Answered prayers

Our minds are at ease after a trip to the specialist this afternoon. I am so thankful to be able to say that everything looks good. Everything looked normal. This doctor specializes in pre-natal ultrasound and he was very thorough. He checked everything on the baby, starting from her head and working down to her little toes. After checking multiple angles of her face in 3D, he said he didn't see any sort of swelling. She just has chubby cheeks :) He confirmed that she is indeed still a little girl (for which we were happy). He checked her hands and fingers, her heart, lungs, kidneys, spine, stomach, blood flow - just about everything you could think of. I appreciated his thoroughness. It really put my mind at ease to know she was alright.

Our other concern was the possibility of placenta previa. After checking everything he saw no signs of that. The cervix is right in the middle of what's considered normal and the placenta was not too far down, so as far as he was concerned it was all very normal with nothing to worry about. I asked him if he saw any reason I should need to be on bed rest and he said no. I was right where I should be for 33 weeks in pregnancy. That was a relief to hear. I was determined not to worry about anything until I knew if something was wrong. It was in God's hands and I just prayed for His protection over the baby. Although afterwards I had a real sense of relief knowing everything was fine.

One more thing before I go - we got a few pictures of the baby's face today, so I thought I'd share those. I'm still amazed at how much detail we can see of the baby still inside me. She obviously likes to have her hand up by her face. Seems like it's there every time we see her.

More health concerns

Yesterday Sam went skiing again with some friends from work. We don't have any snow in our area, but apparently there's still plenty where they go in the Black Forrest. He's been enjoying the skiing this year. I would too if I were able to go. Being pregnant makes that a little impossible at this time. So....I stayed home. Just didn't sound like that much fun to sit and watch them ski all day.

I started washing the baby's clothes and did some things around the house. I keep wishing I had ordered the nursery furniture about 4 months ago, so I could be putting everything in its place now. Instead, there are boxes sitting in the nursery....just waiting until I have a place to store everything. It won't be quite as organized as I would have liked when she's born, but we'll manage until the furniture gets here.

I'm supposed to be on bed rest according to my doctor. Sometimes it seems like I've had one issue after another with this pregnancy. I was feeling great (still do actually), but at my appointment on Wednesday the doctor had some concerns and told me to stay off my feet. That was a little frustrating because I've been enjoying being back to the gym in the mornings. Regardless, I listened to my doctor and skipped the gym Thursday and Friday and tried to take it easy. Friday I went back to the doctor for another fetal monitoring and both doctors there wanted to do an ultrasound because they were concerned that I may have placenta previa. I did not know what that was, but apparently it's when the placenta is blocking the cervix. Normally it moves upward to give way for the baby to come out, but with previa it doesn't.

After spending quite a bit of time studying the ultrasound on Friday they do not think I have the previa, but cannot be sure. During the ultrasound they saw something else that concerned them. They thought one side of the baby's face looked swollen. Obviously, that didn't sound good to me. They said the swelling could be caused by some infection. Within the last 6 weeks I've been on 2 runs of antibiotics though, so I really hope that's not the case. I don't like taking antibiotics so frequently. I have an appointment with a specialist tomorrow to verify if I do have previa and to check the baby's face better. I'm trying not to be concerned much until we know for sure what's going on. During the ultrasound the baby was not cooperating so they weren't able to see her face in 3D, which would have answered the question of whether her face is indeed swollen or not.

I'm praying that the baby is fine and that I don't have placenta previa. If I do and it doesn't correct itself in the next few weeks I would have to be scheduled for a C-section, probably around week 37 (4 weeks from now). I'm not planning on that though until we have confirmation of what's going on. We serve a big God who can take care of all these issues.

Thankfully, I still don't have any kidney pain, so for that I'm thankful. It's one less thing to worry about right now.

When Sam got home yesterday we drove to Toom to check on curtains for the nursery. We've already checked Hornbach, Obi and a new Bauhaus. I've mentioned before how we've had a hard time figuring out the curtains over here. I haven't been very impressed with most of the patterns I've seen. What we ended up doing at Toom is find a material that we liked and gave them the measurements for the windows. They will make the curtains for the track system, which we have, and we can pick them up in about 3 weeks. After all of my frustration with the curtains this seemed so simple. We'll probably end up doing the same for all the other windows. It gives us more options because we can find any material that we like and have curtains made from that. It didn't seem much more expensive than ordering them off the rack and I won't have to worry about hemming them.

