38 weeks....I can't believe the big day is almost here!!!

Holy Cow 38 weeks flew by!!! I can't believe in 5 days I will be a mom!! I have been thinking a lot about how calm our lives are and have been trying to imagine what our house will be like with a new baby in it and I can't! It all seems so surreal. I have so many emotions running through me lately and over all I am just very anxious and excited to meet Ricky. I wonder what he will look like, me or Rick or a combination of us both?? Mostly though I am just praying he is a healthy baby and likes to sleep a lot. Is that too much to ask for?? Besides that I am not really planning on anything. I am taking this new parenting thing as a more "its gonna be what its gonna be" approach. I know every baby is different so we will just go with the flow depending on his personality and let him lead the way at first.

I know this week will fly by especially with one of my best friends Maya and her son coming over Tuesday ( I haven't seen them in 2 years) along with all my other girlfriends, for Mom's birthday and to visit. Later Tuesday night my Dad, Kim and Amy will be arriving. Wednesday is our 3 year Anniversary (wow that flew by). I am thinking Thursday will be here before I know it!! I can't think of a better week filled with things to come and look forward too!!! In the mean time I will continue to sit on the couch, get some reading done and get as much sleep as possible. I think the bed rest has definitely helped out with how I have been feeling. Even though I still have terrible back aches, my hands are killing me and the headaches come and go, but hopefully this time next week the only thing I will be complaining about is Ricky keeping us up all night LOL

I look forward to sharing pictures of him with everyone and I truly can't wait to meet our precious son, wow that sounds weird!!! But I can get used to it!!

You name it and I have it!

So like everything else, if its out there I will get it! I am now known as a medical nightmare in my house!! I got the call Friday afternoon that I am preeclamptic!! I am happy that they caught it early and that bed rest should be enough to keep it under control. The doctor said any protein in your urine over 300 is considered preeclamptic and my numbers were at 370. The blood work normal is 2.5-7 and I was at 5, so normal but creeping on the higher side. Needless to say my weekend and all the things I was planning on doing didn't happen. So to say I was pretty sad all weekend is an understatement. But in the big scheme of things I am now seeing that it is the beginning of sacrificing things for your child.

I have come to the conclusion that having gestational diabetes, gestational carpal tunnel, being GBS positive and now having preeclampsia that me and pregnancy don't mix. Good thing is that none of these are guaranteed to happen in future pregnancies and will most likely go away shortly after this lil man arrives. All in all I wouldn't trade it for the world and hope that Rick can forget all these things when I am ready for baby number 2 :-)

2 weeks to go and stuck at home!

Well after the last few days of feeling AWFUL my doctor has taken me out of work and put me on "bed rest". I am not restricted to bed but just ordered to get lots of rest and relax. At first I thought it was the heat that was getting to me but Tuesday I had off of work and literally laid on the couch all day and still felt like crap. Yesterday I went into work and thought I was going to pass out an hour after arriving. I had a doctors appointment and NST scheduled already for Wednesday so I went to that. At the NST my blood pressure was measuring 142/80 and then 135/85 which is high compared to my normal 105/60. On top of my blood pressure being elevated I have been having trouble catching my breathe, headaches, dizziness and feeling faint. The doctor thinks it is just normal 3rd trimester pregnancy stuff but has me doing a 24hr urine collection along with blood work just to make sure I am not in the beginning stages of preeclampsia. Friday afternoon once all the tests come back I should know for sure. I have to go back to the doctors Monday to re-check my blood pressure (even though I am sure I will have my mom do it over the weekend too) The great perks of having a nurse for a mom :-) Today is day one of being stuck in the house...and believe me with the heat and humidity outside I don't mind at all. Rick is making sure I follow doctors orders...he is like a prison guard around here! On a good note, Ricky seemed to be doing fine and doesn't seem to be phased by me not feeling good.

As for this weekend I am happy and sad about it. I am extremely sad because I will be missing my cousin Ashley's wedding in NJ. I love my step moms family and try my hardest to never miss an opportunity when we all get together and I am sooooooooooo sad that everyone will be having a blast at her wedding EXCEPT for me! I know that this kiddo is worth it and that is the only reason I am OK with it, and I get to see most of them in a few weeks which helps.

On a happier note, being home allows me to see my cousin Karen, Brian, their girls, Aunt Jo, Uncle Mike along with all my Batavia Family at my cousin Ricky's Spinal Cord dinner Saturday night. Then we get to spend Sunday with Rick's family celebrating Courtney and Pappy (my father-in law) birthdays at the cottage. All these I am hoping to do but we will see if the weather is cool enough for me to wonder out of the house and that I am feeling up to it.

I will let everyone know what the test results show. Praying its not preeclampsia and a little R and R will fix me!

36 weeks....

I feel like this week was pretty boring for the most part, which I guess is a good thing!! The baby did fine at the non stress test and has continued to find it entertaining to kick the crap out of my rib cage!! It is starting to get pretty uncomfortable but I don't mind most of the time, him moving a lot kinda puts me at ease that he is doing OK. My only complaint has been the overwhelming discomfort from the gestational carpal tunnel. It is getting pretty bad to the point were it is waking me up at night and in the mornings I can barely use my hands. I just keep praying that it goes away very soon after the baby comes.

