A Beautiful Shower

I'm quite behind on posts so I'm just getting a chance to update on my amazing shower two weeks ago.

I feel so blessed to have such amazing family and friends in my life. They all went above and beyond to make the day special for me. The decorations were beautiful and perfect, the food was good, the atmosphere was great, the games were fun and I think the guests enjoyed themselves as much as I did. I still can't believe the amount of gifts we received and feel so thankful for everything.

The most touching moments for me were the photobook my Mom and Mother in Law put together with pictures of Joe and I as babies and growing up and the copy of my favorite children's book my parents bought me with a note about how much they enjoyed reading it to me as a child. I will cherish both of these things.

I was so caught up in the day that I didn't get many pictures taken but here are a couple a friend of mine shared with me until I get some more.

Beautiful diaper cake and table.
I loved the hand painted little wooden toys - Charlene did a great job!
They're now on Baby Doran's shelves in his nursery. :)

Adorable clothes line

YUMMY favors!
Matt did a great job helping Christina with these. ;)
We're lucky I didn't stuff all of these in my bag to take home.

Thank you so much to Charlene and Christina for everything they did to help my family make it a memorable day :)

DVT, FVL, Lovenox, Heparin . . .

I've been meaning to do this post for quite some time but never seemed to have the time. With my pregnancy nearing the final weeks I thought now would be the best time to try to get it out there. My hope isn't to bore those of you who already know my story but to get everything documented and hopefully help just one person who finds themselves in my situation by telling my story and journey.

In mid-June of 08 I began seeing what I thought to be a few tiny pimples develop on my abdomen. Two weeks later those same pimples had developed into quite a disturbing looking rash. Sunday, June 28, 2008 we decided it was time for a trip to the ER just in case I had been bitten by something. After a lengthy wait I was checked out by the ER doctor. I explained the only symptoms I had were the rash and a little cramping in my right leg. Honestly I've had leg cramps my entire life but for whatever reason felt the need to mention this to her. She examined my rash and determined it was nothing more than dermatitis and prescribed me a topical cream. She then went on to say she was more concerned that I had cramping in my leg and wanted to have a doppler performed on my leg to check for blood clots.

Monday June 29 I visited the cardiovascular dept and a deep vein thrombosis (DVT or blood clot) was found in my lower right leg. I was sent back down to the ER to see the same doctor that treated me the previous day. I was taken off my birth control pill immediately and prescribed lovenox injections as well as coumadin (the lovenox was to protect me until the coumadin reached the appropriate level in my system). I was set up with a follow up appt with my family doctor to discuss a long term course of treatment and monitoring.

I self administered 3 doses of lovenox until my appointment with my family doctor. He felt the risks/inconvenience of taking blood thinners outweighed the benefits. His long term plan was to follow up with another doppler in 3 weeks to see if the blood clot had grown or moved and to start a low dose of aspirin daily. (I will admit I did not take the aspirin daily) The thought was that since my DVT was below my knee I wasn't at risk for a pulmonary embolism (blood clot traveling to the lungs). I was leary but the thought of regular weekly blood testing to check my INR levels on coumadin wasn't appealing either. I decided to follow his plan for the time being but also requested a second opinion. I was referred to a hematologist and scheduled an appointment . . next available appointment when calling at the end of July was for late August - this appointment will go on to be rescheduled two more times before I meet with the doctor in early September.

A week later was my yearly gynecological check up. I explained to my mid-wife that I had been taken off of my birth control pill because of the discover of my blood clot. She was concerned and said she felt there was a need for me to be tested for any possible clotting disorders, especially if I had planned on trying to conceive. My test results came back positive for a thrombophilia know as Factor V (five) Leiden - FVL. I was found to be heterozygous, meaning I have one mutated gene making my blood more susceptible to clotting.

Three weeks later my DVT hadn't moved, grown or changed at all. My rash that caused the discover of my DVT still hadn't cleared up either. In fact it had at this point grown to a diameter of about 8 inches across my stomach. I met with my family doctor once again and we talked about the possibility of Lyme. Test results came back positive. After a month of anti-biotics my rash had cleared up and I was "cured" of Lyme disease.

