You know you're pregnant when...

1. You have to go to the bathroom five zillion times a day (and this includes many times all throughout the night).

2. Climbing a flight of stairs is enough to get you out of breath (especially when carrying stuff). Thankfully a nursing prof helped me out on Friday night as I was struggling to carrying a heavy box of promotion documents up a couple of flights of steps.

3. It seems perfectly reasonable to go to bed at 7:50pm. Yes, that's when I went to bed last night. I was in bed for about 11 hours (not counting all the trips to the bathroom). I had been out every night Tuesday-Friday (three of those at work and the other at church), I didn't sleep well on Friday night due to stewing over some things that happened at the promotion committee meeting, and then I had gone back on campus yesterday to speak at an Open House for 90 minutes. I was completely drained of all energy and needed a long night's sleep to bounce back. When I'm not pregnant, I can never be in bed that many hours in a row unless I'm sick.

4. You are sick to your stomach most of the time. I'm still praying for this "morning" sickness to go away in the near future as I'll be in the 2nd trimester later this week!

5. You eat a lot more frequently throughout the day and yet don't gain weight. Well as of Friday I have gained 1 pound thus far.

6. You eat foods that normally don't appeal to you and stay far away from the foods you normally love. I can't remember the last time I had any chocolate, and I'm normally someone who LOVES chocolate (as in chocolate chip cookies, brownies, etc.). Actually I'm eagerly anticipating the day I can eat the cereals I love again such as Raisin Bran, Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Mini Wheats, etc. I'm really tired of Total and plain Cheerios! I can also honestly say I've never eaten so many eggs in my life. It's a good thing I have very low cholesterol!

7. You have really strong cravings for foods that you usually rarely eat. I made lemon bars a few days ago for the first time in my life because I couldn't get them off my mind. Thankfully Nadia also likes them. The other thing I've been dying to have lately (but haven't had yet) is a slice of pecan pie (of course it would remain to be seen if that actually would sit well in my stomach as I had been craving ham and that turned out to be a bad idea).

8. You can cry ever so easily. A case in point would be that I actually had tears coming down my cheek several weeks ago during the song "Be our Guest" when Nadia and I went to see Beauty and the Beast. I felt ridiculous! Why in the world did I get emotional?!?!? I chalked it up to the crazy hormones.

9. You don't mind that your belly is growing bigger. Unfortunately today I discovered that I couldn't find ANY of my maternity clothes. I remember selling some about a year ago, but I know I hadn't sold all of them as I remember washing them multiple times in the spring and summer due to our basement flooding. I had totally forgotten that the last time this happened I had Paul take a bunch of stuff to the thrift store because at that point I didn't think we'd ever be trying again (it was before Paul had changed his mind), and I was tired of washing and drying maternity clothes I'd never wear again due to our basement flooding. Thankfully I still have quite a bit of baby clothing (although not all of it - I wish I hadn't sold/given away any of their clothing). So I need to start buying myself some maternity clothing. I will definitely hang on to the stuff this time around in case the FET proves to be a success. On Friday morning I'm planning on going to a consignment sale that's just for baby, children, and maternity clothing. Hopefully I'll find some nice things there at a reasonable price, and I'll be checking eBay as that's where I got most of my maternity clothes for the last two pregnancies.

10. Just about any food on the planet can give you heartburn. I added a few raisins to my Total the other day, and I got heartburn from the raisins! Oi vey!

This baby is soooooooooooo worth any discomfort I am experiencing right now!!!! It's less than 8 weeks until we find out if baby is a girl or a boy. I'm dying to know!

3.75 Years Old

I'm including a few "Nadiaisms" this month so I don't forget them:

1. When she wants me to push her on the swing she says "swing me"

2. When I pour water over her hair in the bathtub (to rinse out the shampoo) and she's objecting, she'll say "please don't spill me."
3. She pronounces most words correctly, but one of the words she still mispronounces (unless I correct her) is "yard." She calls a yard sale a "ard sale."

