Hidden Baby Diaries #4

Yesterday Andrew and I went to my 14 week appointment, one day shy of 14 weeks. I've read that there are different theories on when the 2nd trimester begins, with some saying 13 weeks, some 13.5 and some say 14. Well I went with 13 weeks, but apparently my doctor likes 14 weeks. Either way, I'm 14 weeks today, so by any standard we are in the 2nd trimester! Woohoo!! What a relief to be out of the most risky stage of the 1st trimester. Of course, nothing is a sure thing and tragedy can strike at any time, but for now we are all good. The doctor did an ultra sound and we got a few pictures, and it looks like everything is progressing as it should. Yay!

We also let the cat out of the bag last night, announcing the happy news on facebook after making sure most all immediate family members had been warned ahead of time. After 3 months of not telling anyone, it was really hard to tell the world our news. I was so nervous and vulnerable before posting the status that told. I know that vulnerability is nothing compared to what I will feel after baby is born, but still. I was holding those cards so close and tight to my chest I didn't want to let go. But once we got the all clear from the doctor it was time to share. Our parents have been itching to spread the news, so we couldn't deny them (or Andrew's want to stop being so secretive) much longer. Honestly, if it were solely up to me I probably would have waited longer, but the news is out and it's a relief not to have to explain away absences, not drinking, feeling sick and needing to be in bed by 10:00!!

When we were doing the ultra sound it was so cool to see baby moving and flipping and waving, but not being able to feel anything. So crazy. Apparently our baby is a mover and a shaker. S/he was stretching out, flipping over, doing a high step (Andrew said he was practicing for the Heisman). We got one pretty good profile shot where you can see baby hanging out, and a hint of what I think is Andrew's nose!

Doesn't look like a round nose to me, must be Andrew's!!

High steppin' it! Heisman in the making?

Apparently the Buddha belly is normal, so no worries :)

Heart rate was 152 bpm, perfectly perfect. We've got a few guesses on gender, but we won't find out for sure for another 4 weeks, and that's if Baby cooperates and gives us a good shot. Andrew thinks it's a girl. I think it's a boy. Most of the old wives tales and the Chinese Gender calendar say girl. We'll see if Mother's Instinct is correct or Daddy's is better!

We are so happy and excited, and now we can share it with the world. Yay Baby!!

Hidden Baby Diaries #3

We are in double digits! 10 weeks and 5 days today. Last week we had an appointment to try to hear the heartbeat through a doppler radar. The doctor warned us that we were still early enough (1 day shy of 10 weeks) that we may not be able to find baby's heartbeat if s/he was hiding in a corner or if my uterus was tilted. After about 4 or 5 agonizing, nerve wracking minutes, we heard the sweetest sound. 172 per minute of fluttering, strong little heart beat. Magical. I looked at Andrew and his eyes got big and we just smiled at each other. I wish I'd thought to make a recording of it, but it all happened so quickly and I was concerned with hearing it, not recording it. Doc said everything sounded great. Success. Good job Baby Bear!! (Did I explain that part yet? Baby is lovingly referred to as Baby Bear since Andrew and I dressed as Mama and Papa Bear in the Christmas parade with Harlee aka Baby Bear).

All in all we were only in the doctors office for about 20 minutes. The beauty of an 8 am appointment, no women ahead of me to back things up! We decided to celebrate with breakfast at Waffle House. I can't eat as much in one sitting these days, but I still got the full spread of waffle, eggs, sausage, toast, hash browns. It was so good. I may not have been able to eat a lot of it, but I got a little bit of everything. I asked Andrew how he felt hearing the heart beat and he said it made things feel more real. I guess when you aren't fighting exhaustion, morning sickness, food aversions and more it's kind of easy to forget there's a baby growing nearby!

The last few days I've felt a lot better than I have over the last month. I'm really hoping this means my first trimester symptoms are starting to ease up. I thought I was in the clear last night after having 3 uneventful days. I was glad to feel good, but also a little nervous since I was feeling so good. Those pesky symptoms at least let me know baby is growing and things are moving along nicely. Well, my fears were unfounded because by 6:00 nausea had returned in full force while I was enjoying a lazy day. I'll take the good days as they come, but apparently I'm not out of the woods just yet.

We are two days away from being 11 weeks, and so so close to closing out this risky first trimester. We've decided to wait until about 13 weeks to tell extended family, and maybe even a bit longer to do a general announcement to facebook and the world. There are so many things that can go wrong, I kind of like keeping this one close to home for now. But as of now all the parents and siblings know. We've also spilled the beans to our best friends that acted as Best Man and Matron of Honor. They're so close to us that we needed to talk it out with a friend our own age, and it's kind of suspicious when I continue turning down drink after drink! I also had to let my boss and supervisor in on the secret to explain why I've been missing some mornings or looking generally hung over. Don't worry boss, I'm not out getting hammered every night!!

So that's the news for now. Even though things are going smoothly, I still feel like I'm holding my breath and just hoping and waiting to see that everything continues along a good track. Hang in there Baby Bear!! We love you already, despite the amount of nausea and moodiness you've brought me. Luckily Dad is a good sport :)

Hidden Baby Diaries #2

Last week I had my second Ob/Gyn appointment, and this one was an actual appointment instead of more consultation stuff. Andrew was off work so he went with me. We didn't have to wait very long thankfully. I had an ultra sound to date the pregnancy and make sure it was healthy and viable. Good news! Everything looked great, just a little earlier than we expected. According to the scan Baby was measuring 5 weeks 6 days, instead of the 7 weeks 2 days we initially thought. So they changed our due date to October 15, 2014. I lost 10 days which isn't bad, but I was bummed to move backward in the week count! New weeks start on Wed, so I'm almost 7 weeks (again haha). We even got to see the faintest flicker of a heartbeat. So exciting!!

