Weekly Update

I promised to update more about this past week, so here goes...Before my appointment with my pulmonologist last Friday, I first had a short spirometry, which showed that my pulmonary function continues to improve! My doctor listened to my lungs and thought I sounded great. I left a sputum sample for culture, so we'll see if the MAC is still present, but either way he doesn't recommend treating it while breastfeeding. He looked in my ears and sinuses and agreed that they didn't look too good, especially the left side, so I made an appointment with my old ENT (the one who did my sinus surgery back in 2001 and who amazingly accepts my crappy military insurance even though he's kind of a big shot) for Thursday (yesterday).

At that appointment, first this other younger doctor looked at my ears and sinuses and suctioned out quite a bit from my nose, both for culture purposes and for my own relief! It felt great and I could actually smell for the first time in ages, although some of the smells that hit my nose later in the day were not so pleasant (chemical cleaning products in a public restroom, the garbage room at my mom's condominium complex). As for my ears, both tubes have fallen out of my right ear, but the hole remains open. My left ear still has two tubes, but they appeared blocked, so my doctor gave me some samples of Ciprodex. The neat thing about his office is that you get to wear these glasses that allow you to watch along with the doctor as he's looking at your nose and ears (gross but also very cool!). He also recommended increasing my nasal sprays (Astelin and Nasonex) from once to twice a day and using a couple of drops of baby shampoo in my saline rinse (sounds strange, but it's supposed to help thin really thick secretions like I have). But he said he didn't want to do anything more rigorous until after the baby's born, so I'll go back at the end of November for a follow-up, when hopefully things will have improved due to the decrease in hormones. I'm also seeing my pulmonologist again at the beginning of December. So basically the consensus is that pregnancy has been good for my lungs but not for my ears and sinuses, but hey, it would be a lot worse if it was the other way around!

I also had my weekly OB appointment with the MFM fellow since my doctor is out of town. Nothing much to report there other than that my Group B strep test came back negative and everything else continues to look good. I asked her a few questions about what to do when I go into labor and what to expect if I need to be induced. This is what she told me. I should call or go directly to labor and delivery when my contractions are coming every 5 minutes, lasting for 1 minute, and this pattern continues for an hour (the 511 rule I learned about in my prenatal classes). Other reasons to call would be if my water breaks or I think it's broken, if I have severe abdominal pain that doesn't go away, if I have any bleeding, or if there's anything else I'm concerned about or that seems out of the ordinary. They will only check my cervix if I have any symptoms of labor, if I ask to have it checked, or once I reach 40 weeks. If I have not gone into labor by 40 weeks and especially if I show no signs of going into labor, they will start talking about induction, which it turns out can take place at any time, day or night, weekday or weekend, although they usually prefer to do them in the morning on a weekday. If my cervix is not ready, they will admit me to the hospital the night before the induction and administer a cervical ripening agent. Then in the morning they would start the pitocin. I also asked her when it would be safe to try some natural methods of stimulating labor, such as acupressure points, and she recommended no earlier than 39 weeks. I had my NST after the appointment, which showed that baby is doing very well and I'm not having any contractions. I also submitted my preadmission paperwork at the hospital, so that's one less thing to take care of.

In more exciting news, the accumulation of baby gear continues. My mother's psychiatrist gave/lent me the following baby books: What to Expect the First Year, Your Baby & Child From Birth to Age Five, and The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby -- From Birth to Age Two. I think I'm pretty set on reading material for the hospital and for these first few months, if I even have time to read anything once Ziggy arrives!

Then on Wednesday I went over to my cousin's house for dinner and, after she put her daughter to bed, we went down to the garage and rummaged around for some baby items. This is the haul I ended up with: a diaper changing pad, 3 receiving blankets, a pair of baby socks, 5 warmer all-in-one suits for baby for colder weather (luckily almost all of her daughter's clothes are gender-neutral or even "boy-colored"), baby Avalon Organics Soothing Zinc Diaper Balm and Protective A, D, & E Ointment, Lansinoh Brand Lanolin For Breastfeeding Mothers, 3 sets of used cloth breast pads and a bunch of disposable ones as well, a Medela Harmony Breastpump (a manual breast pump for occasional use), a book entitled Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, and a Diaper Genie diaper pail. The main thing she couldn't find was the bassinet, so she's planning on contacting a friend whom she thinks she lent it to.

Anyway, that's all for now. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Ultrasound Update

I have so much to catch up on from last week, so I'd better get started! I'll start with the doctor's appointments. I had my much-needed ENT appointment last Wednesday and was disappointed to learn that the tubes the doctor had put in last time were plugged up with really dry, hard, thick mucous. But I guess that explains why my ears felt so blocked and why I was having so much trouble hearing. Dr. H said there was no way he could remove the tubes, but they will most likely fall out on their own as my ear drums heal and push them out. He said really all we could do was put in another set of tubes, so that's what we did.

Again he numbed my ear drum, made the holes, suctioned out the mucous, which is "like cement," according to him, and then popped in new tubes. He said I must have a "high pain threshold" because he really had to poke away at my ear drums this time (it was harder to put in the second set of tubes since space was already being occupied by the first set). As a child, my parents called me a "tough cookie." I don't know if I actually feel less physical pain than other people, or if I'm just more used to it, having been poked and prodded since infancy. Anyway, this time he prescribed some Ciprodex eardrops to try to keep the tubes open. He also suctioned some mucous from my nose and said the tissue looked a little swollen in there, but otherwise fine. So I've been applying 4 drops in each ear before bed, and so far I can tell the tubes are still open since I can blow air through them. I have another appointment in a couple of months so hopefully they will remain open at least until then.

