Baby Bean Update

Baby Johnathan's left eye and nose hidden behind the placenta and his hand. Such a camera shy little boy!

Well we are now 34 weeks and 5 days a cookin' and baby JJ is looking great. He is measuring in around 5lbs and looks as happy as a clam all scrunched up in my tummy. Of course as we all know from past experience this baby boy does not like his picture taken and refused any good shot of his face. His head is down and facing my back which is a good thing come delivery.

Now for the  bad news, looks like my blood pressure is still elevated. It's not HIGH but it's not looking good. Meaning about the same as it was at this time with Johanna. I'm at the disappointed stage right now, it seems I'm just one of the 5-10% who 'randomly' comes down with pregnancy induced high blood pressure. Go figure. The Doctor that I saw today says really there is nothing that I'm doing/did/or can do. I'm going to stay clear of sodium and drink plenty of water. I'm confused about exercise- I mean I thought I was supposed to be walking and keeping active, but now I'm not so sure. Should I be limiting my activity and spending most of my time with my feet up?? These are questions I'll be asking my Doctor tomorrow since he wants to see me now instead of next week. I've scheduled a weekly appointment for a bio-stress test of baby JJ up until my due date and now I will play the wait and see game. If anyone has any advice on how to lower my blood pressure I'd greatly take it! However, I am pretty much facing the fact that maybe my body doesn't like to keep babies past 38 weeks. Considering Johanna came out fine and dandy you'd think I'd be fine with this. In a way, I am. I shouldn't say fine- more come to terms. Except there is that one small thing lingering in the back of my mind---oh yeah I can't have an epidural! (Titanium and scar tissue from a back injury exactly where they place the needle, anesthesiologist won't do it.) I can't compare it to a natural delivery but after three rounds of citotec, 6 hours of pitocin induced super strong-no breaks-never-having-another-baby contractions, then two hours of pushing I was really hoping to avoid this route. Ugh. God give me strength. I know I can do it but this just wasn't what I was wanting. Prayers please for peace of mind and maybe a miracle :)

HOWEVER...

We do have good news! As most of you know from facebook Johanna made a trip to the Children's Hospital for her one year follow up appointment for her vesicoureteral reflux. She had an ultrasound done and a VCUG. Poor baby was such a trooper and did so well. I was able to stand by her side while they inserted the catheter and boy was it sad watching her cry. I had to leave the room while they did the procedure since x-rays were involved but luckily Jeff was able to stand by her side and hold her hand. She cried the entire time until we got her into the car and were completely out of sight from the hospital. For being such a brave girl she got a milkshake on the way home but only had a few sips before she past out from pure exhaustion I'm sure. My poor little girl will most likely always be afraid of the Doctors now :( Today we met with her Urologist who gave us the clean bill of health- no more reflux! We've stopped her antibiotic and officially said goodbye and good riddance to the Pediatric Urology department.