I hope everyone had wonderful holidays, whatever you may celebrate. I did in the end, even though Christmas didn’t feel quite as Christmas-y this year. And now I’m going to do this post in complete backwards order from the title because the latter is just more exciting! It’s kind of lengthy, but please read on, I promise it’s interesting!
If you’re reading this on Google Reader, you won’t see the new addition to my blog. If you are looking at my blog page and haven’t noticed it yet, look to the right, just below my little about me section – I’ll give you a minute to scroll…
For those of you that aren’t looking there, not only do I have a new little addition to my sidebar, but it’s about the new little addition to our family – I’m expecting my first baby June 23rd! We have known since mid-October, but I waited so long to post on here because I was nervous, wanted to make sure everything seemed to be going well, and had other people to tell in person first. I am at exactly 16 weeks today (starting my 17th week, depending on how you like to measure the time). We told our parents and grandmothers on Thanksgiving, the people in the twirling group the week after, and the rest of my extended family got the announcement in their Christmas cards. I am sad that my baby will never get to meet my grandmother, but I feel better that she at least knew about it before she passed away. And before I get into the rest of it, since we don’t know if it’s a boy or girl yet, we have nicknamed the baby “Bean” for now (though I have a feeling that nickname will stick even after he or she is born!). Now to catch you all up! My first trimester was surprisingly easy. I had absolutely no morning sickness at any point in the day. There was only once or twice I felt the slightest bit nauseous, which cued me into having a snack and made it better. I did have the fatigue, big time. I’m not working, and yet I still had no energy to get off the couch. I did have a couple weeks where I was starving, all the time. I would eat, and within an hour or so, I felt like my stomach was totally and completely empty again. The most troublesome issue I’ve had is hair loss. I have been losing a lot more hair than normal, to the point my hair is A LOT thinner. It has been very disconcerting, but I have been told that even though it’s not a common issue, it does sometimes happen, and even if there was a different cause other than pregnancy hormones (yes, I did have my thyroid tested when I had my pregnancy blood test and all was fine), there’s not really anything that can be done for it at this point. Now that I’m in my second trimester, it seems to have lessened a little, but I’m wondering if it’s just because I have less hair overall! My first appointment was at 8 weeks, and I’m seeing a doctor that my good friend went to since my regular GYN doesn’t do maternity care. We like him a lot, and though he answers questions quickly, he gives all the right information and I never feel rushed. I had my first ultrasound the same week of my first appointment, and it was so awesome to see Bean’s little heartbeat, at a racing 171. Even though I was officially 8 weeks for that scan, I measured 7w5d, so really not too far off! I tried scanning the printout we got, but it came out too dark and you can’t see anything at all. My first blood test came back perfect. By the second visit, around 12 weeks, we thought we would hear the heartbeat. Unfortunately that did not really happen, though the doctor said he was able to detect it for a second, but couldn’t keep on it. That made me a nervous wreck! I just kept telling myself that he didn’t seem concerned, sometimes it’s hard to hear it that early, and if he was concerned he would have sent me for another ultrasound or something. As the weeks have gone by, the fatigue has started to wear off, I’ve had other not-so-pleasant pregnancy digestive issues, and I’m currently suffering from pregnancy congestion. I’m not sick, but I got the stuffy nose and slight bleeding after blowing. My mornings in the winter were already miserable due to sinus drainage – now multiply that by about 8. I have good nights and bad nights of sleep. It’s a comfort thing – I’m trying to stay exclusively to sleeping on either side now, even though I end up on my back at some point most nights, and my doctor said I don’t have to worry too much about that quite yet, but some nights I only get up once for the bathroom and sleep the whole night soundly. Other nights, like last night, I get up multiple times, can’t get comfortable, and feel like crying. I’m hoping for a really good night’s sleep tonight, because I felt exhausted today. I did buy the Boppy body pillow, and it has definitely helped, but it’s still not the answer to a perfectly sound night every single night. I dread that my sleep is only going to get worse as I get bigger and my hips start to really ache since I’m already having so much trouble. I also have been getting the round ligament pain. The first time I felt it, it was awful, and a few days before my second appointment. It didn’t last long, my warm shower seemed to help, and I knew it wasn’t any kind of cramping, so I didn’t call, but my doctor assured me that’s what it was at the appointment. I still get twangs of it sometimes, but he said it should start to diminish, and at least when I get it I know what it is now and it doesn’t feel as bad anymore. My cravings have been slightly weird for me. First I couldn’t seem to get enough oatmeal. That lasted a week or so. Then I was on a slight waffle kick, but again, only for a short