Wednesday, November 23, 2011

8 Weeks Pregnant

I am SO EXCITED to be starting these weekly pregnancy posts!  Hopefully you'll enjoy following along in this journey with me!

Baby Growth:  This week, the baby is the size of a raspberry.  Even though I can't feel it yet, the baby is just starting to move all around!  The baby is starting to grow tiny fingers and toes on it's hands and feet.  The tail is just about gone, and eyelids almost completely cover the eyes.  The baby will also get it's upper lip and the tip of it's nose this week!

My Symptoms:  Nausea is pretty present, but mostly at night.  For the first time this past week, I actually got sick instead of just feeling sick.  I've been having moments where I really don't feel that bad, and then moments where I feel terrible.  I still get tired very easily and love the days that I can sneak in a nap.  I'm really trying to enjoy that part this week, as next week I won't be able to nap when I'm back at work!  If I get up too quickly from laying down, the very bottom of my stomach gets very very tight, so I'm trying to remember to get up very slowly. 

Weight:  I'm still the same as what I was when I found out.

Gender:  No idea.  Actually, the baby should be starting to form his or her "parts" this week and next.  With the last pregnancy, we for sure knew that we wanted to be surprised with the gender.  After losing that baby, things really changed for us.  I now have a big desire to just know what's going on and to have as few surprises as possible.  This means that, for right now, we're leaning towards finding out.  ??  I'm really torn though.  Because I know that this is our last baby, and I think it would be really cool to experience not finding out until the baby is born.  So I guess we have a lot of thinking to do over the next 10 weeks??

Maternity Clothes:  Heck no.  I'm putting off those bad boys for as long as possible!!  I will admit though, I'm starting to get a pretty noticeable pooch.  I shouldn't be surprised - this is pregnancy #3 for me AND the last pregnancy was just 5 months ago.  Plus, who am I kidding?  My stomach never went back to "normal" after LL.  I started showing with her at 10 weeks, so I should be shocked that I'm already starting to show with this one.  I'm not going to be able to hide it from my kids at school for much longer - they're already starting to notice!

Belly button:  In.  It didn't pop out with LL until waaaay later, so I don't expect this for a LONG time!

Movement:  Not yet - still too early!

Sleep:  I can do this ALL the time!  I'm having to get up at LEAST once a night to go to the bathroom, and when I do, I usually end up laying in bed for awhile feeling sick.  Naps really help!

What I Miss:  Being in Disney and not caring if people could tell that I was pregnant - haha.  It's easy not to care when you don't know anybody!

What I'm Looking Forward To:  Feeling the baby move!  It's for sure my favorite part of pregnancy!  I'm also looking forward to taking LL to my 10 week appointment to hear the heartbeat.  I'll also be glad when my weekly shots are over.  I only have to do them until 12 weeks, so I only have 4 more.  They're not terrible, and I for sure don't MIND having to do them, but they make my hip pretty uncomfortable for a few days and that definitely doesn't help my sleeping.

Cravings:  Surprisingly, none.  Not yet, anyway.  With the last pregnancy, I wanted tuna and shrimp ALL the time.  While those things don't sound gross right now, I don't really crave them, either.  The only thing that I've had a real aversion to so far is pork.  It just really grosses me out right now.

Best Pregnancy Moment of the Week:  Asking LL what she was thankful for today and she said, unprompted, "The baby!".  Also being a Disney and not caring if I looked pregnant or not.

My Concerns or Questions:  Obviously I'm still going to be somewhat nervous until I hit 12 weeks.  No real questions as I'm going to the doctor every week right now.

Goals for the Week:  Rest as much as I can before going back to work!  Start cleaning out the office to get ready for baby??  Probably not this week, but I at least need to start thinking about it.  There's a lot of stuff in this room that has to be relocated!


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Rainbow Baby

Right after Matt and I lost the baby, we knew that we wanted to start trying again right away.  Our desire to have two children was still as strong as ever, and we knew that we still wanted them to be as close together in age as possible. 

We felt like we were just giving it a good go for the next couple of months, but nothing was happening.  Another problem was that my cycles were waaay off.  Some cycles were 29-30 days, and some of them are 40-42 days.  That makes it kind of difficult when you're trying to have a baby!  In August/September, I spent a good bit of money on ovulation tests so that I could help our chances out a bit.  I tested for a LOT of days that month, and never got a positive.  Well, if you're not ovulating, you can't get pregnant.  Needless to say, I was pretty upset.

At the end of September/beginning of October, I decided to save some money and buy some cheap tests from Amazon so that I could test to my heart's content without feeling like I was wasting money.  I got 40 ovulation tests and 10 pregnancy test for only $10!  Score!

I decided that I was going to test with Ovulation Tests for every single day of my cycle until I got a positive or my period.  That way there would be no question as to what is going on. 

Finally, on day 28 of my cycle (October 11-13) I started getting positive ovulation tests.  Very late, but still positive!!  Honestly, I was really feeling pregnant BEFORE my ovulation tests were positive.  After I got positive ovulation tests, I really did not feel pregnant at all.  I honestly felt fine. 

                                    Positive Ovulation Test

Because my cycles had been so sporadic, I really had no clue when to expect my period.  A week and a half later, Matt was leaving to go out of town for pretty much the entire week.  I knew that my period *should* be here sometime that week, but didn't know exactly when.  Matt was leaving on Sunday, October 23, and I decided to test Saturday morning, just to see what would happen.  After everything we had been through, I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep it from Matt and "surprise" him when he got back - I would just want to tell him.  And I surely didn't want to do that over the phone.

I took the test, and I was pretty sure that I could see a faint positive!  I immediately called Matt into the room to have him look at it, and he could see it, too!  This was the same morning that I was hosting Emily's baby shower at my house, so I quickly had to get over my shock so that I could get ready for a house full of people. 

