Only 8 More Days!!!

In only 8 days, Caylee will make her arrival!  In only 8 days, Bryan and I will become parents!  And then, 3 days after that, we'll bring our little girl home and start our lives as a family of three people and two dogs!

Last week we had our last ultrasound, and everything still looks wonderful...except Caylee is definitely running out of room.  Her face in her ultrasound picture was all squished lol.  She measured in at 7.5 lbs at only 36 weeks and 4 days!  Basically, at that point, she was the same size as an average baby at 38 weeks.  My only thought was, well, at least she's slowed down a bit!  At the last ultrasound she was 3 weeks ahead of average and now she's only ahead by a week and a half!  

That said, by the time she's 38 weeks and a couple of days, there is a good chance that Caylee will weigh in somewhere between 8.5 and 9.5 pounds.  This means there is also a good chance she could get stuck coming out.  Add to that her head size and you get a scenario where we can't use a vacuum or forceps to help her if she does get stuck.  Personally, I'm not at all fond of the idea of going through 10+ hours of labor only to have to have a C-Section anyway!  So, we're cutting out all that middle concern and skipping straight to the end!  After talking all of this over with the maternal/fetal specialist and my OBGyn, we went ahead and scheduled a C-Section for August 21st!

And, double-plus bonus, my doctor is going to go ahead and clip my tubes while she's in there!  For a whole variety of reasons, Bryan and I are completely happy with just one little one, and this means I don't have to go back on birth control after the pregnancy.  One less pill a day to take once I'm back on all of my RA meds!

While I continue to enjoy every moment of my pregnancy, Bryan and I sure can't wait to hold our little girl!

Bed Rest

I was so close to making it through this pregnancy without going on bed rest!

At least it's only modified bed rest, meaning I can be in my recliner instead of only in bed, and I can get up to shower and eat!  So, what happened you ask?

Well, it seems our little Caylee is quite a big girl!  Which isn't really a surprise, seeing as I weighed in at 9 lbs 1 ounce and my brother was 9 lbs 5 ounces.  That said, I also have a slightly higher than normal amount of amniotic fluid, the combination of which makes my uterus think that it has finished it's work.  Wrong!  Lol.  Anyway, two and a half weeks ago, I was running around with my cousin Brooke.  We had gone to Babies R Us and had just gotten to Kohl's.  We were having a great time!  And then I had to pee.  

Not to get into overshare territory, but when I was done, I discovered I had some bright red spotting.  I had been feeling crampy off and on all day, but chalked it up to Braxton Hicks contractions.  That said, the spotting had me calling my OBGyn, who immediately had me go to the Perinatal Assessment Center at the hospital.  Brooke was a trooper and called Bryan for me as I drove us to the hospital.  Bryan met us there, and they put me and the baby on the monitors.  Caylee was perfect--strong heartbeat and lots of kicks.  I, on the other hand, was having preterm contractions.  ACTUAL contractions complete with acceleration, not the practice kind.  I guess at least I know what they feel like!

  Fortunately, it was not preterm labor...my cervix hadn't changed at all, nor did it change between my discharge from the hospital and my already-scheduled OBGyn appointment the next day.  Also, by our appointment, the contractions had pretty much stopped.  However, my doctor doesn't want to take any chances (which I very much appreciate!) and has me on bed rest at least through this coming Thursday.  I've been having some Braxton Hicks off and on, but nothing near as painful, consistent, or all over as the preterm contractions, thank goodness!

Bed rest is definitely not high on my list of favorite things ever.  That said, I've been so thankful for my mom and my hubby!  Mom came down every day the first week I was on bed rest and helped me finish getting everything ready for Caylee, including cleaning my house and cooking for Bryan and me.  Bryan has been keeping up with the housework, running errands, cooking, and basically picking up my slack.  And he's been super supportive the whole time!  And then there's Sherry and Blair who came by for lunch, and Julie and Ethan and Lucy who came over for dinner, and all of our other friends who have called and swung by to check on me!  Y'all are awesome!

I've also been thankful the Olympics happened to coincide with my period of enforced idleness!  The Games, especially beach and indoor volleyball and gymnastics, have given me something to focus on.  I've also been working on a couple of knitting projects.  Basically, at this point, it's a waiting game until Caylee gets here!

Here are the knitting projects helping to maintain my sanity:

Lucy's Blanket!

Caylee's Coming Home Hat!

7ish Weeks To Go!

I cannot believe that we only have about 7 weeks until Caylee makes her arrival!

