A Little Story

I have a little story to tell. "What kind of story?" you ask? Well, sit back, relax, and take a listen. It all started back in July, when Bryce and I decided it was time to try for another baby. Yes, I know there are some of you reading this who may be thinking, "Another one?! You want to have a 5th baby?! Especially in this economy and when the four you already have can be very rambunctious, to say the least?!" Just know that we both felt strongly that there was someone else waiting to join our family and that it was what Heavenly Father wanted us to do.

So anyway, in August I took a pregnancy test and was pleased, but not surprised, when it was positive.

I had my first visit with the doctor at the end of September. I'm sure that some of you were speculating on the possibility, and I may or may not have been successful in making you think I was not. It was a typical first OB appointment - blood draw, weight check, blood pressure check, pap smear, and ultrasound. Everything looked good and all was well.

Here's a picture of our little peanut at that appointment:


Four weeks later, I went for my second appointment. Dr. Lowder told me the titer levels for my antibodies (taken with the blood draw at the first appointment) when he took me back to the examination room. My titer level was at a 4, which is higher than it ever was with my pregnancy with Daniel (I don't know what the numbers were with the other 3). With Daniel, it was below a 1, until it went up to a 2 near the end of the pregnancy. Dr. Lowder said we didn't need to worry about where it was, that we'd just call that the base level and watch for it going up from there. Of course, I still worried about it until the next week when they called to let me know that the numbers had actually gone down to a 1. He took my blood pressure and checked my weight and then sent the nurse in to give me a flu shot. We listened to the baby's heartbeat at that appointment. It took a bit for him to find the heartbeat, but we could hear the baby moving around plenty until then. I talked Dr. Lowder into letting me come back in 6 weeks instead of the usual 4, since I would be 20 weeks along and we'd be able to do the next ultrasound. Usually I think I should ask about things like that and then end up not saying anything, so I was glad I actually did it this time and that he agreed.

By about 16 weeks, I was starting to feel the baby move a lot. Between 16 and 18 weeks, however, I hardly felt the baby move at all. I would either feel movement once a day or not at all. I would even try all sorts of things, lying on my stomach, lying flat on my back, etc, to try to feel the baby move. I kept telling myself that it was probably just that the baby had turned a different way or I was distracted, but I still worried. I thought of Brian and Steph when they found out they had lost their twins and could see that happening to me with this one. I realized that when they went through that, I never really showed them much sympathy. I felt it, but I didn't know what to say or what to do, so I felt bad. I hope they realized that I felt for them and wanted to be able to help them. I finally told Bryce about my worry on the day before Thanksgiving and that must have been the magic button because from then on, I've felt the baby kick quite often. Bryce even felt the baby kick for the first time last week.

De and Doug and their family came up to visit Doug's family for Thanksgiving. Since I was 18 weeks along then, I was sure they would be able to tell I was pregnant (and we weren't telling anyone yet) when they saw us, but they never said anything. So we hoped that meant that we managed to get away with them not finding out. Only they can say if they had any idea.

I was sure people around me had started to wonder, especially people at church, but no one ever asked me if I was expecting until this last Sunday, when the RS pres asked me during church and then one other person asked me during choir. I actually thought it was pretty funny.

So that brings us to this morning, when we went to t he doctor for the third visit and the anticipated ultrasound. I'm a little bummed because I can't figure out how to get the dvd file to work properly to post on this blog so you can see it, and the pictures I have aren't very good and don't show what we're having. I did manage to get a couple of still shots from the dvd, so below are first one of the pictures they gave us (it's mostly the back of the head and the spine) and then two I got from the dvd. See if you can figure them out. :)





Did you figure it out? For those who may not have or who are just too lazy to really look at it, yes, we are having a baby......girl! We both knew we were having a girl this time and the ultrasound confirmed it, so we've been 5 for 5. :)

Bryce says I'm not allowed to spoil her, and I told him I would try my best not to.

And in case you were wondering, yes, it's been very hard to keep this a secret. There have been many, many times when I've almost said something like, "Oh, my doctor told me..." or "when I was at the doctor last time..." especially when my parents were up when I was about 12 weeks along. Luckily I was feeling well, so I didn't have that to give me away, but I was starting to show a bit and I know I saw my mom looking at my stomach a few times.

The due date is officially April 30th, which means that we will likely have her sometime in the middle of April.

I hope you liked my story. :)