Update on Pregnancy #3

Here is the update from the last few doctor's appointments.

Dr. Appointment last week- I failed my glucose testing by only two points but after begging and pleading the doctor agreed not to make me do the three hour test because I had no other systems of diabetes.

Sonogram that next day showed that baby is developing right on target.  Right now the estimated weight is 3 pounds which is very close to little sis' birth weight.  Everything with me seemed to look good too.  There were two sonographers in the room and they both agreed that I showed no signs of early labor and that I was measuring at or above average which is great news!

This weeks Dr. appointment I opted to have labs run to test for my chances of delivering early.  The test looks for a protein that must be present before you can go into labor.  If you get a negative result then there is a 99% chance that you will not deliver for two weeks.  A positive test just means that the protein is present and that you could go into labor at any moment, but it doesn't mean you have to go into labor that day or even that month.  It just means that you are one step closer.  I had been declining to take this test for the last few weeks because I was feeling really good and I felt that the worry of a positive result would just make me stress more.  Several days last week though I had a few contractions here or there and I just didn't feel so great this week so I opted to take the test and see.   Well I got the results today and they were negative!  So apparently I should be good to go for at least a week and more than likely longer than that. 

This is great news! Tomorrow I will be 31 weeks pregnant and Little Sis was born at 31 weeks and 5 days, so I can breath a sigh of relief that we are more than likely going to make it longer with this pregnancy than we did last time. 

Lastly, today I went to the doctor again for a Non-Stress Test.  This test is to watch the baby's heart rate and monitor my contractions.  I sit around in a comfy chair with one monitor on baby and one on me.  Plus they give me a push button trigger.  Each time I feel Caleb move I am supposed to push the button.  Then they look to see how his heart rate responds.  The idea is that he will be still and calm for a few minutes and bring his heart rate down but that when he is active and moving around his heart rate would increase.  They like to see a baby rest, play, rest, and play again.  Today's results indicate that Caleb is very very active and doing great.  I only had one tiny contraction during the 45 minutes of monitoring so they were very excited about that too. 

So from here on out I have weekly Dr. appointments, hormone shots and Non-Stress Testing, plus protein testing and songrams every two weeks until either term (6 weeks from tomorrow) or they see something concerning.  I will make sure to blog if anything changes. 

Today it was 89 degrees outside

It was so warm today that we spent a good amount of time playing at the local school playground and were able to wear shorts for the first time all year.

 

 

Had to beg for a picture of the two of them together.

When he actually stops and lets me take a pic he is such a awesome looking kid. 

 

After nap today we ate the strawberry banana ice cream that we had made earlier in the day.  It was a hit plus they got to eat outside.

Snow Day the end of Feb

 

 

 

Little Sis and I stayed inside in our pajamas where it was nice and warm so Pockets and Daddy threw snowballs at the window.  We also brought a bucket of snow inside for Little Sis to play with and we made blue snow icecream for snack.

Family happenings

Pockets has joined a t-ball team and has been enjoying time with Daddy practicing and with Daddy on the field as an assistant coach.

Pockets and Mommy have been going on "dates" recently to spend some quality time together.

This picture of little sis clearly shows that she has devil horns somewhere under her crazy hair. She is a terror! 

Little Sis is growing up a ton though.  She passed right through 24 months clothes and is now wearing 2t clothes.  Pockets on the other hand is wearing two totally different sizes.  When we bought summer clothes for him this past weekend we had to buy 3T shorts (which were still a little large in the waist) but then had to go to the "big kid" section to get shirts that would fit since he needed small 4/5 size.  Crazy tall and thin!

We are having a blast hanging out with our homegroup and all the kids.  We went to Chick-Fil-A the other day and had dinner.  As you can see there are equal number of children to adults as of now with Pockets being the oldest of all of them!  Once Caleb gets here we will officially be out numbered.

 

 

Legos have been a recent big hit around here.  Little Sis likes to just sort them by color and take them in and out of the box, but Pockets is getting really good and following directions to make all sorts of houses and vehicles.

This is our new view from the front seat.  We officially have three car seat in the second row.  Although the kids seem to be happy about getting to sit next to each other, their love/hate relationship makes it absolutes miserable to try and have the keep their hands to themselves as we drive down the road.

