Fetal Fibronectine

The fetal fibronectine came back negative again! So that's good news and I can have very limited increase in activity, which means I can stand for 20 minutes at a time.

27 Weeks

We went to the doctor again today, sorry no ultra sound, so no pictures of the baby. The doctor checked my cervix and said it is feeling like it should be no softness or dilation. He also did another fetal fibronectine which we are still waiting to hear to see what the result is. He said if it comes back negative I can start to have a little increased activity, which is very good news. If it comes back positive then I need to stay on bed rest like I am. My stomach has been feeling tight and sore so I asked him about that and he said he wants to wait and see what the fetal fibronectine comes back to see if he wants to look further into seeing if that may be irregular contractions or not. Our next appointment is next week with an ultrasound. The doctor did say that we will probably not need to do an ultra sound every two weeks any more to check the cervical length because he said that as I get further along the ultra sound starts to miss things when it comes to the cervix. I am sure we will still get quite a few to check the baby though, at least I hope so because we like to see our little one as much as possible. I am just happy to be one week closer.

26 week doctors appointment

Our doctors appointment went well today. We had another ultrasound to measure the length of my cervix the doctor said it's measuring shorter, from the ultrasound it looked like it was measuring much shorter .93 cm...we saw a doctor that I don't really like so he didn't give us much information, but he didn't seem concerned about the length. I will probably know more at our next appointment when I see someone different. The baby is fine 2lb 3 oz heart rate 148. We got a few pictures that I will update as soon as I can, no really good pictures, the baby does not want to show it's face at all, maybe next time.

Crib

Andy put the baby's crib

together today. We bought it online and weren't sure how close to the picture it would be. It's great though. Sturdy and beautiful. One step closer to being ready for the big day.

Latest Doctor's Appointment

We saw the doctor again today. We did not get another ultrasound this time so no pictures. The baby's heart beat is 148 and seems to be doing well. The doctor wanted to give me a steroid shot though. Because he said it helps the baby's lungs develop and just overall helps the baby develop a little faster. He said he's not saying I will have a pre-term baby, but I am at higher risk so he wants to give the baby the best chance possible. So we went to the hospital for the shot and we get one again today. He also did another fetal fibronectine test and it came back negative! So very good news! We have our next appointment next Tuesday where they will do another ultra sound for my cervical length. So far so good. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers, they seem to be working.

24 week belly picture

My belly 24 weeks through

Bed Rest update

Baby Arianna Pickering. We stopped by Green Bay to visit Dave and Denise and thier 2 week old daughter. Isn't she beautiful!

Sorry it's been so long since my last update. Thank you to everyone who has asked about me and thanks for all the prayers. I am still on bed rest and the doctor said that I probably will be on bed rest until the baby arrives. At first it was quite a blow since work would not allow me to do any work from home. My managers are great and worked out a way for me to be able to work full time from home. This helps keep me occupied and keeps me from worrying about what will happen with my job in the future. The baby is still doing great. At the last doctors appointment on July 29, the baby is measuring 1lb 11 oz heart rate 152 so that's very good news. I guess the baby is just impatient to meet everyone. I have included another photo we got of the legs. Still no good face pictures. Also some pictures from the 4th of July.

baby pictures

Here are the pictures from our last sonogram. Sorry it took so long. Our internet is not being cooperative. The baby's head is behind my fibroid so they couldn't get a very good shot of the baby's face. The most we really got was part of an ear. You can see the spine really well though. I think this is such a cool picture.

This is the best they could get of the face.

At the top of this picture is my fibroid. You can see the bttom of it at least.

Bed Rest

We just got back from a great trip to Michigan to see the Gray family for a week. It was so much fun. It was great to see everyone. (I will post some pictures soon) When we got back from the trip I was having some terrible back pain and I thought it had something to do with being in the car for so long or the decrease in exercise I did while on vacation. I was working out and walking as much as possible to try to help. Nothing helped. Luckily we already had a doctors appointment scheduled for Tuesday. At the doctor's appointment we had our 22 week sonogram. We could have found out the sex of the baby, but opted to wait. He/she/or Steveson as the Gray family likes to call the baby is doing fine. It is just over 1 pound and the heart rate is 148. (Again I will post some pictures soon) The doctor told us though that my cervix is measuring short. They like to see a cervix at around 4 cm and mine is measuring about 1.6-1.9 cm and the pain I am feeling is pre-term labor. She said if I was 30 weeks she wouldn't be as concerned, but I'm not. I was wheeled to a triage room so they could monitor my uterus. The doctor was right. I was having contractions. They gave me a shot to relax the contractions and sent me home with a week of bedrest. We have an appointment scheduled for next Tuesday to re-measure my cervix to see if the rest helped. The doctor said to be prepared though to be told that I will be on bed rest the rest of the pregancy. We will cross that bridge though when we get there. In the meantime I am just laying here, keeping track of when I feel contractions and Andy is taking very good care of me.

Half-way!

We are half way through now. I am 20 weeks exactly and I finally had to break down and buy some maternity clothes. Thanks mom for the clothes, I definitely needed them. We are very excited to go to Michigan for the 4th of July and see the Gray's. We have our next appointment on July 13. We get another sonogram that day so we will post the pictures of the baby that we get from that. We could learn the baby's sex, but we are making it a surprise. I am still feeling great, no problems at all.

Appointment and belly

We had our 17 week doctors appointment today. We got to hear the heartbeat, 142 and the doctor said everything is just fine and right on track. So after many requests I have included belly pictures. We took one picture every four weeks once I found out I was pregnant. Debbie, you were right I was surprised by the changes. I am feeling great and doing very well. We are starting to get the nursery prepared. We sold the old water bed on Craigslist now we just need to pick a theme and start painting. We are both very excited. Four weeksEight weeksTwelve weeksSixteen weeks

A little scare

Well, I went to work this morning and had a little scare. I had some spotting so I called the doctor to see if it was normal. They decided they wanted to see me, which only freaked me out more. Luckily everything was okay, the baby was moving around. Some other preggers at work told me it's pretty normal around 12 weeks to have that so that made me feel better. The doctor decided to move up the genetic screening ultra sound so we got some great pictures of the baby to share. A couple of the pictures they took were 4-D which were really neat to see. The baby's hands are up by it's face and it was angled so it was a little hard to see. You could also see really clearly the hands, feet, legs and arms and start to really see the eyes, nose and chin. Hard to believe how much has changed. Also got to hear the heart beat for the first time, the fibroid was finally not in the way. Heart beat is 169, the doctor said that is very healthy.