2-6-09
It’s been a while that I’ve been meaning to send off a little update on how the kids are doing. For some reason I haven’t been able to get it done! ;) But I am determined today!



Everyone is doing great! Holly made the honor roll and is doing very well. We are so proud of her. She is done with cheerleading for the year but we still catch her practicing her wrestling claps. She joined band and is playing the bass clarinet. Which I happen to think is super cool.
She is busy with friends and doing latin dancing on Thursdays with a group after school. Tomorrow she is helping out with Stars on Stage program at the high school.



Bridgette is also doing well. She is especially rocking in spelling and math. She is a sweetie with the babies. The little ones adore her and Holly. Ella loves to play with Bridg, especially in Bridg’s room.
Forbidden toys! Whenever they are with us in the morning Holly helps load and unload the boys. (Which saves me.) And Bridgy always wants to take charge of Ella. She always says, “Can I get Ella out?” When we get to Mom’s. Bridg helps Ella out and holds her hand as Ella goes and picks up Grampa’s paper. Then they toddle in and up the stairs. Holly and Bridg amaze me with their patience with the little ones and their desire to help. They are always so happy to help me load and unload. When the boys get older they will follow the girls around like little ducklings.
It’s going to be great.



Ella is just over being sick, poor thing. She had an ear and sinus infection (that she shared with me). Then she got a sore throat and fever while on antibiotics. The day after we went to the doctor she got pinkeye! It was insane. She did not like the eye drops but did great with the antibiotic. Yummy. She is talking up a storm and will repeat most things after you. Even if you don’t want her to. He voice is very sweet and she loves to sing making up her own words and hitting the occasional correct word. Her favorite song is Elmo’s song. Elmo is her crack. She is weighing in at 31 lbs and is 34” tall. Calculations suggest she will be 5’8” when she is full grown. We shall see. If she is it will drive Holly nuts.



The boys are sweet as ever. They are very healthy and haven’t caught anything from sicky Ella. *crosses fingers* Rowan is 18.5 lbs. Flynn is 20 lbs. Tucker is 20.5 lbs. The doc is amazed. They are in the upper percentiles for their age even if you don’t adjust for them being preemies. :-O They started solid food. And they are so messy but they seem to like it. They can all roll over and babble and sort of sit up.
(They tend to slowly fall over) They sleep so well. I love that. They usually get put down at 9-9:30 and they sleep until we get them up at 6:30 am. It’s wonderful. They are still sleeping in the crib next to our bed but it is getting kinda crowded in there. I have been working on getting the nursery whipped around. Clothes are the main problem. I have been sorting everything that doesn’t currently fit so we can keep what we want and get rid of what we don’t need. So, anybody need baby clothes? J The end is in sight though. Then we need to return Ella's crib.
(It got recalled!) And move the crib from our room to the nursery. We’ll only have 2 cribs but I think that will be fine for a while. Then Ella will move in with Bridgy and hopefully not terrorize her. We have to get Bridgy’s room straightened out too. I am very proud of Bridgy, she’s been really cool about making space for Ella and having her move in. I know Ella is ready for a big girl bed. I’m just glad she has no desire to climb out of the crib.



As the boys get older we keep wondering if there isn’t a chance they might be identical. It would be amazingly rare, but they look so much alike it is wild. I still really have to pay attention to tell them apart. We keep that big toe painted their colors just to be safe.
Rowan is green, Flynn is red, Tucker is blue. We are planning to save up and get them tested to see if they really are identical, it isn’t as expensive as I thought it would be. Not knowing is bugging me. I think the big thing is that Flynn and Tuck really look alike, but Rowan and Tucker are the ones that are supposed to be identical. And they are hard to tell apart, but Flynn and Tucker are extremely hard to tell apart.
With Rowan you can tell by his lack of a cowlick in the middle of his forehead and the fact that he’s a touch smaller. I am very excited to find out.



At some point here I might have a hard time typing and keeping up with everyone. The docs say I need carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand.
Lovely timing. I will do it, but I don’t have to like it. It will be hard not being able to use my hand for a while, especially with the babes.



