Projects and update on 30wk appt today

Here's some pics of projects my parents and derek did this last week which included, hanging the bikes on racks in the garage, putting together the swing,hanging up curtains. the other picture was of the boys at Smokey bones, a really good BBQ restaurant we went to 2X while my parents were visiting. That probably attributed to my 4lb weight gain, but i had also just ate before my appt some rice, lentils, and cabbage with beets! So anyways Derek, my mom, and I went to my 30wk appt today. We covered all of our concerns regarding the ventriculomegaly. Basically Dr Weeks said that if it were diagnosed at my anatomy scan around 18wks, and then got larger we would be concerned about hydrocephalus, but right now he said not to be too concerned or worried. As far as my lupus, my blood work is of no concern either unless the baby's heartrate takes a sudden drop. I think our frustrations that we had with the last appt is that we were told by 1doctor that yes we needed to worry, and the other doctor said not to worry at all. It can always get frustrating seeing a group practice of doctors, especially when everyone has different opinions and (i believe) levels of intelligence. anyways, it was good to have my mom (NICU Nurse) to help Derek and I ask questions and have support. Im very sad to see my parents and elliot going home. Im really glad though that we got so much accomplished while they were here. Especially with Elliot, it can always be tough and confusing deploying so im glad Derek and I were here to explain and walk him through what we have both been through many times before. I feel like im in the final stretch of my pregnancy now! The doc did say we will start weekly u/s and my biophysical profiles at 33wks, which will include weekly appts. Oh and my BP was 103/78! Really good! I will also have my next u/s on sept 16th. This week Derek and I start our prenatal classes, they are every wednesday for the next 3wks. so hopefully the next 2-3wks will be relatively quiet, especially with Derek not having students, and finishing up his college courses! Also, Derek applied to Eastern Kentucky University for their online criminal justice program so we are waiting to see if he got accepted for the Spring 2010 semester!

Family time.....30wks today!

This week has been great with my family here! Elliot got in late friday night from Fort Drum, NY. Yesterday morning my mom and I went to acupuncture, and then went and got my maternity bras & gowns for the hospital. I also picked up some more tummy butter and panties, as ive ballooned in the past 2wks! Last night Derek grilled some beef and bison burgers and chicken, i had the Bison burgers which were really good! Everyone seemed tired, so we all turned in early last night! We got up and went to church this morning, and went to my new favorite breakfast place North End CafE! We are a "sharing" kind of family, so i ate a little of everyone's cuisine! we had chocolate chip and almond pancakes, migas, grits, ohhhh it was sooo delicious! Afterwards we went and drove around for a little while downtown, which is where Elliot is standing in front of the Louisville slugger museum/bat! Afterwards we went to homemade pie pantry and all had too much sugar! This afternoon Derek and elliot took off to Fort Knox so that Derek could show him where he works and the assault breacher vehicle. Back to work we go tomorrow. Then tomorrow afternoon we go for my 30wk OB checkup, and to see what exactly what were the findings in the last u/s report. Time for a nap....

