Not Again?!?

So, I'm getting ready for church this morning and, after sneezing a couple of times, I feel a sudden strong urge to vomit! What is that all about? And the rest of the morning I'm just feeling blah. Even during church I'm feeling icky: Headache, a little dizzy. I thought maybe it was because I hadn't eaten much... so I lugged my box of Teddy Grahams and a glass of water into church with me! I thought I was done with that nauseaous feeling! I think I've had a good 2 or 3 full weeks of feeling fine, I hope I'm not regressing.
Here's a random thought: It's amazing how, after taking a 2-hour nap during the day, I'm still tired and ready for bed at 10:30 at night! I used to worry that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep. Now? No problem! :)

My Fourth OB Visit

Back again for another visit. This was with Velma again today, and we did another session with the doppler. It really didn't take her long to find the heartbeat! Yay! We were excited that we got to hear it again... without going to the ultrasound room! She said it sounded good. A healthy 150-160 bpm! And we heard more kicks/movement again, too! She said it may be up to another month before I'll begin feeling the kicks for certain. I told her that I thought I'd felt flutterings and she said it was quite possible.
Thoughts: When the nurse took my BP today she said it was 125/80 and that was great. I got a little concerned though because every other time it's been 120/80. I know that's not much of a difference but I've heard about ladies getting preeclampsia and that it starts with high blood pressure. Note to self: watch sodium intake!
Some questions we had for Velma:
Q: Are peanut butter, honey, hot dogs, bacon ok to eat? I'd read that preggo women shouldn't have these at all.
A: Everything is ok... in moderation, of course.
Q: I sneeze a lot and I seem to want to stretch a lot, is that normal?
A: Not sure if it's normal or not... but certainly nothing to worry about.
Q: Best pain med?
A: Tylenol
Q: What can I do for slight swelling of my hands (in the morning) and my feet (at night)?
A: Limit salt, drink water with lemon, elevate feet, and cold showers.

Oh yeah, the estimated size of baby today is 6" long (about the size of a large heirloom tomato).

More Tight Clothes??

It happened again today! I wanted to wear a skirt... and I have a couple skirts with elastic waistbands... that didn't matter today, however. I put the first one on (yes, I got it on) but the middle was so tight I felt the seams would burst if I tried bending over, much less, sitting down! So, off with the skirts and on with the elastic-waisted pants. I don't know, we may need to go to the store soon. Is it too early to start packing pre-preggo clothes away? Hmm... more on that later.

Belly Week 19

Belly week 19 - The thing I miss most from life-before-the-belly:
a) wine with dinner... never had that anyway, so why would I care?
b) a normal-sized bladder... this would definitely have to be the one thing I miss!
c) my ankles... believe it or not, I actually still have these.

Other notes: Well, it's official - my clothes are actually getting too tight for my preggo belly! I pulled some slacks out this morning to wear and as I tried buttoning them, I'm pretty sure I heard myself grunt and grimmace. Ugh! I really wanted to wear those slacks... so I did... and paid the price for it later! By the end of the work day, I was miserable!! I couldn't wait to get home to slip into some comfy stretchy pants! Ahhhh... relief. :) 8/27/08

F.Y.I.

I'm thinking about backtracking a little bit so that I can tell our story... I bought a Pregnancy Journal and have been keeping track of things so I thought I might as well share what I can. I realize that I just started this blog a few days ago but I'm going to try to back-date some entries so they correspond with when things actually took place. I hope it's not too confusing. :D

I've gotta say...

...Weekends just aren't long enough these days! Not to mention, it seems like all I wanna do is sleep! And when you throw birthdays and weddings into the mix... I'm exhausted by the time Monday rolls around! I'm beginning to think that I was misled: I either heard or read somewhere that 2nd trimesters are supposed to bring more energy. HA! That's a laugh! I suppose if I could actually sleep thru the night without being awakened by nature calling or having some wacky, unpleasant, bizzaro dream jolting me from my slumber, there might be a little more energy to speak of. At least the morning sickness is a thing of the past. And, by the way, "morning" sickness is a lie!! Try "all day" sickness! That pretty much described weeks 7-14 for me. Although, thankfully, I never vomited. :) Well, I must scoot off to bed... as sleepy-time comes earlier for me these days. G'night!

Hello Again... (Original start date for this blog.)

I just thought I'd get back into the blogging thing now that there's something exciting to blog about! Honestly, there are only so many photo ops with a cat and a husband (sorry, Brent) before one starts to run out of material. But we are excited to announce an upcoming addition to our little family. In January, 2009, we will have a brand new little bundle of joy which will bring many, many, many more photo ops (I'm sure of it!) worthy of posting!!! Until then, it's my goal to keep everyone updated on how we're doing and daily happenings in general. Since I'm new to this pregnancy thing, there's no telling what will be posted here... but I would venture to say: if something moves me, I'll most likely include it in this blog. Enjoy....