I think, however, that she can more than believe it--she seems to be getting frustrated with the rapidly decreasing amount of space available to her.  How can I tell?  Well, she sure is kicking and moving up a storm AND she loves playing "shove the squishy things" with my internal organs.

While she's busy rearranging mommy's insides, Bryan and I are busy rearranging and preparing everything in the house for her arrival.  On June 16th, my mom and Vic threw me a wonderful baby shower for my side of the family and a few of my closest friends.  Mom treated me and Vic to a nail salon visit the day before, and before that Vic went to Target with me to help me pick out a pretty dress!  We easily had 25-30 people come...and it's a good thing we all like each other because it made my house very cozy very quickly!  It was an absolute blast!  Everyone was overwhelming generous in their gifts to Caylee--she is going to be one of the most well-outfitted kiddos ever!  I didn't take many pictures, but I know others did.  For now, I only have one of the picture collages that my mom made!  This collage has my Aunt Candy, cousins Brooke and Jenna Kay, my Nanny and Gan Gan and mama, and Kel, Vic, and Bryanne-Michelle--sister-in-law and best friends, all of whom were bridesmaids at our wedding!   Oh, and I'm in there too!

So, I've been doing lots of baby laundry and folding and sorting lots of tiny little baby clothes.  It's so much fun!!!  I also made a grocery store discovery:  Kroger's Baby Detergent has the same ingredients as Dreft for 1/3 of the cost!  As of right now, all of the clean clothes are living in Caylee's pack n play, waiting for me to put them in their dresser drawers.  

That organizational task is next week's big job, since her furniture arrived last weekend and, thanks to Bryan and Uncle Ethan, has been placed and assembled in her nursery!  Here's a picture of the beautiful crib Caylee's Grandpa and Grandma bought her!

 And while I didn't get to do much hands-on helping, I did take lots of pictures of Caylee's daddy assembling her crib!

The finished product is beautiful...all that's missing is Caylee!  She has a group of friends waiting on her, including her monkeys, giraffe, Aggie sock monkey, and her incredible Totoro, made for her by our amazing friend Ruth! 

The nursery is coming together nicely.  Now, to get the rest of that done, and the rest of the house ready too!

Don't Do Stupid Things OR Why Standing On Chairs Is Bad

Let me start off by saying that Caylee is just fine.  With that *ahem* reassuring comment, I will now share my moment of brilliant stupidity from last week.

Last Monday, Bryan came home from work and then left again to go to the gym for his Monday run.  I planned out when I would start dinner to coincide with his return, and then took the pups outside.  It was a very pleasant evening, compared the the scorchers we had had/are having, and the sea breeze was blowing very nicely.  The only thing missing was the sound of my bamboo wind chimes, which I had taken down the week before.  I decided that I was going to hang them back up.  Bryan had been gone all of about 2 minutes at this point.  Did I think about waiting until he got home?  No.  Why?  I'm a capable and self-sufficient woman, after all.  Did I go back inside and get the step ladder?  No.  It didn't even cross my mind.  After all, I had stood on our outdoor chairs many times before without incident.

You see where this is heading, don't you?  I wish I had lol.

So, I climbed up on one of the chairs on the back porch, wind chime in hand.  Just as I was stretching up to hang the wind chime back on it's hook...well...

Yep.  The damn chair ripped on me.  I was going down.  The only thoughts in my head were "Don't land on the baby" and "Get off the concrete".  Somehow, I managed to accomplish both directives.  Someone was definitely watching out for me.  I managed to kick free of the chair/death trap, get both feet on the concrete long enough to direct my fall towards the grass, avoid the post that holds the porch up AND the pointed picket fence around the flower bed, and managed to twist so that Caylee did not get squished.  So, how did I land, you ask?

I executed an amazing pile drive maneuver to the ground using...my right shoulder.  And man did it hurt!  As I hit, I heard an unpleasant crunching sound.  I laid on the ground for a minute, and then fished my phone (miraculously unbroken) out of my pocket and called Bryan.

He hadn't yet made it to the gym...meaning all of this took place within 5 minutes of his leaving the house.  He probably broke some traffic laws to get back to me, but get back quickly he did.  He scooped me up and got me to the ER, where they took me straight back on account of Caylee.  They found her heartbeat immediately, which was good and strong, and proceeded to diagnose me with a mild fracture of the humerus.  Then, they sent us upstairs to antepartum, where monitors for Caylee and uterine activity were put on my belly.  Bryan and I were so relieved when we heard that her heartbeat was going strong, and that I wasn't having any contractions.  Luckily, my OB was the doctor on call, and after evaluating the data, she had them monitor us for another hour and then send us home.

