Update: May 11th 2017

Updated 5/11/2017

1. May 1st: My Maternity Leave for Work Started, and I am good for PAID maternity leave until August 25th. I am still trying to figure childcare out because my sitter moved/relocated. Such is life.

2. Biophysical Profiles Weekly since April 27th. He scores 8/8 each time. Its so neat to see him practice breathing, and developing each week. On 4/27 he weighed 5lbs, so they are expecting me to deliver around an 8lb baby boy! Big boy! haha. My last 3 biophysical profiles are: May 17th, May 25th and June 1st. Its crazy that we're literally down to 3 weeks!

3. I booked our Maternity Photoshoot with Nicole DeHoff! We are doing our Maternity shoot May 27th at 6:30pm at Headlands Beach! I will be 37 weeks!

4. I had a BEAUTIFUL Mommy and Me Photoshoot with the wonderful Bobbi Frohman on 5/9/2017. To say I teared up when I saw the photos was an understatement. You can see them here: http://bfrohmanimagingdesign.zenfolio.com/p131927202

5. Hospital Tour at Hillcrest: Matt and I will be doing the Hospital Tour at Hillcrest on May 16th 2017 from 11-12pm. This will give him the chance to see the Maternity Suite and ask questions that he may have.

6. I enrolled in something called "Early Headstart" which provides supportive services from pregnancy through age 3 with the baby. Early Headstart is a program for expectant mothers and fathers and families of children birth to three years of age. Services are provided in the home on a weekly basis. Support and guidance is provided to families regarding parenting skills, linkage to available community resources, as well as access to the family resource center. It is totally voluntary. Our worker Nora is amazing. She works on parenting skills, bonding, growth milestones, development, ect. and I think this is amazing refresher for me, but also for Matt. They also make sure that baby is developing as he should and put referrals where they need to go.

In the coming weeks:

- Schedule Pediatrician Appt. We decided for making things easier, we would go with Dr. Rowane, through University Hospitals, which is where Gabby goes. 

- License: I will be avidly working hard to get my license. 

- May 24th, I follow up with my Endocrinologist to prepare for labor/delivery.

- Shooting for June 8th Delivery, if no complications occur.

At some point: 

- Pay off Nicole Dehoff, for the birth photography, fresh 48 ect.

- Nursery Finalized/Finished. (We got to get some things I forget what theyre called, but Matt said we will put them up. Theyre wall mounts or something?)

Fun Facts:

- Viability WAS reached at 24 weeks, on 2/23/2017

- Third Trimester at 27 weeks, on 3/16/2017.

- Baby Lucius is most active at night.

- LOVE Ice. LOVE Spicy. LOVE Lemonade.

See Photos Below

33 Weeks

34 Weeks

35 Weeks; The Last Ultrasound Pic Of Your Sweet Face

38 Weeks <3

Final Birth Plan!! 5/6/2017

So... Some minor changes had to be made because of my risk, so I went ahead and changed what I wanted, and hopefully the hospital will abide by it as best as they can. This is the final birth plan that I made. Matt and my doula agree with it.

3D 4/D Ultrasound

So, as I posted below, we had a 3D/4D Ultrasound again at the same place that did our 16 week, and Matt was able to go to this one as well, and we got a cute bear with his heartbeat inside. :) Below is a video of the ultrasound of our little man.

April 27th Update

Here are my recent updates:

1. On April 20th, I met with the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, and he explained to me the reason why my back pain is aggravated is because not only do I have sciatica, but I have something called "Somatic Dysfunction of the Sacral and Pelvic Region Secondary to Sacroilliac Joint Dysfunction" basically, this is a fancy way of saying my hips, and legs are improperly aligned, causing pain, and issues in my lower back. He did some stretching and manipulation and it helped! I see him back on May 11th for follow up. He said the hormone relaxin is typically to blame here.

2. April 26th: We had our 3D 4D Ultrasound at 4D Peak of Cleveland, and it was amazing to see the little guy growing! We got to see him smirking, but he had his foot by his face! We got a CD with images, DVD with video, and his heartbeat in a teddy bear! It was an amazing experience! (I promise I'll post photos of this shortly!)

