Surprise!

Two weeks ago on Saturday, January 2nd, my plan for the day was to sleep in for one of the last times, go out to breakfast with Nick, and then spend the day doing some "catch up" kind of things like put away Christmas decorations, update our blog with new belly pictures, and send out thank you cards. Most of you can figure out that those plans for that day did not happen ... hence the reason we just took down our Christmas decorations yesterday. :)

Two weeks ago on Saturday, January 2nd, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to find that my water had broke. I was in shock and wasn't sure if that was exactly what happened. I woke Nick up and we were on our way to the hospital to "just get checked out." (both of us naively thinking that we would be sent home). We were sort of in shock and did not expect this to happen so early. We were scheduled to be induced January 15th (due to the blood clotting risk from my elevated antibody level), and had just made it to the 37-week mark on January 1st. Then when they told us my water had in fact broke and we needed to stay at the hospital, we were again naive thinkers and thought we would have the baby that day. :) So not on January 2nd, but on January 3rd at 8:08 a.m. Maxon Nicholas Palomba finally, yet surprisingly early, joined us!

Maxon came into the world at 6 lbs 8 oz and 18 inches long. Baby and mom both did fine in the hospital, are now home getting used to a new life. It has been quite the adjustment for all of us and we have all been learning a lot! It has been both challenging and exciting to go through this. I can say that now, since it feels now that every day gets a little easier and my body is getting used to sleep deprivation. :) For the first week, I would not have called it exciting at all, just challenging. :) Thank goodness my mom was able to be down here for the first week ... she was such a help around the house and of course was more than willing to hold the baby while I slept. And since then, we have had such wonderful support from friends and family who have brought meals to us and also offered to run to the store or whatever we need. We feel very blessed for that. And although I say that this whole thing has been a challenge and somewhat shocking, it is also so amazing! From conception, to the pregnancy, to giving birth, to bonding with the baby, to breastfeeding ... it is all so amazing and really makes us realize how amazing God is to have planned everything to work this way.

So now that I am slowly coming out of the twilight zone I have been in since the baby was born, hopefully I can update the blog more often. I suppose the blog will now focus on how the three of us are doing as a family, and of course pictures of Maxon. We know that the days ahead will continue to be challenging, but we look forward to it and will keep you posted on all the fun times (we may be updating the blog at 3:00 in the morning when we are not getting sleep). :)

33 weeks

Well there you go, for all of you who were getting anxious for some more belly pictures. As you can see, things are definitely progressing. :) We are 33 weeks at this point (these pictures are from 32 weeks), and things are going well so far. We had our OB appointment this week and the doc says everything sounds and looks good. Our next appointment is December 15th and we will have another ultrasound then to see how the baby is positioned and how things are progressing on the inside. They will measure him and make sure he is still growing. I sure hope he is, or else my belly is growing from ... holiday feasting??? :) I have been feeling good, although I am just starting to feel the effects of the extra weight. My back has a permanent "crink" in it, my legs get tired and achy, and it is getting difficult to move around in bed at night. But, it really isn't too bad.

In my last post I wrote that I am finding myself getting winded when I am walking around the schools at work. Well now, I get winded even when I talk! It is embarrassing when I am in a meeting at work giving a report and I have to take a break in the middle just to catch my breath. The baby is moving a lot now, although I feel a lot less of those crazy kicks but feel more crazy movements of body parts instead. I can feel him move his limbs and maybe push on me a little, and his dad and I are having fun playing "guess that body part" when we feel a little bump. :) Once in a while I will still feel an outright kick, but these days those kicks seem like they shake my whole body!

We have started to get the baby's room ready: we bought a crib and a glider/rocker for the room last week, thanks to Grandma/Grandpa Allen, Grandma/Grandpa Mlcek, and some after-Thanksgiving sales. :) So that is making it more exciting to see that and to think of how close his arrival is getting! We still have not come up with any names. That has been a little more difficult than we thought and we sort of just stopped talking about it. There are just too many to choose from out there, and it is a huge decision! My good friend Sarah just had triplet boys this past week and I can't imagine having to choose 3 names when we're having so much trouble with just one! Well, anyway, we have some time yet, and I'm thinking that choice may just have to happen when we finally see our baby boy. I have an extensive list of name suggestions from students I work with at work - there are some great suggestions such as: Sponge Bob, Spider Man, Austin Powers, Batman, Zorro, Merlin, ... etc. Keep in mind I work with mostly young kids in the schools. :) So obviously I am not seriously considering any of these, but I do write them down because I think the suggestions are funny and cute. Ahhh, I love the minds of children ...

28 weeks ... Perspective!

