23w4d - Happy Spring!!

Happy Spring to everyone! Though sitting here at my parents' house it's snowing so it doesn't feel too Spring-like here. I certainly miss my family up here in upstate NY but I do NOT miss the weather, yuck!! Had a great weekend up here though. Got to spend time with my kids and granddaughters - oh what a wonderful visit that was on Saturday. Then yesterday I spent a nice quiet day here with my parents - went to a pancake breakfast (yum), did a puzzle and crossword with my mom, and took the dog out (a lot) to sniff around outside. Now I'm just waiting for the snow to let up a little so pup and I can head home.

So health-wise, the eczema and hives are soooo much better! Still getting a few painful hives a day and minor itching from the eczema but really this new ointment has improved things greatly in that department. My sore, swollen hands are another story. Yesterday at the pancake breakfast I had stabbing pain just holding my fork. And sweeping the floor today I had to come up with a new grip to hold the broom. I think my wrist supports are going to be a 24/7 accessory really soon, UGH!!

Other than that, I'm feeling terrific! Maribel is kicking more and more now. Last week she'd be quiet all day and start kicking in the evening. But the last few days she's been pretty active all day long. YIPPEE, because she was making me nervous being all quiet during the day.

Well, tomorrow afternoon I have my next prenatal visit so I'll let you know how that goes. Have a great first full day of spring today!! (And hopefully it's snow-free where you are.)

23 weeks!! (Roughly 15 weeks to go)

23 weeks today!! We're another week closer to ensuring a safe, timely delivery for little Maribel. I'll be so happy when we're out of the super-scary time here when viability of a baby born this early would be completely questionable. And even if viable, a baby born this early could face a number of hardships - respiratory issues, bleeds on the brain, etc. So every week, no, actually every day, buys us a little more comfort in knowing she's still where she needs to be...all snuggled up in my uterus.


Can you believe though that we're roughly 14-15 weeks away from meeting our little girl? I can't! This pregnancy is going soooo fast! But I'm trying to savor every minute of it, knowing that this really will be the last time I'm pregnant. I thought that almost 19 years ago but back then I never knew I'd meet my wonderful DH. Now that we know we'd have to go through IVF again to add to the family, I think we'll be happy with my two wonderful kids and our one little girl together.


Yesterday, DH pulled out a gift I gave him a long time ago. Back in August 2009, when we had our first positive pregnancy test - 1 year and 1 day after my tubal reversal surgery - I wrapped up the positive test in the bib shown below to tell DH that we were pregnant.

Wow, I never imagined on that day what we would still have to go through to have our baby. I never would have guessed that that pregnancy would be a chemical pregnancy. Or that the next two pregnancies would be ectopic. Or that I'd lose both of my tubes and one ovary because of those ectopics. Or that we'd need to go through an IVF cycle to conceive. Seeing the gift I gave him was bittersweet. On the one hand I felt happy that soon, he'll be able to put that bib on his daughter and be the most amazing dad. On the other hand I felt sadness over the 3 angels we lost over the last year and a half (actually, I guess it's 4 angels if we consider the twin that didn't develop along with Maribel.) But, I'm pretty sure those 4 angels are watching over Maribel right now and are keeping her safe. Angels - we love you!

In less bittersweet but cool news, my first shipment of cloth diapers came in. Yippee!! I love them!! They're so cute, I can't stand it! This order was for a dozen Sunbaby diapers with 2 dozen inserts. Then I have a dozen Bum Genius 4.0 on the way from another company. So we'll be stocked up with a couple dozen cloth diapers and it cost roughly $270 when I include the diapers, inserts, and the Fuzzibunzhanging diaper pail/bag. Not bad when you compare that to the cost of disposables. They're all one size which is great because we won't keep having to buy new ones as she grows (well, until she grows out of them that is. Most one-size go up to 28 or 35 lbs depending on the brand.) Here's a pic to show you the cute ones that came in today - I just love the pattern ones (apples, elephants, teddy bears, hearts - all hard to see in the pics, I know.)

I'll be sure to take a pic of the Bum Genius ones I ordered when they come in. They had so many colors to choose from. Maribel's bum will be like a rainbow...well on the OUTSIDE of the diaper that is. :-)

22w4d - My poor wedding band (and finger)

Well my poor swollen ring finger just couldn't take anymore swelling. After spending last night trying every possible thing we could find online to get my wedding band off my super-swollen hand, DH and I decided the wise thing to do would be to get the ring cut off. (DH was such a sweetheart too - he even ran out for Windex last night after we read so many success stories online for Windex working to remove rings stuck on fingers...no such luck in our case though. But we'll have lots of clean glass around the house.)

