*4D Ultrasound Take Two/Doctor's Appointment*

On August 12 John Morgan and I went back to the doctor's office to re-try our 4D ultrasound. If you can remember, the day before he was not in a very good position and the nurse called to see if the other ultrasound technician would come in early the next day to re-try ours. She agreed! We immediately went into the ultrasound room to try for round two! It didn't take her long to realize that he still wasn't cooperating very well. He had moved his position a little bit, but his head was still turned to the side so you couldn't get very good pictures! We still saw the most precious little profile and loved every minute of it, but according to the nurse it wasn't worth the money for the 4D. She kept trying for a while and started looking at his other areas. She all of a sudden said, "He has the chubbiest cheeks! I can barely see his lips and nose because his chubby cheek is in the way!" She didn't have to point it out to me and John Morgan because we instantly saw the chubbiest cheek on the screen! He looked like he was saving up food for the winter! It was precious! Oh my, words can't describe how cute he is! The nurse said that is a good sign to her because that means that he is already storing up his own fat and putting on his own weight! She also told us that it looks to her like he is going to have a head full of hair! I didn't necessarily think that you could detect hair on an ultrasound, but she explained her reasoning behind thinking that, which makes total sense! John Morgan and I were so excited to hear all of these wonderful things about our sweet little boy! She continued to tell us that he has a rather large foot and that his fingers look to be really long! She told us, even though we didn't get good pictures, that he is doing perfectly fine! His heart rate was 143 and he is still in a great position! We are going to try again for a 4D ultrasound so we'll see how it goes next time! We were pleased to get to see what we saw! He is the most precious little boy already! :)

After the ultrasound John Morgan left to go back to work. Usually my meetings with Dr. Nelson are pretty standard, so I didn't mind at all that he went back to work. I typically have to wait a long time to meet with her, but this time was different. Right after the ultrasound they called me back into a room to meet with Dr. Nelson. I also had to re-do my glucose test. If you can remember, my levels were borderline the first time I took the test so she wanted me to re-do the test so I had to drink the NASTY drink again! Before meeting with Dr. Nelson the nurse pricked my finger again to test my glucose levels. While I waited on those results, I went to talk with Dr. Nelson. When she walked in the room the first thing that she said to me was "Well Anna, I can see that you are having a little bit of swelling." I told her about how much my feet and ankles swelled up when I went to visit my sister in Fairhope, but I wasn't aware that I was still that swollen. I thought that it mostly went down, but she said that he definitely noticed it in my legs. She showed me how to test for fluid and, of course, I was swollen! She also told me that she wanted to re-check my blood pressure herself because the nurse took it for the first time and it was in the 150's and re-did it a few minutes later and it was alright. Dr. Nelson continued to tell me about the condition preeclampsia, which is when you have elevated blood pressure and swelling among other symptoms. She told me that she did not think that I have it right now, but she thought that I was a good candidate for developing it since my blood pressure has been "on the fence" my whole pregnancy and now I was starting to swell. She told me that she would rather be safe than sorry and that she was going to be monitoring me closely from now on (which I definitely appreciate). She said that she wanted me to go straight to the Labor and Delivery unit at the hospital and have a few tests run so she could have a baseline of data on me and to see whether or not I already had preeclampsia so she could start treating it. Of course I was a little freaked out because she was telling me a lot of information all at once, but I knew that I was going to do whatever I had to do to make sure that me and the baby were alright! She also told me that she wanted me to see back the next Monday and that until then she wanted me to stay on bed rest. Dr. Nelson kept reassuring me that everything was going to be alright and that she was doing all of this right now to be cautious.

I never lost my cool while I was talking to Dr. Nelson because I didn't want anyone to think that I was scared (although I definitely was). It was a lot of information to process at one time and I was in there all by myself. To top it all off, the nurse came and told me that I didn't pass my glucose test, which meant that I was going to have to take the 3 hour glucose test at the hospital. I got all of my paperwork from the nurses and was instructed to go straight to the hospital for my tests. I never thought that I would have a pregnancy with "complications," but I am glad that Dr. Nelson is doing everything possible to make sure that me and Baby Mims are healthy!

I left Dr. Nelson's office and immediately called John Morgan. Of course when I got on the phone with him I definitely got emotional! I didn't quite understand everything that was going on, but I knew that I was going to do whatever I had to do! I told John Morgan that I had to go to the hospital to have some tests run. I thought that I would possibly have some blood drawn, but little did we know what was to come...

Until next time....

With love,

Anna and John Morgan :)