4. Similarly, her first instinct is to pronounce McDonalds "atdonalds"

5. For many months she's pronounced the word surprise as "raprise"
6. When her foot is "waking up" she screams "my foot is breathing!"
7. When we work on her alphabet and number flashcards, she now gets them all right the first time with the exception of the numbers 6 and 9 and the letter T (both uppercase and lowercase can trip her up sometimes and she'll call them "I" instead of "T").
8. Her favorite cereal over the past month was definitely Crunchy Nut.

9. She has no concept of associating gender with a name. I've asked her a few times if she has an idea for a boy's name if she's going to have another brother. She suggests girl's names like Lisa or Karen.
10. Her prayers always include thanking God for the following people: Mommy, Daddy, Ian (sometimes), Uncle Maurice, Aunt Wendy, Susie, Grandma and Grandpa. Others might be included from time to time, but those names are included every single time.

11. She ate a LOT of grapes this past month (in part because they were on sale two different weeks). She likes both red and green grapes just as much as I do!
12. Her favorite shoes this past month were a pair of brown leather shoes because they are the easiest for her to put on. She still hasn't mastered knowing which shoe goes on which foot.

13. She seems to throw up about once every two weeks on average. Sometimes car sickness is the culprit (a 20 minute ride is enough to do her in), and other times it's because I've insisted she eat a few bites of carrots, green beans, or some other offending vegetable.
14. We've started working on associating a sound with each letter. Thus far she's learned A-J.

15. She's really into asking strangers "What's your name?," and then of course they ask her what her name is. She often tells the person something like "That's a pretty name" which puts a smile on their face, particularly when it's an elderly person. She isn't shy that's for sure!

16. A few days ago when she was praying she thanked God for "my best friend, Shawn" (her 16 year old cousin). Other times she refers to the neighbor girls as her best friends (and they're in 8th and 9th grade).

17. She's trying to be more independent with getting dressed and undressed. Her underwear often ends up being put on inside out for some reason, and sometimes her shorts are on backwards.

18. She recently learned how to ride a tricycle! She takes after me, and her length is in her torso. Her little feet just couldn't reach to push the pedals until recently, and she's had this tricycle since June 2010.

19. I just stated to teach her how to buckle her carseat. I would like her to be independent with this before the baby comes so that I'm only buckling in two munchkins. She almost has it figured out!

20. She very rarely takes a nap, but a few days ago she surprised me and slept for 2.5 hours. Ian was very vexed because her nap delayed our departure to the playground.
21. She goes many days without sucking her thumb during the day. Every once in awhile I have to remind her. It's another story when she's in bed. She definitely sucks her thumb at night. We'll have to use the thumb guards again (just at night) sometime in the future.
22. She can now do a 100 piece puzzle (that she's done before with help) all by herself! Way to go, Nadia!
23. Yesterday she shampooed her hair by herself for the first time. She told me she was a big girl and didn't need me to help her.

24. She has an amazing memory. Today she was asking (before we went to the annual Children's Day a the Little League Museum) if she would get to eat a cookie and cupcake (which she ate there last year). I wish I had a better picture. I learned a lesson today that my 50mm lens (which I use almost exclusively these days) is the wrong one to bring to a "meet and greet" character event. I'll be sure to bring my other lens when they go to meet Clifford next month.

Busy, Busy

Today I had appointments with advisees from 2:00-2:45 (although I don't usually have office hours on Fridays), and then I participated in a committee meeting from 3:00-8:30pm. The good news is that I had been told the meeting would probably last 8-9 hours; so I was relieved that I was home by 9:15pm. Tomorrow morning we're heading to a children's event at the Little League Museum. Nadia is looking forward to seeing Curious George again. Then I'll be heading back to campus as I'm speaking at an Open House event for our department (my audience will probably be about 100 prospective students and parents). Between search and screen interviews (we selected two of our candidates for tenure track positions - hopefully they'll accept the offers!), promotion committee work, and the Open House, it's been a busier than usual week for me at work.

