Showing posts with label Pregnancy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pregnancy. Show all posts
8.27.2011
100 Days Remain!
Well, I officially have hit 100 days remaining until my due date! In some ways this still feels like a long time to go, but in other ways feels like I'm almost there and is crazy how time flies! We have a LOT to do in this next 100 days....mainly find a house, move, find a renter for our loft, furnish our new place, and buy loads of baby gear!
8.20.2011
Future easy sewing project (DIY burp cloths)
Numerous people have told me not to get the cutesy burp cloths cause they just don't work well. Supposedly the best absorbant cloths are the Gerber prefold 6-ply diapers, so I'm registering for a couple packs of those. They are just plain white and nothing fancy...which is fine with me. But then I saw this super cute idea on Etsy where fabric was sewn just on one side-- I thought it added a cute touch, but then still left the other side all absorbant and plain. I think I'll get some cute fabrics and give this a whirl...assuming I have enough spare time between getting these and the baby!
8.18.2011
Easy DIY baby blanket
I know I've been a bad blogger lately, but hopefully I'll have some good posts coming up here. For today, I have a new topic/hobby....SEWING!!!
I had seen a really cute idea on Amanda's blog (here) to do a rag quilt, but was skeptical that I'd actually be able to do this. The only time I have sewn something was back in Home Econ in 7th & 8th grade. My sewing machine was still in the box from xmas...so I figured I didn't have much to lose and would take a stab at making a really small baby blanket. And at least if it didn't turn out well, it's not like a baby is going to be too picky!
I looked up some instructions on the internet, but ultimately just kinda made it up as I went. The instructions I saw all called for the cotton squares on the front and back of the quilt, but you'll see that I just did the front like that and used soft minky baby fabric for the back.
First step was to go to the fabric store and pick a few items up. Luckily for me, they had a bundle of blue/orange/brown fabrics already cut to about 6x6...so I bought those since would save me the initial step of cutting down my fabric into squares. It came in a pack of 20 squares and ended up being a perfect little size. I also bought some white minky fabric for the back just because I LOVE how soft it is...it just oozes baby when you see and feel it!
1. Design your layout.
First I arranged the squares on our coffee table with 4 squares across each row and 5 columns high...then after way too much thinking/consideration, ended up with a pattern I was pleased with.
2. Pin and Sew Squares to form Rows
I used pins to pin the 4 fabric squares of each row together. I pinned at least 1 inch from the edge.
I sewed the pinned seams together to form a row. I tried to sew about a half inch from the edge.
Repeat this for all of your rows.
3. Pin and Sew Rows to form columns
Now it is time to pin 2 rows together and sew them. I started with my bottom 2 rows and just kept working my way up....pinning and sewing. At this point my blanket looked pretty bad, but trust me that even if you sewed crooked or however, it will probably look fine. Just sew over seams however you want-- you'll end up cutting these anyways, so it really does not matter- you can see how caddy-wompous some of mine looked.
4. Wash blanket
At this point, your entire front should be sewn together and somewhat look like a blanket. I washed and dried my blanket at this point so that it would shrink to size since it was cotton and I was using minky for the back, which most likely would not shrink. The edges will start to fray a tad.
5. Cut, pin, sew backing
I then cut a piece of the minkey fabric just slightly larger than the blanket and pinned on the back of the blanket. I had read to pin this very well cause he fabric is soft and moves around very easily. I sewed about a half inch from the edge around the whole perimeter of the blanket. This was very difficult for me to sew this straight and have it look good, so my advice would be to take it very slow here. I also learned afterwards that I could have used white thread in my bobbin, which would have looked better on my minky backing and not shown how crooked I sewed.
I then trimmed the backing so that it was slightly smaller than the size of my blanket. I probably could have avoided this step by cutting the minky to the correct size to start with :)
6. Rag the quilt
This was the most excruciating step-- with a good pair of scissors, cut slits in every single seam so that it will fray better. I made my slits probably 1/4 inch. You can also buy a tool at the fabric store to snip these cuts which probably works a lot easier.
Wash several times to fray and you are done!
I had seen a really cute idea on Amanda's blog (here) to do a rag quilt, but was skeptical that I'd actually be able to do this. The only time I have sewn something was back in Home Econ in 7th & 8th grade. My sewing machine was still in the box from xmas...so I figured I didn't have much to lose and would take a stab at making a really small baby blanket. And at least if it didn't turn out well, it's not like a baby is going to be too picky!
I looked up some instructions on the internet, but ultimately just kinda made it up as I went. The instructions I saw all called for the cotton squares on the front and back of the quilt, but you'll see that I just did the front like that and used soft minky baby fabric for the back.
First step was to go to the fabric store and pick a few items up. Luckily for me, they had a bundle of blue/orange/brown fabrics already cut to about 6x6...so I bought those since would save me the initial step of cutting down my fabric into squares. It came in a pack of 20 squares and ended up being a perfect little size. I also bought some white minky fabric for the back just because I LOVE how soft it is...it just oozes baby when you see and feel it!
1. Design your layout.
First I arranged the squares on our coffee table with 4 squares across each row and 5 columns high...then after way too much thinking/consideration, ended up with a pattern I was pleased with.
2. Pin and Sew Squares to form Rows
I used pins to pin the 4 fabric squares of each row together. I pinned at least 1 inch from the edge.
I sewed the pinned seams together to form a row. I tried to sew about a half inch from the edge.
Repeat this for all of your rows.
3. Pin and Sew Rows to form columns
Now it is time to pin 2 rows together and sew them. I started with my bottom 2 rows and just kept working my way up....pinning and sewing. At this point my blanket looked pretty bad, but trust me that even if you sewed crooked or however, it will probably look fine. Just sew over seams however you want-- you'll end up cutting these anyways, so it really does not matter- you can see how caddy-wompous some of mine looked.
4. Wash blanket
At this point, your entire front should be sewn together and somewhat look like a blanket. I washed and dried my blanket at this point so that it would shrink to size since it was cotton and I was using minky for the back, which most likely would not shrink. The edges will start to fray a tad.
5. Cut, pin, sew backing
I then cut a piece of the minkey fabric just slightly larger than the blanket and pinned on the back of the blanket. I had read to pin this very well cause he fabric is soft and moves around very easily. I sewed about a half inch from the edge around the whole perimeter of the blanket. This was very difficult for me to sew this straight and have it look good, so my advice would be to take it very slow here. I also learned afterwards that I could have used white thread in my bobbin, which would have looked better on my minky backing and not shown how crooked I sewed.
I then trimmed the backing so that it was slightly smaller than the size of my blanket. I probably could have avoided this step by cutting the minky to the correct size to start with :)
6. Rag the quilt
This was the most excruciating step-- with a good pair of scissors, cut slits in every single seam so that it will fray better. I made my slits probably 1/4 inch. You can also buy a tool at the fabric store to snip these cuts which probably works a lot easier.
Wash several times to fray and you are done!
8.02.2011
22 Weeks
How have I been feeling? Overall still good, despite the heat that continues with heat indices over 100 degrees. I have found that doing too much in the heat makes me feel very dizzy and weak and not well, so we have limited doing much at all.
Felt any movement? Yes, finally!!!! I actually started feeling really faint signs of movement just after my 20-week post. The last 4 days now it has been 100% noticable and definite that it is the baby I'm feeling. I actually don't like it at all, but assume I will get used to it or maybe it will grow on me. It just is uncomfortable and kinda weirds me out-- it's not painful by any means, but reminds me of having an upset stomach almost. Normally when you have some sort of rumble in your tummy it indicates bad things may be happening, so I think it's just hard at this point cause is so noticable to me. Dustin has yet to try to feel any movement cause every time he is around the baby is still...unless it is the middle of the night in which cause Dustin is sleeping while I'm laying there annoyed!