As always new pics are at photobucket
http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x175/womachka/ There are some great ones of the family over the holidays.



And hopefully I will be able to put together another video for youtube over the next few weeks. You can find us on youtube by searching for Womachka or going to http://www.youtube.com/user/mellimarie



Much love to everyone,

Mel

boys are 2 months old

Friday, September 05, 2008

Hiya!
So here's a rather overdue update!
New pics are here http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x175/womachka/august08/

Everyone is doing pretty well. Although we went to the doc Wednesday and found that the sniffly noses were also ear infections in Ella, Rowan, and Tucker. Refusing to be left out, Flynn has thrush. Everyone seems to be starting to feel better. Ella especially is more perky since she started the antibiotics. Hopefully everyone will feel all better soon. Luckily no one had a fever this time. Flynn had a fever at the beginning of August and ended up in the hospital for a few days on IV antibiotics, poor little dude. He bounced back fine from that. Lara and Mom saved us by watching the other babies while Brian and I traded staying overnight in the hospital. We hope to not repeat the experience.

Everyone is growing fast. Ella was 27 lbs Wednesday. Rowan was 10, Flynn was 10 and a half, and Tucker was 11. Right now I am harassing Rowan into eating his bottle in between typing. No one likes a skinny Santa. We got the OK to use half Neosure (the special high calorie formula) and half regular formula. So we can start using our stash of carnation goodstart!

I started back to work this week. I just worked mornings and I will be back full time next week. It was nice to be back at work. I like my job and it is good not to be stuck in the house.

Our schedule with the triplets is going well. They eat every 3-4 hours. Tucker eats 5-6oz, Flynn about 5 oz, and Rowan 4-4 and a half oz. Considering that Ella was only at 6 when she quit her bottles at a year and only did 3 oz for several months after she was born, I think they are doing great! They actually eat easier and better than Ella did. They are definitely getting chubby cheeks now, good for smooching.

Ella is doing good. She likes the babies. She wants to help burp them (which we allow) and feed them (which we don't allow). And she sometimes tries to sit on them in their bouncy chairs. She also loves to give them kisses.

Holly and Bridg are a bigger help. They really seem to like the boys although I'm sure they get sick of them. They seem to be doing well in school and are making new friends and are happy to catch up with the ones they didn't see over the summer. Bridg has been a little fashion plate so far. Her clothes she picks to wear are very cute and so is she. She has been Ella's hero whenever Ella gets to play in Bridg's room. Apparently Bridgette has the best toys EVER!

Holly is a social butterfly and cheerleading for footbal lately. She is way too pretty dressed up in her cheerleading outfit. I uploaded pics onto photobucket. She looks gorgeous and seems happy. Which makes me happy.

All the babes are fed and it is time for me to trot off to work.

Much love
Melanie

Friday, July 18, 2008

So I finally emptied all the pictures on my camera. There were more than 300! ACK! I realized I haven't dumped it since the end of February. I can't imagine what would have distracted me. ;) The new pics are in the albums marchaprilmay08, june08, and july08.

June08 has antepartum pics, delivery pics, and pics of the boys in bay 3. There is a subalbum with some pics Brian took of when they actually pulled the boys in the csection. So don't look if you don't want to see a bit of my blood, but it is amazing for me to see the boys when they are just seconds old. There is a pic there of the team helping Tucker breath too.

July08 has all the bay 5 pics.Sorry there are so many from the little photo op the nurse helped us set up. I just couldn't get rid of any of them. I had to save them all. Their little expressions crack me up. Poor tucker was so mad.

Marchaprilmay08 has everything else. Easter, Angela's baby shower, and Ella's birthday are all in there.

here is the address for our photobucket account. The albums are listed on the left
http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x175/womachka/

I have got to go to bed, so a very quick update. Rowan is doing fabulous, he is the rock star of bay 5. Tucker is doing great too, his oxygen saturations have gone up and down a few times but it seems to be ok. The docs aren't getting excited. Flynn has had a couple of "spells" where his oxygen saturations drop and so does his heart rate. It only seems to happen while he is having bottle. They say it isn't great but not surprising, these boys are just little guys after all. Flynn may just need a bit more time in bay 5 to mature a bit more. But that will only be if it continues to be a problem. At this point he may still be able to come home Sunday. They say that is really amazing for little guys whose gestational age is only 35 weeks.

