Viva Las Vegas !

Another guest posting by the other half of Team Mitchell! As usual, during my work trips I carve out some time to make a post. This post comes to you from 32,000ft as I am flying home right now. This week brought me to Las Vegas Nevada for our National Sales Meeting. Although I certainly missed Ashley, I did enjoy my time here. My company, Healthpoint, arranged for us to stay at the Westin which was a very nice resort. Most of my time was spent inside reviewing company updates and changes, however did get a chance to play golf one day. Here is a photo of where I spent the past week.



Westin Resort

 



Golf Course

During my time in Nevada, our company also had a guest speaker, a women who has hiked to both the North and South poles and also reached the summit of the highest mountain on all 7 continents including Mt. Everest, twice. She talked about how climbing is similar to life. Sometimes things go exactly as planned, yet sometimes the road beneath you may crumble in an instant. It's those moments that either make us quit or find it in ourselves to find a new road to the top. When an avalanche is upon you, you just hold tight and have confidence that you'll get through it. You have to create a good team of people around you who can help you make it to the top, and sometimes when it gets really tough, you just have to take one step at a time. Her talk, which was 10x better than my description, made me think a lot about Ashley and I and our journey over the past year. Our journey has certainly been a tough climb. The road beneath us crumbled, but Ashley and I had to make the decision to keep trying, just on a new unplanned road. Thankfully, we too are surrounded by a great team. From family and friends, to our team of specialists, we rely so much on the help of others to reach our summit. Although things are moving along very well, sometimes we have to slow down and take things one step at a time and just hold tight to one another. We can finally begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel and we are confident we will reach the top. 



When I wasn't golfing, working, or learning about mountains, I did get to spend time with my close friend David Lipp. David has been my close friend since college and lives in Vegas. His Chippendale career has been going really well. Kidding! He isn't any type of preformer, but Ashley does think quite highly of David's appearance. 

So with our 28 week milestone behind us, our sights are set on the baby shower. My family comes into town next week which I am very happy about. If you didn't know, I am a huge ginormous mommas boy. Ashley is pretty certain I listen to my mom before I listen to her, which isn't the case, however I can ask my mom and double check that. All jokes aside, I only see my family a few times a year if we're lucky so when they're here, it's fun for me. 

Hope I post again soon but until then, we will keep climbing! 

Marty -seat 13D 



I know all of you pictured Ashley and I acutally climibing a mountain so here is what it would look like

 

Is butter a carb?

Unfortunately I do not have any good news this post besides the fact that we have hit our second mini goal and are sailing to the next mini goal of 30 weeks!! 

We found out last week that I failed my glucose test. And by failed I mean my numbers weren't even close to possibly not failing. Your fasting numbers should be 95 and below and after 1-2 hours after eating numbers should be 120 and below. During the test my first hour number was 181. My second number was 191, and at 3 hours it was 199! So pretty high. After finding out, I don't know if it was my hormones or frustration or both but I cried for a good 2 hours and couldn't stop. My first thought was I'm already on bed rest I can't do anything and now I can't have my cookies or the occasional milkshake! After I had a pity party for one I got down to business and scheduled an appointment to see the nutritionist. So I go this Friday and Tuesday. To go over my new diet and to go over testing my blood sugar at home 4 times a day. More needles, great. The diet looks like no carbs, no sweets/sugars, and minimal dairy and fruit. All my favs. Once I get my diet plan ill be all over it though. No minimal cheating because ill do anything for the baby and if it means sacrificing my sweet tooth/love for carbs I guess I'm all in. Gestational diabetes can lead to type 2 diabetes in the future for me and for the baby it could mean a whole slew of things. High birth weight, under developed lungs, higher risk for still birth, and an obesity risk her whole life. If I don't regulate my numbers after birth she could have trouble with her insulin and glucose levels causing her to be hypoglycemic. So I'll definitely be listening and regulating my numbers! 

We also found out that I have E. Coli. My urine culture came back with it in my urine. When it rains, it pours. We just can't catch a break here. I hate taking antibiotics or any medicine for that fact when I was pregnant with Sloane and especially now. However I must take this antibiotic because if the baby gets E. Coli it wouldn't be good. So I have a 3 day dose and next Tuesday ill have another urine culture to see if the medicine worked. 

Eventful week we have had! I'm at my parents house this week too because Marty is on business in Nevada. We have lots of appointments this coming week and also preparing for the baby shower which is something to look forward to in less than 2 weeks! 

Keep us in your prayers in hopes that we can fight off this nasty E. Coli and have smooth sailing for the rest of the pregnancy. 

Officially as of Saturday I've been on bed rest for 100 days! Woah! 
2 weeks until our next mini goal. 
8 weeks until I am off bed rest. 
12 weeks until my due date. 

We are almost there!!