We followed up with my new orthopedic surgeon, who confirmed the break and put me in a stylish immobilization sling...that is also hot as hell.  Fortunately, I don't need surgery, which, thanks to RA damage, would be necessary if I had landed on any other right-sided joint.

Our follow up with my OB went well, and this Friday we have our third trimester ultrasound with my maternal/fetal specialist.  I have no doubt that Caylee is fine--her heart rate at the OB's was awesome, and she's been kicking around more strongly every day--but I can't wait to see her and hear for sure that she's wonderful.

So anyway, that was my moment of brilliant stupidity.  Bryan has been very helpful, even offering to tie me in my lazy boy until Caylee gets here lol.  The sad thing is, once he sits me down in it and puts my feet up, I can't operate the lever anyway, so no rope would actually be necessary!  I don't blame him for giving me a hard time--I totally have it coming.

In conclusion, here are the lessons I have learned:

When you are pregnant, doing stupid things will get you hurt and made fun of...and you will completely deserve it.

Asking for help is not a bad thing.

Chairs are plotting, devious bastards.

Wind chimes bounce surprisingly well.

I, however, do not bounce well at all these days.

And also, that I have amazing family and friends who were all willing to drop everything to come help if I needed it.  Thanks y'all!

Caylee Projects!

Time is going by waaay to quickly!! I mean, heck, it's already June and baby girl will be here in August!  So, having realized that, I've been working to get some baby projects done before Caylee's arrival.  While the RA has not let me complete NEAR as many projects for Caylee, here are some that I have been able to finish!  Or at least start!

This will be Caylee's first beanie!  And yes, I made the pom pom myself!

This will be a fun hat for her when she's a little older...the pattern ended up being much bigger than I had anticipated.  This was my first knit-in-the-round project, and I modified the heck out of the pattern as I went, which might have had something to do with the size and some of the awkwardness in the pattern and bind off.

These are signs I made for our maternity photo shoot.  Whoop!!!  Though Class of 2034 sounds impossible lol.

And this is my current work in progress...the Owlie Sleep Sack!  I love that I found a yarn that looks like owl feathers and I love the way the owl cables turned out.  I'm hoping to make a matching hat, but we'll see if I have time, or more accurately, timely joint cooperation!

I know I've been averaging a post a month, but these next months are going to be soo busy, I'm betting there will be quite a few more than that!  Hope everyone is doing well!

Pregnancy: 22 Weeks and 5 Days

I cannot believe I'll be 23 weeks along this Saturday!  That's more than halfway through this pregnancy!  Especially since we're going to induce sometime in August, since I'm considered double whammy high risk.

And yes, that IS a medical term lol.

So far, everything continues to go smoothly.  As I mentioned in my Menu Planning Monday post, I'm finally able to cook again, which has been really nice!  Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy my hiatus from the kitchen for a bit; however, I do enjoy cooking, and four months was a pretty long break!  I still have super-smell, but it's like the smells don't affect me as negatively as they used to...which is wonderful!

My RA hasn't responded to the pregnancy at all.  I'm taking 20 mg of prednisone a day, which basically lets me function as long as I don't overdo it.  Anyone care to guess how often I overdo?  Because it's waaay more than I should lol.  Anyway, I know a lot of my friends and family (and doctors) were hoping that I would get some pregnancy-caused relief starting in the second trimester.  After all, 75% of women with RA see some sort of remission.  I, however, am not at all surprised that my RA is not following the expected path.  It has seldom played ball in any other respect, so I really wasn't hanging my hat on the hope that it would this time.  That all said, the prednisone helps, and so does my wonderful hubby, so it's all good!

Other than that we continue to get the house ready!  I have a great local carpet cleaning company here today, cleaning the downstairs carpet and tile.  Oh my gosh, my carpets were SO DIRTY!!!  They actually changed colors as the guys worked.  Of course, that makes sense, seeing as we've been here for 3 years now (when did THAT happen?!?) and we've never cleaned the carpets.  Bryan and I painted the nursery a couple of weeks ago, and all the main furniture has been ordered, so those are some big check marks off the list.  Today, I'm upstairs with the pups cataloging donations and watching TV while the wonderful carpet cleaners work.  I figure I'll have them come back out to do the upstairs sometime in late June or July...that way it's freshly cleaned before we bring Caylee home!  And of course, that cleaning will mark the end of the pups' upstairs privileges lol.

