24 week ultrasound!

So we had our 24 week ultrasound yesterday, to check the growth of the baby and to make sure the septum wasn't affecting her growth or hindering her movement in anyway, or to make sure the placenta wasn't blocking bloodflow to her. Everything still looks great, she still has room to move, although seems to like to stay in the position she is in...breech! with her feet mainly by my hips, although she does move those around the most. Her heartbeat was at 146 BPM, she is weighing in at 1 pound, 10 oz, so a little over a pound and a half, and is a few days ahead of schedule growth-wise, so everything looks to be going great! The little stinker decided to become a contortionist and had a leg and an arm infront of her face at ALL times during the u/s, so she wouldn't let us get any facial shots! But we got some good ones of the rest of her body, nonetheless. Here they are:

Her heartbeat pattern, showing no irregularities!

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The money shot, or junk shot. There should be something hanging between her two legs there, if she were to be a boy, but there isn't! She is all girl!
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Awesome leg shot! You can see her lower leg bones and her adorable little foot so well!
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Here is an interesting shot, it is of her butt, no legs in the picture, and the small bright white line is where her girl parts are! It is right in the middle of the round image. Our little BellaReese will probably be mad at me one day knowing I showed her junk to the whole world, but oh well!

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Rib shot! And you can see the outline of her head. Quite the dome she has!

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Her little feet! These are the culprits of what makes my belly pop out every now and then! She moves them a lot, from being down below by my hips, to up by her face, like she is stretching. They go everywhere!

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Femur shots! Her legs seem to be developing well, right on track with the rest of her body!

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This is my favorite shot of the group! It is of her left arm, I believe, and you can see the radius and ulna (lower forearm bones) as well as her humerus bone (bicep bone). The humerus bone is no longer a week ahead of the rest of her, ha, so she is no longer some long armed freak! I think ultrasounds are amazing, the detail that they pick up is outstanding!

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This is a fun picture, it is of her abdominal cavity, with the orange representing her renal arteries and the blood flow between her kidneys. Everything seems to be in working order!

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Spinal shot, you can count each vertebrae!

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The one face shot she let us get, but it is creepy looking. I am not a fan of it. In 2 weeks, her eyes will unfuse shut, so she will be able to blink. I think that is awesome!

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And the final picture, showing just how flexible our little stinker is! You can see her leg and foot and then her arm and fist, and the round object behind it is her head! She is doing some mad crunches in there, ha! I am pretty sure her face is in the placenta again! She loves to nuzzle into that.

Oh and a cute story! So I was lying on the table/couch thing while they were doing the ultrasound and I had my left arm under my head so it was propped up slightly so I could see the screen better, and the tech decided to try to find her other arm, and it was also behind her head propping it up, just like mom! Too funny!

So all in all, things look good and the baby is doing well! The next ultrasound is June 1st! Hopefully that one will let us get a good face shot and maybe she won't be breech!

24 week belly shots!

These were taken after I went to my friend Kristin's baby shower, from Brian's phone, which is why they are kinda crappy in quality. The little black figure by me feet is Big City, our 9 1/2 month old dachshund. He is going through a huge "mommy" phase, as we call it, where he has to be by my side at ALL times. If I go to the bathroom, he lies outside the bathroom door, if I go downstairs, he waits at the top of the stairs by the gate. I have stepped on him close to a hundred times since I don't realize he is behind me and I can't see my feet that well anymore. It is cute, but annoying. I think I will have a hard time introducing him to the baby...he won't like having his attention time shared, ha!

Homemade stuff

Here are some pics of some of the stuff I have made. I still have plans to make more baby jackets, baby fleece pants, booties, another teddy bear or two, a snuggle animal blanket, more hats and more blankets. I love love love doing all this!! It is a great way to do baby stuff without spending tons of money! I still need to perfect my sewing technique, my lines aren't always the straightest, but oh well, the baby won't notice!
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A blanket made out of the teddy bear fabric below, and the back side is cute yellow and green and orange stripes.
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A couple winter hats, one is sweatshirt fleece and one is baby fleece. I have been playing around with the accent stitches my machine can do. The stitches on the brown and purple hat are little flowers. So cute! I have a couple different patterns for hats that I will be trying out as well.

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These two pics are of the same teddy bear I made. It is is not yet finished, I plan on making some clothes for it and I still have to finish sewing the backside where I put in the stuffing, I just need to get a better colored thread. The eyes are a little lopsided, but then again, so is my brain. I already have a different kind of fur to make a second bear out of. We call this the "Bella Bear".

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Here is the fabric that top blanket is made out of. It has a bunch of different teddy bears on it going every direction. Also out of this will be booties and a hat and possibly little pants if I have enough fabric left over.
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Here is a jacket I made. She won't be able to wear this til late winter, early spring, but it too is out of the teddy bear fabric. This was my first attempt at anything this complicated, so I have to say I was quite proud that I could read the pattern and somewhat recreate what it is supposed to look like :)

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The point of viability!!

Wohoo!! We have reached the point of viability, which means if the baby has to be born early or if I go into preterm labor, starting this week, she can survive, with the odds going in her favor each week from here on out!

