12w4d NT Scan

We had our NT scan today, and everything looked good! The moment the tech began the ultrasound and we saw the baby, Greg jumped out of his seat and said, "Look at that thing!"

The baby was moving around and even waved at us, (it was closing and opening its hands). So cute. The tech had a hard time getting a good view of the back of its neck at first. The baby was not in the right position, so she had me use the restroom and wait a bit. When she looked again, she laughed and said, "Now the baby is standing on its head!" So, she still couldn't get a good look at it. Then I coughed, and apologized, and she said, "That's good!" I laughed and told her, "I can cough as much as you want me too!" She told me to let out a few big huge coughs, "to get the baby ornery," and it finally moved to a good position. (Greg then said, "I wonder how ornery it gets when you use your vest!")

Oh, and here's a sliver lining to having CF - the doctor, (not my regular OB), mentioned that my OB will probably want me to have more frequent ultrasounds than normal, possibly as often as once a month! He told me to ask her about this at my 14 week appointment. So, I will most likely get to see my sweetie pie a bunch.

Here is a picture of the babe. You can see one of its arms sticking up from behind its head.

Yesterday's Meeting & Clinic Visit

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! :D My day did get better yesterday. I worked a half day and slept all afternoon. Greg came home with flowers and cooked me dinner.

So here’s an update on two things:

Yesterday’s Meeting

My meeting was, well, interesting. The reason for the meeting was because my client has a water line in the state highway. The state told them they had to move it. I did the design and am now managing the construction. Now that we are in construction, the state is making all these changes to the design, and it would have been much less expensive if they had made these changes during the design phase. So, my client is not happy. It has cost them over $100,000 so far.

I made my points, which were all very good ones, and the contractor said, "You have a good argument. Let's hear what the state has to say." Well, the guy from the state didn't have much to say, other than, "You have to do what I say because I said so." (That's me paraphrasing, but I am not exaggerating.) When I said, "You permitted and signed-off on these plans. You can't just go and make changes now," he responded, "We don't have time to review your plans. We just sign off on them without looking at them." I told him, "That is not our fault." And he flipped out on me and said, "Look! You guys have been doing work with us for 20 years! It's not our job to wipe your asses for you!"

Very professional. I got pissed and started arguing, but my boss's boss said, "Kristen, Kristen, it's okay," so I shut my trap. Then the contractor winked at me. So, I knew everyone in the room thought guys was a jerk and that I was right. And, I did get him to back down on the some of the stuff he was telling us to do.

When I told the client how the meeting went, he said, "Good job! You got them riled up and now they are on notice!" So, overall, after my initial shock at being yelled at, I felt pretty good because I "won" and the client is happy.

Hemoptysis (Coughing up Blood)

My CF doctor had me come in this morning – he said that, normally, he would just prescribe an antibiotic, but, with me being pregnant, he wanted to be extra careful. I am glad I went in. My PFTs actually went up! Only 3%, but I was still shocked because I expected them to go down during pregnancy, and because I felt crappy. Everything looked and sounded good, so he told me to just lay off the hypertonic saline for a few days and keep an eye on things. He said I could have a mild exacerbation or a virus, but it was so mild that it didn’t warrant antibiotics at this time.

I did cough up some more junk today that was streaked with a bit of blood, but I think it may be just leftover from the other day. However, I still took the day off so I can rest. My nutritionist wants my vitamin levels checked, (more than what they checked at my OB’s office), and I have to do another OGTT (yay :P). And they’ve upped the frequency of my clinic visits from every three months to every two months.

A few stats at 12 weeks:

FEV1: 115% (up 3% from pre-pregnancy)
Weight Gain: 4 lbs

Ugh

So, today is my birthday, and it not starting off to be a good day. First, I coughed up blood last night. It was a blob a bit larger than a nickle, which is the most blood I have ever brought up in my life. Needless to say, I am freaked out and am calling my doctor the second 8:00 rolls around. I slept like crap last night because of this, so now I am exhausted too.

Secondly, I can't even stay home and rest because I have a horrendous meeting to go to first thing. I don't want to get into my job too much, but, the whole point of this meeting is because my client is pissed at some people who work for the state, so he wants me to "lay down the law" - i.e. get into an argument with them. It's going to be me against a room full of old men. This is not why I wanted to become an engineer. I just want to sit at my desk and play with numbers!

