3rd Trimester

In 2 days I will finally be in the 3rd trimester!  I am so psyched to meet little Michael and experience that crazy falling in love all over again.

We just got back from visiting family and we had a blast.  We got to see everyone and do a lot of relaxing.  Loralei had a blast with all the grandparents and aunts and uncles and hopefully will sleep great tonight.

Here is a picture of her from our father's day/Aunt Nanny's 25th/bunch of birthdays bbq.  :)

Here is her chasing lightnigh bugs with Aunt Helen and Daisy

Here is her eating ice cream with dad dad

Here is me enjoying my favorite keylime pie ice cream at Brusters...sure baby Michael was loving it too!

Here is Lor with poppa visiting the "neigh neighs."  Mimi and daddy were there too...but no pictures!

And here is my gymboree loot for baby Michael at the semi annual red balloon sale which was FANTASTIC!

First Homebirth Appointment!!

Our first appointment with Linda was fantastic.  Baby is doing great and she was just wonderful to sit and chat with.  Lor really loves her which makes prenatals a lot of fun.  She is going to let us use the birth tub for our homebirth and we are super excited about that!  I see her again in about a month and can't wait.  We are super excited to meet this little boy in 3 short months!

Loralei puts her ear to my belly and when my tummy growels she says, "baby Michael farted."  Too cute.  She also makes the doppler sound when talking about the noises baby Michael makes.  It is all very sweet.  She actually sung Twinkle Twinkle to my belly several times this week. 

We are super excited to be visiting with family and getting some much needed R&R.  I have really popped the past couple of weeks and am excited to be showing off a healthy baby bump instead of just a thick middle.  :)

Nursery and Belly Shots

Here are some pics of the nursery.  It is pretty much the same as with Lor but we did buy a glider/ottoman.  We still need to rehang all the pictures and Lor colored 2 pics and we framed them for baby Michael. 

Here is my belly today at 24 weeks even...finally showing, but still not super pregnant looking.

24 Weeks

Finally came to a decision to go for the homebirth!  We decided that home is the best place for us to have this baby and we have a ton of faith and trust in the midwife who will be assisting us in bringing Michael into this world.  After all the let downs by nurses, midwives, and doctors at Borgess and the uncertainty of which of the 8 midwives will actually be on call (if we knew Trinie would be there it would be a whole different story), we just aren't comfortable with any "simple errors" happening during delivery and really just want the comfort of our own home and the one on one attention of a midwife that we know and love.  We are so stoked that Loralei will be able to be with us during labor/delivery and definitely able to snuggle and participate in those first few precious hours.  Now I have ensured Mike that pizza hut delivers if he is worried about not being able to order food for every meal and if I can just get a janitorial staff to clean up after us, we will be all set.
Loralei had a blast at the zoo yesterday even though it just rained and rained.  Here are a couple pictures from our trip.

sharing with mommy

best .99 lollipop ever

train ride to wild africa

always squinty!!

can't figure out how to rotate this one...but it's at the snake exhibit

23 WEEKS!!!

Had a very boring and routine appointment yesterday and it was fabulous!  The doctors all talked and think maybe baby Michael had meconium plug syndrome which basically means he made a ton of poop that outgrew his intestines so they backed up until their growth caught up.  But who knows.  Either way my midwife was very relieved with my 3rd u/s and quad test.

Our insurance denied our 20 week u/s so back to the battle field with fighting them...does it ever end?  The lady in billing said she would submit my ER/Labor and Delivery paperwork and rebill it and that should do the trick.

Mike picked up and is putting together our glider/ottoman.  I am psyched...but man it wasn't cheap.  But I can't wait to snuggle baby Michael in it.

We are still debating the homebirth/hospital birth.  The cost of the homebirth is making me not want to do it and the very rare chance that an emergency will happen...but Mike is leaning towards the hospital birth.  I am just so afraid one of the midwives I don't love will be there to deliver.  I also worry about the transfer to the hospital but know that I want to stay home until 7cm so I don't get that darn epidural again.  Ugh, and spending 2 days in a nasty hospital room is horrible, but someone else will clean up after us and bring us food...and we can check out early I would think.  Hmm, guess we'll see.  Wish my darn insurance would cover cpms. 

We can see baby Michael move in my belly now and it's just amazing!  Can't wait to meet him!  Next prenatal is in 2 weeks and my first doula meeting is in late June.  I can't believe how fast this is all going.

Praise God

Praise God!!! The geneticist first informed us that the stupid nurse misread my results...my quad actually gave me 1:10,000 odds for down's syndrome (she read the normal risk for my age column, not the my specific results)...so we decided to put off the amnio until 28 weeks...then we had our level II u/s...and the bowels AREN'T echogenic!!! So of course, we are just skipping the amnio all together!  The perinatologist said ob's typically use the wrong frequency transducer and misdiagnose echogenic bowel. She quoted my odds based on u/s and quad test as 1:15,000 or better.  I am crying tears of joy for this little boy!!! We have decided no more tests and are trusting all is well!!!

What a great day!!!

Today is the day...

Well, I have my appointments as follows today:

Intake-12:30
Geneticist-1:00-2:00
Level II ultrasound -2:00
Perinatologist/Amnio-2:30? (after u/s)

I am terrified out of my mind.  I am supposed to be on bedrest for 24-48 hours after the procedure...but that is not really possible with a 2 year old...hoping to do my best.  Where is family when you need them?