Today starts the 24th week. According to my baby journal, this also marks the start of the third trimester, but I am not considering myself there until May 21st, week 27. Getting close though! Tomorrow is our monthly ultrasound, which I am very excited for!!! Hopefully I will get more pictures of the baby. Brian and I will try to get some belly pics and post those as well, since it has been about 3 weeks and we are due for some updates.

I have been sewing like a crazy woman lately. Since I am not doing anything else for baby right now, this is my nesting. Mom got me a sewing machine for channukah, and I have really just started to use it. So far I have made a few blankets, a bunch of burp clothes, a few adorable hats, a sweater/jacket, a huge teddy bear that still needs to be finished (it is stuffed, it just needs to be closed up, I just have to buy better colored thread) and snuggly blanket thing that has a lambs head up top and is made of fleece. My sewing skills need some fine tuning, but I am pretty impressed figuring I haven't had a sewing class since 7th grade. Just like I can't cut straight to save my life, I can't sew that straight either, but I am working on it!

Amanda, my sister-in-law, sent me 3 huge boxes of baby Hayden's girl clothes, so I may never need to go shopping for a wardrobe! They are amazing!! And she sent me an awesome Kate Spade diaper bag!! I have been looking for a diaper bag I like, and haven't found anything remotely cute in a decent price range, so when I opened the box and saw it, and loved the design, I was beyond thrilled!!! Thanks Amanda and Hayden!

Ok, here is the update on little BellaReese, mommy's favorite jumping bean:

How your baby's growing:

Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga or roughly the length of one of those recorders you played in elementary school music class or the length of a half gallon of milk!, but she's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.

Get ready for pat-a-cake! Baby's hands are now fully developed and she spends most of her awake time groping around in the darkness of your uterus. Brain and nerve endings are developed enough now so that your baby can feel the sensation of touch. That doesn't mean she can feel it when her father pokes your stomach, however, so tell him to knock it off. Other highlights include: Your baby's arms and legs have grown to almost the proportions they will be at birth, which is still sort of short. So don't be alarmed when your newborn's arms barely clear his waist. Baby's nostrils, which have been plugged up until now, clear out (like she's taken a super-dose of Sudafed) and she can practice breathing through the nose. The structures of your baby's spine are now made up of 150 joints, 33 rings and some 1,000 ligaments. Can you believe you're growing something that complicated inside of you? The capillaries, the teeniest blood vessels, are now forming in your baby's body, giving her formerly translucent skin a pink glow. The blood vessels in the lungs also develop this week. You'll see how well that worked out when your baby gives those lungs a workout while you're on line at the bank in a few months.

Your Body:

Pregnancy leg cramps are not your ordinary run-of-the-mill leg cramps. Nope, a pregnancy leg cramp will often have you leaping out of bed screaming at the top of your lungs (this happens all the time now, not only during the night...in the middle of sewing or lying on the couch...fun times). Leg cramps can be caused by a calcium deficiency, so be sure to get enough calcium. Believe it or not, there's calcium in almonds, fish, broccoli and tofu. While they come with the territory of pregnancy, there are ways to avoid leg cramps, like warm soaks and massages. Sometime between Weeks 24 and 28, you'll get your glucose screening test to check for gestational diabetes (we have ours on may 27th, when I will be 27.5 weeks along). You'll have to drink this really syrupy, sugary soda drink, wait an hour, and then have your blood sugar levels tested to see how your body handles the sugar rush.

Dr. Appt Wednesday

Bella and I went to the Doc on Wednesday morning, and everything is looking good! Baby is growing well, heartbeat sounds strong, and I am doing well on the weight gain side of things. Next appointment, we have to do the glucose test to test for Gestational Diabetes and I have to get some blood drawn to see if the baby has a Negative or Positive blood type, other than that...not much to report from the visit!

Last night was probably the worst of the of pregnancy. Starting around 7pm, I realized I hadn't felt the baby kick in the last hour or so, nor had I really felt her all day, so I tried all the tricks I knew to get her to show me some sign of life, like drinking something with sugar, lying on each side, pushing where her legs are, etc... but nothing!! I went to bed around 9, tried all the tricks again, and no movement or anything. I tried controlling my breathing and meditating and calming down, but she was motionless and my tummy was oddly still. I considered going to the ER, but I decided to wait til morning. I tried to sleep, and occasionally fell into a weak sleep, but a few hours later, no movement still. It was a really rough night, to say the least. Brian tried to tell me not to freak out, but I couldn't help it...she has never not moved when I poke or prod at her for extended periods of time. Finally, after a sleepless night, I was lying in bed with Brian before having to get ready for work, about to tell him if I don't feel her by the end of work, I was going to the doctor, and lo and behold, after hearing the threat of the Doc, she gave me a big ole kick to the belly button and made my whole stomach ripple and hasn't been still since!! It was the greatest kick I have ever received!!! I almost cried! If I wasn't so tired, I probably would have! Now that the crisis is over, I am just looking forward to the Ultrasound on Monday so we can make sure she is getting all the blood flow/air she needs to put all my fears aside again :)