The Larson Ladies

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Week 29 Update

Post from February 11th, 2014

Today I had another doctor's appointment, to meet with the doc and to have another ultrasound. They never told me why they scheduled this ultrasound as a follow-up to my Level 2 ultrasound back at 21 weeks, and my doctor said that she hadn't heard that anything was wrong so it was merely a formality.

Carl comes to all appointments with me where we have an ultrasound, which is so nice and supportive. And I think it helps him feel connected too. I'm always glad to have him there at my appointments. We went back to the ultrasound room, and as I was getting ready for the ultrasound the tech tells me that my glucose test results came back high. She caught me off-guard because I thought she was only going to do the ultrasound. Well, she told me in so many words that she wasn't supposed to be telling me these results. Her exact words... "act surprised when the doctor tells you." And no wonder, because the specific results she gave me were wrong. She told me that my score was 133, and that the cutoff was 140. And then she proceeded to lecture me on how to be more healthy during my pregnancy and that I need to avoid white starches. I just bit my tongue and kept saying, "uh-huh" and "ok". But who the hell is this woman? She has no idea about my history or my health or my pregnancy or my anything. Really rubbed me the wrong way and upset me. I held it together through the ultrasound. Seeing pics of our baby girl and her moving all around will make anyone's mood better! The baby had a strong heartbeat at 152ish beats per minute, and even though she couldn't say exactly what she needed to get more pictures of or why we were there for that ultrasound, she said that the baby looked really healthy and all was good. Here are some pics:

[Pictures coming soon]

My doctor was on call that week, so we saw the Nurse Practitioner Julie. She confirmed that my glucose lab results were high. My true score was 142, which is just slightly higher than the cutoff of 140. She made me feel better about failing the 1-hour test by saying that usually when people score in the 140s or 150s for the 1-hour, they almost always pass the 3-hour test. Everything else was good. She feels good about how the baby is measuring and my weight and overall health. So that's encouraging. I still left feeling discouraged and annoyed that I had to take the 3-hour test. But oh well.

So then I get back to the office and my phone rings. It's the receptionist at the doc's office saying they want to schedule another ultrasound. When I asked why, she said very nonchalantly, "they just want additional views". And that's it. She couldn't give me any more information. I lost it at that point. I told Carl and told him that I would call back later to get more information, but I just couldn't right now because I couldn't quit crying. I was discouraged and felt like I was getting smoke screens regarding the health of the baby and my health. Carl called the doc right away and talked to the Nurse Practitioner we had met with that morning, and she explained what had happened and apologized that they didn't give the information up front. She explained that the ultrasound tech thought she saw some fluid around the baby's heart. The high risk doctor who reviews all the ultrasounds wasn't in the office that day and he wasn't able to review the ultrasound images until after we had left. He wasn't alarmed, but thought it was a good idea for us to have another ultrasound in 2 weeks just to get some additional looks and to be sure.

Usually I look forward to my ultrasounds and checkups, and I know it could be a lot worse so I feel like I'm over-reacting. But I just want this baby to be very healthy, and it's upsetting that there is any doubt about that. Will update after my 3-hour glucose test and the next ultrasound...

Week 25 Update

Post from January 15, 2014

Weight: 25.5 lbs
I've gained A LOT more weight so far than I did with Audrey. Ugh. And if I gained 39 lbs with Audrey, I bet I will end up around 45-50 lbs with this one. Tough subject for me, but I'll admit, I've been eating a lot of crap and I've only worked out twice in 6 weeks. 6 weeks! I struggle to find a routine that fits with busy/demanding workload and picking up Audrey from daycare. Or maybe we just need to move to a warm climate so I don't have to rely on the gym as much. Here's what I hope...the baby is born healthy and at a healthy weight. I will kick my ass back in shape, I know it can be done because of what I accomplished after having Audrey. I don't mind sacrificing my body/weight for a short time for a healthy baby girl!

Size of baby: weight of a rutabaga

Gender: Girl!

Symptoms: heartburn, shortness of breath when I carry Audrey up the stairs (but I think I'm just out of shape!), stomach bug (again!) 2 weeks ago which took a little time to bounce back from, general tiredness from not sleeping through the night (for a # of reasons). Oh, and really dry hair/scalp. Feeling pretty good, though, overall.

Movement: I felt this little girl move really early on, and about 5-6 weeks ago Carl felt her for the first time! I thought it might be too early, but she was kicking hard! I'll feel her down low and up in the ribs, mostly on my right side, simultaneously. She's a mover.

Sleep: I haven't slept through the night for a few years now. This is due to Audrey sometimes (even though she's a pretty good sleeper overall), but mostly just because I have to go to the bathroom, or I have stuff on my mind. Most nights I fall asleep on the couch. I'm trying just to go to bed when tired, but that would mean going to bed really early! Ha.

