A perfectly healthy baby girl!!!
Wahoooooooo!!!!!!!!! We are excited beyond words!
OB appt update later tonight!

I was listening to a podcast with a certified lactation consultant (author of “The Breastfeeding Mother’s Guide to Making More Milk”) and something she said was really a eureka for me…
The absolute #1 thing a new mom can do to insure a good milk supply is to nurse and pump extra well and often in the first 2-3 weeks from birth. The reason is really neat. Only during this time period does the body create hormone receptors in the breast (ie the “lock” that the hormone “key” fits into to signal to the body). So if you get off to a poor start (can we say tight frenulum for the first 5 days? DOH! And a jaundiced baby kept in the nursery for long periods of time?) you’ll have fewer receptors to work with thereafter. It doesn’t matter if you make a gallon of prolactin (and others) if you have few receptors to work with them.
I think I’ll rent a hospital grade pump and use it after each feeding for the first 3 weeks. Maybe this is my solution.
It was highly educational even for an experienced breastfeeding mother. Podcast here. Click the “podcast on common causes of low milk supply” link.
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17w1d. I’ve hit a tummy growth spurt- my pants are tight!! But I am right at my prepregnancy weight still according to my scale. Nausea/food aversions are back. Peh. I’m on day 4 of that.

Today was the amnio. Wasn’t too bad except they must’ve hit a nerve going in- I had a good jolt down the left side of my body. WOW that was weird- and strong! He said he got a good sample so that’s good. I got a decent DVD of some of the ultrasound but no pics… … and no good shot in the video to take a screen shot of either. I have to go back in 4 weeks for a better anatomy ultrasound because the baby was still a little small for some of the measurements. Measured 16w0d for most things and I am 16w4d today. The specific things they looked for such as kidneys and the brain looked great! Nothing looks out of place.
The dr told us what gender he thought it was but he said it was too early and the baby too small to be sure so I’ll wait out the 2 weeks and let you know when we know for certain.

Sorry my blog was down for so long. It took us awhile to figure out what was wrong.
Passed my 3 hr GTT with flying colors…
Fasting = 77 (65-94 is good)
1 hr = 148 (less than 180)
2 hr = 108 (less than 155)
3 hr = 71 (less than 140)
15 min later I “crashed” and got very shaky and hot while in line to buy food. Considering the minimum for fasting is 65 I can easily see that yes it was low blood sugar that causes that. My instinct was right.
A lady from the billing company my RE uses has called me twice now saying I owe over $1300. It is driving me crazy because I know I don’t! I HATE HATE HATE money issues! 🙁
Tomorrow is the amnio and I am more nervous with each passing hour.
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Some Bren-bits & Andy-dotes:
10/19 Happy 8 weeks!!
Interesting things from our trip to Mimi’shouse… Mostly I lounged around and felt nauseous. I introduced Brendan to the gameshow Deal or No Deal and now he is obsessed with it! 😀 I’m going to find a board or dvd game version of it for him for Christmas!
My FIL made the boys wooden swords. ARGH! Men and their fighting crap! I let them play with them but only if they were in the middle of empty grass and nowhere near each other. Despite this, they both loved them, naturally. That definitely got picked as a Mimi and Papa’s House toy. Haha.
My MIL made me an early birthday cake- it was a 4 layered lemon cake with a frosting made of lemon juice, condensed milk and freshly whipped cream. It was yummy!!
The most fun I had was my MIL and I went to the casino one night. We ate in a British Pub- fried fish, chicken and shrimp and played some slots. The last thing we played was a Star Trek game where you actually picked a login name so you could save your progress (and eventually unlock new episodes). That was neat. I got down to my last 2 plays (70 cents) and hit the bonus game. It was the best bonus game ever!! The wheels would roll and if they stopped on any kind of win then you moved to a top screen and your ship fired on another ship with a bonus multiplier. The very first roll earned me $85!!! This bonus game went on until you had 5 non-winning plays (you lose a shield for each one). Then you get a chance to win all 5 back. I played this game for at least 20 minutes!!! In the end I won $178! It was great!
10/20 Andy pedals his bike for the first time!
11/3 Brendan asked how the baby got in my tummy today. I put him off briefly since the timing was bad. Andy came in while I was getting dressed and asked where my penis is. Whadda day.
12/13 The 15th week turned out to be great- much less tired and the first few flutters from the baby!!! I love it!
12/14 Brendan learned how to draw a tent today so we made camping pictures. He did great. He even drew a waterfall on his river! This is Andy’s… snakes at a campfire. LOL!

12/15 By our scale Brendan is 65.6 lbs and Andy is 35.0 lbs.
12/16 A cartoon star Bren drew… 😀

12/17 I think I felt a tiny kick from the outside today. I was just waking up and my hand was over my lower belly… it happens so quickly though- did I imagine it?!

