9 Weeks

8 weeks

7 Weeks

6 Weeks

5 Weeks

4 Weeks

3 Weeks

2 Weeks

1 Week

Newborn

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July 21st

Well last night was an eventful one to say the least. I had been feeling kind of down since Thursday night and

I was thinking that maybe I had an UTI coming on (NOT FUN!). I just did the usual thing of drinking insane

amounts of water, which has worked in the past, and just tried to get over it. Then Kev and I went up to Shropshire

to visit his Aunt for her 50th birthday party and at that point I was feeling fine. Things started getting bad on the drive

back to Notts and I started getting tons of contractions. I had a chat with Kev's mum (who's a nurse) and she agreed

to drive me to the hospital. We mistakenly went to the A&E (ER in american speak) instead of the labor department

because of the whole UTI thing and ended up waiting 2 hours for a doctor to just say "well, we should send you to

labor and delivery because of the contractions". So they hooked me up to the monitor to measure contractions and

heartbeat for about an hour. Helen and I had a lovely chat and had plenty of bonding time after spending 5 hours in

the hospital together! Then it was another two hours to be seen by the doctor (who was good, but kinda awkward

patient interaction) and tests to see if I was actually in labor or what was going on.... finally we got to leave the

hospital 1 am. It was an UTI that was causing the contractions and now I'm on some lovely antibiotics for the next

5 days :-/ Definitely starting to get to that point of being sooooooooo ready for James to come out. Feeling terrible today

from lack of sleep and achy from all the baby kicks. I'm so looking forward to that future glass of wine!

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July 17th

Background info: Doctors discovered during James' first scan that the lateral ventricles in his brain were a little larger than what's considered normal and they diagnosed him with ventriculomegaly. In the second scan with the perinatologist in the states, we were told that we didn't have to worry, larger ventricles are tend to be normal in baby boys and we'll just have another scan at around 24-30 weeks. So, after moving to England, we had the third scan where they discovered that one of James' ventricles was about 4 mm larger than the other and was considered in the upper range of what's normal. The doctor we're now seeing is amazing and completely thorough with all information and trying to get solutions so he ordered a blood test looking for all sorts of viruses that I may have been exposed to and we scheduled another scan for 30 weeks.

So yesterday we had our 4th scan with the fetal specialist at the hospital. At first we had good news from the doc. He said the larger ventricle had gone down about a mm and the normal one stayed about the same. The doc was also really excited because he got a great picture of the corpus callosum (which is the structure that connects the right and left sides of the brain together) and he even brought in his assistant to show him. Then we got the bad news. The blood tests came back and I tested positive for CMV. The test showed that I hadn't be infected recently but it could be a reactivation. They're slightly worried about James having congenital CMV which could cause deafness or mental disabilities but the only way we could know is through an amnio. The doc reassured us that there no other indicators found during the scan that could suggest that he's got CMV (other than ever so slightly enlarged ventricles) so we don't have to get the amnio but now I have to start calling all over the great US of A to see if anyone has a sample of my blood on file to see if it can be tested to determine when I was exposed to it. This seriously feels like the worst situation to be in. Helpless because I was exposing my baby to something that could cause him problems later in life without even knowing it. Apparently CMV is really common and most people deal with it at sometime in life without even having symptoms, but it's dangerous during pregnancy. I'm mad as well because they don't routinely test for it in the states unless the baby is showing growing problems or an underdeveloped head and even then it's too late to do anything. It's just starting to feel like I can't wait for James to get here even more than before so that I know how he is. Now we have to go back for another scan about 6 weeks from now to check up on him again. We're trying to stay as optimistic as possible about this and to just keep reminding ourselves that he's growing, moving, establishing his own little personality, and other than the blood test and the previous large ventricles he's perfect. Just praying for the rest of the pregnancy to go smoothly at this point and really looking forward to when he's finally here in my arms.

UPDATE: well.... I called every single doctor that I've seen in the past year trying to find someone who has at least one small sample of blood laying around somewhere that previously belonged to me. NOTHING! Everyone from the OB to the doc who removed my tonsils and absolutely nothing. Really starting to become more reluctant toward American medicine because the treatment I've received here surpasses all that I've had over there. Now there's no chance at knowing when I was exposed. So frustrating!

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July 12th

So here we are, one day away from 30 weeks! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. It still feels like I've got forever to wait for our little guy to make his debut though. 10 weeks seems like so long! Yesterday he was the most active I think he's ever been. He was kicking and moving around so much that it was actually starting to hurt my belly! He's really starting to get some muscle behind those jabs. Kev tried reading to him last night and it actually got him to settle down a little. It almost seemed like little James quieted down to listen to Kev's voice. It was definitely a cool moment to know that even such a small thing as reading has such an impact on our baby's life already. Besides James being a little monkey in my belly, the braxton-hicks are really starting up. Thankfully nothing regular and not painful but definitely getting more uncomfortable as the days go by. Sleeping is becoming a bit more of a challenge at night now too. Horrible back and hip aches no matter the amount of pillows that I pile on around me. Poor Kev can't even get close to me anymore because I've got walls of pillows all over. I also got his crib set up yesterday! It's only slightly becoming more real that we're having a baby, even despite having basically everything ready for him. He's already got more clothes than I think he'll be able to wear and blankets and toys piling up from all the amazing gifts that people have given us. Our families are super excited for him to get here and we're already getting loads of advice from everyone as well. Now we're just waiting until September!

*Cravings List*

* Strawberries

* Hot Peppers

*Curry

*anything with melted cheese

*tomatoes

*cucumbers

*anything with garlic or ginger