June 29, 2010

15 Week Survey

How far along? 15 weeks 2 days


Total weight gain/loss: -2 lbs

Sleep: Still tired and sleeping well, hoping that week 16 is my magic energy week!

Food cravings: Tom thumb mini donuts from Sturgis Falls

Best moment this week: Seeing a bunch of family that came in from out of town and being called "momma"


Movement: Not yet, hoping in the next week or two I can finally write yes

Gender: Back to thinking boy. Only 34 days until we find out!!!!


Labor Signs: None, and the pain under my belly is becoming more spaced out


Belly Button in or out? In


What I miss: Not being hot and sweaty when I just think about going outside


What I am looking forward to: Hearing the baby's heartbeat again in one week!


Weekly Wisdom: Enjoy your freedom and being able to go anywhere at anytime


Milestones: No big milestones this week

June 27, 2010

15 weeks: orange




Rapid growth of your baby continues at this point. The skin is very thin and you can see the blood vessels clearly underneath. The scalp hair pattern is developing while fine hair (called lanugo) covers the baby's body. Your baby is approximately 3.7 to 4.1 inches and weighs about 2 ounces.

Your baby's taste buds already look like a mature adult's and doctors have learned that the amniotic fluid that surrounds it can smell strongly of curry, cumin, garlic, onion and other essences from a mother's diet. Your baby's bones continue to harden and retain calcium very rapidly.

Her legs are growing longer than her arms now, and she can move all of her joints and limbs. Although her eyelids are still fused shut, she can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, for instance, she's likely to move away from the beam.

June 22, 2010

14 Week Survey

How far along? 14 weeks 2 days


Total weight gain/loss: still down a pound


Sleep: Still super tired all the time, although instead of being in bed by 8, I've now been pushing 9!!! (although I am still sleeping 10 hours because I can sleep an hour later now)


Food cravings: Nothing, still not that into food.


Best moment this week: I finally feel like my stomach is changing into a baby bump


Movement: Not yet, still on pins and needles waiting for it!


Gender: Back to thinking boy. Only 42 days until we find out!!!!


Labor Signs: None, and the pain under my belly has started fading


Belly Button in or out? In


What I miss: Not being hot and sweaty all the time.


What I am looking forward to: Hearing the baby's heartbeat again at our 16 week appointment


Weekly Wisdom: You can't pass up a cute outift for $0.25 at a garage sale, even if you don't know the gender yet! (loved this one!)


Milestones: Still excited to be in the 2nd trimester

June 20, 2010

14 weeks: lemon



Your baby's body systems are starting to work on their own. The digestive system practices moving food along the intestines and through the renal system and he can create and eliminate urine. He also continues to practice breathing the amniotic fluid in and out of his lungs. Your baby has tiny, soft nails on his fingers and toes, is growing hair and may even suck his thumb. Your baby is approximately 3 1/2 - 4 inches and weighs approximately 1.5 ounces.

Also, your baby's blood is beginning to form in the bone marrow and blood vessels are beginning to connect various parts of the fetus to another. The joints and muscles allow your baby full body movement so your baby is able to move around. The baby's neck is getting longer and his chin is no longer resting on his chest. The eyes and ears continue to move into place. The hands are becoming functional and reflex movements often occur. Nourishment now comes from the placenta.


This week's big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb.

He's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over his body. Your baby's liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it's doing its job right — and his spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can't feel his tiny punches and kicks yet, your little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active.

June 16, 2010

13 Week Survey

How far along? 13 weeks 3 days


Total weight gain/loss: -1 lb at the doctor's last week, excited to be on track for gaining nothing!


Sleep: Sleeping well, and excited to finally be on my first full day of summer vacation. This could either help my sleeping even more, by being able to nap when I'm tired, or hurt it because I will nap and then not sleep through the night anymore.


Food cravings: Still not loving food, I get really full really fast when I do eat a whole meal.


Best moment this week:During the past week the best moment was definitely getting to hear the heartbeat and record it on our phones so I can listen whenever I want!


Movement: He/she is moving away according to my books, I can hardly wait until I can feel it


Gender: Starting to sway towards a girl (it's SO frustrating to know that an ultrasound would show the gender now, but we still have 7 more weeks to wait!!!)


Labor Signs: No thank you, although during the last few weeks I have been feeling pain under my belly the whole way across, the doctor thinks it's round ligament pain, I'm hoping so too!


Belly Button in or out? In


What I miss: Not being a sweat machine when I'm outside in the heat


What I am looking forward to: Still thrilled to have a date for our 20 week ultrasound, now if it would just hurry up and get here! And on a non-baby related topic, I can't wait to start summer vacation today!!!!


