Dylan's Sprinkle

Chadmo, Dylan, & Me (31 weeks pregnant) - posing next to the delicious & adorable carrot cake!

Some of the many onesie decorators at the party - we like to use our guests as slave labor to make our children's clothes! ;) Susie Klingelhafer & Kelly's fiance Jesse tied for first place in the decorating competition!

All of the decorated onesies & burp cloths on the clothesline after the party - Dylan will be well dressed!

A sample of some of the hand-decorated onesies. From right to left, these were made by: Poppy, Jess Steinbrink, & Tom Steinbrink. Tom's also had a Bob Dylan quote, "The times they are a changin'" stenciled over the butt - too clever!

Kelly didn't get a chance to make hers till I ran home and got more onesies after the party was over, but it's so cute I have to post it on here too. And this is just the back!

It was a lovely, sunny day filled with fun, friends, and tasty food - thank you so much for the wonderful 'sprinkle' Kelly, Katy, & Mom! And thank you to everyone who came to celebrate Dylan's upcoming arrival with us! :)

1 week recheck

We went in for our 1 week recheck yesterday, after our rather scary appointment last Monday, and our hopes and prayers were answered as we received all good news! Also, Dylan gained 1/2 a pound in 1 week and is up to 3 pounds & 9 ounces now!

Last week my amniotic fluid level had been 7.3, and this week it was back up to 10.5! Dr. Copeland told us this week (thank goodness he didn't tell us this last week), that an amniotic fluid level between 1-5 means you need to plan to deliver ASAP, between 5-10 means you're in a grey zone and need to be watching it like a hawk, and 10-25+ is within normal limits. He said ideally he likes to see numbers around 18, but 10.5 is at least back within the normal range even if it is very low normal. On a fun side note: the ultrasonographer who did my recheck yesterday was my favorite tech, and she did a brief 3-D ultrasound for us which was really cool. Unfortunately Dylan's umbilical cord is hanging out pretty much right in front of her face, so it made it hard to get a good clear picture of her face on the 3-D, but we got a glimpse anyway which was really fun to see! She's so cute already! :)

Dylan's non-stress test looked perfect again this time, like it did last time. She is a kicky, busy, rolly-polly loch ness monster! It's fun to get to listen to her heartbeat and all her movements for 20 minutes while they run the test. I know I can feel her moving all the time, but it's just cool to get to actually hear her moving around in there too, and hear how her heartbeat accelerates when she moves around - just like it's supposed to. They also managed to catch one of my contractions on the monitor during the NST, and her heart rate went up during my contraction which is good too they said. They just don't want her heart rate to go down when I contract, so that's good to know that she's tolerating my contractions well too.

As for my cervix, last Monday it was 25 mm long when I was relaxed and 21 mm long with pressure. This week it's still 25 mm long, but won't shorten to less than 24-23 with pressure. YAY! So in short: my fluid is better, though still low normal; my cervix is better, though still just 'okay'; and Dylan is still a very happy baby in her environment. All of this was good enough news so that we don't have to go back in for a recheck for 2 weeks now and Dr. Copeland seemed very relieved! I'm still supposed to be taking it easy and drinking lots of fluids, but I'm allowed to do a little bit more now, so long as I'm careful. Basically, if I'm doing something and I start having any Braxton-Hicks, then I just need to quit right away and go be a lazy lump again. So at least now I won't feel like a terrible mother if I attempt to do a load of laundry or make some dinner (though of course maybe I'll have to quit half way through, poor Chadmo.) Baby steps, but we're incredibly happy that we are better this week than we were last week!

29 weeks - 3 pounds 1 ounce Dylan!

Forrest Fluff-Pants, taking advantage of Dylan and using her as a snuggling perch.

Can you believe it's been over a month since I've posted?? Shame on me, I know, but I've been enjoying a blissfully uneventful pregnancy and haven't really felt that there's been much to post about this last month. (Other than the fact that our little Dylan-roo is a lovely, busy, kick-y baby who we've nicknamed Nesbertina for her Loch Ness Monster type moves!)

