15 weeks

I have some other things I need to blog about, but FIRST!

I had a pregnancy checkup on Monday. I had been up since 5:00 am that morning with both kids, who had the stomach flu (I'm blaming that for the bags under my eyes) and had just come back from a trip the day before besides. Anyway, I was hammered. I left the kids at home to watch SpongeBob and went to my appointment.

It was a routine checkup, I wasn't expecting anything special. I am measuring well (I seem to have a belly sooner this time) even though I still weigh less than I did before I was pregnant. I'd been trying to drop 3-5 lbs. all summer because I was in between pants sizes and it is so annoying to either have pants that are too tight or too loose. Turns out all I needed to do was get pregnant. Ha. Although with a belly to work around now, nothing fits still. Hello, yoga pants.

After going through all the normal checkup stuff and updating Dr. Sanders on my heart, (and talking about The Hobbit, because he saw me reading it when he came in), he stood up to leave and then said, "Do you want to go have a look at the baby? We might be able to tell what you're having."

"Um, YES...."

"Or we could wait till Mark is here...."

"Pff, no, I want to see now." (Forgive me, but wait another month????? Are you kidding???)

So I texted Mark at work to let him know, and he said it was fine. Dr. Sanders had the ultrasound room prepped and he came in to do a little five minute scan to see what we could see. I had been waiting for this moment for YEARS.

I was pretty sure I could tell right away that it was a girl (there are three lines on their bum) and when he confirmed it, I started crying.

I don't think even Mark knew that for several years, I've felt like there's been a girl waiting for us, and so before we got pregnant, I prayed that she'd come. But I didn't have my hopes up too high. I thought Madelyn was a boy, and that Luke was a girl, so my "intuition" was less than reliable. Mark always seemed to know, but so far he had been saying it was a boy. I love my little boy more than anything, but I would have been a tiny bit disappointed if I didn't get that other girl.

I went to Mark's office to show him the pictures and tell him in person, and he was really happy. I was bawling off and on for half the day about it, especially when I shared the news with my sisters and they were so excited. My mom called and she was excited too but then I had to get off the phone because Madelyn was throwing up...

But when I first told her and Luke that they were going to have a little sister, she jumped up and down and said, "Yayyy!!!" She was really hoping for a girl.

This summer, Luke had added another family member to our Netflix account, and called it "qq". (Don't ask me how he knows how to do stuff like that, I have no idea.) So now we have "Baby QQ" until we agree on a name.

Mark told me later that just two days before my appointment, he was lying in bed and had the feeling that it was a girl, but he didn't tell me!!! So I guess he's 3 for 3. If you want to call him and have him predict pregnancy genders for you, go right ahead. 

I'm very happy and excited (which is a nice feeling for a change, after the past few months) and am looking forward to finally getting to use the teeny little girl things I've been saving for years. :)

Important Nerdy Happenings

By now, you should know that things like this keep me going in life.

See the date on that poster?? 23 November 2013. THAT IS IN TWO DAYS. This is a huge episode because it marks the 50 year anniversary from the very first episode of Doctor Who. It will be broadcast simultaneously in 80 different countries!

Madelyn has had it marked on our calendar for months.

The TARDIS stationed at Buckingham Palace....

 The royals threw a DW party (four of the Doctors were in attendance).  I am beside myself with excitement. The Day of the Doctor going to have my two favorite Doctors on screen together! And Rose! (And you find out what really happened during the Time War, and who John Hurt's Doctor is, etc.) Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

We may or may not be traveling a few hundred miles to be with my sister Megan for the event. She has cable and we don't, and therefore we are going. (To be fair, we had been wanting to go up and see her anyway, and go to IKEA, etc. Just happened to fall on that day.)

Here is a trailer!

 Also, there's only three weeks left till the second Hobbit movie comes out. (*Squeeeeeeee*) It has been a long year waiting for it. I am currently rereading the book and even though I already know what's going to happen, it is going to be so much more exciting fleshed out in movie form. I don't even have a problem with the changes Peter Jackson has made.

A summation of the plot:

We get to meet the elvenking Thranduil (on top--Legolas' father), Thorin puts his sassy pants back on, Gandalf goes in search of the Necromancer and Bilbo saves the dwarves' behinds over and over again. Plus there will be the dragon Smaug (motion capture acting and voice done by Benedict Cumberbatch) and Bard the Bowman and Beorn and giant spiders and IT WILL JUST BE EPIC. Advance tickets are now on sale. I sincerely wish we lived somewhere where we could see it in IMAX.

