Tobey Update!

Tobey had his surgery last week. After a month of deliberation Hugh and I decided to go with the FHO procedure. This is where the surgeon removes a small portion of the bone from the top of the femur. Essentially, this removes the bone-on-bone problem and allows him relief from the pain. Tobey went in last Tuesday and he was able to come home late Wednesday. I have to say that I drove 30mph the entire way home from the vet with him. I was scared to death that I was going to cause him unnecessary pain. He’s got a 6 inch scar and a shaved hind-quarter. We go back in two weeks to get the stitches removed.

He’s doing very well. He moves quickly on three legs and is starting to slowly but surely use his “bad” leg. We were told to expect this for several weeks, but it still has me worried. He seems to forget that he’s recovering and attempts to do things like jump on our bed. (He managed to get up, got upset and then I had to pick him up and put him back on the floor)Hugh’s mom brought him and Cassie each a new doggie blanket and Tobey loves his. He’s been sleeping on it every night since she brought it over.

He’s getting better every day, and I’m looking forward to the day that he’s using his back legs at 100%.

25 Weeks!

Wow. I can’t believe that the baby will be here in around 100 days! (Lord willing, we want this little one to cook the whole time!) I have an app on my phone that keeps a small countdown calendar for my due date. About once a week I look at it and update Hugh on the amount of days we have left of just being “us”. It’s a bit scary. We’re very excited and looking forward to meeting our little one; but it’s a huge change and we’re both nervous.

Clothes: I’m completely in maternity pants at this point. I’m still able to mix in regular shirts as long as I have one a camisole beneath it. Ditto for my dresses. I wear some of my regular dresses with leggings each week. I’ve found that leggings and dresses or tunics are my favorite things to wear. They are much more comfortable than pants. I think I’m going to have to break down and find some type of maternity work-out shorts. I’m still wearing my own shorts to the gym, but they’re starting to get a little uncomfortable around my belly. Oh, and I really need to see if Speedo or Nike make a maternity version of their racing suits. My regular swimsuit is attempting to kill me.

Weight Gain: At this point I’ve gained right at 15 pounds. When we were in the Dr.’s office last time I inquired about my weight gain and if I was gaining too much, too fast. The nurse actually laughed at me. She said that I really need to stop stressing about the weight. According to the baby books we have I’m a few pounds under the “average” weight gain at this point. Sometime during the weekend, I finally decided to let go of the anxiety about the weight gain. I know that I’ll get it all off after the baby. I don’t want to look back on my pregnancy and realize that all I did was worry about weight gain. Life is TOO SHORT! Oh...and my boob are HUGE! I'm starting to get concerned with the size. I mean...where are they going to go?

Baby Size: The baby is about the size of a large eggplant and weighs around 1.25lbs! He/She moves all the time my uterus is the size of a soccer ball. Holy crap. A soccer ball, people. I can see my stomach move from the outside when the baby’s kicking. It’s a crazy thing to see and I love how much Hugh wants to touch my stomach and see everything as well.

Food: I’m still loving cereal, but I’m trying really hard to make sure that I’m getting in some protein as well. Hugh gets worried when I don’t want to eat meat so I try to eat something with meat once a day. I can’t seem to get enough citrus. I eat fruit all the time and I’ve been trying to curtail my orange juice drinking. It’s pretty sad, but I’ll wake up in the middle of the night CRAVING orange juice. The dogs always follow me into the kitchen and I appreciate the company.

Overall: I’m feeling good, but my lower back hurts. It’s driving me crazy. Stretching doesn’t seem to help so I’ve been sitting with the heating pad at night. I’ve also noticed that I’m starting to get tired during the day again. We spent all yesterday working in the yard and there may have been a few times that I seriously considered curling up next to Tobey in the grass and taking a little nap. Then I noticed that Tobey wasn’t napping. He was eating bugs. No thanks, that’s not really my thing.

Current Bump Report: 22 Weeks

We are now more than halfway through this pregnancy and our due date is fast approaching. I’m starting to get a little worried that we can’t decide on a baby name. We may just end up naming this kid baby. We finally decided on paint for the nursery and Hugh’s going to work on getting that finished up.  

I’m really feeling pregnant now. The other day I decided to wear this sweater top to work that’s non-maternity. I typically don’t wear this often because it’s a little big on me. Well, it looked like a fitted top. You can see it in the picture below.

Please ignore all the crap in my bathroom and instead focus on the large belly. No, it’s not twins. Yes, I’ll consider stabbing you if you ask me.

