Merry Christmas!

Hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

It's a Boy!

Matthew Charles born 10.07.14 at 4:42 am. 5 lbs 12 oz, 20 inches long.

His birth story is quite a long one, I'm working on get that down before I forget! He is three weeks old today and doing well. We are still in a newborn haze, but slowly figuring this all out. SuSu was here for almost 2 weeks and Charles was on paternity leave until late last week, which was fantastic.

We are in love!

Pickled Peaches Update 34 Weeks

Hi everyone,

I know it's been a while since the last update. Suffice to say that this point, no news is good news and if that changes, we'll let you know!  I'll be 35 weeks on Sunday and so as long as we keep trucking along as things are now, then we'll make it to 39 weeks. 

The longer version is this...

First of all, baby is fine.  Last growth scan was last Monday (the 15th), when I was 33 weeks and 1 day and they estimated the baby was 4 lbs 14 oz, 53rd percentile.  If you're keeping track, that means that at almost the same point in my pregnancy (Emmy was born at 33 weeks and 2 days) this baby already weighed a lot more than Emmy did, in fact almost a whole pound more than Emmy when she came HOME from the hospital. By now since it's been 10 days it's probably safe to assume this baby is double Emmy's birth weight, and is a lot bigger than Sara Hawley was, too.

So, all good things.  Baby does pretty well during the NSTs.  They should call those "piss off your baby" tests because if the baby is sleeping, you have to wake them up to get them to move around so they can see the acceptable number of accelerations and decelerations of the heartbeat while I'm on the monitor, and sometimes they just doesn't want to wiggle on demand! Poor kid.  I'm trying to make sure I've eaten and drunk a lot when I go in to motivate them to move. And playing music usually gets them going. 

And no, we still do not know the baby's gender.  Seriously!   Emmy thinks it's a boy. I say girl. Charles has no opinion on the matter.  Seems most people seem to think boy. Guess we'll see soon enough!

As for me, things are ok, I passed my 3 hour glucose so that is fortunately not a worry. But now my blood pressure has crept up. It was great on a Friday and up on a Monday to the point they were concerned about preeclampsia.  I know they said to expect that it may creep up, and I know there's nothing I can really do about it. My primary doctor in the group I saw today (having seen some of the others in the last few times) and he's really not concerned. No, it's not good readings, but it's normal for where we are.  The doc last week increased my medicine dosage, which lowered it a tiny bit and delightfully has the side effect of making my feet swell up like crazy, which is unattractive and unpleasant. Oh well. I can do this, right? (For the record none of the doctors are alarmist or super concerned, but Dr. L just has a great way of making me feel more at ease.)

I have lab work done each week now to make sure preeclampsia is not creeping it's ugly head in, and of course still the NSTs and a visit with the doctor.  I am on a first name basis with the guy at the valet station at the hospital (bonus, the hospital has free valet parking) and he asks me each week how baby is doing.  Very sweet, but I will be glad not to have to go twice a week soon.

The ups and downs get to me, I really won't feel "ok" until this baby is out of me, but I also know it's best for them to keep baking until he/she decides it's time to come out, which hopefully will be just before we face an induction. The baby and I talk about this on a daily basis. :) I (we) are trying hard to focus on being positive.

So there is where we are! Just a few more weeks to go!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Hugs,
Beth

Pickled Peaches Update 29 weeks

Hi folks,

Today was another growth scan. I am 29 weeks and the baby was measuring roughly 3 lbs 5 oz, still around 65th percentile (I think, I didn't specifically ask but the ultrasound tech said that is what his/her belly measured.

The doctor was happy with pretty much everything, which I was honestly not expecting because my BP has been up more at home (which is to be expected but still bugs me and freaks me out bc it happened with SH). But it was quite low in the office, which leads us to wonder if our machine needing new batteries has been affecting it.

Anyways, as expected, I will begin bi-weekly (yes, twice a week) Non-Stress Tests at 32 weeks, so the week of 9/8, which just means I have to go in 2 days a week and get hooked up to the monitor while they check the baby's heart rate and movement. One of those days they will do a quick ultrasound to check fluid level and position (I think, this is what they checked in the past). 

I go back on Monday, Sept 15th for my next growth scan and OB appointment.

That's about all there is to report right now. These few weeks are tough, we are at the time when I started to worry something was wrong during my pregnancy with SH (not to mention with Emmy at this point I was on bedrest and soon in the hospital), and needless to say while my public face is fine, it's really, really hard for us. So we continue to covet your prayers and love. Forgive me if I'm slow to respond these days for that reason. (Emmy is also on a break between camp at her preschool and starting kindergarten next week so we are together a lot...anyone know of any day time baby-sitters in Colorado Springs? All of ours have gone back to work full time or off to college, yikes!)  We don't want this baby to come early, believe me, but I would like to fast forward if not the whole 10 weeks, at least the next few!

