14 Weeks

I'm going to have Jake take my 14 week picture when he gets home after work and his baseball game tonight.  I will do my best to remember!  **Update, so we forgot again.  Ha!  But I did take another nice self portrait in my sweet Target gauchos!  Jake hates these pants ;)

I've been following Jessica Garvin on her baby blog Little Baby Garvin:  http://littlebabygarvin.blogspot.com/, and she has been such an inspiration to me!  She is the main reason I became motivated to do this blog for our little Nashable in the first place - thank you, Jessica!  She has so many wonderful ideas and resources, and I'm going to try a few of the cute things she did on her blog and see how they fit into mine.  Here is one of her ideas that I plan to try to incorporate as soon as I find the time to get a chalkboard made!!  Jessica even tells you how to make one yourself on her blog.  How cute is this???
                    

And then she draws something cute each month for whichever week she is at and stands next to the chalkboard to take her bump shot!  So creative!

She also answers this little questionnaire at the start of each week.  I may end up and add to it as I find new things that I want to track each week, but this is definitely a wonderful start.  Again, thank you Jessica, you've been an inspiration!

How far along? 14 Weeks

Baby Length:  approximately 3 1/2 inches

Baby Weight:  almost 1 1/2 ounces

Baby is the size of a:  Lemon

Weight gain/loss: down 1.2 lbs since pre-pregnancy (130 lbs to 128.8 lbs)
Maternity clothes? Not quite, but I just received a huge donation from my friend Michelle.  I also bought 3 pairs of Target gauchos...so comfy, not so pretty :) but living in these things!
Stretch marks? No.  I've been using Palmer's cocoa butter, and I just ordered some Mustela Stretch mark cream off Amazon.com.  I already have Strivectin that I was using for face wrinkles, and I considered using it but the tube says "Not for use by pregnant women". Boo. Boo. Boo.
Sleeping? Toss and turn all night and wake up exhausted.  I think it's time to invest in a humidifier and body pillow.
Best moment this week:  I can now hear movement when I listen to the baby's heartbeat with the fetal Doppler.  I hear him/her rustling around and doing little punches and kicks :)
Miss anything? Really missing a good margarita.  I made my hubby a margarita with orange juice on Saturday while he was planting some flowers for me and I wanted one so badly!!
Feel any movement? Not quite
Food cravings: Cheese cheese cheese.  Oh, and yesterday I was craving cheese.
Anything making you queasy or sick: When I let myself get too hungry.  Or eat too much at one time.
Gender: ???  Not sure we are going to find out.  Jake thinks its a girl.
Labor Signs: No
Symptoms: Round ligament pain from time to time, poor sleeping, fatigue, bloating.
Belly Button? In
Wedding rings? On
Happy or Moody? I'm the biggest Happy Grump there is. ;)  I'm happy but easily irritated.
Looking forward to: Starting to feel movement in a month, starting to register for baby stuff, decorating the nursery.

Updates from week 13 ... bye bye 1st Trimester!

Last week was pretty uneventful!  And that is a good thing in pregnancy.  My morning sickness and dizziness have subsided for the most part - as has the constant hunger that I couldn't get rid of for about 2 months.  After the good news at our NT scan, we decided it was time to start sharing the news with extended family and friends since we had really limited who we shared with at first.  Jake was bursting at the seams with excitement and had to spill the beans.  He started making phone calls to share our good news with friends and pretty quickly the word was out.  I will have to say there is a sense of relief in people knowing.  I think I felt a burden carrying around the "secret" of our pregnancy, but since we had 2 previous losses in the 1st trimester, we both wanted to be more certain of this pregnancy's outcome before sharing with the world.

Two of our very sweet friends Andrea and Blair sent us these beautiful flowers as congratulations.  It definitely put a smile on my face and made my day!  I didn't know the Ranunculus well before receiving these flowers from California Organic Flowers, https://californiaorganicflowers.com/default, but I am love with them now!

We've also decided its time to start documenting my changing body, although we keep forgetting to do so...I will try to get my hubby to take a picture at 14 weeks and start the ball rolling with weekly pictures from there...but I did do a mirrored self-portrait last week at 13 weeks 4 days.  Not my best photography work, but I think it gives a good idea of the little bump thus far.  