I've been having pretty strong Braxton Hicks contractions for quite a few weeks now, but lately it seemed they've been a lot stronger and more frequent. Yesterday evening at Toom they were so strong that I was having trouble walking. That was a little unnerving. It made me realize I better take what the doctors said seriously and try to take it easy. We don't want the baby arriving before she's due. It's hard to sit around and not be able to do much though. Today Sam is vacuuming the house because I can't carry the vacuum up and down all of our stairs. I feel pretty good, but don't want to take any risks. I'll be glad to get to the doctor tomorrow and find out for sure what's going on. Something that's reassuring to me is that in another 2 weeks they wouldn't even stop the baby from coming. She's pretty well developed at this point, so if there were any problems I know she would be able to make it outside the womb.

Well, here is my weekly photo update. This was as we were heading out the door to Toom last night.

Weekly update

Here we are at the beginning of another week. It's hard to believe we only have (less than) 8 weeks left before the baby is due. It seems very clear that the countdown has started. The weeks just click off so quickly and before we know it the baby will be here.

I've always heard that you can forget about a good night's sleep after the baby is born, but I just didn't realize that it starts long before the birth. I haven't been getting good sleep for a few months now between the backaches, crazy dreams and numerous trips to the bathroom. I think all of this contributes to how tired a new mom is. The sleepless nights don't just start at the birth of the baby. It's a compilation of the months prior as well.

We don't have that many weekends left, so Saturday we got an early start. We went to Hornbach first thing in the morning and ordered an area rug for the nursery. I was a little disappointed that they didn't have any padding to put under the rug. I'm going to see if I can order any from Home Depot. It would make it much softer if we could do that.

Another thing we were able to check off our list is a baby monitor. We needed to get one on the German economy, because we see a lot of AFN commercials warning that some American monitors run on the same frequency as German cell phone providers. If our monitor caused a loss of service we could be held liable. So, we figured it would be better to just get a German baby monitor. We found one at Media Markt. Everything is a bit more difficult here with the language barrier. Even though Sam speaks the language he doesn't read it as well, so that makes it interesting.

My friend, Carmen, and her family were down from Heidelberg on Saturday. Their girls had a wrestling meet here, so we spent a little time with them. Heidelberg is not that far away, but we seldom see each other.

We also went to a spring bazaar being held on Patch. They always have so many beautiful things - furniture, pottery, antiques, etc., but when it comes down to buying something I have a hard time paying the price. Especially, since the vendors seem to jack up the prices when selling to the Americans. They had lots of Polish pottery that I would have bought, but I could not pay the prices they wanted. We'll just drive to Poland again at some point to get some pieces I'm wanting.

Last evening we went to our German neighbor's house for another home owners "meeting". They have been so helpful with navigating the German system, (for which we're very thankful) but we're not really into having these monthly meetings. I think it's very normal here in Germany for all the owners of a townhouse complex to get together and discuss any problems. Anyhow, they wanted to discuss the repairs that we all had done recently so we met them for a little while at their place.

Being in their house I realize how much more I still have to do. Granted they are much older and settled, but their house was so together. It seems to me that many of the Germans are minimalists and just don't have extra "stuff" to find a place for. Being in Germany, I haven't known how or where to get things done. Even now, if we could go back a year I would do some things differently.

I'm still searching for curtains. That's been a thorn in my flesh from day one in Germany. I don't care for alot of the patterns/styles they have here and since we have the track system in our windows we can't just order them from the states. Even in the German stores we have to look for curtains that can be used specifically with the track system. Our neighbors paid a lot to have someone come in and finish all of their windows. That was probably a great idea, because once I find curtains I want I'll still need to have them hemmed since I don't have a sewing machine. I've been thinking about getting one. We have the treddles, but they need some repairs and are not in great working condition at this time.

I know we'll get it all together eventually, but I felt a little frustrated with our house last night after seeing how together the neighbor's are. It's alright though. I'm thankful we have a house and it'll be nice when we get it all finished. I really shouldn't compare myself to anyone else. It's always easy to see others as having it all together.

I had another appointment with Dr. Schafer (the urologist) this morning. Thankfully, the kidney hasn't gotten any worse. It's still somewhat enlarged, but as long as it stays the same I don't have to worry about having the stent replaced. I still feel so thankful to have that out and to be pain free.

