Driver's License

On my way to the baby shower today, I plan to stop and have my photo taken for a new driver's license. They are renewed every 4 years here in PA, and I moved to PA in 1996. Here's the ironic thing. Presuming that we move sometime in the next few months (ideally we'd move in May or June before our daughter is born), my driver's license will be incorrect for most of the four years it's valid. I'll be needing to also carry one of those change of address cards in my wallet along with the license. This means that from April 2000-March 2012 my license would have been accurate for only about 15 months as I moved in January 2001 (9 months after renewing my license) and July 2004 (3 months after renewing my license). My license from 2000 was incorrect both with name and address (as I also got married in 2001); at least it's only been the address that's been wrong since then, lol. To add to the irony, Paul will hopefully complete his PhD in May 2012 which means we'll likely be moving again that summer. So if we stay in PA, it means from April 2000-March 2016 my license will have been accurate for about 18 months total! We seem to move shortly after getting my license renewed every time! Our hope is that the move in May 2012 will be the last one for a very, very long time. Actually, I remember saying when we moved into THIS house in July 2004 that I sure hoped we lived here for decades not years, but that was when we assumed Paul would keep working in the family business which he actually left in December 2005 to go back to school for his master's degree and since then he decided he also wants his doctorate. Probably the only scenario that would mean we would NOT have to move in 2012 would be if he was hired by the university where he is now working in his master's degree OR the university where I am currently teaching. I guess that's not impossible, but probably not something to count on either!
I also have to say again how much I LOVE feeling my daughter move within me. Yesterday it just about brought me to tears (happy ones of course) as I thought of all the years I had looked forward to experiencing this very thing and had awhile ago come to the conclusion I would never experience. It also makes me want the next few months to fly by as when I feel her move it makes me long so intensely for the moment I can hold her within my arms. Last May was such a low point for me as my hopes of adopting in the US through Lifetime and in the Ukraine through Ukrainian Angels were being dashed. Well now of course I see that God had a different plan in store for us - a wonderful one indeed. I am thinking today of those who completed their dossiers around the same time we did (last spring). Although each of us might have FedExed our dossier to the same translator - the outcomes were so different for each. Some had theirs submitted before they expired, some had to redo their dossier before it was submitted, and of course we opted to not redo ours. The outcomes were also very different for each one who traveled to UA. Kathy & Matt came home not that long ago with a beautiful little girl, and Rita & Drew are coming home soon empty handed after being in UA for about a month and visiting three different children. I can only imagine the heartache they are going through right now. I am praying that in time they will discover what plan God has in store for them instead of adopting from UA.

Caroline?

Yesterday, Jo sent me a few name suggestions to me. I ran them by Paul, and there were two that we added to our list of possibilities. One of these was "Caroline." I had never thought of that name, but I have to say I like the sound of Caroline Kennedy. I also think it works well with some of the other names we both like such as "Caroline Sophia" or "Caroline Nicole." So I have two questions regarding Caroline. #1 Do you think people will shorten Caroline to Carol? Neither of us want our child named Carol. #2 Will the "i" in the name be pronounced as a long or a short vowel? I really prefer it with a long "I" sound.

21 Weeks!!!

That means that if she goes full-term only 19 more weeks to go! YAHOOO! I still am so amazed at this miracle. Every life is a miracle, but when you wait as long as I have to become a Mom - it REALLY feels like a miracle. Plus I have to admit the fact she was frozen for 3 months still blows my mind. I know it's not a new procedure, but it's still mind boggling to me! I cannot wait to hold her in my arms!!!! This little girl better love lots of hugs and kisses bc this Mommy has been waiting for years to lavish such love on a little one of her own! I have been feeling her move every day now, and the movements are getting close to being strong enough that I think soon maybe Paul might be able to feel them as well. Does that sound about right? When did your hubby feel baby from the outside? I think others have said 21-23 weeks or something like that for feeling kicks from the outside. I can't wait for him to feel her move!!! We did discuss girl names again yesterday, but we still haven't made a decision. I think he's waiting to have a moment of inspiration like he did with "Ian Alexander" which he come up with 100% on his own. It's the right/left brain difference between the two of us. He says I'm being too methodical about selecting a name, LOL. :-)

I called the OB office yesterday and asked for a nurse to call me back with more details on what restrictions I am under in light of having placenta previa. No one called me back; hopefully someone will call me today!