Early September I finally met with the hematologist. He not only agreed with my family doctor's plan to stay off coumadin but when the discussion turned to any future plans to get pregnant his opinion was disheartening to say the least. He initially felt that since I hadn't had any past pregnancy losses no treatment for my disorder was necessary during pregnancy. This went against everything I'd read online concerning women with FVL and who had a history of clotting as I did. I did not feel comfortable at all going into a pregnancy knowing I have this disorder and knowing about all the dangerous things that could happen to me and the baby - all things that could be prevented with proper treatment. I didn't want us to have to suffer a loss just to make it clear to him treatment was necessary. I communicated this to him and he agreed it was important that I was comfortable with any treatment plan we set forth and said we'd discuss specifics when the time came.

Fast forward to January 17, 2009. We receive our first positive pregnancy test. :) We get an ultrasound at week 6 and week 7 to check for heartbeat. Once everything is confirmed as ok we have our appt with the hematologist to discuss when to start lovenox. I started 40mg of lovenox once a day at week 6. At 22 weeks my dosage was increased to 60 mg once a day to account for weight gain.

Lovenox

At week 35 I then switched to 1.5 mL heparin twice daily. The switch to heparin is in preparation for labor/delivery. The heparin can reversed easily while the lovenox cannot be. Heparin also remains in the system for 12 hours as opposed to the 24 hour coverage with lovenox.

Heparin

After delivery I will switch back to 40mg of Lovenox once daily for 6 weeks post pardum.

Initially the injections caused some major bruising (dark and the size of a quarter) but they became tolerable and with practice I was able to determine what caused bruising and what did not. Taking the injection slowly and being sure to pinch the skin helped cut down on bad bruising for me. Tiny bruises the size of a pencil erasure (and smaller) became common a few times a week however. I never used ice to numb the area as some people recommend. It just seemed too time consuming. I have gotten very used to giving myself the injections in my abdomen. It just became another part of my morning routine . . like brushing my teeth. With the recent switch to heparin I can tell a definite difference in the medication. Not only was the lovenox already conveniently measured out into pre-filled syringes but it also didn't cause me to bleed afterwards at all. The heparin on the other hand is not pre-filled. I have to measure out the dosage and the injections usually cause me to bleed slightly at the injection site following the injection. I've had to either do my shot before a shower or just cover with a band aid to prevent bleeding on my clothing.

With 3 weeks to go I feel very fortunate to have had a great doctor who understood the potential issues with my disorder and who then closely monitoring me throughout my pregnancy.

33 Weeks

Today is 33 weeks. I'm still continuing to feel relatively great. I do have a few gripes (including heartburn that is only satisfied by milkshakes, major increase in bathroom trips - up to 4 times a night now and rib discomfort) but nothing major or debilitating.

We had a growth ultrasound last week. I had asked my doctor for it in order to check for clots and check on growth . . and I selfishly also wanted to see our little guy and maybe get an updated picture of him. No go on the picture but we did get to confirm he's still a little 'guy' and is very active and looking great in there.

The nursery is still coming along good. I'm waiting on some things we ordered to get here for the walls and will have updated pics to add then. Until then here is a pic of a little project I put together this past weekend. I really like how it came out. It was a good addition to the built ins.

And finally an updated belly pic.

33 weeks

Nursery . . A Sneak Peak

The whole room isn't near completed yet but this corner is all ready for its close up :)

The pictures of the frames on the wall really do not do them justice. They look so much cuter in person. We plan to add his foot prints and birth announcement in the two smaller frames.

I'm so pleased with how everything looks together. I'm especially proud of how the curtains came out.

It's coming along nicely. Hopefully this weekend leads to more progress on the other side of the room.

Making Progress

What a great productive weekend! Saturday we finished up class 2 of 3 for our child birthing classes. I think we've both been enjoying the classes for the most part. I will admit I can't completely take the relaxation techniques all that seriously right now but I'm sure they may come in handy while in labor. There's just something about relaxing with a room full of strangers that seems foreign to me. We're both really excited for our next class this coming Saturday . . July 25th . . because it includes the hospital tour.