So the other day I was looking at our blog and decided to scroll down to the very first post. I looked at the picture of me when I was 13 weeks along and said, "Wow, look how skinny I was!" Now, I have never considered myself skinny ever in my life. It's funny how the view changes when looking at things differently. I have a new-found perspective now that I have this ever-enlarging belly!

Well, good news - the glucose test came back normal, whew!!! We had an ultrasound last week: the baby is growing as he should and is measuring at 2 pounds, 10 ounzes! The one piece of not-so-good news is that my bloodwork came back showing that the cardiolipin antibodies are still elevated. This is really nothing new for us, but it has confirmed for the OB that he probably will not let me go past 38 1/2 weeks. Most likely, he will induce me mid-January unless the little guy comes early on his own. If the baby keeps growing and all is going good, he will be fully developed by that time and this early arrival will just make sure nothing bad happens that last 1-2 weeks. I would love for him to come early on his own so I don't have to be induced, but it would be nice to have it planned so my mom can come down for the big event! God has his own plan so we will wait and see what he wants. :)

Nick and I just returned from a very quick trip to Michigan - my last flight before Baby P arrives. We were happy to get up there to see everyone and enjoy some fall weather. While we were up there, my mom's family hosted a little baby shower for us - it was great. Thanks to all those who helped; it was very short-notice! Now that we have a few baby items in our house, I am getting excited to get the baby's room together. I'm sure in the next few weeks we will be looking for cribs, and getting other things moved out of the room. How fun it is to start to see things coming together!

Week 26

Well, at 26 weeks along, here it is - the belly!!! I have been having people ask me lately how many weeks I have left. I am thinking, what do you mean, weeks? I have three MONTHS left to go!!! My OB assures me that I am measuring completely normal. :) I had my glucose test today in order to check if I have gestational diabetes. They took some blood and so I won't know the results for a few days. With this blood, they will also re-check my antibody levels in my blood just to monitor it. So far though, everything has been going well and we are hoping and praying that continues. Baby P has been kicking like crazy, mostly at night when I get home from work. We can also feel where he is in there - we can feel either a little hard spot like a foot or elbow, or a larger hard spot like a head or butt. I have been feeling great, other than being extra exhausted after a work day or a full day of activities. We are heading up to MI for the last time before the baby arrives - we will be flying up Halloween weekend and are very excited to see friends and family! Just to be safe, my OB is going to see me next week before we leave for MI for an ultrasound and exam. I will try to post more then...

Week 22

Well, at 22 weeks, this is how the belly is looking. It is getting bigger by the week, but that is okay with us - it means the baby is growing! We have good news this week - we found out that Nick is not a carrier of Cystic Fibrosis. Since he is not, but I am, that means our children will not have CF, but they may be carriers of it like I am. The specialist told us that our pediatrician will test our children for that so they know and so they know if they marry someone who is also a carrier of it, then they will have 25% chance of having a child with CF. I never thought I would be thinking about my grandchildren while my first child is still in the womb!!! We had an appointment with the specialist last Friday which went well - Baby P is growing as he should and everything is looking normal. Today we had an appointment with our regular OB who said we don't have to see the specialist anymore if we don't want to. All they can do from here on out is monitor the growth of the baby with ultrasounds, which our regular OB can do. One less doctor appointment a month - I'm okay with that! Our OB will also keep checking my blood for those darn antibody levels, just to make sure it isn't increasing as we go. One bad piece of news we got today - we probably won't be able to fly home for the holidays! We knew we weren't going to be able to go home for Christmas, but Thanksgiving is not going to work either. Our OB said technically we would probably be fine to fly (I would be 32 weeks at Thanksgiving), but at 32 weeks I would be at higher risk to have symptoms of pre-term labor. So ... I think we've decided not to push the envelope and not try to fly for Thanksgiving. We are going to possibly try to fly up to Michigan in October when I am only 27 or 28 weeks and then just stay put after that. Oh, how I am going to miss the holidays up there!!! :( This will be a challenging year for me, but it is for a great cause, to have a healthy and safe baby.



All in all, I am feeling great. I have still been able to do 3-4 workouts a week, mostly walking and swimming, but it is gradually getting more difficult to do. I have had to decrease my speed on the treadmill in the past week or so. :) As I was walking around the schools today at work, I noticed myself huffing and puffing and thought, "Geez, how am I going to do this when I am 9 months pregnant?!!" Ahhh, we will find out when we get there... Hopefully this huffing and puffing was due to my stuffy nose I have been battling lately. I came down with a headcold this past week - thankfully, I had no fever and didn't have to worry that it was the swine flu.



