Dr. Appt and we have a birth date for Makayla!

Well on 06/25 we went in for our 3d/4d ultrasound that is administered at the doctors office and boy do we have news! At this appt they had a few things on the to do list besides just letting me see our beautiful daughter. One of which was to check her heart because when she was 19 weeks her heart skipped a beat regularly and they wanted to make sure that went away. Sure enough it did she had a perfect heart beat of 150bpm, and is very healthy. Second thing was they wanted to check her weight at this point of the pregnancy. She weighs approximately 4 and a half pounds!!!! She's a big baby but that's not the part that made me shiver. The parts of her body they measured showed her stomach measuring perfect with my due date, her legs measuring very long, and her head measuring 2 and a half weeks later! In other words it would put me at over 34 weeks pregnant. I began to relies the first thing that I have to get out is that big ol' head lol. From the ultrasound pictures we have concluded this...
-She obviously has Nicks "Big" head lol
-She has Nicks nose not mommies =(
-She has Nicks lips because I have no peeks
-And she has huge chubby "chipmonk" cheeks
I think I got screwed out of this deal, I get to build her for 40 weeks and she gets no features of mine! I guess she is going to be a daddys girl. Oh yes and she appeared to have long feet, look out here comes daddys size 14 shoes!

Anyhow but to top of the appt because she is measuring large the doctor is going to induce me on August 13th (time of day will be given by the doctor in about 4 weeks). This is in hopes that I will be able to get my little munchkin out the normal way instead of a C-section. So depending on how my body reacts to the induction Makayla's b-day will be either August 13th or 14th. Wow that means she will be here in about 6 weeks. Below are some of her latest and last pics until she is born, enjoy!

32 WEEKS, less than two months to go!

She's becoming quite a big baby, your little one! She's about 16.7 inches long and almost 4 pounds now. Your child is so big now that the space in which she moves is very limited. She can't make any more major movements - a final turn-around before she engages, at the most. But he can still prod, push and kick. However, once he engages, he will no longer change his position. Sometimes you can feel the engagement. At that time, you will get a heavy feeling in your vagina and some women have contractions for a brief while. After the baby engages, you will have more air and space in the upper part of the uterus. The lack of pressure on your ribcage is a huge relief - you can take a deep breath for the first time in weeks!

~I can tell you the pressure and pain Makayla is causing in my ribs is not what I expected. Wow does she kick! I push on her feet and bottom to get her to move down and the second I let get go back up she goes. Oh well, were not that far away from D-day lol.

Daddy's Take on Birthing Class.

Its a good thing! For sure. I hate speaking infront of people i dont know. I hated it in elementary school, I hated it in middle school, and i surely hated it in high school. For whatever reason, at the beginning of the class, i knew the 'teacher' (who is really a RN / midwife) was going to be calling on all the 'dads to be' in the class to make complete fools out of themselves. (i guess with a little girl on the way, i better get used to that) So she (the teacher) held up a pamphlet and asked if everyone had this. Now, i know i had one, but i didnt get it out because i had already 'briefly' looked over it, but Cas looks over at me and says, "i think its in that book". (nicks thought) "Crap". So i relucantly pulled out this pamphlet on 'Pre Term Labor' and as the dad infront of me is reading the first line (he got the easy one), the teacher looked at me and asked if i could read #2.

The Big Number Two...i knew it...and i couldnt do a thing about it. (time to soak up some pride, bow my head, and read it) "Look to see if there is vaginal discharge or bloody discharge from the vagina" It is pronounced VA-ginal ... but look at me, I threw down a 'VAGINA-uh-al Discharge'. needless to say, daddy was a little embarresed at this point. But i knew, in the back on my mind, with the exception of one maybe two guys, they all would have said "Vagina-uh-al" instead of VA-ginal.

Oh well...maybe i can embaress myself again next week!

Our first birthing class!