OK, must sleep. I hope you guys enjoy the pictures. :)

Much love,
Melanie

say Hi to the boys

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Sorry to everyone that I haven't had a good chance to send out a good update on everything with the trio. Hopefully soon here I can sit down and get some work done with pictures and email and everything and get a good update sent out soon.

So, for a quick update before I need to hop off to bed:
Everyone is doing great! The names are Flynn Harrison, Rowan Joseph, and Tucker Michael. (The pics I'm sending are from left to right Rowan, Flynn, then Tucker.) Everyone is breathing room air now. Only Tucker had to be intubated but that was only for a day or so. They are getting most of their food through NG tubes that you can see in the pic in their noses. They also are trying some nursing and the docs say they want to get the boys started on bottles late this week or early next week. Tucker got out of the incubator today and is hanging out in a bassinet. They want to try Rowan and Flynn in bassinets tomorrow and see if they can keep their temps stable too. They graduated very fast to Bay 5 of the NICU, that is the bay with the healthiest babies. I try to go and hang out with them everyday that I can. Usually Brian drops me off before work and picks me up after.

The main thing is that they are quite healthy, just small and young. I had them June 27th at 3:41, 3:42, and 3:43 pm. I was a few days shy of 33 weeks but I went into labor. They wanted to deliver me at 34 weeks. So close!

They aren't giving us any specific ideas on when we will be able to take them home yet. They tell us that there are 3 things they have to be doing in order to go home: Breathing easily on their own, maintaining their temperature without an incubator or warming bed, and growing while eating without a NG tube. We have #1 down. #2 should be done soon (hopefully tomorrow). That just leaves #3, we'll see how long that takes. They are sweet little guys and way cuter than the picture shows.

Like I said I'll work on getting a decent update done and photobucket updates with our new pics.

Much love to everyone,
Melanie Womachka

Mel in the hospital

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Mel was admitted this past Friday to University Hospitals. She has mild Pre-Eclampsia so they decided to keep her in for the remainder of her pregnancy. She feels good & the babies are doing very well.They are still hoping to get her to at least 34 weeks. If you would like to visit her she is in room 4 of the mother & baby unit. Take elevator I to the 6th floor.

made it to 28 weeks

Monday, May 26, 2008 (I sent everyone this email 4 days before I went into the hospital for preeclampsia and stayed there until I delivered. They took me in a wheelchair from my appointment in Pomerantz right over to the Mother-Baby unit and put me inpatient. And no, I didn't bring shampoo. Hilarious.)

So we had another appointment on Friday and things went well again. I always get nervous the day before my appointment. In fact I had a dream the night before that when I went to my appointment they decided to just put me straight into the hospital and they took me by wheelchair straight from my doctor to an inpatient room. But I didn't bring shampoo! But no, we're good. (Hee, I'm having a croissant right now, when I type I use my tummy as a shelf to hold it. Handy, that.) My doc is way happy with how I'm doing. She said that the majority of triplet moms she sees have spent some time in the hospital by this point and none of them were still working. I feel fancy. She said that moms with spontaneous triplets instead of IVF or fertility treatments tend to have a somewhat less complicated time though. Hopefully I will bear this out. I'm measuring 42cm. They are up to my sternum. And we found everybody's heartbeats on the doppler. Brian got to hear it for the first time. I was glad he could make it to my appointment. No u/s this time, next time. And I will be going back every week now. She said my cervix is high and tight with no signs of softening at all. I had a leep procedure when I was 21, with Ella they were all concerned about incompetent cervix because of that. Bwahahahahaha. Apparently I have a cervix of steel. Ella never did want to come out, hopefully the boys will be equally reserved. She wasn't keen on all the contractions though, so I am on 1/2 time at work. So I will work in the mornings and rest in the afternoons. If things don't settle by next Friday I will be off entirely. But Doc said I won't need to do bedrest or anything because of it. She just said to take it easy. I had my glucose test too :P. Hope I did well on that one. I got my Rhogam shot too. I minded that less than the blood draw.