Belly Week 18/ Second Ultrasound - IT'S A BOY!!

Belly week 18 - Notes: This was a busy day/week. This was the exact date of my 2nd US during which we found out that you're a BOY!!! Your dad and I could hardly believe it when we heard... and saw!! We seriously believed that you were a girl this whole time and it was really shocking to find out otherwise! We had so many girl names that we liked... now we have to wrap our minds around the fact that you're a boy. We're so thrilled though! Your dad even got a little choked up after he heard the news!

You are considerably more photogenic at this stage. I could clearly see the following features: Head, arms, legs, hands, a foot. Saw and heard the heart beating too!

The BIG question: You are a

a) girl

b) boy... YEAH!! WHOA!!

c) stay tuned!

~~I "HEART" BABY~~

Today is: August 20, 2008

It is a day I will never forget because we heard your heartbeat for the first time.

It sounded something like:

a) galloping horses... I think this one is fairly accurate.

b) a techno drum beat... not so much.

c) a miracle... Definitely!!

Other thoughts: We finally got to hear the heartbeat today! It was really so amazing... and it just made you that much more real to us - there's a little person growing inside me! And it's a BOY!!! Wow!

Belly Weeks 16 & 17

Belly week 16 - Notes: This is the day we left for our 5-day Oregon trip. Fun time... but very busy!! On Thursday, Brent & Co. went fishing for the day. And Brent caught the biggest fish! A 16 pound Steelhead that was 34" long! Woo! Friday was our beach day - LOVE the ocean but it was sooo cold! We also went up to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and we were able to get some ice cream and squeaky cheese before they closed. Then on Saturday Brent and I finally had some alone time. Up to that point we spent lots of time with my sister, Jodi, and her kids... whether driving or at the house or going to see Bill in the hospital. The time with them is always great fun... but we needed a little break. So, we went to the Clackamas mall and a comic book store... after having sushi, of course! We even found a Bubble Tea café and got some of that since it's non-existent in Idaho. And in the evening, Sweet Tomatoes restaurant (a soup and salad buffet)! Yum! Sunday, of course, was the long drive back to Idaho. But on the way, we all stopped by the Bonneville Dam visitor/info center to take a look around. That was kinda cool and interesting... We'd actually never been there before. And it was a fun place to just get out of the car and walk around. Well, we made it home safe and sound... after 10:30pm, of course. Ugh. Then back to the grind on Monday.

p.s. During our trip we heard from my nurse regarding the results of my bloodwork: Very low risk of spina bifida and trisomy 13 & 18... but increased risk of Down's Syndrome. Which we already knew just because of my age. So, they wanted to move my 2nd ultrasound appt up just in case of something abnormal... I suppose that's so they'd still have time to do the amnio if deemed necessary. Anyway, 2nd ultrasound is set for August 20. 8/6/08

Belly week 17 - My appetite is currently the size of:

a) Rhode Island

b) Texas... at least!

c) the Louisiana Purchase... Quite possibly this choice!!

Other notes: More heartburn. Ugh. I've heard this means baby will have lots of hair... no idea if this is true? Probably an old wives' tale. This was a crazy busy week at work!! Every night, I'd come home so exhausted!!! I need to slee.... zzz (snore). 8/13/08

My Third OB Visit

This was my first OB visit with my actual doctor! Dr King is so sweet... she came into our room just smiling from ear to ear and congratulated us on the exciting news! Today was the 1st attempt at finding the baby's heartbeat. I say "attempt" because we never actually found it. (Boo.) Dr King wanted to make sure everything was ok and try to get a more exact location of baby, so we went to the ultrasound room to check it out. We saw baby moving a bunch... even heard a kick or two on the doppler... but we didn't get to hear the heartbeat today. Dr King was satisfied with what we saw on the ultrasound so that was that. No use trying all day if the little stinker is gonna be hiding from us. (Already taking after dad... or maybe mom... Well, what can we say? We're an ornery bunch.) ;) We talked about testing options for someone my age. We told her that, after much discussion, we decided not to do the amniocentesis. She was very understanding and told us about the blood test that they offer so we decided to go with that. We also signed up for a more "specialized" ultrasound at St Luke's Maternal Fetal Medicine. We knew that route wouldn't be as definitive as the amnio but we wanted something less invasive.

As I was thinking about today's appointment, I realized: This day has significance just for the fact that it was 1 year ago to the day that I walked into Dr King's office to have my first "annual" exam since moving to Idaho (3 years)!! She found something irregular and a month later I was having surgery to remove an ovary with a huge cyst. Recovery from that was long but things were finally back to normal! Then in February this year she put me on Clomid. I took that for 2 months/cycles before we found out that there were issues with Brent's "swimmers." Well, we were close to tears and closer to giving up on having biological children when it happened... SURPRISE!!! And now here we are. Isn't God awesome?!

By the way, the estimated size of baby today is 4" long (about the size of an apple).