 

Lastly here is picture of our new stash of diapers.  That's right we have decided to cloth diaper this next child for several different reasons.  1. the cost of disposables is unreal  2. we are blown away by the amount of waste the disposables create and realize that it takes a lifetime for them to disintegrate in the landfill  3. cloth diapers are absolutely nothing like they were even five years ago and are actually just as easy as disposables.  4. As a total plus, they are amazingly cute. 

Maternity Pictures

We are 29 weeks today and I am still feeling good considering.  Here are some pics that a friend of mine took while in Dallas last weekend.

sonogram today

just a quick update...

i had an extra / non routine sonogram today to assess the possibility of preterm labor. it was nothing crazy, just a single picture with a single measurement. the results though are extremely useful.Research shows that if the measurement is greater than 3.5 then the average length of pregnancy is 36 weeks or more (meaning full term). my number today was 3.9! 

now there are always cases that dont follow research, but we are continuing to pray and believe that this baby will not be born early but rather happy and healthy so he can come home with us right away. 

As precaution though, im still taking it easy by limiting my physical activity as much as possible, and will continue taking weekly hormone shots till delivery. 

thanks for everyones prayers! 

The Story of Caleb

For the last few weeks I have been studying the story of Caleb in the Bible.  It's not a well known story so let me try and paraphrase it. 

Caleb is introduced in  Numbers 13.  Moses and the people of Israel had been traveling to Canaan which was the land that God had promised to them.  God spoke to Moses and told him to send one man from each of the twelve tribes to check out the land to see if it was fertile and if it was inhabited.  One of the men that Moses appointed was Caleb.  He and eleven other men left for 40 days to check on the land.  When they returned, they brought proof of the fruitfulness and agreed that the land flowed with milk and honey just as God had promised.   When they spoke about the people there though ten of the men recommended that Moses and the Israelites not pursue the land because the people who lived there were big, strong, and in great numbers.   Caleb then quieted the crowds and tried to convince them that if this was the land that God had promised then they should go.  The other men were more convincing to the crowd though and Moses finally gave in and said that they would not go to Canaan as God had commanded.  Because of Moses and the Israelites choice to rebel against God, the Lord punished the entire group causing them to wander in the desert for 40 years until all the adults at the time died.  The only exception was made for Caleb and Joshua (another of the twelve spies) because they remained faithful even when things seemed impossible. 

This story has really hit home for Ryan and I this past year.  So many times in the last year I am sure we looked like crazy idiots that were making poor decisions but we felt strongly that this was God's plan for us. Here are a few examples...
*Spend thousands of dollars on a remodel to our house in a down market so that we could hope to put it for sale.
*Move out of our house and in with my mom and instead trust tenants to take care of our house not knowing what our future would hold.
*Move to Lubbock with two weeks notice and only a week before Christmas so that I could take a part time job even though we had no potential job for Ryan lined up.
*Continue the house selling process with a buyer that was more than difficult when most would have walked away. 
*Ryan turned down several full time job offers from companies here in Lubbock due to reasons that were hard to explain but mostly just because we were not at peace.
*Allow God to have complete control over our family including the possibility of more children in the future even though we were not financially stable.

In all these situations any number of people could have questioned if we were really following God's lead or were we making choices for our own motivation.  Many of our dearest Christian friends did in fact ask, but Ryan and I continued to seek the Lord's direction and follow Him no matter how crazy we appeared to society.  God just "showed up" too many times for us to question Him. 
*We were able to pay off all the house repairs with Ryan's second job
*Blessed to have a place to live for several months that allowed for us to save money and rest with our preemie little girl
*My job was flexible enough to make the move easier and to work more when need be and then decrease when we could. Also, the care of therapy we received due to living in Lubbock was so much better for Little Sis.
*Eventually selling our house and bringing less than $1000 to the table.
*Ryan finding the most AMAZING job, exactly as he could desire and with great potential.
*Have unexplainable peace with being pregnant with our third child even though the future is unknown.

So now back to the story of Caleb.  As you might imagine I have felt a strong connection to this story as I have been reading and studying more about this great follower of God.  So when Ryan and I started talking about names for this new bundle of joy, Caleb was first on my mind.  It only took a little persuasion to get Ryan on board (he got to chose the middle name).  With that we are proud to announce the name of our third child....

CALEB ANDREW GRAVES!