Gender speculations

In lieu of finding out what the sex is during the 20 week ultrasound, I'll post my speculations to pass the time until birth. So here's what I've come up with:

My intuition
Obvious
Boy

DH's intuition
Obvious
Girl

Baking soda test
Baking soda mixed with urine. If it fizzes, it's a boy, if it doesn't, girl. Done at 8 weeks
Girl

Chinese gender predictor
An ancient chart taking the mother's age and month of conception
Girl

The Bump's Chinese gender predictor
Same as above
Boy (I do not know why theirs is different than every other one I've seen, since they should all be working off the same chart)

Looks
Clear skin equals boy, breakouts mean girl
Girl

Bump position
Carrying high means girl, carrying low means boy
Boy

Heartbeat rate
Heartbeat 140 BPM or less means boy, and a heartbeat greater than 140 BPM means girl
Girl

Babygenderprediction.com
A quiz
Boy

Parents.com
A quiz
Boy

Total tally
Girl: 5
Boy: 5

I must also note though, that everyone who knows me IRL thinks I'm having a girl. They don't say how they know, other than just a gut feeling.

Pregnancy: 19th week

Week 19
February 21 - 27

This week has been full of suckiness, as well as awesomeness. From my previous post about my medical drama, it started at the end of week 18 and has been spanning into this week. Monday was honestly the worst, and every day after that has included some pain, but not nearly approaching what I had that first day. So that's good at least. I'm finding that if I'm leaning back for an extended period of time, or laying flat on my back, it acts up. And if it acts up, I can't lay on my right side, as it hurts more. Stomach is just uncomfortable, so left side it is. Standing and walking around does not help, nor does sitting straight up. Ah, limitations.

I had my 20 week ultrasound on Thursday, with my 20 week checkup right after, so I'll report what my doctor said first, and then go to the good news of the ultrasound. As of the time of my appointment, she'd only gotten the charts from my first ER visit on Monday, so she didn't have all the info she needed. But from that first report, what me & DH were telling her and from her physical check of the area, her best guess is that I have hydronephrosis. That's where the ureter is blocked somewhere (in my case, it's probably the weight of the uterus & baby pinching it shut sometimes, and opens back up as baby moves) and causes urine to backup into the kidney, which then causes the kidney to swell. That swelling would be the cause of the pain. But when I had my ultrasound on Tuesday, the ultrasound tech said that he didn't see any urine blockages or urine backups. So maybe the ureter was open then? I don't know how that works. Anyway, we told my doctor that, and it made her mystified because everything points to it, except for the ultrasound. So she was going to call the hospital and bug them to get my new files to her and then she'll re-evaluate once she's seen them. I expect a call within a few days about it.

On to the ultrasound! I was so looking forward to it the whole week before, but then my drama happened and I was nervous about it, because I knew that laying on my back could trigger more pain & vomiting. But I think the baby was higher up, so it wasn't really a problem. I did take some Tylenol before just in case though. The first surprise was that the baby is up past my belly button, and is heads up. I'd had it in my mind that it was sideways. And second surprise was how active it was... and I didn't feel any of it. I've felt a lot of movement prior, so I'd assumed I'd be feeling most of it now. Not the case.

The tech spent a lot of time measuring various things, and all the while we got to watch. She did a really good job explaining what she was doing, too. I've heard that some techs won't let you watch and they don't say hardly anything. So we're lucky to get a nice one. She had us look away when it came time for her to measure the bladder and whatever else they check out though, since we'd requested to not know the gender. It was a good thing, too, because apparently our baby is not shy about showing the goods. She said it'd be really easy to tell since it was spreadeagled. Now whether that means it'd be easy because it has a penis, or whether it'd be easy because of a lack of a penis, I don't know. I do know I didn't peek, even though I was tempted. DH tells me he didn't peek either, but when he says it, he has a shifty look on his face that tells me that maybe he did. If he did, just as long as he doesn't slip up, I don't care.

But our baby IS shy about showing the face. She only got one good head-on shot, and that was a shot to show the bone structure of the head. So our baby looks like an alien. It didn't want to cooperate when it came to the profile pic either. The best one we got was just as it started to turn away. Same thing when the tech tried to get a 3D face shot. No go. She did get a good shot of a foot though. It's cute.