time. Then it progressed to pickles, then green olives, and now most recently it was spinach and artichoke dip and tortilla chips. I used to eat a little of that dip if my in-laws got it, but I never really chose it. It just wasn’t really my kind of appetizer. Over the last few weeks I must have eaten it at least 4 or 5 times! There was one night I wanted it for my dinner, just the whole thing of it all by myself! I didn’t do it, but I did eat at least half as an appetizer. So for the most part as of now I have been wanting salty foods. That would be hubby’s part of Bean because I usually have a sweet tooth myself. And if you believe in any of the old wives tales, it means I’m carrying a boy. So my most recent appointment was this past Monday. He said I definitely got bigger and was measuring where I should be, my blood pressure was good at 126/74, and we were able to get Bean’s heartbeat with the doppler this time! A wonderful 148 bpm and the best sound I ever heard! Hubby recorded it but I don’t know the best way to add that sound clip on here, and he just went to bed. Maybe in the next post or next update. The next thing I have to go for is the quad screen test, which will show my chance of the baby having Down syndrome and other issues. If the results come back good, I have my next appointment on the 31st, and I will schedule the regular ultrasound for shortly after that where we can find out the gender! If the results come back with an increased chance of any issues, I will have to schedule a specialized ultrasound and go from there. So I hope the results are good, but either way, we can find out if Bean is a boy or girl around the beginning of February! I’m excited for that, but my gut tells me it’s a boy. Hubby thinks it’s a girl, especially after a dream he had recently. Some pregnant women get gut feelings and they are 100% right. My gut could be wrong, but I think it’s a boy at this point and I also feel like I will go past my due date. Just my feeling as of now – we’ll see how correct it is as time goes on. I also got a belly band for my current jeans not long before Christmas, since I was having trouble buttoning them, and it fits great, but at this point I’m starting to notice a definite change in belly size, and I bought my first pair of maternity jeans the other night, along with 2 shirts. That’s the other thing. You will not see belly pictures on here until I am either pretty huge, or possibly not at all. I was heavier to begin with, and I’m not fond of how my belly looks. Right now I know I’m getting bigger because of baby, but I don’t show like the typical slender pregnant woman. To the outside world, I just look like I ate way too many Christmas cookies in my time. So, no pictures until I look distinctly pregnant, possibly none at all. I’m taking them for my own recording, but that’s as far as they’re going for now. So at the moment, that’s all I have on that for now. After Monday’s appointment, I finally felt like I could let it all out, and even started looking at maternity clothes and cribs! Now I’m excited and extremely happy! Not that I wasn’t before, but I was totally overwhelmed with nervousness.
My Christmas was nice. We went out for our usual buffet lunch, and back to my grandmother and uncle’s to exchange gifts and play Wii games. Hubby and I exchanged in the morning, and his card made me cry. In a good way, but these hormones really get me sometimes! (I cried at the jewelry commercial of the couple with their baby up late at night for baby’s first Christmas! Totally bawled…) My parents and I chipped in together for a Kindle for him, and I also got him pj’s, and a bottle of 43 (booze). He got me the Polar Express DVD, soundtrack, and illustrated book (I have been wanting the CD for 3 years now, because I love that movie, and he managed to find all 3 for a great deal on Amazon – the book was also partially for Bean), along with a jigsaw puzzle, a mat for the puzzle (something else I’ve been wanting forever), and a coupon for my choice of one pregnancy luxury item (example, a foot spa or other item for pampering). My parents gave me/us a double crock pot, a Target gift card (for maternity clothes, but unfortunately Target doesn’t carry clothes for my body, so a new Wii game it will be!), and a camera bag for our new Fugi Film FinePix 1800. Other gifts were cash and restaurant gift cards. We bought my dad a tripod for his camera (same one as ours), a BJ’s membership for my mom, and other gifts for everyone else were made up of games, gift cards, clothing, wine, chocolates, and other goodies. We did get a picture frame for his mom that is carved wood with the saying “Grandma’s Angel” for her first picture of the baby, and I made my aunt some jewelry that she absolutely loved. I will do a whole separate post on that later, since this one became too long.
New Year’s was spent at my in-laws. Yummy food, relaxation, nothing too exciting there. Overall a good holiday.
I apologize for the long post. Hopefully everything made sense. Since I haven’t done any announcing on here about the baby or updates, I had a lot to say! I will eventually put up a poll for gender guessing, and will leave it up until we find out, but I have to figure out how to do that first! Look for more updates to come, but I’m not sure how often I will do them yet. Any advice you have on great baby products, furniture, must-haves, etc., are greatly welcomed since I am starting to look at that stuff now and I feel overwhelmed by it all.
And now it’s time for bed…
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