It's a . . .

NOT a girl!! I guess the Chinese gender charts, old wives tales tests, and gut feelings I was having were all WRONG because we are having a boy! Michael and I couldn't be happier, though our main wish is for a healthy baby. Michael is especially excited and has already begun to plot the racetrack that is going to go in our back yard. There's no telling what kind of trouble he and his little "mini-me" will get into!

We weren't supposed to find out for another three weeks, but my blood pressure has been really high lately. The doctor wanted me to come in to check things out. She ran some tests and I should hear the results soon. Today it was fluctuating from slightly high to low. She mentioned I could just have a virus, or if I have high blood pressure, they will have to put me on medicine. This early, its not too big of a deal. Later on it could be if medication does not get it under control. Anyway, my heart rate was also high so they wanted to check the baby and in the process were able to tell that its a boy!

During the ultrasound, he put his little hand up to his face and yawned! It was so cute! The technician got a picture of it, but it turned out to look NOTHING like what I saw! I saw his little 3D face moving and the picture showed his little skull yawning! Looks kind of scary, but if you use your imagination you can imagine how cute it was!

We got a facial profile. Everything on the baby looks normal and healthy. Good, steady heart rate. All of the organs and heart seem to be doing well, though we will get a more detailed scan in three weeks. And, we got numerous bottom shots, which the doctor also confirm looked like a boy. So, two professionals agree that it looks like a boy. They said they are 90% sure and in three weeks we will be 100% sure. I don't think you can really mistake that for a girl though.

Well, I am really tired and am trying to get my energy back for going back to work on Monday. In the mean time, here are some 16 week ultrasound pics!

Love,

Natalie

Old Wives tales, chinese gender charts, etc.,

According to the Chinese gender chart calendar, we are having a girl.
According to the old wives's tales online test, we are having a girl.
Childbirth.org gender quiz says its a girl.
The ultrasound pictures of 15 week girls and older online look like our baby. :) http://pregnancy.about.com/od/boyorgirl/a/girlboyultras.htm
http://pregnancy.about.com/cs/ultrasounds/l/blusq1q1.htm
Therefore, I THINK IT'S probably A GIRL. :)

I'll be happy whatever it is, as long as it is healthy.

Our baby-moon was very nice with the exception that we went to escape cold weather and Charleston had unusually COLD weather for them. All the locals were saying "It NEVER gets this cold here!" It was better than TN was while we were gone, but still too cold for my taste. It was still nice to see GREEN trees, PALM TREES, GREEN grass, and GREEN leaves. I HATE the dead winter here. It's so depressing. Everything is brown, grey and DEAD. We saw dolphins THREE times on Saturday - once REALLY close and Michael found a HUGE shark tooth on the beach. I've never seen one this big. I wore myself out on Saturday, but I think I am making progress. I was more active than I have been in the past few months. But, Sunday, I paid for it and had to crash until the afternoon.

I have JUST recently gotten my appetite to sort of come back to where I am eating solid foods again. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Our baby is either a reincarnated Japanese person and is going to LOVE seafood or will be so sick of it and HATE it. (Do they make Gerber baby food in seafood flavors? That just doesn't sound right. EW!) I have been craving TONS of shushi (being preggers - can't have raw meat, so I eat the veggie stuff or the kind with the cooked crab meat), and steamed Oysters and shrimp!! I had so many steamed oysters with cocktail and hot sauce at the beach! It's all I wanted! I've also been craving lots of orange juice (they say that means you are having a girl), avocados, bananas, and tacos. I definitely have entered the weird cravings stage. Speaking of which, its lunch time and I'm getting hungry! Will it be drive through seafood or sushi from Kroger???

Boy or Girl? You decide!

We went back to the doctor's office again. It's still a little early to accurately determine the baby's sex, but from what we saw today, it's PROBABLY a girl. Don't rush out and buy anything pink yet. We return on the 19th of February to find out for sure. Everything looks healthy and normal. The baby is A LOT bigger and I'm showing a little now. Heart rate was good. Baby was moving around and didn't want to sit still to have her(or his) picture made. (Sound like anybody you know?) Anyway, we will keep you updated. In the mean time, here is a picture of our baby's bottom and legs for you to ponder over if you want to try to guess. :) We'll be out of touch until Tuesday. We are taking a much needed break.

Mom's going home!

I just spoke to Dad and Mom and she is being discharged! YEAH!!! I left a list of questions for Dad to ask the doctor. I'm a stickler when it comes to wanting details and answers. They spoke to the cardiologist today and everything looks fine. The doctor assured my Dad that it is normal and common for there to be short term memory loss after anaphylactic shock and that it would be extremely rare for her to NOT recover fully and regain her short term memory abilities within the next few weeks. YEAH!!! (I wish they had told us that sooner rather than "it COULD be this or it COULD be that" - "No way to tell right now" !!) They also said that the tests indicated that there was NO significant damage to the brain and so when she stopped breathing it would not have been for long enough to do any harm. DOUBLE YEAH!!! She still has trouble remembering things from one hour to the next. (This is a BIG improvement from Saturday when she couldn't remember 5 minutes to the next!) She can carry on a normal conversation and you probably wouldn't even notice she's been affected unless you gave her a quiz over the past two days. The only issue is that if you call her or visit, she might remember tomorrow or she might not. But either way I know she appreciates your thoughts and prayers . . . and so do we! Thanks for your support!! Please continue to pray that she has a steady recovery. :)

Mom's trip to ICU - please pray!