DH finally felt a little thump from the baby, and my belly is starting to pop and I'm excited about it, even if it does mean that moving around is super painful and that the result of a bigger baby might be more sitting on a ureter. I've got a full stock of drugs to see me through. :)

My medical drama

At about 2:30am on Monday, February 20, I was suddenly woken up by intense pain in the kidney area all the way to the side. It would not go away, so after about 5 minutes of laying in agony, I got up, got some water, and checked the internet to see what it could possibly be. One of my friends had problems with kidney stones during her pregnancies, and since the pain was in that area, that's where I started. Some of the symptoms sounded exactly like those I was experiencing: sudden, severe pain that gets worse in waves, intense pain in the back & side and nausea & vomiting (vomiting would actually come later). I looked up the recommendation for treatment, and it seems that there is very little doctors can do for it besides wait and give pain relief. So I started in on the water, knowing that it would help flush it out. I stayed up about an hour, and soon the pain went away, so I headed back to bed. It was back within 20 minutes however. And then I knew that I needed to wake DH... I wanted to go to the ER.

When we got there, I was immediately admitted, which is a benefit to living in a small community... very little wait time. They took some blood and I gave a urine sample. At first, they were zeroing in on the gallbladder. I have no idea why, but they did. But the blood tests that would indicate a problem with it came back normal. When my urine results came back, it showed that the white blood cell count was high, so they gave me the diagnosis of a bladder infection that was trying to work its way up to my right kidney. I was given 2 Tylenol and an antibiotic and then sent home with instructions to drink tons of water.

And then the real fun started. We got home and both went to bed, me with my empty ice cream bucket right next to the bed because I was feeling nauseated. The pain was starting to overcome the Tylenol, so I was soon out of bed, and headed for the bathroom, where I threw up the antibiotic I'd only taken an hour before. I tried various sleeping places in my living room, and managed to get about an hour of sleep in between the waves. And that set the tone for the rest of my day... rest between the waves (but not sleep), cry with pain during the waves, and head to the bathroom to be sick. After I was sick, the pain would immediately go away. Of course, it would always come back a short time later. At one point, I'd called my regular doctor to see if she could prescribe any pain medicine that would actually touch the pain, which Tylenol didn't. She didn't feel comfortable in going above Tylenol, which I can respect, because I am pregnant and she was being cautious. She did prescribe me some anti-nausea gel though since I was vomiting pretty regularly, and I wasn't managing to keep any of my meds, water or bread down. Yeah, that didn't work. So I was gearing up for another long night of pain and bathroom trips.

But later that night, about 10:30, DH decided to take charge... he didn't agree with my plan to suck it up and wait it out. He found the number to the 24-hour nurse from my clinic and called them. The nurse advised him to take me back to the ER for an IV, with the concern being that being dehydrated could cause me to go into labor. So I went to the ER again because we definitely don't want that!

They initially weren't going to do another urine test because I'd just had one the night before, so they got me hooked up pretty quickly. They also added liquid Zofran (anti-nausea med), because it was about time for another hit. Within about 20 minutes, I was having pain & throwing up. While they were hooking up the IV, they also took some blood. Almost everything was normal. Heck, according to their scale, I wasn't even dehydrated, so I guess I managed to keep enough water in. But I'm so glad I got the IV nonetheless. The only thing that was slightly off, I don't remember what he called it, but he said it was most likely something to do with the pregnancy, and wasn't the cause of my pain. The doctor (a different one than the night before) spent a lot of time talking to us, and the more we talked, the more he felt that I should give another urine test.

When the results of that came back, it came back different than the night before. The first one had elevated white blood cells in it, which led to the diagnosis of a bladder infection. The second one didn't have that. But it did have a little blood in it. So now they're suspecting a kidney stone. He felt that along with that, the fact that I would have waves of pain, usually ending up with me throwing up, and where my pain was located, that that was looking more likely than a bladder infection. He told me to stop taking the antibiotic for now, and he also gave me some good pain medicine to help me sleep that's pregnancy safe (which worked BTW... it was awesome. Didn't wake up once).

The bright side though, was that the doctor brought out the doppler to listen to the baby. The hb was good and strong at 163bpm. It was the first time DH had heard it. But since I was on my back, it brought on immediate pain, and I was throwing up within a minute. So it was just a quick listen. There is no concern for the baby, so the focus is just getting me better. My instructions were to drink a lot of water, and even if I throw it all back up, just keep drinking. I have to keep watch on my temp, but otherwise I just wait it out.

On Tuesday, I had a renal ultrasound to verify the presence of stones in my kidneys. Nope. Not a speck in either kidney. The tech also checked my ureters to see if there were any blockages or urine backups. Nope. So we're back to square one with not knowing what's going on.

