Pink or Blue?

Neither! 

We will be going for gender neutral.  I didn't even want to find out the sex of the baby because I was worried we would end up with all pink or blue clothes.  But finding out the sex seems to be important to Ryan.  He stated that if I did not want to know then he would just find out and keep it a secret from me.  YEAH right.  I have no doubt he would keep it a secret but him knowing and me not knowing.....that would absolutely kill me.

So we decided that we would find out together on my birthday.  Just a few short weeks from today!  Now I am beyond excited to know.  I have thought this whole time that we were having a boy, that is until recently.  Now, all the signs seem to be pointing to girl (in my expert opinion).

Sign #1: Almost all of our friends have had boys (minus Pepper!).  We have Liam, Jack, Henry.  Doesn't this world (or at least our friend group) need some little ladies?!  Ryan told me I need to take a math class again because apparently this is not how statistics work.  But still!

Sign #2: Every online gender predictor test I have taken (count them: six) have resulted in BABY GIRL.  Okay, mathematician Ryan, what are the chances of that?  100% of tests say girl.

Sign #3: Ryan has always thought we were having a girl.  In fact, he thinks we will eventually (some day)  end up with THREE DAUGHTERS.  AAHHHH....imagine that.....very scary.  So, maybe my maternal instincts are broken and he has some pretty rad paternal instincts.

We shall soon find out and we will be very happy with a baby boy or a baby girl!  

Week 16

Not the most exciting week around these parts.  My pants get tighter every day.  I keep wondering when I will break out the belly band.  But every morning when I put on my pants they feel okay.  By the end of the day (on the drive home) my pants are cutting deep into my enlarged tummy and I drive home with my pants not only unbuttoned but also unzipped!  I hope I don't get pulled over anytime soon!

I bought my first maternity clothes for when the time comes.  I am determined to be able to wear all maternity clothing items when I am not pregnant as well--so think lots of dresses with no waistline.  Now I just need the weather to cooperate.

Here I am 16 weeks pregnant:

Week 15

We went to Los Angeles this past week to support my sister with her senior vocal performance.  She was tres amazing!!!  I am so happy I was in week 15 for this because it is supposed to be the first week Baby B can hear the outside world.  And my sister provided such a great introduction to baby's first hearing experience!

I feel like I am looking more pregnant every day and I actually had a lot of comments this week from family members and friends about my baby bump.  I can't suck in the bump anymore even when I try.  I still wouldn't say I look "pregnant" to strangers.  I bet they think I just have a big beer gut.  I freaked out before packing for LA because I felt too fat in everything.  I am barely fitting into my clothes but I am trying to hold off on maternity clothes as long as possible.

I also got the 15 blood test results back.  I do not meet with the hematologist until May 1st to discuss the results.  I hate how the hospital does this.  They give me a bunch of numbers and tell me what normal range is and then allow me to freak out because some of my numbers are not normal.  I have no idea what any of it means.  Some of my results state that normal range is between 1.5-4 and my result is 4.9.  How am I supposed to know if this is statistically significant?  I am choosing not to worry about it from here on out because there is nothing I can do.

Here I am:

And we are so lucky to have Rio join this week's belly shot!

"Great News"

I got this email from my doctor at 10:36PM:

Hi,

Your platelet count was 117 today which is unchanged from March 7. Although it does not clarify the cause, it is great news that your platelet count has not dropped. Your platelet function was normal too. So there is no increased risk of bleeding at this level.

The other results will come in gradually.

Yes, that is definitely "great news." :)

Week 14

Today I went to see the hematologist and I ended up being an emotional wreck.  The tears started flowing when I checked in with the receptionist.  When I told her my last name to check-in she said, "That's funny. That is the same last name as my favorite high school teacher."  She then asked if I was related and when I told her that her favorite teacher is/was my dad (yes, I actually had this debate about tenses in my head) she became very excited.  She said, "Oh please tell him that I say hi.  I think about him all of the time."  At this point I was devoting all of my attention to keeping my composure and I did not have it in me to tell her that he died.  Instead, I attempted to smile and headed to a seat in the waiting room where I cried quietly.

The next part of the appointment consisted meeting with the hematologist.  Again, lots of questions about my family history, especially my dad.  More tears.  I couldn't keep it together and I was handed a box of tissues.  The hematologist then spent the next hour working on "our plan" by going over every worst case scenario and possible disorder I could have.  Despite this, she was actually pretty wonderful.  Very thorough.  Answered all of my questions (even though most questions cannot be answered at this point).  And she was generally likable and extremely comforting.

The last part of the visit was the epic blood draw.  I am scared of needles and generally dislike blood.  But I thought I did a good job of preparing myself for this part of the appointment.  The problem was that I did not envision the blood technician pulling out 15 collection tubes.  FIFTEEN!  As soon as I saw this, along with the blood techs comment "I'm going to be taking a lot of blood today!" caused more tears.  I think she quickly regretted this comment because she spent the remainder of our time together (which was far too long, no offense to her) trying to interest me (read: distract me) in her recent trip to Vegas.

Apparently, the fact that my platelet count has been dropping since the beginning of my pregnancy is unusual in terms of this being strictly pregnancy related.  The doctor said that usually women do not see a drop in their platelet count until the second or third trimester.  This leads her to believe that something else could be going on.  There is no test to determine if the low numbers are due to pregnancy.  So instead they test for every other possible blood disorder (hence the 15 vials of blood) in order to rule everything else out before they determine it is just because of pregnancy.  So far my platelet count has gone from 126 to 117.  I should find out what my levels were at today's appointment by tomorrow.  All other test results I will find out on May 1st.  The doctor will not be overly concerned unless my levels drop below 70.  With my current levels they will try and reduce the amount of bleeding I have during labor to an absolute minimum.  They will avoid a cesarean at all costs and I will not be allowed to have an epidural.  My friend recently gave birth (CONGRATS M&J) and told me she did not know what she would have done without the epidural.  My anxiety about labor is already starting to raise so I am going to try and get some hypnobirthing books ASAP.  Any other recommendations?

In other news the baby will have his/her first flying experience this week.  We are off to Los Angeles to visit my sister!

Happy Easter!

Week 13

The biggest news is that my energy is starting to come back.  The first night I didn't feel like going to bed at 7pm I was elated.  Truthfully, that night I didn't feel like going to bed at 8pm either...or 9pm or 10 pm.  In fact, I felt like someone gave me some crack because I was FULL of energy until 2AM.  Huge mistake.  The next few days I was in bed even earlier every night to make up for my wild spurt of energy.  I am now being more careful to get eight hours of sleep.  But overall, I am feeling more energetic and less like a mono-victim.

I am still waiting to meet with the hematologist.  Getting an appointment was ridiculously complicated and did not restore my faith that having a low platelet count is not that uncommon.  None of the schedulers at the hospital knew how to set this type of appointment up.  I called multiple times and talked to many people.  Apparently there is only one hematologist that works with women's health and the doctor has her own scheduler and nobody knows the phone number for this mysterious person.  After a few weeks I finally have an appointent.  It's a miracle.


I continue to crave grapefruit and after some research I learned that this craving is not that unusual.  Grapefruits help you absorb iron and have a lot of folic acid and vitamin C in them.  Perfect!

My tummy is getting bigger.  My clothes are still fitting though.  I feel like it's incredibly obvious I'm pregnant.  But when other people look at me they cannot see it.  I must still just look fat.

Bring on the second trimester!