Baby Update

My doctor's appointment yesterday went really well. In fact, there will be no baby this week delivered because of size reasons, which is a good thing. Today I am only 34 weeks along and it is still too early to have her if there is a way we can hold out. She needs to cook a little longer.

The doctor gave me peace of mind. She checked all the vitals and she is getting plenty of oxygen and blood flow. So a lot of my worries have been subsided. She thinks the main growth problem in the placenta is the lack of nutrients. I asked if it could be because of my gastric bypass and she said no, it was HIGHLY unlikely, but it was something that shouldn't be ruled out completely. She and my main OB think it is because of my blood pressure, which is probably what it is. My body doesn't like being pregnant and due to rising blood pressure with my first daughter, I developed pre-eclampsia.

Anyhow, the doctor estimated she gained about 5 ounces in a week, which was really good. Her growth is still behind, but instead of being behind 4 weeks, she is only behind 2 weeks in size...well, her body anyhow. Her head is the size it should be. But, they are going to keep a close watch on me anyhow. I go back on Monday and if she has continued to grow and they decide not to deliver then, they are going to schedule me for a c-section sometime the first week of February. They think that since I had a c-section with my daughter and because most gastric bypass patients end up having to have a c-section anyway, that I should probably not try for a VBAC. Plus, with the issues, it just might be the safer route. If I have a planned c-section, my husband can be in there with me...if I had to have an emergency one, he wouldn't be allowed, so maybe it is the right choice.

Last night I actually got a good night's sleep. Something I haven't had in awhile. I think a combination of peace of mind about the baby's situation and that she removed her feet from my lungs, I was able to actually get some rest. I even napped after my daughter went to school this morning for several more hours. It was really nice to be able to SLEEP. I feel that I have been lacking a lot in that department.

One problem I have been having lately is stomach cramps...not uterus, but actual stomach. I have found that if I have some No Sugar Added Carnation Instant Breakfast that my stomach seems to stop hurting almost instantly...and this seems the be the ONLY thing that calms the cramping. I don't know what it is, but I really have to stay stocked up in that stuff!!

Mixed Feelings

So Bo had CQ again today. It seems like he just had it. I really hate it that the MPs are so immature that they basically have to have a babysitter every night. What happened to demoting for poor behavior? Or even, now that they have "too many people in the military" just fire them! If they think going out and getting drunk and then sneaking women in their trunks onto post is a good idea, then they need a good reality check! Not making my husband stay 24 hours to babysit some morons who are old enough to know better!

Though...I suppose it is better than deployment.

Anyway, tomorrow is the day we find out if we are going to have a baby this week. I have total mixed feelings about the situation. I think it is a good idea for them to deliver her because the longer she stays in the more likely she is to develop cerebral palsy, but then on the other hand, the longer she stays in the more likely she is to develop her insides.

And just in case you didn't know (I didn't until I did research recently) what cerebral palsy is, here is the run down:

"Cerebral palsy (CP) is a disorder that affects muscle tone, movement, and motor skills (the ability to move in a coordinated and purposeful way). Cerebral palsy can also lead to other health issues, including vision, hearing, and speech problems, and learning disabilities. CP is usually caused by brain damage that occurs before or during a child's birth, or during the first 3 to 5 years of a child's life. There is no cure for CP, but treatment, therapy, special equipment, and, in some cases, surgery can help a child who is living with the condition." - www.kidshealth.org

Cerebral palsy is a life long condition, and the developments can occur outside the womb in the NICU, but who knows how long that will be and if that is even the healthier choice. Unfortunately, we won't know either way until it happens. It is so stressful.

Ugh.

My New Year's Resolutions 2012

1. Get back to the size I was before I became pregnant.
2. Be a better person than I was in 2011.
3. Love myself more.
4. Put my family first.
5. Raise two healthy, happy daughters.
6. To go running at least 5 days a week (post pregnancy of course).
7. Read at least 12 books (children's books don't count).
8. Keep up with my blogger.
9. Learn 12 new family recipes.
10. Polish up on my German (after all, I will be living here for awhile).
11. Get back into yoga.
12. Go back to school.
13. Take more pictures.
14. Write my great grandmother a hand-written letter every month.
15. To be more understanding of my husband's strange obsession with working on the car.
16. Breastfeed...for an entire year.

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other." - Abraham Lincoln

It's Been Awhile

So, the first post of the new year.