But Tuesday was actually really good... I would only have an occasional dull pain in my kidney area, but I was otherwise pain-free. So we'd thought that maybe I'd passed a super small stone really quickly. I don't know how possible that is, but it's better than nothing.

However, now that it's Wednesday, I'm starting to get more pain in that area again. It's not the excruciating pain I'd experienced on Monday. It's a dull ache like it was on Tuesday, but it's getting a LOT more constant and a little stronger as time goes by. So I'm trying to keep up on my water and rest, with the hopes that it goes away. I have my 20 week appointment tomorrow, so I will have some followup with my regular doctor and we'll see what she says. Since I have to provide a urine sample at these appointments anyway, I'm hoping that this latest one will help shed some light on what's going on.

Pregnancy: 18th week

Week 18
February 14 - 20

*knock on wood* I think my belly is about ready to pop. It's been about the same the past 3 weeks, but I noticed this morning that it seems as though it grew more overnight. And later on in the night, I was slightly crampy, which I take to mean that things are growing. So I'm going to be curious what it looks like over the next week. I just hope I'm not imagining things. I mean, I know it's going to happen eventually, but at the same time, it feels like it's never going to happen.

And the baby has also been a lot more active recently. Active as in "I can actually feel it," and sometimes even from the outside. Maybe that's because I can feel it from the inside, too, so the impression of the kick is stronger? But they're not strong enough yet to where DH can feel it from the outside. Soon, I hope. And the baby has found a new game that's cute right now, but probably won't be as it gets bigger. The game is Kick Mommy's Full Bladder. Right now, I can tell what's going on because there's a slight momentary change in the pressure, but it's not uncomfortable. I can only imagine what it'll feel like when the baby is stronger. Probably not too fun.

But I'm getting super excited because my 20 week ultrasound is scheduled for the 23rd... which is next week! We're still not planning to find out what it is, so I hope the tech doesn't accidentally show us the private parts. Because as hard as they are to read, I know what to look for for each, thanks to years of frequenting infertility/TTC boards. With boys, well, that's obvious. And with girls, I know that 3 lines show up. Just as long as the tech stays away, we'll be good to go.

As for the pain I reported last week, it's still here, and a little worse. Any physical movement that involves the legs hurts so much, it's kind of debilitating. So I think I'm in HUGE trouble for the next 22 or so weeks if this is what I feel like now. When I see my doctor next week, I'll ask her about it and see what she recommends. I've been sitting on an exercise ball, and that helps while I'm on it, but it hasn't eased the pain for all the other times when I'm not. Maybe I'll find some good stretches to do, other than the ones I do for swimming. Anyway, I'm thinking the baby is positioned low, but we'll find out for sure at the scan. If it is, there isn't much one can do about it besides suck it up and try to alleviate the pain as much as possible until the baby is born.

*I was admitted to the ER at the end of this 18th week. I will make another post just about that, because this one is long enough and what I have to say is just as long. I'll post it in a few days.

Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University

Just before Christmas, DH approached me and told me that our church was holding Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University seminar series starting in January and he wanted to sign us up for it. It is every Sunday from 6:30-8:30pm for 13 weeks. I will be honest and say that I was less than eager to go. I mean, we had already had a budget going for a few years and it seemed that we were doing well enough that we didn't need it. We pay for almost everything with a credit card, but the balance gets paid off in full every month. We have a modest mortgage and DH's student loan. But otherwise, we have no other debt. We put money in savings every month, and no bills go unpaid. We buy what we need, and occasionally what we want. We are both naturally frugal, so I was a little confused as to why he wanted to do it. I tried to drag my feet, but very quickly had the realization that it would mean a lot to him if I put out the effort and go. In other words, it would be the romantical thing to do, in his mind anyway (because he's weird like that). And as he is the CFO of the family, if he felt the need to go, maybe I should believe him. So we signed up.

We are currently four weeks into the program, and it certainly has opened my eyes about our financial situation, which turned out to be not as good as we had thought. The things I said in the previous paragraph held true, but when we added up everything at the end of the month, more often than not, we'd be spending more than was coming in just from DH's paychecks. And we couldn't figure out why we weren't feeling the pinch, especially when we don't do extravagant spending. After a lot of pondering, DH fell upon the answer... extra income from mineral rights.

