Whеn уоu nееd mоrе thаn twо ultrаѕоundÑ• durÑ–ng Ñ€rеgnаnÑу
Sоmе раtіеntÑ• mау hаvе thеіr first ultrasound prior tо 11 wееkÑ•. Thе Ñ•tаrt of аn Ñ–ntrаutеrÑ–nе Ñ€rеgnаnÑу is vÑ–Ñ•Ñ–blе аrоund 6 wееkÑ•, ѕо аn ultrаѕоund thаt оÑÑurÑ• аnу time аftеr six wееkÑ• Ñ–Ñ• gеnеrаllу rеlіаblе fоr dеtеrmÑ–nÑ–ng hоw fаr аlоng a раtіеnt may bе. If уоu hаvе аn early ultrаѕоund, you Ñ•tÑ–ll wÑ–ll nееd an ultrаѕоund аt thе 11 tо 14 wееk реrіоd tо properly аѕѕеѕѕ development.
If any аbnоrmаlіtіеѕ аrе detected durіng either of thе routine ultrаѕоundѕ, уоu mіght need mоrе, ѕауѕ Chasen.
Fоr еxаmÑ€lе, thеrе are complications thаt may оÑÑur wÑ–th thе Ñ€lаÑеntа, Ñ•uÑh as placenta Ñ€rеvіа. ThÑ–Ñ• is when a wоmаn’Ñ• Ñ€lаÑеntа covers the cervix аnd can blоÑk the fetus’s path thrоugh thе birth canal during lаbоr.
In thÑ–Ñ• Ñаѕе, your obstetrician wÑ–ll Ñ•uggеѕt at least one аddÑ–tіоnаl ultrаѕоund to see if the Ñ€lаÑеntа rеоrіеntÑ• аnd ÑlеаrÑ• thе wау. If Ñ–t dоеѕn’t, a Ñеѕаrеаn dеlÑ–vеrу is required.
Whаt to еxреÑt durÑ–ng a nоrmаl Ñ€rеgnаnÑу
Truе tо its nаmе, аn ultrаѕоund wоrkÑ• by ѕеndÑ–ng and dеtеÑtÑ–ng sound wаvеѕ. A tеÑhnÑ–Ñіаn uѕеѕ a dеvÑ–Ñе Ñаllеd a transducer to send ѕоund wаvеѕ thrоugh thе skin Ñ–ntо the wоmb. Thе ѕоund wаvеѕ bоunÑе оff the fеtuÑ•, whÑ–Ñh thе trаnÑ•duÑеr detects. Then, the machine converts the ѕоund wаvеѕ Ñ–ntо an Ñ–mаgе.
WhÑ–lе the baby Ñ–Ñ• thе mаіn Ñ•tаr of thе show Ñ–n аn ultrаѕоund, dоÑtоrÑ• аlѕо use thаt tÑ–mе tо examine the uterus, Ñ€lаÑеntа, аnd аmnіоtÑ–Ñ fluid.
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I’ve been struggling with my stomach again, having trouble keeping things down. It seems to go in cycles. I eat something that really bothers it, and screw up my stomach; then for several days, even things that shouldn’t aggrivate anything cause all kinds of problems and I can’t seem to get anything to stay put.  I must admit, its annoying to have to deal with the touchy lap-band stomach when 1. it wasn’t really helping before the pregnancy and 2. I can’t really diet right now anyway and try to make it work because of the pregnancy.
Monday I go in for an ultrasound, cross your fingers for me that everything still looks healthy and right — and that we get a gander at the gender!
Something I never knew about pregnancy is that it can really increase your sensitivity to smell. And not just to odors that would normally make your nose wrinkle, but everyday smells that you might ordinarily notice but dismiss suddenly become beyond offensive.  Roasting Fish. Perfume Counter in Macy’s. BBQ Sauce.
Of course ordinarily foul odors become even more so. Doggy Poo. Garbage Cans. Shudder.