Thirdly, I am so, so, so disappointed in my home state of Maine this morning. I almost started crying when I saw the election results, and I still feel sick to my stomach and like crying :(

I Got My Doppler!

My Hi Bebe fetal doppler arrived today. I decided to order it after spending too much time googling "missed miscarriage." After the spotting and losing some of my pregnancy symptoms, I was having a hard time relaxing. I knew today might be too early to hear the heartbeat, but I was excited to give it a try anyway.

When I got home from work, I immediately ripped open the package, lubed up the the probe and put it on my belly. I moved it around right above my pubic bone for about five minutes, but all I found was my own heartbeat. I was about to give up and was pretty bummed. Then, I found it. The most wonderful sound ever! The baby's heart was beating at 175 beats per minute. Greg and I both said, "There it is!" We listened for about 30 seconds, until Greg said "Stop poking it!"

Ahhhh...I am so happy right now. I now know we made it out of the extreme danger zone, and I can finally relax!

A Series of Belly Pics

I've been taking belly pictures every other week since my BFP, but I haven't taken the time to post them, so here they are:

3w4d (Right after BFP - I thought I was bloated that morning. Hahahahaha.)

6w0d

8w0d

10w0d

Boobies

This weekend I got to do something I have been dying to do for weeks: Buy a new bra! My boobs have definitely grown. Taking off my bra is the most painful moment of the day. Every time I change my shirt, Greg looks at me and whispers, "You have giant huge boobs."

At first I went to Victoria's Secret because I had a coupon and I didn't want to spend a ton of money on a bra I would only be wearing for a few months. The woman measured me and said I am a 34C. I told her I was surprised because I am normally a 32C, and I figured I had grown more than that. But, I trusted her. The bra she gave me was more comfortable than the one I was wearing, so I bought it.

The following day I wore my new bra and decided it was not very comfortable after all. The underwire would not stay against my rib cage, and the middle-front part of the bra would not tack down against my chest. So, I headed to my favorite place ever to buy a bra: Nordstrom. I love, love, love their customer service, but shopping there is definitely a splurge for me. The salesperson didn't just measure me over my shirt and tell me my size and walk away. She also looked at my new bra and identified what the issues where, and examined how some of their bras fit me. And, guess what? I am now a 34D! She found me the perfect bra that stays tacked down. So, I sucked it up and spent $60 on a bra I will probably only wear for a few months, but I decided the extra money is worth the comfort. And I only bought one, so I will be wearing the same bra every day for a while now :P

Now I have to start thinking about sports bras. I am trying to hold off on buying new ones, but boy are they getting snug!

Long Time No Blog

The past month has been crazy! Having CF and working full time means that my weekdays are crazy busy (I am working/workingout/commuting/getting ready from 6:30am to 9:00pm) and I really need my weekends to run errands, get stuff done around the house, and just relax on the couch. Add being pregnant and needing more sleep to the mix, and I have had zero free time during the week.

And, to top things off, Greg has to take the Professional Engineering exam next Friday, so he has been using every free moment to study. This means, instead of picking up some of my slack, he is doing even less than what he usually does, (such as cooking dinner – we’ve been eating pizza, canned soup, mac n’ cheese, and pasta). Needless to say, our house has been a clutter zone. Thank goodness we have cleaning people come every other week, or else there would probably be six inches of dust on everything.

Here have been our weekends since our BFP:

-Weekend of BFP (PG Week 3): In Houston for an Astros game and to visit friends

-Week 4: At Home

-Week 5: Visiting Friends in Pittsburg

-Week 6: At Home

-Week 7: BIL & SIL visiting for Austin City Limits Music Festival

-Week 8: In east Texas for a wedding

-Week 9 (This weekend): At Home

-Week 10: ILs in town to visit

So, by next week, it will have been two months since we've had two weekends in a row to get stuff done around here. It has been fun, but I am so ready for a break and some time to be able to do things like go out to dinner and watch a movie.

I think it is partially a blessing that my RE told me to take time off work to rest a few weeks ago, because, usually when our schedules get crazy like this, I get run down and sick. And when I get sick, it often leads to a lung exacerbation, which means needing antibiotics and risking permanent lung damage. Hence the reason I put such a high priority on sleep.