For our wedding gift, DH's parents bought us a small share of mineral rights up in the northwestern part of my state that had previously been owned by DH's grandfather, who had passed away the year before. And with the huge oil boom going on, we occasionally get checks for the oil that is pumped on our section. Now, the checks don't come consistently for various reasons, and the amount varies from about $30 all the way up to a few hundred... so pretty modest amounts. Either way, that money had been seeing that we never felt financial pinches, because they always seem to come at the right time. And I'm not complaining about it because money is money and we're always glad to have some. It just left us confused for a long time because it's hard to include it in your budget when you never know when you'll next get a check with an unknown amount. So we didn't include it, and just stuck the money in savings only to forget about it. But we now have a plan for this money, which I'll include in another post.

From now until the end of the course, I'll do weekly posts about how it's going and what I honestly think about whatever homework assignment we're working on (aka I will complain like a student does when they don't want to do their homework). I know it doesn't sound exciting, but maybe it'll give someone the push to sign up for the course in the future. Someone who really wants to go, but won't sign up because their spouse doesn't want to go. Or maybe the spouse who doesn't want to go will see how beneficial it can be, even if that benefit is only to do it for their spouse.

And no, I'm not a convert. If DH hadn't wanted to go so badly, I would never have given it a second thought, and even now that we're a few weeks in, I'm still not super excited to go. But I haven't decided if it's because it's not up my alley of interest, or if it's because I am generally resistant to change... and this program is all about change. I'm leaning towards change.

Pregnancy: 17th week

Week 17
February 7 - 13

Well, let's start off this week with DH being sick yet again. It's only been 2 weeks since his last bout. This time he went to the doctor, although the results were the same as they've always been... him having a viral infection they can do nothing about and DH ranting that doctors are useless. Well, they can't help you... maybe if you'd catch a bacterial infection, they'd actually give you something to get rid of it.

I know it's frustrating to not be feeling well, but having a sick man at home can really try the patience since they're so crabby and whiny at the same time. And they don't have the excuse that they're a kid. I'm sorry. I'm not a doctor. I can't help you beyond driving you to the doctor, making you something to eat, getting you some Advil or whatever. And I especially can't help you if you refuse everything I offer. No, I don't know why you're always getting sick. If I did, you wouldn't get sick. No, I don't think you eating nothing but cheeseburgers every day will help you not get sick anymore*. It will make you really fat though, and will bring on its own problems far worse than getting a viral infection every month, which you might still get when you're fat anyway. Take your pick.

Sorry... this is supposed to be about me and my pregnancy. So would it make you more sympathetic to my cause if I told you that I also woke up with another headache? It made the day so much more fun.

But in the good news department, later in the night while watching some Star Trek: DS9, I noticed the baby moving a lot! There was no mistaking it for gas. It was awesome. :) Later in the week though, I didn't notice much movement. So maybe it moved more towards the back?

And now I will mention something I started experiencing a few weeks ago, and I'm pretty sure it's common, so I haven't complained about it. But it hurts and has a funny name, so I figure I should get it out in the open. I have something the women on my pregnancy board call ECP (Evil Crotch Pain). I'm sure there's a technical term for it, but it likely isn't as fun as Evil Crotch Pain. What it is, is shooting pains in the vagina that are felt with pretty much every kind of movement. Fun, huh?

And because of this, I've found myself waddling around the house far earlier than I think is necessary. It kind of concerns me that it's happening so early for me, as most women get it towards the middle of the 3rd trimester. I'm not that big at all, so that can't be it, either. But it does occasionally happen to women this early, so I'll just put it down as normal. I try to keep the waddling to a minimum in public, but when it's the only way to still walk and not have it hurt (as much), I have to resort to it. And the sad part is, I don't think it's related to the pain I started getting in week 7 and still have to this day where it hurts to lift my legs to put on/take off pants, socks or shoes. That pain feels like it's actually in the uterus instead of outside of it. So heaven help me when I really do get big. I'll try not to whine too much about it though. "Try" being the operative word. :)

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* 1. My choice of poison is actually tacos. But DH specifically mentioned cheeseburgers this time. 2. Whenever DH is sick he never fails to point out that I eat like crap and almost never get sick, while he eats really well and exercises a lot and still gets sick very often. So he rationalizes that if he started eating more like me and working out less, he'd never get sick, too. But what he fails to realize is that when I do get sick, I get sick. Like, I think I'm going to die for more than a week and then when it's over, it takes another week or two to get back to feeling 100% normal. The last big illness I had was 2 years ago when I had walking pneumonia (I don't count what I had when I got pg a big illness, since the pregnancy probably intensified it). Two years before that was Influenza A... not the lame stomach bug "flu" that leaves after 24 hours, but the Flu that sticks around for such a long time that your boss begins to think you're just playing hookie after you've called in for the 4th straight day. And then realizes just by looking at you when you get guilted to go in, that you really are sick and sends you back home for the rest of the week. So it's not as awesome as he thinks, since it all evens out in the end.

