How far along: 26 weeks, 1 day. I found my book The Preemie Primer and have started reading through it again. Chance of survival at this point is 85%, which is great news!!
Cravings/Aversions: Still none. Doing well.
Belly Button: Sort of stating to pop out, but still rather flat. Hubby commented the other day that it isn't so much a belly button as a belly hole at this point. Thanks dear!
Movement: Lots and lots. This child is doing somersaults.
Leg cramps: None this week. I'm trying to stay hydrated, eat my bananas, and take my vitamins.
Sleep: Not too bad. I'm starting to wake up more during the night to use the bathroom. The progesterone may be making my sleep a little less comfortable, but it's not too bad yet.
Weight gain: I hate the scale at the doctor's office, it was about two pounds more than my one at home. I weighed myself on mine Wednesday morning and then got weighed again at my appointment a few hours later. According to my scale I'm up around 14 pounds. I'm going with that since my starting weight was also done on my scale at home. Not too bad.
Crazy Wednesday: Let's start with the fact that I had to do the glucose test that morning as well. I called last Friday to double check when the lab opens as well as the main office to make sure I could get the blood work done before my ultrasound appointment at 8:45. I was told that everything opened at 8. Great! Plenty of time. But then that evening I found the paper about the test and it said there that the lab didn't open until 9 AM. I debated on whether I should take the chance or not, decided I didn't want to waste the drink only to have to do it again because I couldn't get the blood draw an hour after drinking it and so on and so forth. So I changed my plans. Instead I drank the orange sweetness in the car on my way into town. Got to the office and went to check in with the main OB/GYN office so they could get the order in for my blood work. It was 8:45 AM at the time and I just needed to know that they were taking care of it so I could go down the hall for my ultrasound appointment. I was assured they were and I left to go to ultrasound. (More on that appointment below). I finally got called back for my appointment at 9:00, told them I had to have my blood drawn at 9:20. So we did the exams, chatted briefly, and I left. The lab is right there so I got there right at 9:20 to discover that the lab person was not there. She showed up 5 minutes later and couldn't find any order for me in the computer. By the time she finally put me in manually, it was 9:30, time for my next appointment. I knew I was probably cutting everything a little too close but I should have known not to worry. My doctor is always a few minutes behind, so it wasn't a big deal. But still, I was watching my clock like a hawk all morning!!
Ultrasound: But now the important part. If you remember from my Week 24 Update I had previously had cervical length measurements of around 4 cm or more. Since normal is between 3 and 4 or higher, this was great. At 23 weeks it was around 3.5 to 3.7. Shorter, but well within normal still. At 24 weeks however, I was closer to 3.0 cm. I've been taking progesterone ever since and this Wednesday's ultrasound was the first follow-up since then. All I can say is that prayer is really working!! Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. Amazingly I had measurements this time of around 3.4 to 3.7. Yes, that means longer measurements than the previous time. The cervix isn't normally going to lengthen!! And actually the longest measurement she got was right around 4 cm. It may be the progesterone, but I like to think that prayer has a lot to do with it too!!
During the quick scan of the baby we also noted that the placenta has moved out of the way of the cervix. Yay!! And the baby is currently head down. Baby has plenty of time to still move a different direction and back again, most likely several times. LOL! The tech also asked if I wanted a 3D image! I said YES, of course! I've had ultrasounds in this same office for 4 or my 5 pregnancies and have never known that they could do 3D images. They were so cool!! Such a cute little baby. The face reminded me a lot of Peter and Ethan as newborns. Awww!
Appointment: After ultrasound was the glucose blood draw and then my appointment. Appointment went fine. These are the easy ones. Baby's heartbeat was around 140 bpm. We also talked about possible follow-up ultrasounds. I could have stopped at this point but I feel better getting one more in right around 28 weeks. 28 weeks seems to be one of those milestones in pregnancy, so it felt like a good point to do one more. After that I'm okay not checking any more (it's not like I look forward to those ultrasounds with the fun wand that goes ... hm, hm ... you know where). So I'll do one more at 28 weeks and that will be it for cervical checks. We discussed a little bit about labor and birth, classes to take or look into, and that was about it.
Glucose Results: I was able to obtain the results of my glucose screening on Wednesday evening. My doctor emailed me the results and her exact words were "Awesome, passed." The number was 122, but I don't know what the scale is. Either way, it's a passing score so that's all that matters to me. She also mentioned that Hemogram/blood count looks great as well. So I guess that's good news too.
The Big Brothers: Oh, those sweet boys! They love giving kisses now. Not just to my belly, but now they are kissing their toys and stuffed animals, pictures of animals and other characters in their books, and other random things as well. They loved seeing the printouts I had of the 3D pictures of the baby. They are both just so sweet!
Names: No progress on a boy name. I have now given my husband two options and I'm done. He's got to pick one or come up with something else that I also like. Eventually maybe we'll agree on something. Or he'll just have to learn to live with one of the names I have chosen. It could still be a girl too and this would all be a mute point.
To-Do List: I think it is the same as last week. I don't think I've crossed anything off. If anything, I've probably added to it. Not going to retype it here. If you really want to look at it, check our last week's update.
Prayers: I so appreciate the prayers from everyone! I think I appreciate them even more now than I may have in the past. Not that I didn't appreciate them, but you know, sometimes they just strike you more than they do at other times. Anyway, if you could add two other pregnancy related prayer requests to your prayers I'd really appreciate it. One is for my pregnancy prayer buddy in a Catholic moms group I am in. We pair pregnant ladies up with non-pregnant ladies to prayer for each other's intentions. My pregnancy prayer buddy is trying to get pregnant herself. If you could say a quick prayer for my friend A for this intention I'd love it. And I know she would too. Also, just found out that another mom in the group who is around 34 weeks pregnant is in the hospital due to placenta previa issues. They are trying to keep things stable so she can get to at least 35 weeks. Prayers for my friend M are also greatly appreciated!!
That's all for this update. Next week's will probably be a short one again or maybe I'll skip it. I need to blog about other things, not just this pregnancy! My mom has specifically requested more updates on the boys.
It's your blog; you get to write what you want! If this is what's on your heart, then write it.
ReplyDeletePrayers that the rest of the pregnancy will sail along smoothly and as comfortably as possible. Somersaults--my daughter was like that! We thought she'd be a future gymnast. Turns out, her talent is hurdles.
Its occurred to me that gymnastics could be in our future for this kid too! :) LOL!
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