Clothing? Still wearing my normal clothes, although for the last 4-5 days I've worn pants or shorts I've had to wear the belly band to make them more comfortable. (In case you don't know what a belly band is, it's like a circle of spandex that you stretch around your waistline and it will hold your pants up so you don't have to button them-- see the pic below. Ya, you feel officially fat once you hit this point! With it being so hot out, I actually find it a little uncomfortable to wear, but will do for the next few weeks.)
Purchases: None
Names: Still haven't started thinking on this. Although an interesting topic has been discussed recently, so I'll digress a little into the debate-- why do some people decide not to share the name until the birth? I really had never thought twice about once we decide on a name or a few names of being open and sharing that with people-- it just didn't make any sense to me to deliberately not tell. But, A LOT of people choose to do this, so I started asking around about it. So some people do not tell because they say they want to keep people interested for something after the birth-- which I personally disagree with and would not do for that reason. It's not like your co-workers or random people are hanging by a thread so interested in your baby name that it needs to be some big secret and revelation. Other people say they like knowing something and having the power trip to tell someone that they can't be told that information-- which I also personally disagree with. I actually think that is just rude and un-necessary. Again, no one really cares about this name as much as the parents...so if I ask someone what the name is and they don't want to tell, but are feeling like it is some power trip-- I really don't think it is cause I'll find out later and not going to lose any sleep over it! So, then the number one main reason why people said they don't tell is they just don't want to hear people's opinions or negativity about the name. This actually made me kinda sad to hear that basically they are not telling something just because others can be so rude. Generally people are not near as open about their negative feelings on the name if it is announced once the baby is here. I've talked to many people who said with their first child they shared the name and will never, ever in a million years do that again because they all had stories about people saying how much they hated the name, thought it was weird, associated it with xyz, etc. So now this has made me re-think everything cause the last thing I'm expecting or need is some un-solicitated input from joe blow. I wish people would just learn to keep their mouths shut and opinions to themselves, but people just don't get it....my husband included. Several years ago we had some friends who said what they'd be naming their baby, which was a completely normal name....but Dustin did not care for it and flat out told them that name sucked, he couldn't believe they were going to name the baby that, it was awful, etc. After the couple left I was furious with Dustin and tried telling him how rude that was and I seriously thought he should apologize because I would have got in the car and cried the whole way home if someone had said those things to me. He just didn't get it and didn't feel like it was rude at all. So I know if my own husband is capable of this, then at some point we will encounter this with some other moron ripping me to shreds for choosing whatever name. So....stay tuned for if we'll share or not! It bums me out actually to feel like I can't share because I'll be hurt by rude comments....but guess that is life!
Cravings: None
22-Week Stats
Date: 8.2.2011
Weight: 139 (up 8 lbs from start- that is 4 lb gain in the last 2 weeks since I started eating the ice cream! I'm not one that usually obsesses over my weight, but it's a very hard concept to accept to just feel your belly getting fatter and knowing it's okay/normal. I just feel disgusting and like I should be on a diet!)
Belly circumfrence: 35 inches (I had to use a different type of tape measure today, so hopefully this is accurate, but I swear my stomach has ballooned out like crazy in the last 2 weeks, so think it has grown way more than 1 inch)
Picture (20-weeks is on left compared to my current status on right-- see, definitely more than 1 inch gained around my belly!):
Felt any movement? Yes, finally!!!! I actually started feeling really faint signs of movement just after my 20-week post. The last 4 days now it has been 100% noticable and definite that it is the baby I'm feeling. I actually don't like it at all, but assume I will get used to it or maybe it will grow on me. It just is uncomfortable and kinda weirds me out-- it's not painful by any means, but reminds me of having an upset stomach almost. Normally when you have some sort of rumble in your tummy it indicates bad things may be happening, so I think it's just hard at this point cause is so noticable to me. Dustin has yet to try to feel any movement cause every time he is around the baby is still...unless it is the middle of the night in which cause Dustin is sleeping while I'm laying there annoyed!
Clothing? Still wearing my normal clothes, although for the last 4-5 days I've worn pants or shorts I've had to wear the belly band to make them more comfortable. (In case you don't know what a belly band is, it's like a circle of spandex that you stretch around your waistline and it will hold your pants up so you don't have to button them-- see the pic below. Ya, you feel officially fat once you hit this point! With it being so hot out, I actually find it a little uncomfortable to wear, but will do for the next few weeks.)
Purchases: None
Names: Still haven't started thinking on this. Although an interesting topic has been discussed recently, so I'll digress a little into the debate-- why do some people decide not to share the name until the birth? I really had never thought twice about once we decide on a name or a few names of being open and sharing that with people-- it just didn't make any sense to me to deliberately not tell. But, A LOT of people choose to do this, so I started asking around about it. So some people do not tell because they say they want to keep people interested for something after the birth-- which I personally disagree with and would not do for that reason. It's not like your co-workers or random people are hanging by a thread so interested in your baby name that it needs to be some big secret and revelation. Other people say they like knowing something and having the power trip to tell someone that they can't be told that information-- which I also personally disagree with. I actually think that is just rude and un-necessary. Again, no one really cares about this name as much as the parents...so if I ask someone what the name is and they don't want to tell, but are feeling like it is some power trip-- I really don't think it is cause I'll find out later and not going to lose any sleep over it! So, then the number one main reason why people said they don't tell is they just don't want to hear people's opinions or negativity about the name. This actually made me kinda sad to hear that basically they are not telling something just because others can be so rude. Generally people are not near as open about their negative feelings on the name if it is announced once the baby is here. I've talked to many people who said with their first child they shared the name and will never, ever in a million years do that again because they all had stories about people saying how much they hated the name, thought it was weird, associated it with xyz, etc. So now this has made me re-think everything cause the last thing I'm expecting or need is some un-solicitated input from joe blow. I wish people would just learn to keep their mouths shut and opinions to themselves, but people just don't get it....my husband included. Several years ago we had some friends who said what they'd be naming their baby, which was a completely normal name....but Dustin did not care for it and flat out told them that name sucked, he couldn't believe they were going to name the baby that, it was awful, etc. After the couple left I was furious with Dustin and tried telling him how rude that was and I seriously thought he should apologize because I would have got in the car and cried the whole way home if someone had said those things to me. He just didn't get it and didn't feel like it was rude at all. So I know if my own husband is capable of this, then at some point we will encounter this with some other moron ripping me to shreds for choosing whatever name. So....stay tuned for if we'll share or not! It bums me out actually to feel like I can't share because I'll be hurt by rude comments....but guess that is life!
Cravings: None
22-Week Stats
Date: 8.2.2011
Weight: 139 (up 8 lbs from start- that is 4 lb gain in the last 2 weeks since I started eating the ice cream! I'm not one that usually obsesses over my weight, but it's a very hard concept to accept to just feel your belly getting fatter and knowing it's okay/normal. I just feel disgusting and like I should be on a diet!)
Belly circumfrence: 35 inches (I had to use a different type of tape measure today, so hopefully this is accurate, but I swear my stomach has ballooned out like crazy in the last 2 weeks, so think it has grown way more than 1 inch)
Picture (20-weeks is on left compared to my current status on right-- see, definitely more than 1 inch gained around my belly!):
7.19.2011
20 Weeks: WHOOOAAAA...we're halfway there!
Completed 20 WEEKS on Tuesday this week! It is absolutely crazy to think I'll be over the halfway mark! So here's the lowdown on where things stand...