I haven't heard anything from the OB office yet. I called on Tuesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon. To say I am frustrated would be an understatement. I know I was spoiled at the other hosptial when I routinely would get a call about the bloodwork before I was even home, but I never had to wait even one day let alone more than 3 days for results. It also annoys me that I have repeatedely asked for a doctor or nurse to explain to me what having the antibodies might mean for the pregnancy, and they have given me ZERO information. Thankfully some others have given me helpful info, and the internet has proven helpful in terms of Kell antibodies. No one has known anything about F antibodies, and I haven't found things on the internet about it either. If they don't call me on Monday morning, I am planning on stopping by in person on Monday afternoon. I'm also contemplating switching to a different OB/GYN office. I also don't understand why they haven't scheduled Paul for a test. If he's Kell negative (like I am), then the baby I'm carrying has to be Kell negative, and that would mean the antibodies can't hurt the baby. Hopefully they'll call me with the results on Monday morning.

3 Months Along!

Today I am 12 weeks (or 3 months) pregnant! If I make it all the way until 9-24, it means I have at the most 6 months and 3 days left to go! I'm really hoping the morning sickness will let up soon. I'm really tired of feeling sick to my stomach All Day Long. It's also annoying that most of the foods I normally love, now seem revolting to me. Ham is typically my favorite type of meat. I don't have it very often. I cook a ham probably about once every two years, in part because Paul is not a ham fan (he greatly prefers turkey). Since protein has been a bigger part of my diet the past two months, I thought it would be good to have some ham in the refrigerator. I bought some ham on Saturday and cooked it on Monday. I don't like it! I don't ever remember not liking ham before. This little one has totally corrupted my taste buds!! Thank goodness it's temporary! :-) I did enjoy the Egg McMuffin I treated myself to yesterday morning after the bloodwork was done.

I made a ham and swiss impossible pie this evening in the hope that it would be more palatable, and it was! I'll probably be making more impossible pies/quiches over the coming months. I saw on the ticker today that baby is 3 inches long! This little one is growing like a weed! Can you imagine growing one inch in about a week? I found out from Jann that the titer test only takes about two hours. So, you'd think it would be done by now. I'm going to call the OB office again tomorrow. I hate to be a nag, but it will have been 48+ hours at that point. I was spoiled by the other hospital that almost always called me with results that same day. Hopefully they will be able to give me the results tomorrow.

Waiting is Hard

I called the OB office around 4pm to see if they had the bloodwork results. They have a voicemail box set up just for asking about lab results. When I left my message I asked #1 if they had the results, #2 if they didn't when they thought they might be available, and #3 if someone could explain more about these antibodies because I've been rather worried. A nurse called back a few minutes later and said my file is on an OB's desk because the lab needed more information. I told her that the lab said that yesterday, but they figured it out this morning. I told her I had the blood drawn this morning. She said they'd call me as soon as they got the results. So I have no idea when that will be.
This afternoon when I was talking with my mom I said from what I had read I was figuring that the best case scenario was that the transfusion I received in January 2010 was of Kell positive blood. If that's where I got the antigens from, then most likely it means Paul is also Kell negative, which would mean our children would have to be Kell negative. If the baby I am carrying is Kell negative, the Anti-Kell antibodies in my bloodstream aren't going to hurt the baby. I wasn't 100% sure my analysis is correct (since I figured it out just by what I read online), but Jann (a friend who works in a Blood Bank) emailed me this evening and said the same thing. What a relief! The other scenario is that Paul is Kell positive, and then in that case I would have developed the antigen if Ian is Kell positive. Since I didn't have any Kell antigens in my pregnancy with Ian, I am assuming Nadia must be Kell negative, which means that Paul couldn't be homozygous. He'd have to be heterozygous in that scenario, which would mean there would be a 50% chance that the baby I'm carrying is Kell positive. So I'm praying that Paul is Kell negative and that I developed the antibodies from a Kell positive blood transfusion. That's definitely the best scenario at this point.

Jann also told me that the Rhogam shot doesn't have anything to do with the F or K antigens (which are the ones I have). That is a relief. She said if I had developed antibodies from the bleeding in January it would have showed up by now (and it didn't). So there was no harm done by my not having the Rhogam shot. What a relief! She also talked about the fact they can do an intrauterine transfusion or exchange the baby's blood with Kell negative blood. She didn't know as much about the F antigen. So now we wait for the titer results for both antibodies, and then most likely Paul will need to be tested in the near future so we'll have a better idea as to whether the baby I'm carrying is Kell positive or negative. I know there are still alot of unknowns, but I'm feeling more hopeful that I can deliver a healthy baby in September. I'll keep praying to that end, and hopefully by the end of the week the OB's office will call me with the titer results.