Kentucky State Fair

Yesterday we went to the STate Fair, and I ate everything imaginable.....turkey leg, bratwurst, funnel cake, fried snickers, mini donuts, candy roasted almonds, a bite of polish sausage, and roasted corn. We actually stayed for a while, i just took breaks sitting down. We saw some flamenco dancers, and of course stopped to look at the prize winning desserts, plants, and veggies. We saw a 929lb pumpkin! At the very end I was pretty tired. My mom was like where did all this energy come from??? I guess it was motivation for the food. and BTW everything i ate was split between Derek and I, or my mom and I. so no i ended up not really eating too much its just we kept sharing everything so it seemed like alot. Its been so nice to have my parents here. On monday morning they got here to Louisville, after leaving Dallas at 8pm driving through the night. We celebrated my bday a little late, we ate at Smokey Bones a bbq place, and then picked up a "cheesecake named desire" cake from coldstone creamery. This week Derek and my parents have been doing my "nesting" for me! They have magically cleaned the whole entire house, and steam cleaned the carpets! We also added beautiful red curtains to the living room, and gotten all of Dreycin's clothes washed, drawers packed to the max according to size, and started organizing the kitchen cabinets with all his bottles,etc. I LOVE MY PARENTS so much and am loving them being here. My mom also went for her tour of the hospital she could possibly be working at, in the meantime she also applied to the NICU at the hospital that im going to be delivering at. Over the next couple of days we are going to go ahead and get my bags ready for the hospital, go get maternity gowns and bras, etc. My mom will be back Sept 17-23rd but we figure we'd go ahead and be prepared. We also went ahead and scheduled my OB appt for monday afternoon, I felt like I needed to go back with my mom who can help Derek and i ask questions about the ultrasound report from last week. I was totally in crisis and was not thinking about what to ask, what we were going to do, etc. This weekend we are going to see my dear acupuncture Dr, Dr. Brown. A couple of weeks ago he met me at whole foods, and we went grocery shopping. I swear every employee in the store knew him and he kept telling everyone "this is my daughter, and my grandson!" he is the sweetest! Last but not least we are awaiting the arrival of Derek's little brother Elliot from Fort Drum, NY. He gets 1month of leave before going to Iraq in October, and just so happens that Louisville is half way to Dallas from NY. We are hoping he gets in late tomorrow night! He is definitely the jokester of the family and i could sure use some extra laughing time right now!

25th Birthday

Today my dad said to me "you are a quarter century old now" Thanks DAD! From my lovely husband i got some flowers, candle and sweet card that of course I cried to when i opened. I also got some flowers from my mother in law Donna which were beautiful, kind of made derek's look sad(but we usually dont spend alot of $ on bdays, especially when we are both getting closer to 30). I also got a package from our dear friends from Camp Lejeune, NC Dana & Jare & their new edition to the family Baby Landon. She finished up some of my registry which included dr browns nipples and brush, baby butt paste, teething ring, and some other stuff. After that Derek and I got ready to go to North End Cafe for a late brunch. It was soooo good, i have been wanting to try it for a long time but we figured we would wait until my bday. Im not by any means a "grits" person but these grits were really good! A couple of pics of me in the middle were taken today, 29wks tomorrow. Im really anticipating my parents being here this week, both Derek and I have the whole week off. We bought fair tickets, and plan to eat alot of good food this week! Today after brunch we went and did our usual grocery shopping at Whole Foods:) Tonight we are going to go see 500days of Summer and eat pizza(light on the sauce for my heartburn), Dreycin's favorite!

Mess Night

Last night was Mess night for the Marines, which basically it was an excuse to drink all night in the snazzy dress blues uniform & an event where they leave the wives out! I call it a "mandatory drinking game" but anyways I drove with Derek out to base so that no one would mess with him about driving after the drinking and occupied myself by going to have dinner alone at Rafferty's and then went and saw Time Traveler's wife. It was a really good movie I bawled pretty much the whole time, and I was glad to see I wasn't the only alone pregnant woman there, but then again around military bases you find thats the trend. I figured I needed a good cry anyways, and by no means was I going to get Derek to go see that movie! I also had time in between dinner and the movie to stop by Michael's and get some scrapbooking stuff. I have had time, and often arts&crafts are my method of coping. I have actually back tracked to finishing up my graduation from East Carolina, Our justice of the peace wedding, and short honeymoon in Wilmington, NC. I also did my bridal shower, and next is bachelorette party. I doubt I'll get to our Florida vacation from last year, but maybe i will. Scrapbooking can be pretty costly. Anyways, below is a pic of my handsome husband in his uniform last night.

My husband is a gardener!

Since this spring Derek has taken up growing things next to our fence, so far he's produced some pretty good tomatoes and beautiful flowers!!!

take everything with a grain of salt.......

