10 Weeks

Though he's barley the size of a kumquat— a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce, your baby has now completed the most critical portion of his development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature.

He's swallowing fluid and kicking up a storm. Vital organs — including his kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver (now making red blood cells in place of the disappearing yolk sac) — are in place and starting to function, though they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy.

If you could take a peek inside your womb, you'd spot minute details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing) and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin.
(from: pregnancy.com)

Hungover

Jennifer described how she felt in her first trimester as having a constant hangover, and she's right. My body is achy and stiff, I never feel like I've had enough sleep, I almost always have a dull headache, and I'm always thirsty... always. Oh, and I feel fat.

I can't wait for my second trimester to start, only a few more weeks, yay! I hear that I'll start feeling better and hopefully I'll actually start to look pregnant instead of just putting on weight. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that we're doing this, I'm just tired of "taking it easy". I want to be swimming and hiking and going to Yellowstone. It's nice to have a day on the couch on occasion, just not on a daily basis. But baby is okay, so we're all good. I can't wait for my next sonogram on Tuesday.

I've never seen Jonathan more excited about anything, it's really very funny. And he said that he's excited enough for the both of us, which is good, considering all I really want to do is sleep.

This would solve so many of my problems

Jonathan promised to have the video of us telling people about the baby done by the end of the weekend!

Not much news

There's not much new to report, which is a good thing. I'm horribly nauseous, to where it's hard to eat sometimes, and I'm really tired.

I think Cooper is teething, I could feel something in his bottom gums today, and it makes him very cranky. Thankfully I only have 1 more day to work this week and I get Monday off (and paid!) since it's a holiday!

9 Weeks

Your baby (who has officially graduated now from embryo to fetus) has grown to approximately 1 inch in length, about the size of a medium green olive. His or her head is continuing to develop and take on more baby-like proportions. This week, tiny muscles are starting to form. This will allow you fetus to move his or her arms and legs, though it'll be at least another month before you'll be able to feel those little punches and kicks. While it's way too early to feel anything, it's not too early to hear something. The glorious sound of your baby's heartbeat might be audible via a doppler device at your practitioner's office. (From What to Expect)


Weekend Report:
Friday night we had friends over for dinner. Saturday Jonathan had a landmark workday all day, I was there for part of it. And today we went on the boat with my parents! I LOVE the boat, it's my favorite thing to do in the summertime. It was very funny though, my dad would barley put the boat in gear and just puttered the whole time. We topped out at 12 mph. My doctor said it was fine for me to boat ride, papa was just being a bit protective. Unfortunately we got chased off the water by the rain and thankfully made it back to the doc before the heavens let loose. We just hung on the doc until it passed and then headed home for a nap.

Bump!

I woke up this morning and looked down... and I have a belly! Literally overnight. Jonathan's eyes got really big when he saw it. People with less abdominal muscles start showing sooner, because there's nothing there to hold things in. Over the last few weeks I've noticed a little change, but today there is definitely a bump. I would just like to say, for the record, that I've actually lost 5 pounds, so things are apparently just re-arranging.
It may not look like much in the picture, but it looks huge to me.

Happy Birthday Jennifer!

Today is Jennifer's 30th birthday. She's a great mom and I can't wait for her to be my babies aunt. She's the best sister-in-law ever, in fact sometimes we joke that we both got stuck with brothers and now we both finally have what we wanted, a sister. Happy birthday!

20 Ridiculous Baby Products

This cracks me us. I don't know where people come up with this stuff. But check out this list for a laugh.

8 week sonogram & doctor's appointment

Today was the day they took our genetic history, did all kinds of tests, and gave us the doctor's pregnancy "guide" book. We waited in the office for over an hour before they even called us back, it was a full 1.5 hours past the appointment time before we saw the doctor... and we had Cooper with us. Luckily he did really well, all things considered.

The great news is that the blood clot is only 1/2 the size as it was last week! The doctor was thrilled and he expects it to keep shrinking and completely go away. I could tell he was relieved and he thinks that everything is going to be fine. We are SO excited and relieved. I'm not out of the woods yet but we're definitely headed in the right direction. And as long as I don't have anymore bleeding, I don't have to go back for 2 weeks.

Now for the picture: It looks much more like a baby this week. Its head is down and body is above it, and it doesn't have a tail anymore. It grew .55 cm in 5 days. On another angle we could see two arms and two legs. I think it looks like Jonathan... it has his big head!

Using my super powers for good

My super sense of smell usually makes me gag or run from things. The fish counter at HEB, a full trash can, and eggs cooking all turn my stomach over. However, the other day I was in the fruit section of HEB and something wonderful struck me so I sniffed it out. It was one particular section of peaches, there were 3 different bunches but this one just smelled great.

