Update

Wow, I feel like I have so much to update since my last post...wait a minute, that's because I do! I have some awesomely amazing news first and foremost! I had my CK level checked last week at my rheumatologist office and my levels are down to 275. Yep people you are reading that correctly, no need to clean those lenses or wipe those eyes! 275. That is almost normal. Normal is between 40 and 230 (I believe). That is a reason to high five the person closest to you right now!
As I'm sure some of you know, I was very set on NOT finding out the sex of this baby. Our goal was to be pleasantly surprised on the big birth-day. Well, we were pleasantly surprised last Friday instead. Let me start from the beginning. I got a shocking phone call Wednesday morning. A nurse from my ob office called to let me know my AFP test had come back "abnormal". (Now, I know what you're all thinking...what does Jenn do that IS normal) She went on to tell me they wanted me to come in and have an ultrasound so they could check for visible neural tube defects such as spina bifida. Needless to say, I was a mess. I called in the troops (aka, Chris, Nana, and Poppi) and off we went to take care of boys or go to to the dr. The ultrasound tech could not see any "gross abnormalities" of the spine but baby bean was not laying the correct way. After meeting with Dr. T, he suggested this very well could be a false positive but he wanted me to go to the hospital for a high risk specialist to do another ultrasound. The second ultrasound was scheduled for Friday morning. We went to this appointment praying for a more concrete answer and that baby bean would just be perfect, the way God planned all along! At this appointment, it was confirmed that the spine and the abdomen both looked good. They could not get a good shot of the mouth at this one! This means they could not rule out cleft palate. Being that I am still taking a low dose of prednisone, this is a concern. I will be going back in a few weeks to have a repeat ultrasound to check all of these things again. I will then have an ultrasound every 4 weeks to keep a close watch on baby bean as well as myself. If I wasn't all the way in the high risk category before, I'm there now! With all that said, there were many shots baby bean was NOT letting those techs get during these 2 ultrasounds. There was one thing baby bean wanted us to see and made sure of it! We saw the goods. Baby Boy Bean is not a shy baby at all! He is very proud of himself as he should be! He is a blessing to our "little" Duke family and an answer to a long awaited prayer!