How have I been feeling? Overall really good. I've felt more tired the past few weeks though than before-- but think a lot of it is just due to the draining near 100 degree temps outside. Just had a few days here and there where I just don't feel 100%, but I always say that could just be normal and not even due to being pregnant!
Felt any movement? Not a thing. A couple weeks ago I thought maybe I was feeling something, but now think it must have been gas or food passing through me. Lately I don't feel a single flutter or anything. The doctor did say today that my placenta is up front, so that probably explains why I don't feel anything. She said to think of it like somebody punching you through a pillow and that pillow really cushions you from feeling anything.
Clothing? Still wearing my normal clothes, although my pants are definitely starting to get to that snug point!
First Items: So the very first item our baby has received is a cute cookie monster hooded bath towel from some relatives. I felt a little guilty then that I had slacked and not bought anything, so I did something about it and bought fabric this weekend and made a little blanket! There will be a separate post on that in the coming days. And a generous co-worker bought a little illini football shirt. So we got a towel, blanket, and shirt....now only 1000 more items left!
Names: Nope, still haven't really started looking into this.
Cravings: None
20-Week Dr. Appt
Date: 7.19.2011
Weight: 135 (up 4 lbs from start)
Blood Pressure: 110/62
Baby Heartbeat: 156
Belly circumfrence: 34 inches
Fundal Height: 18.5 cm
Description: These appointments are really pretty uneventful during this timeframe. Dustin has made it to all appointments so far. The doctor said she wasn't super concerned with my weight, but that I need to make sure to gain at least a pound per week from now on and is concerned I may not be getting enough calories. So get this-- she seriously said to try 3 times a week to eat a bowl of ice cream after dinner on top of what I normally eat. Dustin was jealous cause he loooooooooooooves the ice cream! And he's concerned he is going to start gaining weight cause is impossible for him to watch me eat ice cream and refrain. Dustin cracks me up at these appointments and thinks every little piece of info needs shared with the doctor and that I'm hiding stuff. I seriously don't think he trusts me to go on my own. So when she says this business about eating a few more calories...dustin pipes up with "Well, she did weigh a little bit more earlier this morning if she would have weighed in then." I'm sure he got the death stare from me tunneling over "I can't believe you just said that out loud!" The doctor politely said something about bowel movements don't affect the weight all that much and I still should follow the advice she just gave. At least now I get a chuckle out of it, but why someone would feel that was important altering information to share?! She also said they do not do any more ultrasounds unless there would be a medical necessity. I was somewhat surprised with that, but she said she participated in a study at wash u and they confirmed there was no value added to doing them after 20 weeks-- at this point they are able to see everything they need to see. We can elect to do one in the 3rd trimester if we want...but I got the feeling that most insurance companies will not cover it if you are just doing it for your own benefit. She also said she didn't have an issue with me having like a glass of wine occassionally....woot woot!!!! My mouth is already watering thinking about dinner this Saturday night and having a nice glass of white wine with my meal....yum! For some reason, I am one of those people that just always wants what I can't have....so before getting pregnant it wasn't a big deal most of the time if I chose not to have a drink. Then when I couldn't drink....it killed me to go out to dinner and not be able to order something! So I think this will help knowing that I can have a drink if I want....but I'll probably still choose not to on most weekends.
Here is my 20-week picture on right compared to my starting picture on left:
How have I been feeling? Overall really good. I've felt more tired the past few weeks though than before-- but think a lot of it is just due to the draining near 100 degree temps outside. Just had a few days here and there where I just don't feel 100%, but I always say that could just be normal and not even due to being pregnant!
Felt any movement? Not a thing. A couple weeks ago I thought maybe I was feeling something, but now think it must have been gas or food passing through me. Lately I don't feel a single flutter or anything. The doctor did say today that my placenta is up front, so that probably explains why I don't feel anything. She said to think of it like somebody punching you through a pillow and that pillow really cushions you from feeling anything.
Clothing? Still wearing my normal clothes, although my pants are definitely starting to get to that snug point!
First Items: So the very first item our baby has received is a cute cookie monster hooded bath towel from some relatives. I felt a little guilty then that I had slacked and not bought anything, so I did something about it and bought fabric this weekend and made a little blanket! There will be a separate post on that in the coming days. And a generous co-worker bought a little illini football shirt. So we got a towel, blanket, and shirt....now only 1000 more items left!
Names: Nope, still haven't really started looking into this.
Cravings: None
20-Week Dr. Appt
Date: 7.19.2011
Weight: 135 (up 4 lbs from start)
Blood Pressure: 110/62
Baby Heartbeat: 156
Belly circumfrence: 34 inches
Fundal Height: 18.5 cm
Description: These appointments are really pretty uneventful during this timeframe. Dustin has made it to all appointments so far. The doctor said she wasn't super concerned with my weight, but that I need to make sure to gain at least a pound per week from now on and is concerned I may not be getting enough calories. So get this-- she seriously said to try 3 times a week to eat a bowl of ice cream after dinner on top of what I normally eat. Dustin was jealous cause he loooooooooooooves the ice cream! And he's concerned he is going to start gaining weight cause is impossible for him to watch me eat ice cream and refrain. Dustin cracks me up at these appointments and thinks every little piece of info needs shared with the doctor and that I'm hiding stuff. I seriously don't think he trusts me to go on my own. So when she says this business about eating a few more calories...dustin pipes up with "Well, she did weigh a little bit more earlier this morning if she would have weighed in then." I'm sure he got the death stare from me tunneling over "I can't believe you just said that out loud!" The doctor politely said something about bowel movements don't affect the weight all that much and I still should follow the advice she just gave. At least now I get a chuckle out of it, but why someone would feel that was important altering information to share?! She also said they do not do any more ultrasounds unless there would be a medical necessity. I was somewhat surprised with that, but she said she participated in a study at wash u and they confirmed there was no value added to doing them after 20 weeks-- at this point they are able to see everything they need to see. We can elect to do one in the 3rd trimester if we want...but I got the feeling that most insurance companies will not cover it if you are just doing it for your own benefit. She also said she didn't have an issue with me having like a glass of wine occassionally....woot woot!!!! My mouth is already watering thinking about dinner this Saturday night and having a nice glass of white wine with my meal....yum! For some reason, I am one of those people that just always wants what I can't have....so before getting pregnant it wasn't a big deal most of the time if I chose not to have a drink. Then when I couldn't drink....it killed me to go out to dinner and not be able to order something! So I think this will help knowing that I can have a drink if I want....but I'll probably still choose not to on most weekends.
Here is my 20-week picture on right compared to my starting picture on left:
7.12.2011
It's no longer an "it"....we are having a....
BOY!
So here are all the details on how things went....
First, we had sent out an email to our family to invite them over Friday night where we would find out the baby's gender all at the same time.
As our way for everyone to find out the gender at the same time, we decided to give everyone a cupcake and we'd bite into it and see if it was pink or blue filling, indicating if girl or boy. Everyone is puzzled how we did this, so I'll explain all the steps.
1. So my sister kindly came over Thursday night and we baked cupcakes. Since Dustin does not like chocolate, we made 2 kinds-- Chocolate and Carrot Cake.
2. After they were baked and cooled, we took a sharp knife and just cute a round hole in the center of each one about halfway down to the bottom. We scooped out this cake, while still leaving it somewhat in tact (you'll use it later to plug back in the hole).
