Exciting stuff

Hey--- you--- guys----!,
      This week my baby was the size of a lemon! That might not seem very large to some of you; but when you've been tracking it's growth from the size of a poppy seed, it's pretty amazing. It has been very difficult for me not to cheat and look ahead to see what the next chapter of What to Expect When You're Expecting holds for my baby and I...or to change the due date in the 5 apps I downloaded to my phone so that I can see one day ahead of where I'm at. I feel like I am rewarding myself for a job well done each time I get to read more information about my pregnancy.

My husband hates that I always have my nose in a book or my face glued to my phone's screen. The day I found out I was pregnant, I ran out to the book store and bought a arm-load of books on pregnancy. My husband was quick to question my purchase. "Why do you need a book to tell you about being pregnant? Women get pregnant all the time; my sisters didn't have books to tell them how to be pregnant.".....ahhh, Alex.....You know who you married....why do you ask such silly questions. Each piece of information I get keeps me from going completely nuts waiting for my baby. I found out I was pregnant so early that it feels like I am waiting FOREVER for each of the cool little things that happen in a pregnancy; like hearing the heartbeat (which we heard 4 weeks ago), or the "gender revealing" ultrasound (near a month plus away).

However, I did get to some of the exciting "milestones" already.

Firstly, I got to see my baby again via ultrasound (photo to the right) in early December to make sure the baby was ok after all the cramping I had early on. Honestly, it wasn't much to look at, but at the time, it was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen. The little blob had melted my heart. I got all teary as the ultrasound tech pointed out the baby's heart and head...there wasn't much else to point to, but it was enough to choke me up for the next day.

Secondly, I have a tendency to get tension headaches and migraines in general...Turns out when you're pregnant, the headaches can increase. Last week I had a tension headache from Tuesday-Saturday. By Friday I was feeling dizzy and sick. If I weren't pregnant, this wouldn't have warranted a call to the doctor. However, my uterus started cramping. I hadn't had that happen since the first month of knowing I was pregnant. It freaked me out. I was worried, so I called the doctor. I told Alex I was going in because of the headaches (there's something about voicing a concern that makes it seem more real, so I didn't mention anything to him). He told me to call him if the doctor said anything important. I went in to the clinic and got checked out by the doctor. The first thing they did was check for the baby's heartbeat with a Doppler...The doctor couldn't find the heartbeat. I was trying to choke back sobs, fearing my worries had been correct. The doctor was quick to reassure me that this didn't mean that anything was wrong. She stepped out and grabbed a little machine that looked like a mini-karaoke machine. Turns out it was a bedside ultrasound machine. She had the screen turned away from me and wasn't saying anything....I wanted to scream. Finally she said "well, no wonder we couldn't find a heartbeat. The baby's just swimming around in there". When she turned the screen towards me, I saw my tiny baby throwing it's own little dance party. It's tiny feet and hands were waving all over the place. It had clearly been growing from my little blob to my tiny dancer. The head was still large in comparison to the rest of the body, but my pelvis is hoping that it will grow into it. I called Alex right after the doctor's appointment and told him about it. He was super bummed that he had missed out on seeing how far our baby had come from being a "fetal-pole"/little blob to a little more human looking. Sadly, now we have to wait another month or so before we get to see our baby on the big screen again. But I know that will be amazing!

Lastly, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day I woke up at 6am with a terrible stomachache. I hadn't had morning sickness in a couple of weeks, so I was hugely disappointed to have it return. I was in and out of bed until 7:15 when I got up for work. Alex grabbed me some water and crackers to help me fight off the tummy ache. When I was ready to leave, the car wouldn't start. I told my boss that I would be a few minutes late while I waited for the car to get running. He replied "it's a holiday"....UGH! I was so peeved that I had got up and ready (make up and all) to go to work when I could've slept through the morning sickness. I got up and ate an apple and yogurt, made Alex an egg sandwich.....and crawled back under my blankets. As I lay there trying to fall back asleep, I felt an odd sensation in my lower left abdomen. I was laying on that side and thought "great, now I have to fart or else this is going to get really uncomfortable"....nothing happened and the sensation continued. It felt like little really really soft tapping. I thought that was weird, but quickly feel into a sleepy-coma. When I woke up I was suddenly very excited. I ran out to the living room and yelled to Alex (who was watching Storage Wars....for hours) "I think I felt the baby move!!!". I quickly backed that up with "I mean it's really early to feel it move and it's still really tiny, but I think I did." We looked online and in my pregnancy books for a description of a baby's first movements felt by the mother. It was said that it would feel like: gas, butterflies in your stomach, popcorn popped, and tiny bubbles bursting. I debated whether or not I could call the doctor to ask about it with out being "that mom"....I voted against it. I was worried that I was wishing it into being the baby moving. After all, it's still really early in the pregnancy, it's my first baby (which supposedly means you are likely to not feel the first movements), and I'm a Big Girl....but the sensation felt like what the books described. We had a family dinner that night, so I asked my aunts about it. They said it sounded like I had definitely felt the baby move. I was so happy. I haven't felt the baby move again, but it's early, so hopefully soon it will become more consistent.