DH told me an amusing story on our drive up to his parents’ house. He said that Brendan’s cousin Joseph (slightly older than Bren) came up to Brendan and asked him how old he is. Brendan replied “6”. Then he asked him what grade he’s in. Bren said “2nd”. Joseph thought for a minute and told him he couldn’t possibly be 6 and in 2nd grade. Brendan said “I am.” Joseph told him he must be really smart or something. Brendan said “Yup.” (groan) So Joseph asked him what 2 x 2 is. Brendan said “4”. Joseph said, “Nuh uh, it must be like 142 or something.” So he turns to Darrell and asks him what the answer is… and Darrell says, “Well… it IS 4.” Of course, he was thinking 2+2… but Joseph didn’t know this. Darrell and I had a good laugh.
Then I explained to Brendan that 2×2 is counting by 2s, 2 times. He understood immediately. So I asked what 2×3 is and he got it right. The I explained that he could count by 2s, 3 times or he could do it backwards and count by 3s, 2 times. I asked a few more problems I knew he could answer… this x 5, that x 10, etc. Then I got a glint in my eye and asked him what 422 x 0 was. He thought for a second and then said 0. Bowled us over!!! He quickly figured out anything x 0 is 0 and anything x 1 was the same number without any teaching at all… just thinking about it. Brendan has so far formally learned to count by 2s, 5s and 10s but with further discussion we quickly found out he could count by 3s, 4s, 20s and 25s as well. Within less than an hour Brendan could tell us most any multiplication fact dealing with 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20 or 25!!!
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14w2d. Tired but otherwise okay. OB appt yesterday. Heartbeat in the 160s. Blood pressure a bit high. Down 2 pounds. Bloodwork came back normal, I guess. It was all written in my little folder but not discussed. 3 hour GTT tomorrow morning. Yuck. I hate that test!!

Happy 2nd trimester (according to most)!!!! Decided to do the amnio- scheduled for the friday before Christmas. Might as well know with certainty if anything is abnormal. I hope we find out the gender prior ro Christmas but we’ll definitely know for certain when the amnio results come back… somewhere around the end of the year.
My morning sickness is drastically better! YAY!!!
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Next OB appt Dec 1st.

199 days until the c-section. Yeesh, that sure sounds far away.
I have an appt with a perinatologist on the 19th to do the “integrated screening” test… basically a detailed ultrasound and bloodwork. Supposed to be 92% accurate in diagnosing chromosomal abnormalities. It’s the “quad screen” + additional bloodwork a few weeks later.
Had my worst vomiting ever a few days ago… right after a large hamburger, potato & macaroni salads and fruits with fruit dip meal. Took me 2 hours to feel mostly better. My eyes and throat were still sore the next morning. Food clogged my nose completely and was very hard to get out. Ugh!!!

10w0d. Baby measured 9w6d- 2.93 cm. So I caught up 3 of the 4 days it was behind in only 11 days!! Better stop eating those carbs! LOL! Heartbeat was 177. Baby was wiggling a lot! It was great to see lil arms and legs.
I have a 3 cm bleed between the sac and the uterus but it shouldn’t be an issue. My placenta is at the top of my uterus along the front so I might not feel movement for some time. Sigh.
Barring any complications, I’ll be delivering by c-section on May 24th. 29 weeks exactly!
I have to make an appt to see a perinatologist for 2 weeks from now for some bloodwork and another ultrasound to check for any genetic abnormalities since I’m 35. Sure beats an amniocentisis!
Fun note… the “freebie” formula kit is getting smaller! With Brendan I got a full can of powdered formula, with Andy a half size can and with this one, 2 ready to feed 2oz bottles. And samples of 8 different types pf prenatal vitamins!! 😆
I also gave my 4 vials to the vampires.
Regarding the morning sickness… either B6 is a miracle vitamin or this is my “feel good baby” as my OB says. 😀 I’ve only vomited 2 times total, had a couple other close calls but the last 4 days or so have been great. Plenty of tiredness but little nausea!

9 weeks today!!! I turned 35 yesterday. Officially of “Advanced Maternal Age”. LOL.
My mornings are good and evenings are good, but I’m tired. But my afternoons are pretty bad. Waves of nausea from noon to 7 or so. And yup- it happened! As with Brendan AND Andy, I started vomiting at 8w6d. What in the heck do I manufacture that’s so important on that exact day?!!
First OB appt & ultrasound next Monday afternoon!!!

I’m measuring 4 days behind :/ but the heartbeat was 158! I’m released to my regular OB!!!
RE says the h1n1 vaccine isn’t supposed to be here in shot form until end of November! Nasal is a big no-no for pregnant women. Another dr told me to take 25 mg B6 3x a day, 12.5 mg Unisom up to 3x a day and ginger capsules for my nausea. Might try some of that.
Actually, I can’t complain about the nausea. This is the best I’ve ever had of it… knock on wood. But the start of the vomiting had magically always been 8w6d (except for an additional few at 6 weeks with Andy)… and that’s 3 days away. So my longest fingers are crossed.
Oh!!! And I actually made my RE laugh! If you knew him you’d know what a feat that is! They asked if I had had any bleeding or odd discharge. My reply was I’ve had clear, white, yellow, really yellow, pink and brown but no red, blue or green yet. Haha!
Bye bye infertility… may I never meet you again!