What I miss: Getting my hair done, though I guess I'm saving a bunch of money so that's good! I'm rockin the ombre look.

I'm ready and anxious to meet this little girl! I don't want to wish away any time... but... is it April yet??

It's a Girl!

Post from 12/17/13

Today we went to the doc for our Level 2 ultrasound. I am 21 weeks along (tomorrow), and feeling pretty good. All went well at the ultrasound and the ultrasound tech said that the baby looked healthy and already weighed over 1 pound! And we're still on track for April 30th due date. Here are some ultrasound pics:

[Pictures Coming Soon]

We chose not to find out the gender of the baby at our appointment, but rather later that night when Audrey came home. So we had the ultrasound tech put the tell-tale ultrasound images that said the gender in a sealed envelope for us to open later. I bought both pink and blue balloons and a pink cupcake and a blue cupcake, and then we opened the envelope together.

It's a... Girl!

[More pictures to come]

Audrey's excited to be a big sister, and I'm excited for her to have a sister. I love the relationship that my sisters and I have, and I know that Audrey and new baby sister will have a great relationship, too!

Now we must decide on the perfect name for our baby girl...

Monday, November 18, 2013

Week 16

(This is as of Friday, 11/11/13)

How far along: 16 weeks and 2 days
Size of baby: Baby Larson is the size of an avocado.
Total weight gain: 10 pounds
Maternity clothes: I need maternity jeans! I have some Kohl’s cash and a 30% off coupon (of course I do), so that’s where I’m headed tomorrow to get some jeans. I may pick up some other shirts, too. Although I feel that I’m pretty good on shirts and sweaters for right now. I think.
Gender: I really truly believe that we’re having another girl. Of course I’m no expert and we haven’t seen an ultrasound that gives any indication since 11 weeks which is way too early to tell. But I believe from the “nub prediction” – so weird by the way – that it’s a girl! And also the Chinese gender chart and heartbeat both point to girl. I also feel like this pregnancy is SO similar to my first with Audrey that it has to be a girl. We find out in 5 weeks, so we will see. And of course it HAS to be a girl because we have no idea what we will name her. We are decided on a boy’s name, but that would be too easy, right?
Movement: I swear now I’ve been feeling the baby. I feel him/her really low usually in the afternoon while I’m sitting at my desk at work. I felt enough of the movement yesterday that I put my hand on my belly to see if I could feel anything from the outside. Of course I can’t!
Sleep: I’ve been sleeping pretty well. Well, that is when Audrey is sleeping well. We’ve been having a tough go at things ever since the time change almost 2 weeks ago. She used to go to sleep really easily. We could walk out of the room and close the door with her in bed and still awake and she would fall asleep by herself. Now, she screams bloody murder when we leave her room and if we close the door. I’ve read that some children go through a phase around 2 years old. It’s a combo of separation anxiety and not being able to tell imagination from reality. She only woke once in the middle of the night last night and I was able to get her back to bed, but she told me to “sit” [in the chair in the corner]. She just doesn’t want to be left alone. Oh, and she won’t sleep in her regular bed. She HAS to sleep in her chair-turned-bed that Amber got her for her bday. It’s on the floor between the chair and her regular bed. After the first of the year, I would like to get a twin bed so we can put the crib back to normal. We’ll get new bedding for the twin bed and hopefully Audrey will get excited about that and want to sleep in a regular bed again. We will see.
Cravings: Food. Haha. Still craving a lot of carbs, but that includes a lot of fruit and yogurt which is good. Nothing else really specific I don’t think.
Symptoms: Headaches over the past couple weeks.
Best moment of this week: Last week I didn’t post, but I want to mention that we went to a Blackhawks game in the Milhouse Theater Box seats. That is the way to see a game, whether it’s hockey or basketball or whatever. Big buffet that was open almost all game and open bar (which of course I didn’t take advantage of). Pretty awesome. This week on Wednesday night, Audrey’s daycare rented out Jump!zone in Mokena. It’s a big place that has 6 (maybe 7?) big jumpy things. Audrey loved it! It was a great time!

No pic this week, but I feel like I'm showing so much more. Will post a pic for week #17 or #18.

