July 29, 2008

Updates!

Just wanted to quickly write that I got my test results back yesterday and I don't have Gestational Diabetes or Anemia (whew!). I also had my ultrasound yesterday to check for gallstones and they didn't find anything out of the ordinary. However, the nurse said that the absense of gallstones doesn't mean that there isn't necessarily a gallbladder problem and that my doctor would discuss another test with me to check the function of my gallbladder.

If the pain continues to get worse I'll probably call and schedule another appointment this week, but I may just decide to wait until August 12th when I go back to see Dr. Keith again to bring it back up. The ultrasound I had yesterday checked out baby Harris and he's doing fine, so as long as I know that baby's ok, I guess I can deal with pain for the time being!!

July 25, 2008

Miss Banks' Classroom!






On Tuesday of this week I went down to Columbia to meet up with my sister, Catherine, to help her decorate her new 4th grade classroom at White Knoll Elementary School in Lexington. She just graduated from USC in the spring and the school where she was student teaching offered her a job almost immediately! I can't express how proud I am of my "little" sister and amazed at all the work and time she will have to put into her new profession. I must say, I have a new found respect for all teachers out there!




July 24, 2008

Appointment Update - 7/24

Today I had my 26 week appointment with Dr. Keith. I had my blood drawn and it will be tested this afternoon to see if I've developed anemia or gestational diabetes. Hopefully, everything will be fine, but I should know the results tomorrow before noon. Anemia can easily be treated with iron supplements, but I'm really rooting against gestational diabetes because I'm just not ready to give up sugar for the next 3 months!! In other news, I've gained 2.5 pounds since my last visit, my blood pressure was 110/60 and baby's heart was beating about about 135 bpm.

After my check-up I told Dr. Keith about a very severe pain that I've been having on my right side below my ribs. Anyone who has talked to me recently knows that this has been my top complaint for the past several weeks and I've been very uncomfortable due to it. I figured it was either a dislocated rib or simply just pain caused by the pressure of my expanding belly and compression of all my insides. Dr. Keith agreed that since I was short-torsoed that this might just be "growing pains," but she also informed me that pregnant women have a higher tendancy to develop gall stones or have gall bladder attacks which would cause similar pain and symptoms. Therefore, she ordered an additional blood test to check for liver function and I've got to check into the hospital Monday morning for a work-up and an ultrasound to check out my gall bladder. If it is discovered that I have a problem, Dr. Keith said that unless it looked really serious, we would wait until after baby is delivered before scheduling surgery to remove my gall bladder. So it looks like I'm going to be dealing with this excrutiating pain for the next 3 months either way!

I'll be sure to update everyone after I hear back from all my results!

July 21, 2008

Baby furniture is ordered!


We finally went to Babies R Us yesterday and ordered all of our baby furniture and our glider. Much to our surprise, it should arrive in about 2 weeks and we can finally start setting up the nursery! We bought the 4-in-1 convertible crib, combo unit and dresser from the Sorelle Vicki Collection. The turtle bedding arrived last week so I can't wait to finally see it in the crib. We should hopefully have the nursery set up almost completely by the end of August and I'm looking forward to posting pictures once it's done. Here's a picture of the crib we ordered, I couldn't find the other pieces online, but will post pictures once everything comes in and we get it all assembled!

July 17, 2008

Our trip to the VI's

Ryan and I are both going through vacation withdrawl now that we're back in Greenville, but I guess we had to get back to reality sooner or later! After a LOOONG day of travel, we made it back Tuesday night around 10pm. In order to leave our resort on St. John we had to take a 45 min. ferry boat ride to St. Thomas, a 10 min. taxi to the airport (where we had to check in 3 hours before take off!!!), a 4 hour plane ride to Atlanta (with a 1 hr. layover), and finally a 45 min. plane ride to GSP. Needless to say, we were both exhausted when we finally got home and I had the worst backache I think I've ever had!