Also pray I pass another 3 hour glucose tolerance test this week. Not sure I can handle that complication at this point! (Although the doctor seemed completely unworried about it either way.) I would just like some total "normalcy" (whatever that means...)

There are a surprising number of our family and friends dealing with difficult illnesses, injuries or deaths in their families, so please know our prayers are with you. We love you all.

Hugs,
Beth

P.S. I promise I will put pictures on the blog soon. No, really, I will...

Pickled Peaches Update - 25 Weeks

Tuesday I went for my growth scan. Pickled Peaches is a healthy 1 lb 15 oz (roughly) and is 65th percentile.

My next scan is in exactly 4 weeks, on Tuesday, Aug. 19th at 1 pm Mountain Time. Mark your calendar now!

The doctor was very pleased with everything. Growth is good, my blood pressure is quite low for me during a pregnancy, almost to the point of taking me off my medication. He even offered to go 6 weeks for the next scan, but I said I would feel better leaving it at 4 weeks. The 24 week to 28 week scans are when Sara Hawley's growth dropped significantly, so I don't want to go so long.  He was fine with that.

I never updated the blog afterwards, but I did pass my 3 hour glucose tolerance with flying colors, no concern there. I still have to do the requisite 28ish week 1 hour to make sure nothing has changed, but I told him I'd eat some bacon before or something, which he found amusing. 

Also, when we last left off I was having to have the Sequential Screen re-drawn.  Those results came back and I have low risk for all the genetic issues it tests for. Most notably, my AFPs (alfa feta proteins) are "spot on normal", quite different from both Emmy and SH.

So basically for these high risk doctors, at this point I'm pretty boring, which is what we want to hear!

The tech today really tried to get some good shots of baby's face, and these are some of the best we've seen!  Not quite as alien baby looking as most of them are. Baby was snuggled up against the placenta, so it was hard to get the full face, but still pretty good. You can see that cute nose and those lips! These are just photos of the print outs I took with my phone, so we'll try to scan them in and update this post so the pictures are clearer. For those that aren't freaked out by ultrasound photos. :)

Pickled Peaches update - 20 weeks

First of all, if you asked to be included in the email updates and did not get an email from me, please let me know. Some people told me in person or in a different email so I'm afraid I forgot some folks.

I had my 20 week appointment today. Here's the short of it: so far, so good.  The baby looks good. This was the big anatomy scan, when they spend lots of time looking everything in great detail and heart, face, arms, legs, 10 fingers and toes, etc. all look good. Baby was moving around and uncooperative at times, and also adorably had his/her hands up by their face some of the time, just like Emmy used to.

We did not find out the gender, sorry to disappoint, we all have to wait! :)

The long of it: I really won't feel good until they hand me a healthy baby. I was hoping for some sort of huge relief when I walked out, but I don't feel that way.  The baby is measuring 89th percentile, that's quite big!  But Sara Hawley measured 80th at 20 weeks, then her growth dropped, so I don't put a lot of stock in it right now. There is still notching in one of my uterine arteries but probably not in the other, so we can't rule that complication out. It can be an indication of high blood pressure (which I have, but is well controlled with meds right now), Intrauterine Growth Restriction, and a host of other things. You can read more about that here or here.

The lab screwed up royally and failed to draw the 2nd set of blood tests (the sequential screen, it's called), which would include the AFP levels (alphafetaprotein, high with both Emmy and SH) and another level which could be useful in evaluating placental function. So I go get that drawn tomorrow, it's actually almost too late to have it done. Frustrating for me and the doctor. 

The lab has proved to be frustrating for me on more than one occasion, so I'm doubly not looking forward to going tomorrow for a 3 hr Glucose tolerance test. I was right on the borderline with my 1 hr test in May (to test for gestational diabetes) so I have to go do this one. I actually am mad at myself, I drank a protein shake the morning i went in and I should have chewed my breakfast because those shakes are great but always make me need a snack mid morning so no wonder my body didn't process everything.  If the lab had not screwed up, I'd have completed it 2 days before in the afternoon when I went in to get it done but long story short, they screwed up, so I'm blaming them, too. ;)  So prayers, please, that this is not too miserable (I've heard that it is) and that I pass with flying colors so this is not one more thing for me to worry about.

All that is to say, yes, everything look good today, (uterine arteries aside) but the risks are still there and I'm still scared and I am just going to be.

Alien baby 3D shot, baby kept moving around at this point so it was hard to get a clear picture.

Ok, so maybe it's not adorable, per say, but the little hands are pretty cute! Again, moving baby made it hard to get a good face shot.