And this week, I have been catching up on sleep due to (mis)adventure we had last weekend. Here’s the story:

One of our friends was getting married at the remote resort in east Texas. He set aside a house on the resort for Greg and I, the couple we visited in Pittsburg (M&B), our closest Austin friends (S&C), my old roommate and her husband (H&S), the best man and his girlfriend, and two other people. Please note that we still had to pay for the house, (no complaints here, this is just semi-relevant to the story). We were really looking forward to spending the weekend with our friends.

Needless to say, I knew I might have trouble getting a ton of sleep. On Friday night, most of the people in the house stayed up until 2:00am drinking and playing cards. It was loud, but I had a room upstairs and my white noisemaker and earplugs, so I slept through most of it. And it ended at a reasonable hour.

Fast forward to Saturday night. The reception went until midnight. Greg, B (who is also PG), S, and I left a little early because we were tired and wanted to go to bed. Around 12:15, I went downstairs to get a drink, and a girl I’ve never seen before walked in and said, “The groom told everyone at the reception that the party is continuing here.” Fifteen minutes later, about 40 people showed up, and most of them were WASTED.

I was pretty ticked off. The groom didn’t even ask any of us if this was okay, and, considering we had paid for the house, I would have expected that courtesy. Five out of the 10 of the people staying there wanted to go to bed, and now it was so loud in the house that none of us could sleep. Around 3:00am, a sixth person staying in the house wanted to go to sleep. And still, none of us could sleep.

At 4:00am, M got up and asked people to please be quiet. The best man refused. M got pissed and decided to start doing homework in the living room, considering he wasn’t going to be sleeping.

At 5:30am, Greg went downstairs and asked everyone to be quiet. Again, the best man refused and told Greg, “NO! You guys were up loud until 2:00am last night. Fuck you if you think I am going to be quiet for you now!”

Greg, got PISSED, (and Greg does NOT get pissed easily), and said, “Look asshole! Turn off the goddamn radio and shut the fuck up or I am going to come over there and punch you in the fucking face!” At this, M joined in and started yelling at the guy.

FINALLY, my old roommate, (who, BTW, knew I was PG and had CF and about my need for sleep), turned the radio down and convinced everyone to go outside. Greg and I were able to go to sleep, and we slept for about three hours. However, M & B still couldn’t sleep because they were downstairs and people were being loud outside until 7:00am, so they didn’t sleep at all.

Needless to say, the following morning, you could cut the tension in the house with a knife. M, B, S, C, Greg, and I were giving the other people in the house the side-eye, and Greg kept saying, “I hope (the best man) gets up before we leave to so I can punch him!” (We left before he got up). Even now, if I mention the incident to Greg, he says, “If I see that guy again, I don’t know if I will be able to restrain myself from decking him.”

Oh, and to top things off, when I got up to pee around 8:00am, the door to our shared bath was locked. Two hours later, it was still locked, so I asked Greg & C if there was someone in the bathroom. They pounded on the door. No answer. So, they jimmied the lock and opened the door. And there, lying on the floor in a puddle of vomit with no pants on, was the girl staying the bedroom down the hall.

Greg called to the girl’s friends, “You guys need to get up here! There is a girl passed out in the bathroom.” The friends whined, “Do we have to?” and Greg said, “Yes. It’s not pretty.” So they came upstairs and there was a lot of gagging and near-vomiting from the smell, (which caused me, suffering from m/s & emetophobia, to sprint to my door and slam it shut). And there was laughing. So Greg yelled at them, “Yeah, it’s REALLY funny!”

Oh, and at some point in the morning, my old roommate said, "Some people were mad at 5:30am, and SOME of us were having FUN!"

So it took me all week to recover from that! We used to be those people who would stay up until dawn drinking, (although I never drank to the point of passing out). We used to do keg stands and beer bongs and way too many shots and yell and scream and run around. I used to call my friends who were married and close to having kids “boring” because they liked to be in bed before midnight. But we were 23, not 33. We’ve grown up. I guess it takes some people longer to do so :P

At least we have a story we will always reminisce about. “Remember that jackass Greg wanted to punch? Haha. What a jerk.”