Thread: Motherhood and More

OMG!!!!!!!!! I am soooooooo happy and excited for you!!!!!!!!!! Congrats, and a very HH9M!

Kim, I am so thrilled for you. Congrats!!!

Thanks Rachael, Alissa, and Lenora. I am still kind of in shock, if you couldn't tell!

Congratulations!!! HH9M!!!

Thank you Kelly!

Still just chugging along over here... trying not to stress out too much about things. This week has been kinda stressful, not the preg. part (amazingly that's going pretty smooth so far) but just other things.

Austin is sick. Terrible, non-stop cough, runny nose, and fever. Ugh. I hate when my baby is sick and I especially hate fever! I can count on one hand the number of times he's had fever in his life. Hope it's just a cold virus, or sinus infection or something like that, and not something more serious.

A few minutes to update. Austin is much, much better. Took him to the dr. last Monday- uppper resp/sinus infection. All related to allergies, which I had suspected. He has to be on Zyrtec for the next 2-4 weeks, which should help with this same allergy-related junk that he keeps getting every few weeks. We had a few hairy nights of little sleep last week because he was coughing so much, but he is pretty much all better now. Dr. said little red-headed boys tend to have allergies.

One semi-concerning thing the dr. found when we went in- Austin's frenulum (piece of skin that attaches from your tongue to the bottom of your mouth) is probably going to have to be clipped. He has been tongue-tied since he was born (so is DH), and his dr. has always known about it, but it has never been a problem till now. When the dr. asked him to stick out his tongue so he could look at his throat last week, he noticed some scar tissue on the frenulum which could mean that Austin is trying to push his tongue out farther than it wants to go, basically tearing it. The dr. said that his mouth will (obviously) keep growing, but the frenulum will not grow to keep up with his mouth, so it could cause speech problems and other issues. Austin cannot say his "TH's" and his "L's", which makes sense, because those both involve the tongue. We have a consult with an ENT doc on the 27th, I believe. The dr. said he rarely ever has to recommend that the procedure be done on a child this old, it is mostly something done on babies, which indicates that he thinks it is something pretty serious, that needs to be taken care of. Austin will have to go under sedation, but it is a pretty short and common procedure, I think. Still, the thought of him having to go through that is scary to a mama.

Also I found out last week, when I called to make my 1st prenatal appt, that my OB/GYN (whom I've seen for 6+ years) is no longer delivering babies. Well, good grief!! Something else to add to my list of stressors. So, I have an appt with a new dr. tomorrow - not actually him, really it's the nurse practitioner - but hopefully it will work out. This dr. delivered both of my good friend's babies, and she says he is a good doc. They won't do an u/s tomorrow, this first one will be patient history/bloodwork/etc. First u/s will probably be in 2 weeks.

I just realized I have only used sad or mad smileys so far in this post- ha ha! I guess I am just not feeling too perky or upbeat today. I have just been dealing with extreme fatigue and nausea for the past week or so, and that always gets me down. More positive posts to come...check back with me in a few weeks, and I promise I'll be a little more cheery!

Had my first prenatal appt at the new clinic today. All went well. Had to fill out a bunch of paperwork, pee in a cup, then go over my patient history with the nurse. My history of pregnancies is somewhat complicated now, not as easy to explain as "1 prior pregnancy: 1 living child". It's more like, "3 prior pregnancies: 1 miscarriage, 1 living child, 1 deceased child". And then the explanations, etc. Blah. Kinda makes me sad and aggravated to fill out those darn forms, but oh well, I got through it.

I got confused for a minute when the nurse who showed me into the exam room said, "today we'll be doing some bloodwork, taking your patient history, you'll be getting a full pelvic exam and pap smear, and after that, we'll listen for the baby's heartbeat." What?? Totally wasn't expecting that today! That freaked me right out for a few minutes until the nurse practitioner (who did my exam) told me that it's too early to hear the heartbeat. (yeah, that's what I thought! Get your stuff together, nurse lady!) So, I have an appt in 2 weeks with the dr. and he'll do an ultrasound then. Yay! Or... more like yay! (*scared voice while biting nails*) The first appt is such a nerve-wracking time for me, never knowing what the dr. will say when that image first shows up on the ultrasound screen.