Lately, I’ve been wanting to try the “challenge” of the 30 minute Rachel Ray meal. She seems to inspire strong emotions in people — rabid fans and equally rabid detractors. Those that hate her complain of any number of things — her bubbly personality, the annoying abbreviations and catchphrases sprinkled through her speech, and most often, that her meals really can’t be prepared in 30 minutes.Â
Personally, I can take her or leave her. Yes, hearing her say “EVOO” and then immediately following it up with “Extra Virgin Olive Oil” a half dozen times even in the same half hour (really, whats the point of an abbreviation if you have to explain it more than once!) gets on my nerves, and I don’t watch her talk show or her travel shows, but I do still watch the original “30 Minute Meals”.  I appreciate that she is enouraging people to get back in the kitchen and cook when eating out seems the norm these days. So anyway, I do own a few RR cookbooks and I thought I would randomly pick a recipe and see how I fared. It came up 34 which is Sweet Sausages Braised in Onions with Horseradish Smashed Potatoes in 365: No Repeats.  I knew that wasn’t ideal for my family (peel on potatoes did not go over well, and I left the horseradish out of the potatoes, adding in a little parmesan instead, and the kidlet hated the chicken sausages I picked), but I finished the meal (and even added a green vegetable) in 32 minutes. And that was with being interrupted in the middle for a potty break for the kidlet. There was enough time even to clean up as I went so there was nothing left except the actual cooking and eating vessels.
I’ll try another again soon. Maybe next week. The hubby gets traumatized by my forays into different foods and recipes and healthy cooking (he’d be thrilled to eat the same thing 7 nights a week!), so I have to space them apart 😉
Kiddo turns five today. After debating a number of gifts (He loves the few video games that are playable and suitable for his age that are made for the xbox360, so we were really thinking about a wii), we decided on legos. He likes building toys, and enjoyed his old toddler sized ones (oversized, easier to stick together) for a long time, and recently was telling me that he doesn’t want to play with “baby legos”, and wants some with “little dots”. At preschool they have a drawer of regular legos set aside for the older kids who don’t take naps or for when they are ill; they are a special treat.
So, I went in search of legos. Something has happened to those old primary colored blocks in the many years since my brothers and I dug through them happily building away. Finding plain vanilla legos proved to be an adventure. Want to build a deathstar? a pirate ship?  Spongebobs underwater home? Then legos are apparently for you. Boxes of complex designs, blocks of specialized shapes and colors — what happened to my legos! After a trip to my local “one stop shopping store” (a few feet of aisle devoted to legos), then to Target (an entire aisle), then to Toys R Us (2 aisles), and then finally to an entire Lego Store I recalled seeing in the mall (I’m not much of a mall shopper), I eventually found a box of simple legos instead of sets that won’t require mommy and daddy to sit down sweating over design plans. Well, OK, there were two. One box with just plain old blocks, and one “starter set” in a tub that must be at least half non-blocks with windows and doors, etc.
For me, a box of legos (or tub of lincoln logs or tinker toys) is supposed to be an empty canvas, an invitation to imagination. There is just something sad about all those lego sets, confined to pattern, closed to creativity.
Things are fine here. I’m still more tired than I’d like, and I’ve had a cold the past several days, but generally, things are well.  I’ve been keeping busy around the house when I’m not napping, which means I’m not at my computer near as much these days. There’s just so much to get done, and its part of my New Year’s Resolution this year to catch up, and then keep up with things and not let day to day chores pile up. If you could have seen the pile of laundry that grew and grew while I was sleeping those 18 hours a day, you too would understand this drive of mine 😉
We’ve had two ultrasounds in this second trimester. Neither one revealed the gender of the kidlet-in-utero. I can see its already taking after the hubby — stubborn! The first one it was curled up tightly and facing backwards, and in the second it was hiding in the shadow of my belly button — the shadow of my belly button of all things. So skirt check — fail! We go again in the third week of February, which seems a long time when I’ve been waiting anxiously before making any nursery decisions or purchases. With our current kidlet I ended up completely replacing every bit of nursery furniture and decor after only six months (although admittedly he was 7 months already when he came to live with us full time), and I have no desire to waste the effort and money to deck out the room with simpery pastels that won’t suit a toddler. Of course we had way too many things that no one really needs. We were first time parents, thrust into it without the 9 months or more of expectation and planning that most people experience, and worried and convinced we had to have every little thing. I am much less tense about it this time. The baby’s world won’t end without a wipes warmer or diaper stacker or any of the myriad things you can find in babies R us!
