Abbey's knee and buying baby clothes

Well we found out on Friday that Abbey definitely has completely ruptured her ACL in her right knee. Right now the cartilage appears to be ok from what they can tell, and hopefully if we do the surgery fast they won't have to remove all the cartilage from that knee like they did last time in her left knee. She's on antibiotics now for a slight UTI and will go in for surgery this Friday (11/4/05). She will also be starting estrogen therapy this week for estrogen related incontinence. Apparently this is common in older female spayed dogs. It is what is causing her repeated UTI's. Luckily the estrogen pills are super cheap and will only be like 3$ a month. (UNlike her pain meds which are more like 40$ a month!) Lucky for us, our vet is letting us pay for the surgery over 3 months. Phew!

This weekend we went to my mother-in-law's house in Tampa. We had a wonderful time shopping for baby clothes and stuff! We went to a consignment shop and bought tons of cute clothes and then to Target and found some great stuff on clearance. We washed it all and folded them into one of those vacuum bags so that they'll be all nice and fresh. Donna's keeping them all at her place for us until we get the new house. (Thank you Mom!)

Speaking of the new house, we're going this week to talk with the building company and see if they can build the house in the time we have. HOPEFULLY they can and we'll go ahead and start the process. If not, well, we're going to have to get creative somehow. Let's all hope they can get a modular home up and livable by March!

AND one more thing. While over at Tom's mom's house we decided on a name. Tom's pretty sure this one is it. I like to keep my options open, but I like this one too. The name will be Nicholas Charles Mott. I'm going to call him Nicky and he can go by Nick when he's in school. (And yes, I know it rhymes with a bunch of neat words. Already considered it. Thanks!)

Here we go again!

Well here we go again! As many of you know, our dog Abbey had to have knee surgery about 3-4 years ago. It was because she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. Well that cost 850.00 back then. She's about 80-90% on that leg now, which we feel is pretty darn good.

Well this morning, while walking on a leash (just like before) Abbey stumbled in an armadillo hole (just like before), cried out and now won't put any weight on her OTHER knee! We gave her some pain medicine (Deramax) and crated her for the day so that she'd rest it, but it's the same now that we're home from work. We'll be taking her to the vet tomorrow morning. (I already called them this morning to arrange it.) We'll drop her off around 8am and then they'll let us know what they find. HOPEfully it isn't the same injury! Another 850.00 when we're trying to get our house isn't going to help! But I can't put her to sleep when she's perfectly healthy and has just hurt her leg! Guess we'll find out what the verdict is tomorrow. I'm pretty sure we can make some kind of payment arrangement with the vet if we have to go that route. I think we paid off the last one in 4 increments. This is the most expensive dog we've ever had! But we love her anyway!

We're back from the ultrasound!

We're back! And We're having a BOY! I can't believe it! The ultrasound was pretty good, a little fuzzy he said, but the doctor and the genetic counselor both think it's a really good chance that there is nothing wrong. The only marker they saw on the ultrasound was two choroid plexus cysts, which they said since those are fairly common they wouldn't worry too much about it. No other markers were there! We probably would have gone ahead with an amnio, except we found out the placenta is pretty much covering the entire front of my uterus, and that would make it really hard to get the needle in there right now. But in 3 weeks we'll do the other u/s and if we want to we can do the amnio then too.

WHEW! Can I even express how RELIEVED we are? We have two photos CLICK HERE, and also a videotape and a recording of the heartbeat! We'd never heard it before! And it was 150 beats per minute. YAY! I'm just so relieved and happy! I promise to try to get the recording and at least a snippet of the video on the blog. Surely I can do that with this computer!

Need something happier to think about

So here's my new belly pic. I did it a day early. But how much can it grow overnight? So here's the new one in comparison with the old ones. I don't see much difference from the 15 week picture. But maybe my boobs are just growing too.