And lastly, this week USPS released a set of Harry Potter stamps! I went to the post office yesterday and asked for some, and the lady looked at me like I was crazy. She'd "never heard of there being any Harry Potter stamps....maybe next year...." and I told her they had been released on Tuesday and she still didn't believe me. (Inwardly screaming)

Anyway, they ARE real, and you can buy them here from usps.com.

Have a great weekend.

POTS and IST

These pictures have nothing to do with this post. We just got several new fish on Saturday and since they each look different, we named them. Madelyn came up with Thorin, Fili, Kili, and Bombur (someone is obsessed with The Hobbit...) and we also have a Petri III, Fungus III, Gandalf and Speedy Gonzales. We already had a Gollum (our giant algae eater) and some other nondescript fish. They are the best pets! We've had fish the whole time we've been married.

Anyhoo, I have been meaning to post but last week was sort of awful and I had nothing to post about. I do have some news about my heart, though. Ready for a long ramble??

On last Friday morning, I was scheduled to go in at 8:55 am for a stress echocardiogram at the hospital. I had been DREADING it and was so nervous that I wasn't going to have the energy to do it. And so of course the night before I threw up and couldn't get any sleep. (The throwing up was because I'm still nauseous 50% of the time at night.) So, off to a swimming start!

I had to wait for a half an hour but they finally brought me back to radiology and hooked me up to about 12 different wires all over my chest and neck, and then took an echocardiogram (ultrasound) of my heart. My cardiologist Dr. Manchanda and a couple members of his team were right there in the room with me and he was able to tell me right away that my heart is physically fine and that there's no arrhythmia or valve prolapse going on. (Not surprising, since my echo from 2009 showed the same thing.)

My heart was going pretty fast, though, and my blood pressure was low. It's amusing that every time his nurses have checked me, they'd remark about that, and I'd say, "I know....that's why I'm here...." Hah.

Next, I was supposed to run on a treadmill for six minutes. This is the part I was dreading so much because I have NEVER been able to run very well. Even when I was a ballerina dancing 3 hours a day, I could never handle running or as much jumpy stuff as the other dancers. It always made me feel like collapsing. And since I've become pregnant, my physical tolerance for exercise has gone down to zero.

So I stood up to get ready to run, and after a few seconds, my blood pressure dropped so much that I got a little dizzy (I didn't say anything, just blinked hard a few times.). They had me lie down again and Dr. Manchanda came and felt my pulse in my wrist. They took my blood pressure while I was lying down, then had me stand up and took it again, while the doctor was still feeling my pulse. My blood pressure went from 110/50 to 100/60 (or something) and since I was still hooked up to the wires, they could see my heart rate jump up to about 120 at the same time. I also almost blacked out from the sudden drop in blood pressure. They seemed alarmed, but I told them that it happens to me every day and always has (which is true) and that it stabilizes within a few seconds and then I'm fine.

After all that, Dr. Manchanda said he wasn't comfortable with me running on the treadmill, and I was like, "Yay! I have always had trouble running." and he said, "Well, no wonder..." He said from what he had seen, he didn't need me to run anyway because my diagnosis was clear. I have Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).

He had me get dressed and come down to his office, where he sat and looked over my heart monitor readings from the past two weeks and also talked about POTS and our treatment options. Basically, the fludrocortizone drug he might have put me on to help my kidneys retain more salt is not pregnancy approved, so I have to start taking salt pills. 

YUM!

Better than eating actual salt, I guess. I don't like salty foods so now I just have to swallow about 6 of these a day. It should increase my blood pressure and volume. I couldn't find them anywhere in town, so I'm waiting for a delivery from Amazon before I can start taking them.

I am still trying to figure out exactly what POTS is, and from my first visit with Dr. Manchanda, it sounds like I also have overlapping symptoms of Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia (IST), hypotension and hypovolemia. So here's the gist:

hypotension: low blood pressure

hypovolemia: low blood volume

IST: Elevated heart rate not related to postural changes or activities. Might explain why my heart rate shoots up to 120-150 when doing mundane things like sorting laundry, showering, or even just sitting on the couch or at church. Right now, I've just been parked here at the computer for quite a while and my heart rate is 112. Symptoms include palpitations, lightheadedness, dizziness, flushing, sweating, and shortness of breath.

POTS: Falls in blood pressure accompanied by increased heart rate when standing or eating. Symptoms are the same as IST, including my favorite: darkening of the visual field (blacking out), but also might include fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, nausea, early satiety, bloating, and constipation.