This morning the swelling was starting to hurt so I sadly drove to our neighborhood jeweler this morning. My heart was heavy as the jeweler used their handy little saw like tool to saw through my ring and then used pliers to stretch it out far enough to slip my finger out. I was so sad, but ahhhh...it was immediate relief once that fat finger was freed!! I don't think I even realized how uncomfortable it had been until the ring was off. In the lovely picture attached you can see my super fat hand, including the ridiculous indentation on my ring finger, and my now broken wedding band.

The good news is, once I've had the baby I'll be able to get the ring repaired. Another reason why I'm looking forward to Maribel arriving! In the meantime, DH brought home a ring for me to wear for now. It's a giant man's ring - so giant it's currently residing on the middle finger of my right hand - but I loved the sentiment. He knew how upset I was to have to give up my wedding band temporarily and watch it get sliced apart. So my heart melted a little more when he slipped that giant ring on my finger. God I love this man of mine.

22w3d - More progress in the nursery

Howdy friends! Hope you're all having a great weekend! Today I'm lounging because yesterday I was doing things non-stop. I put together my new glider/rocker (sooo comfy), cleaned the house (sooo needed it), made some mango salsa & fruit salad (sooo yummy), did 3 loads of laundry (blech), etc, etc. And the other project I worked on that you're seeing in the above picture, is the wall decor I put up yesterday in the nursery. I love these vinyl stickies because when it's time to leave this apartment, they peel right off. Awesome! And now when I look in that room, it's really starting to look like a nursery instead of the office/guest room it was prior to pregnancy. Once the nursery is done, I'll post more pictures. It's still pretty naked right now. We're still waiting on the bedding (someone bought it off our registry YAY) and I want to get a few more things on the other walls that will keep the animal theme going. I can't wait to see how it's all going to look once we're ready for Miss Maribel to move in!

22 weeks!

Another milestone today - 22 weeks! This would typically be the super scary time for pre-term labor, but thankfully with this TAC in place I'm getting through this 2nd trimester just fine. On one of the message boards I participate on, one lady just had her baby at 24w5d...sooooo scary! So far the baby is doing ok but the little one is only 1lb 5oz and 15 inches long. The mom's cervix started shortening at 19 weeks and at 24w5d she went to the hospital because she was having contractions. By the time she was checked, she was 4cm dilated. Within a couple of hours, despite meds and positioning to try to stop labor she was fully dilated and the baby's feet (breech) were coming through. The baby is going to have a long stay in the NICU (probably until June.) Poor little sweetheart! Stories like this just make DH & me even more thankful we decided to have the TAC surgery.



In some good news, my skin is looking much better! I still get a few hives per day but NOTHING like I had earlier in the week. And some of my patches of eczema seem to be getting better too. I've barely had to take any Benadryl which is wonderful and I've been sleeping better the last few nights. Oh, I'm not talking sleeping through the night - ha, ha, I don't think I'll be doing that for a few more years. BUT, to not wake up itching is wonderful!


Using my wedge pillow along with my wrist supports when I sleep is really helping with my hand edema/carpal tunnel. It's amazing to not wake up with painful, tingly hands. Because man, when they fall asleep with this carpal tunnel, holy shit does that hurt!!


So I'm just going to keep on using my ointment for my skin, using my wedge pillow and wrist supports for my carpal tunnel and enjoy the rest of my second trimester. Here's today's baby bump picture. It's funny because it actually looks smaller than my 20 week pic from 2 weeks ago but I guess it's becoming more of a defined bump now? Or maybe because it's moving higher up it looks different? I don't know, but I love my bump!

21w4d - Here's hoping!

The dermatologist's reaction when he saw my skin: "What happened to you?" That's what I'd like to know! So, it turns out the hives are just hives. Could be caused by anything including pregnancy hormones. Prednisone would be an option, but we'd all like to hold off on that as long as possible since I'm pregnant. And the eczema just doesn't seem to be responding well to the topical originally prescribed. So they switched me to something a little stronger, Topicort ointment 2x a day for both the hives and eczema and we'll see if that helps. I've got a follow-up appointment in one month with instructions to come in sooner if it gets worse. So I'm hoping and praying (and praying and hoping) that this change in meds does the trick.

I have a funny pregnancy brain story for you from this evening too. I decided after work that I wanted to make brownies (and once the idea of brownies is planted in this pregnant woman's brain there's no saying "no" to this idea.) So, I put the mix and the other ingredients in a bowl and start stirring. Well, I stir and I stir and stir and there's still lots of lumps. I pound on the lumps with my whisk and yet the lumps remain. I finally just give up and pour the batter into the baking pan. I swipe a taste of the batter (including one of the lumps) and realize the lumps are walnuts. Idiot me forgot that I'd bought "Walnut Brownie Mix". Oh, what a dork I am!! :-)

21w3d - Can my dermatologist appt just get here already??

