Feeling increasingly GOOD, physically and mentally! Physically, the nausea really only shows up at the very end of the day now, and I just go straight to bed so it nips it in the bud. Plus, I now have a raging appetite which is a nice change from hating all food, lol. Mentally, I have had 2 great things happen that are making me feel positive about this pregnancy. #1 My 18-wk appt yesterday went really well- the nurse found the baby’s heartbeat immediately and it is still strong at 152 bpm. Then the doctor showed me how to feel the top of my uterus just below my belly button- very cool. Even cooler- my sister, who was in town for a long weekend and attended the appt with me, was also able to hear baby’s heartbeat and feel where the baby is in my tummy. Good times! Next appt will be the big ultrasound, so stay tuned in a couple of weeks for an update! And #2 great thing that has happened…I can feel baby moving J . It’s every once in awhile, not even daily, but seriously the coolest thing I’ve ever felt. I can’t help but smile every time it happens- so amazing, such a miracle going on in my body! It’ll be really incredible when baby is big enough that Dave can feel him moving as well.
So a major hurdle (for me) is over with- creating our baby registries. Whew! Thank God I had Elizabeth and Tiffeny there to help me- these girls got me through it when I wanted to go all crazy pregnant woman in the store. Let’s just say that I don’t enjoy shopping in general, and when I have to spend 3 hours in a store making decisions like which pacifier out of 20 options do I think my baby will like best, I basically wanted to pull my hair out. But we survived, and the registries are up at both Target and Babies R Us. Whew!!!!!
I would like to wish everyone a very blessed and happy Thankgiving. I am feeling especially blessed this year, and I hope everyone has an enjoyable holiday with people they love J .
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
17 Weeks and Counting!
Each Saturday morning, I wake up excited to mark a new week in my pregnancy. This Saturday, we officially made it to 17 weeks. At this point, our little one is about the size of an onion (last week was an avocado…gotta love the fruit/veggie comparisons!). He (I’m about 95% sure it’s a boy, lol) can hear sounds now, which is just amazing. I am not yet feeling him move, but I don’t really expect to for a few more weeks still. It’s amazing how much growth and development has already happened in just the past 4 months- our little one already has fingernails, hair throughout his body, and is starting to accumulate fat around his body. He’s kicking his legs and stretching his arms and looks, well, like a baby! Just really, really tiny J .
Part of my journey through this pregnancy is maintaining a lot of faith and hope that our little one is healthy and that at the end of this pregnancy, we will become parents for the first time. At times, I do find myself becoming anxious as the fear and worry begins to creep in. To help me have some peace of mind, I ordered a home Doppler to listen to baby’s heartbeat. It arrived last week, and although it’s not easy to find since he‘s still so little, I have been able to hear his heartbeat at home on a couple of occasions. It’s definitely reassuring for me, though I am trying not to listen too much. It is tempting to listen daily, but I will probably only listen once every week or two, whenever I feel overly stressed. I can’t let it become an obsession, which would be easy to do! The next month or so should be really exciting as everything becomes more "real." Over the next month and a half, we will be creating a baby registry, finding out if we are having a boy or girl (um, basically confirming that it's a boy, lol), start feeling the baby move, and getting to see much of our family with the holiday season. The next 6 weeks should be a pretty incredible time!
Part of my journey through this pregnancy is maintaining a lot of faith and hope that our little one is healthy and that at the end of this pregnancy, we will become parents for the first time. At times, I do find myself becoming anxious as the fear and worry begins to creep in. To help me have some peace of mind, I ordered a home Doppler to listen to baby’s heartbeat. It arrived last week, and although it’s not easy to find since he‘s still so little, I have been able to hear his heartbeat at home on a couple of occasions. It’s definitely reassuring for me, though I am trying not to listen too much. It is tempting to listen daily, but I will probably only listen once every week or two, whenever I feel overly stressed. I can’t let it become an obsession, which would be easy to do! The next month or so should be really exciting as everything becomes more "real." Over the next month and a half, we will be creating a baby registry, finding out if we are having a boy or girl (um, basically confirming that it's a boy, lol), start feeling the baby move, and getting to see much of our family with the holiday season. The next 6 weeks should be a pretty incredible time!
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Egyptian Flu!!!
We’re pregnant!!! I heard someone joke that they had the Egyptian Flu as a fun way to announce their pregnancy (Google it J ), so I couldn’t resist borrowing the term. We are 15 ½ weeks along, and finally shared the news with family and friends last weekend. It was important to us to make sure we were far enough along and that everything was healthy before sharing, which thankfully everyone seems to understand. Trust me, it's been so hard not to tell people! Allow me to catch y'all up...here’s a summary of my pregnancy so far…
We found out we were pregnant very early, at just 3 ½ weeks along, on August 10th. You might notice that I actually posted a few days before then, feeling sad that I thought AF had come. It turns out that what I thought was AF was actually implantation bleeding (sorry if TMI!). When a couple more days went by and the spotting stopped, I knew I was pregnant. That, and the fact that my ladies were getting sore (again, sorry if TMI, lol), made it so clear to me, I didn’t even need the test- I knew I was pregnant. To be honest, I knew the week before, which is why I was so upset when the first test I took was negative. Turns out I had just tested too early the first time. Anywho, I took the second PG test first thing in the morning that Wednesday and sure enough, it was positive. I took it more to convince Dave, lol. He was still home, so I just smiled and handed him the test. We were both happy, but cautious from the beginning. We decided to just take it day by day, and would be grateful for this baby however long we had with him/her. We had some scary moments over the next few weeks, as I had some spotting issues up until almost 10 weeks. On more than one occasion I thought we were losing the baby. Definitely scary, and it has wound up limiting my activity level significantly. It’s hard because there is no reason the doctors could see for the spotting, so they said it's probably just because the cervix is very sensitive. Thankfully, I have a very understanding doctor, and he’s already let me have 4 ultrasounds. The last one was done at 10 weeks, 5 days and everything at that point looked healthy. I specifically asked about some of the issues Angel had had (which would have showed up on that last ultrasound), and those issues are not present with this baby. And our little one has had a strong heartbeat from the get-go, which is definitely a good sign. I got to hear the heartbeat from the Doppler for the first time a week ago, and that was definitely cool. I’m not feeling any movement yet, which is not a surprise as many women don’t feel the baby until closer to 18-20 weeks, if not later. I never felt Angel kick, so I am definitely looking forward to that milestone.