I did talk to the doctor about how the dreaded morning sickness has set in. Oh, it's bad. I was so hopeful that I'd be one of the lucky ones (like my mom) that didn't have a lot of sickness, but it was not in the cards for me. It hit last Monday and has been going strong ever since. It's particularly bad from about 7:00 am to lunch time. After lunch I feel about 85% better. I've been waking up at 5:00 am everyday starving like I haven't eaten in days. I actually ate dinner at midnight last night (I know, way late, it was an experiment) to see if I felt better in the morning. Nope. 5:06 I woke up and had my new morning ritual of crackers and water in bed. Get a few down, then go back to sleep. About 7 am I wake up and have a few more crackers, sleep for an hour, then wake up. I swear I may turn into a saltine cracker. They're so dry and crunchy and messy and loud. /sigh.

I told Andrew that so far this pregnancy thing is just no fun. I'm not even that far into it, but I guess this is the hardest portion (I hope!!). My body is becoming foreign to me. Usually I'm very in-tune with myself and what's going on. Not anymore. I'm moody, extra tired, nauseous almost all the time, my stomach's been upset, I'm burping more than is humanly possible, and I'm so bloated I could pass for 5 months pregnant. It's ridiculous.

All in the name of love I guess!!

And to share our little grain of rice, here's what we saw at the ultra sound!

Hidden Baby Diaries #1

The weekend I kept Harlee was crazy, for many reasons. Mainly because I was wrangling a 2.5 year old for her first weekend away. She actually did great and had no breakdowns over being away from home and her mommy. Yay!

However, it was also crazy because the night before I picked her up I took a Walmart brand pregnancy test and got a very very faint positive. We're talking so faint I thought it was a mistake. Friday morning I got up and took another one. Same thing. You could just barely see that second line. It was a real squinter and I'd read that cheap, blue-dye tests aren't that reliable, so I didn't want to get my hopes up. I knew I would be busy with Harlee all weekend, so I made the promise to myself I wouldn't test again until Sunday, and I wouldn't tell Andrew until I had something more firm than "maybe, maybe not." Thankfully I was so busy all weekend I didn't give much thought to it. Don't get me wrong, it was definitely in my head all weekend!

Saturday evening Kristina was spending the night with us and I decided to stop by Walmart on the way home to pick up a First Response pregnancy test. The good kind. No more wishy washy answers! I was planning on waiting until Sunday morning to test, but my sister-in-law Emily knew it was possible and she was putting the bug in my ear to test immediately. I caved. We got home, broke out the play-doh and I excused myself. Almost immediately, there it was. That 2nd pink line I'd been hoping to see. It was there. And it was real. And I had a house full of people and wanted to tell Andrew in private.

This pregnancy was planned and wanted. So wanted. We expected things to take a little longer on the conception front, but we were lucky and it happened immediately. I was shocked it happened so quickly. I was preparing myself for a 2-4 month process. Nope! So yes, we did intend to get pregnant 3 months after our wedding. Yes, we may be crazy. But we have so much love, and to all the people who say to wait...You wait. We didn't want to. This is our life and our story and we wanted to grow our family and we couldn't be happier!

Anyway, now I was in the conundrum of wanting to tell him immediately, but also wanting it to be a private affair. Kristina asked Sunday morning what the results were and in her excitement, and trying to hide said excitement, she ending up screaming "I'm just so excited about cinnamon rolls!!!! ahhh!" haha. I decided I wanted to find some cutesy stuff to break the news to Andrew. We went to a few places looking for baby gear with bears on it. Since Andrew and I were Mama and Papa Bear in the Christmas parade while Harlee was our baby Bear, I wanted to inform Andrew that we would soon have our own Baby Bear! Apparently baby clothes come with every creature known to man on them, particularly monkeys, but bears are kind of hard to come by.

We settled on a onesie and some newborn slippers with Bears on them. That afternoon we headed to my mom's house, and I cracked. I had to tell someone. I had the onesie. She knew we were trying. I had to get it out. I showed her the onesie and she was all "aww that's cute." I said, "Mom, do you know what that means?!" She looked at me kind of confused, then her mouth turned into an 'O', excited face. She yelped then started crying! She said, "Well now I have to worry about you everyday!!" It was such a great reaction.

I took Harlee home that evening, but we had plans to watch the Superbowl at our friends house. I couldn't tell him there, so I politely turned down the beer and referenced how exhausted I was from the weekend. I don't think they were suspicious.

When we got home I gave Andrew the gift bag with goodies. He pulled out the onesie and said "Is this a hint?" Then pulled out the slippers and looked at the bottom of the bag to see the two pregnancy tests. He smiled so big and came over and gave me a great big hug. He was surprised and happy and so excited. Until I told him Mom and Kristina knew before him. He wasn't all that pleased with that. Sorry babe!!

The next day I made an appointment to see the doctor to have everything confirmed. I went in 2 days later where they tested and drew blood and said "Yep! You're preggo! Congrats!" It was even more exciting to have the doctor confirm it! I was 5 weeks and 3 days. She set my estimated due date as October 5, 2014!! An October baby just in time for our 1 year anniversary!

We are so excited, and hoping that everything goes well and stays healthy!