pregnant, and I really wanted to respond..."No, I'm just fat"....just to see the look on her face. Isn't that mean of me? I didnt' do that even though it crossed through my mind :) Honestly, I think it's pretty bold to ask someone that question though...especially when it's not blatantly obvious. Sure, ask me when I look like a big balloon, but at this point, I really could just be fat and eat too much ice cream every day! Just my opinion.

15 weeks

So, today marks 15 weeks along, and I'm still feeling pretty good! I'm not sleeping quite as well at night, and I think it's because it's getting uncomfortable to sleep on my stomach, and I don't sleep on my sides very well. I always wake up on my back no matter what I do! Oops! People keep asking if I've felt the baby moving yet, and I'm really not sure. There have been a couple of times when I thought I might have felt it, but I'm not really sure what I'm expecting to feel if that makes any sense. Before long, I guess I'll know for sure!

Speaking of babies, we took our furbabies to the vet last Friday for their checkup and shots. Felix and Gabby did great! It only took 10 or 15 minutes to "capture" Felix (which is doing pretty good), and Gabby was actually the one who meowed all the way there instead of him. Gabby weighed 9.6 lbs, and Felix was 11.4 lbs. Apparently, a normal adult cat weighs 9-13 lbs, so they are considered normal! They were both very cooperative, and Felix didn't scratch or bite anyone, so we left feeling like very proud parents! :) At least, I was a proud mom! Travis loves those kitties too, even if he doesn't want to admit it all the time!!

This weekend is going to be a whirlwind full of activities. We have somewhere to be almost all weekend long starting tonight and going through Monday night. Most of it involves food, so I'm afraid all my weight gain is going to start this weekend :) Alabama plays Michigan Saturday night (Roll Tide!), so of course we're breaking out the grill to celebrate the first game of the season. Travis wants to buy some steaks at EarthFare, so we'll see how they turn out. Can't wait!

Hope you have a fabulous Labor Day weekend too!! :)

Curveball

So, everything was going great with this pregnancy until about 8:30 AM yesterday. I got a phone call from my doctor's office with the results of a genetic screening test I'd done a few weeks ago. Basically, you spit into this little container and they send it off to be tested for over 400 genetic diseases. We weren't required to do the test, but we thought it might be nice to know what I'm at risk of passing on to our kids. Well, after the phone call yesterday, I was regretting doing the test at all.

It's not the end of the world. It's really not. Out of all the possible genetic diseases I was tested for, I'm a carrier of only two of them. One is called pseudocholinesterase deficiency. This is a disease that affects the way your body breaks down certain drugs used in anesthesia. Since I'm a carrier, that means I have one mutated copy and one normal copy of the gene. I am not as affected by this disease as someone would be who has two mutated copies. There is a chance of passing this on to our kids, but it's not really a big deal if the anesthesiologist is aware of it before surgery. This disease doesn't affect me being pregnant at all.

The other genetic disease that I'm a carrier for is something called factor V leiden thrombophilia. This disease increases your risk of developing blood clots.  Again, I'm only a carrier of this disease, so that means I have one mutated copy and one normal copy of the gene. (By the way, according to what I've read, between 3-8% of all Caucasians are carriers of factor V leiden. Most people just don't know they are.) This means I'm at a slightly higher risk than normal of developing a blood clot. Your risk increases significantly if you have two copies of the mutation. Unfortunately, just being pregnant alone has been shown to increase the risk of developing a blood clot, so that means my risk is even higher. Blood clots during pregnancy can cause miscarriage and other problems. The bottom line is that my doctor wants me to give myself Lovenox injections once a day for the rest of the pregnancy and even 6 weeks after delivery. Lovenox is a blood thinner so it decreases your risk of a blood clot.

When the girl from the doctor's office called me yesterday to tell me all that, I was obviously freaked out. At least, when she mentioned giving myself shots every day. (I know...I'm a nurse...). She wanted to call in the prescription to my pharmacy so that I could start the shots right away. I told her that I wasn't comfortable with that until I talked to the doctor myself. My next appointment was scheduled for this coming Monday (the 27th), so I asked her if I could wait until Monday to talk to the doctor and then start the shots. She said that I really needed to go ahead and start the shots, so I should just come on into the office right away. That's when I really started freaking out. The way she said it just made it sound like an emergency. So, I hurried up and got ready and called Travis, and we met at the office at 10 AM.

