The Strickland Bunch: 30 Week Update

I have some new pictures of little Owen to share with you so I wanted to get them up on the blog before they get forgotten about like the Christmas pictures I still haven't posted! So far everything has been progressing really nicely! I'm exactly 30 weeks today which is crazy. In some ways it feels like I've been pregnant forever, but at times it has flown by. Last week I had to take the three hour glucose test which was no fun. Especially for someone who doesn't like needles. (4 blood draws!) But praise God, I passed and it's over now. Today I had my monthly ultrasound to check up on Owen's kidneys. I finally got a picture of the actual kidneys to show any of you who are nerdy about this kind of stuff and want to see. It's pretty amazing really. It's hard to have the scans and see how much they have grown each time as a worried Mama, but thanks to the reassurance and confidence in our Doctors, I'm really not that anxious about it. I have a referral now to see the Urologist soon so that will be nice for us to hear from the person who will be calling the shots once he gets here.

As for Owen's overall health, he is doing great! He's still a BIG boy. He has once again jumped up significantly and is now in the 93% for weight. They think he weighs about 4lbs 12 oz as of today. Oh my. I've been so much more uncomfortable this pregnancy and now I think I know why?! I'm not carrying a 30 week size baby at this point! He's measuring more like 32-33 weeks. He has the sweetest chubby cheeks and is absolutely precious. We are so anxious to meet him!

Tomorrow I will see my regular OB for my appointment now that I am on an every 2 weeks schedule. Lots of going back and forth to Madison these days! The technician and Doctor who did my scan mentioned that my fluid levels were high so I guess my Doctor will fill me in on that tomorrow. They didn't seem overly concerned at this point and seeing that my high risk Doctor was willing to pass it off to my OB, I'm not worried. They said it's most likely a side effect of the kidney issue and that they would monitor it from now on.

Okay, enough "talking"...I know why you're really here...baby pictures!

Here is a picture of what Owen's kidneys look like. The black part you see is actually the renal pelvis of the kidney and the black is because of the fluid inside it. So the black circle down towards the bottom left is his left kidney (which is considered large itself) and the big black spot taking up most of the picture is the right kidney where the fluid is beginning to spread into the actual tissue of the kidney itself. Each visit this gets bigger and bigger, but this was the first one where you could really see it leaking into other parts of the kidney (It used to be just a round circle). Believe it or not, it is still functioning so hopefully once he's born they can get it draining properly and it will be good as new. They also have reminded us that heaven forbid he loose this kidney all together, he will still be fine with just the left side. Of course, we would just prefer he have both ;) Even still, we are thankful that his left side is doing great and has actually shown some improvement!