I felt her kick!

Yesterday Riley was super active.

Last night Shelly said "Get over her. I swear you can feel her." We tried, but no luck.

Later in bed Shelly said, "Give me your hand, she's being crazy again, I know if you focus you can feel her." I sat there with my hand on her belly, focusing, trying to feel something. I had no idea what to really be focusing on. Then, all of a sudden, BAM. A swift kick to the palm of my hand. And then I cried. What an amazing, amazing feeling. To feel the life that is growing inside Shelly's belly. Wow!

I then kept trying to "focus" so I could feel her again. She kept squirming and Shelly could feel her but I couldn't. I may have felt her one other time but nothing like that initial kick, or head butt, or maybe she just decided to poke her little bum up in the air. Whatever it was, I FELT IT! She's there. Our sweet little baby girl is there! What an amazing miracle we are experiencing!

Fiesty Little Girl

Yesterday Shelly didn't feel well. She had a lot of sinus pressure and headache. Riley must not have felt well either because she wasn't super active. She (Riley) usually perks up in the evening. We think it's because I'm home from work and she can hear me reading, talking, playing with the dogs, etc. During the day it's pretty quite at home. But watch out, when I'm home it's a little chaotic. Even when I got home last night she was still pretty mellow even with me laughing, singing, and yacking through American Idol. If my singing can't stir her nothing will! So, anytime she's not super active, we comfort ourselves by listening to her heart beat with the doppler. What a feisty little thing! I immediately found her heartbeat. Nice and strong. She immediately moved away. I found it again. She moved. This happened three times. Then for the next two hours she took out her frustrations on her Momma Shelly. Almost as if she said, "Fine, you wanted to feel me, here I am! Bam, bam, bam." What a little pill! But we love it!

Pregnancy Looking Good

We has an OB appointment yesterday and all is going well. The doctor is really pleased with how Shelly is doing and feels more optimistic about how the pregnancy is going. We just love our OB. She is very open, patient, and spends a lot of time with us. We are so lucky to have found her.

Shelly is measuring right where she should for 21 weeks. She lost a pound since last month. Not sure how that happened since she wants to eat every two hours. Riley must be taking everything. So far, half way through the pregnancy, she is down a total of 4 pounds. Which is good. The doctor only wants her to gain about 10 pounds.

There was a little protein in her urine but nothing to be worried about at this point. Shelly's Blood Pressure was good. The baby's heart beat was good at 140.

We love getting good check-ups!

Our next appointment is the Fetal Echo Cardiogram on the 7th.

Popped!

Seriously, Shelly has popped overnight! We couldn't believe how pregnant she looked yesterday. Riley must be packin' on the ounces. (Wouldn't be nice if we just packed on ounces not pounds.) I wish she'd let me take a belly picture but she's just to modest/shy. We have an OB appointment today so it will be interesting to see if she has officially started to gain any weight. I'll post an update after our appointment.

On another note it's FREEZING here! Right now it's 2 degrees. Yesterday my car windows seriously frosted up on my way to work! The heater just wasn't getting the Land Cruiser warm enough. Today I'll let the Cruiser really warm up before I leave.

More to come later today.

21 Weeks Today

We're 21 weeks pregnant today. Every week is another hurdle crossed.



Here's an update on how Riley is doing:



Today is day number 149.

Riley's age since conception is 135 days or 19 weeks.



There are 133 days until Riley's due date.



Lenght is now measured crown to heel. She measures about 10.51 inches and weighs nearly 12.7 ounces.



Our beautiful little miracle-gro baby will be putting on a full ounce and a half this week (up to 16.5 oz), but that's just the beginning! Within the next five weeks, she'll really be packin' it on!



This week brings the addition of rapid eye movement (REM), a key component to any baby's healthy sleep schedule.



In the dermatology department her thin soft skin is very red, fairly translucent, and a bit wrinkled. Not to worry, it's not a premature aging disease. It's just her clever little body setting her up with extra space that will smooth out once she starts packing on the baby-fat. That won't be for a few more weeks though. So for the time being, our munchkin is still a lean mean growing machine.



The beginnings of what is commonly called "brown fat" is just starting to fill in to help Riley retain some body heat, which is crucial as she's not yet capable of regulating her own body temperature.



Riley's tongue is fully formed. If we were able to peek we might catch her practicing giving us a rasberry!



She swallows more this week. After she takes in amniotic fluid her body absorbs the water in the liquid and moves the rest in the large bowel. This is good practice for her digestive system.



Wake and sleep periods become more consistent. Some research sugggests that she sets her internal clock to match the outside world's even before birth! Shelly's eating and sleeping habits, as well as levels of light and noise serve as her signals.

Riley's Update

Today we had an Ultrasound to check on Riley. The Cystic Hygroma is the same size. This is good news. We don't want to see it getting any larger. Of course we'd love to see it get smaller but we're also okay with it remaining the same.

The Hygroma sits more on her shoulder towards the back of her neck. That is better then sitting right on the back of her neck. They did not see any other "bad" fluid anywhere such as the heart, brain, kidneys, etc. That's a great sign and something we need to see at each Ultrasound. If fluid becomes present in other parts of her body it's called Hydrops which can become fatal.

We are scheduled for a Fetal Echo Cardiogram on February 7th. As far as they can tell her heart looks good and don't expect the Fetal Cardiologist to see anything different. It doesn't hurt to double check though.

So what does this all mean? It means it's going to be a long five months. We'll have Ultrasounds every three to four weeks where they'll check the Hygroma, her heart, kidney's and monitor her growth. At each visit we want to see the Hygroma either staying the same size or decreasing in size. We also want to make sure there is no other fluid appearing near any major organs. She also needs to growing and her heart to stay strong.

When we started this journey, just two weeks ago, they gave us about a 10% chance of Riley surviving the pregnancy. Now she's at at least 80% which is wonderful. A normal pregnancy is 97%. So things are looking up. We should continue to move forward with guarded optimism but we definitely have more hope.

We asked them how often they, Maternal Fetal Medicine, see a Cystic Hygroma. Believe it or not it's once a month! Most cases are chromosomal and result in a terminated pregnancy or fetal demise. Luckily we're in the other category of non-chromosomal. It was amazing that they see it that often.

Finally, Riley continues to be feisty. Again, she didn't want to cooperate. She likes to hug the placenta or uterine wall. She does not like posing for pictures at all. I'm sure it's just an indicator of what's to come. And we can't wait!

Another Hurdle Crossed

Today we received the final results from the Amniocentesus. Good news! Riley DOES NOT have any chromosomal abnormalities! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!

We're now scheduled for an Ultrasound this Friday morning. They'll check to see if the Cystic Hygroma is decreasing, increasing, or the same size. We'll most likely be scheduled for a Fetal Echocardiogram in the coming weeks to check her heart.

Riley's been very active the past couple of days. I think she's making sure we know she's fighting this and that all is going to be okay.

So, again, GOOD NEWS! We're not out of the woods yet but at least we're on the trail!