Happy Thanksgiving! 14 Weeks and First Doppler Heartbeat!

Not the greatest picture but Jeff starts to get cranky after taking so many one after another so this is what you get.  :-)

14 weeks!  First full week of 2nd trimester.  And I'm still sick most mornings.  Hoping this will end soon.  We had a midwife appointment on Monday and she seemed surprised that I was still getting sick and said it usually lets up for most people between 12-16 weeks.  So hopefully soon.  I've been saying that for a few weeks now though, lol.  But I am having more days here and there that I don't get sick rather than literally every.single.day so that's....something, right?  A step in the right direction anyway.

At this midwife appointment they listened for the heartbeat with the doppler for the first time.  SOOOO cool - whoosh whoosh whoosh.  It was kinda a crappy machine with tons of static which was annoying, but when she got the right spot there was definitely no mistaking it!

At 14 weeks baby is now the size of a large lemon or the size of an average fist!!  Close to 4 inches at this point - give or take.  Soft cartilage is turning into solid bone (as evidenced by the bright white spots shown in the u/s pictures from last week).  This week a fine hair begins to develop all over baby's body called lanugo.  This helps protect the delicate baby skin in all that water for so long but is shed (usually) before birth and replaced by thicker, coarser - more normal hairs.  Perhaps this is why I had that dream that I had a little girl and then she turned into a furry little kitten!!  Hahaha..  Another random interesting fact is that at this point baby has eyebrows but no eyelashes yet. 

So our next appointment is in 2 weeks - which is just a basic lab appointment.  They'll take blood (again) and test for proteins secreted by the baby that will indicate Downs, Spina Biffida, or other neural tube defects.  Then 4 weeks from now - on 12/21 we have our next real midwife appointment and most importantly the "big ultrasound"!  This is the 18 week one where they can definitively tell gender and do an anatomy scan to make sure all the bits are there and where they should be and there aren't any obvious problems.  Though we got a 'guess' at gender at the NT scan, this is where we'll find out if her guess was right or not.  What a wonderful Christmas present that will be!!  :-D

13 Weeks, 2nd Tri, and NT Ultrasound!

  I know I've totally gotten of schedule this time.  Trying to play catch-up here.  I normally post on weekends but was dealing with repercussions of my lovely tummy upset and didn't get to it, then Monday blogger wasn't letting me upload pictures.  So here we are.  A week late.  lol.  oh well.  I'm busy growin a baby over here, what do you want!  :-)

So 13 weeks - my itty bitty bump is growing.  This week was 'peach sized baby' week.  Still getting sick most mornings - but am skipping more days here and there which is something.  At 13w3d - last Friday - we had our Early Risk Assessment Test - ERA.  That included the NT Ultrasound scan where they measure the fluid at the base of the baby's neck to assess risk levels for Down's and two other chromosomal irregularities.  Our measurements looked great - nice and small which is good.  And the difference between the 13 week u/s and the 10 week u/s was huge!  It looked like a baby-ish critter before but it really looks like a baby now!  And the tech even felt that she could give us an 'early guess' at gender though she made us promise not to go shopping till our 18 week scan.  :-)  But the guess was that it's a girl!!

We got some great zoomed in facial profile pics.  You can see the jaw bone is developing, the nose, the spine, even all the itty bitty ribs were visible during the ultrasound.  So amazing.  I still can't feel any movement - I'm dying to feel something.  It's so crazy to watch the baby flip flop all over the place and not be able to feel it at all!

The first picture you can see baby sucking her thumb!!  Already!!  Little thumb sucker..  The last picture you can see the hand coming towards the face a bit.  DEFINITELY a mover and a shaker, this one!  :-D  But my mom actually was the one that noticed the thumb sucking in the last picture - I thought it was just a good full profile picture, ya know?  But it's doubly cool that you can see the thumb sucking too.

You can see all five fingers on the little hand in the second picture.  It was the very first picture the tech took - it was totally awesome.  Like baby was saying "hi mommy hi daddy!!!" as soon as we started looking!  So at least we have all 5 fingers on one hand accounted for!  Gotta get the other hand now.. lol.

The day of the scan was also my last day in the first trimester!  Being offically out of 1st tri is a huuuuge relief.  I have had more energy the last few weeks already - I think after the basic blueprints are laid down you get more energy back which is nice.  I'm only half a zombie now instead of a full-on zombie!  Woohoo!!  I'm still falling asleep on the couch most nights but function much better through the day now.

So that's the last week of 1st tri.  Updates on week one of 2nd tri to come along with the 14 week belly picture - sooner than a week from now I promise!

12 Weeks, Maternity Pants, and First Cloth Diapers!

So 12 weeks has come and gone.  I'm just starting to get a little bitty bump - more noticeable if my shirt is tight or my belly is bare, but it's definitely there.  :-D  I also gave in last weekend and got myself some maternity pants.  I wavered between the idea of getting a belly band - stretchy fabric made to go over your pants to basically hide the fact that you're not buttoning them, etc and keep you in them a bit longer - but really that just wasn't something i'm comfortable with and honestly i think since they're visible it's really more of a giveaway in the case of work.  I mean who's gonna think I'm just wearing the SAME black tank every day ya know?  lol..  and the other option was buying pants in a larger size, but really the probably was with my expanding belly area just being an uncomfortable place for pants to cut into.  I was able to get maternity pants that will fit me now, and barring a huge body weight gain in legs and butt, should fit me through the rest of my pregnancy and after as well.  This seemed like the better investment to me.  I was admittedly a bit uncertain about the panels in maternity pants at first, but after trying some on in the store I was completely convinced.  All 3 pairs I got are infinitely more comfy than any of my other pants at this point.  So there you have it.  Some of my other pants I couldn't wear at all, others I could squeeze into but they were varying stages of uncomfortable - particularly as most of my day at work is spent sitting.  One thing about the maternity pants is that they allow my belly to buldge more than my other pants did - which kind of 'muffin-topped' things more.  I'm wearing the mat pants in this picture and I think it adds to the belly you see because it's just kinda doing its thing rather than being all constricted/confined etc.

