39 Weeks

At my doctor's appointment today I had another ultrasound and the baby is still measuring just over 8 lbs. She did much better this time as far as the bpp goes. She must have just been asleep the last ultrasound. After the u/s I had an appointment with Tara (the PA, who reminds me SO MUCH of my friend Kristin). She checked me and I was 2 cm dialated, which is great news because 5 days before I wasn't dialated at all. At least I know the contractions I'd been having all weekend were doing something. We also discussed induction and came to the conclusion that if I haven't had the baby by Tuesday (the 13th) I will be induced. I REALLY don't want to be, but my friend, Gretchen, who is planning on watching the kids if I go into labor (and my mom isn't here yet) is gone the day after my due date. Also, my mom is coming on Monday (the 12th) but has to leave on Thursday (the 15th) and wouldn't be able to come back until the next Monday so if I have the baby over that weekend I will have NO ONE to watch the kids...so instead of stressing about it and since it would only be 1 day before I'm due I agreed to be induced. Hoping that I can make it through this weekend without going into labor (my mom can't come until Monday) but hope I have her before I'm induced :). So baby, if you can hear me lets have you on Monday night :)...okay??!

We'll see...I'm so excited to meet this baby and I am praying that Riley and Lincoln have an easy adjustment to having another little one around! Riley seems super excited about her arrival, even today she was talking to the baby and asked her to "come out soon so we can play". Lincoln, I think, understands that there is a baby in my tummy, but I don't think he'll understand how his world is about to change until she's here. Still working on a name...Measured my belly and it's measuring 46 inches around! YIKES!

38 Weeks

This morning I had a regular weekly appointment, or so I thought. I got to the doc's at 10:15, had my appt with the PA (both of my docs are out of town). She listened to the baby's heart beat (140's) and checked me. I'm not dialated AT ALL which is a little discouraging, however, when I went into labor with the other two I wasn't dialated at all either so I'm not focusing on that. I then had my ultrasound to check baby's growth. She looked great except she wouldn't move at all for the "bpp test" that they do. So since the ultrasound tech couldn't get her to move (even after using this vibrating thing on my belly) they took me back and hooked me up to a 1 hour non-stress test to see if baby was moving enough and to monitor contractions. She passed the non-stress test with flying colors, but the PA still wanted the other doctor to take a look at it. Once he took a look at it he wanted me to have another ultrasound just to see if she would pass it this time and maybe the last one they just caught her sleeping. She did pass the second ultrasound but they still want me to really watch how often she's moving/not moving.

Baby is measuring just over 8 lbs (about 8 lbs. 1 oz) right now which is big, but not huge. If that were accurate and she were born today that would be about the 95th percentile. So chances are if I go until my due date she could be 9 lbs or so, but I really don't think she's going to be as big as they think...that's just my intuition though!

It was a VERY long morning, the appt. lasted over 3 hours and thankfully Ty had taken the kids to the play place (gross, I hate those things) at a nearby McDonald's. I don't really want them in the room when I'm being checked so I told Ty to just hang with them there becuase I might be a while. Thank goodness I wasn't there with them by myself, that would have been a disaster!

Here I am at 37 weeks:

Me at 38 weeks:

I've put on about 31 lbs which is not too bad in my opinion, considering I put on more than that with the other two. I had a dream last night that I had put on 17 lbs since last week, so gaining 2 this week was a relief. Although, I wouldn't have been surprised if I gained 17 lbs by the way and the amount I've been eating!! No joke she must be growing because I feel like I'm hungry all the time.

I'm still having a really hard time sleeping so I finally called my doctor Monday and got a prescription to help. I am now getting about 5 hours a night which is a lot more than what I was getting the past 2 weeks. I think I was lucky to get 2-3 hours a night for weeks and it was exhausting when having to function and take care of two other babies.

We still need to come up with a name for this baby...man, I hate picking out names!! Ty and I can never agree. I wish I had one of those husbands who just said "Hunny, why don't you just name the baby...". Never in a million years would Ty let me name our children without his input :). I suppose I should be grateful he cares and is so involved but picking out a name would be much easier for me if he didn't care!

