Gunns and Guns

Time really needs to slow down! First, I'd like to give a special shout-out to my sister-in-law, Ashlee, and her new husband. Mr. and Mrs. Zack Gunn got married in St. George on May 21st. It was such a beautiful wedding and we couldn't be happier for the new couple. And good news for the pregnant chick who tends to overheat quite easily - it was unusually cool in St. George and the temp on the wedding day was only in the low 80's. Hooray!

Baby J is getting big. We are just finishing up week 25 now. He weighs 1 lb 15 oz and is 12 inches long.

These are some pictures from the ultrasound at 21 weeks. Talk about guns on this kid! The ultrasound tech couldn't believe the "muscle tone" he already has. Baby J definitely has the Johnson arms.

Profile pic
Clearly we were keeping him awake. Big yawn!
Cute legs and feet.
Eyes wide open.
We've had a few adventures since week 21. During the ultrasound, the tech measured my cervix and said it was a little shorter than they would like to see (2.75 cm and it should be no shorter than 3 cm). Of course, I immediately started thinking about what an incompetent cervix could potentially mean. Early delivery, weeks in the NICU, delayed development and growth, medical issues, bed rest for me, possibly having to stitch my cervix up to keep the kid in there, we're not even close to being ready for this baby yet and I'm not even close to being ready to go out on maternity leave at work and on and on and on.

As you might imagine, by the time I got to the doctor, my blood pressure was through the roof! They measured my blood pressure a couple of times during the appointment and it remained stubbornly high. My doctor didn't want to take any chances so they said they were going to test me for preeclampsia. Scary!!! They sent me home with a jug to collect urine for 24 hours and told me to come back in two days for additional blood tests, etc. I went back on Wednesday with my jug-o-urine and they took several samples of blood. Thankfully my doctor rushed the test results and we knew by that afternoon that I wasn't even close to being in danger of having preeclampsia. I think your readings have to be around 500 (don't ask me 500 of what??) and mine were only at 245. But my blood pressure still wasn't back to normal so my doctor put me on blood pressure medication.

During this entire time, I tried to calm myself down but it seemed like the harder I tried, the faster my heart would beat. I really think it was self-induced hypertension. I tend to worry A LOT and this just sent me over the edge. Honestly, the entire pregnancy is such an unknown risk. Everything is out of your control and you just have to sit back and trust that your body is going to do what it's supposed to and work hard to keep this baby safe and sound.

I've been back every two weeks so that my doctor can continue to monitor my cervix. It's gone from 2.75 to 2.5 and then back up to 2.83 cm. And while I'm thankful for good medical care, I wish that we could just make a decision (do I have a problem or not?) and be done with it. But with a first pregnancy, you just don't know what's normal for your body. Maybe this is normal for me. My doctor said that with one of her last patients that had this issue, her cervix was at 1 cm for the last 20 weeks of her pregnancy and she carried the baby until 41 weeks. I really love my doctor - she is super calm about everything and has a way about her that makes me super calm (relatively speaking) as well. And thankfully she hasn't freaked out about any of this and put me on bed rest. In fact, I don't have any restrictions except for no crazy jumping up and down. Check.

The one good thing about all of this monitoring - we've been able to have an ultrasound every two weeks vs. just the standard two ultrasounds that you normally get during a pregnancy. It's been fun to watch Baby J grow. He had the hiccups during my appointment last Wednesday. So cute!

And remember that measles scare??? I elected to have some additional blood work done and it turns out that I am immune to measles. I'm just not immune to mumps. Guess we just needed a 4-week vacay from church (and life in general).