3 Steps Forward, 2 Steps Back

I had my bloodwork done this morning. The lab called at 7:30am and said that they did more research and found out that this type of bloodwork has to be done before 9:00am on Tuesday or Friday. So much for trying to avoid a special trip. It turns out the Red Cross processes this type of bloodwork. Paul said I should go today rather than waiting until Friday so the kids and I were out the door at 8:00am. It took two people and three sticks for them to fill the two large blood bank vials. They gave the kids each two big stickers. It seems the baby is probably safe for at least 8 more weeks from what I've read. I'm going to call the OB office this afternoon just in case the results are available although I realize it might be too early.  I definitely have a different attitude toward the NICU at the moment. As much as I've said I want to avoid the NICU this time around, the NICU would be 100 million times better than a stillborn baby.

After going fourteen days without any accidents, Ian had four accidents in the past seven days. The first two (last Tuesday and Thursday) were while he was napping in his crib. I think that happened because last week he started sleeping for 45 minutes most days. To most that would be a very short nap, but for Ian that represented a 50% increase! The shock was on Sunday that he had an accident during children's church. He told someone he had to go, but he went in his pants before they actually got him on the toilet. The reason this was a shock was because since he started potty training almost 3 months ago, he only had one accident in public (at ladies Bible study), and that was a couple of months ago. The regression continued yesterday. He was playing outside in the backyard (fenced in) by himself, and he pooped in his pants. Today is a new day, and hopefully he won't have any accidents today.
He's also been going backwards with eating. Coconut milk yogurt is no longer a breeze to feed him. I fet him a pureed banana for lunch yesterday instead. Karen thinks maybe the strawberry flavor is too acidic for him because he was wincing when he swallowed the yogurt. I can't wait until feeding him doesn't involve screaming. Just 12 more days until he starts at Hershey Medical.
I'm going into work earlier than usual today because we're conducting interviews for two tenure track searches for our department this week. I'll be going in three days this week (Tu/Th/Fri), one day next week (Fri), and then not again until the first week of May due to living in Hershey for 4 weeks. Other professors are teaching 6 of my classes, and I'll be teaching two nights via Wimba (online). Last night I finished a project the department chair asked me to do (19 pages typed). It felt good to cross that off my to do list.

Anti-K and Anti-F

The hospital where I'm going for this pregnancy is in the same town as where Nadia has ballet. At the other hospital the bloodwork would take on average 5 minutes (10 if you count walking to and from the parking lot). Since things tend to go much slower at this hospital, I decided to allow 45 minutes for the bloodwork. When we first arrived, they said that the doctor had faxed down an empty request on Friday (in other words it had my name on it but didn't indicate what test). She called up to the OB office (in the same building), and asked me to wait. After waiting 30 minutes I asked her if the fax had come in yet. Nope. I decided to call the nurse on my cell phone. After having me on hold a few minutes she said it had been sent. After going through registration, I took my paper to the lab. When we first arrived, no one was in line for lab work, but while we waited for the fax, several had come in and they were now ahead of me in line. After waiting another 20 minutes, I was told that they didn't understand what blood tests the doctor wanted done, and he had already gone home for the day (it was 3:55 at that point). So after spending 55 minutes in a waiting room with a 2 year old and 3 year old, we left for Nadia's ballet class without any blood being drawn from my arm. We were 10 minutes late for her class since I only allowed 45 minutes for the bloodwork.