Hematologist

Well the hematologist's office called and my appt has been scheduled for March 31. I haven't seen one for about 20 years. I am curious to see if they can more precisely diagnose my clotting problem now. I am glad this is being looked into as I know there is bleeding involved in delivering a baby. While I'm there I am also going to be tested for hemachromatosis which is a genetic condition that my father has. One of my sisters has been tested for it, and she was found to be a carrier. So I have several appts lined up in the next 4 weeks - OB next Tuesday and then the hematologist and pediatric cardiologist 3 weeks after that. We have a choice of health insurance at my university, and I picked the HMO option which I know is surprising. I am sure most choose Blue Shield (either traditional indemnity or PPO). I chose Geisinger HMO because that was the only one that covered anything related to infertility. Well my primary care office called me today and was giving me a bit of a hard time about the hematology referral since I hadn't been seen by them for 14 months (when I had a physical for our 3rd home study and also for the form for the Ukraine dossiers). I told the receptionist that I am pg and being seen at least monthly by an OB so did I really need to have a physical? Thankfully she said they would make an exception since I am pg.

I bought some Zantac this morning. They had two different doses, and I picked the lower amount. I am hoping it helps. Of course my daughter is SOOO worth having heartburn, but if there's a way to relieve that without hurting her at all, then it's worth a try! My OB gave me a list of approved meds, and Zantac was on the list.

Placenta previa

Well it was fun telling my students last night and today that baby is a GIRL. One student in my 12:00 MWF class had printed out two different signs - one that said "It's a girl" and one that said "It's a boy." She gave me the girl one and told me to put it on my office door. So I did. :-) Of course now everyone has suggestions for names since they know we don't have one picked out. Maybe Paul and I will have time to work on that this weekend.

Yesterday I talked to one nursing professor about the placenta previa (I'll just use pp for short) and she was saying I might need to go on bedrest and mmight not be able to teach this summer, etc. I admit I was a little freaked out especially after having heard Dr. Maslow use the "miscarriage" word. I've talked to a few women who had it and have gotten a full range of responses from that they were given very few restrictions to very strict restrictions (one was told no cleaning - not even using Windex). Post transfer when I was on pelvic rest I was told not to vacuum so I assumed that is now a "no no" in light of the no lifting over 10 pounds rule he gave me.

Today I talked to the nursing prof who teaches the courses dealing with pregnancy/childbirth. She was more laid back about it and said it usually corrects itself and that I should only be concerned if I have spotting (which I still haven't ever had and I know to look out for as if I have any I have to have the Rhogam shot ASAP). She did say it was best to put as little pressure on the cervix as possible. She said driving isn't great she was glad to hear I have a short commute to work. She said if I can sit in a lazyboy at home or in any position which decreases the pressure on my cervix that would be good. Since I am uncertain exactly what is meant by "take it easy," I am going to call the OB office tomorrow and ask to talk to a nurse there and get more definite answers of what I shouldn't be doing the next 4 weeks. I am hoping that the 24w u/s will show the placenta is no longer on or near the cervix. It's not that the placenta moves but rather that the uterus grows and so where the placenta is in relation to the cervix changes.

I looked online for the causes/risk factors for pp and most don't apply to me (smoking, having had a D&C, having had a c-section, using cocaine, or having had 5 or more pregnancies). The only one that applies is my age. Among women 19 and younger, 1 in 1,500 develop pp and for 35 and older it's 1 in 100. Still that's just 1%. I wish I was in the other 99%! But I keep reminding myself that my daughter is healthy and likely this problem will correct itself. I don't mind being restricted, but rather I just don't like this little nagging fear of a miscarriage.

Yesterday prior to the appt I had actually done a fair amount of lifting. Of course I have stopped! I had made an appt for Salvation Army to come and pick up some stuff on Friday - some furniture we hadn't used in years that is in the basement, some clothing, some items that were gifts that we haven't ever used, etc. I am trying to do a big clean up before we put our house on the market and also figure I don't want to go through the hassle of moving items that we don't actually need or want. So I'll let Paul do the rest of the moving of items from the basement to the family room where I'm storing things until Friday when the truck comes. I had planned to do a lot of cleaning this weekend - spring cleaning intensifed by preparing the house to show to potential buyers. Things like washing the windows which I don't do very often but it would be good to do. So I need to talk with Paul about whether he can help me with these items (I am dubious only because we had already created a list of tasks he was going to work on this weekend to prepare the house), whether we should just hire a college student to help me for a few hours, or whether we should ask if maybe his mom could come up and help (she lives 30 minutes away).

