23 Weeks

 I'm still pregnant!  And just ONE week until viability!!!

It's funny how the things you look forward to change so much once you've been put on bed rest. {Those who have had the "pleasure" of experiencing bed rest know what I'm talking about}

How far along? 23 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: gained 8.5 lbs

Maternity clothes: Yes

Stretch marks: a few tinies

Best moment this wk: The crib and dresser/changing table was delivered on Saturday!

Miss anything: I miss being able to do normal things

Movement: tons! :)

  Food cravings: otter pops :)

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope

Have you started to show yet:Yes

Gender: boy

Labor signs: Nope

Belly Button in or out: In

Wedding rings on or off: I have decided to remove my beloved wedding ring.  It was starting to get tight and I'm terrified of it getting stuck on my finger and having to get it cut off.  So my anniversary ring is now gracing my left ring finger.

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy

Looking forward to: Hitting my first goal... making 24 weeks!

 

 I've got 5 weeks of bed rest down! 

This last week Bruce, my shark died, so Jared bought me 3 more Bruces to help cheer me up.  It worked.

Wednesday marked 1 month since we lost Michael.  I can't believe it's only been a month.

The nursery furniture arrived on Saturday.  I LOVE how it looks and when I told Wyatt it was here he started kicking.  I told him he couldn't have it for at least 13 weeks.

 

 

We're in the process of ordering the mattress, bedsheets, rug and rocking chair and I LOVE THEM ALL!!!  Pottery Barn Kids seriously has some of the most adorable things ever.

Today was spent on the phone with my insurance company.  My preauthorization to see Dr. R hadn't been approved yet and I had an appt. at 2:30.  Well, the ins. co.'s system was down all the way until 1:50.  That's when they told me that I actually needed to call a different number.  SERIOUSLY???  So I called my group on the way to my doctors appt.  I had to go whether I was going to get the appt. approved or not because I had to get my progesterone injection.  Insurance won't cover that for me so I just pay $25 every time I go so I can get it.  I figured if I couldn't have the ultrasound, I would at least get the injection.  By the time I made it over to my appt.  I learned that the guy that authorizes things was looking at my file but that he needed more info before he could approve anything and that it could take up to a few more days.  :(

At this point, I'm pretty stressed out.  I think I'd cried about 5x throughout the day from the stress of everything and I just wanted to lay down and go to sleep.

The nurse at the office told me that if I wanted to see the dr. in addition to my shot that I was going to have to be treated as a cash paying customer and the appt. was going to cost $330.  I may or may not have shed some more tears at this point.  She left to go ask the dr. something and didn't come back for like 10 min.  When she came back she told me that Dr. R said she would do a quick ultrasound and wouldn't charge me for it.  It was like the Heavens had opened.  Everything was going to be okay.

The office was very busy today so I wasn't seen until about an hour after I arrived.  By the time I was called back, Dr. R herself had called my insurance company, explained my situation and the importance of all my visits being covered and managed to not only get all the rest of my visits covered, but they are going to start covering the progesterone injections as well.  How cool is that?!  My dr. is freaking awesome.

So Wyatt is looking amazing.  His AFI is 17.2 and he weighs approximately 1 lb. 7 oz.  Grow baby grow!  He's doing so awesome!  My cervix measures 3.85 and the cerclage is holding great.  His HR was in the 140's, his brain is developing nicely, and.... he was totally picking his nose, haha.  Just kidding, his hand was up by his nose so Dr. R joked that he was picking it.

 

 

Our little man is so cute!!! <3

 

This is my basic plan for the remainder of the pregnancy.  Obviously, we're going to keep taking things week by week and continue with the progesterone injections and weekly checkups.  I will take my last progesterone injection at week 34.  Dr. R is still trying to decide exactly what to do, but as of now she is looking at 2 different options at this point.  

Option 1:  Because I am high risk and according to all things shouldn't even still be pregnant right now, her associates feel that I should have the cerclage removed and labor induced at 34 weeks.  

She's not quite so sure.  She feels that if everything is going okay, then why push it?  If baby wants to stay in, let baby stay in a little longer.  Babies born between 34-37 weeks often show delayed development and she would like to make it past that.  So she's considering

Option 2:  Removing the cerclage at 36 weeks and allowing my body to go into labor naturally.

At this point Jared and I are definitely favoring option 2.  We'd like Wyatt to be able to bake as long as possible to he can spend very little or no time in the NICU.  However, Dr. R wants to look at all options and said that she could be swayed to go with option 1 if there is a high risk at letting me go longer.  The placenta left from Michael is still in my uterus and they don't have a way of knowing if it's doing any damage in there.

Anyway, those are the options that she's considering at this point and only time will be able to tell us the direction we need to go.

When I got home from my appt. I had this waiting in the mail for me

I know, try not to be too jealous.

Okay so this was long.  I'll wrap up with what's going on with Wyatt this week. :)

He is the size of a pomegranate

• He's forming little nipples (yeah, really!)
• His face is fully formed now -- he just needs a little extra fat to fill it out.
• He's listening to your voice and your heartbeat -- and even to loud sounds like cars honking and dogs barking.