Also, Doc said that I have been wrong on my math for how far along I am. She said I am putting myself a week behind! So I am 29 weeks now! *happy dance* I can hardly believe it. I am pleased as punch.

We also got a tour of the NICU. I was glad to see where the babies will go but it was so hard seeing all the equipment and worrying about the babies. I got a bit weepy and nobody batted an eye. The nurse was very understanding. She said, "It's very overwhelming, isn't it." And I realized that was it exactly. It's just overwhelming. But we are doing so well, I have plenty of hope that they won't have to spend too much time in the NICU.

We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie tonight. I got a bit uncomfortable by the end but it was nice to get out. The theater in town is an old turn of the century opera house and they are slowly working on it. It's a neat old place. When I was in school my good friend's dad owned the place so I got to see the old dressing rooms with graffiti from the early 1900s. We had a good time.

And my birthday is on Tuesday. :) Brian is taking me to HuHot. Woot! Mmmm Mongolian Barbeque. It seems to appeal to pregnant ladies. There always seems to be at least one in there. On Wednesday we are celebrating with my parents. Dad said he would get me Peanut Butter Panic ice cream *swoon*. This may be the best ice cream in existence... but that may be the cravings talking ;).

Brian has been more serious about taking the pressure off me lately, which is helping. Especially in regards to the kids. It is just too stressful to chase them around and try to keep them in line. Chastising wears me out. I think he has figured out how stressed it has been getting me, especially when he's not around like in the morning or before he gets home from work.


Well, it is way past my bedtime. Brian is up with Holly watching some horror movie but I am going to crash out.

Ella is walking

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

We had our doctor appt Friday. :) Everyone is doing well! The fraternal was 1lb 3oz and the identicals were 1lb 2oz each. They said they were measuring several days ahead. So they are growing great. And they are all boys! I could hardly believe it. This should be interesting. I am a little sad to be passing on all of Ella's clothes, though. I will have to go through them to find boy friendly ones. (I never was very picky about all her clothes being girly if I thought they were cute.) I am excited to meet them in a few months. I hope they grow really well and come at the best time for them. And I am definitely getting rounder. At my appointment she said I was measuring at what would be 35 weeks for a singleton pregnancy. Unfortunately, my blood pressure was a little high and they said I was starting to spill proteins. :P So I had to get blood draws and I have some other tests I have to do for my next appointment. I am starting to get some minor swelling. I can tell my hands are a little tight. I feel fine though, I really hope my BP settles back down. I guess I am just really hoping to keep working and stay out of the hospital, but what will be will be and we will deal as it comes.

And Ella is walking! She can make it halfway across the room, then she likes to dive into your arms and giggle. It is sweet as can be. She is also giving kisses but you have to play hard to get. ;) She is a sweety-pie. I can hardly believe her 1st birthday is saturday. And then Saturday night we hose the cake out of her crevices and hair. I will try to get the ultrasound pics scanned in when Brian isn't hoarding them.

Well it has been a long day and I am worn out and Ella wants a bottle.

triplets ultrasound

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Well, our appointment finally got here. They said the trio all look great. They are growing just how they should and their little heartrates are good. Unfortunately, they do think baby B and C are in the same sac. :P That makes things more complicated since they can tangle their cords together or get tangled themselves. We are crossing our fingers that they aren't playing jump rope in there. Although on the ultrasound, B and C look like they were waving their arms at eachother like Frankenstein. With 3 in there they had quite a time getting everyone to behave and give them a view of everything they needed to see. At one point we had 3 techs and the doc in the room at once. We are popular. The first tech asked, "So, is this from IVF or fertility medicines?" She was shocked to find we are all-natural triplets. She had never seen it before. We go back in a month for another ultrasound and checkup. I hope to keep feeling good and having good appointments. The doc said he would love for me to make it to 36 weeks but he seemed doubtful. We will hold out as long as we can to keep 'em in the oven!

