The Cathcarts

Pregnancy Ticker

Well, I’m almost 30 weeks and can’t believe it.  I feel really good; I can’t complain, but I do every now and then.  Other than having a hard time breathing and hate picking things up off of the floor, I’m doing well.  The official induction date will be Jan. 5th, unless my favorite midwife is on a day or two after that, then I may choose to delay it until then, we’ll just see. 

29 weeks

I can’t believe that I’m already 25 weeks along in this pregnancy.  That means that I am nearing the third trimester.  Holy Cow, where does the time go?!!  I’m feeling really well so far.  I still have a lot of energy; however, this past week breathing has become an issue.  I find myself out of breath with the littlest tasks, which also makes chasing after Jaxson a little more difficult too.  We have started working on the room switching that will be going on.  We got the office/spare bedroom cleaned out.  We just need to put the ceiling fan up and do a little touch up painting and then Jaxson will be moving into there.  Then we will be throwing the nursery back together the same way it was with Jaxson, just with a different name on the wall, which by the way is probably going to be Holden.  I found the name Holden one night while searching thousands of names on the internet and brought it up to Brad.  Surprisingly enough, he had thought of the name also and liked it.  I like it because it’s different and you really can’t shorten it any way to make a nickname. 

Dr. Hoegh called me at home today to talk about my situation and whether I should do a C-section or natural birth and what would be the safest for me.  First of all, I have to say how impressed I am with him.  I’ve only heard good things about him before, but now I love him myself.  After reading through my chart, he decided that we could probably discuss everything over the phone, rather than me coming in for an actual appointment.  I didn’t even think that doctor’s did this anymore.  This saved me a copay, a trip to Ankeny, and having to find a sitter for Jaxson.  Triple bonus!!!  So his recommendations were that I get another ultrasound at 37 weeks to see how big this baby is.  If they think he is going to be >9 lbs at full term, then he recommends just doing a C-section to prevent a reoccurance of my last delivery.  Now if I was a betting woman, I would not bet that this child will be 9 lbs or bigger.  So I hope to go with option #2.  If he is <9 lbs, then he recommends doing an induction no later than 39 weeks with an epidural.  This would allow us to have more control over the situation and the epidural would hopefully make things go a little slower than they did last time.  I feel really good about his advice because it is giving us a little more control over things than we had last time; however, I was eight days early with Jaxson, so who’s to say that I don’t go eight or ten days early with this one, which then puts the plans for an induction out the window.  If I could hold out until the induction date, it would also calm my fears about what we are going to do with Jaxson.  With an induction date and time set, I could have somebody arranged to come stay with him, instead of calling someone at the last minute, while in labor, and hoping that we can still get to the hospital on time.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Oh, the excitement is never ending.

Yep, we’re having another boy!!  This child sure had me fooled.  I thought for sure it was going to be a girl since it’s been quite different from Jaxson.  At the ultrasound today the heart rate was 164, which is pretty high.  Usually when it’s a higher heart rate it tends to be a girl and boys are lower.  Jaxson followed that rule to the T with his always being 130’s-140’s.  So I told the ultrasound tech that I had been thinking it was a girl because of the high heart rate and she said, "Well, it just depends on how active they are.  This one must be more active."  Excuse me??!!!  They don’t come much more active than Jaxson was.  Oh well, we’re just happy that everything looked good and we’re right on track for a January baby.  Now all we need is a name.  We like Brooks, but neither one of us is set on it, so we are open to any cool names that you might have.  My favorite is Preston, but there’s a story that goes with that and I don’t know if Brad really cares for it.  No matter what, the middle name is going to be Winter.  So leave me a comment with your name ideas. 

WOW, I can’t believe that I am 18 weeks along in my pregnancy already!  That means that I am almost half done.  I went and saw my midwife today and she said that things are looking great.  The heart rate is in the high 150’s-160’s, so I am still thinking that this one is a girl.  Let’s just say that I will be very shocked if at my ultrasound in two weeks that they tell me this is a boy.  I was 95% sure with Jaxson and it wasn’t even a surprise to me when they told me I was having a boy; it was like I had already known.  So now that I know the day of when we will find out, I am getting very anxious/excited. Trust me, we’ll keep you posted.

