Clearing my head.

UGH.

Some background info: at my anatomy scan during my 20th week the doctor I saw afterward told me Mara's head was measuring a little small so he was ordering another ultrasound to check on everything 6 weeks from that date.  He also told me not to worry.

Fast forward to December 23, 6 weeks later.  I have my ultrasound at 8 AM and then have to return at 1 PM for my glucose screening.  At the ultrasound the tech asked me if my due date was still March 26 and I confirmed that.  She told me baby was measuring 25w6d but I was 26w5d.  I had an appointment with one of the midwives at the practice after I drank the glucose solution and I told her I had an ultrasound that morning.  She pulled it up on her computer and looked at it and told me her head still measured small but it was fine.  The rest of her was "on track" and her head was bringing her down to the 43rd percentile (I think).  I told her my dad's side of the family had smaller heads (nothing abnormal looking) and she made a note of it in her computer and basically told me that was what was causing it (I guess I should have known she would actually not be able to know that).

Anyway, the day after Christmas I get a phone call around 11 AM from a nurse at the OB office telling me I failed my glucose screening with a super high number, 191.  She told me she was mailing out orders for me to take the 3 hour glucose tolerance test at Mercy Anderson.  After that phone call I was extremely upset.  I never failed the first round of glucose testing with Eli and I felt very worried. Not even half an hour later I get another call from the office from the same lady telling me that the head OB has orders for me to get a level II ultrasound at Bethesda North because Mara's head is measuring small.  No other info.  At this point I am crying because I have never heard anything good from people who had to have a level II ultrasound.  She gave me directions and a number to call to preregister.  My appointment would be January 2.

About an hour later after I fell down the rabbit hole of googling the issue, I called back the nurse because I wanted to ask for her head measurements and find out how far behind her head was measuring.  I was really hoping to talk to the doctor who gave the orders for the level II but she told me he had left for the day.  She was really not able to give me any satisfying information.  She told me the tech had not put any info on how far behind the head was but that she had made a note it was less than 3% off target.  What does that even mean?  The nurse also told me she did not know how to read ultrasounds.  Fair, but not helpful.  So that was Friday and I couldn't do anything about anything until today.

Well, my orders for my glucose tolerance test were NOT in the mail today, so that has been extremely stressful.  I decided not to call back the OB because I didn't even know what to say.  I'm trying to avoid Google but it's very tempting.  I preregistered for my level II first thing this morning.

Basically I've been trying to pray that I can remain calm and that everything will be okay because I do not want blood pressure issues on top of everything else.

UGH UGH UGH.

So anyway, that's how my weekend went.

Baby gender, Christmas, etc.

Oh, p.s., baby #2 is a girl!  Mara Josephine Chipman.  Mara because I've liked the name since child star Mara Wilson.  And Rob also likes it, which is a huge accomplishment for us. Josephine because it's pretty.  Though I did find out later my great-grandmother's name was Josephine.  Rob also had a great-aunt Josephine as well, according to my MIL.  That's cool.

I'm 26 weeks today!  Only 14 more (hopefully) until we meet her!  I've been really fighting the urge to shop online for baby girl stuff.  Though I have already bought way more than is probably socially acceptable for a child that is not born yet.

Anyway, on to my kid who is actually born.

Eli is super into Christmas this year.  He calls it "Pith-mud" or "Pid-mit".  For some reason Christmas is really hard for him to say, haha.  Over half the time he just says, "Happy Halloween!" because he has that one down.

He talks about "pessents" all the time and whenever we pass Nativity scenes he says, "Baby Jesus!" which makes me happy since that's actually the point.

He loves Christmas lights (yights), taking ornaments off the tree, Santa Claus, and reindeer.  He sings a pretty rough rendition of "Jingle Bells".

I am excited to see him be a big brother though I feel it is going to be a really rough transition for him.  He calls all babies, "baby see-ser" and can tell me she's in "mama's belly" though clearly that is hard to understand.  He never remembers her name but when prompted he calls her, "Munna".  Haha.

And to close, here's our Christmas card from this year.  It's my favorite design to date (I ordered from Minted this year)!  Self-timed family photos FTW.