After class we took a ride out to Blue Ball to over indulge in the smorgasbord that is Shady Maple. And boy did we! We both went in their starving and left feeling like we never wanted to look at another edible thing for the rest of our lives. Well worth the trip. After our moment of gluttony we stopped at the Flower and Craft Warehouse. I'll admit this stop turned out to be a complete bust. Their basket selection was severely lacking this time around. It also may not have lived up to its potential because we were both stuffed to our gills and ready for a nice long nap. Once we got home I took what was probably the longest nap of my life . . 5 hours. It felt like heaven. :)

Sunday we spent the first half of the day running some errands and picking some things up for the nursery. Its been so much fun, for both Joe and I, picking different things out for the room. It really makes me happy seeing Joe is just as excited as I am about the smallest details . . like a cute little white piggy bank (even if it has a tiny chip in his little ear . . Joe says it gives him character). I feel so blessed to be going through this with my best friend. He's going to be an amazing father and I can't wait to see him and our son together.

We spent the evening working on things in the baby's room and just sitting in there taking it all in. Its slowly becoming our favorite room in the house. I hope to take some pictures this week of the progress . . . a crib and glider fully assembled, some curtains and decor on the walls. Its all coming together!


This is all setting in as reality for me now. Not that I wasn't very aware of everything before but now I seem to have mini-panic attacks about the fact that in just 2 months I'll be totally responsible for taking care of another human being. No matter how much I've looked forward to being a mother I don't think anything truly prepares you for just how mind blowing it all is. Here I sit, day in and day out, watching my belly bounce around like I swallowed a little mexican jumping bean wondering what he'll look like, what he'll be like, who's eyes will he have, will we be good parents, what will he think of us and his childhood 20 years from now . . so many things running through my head.

One thing I read that seemed to calm some of my fears about being a parent has been this - "Bad parents don't think about whether they'll be good parents or not . ." It may be total non-sense but it made me feel that perhaps Joe and I were at least on the right track.

Right now we're at a point where everything is a clean slate with our child. We haven't made mistakes yet (granted we haven't yet had the opportunity to either). Its like the night before football season starts and no one has 1 in the loss column . . . yet. I'm trying to come to terms with the reality that we're going to make mistakes. Not everything we do is going to be absolutely perfect or the absolute right way. All I can do is pray daily that those mistakes are trivial ones.

I'm looking forward to a shortened work week, a Dr appt Friday, seeing my favorite 6 month old (I know I had to edit this after I thought about it . . wow where did 6 months go!) :) and the DMB concert Friday. Hope everyone has a great week! I promise an updated belly pic and nursery pics soon.

Bedding!

I've been spending the last couple of weeks working on different ideas for the nursery. Everything seems to center around the bedding though and that has been holding things up a bit. I was having trouble finding something that would both work with the green already in the room as well as bring in some blue and other colors to break things up - without being too cutesy and full of characters. I was so happy when we finally found something we liked that will really work great with the current color in the room. We won't be getting the bumper (since they're sold out) but I didn't intend on using one anyway. We will be getting the skirt, the quilt for in the room, as well as a euro sham for a pillow on the glider. I'm hoping it will all tie everything together nicely and give me a lot of options with other things in the room.






A few weeks ago we also ordered our crib. We took a trip out to Rock-A-Bye Baby Furniture in Annville to check out their selection and decide what kind of styles we liked. I was really impressed with their selection and set up. It was really nice to see the actual crib in person before deciding. We ended up ordering Munire's Essex model in white. I can't wait for it to arrive.




I'm really excited to get started with decorating the nursery and getting everything organized. The past month has been very productive as far as organization goes. I managed to clean out 3 closets, get things put up in the attic and unwanted things off to the salvation army.

An Eggplant . . .

Today we are under 100 days until my due date. I can't believe how fast time is flying and that in two weeks I'll be moving onto the third trimester.

Last Thursday we had our monthly checkup and everything is looking great. Weight gain is on track, everything is measuring well and his heartbeat sounded great. I also had my glucose tolerance. The glucose solution they have you drink wasn't nearly as bad as I had thought it would be. They haven't called with the results so I'm hoping that is a good sign that I passed. I'm going to call tomorrow to confirm everything came through good. Next appointment is July 8th.

At a little over 6 months I am feeling really great. The only recent change is I feel hungry more often and its becoming more difficult to get a good nights sleep. I got a couple of leg cramps last week and have tried to stay more hydrated hoping that makes a difference. Of course staying more hydrated means more trips to the bathroom.

Updated pic . .


26 weeks