I just ate the thing and it was the most wonderful peach I have ever eaten! EVER! Usually I'm not much of a peach person, I think they need sugar and cream, but this one was perfect. I can't wait to go back to the grocery store and try again... I think I'll sniff out the perfect plum next.

I have another sonogram tomorrow, I can't wait to see how the peanut is doing.

Week 8

New this week: Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby's hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his "tail" is just about gone. In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. You may be daydreaming about your baby as one sex or the other, but the external genitals still haven't developed enough to reveal whether you're having a boy or a girl. Either way, your baby - about the size of a kidney bean - is constantly moving and shifting, though you still can't feel it. (from babycenter.com)

I've been doing okay. My boobs are still growing and I can't lay on my stomach because of them. My uterus has almost doubled in size and I'm starting to be able to feel where it is. The tiredness has also started to kick in, I'm not tired all the time but when I am all I can do is sleep.

Last night I started having some intense cramps that continued this morning. I've had a very small amount of spotting but nothing to be concerned about. I've been on the couch all day and Jonathan has been bringing me food and water, he's so great.

The "miracle" of life

Whoever called this process a miracle has never been pregnant.

7 Week Sonogram

Everything looked good.  The clot is the same size, no difference.  But the baby is now 1.22 cm!  It has more than doubled in size in the last week, and it still has a strong heartbeat.  It's amazing to see how different it looks in just a week.  As much as I don't like what's going on with the clot, it's cool to get to see the little one every week.  

To explain the picture: the black blob on the far right side towards the bottom is the clot.  The black thing in the middle toward the top is the baby's sac.  Towards the bottom of that sac you see a peanut shaped thing, that's the baby.  The small ball just above it is its yoke sac.  On last weeks picture the yoke sac and the baby were the same size but now the little squirt is much bigger.  The baby's head is on the left side.  You can't really tell from the picture but on the sonogram itself we could even see where its tiny arm buds are, very cool.  

I go in next Tuesday for my "first visit" that I've had set for a while now.  It will include a sonogram and some other tests too.  I'm hoping to avoid having to get blood work done given that I've already had it run once.  

Picture time

Cooper turned 5-months-old yesterday so I took the camera along. And it gave me something more to do, being stuck inside the house all day.


I sat him in the chair because he's not quite stable enough to sit on the floor on his own. He thought it was pretty great that he was sitting there on his own.



Such a ham!



He was falling over, but still laughing at least.



Such a handsome boy.



He's only sitting there because he has something to hold onto. Right after the picture he toppled over.



He does this thing where he sucks on his bottom lip, it's funny.

This post has been the biggest pain in the ass to write. I had to write it from the bottom up because it wouldn't let me move the pictures around. Grr!

The Farber Method

The people I work for finally decided to work on getting Cooper to sleep on his own, thank God. He was always so miserable when he got tired and he would scream no matter what anyone did. You could hold him, rock him, walk with him, or put him down and he would scream the same no matter what. He's also been waking up twice at night and he's 5 months old! That's craziness.

Basics of the Farber method: When the baby is tired and ready to sleep, lay him down in his crib and let him cry. You can come back in after 5 min, then 7, then 10, and so on, but NEVER pick them up. (you could pick him up if he threw-up, but not for anything less) Sometimes going in just pisses them off even more, but depending on the kid, it's also good for them to be re-assured that they are being heard.

It may sound cruel, but learning to sleep at a young age is SO important and it can set them up for years. And it is never as bad as parents think it's going to be. It took my niece Grace 20 min. the first night and she does great now. It took Cooper about 45 min. the first night but since then it's less than 20. And I could see a huge difference today. He was less fussy than normal because he has learned to calm himself. He didn't cry at all when going down for either nap, when usually we struggle for 20 - 40 min. It's easier on everyone this way and he's actually happier.

I know of 1 way to avoid all of the crying of teaching a baby to sleep on its own... start from the day you get home from the hospital. Put the kid down when he's sleepy but awake and let him fall asleep on his own. If you do that consistently from the beginning, you avoid all the tears in the long run. I'll let you know how that actually works.

Jonathan is working on the video. We had to get another cable, but it should be ready soon.

Did you see the new thing on the right side over there that shows what the baby looks like?

Cooper is 5 months tomorrow so I'm taking my camera with me, stay tuned for pictures.

7 Weeks

The big news this week: Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs — although they look more like paddles at this point than the tiny, pudgy extremities you're daydreaming about holding and tickling. Technically, your baby is still considered an embryo and has something of a small tail, which is an extension of her tailbone. The tail will disappear within a few weeks, but that's the only thing getting smaller. Your baby has doubled in size since last week and now measures half an inch long, about the size of a blueberry.