3. We had mixed pink and blue icings/fillings-- a whipped cream mixture for the chocolate cakes and cream cheese icing for the carrot cake. I spooned this filling into the holes-- I filled 12 with pink and 12 with blue. You can then plug the whole with the cake you had just cut out...and it's amazing how you can't even tell that there was a hole ever cut! So keep track separately of which ones had the pink vs. blue.
4. We then iced the tops-- chocolate fudge on the chocolates and cream cheese on the carrot cake.
5. I had 2 identical containers, so we loaded pink fillings into one and blue fillings into the other, then labeled what was in each one and put that in an envelope taped on top. (So at this point they looked identical and I had no clue what was in which container.)
6. We had the doctor's office put whether it was a girl or boy in an envelope and did not look at it.
7. We asked some girls in our building to look in the envelope and if it was a girl, then put it with the container labeled girl....if it was a boy, then put it with the container labeled boy. We would then serve and eat from the container she told us to. (So basically you just need a neighbor or any outside person to look at your result and assign it to the right cupcakes).
So we went to the appointment Friday afternoon and they did the anatomy check where they make sure the bone structure looks good and the organs are functioning/developing properly. We were very fortunate that everything went well there, so that was a huge sigh of relief. We told the technician that we did NOT want to know the gender. However, she was scanning all over the place for this anatomy scan, so it was making me nervous that we were both watching the screen that we were going to be able to tell the gender! There were a few times she was showing us profiles or down by the legs (and I am awful at reading the machine), but I swore to God that I could make out male parts. So then I started looking away cause I really didn't want to know...but Dustin had his eyes glued to the monitor the whole time. So at the end she turns the screen from us to do a printout for us and write on there if it's a girl or boy. We leave the appointment and as we are in the elevator we both look at each and say at the same time- I think it was boy based on what I saw! I think Dustin could see the panic in me cause I had my heart set on a girl, so he tried back-peddling then saying we aren't experts at reading the machine, etc. But I felt like I just knew. So all afternoon I was able to kinda prepare myself for the fact there was like 99% chance now it was a boy....but still had that hope it was still a girl!
It's now close to arrival time for our guests, so I go put on my brightest pink shirt convincing myself that I probably don't know what I saw earlier. My sister arrives in her pink and I'm psyched. Then everyone decides to show up wearing freaking blue, except my step-MIL who showed some girl support! I start having this feeling like I'd rather just not bite into the cupcake and I think- 'I'll just wait until delivery and see what comes out...I'd just rather not know.' Except now I got all these people here, so pretty much have to follow through!
So here we are pre-cupake bite (minus dustin's brother who is taking the picture and can see our nephew roaming the background):
Ready, Set, GO!
And for the record, I did have an immediate smile on my face (but the picture is blurry) after looking at my cupcake and discovering this:
Slightly forced smile here...
But then I think-- hey, there is still a chance that the girl screwed up the instructions and we bit into the wrong cupcakes, so I better check the official paper from the doctor. Crossing my fingers......and nope, the doctor says it's a boy too!
It's crazy cause at the beginning I really didn't care if it was a girl or boy and thought- I'm not going to be one those greedy people who really wants one over the other...those people should just be happy and thankful they have a healthy baby on the way. But as the months went on, I just wanted a girl more and more. These last few weeks, I just had my heart set on a girl and really, really, really thought that we would have a girl, so this was a bit of a shock. Dustin has the WORST luck of anyone...and so now for one of the most important things in our lives, he finally hits his good luck and gets a boy! I know in the end I will be 110% happy and never think twice that I wish it was a girl, but I will admit that I had a hard time accepting it this weekend. Let's just say there were tears on Friday after everyone left....and more tears the next morning.
Even though we plan to have more kids and could have a girl later, I think I just loved the relationship I had with my sister, so wanted to pass that on and have daughters....so was just hard accepting that it will not happen. I reminisce about my sister and I making up dance routines together, playing school, playing beauty shop, being in the same sorority, etc. And I just wanted to pass on that same experience...which I know in reality I could have 2 girls that are complete opposites and don't do anything together....but is just the vision I had. So like I said, just hard for me to accept that my kids will not be able to duplicate all my happiness and will have their own version...which for all I know could be better than what I had!
And then I started thinking what if our next child is a boy, I'm going to feel outnumbered and alone cause they will all be watching sports and doing boy things, etc. I can hardly stand to be home on football Sundays with 1 male screaming at the tv....what will I do with more now!! Which I also know is crazy cause for all we know we could end up with a boy who is more interested in tap dancing then sports! So you really just never know and they will ultimately decide their own interests and futures.
So poor Dustin got a double-dose of crazy from me this weekend, let's just leave it at that!
I am excited though to start looking at names for the little guy and I began looking at nursery pictures this weekend to get some ideas. These next months will be busy, but I am excited to meet this little person and I'm sure I will look back on this and be like- My goodness Gus, you need to lay off the crazy pills, cause you have the cutest son ever that is WAY less drama than raising some girl!
So here are all the details on how things went....
First, we had sent out an email to our family to invite them over Friday night where we would find out the baby's gender all at the same time.
As our way for everyone to find out the gender at the same time, we decided to give everyone a cupcake and we'd bite into it and see if it was pink or blue filling, indicating if girl or boy. Everyone is puzzled how we did this, so I'll explain all the steps.
1. So my sister kindly came over Thursday night and we baked cupcakes. Since Dustin does not like chocolate, we made 2 kinds-- Chocolate and Carrot Cake.
2. After they were baked and cooled, we took a sharp knife and just cute a round hole in the center of each one about halfway down to the bottom. We scooped out this cake, while still leaving it somewhat in tact (you'll use it later to plug back in the hole).
3. We had mixed pink and blue icings/fillings-- a whipped cream mixture for the chocolate cakes and cream cheese icing for the carrot cake. I spooned this filling into the holes-- I filled 12 with pink and 12 with blue. You can then plug the whole with the cake you had just cut out...and it's amazing how you can't even tell that there was a hole ever cut! So keep track separately of which ones had the pink vs. blue.
4. We then iced the tops-- chocolate fudge on the chocolates and cream cheese on the carrot cake.
5. I had 2 identical containers, so we loaded pink fillings into one and blue fillings into the other, then labeled what was in each one and put that in an envelope taped on top. (So at this point they looked identical and I had no clue what was in which container.)
6. We had the doctor's office put whether it was a girl or boy in an envelope and did not look at it.
7. We asked some girls in our building to look in the envelope and if it was a girl, then put it with the container labeled girl....if it was a boy, then put it with the container labeled boy. We would then serve and eat from the container she told us to. (So basically you just need a neighbor or any outside person to look at your result and assign it to the right cupcakes).
So we went to the appointment Friday afternoon and they did the anatomy check where they make sure the bone structure looks good and the organs are functioning/developing properly. We were very fortunate that everything went well there, so that was a huge sigh of relief. We told the technician that we did NOT want to know the gender. However, she was scanning all over the place for this anatomy scan, so it was making me nervous that we were both watching the screen that we were going to be able to tell the gender! There were a few times she was showing us profiles or down by the legs (and I am awful at reading the machine), but I swore to God that I could make out male parts. So then I started looking away cause I really didn't want to know...but Dustin had his eyes glued to the monitor the whole time. So at the end she turns the screen from us to do a printout for us and write on there if it's a girl or boy. We leave the appointment and as we are in the elevator we both look at each and say at the same time- I think it was boy based on what I saw! I think Dustin could see the panic in me cause I had my heart set on a girl, so he tried back-peddling then saying we aren't experts at reading the machine, etc. But I felt like I just knew. So all afternoon I was able to kinda prepare myself for the fact there was like 99% chance now it was a boy....but still had that hope it was still a girl!
