3 hours later and finally PASSED!!!

Since I failed my one hour glucose test I had to endure the 3 hours of sitting in the lab lobby 2 floors below my work not allowed to leave the lobby for any reason! My poor vein in my right arm was poked so many times I started to bruise. They had to draw blood 4 different times in order to obtain my fasting glucose levels. For curious people I will type out my level followed by the level it needed to be under so you can see the comparison (ex. 134/140). My original 1 hour test: 167/140 (bombed that one!). 3 hour test: Fasting level 94/95. First hour 145/180. Second hour 126/155. Third hour 63/140. As you can tell my levels were quite under this time which is good, for the exception of my fasting level (weird). When I finally was released from the locked cell of the lobby I went up to work and actually got quite light headed and nauseous since it had been 15 hours since I was able to eat or drink anything! You can tell why I got light headed since my blood sugar was 63!!!! I am very thankful that I passed this test because I did not want to have to deal with gestational diabetes. However, this gave Jared ample opportunity for him to nag at me for drinking pop. Everytime I would eat a piece of candy or crack a can of pop Jared would yell DIABETES!!! So supportive!! Just kidding! He has been very supportive, amazing, and interested through out the whole process (even though he likes the name Anakin!) It's hard to believe I will be 29 weeks tomorrow and will need to start going every 2 weeks to see my DR, CRAZY! Also, Jared and I have decided yet once again, to change DRs!! If you are shaking your head, I am right there with you! Due to an insurance change once again I will be seeing a DR at a Park Nicollet Clinic which is coveniently located one floor below me which makes it quite easy for upcoming appts as I can do them over my lunch hour instead of needing to take half days off of work. With this change that does mean that we will be changing hospitals for delivery also. Now, and I don't care about insurance anymore, we will FOR SURE be going to Methodist Hospital in St Louis Park. Right now we are registered for our birthing classes Dec 5th and 12th in which should be an interesting experience! We will get to take a tour of the birth center then so that will be fun! We finally got registered at Target and Babies R Us as Jared scanned EVERY SINGLE item on both lists. I did not once touch the scanner! My next appt is on Nov 20th so in the weeks to come you can check back for some updated information!

FAILED Test!!

No worries everything is fine!!! I had the pleasure of drinking the amazing orange sugar drink for my one hour glucose test and I bombed!!! My level was at 167 and my sister Julie told me that the cut off is normally around 140ish. So yeah, I really failed! Now I get the pleasure of drinking it AGAIN, and sitting in the lab lobby for 3 hours. I was instructed that I could not leave the lab to even go up and sit at my desk for work which is only 2 floors up!! This is going to be a blast. Not only do I have to sit there for 3 hours but I have to fast for 12 hours before also!!! Who honestly thinks a 28 week pregnant woman can go 12 hours without eating, seriously! The good thing is that my appt is at 7:30 in the morning! I may just go to bed at 8pm next monday night so I don't have to even think about how I can't eat anything. My hemoglobin was fine at 13.8.

I have been very lucky as I have not had any complications or problems with the pregnancy, up until now! This past Saturday night Jared and I actually went to the hospital to be put on the monitor. I was not feeling the little guy move as much as he normally does. I felt him Wed and a little bit on Thurs. I did not feel him at all on Friday or Saturday. I hesitated calling my doctor because I didn't want to be one of those first time pregnant mothers who freaks out over every little thing and thinks that every little thing is wrong with me. I called my sister Julie and my aunt Nicolle before calling my doctor to see what they thought and they both told me to call. I tried drinking orange juice and mountain dew along with poking the little guy to try to get him move. Go figure that once I got there and on the monitor he started moving! Stubbornness once again prevails!! I don't mean oh I feel a little kick here and there. I mean like full out body jabs like hello, I am here! With all the sugar I drank he had to be on a sugar overdose! The nurse was very nice and she found the heart beat right away and affirmed that it was probably just the position he moved into. Now he has been moving around just fine and even keeping me up sometimes at night.

Jared and I registered at babies r us the other weekend and holy cow! I preemptively apologize for the "big boy" toys on there like the Imaginext Batcave!!! Needless to say by the end he was anxious to get over to the "fun" toys!!! He actually scanned every single item as I did not touch the scanner once the whole time we were there. There are some things that we still need to get on there as Jared was wisked away to 2nd row Wild Hockey tickets that he couldn't pass up! It was really fun to register and we are looking forward to heading to Target to get that done too. That's all the exciting news for now!

SURPRISE...IT'S A BOY!!!!