When we got home I looked up the tests. It doesn't seem they have anything to do with me being Rh negative liked I hoped. It was easier to find out about the "Anti-K titer." K stands for Kell. It was much harder to find anything about "Anti-F4a titer." I finally found things when I only searched for "Anti F". Although neither automatically means bad news, either one involves a lot of risk for some pretty awful conditions. I had to stop reading, or I was going to bawl my eyes out. I keep going over in my mind things like, should I have had a Rhogam shot when I was bleeding from the placenta in January 2010, should I have had a Rhogam shot in January (at 4w0d when I had some bleeding), or is it from the transfusion in January 2010? And maybe it has nothing to do with any of the above, but I don't understand why I didn't have these antibodies in 2008 or 2009, but I have them now.  Wikipedia said that it could come from giving birth to a Kell positive baby or a blood transfusion. The standard reason for Anti-K is from the husband. 91% of the population is Kell negative. If Paul is heterozygous it means there's a 50% chance my body will attack the baby. If Paul is homozygous it means there's a 100% chance my body will attack the baby. If the bloodwork shows the level is "critical", then I think it means I'll be having my first amniocentesis test because if the baby is kell positive the baby will need multiple transfusions during the pregnancy, and they usually take the baby earlier than usual so another NICU stay would be likely. I couldn't find as much out about Anti-F. I am trying to remind myself that God is in control, and He can keep this baby safe. And if the worse case scenario happens and I never hold this baby in my arms, it won't be as hard as when I lost that baby in 2005. I'm going back for the bloodwork on Wednesday morning after gymnastics and the library. Hopefully I'll get good news when the results come in. I am not sure how long it will take to get the results.

Roku

We switched to DIRECTV in September 2010 because Paul wanted to be able to see all his NY football games (via the NFL Sunday Ticket). The price went drastically up (compared to what we had been quoted before we signed up) after we had been with them for 6 months. Recently it went up even more. I did the math and when Paul heard how many hundreds of dollars a year it was costing us compared to cable, he said to cancel. When I made the call, DIRECTV of course tried several different offers to get me to stay. Their offers did come closer to what we used to pay for cable, but Paul still wasn't interested because we've decided to go without cable or sattelite for the next 5 months. We're planning to reactivate the cable in early September (in time for the NFL week one). During the next 5 months we're going to spend about $40 (total) for Paul to watch a news show (GBTV) and another $40 (total) for Netflix streaming (which we haven't had lately). It costs a lot more than $16/month for cable or sattelite, so this should save us a lot of money. We had done Netflix through the Wii, but that isn't possible for GBTV. So we bought a Roku today (for about $50) as that will work for Netflix and GBTV. We shall see how this 5 month experiment goes.

Ian in the wagon I bought for $10 on Thursday. He is OBSESSED with this thing!

Paul's parents, Shawn, and Brandi came up this afternoon. We had a great time together!

A Moody Eater

Most of the time I rarely have cravings for something in particular. If I were to ask Paul today what I should plan on making for dinner tomorrow, he'd tell me he doesn't know what he'll be in the mood for yet. That was an adjustment for me when we first got married because 99% of the time as long as it's a food I like to eat, I don't care what we're eating on a particular day. Well it's very different when I'm pregnant. I can relate to his "moods" when it comes to eating. What amazes me is how TOTALLY different my cravings are from when I am not pregnant. No, I'm not saying I want to eat pickles (a food I've never liked), but rather it amazes me how revolting some of the foods that are typically my favorite sound to me now. Yesterday at the mall Nadia kept begging for ice cream (from Friendly's or Dairy Queen) or a pretzel (from Auntie Anne's). When I'm not pregnant, those are two of my most favorite things to eat. Yesterday just hearing the words made me feel like I was going to throw up. A meatball sub from Subway sounded far more appealing to me.

Last night I made some oatmeal butterscotch cookies. I knew to steer clear of chocolate or peanut butter (both induce heartburn). I am very happy to report I was able to eat two cookies after dinner without any ill effects! Unfortunately that gave me the courage to mix in a little Apple Jacks with my plain Cheerios for breakfast this morning. Big Mistake. I definitely need to steer clear of sugar at breakfast. I felt AWFUL. I need to buy myself something like Total for my breakfasts because I'm really not a fan of plain Cheerios or Rice Krispies. Eating a hardboiled egg every morning definitely helps. I weighed myself today, and I still haven't gained an ounce. Yay! I need to take a belly pic as I'm getting close to 12 weeks now. In less than 2 weeks I'll be in the 2nd trimester!! The one sweet I've really been craving is a lemon bar or a slice of lemon meringue pie. I haven't had either in years, but I can't seem to get them off my brain, lol! Speaking of eating, yesterday I was doing a lot of research for our trip to Grand Cayman - picking out what restaurants we should go to (trying to find affordable ones as it seems eating on Grand Cayman is not cheap!), sights we should see, etc. It's only 2 months away! YAY!

