Thursday, August 27, 2009

Good thing I changed OBs.

My mom just told me about an article she read in our local newspaper a few weeks ago. Remember Dr. Lee's office? The one I had bad feelings about, didn't feel comfortable there, and never got to meet with the doctor?

Welll.... come to find out, Dr. Lee is being sued for malpractice. He did a c-section on a woman, there were complications, and she wasn't properly monitored. They sent her over to ICU, and the ICU doctor told Dr. Lee that he needed to get her back in the OR and open her up. Dr. Lee disagreed with the on-call ICU doctor, and the woman ended up bleeding to death. Come to find out, she was hemmhoraging, but he didn't want to open her up and find out. I feel so bad for her family. She already had one child, and this was her second. Now her husband is raising 2 children by himself, and the youngest never got to meet her mother simply because of a doctor's stubbonness.

I mean, c'mon, yeah c-sections are considered "major" surgery, but still. The main complications of it are hemorrhaging and infection. Thank God I changed OBs.

Here's the article.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Some birth prediction fun!

I came across this site in my search for information about weight loss and pregnancy.

Madame Zaritska predicts your birth experience

I know, it's just for shits n' giggles, but it was still somewhat accurate. It didn't ask any questions about gender or anything, but it correctly predicted the gender both times. I did it twice. The first time, I put violet for my favorite color; the second time, I chose purple (they're essentially the same thing.) The other question I changed was "What music makes baby the most active?" The first time, I selected hip hop, the second time I picked rock. Here were my results:

1. The day you deliver, outside will be warm (???). Your baby will arrive in the late evening.
After a labor lasting approximately 14 hours, your child, a boy, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 11 pounds, 15 ounces (!!!!!), and will be 20-1/2 inches long. This child will have dark green eyes and a little patch of black hair.

This one is totally feasible, except for it being warm outside. Who knows, maybe we'll have a miraculous February heat wave. It is my first baby, so a long labor could be in the cards (although I really hope not!), and the baby is already measuring ahead of schedule. However, I don't think my doctor would wait to deliver my 5'2" self if he saw that the baby could be approaching 11+ lbs.

2. The day you deliver, outside will be bright. Your baby will arrive in the late morning. After a labor lasting approximately 4 hours (that sounds much better!), your child, a boy, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 11 pounds, 13 ounces (what the heck! still really big!), and will be 17 inches long. This child will have light green eyes and barely there blonde hair (eyes could happen. Hair - not so much!).

I'd love to see what predictions all you pregnat ladies get, and I can't wait to see if they even hold a bit of truth on delivery day!

I'll have to ask the doctor about this tomorrow...

I'm 15 1/2 weeks in, and I'm still 6 lbs under my pre-pregnancy weight. I haven't gained any weight the whole time- it's just been going DOWN.

Before I was pregnant, I had absolutely no metabolism and couldn't lose weight to save my life. I just gradually packed on more pounds as time went by; sometimes I was even lucky enough to just maintain the pounds for a short period of time before gaining more.

When I became pregnant, weight started falling off me, even though I was eating much more than I ever did. It's not like I don't eat- I do (and often!), and it's not always the healthiest food in the world. My main cravings have been straight-up carbs - potatoes, pasta, pizza, and lots of them. Sometimes I crave french fries from fast food restaurants. I've eaten more fast food in the last few months than I have in the last few years. I don't eat a lot of sweets or anything, but there are plenty of high-calorie savory alternatives that I LOVE.

I'm afraid that baby Tucker isn't getting everything he needs. I'm at the point in my pregnancy where they say you're supposed to start eating an extra 300 calories a day. I ALREADY easily exceed the recommended daily calorie intake, and I'll gladly add 300 more to my diet. I'm not complaining about my weight by any means. I just want to make sure my lack of weight gain doesn't cause any problems or harm my son in any way.

Friday, August 21, 2009

15 weeks

Only 5 more weeks until our 20 week anatomy scan and 3D/4D ultrasound! I can't wait to see how big he's gotten!

As of today, Baby Tucker is 37.5% cooked!!!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Did I feel the baby move???

I've never been pregnant before, so I have NO idea what the baby moving is supposed to feel like. Before last night, I felt fluttering in my uterus every once in a while.

Last night, shortly after hubby and I went to bed, I felt... I don't know how to describe it. Like, a flipping in my uterus area, if that makes any sense. Something shifted and COMPLETELY changed the way my abdomen felt. It shifted the pressure that was there. As I said, I don't know what it's supposed to feel like when the baby moves, especially this early on, but I can't think of anything else that I can possibly chalk this up to. I didn't have gas. I didn't have to use the bathroom at all. They say thinner women tend to feel movement earlier than heavier women, but after years of feeling different pains and having to differentiate between them I'm also very in tune with different sensations in my pelvic area.