About three months ago I signed up for classes at Arrowhead Hospital, (Where I will be delivering Makayla) to help Nick and I get familiar with the hospital policies as well as have a chance to learn more and ask questions. Well on 06/17/08 Nick and I headed to our class after work. I must tell you that I am not a night person at all anymore, I need to be in bed by 9:00 and I pass out pretty quick... Class started at 6:30 and didn't end until 9:30pm so I was pretty exhausted by the time we got home at 10:00. None the less though the class went pretty well. We watched a video on c-sections and one on epidurals/natural birth. The teacher then asked who was going to be getting an epidural of course in the words of baby mama I said that'd be me! I have no shame in admitting that I would prefer my labor to be a beautiful occasion not one of torture. Other than that we just discussed random topics in regards to possible complications, the equiptment they use and some breathing techniques. I guess the highlight of the night was when the nurse looked at Nick to read #2 of our brochure on pre-term labor signs and this is what he had to say in a room of 30 other people... "Vaginal discharge or bloody discharge from the vagina." Of course Nick not only is not a speaker so he was already embarassed but he also read the word vaginal wrong. He said vagina + ul in other words he didn't make the a sound correctly so all the ladies were giggling. I think I may have seen him turn a little red at that point. I was really impressed though with our first class and am excited about the upcoming 4 more to go. I will give you updates on how they go once a week. Our next one should be interesting they are showing us labor positions and pregnancy excersizes which the guys have to do too. Wow I should bring a video camera for that!

31 Week Update time is flying by!

Your baby's arms, legs and body continue to fill out -- and they are finally proportional in size to her head. She weighs about 3.3 pounds/1.5 kilograms and looks more like a newborn. She measures about 16 inches from crown to toe and is heading into a growth spurt.. She's quite large already but not yet developed enough to thrive outside the incubator. His temperature regulation system is not fully developed, so he cannot keep himself warm. Moreover, your baby has not yet built up sufficient resistance and, as a result, if he were living outside of you, he would be sensitive to infections.

Because it keeps getting more cramped in your abdomen, your baby can no longer move as freely as before. His kicks are pretty powerful now, so that you can sometimes 'catch' his foot. But it can also happen that you must wait a long time for him to stick something out. It is a nice game to make contact with your baby.

Your baby's organs are continuing to mature and she is passing water from her bladder: good practice for the urinating she'll do after she's born. Soon you can wonder what your baby is wishing for -- brain scans have shown that fetuses have periods of dream sleep around month eight.

In a few weeks your baby will "engage." Then his little head (hopefully) will descend into the pelvis and stay there. The advantage is that the pressure on your stomach will lessen, so that you won't experience as much heartburn as before. But, the pressure on your bladder will increase, so you'll have to pee even more than before, if such a thing is possible!

Makayla and I have a doctor appt. today so I will update you on what goes on tomorrow.

Trip to Labor and Delivery Rant

On Friday 06/06/2008 I was sent to L&D by my doctors office. The long story is below, sorry for the rant but it was such a miserable experience.