For now, EDD is Dec. 8, with a repeat c-section at 39 weeks. The NP called in some anti-nausea and heartburn meds if I need them, along with a prescription prenatal. Here we go!

Congrats, Kim!! HH9M!! I'm so excited for you!

Thanks Kelli! You're so sweet!

Thought I would update on Austin's frenulum consult appt. The ENT dr. agreed that he would do so much better if he had it clipped. He offered 2 options: in-office (w/o sedation) or in the OR (with sedation). In-office would involve just a local anesthetic, although the downside is that he can't trim all of the tissue that he would be able to if the procedure was done in the OR, so there might be some scar tissue that would grow back. If he does it in the OR, Austin will go under mild sedation, and the dr. will be able to really get in there and remove/trim all of that extra skin, so it should be a better result. In the end, I went with his recommendation for the OR and the procedure is scheduled for May 19. It should be very early in the morning, should take about 15 minutes, and the dr. said he could even go to school later that day if we wanted (although we scheduled it for a day he doesn't go to school, I just felt it would be better that way).

Re: being pregnant. Even though I haven't talked about it before, I guess I should comment on how SHOCKED I was to get that first positive pregnancy test! It was March 30. I had taken a dollar tree test the morning before and got a stark white BFN, although being the weirdo I am, I kept the test on the counter. Austin and I spent the day at a friend's house, and when I got home like 8 hours later, I swear there was a faint pink line. I wasn't sure if it was an evap though. But add that to the fact that I hadn't started my usual pre-AF spotting, and I decided to go get a FRER the next day. Got home and took the test. I watched as the control line started to appear, and darned if a little pink line didn't show up on the test area too! You could have knocked me over with a feather. Here I was proclaiming that it would take forever to get pg, if it EVER happened, and we manage to do it on the first month! Believe me, I am still in awe.

So, here we are. Waiting for the first u/s. 3 more days. I am nervous, but I've got to tell you, I am waaaaay more at peace with this pregnancy than I was with the last two. It's really in God's hands. I just feel like, if it is meant to be, it is meant to be. If it is not, I am okay with that too. I am anxious to see if there is a little heart beating on the screen at the appt, but if there is not, then it was not supposed to work out, and everything will be all right. Even if there IS a heartbeat, that is just the first hurdle. There's lots of other stuff that could go wrong after that - there's still the threat of m/c, the baby could have anencephaly or something, the baby could have any number of health problems, including a fatal condition, I could go into PTL, I could develop pre-eclampsia, the c-section could go badly and I or the baby could lose our lives during delivery. Oh dear, I'm so sorry that this is so morbid, but I HAVE to list these things out here. I can't verbalize them to anyone. I hope that you all don't think I am some sort of depressed psycho. I'm not. I am not truly worried about any of these things, but it is just a defense mechanism to think of all the things that could go wrong, and therefore prepare myself for the worst. Aaagh. I hate that I am this way, but it comes with the territory, I guess. I am just very matter-of-fact at this point. In the meantime, I'm so very tired and nauseous. I am just a bundle of peppy, aren't I?!

Aaaaanyway, guess I better get off here. I will update more after my appt next Tuesday.

Ugh, it's been raining for 2 days straight. So. much. water. And it's dang cold too! Like in the 40s today. That is downright crazy for May TX weather. Luckily it's supposed to warm up to the 70s later this week. I am very fond of weather in the 70s. I think it would be dee-lightful to have weather in the 70s all year round.

Morning (or "whenever-it-feels-like-showing up") sickness: The smell of my chapstick and lipstick are starting to make me nauseous (if I'm not already) when I put them on. Sigh. I am not a girl who does well without my chapstick. I even purposely stopped using my new birthday body lotion and spray when I started getting m/s so that I wouldn't end up gagging at the smell of them. Also, my beloved Dr. Pepper has unfortunately become a victim of my strange 1st trimester sweets/soda aversion. This has happened to me every time I've been pg. So sad. Don't forget me, Dr. Pepper, I'll be back in a few weeks!

Will update more after my appt/ultrasound tomorrow afternoon.