If you could see inside your womb, you'd spot eyelid folds partially covering her peepers, which already have some color, as well as the tip of her nose and tiny veins beneath parchment-thin skin. Both hemispheres of your baby's brain are growing, and her liver is churning out red blood cells until her bone marrow forms and takes over this role. She also has an appendix and a pancreas, which will eventually produce the hormone insulin to aid in digestion. A loop in your baby's growing intestines is bulging into her umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from her tiny body.
(from babycenter.com)

subchorionic hemorrhage

I’ve hesitated to look anything up on-line about this because I thought it would scare me, but it turns out that what I found was mostly re-assuring. Here is a good Q&A about these things:
click here

And I never thought that I would get any use out of that awful advanced level statistics class in college, but being able to read research outcomes is useful. It was great to actually be able to understand what they were talking about.

I read one that focused specifically on rate of miscarriage based on bed-rest and related to size of the clot. The study followed 230 women and 8.7% ended in miscarriage. Only 6.5% of women on bed-rest miscarried whereas 23.3% who were not on bed-rest miscarried. And there were no association to how long they had bleeding, the age of the fetus when the clot was diagnosed, or the size of the clot. All of this is very good news for me.

So basically I’m staying with taking it easy. I’ll continue to work but Cooper and I probably won’t be going out much, and I’ll continue to nap in the afternoon when he does! On my days off I’m laying low for the most part and Jonathan can just do most of the housework. I can fold laundry and cook a little but after all, I am carrying his baby, he can do a little work too. Sometimes bed-rest seems like work, very very dull work.

Doctor's Appointment

I saw my doctor for the first time today, everything went well. The baby is still growing and has a strong heart beat. The blood clot is still the same. I was told to just take it easy, it's fine to work but not to exercise. And I have to have a weekly sonogram until this thing goes away and go in anytime I have a lot of bleeding.

He said that the odds of any pregnancy miscarrying is about 30% and this doesn't help things, but he the odds are in our favor and hopefully this thing will either come out or dissolve.

Now to explain the picture. The peanut sized thing in the middle of the black bean shaped thing in the center is the baby. It's .46 cm big, just a wee little thing. The black area on the far left is the blood clot. It's 4 cm by 2.5 cm, so a lot bigger than the baby right now.

Back to work tomorrow

I didn't have any bleeding last night and so far none today, so I'm headed back to work tomorrow. We'll see how things go, hopefully I won't have to quit my job and be on bed rest for the next 8 months but the important thing is that we make it 8 months, no matter how it happens.

Symptoms

Fatigue, lack of energy, sleepiness
This hasn’t been too bad. As long as I get a good night sleep I’m usually ok. I don’t ever pass up an afternoon nap if I can get it.

Frequent urination
This one just kicked in and it’s just more annoying than anything. Before I fall asleep at night I have to pee 4 to 6 times and I usually wake up in the middle of the night to pee too. But I’m sure part of it is that I’ve been drinking a lot more water, I’m thirsty all the time.

Nausea, with or without vomiting
Yes, all the time. Not vomiting yet, thank God, but I’m always nauseous. I eat every 2-3 hours, eat ginger, take some tablets that dissolve, and I have a prescription for phenergan as back-up.

Heartburn, indigestion, bloating
Only sometimes, it hasn’t been bad.

Breast changes: fullness, heaviness, tenderness, tingling
Oh God yes. Mostly I’m amazed at how much they’ve grown. I went to get a few new bras because my cups were overflowing, and I’ve grown 3 cup sizes. 3! I now wear a size G, I didn’t know they made them that big. And they still hurt all the time, I just hope they stop growing soon, the new bras are getting a bit tight.

Occasional faintness or dizziness
This only happened on occasion until about 2 days ago, now it’s all the time. There’s nothing occasional about in now.

Constipation
My digestion has slowed down as my body attempts to leach every bit of nutrients out of everything I eat. When I was on all the drugs for my elbow, that was constipation, and it was awful. This is nothing. I’m thirsty all the time so I drink a ton of water and I keep some prunes on hand just in case, but I haven’t really needed them yet.

A little rounding of your belly, your clothes feeling a bit snug
I’ve actually lost 5 pounds in the last few weeks but my pants are a bit snug in the waist. One evening I had to tape them closed, it was pretty sad.

From the couch

I got these flowers from HEB the last time I was there. One of my pregnancy super powers allows me to smell everything, everywhere. So the nice smelling flowers help cover up the dog smell and the trash, those are the two that get me the most.