View 1st pregnancy week #16 post here.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Week 14

How Far Along: 14 weeks and 4 days
Size of baby: baby is the size of a lemon, about 3 and 1/2 inches long
Total Weight Gain: about 9 pounds I think; I admit, I totally binged on Halloween candy all week long.
Maternity Clothes: Wearing my Old Navy Rockstar Skinnies almost every day and fastening with a hair tie. Shirts... I'm mostly wearing regular shirts. Good thing flowy shirts are in style.
Gender: I keep having thoughts that we're having another girl. I think it would be really neat for Carl to have a son, but we would also be really happy if Audrey had a sister to grow up with.
Movement: Not yet
Sleep: I have been sleeping better this week. I only get up once (maybe twice) to go to the bathroom. And I modified my workout routine a little bit and I think I'm sleeping better because of that. I think I've just become a lighter sleeper. And work can be stressful, so I wake up thinking about work and my clients. You know when you're kinda awake, but not really, and you have a half-dream. Yeah, I dream about my clients in those half-dreams. It's weird. All work-related, but still it's just not right to be dreaming about work.
What I miss: A nice big cup of hot coffee with cream and Splenda. I know I can make decaf, but I just don't want to make a whole pot at work for just 1 cup. I know no one else will drink the decaf. And I stay away from artificial sweetners, including Splenda even though they say it's safe. I also miss having a good sandwich with lunch meat. And it's annoying that I have to pay attention to what fish I'm eating because of the mercury-content. I don't remember being this annoyed about watching what food I could eat the first time around. But I am allowing myself to eat a lot more carbs and overall bad food than I would have even dreamed of before I got pregnant. So I guess I can't complain too much.
Cravings: Chocolate anything. Maybe seeing all the Halloween candy at work and at our house and EVERYWHERE contributed to that craving. My faves are Twix, Kit Kats, Snickers, Butterfingers... ok, I need to stop thinking about chocolate.
Symptoms: Felt pretty good this week!
Best moment this week: We bought a new car on Friday night. We were still driving the '06 Camry that I bought back in 2005 (8 years ago!). It was in decent condition, but this past week it started making a high-pitched noise. And then on Wednesday night, Carl walked into the house from being out in the rain. He looked a little wetter than he should, and he confirmed that the Camry had died at an intersection just a block outside of our neighborhood. He pushed it off to the side, and then a nice guy gave him a ride home. We had it towed to the auto shop, and on Thursday they confirmed what Carl was thinking... it was the alternator. There were a few other things that would need to be replaced pretty soon. The car had 167,000 miles on it, so it's just inevitable that things need fixed/replaced. So we decided to replace the alternator so that we could trade it in at some point. We went out car shopping on Friday night interested in finding a new car, but not desperate to find one. But we did find the right car at the right deal so we bought it! We simply upgraded... to another Camry. But this time we went with the Hybrid. We are so happy with it. Definitely the right decision for us with how much we drive. It's going to be my primary car, since I'm going to be driving more miles than Carl since he's going to be riding the train to the city at least 4 days a week now.

Week 14 pics:

View my Week 14 post from Pregnancy #1 here.

Announcing Baby Larson #2!

We are so excited that there is going to be another little Larson. Baby Larson #2 is expected to arrive April 30, 2014. Audrey's going to be a big sis!

We had Audrey announce the news to our family for us. We bought a "Big Sister" shirt for her and had her wear it when my parents arrived to watch her for they day. I think Grammy and Gramps were really surprised!

We took a lot of pictures, and that's how we told my sisters, Carl's parents, and Jennifer Larson. What fun news to tell! I was with Amber when we showed her the pic, but Ashley was at home. So we texted the picture to her. She called right away when she got the picture and said, "I swear, if you tell me you're getting another dog..." We laughed so hard... so funny.

I was supposed to have my 1st doctor's appointment at 8 weeks, but on the day of my appointment, I had a stomach bug and was up the entire night before really sick. Like immobile from the bed/bathroom. So I rescheduled and couldn't get in until 10 weeks. Seemed like eternity to go in and hear the heartbeat and make sure all was ok.

But we finally went in on 10/9/13 and all is really good! After the first ultrasound, they moved up my due date just by 2 days because of the baby's measurements and development. (Original due date was 5/2/14.) I thought I was 10 weeks along and they told me I was 11 weeks along. So, there goes my first trimester... just like that.

Here are our first pics of the baby!

Heart beat was 179bpm:

I always tear up when I hear the heartbeat. So incredible.

My doctor that I see is not a high-risk doctor, but they do have one of the best high-risk doctors in the area in their practice. I'm assuming this is why they have the 3D ultrasound just standard now. I know they didn't have the 3D when I was pregnant with Audrey, just 2.5 years ago. Here are the 3D pics. Pretty crazy.

We then went back to the doctor on 10/23/13 (just 2 weeks later) for another ultrasound (my 12-13 week ultrasound) and to meet with the nurse. Here are the pics, just to compare the baby's development within those 2 weeks. The changes you can see comparing the 3D pics are really incredible!

I am going to start doing regular blog posts to journal my pregnancy. I really enjoy looking back at my posts from when I was pregnant with Audrey, so I think it's totally worth it!

Since I'm so late in posting now, I will use this opportunity to sum up the entire first trimester (4 weeks, from when we first found out, through 13 weeks).