I want to first apologize to those who actually read my blog about not posting in two months. Since we moved out of the hotel, we have been on an internet card and the bandwidth was just not enough to support blogger and I was unable to post updates. So here is what has happened since my last post:

We got our place!! Hurray! It's a very nice 3 bedroom 2 bathroom 1st floor apartment here on one of the local posts. I really like the fact that I only have to climb a total of ten stairs to get to my front door and not 20 stairs or more, especially having a dog, a child, and a baby on the way. The first floor is the most practical. Anyway, the place is very nice. Much more spacious than we had originally anticipated. My only complaint is that my bathroom window faces the main road and the glass only "blurs" out what you can see on the inside, so after a lovely shower you can see everything. We had to get a curtain for the bathroom window, which wasn't so bad, but the only shelving in the bathroom is the large window ledge so that is a bit annoying. But, it is something I can definitely live with.

Amélie had her birthday party the Saturday before Thanksgiving. She had a blast. Quite a few kids showed up from her class and they all had fun. It was a bit strenuous, but as long as my baby girl had a good birthday, it was worth it.

Thanksgiving was nice. We went over to hubby's co-workers place and had dinner there. It was nice to be able to spend Thanksgiving with others and plus, I didn't have to cook, which didn't hurt my feelings.

On December 14 I was admitted into the hospital. I spent a total of 13 days there...including Christmas. I was allowed to go home a few days, for a few hours, but I was under strict monitoring. My blood pressure was pretty high and they were trying to get it under control. While I was in the hospital, I learned that I have placenta inefficiency, which basically means that the placenta isn't providing enough nutrients and/or oxygen to the baby in order to help her grow...so she is exceptionally small with some obvious growth problems. Her head is growing at a normal gestational rate, but her body is behind. The doctor believes that it has to do with my rising and dropping blood pressure, but I have a feeling it has something to do with my gastric bypass surgery I had in 2009. I can't provide proper nutrients for myself, so how would I be able to provide for a baby too? I keep wondering this and I am going to bring it up to my doctor at my next appointment. Anyway, long story short, I ended up having to get a series of steroid shots to help the baby's lung develop faster so if she has to be delivered early, her lungs will be more mature. At my last ultrasound, (December 27...that is also the day they let me come home) the baby had grown a little, but nowhere like she should be. I have an appointment this Tuesday which will determine if they want to go ahead and deliver her or if they think she is safe for another two weeks inside. I asked the doctor what he thought personally and he replied, "At this point, we really don't know until one or the other is done". Not really reassuring. Wednesday I will be 34 weeks pregnant and in what they consider a "safe zone". So we shall see what has happened in a week. I am pretty nervous because one of the leading causes of cerebral palsy is this placenta insufficiency. Apparently it is caused because of the lack of oxygen getting to the baby's brain while they are in utero. I mean, if they baby has it, she has it and there is nothing we can do, but it still worries the crap out of me that I could have caused this by getting pregnant after having gastric bypass. But, there is no point in worrying myself silly. What happens will happen...what is done is done...and I can't change the past, only hope for the best outcome.

BTW -  here is my 33 week pregnancy picture -

Got a little bigger since the last picture, huh? LoL

Anyway, now I am home...five days later...and on bedrest, which is driving me crazy...but if it is for the health of my baby then it is worth driving me crazy.

Carmex

After school let out, I took Amélie over to her doctor's appointment. We ended up being slightly late because I got behind a line of school buses and couldn't figure out how to go around them and by the time I did, they started moving. I think everyone on post who was driving around me probably thought I was an idiot, but I am still a little unsure about the German traffic laws and I would rather not get a ticket or even worse cause an accident.

So the doctor said that Amélie's lip thrush was much better, but she needed to stop licking her lips. She keeps a constant red, dry ring around her lips from where she keeps licking them. Bo and I keep putting Carmex on it to prevent her from doing so and to heal the chapped skin, but it seems no matter how much we tell her, she continues to do it. Maybe coming from a doctor, she might listen a little more now!

After the appointment, we headed over to TriCare and I filled out the forms for my reimbursement for my prescription I had to get filled off post and made the appointment for Amélie with the dermatologist. That appointment is set up for 1 December. I am a little worried that they are going to burn or cut these moles off, I don't really want to have to see her go through that, but a friend of mine told me that usually German doctors use stuff like that as a last resort and hopefully they will try an herbal remedy that will work first. I hope this is the case because I remember getting warts cauterized off my leg every summer for years and how painful it was. I don't want to have to see my daughter go through the same thing.