So yesterday was our 28wk OB appt and honestly i was to upset to write about anything. After the mis-diagnosis of the single umbilical artery im taking ANYTHING a medical professional says with a grain of salt. today after talking with multiple docs, nurses at the hospital I feel better about our outcome. Basically yesterday we went first to our u/s and afterwards we were asked to have a seat in the next room and the doctor would be in to see us shortly. Right away i knew something was wrong because he had just mentioned that the left ventricle of the brain was close to being mild abnormal, technical term is ventriculomegaly.
we also have never had the high risk doctor talk to us after an u/s in a separate room. Anyways, Dreycin's is borderline at this point and will have to be monitored. Normal is 1.0 and you can see from the pictures below his lateral ventricle measurements were very close to being 1.0. Yesterday I was devestated, because the doctor was like I cant hide this information from you and you need to know....but all i could do was cry. Derek says we are just lucky? I mean not only do i have to deal with the arthritis/lupus stuff, but now i have to worry about my baby not being healthy. After the u/s appt we went over to my OB appt and along with this dreaded news we also found out that my lupus blood work for the Anti Ro/SSA antibody was elevated from the blood draw at the last appt and the doc ordered it again since it was high. This probably means that Dreycin and I will go in for a fetal echo in a couple of weeks, and his heart rate will be closely watched to make sure it doesnt fluctuate up or down from 140's which is his average. Even then if it does they will only give me medicine to control his heartrate. Everything else was good no protein or sugar in my urine, 2lb weight gain which puts me at a 13lb weight gain so far(i started at 180 now im 193!). found out that the pain ive been having in my groin is just stretching of my uterus, not braxton hicks...which i have experienced a few in the past week or so. the further along i get sometimes i wonder if these high risk doctors are just looking for something to be wrong? ive come to the conclusion i no longer like u/s appts. but the pics were beautiful. if i didnt know better i would say the u/s tech knew we were going to get bad news, so she switched the machine from 2d to 3d and we got to see his chubby cheeks. i think he has derek's nose and eyes, and my plump lips? He is 2.99lbs and beautiful, hard to believe that anything could be wrong. His measurements this time says the due date is halloween!? but the u/s tech says they are going to stick with my original due date of november 9th! i still think im a week ahead of what they say. we'll see...

28wk 3d OB appt

Unexpected expenses.....

Here is a pic of Derek's new tattoo. this isnt the unexpected expense, actually Derek didnt even have to pay for this!!!!

Sometimes in life we have those unexpected expenses and today was one of those days for me. Now im not one to spend lots of money on things, and am actually a very good saver, so i get peeved when i have to dip into savings for these "expenses." We have even managed to pay for EVERYTHING for Dreycin in cash and not credit(and with the help of family and friends with some gifts/giftcards). I by the way, hate credit cards and we only have 1. Anyways, Derek has been on me about going to get an oil change and tire rotation, well now a days i forget to put gas in my car. Well i went to Honda today to get my oil change and tires rotated and was then told that my tread was very close to being a 1? well to me that means nothing, they went on to explain that a new tire has a tread of 10. So here they were suggesting for me to at least buy two tires and I cant get a hold of my husband on his expensive IPHONE to ask him if i should wait until this weekend or just buy them at the dealership, and most importantly ask him if he thought they were ripping me off. Two hours later, an oil change, tire rotation, and two new tires, im checking out and my husband calls me back. Tells me i paid too much and how did i end up spending $400?!?! He said his phone wasn't working, and another meltdown was approaching. i think i was mainly upset because i could not get a hold of him, i mean i am 7months pregnant and what if I needed him ASAP? My other issue is that, in my opinion Men should take care of the cars(not a pregnant woman)and know when they need new tires, etc. It would be helpful if we had family here to depend on too, but we have no one. Even after being here for almost a year, I dont know who I would call if I was going into labor and couldn't get a hold of Derek. We just dont have many friends. After leaving the car dealership I was able to feel how much smoother my car drove. I get frustrated because i know if i were working full time i would have not had to dip into my savings and paid cash instead, but I know im doing the right thing by taking care of me & Dreycin:) Raising a child is what we wanted to do, so we are willing to take a little more sacrificing on the $ side to do it.

