Meet Lucy Mae Arrington!

We've added to our family a little earlier than expected! Plus, she's a little hairier than what I envision our baby to look like. Meet Lucy Mae Arrington, our new daughter.

I know what you're thinking. ANOTHER pet, Teresa? Believe me, I'm just as shocked as you are. I swore that 2 was my cap, and that we were not going to get another dog until the ones we had passed away. Well....

I had come home from work early this past Wednesday due to overtime. When I got home, I logged into Facebook and noticed that a church friend posted pictures of a cute puppy with the caption "If no one adopts her by close, we have to take her to the pound." If you want to tug on my heartstrings, that's the best way to do it. The pound is no place for an animal. The sad reality is that so few of the animals brought there ever get adopted. I just couldn't let it happen to this adorable puppy!

It turns out that Lucy had been dumped in the bushes outside of a clinic that morning. An employee there heard whimpering and came over to check it out. The rest is history!

I called Kyle and told him immediately, "Just let me talk and promise to keep an open mind." His response? "Uh-oh." Fortunately, Kyle is just as much of an animal lover as I am, so I didn't have to do too much convincing.

We brought Lucy home from the clinic and gave her a bath, then brought her to Petsmart to pick up a collar and name tag. She was an angel the whole time. We then brought her to meet her family. Everyone is so in love!

15th Week

The 15th week was quite a rollercoaster. On Saturday morning, I came to our church and helped out with cleaning up some storm debris. I picked a job that I thought I could handle - raking and bagging leaves and sticks. I started out by myself, but that only lasted about 30 minutes. I then got assigned to hold a bag while Mr. Wayne did the bending and bagging. I tired out after about 1.5 hours, so I babysat for awhile. I had no problems for the rest of the day, other than some fatigure.

On Sunday morning, during church, I started having some discomfort - it started out as tiny little cramps, but over the course of the next 2 hours, they became intense. I thought about going to the ER, but I decided against it since I had no bleeding or other problems.

On Monday morning, I felt pretty normal, but I decided to call my OB, just to be sure. Dr. Hamilton was working from another hospital that day, so she had me come in to see the nurse practioner that afternoon. The nurse found the heartbeat immediately, right around my c-section scar on the right side. I felt so much relief! The explained that I probably overworked myself over the weekend, and that repeatedly bending at the waist can be painful for pregnany moms. Just to be safe, she also did a cervical check on me to rule out the possibility of early labor pains, and everything was great.

I kept my regularly scheduled appointment with Dr. Hamilton on Friday, and she said everything was great. The baby moved around quite a bit during the fetal doppler, but she was able to tell me that the heartrate was in the 140's somewhere.

My next appoinment and ultrasound will be Thursday, May 5th. We should be finding out the sex of the baby at that appt!

1st Prenatal Massage

I've never been for a professional massage before, much less a prenatal one, but I received a gift card back in December, and I was eager to try it out. I went with my friend Becky (for moral support), and I'm glad to report that it was awesome!

The experience was very relaxing. The room was dark and there was relaxing music. The massage therapist was great. She avoided all of the no-no pressure points for pregnant women (some spots can cause contractions.) The only part I didn't 100% love was the neck area. I felt it was a little too firm.

At any rate, I can now say that I highly recommend prenatal massages for non-high risk mamas. I can't wait to go again.

14 Weeks

Here I am at 14 weeks (Sunday, March 27th). If you notice that my bump seems a little smaller than usual, it's because the picture was taken in the early morning, before my baby gets covered up by bloat.

FYI, my next OB appt is next Friday, April 8th. My next ultrasound with MFM will be on May 5th. They should be determining the sex of the baby at that appt! I can't wait to find out!

2nd Trimester!

I messed up and didn't get a picture of my baby belly at 13 weeks, so this little update will have to do.

Here are a few new updates:

-I'm in my 2nd trimester as of Sunday, March 20th! Yay! In a way, it seems like time is dragging by, but in other ways, it's flying. I know that September will be here before I know it. I can't wait!

-My morning sickness is getting a lot better. I'm still not willing to say that it's totally gone, because I definitely have my moments, but it is definitely less intense/frequent.

-I'm starting to get dull, long-lasting headaches. I'll take pain any day over vomiting.

-I'm sleeping a little better at night, although I am waking quite a few times during the night to use the bathroom. (Want to hear something funny? Kyle has never really had sympathy symptoms, but within the last week, he's started using the bathroom a lot during the night. Haha!)

-I don't think I'm incredibly weepy, but I do find myself having almost weekly angry outbursts at poor Kyle. The first one had to do with wanting a cheeseburger, but not knowing where I wanted it from. When he pressured me for an answer, I blew up. It's interesting - while I'm going through a mood swing, I know exactly what's happening to me, but I just can't seem to stop it. Poor Kyle still loves me.

