Intro Post

My name is Laura. I decided to set up this blog to share with family and friends important moments with our new baby-to-be and then more once the baby is born! I currently live in a small suburb of Chicago. It's pretty boring for the most part but there is a lot to do in the area.
A few random facts...

• I was a vegetarian for many years and may continue after pregnancy. 
• I'm left handed! Maybe the baby will be too. 
• I love animals more than most people and would love to work more with them one day.

My husband's name is Chris. We met in high school through mutual friends. After high school he enlisted in the US Marine Corps. He was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. He went on two deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. We've been married a little over a year. After we got married we got an apartment in North Carolina and lived there until he got out of the military last fall. I can't talk for him, but the military life was NOT for me. I also disliked the weather in NC.

 

This is our dog Roxie. She is my best friend. We adopted her from the shelter in April of 2009. We think she is a black lab/border collie mix. She is three years old and definitely the most friendly, playful, but naughty dog I've ever had. It will be interesting preparing her for our new arrival. 

And last but not least...the new baby!!! Well this was the new baby last July. He was just a little jelly bean then! For the first 16 weeks of the pregnancy I had to go to the Naval Hospital on the Marine Corps Base. The staff was nice there, but I'm not going to give the military kudos for quality service. I am MUCH happier with my new OBGYN.

To be honest the first 16 weeks were the most stressful probably. My husband was very stressed out from working long hours, military training, personal issues, and money was tight. I was stressed out partly from seeing him stressed out but I had many of my own issues. For the past four years I've dealt with mental health issues such as depression (I got the formal diagnosis of Bipolar I). I have been on a large variety of medications to try to manage it, but I have not had any luck with any of them. When I got pregnant for some reason my body got extra sensitive to the medications. I started having severe reactions to some of them so my doctor took me off them. I'm glad because that is probably safer for the baby. I'm starting intensive TMS therapy after I deliver since I have been immune to medications. So far it looks promising and I hope it will help me be able to take care of myself and new baby better and ward off postpartum depression.

In the fall we moved back to Chicago. I started with my new OBGYN who I instantly loved. I was very lucky to find her because it was totally by chance. I am so happy she will be delivering our baby! At my first appointment with her (I was 18 weeks) she did an ultrasound in her office. She told me by looking at the baby that she was 98% sure we were having a BOY!! 

At 22 weeks I went for my level 2 ultrasound at the hospital. It was an awesome experience! Much better than any doctor's office. You got to watch the entire ultrasound on a big flat screen TV!! The baby measured at the 50th percentile (so perfectly average for 22 weeks) and it was confirmed we were having a boy.

At 32 weeks my OBGYN sent me back to the hospital the check the baby's growth. We got a big surprise (literally!). It turns out in the last 10 weeks the baby grew from the 50th percentile to the 90th percentile! I was really surprised and so was my doctor because I hadn't gained a whole ton of weight or was massively huge or anything. My doctor said it is all genetics since my glucose testing (I failed the first and had to take the three hour tolerance test yuck!) came back fine. My mom was there and mentioned I was over 9lbs myself at birth and my doctor said that was probably why this baby is big.  When we first found out I was pregnant we both joked that this baby would be a "baby big head" because Chris has an unnaturally large head. It turns out...we were right! When the lady doing the ultrasound told me he was measuring so big I said "Well maybe he's just really tall." She said "No, this looks like this baby is mostly head!" It was pretty funny. Thanks a lot Chris...

Well for now we are pretty much just waiting. I am 35 weeks right now and next week I go back for a repeat growth ultrasound so my doctor can get a better idea of exactly HOW big he's going to be! I will keep this updated when I know more. :)