It's a BOY!!!!!! Jared and I went to an appt today with our DR/clinic that we will be sticking with the rest of the time until delivery. (But, just our luck Jared will get a job 3 hours away and we will have to transfer to another hospital all over again!!!) We have decided that we will deliver at St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Shakopee, MN. If you would like to check it out for yourself here is the web link and you can play around on their website. http://www.stfrancis-shakopee.com/services_familybirthplace.htm

So as we transfered we were able to get another ultrasound done today in which was done by a radiology tech who was very very nice. She has only worked there 8 months but told us that she has had great success in finding the sex!! She saved the anticipation till the end in which she said that "it" is a boy and showed us the goods!! She was not able to print a picture for us as it is not a diagnostic necessity, but gave us a great view!! I asked how sure she was and she said she saw boy parts in the beginning but didn't want to say anything incase it was a one time occurrence or a view of the umbilical cord. Then she said that she noticed it a couple other times throughout the ultrasound and then at the end when she found it again she way confident. I actually had to get up and walk around for about 10 minutes because she didn't get a very good profile picture and needed to see the nasal bone. Baby was originally fully stretched out, head facing down, and sideways with his butt still sticking up in the air! After our walk baby boy Kuyper moved but only pulled his feet up to his head which didn't help at all what so ever, stubborn? She still had a hard time seeing it and mentioned that the radiologist will not be happy enough with the picture so more then likely next month we will have to go back to see if they can get a better view. Babies heart rate was 139 and was EXTREMELY active!! The rad tech even mentioned that he was being stubborn! Again, big surprise!!

It is actually quite funny that he is a boy because over 80% of our families swore it was going to be a girl. They had the "feeling" that is was a girl! Guess not! It will be really fun having a boy because my oldest sister is due in December with a boy and my brother and his fiance just had a boy in May! They will be the 3 musketeers together at family functions! And I have a cousin on the Jungers' side who is having a boy in December also!!! It's going to be crazy! Now Lucas won't be the only boy on the Brechon side!!! Nora will have to wear her princess crown a little longer on the Jungers' side until someone else decides to have another baby...hint hint MICHELLE LYNN!!!

Jared and I have talked about names. We actually have had names picked out since before we were married! We are not 100% set in stone on them and are open to change if we come across something else. I like Connor and Jared likes Tanner. With either name, the middle name will be Arthur which is Jared's and and his dad's middle name. Sorry if you don't like the names you will just have to deal with it!!! I promise the I will finally put up ultrasound pictures tonight when I go over to my parents to go shopping with my mom! I can't wait b/c now I can actually look specifically at one gender and not just say oh this is cute, that is cute and put it back on the rack!!!

20 weeks and still waiting...

The "big" appt was on Tuesday but nothing "big" happened. We went back down to Mankato for this appt to have the ultrasound done with my DR. Both Jared and I are glad to be out of there! It was weird going back down there and then leaving again. Everything looks great with baby. Since we were so determined to find out the sex, baby decided to make us wait even longer, stubbornness already!!! Maybe some things really are genetic!! Baby was breech with butt sticking straight up in the air! The umbilical cord was lying just oh so perfectly in between the legs covering up all anatomy to make it impossible to see either way!! The ultrasound was really cool. You could see babies feet tap dancing on my bladder. Which would make since because I feel like I spend more time in the bathroom then I do laying in bed sleeping! Babies heart rate was 148 and weighs 13oz! How can something so tiny be so stubborn already!!! Maybe it's a sign that Jared and I need to prepare. Baby was doing some cute poses with putting the hand on the face and moving fingers and toes around. Jared was too funny during this ultrasound. Dr Larson was down by the anatomy region and Jared and I both thought we say boy parts so Jared promptly says, "whoa, that's a big penis!" My Dr then explained that it was where the umbilical cord attaches to baby and that the untrained eye would assume that! That is then when Larson pointed out the umbilical cord is right in between the legs covering everything up. Needless to say we were really hoping to find out if it was a boy or a girl b/c you can only have so many green and yellow things! It would also make shopping easier and a lot more fun!! When Jared and I left the clinic we promptly went to Taco Bell to eat something spicy in hopes that baby would move if we were able to get back in later that day to do a quick peek with another ultrasound. My DR was a little too busy to get me back in so we are just going to have to wait till next month!