Needless to say im looking forward to my appointment on wednesday because we have a sono. i cannot wait to see my beautiful little boy, it will be the best bday present(yes i turn 25 this weekend). I still have not taken 7month pictures of my belly, and hopefully i can remember this weekend & have derek help me! My mom also gave me good news this afternoon that she will probably be moving here shortly, there is another HCA hospital near Louisville in Frankfort that has a NICU she can transfer too and not lose all her benefits. My dad also applied for a job at the same hospital I work at, but the downtown location! Keep my fingers crossed that everything works out. After today I could use my momma here! Bad news she gave me was that she got a ticket in the mail for running a red light in richardson....funny thing is that she doesnt know who was driving her or my dad!!!! Life, unexpectedly or not, it happens i guess!!!

almost 7mos....only 88days to go!!!

Im really missing my family in Panama, im so sad that they keep getting denied visa's to come visit us here in the USA. The last time i was "home" was December 2005:( This is a picture of mis abuelos and mi tia Damaris. We just went to Canada for xmas 2008 to visit my aunt, but i know once we have Dreycin we are going to have to make a trip to Panama to visit all of my family!

I think i have officially become uncomfortable, and always tired. Its been hard for me to sleep at night, but my daily afternoon naps are easy to do. At night i just cant get comfortable, and I get up about 3X a night to go pee. Im doing water aerobics about 3-4X a week, you would think that would help me sleep well but im enjoying it. I actually had a meltdown about a week ago....I drove out to a beautiful outdoor park called Tom Sawyer in the west end of Louisville to go to a new water aerobics class. Well the teacher was like oh your high risk, i dont think you can do my class....stupid lady, needless to say i have been doing water aerobics almost my whole pregnancy so who was she to tell me that I couldnt do her class. before i was pregnant i was working out with weights and cardio like 5x a week....again stupid lady. I was so upset I had drove 35min to get there and then got right back in my car and drove home in traffic....i cried the whole time home. Derek and I just decided to get a membership at the YMCA, it was probably the best decision we've made because we both motivate each other to go to the gym! So yes, that was my diva pregnancy moment! The past couple of weeks have been nice, ive switched to part time, i have had a little time to do some scrapbooking and started a new book called Best Friends Forever by jennifer weiner (author of in her shoes). Derek has been very busy with school, he has been pooped. He is looking forward to having the whole month of september off! We are also looking forward to my parents coming to visit Aug24-Sep 1st! Elliot will be here too on Aug 28th, he starts his leave before leaving for Iraq in October and will be driving to Texas. Just happens Louisville, KY is halfway to Dallas so he's going to stop here! And then my mom plans on coming Sep 17-23rd for one last visit before she come for a whole month for my pre&post delivery from oct 20th-mid november!! Then the Bearce's will be here for Dreycin's first turkey day! I have my 28wk appt and sonogram this coming Wednesday Aug 19th, and I cant wait to see how much Dreycin weighs and another profile pic of his face! I'll defn write an update after that dr visit! This weekend Derek has duty sat and sunday, and yesterday didnt get home until 10pm. im defn looking forward to him being off in september not only for his benefit, but also because by then ill defn need more help getting around and doing things!

On another note, i love my friends and do not know what i would do without them. When they hurt, I hurt and try to be as supportive as i can. I know when i have had very sad times in my life i have always been blessed to be surrounded by friends and their kind gestures. Never had much family, besides my loving parents so I depended on friends to get me through the tough times.

Goodnight (hopefully sooner rather than later for me) I just had some milk and cookies and Dreycin was having a party in my belly off the sugar rush!!!!