And finally, no one else may be interested, but since I'm so far away I know my Mom will be interested in my weekly photo update. So, here you go, Mom :)

32 weeks, 1 day (15 March 2009)

That's it from here. Until next time...

First real pictures of our baby girl

After numerous trips to the doctor and waiting for 1 1/2 weeks to get an answer, I finally got the stent removed on Thursday. What a relief it's been not to have that constant pain! I am so thankful that it's out. It's hard to explain how much you hurt to someone else or how wonderful it feels to not be in pain unless you've been there. I finally got an appointment with Dr. Schafer last Tuesday. He checked the kidney with ultrasound and unfortunately it was very enlarged. I had been having some pain in that kidney, so I left there absolutely defeated thinking there is no way he would take it out. Being in pain for so long wears one down and I was pretty discouraged with the prospect of having to keep the stent in for the remainer of the pregnancy.

Thursday morning, Mom and I were on the webcam. I was very discouraged and in pain so Dad came over to the webcam and they prayed with me. Not 15 minutes later the phone rang and it was Sam telling me that Dr. Schafer had called back and said he would remove the stent that afternoon. Isn't God good?? I was in shock because I was so convinced that there was no way it would happen. I was so thankful to hear that they were going remove it. It felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.

Dr. Schafer warned me that the stent may have to be replaced if the kidney gets blocked again. As far as I'm concerned though, that will be the last resort. I'll do everything I can to keep from having that put back in. Besides, I'm just trusting God that He created this body and is more than capable of keeping that kidney working properly.

As it turns out, it's a good thing we pushed to have it removed. When Dr. Schafer removed the stent he discovered that there was a blockage in the stent from some sort of build-up, which was keeping it from draining properly. That probably contributed to the pain I'd been having in that kidney. I was still in quite a bit of pain Friday and Saturday, but it was different knowing that thing wasn't in my body anymore. Yesterday was the first day I was feeling really good again. It's such a relief. I'm trying to lay on my left side as much as I can to keep pressure off the kidney. I'm still having some pain, but am just trusting that it'll get better with time or just not get worse.

Thursday I also had another appointment with Dr. Van de Castel. They put me on the fetal monitor for awhile and when I saw the doctor later she asked if I had felt the contractions. I hadn't felt a thing, but you could see from the monitor readout that there had been about 12 - 15 contractions in the 30 minutes they monitored the baby. Thankfully, they were just Braxton Hicks, but she was still concerned with me having that many so close together. She had me come back the next morning to be monitored again, which was much better. I've noticed my belly getting really hard at times, but didn't realize they were Braxton Hicks. I think I've been having them for awhile, but was in so much pain from the stent that I couldn't really feel them.

I just have to share the ultrasound photos we got on Thursday. Our baby girl was cooperating so the doctor was able to get a couple of good shots of her. I could just watch the ultrasound for hours. It's amazing to have the technology and opportunity to look inside the belly and see what our little baby is doing.

On the upper right corner of the 3D picture you can make out the left side of her face. (eye, nose and mouth)

Looking at her from the left side, you can see the side of her face and her left arm

Another view from her left side, but now she's trying to get that thumb in her mouth.

Saturday we were gone all day. We drove up to Heidelberg, Mannheim, Ramstein and Kaiserslautern to check out the furniture stores on those bases. I called a couple of them last week and was told they had some nursery furniture. Unfortunately, they didn't have much, so I'm back to trying to figure out how to get some furniture shipped here. We were going to meet up with my friend, Carmen, in Heidelberg but I was having lots of Braxton Hicks and my back was killing me from being in the truck all day. We decided we'd have to meet up with her another day.

These are not the greatest pictures, but since I want to track the pregnancy I'll put them on here. This one was taken last Monday. I was 30 weeks/2 days.

And here is a picture from yesterday at 31 weeks.

This morning I had a follow up appointment with Dr. Schafer. The kidney is still enlarged, but no worse than it was, so he just wants to continue checking it on a weekly basis. I still have some pain in the kidney, but am continuing to drink lots of water and trying to keep pressure off that side.

I'm so glad to be feeling better. I think I can actually get some things done this week (around all my different appointments). Well, I better get this posted so I can start checking off things on my "to do" list. It just keeps growing. Until next time...