Here are some pics from the ultrasound http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x175/womachka/february/

Ella and the girls are doing great! Holly and Bridgette are between activities right now and have been a huge help with Ella and around the house. I've been really tired lately, but they have really been pitching in to keep things running smooth. Ella is army-crawling everywhere. One of her favorite things is crawling over to Boo and patting/pulling ears/finger up nose/lay her head on/play with her tail. Boo just lays there and tries to lick Ella when she thinks we aren't looking. She must think Ella's a puppy. Ella is at a really delightful age... except for the shrieking when she's tired. That's less than delightful. But it makes you appreciate when she's happy more.

Much love from us, don't get lost in a snowdrift,
Melanie

Dr Appt

Wednesday, January 16, 2008


gack, brian thinks my doctor is a total jerk. I'm reserving judgment. he had a lot of hard things to say and he didn't always phrase things as kindly as he could, but i need him to be a great doc for my babies. great bedside manner doesn't always come with that. we'll see how he is when we get to know eachother better.

he told us that we were looking at a whole bunch of possible troubles and complications. the biggest one is just preterm labor before the babies are ready. 24 weeks is the magic number we need to get past. the next biggest is that it looked like 2 were in the same sac. so they could get tangled in each other's cords which has many bad outcomes. the 2 are probably sharing a placenta too which can cause complications. the other possibilities he was concerned were 3 times the chance of preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, etc. He said if I get preeclampsia this time that I would be spending time in the hospital. he also took time to point out that i was going to be massively gigantic and uncomfortable for a lot of the pregnancy, thank you. He actually said, "You are going to be huge, really big. And pretty uncomfortable for most of this pregnancy. You won't see your feet, you probably won't see your knees." He's just a little a little ball of sunshine. He told me our odds were 50/50. When I started crying he told me not to worry. That I should let him worry. Freaking hilarious.

I hope he'll have better things to say at our next appointment. Hopefully he just wanted to get the bad stuff out of the way and try to scare me into doing what I'm supposed to. Ick. I miss Dr Patrick.

Our next appt is Feb 8th. We will have an ultrasound and an appt once a month until things get more dicey, then it will be every 2 weeks or more. We'll do what we have to and hope for the best.

Well, gotta go make supper for the rugrats. ttyl!
Mel

Happy New Year surprise from the Womachkas

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Hi everybody! Some of you already knew Brian and I are expecting again. A happy surprise we found out about right before Christmas.

I had my first prenatal appointment today. They figured my due date around Aug 18th but wanted an ultrasound to pin it down. And the ultrasound found 1 baby at 8 weeks... then another... then ANOTHER! Yep, we are having triplets. 2 identical and 1 fraternal. So I will start going to a specialist at the university starting Friday. We are still in shock, this should be amazing. I will be doing all I need to to keep all of us healthy, so wish us luck

Tuesday, October 02, 2007 6:36 PM

Hi everybody!

Ella is feeling better after her ear infection. But she has learned to play! She will tuck her little face into your chest, you say "Wheeeeere's Ella?" For however long she hides her face, then she looks up at you fast and you say, "There she is! Peekaboo I see you!" And she smiles and makes happy noises. Alas, she has a short attention span so sometimes the game sounds like this *ella hides* "Whe-" *ella peeks!* "There she i-" *ella hides* "Where's E-" *ella peeks!* "There-" *ella hides*
It's too hilarious.
She also plays with toys. She pulls and taps and shakes and puts them in her mouth. She has 2 teeth partly in on the bottom now. We wonder when the top ones will start. So, now you can sometimes hear, "Ella, no biting." Then she will lick you! Our dog Boo was next to her one day. I was petting Boo and helping Ella pet Boo. (Boo seems to like Ella more than Gus. I thought it would be the opposite.) Anyway, all of a sudden Ella leans forward and licks Boo on the face. So, of course Boo licked back. I told her no licking the baby, but turnabout is fair play.