Housing told Bo yesterday to check back today on the status of the apartment. Hopefully, we will have good news. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Where is the Pause Button?

Yesterday, I finally got around to borrowing someone's blood pressure monitor. I really hated to have to buy one since I already own one and it is in storage which hopefully we will be getting into soon! We were told that maintenance should be at our apartment today, which should put us in our place this week. *fingers crossed*

I spent the morning cutting out Amélie's birthday invitations with the broken scissors that were so graciously provided for us in our hotel room. Let me tell you, it is pretty difficult to cut a straight line when your scissors only have one handle. 

When I took the kiddo to school, I informed the assistant teacher who stands outside and gathers the kids before class starts that Amélie had birthday party invitations to hand out to the class today. Mrs. Edgar (the assistant teacher) looked at Amélie and said, "So you are turning 25, right?" I laughed and told her not to jump ahead! She smiled at me and informed me that it seems that way to her because Amélie was not only so much more intelligent that her peers, but very mature for her age. I had mixed feelings about this statement. I was happy and proud that my child could be determined intelligent and mature beyond her years, but a part of me wanted to cry too. What happened to my baby? She needs to slow down! She's going to be a teenager in the blink of an eye and there is nothing I can do to slow time down.

Growing up, I use to think that it took FOREVER for Christmas or my birthday to come around, and it would be even LONGER before I would grow up and have kids of my own. I look back and think sometimes, "Wow, that seems just like it happened last week!" And then I look at my soon to be six year old and think, "Wait, wasn't she born just yesterday?" Growing up and having kids seems to make time speed up while all we want when we are little is for it to be this way. It seems like a minute is an hour and an hour is a day and a day is a life time. All I want to do now is press the pause button!

Bowling Balls & Dances

Friday night, we drove to Heidelberg to get the finger holes drilled into my daughter's bowling ball....trying to do it secretively of course, since it was after all, her birthday present. I told her we had to measure her fingers so we know what size of bowling ball to use when we go bowling. So, we drove the hour and a half to Heidelberg, got her fingers measured, and the guy said it would take about 10 minutes to do. We decided to drive around the post for a few minutes and come back. On our way out the door, the guy comes running out and asks my husband if he still has the receipt for the ball. I waited with the kid, and just a few minutes later, out comes my husband with the box that held the bowling ball. Amélie got into the car, and Bo took me around to the trunk and opened the box. There lie Amélie's future birthday present, cracked all the way around in two different directions. Turns out that the balls are cracking because the resin in the bowling ball makes it's way to the bottom of the ball and settles there so the rest of the ball has nothing to keep it together and with the change in temperature, altitude, and humidity the ball splits. Light weight balls have hardly any outer shell because they have to be made so light, so there is nothing to really keep the resin inside when we experience these changes. Bo asked in Heidelberg if they sold balls there that were that light (she can't really hold anything heavier than a 7) and they said no because of that reason right there....they crack. I didn't completely understand because I know when we go bowling, Amélie using a size six ball, so they have to aquire these balls somehow, right? So now, we are in the process of contacting the company to try and get a refund for this ball that we paid a pretty penny for, and unfortunately, it looks like we might just be out the money because I didn't purchase the warranty, and it has been past the 15 day return point. This is really upsetting since Amélie never even got to use it.

Now...I have to rack my brain and try to figure out another birthday present before her party. If I order something, it isn't guaranteed to get here in time, so it will have to be something I can get locally. She dropped the ball yesterday that she wants an Easy Bake Oven, so that just might be what she will be getting. Besides, Bo says she is about to be six years old, time to start learning how to cook! LoL

Last night, Amélie and her dad went to the Father-Daughter Dance hosted by the Girl Scouts. Amélie was absolutely beautiful. I looked at her and got all teary-eyed thinking about how my little girl is growing up!

Amélie ready to go to the dance!

My beautiful little girl!

Definitely not a baby anymore!

Gorgeous!!

While we were sitting and doing her hair, she told me, "Mommy, I am scared. What if I don't know anybody or don't dance very well?" I smiled and told her that if she got scared or nervous to just tell Daddy and he would bring her back home. She decided that was alright and they went.

When they got back, Amélie told me, "This was the best night of my life!"