The realtor is coming on Monday to give us an idea as to what our listing price should be. We are still trying to decide whether to use a realtor right away or go the "for sale by owner" route at first. We have an appt to see a few houses in the area we are thinking of moving to on Thursday as next week is spring break for both of us. I am really glad that I have tomorrow as a day at home. Last week I was at work all 5 days (which was a contrast from the week before when I only went to work M-W). The last 3 days have been hectic. I was up at 5:45 am today grading papers for example. It's midterm time so there's lots of grading to do. Anyhow that's my task for tomorrow - stay home and get all caught up on grading. I'll probably do a little more sorting through items in closets too but will make sure I don't do any lifting over 10 pounds.

In closing, I have to say how thrilling it is for me to hear/say the word "daughter." It just seems so much more personal than "baby." Part of me wants to ask someone to pinch me to make sure I'm not dreaming. Then I look down and see my protruding belly and know yep it's for real! :-) The heartburn is also reassuring; however, I think it's time to buy something stronger than Tums since my OB does allow me to take more than that.

We're thinking PINK!

Well the minority was correct - baby is a GIRL! My parents will now have 3 grandsons and 3 granddaughters. The funny thing is that both of my sisters had a girl first too! So baby is NOT Ian Alexander; she's nameless at the moment, but at least we know which pronoun to use when we refer to her! The doctor only gave me one u/s pic. I'll post it. She looks like an alien, LOL! She weighs 13 ounces and measures within 2 days of my EDD. All the measurements were good (no sign of downs syndrome, spina bifida, etc.). I will have a follow-up ultrasound on April 2 with a pediatric cardiologist (their standard protocol) to check out the heart. Her h/b today was 147. She was curled up in a little ball. The only "concern" was that the placenta is on my cervix (placenta previa) so I have a bunch of restrictions I am now under such as not lifting anything over 10 pounds, etc. He said the placenta might move so this condition might be temporary. But the main thing is she's HEALTHY!!!!!!!!!! PTL!!!

I told him about my "platlet dysfunction" which was diagnosed about 20 years ago at NIH (sometimes my platlets don't function properly and I have bleeding issues). Maybe now the condition has a name? They want to know more about it in prep for L&D. Also, I told them my dad has hemachromatosis which is genetic, and I haven't been tested for that yet. So the hematologist will also do that testing.

Paul said we have plenty of time to pick out a girl's name, but there's no way I want to wait 19 more weeks to figure that out! Hopefully we'll come up with one soon that we agree on so I can call baby by name! :-) I am going to have SO much fun dolling my little girl up in pretty little dresses. YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

As for me, by their records I have gained 2 pounds in the last 3 weeks. So according to them I've gained 10 pounds in 20 weeks (6 pounds since my first prenatal appt which was 7 weeks ago). My b/p was 110/70 today. My next OB appt is a week from today.

Today!!!

Today is the long awaited day to see our little one again and find out if we have a son or a daughter!!! The u/s appt is from 2-3 and the appt with the high-risk OB is at 3. We'll both be there (but drive separately) as Paul will be coming from school and I'll be going to school after the appt as I am giving a midterm exam at 6pm and have office hours before that. I'll post as soon as I can! There is a scanner in my office so I should be able to post pics during my office hours unless a lot of students decide to come visit me today. :-) I polled my students in two of my classes yesterday. In the first class 2/3 picked boy and 1/3 picked girl (about the same results as on this blog) and in the second class it was very, very close to 50/50. If baby is a girl, I wonder how long it will take to pick a name? A friend in handbell choir gave birth to her first baby on Sunday, and she had a girl. They had wanted to be surprised so they didn't know the gender until after baby was born. They were thinking it was a boy and didn't have a girl's name picked out so as of last night (24 hours after baby was born) the baby still didn't have a name yet! I definitely don't want to wait that long to select a name!

