Week 22 checkup.

I saw my Peri this morning. The ultra sound technician used the Doppler on me and check my cervix. Everything looks good. My cervix is nice and long still at 4.3 cm. I have plenty of amniotic fluid so there's nothing to worry about. When my Dr. showed up I asked him about my reactions to the P17 shots that A.'s been giving me. I told him how it usually hurts a bit and then I would area would rise up and get all itchy. He took a look at it and was alarmed by what he saw. He said that I have an infection because A. has been giving me the injections incorrectly. 1) A.'s shooting me up in the wrong quadrant. It should be higher up. 2) He's not injecting me correctly. It should be swift and deep, like throwing a dart.
I was alarmed. The shots for the last 4 weeks all been administered incorrectly. They've been painful then itchy, not like the first 2 times. Dr. told me to check my temperature daily to make sure that it doesn't go above 99 degrees. If it does, then he'll have to put me on antibiotics. I'm to apply a warm compress on the infected area to bring the swelling down. Oh, my infection can lead to a PROM. yikes. I'm to come into the office for the next couple of weeks to have my shots administered by the nurse instead of A. He's going to need retraining if he's doing to give them again. I guess A. shouldn't quit his day job after all.

Oh, BTW, Fred's out of my life. Found out that he was a wart.

Week 20 checkup.

I had an appointment this morning and saw the female OB in the practice. She's super nice and I feel really comfortable with her. She gave me some awesome news regarding my APF test. The results were all fine. My result for Downs is 1 in 820, the average number for a pregnant woman my age would be 1 in 150. My result for Trisomy - 1 in 9,500, average number - 1 in 100. My result for SCD (don't even know what that test is, Dr. told me that it's pretty new) 1 in 10,000, average number 1 in 250. I also tested negative for a neural test. I'm very relieved. Hopefully I will not PROM with this pregnancy. The result from this pregnancy are so different from the numbers that I got when I was carrying Spencer. Maybe there wasn't anything that I could have done differently to save him. I'll never really know since we didn't do an autopsy. I've been carrying the burden of guilt with me for a while now. Thoughts of 'if only I did this' still cross my mind.
I also asked my Dr. about this growth that I've had on my cheek since I was pregnant with Spencer. It's like a big dangling piece of flesh and I find myself inevertently tweeking with it when I'm bored. Kinda disgusting, I know. I've been calling it Fred. She told me that it's due to hormones and that I can have it taken off by a dermatologist since I'm no longer in my 1st trimester. I made an appointment with someone whom she recommended and Fred will hopefully be off my face come next Tues. I'm going to miss you Fred, but at least I can tie my hair up in a ponytail again.

Week 17

I did my AFP test this morning. Nice and simple. They drew blood and sent it away to a lab. I'll know the results in 10 working days. Now I have to wait for A. to get home so he can give me my second dose of P17 shots. Fun!

I also found out today that my friend Lisa is pregnant. She's about 4 weeks along and is very stressed because she's had 2 miscarriages in the last year. They've been trying to get pregnant for over a year now and has not been able to keep the pregnancies past 8 weeks. I wish her the best and hope that we can both delivery healthy babies come this fall.

Week 16 photos

I received some great looking pictures from last week's U/S and finally got a chance to post them. The details of the baby are amazing. I can make out so much of her features. They really bring into perspective for me that she's alive and thriving. I'm falling more in love with her every day. I pray that she remains healthy and that I can carry her full-term with no complications. Almost half way through the pregnacy....

Check out this 4D U/S. This picture blew me away. She's so fully developed and cute!

16 weeks update.

I still sick but I'm down to a nasty cough. Just saw my perinatologist today. Everything looks good. My cervix is long (5 cm) and the baby looks healthy, measuring at 5 ounces currently. They measured her size from head to toes (literally). No signs of Downs or any other defects, thank goodness. My peri has the baby at 16 weeks and 1 day as of today. I think my OB (whom I saw yesterday) has the baby measuring a few days behind so I'm getting different delivery dates from each Dr. I'm going by my peri more just because he has the high-tech machinery. Today is also the big day where I start my P17 shots. I thought the nurse was going to teach A. and then she was going to administer it. But I was wrong. She supervised while A. injected me. I freaked out alittle because it was his first time. I kept on asking if it was possible for him to screw up and inject me with oxygen or draw out blood by mistake. He proved me wrong and did a great job. I barely felt it. He only has to do it 19 more times! hehehehe....

Sick.

I caught Aria's bug and for the last 2 days I've been as sick as a dog. I would get the chills and then the sweats along with a runny nose and some nasty mucus that refused to be coughed up. I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and die. It was so bad yesterday that I told A. to take Aria to work with him because I simply couldn't watch her yesterday. A. was wonderful enough to call into work and take the day off. He also took Aria to my usual mommy & me class in the afternoon so I could get some peace and quite. I wanted to tough it out and not take any over-the-counter medicine for fear of harming the baby but by 6:30 PM I just couldn't handle it anymore. I asked A. to get me some meds. He went our local Walgreens, talked to a pharmacist and found out that I can take 2 regular Tylenol every 8 hours. I took the tablets at 7 and miraculously felt better by 8. Ahh.. the wonders of modern medicine. I thank you.

Shot them up.

Just placed an order for some P17 shots today. They weren't cheap (ran me $130 for 10 weeks of shots). Hopefully, our insurance company will reimburse us for some of the cost. The nurse from my peri's office told me that P17 is not commonly sold at regular drug stores and I will have to get them from a specific pharmacy. She gave me an 800 number and told me that she'll submit my prescription there. It's an out-of-state pharmacy and all I have to do is call in, pay for it and have it mailed to my house. I'm suppose to bring them in, along with A. on my 16 week appointment so that she can train him to administer them to me weekly. Fun. A. told me he doesn't mind doing the injections. Brave man. I personally don't think I can do it to another person. What if I break the needle off once it's inserted into the muscle?! Well, it's a 20 course session, so I better get use to the injections.