3. April 27th: I started my weekly biophysical profile ultrasounds today. Lucius scored an 8/8 apparently he loves Caramel Frappacinos too, because he was all over the place moving haha. A BPP test may include a nonstress test with electronic fetal heart monitoring and a fetal ultrasound. The BPP measures your baby's heart rate, muscle tone, movement, breathing, and the amount of amniotic fluid around your baby. Basically, a fancier form of an ultrasound, and they have to score 8/8 ideally, but if 6/8 is scored, an NST is done, anything less than 6/8, is immediate observation at the hospital, for a few days. These will be done every week. So I go back next week for another scan. (See photos below)

Hem/Onc Update - April 18 2017

Hematology/Oncology Update for April 18 2017: CBC, CMP, TSH, and a few other labs were drawn. These labs show:
1. I am fighting some kind of infection
2. I am severely iron deficient.
3. My steroids likely need adjusting if this keeps up because of the fact that my electrolytes are off. This could be potentially dangerous with my Addisons, will talk to Endocrinology about this.
4. She is watching the blood cell counts, because of my past history with chemo, radiation, bone marrow transplant, and leukemia, but she doesn't think that is the issue right now. She feels that the blood counts are all over because of the underlying deficiencies.
5. I am pregnant, so my body is under stress.
She wants me to:
- Get Colace 100mg, use it twice daily. Also get Sennakot S, 2 tabs at bedtime (this is safer than a whole bottle of miralax, but she said she understands why I did that after not shitting for a month)
- Stop the Ferrous Sulfate 325 twice a day. Changing me to Iron Polysacharides. Gentler on the stomach. 150mg, twice a day. She wants me to continue the IV Iron Infusions.
- Recheck Labs, do a CBC Differential, and Comp Metabolic, on 5/1 and 5/15
- Stay on my Lovonox twice a day. Hold the dose on June 7th and 8th, and restart after delivery for 6 weeks.
And follow up in 3 months, post partum.
She mentioned I will likely need to continue iron treatment, because breastfeeding depletes iron in the body. So I am going to have to do that, and continue that. She also said that she wants to refer to GI postpartum to get a colonoscopy done, and deal with the hemorrhoid issues, and bleeding in that area since mine are prolapsed

April 18th 2017 - Update

April 18th 2017: Today, I saw my OB for my routine OB appt. I weighed 240lbs. Not happy about this, as I worked so hard to get down to 230s in early pregnancy, but its likely due to the baby gaining weight, and I can work it off. I just hope and pray I don't get back to 254 :/ It was decided that I will be starting on a long lasting insulin in the evening time to help with high blood sugars in the PM/AM. My fasting blood sugars have been high (130s) so the thought is that the placenta is making more hormones and affecting the way my body processes blood glucose and therefore making me more insulin resistant. I also found out that Insulin is the reason that I am having the severe itching. I am allergic to latex and they have latex in them as a preservative. Unfortunately the need for insulin outweighs not taking it. No idea why pharmaceutical companies would do that with all the people who have latex allergies like I do. But it was good to have an answer. I am still on the short lasting insulin with meals in dinnertime (Humalog) the thought is that between the short and long lasting insulin we can control my diabetes better. Baby Lucius had a heart rate of 148 today. Biophysical Profiles start next week, weekly scans. They will be looking to see how fluid levels are, and how active the baby is. Induction Day is set for June 8th. Have I mentioned my family has an odd thing with dates? More specifically birth dates and death dates. This is Matt and I's anniversary date as well, so if all goes as planned, our son will share this with us. She did say it could change if there is any problems or complications like low fluid levels ect but to have everyone prepare for June 8th. IV iron infusions. I will continue these and discuss with Hem/Onc later today. Got my iron infusion at the hospital today. They want me to stop the Iron Pill because it's not beneficial to me if I am not having BMs every day to every other day and not going for a month. She said it's normal that I have the hemorrhoid issue as a result and to continue to use Vaseline and preparation h. I meet with my Hematologist/Oncologist later this afternoon to get labs, and to discuss changing from Lovonox to Heparin as well as the Iron Deficiency Anemia. I'll update with another note after the appointment.

Officially Hired The Doula!

April 9 2017: Officially hired the doula, aka the balance for services is paid off. I am excited about this :) if anyone needs a doula, I recommend Vivi Mack! Shes amazing! I also finished payment plan for my BaboCush. Its a fancy item that is proven to help with colic and reflux :) We shall see how it works.