cord blood

I had really wanted to preserve our babys cord blood, and had heard a rumor somewhere that it cost about $400. Totally affordable, but not sure where I heard that because I talked to viacord today and it's just over $2000 and then $125 every year after that. GASP. Holy moly. Now I don't know if I should do it or not. I know that the chances of her ever needing it are low, but if she did ever need it, I would hate myself for not doing it. Ugh. We've just been trying so hard to build up a good savings before she gets here and we already have to pay a $2000 deductible for the delivery costs, and then if we do this that's $4000 out of savings. Jeez. I don't know what I should do.

gender reveal party

this is the video of how we told our family what we're having

I can feel her!

so in the last couple of days, I have really started to feel her move around a lot. I can feel her rolling and squirming and I can even feel her moving on the outside! Hubby hasn't been around yet at the right times to be able to feel her, but it is so amazing. I absolutely love it.

sick while pregnant

wednesday evening after finding out we were having a girl, I started to get a slight tickle in my throat with an occasional cough. I didn't really think it would turn into much, maybe a slight cold for a couple of days. But I was wrong! Thursday morning I woke up feeling like hell and I've been on the couch since. I have green mucus in my chest that I cough up continuously and I think I may have broken a rib from coughing so hard. That or I just have sore muscles, but something definately hurts when I breathe or eat. My throat is so sore and I feel like my airway is swollen and tiny. If I talk too much or eat or walk around I feel like I can hardly get a breath. This has also been accompanied by aches and clogged ears. Basically miserable. On Friday I saw my OB and she said she would like to try to wait it out a few days before she prescribed me an antibiotic because pregnant women have a weaker immune system which would make me susceptable to C DIFF which she says she's seen a lot in her preg patients after being on just one oral antibiotic. Yuck, no thanks. So I agreed and returned to my couch. But then on sunday it became difficult to get a breath an my back was hurting with each breath or swallow. So, I went to urgent care and had the pleasant surprise of my primary doctor being there. I love him. He did a rapid flu and it came back negative, so he said he's not sure if it's viral or bacterial, but to cover it, he gave me an antibiotic as well as an albuterol inhaler for me to use in emergencies only (it will raise the babys heart rate). I haven't had to use it yet, but have had many times that I would have if I wasn't pregnant. I just try to take it easy so I don't have to breathe too hard. Being pregnant, there's also not many OTC meds I can take for relief and my weak immune system is taking forever to kick this thing. I worry about this affecting the baby, although my doctor assures me it won't. I don't sleep well because I wake up in a coughing fit. I think it must be viral because today is day 3 of antibiotics and I'm not any better. Dang it. But I have to keep taking it now that I've started, so I've been eating activia yogurt with each meal to keep good bacteria in my belly and ward off evil CDIFF spirits. So, now I have to wait it out and use up my precious PTO I was saving for maternity leave. This is the pits.

perfect baby

at my last OB appointment my doctor had reviewed my ultrasound and said everything looked exactly as it should. Normal. I think I totally get on my doctors nerves because I had a list of questions I had wanted to ask her about the ultrasound specific to each organ and/or birth defect I could think of. I wanted her to rule out each one individually. I wanted to hear that she has no spina bifida, no diaphragmaic hernia, no heart defect (and I wanted to hear every single heart defect) and so on. Just about 3 questions into my list, my doctor interrupted me and said "like I said, everything was normal, your baby is fine." ugh, fine, I'll stop asking questions jeez. She did say that 10% of heart defects can't be seen on ultrasound and can't be found until birth. Which I already knew, so you better believe I will be taking my stethescope to the hospital with me to listen for a heart murmer! I do know for sure that she doesn't have hypoplastic left heart, so that's a relief.
Also, my AFP came back as very low risk. She said my age already put me in a low risk category, and then the AFP made it even lower. Down to a 1 in 10,000 chance of having a neural tube defect or downs syndrome. What a relief.
So, as far as we know, based on what we can tell through tests alone...she is PERFECT.

GIRLY GIRL

today was the big sono and found out we're having a healthy baby girl. I burst into tears when I saw it and was oh so happy to be having a little girl. We immediately went shopping for some girl stuff and had so much fun. I can't believe how lucky I feel right now. I can't wait to meet my daughter.