Where have I been? Well, in short, I found out why I was so exhausted and sleeping so many hours a day, and just not ready to share it with the world.Â
Those of you out there that read my previous blog (some day the hubby will figure out where he backed it up and I’ll get those entries in here, or so I keep telling myself), may recall that one reason I started a journey to health so long ago (six years!) was to prove the doctors wrong — that I could get pregnant and be a mom. It so happened that the kidlet came along, a miracle through the foster system that you couldn’t hope to duplicate, and being unable to get pregnant stopped being the heartache that had plagued me for years.
However, it seems that we are going to have a second miracle child. When I last posted I was 10 weeks pregnant. We didn’t know that of course. For all we knew I was just barely pregnant and things could go south in a heart beat. It was after my second visit to the doc, when all my tests had been coming in normal that I started getting an inkling that maybe, just maybe the “problem” could be a bun in the oven. I woke up at some ungodly hour in the morning and was violently ill.  With the surgery being sick after eating was no strange occurrance; I would just assume that I made a mistake, ate something too large, rough or otherwise unsuited to the environment created by the lap band. But this was 4 in the morning, on an empty stomach, with no good reason to feel sick. I’d had a few other incidents like that, but when you are eating every few hours, it’s easy to assume it was just the last meal. I started counting back and realized that it had been longer than I recalled since my last period. By itself that isn’t so crazy; I’ve never been regular, but more than 8 weeks without a period is unusual, even for me. Together, it put the idea in my head that I needed a pregnancy test, so I jumped in the car in the dead of night and headed off the 20 minutes to a 24 hour pharmacy.
The next visit to the doctor was to confirm the home test. When she came in and said positive, it was a shock, despite the + on the EPT stick. I was bawling and worried, half convinced that a miscarriage was moments away. The last several years of my life and have been filled with learning about my hormonal imblances and realizing that I never even had a normal puberty and hearing that conceiving would be nearly impossible, and carrying to term even more improbable.
Yet somehow I’m now 19 weeks pregnant. I’m 38 years old, hormonally unfriendly to a fetus, and 19 weeks pregnant! (well, technically not until tomorrow)  We’ve done all the tests that we can safely do.  Our odds of having a healthy child have been upgraded several times. My OB says everything is normal.
Miracle Child, take 2
Kiddo is very excited about Halloween as you might imagine. His preschool class went to a pumpkin patch yeterday; today they are trick or treating at the other classrooms, and then having a little party in the afternoon. I’ll probably swing by and help out and take pictures.
Tonight we are heading over to my brother’s house so the kidlet can trick or treat with his cousins.
The appointment went fine. We talked about my issues, tonsils, sleeping, lack of weight loss and so on. I filled out the paperwork so she can get my records from her old office (she changed locations, to a new facility), got a flu shot, and then went and had 47 vials of blood drawn. (well, ok, just six, but it felt like 47).
The results take a couple days on some of them, so I’m guessing I won’t hear anything until at least Monday. Hopefully by then the records will be faxed over or whatever as well, and then I’ll go back in.
Normally, getting enough sleep is difficult for me. I’ve suffered from insomnia for as long as I can remember, and I usually get by on 4-6 hours of sleep a night. Lately though I can’t seem to get enough sleep. I’m crashing shortly after the kiddo goes to bed at 8, and then sleeping until he wakes me in the morning (between 7 and 8 most days). I take him to preschool and then odds are good that I’ll come home and go back to sleep for at least 3-5 hours before I go pick him up.
I don’t know if its a diet issue (am i getting enough iron?) or something else medical, but mom was really worried when she heard how many hours I’m in bed a day, and I promised to see the doctor. I made an appointment for Thursday morning. It was the only time available this week, so sadly, I’ll have to skip the kidlet’s preschool trip to a pumpkin patch. I went last year to help chaperone and he really had fun. Those pictures were some of the ones I lost in a computer crash, and I was going to tag along this year and get updated ones. Ah well.
“Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.â€Â ~Leonardo da VinciÂ