The bigger news this week was that one of my best friends had her baby boy yesterday. Baby AJ Tur arrived at 10:57am and was 5lbs 13oz. Laura has been my prego partner for the last 9 1/2 months. Our due dates were only 3 weeks apart. Since we work together I feel like I shared all my ups and downs being pregnant with her more than anyone else! I must say being pregnant at the same time was awesome, especially since so many things we experienced were so similar it was scary!! It was awesome finally meeting her son and it definitely made things seem a lot more real for me! I am very happy for her and I can't wait til her son and baby Ricky are BFF's, which I know they will be :-)

Other than that my "to do" list is pretty close to being complete. I set up the pack and play, got the car seat base in the car and ready to go and did some more organizing. Now hopefully I can spend the next few weeks just relaxing!!!!!!

35 weeks...

This is the only clear picture we got today, his foot! Probably the one he likes to kick me with in the ribs on a regular basis!!! We thought his foot looked fairly big so Rick is keeping his fingers crossed he doesn't take after my height LOL

Today is definitely a great day in the Horch Household. We just got back from the ultrasound and Baby Ricky's kidneys ARE NOT dilated!!! Thank God for that!! The doctor said the right Kidney is perfect, 6mm and the left is slightly larger, 8 mm but they are both OK. They just had to be less than 10mm so we are in the clear!!!!!!! I also had them check to make sure he was still a boy and had all his goods LOL. Everyone keeps freaking me out saying they think I am having a girl. No worries we saw his "package" today. Guess its safe to unpack the rest of the boy things we have! The tech tried getting us some updated 3D pictures of him but OF COURSE he had his face covered and wouldn't move an inch! AJ says its just his Leo personality shining through already. I think he is already taking after his Mommy, sleeping with his hands over his head! Either way we only have 4 more weeks to wait until I can see his little face all I want! They said he is about 5lbs 7 oz right now, average for 35 weeks. All the fluids etc. looked great too.

Following the ultrasound I had my weekly non stress test, which he did great for. He was moving all over the place, go figure when I wanted him moving for the ultrasound 5 minutes earlier he wouldn't budge!!! Then I had my weekly doctor checkup. Everything was great. Today they did a test for Group Strep B and I will get the results next week. Hopefully I don't! Another plus is I didn't gain any weight in the last week, keeping me at 22 lbs total for my pregnancy, not to shabby if you ask me!! I am not dilated at all but still having Braxton Hicks contractions several times a day. Overall, lots of great news today and we definetly like that!

34 weeks.... 5 weeks to go!

Not a whole lot happened this week. My non stress test went great yesterday. I must say that Baby Ricky was much more well behaved than last week. He was moving all over the place and the test went fairly quick for once. Dr. Grace, the head OB at Unity, came in again and talked to me about the ultrasound next week. Next Friday we have an ultrasound scheduled to check on the baby's kidneys. At 21 weeks they were slightly enlarged so this is just a follow up to see if they are still enlarged or normal. The doctor seemed very confident that they would be fine next week and we shouldn't worry. I also talked to him about what we would have to do if they were in fact enlarged. He said that they wouldn't do anything until he was a few months old and they would monitor him for the most part. So I was happy with all that news. One of my biggest fears is Ricky having to go to the Strong NICU for some reason and me being stuck at Unity. I pray that doesn't happen and Dr. Grace said that shouldn't be a concern because of the kidneys. I will make sure to fill you in next week. Also next week hopefully we can get some 3D pictures without his hands covering his face for once!!! So far he has kept his hands over his face/head for both ultrasounds, once again being a pill already LOL.

Besides that everything with me is good. My blood pressure was 109/68. My only complaint lately is the very annoying gestational carpal tunnel I have developed over the last few weeks. I can barely feel my finger tips or bend them for that matter!!! Both my hands and fingers are pretty swollen. It definitely makes me feel bad for those with arthritis!!! At least mine should go away after pregnancy.

I am starting to get that "nesting" syndrome and want to get EVERYTHING done and ready now. Rick, on the other hand, I think is getting pretty annoyed with all my lists and requests to get things done right this second LOL Poor guy! I must say he has been awesome with cleaning the house, doing laundry and doing most of the house chores for me. Coming home from work to a clean house everyday is so nice and relaxing!!! I love him for that!

Lastly, over the last week Baby Ricky has been having a blast kicking the crap out of my ribs and stomach. It is so fun to see my stomach moving so much!! Eventhough I can't breathe at times because it feels like he is sitting on my lungs, I am loving every minute! Rick says I need to put him in his place now so he doesn't learn to walk all over me already LOL. If it was only that easy!

Ricky's Nursery is ready for his arrival

Here are some pictures of Baby Ricky's nursery. Everything is pretty much ready and waiting for him to arrive. Only 5 weeks to go....so exciting...but I am starting to freak out a little too :-)