V-Day!!!

Today is Viability Day!! Woot! Of course, I want her to stay put for a good while longer, but I am sooo happy to have made it to 24 weeks and know that she would now have a chance if she were born early :D

Breathing Exercises

One thing I forgot to mention about last week's appointment was some advice the respiratory thearapist gave me. She said that, because the baby is going to start squishing my lungs, I should start doing exercises to fill all those little alveoli with air. This will help prevent mucus from just hanging out and causing infections in my lungs. Specifically, she mentioned stretching so that my shoulders are rolled back and my chest is stuck out, (imagine trying to stretch out your rib cage as much as possible), and taking deep, long, breaths.

The exercises make me cough, which I assume means they are helping, (my CF doctor once told me that I cough when I take a deep breath because I am making mucus move around).

Anyway, I just wanted to pass along this info!

23w0d Clinic Visit

I had a CF clinic visit yesterday, and it went very well! I thought the CF team was going to throw a party over how much weight I've gained - 21 pounds at 23 weeks! I'm not so sure I'm as excited about that as they are, simply because the vain part of me is worried about gaining too much weight and then having a hard time losing it after the baby comes. But, it's not like I am pigging out on burgers and french fries. I really am just trying to listen to my body and eat when I am hungry - which is all.time.time! Especially on the days after I workout. So, hopefully my body just needs to gain a little more weight than the normal 25-35 pounds. Plus, I am trying to concentrate on being thankful that I'm not having a problem gaining weight!

My lung function looks great, and my last sputum culture showed only normal flora (whooohoo!). My CF doctor said he doesn't need to see me again until my regularly scheduled clinic visit, (which will be at 35 weeks), because he doesn't anticipate pregnancy having an affect on me. He did say that he would like me to call when I deliver so that he can come see me in the hospital.

It was a really fun appointment. Everyone kept telling me, "You look so cute!!" and, when I told the social worker that it was a girl, she went into the hall and told everyone ;)

On a non-PG note, I also asked my doctor for his thoughts on n-acetylcysteine (NAC) because I have been hearing so much about on the CF forums. He told me some stuff I already knew - that it was available in oral and inhaled formulations, and that studies have shown the inhaled version (Mucomyst) to be ineffective, but that the jury was still out on whether the oral version was helpful. I told him how everyone on the forums seems to rave about it, and he noted that, "30% of people will tell you that a sugar pill really helped them." But, he had no problem with me giving the oral version (fizzy NAC) a try when I'm not pregnant or breastfeeding.

Some stats at 23 weeks:

Weight gain: 21 pounds
FEV1: 110% (down 5% from last visit and 2% from pre-pregnancy)

EDD

I feel I need to acknowledge that today was the estimated date of delivery of our first pregnancy. Today was not a bad day, although I think this is 100% attributed to our current pregnancy. We only thought we were pregnant for a week, but the miscarriage was a very hard thing to go through. It was also a huge learning experience, and it brought Greg and I closer to each other. We are so, so grateful for this baby. We know that we can't take anything for granted. And we know that we are very lucky.

22w4d High Risk OB Appointment

I made my second visit to the high risk OB yesterday. I love that we get to see the baby once a month! Everything looked good! She weighed 1lb 3 oz, which put her in the 47th percentile. The only thing the doctor noted was that my amniotic fluid was just outside of the normal range - she said normal is 5 to 20 (I can't remember the units) and I was a 21. Apparently too much amniotic fluid can be a sign of gestational diabetes, but she wasn't too concerned considering how close I was to normal. Plus, I am going to have another glucose tolerance test in a few weeks.

This ultrasound was very quick, and we didn't get any good pictures of the baby because she had her hands in front of her face the entire time.

I have a CF clinic visit on Thursday. I am very curious to see if my PFTs have changed. I definitely get short of breath more easily when I do things like exercise and climb stairs. But I still feel really good, lung-wise.

Sleep-wise is a whole other story. I need to set aside 9-1/2 hours for sleeping if I want to feel rested the next day, thanks to my aching hips, having to pee, and the kicking baby. And this can be hard to do when I am working full-time, trying to get in my exercise, and doing my treatments. I asked my OB if she thought "sleeping in so I don't get sick" was a justifiable reason for occasionally taking a few hours of FMLA. She said, "Absolutely!" Woot!

(BTW - RE: aching hips, using the memory foam topper and doing things like butterfly stretches and plie squats has been helping.)