Unfortunately our wonderful uneventful pregnancy streak couldn't last, never a boring pregnancy for us I guess. I went in for my OB appointment yesterday (we'd just jumped up to every 2 week appointments), and I told Dr. Copeland that I'd been having a lot of contractions for the past week. Mom & Dad had been on vacation, so I'd been manning the clinic by myself and it's not uncommon when I'm on my feet all day that I'll have a ton of Braxton Hicks. He decided to do a cervical check, and found that the bottom half of my cervix was dilated to 1 cm already. So we went over to ultrasound for a cervical ultrasound, to make sure my cervix isn't getting too short and to confirm that it's only dilated on the lower half, not the upper half too. While we were walking to ultrasound, I asked if they could do a quick belly scan too - just to see how big Miss Dylan's getting.

The cervical ultrasound showed that it was indeed just the lower half of my cervix that had dilated slightly (whew!), and that my cervix is 21-25 mm long - depending on positioning. Dr. C said this is short, but not too short yet, and just something to keep an eye on. During the belly scan Miss Dylan looked great, but the ultrasonographer noted that I had low amniotic fluid surrounding her. After talking to Dr. C, this could be one of four general scenarios: (1) It's just positional (well, actually the ultrasonographer is the one who threw this out there - she said sometimes she scans someone, it looks low, they send them to Riverside to the perinatologists, and on their scan it looks normal.) (2) I had a busy week, on my feet a lot, which can decrease placental blood flow and result in low amniotic fluid. If I stay off my feet for a week, drink a lot of fluids, and be a lazy lump in general, it may be back to normal in a week. (3) It's normal for me - and Dylan's fine with that. So it may still be low when I go back, but as long as it's not lower and Dylan's still tolerating it well, we'll just keep a very close eye on it. (4) It's low and might get lower, and even if we can't figure out why, if Dylan doesn't tolerate it or if it gets too low, then that's not good.

I know I've talked a lot about Dylan 'tolerating' the low amniotic fluid, and they test that by doing a non-stress test. Basically I sit in a chair for 20 minutes while they put a fetal heart rate monitor on me (and a contraction monitor), and they look to see how much Dylan moves and also if her heart rate increases appropriately when she is moving. More moving with appropriate heart rate increases = Happy Dylan who likes her environment. Also, they look at her on ultrasound and see how big she is. If she continues to grow well, then she must be happy in her environment. Right now she's in the 57th percentile at 3 pounds and 1 ounce - which Dr. C said is great! He said he would be much more concerned if my fluid was low and she was down in the 10th percentile. Also, on the non-stress test they did yesterday, Dylan did EXCELLENT (nurses words exactly :)). So in short, even though my fluid is low, Dylan is a happy baby - growing well and moving lots. I'm just hoping and praying that she continues like this, and also, lets be honest, that this was just a positional finding and we're all better next week!

With this weeks adventures, we've officially been moved to once a week rechecks, so we'll be making lots of trips to Columbus for what I hope with all of my heart is at least the next 9 weeks! This week Dylan and I are on at-home bed rest with instructions to drink as much fluid as I can, stay off my feet as much as possible, and keep my bladder as empty as possible (if you've ever been pregnant, you realize what an impossible trick that combination is!) We're keeping our fingers (and any other possible body parts) crossed that next Monday brings great news, and that even if we're not allowed to go back to work, that my fluid is better and that Dylan is happy & healthy & bigger!

Happy Father's Day!! (A couple of days late)

One of Dylan-roo's adorable feet, with the heel of her other foot right behind it.

Dylan was chewing on her hand for part of the ultrasound, so this is her profile with her hand up to her mouth. You can also see one knee and her umbilical cord. She's getting too big to fit all of her into one ultrasound view!

