26 weeks!

Another week down :) I am 26 weeks pregnant today. Not a whole lot to report. It has been two weeks since my last doctor's appointment and the longest I have gone this pregnancy without seeing a doctor or a nurse! Pretty crazy. I am feeling okay. The nausea has gotten a bit worse and is definitely wearing on me since it has been 6 months of nonstop feeling icky. But the vomiting is so much better with it only happening a few times a week.

This week is crazy for me with parent/teacher conferences which means a couple thirteen hour days which is quite a bit for this mama! But after this week I won't have any conferences until next year since I will miss the ones in February. Next week will also be a busy week for me as I will be in Iowa City for a few days for a conference for work. I will be breathing a sigh of relief when these next few weeks come to an end.

Other than that, I have just been busy hanging out with Jeff, Ella and Franklin. Ella has gotten some use of out of her ladybug Halloween costume. We took her to Night Eyes which is trick or treating at the zoo and she had a great time. Then she had a Halloween party at daycare and the next day Jeff and my mom took her trick or treating at the mall. Tomorrow Jeff's work has a trick or treating night that he will take her to and then Saturday is the real deal. What a lucky girl getting all that candy! :)

Next appointment for me is at 28 weeks on November 11th. We will have an ultrasound to see how baby's growth is progressing so I am anxious to see and praying that baby is fattening up in there! I will update more after that appointment.

Glucose Test...

I passed! Yay! One less thing to worry about :)

24 weeks

So I made it to my next milestone of 24 weeks- yay! The past week and a half off the PICC have been so refreshing. It has been great to shower whenever I want and not have to schedule evenings around IV infusions! I will admit that my nausea has taken a turn for the worst off the fluids but I am still not vomiting much- maybe twice in the last week so I will take that! My arm is healing up pretty well. There is still a scar/scab at the site and the skin around is scaly like a snake as the rash heals.

This past week was Jeff's birthday and my birthday so it was a fun few days of celebrating. I got spoiled with some gift cards for massages and a pedicure so baby and I are going to be pampered in the coming months!

Here are the latest belly pics from 24 weeks:

And comparing this pregnancy at 24 weeks to my pregnancy with Ella at 24 weeks in the same clothes!

24 week Baby #2

24 weeks with Ella

I had my 24 week appointment today along with the one hour glucose test. For those that aren't familiar, the glucose test is done between 24-28 weeks to test for possible gestational diabetes. You drink a super sweet drink and then have your blood drawn an hour later to see blood sugar results. I failed the one hour test with Ella and then had to go in and take the 3 hour test so am really hoping I don't have to do that again! I will find out results later this afternoon and do a quick update.

After the glucose test was my appointment with the OB. I am now officially +1 pound from pre pregnancy weight which is good and funny at the same time. The doctor listened to the heartbeat which was in the 160s and sounded great. Then he measured my fundal height (uterus) and it was measuring a bit small. Previously he had suggested that I do a growth ultrasound at 28 weeks since I have previous history of having growth restriction with Ella. After measuring small today he said he didn't feel comfortable waiting 4 weeks and wanted me to get in for an ultrasound today. Yikes! So I came back a few hours later and had a growth ultrasound. During these they listen to the heartbeat, check amniotic fluid levels and measure three things: head, femur and abdomen. Combined, these measurements indicate an overall percentile that the baby's weight falls into and then each component is looked at separately as well. There are two types of growth restricted babies or babies with IUGR. The first is symmetrial growth restriction and this is usually not cause for concern because it indicates that the baby is small, but proportionately small so it is likely just in the genetics. An assymmetrically small baby is more cause for concern because generally the abdomen lags behind the head and femur. (This is what Ella had.). The OB explained that the reason this is a concern is that it indicates that the baby is not getting enough nutrients so is rationing what it is getting and sending most to the vital organs and head, leaving the abdomen to suffer.