Back from the Doctor and New Undies

Sinus infection confirmed. Ten days of Ceftin (500 mg, twice a day). The doctor also wrote me a prescription for a refill so I don't have to go see him next time I feel like this.

In pregnancy news, I finally caved and bought larger undies this weekend because my new hips were pulling my undies so tight that my thong was digging into my tailbone and I kept having to sneak to the bathroom to scoop my thong out of my ass crack :/ I also went to TJ Maxx to buy a memory foam topper (for our memory foam mattress!) because my hips are still aching. I tried a Boppy body pillow, and it does help, but not enough. Hopefully this will do the trick.

Yup. I Shouldn't Have Said Anything!

And...I'm sick. (For the record, I don't really believe that I can jinx myself :P) I think it's a sinus infection. I started having a mildly bloody nose when I was up north in the dry air over Christmas. And then I came back to Austin and it got really cold and dry here too. Add pregnancy rhinitis. cedar, and CF - how could I not get a sinus infection?

Last week I noticed discomfort in my maxillary sinuses, my nose was getting stuffy, and I had night sweats one night, but I was hoping it was nothing. Then, yesterday, my body crashed. I got soooo tired yesterday and now feel like crap-o-la. So, it's off to the ENT I go this afternoon.

At least it's not a lung infection!

Oh Yeah, I Have a Blog

I’m sorry about the hiatus from blogging! Greg and I were away visiting family over Christmas, which meant limited computer access, and I have been sooo busy since we got back. But, lots of stuff has been happening in the pregnancy world.

The most exciting thing is that we can feel her kicking from the outside now! That just started happening a few days ago, and it is still sporadic, but Greg managed to feel her when she started going nuts at 3:00 AM the other night and I woke him up. He put his hand on my belly and said, “Yup! She just punched my hand!” I just love feeling her kick and can’t wait until we start recognizing body parts.

Now that we know we’re having a girl, we were able to start some shopping. We bought some bedding and I think we are going to start painting this weekend. We bought a this crib skirt and some dark pink sheets from Pottery Barn Kids, and we are planning to paint the walls light green. Greg’s grandmother is going to make a quilt.

I also started our registry, which is taking up a ton of my time because I am obsessed with researching each item. Greg said he wants to burn Baby Bargains because I always have my nose in it ;)

As far as how I am feeling, I am happy to say that I am still feeling really good. I’m still having some issues getting comfortable in bed because of my hips, despite buying a body pillow, and I’ve been waking more during the night, (thanks to her kicking and me having to pee). But, as long as I’m in bed by 10 and can sleep until 7, I usually feel really good all day.

I’m still working out, although my jogging pace has slowed to a 12 minute mile and I still have to stop and walk because my heart rate gets too high. I’m also doing the elliptical, bike, and stairmaster at the gym, and I do Summer Sanders Prenatal Workout twice a week. I have started noticing my that the skin on my belly gets these weird pulling sessions when I am working out, especially if I twist my body at all when doing cardio. It makes me terrified that I am going to see ten thousand stretch marks when I look at my belly, but, so far, there is nothing there.

Speaking of my belly – Holy cow it has been itchy! Sometimes I feel like I have poison ivy on my stomach. I was in a store the other day and didn’t even realize I was vigorously scratching until the salesperson laughed and said, “I remember those days!” I started using Earth Mama Angel Baby stretch oil, but I haven’t yet decided if it’s helping.

My only other pregnancy issues are continued heartburn and these shooting pains in my left hip that radiate down the side of my leg and make me limp for a few minutes. My pregnancy books tell me I’m experiencing sciatic nerve pain, but I’ll see what the doctor says.

I must say that I am feeling soooo lucky at this point to be feeling so well. I am knocking on all the wood I see. Before I got pregnant, I was so sure that pregnancy would really negatively impact my CF. Well, here I am at 21 weeks and it hasn’t had any impact at all (:::knocking on more wood:::). I haven’t even had a cold. Wait, I probably shouldn’t have said that, considering I am overdue for an exacerbation.

I also still always have my IF journey in the back of my mind, and I hope I always do. It makes dealing with all these pregnancy symptoms so much easier because I am so, so, soooo thankful for this pregnancy. Part of me is still terrified that something could go wrong, and I am DYING to make it to the age of viability. But I am an enjoying every moment more than anything. And I think Greg is, too. I can really tell that our experience has made him so happy to be where we are today - he loves hearing the weekly "fruit updates," (this week our baby is the size of a banana), and he really loves my belly and saying "my pregnant wife" - and this makes me everything so awesome.