Hi my friends. I'm sorry, I am just soooo miserable right now. I started getting a sore throat on Friday and that's still lingering. Hoping it doesn't turn into something more but that's really the least of my problems. I was up so many times last night with my skin troubles, I wish I could just sleep until tomorrow morning when I see the dermagologist.

To give you peek at my pain, yesterday evening the hives (who had left me alone all day long) came on with a fury. I had a good 30-40 on each arm, some on my right knee, and a couple on the soles of my feet. If you've ever had hives you know that when they first come on they itch unbearably (which they did.) I thought I was going to rip my arms off. Then if you've ever had hives you know that the welts that remain (mine usually go away the next day) hurt. Needless to say, by the time I was ready for bed last night mine were hurting like hell and made it so difficult to sleep (since I need to sleep on my side.) Here's a picture of my left arm from this morning. The hives have spread out and flattened which means they're on their way out, until the next batch arrives tonight, but damn my arms are in so much pain today.



And to give you a glimpse of my eczema, this originally started as a couple little patches. I now have patches on my neck, upper back, chest, above my navel, lower back, both sides of my torso, hips, chins. Each patch is incredibly itchy and like sand paper. I'm getting little blood spots all over my clothes from these damn patches. A new patch just starts as incredibly itchy red skin - then the rash sets in afterwared. Here's one of the patches on my shoulder/neck that I've been fighting off for the last 3-4 weeks.



So all of this has really got me down. I'm sorry for my depressing post, I'm just literally exhausted from scratching and itching 24/7 for the last few months.

In good news, my Prenatal Cradle Mini-Cradle is awesome. I was able to spend all day cleaning out the nursery and had no pain or pressure in my lower abdomen. AWESOME!! Really glad Dr D suggested that thing! And now that the nursery is cleaned out, next weekend I should be able to get the wall decor up (vinyl sticky things of jungle animals) and move the furniture into place.

Until then, I'll let you know how the dermatologist appointment goes tomorrow. Please, please, please, let them know something else that can help me.

21 weeks!

Today marks 21 weeks!! That means we've got approximately 17 weeks to go!! WOW, I still can't believe we're already this far along. It's just moving, moving, moving. This week has been an interesting one. Some good, some bad.

Bad has been my skin. Oh my heavens I am SO SICK of scratching my itchy skin. A couple nights ago I was full-on-sobbing I was itching so bad. DH was packing ice packs around my body to try to help stop the itching. After another shower, slathering on tons of Aveeno eczema lotion, and taking another Benadryl I was finally able to get some sleep. I think the crying wore me out too. It was horrible! DH went out and bought me a bunch of men's t-shirts to wear so I could wear only cotton on my itchiest areas (of course it really hasn't been helping much. Instead I'm just leaving blood spots all over my new t-shirts. UGH!!)

On top of the many patches of eczema I'm now sporting, my lovely hives are back. What the fuck?!?!?! Arms, hands, wrists, even had one behind the knee and one on each leg where my foot meets my shin. I had a GIANT one under my armpit the night of my meltdown and wow, not only was that one itchy, it was so painful that I couldn't lay on that side for hours. Needless to say, I will be visiting my dermatologist again on Monday morning to see if there is something else I could try. The stuff they gave me just isn't working. Worst case (and I have a feeling this will be my destiny) is that I just need to suffer through this until I have the baby and can use some kind of steroid cream. God help me get through 17 more weeks of dawn to dusk itching!!!

In other news, I found out my company is not too keen on part-time work so I had a decision to make - work full-time or leave the company. The decision was easy, there's no way I'm working full-time and missing out on everything. I missed so much with DD & DS, I just don't want to miss it all again. So I'll be leaving my job in a few months to become a stay-at-home mom. I'm nervous and excited all at once! Now I just need to decide when my last day will be - thinking early June and I want to decide soon so my boss can work on who my backfill will be and we can get them up to speed before I leave. But wow, I really am excited to have this new countdown underway! I'm pretty sure at some point I'll grab a small part-time job a couple evenings a week, perhaps a cashier job at a grocery store like I did a few years ago. We'll just have to see what plays out in that arena.

DH & I decided a few weeks ago that we're going to go the cloth diaper route and I was so excited to place my first order for some on Tuesday. When I cloth diapered DD 22 years ago, you tri-folded a cotton diaper, put on the safety pins and rubber pants and dealt with plenty of leaks. Cloth diapers today come in so many different varieties (AIO-all in ones, Pockets, Pre-folds, Hybrids, etc.) that I literally spent weeks reading up on different kinds, reading reviews, comparing brands, polling CD'ing friends on what types they like. After gathering all of my info I decided to start with pockets. They come in so many colors and patterns, have snaps so they're super easy to put on, and have a pocket to add microfiber or hemp inserts for absorption. I'll probably grab a couple other kinds (maybe a couple of AIO's) just to see which baby and I like best once she's in them. While I've estimated that it will be a few hundred dollars to get started, it will save us SOOO much money in the long run compared to using disposables. (And that will be extra important now that we'll be down to one income.)