Actual Numbers and a Level 2 U/S Appointment Made

Well, I got the actual numbers yesterday. Keep in mind this is not a diagnosis, only a screening. The Quad Screen screens for 3 disorders, and screens for Down's Syndrome in two ways:

Trisomy 18= 1:62
Trisomy 21 (by my age)= 1:511
Trisomy 21 (by my blood)= 1:2060
Open Neural Tube Defect(spina bifida & anencephaly)= 1:5000

All are considered "within normal parameters" except the Trisomy 18 which is really high.

My Level 2 ultrasound was scheduled for November 3rd which is two weeks away. They are trying to see if they can get me in any sooner than that. I told them I'd be happy to wait in their waiting room all day if they thought they could fit me in. Hopefully they'll find they have a spot for me on Monday. I just got the call today around 4pm that they'll fit me in on Monday at 12pm. So hopefully we'll know more on Monday evening.

I found the following information on the Quad Screen at This website.

"About 0.2 percent will receive a screen-positive result for trisomy 18. Of that 0.2 percent, about 11 percent will actually have a pregnancy affected with trisomy 18."

Busy day! Banned and Got Results Back all in one day!

Wow, so much to post today!
First I had a wonderful time visiting my Mom, Elizabeth and Jodi! It was so nice being all fussed over by them! Liz even made me a beautiful little pregnant flower fairy! I'll have to post a pic when I get the chance! Jodi gave me a super wonderful big jewelry box for me to stash my stuff! And Mom gave me some neat lounging clothes, pj's and some comfy shoes. I think my feet have grown already! Thank you guys for the wonderful visit!

Next, I've finally officially been banned from FF. Got a message this am at 10:03 saying my siggy was removed for having a link in it to my blog (Which by the way is ENTIRELY about my pregnancy and ttc journey. NOT an advertisement as they insinuate in their form letter.) Then I got another message at 10:06 am (Yep, only three minutes later) saying I was banned. Oh they put in all their legal-speak, but it means banned. I got my TTC chart off there long ago, but I can't see anything anymore otherwise. Too funny! So I'm officially joining the bad girl club! It was worth it though! Tons of views on that last post and I think anyone who was interested in coming over had a good chance to find their way. Yay for the Freedom Board!

My last news isn't as nice, but I'm really trying to stay positive about it. After I got my nice banning letter from FF, Tom went to listen to our answering machine message. It was my OB. He left me the office number AND his cell phone number (wow!) in case I called after 5pm. I figured it was serious, and I did just have my quad screen done on Friday am so I was pretty sure it was about that.

He said my screen came back as increased risk for Trisomy 18 and he's having his nurse schedule me for the Level 2 ultrasound tomorrow morning. (Not getting it tomorrow, just scheduling it. Probably for this week or next week.) He told me that it wasn't diagnostic and yada yada yada, but I told him I was on this support group online of March moms and that so many of them had gone through the same thing so I knew what to expect and wasn't too worried.

I'm really trying to focus on how wonderful it will be to have this extra-long U/S on a good machine, and I think that helps me not worry. Also after seeing so many of my buddies in the March Due Dates group get these kinds of results and seeing everything turn out just fine has me feeling pretty good about my chances.

Poor Tom though! He immediately looked over my shoulder to see what I wrote down and googled Trisomy 18 before I even got off the phone. He is so worried now. I have told him the baby is probably fine and shared how so many women in my support group have had the same thing. I told him that they'd be checking on the level 2 for certain markers, and that even if they do find them it still isn't a diagnosis and we'll just do the amnio in that case. I feel worse about him being worried than I feel about the test itself.

If you guys want to scare yourselves silly you can google Trisomy 18, but I really wish you wouldn't. At least not yet. Just keep thinking good thoughts and I'll post more as soon as I know more. I love you all!

Going to see my Mom!

I'm off to Lake Placid tomorrow to go visit my mom! I haven't seen her since being PG so she's in for a bit of a surprise! Pictures only can show so much you know.

I also want all my friends from Fertility Friend to stay in touch! My VIP account is running out and I'm letting it go. It's been wonderful to make such good friends there, but I can't spend money like that now. Everything has to go for the baby and our new house. I do have some good news for you guys though! We have a free site where all the girls have gone since FF went to a pay site. Come join us there for free! I hope you will visit us there! Or at least visit me here and email me with your updates!

