TAGENIGMA LLC

Yesterday we went to the Dr for a check up. They pulled out my staples and then put super glue and cloth strips over the incision to help reinforce the closure as it healed. About ½ way through I had the Dr. take a break so I could relax a little from the pain of pulling out the staples. She decided to check the babies heart beat during that time. As she put the Doppler on my tummy, the baby kicked it really hard. He continued to kick the Doppler whenever it was pressed down. The Dr. would move it to a new spot and the baby would start kicking or hitting it all over again. The kicks and hits were really hard and very loud. The Dr. had to leave it one place for a couple of minutes before our baby calmed down enough for us to hear his heart beat. It was pretty funny.

The baby is now 24 weeks along, which is about 5 ½ months. We still have a lot to do before the baby gets here, but luckily we still have enough time.

Our baby feels even heavier this week then it did last week . He is always kicking up a storm. My husband has been able to feel him for the last month, but this last week and a half the babies gone movement crazy. His movements are now seen through my clothes and if something is on my lap it makes it jump.
My husband started putting his hand on my tummy trying to calm him down. Since I just had surgery some of the babies heavier kicks and hits really hurt, especially on the stapled area.

One night the baby was really active and was bonking me like I was a punching bag. My husband could feel movement on both sides of my tummy and where the babies head was. I could actually see parts of the arm and feet. It made quite an indent. I was really surprised, I thought that wasn’t possible until further along in the pregnancy. I’m about 5 1/2 months at this point.

This morning the baby was too quiet. I pushed a little bit to check on the baby and got a hard sharp kick so I know he is doing great. I guess I’m really lucky my baby is so active, even though it might hurt sometimes. Its nice to be reasurred that he is doing fine.

My cravings seem to be staying to fresh fruit and candy. Although I have been eating a lot of eggs since the protein is supposed to be great for the baby. The only thing I’ve found I can’t eat are banannas and sometimes milk, for some unknown reason they make me sick.

With everything that has been going on I accidentally skipped over posting about Christmas. While that may have been okay in some cases, in this case it wouldn’t have been. It was a really amazing one with the new baby on the way. It felt like he was actually here, just no one could hold him except me.
For Christmas I wore a green dress that emphasized the tummy. Up to this time most people have only seen me in sweats and Tim’s t-shirts during the pregnancy. Usually with my jacket over it all. So my tummy was pretty much hidden. With comfy clothes like that it’s hard to see the baby bump. Well on Christmas with the dress it seemed to make it all real. All my family members kept staring at my tummy in excitement. There were a few wow’s mixed in with exclaims of your tummy is getting so big. It seemed to put a reality touch on it for everyone. Even family members who had just seen me the day before were surprised.

For Christmas Tim and I had all the grandparents write in the baby book and showed off the ultra sound pictures. Everyone was so nice and sat there and watched them all, even when Tim and I kept going back and showing off the same ones. Almost everyone seemed as excited as we are.

Everyone was very loving and gave the baby a lot of presents. They were addressed to the baby, or to my new nephew, with sweet notes like “we can’t wait to see you”. The baby received new clothes from all the grandparents. The clothes are very soft and a few of them came with fleece blankets. My dad gave the baby a Raven good luck charm. The baby also received a few books and a big toy with shapes that can be pushed along different paths. The shape toy can usually be found in Dr. office waiting rooms. There was also a cute precious moments night light and a towel that had a frogs head on it so when it is wrapped around the baby they look like a little green frog. All the gifts were very special. Tim and I even bought the baby a gift. We bought a travel system that is a car seat and a stroller. The Graco with EPS lining, it was one of the few car seats that passed the safety tests conducted on baby seats in car crashes. I think what was even more precious then the gifts was all the love that was directed towards our new baby, it was palpable. Thank you everyone for the loving and caring vibes. With so much love directed his way, the baby had to have felt it as much as Tim and I did.

I hope everyone else is doing great. Stay in touch.

-Linae

My baby likes to poke back on any pressure given on the stomach. I first noticed in the ultra sound when he was poking at something and the lady used the ultra sound monitor to get a better look. the baby started poking at the monitor. Later when I was feeling my tummy I noticed if I push a little harder the baby pushes back, usually in the same spot but not always. It became like a game to poke and get poked back.

I also slightly run my hands over the bulging part of the tummy and get a slight poke or movement. It seems like it’s tickling the baby. I think my baby is very sensitive on his skin. He also seems to be very curious because of the pokes back. It’s pretty fascinating.

My hubby is also able to see the movement so I call him over when it is repeated several times. Sometime he can see it, some times he can’t. Either way, he usually walks away with a smile on his face.

For everyone that hasn’t heard I just had surgery due to a cyst they found in me when they were doing an ultra sound on the baby. The cyst was grapefruit size. So I went in Thursday to have it removed. This is what happend.

During surgery they found a couple of things. 1st the cyst is due to a disease I have called Endometriosis. Endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus (the endometrial stroma and glands, which should only be located inside the uterus) is found elsewhere in the body. It causes little brown spots all over the organs, which can be found everywhere including the brain. Symptoms is pain. It’s not contagious and it is caused by a gene sequence and passed down through genetics. It is also caused by estrogen in the body. A large number of women have it, but it is usually misdiagnosed since you can only spot it from exploratory surgery.

2nd the cyst was smaller then they thought. Baseball size instead of grapefruit. They left it in because it was lodged behind the baby and they couldn’t get to it without hurting him. It may also be possible to treat it through birth control pills after the baby is born. It is kind of a newly researched disease so it is in the trial stages of trying to cure it.

The baby fetus is now 22+ weeks and is doing very well. It came through the surgery like a pro. I can feel he is very strong and healthy through all it’s kicks and movements. I also was able to hear his heartbeat several times. It sounds great. A great video of our baby is at www.tagenigma.com. Just go to all things baby and click on the video picture to play it. There are 2d and 3d video towards the last 5 minutes. The beginning is kind of hard to understand since they are looking at specific organs, so feel free to jump ahead. The video was recorded of our baby at 21 weeks. The video was taken at Evergreen hospital.

I’m doing well too. A little sore from the foot long incision they had to make but I’m healing nicely. They put me on moderate bed rest just to make sure everything stayed fine with me and the baby.

Tim is working from home to watch over us. He is so very protective. I was so glad to have him stay at the hospital with me while I was there. Several times he had to protect me from incompetent nurses. One time we had a really big scare when I couldn’t breath due to an allergic reaction to a pill. He ran and got the nurse which gave a Benadral shot through an IV. I was very very lucky. Other times he had to stop the nurses from lowering the bed, which they really seemed to like to do, but it really hurt. I learned from this experience that if anyone has to have surgery they should bring a body guard that actually sleeps in the hospital with them.

I hope everyone else is doing great. Stay in touch.