These pictures are from our doctor's appointment at OSU on 6/14/11 where we received the best news possible: as far as they can tell prenatally, Dylan's heart is beautiful! This means she definitely does not have HLHS (which we really knew already), along with many other serious heart defects. There are a few smaller things they can't see till after the baby's born, but she looks so normal that she's not even considered high risk anymore and we don't need to go back to OSU again before she's born and she won't need an echo after she's born unless her regular pediatrician is suspicious of something! (Talk about the best Father's Day gift EVER!) Haley's cardiologist, Dr. Wheller - who we adore, was the one who evaluated Dylan's fetal echocardiogram and came to talk to us afterwards. It was really wonderful to see him actually, especially when he was giving us good news this time.

They also did a regular ultrasound while we were there, and our big girl already weighed 1 pound & 5 ounces! Her heart rate was 145 bpm, and the ultrasonographer got an excellent view of her bottom half and said she is 100% sure she's a girl! I guess I just needed someone to be brave enough to tell me '100%', because now I feel like I finally believe it. Of course all we care about is that the baby's healthy, but my OCD self likes to plan and now I can officially think pink. :) In an even more TMI note: they also did a cervical ultrasound while I was there because I have lots of contractions here and there. But everything looked perfect, so they are just braxton hicks so far and hopefully this little girl is in there to stay till late September or early October!

This past weekend was a family-fun filled one. My cousin Joe (my Dad's sister's son) was married on Saturday the 18th in Logan out at Ash Cave, and almost all of the family made it in for the occasion. Aunt Sally & my cousin Martin even made it over from Denmark! (Unfortunately the rest of the Danes couldn't make it.) The wedding was beautiful and it was great to get to see everyone and spend so much time together - it was pretty much a family reunion marathon from Thursday to Sunday! We finished up Sunday afternoon/evening with a relaxing Father's Day at home. Haley & Dylan had a mug made at Snapfish.com for Daddy's present, it had lots of pictures of Haley-bug, one of Dylan-roo's ultrasound pictures, and they even let the cats & dogs have a few picture spots too. :) I made a lasagna for father's day dinner, so Mom & Poppy came over to eat with us. Other than that we lounged about in our pajamas and recuperated from the busy weekend.

We hope you all had a lovely Father's Day weekend & that it was as happy as ours was!

We did it!

We actually managed to have a fun vacation where NOBODY got sick or was injured! Yay!! :D We had a wonderful second half to our week in Florida, a smooth trip home, and here are a few more pictures to share. (They kind of got jumbled out of order, so they jump around a bit from Key Largo and back to Fort Lauderdale.)

Getting ready to head over the bridge from the southern tip of Florida to the first Key - Key Largo.

The Everglades in the Southern tip of Florida, which you drive through for quite a ways on your way down to the Keys. They're pretty boring looking to be perfectly honest, but I still think it would've been fun to take an airboat ride through them. We just ran out of time this trip, but maybe next time!

I think this is the only photo of the two of us together for the whole trip - I guess we should've asked some strangers to take pictures of us on other occasions! But in any case - this one is while we were driving from Miami, where we stayed the night with our friends Kelly & Jon, down to Key Largo.

Chadmo drinking a tasty beer at our favorite restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Flip Flops, on our last night of vacation. This restaurant is right on the Intercoastal Water Way, near a draw bridge, and where big yachts, sailboats, and little boats cruise by all the time. It was so much fun to eat there while the sun was setting!

Dylan & me on the beach in front of our condo in Fort Lauderdale - we did much better with the sun for the second half of our trip. 50 SPF sun block every hour seemed to do the trick!

A poster explaining the replica sunken 'ship wreck' we snorkeled around in Key Largo at John Pennekamp State Park. Basically they sunk a bunch of cannons and an anchor in this bay that you can snorkel in from the beach (no boat ride required), and it's much cooler than the average beach because the sunken stuff attracts all kinds of cool fish. We had a wonderful time snorkeling and decided we have to be sure to spend more time in the Keys on our next trip to Florida!

One of the beaches where we snorkeled at John Pennekamp - this one had the 'ship wreck' mentioned above - it was beautiful!

