Sinusitis

You may have noticed lately that I have been absent from any social activities that I've been invited to attend.  The reason is that for 12 days now I have been suffering from a cold and then a sinus infection.  It all started a few weeks ago when Nathan got a fever and displayed symptoms of a cold.  We headed to see the pediatrician, for fear that he had contracted the awful flu virus (Nathan has never really run a fever when he's been sick).  The doctor checked Nathan for the flu and for strep throat.  Then, she determined that he had neither and stated that he had a cold that would stick around for about 1 week.

Next, Chris started saying that he was getting whatever Nathan had.  As soon as Chris gets a sore throat or anything else, he buys a bottle of liquid Dayquil and drinks it over 1 day.  Chris' cold impaired him the weekend of the 14th, but he was on the verge of improvement after the weekend ended.  I, however, was only getting started!

I had the post nasal drip for a while leading up to the cold, but thought it was just a part of my nasal passageways being swollen from my hormones.  Then, I got a huge headache one Saturday.  We were able to take Nathan out to the Aquarium for his day of fun, but after that we were both stricken to the couch that night and had to miss meeting the church group at Fuddruckers.  Come Monday, I was suffering from a runny nose.  Tuesday, I had to go to a training and had to blow my nose every 10 minutes.  By Wednesday, I couldn't hear very well because my ears were stopped up.  On Friday, I finally relented and went to see a doctor at a local clinic, thinking that I had a sinus infection.  The clinic agreed and prescribed me some antibiotics. 
I started feeling better on Monday, but by Tuesday evening I was feeling very badly.  My jaw had begun to ache, making it hard to eat.  Today my ears are popping and stopped up again.  My face hurts and my nose is not happy either.  I know that I am past due for a visit with my ENT.  So, I have an appointment there later today to check my ears and nose and throat.  I also again called my OB this morning to make sure that antibiotics are ok for me.

12 Week Prenatal Visit

This morning Chris and I went to our second prenatal appointment.  It seemed so soon to me to come back after only 2 weeks, but they are doing a new test to look for abnormalities, and it needed to be completed before 13 weeks.  The test is done by looking at the baby through ultrasound.  They look for the presence of the nasal bone and also at the nuchal translucency. 
This time I brought in with me a sewing project that I am working on so that I had something to do in the waiting room besides playing Mahjong on my phone.  Plus, we made an 8:00 appointment to try to avoid being held up. 
We got to do the ultrasound first thing.  Chris and I were overjoyed to get to see our baby again this month!  Baby Taylor was wide awake and moving all about.  The baby is actually starting to look like a baby too.  We were able to see legs, knees, feet, hands, elbows, abdomen, and head.  One thing that we were not able to see was the baby's sex organs.  The sonographer said that the baby was hiding those today.  So, we will have to wait until another ultrasound is performed to find out if we will welcome a boy or girl in July.  The next ultrasound will probably not be until March.  What a long wait!
I also had to see the obstetrician, who indicted that the ultrasound looked great.  The nurse also pricked my finger to collect blood for another test to go along with the ultrasound.  I thought that I was clear of having my blood drawn today until the doctor said to go down to the lab. 
I hate, hate, hate having my blood taken.  I worry that I will get sick or pass out, especially since I am under the weather today with a cold and an ear infection.  I almost got up out of the lab and left, but I remembered that I am an adult and need to do what is best for the baby and me. 
Thank goodness the lab technician was an expert blood taker.  I barely felt the needle go in.  Afterwards (when I could speak) I mentioned that the blood removal was unremarkable, just the way I like it.  The technician looked pleased to hear that.  It's always good to be nice to people who stick you with needles, as they can make you suffer!
I will go back to the doctor in a month in order to be measured and weighed, and the doctor mentioned doing the next screening.  Since there will be no ultrasound, Chris is going to miss this appointment so he will not miss any more work.  I look forward to going back, sitting in that waiting room, and working on my sewing!

Our First Ultrasound

On Tuesday, we went to our first prenatal appointment, and it turned out to be somewhat of an event for us.  It's been over two years since we had to make those routine OB visits, and we forgot about how the OB can keep you waiting for what seems like forever sometimes!  Both Chris and I rushed to get to the appointment on time, but only ended up waiting over 30 minutes to see the doctor.  Once in the exam room, the nurse brought in the Doppler in order to listen to our baby's heartbeat so that our pregnancy could be confirmed.  She moved the little microphone around on my abdominal area for at least 10 minutes.  After 5 minutes of total silence, I was beginning to tear up, fearing that we would not be hearing a heartbeat.  The nurse explained to me that there was no need to worry.  That most likely my c-section scar tissue was preventing the Doppler from picking up the sounds of the heartbeat.  She also said that the doctor would come in and lift my uterus, which would probably make it where we would hear it.  To me, that sounded awful!  What misery or discomfort was I going to go through to lift my uterus?  The doctor came in and performed a pelvic exam.  This did not feel good at all.  The doctor explained that she could not lift my uterus because it was tilted, and this is also why the pelvic exam was painful to me.  Ultimately, we were going to have to have an ultrasound.  Yeah!  Chris and I were elated!  I had been told that no ultrasound would be done on the first visit, but like any other mommy, I wanted to see our baby!  So, we were put back into the waiting room to wait for the office's technician to call us back.  Since we were not scheduled for an ultrasound, we had to wait a long time.  Once in, the technician told me to get up on the table.  Again, I was thrilled that she was not going to perform a vaginal ultrasound.  I had already been through enough poking and prodding for one day!  The lab was neat because they had a big, flat screen TV that showed the ultrasound on it instead of us watching a tiny computer monitor.  We were delighted to see Baby Taylor 2 staring in our direction with his or her little hands up by the face, practically waiving at us!  Afterwards, we went back in to see the doctor, and she congratulated us on our pregnancy.  She explained that not only did I have scar tissue blocking the Doppler, but also the placenta was in the front, in between the baby and the Doppler.  She indicated that as the baby grew bigger, the Doppler would be able to pick up the heartbeats.  She said that the baby looked great, and the gestation is where we anticipated.  Then she said to come back in 2 weeks for another ultrasound and blood work to screen for chromosomal defects.  We were there for a total time of 2.5 hours.  We are looking forward to seeing our baby again in 2 weeks!

First Prenatal Appointment

Today, we have our first prenatal appointment scheduled.  The appointment is a little bit later than we would have liked, but the holidays prevented us from securing an earlier date.  We are very excited to be going in to see the doctor.  We haven't told many people about our pregnancy because we want the doctor to confirm that we have a viable pregnancy first.  Today is finally the day!  Chris has never met the OB before, but I am sure that he will like her like I do.  We have also requested an appointment with a perinatalogist.  A perinatalogist, I've learned, is a specialist who you go see if you have a high risk pregnancy.  Since Nathan had a congenital heart defect,our pregnancy is considered high risk because we are more likely to have a second child with similar problems.  We will go to see the perinatalogist shortly following our appointment today.  We will also continue to pray that our second baby has a healthy, strong heart and other organs! 

Under Construction

This Blog is currently a work in progress.  More to come later!