So what's up with baby this week you're wondering?  Now that all the major organs are formed, there isn't much left to form.  Both liver and pancreas have started to function, pituitary gland has started creating hormones, and baby develops reflexes!  Vocal cords are also developing and the brain is now fully developed.  Baby can be seen (sort of) in this picture here sucking its itty bitty thumb even!  Eyelids are now fully formed and eyes will remain closed until the 7th month to protect the developing optic...bits.  lol.

We scheduled our ERA - Early Risk Assessment test - for this coming Friday November 20th.  It will involve meeting with a genetic counselor, some (MORE) bloodwork, and an NT scan which is I believe a higher resolution ultrasound that will allow the specially trained techs to measure the nuchal translucency at the back of the neck which can be a tip-off to genetic abnormalities or things like Down's, etc.  Hopefully this assessment will show that everything is as it should be with our little bean and will be a nice chance for us to get to see him or her again!  I've heard there is a chance that the tech might be able to make a guess at gender at this point - at the appointment I'll be 13w3d (last day of 1st tri!!!).  I'm hoping this is the case.  I'd love a guess by someone who has something they're going on.  I had a dream last night that I had a little girl and she looked just like me...but then at some point in the dream she turned into a kitten...so I doubt that's anything to go on.. lol.  I'm trying not to get my hopes up for a good guess though because I know it's not as reliable for another month or so.  Fingers crossed all the same.  :-)  The following Monday, November 23rd, we have our next midwife appointment where we should get to actually HEAR the heartbeat with the dopplar (which we weren't able to do at our last appt because of my tipped uterus).  And that will be super exciting.

This week we also received our first order of "fluffy mail"!  I scored a great deal on some gently used Kissaluv Size 0 fitted diapers (KL0's) from a mama on Craigslist and they arrived yesterday.  They are *so* cute and soft and cuddly.  These diapers (fitteds) will require a cover as they do not include a waterproofed outer.  Pictures of those to come when they arrive.  I can't stop looking at these little squishy diapers and thinking how tiny they are and what it will be like to put our own little baby's bum in them.  Jeff is still skeptical on the whole cloth diapering thing, but especially with the deals that I've scored so far, he seems, at the very least, to be coming around to seeing the cost savings involved.  I know many many mamas that cloth diaper (CD) and promise me that they would not continue if they didn't love doing it for their babies and if it was truly an immense amount of work.  I am looking forward to joining them and being able to help show other new mothers that it's definitely doable.  When I started to think about HOW MANY disposable diapers go on a baby, and then into landfills where they will stay forever leaching chemicals into our planet...it's just SO MANY.  It's always more work to wash something rather than throw it away and get a new one, but I believe that the extra work will be minimal, and that it will be more than worth it to us both financially and personally in the end.  :-)

11 Week Belly Picture

These posts are getting more 'delayed' but we're still taking belly pictures at the 'one week' marks on schedule at least.  This was the 11 week belly picture.  My bloat (which peaked for sure in week 8) is minimal now.  I still can't see much of a baby bump - sometimes I think I might, but it's really probably just my organs piled on top of my uterus or something - or my stomach for example since my tummy is much flatter when the belly is empty lol..  But it's said that at this point the uterus is pretty much filling the pelvic cavity so I should start showing at least to us fairly soon which will be exciting.

Yesterday (Friday) - at about 11 and a half weeks - I had my first day without getting sick in over 5 weeks.  That's a long time!!!  This morning, not so lucky, but at least I know the little one is still bopping around in there.  It's kind of funny how reassuring the sickness is, and even knowing full well that I'm reaching the point where it's normal for me to start feeling better, it still makes me a little nervous all the same.  Once I start feeling movement at least I will have that, but for now there really isn't much!

At 11 weeks baby is now the size of a lime!!  Of course the fruit correlations are subjective and are different depending on the source you're using.  But baby is 1.75-2.5 inches crown to rump now, approximately 7 grams, and can swallow and pee!  The urinary system is functioning and baby swallows and pees into the amniotic fluid which is refreshed throughout the day (hence mama's need to get up in the middle of the night to pee even with such a tiny baby!!).  The fingernails appear this week as well.  Itty bitty fingernails on itty bitty fingers!  Hair starts to grow this week as well.  I will be shocked if our little one does not come out with a bunch of dark brown hair!  :-)  All of the organ systems are formed and beginning to function.  Miscarriage risk is down - and we may finally start to tell the world our news!!  Finally staring down the end of the first trimester feels *really* good.  I'm sure the worrying will not go away entirely - probably ever at this point!! - but the reason for the worry will be greatly reduced and we can relax and enjoy the pregnancy!