It's now close to arrival time for our guests, so I go put on my brightest pink shirt convincing myself that I probably don't know what I saw earlier. My sister arrives in her pink and I'm psyched. Then everyone decides to show up wearing freaking blue, except my step-MIL who showed some girl support! I start having this feeling like I'd rather just not bite into the cupcake and I think- 'I'll just wait until delivery and see what comes out...I'd just rather not know.' Except now I got all these people here, so pretty much have to follow through!
So here we are pre-cupake bite (minus dustin's brother who is taking the picture and can see our nephew roaming the background):
Ready, Set, GO!
And for the record, I did have an immediate smile on my face (but the picture is blurry) after looking at my cupcake and discovering this:
Slightly forced smile here...
But then I think-- hey, there is still a chance that the girl screwed up the instructions and we bit into the wrong cupcakes, so I better check the official paper from the doctor. Crossing my fingers......and nope, the doctor says it's a boy too!
It's crazy cause at the beginning I really didn't care if it was a girl or boy and thought- I'm not going to be one those greedy people who really wants one over the other...those people should just be happy and thankful they have a healthy baby on the way. But as the months went on, I just wanted a girl more and more. These last few weeks, I just had my heart set on a girl and really, really, really thought that we would have a girl, so this was a bit of a shock. Dustin has the WORST luck of anyone...and so now for one of the most important things in our lives, he finally hits his good luck and gets a boy! I know in the end I will be 110% happy and never think twice that I wish it was a girl, but I will admit that I had a hard time accepting it this weekend. Let's just say there were tears on Friday after everyone left....and more tears the next morning.
Even though we plan to have more kids and could have a girl later, I think I just loved the relationship I had with my sister, so wanted to pass that on and have daughters....so was just hard accepting that it will not happen. I reminisce about my sister and I making up dance routines together, playing school, playing beauty shop, being in the same sorority, etc. And I just wanted to pass on that same experience...which I know in reality I could have 2 girls that are complete opposites and don't do anything together....but is just the vision I had. So like I said, just hard for me to accept that my kids will not be able to duplicate all my happiness and will have their own version...which for all I know could be better than what I had!
And then I started thinking what if our next child is a boy, I'm going to feel outnumbered and alone cause they will all be watching sports and doing boy things, etc. I can hardly stand to be home on football Sundays with 1 male screaming at the tv....what will I do with more now!! Which I also know is crazy cause for all we know we could end up with a boy who is more interested in tap dancing then sports! So you really just never know and they will ultimately decide their own interests and futures.
So poor Dustin got a double-dose of crazy from me this weekend, let's just leave it at that!
I am excited though to start looking at names for the little guy and I began looking at nursery pictures this weekend to get some ideas. These next months will be busy, but I am excited to meet this little person and I'm sure I will look back on this and be like- My goodness Gus, you need to lay off the crazy pills, cause you have the cutest son ever that is WAY less drama than raising some girl!
7.05.2011
18 weeks
Not too much new to report. I have not had the bad pain return that they thought could be a kidney stone, so that is good! Feeling chubbier, but still able to wear all my regular clothes-- I have a few pants that I'm nearing the end of being able to wear. We have an appt later this week, so I'll have a post next weekend hopefully with the okay that everything looked healthy and if it is a boy or girl!
Weight: 135 lbs (+4 from starting)
Belly circumference: 33 inches (I measured this at the start, but looks like I forgot to document it. I believe I started at 30-31 inches, so is up a couple)
Here is how I'm looking at the 18-week mark:
Weight: 135 lbs (+4 from starting)
Belly circumference: 33 inches (I measured this at the start, but looks like I forgot to document it. I believe I started at 30-31 inches, so is up a couple)
Here is how I'm looking at the 18-week mark:
6.22.2011
16 Weeks
Yesterday I completed 16 weeks! So here's some more info on where things stand....
How I've been feeling?
Physical changes? I feel like I have a definite baby bump, but only at times does it really show. Dustin finally agreed with me a few days ago that my stomach has never been this round/fat before. Of course on picture day I feel like it is barely showing, but I swear it is there!
Felt any movement? Nope, still have not felt the baby.
16-Week Dr. Appt
Date: 6.21.2011
Weight: 133 lbs. (+2 lbs from starting point)
Blood Pressure: 100/62
Baby's Heartbeat: 155
Description: Today's appt was probably the least exciting so far! We got to hear the baby's heartbeat, which was much louder and prominent than last time. Other than that they just checked my stats and we didn't really have any questions. She explained that in our ultrasound in 2 weeks they will be doing tons of major checks to verify the baby is developing as it should-- make sure the heart has 4 chambers, the kidneys work, the baby urinates, etc. So it sounds like besides having a good heartbeat, this is the next big check!
Picture at 16W (excuse the bad quality-- apparently next time I need to give dustin step by step instructions on how to make this look better!):
How I've been feeling?
- My main issue is getting headaches. I got a prescription after my last appointment and it works wonderful! I'm just sick of getting them at least twice a week, but at least the medicine works.
- I had a few days a couple weeks ago where I had some nausea in the mornings, but started eating a few crackers before getting out of bed in the morning and that fixed it.
- I still go to bed between 9:30-10 usually, but have more energy and have been trying to get back into going to the gym after work.
- I got sciatic nerve pain starting last Wednesday. Basically what happens is with your uterus growing and things shifting around inside you, the sciatic nerve can get pinched. This is in your lower back and the pain extends into your butt and leg-- it is the largest nerve in the body. It would just come on hit or miss, so I tried to minimize bending over and moving slowly between sitting/standing. We were on a boat on Saturday and that must have jostled it some more because I had the most pain then-- it hurt just walking. The pain has now gone away.
- Then on Sunday I had a killer stabbing pain in my left side and lower abdomen. It was so bad that I had nausea and of course we were at the lake with Dustin's family, so I'm trying to hold it together. The stabbing would come and go....and when it would go, I would just be left with a dull pain that was tolerable. This continued all day. I then remembered people talking about Round Ligament Pain which starts in the 2nd trimester and occurs from your uterus starting to grow. So I looked that up on the internet and determined that is what I must have....but then my pain seemed way more horrible than what others were describing, so didn't know if I was a wimp or what. For some reason on the car ride home it was just miserable and I was crying...I think some from the pain and some just cause I was frustrated with not feeling well and didn't know how to get it to go away. I woke up Monday morning and had the stabbing feelings again, so called the doctor. The nurse on the phone said this could be Round Ligament Pain, but probably not cause my symptoms didn't completely match up-- she said with RLP you should be able to massage the pain away, similar to a charley horse. I was in so much pain and it hurt 100 times worse when just lightly touching the area, so that was not an option! They had me come in and do a urine test so they could see if was some sort of bladder infection, something with kidneys, etc. Urine sample came back clean. The doctor today seemed to think the best guess was probably a kidney stone, so if it happens again I'm to call back and they will do an ultrasound to find out. She said it can be as small as a grain of sand and I could have passed it without knowing. I woke up today and have been 100%- no trace of pain, so I'm just glad it's gone!
Physical changes? I feel like I have a definite baby bump, but only at times does it really show. Dustin finally agreed with me a few days ago that my stomach has never been this round/fat before. Of course on picture day I feel like it is barely showing, but I swear it is there!
Felt any movement? Nope, still have not felt the baby.
