4 months already?

Wow... He has grown so much since the last blog.
AJ is doing great... He is finally putting a little wieght on. This morning he was 13.2 lbs. We have found a formula that is working. He is still taking zantac twice a day for now. We have his 4 month appointment on June 26th... 4 MONTHS already!! He is rolling over and laughing all the time and has now found his hands and wants to eat them!! He is hilarious. He is definitely a daddy's boy and loves when his dad gets home in the mornings and plays with him while mommy is trying to get us ready to go. AJ is starting to hold his head up MUCH better and it wont be long before he holds up it all by himself without looking like a bobble head. He is such a happy baby and bathtime is his favorite thing. I think he is going to be a swimmer.... he is such a wiggle worm, too. Everyday I am so anxious to see what new thing he is going to do.

AJ's HERE!!

Alex James Mowery joined us on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 12:14 p.m. He was 9 lbs 11 oz and 21 1/2 inches long!!! He was delivered by c-section because of his size and everything went well with the delivery. Once we got into recovery he started breathing too fast which the nurses and doctors said was common in c-section babies. A few hours later he regulated it and we started being able to feed him. The next morning, the pediatrician came in and said he was doing great. About an hour later the nurse checked him and he was breathing fast again. A doctor from the NICU came in and checked him and had him sent to the NICU on Wednesday morning. Once he was in there, he was hooked up to an iv of fluids and started on antibiotics in case of an infection. He couldnt eat because of how fast he was breathing. Thursday morning, they put in a feeding tube and started him out at 1/2 oz and increased him up to 2 oz by 6:30 pm. He also became jaundice so he was put under the lights on Thursday. Friday, he was taken off the lights and took his first bottle at his 6:30 p.m. feeding. The nurses said he did great. They want his respirations to stay under 60 and it was 59 at the latest reading. It is 7:30 p.m. now and we can go back to see him at 8. I am ready to get up there since he will have his feeding tube out and out from under the lamps so I can hold my sweet baby!!! As long as he keeps his respirations under 60 tonight, the dr said they will do his circumcision tomorrow and hopefully send us all home together on Sunday. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. We want to all go home together.

Any Day Now??

Wow, it's already the middle of January!! I have had an interesting 2009 so far and I am sure it will only intensify. Last Wednesday I told Tony before he left for work that I hadn't felt the baby move as much that day as I normally do. He has been very active for the past few months and all of a sudden he wasn't doing much. I have read so many books and posts online, I just figured it was due to him getting larger and running out of room. Well, I got up in the middle of the night and ate some cereal and thought for sure that would get him going....still nothing. When I got up the next morning, I ate a banana and drank a diet coke... That has to do it, right?? Nothing!! At this point, panic set in. I placed a call to the doctor's office and they told me to come on in. Once I got there, so much had gone through my mind, I was close to hysterics. The doctor ordered a non-stress test to monitor the baby's heartbeat. They hooked me up to these 2 bands, one for baby and one for me. Then I heard the most wonderful sound ever... AJ's heartbeat... 160 bpm. Then he started moving.. .what a relief!!!
Let's rewind a bit. When Tony got home at 4 that morning I told him I thought I was having contractions. They were 7 minutes apart. Then, I thought surely it's just Braxton Hicks or something.
Back to the NST. The doctor noticed on the results from the NST that I was contracting. I was sent down to labor and delivery for closer observation. After a few minutes of being hooked up, they came in and gave me a shot of Trebutaline to stop the contractions since they were about every 2-3 minutes. They spread out to about every 4. The nurse gave me another shot. The still were about every 4-5. Then the nurse gave me the last shot as they can only give 3 shots of Trebutaline. Now they were about every 5-7 minutes, but still there. After a quick check of the ole cervix and it still being closed I was sent home with a prescription of oral Trebutaline to take every 4 hours to see if we could get the contractions to subside. I took them all weekend and still having them. They are not painful just uncomfortable at the moment.
Well, I went back to the doc this morning and told her they were still coming. I have to stay on the meds until next Tuesday when I will go in for an ultrasound. I am at 34 weeks, but have measured a week ahead since 20 weeks. The doctor wants me to try to keep AJ in at least until 36 weeks. So, if the ultrasound shows he is at 36 weeks in size, I will stop the meds and await labor. If not, I will take the meds one more week, then come off of them and wait on AJ to make his appearance.
I am so thankful that he was doing good. The nurses said his heart beat was great!!!
I am now taking some time off of work, hopefully until he gets here, but especially until I can get the contractions to stop. They get much stronger when I am up and moving around, so I thought it would be best to stay home and rest as much as possible. I'm sure I'll need it soon anyway.
Anyways, so now it is just a waiting game and keeping my legs crossed. Luckily I haven't started to dilate yet, so hopefully I will keep him in another week or two. But hopefully not too much longer than that... :-)

59 more days....