Speaking of, little Miss Caylee continues to grow bigger and stronger every day!  Bryan and I have already preregistered for her delivery at the hospital, and we're signed up for a hospital tour/birthing class and a childcare class.  Those aren't until June--I wanted to do them sooner, but they ran out of room.  Speaking of running out of room, I've been feeling Caylee move for about the past two weeks, but this week she has really ramped up her efforts to make her presence felt!  She was so active the other night that she actually kept me awake after one of my many pee breaks!  I love feeling her kick and punch and move arounds--Bryan says I get a huge smile every time she does.  Sometimes the strangeness of the sensation sends me into giggle fits...it's the coolest sensation ever, but also one of the weirdest!  I can't wait until she really starts kicking the crap out of me...that way Bryan will get to feel her too!  We go back in next week for a check up and ultrasound...possibly our last Caylee sighting until she's in our arms.  I can't wait to see her again!!!

So that's the basic update rundown!  Now, I think I'm going to get back to cataloging...or maybe take a nap.  ;-)

Caylee Magnolia

That's the name of our little baby GIRL!!!

She's growing big and strong, consistently measuring about 5 days ahead of schedule.  As of today's checkup, her heart rate is 161 and I'll be 20 weeks along on Saturday!  I can't believe I'm almost halfway through this pregnancy!  I actually pre-registered with the hospital today, which makes the remaining 4 month period seem amazingly short.

Bryan and I have started ramping up our efforts to get the house ready.

We've made a ton of progress cleaning out the nursery this week, which is a good thing seeing as it has served as our catch-all storage room for the past three years!  I still have about four boxes to go through and sort out things to keep from things to donate and Bryan has a couple more. 

The painting project that is our bedroom and bathroom should be done within the next week, and then we'll move on to picking out the paint color for the nursery and painting it!  We've ordered the crib and the mattress, and picked out the bedding.  I'm still playing around with ideas for closet organization in the nursery, and we're looking at several different options for the rest of the nursery furniture.  Needless to say, we've been very busy and still have quite a bit to do!  Of course, I know none of it compares to how busy we'll be once she's here, but I can't wait until she's done baking!

I hope everyone is doing well, and I'll try to do better about updating more often!

Special Delivery!

Hello all!  I know...a 3 month hiatus is a bit extreme, even for me!  However, I promise I have a very good reason.

I'M PREGNANT!!!!!

I thought about posting sooner, but it was a case of my mind (and heart) being SO FULL that I just couldn't bring myself to write any of it down.  If I had started, I don't know if I would have been able to stop!  

As I've mentioned before, Bryan and I had been trying to get me pregnant since February of 2011.  Having gone off of all my RA medications back in November of 2010, we knew we only had until January of 2012 to try.  At that point, my rheumatologist really wanted me back on my meds...and as of the beginning of this past December, we were beginning to feel that was exactly what was going to happen.  In other words, we were getting a bit discouraged.  At one point, we even decided to stop trying altogether.  Obviously, that decision didn't stick lol.

On Christmas Day, I took a home pregnancy test, and it came back positive!  I'm now 13 weeks along, and we just had our first trimester screening ultrasound.  The baby looks completely healthy, and sure likes to kick and squirm!  I can't feel the movements yet, of course, but they were fun to watch on the ultrasound screen!

In another 5 weeks we'll find out for sure what we're having!  I'm just glad the baby is healthy, and glad to have made it through the first trimester.  I know I'm still very early in my pregnancy, but all signs are indicating a strong, healthy little one growing inside me!

The increase in my sense of smell is unreal, and the nausea hasn't been pleasant...but it also hasn't been too bad!  I've only thrown up once!  And this past week it finally started to get slightly better!  That said, morning sickness is a misnomer.  I get nauseous in the evenings, which has made figuring out dinners a challenge!  But that's ok...hopefully in a couple more weeks I'll be mostly nausea free and can start cooking again!

Our due date is September 2nd, but the baby will be here in August.  Because of my high risk status, my OBGyn wants to schedule an induction sometime in the second half of August, which is perfectly fine by me!  Oh, and you can bet your behind that I WILL have an epidural lol!

So, that's what's been going on with me the past few months! 

 Bryan and I are so very excited about our little one!

Sharing the Journey

It's been quite some time since I posted anything about our trying to add a little one to our family.  Really, there just hasn't been much to share, other than my mounting impatience and raging baby fever lol.  And I think I've shared that enough.

I'd love to say that something big has changed--but it hasn't.  We're still trying, I'm still trying to fight impatience off with a stick, and am still way too prone to playing peek-a-boo with random kiddos in restaurants.  And bookstores.  And the grocery store.  And basically anywhere I go lol.