16-Week Dr. Appt
Date: 6.21.2011
Weight: 133 lbs. (+2 lbs from starting point)
Blood Pressure: 100/62
Baby's Heartbeat: 155
Description: Today's appt was probably the least exciting so far! We got to hear the baby's heartbeat, which was much louder and prominent than last time. Other than that they just checked my stats and we didn't really have any questions. She explained that in our ultrasound in 2 weeks they will be doing tons of major checks to verify the baby is developing as it should-- make sure the heart has 4 chambers, the kidneys work, the baby urinates, etc. So it sounds like besides having a good heartbeat, this is the next big check!
Picture at 16W (excuse the bad quality-- apparently next time I need to give dustin step by step instructions on how to make this look better!):
6.13.2011
Diapers
I'll preface all this by saying, BASED ON WHAT WE KNOW NOW....we plan to try and cloth diaper our baby for hopefully a majority of the time. I definitely realize there are times and situations where using disposables will just be easiest (e.g. the first few weeks at home, overnight, going to a baby-sitter, etc). If you are like me and aren't up on the baby scene in the new millenium you are probably thinking I'm crazy and picturing us cloth diapering using something like this:
This is what I pictured and thought only like hippies or people really into saving the environment did this....then I got halfway educated and have changed my mind! There are TONS of options out there and from what I've read it really just depends on the kid which brand works best and what the parents prefer. I think we would go with All-In-Ones (AIOs) where all of the components of the diaper are one piece...as the name would lead you to believe! I believe you can add extra liners in here for instance at night to help absorb more. You can get snaps or velcro-- I've heard definitely go with the snaps cause over time the velcro will wear down. So you can visualize what I'm talking about, here is an example:
Notice all the snaps- this is so you can adjust as your baby grows and get lots of use out of them! And then when you have a 2nd kid, can reuse again and get your money's worth even more! they say you will spend about $1500-2000 in disposable diapers for each kid...so let's just say that's about $3500 total if we have 2 kids. Cloth diapers do require an upfront investment, but I estimate for about $300 you can get started. It depends how many diapers you want to buy and which brands you choose- obviously the more diapers you have, then the less often you'll have to do laundry!
We will have to plan to do diaper laundry probably every 2-3 days, which could end up being more of a pain than I want to deal with, but am hoping it will just become second nature. And there is of course an extra cost of doing all this laundry, but is MINIMAL compared to the expense of going through disposable diapers.
There is a great store in St. Louis called Cotton Babies. You can link to the website by clicking here and it goes through a lot of Q&As. They offer a class on all (or at least most) Saturdays that will go over cloth diapering basics and what you need to know. I think in the next couple months we will go learn about it and check out the items in store and see what we think. I feel like I really don't have anything to lose by attempting to do this....if it doesn't work out, then at least I'll know we tried and just wasn't for us. Crossing my fingers that it will work out though!
Also, they make some super cute patterns- check out some of these!
This is what I pictured and thought only like hippies or people really into saving the environment did this....then I got halfway educated and have changed my mind! There are TONS of options out there and from what I've read it really just depends on the kid which brand works best and what the parents prefer. I think we would go with All-In-Ones (AIOs) where all of the components of the diaper are one piece...as the name would lead you to believe! I believe you can add extra liners in here for instance at night to help absorb more. You can get snaps or velcro-- I've heard definitely go with the snaps cause over time the velcro will wear down. So you can visualize what I'm talking about, here is an example:
We will have to plan to do diaper laundry probably every 2-3 days, which could end up being more of a pain than I want to deal with, but am hoping it will just become second nature. And there is of course an extra cost of doing all this laundry, but is MINIMAL compared to the expense of going through disposable diapers.
There is a great store in St. Louis called Cotton Babies. You can link to the website by clicking here and it goes through a lot of Q&As. They offer a class on all (or at least most) Saturdays that will go over cloth diapering basics and what you need to know. I think in the next couple months we will go learn about it and check out the items in store and see what we think. I feel like I really don't have anything to lose by attempting to do this....if it doesn't work out, then at least I'll know we tried and just wasn't for us. Crossing my fingers that it will work out though!
Also, they make some super cute patterns- check out some of these!
6.08.2011
Newborn Photo ideas
I know, I know....I'm waaaaaaaaay jumping the gun here, but I am on a mission to learn how to take better pictures before the baby is here. I seriously have visions in my head of like spending all day posing the new baby in all sorts of cute/funny poses/outfits....and I'm sure realistically I will never learn how to work my camera, won't have the time to be photographing the baby nonstop and will hire someone! Anyways, still is fun to look and come up with ideas-- right now I am obsessed over babies in knit hats...I think they are HILARIOUS! See below for some ideas--
We LOVE the bear ears for some reason, so something like one of these will be our first purchase:
Also cute is just a little bobble-top and more simple:
I can almost guarantee that I plan to dress the baby up in this for easter- cutest pic ever!!!!!
And I could not find a picture of this, but how funny would a Hello Kitty picture be?!!?
And since ours will arrive hopefully right before xmas, I have all these visions of putting the baby in a gift box, a stocking, laying on the mantle with the stockings hung, santa outfits, etc. Here are a few ideas, although none of these grabbed me as super awesome, but are good ideas to start from.
We LOVE the bear ears for some reason, so something like one of these will be our first purchase:
Also cute is just a little bobble-top and more simple:
I can almost guarantee that I plan to dress the baby up in this for easter- cutest pic ever!!!!!
And I could not find a picture of this, but how funny would a Hello Kitty picture be?!!?
And since ours will arrive hopefully right before xmas, I have all these visions of putting the baby in a gift box, a stocking, laying on the mantle with the stockings hung, santa outfits, etc. Here are a few ideas, although none of these grabbed me as super awesome, but are good ideas to start from.
Aren't those all adorable and just gets you thinking about all the possibilities?! I can't wait!
6.01.2011
First Trimester
Big news (which anyone with 1% of a brain would have guessed from the title of this post), but we are expecting our first baby! Eventually I plan to make a pregnancy scrapbook/journal...but currently all that stuff is packed away, so I'm just going to document it online so I don't forget and then also get to share it with others. There is a lot packed into this post since I wrote this all at once since as I went!
How and when did we find out? I had taken a pregnancy test on 3/27 and it was negative...and it was supposed to be like 80-some percent accurate. So I basically take out my jump to conclusions map and just took that as 100% accurate and was all mopey and annoyed that I was not pregnant. So on Wednesday 3/30 I had Jury Duty- and I am a big weirdo who loves when I get called for duty...so I go there and can just feel that I'm going to get my period, only I forgot to bring tampons with me....and the bathroom there had none to buy! Eek! Then I get seated in the front row and the whole time I'm thinking this is just great- I'm going to get my period, I have nothing here, everyone is going to laugh at me, ugh. So every break possible I'm in the bathroom checking and breathing a sigh of relief. Finally they dismiss us early afternoon cause they reached a settlement, so I go home. I have this huge surge of energy and go crazy cleaning out the kitchen cabinets and doing all sorts of housework. Dustin comes home and asks if I got my period....cause today should have been the day and I always get it on time....and I mope and tell him no, but it's coming so don't get his hopes up. So he has to meet up with a co-worker in town for drinks that night. He gets home and before bed, he's like you just need to take the test....so I'm like, well I guess I'll do it again. I do it and I see this (looking back, probably should have wiped this off before the picture, but your mind just isn't thinking straight...so sorry if this disgusts anyone!):
I think all I can say is, "OH MY GOD- NO WAY!" So dustin hears me and runs into the bathroom and once he realizes it is good, he just has the happiest look on his face ever! Then he has to remind me, our lives are forever changed at this point.