I got my blood work done this morning and I just spoke with the nurse. She said to keep doing what I'm doing because my hormone levels are perfect. That's a great sign for the little peanut. She had looked at my chart and told me that the size of the clot is impressive but it will most likely get re-absorbed. My doc will want to do a sonogram weekly until that happens to make sure the baby is growing at a normal rate and has a strong heartbeat. I'm also supposed to get a sonogram after any episodes of heavy bleeding, more for peace-of-mind than anything.

My next appointment is Wednesday morning. It does make things with work a bit tricky given that I work Monday through Wednesday and my doc isn't in the office Thursday or Friday. I scheduled it right around Cooper's nap time so in theory I'll just take him with me and he'll sleep the whole time. I may take Jonathan with me as back up entertainment and bottle feeder, it would be difficult to feed him and get a sonogram at the same time.

Luckily when I called to set up the appointment and told the person why I needed to come in 2 days from now, his schedule was wide open. Funny, considering it takes 3 month to get in for an annual. But I'm not complaining, I've paid my dues sitting in that waiting room for the last 10 years, it's my turn to get in and out of there quickly. I'm not holding my breath though.

I had a small amount of bleeding last night and this morning so I'll stay in bed through tomorrow and plan on going back to work Wednesday. They know what's going on and told me to just take care of myself. Though I'm sure their secretly freaking about what's going to happen with them.

I'm going back to drinking my bubbly water and watching TV.

6 Weeks

This week's major developments: The nose, mouth, and ears that you'll spend so much time kissing in eight months are beginning to take shape. If you could see into your uterus, you'd find an oversize head and dark spots where your baby's eyes and nostrils are starting to form. His emerging ears are marked by small depressions on the sides of the head, and his arms and legs by protruding buds. His heart is beating about 100 to 160 times a minute — almost twice as fast as yours — and blood is beginning to course through his body. His intestines are developing, and the bud of tissue that will give rise to his lungs has appeared. His pituitary gland is forming, as are the rest of his brain, muscles, and bones. Right now, your baby is a quarter of an inch long, about the size of a lentil bean. (from babycenter.com)

Bed Rest

We had a scary night last night. I had some bleeding with cramping and clotting, not a good sign. I freaked out and called the nurses line and a doctor (one of my OB's associates) called me back. He said that 25% of healthy pregnancies have some bleeding in the 1st trimester and that we should do a sonogram to see what's going on. We could have gone to the ER but that would have cost us $100 and kept us up past 3 AM so the doctor met us at the office today to take a look. I did finally manage to sleep some, all things considered.

The doc looks like Tom Selleck, it was odd. The baby has a strong heart beat and I'm 6 weeks 1 day pregnant! Both Jonathan and I cried when we saw the heart beat, I was so worried that we wouldn't find anything. I do have a clot (subchorionic bleed) though so I should expect some more bleeding.

I have to go get blood work done in the morning and have another sonogram later in the week. And I'm on bed rest for 48 hours and then no strenuous activity for 7 days, and that's the protocol for any other bleeding from here on out.

I haven't decided yet about work. The doc said he'd leave that up to me. If I don't have anymore bleeding today then I'll probably go and just take it really easy. I don't have to chase him around anywhere at least. The good news is that they have back-up. They don't know that I'm pregnant, but it looks like they may find out sooner than I had planned. If I do go tomorrow Jonathan will come over and go with us to get blood work done, that way he can lug the baby carrier around, that thing is heavy. Here's a picture of Cooper, he's a cutie.

Stay tuned

for the video of us telling everyone that we're pregnant. It's in the editing phase...

Week 5

(5 weeks was Monday, July 28th)

This is the picture that Jonathan drew of the baby, he calls it Tad.This week:
Your little embryo, which at this point resembles a tadpole more than a baby (complete with tenny tail), is growing fast and furious and is now about the size of an orange seed – still small but a lot bigger than it’s been. This week, the heart is starting to take shape. In fact, the circulatory system, along with the heart, is the first system to be operational. Your baby’s heart (about the size of a poppy seed) is made up of two tiny channels called heart tubes – and though it’s still far from fully functional, it’s already beating – something you might be able to see on an early ultrasound. Also in the work is the neural tube, which will eventually become your baby’s brain and spinal cord. Right now the neural tube is open, but it will close by next week.
(from: What to Expect when you’re Expecting)

Why a blog?

Well, I'm pregnant. I think that's when a lot of people start blogs. Basically, to keep a written record of everything that's going on because half of it already falls out of my head. And anyone reading this is welcome to follow along.

I've been a nanny off-and-on since I was about 15 (I'm 29 now), I have a degree in Child Development, and I've been working with new parents and babies for the last year-and-a-half. So everyone thinks it should be really interesting to see how I handle my own kid after having so much experience with others.

Will I follow any of my own rules? Only time will tell.