I'm excited about the prospect that I may have felt the baby move, but I've heard you don't really feel that until 16-20 weeks. I'm 14.5 weeks now, and I know he's been measuring about 3 days ahead (so we'll estimate his size at 15w1d), but he's still not as big as he would be at 16 weeks. Any ideas???

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Is this heaven?

A new pizza place opened up near my house, and I was eager to try them out because I was getting sick of the few that were here. However, they never sent out menus or anything. Rule #1 of starting a new business: Advertise, advertise, advertise!!! Even if it means photocopying a menu and driving through nearby neighborhoods and sticking it in people's doors, or on their cars. You gotta get the word out there! I knew the place was there from driving by, but never stopped in. If I get pizza, I order it so I don't have to go anywhere.

On a whim, I googled them, and found their website with their menu. I've been craving tater tots all day, so I knew I HAD to order french fries (the only dining establishment that I know serves tater tots is the Trash Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn that serves bowls of them with your drinks. Kind of like they used to do it with peanuts and popcorn back in the day, just not a community bowl.)

Anyway, tearing myself away from fond memories of Brooklyn, the pizza place by my house has MASHED POTATO PIZZA!!! It has mashed potatoes (duh), cheese, and bacon on a pizza crust. YUM! I had to order that. So I got a large pizza, half mashed potato, half chicken ranch. I'm in love. For real. I know these pics don't look nearly as appetizing as the pizza really is, but look at them anyway:

Mashed potato.

Chicken ranch.

Oh, the things you get excited about when you're pregnant.

Body image.

Ok, so the second I decide that I have nothing to write, I get inspired again.

There was a discussion on Fertility Forums about enjoying pregnancy. While I know that all these women have been through a lot of shit to get to this point, and I know they wouldn't ever want to change the fact that they're pregnant, a lot of them are having trouble adapting to their "new" bodies and are saying they're really not enjoying being pregnant.

There are a lot of comments about how the fertility meds and pregnancy have caused them to gain weight in their butts and thighs. There are complaints about how they can't work out like they used to, and worries that the won't get their bodies back once the babie/s is/are born. Maybe some of their spouses aren't being 100% supportive, either.

Someone said that every book she's read says if a woman tells you she LOVES being pregnant, she is either lying, doesn't remember, or has some sort of personality disorder. I kind of took offense to this at first, but then was like screw it. I'm not gonna get mad. Books like that are normally written for people who don't prepare for pregnancy and have to read books to ease their fears and figure out what they're in store for.

For me, I'm really enjoying being pregnant. I would even go so far as to say that I LOVE it. Yeah, I get uncomfortable at night and toss and turn a lot. Yeah, my back hurts and I get tired really easily (and I know it's all only gonna get worse), but I've waited so long for this and been through so much crap to get to this point that I wouldn't change it for the world. I think the difference is that these women had much better bodies than me to begin with, and right now they're seeing these big changes that they're not comfortable with. They feel like they're "losing" their bodies. I've always had a low body image, so I feel like I don't have a body to lose. I already have a big ass and big thighs, so that's nothing new to me. The only change I'm seeing at this point is my belly continues to grow. I've always hated the fact that I had belly fat and always tried to hide it. Now that I'm pregnant, the shape of my belly has totally changed, and I'm not even 4 months in. All of a sudden, my belly just popped and became round and hard instead of droopy and flabby. I actually LOOK pregnant, and I feel great wearing shirts that show off my bump. I would never be caught dead in a shirt that was tight on my belly before. And to top it all off, I have a partner that loves me for me and has always loved the shape and size of my body.

I never thought that being bigger than average would ever work to my advantage, but I guess this is the one time in life where it does.

Getting used to being a "normal" pregnant woman

I haven't really had much to report lately, and I just figured out why. As an IVF patient, I was constantly being monitored. I was in the doctor's office all the time and I went in for ultrasounds weekly. I pretty much got the celebrity treatment - all the people who worked there were so excited for me and it was awesome. I got to see my baby all the time, and he was constantly changing.

Now that I've graduated from my RE to a regular OB, I'm being treated like your average "hey-look-I'm-knocked-up-again" kind of patient. There's no excitement from the staff there. They're like robots compared to my RE's office.

Now my only ultrasounds are set for 20 weeks (5.5 weeks away) and 34 weeks (a LIFETIME away!) Waiting that long SUCKS. I can't see all the incredible changes that are taking place with my son. He's going to be completely different the next time I see him, which isn't a bad thing, but it was nice being able to see that progression before. It was so fascinating.

The only thing I can do now is wait. One of my aunts works as a radiologist in a hospital in this area and she knows all the girls that work in ultrasound, so I told her, if any of their ultrasonographers ever needed practice, I'd willingly be a guinea pig. That's my only hope at seeing him sooner.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

NT scan, take 2.

