Week 30

Wow 5 weeks flew by! This is the final stretch! 

Darrell and I moved into our new house on March 25th, and we couldn't be any happier! My dad and step mom have given us a fantastic deal and have worked extremely hard to get us moved in and settled. Callie and Sebastian don't know what to do with all of the extra space. We wake up in the morning to the two of them running laps around the inside of the house. We feel so lucky to get to raise our daughter in a beautiful house instead of a small apartment. Now, if only we had enough furniture to fill this place up! :-)


View from the front door into the kitchen

View from the dining room into the family room

My favorite view: The pool and pond 

Callie and Sebastian Sun bathing on the patio

Sunday, April 1st was our BBQ baby shower. First of all, a special thank you to my mom for hosting the shower and decorating it so perfectly! We can't thank everyone enough for coming to the shower, and for all of the gifts for Chloe! She is going to be the best dressed baby that we've ever seen! We had such a good time at the shower. It was so great to have every side of both families get together! If anyone has pictures from the shower, I'd love to get copies of them! You can e-mail them to me at agraham722@yahoo.com. 

BaByQ Invitation

The most amazing cake I've ever seen!! 

Top of the cake

 

 Baby Bottle Beer Chugging Competition! 

   

   

 And the winner was Ryan

 Delicious Desserts made by Lisa, Jenni, and Sian

Amazing food made by Darrell, Mama Carol,  Aunt Eve, and Aunt Nanci

  A peak at the decorations 

I think this pile only got bigger!

Chloe's after shower shoe count: 31 pairs!!

On April 5th, I had to get my left ear drummed popped at the ENT office. I have had ear issues since before my pregnancy, and it has only gotten worse. Doctor Ho sliced my ear drum in order to relieve pressure temporarily, and to see if I need to get tubes in my ears. The good news is, that it did relieve the pressure from the left ear... the bad news is, that tubes and surfing don't really get along...I go back in two weeks to discuss my options. 

Week: 30

Total weight gain: 24 lbs

POTS symptoms: I have been feeling pretty great for the past few weeks. My POTS symptoms have calmed down and become manageable again! I have only had a few black out spells, and they usually come when i am outside or getting out of the car into the heat. I can finally move around the inside of my house and get things done without passing out! Hallelujah! My cardiologist says that I am probably feeling better due to the increase of blood volume that Chloe is giving me. I just have to be extra careful when I am outside in the heat, or in the car with no A/C because my blood pressure drops very quickly from the increase in temperature. 

Pregnancy Symptoms: Well other than Chloe laying on top of my bladder and having to pee every 5 minutes, the only other annoying symptom has been pelvic swelling from the pressure of carrying so low. It becomes pretty painful throughout the day, and my doctor has me wearing a pregnancy support belt. It helps the pressure on my back, but doesn't seem to be helping to much with the pelvic swelling. Unfortunately, that is probably only going to get worse. 

Mood: Very excited! There is so much going on in our house right now, between all the new baby items floating around, the nursery decorating, and getting the house together... It has been pretty fun! 

Best moment this week: Getting the mural drawn on the nursery wall!! Pictures to come when the painting is completed next weekend!

Week 25

 Baby Baker is the size of an eggplant!

I missed a week or two... 

But not much has changed....

I am now off my steroid medication, as it was only making me feel like crap and wasn't making my syncope episodes any less frequent. My cardiologist will put me on a beta blocker and a BP medication once the baby has arrived. My next OB appointment is the end of March and my next ultrasound will be in April. 

Moving day is coming up! We are expecting to be out of our apartment before the baby shower and I cannot wait!!

Week: 25

Total weight gain: 22 lbs! (weighing in at 130 now! AH!)

Pregnancy symptoms this week: Stretching pains! The skin on my belly feels like it's going to pop! But my pimples are almost gone!! :)

POT symptoms this week: I feel like my dizzy spells are getting a little better and less frequent and I have a little more energy these days. (lets hope this lasts!!)

Best moment this week: Jess came to visit and Darrell got a new job in the meat department at Publix!

Mood: getting anxious to move out and excited that the shower is getting closer, which means nursery decorating is getting closer!!

Sleep: what sleep?

Week 23

Last week was a great week! On top of getting engaged, I had a doctor appointment and I got to hear our daughters heartbeat once again, and it was around 140bpm. We also started a program on Thursday, called Pride Foster Training. I have wanted to become a certified medical foster parent for years but the timing was never right and neither were my living conditions. My mom was signing up for the program and in order for me to babysit for her, I needed to be certified as well. I thought this was perfect timing. 


I talked to Darrell and he was 100% on board and wanted to go through the training with me. The foster program is every Thursday night from now until the middle of April. After the classes, we have a home inspection and then hopefully we get certified. But I want to take it one step further and become a medical foster parent, so there will be additional training following the traditional foster training program. The good thing about the foster program is that once you are certified, you stay certified for up to 5 years. This means that if we do not feel ready as soon as we get certified, we don't have to take any children in yet. We can wait as long as we want before actually fostering a child, if we decide to. With a baby of our own on the way, we probably wont be taking that plunge for a little while, as we will have our hands full! Since I will be staying at home with our baby for a while, I will babysit for my mom if she has any foster children, since she works full time and this could be a small source of income for the time being. 