Looking at baby on today's ultrasound, heartbeat looked great at 148 and baby was moving around ALL over. Amniotic fluid looked great! Baby is till head down but flailing about from side to side and constantly sucking its thumb and putting its fingers in its mouth. (See picture below)

After the ultrasound I met with the OB again and he told me that baby is weighing in at 1 lb 6 oz putting its total body weight at the 37th percentile. So right now the total weight is on the small side but not alarmingly so. The more important measurements to look at were the individual head, femur and abdomen numbers. In looking at this, my OB pointed out that right now the abdomen is lacking about two weeks behind the other measurements. Right now the head is measuring at 25 weeks 4 days (58th percentile) and the abdomen is measuring at 23 weeks 2 days (24th percentile). As of now these numbers on their own look okay and do not mean that I need immediate treatment or anything- however they are indicative of possible IUGR down the road. Ella was not diagnosed until 30 weeks and her numbers at first were around what this baby's are and each week the percentiles continued to drop until it was decided that she should be delivered. So at this time we will watch and wait. The doctor reminded me that growth restriction is nothing to mess around with so I will be closely monitored. They take into account mom's weight gain and fundal height measurements also and both of mine are on the small side. So my next appointment will be in 4 weeks at 28 weeks and I will have another growth ultrasound. After that I will start going every two weeks and will have an additional growth ultrasound at 32 weeks. If at that time, the discrepancy has narrowed, then all is good and baby can come when it likes. If however, like in Ella's case, the perecentiles continue to fall and the gap between abdomen and head/femur increases, I will start non stress tests and they will determine an appropriate date to deliver. SO as usual, it was a lot to take in at the appointment but I feel a lot more educated about what is going on after having been through this once with Ella. We will keep on plugging along and hope that baby starts packing on the pounds! I will leave you with a final picture of Baby Grinstead 2.0. I may be biased but he/she is a real cutie! :)

An Unexpected Surprise!

I am 23 weeks pregnant today! Still feeling about the same- nausea has increased a bit after being of of fluids and nausea medication but I am doing really well with not vomiting. In the past five days I have only gotten sick twice and both were on Saturday. I sure can't wait until I can have some days with no nausea but am thrilled to not be vomiting! My nurse came to change the dressing on my PICC and do bloodwork yesterday. She called this morning to tell me that my labs came back pretty good- same as last week. Sodium is still a bit low at 134 and potassium is normal at 3.9. I thought that was good news considering I am off the fluids completely and have been for the past four days. So the plan was to continue flushing the line with Heparin this week and get my PICC pulled next Monday.

WELL, this morning, I woke up and my arm was really sore and was getting red around the insertion site. When my nurse called about my labs I mentioned it to her and she said she would need to stop by after school to take a look at it because it could be infected. So she came over and I showed her and asked her what she thought and she smiled and said "Let's pull it." I think I did a double take and my jaw dropped to the floor. She had called the doctor and let him know my symptoms and he gave the okay to go ahead and pull it. Infections are nothing to mess around with and since I am already off fluids and doing okay he said it was no big deal to take it out a few days early. So once again we sat at my kitchen table and she pulled out the line! This time I wasn't as nervous- I really didn't have a chance to be since it was so unexpected. Here is a picture of the line after it was removed- it was about 15 inches long!

The nurse put betadine on my arm and covered it with a bandage for a few hours and now it is off. There is a small hole where the catheter went in and it is a bit swollen but looks pretty good! So after more than THREE MONTHS of home health care, iv fluids, iv meds, showers with wrapped arms, weekly nurse visits, etc. I am FREE of the PICC! This has been a day that I have been looking forward to for a LONG time. Jeff and I were talking and since I was six weeks pregnant I have had an appointment or seen some type of medical professional at least once a week if not more. From early spotting, to hospital visits for dehydration, two PICC insertions at the hospital, weekly nurse's visits and OB appointments it seems like it is always something! I will get a little reprieve now. I do have a scheduled OB appointment next week along with my glucose test so am really hoping that all goes well. I failed my one hour glucose test with Ella and had to take the three hour and am really hoping to avoid that this time around. After that appointment at 24 weeks, I will not be scheduled to see the doctor again until 28 weeks and then start every two weeks after that. So it is possible that I may get to go four whole weeks with no doctor's appointments- how crazy would that be! Thanks to all for your suppot and encouragement during the past few months- it has been a rough road but of course all worth it in the end! I will update next week :)

LAST IV!

As we speak I am running my LAST bag of fluids! I am so excited to be done. We are having people over tonight to watch the Iowa football game so needed to get the IV in this morning. It will be SO nice to not have to schedule our evenings around when we can do the IVs anymore.

Here I am getting my last bag of fluids:

I can't wait to have that pump out of my house along with all the other equipment! Starting tomorrow I will inject Heparin daily to prevent blood clots. I will update after my nurse's appointment Tuesday where I will hopefully be getting my last blood draw and have good results!

Here is Miss Ella helping give me my last medicine!