An exciting day, 20w!

Today has been a very eventful day for us and marked full of milestones.

To start with the beginning of the day.  We are officially 20w.  Half way done and I'm finding it hard to believe that DD2 could be here in 17w.  I honestly think that I'll be one of those women that the first 17P dose that she misses that she goes into labor.  This also marks the day that I officially go to L&D for any complications and they will attempt to stop my labor.  My 20w belly pic.  I feel like I'm showing so obviously right now, but I guess it's just a tiny little thing yet.

DH gave me my 5th injection today which marks our first vile of Makena gone and only four to go.  He did really well and surprisingly I'm minimally sore. I'll probably be feeling it tomorrow though.  Bleh.  The picture below is of our shot set-up for anyone interested.  The first needle is to draw out the medication and the second is to inject.  You can also see our lovely Vlasic needle jar.  I think we might be able to fill it for another vile before needing a new one.

We also had our Level II scan with the MFM today.  I am officially up 4.6 lbs.  Baby girl looks absolutely great.  She was measuring 20w2d on everything and approximate weight of 13oz.  She is sitting exactly how I thought she was.  Her butt to my left and her head to my right, with her back to my belly.  She also had her hand waving near my cervix as usual to say "hello!".  Cervix is back up to 4.1cm so we got the go ahead to leave tomorrow on our week trip.  Yay.  Dr. B is also so confident in this pregnancy that he feels he doesn't need to see us again until 30w.  I think that's fair, especially since everything started to hit the fan around then anyways.  I had trace protein in my urine, but that's nothing to be too worried about.  I think I am a bit dehydrated from the yard work we did yesterday.  So far I feel goo an excited/relieved to count the weeks down.  The top picture is of her in the fetal position.  Her feet are above her head.

This made me laugh!

http://www.babble.com/pregnancy/10-most-annoying-pregnancy-medical-terms/image-1294/

Check it out.

18w Appt.

Monday - 17P injection went so much better this time.  I was still incredibly sore.  I think we've learned that my right cheek hurts the most afterwards (around 5 days) and my left cheek hurts the most at the injection site but then I am good to go.  I guess we'll see for sure on Monday, left cheek is up.  I have to call and make my first refill too.

We had our cervical check on Thursday.  Baby girl must've known it was an exam day because she was upside down with her hands near my cervix waving.  We also got to see her drinking amniotic fluid.  The doc tried to get a shot of the goods, we hadn't told him that we knew yet, but she just wasn't in the right position.  He took a peak at my cervix and it wasn't "good" news, but it wasn't bad either.  My cervix is measuring 3.6cm, but some mild funneling.  He didn't want to discuss it with me at all though, which I find beyond frustrating.  After talking to my friend who dealt with IC, she has assured me that things are still ok.  I guess we'll see what the MFM thinks for our Level II on the 12th.

P17 Round 2

Today marks the start of a new week of pregnancy and yet another 17P injection.  I had the utmost faith in my husband since he did so well the first time.  We walked through the steps together and I was highly cautious about making sure he wasn't going to stab me with the 18g needle.  That thing is seriously scary looking.

We got started.  I got into position.  The opposite cheek this time so it was a bit more awkward for him to do since he is so dominant with his left hand.  The stab wasn't the bad part, it was the injecting.  He injected it much more slowly this time.  It was absolutely agonizing.  I had to lay my head on the counter to stop myself from passing out and/or throwing up in the bathroom sink.  He actually admitted that he felt bad which stuns me, especially coming from the man who has been counting down the days until he got to wield that needle.  He came my cheek a nice deep rub, since it was the only thing to give me some relief, and then I went to lay down for a minute on the bed to get the blood back to my brain.

I'm a bit sore right now.  We'll see what tomorrow brings with how I am feeling.

The nurse suggested a thick bottle, like a Gatorade jug to put my needles in, but I didn't have any with lids before recycling went out.  We ended up using a Vlasic pickle jar. 

Team Pink or Team Blue?

I know you have been sitting there asking yourself.... so what is she having?  Then refreshing my page again and again to check back.  Okay, probably not, but here is the well deserved update.

The most important news is that my cervix is super long and closed right now, averaging 5.05 cm.  I also found out that I am the talk of the OB office.  LOL.  I guess there are not that many high risk patients there and my name gets passed around a lot.  I might have met the NP when I was pregnant with DS, but don't remember her.  But when the OB came in to do the cervical check (I am certain that I never met her before), she said she knew about me and my situation.  Should I feel flattered, concerned, or annoyed?

Now the fun news!  We had a fantastic ultrasound.  We went to see Ms. Lisa at Living Images http://www.livingimg.net/  She is absolutely fantastic.  She takes her time and does her absolute best to get the perfect shots.  We also went to her to find out the sex of our DS.  She started out with some great shots of the baby's face.  Baby had one hand up to their face and sometimes sucking on fingers.  We then moved south and then I got a glimpse.  I knew right away exactly what I saw.  She pulled off right away as if teasing us to check from another angle.  Sure enough, we are having another GIRL!  She has so much attitude already.  She was kicking and moving.  She was giving us tons of facial expressions.  Her favorite one was a lip pursing, both our son and daughter do it when they are angry.  She would also cover her face so we couldn't spy.  We are a bit surprised that what we thought was a he, turned out to be a she.  We don't quite have a name stapled down yet, but hopefully it won't be too hard.

 

Our next cervical check is in 2 weeks and then the Level II scan at my MFM 2 weeks after that.  The weeks have been absolutely flying by.

First 17P Injection

I feel like a champion and I only flinched a little.  I'm so proud of my hubby for being such a great sport and I bet as the weeks go by this will get much easier.

We started out by going over all of the pieces and how tos.  It took about 30 minutes and then the real tense stuff began.  I pulled down my pants... he counted to 3 and away we went.  It was surprisingly not that bad.  The stuff is thick and I could see DH having some difficulty forcing it in.  I feel like a have a constant butt Charlie horse now, but I'm sure it will get better.  Rubbing it seems to make it feel better though.  I'm hanging out on the couch now, letting my leg and booty rest. 

Excited for our next cervical check and big goods reveal on Wednesday.  :)

 

As of Tuesday, the shot now feels like I received a TDaP!  It's so sore and achy.  I hope that tomorrow it's not so bad.

Week 15

Now that we're up to date.

Tuesday:  I am very anxious to get a call from the pharmacy about my 17P injections.  For anyone with questions on what it is and does, here is the website:  http://www.makena.com/  The nurse ordered them last week Monday, but because of the holiday and it being a military base, everyone had a long 4 day weekend.  I was told that they should call on Monday, but here it is Tuesday and I have still not heard if it has made it into the office.  I'm going to see what tomorrow brings before nagging the ordering nurse.  DH gets to give me my first injection in office on Monday.  I'm so very nervous that he's not going to be sweet about it.

Wednesday:  Still no 17P.  Gah.  Sometimes I wish we could just have a "normal" pharmacy where you take your piece of paper, wait an hour, and then pick it up.

Thursday:  I have 5 weeks of 17P in my hands.  The pharmacy "forgot" to call me and tell me it was in.  The nurse in OB apologized for the inconvenience.