Latest belly pic

Not much is new on our home front, aside of the fact that I am exhausted and increasingly abused from within. Oh, maybe that our induction date might be as early as July 2nd. Still hoping Adam will decide to make an early entrance, but if not, 6th is the most likely day per my OB. I was told today at work that I have visibly grown over the weekend. The fact that I have not put on any weight per my last dr. appointment is making me feel much better about it, mainly because it has to be the baby if it's not me, right? RIGHT! Anyway, here is me with my new belly. No hiding the pregnancy these days and finally I am looking my 7 and half month along!

Nursery pics

Last weekend, we have finally finished the nursery! It's not the most spacious room in the house given that it is a walk-in closet in a little townhome, but hey, I love it. It's way more nursery-like than I ever imagined being able to fit in there. We are still waiting for the changing table and a little side table from the storage unit, but it's essentially done!

Getting closer

Today marks the end of the thirtieth week of my pregnancy. And quite honestly, I am starting to feel it. I made good friends with heartburn (or what I assume to be heartburn - it does not feel good and goes away when I take Tums). When Adam kicks he really hurts me sometimes. And above all, the belly is getting heavy!  And in short 9 weeks, there is going to be 3 of us in the family :) 

We had our big baby shower, graciously hosted by Darina and didn't get almost anything we needed. Thankfully, Mike's coworkers have thrown him a surprise shower and gotten us most of what was missing. Yay! We are also half way done with the baby room (eg, it's not a closet anymore), have picked colors and are ready to start painting. I would love to share more, but I am so exhausted I really can't put a sentence together. I have not been feeling well the last 3 days and  had a really bad heartburn last night at 1am (don't ask me), so I really can't wait to go to sleep tonight. 

Long overdue

Just a quick catch-up - Adam seems to be doing good. He is passing his ultrasounds with flying colors. Not so much mommy's blood pressure, which keeps going up. There is always some fun around here. OK, took a few belly pics, some of them are not entirely horrible. Please don't mind my mini-bruises from my lovenox shots.

Not quite as happy as I thought I would be

So we had our ultrasound yesterday and let's just say it did not go the way I hoped it would. After I almost passed out (can't stay on my back too long) and after examining baby's blood flow, the nurse pretty much ran out of the room to get the actual perinatologist. He finished the exam with me holding myself propped on my elbows for the most time because I had no intentions of blacking out. And then he said the words that no one wants to hear: There was a finding on your baby. Apparently, our baby has a two vessel cord while a normal baby has three. The meaning of the diagnosis is following: It's a high marker for trisomy 18 (though our NT testing showed our risk on trisomy 18 to be at 1:24,000), about 20% of the babies with it will have serious issues and 50% of these will not make it to birth while majority of the survivors will not make it past day 15. The other 80% will be born healthy or with "minor" disabilities.

The good news on the other side is that our baby boy (!!!!!) looks perfectly healthy and that is definitely a good sign that he could be in the 80% category. The perinatologist would not go as far as saying he recommends amnio, but he said it is offered in these situations. So we believe he thinks our chances are pretty good. We wouldn't abort (it would probably kill me) and while it could lift a cloud, it could also make our life much harder. No amnio for us. We are having an echocardiogram in two weeks and if that comes back clear, we are all going to be much happier :) In the mean time we do what we did before - believe.  

After a million of years... a new post

I haven't been a good girl and writing regularly. I was way too busy with work and trying to study for CPA. But today I have a good reason - it's our big ultrasound! Time? T minus 8 :) Will be back, hopefully not to announce that the baby is shy!

Belly at 18 weeks