Another portrait session

Last week, Andy and I went to my high-risk OB's office (Dr. B) for our nuchal transluscency scan and blood work. Our RE has released me to my regular OB (Dr. E) and Dr. E uses Dr. B's office for all of her ultrasounds. Dr. B has all of the very latest technology since he works with high-risk, complicated, and multiple gestation pregnancies. Dr. B manages my blood pressure during my pregnancies and he has performed all three of my D&Cs.

So everything went well with the scan and after some prodding from the tech, Baby moved into position and out from behind the placenta to get all of the right measurements for the test. And then she said, "Okay, let's see if we can get a good picture of this baby." She whipped out the 4D wand thing and there was Baby--in 4D. Moving and stretching all over the place. It was so very cool to see our baby in that image. I do still have a complete placenta previa, which isn't the greatest of news but we still have PLENTY of time for it to resolve and the likelihood of that happening is very good.

My first appointment with Dr. E's office (I'll see the NP first and then Dr. E after that) is Thursday so we'll find out more about where we go from here. Because of the previa, I'll likely have regular ultrasounds to check out the position of that thing and make sure it's migrating appropriately. If it doesn't move completely out of the way before delivery, I'll need a c-section. So if you're of the praying persuasion, a few prayers that the placenta moves out of the way would be appreciated. Thanks.

Here are our latest photos of Baby. The first one is the regular one with Baby's hands above his/her head. The second one is the 3D image of that same pose. Hands above head, little legs stretching down, and weird bump on the belly (just a glitch in the image--not a crazy belly bump)

Happy 7th Anniversary

Seven years ago today, I married an amazing man. We had a beautiful day surrounded by so many friends and family who helped us celebrate our nuptuals. As I walked down the aisle, I remember thinking, "I can't believe this guy wants to marry ME!" He's so kind, generous, loyal, selfless, supportive, encouraging, creative, thoughtful, hardworking, committed, and handsome that I still found it hard to comprehend that he was pledging his love to measley, old me. I knew I was truly blessed.

We had a great time planning our wedding to be a very personal event that included everyone and we hoped everyone who attended would feel how much we loved them and appreciated their support. When the day came, it was nice to just sit back and watch it all come together.

It's funny--when we got married, we'd spent months planning how we'd spend that day together and when it arrived, we didn't spend much time together at all! When we danced at the reception, I said, "Hi! I haven't seen you all day!" Sure, we'd exchanged vows, posed next to each other in photos, ridden in the same car to the reception, but we hadn't had time together all day. But it was okay because I knew we had the rest of our lives to be together.

It's been an amazing 7 years. We've bought two homes, sold one, brought home two children, sent five to Heaven, made another one that we hope will come home in February, laughed so much my face hurt, played innumerable games of Scrabble, weathered family firestorms, been to paradise on our honeymoon, worked ourselves out of debt, endured tragic losses, and celebrated amazing blessings. And compared to so many couples, our marriage is still in its infancy. I am excited to see what the future will bring and I know that there is NO ONE I'd rather experience those things with than my husband.

Happy Anniversary, And.
I love you.

Our first family vacation

Our Total Money Makeover prevented us from taking a vacation for the last few years. We haven't had a real vacation since 2002, when I was barely pregnant with Sarah (I actually didn't realize I was pregnant until we returned from Gatlinburg--no wonder I was so exhausted when we hiked up the mountain!). Andy hasn't taken a week off of work since our honeymoon. So when we became debt-free in May, we decided that we'd take a vacation this summer and no excuse would stop us.

Andy took all of last week off and we had a "stay-cation" for the first few days. We went bowling, to lunch at a favorite restaurant, to the pool, and did fun stuff around the house. Andy fixed some plumbing issues in the girls' bathroom and in the basement, and it was a good time.

Thursday we left for Holiday Inn at Caribbean Cove in Indianapolis for two nights. We got a deal with a room, entrance to the water park for the three days we were there, and four tickets to the Children's Museum. We were worried that the girls would have difficulty sleeping because they have their own rooms at home and they had to share a bed in the same room as Mom & Dad at the hotel. But they did GREAT!! They went right to sleep both nights!! (I'm sure it helped that we ran them like crazy all day both days and they had NO naps while we were away!)

Unforutnately, when we returned home, we realized that a breaker had tripped in the electric panel and our refrigerator was off for most of the time we were gone. So we lost just about everything in the fridge/freezer. But, since I had to clean the entire thing from top to bottom, our fridge is sparkling clean today!! HA!!

Now--back to real life again....

Photos from our vacation will be posted soon!