For those of you not verse in the ways of reading a pregnancy test, the dark line on the right is the control.  The faint pink line to the left of the control is the positive line.  If there's a line - it's positive.  No line - not positive.

I tested several more times on Saturday (just to make sure I wasn't crazy), and then again on Sunday and Monday - haha.  Last time, my tests were crazy and I could never get a straight positive.  This time, I wanted to keep testing to see if I kept getting positives.  And I did!

I took another test before church on Sunday and YEP!  Still positive!



I called Southern OB on Monday to schedule my appointment and they told me that they wanted to draw my blood to check my levels.  I couldn't make it there on Monday in time, so I went on Tuesday and then again on Thursday.  Last time, my levels came back pregnant, but low.  This time they just came back good!  After my level check, they finally scheduled my first OB visit for November 11. 
Getting darker!  A GOOD sign!

At my first visit, Marie said that she wanted to do an ultrasound just to see what was going on.  According to my calculations, I was about 6 weeks along.  According to my last missed period (which is was Southern OB goes by), I was closer to 8 weeks along.  She said that, because of my history, she just wanted to look in there and see what was going on. 

Matt didn't go with me to this appointment because I had no idea if they would give me an ultrasound or not, and usually the first appointment is very long and very boring.  When she told me that she was going to do an ultrasound, I got very nervous.  I've never had an ultrasound done early and gotten good news.

Immediately, I could see a little baby and a heartbeat!  Then I got nervous that maybe it wasn't fast enough like last time.  But then she checked and told me that it was 110 bpm - which was completely normal!  I was also measuring 6 weeks and 1 day, just one day shy of what I thought!  This put my official due date at July 4, 2012!

When I saw Marie again after my ultrasound, she said she wanted me to come back in a week and get another ultrasound just to make sure that the baby was growing (which is what didn't happen last time).  That next week was so nerve wracking for me!  Matt went with me to that appointment as we knew that there was going to be an ultrasound and he knew how nervous I was. 

As soon as the tech started the ultrasound, I could immediately see that the baby was so much bigger!  It just made my heart so happy!  But then I got nervous because I couldn't really see a heartbeat right away.  Nothing was wrong, she just had to get a good angle.  Once she did, we could see a strong heart beat.  This time, it was actually strong enough for us to hear!  It had moved up to 136 bpm and made us SO HAPPY!

I'm currently going there every week to get a progesterone shot just to make sure that we're going everything that we can to give this baby the best shot!  So far, everything is going great! 

In my online threads, I've seen people call babies that they are pregnant with after a miscarriage their "Rainbow Babies".  Once I thought about it, I totally makes sense.  Losing a baby is such a deep, dark place that is totally comparable to a bad storm.  Finding out that you're pregnant again after a loss is very similar to a rainbow.  A bright spot that is amazingly beautiful, but doesn't come without a storm.  God also used a rainbow in the Bible to symbolize his love and promise to his people that he would never again devastate the Earth with a flood.  I'm thinking of this baby as another promise to me from God - that He loves me and knows the desires of my heart.  That He wants to give those things to me, but that doesn't mean that I won't have bad storms in my life.

So please join us in thanks and prayers to God for this precious rainbow baby!




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Monday, November 14, 2011

Holy Life, Batman!

Oh my.  I am just soooo not doing good with this blogging thing lately!!  Really, life has just gotten so amazingly crazy lately that blogging has been the last thing that I've had time to do! 

Here are some crazy things I've been up to:
-family in town a ton
-throwing a baby shower
-Matt working out of town a TON
-our first trip Aflac trip
-LIFE!

And lets not forget, that silly little thing called work that takes up 40+ hours of my week.  Boo.

I swear, I don't know what happened, but the time change this year has kicked my butt.  For the first four days after the time change, I was asleep every night by 7:30.  No joke.  I'm just starting to feel normal again.  Hallelujah.

And on next week's agenda??  DISNEY WORLD!!

I promise, now that I'm no longer a walking zombie, I'll try as hard as I can to resume to a normal blogging schedule once we get back from Disney! 

Here are some posts that you can look forward to soon:
-Some new "LL-isms" (on video!)
-Emily's baby shower
-our first Aflac trip
-of course, DISNEY!

Please don't lose faith in me and keep checking back!

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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Fingerpainting

A few weeks ago, we took some paper bags and finger paints outside after dinner to play around.  At first, LL had no interest in getting her hands dirty.  After she saw daddy dive in, she got a little more into it.  :)


Her cute little pony tail curls.  :)




The finished masterpiece - made by Daddy and Lorelai.

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Monday, November 7, 2011

Work with Mommy

As a part of my job, I have to "volunteer" to work either the gate or the concession stand at sporting events.  Several weeks ago, I signed up to work the concession stand at a football game.  I asked Grammy to bring LL out to meet me at school and just took her with me to "work".  She LOVED seeing the cheerleaders and the band and eating food from the stand.  What food did she love the most?  A huge pickle! 






While LL had a good time, I doubt I'll be taking her the next time that I have to "volunteer".  She wasn't too happy about having to actually stay in the concession stand and Mommy not being able to walk around with her.  Oh well - we survived!
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Friday, November 4, 2011

Tiger Planes

I can't even remember why now, but last month (I know - I just found these pics on my phone), I ended up without a babysitter so my mom took off work to keep LL.  As a mini "field trip", she took LL out to the Base to see the static displays.  Right next to my mom's work, they have several planes just sitting on display.  I think that they call these planes the Flying Tigers (right, Mom??), and LL was SO EXCITED to see them!  Here are the pics from her trip:





She LOVED seeing these planes and still talks about going to see the "Tiger planes" with Gigi.  I guess we'll have to take her back soon!

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