Who we told and when? I really didn't want to tell anyone until I went to the first 8-week appt just to be sure. However, my sister and I had plans to go to dallas in about 2 weeks for her 30th birthday...so we obviously had to tell her so she wouldn't wonder why I refused to have any delicious alcohol! I got her a frame that said I LOVE MY AUNT since this will be her first niece/nephew. Next up was my parents because they were in town for Easter, so we felt like we had to take advantage of telling them in person. We went to dinner at Favazza's on the hill and everyone was exchanging gifts for birthdays, so it wasn't really odd that we had brought some gifts. We had just got them kids books that tied into Grandma and Grandpa, since this will be their first grandchild. We then told Dustin's mother and family on Mother's day and his Dad and family that same week at dinner. We then told our first friends on 5.22 because we were going the Bon Jovi concert, so was going to be a little fishy possibly if I wasn't drinking and everyone else was. It was really cool though cause our good friends told us the same news- that they are expecting a baby like the week before us! I told work after my 12-week appt on 5.26.2011. Since then we have been trying to let family and some friends know...and now I'll post on my blog and facebook for everyone else!
How I've felt? I started out just feeling great and so energetic that I didn't believe I really could be pregnant. Then, 2 days before leaving for Dallas it hit me like a brick wall. I think for 2 days I worked from home and lived off of 7up and crackers....and it SUCKED! I have never thrown up, but just felt very naseaus at times. Since then it has just been hit or miss with feeling bad, but I've never felt as bad as I did those 2 days. Lately I've had bad headaches, so the doctor prescribed me some meds last week. Unfortunately you can not take Excederin while pregnant, which is what works wonders for my headaches.
What I'm most nervous about? Um, DELIVERY! Not nervous about anything with the pregnancy or dealing with a newborn baby....just the entire painful delivery process.
What I'm most excited about? At this point, I just can't wait to find out if it's a girl or boy. July 8th is hopefully when we find out, so that can not come soon enough! I want a girl and Dustin wants a boy. We are waiting to start thinking about names until we know the sex.
Resources? I have a book called the Mother of All Pregnancy Books that is a good reference tool. We've really enjoyed the book Your Pregnancy Week by Week...I'm trying to remember each week to bring the book to bed and have us jointly read through the upcoming week. I am reading so much, that I want Dustin to at least hear some of this stuff....and the only way to do that is basically hold his hand and force it! I also am part of a small online local community that are a pretty reliable source for anything and everything. I also recommend the book Taking Charge of your Fertility for those trying to conceive and you just want to learn the basics cause you are like me and if you ever learned this in Health class 15 years ago, it is long out of your brain! We would probably still be trying if it wasn't for this book educating me.
Diet Changes? First, taking pre-natal vitamins, so hopefully those mostly do the job. But I've also tried to start paying a little more attention to what I eat. I'm not a big fruit-eater, so been trying to incorporate more of that either by having a bowl of cereal and loading it with fruit or drinking juice or bringing a banana to work. The dr. also said based on my bloodwork it would be good to eat a little more red meat (at which I made a puke face at her...seriously)...but we have been doing that by making sloppy joes and casseroles where the meat is crumbled up and more edible than just eating a steak or burger.
Any cravings or aversions? no
8-Week Dr. Appt
Date: 4.26.2011
Weight: 131 lbs.
Blood Pressure: 102/62
Baby's Heartbeat: 170
Baby's length: .75 inch
Description: Dustin attended the appointment with me and it was extra special since it was on my 32nd birthday! I really wasn't too nervous-- I would just say a normal amount of excitement/nerves for a person in the situation. We had to wait over an hour in the waiting room, so that was not making us too happy since we were there on our lunch hour and didn't have all the time in the world. We finally were called and went back to the ultrasound room. We got a bag of free goodies, coupons, literature, etc. Luckily our wait was not very long for Dr. Botney. So she starts the ultrasound process of looking for the baby and I'm watching the screen waiting for something to appear. I'm watching....and watching....and watching....and nothing. I start to get a little more nervous and am looking at Dustin but he is clueless that anything is possibly not right. So then the Doctor stops and is looking at my chart and asking, so when did you take a pregnancy test....and did you just take one? Well, she FINALLY finds the baby and then tells me that my uterus is just in an odd place so she couldn't find it....but that is no big deal and it won't cause any issues later. She said about 30% of people have their uterus tilted further back like mine. Ok, good to know! So then we see our little blob on the screen:
Some of the big things we learned at the appointment were #1- I was not supposed to be drinking diet soda cause of the artificial sweeteners...oopsie! Gus lives off her diet soda! She recommended to try Mendota Water instead-- this stuff should be banned it is so disgusting. #2- My dr. needs to have some corrective surgery, so she can not perform any deliveries, which we decided doesn't really matter cause we'll most likely get the doctor on call, so would have been slim chance we got our dr. anyways. #3- My dr. doesn't want more than 30 minutes of exercise done at a time and for my heartrate to go over 140. Another oopsie! I had to walk way slower than normal on the treadmill in order not to go over 140 that I don't even feel like I get a workout anymore! I asked her again about this cause I know several other people that do not cut back their exercise routine when pregnant, but she felt very strongly cause said the baby can not regulate its body temperature, so you have to make sure yours doesn't get too high.
12-Week Dr. Appt
Date: 5.20.2011 Ultrasound and 5.25.2011 Appt
Weight: 132 lbs. (+1)
Blood Pressure: 102/62 (No change)
Baby's Heartbeat: 175
Baby's length: 4 cm (from what I remember- not really sure)
Description: I was told for the Ultrasound that I needed to drink 32-40 oz of water by 11am. I'm not a big water guzzler normally, so I decided to start at 7:30 when I got up and drink about 8 oz. each hour. Well 10:15 comes and I have to pee so unbelievably bad, so decide I have to go to the bathroom and then start this all over :( But it ended up being fine and I was able to quickly drink a bunch, so now I know how to do it next time! We got into our appt very quickly this time and our tech was awesome. The blob had started looking like a human! We could see the head, arms, legs, eyes, etc. It was moving around like crazy, which I couldn't believe how active it was. My Dr. had requested this ultrasound cause the baby was a little smaller than expected at the first one, so they were predicting my due date about a week later than what I had calculated. Now the baby was a good size and matched my date, so the due date was moved from 12/12 to 12/6. We then went the following week to the Dr. Appt where she just used a doppler to hear the heartbeat through my stomach...which you could makeout what was a beat, but kinda just sounded like flipping through all the static radio stations. I was happy to confirm that I can occasionally have my favorite soda- Caffeine free Diet Ski- it uses sucralose which is safe for pregnant women.
So here is a good side view of the little bubbas:
And here is a view from the back of the butt and legs:
I do feel in the last week or so my stomach has gotten a little pooch-like...may just be from my lack of exercising too! This will be as close to a starting point as I have documented. This picture was taken at 13W1D (13 Weeks 1 Day):
How and when did we find out? I had taken a pregnancy test on 3/27 and it was negative...and it was supposed to be like 80-some percent accurate. So I basically take out my jump to conclusions map and just took that as 100% accurate and was all mopey and annoyed that I was not pregnant. So on Wednesday 3/30 I had Jury Duty- and I am a big weirdo who loves when I get called for duty...so I go there and can just feel that I'm going to get my period, only I forgot to bring tampons with me....and the bathroom there had none to buy! Eek! Then I get seated in the front row and the whole time I'm thinking this is just great- I'm going to get my period, I have nothing here, everyone is going to laugh at me, ugh. So every break possible I'm in the bathroom checking and breathing a sigh of relief. Finally they dismiss us early afternoon cause they reached a settlement, so I go home. I have this huge surge of energy and go crazy cleaning out the kitchen cabinets and doing all sorts of housework. Dustin comes home and asks if I got my period....cause today should have been the day and I always get it on time....and I mope and tell him no, but it's coming so don't get his hopes up. So he has to meet up with a co-worker in town for drinks that night. He gets home and before bed, he's like you just need to take the test....so I'm like, well I guess I'll do it again. I do it and I see this (looking back, probably should have wiped this off before the picture, but your mind just isn't thinking straight...so sorry if this disgusts anyone!):
I think all I can say is, "OH MY GOD- NO WAY!" So dustin hears me and runs into the bathroom and once he realizes it is good, he just has the happiest look on his face ever! Then he has to remind me, our lives are forever changed at this point.