As far as how I’ve felt this pregnancy physically, it has been rough- no sugar-coating it! My “morning sickness” (aka “all day sickness”) started once I was 6 weeks along and is still with me. I am finally getting some relief during the earlier part of the day, but like clock-work, come 4pm through the rest of the night, I’m crazy nauseous. I tried some medication for a few weeks, but it caused more issues without eliminating the nausea, so I stopped that. I guess the one positive from not wanting to eat (food is kind of the enemy right now- strong aversions) is that I haven’t gained weight yet. For women who start their pregnancy fluffy like me, that isn’t a concern. Of course, I am making sure to take my vitamin daily and get as much nutritionally-sound food in my system as I can, so no worries- baby is definitely getting the needed nourishment J . It’s weird though, I still don’t FEEL pregnant. Yes, I have the symptoms- fatigue, nausea, ladies that won’t stop growing, superpower-strength sense of smell, ligament pain from time to time- but I haven’t made that mental connection yet that I’m going to have a baby. I think that when we find out the baby’s gender (around Christmas), that will help a lot because I’ll be able to think in terms of my son or daughter. But I bet it won’t be until I feel baby really moving that it’ll all be real. Or maybe when I start showing, which I’m definitely not yet. That’s not to say I’m not wearing maternity clothes already- they’re so comfy! Lol.
While I am obviously so excited to be expecting again, the fear of loss is always there. I know that once we make it to the 20-week anatomy ultrasound that I will have more peace of mind. Until then, I’m just doing my best to stay positive, hopeful, and to limit my stress level. Now that our news is out, I’ll try and update my blog more frequently. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers during this exciting, terrifying, and wonderful time!
We found out we were pregnant very early, at just 3 ½ weeks along, on August 10th. You might notice that I actually posted a few days before then, feeling sad that I thought AF had come. It turns out that what I thought was AF was actually implantation bleeding (sorry if TMI!). When a couple more days went by and the spotting stopped, I knew I was pregnant. That, and the fact that my ladies were getting sore (again, sorry if TMI, lol), made it so clear to me, I didn’t even need the test- I knew I was pregnant. To be honest, I knew the week before, which is why I was so upset when the first test I took was negative. Turns out I had just tested too early the first time. Anywho, I took the second PG test first thing in the morning that Wednesday and sure enough, it was positive. I took it more to convince Dave, lol. He was still home, so I just smiled and handed him the test. We were both happy, but cautious from the beginning. We decided to just take it day by day, and would be grateful for this baby however long we had with him/her. We had some scary moments over the next few weeks, as I had some spotting issues up until almost 10 weeks. On more than one occasion I thought we were losing the baby. Definitely scary, and it has wound up limiting my activity level significantly. It’s hard because there is no reason the doctors could see for the spotting, so they said it's probably just because the cervix is very sensitive. Thankfully, I have a very understanding doctor, and he’s already let me have 4 ultrasounds. The last one was done at 10 weeks, 5 days and everything at that point looked healthy. I specifically asked about some of the issues Angel had had (which would have showed up on that last ultrasound), and those issues are not present with this baby. And our little one has had a strong heartbeat from the get-go, which is definitely a good sign. I got to hear the heartbeat from the Doppler for the first time a week ago, and that was definitely cool. I’m not feeling any movement yet, which is not a surprise as many women don’t feel the baby until closer to 18-20 weeks, if not later. I never felt Angel kick, so I am definitely looking forward to that milestone.
As far as how I’ve felt this pregnancy physically, it has been rough- no sugar-coating it! My “morning sickness” (aka “all day sickness”) started once I was 6 weeks along and is still with me. I am finally getting some relief during the earlier part of the day, but like clock-work, come 4pm through the rest of the night, I’m crazy nauseous. I tried some medication for a few weeks, but it caused more issues without eliminating the nausea, so I stopped that. I guess the one positive from not wanting to eat (food is kind of the enemy right now- strong aversions) is that I haven’t gained weight yet. For women who start their pregnancy fluffy like me, that isn’t a concern. Of course, I am making sure to take my vitamin daily and get as much nutritionally-sound food in my system as I can, so no worries- baby is definitely getting the needed nourishment J . It’s weird though, I still don’t FEEL pregnant. Yes, I have the symptoms- fatigue, nausea, ladies that won’t stop growing, superpower-strength sense of smell, ligament pain from time to time- but I haven’t made that mental connection yet that I’m going to have a baby. I think that when we find out the baby’s gender (around Christmas), that will help a lot because I’ll be able to think in terms of my son or daughter. But I bet it won’t be until I feel baby really moving that it’ll all be real. Or maybe when I start showing, which I’m definitely not yet. That’s not to say I’m not wearing maternity clothes already- they’re so comfy! Lol.
While I am obviously so excited to be expecting again, the fear of loss is always there. I know that once we make it to the 20-week anatomy ultrasound that I will have more peace of mind. Until then, I’m just doing my best to stay positive, hopeful, and to limit my stress level. Now that our news is out, I’ll try and update my blog more frequently. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers during this exciting, terrifying, and wonderful time!
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