I have had all of the symptoms I just listed, but since I'm pregnant, a lot of the digestive woes and fatigue come with that territory, too. So either way, I'm hoping for some relief soon, either from the salt pills working miracles or from my hormones leveling out since I'm finally in the 2nd trimester.

I know I have had these heart issues since I was a teenager, but pregnancy hormones have made everything exponentially worse. That is apparently common, and once I deliver (have I mentioned that this is our last baby?? I can't go through all this crap again.) my condition should improve. 

I went through a heart monitor, echocardiogram and the whole 9 yards while I was pregnant with Luke, too, but my cardiologist then was a moron and just blew it all off as nothing. I'm so glad to have a wonderful doctor now who took the time to get a proper diagnosis.

...................................................................................................................................................................

In other news: we had our house appraised last Monday (managed to get the house and yard spotless--it nearly killed me but it got done) and......it appraised just a tad too low. UGH. It is basically worth what we paid for it (could be worse) but since we have done so much work on the property, we were hoping for a little more. But I have faith in our mortgage broker that he's still going to make the refinance work. Because otherwise we are doomed and still have to pay $450 for the appraisal.

Also: last week got news of the $3,500 in doctor bills we now owe, not including the heart monitor or echocardiogram I just had. And Christmas is coming. And Madelyn's birthday. And our anniversary. *hoo heee hooo hee* (practicing labor breathing, serenity now.......)

Pray for us.

Health update. And the TARDIS!

So! Another week has come and gone. I am *somewhat* feeling better and getting more energy. I have been able to go run errands a few times this week  (although I still get really tired and sometimes nauseous afterwards). A couple mornings ago, Mark said to me, "It's so nice to have you back from the dead! You don't know how hard this first trimester has been on me!"

.................oh really.

But anyway, I have some new developments to add. On Halloween morning, I went to see a cardiologist in town to try and sort out why my heart seems to race for no reason. We pretty much are agreed that I have tachycardia and hypotension (low blood pressure), but until he knows exactly why, we can't go forward with any treatment. I do have a family history--most everyone in my immediate family has heart racing issues and my sister Meg had to have surgery this year to fix hers.

 

So I'm back on a heart monitor for 30 days (hopefully less). Although I wore one for 3 weeks while I was pregnant with Luke, the monitor wasn't as good and would only record events if I pressed a button, and none of the actual readings are on file anymore. And furthermore, the cardiologist from St. George who reviewed the data and had me do an EKG in his office back then was described as being a "jerk" by BOTH the nurse practicioner and my new doctor (and by me, and by my OB--he totally was a jerk). He said he doesn't want that guy touching my case with a 50 foot pole.

Anyhoo, this new monitor records everything 24/7, with actual people keeping an eye on the readings up in northern Utah somewhere. It is more of a hassle because I have to sleep with it on, and make sure to change the batteries twice a day, and keep the phone transmitter thing charged, and it has to always be within 10 feet at me or it freaks out. And the electrodes hurt like a mother when you have to peel them off and change them every day. Oh, and for the first 4 days, one of the wires wasn't even working properly, so I had to go get a new monitor once the clinic finally reopened on Monday. I'm going to be peeved if all that data goes to waste from those first few days!

But unless I have an actual arrhythmia (which I don't think I do, my heart beats regularly, just fast), there won't be anything they can do about it. The doctor said that sometimes an otherwise healthy heart will accelerate "inappropriately". You would expect your heart to get over 100 beats per minute if you were exercising, but not to get to 100-140 just by eating breakfast, or taking a shower, or sorting laundry, or just plain sitting around, like it does to me.

I also have the problem of low blood pressure, which I've always had. Not really sure why either, but he said it could be because I don't have enough sodium in my blood. Which might be treatable, but since I'm pregnant he doesn't want to try to raise my blood pressure because then it might lead to preeclampsia and all that garbage. So in the meantime, eat more salt? I guess it's worth a try.

Loving the uncertainty!

Next Friday I have to go do a stress echocardiogram while I run on a treadmill, which sounds like a death knell to me. I've never been able to run worth a darn--cue flashbacks to middle and high school PE--turns out it's because I have a heart problem! Hello...

Also (sorry this is really longwinded) on Halloween morning I had to go get 7 vials of my blood drawn, which I'd totally been dreading because I usually black out or dry heave when that's done. But I laid down and it actually went pretty well! Of course, it being Halloween, I still had like 8 more hours of stuff I had to do, and it was a very tiring, long day. I was a blob for the rest of the weekend.

My blood work (routine pregnancy screenings) all came back normal, good news. My urine culture came back and said I have a UTI. Bad news! I haven't had any symptoms other than some cloudiness, which has been going on for weeks and weeks. Sheesh! So now I'm on antibiotics.

