MFM Appointment

Just a quick update....we have scheduled our appointment w/ the Maternal Fetal Medicine clinic @ Rockford Memorial Hospital on Monday, May 11th. We go to the clinic at 2:30 p.m. & we will go through a ton of health history w/ the doctor. Then we will have a Level II ultrasound. The ultrasound is done by someone other than an ultrasound tech (I forget the name of the person who does it) they are trained to read ultrasounds at an even higher level. We are nervous & excited. We will keep you all posted :-)

2nd Baby Visit....Exciting!!!!

Well, we had our 2nd baby visit today. Looks like everything is just great :-)

We had a cervical length ultrasound today & everything is fine there....we weren't worried, just glad to have it confirmed. Since I work at the OBGYN office, I have a few more privileges than most expectant mothers....the ultrasound tech will take our babies picture whenever & as many as we can get the baby to cooperate in. Our baby was not very photogenic today, so we only got 4 good shots. You will notice that in one of the pics the baby is smiling. Nate said, "It must be Rachel's baby, already smiling" I guess it's good that our baby is already happy.

Look at the baby smiling :-)

Baby is sucking on its thumb

Kind of a creepy picture....but you can see a lot

The baby is just lounging around

We hope you enjoyed those pics....on another note about baby development....I've gained 3 pounds (I have a little belly), the baby has gotten 3 ounces bigger & Nate & Doozer are also fabulous. Hahaha. We met with our OB doctor today, Dr. Jodi Holbrook (she's my boss, but Nate has not met her). She gave us some more information on the Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) that I've been referred to. She would like me to go for a consult & a level II ultrasound. Dr. Holbrook says it will be a safety precaution & she sees no reason why anything would be wrong, but would rather be safe. She said it's better to get too much information about my health history & Nate's so there are no surprises when the baby comes in October. We will be scheduling our appointment with MFM soon & we will keep you all posted. We are not worried about the outcome, we agree w/ the doctor about being safe & just having too much information on us both instead of not enough.

As of now our due date is still October 19th, Dr. Holbrook said the baby is getting bigger & the bigger the baby the sooner the date will be, but she didn't want to change it just yet, we are still pretty early. We have 25 weeks left until baby comes....it's going to fly by & we are getting more excited all the time :-) For those of you who haven't heard....we have also decided on names for the little one. If it's a boy he will be, Ethan Robert Helgerson, Robert is after Nate's Dad & his middle name. If it's a girl she will be, Jordan Deborah Helgerson, Deborah is after my Mom!!! Start your guesses now......

Our next appointment will be with MFM, the high risk clinic. I'll keep you posted to when it is, I'll be scheduling it tomorrow. We meet w/ our OB Doctor, Dr. Holbrook on May 18th for a visit, no ultrasound that day :-( I'm sure I'll get in for a few pics while at work though. Hehehe.

Thanks for checking up on all of us. We will continue to keep you all posted on our progress.

Love xoxoxo,
Rachel, Nate, Doozer & Baby H

1st Baby Visit TODAY!!!!

Well, we had the first visit today...it was a success :-)

We found out we are further along than we thought. We are 12 weeks along instead of 9/10 weeks like we thought. We had an ultrasound today to determine how far along we are & to see how the baby is doing. The baby is a perfect size, the heartbeat is great & we got to see it move too. As the ultrasound technician was taking measurements, Nate & I were able to see what was going on the whole time. First, the baby was all snuggled up & then it started to stretch it's arms out & move over, it was so amazing to see. We are even more excited now that we had our first appointment.

The doctor also gave us a due date....the date is Nate's birthday, October 19th. How crazy is that?!? Nate thinks it's going to be a boy now. We'll just have to wait & see about that.

With most doctor appointments you always go over health history & as most of you or all of you know I was very sick as a newborn. I was born with a birth defect called Trachea Esophageal Fistula. Which means my esophagus wasn't attached to my stomach, therefore I could not breathe when I was born. I also had several operations after I was born. Because of my history our doctor suggests we be referred to a high risk clinic just in case. We will be going to Rockford Memorial Hospital to the Maternal Fetal Medicine Clinic to have a consult & a level 2 ultrasound. Since I haven't had any complications since I was little they don't see why anything would be wrong now. It's just a safety precaution they want to take & we are fine with that :-)

We did receive 2 ultrasound pictures of the baby. We will keep you posted with more updates as they come. Our next doctor appointment is in 2 weeks for another ultrasound & visit....Monday, April 20th. Stay tuned.....



We hope everyone is doing well. Pass this website along to anyone who does not have it. It's an easy way to spread the word to all of our family & friends.

Love xoxo,
Rachel & Nate & Baby H