To the new site: Your Pregnancy Is Worth Talking About

See you there!

I Vant to Suck Your Blood!

Well, tomorrow I go for my bloodwork. This is the Quad Screen which is a screen for spina bifida, downs, and some other stuff I can't ever remember. It doesn't give you a definite positive or negative, just tells the baby's odds of having one of these things. A lot of women decide not to have it because it can really stress people out for no reason since so many people get scary results and everything turns out fine.

I decided to go ahead and do it, mostly because I figure I'm a pretty low stress person. (Do I hear laughter in the audience?) And because if there does show up something questionable I'll get to have a really cool Level II ultrasound where they really spend quality time scanning the baby. I've heard these are really detailed, even better than the ones they do in my doctor's office. So I wouldn't mind having one. Then if that turns out questionable still, they offer an amniocentisis. I figure if it gets to that point we'll do the amnio, even though the idea of someone sticking a giant needle in my tummy isn't a happy thought. The incidence of a miscarriage is there, but it's pretty low, and we'd need to know if there was something really wrong. I don't know what we'd do, but we'd need to be prepared in any case.

So, we'll find out,probably in another week what the blood test results are. I'll post 'em here!

New Boy's Name Chosen Today!

Ok, Well I'm still set on Lily Elizabeth as our girl name, but a day or two ago Tom decided he didn't really like the name Zachary anymore. So today we went on the search again for boy names. We brainstormed a list below and the winner is down at the bottom. Tom is pretty set on it. I'm fine with it. LOL you didn't think I'd tell you right up here at the beginninng did you?

Ailen
Alden
Arden
Aric
Axton
Brandon
Brent
Brian
Brock
Bowen
Carson
Cole
Conall
Conner
Cory
Dean
Devon
Dylan
Elliott
Gareth
Garren
Garrett
Garrick
Glenn
Kayne
Keith
Kelwin
Kelwyn
Kenneth
Liam
Neil
Owen
Sawyer
Stephen




And the winner is... Conner!
So it will be Conner Charles Mott for a boy. We might stick with calling him his full name, or maybe CC for short. Could call him Connie, but it just reminds me of Grandma, so too feminine for me. Thoughts?

Who'd have thought I'd be so excited to have a BIGGER tummy?!

Ah ha! I knew my tummy was growing! I had Tom take a new picture today, in exactly the same clothes by the way, and I just put it up on the Belly Pic Page. Take a look and see what you think! Two weeks made a difference!

Flea free and a clean room!

Well, we're all doing fine. We had to take the pups all to the vet for their shots and stuff. Whew! That was expensive! They all had eardrops and/or pills to take for a while. We've finally finished with that. We also finally gave up on the Frontline flea stuff. It just wasn't doing a darn thing for the poor puppies! And Sampson and Abbey just finished a bunch of medicine for their flea allergies, so we went out and picked up some Advantage over the weekend. AND PRESTO! No more fleas! They're still a tiny bit itchy now, but that might just be from thier old bites, or bites they get outside on their walks. No more flea infestation though, and boy is that a relief! We'd tried the Frontline for quite a while since it also works on ticks (which we have, A LOT!) but it just didn't seem to do a damn thing about the fleas which are the real problems most of the time. So, we're back to advantage and heartguard. Maybe we'll have to try out some tick collars if we notice them picking up ticks. Ugh. I hate ticks!

Side note, Tom cleaned our bedroom up! He vacuumed everything, even under the bed! We went through all our clothes (except the closet, I think that's this weekend) and we have four huge bags of clothes to give away! And nice empty drawers to put our wearable clothes into for a change. Nice! Of course he decided we just HAD to do all this at 11pm on Sunday night... YAWN! Mostly it was me laying in bed and Tom holding up clothes and saying "Do you want this? How about this?" LOL Hopefully I didn't get rid of anything I didn't mean to!

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