Questions for you readers:
What would you like to hear about in my posts?
If you haven't had a baby, do you plan to and when do you think you'll be ready? (Lou & Meg *cough* cough*)
If someone close to you has been pregnant, what was the first most exciting part for you?
 Do you have any safe remedies for a tension headache?
If you've been pregnant before-
When did you first feel your baby move?
When did you finally feel like "yeah, there's a baby in there"?
What was the first exciting thing you went through with your pregnancy?

First Trimester

Hello everyone,
    I figure the best place to start would be to recap on what my first trimester was like...You didn't miss anything too exciting.

....A little background....
Alex and I had started trying to have a baby mid-October. I have an irregular cycle, making it incredibly difficult to track my ovulation. I had just removed Mirena (the IUD birth control) and hadn't had that 5-7 day virus that turns me into a crazy bitch. I figured I would get my birth control removed and start tracking my cycles. That way we could those people with the scheduled sex...Alex was more for the "let's pull the plug and see what happens" track. (I think he believed that would lead to more sex) Anyhow, the story begins.





November:
     Alex and I had just returned from a trip to Ketchikan; where we visited my mom and watch my cousin B wrestle in a tournament there. The night we were unpacking I decided I NEEDED Bloody Mary mix with lime; just the mix...and I had to have it right that minute. I begged Alex to come with me to the liquor store so I wouldn't feel like an alcoholic making a run for drink mix at 10 o'clock at night. He agreed after 15  minutes of whining. I made a jest "wait until I'm pregnant, then the fun will really start."

The next day, (November 14th) I decided to take a pregnancy test. I had stocked up on these bad boys so that when I occasionally (once a week) woke up thinking I was experiencing pregnancy symptoms (normally just gas) I could ensure that I was or wasn't pregnant. It was 7am, for those of you who don't know, mornings transform me into a mindless zombie. I went into the bathroom and took the test while still half-zombie. I sat on the toilet while I waited for the test to "soak". About 20 seconds in, there is a faint 2nd line next the first line (which alone normally makes me cry from baby-crazy-syndrome). I stared (zombie-ly) at the test for about 5 minutes. I had to be sure that the 2nd line wasn't just because I was sitting in the dark...on the toilet.

After the 5 minutes of "test anxiety", I ran out of the bathroom and woke up my husband. It went something like this:

ME: I'm pregnant!
Alex: ZZZzzZZZ
ME: ALEX! I said I'm pregnant!
Alex: ZZZzzZZZ
(violent shaking off the bed until Alex stirs...at which point I try to look like I was just standing there)
ME: I'm pregnant! (holding out the test with my trembling hands)
Alex: you pregnant.....you are?!
ME: yep, now I gotta call Lena. She'll be pissed I told you first.

later that day, I went to the doctor to confirm the pregnancy. I had been guzzling water all day because I was sure that my baby needed extra...which made my pregnancy test come back negative at the clinic. I bawled in the doctor's office. It was awful, I felt like I should have known that I couldn't really be pregnant. Luckily, our doctor decided it was worth running a blood test to make sure I was or wasn't pregnant....4 hours later, while I was at cheerleading practice, the doctor confirmed my pregnancy. An ultrasound later that week showed the baby to be about 6 weeks.

Being that I am a super impatient person, I convinced Alex into letting me tell our family that night...they were all sooo excited. The downside was that through out November I had major cramping; which sent me to the hospital 3 times and put me on bed rest for days. Every time I felt the slightest cramp, I was kicking myself for telling everyone so soon that I was expecting. My baby was still so fragile, so many things could've gone wrong.

December
Holy smokes, when women say they were tired during their first trimester I always thought that I could deal with that....It's awful. I felt so tired that I wanted to just cry....ALL THE TIME. I could barely keep my head up 90% of the time. I was peeing at all hours of the day. I was sick ALL DAY. Morning sickness is not restricted to the morning hours. I was constantly nauseous and often puking. I swore off bananas after eating one that I was sure was rotten (it wasn't). I lost 12 pounds during November and December from morning sickness.

January
In the last week of December and first week of January, I noticed I was able to eat again. I woke up one day and realized "I haven't thrown up yet"...it was glorious. Needless to say, I quickly put weight back on. The first week of January, I went to Colorado Springs for one of my best friend's weddings. It was amazing. However, being pregnant meant getting sick on the plane and being tired the whole time. I now thank Lena for being in my wedding when she was 7 months pregnant. It was so tiring at 3 months...oh yeah, I passed my first trimester the day of the wedding. I had 2 things to be excited for that day.

Now, I am back to work and coaching cheerleading. My life feels so busy. Some days, I'm not sure how I will manage it...but I love it.

We're expecting....a baby

Hello all,
    I have greatly neglected my blogging. However, with an exciting change in my life, I have decided to pick it back up again. My husband and I are having a baby. I am pregnant with our first; our due date is July 21st. Which makes me 13 weeks and 5 days pregnant as of now. We were very surprised to find out that I was pregnant...well, we were trying to conceive, so we weren't that surprised. The surprising part is that we got pregnant right away...like 3 weeks later. Anyways, if you would like to follow me on this crazy-new adventure, read along and share in this with me. :)