New Picture

Mom said she needed a new profile picture of me. Since she doesn't read my blog or get on Facebook much, I had Vince take one with my cell phone & sent it to her via text message to her phone. Just thought I would share my 22 week 5 day picture here as well.

Week 22

Today I am 22 weeks pregnant! This past week I have had some nose bleeds, lots of acid reflux every day, and felt flutters in my belly. I've been using the saline nose spray to help keep my nose from bleeding. I've tried humidifiers before, but I had one that started smoking and another that grew mold in it quickly. So I'm staying away from fire hazards or mold growing machines.

The flutters started sometime last week, but I couldn't be sure until Saturday and Sunday when I really started feeling them a lot. I think yesterday he was in a sleeping and growing phase because I didn't feel him much but my belly felt very tight like it was stretching again.

This picture was taken at 21 weeks 3 days pregnant.

On Sunday, Barbara and I enjoyed the Ellen Hines Smith Girls' Home 3rd Annual Tea Party. Lots of ladies attended and several young girls. The theme was Fancy Nancy. I took some mini cupcakes and they had other little finger foods provided as well. We enjoyed our tea party!

Dad's Healing

Dad's infected foot is looking much better. The blistered skin is healing and looking more back to normal now. His surgical sight is still taking a while to heal so they keep it wrapped until the stitches come out. His left foot is healing nicely. It still has a lot of black on the wound, but he his able to wash it now so hopefully it will start looking more like a scar soon.

Left foot

Today was a the first day that dad went out to eat at a restaurant since his accident. It's been 2 months. Mom took this picture as they ate at O'Charley's for lunch today.

Halloween Party 2

On Saturday night, we attended our second Halloween party of the season. We altered our costumes a bit and went as Hugh Hefner & a pregnant playboy bunny. I liked this costume idea better than last week's.

Our friends Thad & Danielle recently moved into a new house so they hosted a house warming/Halloween party. She made so much delicious food. We ate and chatted and enjoyed the tour of their new home.

Danielle, my friend Jessie, and I are all expecting. We had a fun time talking about our pregnancies. In fact, the pregnant ladies were the last to leave the party. Somehow we managed to outlast all the other guests.

20 Week Ultrasound

We went for our 20 week ultrasound yesterday. Well, technically, I was 20 weeks 6 days. The baby measured right on schedule so our due date is still March 14 (National Pi Day). Since I am considered of advanced maternal age (over 35) this ultrasound was performed at the hospital's outpatient center at their high risk center.

We started the ultrasound by bringing 4 types of DVDs and 1 VHS, none of which were compatible with their machine. It takes a DVD+RW. I had every other kind of DVD, so we missed out on recording it. She wouldn't let us record it with our camera, but Vince did take a few still shots. Some of them were kind of weird and blurry since she was moving pretty fast, so we have no idea what some of these pictures are. Like this one. I think it's his legs.

She printed out several profile pictures and one of his legs. He even had his legs stretched way out at one point.

The scan consisted of looking at his brain, spine, heart, bones, and a few other things. She measured dark spots on the brain, the length of different parts of his spine, and the length of his big bones like femur, tibia, and humorous. It was neat when she turned on the heat sensor part of it to see red and blue colors indicating the flow of blood in and out of his heart. She looked at all the veins, ventricles, and valves. His heart rate was 137, same as last time. The entire procedure lasted about an hour, but it seemed to go by very quickly. He was very active the entire time. His position was breech, so his head is up near my ribs and his legs were on my left side. Vince did manage to snag this cool picture of him looking at the camera.

The doctor then met with us and said everything looked great. He said whatever my risk was that came back from my blood work, that I should double it. So if I was a 1 in 10,000 risk, it would be 1 in 20,000 instead. He put me in the lower high risk category and said I should be treated like any other pregnant lady. His only recommendations were to do my glucose screen earlier than 24 weeks and to have the baby around 39 weeks instead of waiting until 40 weeks.

I plan on having the baby whenever he's ready to come. So far my weight gain has been fine, my blood pressure is great, and I've had no issues. I go on Thursday to my regular doctor to have my official 20 week appointment. I'm now at 21 weeks today!

20 Weeks!

Today is officially my 1/2 way point in the pregnancy. I'm at 20 weeks today. 20 weeks to go! I have been so thankful that I have felt great. I haven't had morning sickness or other maladies that pregnant women tend to get. I think I was the most tired between weeks 7 through 9, but have felt really good. I'm hoping to feel the baby move in the next couple of weeks. So far I haven't felt anything except for some muscles stretching in my abdomen and my tummy itching.

I bought a coupon book a few weeks back and have used 2 massage coupons in it. My second massage was yesterday. I wish I could get an hour massage every day.

Vince & I attended a fun Halloween party on Saturday night. I dressed up as a pregnant prostitute and Vince went dressed up as a pimp. It was a cold night, but we stayed close to the outdoor heaters and I brought my heated vest. It was a great benefit for the Girls' Home.

I made cake pops for the center pieces and some mini cupcakes for the food table.

It was so fun to see all the other costumes. We're attending another Halloween party this Friday night. I can't wait!

Dad's Foot Infection

So this past week has been quite a set back for dad. Rachel noticed at the beginning of last week that his wound on the right foot was a little red and had some yellow stuff oozing out of it. The nurse came to the house that day and sent him to see the foot doctor. The doctor gave him antibiotics and a betadine stick to swab on it. Only two days later, it was worse.

They admitted him to the hospital on Thursday. The top part of his foot was turning red with a rash and later that night it started to develop a blister. They put him on antibiotics through an I.V.

By Friday, it was worse, so his foot doctor scheduled surgery at 9am on Saturday to open up the wound, clean it out to the bone, and see if the bones were healing. Here's how his foot looked Friday night before surgery.

They also called an infectious specialist doctor who took cultures of the foot. The infectious disease doctor took cultures around the wound before surgery. The foot doctor took cultures inside the tissue and around the bone. So they basically have a lot of cultures now that they're waiting to see the outcome. In the mean time, his blister was drained & all the skin around it has turned nasty black. It looks gross. They also put a drain tube in the wound, which came out late the next day.

The good news is that the foot doctor said all his tissue & bone under the skin looked healthy & pink. So what is this nasty black stuff spreading around his toes and killing his skin?? I really hope they figure it out soon so that he can start healing again. On Sunday morning his foot looked like this. The toes are turning black.