19 Weeks

Almost half-way there! And YES - you do still see Christmas Cards behind me. We still haven't take down anything - sigh. At this point, I'm contemplating leaving it up until this Christmas :)

Here are the stats from this week's big appointment:

My Weight - 120 - up a total of 7 pounds so far.

This surprised me considering all the food I ate at Christmas. I would think this would be too little (by my calculations I should up to 9 pounds), but the nurse said it was fine.

My BP - 140/75 WOAH!

I was so very nervous at this appointment, I could feel my heart beating. When all was over, the doc had them retake my BP and just 45 minutes later it was already down to 128/60. Apparently "white coat" syndrome struck.

Baby's Heart Beat - 148

Baby's Size - measuring on time still

Baby's Estimated Weigh - 10 ounces.

The ultrasound tech giggled a little as appaerntly that's big. At this stage, he should only weigh about 7 ounces. We're having a monster baby! Considering I've only gained 7 pounds - I'm not sure where little Hudson's getting it??

At the ultrasound, we got to see all of his parts.

10 little fingers, 10 little toes, sweet profile, heart with four full chambers, two kidneys, two lungs, a little stomach, and a diaphram. Best part was seeing the full and complete spine. I was born with Sacral-a-Genesis, which basically means I'm missing my tailbone, so my spine stops short. The problems with my hips, walking with a limp, and even my bladder issues are related to my birth defect. It was such a relief to see he has a full spine. While I was told my birth defect isn't considered genetic, I was still concerned. And of course we got to check out his "man parts." Praise God that he can weave together a normal, healthy baby inside the womb of a mama considered rather abnormal - ha!

They also went ahead and took blood. Up until now, I had had no lab work done (except urine cultures) as we were waiting for insurance to come through. Since that's a no-go we decided to go ahead with the labs. They'll do a blood-type test (surely I'm not the only one who has no idea what my blood type is, right?) and test for iron issues, RH issues, etc...

Sad news - they weren't able to do the kidney ultrasound as originally planned. I'm not sure who Dr. B spoke with, but they all seemed highly offended when I brought it up and said that was definitel not policy. Perhaps whoever he spoke with thought he meant a kidney ultrasound on the baby? I don't know. It was a bummer, but I wasn't going to press the issue. Perhaps I should have, but my BP was already high at that point so I think I chose my battles wisely.

Our next OB appointment is February 7th and it'll be the routine doppler thingy which I love (NOT). March 2nd is our 3D ultrasound - can't wait!

God is so good to us. I can't even verbalize at this point how blessed I feel. While these past few weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster, the Lord has been extra kind to let me feel his presence even more. He has also been so very kind to encourage James and me through the prayers and kind words of fellow-believers. I don't think I've ever understood the body of Christ and how important it is as I do now. So thankful!