It has been a while since I have posted so here are the newest updates. Let me start off with saying we had a wonderful Christmas. Max was here with us, so it was definitely more exciting this year. LOL!
I failed my second glucose test, slightly so I had to have a third test. I PASSED! Thank the Lord! At that appointment, my doctor went ahead and checked my cervix since AJ is sooooo low and everything was still closed up tight. I go every two weeks to the doctor now, so my next appointment is Monday.
Now for the complaining. I know that it could definitely be a lot worse, but OMG!!! I am in sooo much pain. My groin, hips, back, and legs are killing me and I am so very swollen that I think I may just POP. I don't see how in the world I will make it to Februray. All I want to do is lay in the bed and sleep. AJ seems to have stopped the kicking and now is just squirming and poking me with what I can only assume is an elbow or knee. Something kind of pointy feeling in my side. There is no getting comfortable in any position. Sitting, standing, laying down.... NOTHING. I am so ready to have this baby here... Healthy of course and not too early, but geez... this is the toughest thing that I have ever done up to this point, I think. I know that all the mommies are thinking.. THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING... and I realize that, but I just want him to be here and for my body to go back to normal. Next time you see a cabbage patch, look at it's feet. That is what mine look like and walking on them is pure agony. I also have a sinus infection or something at the moment which makes it even harder than normal to breathe. Everyone keeps telling me that I will forget all this pain once AJ is here and I won't be able to wait to have another one.... I really think there is absolutely no way I could ever forget this. I can't even hardly walk!!!! Well, I guess thats enough complaints for now. This blog was not intended for a venting place, but may have turned in to it now. I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas!

Test Day...

So, I had my glucose test last week to test for gestational diabetes. I apparently failed miserably. So today I had to have a 3 hour glucose tolerance test. For those who have been through this before, it is one more thing to add to the list for the new found respect I have for pregnant women. For those of you who haven't, let me tell you what I had to go through today. First, for the last 3 days I have been on a high protein, low sugar diet. I tried to follow it, but mostly just cut out the snickers and ice cream and brownies and cookies and the rest of the high sugar items I normally consume. I had to fast after midnight and be at the doctor at 8:15. Well at 8:45 I pee in a cup and have my blood drawn.. 2 tubes of blood. Then i had to drink a bottle of the sunkist flavored stuff with 100 grams of sugar in it, which taste like a 5 lbs bag of sugar diluted into a Sunkist. It doesn't really taste bad, just SUPER SWEET. OK, so then at 9:45 I have to pee in a cup and have 2 more tubes drawn. The same at 10:45 and then the same again at 11:45. Let me remind you I had not eaten since the night before, have just ingested 100 grams of sugar on an empty stomach and had 8 tubes of blood drawn. I was getting very woozy. The first 2 tubes tested were my fasting glucose levels which were normal. YAY. The second was high.. not yay. The third was normal and so it all came down to test number 4. AND they told me I would have to wait. The lab should call tomorrow to let me know if it was normal or high. If it's normal, I am just borderline diabetic and will need to be more careful about the sugar I eat. If it is high, then I will have to go see a nutritionist and be put on a strict diet until AJ gets here.

After we got done with the testing, Tony and I went down 3 floors to the birthing suits to see a friends new baby. Leigh Ledbetter Edwards had her second baby this morning. Anna Leigh Edwards was 7 lbs 10 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long and cute as a bug. Leigh had a C-section so she was pretty tired but looked great and was a real trooper. It made me want AJ here that much more. Anna and AJ will probably be boyfriend and girlfriend.. lol! The important thing is mommy and baby are both healthy and doing great.

