19 weeks!

Baby looks good and he's all boy! Alexei is happy he's not getting yet another little sister. I had a high-risk appt with the hospital a couple of weeks ago and everything was looking fine. The perinatologist says I have a 50% chance of the pre-e recurring and a 20% chance of the HELLP recurring. The placenta problems are a wild card. Then yesterday I had an appointment with my OB and had the big 4-D u/s. He looked so beautiful in there but the tech didn't give me any printouts and my DVD of the session was blank! I'm still waiting to see how we fix this. My weight is up to 169, blood pressure at 126/88. That worries me a hair.

boring 15 week appointment

Yeah, sorry, it's a boring update. I was really nervous going in and didn't sleep much at all last night, since I haven't felt the baby moving at all lately. But, the doctor found the heartbeat right away in the 150's and that was a huge relief! I've been driving myself crazy this past week and I'm glad everything is fine. Other than that, my blood pressure is still really good at 103/70, so far in this pregnancy I've only gained 1 pound (I'm at 163), and no protein in my urine. We get to go in four weeks (Aug 4th) for the big u/s! I'm excited about that. I also am supposed to have a high-risk consult to go over my history with a specialist and get a better feel for the odds of getting sick/placenta issues/having a preemie again. The high-risk place is supposed to call me in the next few days with an appointment. DH will be thrilled, he hates having to deal with the kids if I have an appointment (the high risk center is at our local women's hospital where Coral lived for 6 weeks, it is in downtown Orlando and there's no way I'm making that drive by myself - yes, I am a big driving weenie!) But I have no sympathy, I took all 3 of them with me this morning. We came home and everyone had ice cream cones as a thank you at 9:45 in the morning. I am not above bribery!

11 weeks and counting!

Well today's appointment was fairly uneventful. I had the nuchal scan first and everything looks perfectly normal - I'm 11 weeks and 3 days today. Baby was wiggling all over the place and DH and the kids came along this time and the kids were surprisingly fascinated. We could see all the important parts and everything was fine. Then I got drained of blood and had my vitals taken - my bp is still good at 123/66 and I gained weight for the first time. Then I finally saw my OB and he was really reassuring. We talked about how I've been feeling, and there isn't really anything to be done right now other than to stay hydrated and rest when I feel I need to, etc etc. He did say a lot of my feelings are probably stress-related and it was understandable. He promised they'll be keeping a close watch on everything and that if I ever have any concerns to please don't ever feel silly for calling or coming in. It was really nice - his wife actually had their 4th at 34 weeks while Coral was in the NICU and our babies were in the same hospital. We saw a LOT of each other in the hospital cafeteria! So, I don't feel any better physically but it's nice to know that I can talk to him and he cares. 

finally!

Whew! I am finally getting back to myself and wanted to share the u/s photo from yesterday. Speck is doing great! We finally saw a heartbeat and it was a good strong 161 bpm. He/she is measuring right on target again and is still due Dec. 25th. My b/p was actually kind of low at 106/64 but I attribute that to having a stomach virus. I'm maintaining the 4 pound loss and am still at 158. My OB gave me some Phenergan for the nausea/vomiting from the virus and holy crap! That stuff knocked me out for 14 hours. Won't be using that stuff unless there's no other choice!

first ultrasound

And we have a baby! Well, sort of - we have a yolk sac and we sort of saw a baby but it was nearly impossible to get any sort of picture of it. They kept going back and forth between abdominal and vaginal u/s, and the tech finally decided I might be a week less far along than thought. The due date has tentatively been pushed back to Jan 2nd, but I'm going to wait until the next u/s in 2 weeks to see if that changes again before I worry about it. They got a measurement of 6w2d abdominally and 5w5d vaginally. I know for a fact that this baby can't be *too* terribly far behind the due date. I was in there forever! Other than that, all of my bloodwork for liver and kidney function came back great, which was good to hear! So far everything looks good. Can't wait to see an actual baby in 2 weeks :lol: Here's what we can see so far. I'm calling this one Speck LOL.

All the other stuff looks good. I was down to 158, blood pressure was I believe 124/76. Obviously I was wrong last time and the top number was in the 120s, not the 160s.

beta number!!

So I got my beta number today from the blood draw on the 29th. I was either 5w6d or 6 weeks exactly depending on how you calculate things. I'm going to stick with 6 weeks - nice even number and it matches the Christmas due date. That whole dating thing is still so confusing. Anyway, the number was 5371. I think that's right down the middle of normal. We like normal! I go in Tuesday morning for the first ultrasound - looking forward to that!! I should be a day shy of 7 weeks. I have a feeling Monday is really going to drag! Hubby is taking all of Tuesday off because we're taking the kids to a surprise pool party for one of their PE buddies after homeschool PE. I wonder if he'll be brave enough to come to PE and be the only guy?

6 weeks!

I've decided to start blogging again. Why not, right? So I'm 6 weeks today with baby #4. Here's the timeline so far:

BFP on April 19th
1st OB appt on Apr 27th (BP 120/82, weight 162)
labs on Apr 29th (24-hour urine, quantitative beta, progesterone, creatinine plus creatinine clearance, CBC w/differentials, uric acid, ALT, and AFP)

Since I had such horrible problems with Coral - severe pre-eclampsia, HELLP, ICP, placentomegaly, polyhydramnios, premature labor, abruption, and delivery at 30 weeks - my OB is keeping a very close eye on things. Dr. K ordered all the bloodwork from today to get a baseline reading on how well my kidneys and liver are working considering how sick I was last time. She was actually surprised that I didn't have any of this done after I had Coral. I have a 50% chance of developing pre-e again this time. I'm terrified at the thought of winding up on bedrest in the hospital, or having another preemie, especially earlier than Coral was. Six weeks in the NICU was heartbreaking enough. At the same time I feel like such a different person from who I was last pregnancy. Now that I know what can go wrong, I don't feel so passive and so clueless. I know to ask questions and let my doctors know if *anything* feels amiss.

On the day-to-day front, I feel pregnant! Nauseous, upset stomach, fat. Luckily the lab was awesome today and we were in and out in 15 minutes, with one very clean stick. Amazing how I'm the one who does the bloodletting and the kids were the ones who got lollipops and stickers! I'm also looking forward to my first ultrasound next Tuesday!