Who we told and when? I really didn't want to tell anyone until I went to the first 8-week appt just to be sure. However, my sister and I had plans to go to dallas in about 2 weeks for her 30th birthday...so we obviously had to tell her so she wouldn't wonder why I refused to have any delicious alcohol! I got her a frame that said I LOVE MY AUNT since this will be her first niece/nephew. Next up was my parents because they were in town for Easter, so we felt like we had to take advantage of telling them in person. We went to dinner at Favazza's on the hill and everyone was exchanging gifts for birthdays, so it wasn't really odd that we had brought some gifts. We had just got them kids books that tied into Grandma and Grandpa, since this will be their first grandchild. We then told Dustin's mother and family on Mother's day and his Dad and family that same week at dinner. We then told our first friends on 5.22 because we were going the Bon Jovi concert, so was going to be a little fishy possibly if I wasn't drinking and everyone else was. It was really cool though cause our good friends told us the same news- that they are expecting a baby like the week before us! I told work after my 12-week appt on 5.26.2011. Since then we have been trying to let family and some friends know...and now I'll post on my blog and facebook for everyone else!
How I've felt? I started out just feeling great and so energetic that I didn't believe I really could be pregnant. Then, 2 days before leaving for Dallas it hit me like a brick wall. I think for 2 days I worked from home and lived off of 7up and crackers....and it SUCKED! I have never thrown up, but just felt very naseaus at times. Since then it has just been hit or miss with feeling bad, but I've never felt as bad as I did those 2 days. Lately I've had bad headaches, so the doctor prescribed me some meds last week. Unfortunately you can not take Excederin while pregnant, which is what works wonders for my headaches.
What I'm most nervous about? Um, DELIVERY! Not nervous about anything with the pregnancy or dealing with a newborn baby....just the entire painful delivery process.
What I'm most excited about? At this point, I just can't wait to find out if it's a girl or boy. July 8th is hopefully when we find out, so that can not come soon enough! I want a girl and Dustin wants a boy. We are waiting to start thinking about names until we know the sex.
Resources? I have a book called the Mother of All Pregnancy Books that is a good reference tool. We've really enjoyed the book Your Pregnancy Week by Week...I'm trying to remember each week to bring the book to bed and have us jointly read through the upcoming week. I am reading so much, that I want Dustin to at least hear some of this stuff....and the only way to do that is basically hold his hand and force it! I also am part of a small online local community that are a pretty reliable source for anything and everything. I also recommend the book Taking Charge of your Fertility for those trying to conceive and you just want to learn the basics cause you are like me and if you ever learned this in Health class 15 years ago, it is long out of your brain! We would probably still be trying if it wasn't for this book educating me.
Diet Changes? First, taking pre-natal vitamins, so hopefully those mostly do the job. But I've also tried to start paying a little more attention to what I eat. I'm not a big fruit-eater, so been trying to incorporate more of that either by having a bowl of cereal and loading it with fruit or drinking juice or bringing a banana to work. The dr. also said based on my bloodwork it would be good to eat a little more red meat (at which I made a puke face at her...seriously)...but we have been doing that by making sloppy joes and casseroles where the meat is crumbled up and more edible than just eating a steak or burger.
Any cravings or aversions? no
8-Week Dr. Appt
Date: 4.26.2011
Weight: 131 lbs.
Blood Pressure: 102/62
Baby's Heartbeat: 170
Baby's length: .75 inch
Description: Dustin attended the appointment with me and it was extra special since it was on my 32nd birthday! I really wasn't too nervous-- I would just say a normal amount of excitement/nerves for a person in the situation. We had to wait over an hour in the waiting room, so that was not making us too happy since we were there on our lunch hour and didn't have all the time in the world. We finally were called and went back to the ultrasound room. We got a bag of free goodies, coupons, literature, etc. Luckily our wait was not very long for Dr. Botney. So she starts the ultrasound process of looking for the baby and I'm watching the screen waiting for something to appear. I'm watching....and watching....and watching....and nothing. I start to get a little more nervous and am looking at Dustin but he is clueless that anything is possibly not right. So then the Doctor stops and is looking at my chart and asking, so when did you take a pregnancy test....and did you just take one? Well, she FINALLY finds the baby and then tells me that my uterus is just in an odd place so she couldn't find it....but that is no big deal and it won't cause any issues later. She said about 30% of people have their uterus tilted further back like mine. Ok, good to know! So then we see our little blob on the screen:
Some of the big things we learned at the appointment were #1- I was not supposed to be drinking diet soda cause of the artificial sweeteners...oopsie! Gus lives off her diet soda! She recommended to try Mendota Water instead-- this stuff should be banned it is so disgusting. #2- My dr. needs to have some corrective surgery, so she can not perform any deliveries, which we decided doesn't really matter cause we'll most likely get the doctor on call, so would have been slim chance we got our dr. anyways. #3- My dr. doesn't want more than 30 minutes of exercise done at a time and for my heartrate to go over 140. Another oopsie! I had to walk way slower than normal on the treadmill in order not to go over 140 that I don't even feel like I get a workout anymore! I asked her again about this cause I know several other people that do not cut back their exercise routine when pregnant, but she felt very strongly cause said the baby can not regulate its body temperature, so you have to make sure yours doesn't get too high.
12-Week Dr. Appt
Date: 5.20.2011 Ultrasound and 5.25.2011 Appt
Weight: 132 lbs. (+1)
Blood Pressure: 102/62 (No change)
Baby's Heartbeat: 175
Baby's length: 4 cm (from what I remember- not really sure)
Description: I was told for the Ultrasound that I needed to drink 32-40 oz of water by 11am. I'm not a big water guzzler normally, so I decided to start at 7:30 when I got up and drink about 8 oz. each hour. Well 10:15 comes and I have to pee so unbelievably bad, so decide I have to go to the bathroom and then start this all over :( But it ended up being fine and I was able to quickly drink a bunch, so now I know how to do it next time! We got into our appt very quickly this time and our tech was awesome. The blob had started looking like a human! We could see the head, arms, legs, eyes, etc. It was moving around like crazy, which I couldn't believe how active it was. My Dr. had requested this ultrasound cause the baby was a little smaller than expected at the first one, so they were predicting my due date about a week later than what I had calculated. Now the baby was a good size and matched my date, so the due date was moved from 12/12 to 12/6. We then went the following week to the Dr. Appt where she just used a doppler to hear the heartbeat through my stomach...which you could makeout what was a beat, but kinda just sounded like flipping through all the static radio stations. I was happy to confirm that I can occasionally have my favorite soda- Caffeine free Diet Ski- it uses sucralose which is safe for pregnant women.
So here is a good side view of the little bubbas:
And here is a view from the back of the butt and legs:
I do feel in the last week or so my stomach has gotten a little pooch-like...may just be from my lack of exercising too! This will be as close to a starting point as I have documented. This picture was taken at 13W1D (13 Weeks 1 Day):
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