When we left the hospital, the first thing was to get something to eat as quickly as possible. I thought I was in the process of starving to death. I was getting very nauseated feeling and then a headache kicked in and then I started sweating. I felt horrible. I'm sure it was a combination of the days events, but I was absolutely miserable. After eating I thought this would all pass. NOPE. I ended up having to take the rest of the day off of work, which seemed to have aggravated my boss, but OH WELL, and came home and took a well deserved 2 hour nap. Then I was much better. Still kind of yucky feeling, but MUCH better.

As for any other news on the pregnancy, not much really is going on. Since the start of the third trimester I have been so tired I can't keep my eyes open, but find it so hard to sleep. Poor Tony is having to deal with me snoring like "a water buffalo" (his words, not mine). I figure its only fair, since I will do this temporarily and I will have to deal with his snoring from now on. I still feel as though I was not prepared at all for the pains of pregnancy and I am completely over being pregnant and would be happy to hire one of those ladies who just absolutely LOVES being pregnant as a surrogate for the next one. Not much longer though. Only about 10 more weeks!!!

As for the previously mentioned career news. I am now an Independent Mary Kay Consultant. Please feel free to let me know of any skin care or cosmetic needs you have. Please support my effort at one day being a stay at home mommy!!

How much is too much??

I had my routine appointment with my OB/GYN on Monday. Everything was fine. AJ's heart was beating at a steady 160... about where it has been since day 1. She said everything seemed good, except..... that I needed to watch my weight gain. OUCH!!! With all the back and hip problems she said that of course the more weight I gain the worse it will be. My thoughts on this are, I can't do anything fun, I have pains where I never knew pains existed, I'm being told I am huge on a daily basis, my job is completely stressing me out, I have heartburn, indigestion, constipation and diarrhea usually somehow all at the same time or very close intervals and I am starving all the time.... If I want to eat that pan of brownies, well then, I am going to eat that pan of brownies.. YES, the entire pan if I feel like it!! Isn't this the only time in a woman's life where she doesn't have to worry about her weight?? I'm sure I will be so busy once AJ gets here, I won't have time to eat as much. I know it's going to be hard to get it all off, but right now, if it sounds good.. then I'll eat it. HAHA. But, I go back in two weeks for my glucose test. I can't wait for that. (YEAH RIGHT). Other than that, my blood pressure was good, I am still measuring a week ahead of my original due date of Feb 23, so maybe I don't have as long as I think. If I am, that's only 14 weeks 4 days left or 103 days..... After the glucose appointment, I believe I start going every two weeks since I will be 27 weeks along...YAY, third trimester! It seems to be flying by in a way and creeping along at the same time. I am sure that the holidays will make it fly by. I am so ready to hold little baby AJ!!! I can't wait to see what he will look like, and act like. Will he have my features or Tony's?? Tony was an unbelievably cute kid, so either way he will be adorable. LOL! I am done rambling. It is time for bed... Stay tuned for some career news coming soon......

Update: 24 weeks + 5 days.... and counting

It has been way too long since I have posted, so I need to update everything. First... It's a BOY!! We are so excited. His name is Alex James. My dad was Al and Tony's dad and my paw paw are James. We are going to call him AJ. He is going to be a big boy. He was almost a pound at my 20 weeks scan. Tony and were both big babies, so I can only imagine. He is very active and moving around like crazy. I love it when he makes big moves. I have felt his hiccups once and it made me laugh. I am getting ready to start on the nursery and it is so exciting. We got the crib last weekend, but that's it so far. We are going to do it in a sports theme.

As far as I go, I don't think pregnancy is my favorite thing. I am now in physical therapy twice a week for my back pain. It's nice to get in the warm pool, but I don't think it is really helping. I still have pain most every day. My feet are so swollen, I can't hardly put shoes on and they hurt so bad I have to stand on a towel to even dry my hair. Also, I have today found out that I have pregnancy gingivitis, which was no fun at the dentist when they had to do a deep cleaning. OUCH! I would seriously rather lose a pinky toe than to have to go to the dentist. HOWEVER, with all that being said, it's supposed to be worth every minute of it, right? I have gained tons of weight so far. I don't really have specific cravings, I just want to eat all the time.

An update on nana: She is doing very well. Completely cancer free and is doing great. Still sore, but much better. She is getting around better now than she was prior to the surgery it seems like. I've gone to see her twice this week and she looks great! She is such a strong woman. She said she has to make sure she's here to help with this great grand baby.