Eating at Flip Flop's (see, this picture was supposed to be close to the one of Chadmo with the beer, darn blog). Too bad we didn't discover this place till our last night there!

The house we decided Mom & Dad should buy on the ICWW. :)

A sailboat coming through the drawbridge while we were eating dinner. Dad keeps saying he wants a sailboat... ;)

The official dessert of Florida, which we forgot to photograph until the last bite, Key Lime Pie. Yum!

Heavenly...

So the only part of our trip that we totally dropped the ball on photographing was during our trip to Miami to visit Kelly & John. (Shame on me.) We headed down there on Sunday evening, where they took us out to a delicious dinner at a restaurant called Joe's Stone Crab (our favorite restaurant in all of Florida and definitely the fanciest place we went!) They were then kind enough to let us spend the night at their place so we would be closer to the Keys for our trip down there Monday. Their puppy Brutus, who I mentioned in the previous blog, wasn't much of a fan of strangers at first - but he warmed up to us eventually and we had a rousting game of tug and some good snuggles in the morning after his parents left for work and we were still sleeping in a bit. We really had a fun evening with them - a lovely dinner, a tour of South Beach, lots of fun catching up, and their apartment was adorable. Plus I got my much needed puppy fix to tide me over till we got home on Wednesday. :)

We really had a wonderful trip, but we're glad to be home with our poodles and sleeping in our own bed. I love going on vacation, but I love coming home too! (And of course, all of it is made 1,000,000 x more fun with a Dylan-roo kicking away to keep us company. One last tidbit: Dylan had her first case of hiccups while we were in Florida - too cute!)

20 weeks - we're halfway to meeting Dylan! :)

Friday was another beautiful beach day for us! My shoulders were still sunburned, so I camped out under our umbrella and read my book for 4 hours while Chadmo alternately read and swam in the ocean. Friday was a much busier day on the ocean and there were all sorts of fun things to watch - sailboats (see picture below), cruise ships heading out to sea, a constant stream of people on Sea-do's, planes flying low overhead advertising buffets, personal yachts, and either big military boats or fishing boats with little dinghies coming and going from them all day. It made me wish I'd brought binoculars with me! The beach itself was much busier too, and we had a couple with two adorable little girls next to us on the beach all day - the little girls were 5 & 2 and were perhaps two of the happiest, most agreeable little kids I've ever seen. The 2 year old of course made me think of Haley-Bug and how cute she would be on the beach in a swimsuit with a pink ruffle-y butt, and the enjoyment it gave me to think of Haley and what she would be like now definitely outweighed the bittersweet. Since we never got a chance to enjoy those stages first hand, it's hard for me to imagine on my own, but it seems like there have been 2 year old girls following us everywhere on this trip - the seat in front of us on the plane ride down, next to us on the beach, at the table next to ours at dinner - helping us keep an eye on what our little Bug would be doing if she were here with us right now. I'm so thankful we have Dylan with us on this trip, because I know it would be much harder for me to enjoy imaging our Haley-Bug if I didn't have Dylan with me to keep my head up for the present/future too, making it much easier to enjoy the 2 year olds around us as opposed to being saddened by them. If I get to feeling a little bit morose, I get a nice kick from the sweet little Roo in my belly, telling me to snap out of it! :)

Seaweed attacked our beautiful beach on Friday, but luckily for the swimmers it just all seemed to be right where the tide came in. Once they waded out a little ways they were through it and back into lovely, clear water.

My toes, hiding from the sun but enjoying the breeze, salty smell in the air, and the sound of the ocean while I read a good book called "Unwind" by Neal Shusterman.

Apparently Dylan makes me EXTREMELY sensitive to sunlight. This is the kind of sunburn I managed to get from less than 10 minutes in the sun, but apparently I still managed to burn sitting in complete shade for 4 hours. Our only hypothesis is the sun reflecting off the sand, because I was burned much worse on my left side as opposed to my right (Chad was to my right - he's not burned at all and spent hours in the direct sun!) Thank goodness I wore my sunshirt or I hate to think what my shoulders would've turned into. Luckily a pharmacist friend gave me a recipe for sunburn relief: 2 oz distilled water, 2 oz white vinegar, 2 oz hydrogen peroxide, & 9 shakes of salt - apply as needed. It makes you smell a bit like a potato chip or an Easter egg, but it helps better than anything else with the burn and the pain!

