Our Carrier is Pregnant- 20 Weeks/5 Months

I can't believe we are finally here!!!!

Jessica went in for the 20 week anatomy scan on Thursday. Our plan was to hopefully have me Skype into it. Jessica let me know that morning that she was heading into the u/s room and would call me right away. 20 and then 30 minutes had passed with still no call, so I did what you can imagine and starting freaking out that they were trying to find a "good" way to tell me that Max died or something else really bad happened. I hate that my crazy blm mind automatically goes there. But then she called, I was able to breathe again, and she explained that the u/s tech had decided to just do the full anatomy scan first. We then turned skype on and the tech showed me Max. He was moving all over the place. It was a little pixely, but it was so awesome to finally get to see my little guy. I swore he even waved at me.

Their is one not really a concern, concern. Apparently Max's u/s shows what they call a echogenic foci in his left ventricle of his heart. Apparently their is like a 99% chance that what they see is actually a tendon, and so that is why I say it's not really a concern, because the doctor isn't. Me on the other hand am the concerned one. Granted he doesn't show any of the other signs that could mean that he has a chromosomal problem, but we have been part of that 1% more than once. We have the option of getting another u/s in a month or two to check his heart again or get this new blood test that will pull his DNA from Jessica's blood I guess and will let us know if he has any of the trisomies. I think that's how Jessica said it works. At any rate my paranoid side says that we need to do the blood test or I'll worry about it the rest of the pregnancy.

Otherwise, Max looks great and is measuring a week ahead of schedule.

Their are no signs of Spina Bifida!

Jessica's bleeding issue seems to have finally ended. 

And the Ob Dr. said we will have a scheduled induction no later than 39 weeks, which means he will be here by Oct. 4th if she doesn't go into labor sooner! That means we actually have like less than 19 weeks to go versus 20. Woot Woot!

Still a long road ahead, but it sure feels good to have come this far. Hopefully I'll have some pictures from that u/s soon to show everyone.

In other baby news I downloaded an app. to my phone the other day so that I could start recording messages to Max. I have since recorded a couple different books to him so that he can start to learn my voice. One of the books I read is from my childhood called A Rainbow of My Own, because Max is after all, better be, my rainbow that I finally get to bring home.I then ordered the Belly Buds off of Amazon and had them shipped to Jessica so that she can use those on her belly with my recordings for Max.

I will say this though, I never would have thought that I would have had a hard time with calling Max Liam, but I am. I caught myself multiple times while doing the recordings where I almost said Liam, caught myself, awkward pause, and then said Max. I even caught myself referring to Max as my little buddy, which is what I referred to Liam as during my pregnancy with him.


Operation Bring Milk Back for Max:

Started back on the Micronor (birth control pills that won't impact milk production) a couple weeks ago.

I had been talking more with my Pediatricians wife, who is his nurse and lactation consultant, about the 2 different meds that can help with bringing on lactation. Their is Regulin and Domperidone.

The Regulin is approved by the FDA, for use for GI problems, but just so happens to help in milk production. The bad news is that it has major side effects if not properly monitored. I don't like that.

The Domperidone seemed harder to get as it is not approved by the FDA for some reason or another. I don't get it because it has very little side effects and apparently works really well, and its purpose is actually for milk production. Apparently it raises the progesterone in your brain, just like with pregnancy, so you can produce milk.

The nurse called me last week and informed me that one of the local specialty pharmacies will compound the Domperidone for them for me. Score! Bad side to this is that insurance will not cover this med which looks like it will be about $400 a week. Not sure how long I'll need to be on it yet.. So hopefully not long.

She is going to look into a few more things relating to the Domperidone, see if I need to get any lab work or anything else done before I start it and the pumping, and then get back to me. Hopefully we can start soon. It is time consuming, but I am excited!

Also, this is maybe too much info for some of you out there, but I swear I must have great milkers because after that u/s appt. yesterday my right boob started leaking. I haven't been pumping. I haven't taken any meds. I have heard that looking at pics of your baby or being with your baby can aid in more milk production, but I am assuming that is usually after you have had a baby. Weird, but I'll take it.