Sara Hawley's birthday was last Thursday so that weighs heavily on my mind now, too, I'm sure.  It was hard not to burst into tears during the ultrasound, it's hard to explain.  I'll write more about that and our trip home in a blog post later this week, I'm working on one.  We had a great time visiting with those we could see, so thanks to those who hosted or drove to visit. It was a fun, but tiring trip!

Thanks for your continued prayers and good wishes.  Keep them coming!

Love to all,
Beth

Emmy turns Five

Emmy turned five on Thursday! More pictures are in the Picasa album. 

She was up at 6:30 ready to open presents.  She got a new bike with pedals (she has had a balance bike for a couple of years) with a basket and a bell for it, and a new game.

 After school we met Keaton, Adelaide, Lorelei and Miss Beth for lunch at Chick-Fil-A (her choice) and shared mini cupcakes from a local cupcake bakery with them. She requested their lemonade flavor and Mommy and Pickled Peaches requested the chocolate with peanut butter frosting.  She had a busy day of phone calls, Skype/FaceTime calls and trying out her new bike. She requested her favorite shepherd's pie potatoes for supper, topped off with of course another cupcake and the annual birthday sign photos.

And today (which is also Grandma's birthday, Happy Birthday Grandma!) we had her Cooking Birthday Party. This Mama is tired but it was a success, so far as I can tell. There were in the end, I think, 22 children here today and it was chaos, but not terribly so. Everyone seemed to have fun, the kids enjoyed making pizzas and decorating cupcakes and their fruit and veggies with ranch and strawberry lemonade, especially requested by the birthday girl. The adults seemed enjoyed their food (antipasto platter, Ms. Barbara Lee's sun dried tomato dip with veggies and crackers, caramelized onion and goat cheese bread, pizzas, mimosas, beer and tea) and a some even enjoyed making their own pizzas, too.

I did a terrible job of remembering to take photos, it was too crazy. Fortunately my friend Lindsay snapped a few after I set my camera down.   Here are some photos and more details about the party.

 I feel like I got a lot of questions this year about how we came up with the idea, so for anyone interested, here is a more details on the plan, if you really want to know. 

Emmy loves Curious George and one of her favorite stories is Curious George and the Pizza Party. So that is where the basic idea came from.  I knew with so many kids invited/coming that actually measuring, mixing, and cooking would be hard, so I saved time and sanity and we made biscuit pizzas, a'la 7th grade Home Economics.   We prepped all the toppings earlier in the week: marinara, mozzarella, parm, hamburger, onions, peppers, mushrooms (fresh, but sauteed before hand), Canadian bacon, and of course pepperoni, the mini kind were fun for the small pizzas. I put some of the toppings in muffin tins and cheese and sauce in big bowls and gave each child a parchment (intended to line cake pans) and wrote their name on it so they could go right on the baking sheets and we would know which pizza belonged to whom. It worked perfectly! I had them come in to make them in shifts since my kitchen is not that big! More counter space would have made the whole day a lot less hectic, but it worked fine and my awesome husband some of the other mom friends of mine helped out a ton (thank you!!).

The cake idea came from another blog.  Sarah designed the fabulous invitations again this year, as well as the recipe card for the favors. I found red aprons at Hobby Lobby for each child (thanks Mom, Mrs. Raney, and Mary Ann for sending them from SC and GA when HL ran out online and I couldn't get enough at our local stores!). I ordered paper chef hats, as well as a set of small rolling pins so several kids could roll their dough at the same time.   For the favor bags, Emmy and I stamped the bags with cooking stamps and a thank you stamp. I wrote the note on the bags and she stamped, it was a fun project. This way each child had a bag to take their apron, hat and favor home in. The favors were cookie cutters with a recipe for play dough attached. I managed to get the bags on sale, as well as the thank you stamp and I already had ink pads, so it was really all a fairly inexpensive project.

For the apron cake, I made the Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake and baked it in a 13X9 (delish) and used my usual butter cream.  My friend Sara recommended a yellow cake recipe to me, and I'm so glad she did! I have been looking for a good yellow cake and it was delish, and so was her chocolate butter cream. I didn't take any pictures of the cupcake decorating, sadly, but here are the last few rejects that I slapped the leftover frosting on. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting is one of my favorites. Thanks Sara!

One of my favorite budget friendly finds were the drink cups, small red solo cups with lids. Score! They came with straws, but I used the red and white and blue and white striped straws I'd already purchased.  It worked perfectly and I was able to write names on the cups in advance.  Juice boxes, in my opinion, always make a mess because the kids squeeze them and they spill, plus they suck one down so you need to count on two per child, which gets expensive.  This was a great, cheaper, spill friendly alternative.  And they are recyclable, so after the party I just rinsed them and tossed them in the recycling bin.

So there you go, far more than you wanted to know about Emmy's 5th birthday party!