So here is today's picture of Baby Tucker:



As you can see, he is laying transverse across my uterus, facing forward. Thank you for moving, Baby Tucker, but WE STILL CAN'T SEE THE BACK OF YOUR NECK!!! Today was the very last day they could have measured the back of his neck, so all they can do now is bloodwork for my first trimester screening. I wish I had gotten a better picture of him, but oh well.

Oh, and for the record, I had the same ultrasound tech today, and she was SOOOOOO much cooler than she was on Monday. She must've been having a bad day or something.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Chubby girl belly shots!

I finally got brave enough to take some belly pics. I felt kind of weird, because I'm pretty self-conscious about my stomach area to begin with, and all of my fellow preggers are pretty thin. They all have this cute little bump forming, and my belly just went BOOM! and popped out like 4 times as much! The strange thing is, I'm still 2 lbs UNDER my pre-pregnancy weight!

Here I was at 6.5 weeks:
Photobucket

And here I am today at 13.5 weeks:
Photobucket

Photobucket

My belly is catching up to my boobs. I've NEVER been able to look down and see my belly (or my feet, or anything else that extends within a 1.5 ft radius of my core for that matter), but now if I look down and lean forward a little, I can see a little bit of belly. It's crazy!!! I wonder if my boobs are gonna grow? I sure hope not.

Monday, August 10, 2009

NT scan, take 1.


Today (13w3d) was my first attempt at an NT scan. Let me tell you - Dr. Clark's office is 100% better than Dr. Lee's. Except for the ultrasound tech today- she was a total bitch and both me and Lexie wanted to slap the shit out of her.

I would like to report that Baby Tucker looked a lot like a dinosaur today. From certain angles we saw his spine and all his individual ribs, and the way he was positioned made him look like a dinosaur skeleton in a museum. He's 11.8cm (4.64in) long, and is heart rate was 144bpm. His legs were moving like crazy, and me and Lexie joked that he was in there working out already.

They weren't able see much of the back of his neck today because he was head down, and his head is really low in my pelvis. I told the ultrasound tech that I would be OK with a transvaginal ultrasound, and she said "We don't do that" in a very bitchy manner. So now I have to go in on Wednesday for another scan, and I'm hoping the baby moves and is in a different position so the doctor can see his neck.

And how come everyone else is getting like 2 or 3 different pictures of their babies? I get one. If they really want to be nice, they print the same shot twice. What the hell?

Stay tuned for NT scan, take 2. Hopefully that one will work out a little better.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Photos...

Surprisingly, hubby brought this topic up today: He realized he had no pictures of me on his computer or anything, and we haven't taken a picture together since September '07 when we went to Vegas. So, we're going to start looking for a photographer to take some photos of us. We don't want to go with a really commerical photographer (like the Picture People, or even Sears or Walmart photo studios), but a smaller business or independent photographer. So, the search is on!

Today, my mom's cousin Tom came over with his wife RaeAnn and their two daughters. They asked me to take some headshots of their daughter Tabitha who is a sophomore in high school and wants to get into modeling. She wants to start by submitting some photos to Deb and other places. She needed them ASAP, so I wasn't able to use my 35mm film camera, which I LOVE. With some trepidation, I used my $150 digital camera. I was afraid they were going to come out crappy, but I'm pretty happy with the way they came out, considering the camera I used, and the fact that all we did was hang bedsheets from the ceiling in the basement. lol Not too shabby, I say!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Goodbye first trimester!

So I hit 13 weeks yesterday, and so far I've felt pretty darn good. Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself by saying that! lol

My only complaints so far:
1. I've been extremely tired.
2. Baby Tucker was sitting on my sciatic nerve for a few weeks straight, and still hits it occasionally.
3. My lower back has hurt the whole time.

Now I'm starting to feel increasingly uncomfortable at night. I'm feeling more and more pressure that wakes me up at night, especially when I roll over (which I now know I do frequently. I never noticed it when I slept through the turns. lol) But hubby is taking good care of me. He'll always do his best to make me feel better. Gosh, I love him!

Oh, and I've been having some crazy dreams, which I heard is common with pregnancy, but still. They're weird. I keep having bad dreams about animals that wouldn't normally scare me. A couple weeks ago I had a dream that I was walking through the woods and pythons were "jumping" out of the trees and landing on me. I'm not afraid of them while I'm awake, and they're not the most aggressive type of snake in the world, so I don't know why the dream would freak me out so much. lol

Last night I had a dream that there was a desert turtle in our house (it had spikes all over it and two appendages that sliced at you like knives) and I kept trying to get away from it, but it was really fast and every time I tried to get up on a table or something, it would jump up there. I kept trying to scream for Tucker to help me, but nothing would come out. He was busy playing video games and he couldn't hear me. lol These dreams are so bizzare.

