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10 Months - January 20, 2006
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7 Months - October 18, 2005
Six Months! - September 13, 2005


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Almost 20 Weeks October 13, 2004

I can hardly believe I'm already "halfway there"! Even in spite of all the morning sickness I endured for the first four and a half months of this pregnancy, the time seems to have flown by.

I'm happy to say, I am feeling much better these days. I believe I'm truly over the nausea although I had a terrible cold last week and coughing really irritated my tummy. My appetite has most definitely come back though and along with it have come the strange cravings! Last week, I got a sudden craving for rice pudding. I mean, I had to have rice pudding and I had to have it immediately!!! So, because rice pudding is one of those foods that takes a little time, I had to improvise. I made minute rice, poured half and half on top with a little sugar, and topped it off with cherry pie filling...Well, normally I'm sure it probably would have seemed like a sorry substitute for rice pudding, but somehow it managed to satisfy my craving.

On the first weekend of this month, Jason had a LAN party with a bunch of his friends and I took the opportunity to invite my sister and sister-in-law over to help paint the nursery. With the exception of removing the old wallpaper border, it ended up being a lot of fun. Rachel, my sister, impressed me with her determination in continuing to remove that awful wallpaper long after Kelly, my sister-in-law, and I had given up and gone to bed. I'm hoping to get Rachel over here sometime soon so she can take some new "after" pictures that I can post here with the before pictures.

We've finally started to feel the baby kick! It started as sort of a vague tapping that would have me wondering, "was that the baby?!" and now it's strong enough that once in a while Jason can feel it, too. I worried at first that I wouldn't bond well with the baby during pregnancy because of the various difficulties I've had, but that doesn't seem to be a problem anymore. Each day that goes by with those little kicks getting ever stronger brings out in me an ever deepening affection for our little one. I'm really looking forward to holding our baby in my arms.

I was into the doctor again yesterday with what I thought might be kidney pain. I had been diagnosed with a urinary tract infection last friday at my second prenatal appointment, but I didn't start taking the medication until yesterday. So when I woke up with some pretty painful cramping yesterday, I got concerned. My first thought was that the pain was what is called "round ligament" pain, but from what I'd read online round ligament pain doesn't typically last all day. I also read online that kidney infections can cause preterm labor and that most doctors will treat kidney infections in pregnancy with hospitalisation and IV antibiotics. Anyhow, as much as I didn't want to go to the doctor, I didn't want to take a chance with the kidney infection thing, so Jason came home from work early and took me over there.

The clinic here in town was terribly busy as they only had two doctors in. Jason and I must have waited for at least thirty minutes before we got to see the doctor. As it turned out, it was the same doctor I'd seen in the emergency room the last time I had kidney pain. I wasn't exactly thrilled by this because the last time I'd seen him for kidney pain, he wrote me out a prescription for three different drugs none of which had anything to do with kidney pain. But he seemed less intense this time, so I was glad about that.

The doctor thought the pain was most likely round ligament pain because it was off to the right side of my lower abdomen, but he suggested I take a bigger dose of the urinary tract infection medication just in case and follow that with plenty of cranberry juice. If the pain persists, gets worse, or I run a fever, I'm supposed to come back in. I'm also supposed to schedule a follow up appointment for when I finish the medication in ten days to make sure the urinary tract infection is indeed gone.

I've been a bit surprised with how often I've felt the need to see a doctor during this pregnancy, but it seems very difficult to know when it's appropriate to be alarmed. I feel this tremendous responsibility just knowing that our child is depending on me so entirely. I don't want to overlook any warning signs, but I don't want to seek out unneccessary medical intervention either.

Preterm labor has been a really big fear of mine. I know that the infection that may have caused me to have a miscarriage last April increases my chances of preterm delivery significantly and I hate to have that hanging over my head. I want to do absolutely everything I possibly can to ensure that I carry this baby to term (36 weeks at the least), but I also know that I am not the one who decides when this baby is born. This makes me wonder if I should disregard the statistics regarding my increased risk of preterm delivery and simply pray and trust the Lord to protect our baby, or if it would be irresponsible to ignore the risks.

On a lighter note, my tummy has started to show. I've even gained back about eight of the pounds I lost with the morning sickness. Rachel says I look like I swallowed a cantelope whole. She went shopping with me in Fargo last Friday and displayed a terrific amount of patience as I was incredibly indecisive about what maternity clothing are the most practical and the least expensive.

Speaking of indecisive, we still haven't made much progress with the name choosing. We have, however, finally added a girl's name to the list. We both like the name Lily. It's not something we're overly enthusiastic about, but we both kinda went, "Hmm, Lily, yeah, that could work". So maybe it will grown on us?

Well, I suppose that has to be pretty close to all of the recent pregnancy news. I may have new ultrasound pictures next time I post and hopefully I will have pictures of the nursery uploaded, too.

Links
15 wk Ultrasound
23 wk Ultrasound
Nursery Pic
Dad's Baby Pic