It's been about six months since we really started trying, and about ten months since I went off my RA meds.  I'm now flared pretty badly--I haven't knitted in a WHOLE WEEK--and am back on 10 mg of prednisone a day.  Prednisone is one of the very few RA drugs that is considered safe during pregnancy, so I finally gave in and got back on it while we're trying.  My rheumatologist wasn't all that happy at my July appointment when I still wasn't pregnant.  We decided it was time to go to my OBGyn and make sure that everything was working properly.

Well, it wasn't.

Apparently, even though I've had a regular period every month since February, I have not been ovulating.

At all.

Fantastic.

Honestly, I was relieved to find that out.  I mean, I still wasn't pregnant after 5 months of trying and I was starting to worry that something might be wrong.  And as anyone who has ever had to deal with wondering about something medical knows--it's always better to know for sure what's going on.

At my OB's recommendation, I made an appointment with Dr. W--the reproductive endocrinologist that she works closely with.  Once again, I find myself so thankful for my amazing doctors--not only are they incredible in and of themselves, but they send my to the best of the best when I need to go elsewhere.

Dr. W ran the blood work and did ultrasounds and all sorts of tests.  He even took time out of one of his days at the office down here to go over to the hospital and perform my HSG (a test to check if your tubes are open).  The results of all of this were: a) my blood work looked good, b) my uterine lining looked fantastic, c) my follicles also looked fantastic and d) my tubes are open.

Which of course left me wondering, what the hell?  If everything looks good to go, why am I not ovulating???

Dr. W and I sat down and talked about all the meds that I've been taking for my RA.  When I told him that I had been on methotrexate for about 4 years before going off everything, he had an "aha!" look on his face.  Apparently, apart from being a bitch of a drug all by itself, taking methotrexate long-term can also seriously mess with fertility.  It can actually cause damage to your follicles, and thus hurt your egg count and quality.  I didn't really have a choice about going on methotrexate, but still--that would have been nice to know.

Luckily for me, all the tests we had run showed that the latter hadn't happened--my follicles and eggs were healthy and plentiful.  However, Dr. W concluded that the methotrexate probably did mess with my hormone levels and production enough to stop ovulation.

The solution?

Clomid!  

Or rather, the generic--clomiphene citrate.  It's a fertility drug used to trigger ovulation--in other words, it will hopefully make me lay eggs like a chicken!  So far, everything is looking promising, and we think the drug is working...which means we finally have an actual shot at getting pregnant!  So exciting!!!

Of course, there's no timeline guarantee, or guarantee period.  One of the most annoying and frustrating things in this whole process has been people telling me to be patient.  A close second is the whole God's timing/plan comment.  A close third is that it--pregnancy--will happen when we stop trying/least expect it.

If you know me, you know I have big issues with comments about God's plan and God's timing.
I do agree that timing is a incredibly important factor in life; however, it seems to me those comments are mostly made in an unthinking attempt to help people feel better about life not happening on their schedule or about things not happening in the manner they want.

As for the other comments, I guess it's just that most people don't really understand our situation--even if I've already explained it to them.  In response to "be patient":  we have a deadline for getting to try--it's this coming January.  At that point, the amount of joint damage and disease progression will reach a point where I will have to get back on my meds.  This brings me to the "when we stop trying/least expect it":  if/when the point comes when I have to get back on my meds, I CANNOT get pregnant...and if I do I will have to abort.  The drugs I take are catastrophic for babies.  So, if we're not pregnant by January, I'm getting an IUD put in.  Because of all of this, telling me to be patient or telling me that after we've stopped trying is when we'll get pregnant is very, very aggravating, even though I know those saying it mean well.

Venting done, I am trying to be patient and at peace about the whole thing.  If we're going to get pregnant, it will happen sometime in the next few months.  At this point, there's nothing more I can do than what I'm already doing.  If we're not pregnant by January, we're done--we can't afford IVF.  I'll be crushed for awhile, I'm sure, but then I'll buy us some plane tickets to go see my friend in Japan, hit Hawaii on the way back, and be doing much better by the time I get home.  That said, in that scenario, maybe in another several years we can look into adoption--if my health is stable enough.  And if not, then I can spoil the hell out of all my nieces and nephews from friends and family!

Anyway, that's the update on our particular journey to being parents.  I'm very optimistic about our chances--especially since the Clomid seems to be working so well.  That said, any good thoughts, prayers, or vibes y'all want to send our way would be much appreciated!