Photo Shoot and Complications

It probably seems like all we do is hang out at the doctor's office and have ultrasounds. I promise we do more than that. But it's about the most interesting thing we're doing these days. I WILL post about other things going on in our days--soon--I promise.

But in the meantime, I have more baby photos to show. We had our scheduled ultrasound today and Baby was measuring a few days bigger than its gestation (and had a good heart rate of 170), so that's good. Baby was moving around in there and Char said, "Mom, the baby is waving at me!" She's so in love with the baby already. Our RE (Dr. Burwinkel) is ready to get us off of his books and send me back to my regular OB.

And, it wouldn't be a Murphy pregnancy without our share of complications, right? It seems that this pregnancy is going to be no different. While Baby looks great and and is growing at just the right pace, the cause for my bleeding is a complete placenta previa. The baby's placenta is totally covering my cervix so when I do too much activity (lifting, coughing, dancing, etc.), a little bit of the placenta tears and I bleed. So that's a big thumbs down. :( We had that with Charlotte and whether or not it had anything to do with the placental abruption that happened during labor, we'll never know. But I am at a higher risk for bleeding and stuff because of the previa. So I'm under orders to "take it easy" until further notice. The placenta will likely move out of the way by the time we're ready to deliver, but it'll definitely be something to watch.

Okay, so here are the photos. Our little bean has turned into a moving, wiggling, waving alien. :)

Dr. Burwinkel labeled the hands, legs, and head for the girls. They, at ages 3 & 5, had a hard time deciphering which parts were what. They could tell the heart because we could see it beating and they could tell where the hands and legs were when Baby moved around, but they had difficulty with a still photo. So he did this one for them.

This is a profile photo of Baby's body. I'm supposed to be 10w4d today and baby was measuring a few days bigger at 11w1d, so we're NOT complaining that Baby is growing so well!! :)

Crisis averted

Last week was the "crucial" week for this pregnancy. If we made it through last week, we would have made it past Sam's last day in my belly--and he was our longest gestation since Charlotte. So when I started spotting on Wednesday, I was terrified. I convinced myself it was nothing; afterall, bleeding in pregnancy isn't wildly uncommon. So Thursday morning brought more spotting and again, I tried to discount it as nothing. But when I woke up on Friday morning with brighter, redder spotting, I'd had enough. I left a message for the nurses at my RE's office and they called me back before they even opened with an appointment time for an ultrasound. I really like that office.

So we headed to the office at 2pm (thank goodness we had an extra long playgroup--10am-1:30pm!!). I was very nervous and really prepared for bad news.

But I was pleasantly surprised to see a beautiful 184 bpm heartbeat and a wiggly "gummy bear" in there. Baby was measuring perfectly and dancing around. It has little arms and legs, two little eyes, and a strong, beautiful heartbeat.

Here's the latest photo of Baby Murphy:

Grow, Bean, Grow!!

We had another ultrasound this morning and I was a little tense because we had the girls with us. I was worried that if something was wrong, they'd be there to see me distraught.

Fortunately, all is well and Baby is growing well. Again Baby is right on target for growth and the heart rate has increased to 175 beats/minute!! YAY!! The girls LOVED hearing the heartbeat and I loved seeing their faces when they heard it.

Our next ultrasound is August 5.

Here's our latest photo. Baby is almost upside down with the head toward the lower right and bottom toward the top left. If you look closely, you can see a little arm hanging down, too. YAY!!

Open wide!

In January, I took the girls to the dentist. Sarah had been several times already so she was an "old pro" but it was Charlotte's first visit. After all was said and done, I was concerned that it would be her last. She was TERRIFIED and screamed the entire time.

So I wasn't super optimistic about this week's visit. I scheduled Charlotte and me together, and Sarah separately next week. When we arrived at the office, the hygenist had it all set up for me to go first, but I asked if Char could go first. As soon as Charlotte realized it was her turn, she started to panic. To get her into the chair, I offered to allow her to sit on my lap. She was okay with that and as the cleaning got started, I could feel her body tensing. But she eventually started to lighten up and seemed to be enjoying it. I was whispering into her ear that I was proud of her and she tried to smile. (If you've ever tried to smile with an instrument in your mouth, you know how hard it is!)

After she was finished and she hesitantly allow the dentist to look at her teeth, she received a toy from the prize box (a rubber frog like Sarah picked in January), a new Princess Jasmine toothbrush, and a pair of yellow star sunglasses.

I think each visit will get easier now that she's overcome the first full exam. That is, until we start working on fixing her "thumbsucker overbite". :)