Red Pencil Diaries

GIRL. I had my ultrasound on Tuesday. We are having a girl! woohoo! We're debating and researching names now. I'll keep you all posted. All is going well with my cerclage--my cervix was long and the transabdominal cerclage is doing its job. The baby looked good and healthy. So I am totally over the moon with excitement! Yay!

Also, my laptop died a horrible death. Motherboard is gone. I lost all my email contacts and address book and then the database for my blog got corrupted (in an unrelated accident) and now I lost all my links (sites I link to) that were in the right-hand nav. So... my friends who read this. Email me. Send me your email addresses. And send me links to your blogs so that I may fix my links list! Thank you for your help.

I'm back. Just over a week ago, I accidentally knocked my iBook off the back of the couch. It died. Horribly. Dave ordered a part thinking he could fix it (for the 6th time), but alas, the motherboard or logic board is dead, and replacements for either of them are expensive. My iBook was 5 years old. I LOVED it. I miss it. Dave felt sorry for me (or, he got annoyed with me using his PC), so he built me a monster PC which perches precariously on my tiny desk (I didn't need a big desk--I HAD a laptop!) with the keyboard hanging off the edge. It runs Linux (I loved my Mac b/c it wasn't a Windows-based machine). So far, it's doing pretty good. We'll see. I do have issues with it--I can't sit on the couch Indian style and browse eBay while watching Zack watch Blues Clues. *sigh* So I won't be online as much, I guess.

Tomorrow, we have our ultrasound  to (hopefully) find out the sex of the baby. I'm terribly nervous. And excited. I will try to post tomorrow any news we receive. They will also be checking my cervical length to be sure the transabdominal cerclage is holding up. I'm feeling a lot better--but my stomach muscles still aren't quite what they used to be. Could take awhile to totally heal, but by then, they will just open me up again for a c-section. My OB says that I will be 37 weeks around May 29. They will do an amnio then and if the lungs of the baby are mature enough, I will have my c-section sometime the first week of June--or I will have a c-section by June 7 at the latest. So... my due date is June 22, or June 17, depending on which doctor you go by. But even so, I guess this one will be born in early June. My nephew Evan's birthday is June 2, and my nephew Tommy's birthday is June 7. Could be born on either. Or, on its own day. But either way, I'm sure we'll celebrate all 3 birthdays together.

Zack is doing great. He just made me a huge tower out of these velcro-like blocks and is pulling me away from the computer. So I must go play blocks. I'll post again soon. Oh, and another thing, has anyone (who reads this) tried to post a comment to my blog lately? I've been getting strange comment error messages and no comments, so I think it's broken. If you've tried to comment and it didn't show up, email me. Thanks.

So I haven't driven my car in about 3 weeks. My doctor said I should wait around 4 weeks--or until I could slam on the brakes without hesitation. I think I'm ready... to try. I'm feeling pretty good. Not really pain anymore so much as just some discomfort when I move certain ways. I've practiced stomping my foot down while sitting here in my chair. It seems ok... no pain that I can tell. It just feels weird to drive after sitting it out for so long.

My only hesitation is that if I go out, I have to take Zack. And I can't lift him. Maybe we'll just cruise up to the drive-thru somewhere and get a treat later. Just to try it out. I think I'll do fine. I've felt really cooped up here at home. No one visits me, and I don't get out much. So it's mostly me and Zack hanging around. Talk about bored! Total cabin fever.

My OB told me now that she would prefer to do my c-section with the bikini incision (cross-ways along the bikini line). My current scar is a HUGE vertical incision. My doctor in Indy said he needed to do a vertical b/c of the shape of my abdomen--that would give him best access to my uterus. So if I get a horizontal c-section later, I'll have some sort of weird cross scar pattern on my belly. GREEEEEAAAAT. Dave says it'll be like a target... in the crosshairs. Told me I could get a tattoo over it so it would look cool. I'm not one to be too vain--the horizontal incisions heal faster and are supposedly less painful than the vertical ones. So I'm all for that. But... more scars... I was hoping they could use the same incision scar for both surgeries. But this one is taking so long to heal... I think I'm leaning toward the horizontal incision. Decisions.. incisions...

This morning I got my staples removed from my incision! Yay! No more snagging on my panties or my pants or my blankets when I sleep. I have a nice pink scar. But overall, I'm healing nicely. This transabdominal cerclage seems to be working out well. The next few weeks will probably be the most important. I've had issues with my incompetent cervix at around 18 weeks to 22 weeks or so with my previous pregnancies. So I'm trying to take it easy and not do too much until I make it through my "safe dates" and then maybe I'll feel better.

Dave is back at work today. He went in late b/c we had to go get the staples removed. So it's just me and Zack here this afternoon--for the first time in weeks. It feels odd since I've relied on Dave so much lately. I still can't pick Zack up, but he's really more independent now and can climb up on the big ottoman for diaper changes and stuff. My little baby is growing up!   Another week, and I can (hopefully) drive my car again. But I doubt Zack and I will be making too many trips out. I can't pick him up to put him in a cart at the store or anything. But it will be nice to get out once in awhile.

I haven't made any resolutions this year. I do plan on taking things easy during this pregnancy and delivering a healthy baby. And once the baby is born, I'm going to get right back on that horse and lose the rest of the weight I was planning on losing. But that seems so far off in the future. I've got almost 6 more months until the baby comes. I guess my "weight loss" resolution is more of a "half year-point" resolution.