Drop it like it's hot

I had a perinatologist visit Tuesday in which I passed the NST but the baby had a few 'variables' they wanted to ck via u/s. Turns out, my amniotic fluid level has dropped from its last "excellent" measurement taken just over two weeks ago. The tech didn't tell me how low it was, just admonished me to drink more fluids. Scared me a bit. I go back for another NST Friday, and have an appt with the peri (along with an u/s for growth) tomorrow. As this point, my life is a series of appointments but I'm not complaining.

2.0 is still in a transverse position, though no one seems to be terribly concerned about this as of yet. I guess there's still a little bit of time for her to turn head down, though she's been transverse for several weeks now (now her head is on my left side, whereas just over two weeks ago, it was on my right side). She was head down at 26 weeks, breech at 28 weeks, transverse at 30...and still transverse now as we head into 33 weeks.

Given that they won't deliver me past 38 weeks, that means somewhere around Feb. 3rd (if all continues along okay), I'll be meeting this little lady in person. I need to ask my OB about this at my next appointment just so I know the loose plan. I'm down with a c-section if need be, and a little scared about another vag given my previous experience with the 'salad tongs of death.'

Hope you each had a wonderful holiday spent with those you love most. I know I did, as you can see from the picture above :-)

A peek at the new girl on the block

Forgot to post this a few weeks back...she's kinda cute, no? And note the creative use of my placenta as a headrest. Glad to see she's made herself comfy in there.

As for the 'first' girl on the block, she had her 18-month appt. yesterday. Call her a late bloomer but after months of being in the 25th to 50th percentiles, she's sprouted into the 75th percentile for height (mind you, me and the mister aren't the tallest of people), 70th for weight. Per the ped, she has another molar breaking through her gums (top and the lowers are close to coming through), and a strong vocabulary of 25+ words. Ped was very happy at that and at J's two word 'sentences' ("off shoes" and "up please"). Overall, she got a clean bill of health. She also got a flu shot and a hep A shot and sent on her merry way. Barring any unforeseen illnesses (knock wood), we don't go back for 6 months. Something tells me I may need the break as there may soon be another small person that I take to a slew of ped visits on a regular basis (knocking more wood on that one).

Savoring

This weekend, I found myself crunching numbers in my head and realizing that, if all goes according to plan, 2.0 will be blessing us with her presence in just under 7 weeks. That woke me up a bit.

I find that I'm now spending my days treasuring my time with J. I savor them like a fine piece of chocolate melting decadently in my mouth. Not too much longer until she's no longer an only child...and that worries me. I mean, talk about an adjustment she'll have to make. I don't know realistically how hard it's going to be to divide my attention between her and a little one. I bet it's going to be incredibly hard yet I am going to do everything in my power to give her as much of myself as I can. I don't want to hurt her by the lessened level of attention but I know she may be confused or hurt or any other emotion you can think of and that pains me to my core.

I'm an only child, my mother is an only child. I'm not experienced with the dynamics of multi-sibling families--yet, I'll soon be the co-head of one (A is one of 3 children). I'm worried about the logistics of it all, of making it work, of being fair, of everything.

J is such a wonderful kid. She's funny and charming (okay, not all the time but...) and makes me laugh a lot (and makes me mutter and curse, both under my breath and out loud) every day. And every day brings new things it seems. Recently, she's begun telling me when she's gone poop in her diaper ("poo-poo" while grabbing at herself). She loves to mother her stuffed animals (as you can see from the picture above, excuse the red eye) and even Elmo.

Oh, how she lights up when I go in to take her out of her crib in the morning and she has the cutest way of saying please ("peesh") when she wants something (what can I say? we're trying to instill good manners in her from an early age onward) and so so much more. I could go on and on but instead I'm treasuring these times in my head and in my heart, knowing there will soon be an additional pull for my time and attention.

I won't ever forget this time alone with her. I will treasure it always. It's been the best 18 months (TODAY!) of my life by far. She's small and sassy but she's huge in my heart. She's my baby, my girl, and the one who's helping me earn my mother 'wings' day-by-day and, as my MIL so eloquently put it while here this past weekend, "even when she's 73, she'll still be my baby."

Cooking with gas

Too cute, no? Lately, she's become fixated on shoes lately--mine, daddy's--there's nothing this gal likes better than trying on shoes and clopping around the house. This shot was taken while she was in the process of doing just that this past weekend. I do believe she's shooting me the patented Dee ass-face I'm prone to make when you do something stupid (mom--why do you insist on taking my picture now?!).