I have now found a DR up here in the cities and will be going there on Oct 13th. They will be repeating an ultrasound because my DR in Mankato didn't get the best look at the heart and would like to take another look when it will be a bigger/easier to see. Baby and I read a book together everyday and have a "talk" after about maybe cooperating at the next appt. We are going to a family wedding the weekend of the 16th, 17th, 18th so it would be fun to be able to tell everyone!

I was laying on the ground the other day on my stomach and thought I felt baby moving. I told Dr Larson about it and he said that if I continue to feel the same movements that it probably is baby moving. Jared asks everyday if I can feel baby moving yet. I think he is a little anxious to be able to feel the baby move too. It might make it a little more "real" to him once he can feel the jabs and punches! At the end of the day, regardless boy or girl, we are happy that baby is healthy and growing.

August Baby News

This past Thursday I had my 16-17 week appt with Dr. Larson. It was a relief to have him back since my July appt was pretty worthless. We started off by talking about the different testing that you can do to predict birth defects and genetic defects. I also asked him about not wanting to eat but forcing myself to eat, expect for fruit which I could eat non stop all day long! He said it is still normal and isn't too worried that I feel this way even though I am almost half way through the pregnancy (SCARY THOUGHT!) He also said that if it continues through 20 weeks then he will start to get a little concerned. Dr. Larson just suggested that when I do eat, forcing or not, that I try to eat things with a lot of protein. We did another ultrasound and took measurements in which confirmed the original January 30th due date. It was really cool to do the ultrasound this month b/c baby actually looked like a baby! When we started the ultrasound baby was moving around and giving us a thumbs up which almost made me cry! But lately it seems like anything and everything can make me cry! Dr. Larson is great at explaining what we are looking at on the screen. He used the head, chest cavity, and the femur for the measurements. It was so cool to see body parts like the ribs, spine, arms and baby moving. At every ultrasound he also checks my uterus b/c of the heart shape and actually said that it is starting to "flatten" out as the uterus gets bigger. Baby weighs about 6oz and the heart beat was 142.

My last day at the hospital was on Friday and it was hard to leave everyone there. It was by far my favorite job I have ever had and I will actually miss it. However, it is very nice to permanently be back in the cities. My background for DCC was completed last Monday so I am hoping to hear from them this week. Jared is still at the Rosemount armory doing army things. Today Jared and I went to a movie and walked around the Southdale mall for a bit. We went into Macy's to look around and Jared came to the infant department. He of course went right to the boys clothes but I saw him peering over at the little girls section! We eneded up buying a really cute sleep and play and one onesie which are gender neutral since we don't know the sex yet.

The much anticipated 20 weeks appt is on Sept 15th in which we are hoping and praying that baby cooperates and we can find out the sex. We will be going back to see Dr. Larson in Mankato for this appt. I have been looking for some dr's up here in the cities and have been thinking about places for the delivery but it all depends on where we will be living and where insurance is covered. I will be posting all of the ultrasound pictures this week since I am finally in the cities but I'm only able to do it at my parents house since our printer/scanner is in storage. We are also excited as we found out this past week that we will have another nephew! My sister Julie is pregnant and due mid December, only 6 weeks further along then I am!!

Jared Passes

Just wanted to let everyone know that Jared did a great job with our nephew Carter! Jared some how avoided changing any diapers but he did feed and burp him for me. He must have some sort of special touch b/c Carter sleep through the whole night 1130pm to 630am!! Carter made it easy for us b/c he is a great baby and my brother and fiance have no clue how lucky they are. Jared and I can only hope and pray that our little one is as laid back as Carter is.

My next DR's appt is Aug 20th and we will be doing another ultrasound. I have not been able to get pictures up b/c our scanner wasn't working but now that we have moved I have some spare time to get things fixed. I will be 16 weeks and 5 days at my appt so hopefully next month we will be able to find out the sex and stop calling him/her "it." My mom did some pencil with a needle in the eraser voo doo thing and it said girl which coincides with my mother in law's intuition that it's also a girl! We will find out soon enough. Check back in a week for some pictures!

Trial Run

So this weekend Jared and I are headed up to the cabin to hang out with my family and spend some one on one time with my 2 month old nephew! We are watching him Saturday, OVERNIGHT Saturday, and all day Sunday! This will be the first time that Jared will have a baby sleep over so things could get interesting! I am hoping that this will be good practice for not only him, but both of us! Good thing my mom's cabin is only 2 down!! I know that Jared can't wait to get up for the 3am feeding. He has already called dibs on it, he just doesn't know yet!! Wish us luck and stay tuned for an update later next week to see if Jared passed the test or not, even though I know he will do fine!!!