Since I'm apparently not safe from the sun even in the shade or with 50 sunblock on (definitely unique to this pregnancy!), we spent a relaxing Saturday indoors. We made rice krispies, went to the mall where I did lots of fun shopping while Chadmo played lots of 'Angry Birds', went to dinner on the Intercostal Water Way and watched yachts, water taxis, and personal boats of all sizes cruise by and go under the drawbridge, and went to the movies.

Today, Sunday, we're hiding from the sun one more day in hopes that tomorrow my skin will be recovered enough that if I put on sunblock every half-hour that we can snorkel while we're in Key Largo at John Pennekamp Beach. Tonight we're meeting up with our friends Kelly & Jon who live in Miami and heading out to dinner in South Beach, which should be lots of fun! They have also graciously agreed to let us spend the night at their place tonight, putting us 45 minutes closer to the Keys for our trip tomorrow. I'm very anxious to head to their place as they have a puppy, Brutus, and I've been going through extreme pet withdrawal on this vacation! Hopefully he likes strangers. :)

Vacation!

Chadmo & I arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on Wednesday evening at around 8:30 pm - we are so happy to be on a relaxing beach vacation! I kept forgetting to post about the fact that we cancelled our Paris trip because we weren't comfortable traveling overseas since I am pregnant (so much better than any vacation! :)), plus I was in the midst of horrible morning sickness during the time that trip was booked. So Ft. Lauderdale is our make-up trip, and I have to say that lounging on the beach seems to be just what the doctor ordered.

Here was our view when we woke up Thursday morning - I literally took this picture from where I was lying in bed! Heaven!

Chadmo relaxing under our beach umbrella on Thursday - our first beach day! Don't mind our paleness, hopefully we'll get a little tan while we're down here. :) (Though even tan for us is still incredibly pale compared to most of the beach bodies we see down here.)

Me (& Dylan) making good use of my maternity swimsuit again - I think it's my absolute favorite article of maternity clothes that I own! It makes me think of days floating on Lake Erie, Salt Fork Lake, Alum Creek, and the Ohio river when I was pregnant with Haley-Bug. Dylan doesn't seem to be as much of a water baby as Haley was - Haley loved it when I was in the bath or floating in a body of water somewhere. Dylan liked it when I was laying out and toasting myself in the warm Florida sun!

Chadmo headed for the crystal clear water - even when we were up to our shoulders we could look down and see our feet plain as day. The water temperature is perfect, we stayed in for about an hour and a half, just floating around, and only got out so we could lounge around and read our books again. 5 hours on the beach reminded me how much more relaxing it is to do nothing when you're not at home with lots of little projects nagging at the back of your mind!

Yesterday evening we headed down to Las Olas Drive for dinner and a cruise through all the cute little shops lining the street. It just happened to be an Art Walk last night from 6 pm - 10 pm too, which was extra fun. We got to go through all the art galleries that were open extra late, there were several street performers out, and of course we hit up the Gelato shop to make a certain Miss Someone happy while we were walking. ;) I discovered a new favorite artist during our gallery explorations - Loet Vanderveen - he makes bronze animal sculptures and his work is amazing, check him out if you get a chance. All in all it was a lovely day and evening!

And here's a little taste of what we have to look forward to with the rest of our week: :)

Forecast Summary - Ft. Lauderdale

TODAY HI: 92

SATURDAY HI: 90 LO: 74

SUNDAY HI: 89 LO: 75

MONDAY HI: 87 LO: 74

TUESDAY HI: 87 LO: 74

WEDNESDAY HI: 87 LO: 74

THURSDAY HI: 87 LO: 74

Love to everyone from Florida!