18 weeks prego

When I was pregnant with Jaxson, I bought a "Before Baby Arrives" book that I could write everything down about my pregnancy.  I was looking through it the other night and I noticed that pretty much every page is filled in, every question is answered, and a picture is placed where there is a spot for one.  Yeah, for this child, not so much.  So, for now, I’m going to use the blog to record all of my information.  You are more than welcome to skip over this part if it doesn’t interest you.  Today I had my second OB appointment and got to meet Susan.  She is a midwife in the group that joined after I had Jaxson, so I just have not had the opportunity to meet her yet.  She was very kind and knowledgable.  We talked about something that has been on my mind a lot lately. . . C-section vs natural.  At my last appointment, Pam brought up the option of scheduling me for a c-section with the way that my delivery went last time.  Now, don’t get me wrong, my labor and delivery were a piece of cake and I wouldn’t have had it any other way; however, it was the post delivery that sucked!!  Having had to have surgery anyways and four units of blood was not an easy recovery.  So after my last appointment I came home and started to really thinking about it.  Would it be safer to do a c-section?  Easier recovery than last time?  Less damage than natural?  I didn’t know, so I’ve talked to my friends to get their opinions and I had Natasha, who works with OB’s, ask one of them what they recommend.  They said that they wouldn’t recommend a CS unless I really wanted one.  Today, Susan said that she would recommend starting the natural route and having the surgeon on standby if needed.  OK, I’m satisfied with that since that seems to be the consensus among the professionals (Belinda, you can also chime in here).  It was also reassuring that if I did change my mind anytime throughout the pregnancy, that I can still stick with the midwives the whole time and just meet up with an OB at 36 weeks for a later CS.  This sounds good to me.   On to more exciting things, the baby’s heartrate was in the high 150’s and I gained another two lbs for a total of five lbs so far.  Not to shabby considering that’s already better than what I had gained by this time with Jaxson.  We’ll see how long I continue to post my weight gain. 

In other news today, we took Steve and Kris to the airport this morning so that they could jet off to North Carolina to see their good friends Nels and Cindy Lindquist.  We hope that they have safe travels and we’ll see them on Sunday.   

Well, I am nearing the end of my first trimester. . . already.  I can’t believe it because pretty much throughout the day, I forget that I’m pregnant.  This time I am so busy with an almost three year old and trying to keep up with the house (or not) that I don’t have time to dwell on this pregnancy like the first one.  I still feel pretty good most of the time.  I have to make sure that I keep something in my stomach or I do feel sick very fast.  I also feel that the moodiness is getting a little better, although maybe Brad should be the judge on that one.  I am also looking forward to my energy level returning, which it should in the coming weeks. . .hopefully. 

12 weeks pregnant with Baby Cathcart #2

12 weeks prego with Jaxson

That’s right, you guessed it!!  We’re expecting!  I had my first appointment with the midwives today and we heard the heartbeat, which was in the 160’s.  I am 10 1/2 weeks and due on Jan. 12th, although I’m hoping for a 2009 baby.  If I had to guess, I’m guessing that this one is a girl because this pregnancy has been so different than my pregnancy with Jaxson.  I have been nauseous quite a bit, but it’s only when I get hungry.  I didn’t have any nausea with Jaxson.  My hair has also been falling out, which is the opposite with Jaxson.  I have also been very moody!!!  If you don’t believe me just ask Brad, he’ll tell you.  Jaxson might too   My appointment with my midwife, Pam, went well.  She was the one that delivered Jaxson.  We laughed about my delivery with Jaxson and she joked that she was going to take spring break very early this year so that she wouldn’t be on call when I go into labor.  We’ll see if she could be so lucky.  We are very excited about the pregnancy and Jaxson is too.  He is hoping for a baby sister.  It is so cute when you ask him what he wants. He says, "Jaxson want baby sister like Miah has Amisha."  He will be such a good brother because he loves babies and is so good with them.  So now you will have to get used to seeing belly pictures again.  With this being the second child, who knows if they’ll get a baby book and all of the documentation that Jaxson’s pregnancy did, so the blog might just be this kid’s baby book. 

I had my 38 week appt. today and everything went very well.  I was able to avoid a lecture from my midwife since I brought my hemoglobin up 1 whole gram in just 2 weeks from 9.9 to 10.9, which is very good for you non-medical people, which means that I should now be able to avoid a blood transfusion after delivery.  She also pointed out to me that I was having a contraction during my appt and I guess I didn’t even know it.  She said that I am probably having so many contractions that I am used to it and don’t even realize it.  So I guess that’s a good thing.  Everything is going as planned and hopefully I won’t have to go to my 39 week appt. next Wed. Stay tuned for Jaxson news.