In somewhat exciting news, yesterday was a standard run-o-the-mill perinatalogist appt. The dr (not my usual doc of the two partners) was pleased with my blood sugar numbers, my BP, and everything else of concern. She asked if there was anything I wanted to talk about (wow-how rare is that?) and, while I wasn't entirely concerned, I casually mentioned that I hadn't really felt the girl moving about that day. She'd done some wiggles and niggles here and there but that was it--completely unlike her movements of the past few weeks. She was moving though and I was fine with that.

The good doc asked if I had a few minutes to get on the NST machine just to be sure. So I did...and she passed with flying colors with lots of accelerations and what not. There were a few random painless contractions that showed up but nothing to worry about. When the nurse took the NST tape in to show the dr, she soon came back and said there was one deceleration of the baby's heart that the doc didn't like the look of so they wanted to do a biophysical profile (BPP) to check my amniotic fluid. She was concerned it was too low and that may have been the reason for the decel. Panic starts my thoughts whirring in my head. 30 weeks, low fluid, delivery, NICU....

Fast forward a half-hour, and I'm in for the BPP, where it's revealed the my amniotic fluid is just fine (12.9), right where it needs to be and the baby looks great. She's estimated at 3 lbs., 13 oz., and is firmly in the 60th percentile size-wise. J never measured above the 10th percentile in any of my visits. Apparently, it's related to the GD--they tend to be bigger. Lucky me and my lucky vagina.

Also, the baby is no longer breech but she is now transverse. So it may be that she's trying to turn head down or perhaps she's just comfy laying across my body (though I don't think so as my hypothesis is that this is why her movements have been so subdued yesterday and again today).

The last nugget of wisdom I took home from my appt is that, because of the medication I'm now on for the GD, they'll want to deliver me at 38 weeks, so we're looking at February 3rd or thereabouts. Apparently, with the glyburide on board, they don't like to deliver after 38 weeks. Smaller baby, maybe? I don't really know the theory behind the practice but will ask at my next visit.

Now that we've had this potential scare with the amniotic fluid, the doc wants me to start twice weekly NSTs Christmas week. In between seeing both the OB and the peri every two weeks, I now get to add twice weekly NSTs at the peri's to the mix. My appt calendar is looking pretty full for the next 8 (!) weeks.

8 weeks until we meet this little one. I guess I need to go pre-register at the hospitals and soon, huh? (Hospitals, plural--the one local where I had J, and the one about 20 miles away with the level III NICU, just in case). And yes, I'm still worried about a speedy labor & delivery...perhaps more so now that it's getting closer. And closer.

The numbers don't lie

The GD diet has begun in earnest and I'm pleased to report that, despite a dessert cheat during our big anniversary dinner this past weekend, my blood sugar numbers have been pretty good in general. The wild card of them seems to be my fasting #s when I wake up in the morning...so much so that the peri put me on an insulin-sensitizing medication as of yesterday. Today's numbers are all looking great so it seems to be doing its thing.

The belly is measuring 30-31 weeks and since I'm about to hit 30 weeks, the midwife was pleased with my growth. I'm now seeing my docs every two weeks--which between the OB and the peri makes for a busy appointment schedule.

J continues to amaze both A and I. The rate at which she's learning new things is just astounding. Fantabulous parents that we are, the other night when A was changing her, he asked her "can you say ass?" (since he was wiping hers); lo and behold, she parrots "aassss." We about laughed our heads off, which made her laugh, and then remembered that we shouldn't teach her those kinds of words nor encourage them :-) Then while giving her a bath last night, I told her to hold on as "mommy has to go pee pee on the potty." Well, she crouches down in the tub, says "pee pee" and proceeds to grab herself. Part of me is thinking 'she's crouching down as if she's on a toilet going pee,' the other part is wondering why she's all grabbing at her vaginey. The crouching part of me won out...and after speaking with my SIL, she said that it sounds as if a certain little someone is perhaps interested in starting potty training. So it appears that we'll be giving it a go very soon. Should be interesting to say the least.

That's about the general state of things in the Dee house these days. Nothing v exciting going on overall. Just the same old same old, which is nice, I mean after all, they say toddlers thrive on routine and that's what life is in these parts day in and day out...a routine. Think I'll enjoy it for the next two or so months before we're thrown back into chaos for a bit. Oy...which reminds me, just a little over two months to go. Wow, time is flying.