The waiting game

The amnio was about two hours ago and here we wait. Jen's napping. And me, I'm waiting for the call.

Our OB (the high-risk one) said initial results should be back in a few hours. So hopefully soon. ... If the initial results are not certain, then they would need to send out for results; that would take a day or two. So obviously, we're hoping for the initial test results to come back saying yes to lung development. One positive sign of maturity that we saw: the amniotic fluid that they did take out was cloudy. More transparent would mean less mature.

As for the needle, Jen says, "It hurt." And she would know, being that she's gotten Lovenox shots everyday for the past seven months, plus four finger pricks a day to check her glucose levels. She's become quite the expert on needles. But I tell ya, words can't even begin to describe her strength. I'm in awe.

As for baby, she moved her foot just as the needle was making its way in, but Dr. Baron was watching simultaneously on the ultrasound, and was able to get what she needed: about 20 CCs of the 400 or so she said was in there.

Before the amnio, they did some measurements and she clocked in at 6 lbs, 11 ounces. That's 74th percentile at this point in her development. Good girl.

So now we wait for the call. As for after that, then there's another OB (normal OB) appointment at 3:45. If amnio results are good, then they'll tell us if they want to get the process going tonight or early in the a.m. tomorrow. We shall see.

Now if only that phone would ring.

Triage B

It's been a long road for Jennifer and I since Lillian Rose passed away. Many of the proverbial mountains to climb and hurdles to overcome. Emotionally. Physically.

Triage B was one of the hurdles. It was where nurses tried and tried to find Lillian Rose's heartbeat on the night of Nov. 14, 2008, a day after her due date. And it was eventually where a sonographer, after wheeling in her clunky machine into that closet of a room, regrettably told us there was no fetal heartbeat. Shock and grief and tears flowed thereafter in ways we never thought we'd overcome. I remember just sinking to the floor in utter disbelief. "No" seemed to be the only word we could muster.

We tried to avoid Triage B during this pregnancy. A nurse went to put us in that room for one of Jen's first nonstress tests for AnnahLilly. We politely asked to be moved to another room. That's where we lost our last baby, we told her.

A few weeks back, however, another nurse went to put us into Triage B and, after a bit of silent hesitation, we proceeded. And there, in that cold, stark room where our hopes were crushed months ago, AnnahLilly's little heart beat strongly. As if she was saying, "Mom and dad, it's going to be OK."

And with that, we jumped another hurdle.

Editor's Blog: Columnist, editor spin out of control (on video!)

Editor's Blog: Columnist, editor spin out of control (on video!)

Babymoon Babybump

One of the things we did on our babymoon was to take babybump photos on the beach. Here's a sneak peek at one of our favorites.

Babymoon dinner

Brent wrote a little review of the place we had our babymoon dinner:
http://www.bradenton.com/2010/04/22/2224278/a-night-to-remember-at-euphemia.html

He even got a Twitter and Facebook shout out from the restaurant:
http://twitter.com/euphemiahaye
http://www.facebook.com/EuphemiaHaye/posts/120915031256835

The countdown

As if we needed any reminders, this is our little message chalkboard out in the garage. This picture was taken Thursday. So, today, Friday, we're 25 days away from expected induction!

Another step in the process

Today we hit another big point in Jen's pregnancy -- the start of weekly ultrasounds and twice-a-week nonstress tests.

She'll do one NST each Monday and Thursday, and one ultrasound each Monday from here on out.

On the NSTs, they're looking for a pair of good baby heartbeat accelerations in a 20-minute span. With the ultrasounds, they're doing a quick bio-physical profile; one of the things they measure is femur length.