Friday, my Mom was suffering from a sinus infection and took a decongestant (Advil Cold & Sinus). After she went to the doctor, she took an anti-biotic (Keflex - a derivative of Penicillin). She had been prescribed that medication before and had not ever negatively reacted to it. Within 7 minutes of taking the anti-biotic, she passed out and could not breathe. Dad had to call and ambulance and they too her to the Jefferson City ER. Her airways swelled up, she stopped breathing and had to have the help of a device to open her air passages. Her body went into anaphylactic shock and began shutting down.

In the ER, a team of 8 doctors, nurses, and specialists were able to get her back on track and she actually stabilized on her own. She was unconscious all Friday. Saturday we went to visit her in the ICU. She was doing better with the exception of her short term memory. The shock caused trauma that affected all parts of her body and organs, including her short term memory. They think it is temporary but they have no way of knowing at this point. She would frequently ask what day it was, where she was, how she got there, etc. and then ask the same questions again 5 minutes later because she couldn't remember asking before. We visited her all day but by the end of the day she didn't remember any of it, anyone who had come by, etc. :( The doctor's said the medication she is on should not be causing this. I'm thankful that she is alive, but I still hope I get my Mama back.

I talked to Dad yet this morning and they said she is being moved to a room today (Sunday) and they are keeping her overnight again. They want to continue monitoring her heart. Her short term memory is still not working yet. The ICU nurse said at this point, her memory is a secondary concern and that we should just be thankful that she is alive. He said if my Dad had not been there and called 911 when he did, she would not still be with us. So, PRAISE - It wasn't Mom's time to go! Prayer - Please help her get better and get her mind back! She's got to be a grandma!

A better sound video of baby's heartbeat

This heartbeat is MUCH clearer. ;)

This is a good example of what happens when I have too much time on my hands.

Baby's heart beat - staticky

I'm going to fix this. It irritates me. You can barely hear it, but on my PC version you can.

Finally feeling a little better

Well, after another serious bout of sickness and vomiting, we thought we were going to the ER a THIRD time. I probably should have gone because I was throwing up liquids for over 24 hours and couldn't keep down my Phenergan or Reglan, but I REALLY didn't want to go back AGAIN. So, I eventually was able to drink half a glass of water and felt I would be ok. Then, I got a super migraine that left me completely incapacitated for two and a half days. Normally I can take a migraine pill, then shortly thereafter begin to function again. But, tylenol just doesn't do any good when it comes to migraines. After lots of sleep, cold packs, rest, and fluids, I finally started feeling better today - only super duper tired. Today I got out of the house for the first time in over a week. We just went to Lowe's really quick, but I was exhausted! Hopefully now that I am not feeling sick I will STAY THAT WAY and I can start taking little walks and get out more often. I'm starting to feel like a prisoner in my own home!

The fetal heart monitor works! After several minutes of searching we were able to locate the baby's heart beat. We've used it several times and enjoy being reminded that "there's something in there!" It's kind of funny because you can tell the baby is moving around in there and you have to move the probe to follow it! (It's hiding!) Michael says one day the baby is going to take revenge and say "Quit poking me with that thing!" and KICK the probe really hard so it makes a loud sound and scares me. We recorded it onto the computer, but the transmission was really static-filled. So, if we figure out how to post it, we will. Hopefully I can find a way to magically clean up the sound.

I had another doctor's visit last Wednesday. The doctor feels that it would be best for me to wait another month before returning to work. That kind of surprised me. I was hoping to be better sooner than a month from now. I got to start taking my medication yesterday again (some of it) so it will be awhile before it kicks in and I start feeling myself again. Before that point, he feels the stress and anxiety (mainly my ability to handle it without medication) of teaching and working would be too much for me right now. It has a tendency to take a physical tole on me that I normally wouldn't feel. He also said that the stress could be harmful for the baby so its best to wait until we get all that under control and stay away from as much stress as possible. Thank goodness for AFLAC! It only lasts for three months though so I've got to get back to normal soon! I'll be so happy to get out of the house again.

Well, that's all of the updates so far. I think things are slowly getting better. Michael has been working on the house trying to finish up projects. He stripped and refinished the front doors (while I was gone), put laminate floors down, put knock down in the bathroom downstairs and re-painted, added crown molding around the columns in the living room, and painted the 70's melon gold bath tiles and tub white. The bath and tub tiles look like they have always been white! It's amazing! You can't even tell! Now he is just going back and laying quarter round, filling some spaces with wood filler, and touching up door frames and baseboards. Once he gets that finished we picked out some colors to paint the bathrooms. We are going to paint the upstairs bathroom tiles (currently avocado green) white and replace the vanity in Michael's bathroom. (Halls salvage has some awesome deals!) We are going to tear out the green tiles around the floor and replace them with baseboards. But, he knows he's not allowed to start any new projects until all of this is finished first. :) One thing at a time (or I'll go crazy). We made a "to do" check-list of everything that has to get finished FIRST and put it on the refrigerator. It really helped speed things up because it gives Michael something tangible to look at and accomplish. Of course, my personal theory is that all men need personal secretaries to help them stay focused and organized. What's that saying? . . . "Behind every good man stands a good woman?" (hee hee). It's NOT a "honey do" list! (The ONLY thing I've requested for the honey do list is painting the bathrooms and replacing the vanity. Michael has lots of drive and comes up with this stuff on his own.) It's a "honey finish" list. All just completing little details and finishing touches. Well, hopefully by the time he gets the list finished (hopefully by next week at the speedy rate he is going) I will feel up to it and can actually help before I get to be the size of a beached whale! We have so much to do before the baby gets here! AGH!! July will be here too soon!