Yesterday was just a GORGEOUS day. It felt like spring! I love spring! Spring and fall are my favorite seasons in terms of temps and also the beauty of everything in bloom (spring) and of the leaves changing colors (fall). All the snow melted away which is fine with me! Kids have fun with snow.

Baby likes music!

Well yesterday was the first day I was *sure* that I was feeling baby move. Boy was it a case of feast or famine though as I felt baby move many times yesterday afternoon and evening!!! Friday I had thought that I felt a little kick. That happened while I was singing along with the radio as I was driving home from Harrisburg on Friday afternoon. I stopped singing and thought - I am pretty sure baby just kicked me!!! It was on the right side of my belly which is where the h/b had been found the last 2 times plus is the side where I thought maybe I had felt movements earlier. Well baby was on the left side yesterday. First it started in the afternoon about an hour after having eaten a Blizzard from DQ (maybe baby also likes sweets, LOL). But it happened soooo many times yesterday - most often during choir practice at church last night which is why I am thinking maybe baby is responding to music. Mommy of course would be thrilled if baby likes music!! I can't believe TOMORROW is the day when we get to see baby again. I can't wait although a little part of me is nervous. I seem to get a little nervous before every appt.

All shopped out!

Here are two belly pics. Ask and ye shall receive, LOL! These are taken in mat skirts. Unlike the previous photos, I am not pulling my shirt taut. That's just "as is." The baby belly is growing! :-)

I know some people love to go shopping. I am not one of them although I don't dislike it like Paul (with the exception of books - he could spend hours in Borders or B&N). We have lived in this area for almost 4 years, and this was my 2nd time at the mall I went to today. This mall is 45 minutes away from our home. I did make a quick stop into Motherhood (didn't buy anything or try anything on), but other than that I just shopped in Macy's. The clearance selection wasn't as great as at the other mall (especially in the children's dept). Anyhow today I spent $47.35 on 10 items (3 for my sisters, 1 for me, and 6 for a niece). Yesterday we were using a 20% coupon Cheri had on top of the other discounts, so if I had that today the total would have been $37.88. The total for the original prices of today's items was $247. They also removed the security tag from the one item I bought yesterday. I have no desire to go to another shopping mall any time soon, LOL. I got quite a bit of bday and Christmas shopping done though, and after I lose the baby weight I have a few new outfits for myself also. If I had to do it over again, I would have bought more yesterday. I am kicking myself for not buying more of the snowmen sweater vests! The vest is sooo cute and only cost $2.39. Why did I only buy one of them? I wouldn't mind having one myself for example! The original price was $60 so I thought it was going to be $12 (most of the items were 75% off and then we had the 20% off coupon on top of that), but for whatever reason it was only $2.39. I don't want that vest enough to drive all the way back there. We were smart with the one skirt for my mom that also came up as $2.39 (that was originally $89). We went and got two more of them (one for Cheri and one for me). My best bargain today was a shirt that was originally $28 that I got for $3.49. I bought two of them (one for each sister). I have never been this far ahead with Christmas shopping before. It's only March 2 for Pete's sake, LOL!

Today I found out that the situation which had me VERY upset on Monday has been resolved favorably! HUGE sigh of relief on my part!!! It had to do with an article that had been accepted in December and then I was told on Monday it was being rejected (for what I considered a ridiculous reason). Well today I was told it's being published this spring after all. Whew... She apologized for the "idiosyncrocy." That's not the word I would use, but the bottom line is that all is well. Since I had another article accepted on Monday, I am now up to 6 refereed articles in 3 years! This is very, very good news as in higher education it's a case of "publish or perish."

In conclusion I have to say one more time that choir robes were not created with pg women in mind. I thought I was going to die up there in the choir loft, and I purposefully wore a short sleeve sweater (even though there is snow on the ground). I might not be able to sing in the choir all the way until May. It's just TOO hot up there with the spotlights and a choir robe on.

Leap Year

Jo had a good question for me. She wondered if the EDD calculators take into account the extra day this year. I have no idea! I do know that July 18 will be the day I reach 40w so I think it's correct but who knows. Well baby will come when he/she wants to regardless of EDD. I can't wait for the u/s in part as I am tired of saying he/she, him/her, etc. Only 3 more days and hopefully we're down to just one pronoun! :-) I will post some new belly pics soon maybe as early as tomorrow. The photos I really can't wait to post though are the u/s ones!