I went and got a bikini wax last week since I’m officially having a hard time seeing over my bump. I’d read about how your skin is more sensitive during pregnancy but I hadn’t really noticed any changes. While the waxing didn’t hurt too badly, my skin decided to react to it. My entire bikini area was HORRIBLY red. It looked like I’d been blistered. Plus, it hurt like I’d been burned. THEN, to make it better, about three days after the skin started peeling. I couldn’t help but laugh. I mean…seriously? I can’t have sex anymore so why don’t we just make your whole bikini area look like its got leprosy? I’m glad that Hugh has a sense of humor.

I’ve been eating a TON of cereal lately. I’m usually not a big cereal eater, so this is out of the ordinary for me. It’s driving Hugh crazy that it’s pretty much all I want to eat. I actually ate cereal and two cucumbers for lunch yesterday and I didn’t even stop to consider that that might not be a good combination. While I might be eating large quantities of shredded wheat, I’m keeping up with eating my fruits and veggies.

I had a complete adult temper tantrum last Friday night. I had been thinking all day about how much I wanted to go eat at Balderas Tamale Factory for dinner. Hugh ended up getting home a little later than usual and we had to go to Costco and get the dogs more food. Hugh asked me if I would prefer to eat something at the house and just go to Balderas for lunch the next day. This was a COMPLETELY reasonable request. In my mind, I realized that it made more sense. However…pregnancy hormones decided to rear their head and I decided that I should stomp around the house yelling about how all I wanted that ENTIRE day were some tamales. I honestly felt the crazy coming out of me and I even recognized how crazy I sounded, yet I couldn’t stop it. Poor Hugh. He was very calm and just said, “Ok. We can just eat a little later tonight. Let’s go!”

Bless him. Bless him. Bless him.

The tamales were delicious.

Baby Update!

I’ve been quiet for the past few weeks, but I’m finally ready to blog about everything that’s been going on with Baby McCrea.

Hugh and I went in for the Anatomy Scan ultrasound when I was at 19 weeks and 3 days. The anatomy scan is the ultrasound where they go through and check all of the major organs, take measurements of all the bones and typically people can find out the sex of their baby. We were really excited about our appointment and looking forward to seeing how much our little baby had grown.

We were worried that we’d accidentally find out the sex of the baby during the ultrasound, but we made it through without being told. The doctor came in and explained to us that they were unable to identify all four chambers of the heart and that the technician saw a cyst in the baby’s abdomen. She was referring us to a Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital to have an evaluation and a higher level ultrasound. She explained to me that this type of specialist deals with high-risk pregnancies and babies that have problems. She told us not to panic (Seriously? Don’t panic? The moment she said “referral” the panic set in.) and that there was a big chance that it could just be the position that the baby was in. She then proceeded to tell me that my placenta was slightly covering the opening of my cervix (this means that my placenta is blocking the baby’s exit route) which is called Placenta Previa. I didn’t have a complete previa, but my placenta was low enough that if it didn’t move in the next 8 weeks, then I would have to deliver the baby via c-section.

WHOA!!! Talk about a ton of information in one appointment. Hugh and I were expecting a typical appointment where we were patted on the head and told to continue on.  The doctor placed me on pelvic rest because of the previa which meant that I had to really cut back on my work out routine and that we weren’t supposed to have sex anymore. Oh, and no housework. Ok…she didn’t really say that I couldn’t clean the house but that’s how I heard it.

We left the doctor’s office in a bit of shock. We were both worried, but what can you do? Absolutely nothing but wait and pray. I worked really hard not to think about it but I was quite unsuccessful with that. It was constantly on both of our minds, and I wasn’t adjusting well to feeling as if I’d been sidelined with the pelvic rest order. I’m a very active person and I know that working out keeps me sane. I don’t do well with inactivity so I pretty much went on this baking/cooking/freezing meals rage that might have bordered on manic. Is anyone interested in some frozen chicken soup?

A week and half later Hugh and I each took off an afternoon of work to go see the specialist. We had the ultrasound first and it lasted a full 45 minutes. The baby was in a great position and the technician was able to get all of the shots that she needed. The very first thing that she showed us was the heart and ALL FOUR CHAMBERS! We were so happy to see that. The ultrasound equipment was incredible. The detail was amazing and we were both dumbfounded at how real everything looked. The doctor came in the room and did some further investigation. She showed us that the abdomen was clear and that the baby was in great health. At 21 weeks and 2 days of development our baby weighed 14ozs, almost a pound!

Hugh and I were so happy. I can’t even explain the relief that we both felt leaving the office. We had both been worried sick and were both overjoyed with the good news. The doctor told us that we didn’t need to come back unless we had any further issues.

Here’s a photo of our little Junebug at 19 weeks and 3 days:

Please note that you’re seeing the baby’s arm and hand touching its nose, not the world’s largest baby penis. (Dad….that clarification is for you.)