Now on to the more interesting doctor's appointment that I had on Thursday morning. I had my 20 week appointment and anatomy scan, which was so cool! We got to see Ziggy wave at us with one hand, make a loose fist with the other, open his mouth (I wonder if he was swallowing the amniotic fluid like they say babies do), move his little hands and feet in a sort of punching motion, and in general, just act really cute (ok, so maybe I'm a little biased :) We were lucky and got a nice ultrasound tech who explained everything she was doing and pointed everything out to us. She even measured my cervix when I asked her to ( it's 3.5 cm, and she said anything over 3 is considered normal). She took a bunch of measurements, first of the placenta, amniotic fluid, umbilical cord, and all that, and then of the baby's body. She pointed out various body parts and organs to us, including the profile, palate, stomach, spine, leg bones, arms, feet, hands, nasal bones, mouth, kidneys, heart, and head, which were all normal. And he does not have situs inversus, like I do, so that's a good sign. Yay!

She said he has his left side toward my back, with the head down. Now that I know that, it makes more sense that I can't for sure feel his little kicks and jabs, since when he kicks, it doesn't go forward into my belly, but towards my side, probably into one of my other organs! AC also pointed out that when he was moving his arms and legs, he was keeping them pretty close to his body and wasn't really touching the walls of my uterus, so that may be another reason I can't feel him that well.

Although Ziggy had been cooperating throughout the ultrasound, of course just when it got to the point for her to examine his genitals, he curled up into a little ball, so it was hard to see anything. The ultrasound tech started wailing on my belly with the ultrasound wand to try to get him to move. I started laughing because the sensation kind of tickled, and I said I was glad I had emptied my bladder beforehand, otherwise I think I might have peed! Finally he moved enough, and she said, "So, do you want to know the sex?" and we were like "Yes!", and she said, "See that little white thing? That's his penis. It's a boy!" I asked her if she was sure, and she said yes, she wouldn't tell us if she wasn't sure. At that moment, I had such a mix of emotions: amazement, doubt, wonder, disappointment (yes, I'll admit, for a sec I did, but mainly it was because I was worried AC would be disappointed since I know how much he wanted a girl), awe, maybe a little fear, excitement, and happiness. I was just so amazed to be the first of the Polish maternal line in at least five generations (if not more) to have a boy!

Anyway, they gave us a printout of some images from the ultrasound and also a DVD, which we'd brought so they could record on to it. Apparently they don't record everything on it, only what they can (what does that mean? is it for legal reasons?). We haven't had a chance to look at the DVD yet, but AC did scan the images onto his computer, so I'll post those as soon as I can get them onto my laptop. The ultrasound tech also told us that Ziggy's heart rate was 153, he weighed 12 oz, and was measuring at 20 weeks, 2 days, so 2 days ahead! As AC said, he's about the size of a steak!

After the ultrasound, it was the usual drill. I gave a sample of urine, got weighed (up only 2.5 lbs since last time, which just proves that not all the weight was real last time--some of it had to be extra fluid and food since my appointment was right after lunch), had my blood pressure measured, which was normal, and talked briefly with the nurse, who asked me if I'd felt any movement yet. I said I'd felt something for a while, but could never be sure it was really him. I asked her about Ziggy's heart rate going over 200, and she said I should ask Dr. W about that. I mentioned that I occasionally experience mild cramping, and she said that's normal. I also gave her the info to have my records sent to my next MFM doctor in California.

While we were waiting for Dr. W, AC and talked about the baby, and it turns out he wasn't disappointed about having a boy. He did say that this makes him more inclined to have another kid and suggested that maybe we could even do sex selection with our frozen embryos next time. I have heard that sometimes they'll do that if you already have one child, so we'll see. I do hope the next one is a girl, since I want one of each. If it's another boy, I'll be so tempted to have another baby, and AC is pretty adamant about only having two.

Anyway, Dr. W came in, told me it was normal for baby's heart rates to get that high temporarily, especially before 20 weeks, although he did say my lips looked dry and I was probably dehydrated, so I should make an effort to drink as much fluid as possible. He also said that Ziggy looks healthy and is growing normally, except for one thing. He has what's called a choroid plexus cyst in his brain, which can be a "soft marker" for chromosomal abnormalities, mainly Edward's Syndrome, also known as Trisomy 18, which generally results in death within a few weeks of birth. However, due to my age, lack of family history, and negative quad screen result, Dr. W thinks the risk is very low. I'll have more ultrasounds between 28-32 weeks to check to see if the cyst has resolved (which they usually do) and to recheck Ziggy's growth and organs. I'll return for my next appointment at 25 weeks, when I'll have the glucose tolerance test to check for gestational diabtetes.

Despite Dr. W's reassurance, I was still worried, so I did some research on my own. For once, Google made me feel better rather than worse, as I discovered that choroid plexus cysts are quite common and almost always are not a sign of Trisomy 18, especially if the mother is young, the quad screen was negative, and there were no other findings on the ultrasound. In fact, there's some controversy in the medical community as to whether choroid plexus cysts should be considered "soft markers" at all. SH also reassured me that choroid plexus cysts are common in ultrasounds done between 18-20 weeks and usually resolve on their own, so that makes me feel better. So right now I'm just trying to stay positive and think of this as a good thing, since it means we get to see more of our baby boy!