26wk OB checkup

Everything went really well at our appt today. The doc said Dreycin's heartbeat is very strong and I didnt have any weight gain!!! Only because I have been eating salads, lots of fresh veggies, and protein like steak and chicken:) I also have not been eating sweets, and if i do its a 100calorie pack of something. My blood pressure was 127/90 at the appt, and was around the same yesterday but at this point the doctor does not want to start me on any hypertensive medications he just wants me to carry & take tylenol if i have high blood pressure. He said the point we need to be concerned is when my bp's consistently are in 130's/90's which they aren't right now! for example like preeclampsia would occur with protein in my urine + 150/90-100's blood pressures. Today Derek asked ya know, what he could do in his part to know when something was wrong, the doctor said that we need to monitor fetal movement and then we also have the urine dipsticks at home to check for protein. With lupus preeclampsia can be pretty common (i consistently had protein in my urine the first 16wks of pregnancy)the other part, which was reassuring to Derek due to what we have seen 2couples go through, was that he said over time the studies/statistics have shown that the overall incidence of a stillborn birth are lower in high risk settings due to monitoring the patient more often. Unlike regular patients im already being seen every 2wks! The other huge part was my glucose test, and honestly with the history of diabetes on my dad's side of the family I was a little scared of the outcome....but I PASSED!!! I got a 101, needed a 135 or below to pass! so that was really good news for the day! our next OB appt is august 19th and we have an ultrasound and im so excited to see how big Dreycin has gotten! After our appt today we went to Penn Station subs, which I guess its an east coast thing. I got a philly cheesesteak, which never in my life have I had one or craved one, but this one was really good with spicy mustard. And as weird as it sounds, the subs are served with fresh cut fries. they also had the best fresh squeezed lemonade & chocolate chunk cookies, they were so gooey and good!!! now today, yes i splurged on my lunch afterall i was celebrating! We came home afterwards and both napped, ive been doing alot of lately after my parttime work hours daily which are 8-12 m-f:)
i hear that im supposed to be catching up on my sleep anyways!!!!

Woo hoo.....we are in the double digits!!!

I couldn't be more excited to know that we are now in the double digits on our journey to meet Dreycin!! 99 days to go, doesnt seem like long but its actually 3months and 9days!! Yesterday afternoon I went for another prenatal massage and it is heaven, but often seems to fly by (maybe because i fall asleep). The coolest part is when Dreycin kind of, wakes up and starts going crazy kicking me which weirdly enough I love because it gives me reassurance he is in there strong as can be! Afterwards I got home and Derek and I were trying to decide what we were going to eat and the Pregnant woman (me) says how about golden corral.....well we went and I ate pretty much all protein i could get my hands on, a salad, and cottage cheese? didnt even get a dessert because i just kept eating steak.

on another note, for me it was a tough week once again with my lupus. my flare ups are usually the arthritis in the joints acting up and Wednesday night I broke down and took my first 5mg dose of steroid. I was in so much pain I was miserable. That night Derek had also gotten a call from one of his students reporting that his wife had a miscarriage in her last trimester. We dont know what happened, but I see it at the hospital all the time due to blood clots, preeclampsia, toxemia. So Derek basically got pretty firm with me and said "I need you to do what your doctor said so that we dont lose our baby." of course the moment was heated with all the emotions, but then I remembered once again what my doctor told me about going ahead and taking the steroids especially when my lupus is affecting me, because I have to remember it is also affecting the baby. So i took it at 8pm, and amazingly enough for the first time in a long time I woke up the next morning in no pain. the night before Derek had duty and I was at home in pain beyond belief with the heating pad on me and in bed the whole afternoon. If some of you reading the blog dont completely understand what lupus is read this

http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/navigation/BYDLS-TheSpoonTheory.pdf

With me now almost 26 wks tomorrow, I am so relieved that I made the decision to go part time. I definitely feel better in that I can get some things done around the house without Derek doing ALOT of the housework. I have also had time to read, which I havent done since Graduate School, i think i was kind of burned out on reading from being in college straight for 6years. I just got done reading Mommywood by Tori Spelling and now im reading a book by emily giffin called Love the one your with (ive read all her books). I actually went a little nuts and went and bought a bunch of books off of amazon that i have been wanting to read, slowly ive gotten them in. One im really excited about is the Five Love languages of Children, Derek and I ready together the married version shortly after we were married and enjoyed it. so we are trying to read that one at night before we go to bed :)