We had our ultrasound this morning Jackson is weighing in at an estimated 5lbs 11oz! He's getting there! So, we had the NST again where he freaked out on the monitors again, the stinker. They last for quite a while until they can actually get him to stop kicking them and register his heartbeat accurately. Then we met with Dr. Mazdai and went over how things have been going! Apparently on the ultrasound, my placenta was on its "last leg." As I told her, obviously nothing lasts as long as it should in my body! :) They rate it on a scale of 0 to 3 with 3 being the worst and mine was a 3. boo. They said it's still working and as long as he doesn't show signs of distress or lack of growth then it won't be a factor on whether they induce or not. We discussed that the contractions are still bothersome, but the ambien has been helping me sleep through them at night, so that is a definite plus. James was working late last week and said he watched me clutch my stomach and whine every 5 minutes in my sleep, so I have to say I was relieved I slept through that. We are also making a bit of progress as I am dilated to 1cm and 50% effaced. We are now taking bets on when he'll decide to arrive! :) So we're hanging in there and getting prepared for him to get here! Keep you posted if I have any more news!

Ok, I have been slacking!! I am sorry!! Jackson keeps me on my toes for sure. We have started the bi-weekly NST (Non Stress Tests) and I go in every monday and thursday morning at 8am and get hooked up to the monitors and we watch to see how Jackson's heart rate is and if I'm having contractions, etc. Well, we started out really well, but then Jackson decided he didn't want to cooperate the last couple of times. He tends to fall asleep on the monitor and then we have to have an ultrasound to make sure everything is ok. He scares the crap out of his parents! As soon as we start the ultrasound, he wakes back up and passes with flying colors and scores 8 out of 8 on their little test. whew. Well, I have still been having the episodes of contractions that has been diagnosed as irritable uterus, so my doctor stuck me on some anti-contraction meds. That was last monday. Well, last thursday morning, I had my NST and everything was fine, but by that afternoon, the contractions just felt different. I called the office and went back in and decided to have James take me. Good thing I did! We ended up revisiting the labor and delivery floor at the hospital again! Turns out I was contracting and am 50% effaced, so we went to the hospital and had to get a couple of shots to get the contractions to stop. After a few hours, things subsided and we were able to go home! Thank Goodness! So after a fantastic weekend of my baby shower and seeing friends, we went back to the doctor on Monday. My dr decided to go ahead and give me the steroid shots that will allow Jackson's lungs to develop just in case he decides to be impatient again! The little stinker. We were supposed to have an ultrasound today to see how big he is, but turns out the ultrasound tech is on vacation! So that will now be June 22nd. So, even with all of that, things have been going really well and we are just getting so excited for him to get here. We have his room all set up and we will be 34 weeks on Saturday! Even though we're so excited, he needs to wait until July since my parents will be on vacation from the 20th-28th and James's mom will be on vacation in Florida then too! James keeps lecturing him, so let's hope it works!! :) At some point, he has to listen to his parents right??? :)

Today we had possibly our last ultrasound! Dr. Mazdai wanted to check growth and size today, so I had mom tag along with us to see Jackson for the first time. The cool thing was that most of it was done in 3D, so we got to see some pretty cool pictures of Jackson. Some of them are so hard to make out though. I added a couple of pictures of his face. If you look in the top left of the one, you'll see all 5 of his little toes! The tech said that his hands and feet were constantly up by his head, so sounds like I have quite a flexible little guy! He was measuring at 31w 3 days (I am technically 30w 2d) so he's a week ahead of schedule and doing great! They estimate his weight at a whopping 3 lbs 11oz! So, from now until delivery, I'll be going in for bi-weekly monitoring and then a weekly appt with my doctor. So we are in the home stretch of things!

We had our 28wk appt today! We are moving right along. I wanted to recap some of the things we talked about since we've had an eventful last few weeks with Jackson. The doctor was very understanding and comforted us and let us know that everything is going just fine!

Here’s what happened at my appt…..

1-The passing out is most likely due to the way my uterus sits and the way the baby was positioned. She believes that the baby was pressing on the vagal nerve in my spine and caused the passing out. Every test and blood work was run that morning and all came out fine. She says this can happen with some women and I am one of the lucky few!

2-She believes that my uterus is kind of “spasming” or becoming irritable, and unlike the average person, my uterus doesn’t contract throughout the day, but instead has these “episodes” of intense contractions. Even though they are at timed intervals and are painful, they have no action to them. As long as I lie down and they go away within an hour she doesn’t think there’s any need to be checked each time. She said they are not causing me to dilate or become effaced and says this sometimes happens with women. Even though they are intense, they aren’t doing anything and that's the most important thing.

3-My urine showed a small amount of protein again but she said not enough to be concerned. My BP is still running normal so she said she won’t repeat the 24 hr urine unless one of those things changes. So far, so good!

4-I am measuring on schedule and heartbeat sounds great. I will be having an ultrasound on May 18th to measure growth and everything. Mom will be coming to see her grandson on camera for the first time! They are much different than when she had kids!

5-At 32 wks, we’ll start the NST tests and begin the every week appts, but she doesn’t see any reason to start them earlier since everything is going ok. I will get induced at 38 wks as long as everything continues the way its going. So only 10 more weeks left!

So, it was another great milestone and appt today! I did get my Rhogam shot (Being RH negative blood type) and it was nothing compared to the blood thinner shots, so I was gleaming after that! So glad to have that over and done with! James told the nurse to shut the door so no one could hear me scream! ha! Not a peep out of me! So, we had some taco bell for our celebratory cinco de mayo lunch! I hope someone is drinking a margarita for me! That's all for now!