27 Week Update

I write this post as I am in the middle of my 3 hour glucose test. I got here as soon as I could right at 7:55am, figuring we could get my blood drawn right at 8am! However that wasn't the case. An intern is shadowing the phlebotomist and they wanted to know if I'd be OK with her practicing on me. Ha perfect. I've had enough blood drawn between Sloane and this baby so I'm used to all the pricks and prods.  So far not bad, she did mess up one blood draw but she's got 2 more to practice with :). We had an ultrasound today too! Cervix is measuring well over 3cm and cerclage looks good too. Baby is breech for now which isn't an issue since she has a couple months to move was down. However all that rib pain I've been feeling has been her little head lodged up there! She also seems pretty comfortable for as you'll see in the below picture she has her feet up touching her forehead. Not only is she content she seems to be pretty flexible too :). Next appointment is next Thursday with Dr. Font but first is meeting our 2nd mini goal on Monday!! 28 weeks and welcome to the 3rd trimester!! 

Valentines Day Update

Happy Valentines Day! We went to see Dr. Font this morning and although I do not have much to update you all on, what I do have is good news! Not only is the cerclage doing exactly what its supposed to do, my cervix is still long and closed. Baby is looking great as well as the fluid around her. So all around a good appointment! Next up is Dr. Khater on Tuesday where I unfortunately will be taking my 3-hour glucose test. However we will get to see the baby again!

It is a pretty quiet Valentines day around here, I did wake up to an adorable little box from my husband containing a dainty necklace with my two little girl's initials. So the cat will be out of the bag :) kind of. You'll at least know this little girl in my belly's name will start with a C.

He did good :) Courtesy of BijouxbyMeg

 

Sloane is even decked out for the holiday with her wreath from the Mazzonis and her tulips from her Valentine Grayson :)

xoxo
Love,
The Mitchells

The Name Game

I know I have been lazy on blogging lately, but to be completely honest it has been quiet around here and that is a great thing! We are at 26 weeks halfway to our next mini goal:) and things are still holding up. I have an appointment with Dr. Font on Thursday so I'll be sure to update after then.

Now onto the name game. Thinking of a name for your baby is one of the first biggest decisions parents will have to make, and it will be with them for their entire life! I mean don't get me wrong, many people don't like their names so they choose to go by their middle name or a completely different name that I have no idea where they even came up with it. Was it really that bad? Let's start with Marty and I. My parents were going to name me Sheena. Sheena Zawistowski has a ring to it doesn't it? HA! However I left the hospital with good old Ashley and by the time I went through kindergarten and 1st grade I had had 4 friends all named Ashley. Marty was going to be named Patrick. However when he was born his mother thought he didn't look like a Patrick so Martin would be his name. On the contrary Marty grew up not knowing a single other Martin so his name wasn't very common. (Although when I met Marty I had 3 other Marty's in my phone) weird.

When it came time for Marty and I to discuss baby names we actually found it pretty easy the first time around. We both immediately agreed on Sloane. How easy was that, we had many disagreements before but for some reason coming up with our child's name for the rest of her life came to us in 5 minutes days! Now baby #2. Even before we knew whether it was a boy or girl we would throw names to one another. Well I would throw names at Marty and he would turn down every single one. We did know one thing, if it was a girl she would share her sister's middle name of Elise, and if it was a boy he would use his sister's name as his middle name with out the E, so Sloan. After much debating between all these different ideas we decided to wait and see, boy or girl?!

Finding out she was a she I thought would be super easy for us. Great, girls names were easier for us and I already loved the names Nova, and Luxe. I figured I could weasel my way into making Marty agree, however not the case. Nova was completely thrown away not even thought about it just a flat out no way. So I stuck with Luxe for at least a month. Showing him "signs" that it was meant to be. Like the pretty new nail polish I had just bought that just happened to have the name Luxe in it :). Pretty convenient huh! Well to say the least we are not naming our daughter Luxe, so it was back to the drawing board.

Scarlet, Penelope, and Harper where the three names that I could actually have my husband even remotely think about for more than a second. I like different names, names that you may have never heard of, or maybe just once. I mean when I was a kid and played dolls with my cousin I always named my babies Mercedes. HA! (I didn't even give this name as an option to Marty I knew better). Where as Marty liked more common names, not so "crazy" as my options. With that said Harper was out. As soon as we both had really started to like it about 5 babies were born all named Harper. We loose. While being on bed rest I turned to google. Obviously a legit way to name our daughter right?! What I typed in, changed our list completely. Sibling names that go with Sloane.

 

 

I do not have photo shop so I apologize for the poor quality

 

After looking at this we found one name in particular that both of us loved! So it was back to trusty google and we entered in this name to research what others were saying about it. When I say research I mean my husband spent at least a week looking up this name everywhere imaginable. Its meaning, other spellings, putting it into sentences such as, "Hey, excuse me              is anyone sitting here?" Let me also mention that googling names may not be a great idea. Too many opinions may alter your decision, that's why many parents won't even share their babies name until he/she is born. With that said we did decide upon this name and are absolutely in LOVE with it. Some of you already know however I am not ready to completely disclose her name but it is in the above picture :) and it isn't Mercedes!