Then I went to the dentist yesterday. I'm so excited to be getting all these medical bills in the mail.

My friend Anya, who is way too nice to me, surprised me with this in the mail yesterday:

ISN'T IT BRILLIANT!!?!??

She said she was going to wait till Christmas, but since I've been feeling so lousy as of late, she finished it early because thought it should be keeping me company "as you lay half-dead on the couch" (which I still spend a lot of time doing). THANK YOU ANYA! Ahh, so nice to have caring friends! She's had heart issues and has been through pregnancy twice as many times as me, so she KNOWS, man. I converted her to Doctor Who, so it's kind of our thing now. In fact, before I even opened the package, I thought, "I hope it's a TARDIS blanket!" :) She crocheted me this mini TARDIS and 10th Doctor for my birthday, so I'm like forever in her debt now.

I'll post more if I find anything out from all this testing!

P.S. We are in the process of refinancing, and got a horrifying call this afternoon saying our house appraisal is going to be happening MONDAY MORNING. I haven't had a clean house in two months, y'all. Wish me luck this weekend.

Halloweeny

So, Halloween!! It seems to get crazier every year, am I right?? The kids sure had fun, though.

Madelyn dressed up four different times. Luckily she has a lot of dress up outfits in her closet...

 

 She was a mermaid for her friend Kamryn's party (bought this costume 2 years ago and it was way too big, finally she got to wear it)

She was a pirate at her gymnastics party

And a witch at school!

 Luke decided to be a skeleton for his preschool party. Not the first year we've used jammies as a costume. (See him as Superman here.)

His preschool class got to go trick-or-treating at the businesses in their strip mall. So cute!

 

 On Tuesday, we finally got around to carving pumpkins.

Mark and Luke were quite pleased with their Pac-Man and Pac-Man ghost.

For their "real" Halloween costumes, I had ordered them back in July. They were going to be Aragorn and Arwen, my favorite Lord of the Rings characters! You know...

 

 

  

I didn't realize that the original sword that I ordered was a Ringwraith sword and it was ridiculously huge. Luke still loves it, though.

 

 So I ordered a child size Aragorn "Strider" sword, and it was a much better size. And so good at stabbing air cushions!

 But then I found it broken a few days before Halloween! Enter plastic cement and duct tape. It blended right in, so, whatever.

Madelyn's dress was a little plain...

 

I searched around stores until I found some flexible sequin braid and added it to the neckline with a needle and filament (and a couple hours of hand sewing). It's not much, but it added a lot of sparkle.

 Then, the night before Halloween, I tried my hand at making a circle skirt out of white tricot using this tutorial and made a long underskirt for her costume. And a shorter one for kicks.

And I had to hem Luke's cloak by 7 inches, and his tunic sleeves by 2 inches. I'm telling you, it was a Halloween miracle that I was able to do any of this, because I was feeling really cruddy and tired all week. The things I do for my kids!!

Madelyn looked absolutely beautiful as Lady Arwen, though! We got her Evenstar pendant and head chain from Amazon. She had a thermal shirt of mine on underneath, thick tights, and her white underskirt, because it was only around 55° outside at the trunk-or-treat. We also sprayed silver glitter hairspray in her hair.

 

 I am just really happy that Luke wore his costume at all! He is not really into dressing up and he hadn't tried on his Aragorn costume until right before we left the house. He had just come down with a nasty cold the night before and was tired and not feeling well. He was crying while Mark was getting him dressed and freaking out that he was putting a "dress" on him (the tunic). Haha, poor kid.

His LOTR Elven leaf brooch was also from Amazon.

This makes me happy. :) I love LOTR, and the kids love the movies (at least Madelyn does) and it's good to see another generation enjoying them. Their grandma Yoder, who is 75, just finished rereading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. So we gotta keep it in the family!

No one seemed to know who they were dressed up as, but that's ok. This was done to please ME.

 

 The stake trunk-or-treat was fun.

 This is our friend Jack, as Nacho Libre. His little sister was dressed as Sister Encarnacion, but I didn't manage to get her in the picture. Love it!

We were done in 40 minutes (aka ran out of candy) and the kids got quite the haul!

 Paul, Nikki and Cove came to visit and bring us cookies.

  

 Then, Mark and the kids went back out to canvas the neighborhood. Good grief! The kids have soo much candy!

 We finally wrapped up the night playing with the rest of the dry ice, watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown special, eating candy, and getting Madelyn cleaned up and in bed since it was a school night.

PHEW!!!!!!