She has also learned that making loud bizarre noises gets people's attention. So she'll go "AWAGHEEEAAAAYA" or something similar. And we'll look at her and she grins so big we have to laugh. Sometimes she makes crazy noises and you'll think she's upset. But you go and check on her, she's fine, happy... just practicing I guess.

She still likes to flirt with almost all the men she meets. She will even reach for random men she doesn't know to hold her! This could be a problem in a few years.

Holly and Bridgette are trucking along in school. Holly is busy in sports, but working hard in her classes too. I think her fondest wish would be for less heavy books.

Bridgette's birthday is today! We had tons of fun last weekend when we took her to planet x. I think she was a little disappointed in her actual birthday though. I think she was expecting rainbows and fairy dust and she just got a regular day with some wellwishes and brownies. Poor kid. But we talked and tried to focus on the positive.

Brian is working hard and still liking his job, which makes me happy.

But I am still off work, which makes me very unhappy. I went to the doc today and he said that if things go really really well then I might be able to go back to work mid-November. : P Crapola. But I asked if there were exercises or anything I could do. He said he wasn't sure they would help at all, but he gave me a few that won't hurt me. A week and a half ago I got an epidural where they shot steroids into the area that is herniated. It has really helped! My pain is less and my right foot doesn't drag now. I hated that, I felt like Igor. yeesssss masssster. But doc seems to think I'll need more than just that one. But it wasn't too bad, so I don't mind. But I'm supposed to alternate between "sitting and reclining" which makes me feel like a total dork and a total slob because there are so many things that need done around the house and Brian works hard! He's tired at the end of the day. Besides I can't lift anything "heavier than the baby". So it's frustrating, but we'll get through and it'll be all good. I just need to get fixed and get my buns back to work. It's hard to appreciate the extra time with Ella, but I am really trying! She's so special. And this time is so short. It'll be all good. It has to be.

We have a whole new month of pictures for September! http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x175/womachka/september/

Much love!
Mel

Ella

May 9th, 2007

We have an album on photobucket! There are an obsessive number of pics there ;)
http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x175/womachka/

Ella had her doctor's appointment! She's doing great! She weighs 9 lbs 8 oz, is 22" long, and has a 14 1/4" noggin :) She reached all of her developmental goals and then some for her one month already. (She'll be a month next week!) So she doesn't need to go in again until June. We are all doing well, I feel better every day :) We have so many blessings, I've lost count

Melanie & the crew

Baby papparazzi! Poor Ella!

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

We fear that Ella may end up with vision problems from all the flashbulbs, poor thing. Another month has gone by and I am updating everyone that new pics are up at photobucket http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x175/womachka/

The little one is doing great! She's getting over an ear infection. But I think she is feeling fine now. She'll be done with her antibiotics tomorrow. We will be back to the doc for a recheck next week. She tried rice cereal for the first time tonight. Some of it even went in her mouth! She weighs 15lbs and is almost 26 inches long now! And she is sweet. Smiling and laughing and cooing. She also makes noises like a baby pterodactyl. I think she wants to be like Bill's baby, Mary.

Off to bed for me!
twenty-three skiddoo!
Melanie

Show me on the doll where the Dr. touched you...

Another visit to Dr. Patrick is behind me. I have another in 2 weeks. She loves to see me, what can I say. And she checks my cervix everytime and says, "Yep, feels good!" I think next time I will ask for at least dinner and a movie. I'm starting to feel positively easy. ;) But it is nice to know the baby isn't going to fall out. After the leep procedure I had a couple of years ago, they are worried things might not have knit together just right. That would be bad. Baby fall out, go boom. So, she is watching it. If my cervix starts being naughty they will throw in a couple stitches and I'll be good. Before I got pregnant, the thought of them needing to stitch my cervix closed to hold in the baby was horrifying. Now, not such a big deal. After I saw that tadpole on my first ultrasound I would let them stitch anything they wanted if it helped the baby. Luckily, they aren't that trigger happy. So far no stitches needed. Yay and stuff.

The heartbeat was 153. It sounds so strong and healthy! My own heart just melts every time I hear it. And doc says I am growing great, my uterus is all the way up to my belly button!