Week 26 of pregnancy has proven to be quite an interesting week. I've been having some pain lately and decided to call the dr monday morning after it'd happen a couple times in the week before. I talked to her about the pains and promised that if any pain came on, whatever the type, that I'd get it checked out. Well, tues night rolled around and my back was hurting a lot. It wasn't the pain I was having before because I wasn't cramping in the front or anything. Well, we decide to go to the hospital just in case. So we get there and get hooked up to the monitors and there are some small contractions showing up on the screen. Nothing big. The nurse decided she wanted to check everything just to make sure I wasn't dilating or anything. well, she does the exam and tells me I am 75% effaced!!! she leaves and calls the dr and comes back to tell me that I'm on bedrest and may not even be able to get up to shower or anything. Says to me, "It's going to be a long 14 weeks, I'm sorry." So, they order an ultrasound to confirm, but they have to call the tech to come to the hospital because it's late. huh? So I sit there for an hour and I'm freaking out! The lady shows up for the ultrasound and does it and says, "you're not dilated or effaced at all." The nurse is like, oh! I thought she was. Apparently my tilted uterus was the culprit, but I don't know if the tech was just telling her that or what. So.... we get sent home and i have no issues! It's been chalked up to an irritable uterus (contractions with no change) and/or growing pains. Like I said to james, I can chalk up the aches and stuff to growing pains, but I can't chalk up the severe cramping every 2-3 minutes to just growing pains. I'll chalk that up to the irritable uterus. As I said to James, I'd be irritable, too, if I got kicked like that.

So, thinking that we had our fun for the week and got to mark off touring the maternity ward from our to do list, we proceed with life as normal.

Well, come thursday morning, I'm driving to work for an 8:30 meeting. I just start driving again after stopping at a stoplight and think wow, I think I'm kind of nauseous. After 10 years of CP, I know the warning signs of getting sick well before the nausea really hits. So I decide I'm goin to pull over just in case. well, I luckily managed to pull over and get my car in park before I pass out!! I remember sitting there and thinking, nope, not gonna get sick and then feeling some tingling but then couldn't see and then finally passing out! I came to all drenched in sweat and realized that probably wasn't a good thing. I called the office to tell them I wasn't gonna make it to my meeting (first priority) and then I proceeded to call James where I finally had the fear hit me and I lose it to him. poor guy. I called my doctor and waited for the call back. I felt fine afterwards and checked my blood sugar. All was normal. I went home and got the call that I had to go back to the hospital! Ugh! So, James met me there and I had an EKG, chest x-ray, and bloodwork done. All came back just fine. The dr thinks that I may have gotten a bit run down and my blood pressure got too low. He said it is a good sign that I felt it coming on because it's a bad indicator if I was just fine and then passed out. Well, he then ordered me home for 2 days. After much pleading with him and him threatening to call my office of employment (dang it, that's my dad!) I went to the office and took stuff home to work.

On a side note, I've realized this week that Jackson is in complete control.

One funny story, I've mentioned to some of you how much Jackson is entertained by anything on my stomach, especially seat belts. He proceeds to kick and kick until they finally move. There have been numerous occassions where I'll pull the seatbelt off really quick and he'll start kicking all around trying to find it again. Well, when we were in the hospital on tuesday night, I had to be hooked up to the monitors, so we could hear his heartbeat and they were counting the kicks. Well, this meant game on for Jackson. As soon as she put it on he started kicking like crazy. The nurse laughed and stuff because we'd try to talk and you'd hear him kick every few seconds. well, she kept coming back in over the next three hours and realizing he wasn't stopping! she's like jeez! He would kick the monitor about 6 times in a row within a matter of seconds. He would also kick it to the point that it'd stop registering his heart beat! So the nurse tried to move it on the other side of my stomach and shocking, he followed it right away! James was sitting across the room and could just see the monitor moving all about. I have to say, he was quite entertaining and made time go by much quicker than any other hospital stay I've had. He is gonna be a handful! :) Can't wait! well, let's wait until at least the end of June please!

Let's hope week 27 is a bit less eventful! :)

We had our 20wk appt with the regular OB on the 12th. Everything is moving along! Measurements are right on cue and Jackson's heart rate was in the 150s, which is perfect. He is quite active, I tell ya. Dr. Mazdai was listening to the heartbeat and then in a split second he was gone and all the way on the opposite end and side of where he was before! She looked at me and said, " How in the world did he get all the way over there so quickly?" James was proud. :) We had a bit of a scare the other night when I had terrible, terrible pains every 3 minutes and they were gut-wrenching! We called Mazdai who had me take a hot shower, take tylenol, and lie down. After a few hours they got farther and farther apart and were gone by the next morning. Those hurt!! I talked to Mazdai yesterday and I like her game plan! we're going to pretend like that didn't happen! ha! We are keeping a close eye on things, but we're not going to get excited unless it happens again. sounds like a great plan to me. We discussed that I will most likely get induced a few weeks early (Sorry Rob! No birthday grandson!) from the diabetes and everything. We discussed that I'll start the non-stress tests at 32 weeks (twice a week) and we'll keep an eye on everything via ultrasounds. If anything should happen to show up at one of those appointments, then Mazdai will make the call if we need to deliver early. BUT.... everything is going fine so far, so we don't even need to think about that right now! So, as of right now, I'm halfway through and feeling great. Jackson kicks up a STORM morning, noon, and night. Obviously he did not get the memo that I'm not a morning person! It is definitely entertaining to feel it though. Other than that, nothing exciting is going on here! I'll post when I have more news!