Mommy update! 35 weeks 4 days

Quick update!

This fall season has been a whirlwind for me! I've been blessed with an abundance of clients this fall and am enjoying many return clients and new referrals. Its a little bittersweet that I am starting maternity leave for my photography business but It means we are almost ready to meet baby girl!

At my 34 week ultrasound baby girl was 5lbs 4 oz. Her femur was measuring almost 2 weeks ahead which means she may be a tall girl just like her sister! My placenta had moved about 0.3cm in the 4 weeks prior. Still quite sluggish and stubborn! It has 1.2cm to go to be in the safe zone. I go this Thursday (just shy of 2 weeks since my last scan to see if it has finally made its journey). Its quite a tall order so I am not very optimistic.

After then seeing my OB, he confirmed that if all is not clear at this 36 week scan that he would ideally deliver her at 37 weeks (yikes as I was hoping for 38). Talk about short notice. There is one doctor that I would really like to do the surgery and that is who I am seeing on Thursday. His schedule, his professional opinion (since hopefully he will be doing the surgery) combined with my ultrasound results will give us a game plan. Im 37 weeks on Friday November 6th so I would anticipate something between the 6th and the 14th (if he decides to give me that extra week). Maybe it will be the 9th and Rich can have his birthday baby just like Ginger has Harper!

Csections typically result in a 4 night hospital stay. I know you will all be anxious to see our sweet girl but we probably wont have visitors the first day. It all depends on what level of hot-mess I am experiencing. : ) It also depends on the time of the surgery, how long I am in recovery etc. They should be able to do my dermoid (overian tumor) surgery at the same time. I'm not sure how long that will take. From what I understand I then cant drive for 2 weeks. Dutch gets 2 weeks of paternity leave so it will be nice to have him here those first few days. We are going to keep Harper going to school to stay on a routine and hopefully not freak her out too much. I had to tell her how baby girl was going to drink her milk. She figured she drank out of a cup! Not so much. That was a funny conversation. Luckily she is very excited to meet her and more importantly for her to become a big sister! She loves to feel baby move and kiss my belly. Sometimes she has to lift up my shirt so she can see her better lol.

I know you all will be anxiously awaiting our news on Thursday. Keep sending your prayers for a healthy baby and mommy!

Family Photos

So believe it or not, as much as I am into photography and capturing families I am very guilty of hardly ever taking the time to create our own portraits. We hired my friend Jacey, who also took my headshots this spring, to take our family photos. I love them so much! The most important thing was to get one nice shot of the three of us and then some of Harper and I. I'm always behind the lens, I wanted to have some of the two of us girls together before baby morgan comes along.

Mommy update

Week 26

Week 29

Tomorrow is my next ultrasound with baby girl. Im excited to see her and hopefully get a cute shot of her face. At my last appointment (26 weeks) my placenta had made some progress and was right at my cervix instead of well past it. We will know tomorrow if it has moved clear by 2cm and I will be cleared of my previa! Best case scenario obviously. 

We had our family photos taken last weekend (at 29 weeks) and it was a lot of fun. Harper looked so sweet and did as well as any almost 3 year old would. I was glad to get a few maternity shots to remember this time. I will post some of them when I get them back from our photographer.

My heartburn is just killer! Im now taking 2 , 150 zantac a day and its still pretty miserable. Looks like Ill get a prescription for something stronger at my appointment tomorrow. That sure is one thing I will not miss about being pregnant. I am also approaching the exhaustion phase again. Everything is sore. My hips are sore from laying in bed. I wake up at night to hit the ladies room. The glowing and glamorous cute 2nd trimester is definitely over. Joy! : )

Other than that, we are anxiously waiting baby girls arrival. Her nursery is almost ready and her clothes are all washed. We apparently didnt think we had enough to do so we have also been renovating the guest bathroom! We will post photos when all the finishing touches are complete.

Keep us in your thoughts tomorrow as we meet with my specialist and my OB. 

Thanks everyone!!

Update 22 weeks

Quick update!

Baby M is approximately 1 pound, 11 inches and loves to kick. Maybe she will be a soccer player or a Olympic swimmer? She is definitely getting lots of practice. She currently is breech but she has plenty of time to twist into all types of positions before her debut. 

Every 4 weeks I have an appointment with my specialist for an ultrasound. Last week she was looking back towards my spine and would not show her cute face. Hopefully in a few weeks we can get a face shot. 

Here was Harper at approximately the same age.

Great news is that my ovarian dermoid is stable at 4cm. I thought this was going to be of concern for me my entire pregnancy but now it seems like no big deal at all. 

My stubborn (where did it get that from I wonder???) placenta is still chilling at the bottom of my uterus covering my cervix , or what they call complete placenta privia. Apparently it didn't get the memo that it is supposed to be moving out of the way by now. Good news is that it is mostly in the posterior location. This means that during a c section delivery they will not have to cut through it to access the baby which reduces the bleeding risks. The general reaction from my doctor is to never say never, it may still move, you just never know what your body can do etc. etc. etc. Definitely less optimism than 4 weeks ago. 

I go again for my next check on August 19th. My doctor feels that once you get to 30 weeks with limited or no movement that the chances of it resolving drop of significantly. They will check me once more at 34 weeks before we throw in the towel and schedule the csection (for 37 weeks/early November). Knock on wood I haven't had any bleeding as bleeding will most likely end up with me in the hospital for a few days for monitoring. For now, I'm keeping to my restrictions and looking for the positive. 

Please continue to keep us all in your prayers and thoughts. We are very excited about November and meeting our sweet girl. I think Harper can hardly wait. I am sure it feels like its been years since we told her she was going to be a sister!

Mommy update 19 weeks

16 weeks

17 weeks

Baby girl and I are now at 19 weeks. We are almost half way! I love when people say wow, November will be here before you know it!...its right around the corner!... easy for you to say...

Things are going well. She is busy kicking away, something I noticed around week 16/17 this time around. Even though I started off rough ("morning" all day sickness started right at 4 weeks.) I started feeling better by 12 weeks. I'm always on the go between work, chasing Harper around or running my photography business, that I just somehow make it work.

Symptoms - heartburn, sore lower back sitting at work all day.

For the last 11 or so weeks my doctors have been keeping an eye on a benign tumor that is on my right overy. Its called a dermoid. Good news is that it has not grown in the last 11 weeks, staying at 4cm. (bit less than 2") Pregnancy puts you at a high risk for complications with dermoids so I am eager for it to maintain its size and not cause me any pain. After baby is here I will have it removed (hopefully laprascopically as long as it stays small).

At our anatomy scan (yes she is still a girl and everything checked out just as it should) we found out that I have complete placenta previa. Its a condition where your placenta has implanted at the very bottom of your uterus instead of at the top/top sides as expected. As far as pregnancy complications go this is a common one. Many times it resolves itself on its own as your uterus grows. As it gets bigger the place of implantation moves up with the uterus and hopefully pulls it out of the way of your cervix. If it hasn't moved by 34 weeks Ill be scheduled for a c section at 37 weeks. Ill have an update in 3 weeks. For now, I cant lift over 10 lbs, no exercise, etc. This condition has a risk of bleeding (which can end up putting you on bed rest among other concerns). But I have been ok so far. We welcome your thoughts and prayers that things resolve!

3+1= 4!

Looks like the Morgan household is going to get a bit cuter come November.

Baby girl Morgan is due this November! We are all very excited and cannot wait to meet her!

10 years in the making...