28 Weeks: Bed Rest Day 56

Hello Third Trimester!!!! I sure hope to know you longer this time than I did with Emoree. Can I ask for 9 more weeks? :o) It is crazy hot outside today!! 97 degrees.. heat index 102. Normally I love the heat and will spend the day in the pool getting sun... but being pregnant if it's over 90 degrees after an hour I'm done. Maybe I will go back out later.

First I am going to give an Emoree update! Yesterday she had 4" cut off of her hair! She has had plenty of haircuts, but this was by far the most drastic. It is now shoulder length and easier to brush and maintain.. since she hates having her hair brushed and she swims all summer. I am letting her bangs grow out. She had her 4 year well visit yesterday at the pediatrican, and she weighs 48.9lbs and is 41.75" tall!!!! She is a big girl! She is in the 95th percentile for height and weight. She had 4 vaccines (MMR, chicken pox, tetanus, and dTap or polio?) yesterday and I was told she is good on vaccines now until she is 11 years old! Unfortunately all last night and today she has had a bad fever and chills... hoping this is gone by tomorrow :(

Also while we were at Emoree's pediatrican appointment yesterday, we talked to the pedi about Anya. I am very happy to hear that she currently has two patients with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, and she trained under one of the doctors who was part of creating the Norwood (1st) surgery that Anya will have, so she is very knowledgable and comfortable with handling Anya's diagnosis. She also said if we have any issues after hours once Anya is home, we will have direct phone access to her, and we won't have to use the after hours messaging on call system. Big relief! She also said even though she isn't connected with UMMC, to call her when I am in labor or when Anya is born because she will make a trip over to UMMC to check in on her.

Monday I had my 27-28 week OB appointment. All went well except my OB told me I do have gestational diabetes :( I've been testing my blood sugar for two weeks 4x a day, and she said half of my numbers are too high and that I need to go to diabetic nutritional counseling (scheduled July 2nd) and continue to keep track of my blood sugar levels, and that if they continue to be high she will put me on meds :( Next OB appt scheduled for July 2nd right after the nutrition appointment.

Today I had my cervix check, which measured 2.0-2.3cm! Still holding stable ;) They told me they will probably measure my cervix for 2 more weeks just to make sure it stays stable. They also printed me 4 pictures today, Anya was semi-cooperative :) I got to see the fetal cardiologist again today too, she wanted to make sure she saw me because she was going out of town for two weeks. The tech was asking her a lot of questions about what she was scanning and Anya's specific defect, so I got to learn a lot more too... apparantly she really IS more stable now than she was when she was first diagnosed. The fetal cardiologist said that Anya was alot more critical when first diagnosed because her PFO was closed / nearly closed and she had a lot more pressure in her arteries than she does now. Now her PFO looks okay, which alleviated pressure. It was good to hear :) The tech also asked about the surgeries, her aorta, and the left side of her heart, and the fetal cardiologist said the surgeries rework the "plumbing", but they can't fix the left side of the heart, which I already knew. She doesn't have a left aorta, because there is no blood flow in the left so the aorta never formed.

At the end of last week I made Anya a 0-3 month size elf hat, its more of a photography prop than anything, I love it :)

This is something quick I made, a thick newborn loom hat :) Emoree likes it and wants one of her own, I started it but I need to get more yarn to finish it.

Not crochet, but special none the less :) I made this to hang on the front of Anya's NICU isolette <3

My current in progress projects are Emoree's big sister present, and a gift for someone else.

Something else special... I have lined up a professional photographer from Heartlove Photography to take pictures of Anya in the NICU before her first surgery. This is something special that I really want to do. Heartlove Photography is affiliated with the NILMDTS organization (among others), they are an organization that has professional photographers signed up with them to take portraits of critical ill and bereavement photos of infants in NICUs at no cost. I am familiar with this organization from back when I used to stalk pro photography forums when I was first learning how to use my camera, I just never thought I'd have a reason to use it... but anyway she emailed me back right away and said to keep her updated, and to let her know when she is born so she can come do photos for me, because I want them done before her first surgery.

28 Weeks: 197.6 lbs (+ 9 lbs!)