Darrell and I are moving in March! My dad has offered to rent us a beautiful house that he and my step mom renovated. It is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house with a pool! I am VERY excited to get out of the apartment and into a house. We are so happy to have the opportunity to raise our daughter in a house instead of an apartment.   This will also give us plenty of room if and when we decide to help other children that need a temporary home. 


So, everything seems to be coming together. Slowly but surely. Darrell is on the search for a new job near our new house and hopefully he will find something he loves! 


Here are some new belly pictures from 2-21-12. When I am feeling well enough, my favorite thing to do is go watch Darrell surf! I can't wait until I can join him out there again!

Valentines Day 2012

VALENTINES DAY 2012

Darrell and I went to the beach. I was expecting to have lunch on the beach and collect some shells, like usual....

He had other plans in mind!

Valentines Night, we traveled to Orlando with my mom and my step dad, Brad. 

We went out to dinner, then went to Downtown Disney to a dueling piano bar called Jellyrolls. My mom thinks she is sneaky and told one of pianists that we got engaged. And so of course, they had Darrell and I go up on stage and dance in front of everyone! They played Broken Road, by Rascal Flatts. It was embarrassing but fun!

21 Week Ultrasound

This morning was our 21 week high risk ultrasound and everything went amazing! We have a very healthy growing baby girl! She now weighs 11 ounces and Doctor Morales says that everything looks perfect. He sees no birth defects, and our quad scan (detecting Down Syndrome and other abnormalities) came back negative. She is growing right on track and is moving around like crazy. She waved to us on the ultrasound and gave us a thumbs up! Her heart was beating around 143 bpm and it was loud and clear. The ultrasound tech gave us 6 printed pictures! This baby is going to have a huge photo album before she is even born. 

View from above. You can see her belly button!

Her little feet!

My favorite: It's a GIRL!

Profile picture with umbilical cord

Tachycardia in POTs

My dad gave me a heart rate monitor, which I have been wanting for a while now. I can always tell when my heart rate increases dramatically, because I feel the physical effects of it immediately. I usually feel my heart beating fast, I feel short of breath, and I feel the blood pooling to my lower extremities. I have two blood pressure monitors that also record my pulse, but they do not work when I am moving around. I knew what to expect when I put the heart rate monitor on, but I guess it still surprises me every time I see the numbers.

I always had a very low resting heart rate until I developed POTs. When I was a personal trainer, my resting heart rate stayed around 65-75bpm. Now that I am pregnant, and I have POTs, my resting heart rate has averaged around 80bpm.  This is considered below average for a healthy 25 year old woman.

A 'normal heart' rate is considered anywhere between 60 and 100.

When a person exercises, they gain the most benefits and lessen the risks when they exercise in their target heart rate zone. Usually this is when their exercise heart rate (pulse) is 60 to 80 percent of their maximum heart rate. The maximum heart rate is the highest heart rate achieved during maximal exercise. One simple method to calculate your predicted maximum heart rate, uses this formula:

220-your age = predicted maximum heart rate

For example: 220-25 (my age) = 195bpm

As as person progresses in their exercise, the percentage of their maximum heart rate can be gradually increased.

If i wanted to exercise and see a benefit, I would want my heart rate to be 60-80% of 195 while exercising:

195 x .60 = 117bpm
195 x .80 = 156bpm

HOWEVER....

I have POTs and that changes everything. As you will see in my video, my heart rate jumps almost above 80% just from standing up! A normal persons heart rate should only increase 5-10bpm upon standing. My heart rate jumps up 30+ beats, while my blood pressure drops drastically. So the question is, am I getting a workout every time I stand up? It sure feels like it!

Watch my heart rate (Sorry it is sideways!):

Week 20

Baby Baker is the length of a banana or the size of a cantaloupe!

HALFWAY THROUGH OUR PREGNANCY JOURNEY!

The baby has become pretty active, but not consistently yet. I had two days that I didn't feel her at all and I got a little nervous, but it is still so early that I will not always feel her. Last night she let me know that she is in there for sure! Around 11pm, I was laying in bed and she was dancing around none stop for an hour! It was the greatest feeling! Both my mom and Darrell have felt her move now!

Week: 20

Total weight gain: 14 lbs!! Kind of a lot when you think that the baby is only like 10-12 ounces right now! But they said I was "underweight" before I got pregnant and that I need to gain a little extra...

From thebabycorner.com:

Where Do I Stand With My 14 lb Weight Gain?

Based on your pre-pregnancy weight of 108 lbs., we calculated your BMI to be 18, which is considered underweight according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. This week you should weigh between:

117 and 122 lbs

Congratulations! You are right on target for a healthy weight gain during your pregnancy! During your first trimester, you should gain between 3 and 5 lbs.. Thereafter, you should be gaining between 0.92 and 1.3 lbs. per week until the end of your pregnancy.

At full term (40 weeks pregnant) you should weigh between:

136 and 148 lbs
Total Target Weight Gain: 28 to 40 lbs.

Pregnancy symptoms this week: PIMPLES! Yuck!!!! 

POTs symptoms this week: Headaches and dizzy episodes almost everyday... beginning to wonder if this steroid is working at all? Shortness of breath, or the feeling that I am not getting enough Oxygen. This could be from the pregnancy itself, or from POTs. 

Best moment this week: Today! Knowing that I am halfway through this journey toward meeting our daughter!!

Mood: Happy all day, but anxious at night. 

Sleep: Dreams, dreams, dreams!!