Other than that, Maribel has been kicking up a storm and I'm loving ever jab. She's been a little shy the last couple of nights when we've tried to get her to kick for daddy but I'm going to try a little OJ tonight with dinner to see if that gets those long legs moving in there. :-) Hope you're all having a great week and I'll post again soon.

20w3d - DGD Madison & an exciting moment

Here is a picture of my beautiful granddaughter Madison, what a sweetheart! I had a wonderful weekend with my DD & DGD. It was nice to spend time together, snuggle lots with the baby, and spend our days exhausted together from lack of sleep. :-) Good practice for me in July! And DD is such a wonderful mommy - oh, that Madison is one lucky little girl. DD made me very proud.

DGD has been a bit jaundice so daily trips to the hospital were made for bili counts. And the weekend was filled with frequent feedings (every 2-3 hours on the dot to try to flush the excess bilirubin out of her system) and many hours rocking in the sunlight. But as of Saturday it looked like our efforts were working as her number finally started dropping instead of rising...PHEW!!

But seriously isn't she just too cute for words???

Tonight I got back home to my sweet DH and pups...missed them so much! And then we got to experience a magical moment. DH got to feel Maribel kick for the first time. Oh it was so amazing to see his expression at the second she tapped his hand, WOW! He was thrilled and it was something I'll remember forever. All said, this was a FABULOUS weekend - start to finish!

20w1d - More about the u/s & being Grammy A

Here is the 20 week belly shot!

And as of today, I've passed the 20 week mark, which would typically be the halfway point in a pregnancy. But for me, since we'll need to deliver a couple weeks early, it means I have about 18 weeks to go. In other words, we're starting our home stretch (albeit one that's going to feel like it takes forever.)

We're still in awe that we have a little girl in there and that we go to see how wonderfully she's developing. It's amazing to think that we saw all 4 chambers of her heart, her aorta, her stomach, kidneys, spine, brain, etc. They measured the 2 bones in her lower legs, her femurs, the bones in her forearms, the distance between her eye sockets, an area behind the brain, her skull, her abdomen, her nasal bone, etc. and used all of those measurements to calculate her age - which was 20 weeks. Since I was 19w5d on the day of the u/s, she's measuring right on track.

I ordered my Prenatal Cradel Mini-Cradle that the doctor recommended. (Found it on Amazon for only 14.95 so saved $10 there.) I also ordered a wedge to sleep on to elevate my upper half a little bit. So by next week we'll see if those are helping with my crampy/pressure and edema respectively. I also think I'm going to buy some carpal tunnel wrist braces tomorrow. My wrists and hands are really just getting more painful by the day and the doctor said if it gets really bad we could try steroids but we (and the doc) really want to avoid that if possible. So I'm going to see if some wrist braces while I sleep can help any.

Maribel is also kicking up a storm these last few days - woo-hoo!! Not hard enough to feel from the outside yet, but those hard kicks will be coming soon. I can't wait until they come because I'm dying for DH to feel them! As for her name since I've had a few questions about it - Maribel is a combination of Maria & Isabel, and DH suggested this one. It will be pronounced mare-ih-bell, though the Colombian side of the family will pronounce it mah-ree-vell. Jordana (the middle name we've chosen) we just found when searching for names one day and both loved it. It will be pronounded johr-dah-nah (vs. the alternate pronunciation of johr-dan-nah.)

So, this weekend I'm up visiting DD and my new grand-daughter (new abbreviation - DGD - Dear Grand-daughter) Madison. Oh, that Madison is a sweetheart. Poor thing though is fighting off some jaundice. We had to wake her every 2 hours last night to feed her (they want us to feed her that often to help flush out the excess bilirubin.) So DD would set the alarm on her cell phone for every 2 hours and we'd take turns changing, feeding, and getting Madison back down to sleep until the cell phone went off again. Somehow we're all still functioning today and I'm thinking of it as good practice for July. ;-) Right now, DD & DGD are at the hospital getting her bilirubin levels checked again. Thursday's number was slightly higher than Wednesday's and we want them to go down, not up. Hoping and praying they'll be back home soon and I don't get that tearful call from the hospital that they need to keep Madison there under the bili lights.

But it's WONDERFUL having another beautiful DGD to ooh and ahh over. She's a real snuggler too. She just snuggles right up on my chest, curls those legs up into a ball and sighs and squeaks while she settles into position for a nap. Ahhh...love her! And I can't wait until my oldest DGD Lily comes over so they can meet. It will be fun to watch these two beautiful cousins grow up together. And soon their Auntie Maribel will playing right along with them.