My blood sugars are still good. Next time I go in they are going to give me a glucose tolerance test. If I do well on that I won't have to stab myself as much. Cross your fingers and toes for me.

I will see Dr. Patrick on Dec. 11th and have my big ultrasound on the 12th. We hope to be able to see if it is a boy or a girl. We will put up what pics we can.

This pic is a very flattering one my dad got of my tummy at Thanksgiving. Hardy-har. But if you look really close you can almost see where the baby is! Amazing!

What's a doppler?

I'm a lucky snot. Overall, I haven't been sick hardly at all. There was that one incident with the ramen where I had to leave the house for a few hours. I only shout at the big white telephone every once in a while. Usually, it's if I get a whiff of something icky or if I see eggs on TV. Eggs on TV make me hurl. They always have them huge, in your face, and glistening. urrp. Brian warns me though. "Don't look!" Then tells me when it's all clear.
I get sleepy very easily and I don't have my usual stamina. Naps are lovely things. I get pain in my lower right abdominal quadrant sometimes when I stand up. Doc says that it is from ligaments stretching, that it's prefectly normal. I like normal.
Most of my appointments are pretty easy now. She asks me how I'm feeling. Then I promptly forget all the questions and concerns I had. I need to write this stuff down. Then she checks the baby's heartbeat. The first time she did this I was confused when she didn't crack out her stethoscope. Instead, she shot goo on my tummy and chuckled at my Halloween underpants. Then she grabbed this device about the size of my hand that had a little wand on the end of a cord. The wand squished around on my liberally greased tummy, a quick repetetive whooshing noise came from the speaker. The baby's heartbeat she said! I found out later that the device is called a doppler. Apparently, you can't hear the baby's heartbeat with a stethoscope until later (18 or 20 weeks?). But with a doppler you can hear it at ten. Ignorant me. But, I love the doppler. I wanted her to just hold that cold little wand on my tummy for an hour. I wanted to wallow in that whoosh of the heartbeat! But it was over too fast and it just seemed too surreal. She said the heartbeat was 173, at the next appointment it was 150, at my appointment I just had it was 153. Active li'l ticker.
My bloodwork all has come out good, except that I am anemic. Rats. More vitamins. They are really watching me for gestational diabetes, too. They said that my bloodwork was fine for it, but that they wanted me to test my blood anyway. So they sent me to the nutritionist at Mercy.
There were 2 other ladies in the class. They were both 7 months along and I was terribly jealous. Then I started getting confused. The teacher commented that we all had failed our glucose tolerance tests twice (No I didn't!). And talked about a few other tests and problems that I hadn't ever had. This was a class for women with gestational diabetes, she said. I don't have that! Hopefully I won't get it. Apparently, I looked very confused. The teacher asked me if I had a question. So, I explained that I didn't have bad tests or gestational diabetes, that the doc just wanted me to come to get the blood tester and some good advice on how I should be eating. She said that was fine and that it would mean a few differences between what she wanted me to follow and what she wanted the other ladies to be doing. Phew. So, they talked about a good diet and making sure that you didn't gain too much weight or have too much glucose in your blood. But they also talked about making sure that you don't lose weight. That is bad for the baby for several reasons, apparently it will release ketones in your blood that isn't good for the baby and also the baby won't get enough nutrients. Seemed pretty straightfoward, and we have been following their advice pretty well. Brian has been a huge help in this. He just on the bandwagon too and is completely supportive. He's an angel.
I'm also testing my blood. At first she had me do it everyday 2 hours after eatting. She looked at those numbers and said they were fine. Then she said to do it every other day. Once when I first wake up and then once 2 hours after eatting. No problem. It's very reassuring to have my glucose numbers be good. In a month or so they are going to give me a glucose tolerance test. If I do well on that she said I won't have to stab myself all the time anymore. Cross your fingers and toes.

On Dec. 12th we have another ultrasound. If the baby isn't mooning the camera, we should be able to see if it's a boy or a girl! Holly and Bridgette want a girl so badly. They watch too much Disney where little brothers are evil.