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 7 pounds throughout my entire first trimester. I think it's all in my boobs... seriously.
Maternity Clothes: I have a lot of maternity clothes from my cousin, and I also have my maternity clothes from when I was pregnant with Audrey. But when I pulled out all my clothes, I realized they were all summer clothes (for the most part). And I need all winter clothes now! We had a really cold week a couple weeks ago, so I went out and bought a bunch of flowy shirts and sweaters (not maternity, though I know they'll be fine as my belly gets bigger) and some maternity sweaters and shirts. My shirts still fit. However, I feel uncomfortable if they're not really long shirts or if they are not flowy around my middle. I'm still wearing my regular jeans. I have a pair of jeans that I can still button comfortably, but I have a pair of skinny jeans that sit low (thankfully) but I have to fasten with a rubberband. I need to buy some maternity jeans pretty soon I think. I'm starting off this pregnancy a lot leaner and in better shape than I was last time around (to the tune of 20 lbs) so the maternity jeans/pants I have now are just way too big.
Gender: We scheduled our "Level 2 Ultrasound" for December 17th, and we will find out then what the gender is.
Movement: Sometimes I feel little flutters, but I don't believe it's the baby yet. I'm hyperaware this time around since I know what to expect. But I still don't think it's the baby.
Sleep: Almost immediately after finding out I was pregnant, I was getting up 3-4 times a night to pee. Seriously. I haven't had a nice, long interrupted night of sleep in a longgggg time.
Cravings: Early on, I had almost identical cravings to when I was pregnant with Audrey... mac n cheese, bagels and cream cheese, pop tarts, cheese anything. A lot of my first trimester was very similar to Audrey, so it makes me wonder if we're having another girl... ??
Symptoms: Starting around 5 weeks, I had the worst heartburn. And it lasted about 2 weeks. I remember having heartburn with Audrey, but not that early on. I bought some antacids but I didn't even have to take them after I bought them because the heartburn just went away. It makes me wonder if it was my body adjusting to the extra iron from the prenatal vitamins? Although, I had been take the same vitamins for at least 4 or 5 months before I got pregnant. I guess I wasn't taking them as religiously then, though. Who knows! Glad it's gone, though. I had some queasiness, but never enough to get sick (except for when I was really sick... not pregnancy-related). My motto was to just keep eating and keep a full stomach, then I wouldn't feel sick. The first-trimester tiredness hit me HARD this time around. I remember it being bad before and falling asleep on the couch at like 7 or 8pm after a workday, but this time it just seemed worse. I guess I have more responsibilities this time around. I definitely slacked on housework, and there were many nights that Carl would give Audrey a bath and put her to bed without me even getting off the couch. But I really can't even complain. I felt really great most of my first trimester.

Overall, I was really lucky to have such a great first trimester. To the point that I was glad to see the ultrasounds and hear the heartbeat to believe I am pregnant! Most days, I really just don't feel like I am. I guess that's a good thing!

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Audrey's 2nd Birthday Party

On Saturday, October 12th, we celebrated Audrey's 2nd birthday with a wonderful party.

We chose a One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish party theme because Audrey loves Dr. Seuss books and loves this one in particular.

Grammy Patton really put a lot of her touches (and time, resources, money, and effort!) into this party. We keep telling her she needs to be a party planner! We really appreciate everything she did to make this such a special day for Audrey.

Beautiful food display. Decorations (including handmade wreath and banner)
courtesy of Grammy Patton. We served pizza and salad on the crates.

On the left side of this picture is a Gack where the kids could play "Ring the Gack."
That's right, we have the only Gack in town. Grammy Patton made that Gack
with her new saw and then hand painted all the details with a little help from
her brother, my Uncle Scott, who was visiting from TN.

Guests could sign the book and leave their wishes for the birthday girl. Sign reads,
"Stop here you see, and write a very special message to Me! A Birthday Wish
or just sign your name, So I will never forget you came. On the front, on the back,
or any of the pages. It is something I will treasure for all my ages! Love, Audrey 10-12-2013"

Here is the beautiful dessert table. Auntie Ashley made the "2" sprinkle cake and all
the delicious cupcakes. The cake was funfetti and the cupcakes were a mixture
of funfetti with funfetti frosting (minus the sprinkles) and carrot cake with cream
cheese frosting. So beautiful and, most importantly, so delicious! The carrot cake
cupcakes were my (and a lot of guests') favorites!

The dessert table also had fish cookies from Mariano's and
fish bowls of swedish fish, colored goldfish, fish sweet tarts.

Audrey certainly had a lot of fun celebrating with all her friends and family. What a great day it was! Thank you to everyone who came! (Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of everyone who came.)

And a special thank you to Grammy Patton and Auntie Ashley Patton for everything they did for the party!! What a special party for a special girl.