Friday I had a call into my doctor as I had been having severe back pain for 3 days. I figured it was probley just the way I was carrying since I had a bad back before pregnancy anyhow. When I talked to my doctor they wanted me to go on into labor and delivery to get things checked out(to make sure it wasn't my kidneys causing the pain). I didn't want to go matter of fact I tried convincing Nick we didn't need to lol! But I know since the doctor said to I needed to go that I was going. Anyhow, since I am first timer and am not familiar with rules and regulations in the L & D portion of the hospital, I only know that when I have been in the ER they say no food or drinks until seen by a doctor and once given the ok you can. So I arrived at L & D at 11:00am and I normally eat around 11:30 so I was getting hungry but decided it was best to wait not knowing what all they were going to do. They hooked me up to the monitors for about an hour and came in and said looks like were going to be giving you the shot as you are having irratibility of your uterus (basically any type of contraction that registered under 60 on the print out) and I was having a few real contractions hitting about 65. So I got the shot and was patiently awaiting someone to tell me to eat or ask if I wanted water. No one did so I had Nick finaly at 2:00 go ask the nurse because I was really thirsty and hungry. She okayed it and Nick being the good hubby he is was on his way down to the cafe to get me food. Then the nurse comes in and starts out looking really upset and says "Just so you know you can refuse this, I mean I'm just telling you it is your right as the patient to say no to any treatment that the doctor tries to administer." This of course made me nervous so I was all ok what is going on? The nurse said they had found _________ in my urine (don't remember the name) and that the doctor wanted to hook me up on IV's for it. I asked her what this substance in my urine was and she said basically it shows you havn't been eating. I immediately said of course I havn't I told you all I haven't eatin anything since breakfast. She said she understood and completely was fine with that but that the doctor was basically questioning if I had been depriving myself and my child of food!!!! I could'nt believe that, my eyes swelled with tears and I said I don't understand I eat LOTS of food everyday I am just late on eating lunch because of being here. She said the count in my urine was so little that all they wrote it was elevated because they couldn't even assign a number to it. She also stated that all the iv was going to do is pump sugars etc really quick into my body just making me feel sick as opposed to me just drinking two glasses of apple juice and eating my lunch that Nick was bringing up! I then told the nurse I agreed with her and was refunsing the iv since I was about to eat which was going to give the same end results except for the sick part. The nurse then stated just so you know your doctor never would have told us to do that for you and that the doctor on call although he works in the same office owns his own practice. The nurse obviously did not like this doctor and neither did I. If your going to acuse me of something so awful come and talk to me yourself. I never once saw the doctor the whole time I was there. Anyhow the minor contractions lessened and I ate lunch drank a bunch of juice and water and was released to go home only a little over 4 hours later. I was also told that I would probley be one of the lucky ones (sarcastic of course) with back labor the whole pregnancy. At my next doctor appt I am going to be speaking with my real OB and telling him how upset I am for the assumptions made by that doctor. It made me feel horrible. Nick keeps telling me not to worry as we know that I am eating but it's just the idea of someone thinking I could ever do something like that intentionally to our baby girl. I love her and would never harm her. Darn doctors there so frustrating! The most important thing though is Makayla is doing great matter of fact she hated the belly belts they had on me and continued trying to kick them off the whole time. I hope I don't have to see that place for another 9 weeks.

30 Week Update and counting

Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds. A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)

If you tap on your belly, for instance, he may kick or poke back at the same spot you touched. So neat -- you can play with your baby well before he's born! When he kicks, try rubbing your tummy and talking softly or singing -- you might just find that it calms him down.

Right now, your baby continues to practice breathing by moving his diaphragm in a rhythmic pattern. Of course, it's amniotic fluid (not air) that's flowing in and out of his lungs, but it's good practice for the real thing. Gaining about a half-pound every week for the next seven weeks, your baby's continuing to bulk up as layers of protective fat appear under his soft skin -- creating that adorably plump, cherubic look.

***Baby Makayla is doing great another week has gone by so quickly! We can't believe she's almost here!

29 Week Update

Can you believe you're already a week into your last trimester? Sooo exciting. By this week, all of your baby's bones have fully developed, although they haven't finished hardening so they're still soft and flexible. Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel.

Your baby's head is getting bigger, and brain growth is very rapid at this time. She will grow for about ten more weeks. Also this week, her pushes, kicks, and rolls will likely occur more frequently -- and forcefully. So don't be surprised if you feel a karate chop or two!

Your baby's nutritional needs reach their peak during the third trimester. You'll need plenty of protein, vitamin C, folic acid, iron, and calcium (about 200 milligrams is deposited in your baby's skeleton every day), so eat foods rich in these nutrients. The skeleton hardens even more and the brain, muscles, and lungs continue to mature.


Another week down! Makayla is doing great although there not joking her kicks are getting really hard now, I sware she's going to knock the wind out of me soon.
-Cassie