Do you love my little "helper" in the background picking his nose? All I can say is, Thank God He's Cute. This picture was taken Easter morning right before church so technically I am 16 weeks and only 3 days in this picture! :)
Pregnancy Highlights:
How far along: 16 weeks (and now 5 days!)
Size of Baby: From yesterdays ultrasound he or she was already measuring 6 ounces! That's a 2 ounce gain from last visit two weeks ago! Now if only I had only gained 2 ounces... :) He or she is the size of your open palm now!
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Up another pound from my visit two weeks ago. This makes me pretty darn happy considering all the Easter meals we ate and all the candy I stole from my kids!
Maternity Clothes: I am now wearing almost 100% maternity clothes. I have 2 regular t-shirts that I'm still clinging on to...
Gender: Yes! And its a.... Oh wait! I'm not telling you! Bobby and I want to have a small gender reveal party with our family this weekend or next. After that I will gladly post all the exciting details about him or her! Our little baby was extremely cooperative yesterday!
Movement: Still not enough to keep me happy and away from worry, but I know that he or she is still very small and I need to lighten my expectations.
Sleep: Sleep is still very hit or miss with me. Some nights I sleep great and others its just a nightmare to fall asleep or stay asleep at all!
What I miss: Right now I am only missing sleeping on my stomach!
Cravings: Easter candy that does not belong to me and yellow mustard.
Symptoms: Just the usual aches and pains of pregnancy!
Best Moment this Week: By far the best moment this week was getting to see the baby again at the doctor! He or she was doing really well!
So now I'm guessing that you want to see some pictures of the baby right?? :)
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| Little feet! How cute are these?! |
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| Sweet little face on the right and body on the left. |
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| This is a great picture of the baby's face! It is turned just slightly so that you can see it looking at us! |
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| This was the ultrasound tech's attempt at a 3D picture. The baby is still so little that its really hard to make anything out. I tried my best to label ... |
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| In this picture you really have to turn your head sideways. Baby's head is on the left and body on the right! |
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| And just for grins I had her take a picture of my cervical measurements! Still long and closed! She said that at the time I was having a contraction and that changed the look of things. I tried to label the different portions of the anatomy (mostly just for me to remember all that was said. I realize that this might be kinda gross....). On the right hand side is my cervical length. On the left and closer to the baby is where the contraction was happening. |
Bobby wasn't able to go with me yesterday :*(. But, my wonderful SIL in Melanie was! I felt very privileged to have such a great friend and sister with me! The tech was immediately able to tell what the gender was. She said that she had a little extra time and so we had a nice long ultrasound! She was even able to take a second to look at the baby in 3D. She said that its really best to try it at 26-28 weeks. I promised that I'd stop bugging her about it after yesterdays attempt! :)
After she left the doctor came in and took a look at things. The only problem that she saw was some calcification in the baby's heart muscle (echogenic intracardiac focus (EIF) . :( She said that this could be nothing or that it could be a marker for a chromosomal abnormality (Down syndrome, Trisomy 13, 18) . She also said that combined with my age it raised my risk slightly for there being a problem. Dr. M. offered me an amnio but I declined. After loosing Caroline when my water broke too soon there is not a chance in HECK that I'll let anyone puncture this baby's bag on water on purpose. I did say that I would undergo another round of second trimester blood test to check further for other markers. If those are there and/or the baby for some reason stops developing normally I would consent to the amnio but only after maybe the 30th week when I'd feel much more comfortable having a baby deliver earlier. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have that ultimate peace of mind now, but I'm just not willing to risk anything at this point. On the other hand Bobby and I would like to be as prepared as possible...
I asked the doctor is this was maybe something that would be gone on a future ultrasound check and she said probably not. Thanks to Dr. Google (who never fails in scaring the poo out of me) I found a number of ladies who had this same issue show up. A couple of them said that the calcium had disappeared on a later ultrasound. Ever since reading that I have been praying so hard for God to remove this from my baby's heart.
I'm a pretty humble pray-er but will you all join me in BOLDLY praying to God that He remove this? Hopefully its harmless but I'd still love to not have this to worry about on top of everything else we face.
On another note, I started my progesterone (PIO) yesterday. It was my first dose and I'll be taking them once a week from now until week 35 of my pregnancy! Melanie was a total trooper and took one for the team as she learned how to give the injections. Now that is some sisterly love. Poor girl has to look at my hiney every other week! :) Love you Melanie!
I think that's it for now. I'm sure that there are tons of other details that I've forgotten. I'll add them later as an UPDATE if I remember anymore... :)
11 comments:
you look great!!
i really tried to just not worry with all the tests too much, God has the perfect baby for you, and He knows what you can handle.
I will be praying! Hang in there!
I will most definitely pray that God will remove the calcification. It's so hard to not worry constantly. I am glad real life situations posted by moms were helpful--I sometimes think those are more informative than the dr's info!
Sending my prayers over. I'm praying that everything turns out okay dear friend. Really hoping the calcification goes away.
xxx
Mary
holding you and your beautiful baby in prayer!
I loved being the "stand in"!!!!! It was so amazing to see my little niece or nephew in all that detail!! LOVE YOU TOO!!
Hi there... I just saw your prayer request on Kelly's Korner. I thought that my own story might lift your heavy heart. My daughter, Lydia Grace, who is now six was diagnosed with an Echogenic Focus (sp.) which is a heart calcification at 17 weeks gestation. We where told that this was a soft sign for Down Syndrome. We also were told that the cerebral spinal fluid levels were high which would indicate hydracephalus. For the remainder of my pregnancy, we were worried. We chose to not do an amnio because of the risk to the baby. After a stressful 20 weeks, Lydia Grace was born full term and completely normal. Believe it or not, she never even had to see a cardiologist! All the tests done on her as a newborn, were normal. I decided to drop a little note because I wish I would have known someone who had gone through the same situation. Prayers are with you and your family.
I had the same thing with my daughter, she is now 18 months and perfectly healthy. They saw the calcification until I delivered her and they have never been worried since! Good luck and my prayers are with you.
I found your post on Kelly's Korner. My son had the same thing. I was terrified when I found out. After talking to my obgyn we decided to do a fetal echocardiogram (which was basically a very long ultrasound looking only at my son's heart). The cardiologist said that these calcifications rarely affect the baby's health and that they really have no idea why they show up. My son was perfectly fine when he was born even though his calcification never went away. I now how scary it can be to see something like that on an ultrasound, but I wanted to let you know that it is usually just fine.
Praying for your sweet baby...
I know how hard it is not to worry, but my son had these on his heart prior to his birth, as well, and I was SO worried. I just cried and cried. He turned out perfectly healthy and now he is 15 months old. My mom is an ultrasound tech, and she has been doing this for over 30 years. She does this all the time, and she says that she sees it a lot. And more often than not, it turns out okay. I'll be thinking and praying for you and your sweet baby!
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