Week Eight

Merry Christmas!

My first official OB appointment is now scheduled for January 14^th! The anticipation of seeing my little slug again is killing me!

My pregnancy symptoms are pretty hard core at this time. Vomiting several times a day, fatigue, sore breasts and back, food aversions, cravings and the list goes on. Wow, I can’t even remember how it felt to feel normal. I am extremely optimistic and positive at this point. In fact, if having symptoms means a healthy pregnancy, then I’ll take them all! I’ve really wanted this for such a long time and am just so happy to finally experience this.

We headed down to My Dad’s house for Christmas, like we always do, and the entire time I was pondering on how I was going to announce the pregnancy to them. Well, again, me not being very good with words or announcements, I came in, said “Hello, Merry Christmas” and told my Dad and Step Mom I had an early Christmas present for them. I pulled out the frame with my beautiful slug and showed them. After some blank stares and silence that seemed to have gone on forever, my Dad finally said “when’s it due??!!” Although I don’t know the exact date at this point, I definitely know it’s August! I was also able to share the news with my Grandma, who was very happy for us and insisting on making a baby blanket ASAP. It was nice to be able to share the news with them and spend a nice family holiday together. Although I felt sick all weekend, I was feeling pretty happy.

 

Week 8: Raspberry

Your baby is growing like mad, putting on about a millimeter every day and continuing to straighten out in the trunk. Though you can't feel it yet, baby is moving those little arms, legs and (now only slightly) webbed fingers and toes like crazy. 

Week Seven

Well nausea has hit full on and I’m not feeling as good as I did in week five, but I’m extremely happy to be feeling something. This week mostly consisted of dry heaving, especially after getting out of the car. I must be sensitive to the motion since I had motion sickness problems even before pregnancy. I’m working it out though! I either eat a snack before I go home from work to ease my symptoms, or I just vomit when I get home. Either way, it really doesn’t bother me much. I wouldn’t say it’s as bad as having the stomach flu or throwing up copies amounts of food. My breasts are still pretty tender at this point and I’m very sensitive to smells. Also, I feel so hungry!

Once again, I was instructed to go back to the doctor’s office and get another ultra sound. This time, I waited around for 2.5 hours before I could even be seen. I was almost ready to leave or reschedule my appointment. Once I got in there though, I felt very good about having to wait around. I saw the baby and the heartbeat for the very first time! The heartbeat was 122 beats per minute, which is just fine for this stage of the pregnancy. The baby itself didn’t look much like a baby. It looked like a slug that was sticking to my yolk sac. I thought my little slug was beautiful and just being able to see it brought me to tears.

The week before Christmas, we decided to go to my Mom’s house to share the news with the rest of my family. I didn’t really know how to announce it, so I kind of just blurted it out. Everyone kind of looked at me in shock (after all, they had just seen me weeks before). Then we got smiles and hugs from my sisters and brothers. 

 

Week 7: Blueberry

Baby's brain -- both hemispheres! -- is growing fast, generating about 100 new cells every minute. Arms and legs are emerging as joints start to form, and a permanent set of kidneys (baby's third!) is now in place.

2nd ultrasound-You can see the baby in this one!

 

This next one shows the heart beat

 

 

Week Six

This week started out great! My best friend and I went out to lunch with her daughter and she asked me how I was doing with the baby stuff when I told her that I was expecting. Immediately her eyes filled with tears, as did mine and she hugged me. She then proceeded to dance around the café, in excitement. It felt so amazing to tell her and she’s just been so incredibly supportive. It was just so nice to tell someone in person and especially someone that you love, trust and cherish. I wasn’t ready to share this news with a lot of people quite yet, but she was one that I was very happy to share it with early on.

I was then asked by my doctor’s office to come in for an ultra sound to see how things are progressing. I was able to go in and see a perfectly round yolk sac. Everyone assured me that things are moving along beautifully. I remember being so proud of my sac picture. I went to Target and framed it. I then showed my husband and he said “awww, look at the sac”, haha, he’s a goof!

By this week, I was getting a lot of light nausea, but nothing that I was too concerned about. I was also extremely hungry and eating us out of house and home!

 

Week 6: Sweet Pea

Growing like crazy, baby is starting to sprout eyes, ears, nose, cheeks and chin. Those little hands and feet- still webbed like paddles- might wiggle by week's end, the heart is beating (almost twice as fast as yours!), and blood is starting to circulate. 

 Babies first photo

Week Five

It’s still hard to believe that I found out I was pregnant just one week ago. Every time I think about it, my stomach sinks, but in a good way-like butterflies! 

At this point I was instructed to go to the Hershey Medical Center for some testing and a confirmation. I didn’t get the results right away, so I spent the day just thinking about the phone and hoping that everything was going to be on track. Finally, around 2:00pm, I got the call. The nurse confirmed the pregnancy and told me that everything looks perfect. She instructed for me to come back in a few more days for more testing. I did just that just to find out that my pregnancy hormones increased significantly. Everything was perfect.

