Baby #7 update

In case you might have missed the post I shared a few months ago with the special picture, we will soon be welcoming baby #7 in May. I realize I don't talk a whole lot about my pregnancy, partly because the innocence is lost for me since Noah died. I realize that anything could happen and just because I am pregnant, doesn't mean I am coming home with a baby. I do my best each day to cherish the movements, the hiccups and the kids always wanting to lay hands on my belly to feel this little one move. To be blessed with this precious life is certainly a gift I don't take for granted!!

I'm in the 3rd trimester so I guess the end is in sight which is hard to believe. My pregnancy has been pretty much like all my others. Sick at the beginning then feeling great the rest of the time.

Granted, this is an older pic but you get the idea.

I can't say I've had any major cravings but I'm often seen with the following:

I go through at least a bunch or 2 of celery each week. I also have been loving flavored seltzer water (any flavor, any brand) though I limit myself to one each day as I hate buying what is basically "bubbly" water.  I was fortunate to get some for $.32 a bottle recently so I stocked up! I also eat radishes like candy, even when not pregnant. In just a few weeks, I will be finally planting my own in my garden again so I can eat more than the occasional few here and there that I buy. Oh and I discovered many weeks ago that celery is a diuretic. I was wanting something crunchy before bed so I'd often eat a plate of plain celery before bed, then wonder why I was up peeing several times over the next hour or so. I looked it up and discovered the wonderful water-reducing ability of this crunchy veggie and stopped eating celery past about 7pm. (so if you are feeling bloating, eat some celery, just not before bed! lol)

This pregnancy hasn't entirely been without worries. One of which was a cyst was discovered on baby's brain at 18 weeks. They felt since they didn't see other markers, that things should be ok and the cyst would shrink, though I admit it's still nerve-wracking to think about. They said sometimes these show up with no other issues & eventually disappear. I went back a few weeks later and they said it looked like it had shrank a bit. I go back to the specialist this month for another 3D ultrasound to look again so please keep baby in prayer that it is completely gone & they don't find anything else wrong.

The upside to the extra ultrasounds is that I get to see baby more often and get some cute pics. Here are 2 from the last appointment which was 7 weeks ago:

This is a good one of the baby's nose & lips (baby was moving a bit so the right side of the mouth is a little distorted).

I LOVE this picture as baby had its eyes open (which is why they look like black spots) and s/he was placing its thumb into their open mouth (the other finger is up by its eye), how AMAZING to see baby doing this so early on!!

For the last 2 weeks, I've been dealing with this:

Yes, that's a glucometer. I failed my 1 hour glucose screening and they wanted me to do the 3 hour test which I told them I wouldn't do. I did it with Olivia and it was awful. The 2 day high carb diet they make you follow prior to the test was miserable, then combined that with the extremely sugary drink they make you consume for the 3 hour test, really messed my body up last time. I was almost positive I didn't have gestational diabetes as I don't have any of the typical symptoms or markers for it. I rarely consume sugar and not many processed carbs so I have no doubt when I drink the stuff for the 1 hour test, my body really minds it and gives a high reading. Anyway, they said I could check my blood sugar 4 times a day for 2 weeks instead of doing the 3 hour test so I agreed to do that. I know, you may be thinking how is the 3 hour test worse than sticking myself 56 times (which it ended up being more than that as some days my cold fingers wouldn't give up the blood and I stuck myself more than once). But trust me it is!! This was a cake walk. Good news is, just like I thought, I don't have GB. But it was interesting to see how what I ate affected my blood sugar levels.

So I continue to take each day of pregnancy one day at a time while praying for good health & outcome for this precious 7th blessing, knowing that s/he is ultimately in His hands!

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The day it all changed

Today we were scheduled for our 2nd try at a 3D ultrasound by Proview Ultrasound. The first time we tried a few weeks ago, baby was being a stinker and had both of it's legs straight in front of his/her face and the only good shot we got was of the one foot. So we were anxiously awaiting todays appointment and hoping that the baby would finally be a little more cooperative. We were so excited to finally get a peek at that adorable face.

When we first started with the ultrasound, the baby yet again had a little fist and foot drawn right up in front of it's tiny nose & mouth. I was doing all sorts of poking & prodding to try to get the wee one to give us a peek. Baby had no problem wiggling that foot back at me as I was poking at it. I laid there waiting & hoping that we could just get a brief glimpse. Then just like that, out of no where, baby moved both the fist & hand at the same time, almost as if to say ok, now you may see me and my heart about stopped. It was painfully obvious to even my untrained eye that the mouth didn't look right. I knew in that second I saw a cleft lip. I didn't say anything in hopes that maybe I just saw it all wrong. Time seemed to stop. My cousin-in-law was doing the ultrasound for us and he had switched the view right after I thought I saw the cleft and he started asking me questions. I stopped him and said "you saw a cleft too, didn't you?" When he said yes, I knew that my eyes hadn't been tricking me and I just started crying. It just broke my heart that my poor baby had something physically wrong. He asked if we wanted to continue I said of course. My baby is beautiful no matter what and I still wanted to be able to see every inch of his/her precious face.

The ride home afterwards was not at all how I imagined it would've been earlier that day. I just wept like I hadn't done in such a long time. I started analyzing everything I had done in early pregnancy, wondering if I did something to cause this. The kids, bless their hearts were amazing (they were with us for the ultrasound). We explained to them what we saw and what it would mean for the baby. They seemed to understand far more than I would've expected. In fact, Sarah had such a positive attitude and said that we should study about cleft lip/palate for school in order to help the baby better. They were certainly my rock this evening.

I cried until I didn't think I could cry anymore then I got on the internet and started researching. No sense in thinking about the "why" at this point but about where do we go from here. We talked about how this changes many things. We had been planning on a home birth up until this point but we felt since we didn't know what all we may be dealing with that we should switch back to the OB and a hospital birth. Which just pained me deeply as I was so looking forward to having a home birth.

I also shared my deepest fear with Kevin. I said you realize when there is one birth defect, that the chances of finding more is higher. He of course was thinking positively and said not to worry about that right now. We had immediately told a few people what we saw tonight as we knew we needed the prayers & support. And everyone said not to worry, a cleft now-a-days can be taken care of with no problem and that their little face will look amazing.

But I still have that nagging fear of the unknown and can't help but wonder if there is more that we haven't yet seen.