36 weeks

36 week appt. was today. Things are still going well except that I'm exhausted because I cannot sleep (and Lincoln has woken up at 5am for the past 2 weeks). We had another ultrasound and it shows that I have about 25 cm of amniotic fluid and the doc said average at 36 weeks is between 7-10 cm. He's not too concerned because the baby looks fine, he just wants to see it level off and stop increasing (which it didn't since last week). Baby is measuring over 7 lbs. and I'm measuring about 40-40.5 weeks. The doc and his wife (my other doc--they are in a practice together) are going to be out of town July 1-5 so he said not to have her then. Knowing my luck I'll have her early and they'll both be out of town...but, lets hope not. Another u/s and appt. next week.

31 Weeks and an Ultrasound!

I had my 31 week appt. this morning and everything looks great. I gained 1 lb in 2.5 weeks. I met the other doctor (Dr. Aliff, my actual doctor's wife) in the practice today and LOVED her. She's young and has two kids the same age as Riley and Lincoln--she was also very understanding and sweet about me having to bring the kids to my appts, it's nice when the doc's don't act annoyed when they are there!

Baby's heart rate was in the 140s and when she measured me I was measuring at 35 weeks--pretty big, especially considering 2 weeks ago I was measuring right on (then, at 29 week) so she sent me over for an ultrasound just to make sure the baby wasn't too big and to make sure I didn't have too much fluid. The ultrasound went very well and we even got to see her in 4D--baby definitely has Ty's squinty eyes!! We had her look again, just in case, but this time are reassured 100% that our third little peanut is definitely a girl!

It's hard to tell in this picture but she was smiling!! It was so cute...

Everything checked out fine and they've determined that I'm measuring big because of two reasons. 1. Baby is big, but not huge. Average babies around 30 weeks are about 3 lbs. our baby was measuring at just over 4 lbs. and 2. I have a lot of fluid, but it's in the normal range, just high in the normal range. So these two things combined are making me measure bigger and further along. Not that I'm surprised because I am larger than most 31 weekers :)!

I love the chance to get a sneak peek at my baby so I welcomed the ultrasound! I also discussed with her that my hips which are killing me (actually it's only my left side). She said it could be either my sciatic nerve or my hip but either way she said she'd recommend massages/chiropractic services so our insurance will cover it. Oh I hope they do because I'd love to regularly have a massage and I'd LOVE for this pain to go away. It's getting to the point where by evening I have to limp up the stairs and can't roll over in bed because it's so painful! Good thing all this pain is worth it in the end. I cannot believe that in two months (or maybe less??) we'll be meeting #3. We really need to nail down a name for her but I think we're getting closer!

Bring on more PINK!

We had our 20 week utrasound yesterday and finally found out that our third baby is a GIRL! We're so excited and I think Riley was even more excited, she can't wait to have a baby sister to "play dress up with" as she's said. The baby looks great and is measuring right at 20 weeks. I absolutely love having ultrasounds because it gives us a peak at our little one. We almost weren't able to see whether she was a she or he because she had her hands, this time, between her legs, but thankfully by the end she moved them. I told Ty we need to start thinking of names now because we're really bad at agreeing on baby names. Hopefully we can start soon and have something before she's born!

Ty is still not 100 percent convinced we're actually having a girl. I have to admit, the u/s tech was having difficulty getting a good shot because of the baby's hands being in the way, but I'm fairly confident she's a girl...guess we'll find out for sure in 4.5 months. Enjoy a few pictures of our newest!

Baby's face

Profile shot

1 foot and 5 perfect toes

It's a GIRL!!

Update: I had my doctor appointment and I was 20 weeks, 4 days. Baby looks great; her heart beat was at 162. My BP was 96/62 and I weighed 118 (started this pregnancy at 108). So far I've gained 10 lbs. I feel great right now and hope it continues! Baby is moving a ton, I can't tell when she moves the most because her movement is almost constant. However, I can always feel her when I lay on my back. She seems to always lay and kick on my right side.

Boy or Girl??

First and most important, the ultrasound showed a healthy baby!! God is so good and our prayers have been answered. We aren't concerned on what the sex of the baby is, but more that we have a healthy baby! He/she had a strong heartbeat of 152 bmp and today was the first day we got to hear it. It makes the pregnancy seem so much more real and I also think I've been feeling the baby move for almost a week now (starting at about 15 weeks) which is the greatest thing ever.