I was so flustered when I was getting ready and rushing to the office that I didn't even consider the fact that they might just do my "regular appointment" while I was there instead of having me come back on Monday (just a few days later). We were planning to do a quick ultrasound Monday to confirm the gender, but we didn't even think about bringing our "top secret" envelope from last week's appointment with us. Oops! What we ended up doing was just letting them right down "boy" or "girl" in another envelope since we didn't have the first one with us. SO....now we have two envelopes and we don't know if they agree with one another or not!!! This is getting complicated :) I guess what we'll do is give the envelopes to our cake maker, and if they both say the same thing, we'll proceed with the party. If not, we'll wait 4 more weeks for our "anatomy scan". Yesterday, they said they were 90% sure, and last week 95%, so the odds are pretty good I think!

After talking with the doctor, I felt better about doing the injections, but it still makes me nervous. Obviously, blood thinners increase your risk of bleeding, which doesn't seem like a good idea while pregnant. I'd rather not bleed to death during delivery or before that. Of course, I don't really want a blood clot either. I guess it's just bad either way. Not to mention the idea of giving myself a shot every day just makes me upset. I know I can do it because I've done it twice (once yesterday and once today), but I'm not happy about it. The needle doesn't hurt, but the medicine itself REALLY hurts. Both times so far I've gotten a good cry in right afterward and then eaten a bowl of ice cream. Very therapeutic! :) I guess I'll be going through a lot of tissues and ice cream until about March or April. I guess maybe I'm feeling sorry for myself, but this is just making me dread the next several months. I can't imagine doing this every day. Even though I don't like giving myself the shots, I could handle that if I wasn't worried about excessive bleeding. But, apparently, a lot of pregnant women do these injections, so I'm not alone. I just didn't see this coming at all. I guess that's what I get for being "curious" and doing an optional screening test. Hopefully the next few months will go smoothly and we'll have a healthy baby to show for it...then it will be worth it! I'm just hoping not to be too black and blue from all the bruises by the end of this. So far, the injection site yesterday hasn't bruised, so maybe I'll do ok :)

So there's my exciting news! My advice to anyone considering genetic testing is to be prepared for the possibility of shocking results. I guess I wasn't even contemplating something like this, so it really caught me off guard. Some people probably prefer to just be ignorant and not know anything. I guess it's too late for that for me!

Today I'm 14 weeks along and feeling pretty great physically. I'm over the cold/sinus problems I had for about a week, so no more coughing!!! Hooray! I actually weighed a couple of pounds less yesterday at the office than I did at my last appointment, so I guess I'm not eating enough ice cream, right? :) It was probably just water weight, but it was surprising to not weigh more considering the fact the I'm starting to get a little baby bump!

13 weeks

14 weeks

This weekend should be pretty relaxing...except for tomorrow morning. It's time for the kitties' annual check-up and shots!!! The most stressful part will be catching Felix and getting him into the crate. Hopefully, he and Gabby will do just fine. Then, we're babysitting the Hester kids tomorrow night. We're looking forward to that!! Surely if we can handle 4 kids at one time, we can manage one of our own in a few months. Right? :)

We're Having A.....

...wiggle worm!!!

Sorry. Couldn't resist doing that :)

We had our first trimester screening yesterday at a different office in Huntsville. The first thing we did was an ultrasound. It was the coolest thing ever!!! That baby has grown so much since our ultrasound at 7 weeks. It's gone from a little blob to a baby with little hands and feet. We could see the brain, the heart, the bladder, the spine, and little bones in the arms and legs. We were both in awe just looking at the screen. The baby kept flipping around and waving its hands and feet in the air. I think he/she was saying hello!

The ultrasound tech said she felt pretty certain she knew if it was a boy or girl, so we had her write it down on a piece of paper and seal it up in an envelope. You can thank Travis for us not finding out yesterday. As of Monday night, I had convinced myself that we should just forget the party and find out yesterday at the office. Good thing Travis has more willpower than I do! :) He took the envelope and has hidden it from me somewhere. He must not trust me or something!! :) We'll take the envelope with us to our appointment on the 27th, and if they say the same thing (boy or girl), then we'll start planning our gender reveal party! I guess if they disagree, we'll wait a few more weeks to get a better idea on another ultrasound.

Back to yesterday's screening...the doctor was very confident that the baby doesn't have Down syndrome or trisomy 18 (another chromosomal abnormality), so we were thankful to hear that. They pricked my finger for some blood before we left, so we'll get the official results over the phone in a few days. The main thing we were worried about is spina bifida since my dad was born with it, but the doctor also felt pretty certain that the baby doesn't have spina bifida either. We were thrilled to get such great news!