Nuchal Translucency

I'm a bit late with my updates, so I apologize. I had my 12 week, 4 day OB appt and an ultrasound with the Maternal Fetal Medicine dept. This was about 2 weeks ago.

The OB appt was first, and it was short, but it went well. Dr. Hamilton was finally able to find the baby's heartbeat with the fetal doppler, even though it did take her awhile. Baby A was much lower than I would have expected, so I'm sure that's why it was so difficult. I didn't have any major concerns to discuss with her, so everything was quick and painless.

I had my MFM appt later that afternoon, and Kyle was actually able to join me. It was the first appt that he's been able to come to for this baby, so I was super excited. I could tell that he was a bundle of nerves before and during the visit, and I can't say that I blame him. This ultrasound was very important, as it was the nuchal translucency test. It's a screening for Down Syndrome as well as spinal abnormalities. They also check to make sure the baby is growing on track and that the major organs are there. Everything checked out great for Baby A! The tech even gave a guess that it's a boy, although she wasn't sure AT ALL, so I'm not putting much stock in it. After the ultrasound, I had to run down to the lab for the bloodwork portion of the test. I'm glad I had Kyle with me, as I hate getting blood taken. The MFM doctor assured me that based on my age (24), the chance of downs is about 1: 11,000, although they combine that with the blood and NT measurements.

I got the call about 5 days after my appt. that my results came back completely normal, so that means I will not be considered "high risk," despite Nile's SIDS death.

Check out the ultrasound pictures! Baby A is growing well, and in one picture, you can see his/her cute little feet, crossed at the ankles. Baby A slept through the entire ultrasound. Hopefully, the baby will be peppier for the next ultrasound.

12 weeks, 2 days

Hola! Here's my belly at 12 weeks, 2 days (keeping in mind that I had just polished off 4 lbs of boiled crawfish.) I know a lot of it is bloating, because when I wake up in the mornings, my belly is a lot smaller, although you can definitely see the curve.

Of note recently:
-My morning sickness is starting to decrease, although I do still vomit occasionally.
-I crave red beans and rice almost every day!
-For the record, I think you're a girl, but daddy thinks you're a boy. We shall see. I thought I wanted a girl at first, because I thought it would be easier than comparing you to Nile. However, in my heart of hearts, I want another boy. I'll be happy with whatever God gives me though. He knows the perfect fit for us.
-I have my NT on Thursday, and Kyle will be able to come to my appointment! Yay! We're really hoping to be able to find out the sex, but we'll see.
-I'm not sleeping very comfortably at night. I have always been a back sleeper, but because I'm getting bigger, I'm trying to follow the rules and stay on my sides. (It promotes blood flow to the uterus.) I wake up soooo sore in the morning.
-Kyle and I booked a vacation in May to Disney World. We're going to consider it our last hoorah before the new baby comes.
-I just found out the my friend Nika is about 4 weeks along. She'll be due in November, which means our babies should be pretty close!

11 weeks, 2 days

Happy Mardi Gras, Baby Arrington! You're 11 weeks, 2 days today, and you're doing a great job of stretching your mama's tummy. I won't be able to hide you under normal clothes much longer.

10 Week, 4 Day Baby Appointment

Yesterday I had my 10/11 week check-up. It was very interesting, to say the least. I had no real reason to suspect anything was wrong, but after suffering one loss, I find that I've been much more paranoid about my symptoms. I'd been having some mild cramping, and one day this past week, my morning sickness totally disappeared for about 8 hours. It freaked me out, so I went into the appointment a little nervous.

First of all, my nerves just kept getting worse as I was waiting for the doctor. She was late by about 2 hours because she had to deliver a baby. Once she saw me, she brought in the doppler and explained that she only has about a 50% success rate with finding a heartbeat this early in pregnancy. She said the only reason she was even trying was because I was thin. She tried for about 2 minutes to find the heartbeat, but all I could hear was mine, and with every second that passed, I got more and more upset. Dr. Hamilton could see the anxiety on my face, so she stopped and told me she was going to send me for an emergency ultrasound. I had to wait for about an hour for the machine to become available, and that was one of the longest hours of my life. I was so scared that my world was about to come crashing down again.

The doctor came in and was able to find the heartbeat almost immediately (thank God!), and I cried a few tears of relief. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay for a "real" ultrasound to see the baby since the doctor was already so far behind schedule. Still, I was able to get this picture. Everything is developing right on track!

My next appointment will be my nuchal translucency on March 17th. They may even be able to find out the sex of the baby at that appointment. Fingers crossed....

10 Weeks, 3 Days

Here's my 10 week, 3 day baby bump. I think my baby related bloating is finally going down and the real bump is starting to show. Enjoy!