Anyway, I think that is all for now. I will leave you all with the 4D image we got of Baby P when we went to the specialist last Friday. Isn't he a cutie?!! ...

Baby Belly

These pictures were taken about 1 week ago, so I am probably even bigger now! But, yes I definitely have popped and look pregnant instead of looking like I have just been eating too much pizza. :) I feel like it gets bigger every day. The baby finally kicked hard enough for Nick to feel it. It happened while we were up in Michigan this past weekend. He was excited and said, "I'll never forget it, I felt it right underneath my ring finger!" I was so glad he finally felt it.

While we were in Michigan, my mom helped me start a baby registry.... wow, I have a lot of research to do! I am planning to breast feed and I had no idea where to start with those supplies and equipment needs! And as for the rest of the items, if my mom wasn't there, I probably wouldn't have anything on the registry! I now know that I need to do some research about what we will need and what gets put onto a baby registry. Hopefully I can consult some friends who have gone through this as well. :)

With the antibody condition I have going on, we have decided that we are not going to treat it with a blood thinner at this time. Nick and I both agreed that with my levels being in the borderline category and considering the negative side effects from a blood thinner, we are going to let it ride for now and hope everything goes well. We saw the OB last Thursday - the heartbeat is good and everything seems to be going well so far. The OB wants us to see the specialist at least one more time to just be sure that the baby is developing as it should. Then, we will sort of treat this pregnancy as a normal, non-complicated pregnancy. However the OB said he does want to keep checking this antibody level in my blood throughout the pregnancy just to be sure it does not increase. At this appointment, we did get some other concerning news - through the random DNA testing they did to try and figure out what was causing my antibody issue, they found out I am a carrier for Cystic Fibrosis. What a surprise - I had no idea this was in my family. After talking to my mom, I found out that one of my Dad's cousins had CF. Anyway, we are not too worried about this. Nick is going to get tested this week to see if he is a carrier. If he is not, then we won't have to worry at all. If he is a carrier, then we have a chance of having a baby with CF. So we have a lot to pray about here, but we are confident and happy with our decisions and are continuing to think positively.

Below are gifts we recieved from Nick's nephews. The day we found out we were going to have a boy, we went to dinner with Nick's family and that is where we were given these: The first one is a picture drawn for us from Holden - it is our first family portrait of me, Nick, and our son. Holden said, "Aunt Lindsey, you are jumping up in the picture because you are so happy." :) Under that is a picture of the three friendship bracelets that Harrison made for us; one for Aunt Lindsey, one for Uncle Nick, and one for the baby boy. We told him we are going to wait to wear the bracelets until the baby is here so we can all wear them together. :) I love it; I definitely got a little teary-eyed over these!

Update on Baby P

Well, we found out yesterday ... it's a BOY!!! I am happy with whatever, as long as it is a healthy baby. Nick feels the same, although he is VERY happy to be getting a son. :) The specialist did a detailed ultrasound, where everything looks great so far. We were able to see his hands, feet, two little ears, kidneys, heart, brain, everything. They say he is about 8 oz. right now. Mommy has gained a lot more than 8 oz.!



During the past week and a half, I believe I have popped. My belly seems to be growing with every new day. :) I will post pictures soon. I am feeling the baby moving now, and am able to definitely tell that it is not gas bubbles anymore. :) I feel him move several times a day, although the movements are still not strong enough for daddy to feel.



As far as the blood results go and the situation with the increased antibodies, it is still the same. My blood was retested and my cardiolipin level did decrease a couple points, but is still in the "borderline" category. The doctors say that I am in a "gray" area and therefore in a difficult situation with knowing what to do. They cannot give us a guideline on what to do, whether to put me on a blood thinner or to do nothing. I am still at a higher risk to have a miscarriage or stillbirth due to the increased levels of cardiolipin possibly causing blood clots around the placenta. And I am not considered a textbook candidate for heparin therapy because my numbers are not in the High risk category and because I've never had a blood clotting event prior to this. Heparin is a serious drug to put myself through and so the doctors are cautioning us on the negative effects that it may have if we decide to do that. And these doctors are not recommending the use of baby aspirin. Ah!, there is so much to explain in this situation, I hope you all aren't totally confused. :) So ... we are still trying to decide what to do. There are lots of things to think about and a lot of praying to do. We hope to decide in the next week which route to take. Although a somewhat scary and frustrating situation, we are continuing to think positively, are trusting that God will help us decide what to do, and are trusting him completely with this pregnancy no matter what happens. Keep us in your prayers if you think about it; we appreciate it!

We haven't started talking about names yet. Now that we know it is a boy, any ideas out there?