We did go into the ultrasound asking wheather we were having another boy or another girl and that's also the question we walked out of the room with. Even though it's a little early to have an ultrasound, it wouldn't have been too early to see the baby's gender...if he/she would have cooperated. This little one had his/her legs crossed and covering its' parts the entire time.

Once the technician checked everything out she went on to check the baby's gender. Once she looked she said "Oh, I think it's a boy" then she kept scanning and looking and about 2 minutes later she said "Uh oh...I actually think it's a girl"... She thinks that the baby's toes, that were in front of the private parts, were making the baby look like a boy, but she wasn't sure. So after trying to get the baby to move for about 40 minutes we gave up...however, she did say she was leaning towards the baby actually being a GIRL because she thinks she saw "the three lines", but she wasn't going to say one way or the other just in case.

I have an appointment on Monday and then will have another ultrasound in about 3 weeks or so (between 19-20 weeks) to check the "anatomy and parts" as the tech called it. Then, if the baby cooperates we should know then what we're having!

Meet our newest addition:

Ultrasound

Tuesday we have our first ultrasound at my new OB's office. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. We are planning on finding out what we're having; neither of us have a preference on what we're having this time around we're just praying for a healthy baby! I really hope though that I'm far enough along to see...I'll be 16 weeks on Thursday and my appt. is on Tuesday.

It could be an interesting appointment because we have to take both kids with us since we don't have anyone to watch them down here, so I'm hoping they (mainly, Lincoln) don't give us a hard time!! Riley is so excited for another baby and constantly talks to him/her and is kissing my belly 24/7. She keeps saying it's a girl and hoping it's a girl so if it's not I hope she's not too disappointed.

I think we're having a girl. Ty thinks we're having a boy. I was sure the other two times that I knew what we were having and I was right with both of the other kids (Ty was wrong both times!! We've always guessed the opposite of each other.). This time around I really am not sure what we're having...it's purely a guess, whereas before I had a huge intuition about what sex the kids were going to be.

Anyone else want to take a guess? I'll let you know on Tuesday (if they can tell that early on) if you're right :)!!

Ultrasound and Dr. appointment

This past Wednesday (03.05.08) we had another ultrasound in order to determine if it would necessary that I would have to have a C-section. In a previous ultrasound done at 19 weeks the sonographer determined that I had partial placenta previa. This is where the placenta is partially covering the cervix and if it didn't move by the time I went into labor it could cause serious issues and I would have to have a C-section. Anyways we had really been praying that it would move!! So during the ultrasound it was one of the first things the sonographer looked for and sure enough it had moved...THANK GOODNESS. I was really relieved! So we're good to go now...

The sonographer then looked and the baby and fluids and everything according to him looks great. We had a 2D ultrasound first and then a 3D one. According to the ultrasound I'm pretty much right on track with my due date (I'm 31 weeks right now) and it also measured the baby to be about 4 lbs. 2 oz. The sonographer said that's a little above average for 32 weeks...go figure. He'll probably be a decent size if he stays cooking until 40-ish weeks.

After the ultrasound we met the new doctor, Dr. Winter. He seemed like a very nice guy and very knowledgable, but he's no Dr. Pastoriza :)! I'm thankful though that he seemed very caring and I'm sure that he'll be great too!

(The pictures are a lot better quality in original form, but I had to take a picture of a picture with our camera since we don't have a scanner.)

Our little chubby-cheeked baby! (Ultrasound in 3D color)

Similiar picture in black and white! I think this little guy is going to look like Ty too!!

Baby Paulk #2...coming this May!

We had the ultrasound for baby number #2 on Tuesday, as we like to refer to HIM as (at least until we come up with a name, which could be a while given our track record). Yes, I said HIM...we are having a baby BOY!! We are so blessed to be have one of each. God is so good. Here are a few of the many ultrasound pictures that were taken. God has blessed us with one very healthy baby and we pray that this little guy is just as healthy. So far the docs. say everything looks great, we'll have another ultrasound around 28 weeks because of where the placenta is located right now. It needs to move because it is blocking the cervix, but the ultrasound tech said that 9 of 1o times it will move...we pray that it does, because if it doesn't I will have to have a C-Section.