Last night we went out to dinner with our friends Rob & Danielle, and it was really nice. I haven't seen them in over a year, and I missed them. Hopefully we can go out more often. They're talking about starting a family, so maybe Danielle will get knocked up soon so we can be pregnant together! (This is what we discussed while our men were talking about fighting and other video games that me and Danielle don't care for.)

I have my NT scan on Monday with Dr. Clark's office (they delivered Lexie's younger siblings and Lexie's son). I'm pretty excited, because it means I can make sure my lil man is ok, and maybe I can get some new pictures!

Hello second trimester!

Comment away!

I fixed it. It was a problem with the HTML in the free layout I got. This one was from Pyzam, and I wouldn't recommend them for Blogger layouts. The Cutest Blog on the Block has much simpler codes.

So please- bombard me with your pent-up comments! lol

Friday, August 7, 2009

Comment problems.

Ok, so apparently everyone is having problems commenting on my posts, and I have no idea why. I haven't touched anything or changed anything as far as comments are concerned. I'm gonna mess with the settings and see what happens. Please, try your comments again to see if it works. I have no idea what's going on :(

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

My hubby is the best.

Every time we go to the mall, Baby Tucker (aka Mommy) gets a hankerin' for those delicious hot pretzels they have. I usually get the regular salted kind with cheese to dip it in.

Well, hubby just got home (I had no idea he was at the mall), and he brought me a pretzel. He's so sweet!! And he got a new kind for me to try because he knew I'd like it- it had cheese and pepperoni baked onto the top of it & came with marinara dipping sauce. I still got that pretzel flavor I crave, plus the delicious cheese and pepperoni. It was sooooo good.

Thanks baby! ♥

And the award goes to...

It's time for me to pass the "One Lovely Blog Award" to deserving recipients.



The rules of the "One Lovely Blog Award" are: Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered.

Now, I haven't discovered 15 blogs yet, but I do have a small circle of blogs that I follow. So here goes:

1. Lindsey - my first Blogger friend!
2. Abbi (You've officially been picked!)

3. Sherry
4. Lexie

5. Sue
6. Melissa

That's all I can think of at the moment...

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

This is getting ridiculous.

Today I checked the old phone's voicemail again, and this time, I had a message from the receptionist at DR.LEE'S OFFICE. I NEVER gave Dr. Lee's office that number. What the HELL is wrong with these people? And the receptionist even said "this message is for Amber. If this is the wrong number, I apologize." Well, genius, if you think it could POSSIBLY be the wrong number, how about consulting my chart and verifying it??? Dumb ass.

There was also an automated appointment reminder from MFM saying I have an appointment this Thursday. They can shove that appointment straight up their asses. I'm going to Dr. Clark's office, and I'm not gonna get stressed out before Monday's appointment. However, once that appointment is over, I WILL be calling Dr. Lee's office to tell them about their terrible practice, and to relay how wonderful my new practice is.

Wow. Albany Med Women's Wellness Center SUCKS.

OK, so remember how I got incredibly furious at Dr. Lee's office last week because of the whole NT scan situation? They were gonna call Maternal Fetal Medicine at the Women's Wellness Center to attempt to get me in for one this week. WELL.... I got a new cell phone about a month ago. I did NOT put my old cell phone number on ANY paperwork at Dr. Lee's office whatsoever, because I got my new one before my first appointment there.

Just on a whim, I decided to remotely check my voicemail for my old phone. It still has some minutes on it, but it's been powered off for a month now. Yesterday afternoon, MFM left a voicemail for me on my OLD phone, saying I was referred by Dr. Lee and they needed to get me in sometime this week.

Now, I'm in Albany Med's central computer system from the past and going to the ER on July 7 (a few days before I got my new phone), but still. That's not current contact information of mine, and I don't currently go to any doctors who are using that system. When they did the referral, it was the responsibility of Dr. Lee's office to send over the correct patient inforamtion to MFM, and since Dr. Lee's office doesn't have my old cell number, the only thing I can think of is that instead of looking on Dr. Lee's paperwork, or calling Dr. Lee to confirm, the Women's Wellness Center just called whatever number Albany Med had on file for me, which is CRAP.

I'm going to pretend I didn't get the message, because for all intents and purposes, that other cell phone is no longer in use and hasn't been for damn near a month now. I could have just thrown it away.

I'm glad Dr. Clark's office is able to get me in for my first trimester screening next Monday, because I DO NOT want to deal with Dr. Lee's office or the Women's Wellness Center ever again. I actually take my pregnancy seriously and don't have time for stupid (and potentially costly) mistakes like that.

Monday, August 3, 2009

My first blog award!!!


Thanks, Sumer, for tagging me for this award! Now I have to decide who to pass it on to!