At this point in my pregnancy, I feel fantastic! My only symptom is that my breasts are a little tender. In fact, I felt so good, that I thought that something was wrong. Little did I know that actual symptoms take a little while to fully kick in.

I spent time looking at nursery décor and dreaming of my baby. What would the sex be? What would he/she look like? What kind of personality would he/she have? 

 

Week 5: Appleseed

Your embryo (looking kind of like a tadpole) is starting to form major organs (heart, kidney, liver, stomach) and systems (nervous, circulatory, digestive). Baby's presence in your uterus triggers production of hCG (the hormone detected by pregnancy tests)... which triggers production of other hormones like estrogen and progesterone... which trigger all those great symptoms you've probably been noticing!  

 

Week Four

This week was very exciting for me because I was waiting to start my first fertility treatments in the following months and my testing started this week. On Monday November 29^th, I was laying on my couch, when a smell wafted into my nose. I thought to myself “that is absolutely disgusting” and remember asking the dog to close his mouth. Yup, my cute pup was laying on the floor, chewing on a toy, smelling up my nose! I remember the odor, it was so strong and potent. I kind of had an idea in my head after that that maybe I will take a pregnancy test, you know, just so I reduce the stress so my cycle wouldn’t be delayed.

So, I went into the bathroom, did my business, and immediately looked down at the test…two lines. My hands started to shake and all I could think about is that this could not possibly be right. Honestly, I didn’t know what to do. My husband, was watching television, oblivious at this point that we were going to have a baby. I played this part over and over in my head so many times. I even bought an adorable “you’re going to be a Daddy” card over a year ago that I was planning on giving to him or telling him in some other cute way. Out of sheer excitement I asked him to please come upstairs. There was a shake in my voice and so he came running like something was terribly wrong. He said “what’s wrong” I looked up at him and said “we’re going to have a baby” then I burst into tears and hugged him tightly. This is one of my most precious memories in my entire life.

After this, I immediately called my Mom. We held a conversation and I let her rant about different things until I finally couldn’t hold it in anymore. As soon as an opportunity opened, I said “By the way, I’m pregnant”. She was in absolute shock and kept asking me if I was kidding. She wasn’t there with me, but I know she had tears in her eyes. She had known what I went through for this to happen and had been giving me encouragement and praying for me for quite some time. She once told me almost a year ago that she had a dream that I would get pregnant in November. I remember specifically thinking that she was completely wrong and how awful it would be to wait that long. Well, here it is, November 29^th, and I’m pregnant.

After I got off the phone with her, I immediately took another test out of disbelief, then another, then another. Those beautiful two lines were just as dark as ever on every single test that I took. Several positive tests later and I knew, this was really happening.

Looking back previous to this week, I remember eating with my Mom at McDonalds. I literally ate an entire breakfast and within 20 minutes felt extreme hunger again. I remember her saying something like “You’re hungry again?” Other than that, I really can’t think of anything that was different about this month from any of the prior months. All I knew is that this month was now special. It was the month that I found out that I was going to be a Mother. 

 

Weeks 3 & 4: Poppyseed

In week 4, now safe in your womb, the ball of cells (blastocyst) splits in two, becoming the embryo and the placenta. The amniotic sac and fluid are forming around baby, and will act as a cushion for the next eight months.

According to MorphThing.com, a super fun morphing website, our baby should look like the photo below. HAHA, I know this is just for fun, so we shall see how correct Morph thing really is!

 

An Introduction

This is my first attempt at a pregnancy and baby blog. With every blog post, I will attach a photo. The pregnancy posts will always include the "how big is your baby now" photo along with progress photos. This is my way of keeping everyone informed.

How it all started. In June of 2009, I went off the BCP. Yes, I realize this is before my actual wedding date, but one thing that my husband and I knew, is that we wanted to start a family right away. It took 3 months for my cycles to get regular and this is when I started charting. September of 2009, is when I first started charting and using OPK's. It was really easy to catch onto and I remember thinking that with this method, we would be pregnant in no time. The months went on and on with no success.

Without filling in too many of the details and the long list of everything we tried, I'll skip to the good part. June of 2010 I went in for fertility testing for the first time. I had blood drawn to check my different hormone levels. Everything came back perfect. Shortly after that, I had made my first appointment with an RE. I went through all the same testing, Glen was tested fr mobility, motility and quality, and I had an ultrasound done. Everything was fine. My last test before proceeding to fertility treatments was an HSG test. This test basically involved a catheter inserted into your cervix that forces dye through your fallopian tubes to check for blockages. This was probably the most painful procedure I've ever had done, but definitely worth it. Everything was clear. The RE brought me back in for a final appointment and shared the news that Glen and I have unexplained infertility, that we have a 4% change of conceiving every month and our fertility options. Every option presented involved procedures that were expensive and not covered by insurance, including IVF. We decided to try the artificial insemination approach if we didn't fall pregnant within the next three-six months. Before we could go through with this option, another series of tests needed to be performed. The first set of tests was scheduled for December 1st, 2010.