Pregnancy: 16th week

Week 16
January 31 - February 6

I think I know about what time my baby will consistently wake up in the mornings, just based off the times I've been consistently waking up the past week or so. It's not pretty at all, and I hope to God I'm wrong. The wake-up time is within a 45 minute span between 4:45 and 5:30. Isn't that just wrong?

Anyway, the past week, I've been a total zombie in the mornings because of this waking time. Because for some reason, I do not fall back asleep until after DH gets out of bed, which is about 6:00 if he doesn't hit the snooze button. But more often than not, he gets out at 6:45 (hitting the snooze button every 15 minutes the whole time, BTW). And all this time I'm awake. Then when I fall back asleep it's like I'm taking a nap, which would explain why I feel like crap. See, whenever I take naps, I always wake up feeling about 100x worse than I did before I fell asleep. So I try to avoid taking one. Why not just get up then? I don't know. Because I'm a glutton for punishment? Or maybe it's because I don't want to make DH his omelette every morning. :)

I haven't felt the baby much this week, and if I did feel something, I'm quick to blame it on gas. But towards the end of this gestation week, I've felt what I'm pretty sure is the baby. It's not a kick or a jab, or even the famous butterflies. It's a slow movement, kinda like the baby is stretching, and it only happens once before I feel nothing again. It's awesome. :)

***16 week check-up results***
This was another short appointment (yay!). She measured my tummy and said it was measuring perfectly. Then she did the heartbeat check. She found it pretty quickly this time, which was a relief. The baby is near the top of the uterus now, and right in the middle. The heartbeat was 160 bpm. And since she's still using my LMP as a gauge of how far along I am (grrr), she said it'd be alright to have my ultrasound in 3 weeks instead of 4 (because going by LMP, I'm 17w1d right now instead of 16w3d going by O date)! One of the few good things to come out of that seemingly unnecessary 6w ultrasound. Yeah, I don't think I'll let that one go for a while.

The doctor told me again that when the difference is a week or less, they use LMP because it really doesn't make a difference. Yeah, it really won't matter... until I pass my EDD and they wanna induce me! That's when those 5 days will show back up and try to bite me in the ass. I really hope I don't go over anyway, but most 1st babies are late, so I've always been under the assumption that I will go over with this one. So my doctor is not going to like me very much if I get that far and refuse to be induced because I feel like I have 5 more days to go. But you never know... maybe the baby will actually arrive on time! One can only hope...

Nicknames

For anyone who has been pregnant or known someone who is pregnant, you would know that the baby is now supplied with a nickname to be used while still in utero. Some popular names are Bean, Bug & Blob. So I was asked recently what the nickname would be, and my answer? The Baby. Uninspiring, I know. I just kind of feel funny giving my baby a nickname for some unknown reason. Maybe because I haven't come across the right name yet.

But my husband has a name for the baby. Juan.

So here's the story on that. Years and years ago, DH & I were talking about naming our future kids, and DH says that their names were going to be One, Two, Three, etc. I'm like, no. They have to have real names. So in his genius mind, he immediately comes up with Juan, Sue, Trey & Nora. Get it? They are real names that rhyme with their numbered counterparts. And these names would be given regardless of the sex of the baby. Can you imagine the punching bag our poor son Sue would be if we gave a boy that name? I can.

Yes, I immediately revoked all his naming & vetoing rights, and they have yet to be reinstated because I still don't know if he was kidding or not. He seems pretty serious about it, but then again, we haven't had any serious naming conversations yet since we've known, although he sometimes mentions off-hand the numbered names.

But in utero nicknames are a different deal. They can be a name of the opposite sex and still be cute. So in all actuality, Juan is growing on me as a nickname. The only thing holding me up on it though, is the fact that DH still regularly refers to our friends' children as their in utero nicknames instead of their real names. And there is no way in hell I want my child to have the name or nickname of Juan (or Sue, Trey or Nora) once they're born. It would be like I'm giving in. And we can't have that, now can we?

And lately, DH has been trying to create a nickname to use while it's still in utero, and he has help from friends. Here's what they finally decided on: Major General Jean-Luc Picard Spicy Chicken Sandwich. I think I'll just go with The Baby. It doesn't require one to take a breath right in the middle of it (and it actually makes sense). I just hope it doesn't stick around after it's born.