Here are the latest pictures of our wiggle worm...

I'm on my back...posing for a picture! :)

Resting for a minute...

Hi Mom! Hi Dad!!

As for me, I'll be 13 weeks along tomorrow (going by our due date). Almost done with the first trimester! I forgot to ask yesterday how big the baby was, but according to the app on my phone, he/she should be almost 3 inches long and weigh about an ounce!  This week, I've been feeling a little under the weather. I guess it's just a cold or allergies. I've been coughing and my throat's pretty sore. Other than that, I feel ok. I'm hoping this cough will pass soon...it's just annoying more than anything! Travis took my first baby bump picture last Wednesday, so here's my 12 week picture. I'll have him take another one tonight :)

12 weeks

We had a very productive weekend! We hung the new ceiling fan in our guest bedroom AND hung blinds in the guest bedroom and study. Hooray! They make those rooms look much better. Next up...hanging curtains in the guest bedroom. Travis also wants to replace the ceiling fans in the living room and our bedroom, so we may be doing that before too long also.

No more ugly shade over the window!! :)

Blinds and a ceiling fan totally update this room!

These rooms are twins :)

Well, that's about it. Tomorrow is Dad's birthday, so we're heading to Trussville to celebrate this weekend. Hope you're having a great week!! :)

News at Our House

Things have been busy around our house! Life definitely doesn't slow down after you get pregnant...

Tomorrow I'll be 12 weeks, and I guess we can finally start taking some "pooch pics" now. I'm starting to feel a little bump maybe! :) I might get Travis to take a picture tonight when he gets home from work. I'm still just feeling tired but no complaints other than that. I feel so lucky not to have been sick at all!! I'm hoping to get some of my energy back in the next few weeks after I'm officially in the 2nd trimester. It would probably help if I was exercising more than once a week, but I either haven't had time or just haven't made myself do it. I've been working more than normal lately, so that's probably another reason for the tiredness! On Tuesday, we go to a new doctor for my first trimester screening. Hopefully they will be able to tell then if it's a boy or girl. If they can, we'll just have them write it down on paper and seal it in an envelope. Then, we'll save it until we go back to my regular doctor on the 27th to make sure they agree...boy or girl! Then, we can start planning the party! :) At least, that's the plan. If I can't control myself, we may end up finding out on Tuesday...haha :)

Last Wednesday, we had some excitement before supper. Travis got home from work and went into his study, flipped the light on, and it made a really loud popping sound, and smoke started pouring out!!!! Pretty scary! He took it down after church, and being a typical engineer, he took it apart and discovered that the wiring in the light was disintegrating! Not good. The good thing is that we both hated that light anyway...it was an ugly fixture with brassy gold trim. Besides just being plain ugly, it put out horrible shadows when the light was on. So, we were planning to replace it eventually anyway...this just sped up our timeline. We decided to look for a ceiling fan instead of just a regular light fixture. So, last weekend we "did our research" and went to Lowe's and Home Depot to check out their selection. We eventually settled on one at Home Depot that we both really liked. We bought two so that the study and guest bedroom would match.

A five minute fan??? Hooray!!!

We got to work hanging it Sunday night after church. Well, somehow our "5 minute" project turned into about 2 hours...haha! But, we eventually got it up (I was mainly the instruction manual reader and the tool hander), and it looks great! The fan is so quiet, and it moves a lot of air even on the lowest speed. The only part we weren't completely happy with was the light. The glass bowl that covers the light bulbs is amber-colored, and it makes the light look too yellow. Not to worry....this fan is also made in a brushed nickel finish, and its glass bowl is more of a white/clear color, so we ordered two of those on Monday. They came today, so we'll test it out tonight to see if we like it better this way. Of course, we have to make things complicated! :)

We're planning to hang the other fan in the guest bedroom this weekend, and I'd also love to get the blinds hung in the guest bedroom and study. We need to get these projects done before football season starts because we definitely won't be very productive on the weekends after that! :)

Last weekend, we also went shopping since it was "tax free weekend". Travis was really needing some new khaki pants for work, so we headed to Belk to check out their selection. He found some that he liked, so we bought 5 pairs (in different shades). He hates to shop for clothes, so these will probably last him for the next 5 years at least :) Plus, he never gains any weight, so they'll fit for a long time I'm sure. Anyway, we got the pants for a really good deal because they were on sale for 40% off, plus an additional 30% off and no tax. We bought the pants, got them home, and we left them in the bag on the floor in our bedroom. That was a big mistake. Travis discovered on Saturday that the bag had been attacked!