Weekly Wisdom: Enjoy your sleep now while you can.


Milestones: Yeah for the first week in the 2nd trimester!

June 14, 2010

A completely amazing 2 years together

Most people who know me know that I'm rarely at a loss for words. However, today, as I sit and think about the most amazing gift God has given me, I find myself with little that is good enough to say.

What can I say about the man that God created for me? What can I say about the greatness that is marriage? Not enough, that is for sure.

Matt-
It's so cliche to say, but so absolutely true- I am more in love with you today than I could have ever imagined two years ago today. You treat me like a queen every single day. You have been my shoulder to cry on and an amazing support system during the biggest struggle of my life, one that you were right by my side for and went through too. You have never laughed at my dreams, in fact you have done everything in your power, more than most men would do, to accomplish one of my major dreams of becoming a mother.

Thank you for an amazing two years. I absolutely can't wait for this next year together!

Love you Lovey!

Exchanging vows 2 years ago today, love this picture!


Halloween 2009



Homecoming 2009



Matt right when I met him - LOVE this picture!!!!

June 13, 2010

13 weeks: peach


Your baby is now about 6.7cm long from crown to rump and weighs between 1/2 and 3/4 an ounce. Tiny fingerprints are now at the tips of her fingers. Your baby has sucking muscles in her cheeks, so when you poke your tummy gently she will feel it and start rooting.

There is a lot going on with your baby this week. Your baby's intestines are migrating from the umbilical cord into his or her abdomen. The villi are also forming in the intestines, and these help in peristaltic movements and digestion. The liver begins to secrete bile and the pancreas is even secreting insulin! All twenty teeth have formed and are waiting under the gums, while your baby has begun to practice swallowing by taking in the surrounding amniotic fluid and passing it back in his urine. Your baby can smile and his vocal cords are quickly developing, too. He looks more and more human as his eyes move closer together and the ears are beginning to move to what will be their normal positions. The placenta and baby are about the same weight now.

Most of the vital systems are developed now, and baby starts really growing, at times, growing as much as an inch this week.

June 9, 2010

12 week appointment

6/8/10
The minutes passed by slowly, I closed my eyes and prayed. I prayed for peace, for good news, and for that sound.

A few more minutes passed by.

I looked up and caught Matt’s eyes; I could see some worry creeping into the innermost part of his soul.

I moved my eyes away from his so that I would not begin to cry. I kept my eyes forward on the nurse. She tried one spot, then the next, then began talking. She then tried a new spot.

Lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub.

My face lit up, my smile was as big as it was on our wedding day.

We sat and listened for nearly a minute. I had made it. We had made it. We had reached the impervious 12 week milestone; our baby was doing perfect and had a perfect heartbeat of 168 beats per minute.

We are now at a very, very low risk of having another miscarriage.

The doctor came in, did an exam and announced, “You are definitely very pregnant!” Excellent, I didn’t really want to be only partially pregnant anyway.

I want to shout from the rooftops, I want to never stop smiling, I want to do back flips (oh wait, I’m too chubby for that, and too worried it would hurt my growing baby), instead, I’ll just continue to wear this huge smile and growing belly with pride.

All that it has taken to get to this point has worn me out. I never imagined having to go through what we did in the last year and half to reach this point, but none of it matters now. Now I will concentrate on this beautifully growing baby, and attempt to feel joy instead of worry.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our appointment yesterday went very well. It started out a little rough for many reasons. For some irrational reason I've had this fear the entire pregnancy that there would be no heartbeat at 12 weeks. Yesterday was obviously that 12 week appointment. As we sat in the waiting room a husband and son sat across from us. A few minutes into our wait the wife came out, not looking too happy, but not crying or visibly shaken. I saw her turn to her husband and say what I thought was "they couldn't find a heartbeat, they are trying to fit me into ultrasound right now". Surely I was hearing things since this is what had been on my mind. I told Matt what I thought she had said, and he sat for a while, and then confirmed that yes, that's what was going on. My heart sank, my stomach hurt, and my intestines rumbled. We sat for about ten more minutes, and then she was called back by the ultrasound tech. A minute later we were called back to our room.

The nurse came in, told me to get on the table, and she began using the doppler on my lower belly to find the heartbeat. She tried the left side, then the middle, then the right. As my writing above already said, it took awhile... all the while I was thinking of the women in ultrasound. For some reason I never really got worried while she was searching for the heartbeat, maybe because of the other woman, maybe not.


After she found the heartbeat I was elated. But as we sat waiting for the doctor I continued to think of this woman and her family. I have thought about her all day. I can't imagine the pain she may be going through.