I talked to a PA today who told me that the only antibody they test for in the first trimester bloodwork is Rh. That made me feel MUCH better because I know they know how to treat that problem (either transfusions or Rhogam shots). I'm kicking myself for not remembering at 4w0d to ask for a Rhogam shot when I had the spotting. I hope that's not what is causing the problem.

Dolls and Antibodies

As a child I had three curio cabinets in my bedroom that housed my doll collection. Eight years ago I squeezed almost all of the dolls into two cabinets. I only had two dolls in the third cabinet as I decided to use that one primarily for glass bowls, vases, candlestick holders, etc. Since we are planning to move Paul's office to the dining room so the baby can have that bedroom, I decided to try to sell one of the curio cabinets when I sell the dining room table. Beth was having a yard sale yesterday so I worked on that project yesterday. I gave Nadia the dolls that weren't valuable or fragile. Some had been from missionaries (ex. a doll made in Haiti) and others were from vacations I have taken or other relatives had taken. Some definitely had sentimental value to me, such as the little doll I bought at a gift shop in Williamsburg on a field trip when I was in the 4th grade. The dolls are on average about 30 years old. The dolls that are fragile, too sentimental to part with, and/or I think might be of some $$ value I squeezed into two curio cabinets. I also parted with some of my glass bowls, vases, etc. in order to leave one cabinet empty.

Beth had planned to continue the yardsale today and tomorrow, but the weather didn't cooperate this morning. If she does continue tomorrow, I am planning to bring a few of the glass items over to her sale. There were three other people (including myself) who brought thing to her yardsale. One woman was selling maternity clothes, but they were all size medium. Nope. I did buy a pair of snow boots for Ian for next winter for $1, 5 books for the kids for $2.50 (including Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See which Ian loves), and a Little Tikes wagon that both kids LOVE. I got a lot of exercise yesterday between pulling them around the neighborhood in the morning and then walking to the park in the afternoon.  My legs were so sore last night! Nadia did some of the pulling, and Ian got a big kick out of that, especially as Nadia was more prone to run than I was. Yesterday morning I took over a few random items to sell such as a few stuffed animals, books, and VHS tapes (since we just use DVD's these days). I really don't care about the money. I just like getting rid of excess stuff.

Since it was raining this morning, I took the kids to the mall in Paul's car so I could get his annual inspection done at Sears. Thankfully it passed inspection. I was worried they'd say we needed new tires, as we didn't want to put on tires since we are planning to trade it in for a minivan this summer. His car will be reaching 200K miles soon; we've gotten our money's worth out of that Civic! While we were at the mall, a nurse from the OB called to say the OB was concerned about my antibodies from my bloodwork on Monday. I asked if it was urgent or if it would be a problem if I waited until Monday to have it done since I wasn't planning on going that direction until Monday. The nurse said it was fine to wait until Monday. Needless to say I've been a bit worried though ever since that call. I know with some antibody problems there is nothing they can do. I know I'm Rh negative, but I had the Rhogam shot 5 times thus far. They didn't mention any antibody problems with the last two pregnancies. One thing that has crossed my mind was the spotting I had at 4w0d. I should have had a Rhogam shot that day. Another thing that has crossed my mind was the fact I had a transfusion in January 2010. I hope that blood I got then didn't cause any problems. Hopefully I'm worried about nothing. The fact they didn't encourage me to rush over for the bloodwork is somewhat encouraging, but I wish I didn't have to wait a few days to find out what's up. I wish they had been more informative about what exactly was meant by antibodies. I tried getting more information from the nurse, but she didn't really give me any. I'd appreciate prayers for our little one.