We're over the halfway mark! Baby is the size of a large banana of 18cm and weighs about 320 grams - in an ideal world. Our baby boy resembles probably more a smaller version of this huge banana :-)
Where the first 10 weeks never seemed to come to an end I find that after that the time started to accelerate! People told me that that would happen, but experiencing it is something different.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Action plan
After a lengthy discussion with our midwife, who's in constant contact with an obstetrician, and after spending time to do some research ourselves about my condition (very low levels of Papp-a and b-hcg hormones) it is clear that careful monitoring of baby and mother is the one and only course of action to take.
Evidence from research suggests the following - remember, just providing the facts here and being informative, it's not said that all of this will happen to me or baby.
The hormones mentioned above are responsible for the working of the placenta and baby's growth. Low levels of these hormones give a 40-50% chance to 'adverse' pregnancy outcomes and is associated with: pre-eclampsia (zwangerschapsvergiftiging), hypertension (hoge bloeddruk in de eerste 20 weken), restricted growth of baby, stillborn, early delivery, induced delivery, caesarian (keizersnee).
Monitoring the mother means checking blood pressure and protein in urine (all good yesterday). Monitoring baby means having regular scans, where they look for growth (baby is behind), maturity of organs (couldn't get a good look of all organs on Friday), activity (baby was very active), heartbeat (heartbeat was strong, 140-160bpm), amount of amniotic fluid (was normal, which means that baby's kidneys are functioning), blood pressure in umbilical cord (no data) and size and indicators of functioning of placenta (looked like there might have been a bleeding at some stage).
Anyway to cut a long story short, we need to be prepared that the baby won't make it full term and will be early. How early depends on how he is doing inside and how I'm doing.
The next scan will be in the first week of October, to finish the anatomy scan and to monitor baby's growth. Two weeks later there'll be probably another scan, at 24 weeks, but that may depend on the outcomes of the previous scans.
The results of the scans will be discussed with an obstetrician, at the hospital here.
What do we think of all of this? Well it's not a fun place to be in and we're mentally preparing for a rocky road ahead, which started with a bit of a meltdown Friday night. But hubby and I are a good team, we're totally involved in the decisions that are being taken, we don't take everything for granted at first sight and like to do our own research as well. Support is welcome, but no drama or unsolicited advice please.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Evidence from research suggests the following - remember, just providing the facts here and being informative, it's not said that all of this will happen to me or baby.
The hormones mentioned above are responsible for the working of the placenta and baby's growth. Low levels of these hormones give a 40-50% chance to 'adverse' pregnancy outcomes and is associated with: pre-eclampsia (zwangerschapsvergiftiging), hypertension (hoge bloeddruk in de eerste 20 weken), restricted growth of baby, stillborn, early delivery, induced delivery, caesarian (keizersnee).
Monitoring the mother means checking blood pressure and protein in urine (all good yesterday). Monitoring baby means having regular scans, where they look for growth (baby is behind), maturity of organs (couldn't get a good look of all organs on Friday), activity (baby was very active), heartbeat (heartbeat was strong, 140-160bpm), amount of amniotic fluid (was normal, which means that baby's kidneys are functioning), blood pressure in umbilical cord (no data) and size and indicators of functioning of placenta (looked like there might have been a bleeding at some stage).
Anyway to cut a long story short, we need to be prepared that the baby won't make it full term and will be early. How early depends on how he is doing inside and how I'm doing.
The next scan will be in the first week of October, to finish the anatomy scan and to monitor baby's growth. Two weeks later there'll be probably another scan, at 24 weeks, but that may depend on the outcomes of the previous scans.
The results of the scans will be discussed with an obstetrician, at the hospital here.
What do we think of all of this? Well it's not a fun place to be in and we're mentally preparing for a rocky road ahead, which started with a bit of a meltdown Friday night. But hubby and I are a good team, we're totally involved in the decisions that are being taken, we don't take everything for granted at first sight and like to do our own research as well. Support is welcome, but no drama or unsolicited advice please.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Friday, September 17, 2010
A very little BOY!!!
We are having a baby boy!!! The tech was pretty sure about it and showed us the genitals, but for the novice eye these could have just as well been a stomach or a leg.
We also have to conclude that the results from my blood test earlier (where they found some placental hormone levels to be very low) were correct as baby boy is measuring 3 weeks behind, which is quite a lot this early in pregnancy. Baby is small, but is overall small, so everything is in proportion and those things that the tech was able to see were looking good.
Baby moved around a lot, kicking with his legs and swinging with his arms, and he's standing upright, with his feet on my cervix.
This afternoon DH and I will meet with the midwife to discuss an action plan, which will probably involve fortnightly scans from now on, amongst other things.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
We also have to conclude that the results from my blood test earlier (where they found some placental hormone levels to be very low) were correct as baby boy is measuring 3 weeks behind, which is quite a lot this early in pregnancy. Baby is small, but is overall small, so everything is in proportion and those things that the tech was able to see were looking good.
Baby moved around a lot, kicking with his legs and swinging with his arms, and he's standing upright, with his feet on my cervix.
This afternoon DH and I will meet with the midwife to discuss an action plan, which will probably involve fortnightly scans from now on, amongst other things.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Sunday, September 12, 2010
18 weeks and counting
And 18 weeks under way, this week with a large mango of 240 grams.
How are we feeling??
- excited because the 19 week scan is coming up next week
- exhausted due to a 2-day golf tournament today and yesterday
- energised; I seem to have more energy, almost back on pre-pregnancy bed times
- like I still have got my weight under control. I've gained about 2-2.5 kg's thus far, which isn't bad at all. I'm eating fairly healthy, a bit more than usual, especially in the bread department, and our meals are good. Now and then the odd hamburger, but not even once every fortnight. What's saving me is a slight aversion of sweets, so if I'm getting hungry during the day I dive into a divine bowl of yoghurt and muesli for example, or a bagel, or soup, or some salty potato chips, yummy.
- astonished by a lot of American women on my discussion board, who gained over 10 kg's already, can't stop eating, don't get full and if they go into detail about what they're eating it's mainly junk. So they try to fill themselves up with all sorts of protein shakes and other garbage. The food culture there seems totally insane to me.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
How are we feeling??
- excited because the 19 week scan is coming up next week
- exhausted due to a 2-day golf tournament today and yesterday
- energised; I seem to have more energy, almost back on pre-pregnancy bed times
- like I still have got my weight under control. I've gained about 2-2.5 kg's thus far, which isn't bad at all. I'm eating fairly healthy, a bit more than usual, especially in the bread department, and our meals are good. Now and then the odd hamburger, but not even once every fortnight. What's saving me is a slight aversion of sweets, so if I'm getting hungry during the day I dive into a divine bowl of yoghurt and muesli for example, or a bagel, or soup, or some salty potato chips, yummy.
- astonished by a lot of American women on my discussion board, who gained over 10 kg's already, can't stop eating, don't get full and if they go into detail about what they're eating it's mainly junk. So they try to fill themselves up with all sorts of protein shakes and other garbage. The food culture there seems totally insane to me.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Sunday, September 5, 2010
First buy for nursery
And what's the first thing we bought for baby's room??? A new lamp!
It was DH's idea, he thought it would be perfect, isn't that lovely :-)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
It was DH's idea, he thought it would be perfect, isn't that lovely :-)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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