CHEWED!

We both knew who the culprits were: our sweet, innocent kitties. They were in big trouble with their daddy! They not only chewed up the bag, but the pair of pants on top got chewed too! There are noticeable bite marks in the pants. Bad kitties! I know they didn't mean to chew up the pants because I've left clothes on the floor plenty of times, and they've never touched them. They just love to chew on stuff like plastic bags and newspaper. Let's just say Travis was not happy with his kitties on Saturday...

I'm too cute to be mad at for long! :)

I guess the kitties are just preparing us for what life will be like with kids breaking and ruining stuff! :) It's just stuff after all!

Boy or girl? We could know soon!

Tomorrow I'll be 11 weeks along!

Yesterday, we had our second appointment with my OBGYN. I scheduled it to be right after work, so all I had to do was walk over the breezeway to her office. Very convenient! Travis met me there, and we didn't have to wait long at all. My blood pressure was good, and I weighed the same as I did at my last appointment, so yay for that! You're really not supposed to gain much weight at all during the 1st trimester, so I guess I'm saving that for the coming weeks :) I feel like I'm hungry all the time, but I'm trying not to be a complete pig. I'm hoping for smaller than a 9 lb baby like I was! :)

The first thing we did when we got in the room was an ultrasound. The nurse told us not to be worried if we couldn't hear the heartbeat because that's not all that unusual for 10-11 weeks since the baby is still so low. But, when she put the goopy stuff and the wand on my belly, we heard the heartbeat right away!! It was so cool! Travis didn't know that a baby's heart rate is so much faster than ours, so he wasn't expecting it to sound like that.

We're going to a different doctor on the 14th for my first trimester screening. That's the test that they do to check for Down syndrome. At that appointment, they'll do another ultrasound and some blood work. My doctor told us yesterday that this other doctor will probably be able to tell us the gender of the baby when they do the ultrasound. I was so excited to hear that! Apparently, he is really good at determining boy or girl this early because he's only missed it one time that my doctor knows of. That means we could know in less than 2 weeks! We go back to my OBGYN on the 27th, and she said they could do an ultrasound then and would probably be able to tell the gender, so I guess if we can't find out on the 14th, hopefully we will on the 27th!!! I was expecting to have to wait until at least sometime in September or early October to know, so if we know sometime this month, I'll be thrilled!!!

Now, we just have to decide about whether or not to have a gender reveal party. Basically, you get the doctor to write down if it's a boy or girl on a piece of paper, and then you put it into an envelope without looking. Then, you give the envelope to a friend or a bakery, and they make a cake with either pink or blue on the inside. For the party, you invite your friends and family, and then you cut into the cake with everyone there, and everyone finds out at the same time. I just think that would be so much fun!!! But, it's going to be really tempting to find out at the doctor's office too. Decisions, decisions! If we do the party, I think we would probably wait until after the 27th just to make sure both doctors think the same thing: boy or girl. So, if we have the party, it'll be near the end of August or early September I guess.

I've felt pretty good this week other than just the usual tiredness. I worked yesterday and Monday, and I'm supposed to work tomorrow and Friday too. I'm enjoying today off! I jogged this morning and watered our plants. I've also been watching some of the Olympics. I may even take a nap this afternoon and not feel guilty about it. I'm good at taking naps these days!

This weekend, we're having a few friends over to watch the Olympics. Travis is going to break out the grill for the 2nd time and grill some hamburgers. We're looking forward to that!

Mom had her annual mammogram a few weeks ago. She noticed recently that she has a lump on her scar from the lumpectomy she had last summer. She thought it was just scar tissue, but her doctor biopsied it just to be sure. She got the results yesterday...it was benign! Thanking God for good news like that! :)  I think Mom is about as anxious as I am to find out whether we are having a boy or girl. I think she's going to go crazy buying cute little outfits for him or her...haha :)

Speaking of moms, Cheryl sold her house last week!!! We are so excited for her! It had been on the market for a while, and finally the right family came along (with 7 kids!!). The closing was on Friday, so it's a done deal. She and Melissa (and Emily, for a week or two) have moved into a rental house not too far away from their old house, and I just love it. It's got a lot of curb appeal!

That's about it for the news around here. Lots of prayers have been answered lately!! :)