The doctor then came in and I had a full appointment. I asked a few questions about my Crohn's medicine and nursing, some lab work, and a few other things. The doctor said she would look into some of the research and call me again this week with some answers... I love this lady. She has asked that we see her again for our 16 week appointment, and then after that we will begin rotating through the practice to meet the other doctors.

We are thrilled with today's outcome. I'm beyond surprised to already feel a little bit more calm about this pregnancy. We were able to schedule our 20 week ultrasound on August 2nd to find out the gender of the baby, followed the next day by a trip to IKEA to buy nursery furniture and other "things". =)

Life is good.

June 8, 2010

Great news!

Everything went great today! We have passed the scary 12 week mark. I'll write more tomorrow.

Thanks for the prayers!

12 Week Survey & 3 month belly picture

How far along? 12 weeks 2 days


Total weight gain/loss: Haven't weighed myself, I'll get an official weight at our appointment today


Sleep: Still amazing! Usually 9 hours a night and sometimes a nap too! =)


Food cravings: Nothing in particular, no food is really too splendid yet, although I do really like spaghetti sauce lately.


Best moment this week: People telling me that I have a baby bump


Movement: Nope, but I can hardly wait for movements to start!


Gender: Not sure


Labor Signs: Nope


Belly Button in or out? In


What I miss: Not a darn thing


What I am looking forward to: Our 12 week appointment today! I can't wait to hear the heartbeat, our plans are to record it on our phones, then I can hear baby king whenever I want to!


Weekly Wisdom: Read as much as you can now about parenting, you won't have any time once the baby is here


Milestones: Reaching the 2nd trimester!!!! So excited to now be in a lower miscarriage rate category.




3 months pregnant!




(and in case you couldn't read the shirt, a close up- and hoping the queaziness stage is about over)

June 6, 2010

Memorial Day Camping Trip

Last weekend we met up with my 2 best friends from high school, their husbands, and another good friend I met during college and her husband and their dog Gracie. We all live all over right now so we found a central camping ground and spent the weekend together. Matt and I took our pop up camper and I was in heaven sleeping in the air conditioning all weekend.

This weekend was the first time I felt "different" being the only pregnant one. It was difficult at times to feel like I was the only one who couldn't do everything that everyone else could do. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, it was just very different to feel like the outsider with such good friends. Overall though we all had a good time grilling, playing games, and being with each other.


The whole gang





The 4 girls


Gracie taking a swim, and attempting to get in the kayak with Tyler, I love this picture!

12 weeks: plum


As you move into the second trimester, baby shifts into the growth and maturation stage. After weeks in the critical development stage, almost all of baby's systems are fully formed.

By now, nearly all of your baby's organs, structures and systems are fully formed. The heart begins pumping several quarts of blood through your baby's body every day. Your baby has also begun to develop nerves and a spinal cord, allowing him to feel some types of pain. While your baby's brain is not the same size it will be at birth, it does have the same structure. Fingers and toes have separated and hair and nails continue to grow. Your baby is approximately 2.5 - 3.5 inches and weighs about 12 - 14 grams.

Also, the external genitals can now show definite signs of male and female gender. Before, where there was only reflex movement, your baby now moves spontaneously and at random, although his movements are still too slight to be felt. With the use of a Doppler, you may be able to hear your baby's heart beat at this office visit. It will sound very fast, similar to the sound of a running horse's hooves.

June 2, 2010

11 Week Survey & Ultrasound Picture

How far along? 11 weeks 3 days


Total weight gain/loss: Haven't weighed since last week when I was down .5lbs


Sleep: Sleeping amazing right now. Still INCREDIBLY tired most of the day.


Food cravings: Not much hits the spot still.


Best moment this week: In the past 7 days (not really this week) the best moment was SEEING OUR BABY again, ahh, I could see him/her everyday if they'd let me. He/she now has beautiful fingers and toes, and even waved during the ultrasound, which totally melted my heart by the way.


Movement: Nope, I'm hoping in about a month I'll start feeling something, can't even wait!


Gender: On the fence


Labor Signs: No thank you


Belly Button in or out? In


What I miss: Nothing (well maybe I miss skin that's not incredibly dry, including the inside of my nose that's been bleeding since Saturday)


What I am looking forward to: Our 12 week appointment on Tuesday, hearing the heartbeat and reaching a big 2nd trimester milestone!


Weekly Wisdom: Go with what your gut tells you and don't let anyone else question it.


Milestones: Beyond thrilled to be within 4 days of reaching the elusive "12 weeks"!

And finally, my lovey at 10 1/2 weeks! So in love!