Yes, I'm a slacker

I admit, I had nice high expectations for myself when I started this blog. I would update it regularly! I would log all kinds of stuff for posterity. But when push comes to shove, and the choice is reading/watching TV/playing toontown/going to bed way early or typing on the baby blog, my choice has been laziness.
Bad mommy... no cookie.
So, hopefully this update will redeem me a bit.
So, I had that visit with my doc. And oh yeah, definitely pregnant. I was so anxious. I was convinced there would be something wrong, like I'd have a little alien-cthulhu baby. Is it alive? Does it have multiple heads? Is the heart beating ok?
So, I'm sure I sounded like a complete idiot to Dr. Patrick. She just chuckled at me and assured me that everything was fine and that the baby would be human.
She fondled me a bit and gave me a pap (which was fine, phew), then off to the ultrasoung room! I waited and pawed through the bag of pregnant lady goodies they gave me. She came in and turned down the lights and got started. And there on the screen was my baby! And there was definitely only one head! Huzzah! There was the little head, and I could see that tiny heart beating away. I was so overcome by wonder I cried. I could make out the head and heart easy, the rest was just a tadpole-ish shape. She said everything looked fine and that I was 7 weeks along. Wow! Then she printed me off a little picture and let me put my pants on. Next visit at 11 weeks.

Wait... It says what?!

So, last Thursday, August 31st, I decided it was time to pee on a stick.

I was 2 weeks late for my period. I went off birth control last spring. But I didn't feel pregnant. But, it had been 2 weeks. So, time to pee on the stick.

We waited until the girls had gone to bed. We cracked out the handy Walgreens Easy to Read Pregnancy Test. Bill and Marciana gave it to us several months ago. It was a 2 pack and they had only needed one, obviously. Bill wanted a really easy to understand one. No plus or minus or blue lines or pink lines. This test has a digital readout that will say "Pregnant", "Not Pregnant", or "Error" in easy to see text. It claims to be "over 99% accurate" and the Ob/Gyn office agrees.

Holy crap.

At this point I must say that using a pregnancy test is both awkward and embarrassing. We got through it. Brian held the readout while I thoroughly washed my hands. I says it takes up to 3 minutes to get a result. Brian grinned after a minute and put the readout in front of my eyes.

"Pregnant"

My response wasn't eloquent. I didn't hug Brian and tell him how much I loved him and how happy I was. I felt that way later. At that moment I grunted, "Nuh-uh!" I figured we just needed to let it sit for another minute and the "Not" would appear. Brian asked if I was happy. I said of course, but that the test was wrong. I think he laughed at me.

After 5 minutes I accepted that "not" wasn't going blip up on the little screen. I was happy but scared. It just couldn't be real. I can't get pregnant, right?

We decided to wake Holly. We figured that she was listening from her bed, but she really was asleep. A child after my own heart, she said "Nuh-uh!" when we told her. She also wanted to know if the test we showed her was a fake one we'd bought somewhere. Once we convinced her, she was so excited she could hardly go back to sleep.

We tried to tell Bridgette, but she would just look cross at us and try to pass out again. Brian told her in the morning.

So how exciting but scary. I went off birth control in the spring. After a couple of months I just figured I shouldn't get my hopes up. I figured I would likely never get pregnant, but that was OK because I had my stepdaughters and they were plenty enough for me. But I love my girls and wish I had known them as babies. Now I have an opportunity to know one of my little ones from the beginning. The girls are very excited, though Holly is less than pleased at having to give up her room. Poor kid.

So, I have an appointment with my Ob/Gyn, Dr. Patrick, on the 11th.

Wish me luck!

Melli

Umm... Hi

I had hoped, but I never let myself hope very hard. Then I just figured I would never get pregnant.

Well wasn't I just mistaken.
I'm all pregnant and stuff. : )
Very weird.
So here is where I'll write about it. I plan on being pretty honest and I'm not the type to beat around the bush, so if you don't want to hear something icky then don't read the journal.
So, I'm hoping for fun if occasionally gross!

Yay! Wish me luck! Pray for no nausea!
Melli