Long, miserable travel aside, we had an amazing time on our trip and I think it was exactly what the both of us needed. On Friday after we arrived we booked a chartered boat trip to the British Virgin Islands and got to visit Tortola, the Baths at Virgin Gorda, and we snorkeled the caves of Treasure Island (aka Norman Island). The Baths, for those of you who don't know, is the name for a part of the shoreline on Virgin Gorda where huge boulders are strewn across the beach forming natural pools, grottos and caves. They say these boulders are the result from the once volcanic origin of the island and are a naturally occuring tourist attraction. It took us about an hour to navigate our way through the unmarked trail and see this really amazing scenery.

Our final stop on the BVI boat tour was to Norman Island, which the locals also refer to as Treasure Island because of the many legends of pirates and buried treasure. In fact, it is believed that the classic book Treasure Island was inspired by this island and its infamous pirate tales. While we didn't actually set foot on the island, we snorkeled around the perimeter and through 3 of its naturally occuring caves. We saw so many beautiful fish (my favorite being the Rainbow fish) and even got to swim with 2 local barracudas named Norman and Barry.

While the BVI tour was fun and interesting, we decided to take the rest of our vacation and just relax! We rented a car and toured many of the local beaches, Ryan did a lot of snorkeling while I swam in the beautiful waters and sat on the beaches and caught up on some reading. We saw a baby shark, tons of conchs, a sting ray, an octopus, a sea turtle, sea urchins, and a bunch of brightly colored fish while wading through the waters. Seeing many of these sea creatures within arms length is enough to make you a little nervous, but they generally keep their distance and are pretty wary themselves of the people swimming.

On our last day in St. John we decided to just stay at the resort and hang out by the pool. Little did we know, that same day many brave iguanas decided to also hang out by the pool in search of a few snacks! Ryan and I were both relaxing in our beach chairs, reading, when the biggest iguana we'd seen jumped on the back of Ryan's chair scaring him right out of his seat!! Iguanas are harmless and very interesting creatures, but these were pretty sneaky and abnormally friendly! An informed guest told us they love hibiscus flowers so Ryan picked a few from a nearby bush, fed them to the hungry iguana and then shooed him away. I got a cool video of Ryan and the iguana that I will try to post here in a few minutes.

July 9, 2008

Virgin Islands here we come!!!

Ryan an I are totally excited to be leaving Greenville early tomorrow morning and heading for the Virgin Islands where we'll stay at the Westin resort on St. John from Thursday until next Wednesday! We originally booked this trip for the week of August 11th as a 1 year anniversary celebration, but after we learned we were pregnant we had to push it up a few weeks since this kind of travel isn't encouraged after your 30th week. Now we're calling it a anniversary trip/babymoon!!

I can't wait to spend some quality alone time with my wonderful husband on such a quiet and beautiful island like St. John. I know with all the work he's been putting in at the firm lately that he's more than ready for a little rest and relaxation too!! Just pray that, unlike our honeymoon, we won't have any hurricanes threatening our trip, see any tornados as we're about to take off from the airport, and that no one passes out on the plane!! :)

Appointment Update - 7/9

I just got back from my 24 week appointment and nothing really new or exciting to report! I've gained 15 lbs. so far and should expect to gain about a pound a week from here on out. If I can keep to this, I will end up gaining about 30 lbs. during the whole pregnancy which is exactly what I've been aiming for!

My blood pressure is still normal and Dr. Keith said my numbers look great and she's very happy with my progress so far. Baby's heartbeat was 135-140 bpm and my belly measured 26 centimeters. I'm measuring a little big right now, but she said 1-2 centimeters off is normal. If my belly starts to get 3-4 centimeters off or more, that means baby is growing fast and getting big and we may have to look into adjusting my due date. Hopefully, though, I'll stay in the normal range since right now baby is due on a Clemson off weekend!! :)

Finally, Dr. Keith gave me a glucose solution drink to take home and I have to drink it 1 hour before my next appointment in 2 weeks. I'll then have my blood drawn and it will be tested to see if I've developed Gestational Diabetes or Anemia. She suspects everything is fine, but they run these tests for every pregnancy just to make sure.

July 3, 2008

And the winner is...

We've decided to go with the Mod Turtle theme from USA Baby for our nursery! We just bought everything but the pillows and rug and it should be delivered in less than 8 weeks. I can't wait to get started on our nursery now...I guess we should go ahead and order our crib and changing table now!!

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