Ps. Please excuse the unmade bed!

Baby Length:  approximately 3 inches

Baby Weight:  almost 1 ounce

Baby is the size of a:  Medium Shrimp

And a little pregnancy humor, because we could use a little from time to time...  Some musings on Partying vs. Pregnancy from the Baby Garvin blog as well...

First round of NT bloodwork back

I got the call from APC at Northside Hospital Friday that my basic bloodwork was in and that everything was within normal range!

                                     Based on Age        Actual Based on My Tri-screen Bloodwork

Down Syndrome          1 in 349                                     1 in 6,961

Trisomy 18/13               1 in 653                                     1 in >10,000

I'm still waiting on the specialty Harmony Prenatal Bloodwork, which they said usually takes a full 10 days to come back from the lab, but I am so happy with these initial results!!  Here is more information on the Harmony test.  It is highly accurate so I will be thrilled once I receive word that this screen is negative.

http://www.ariosadx.com/

NT Scan = baby dance party

On Tuesday, April 24th I had my NT scan with Dr. Marcy Mann at Atlanta Perinatal Consultants Northside.  I loved her!  She was thorough, detailed and to the point.  My visit consisted of again waiting for about 45 minutes to be seen after checking in to Northside Outpatient Admissions (I'm really getting used to this pregnancy waiting game) and then coming in to an exam room with an ultrasound technician.  They have flat screen televisions over the beds which great for easy patient viewing during the scan.

The baby was going crazy!  He/she was punching, kicking, rolling over, squirming....and we even got to witness some thumb-sucking :)  The baby was not interested in being ultrasounded that day, and every time the tech would attempt to take a measurement for the Tri-screen the baby would roll on its side and push the ultrasound wand away!  It was cracking my husband and me up!  The baby now measured one day ahead at 13 weeks 2 days and the heart rate was now looking great at 153 bpm.  The tech had me roll on my left side for a little while to see if we could get baby in the correct position for measurements and baby wasn't having any of that.  The tech gave up and said maybe Dr. Mann would have better luck when she came in.  Here are a few of the pics:

Once Dr. Mann came in she experienced alot of the same "baby dance party" action the tech had received from my already overactive child.  :)  She was eventually able to obtain a Nuchal Fold measurement of 17 mm, which is very good since they typically look for less than 25 to 30 mm.  She did see that the nasal bone was present which is another good marker, and then examined blood flow through the Ductus Venosus which can also identify chromosomal abnormalities and congenital heart defects.  Everything looked fantastic, and it was so great to hear the word "normal" out of Dr. Mann's mouth over and over.

Once finished with the scan, I headed over to have blood drawn for the Tri-screen as well as have a new blood test called the Harmony Prenatal test which is much more accurate for Trisomy 21 and Trisomy 18.  Dr. Mann thought it was a good idea for me to have the additional blood screening because of my previous miscarriage at 7 weeks due to Triploidy 69 XXY.  I'll have to tell more about my previous losses on another post.

Pregnant lady in Cowboy Boots!

We headed to Bozeman, Montana on Wednesday, April 18th for my little sister Whitney's wedding. Whitney and Michael met at the Annual Wilsall Rodeo dance - and I think the sparks flew pretty quickly. Whitney is an attorney in Bozeman now, and she and Michael live in Livingston with their dog Walter and 3 horses.

The wedding weekend was to be held in the tiny town of Clyde Park (about 45 minutes outside of Bozeman) at the Double T River Ranch.  This place was fantastic!  The owners Addie and Mitch were wonderful hosts and made sure that every request and need was taken care of.  The ranch consists of a main ranch house where my immediate family and Whitney and Michael stayed, as well as a cottage, 2 river cabins, and a huge Barn where all the meals/recreation were:  http://www.doubletriverranch.com/.  There were enough accommodations available that both sides of the family were able to stay and relax throughout the weekend.

Thursday was spent running last minute errands with my two sisters Whitney and Kelly before finally heading out to the ranch with all the supplies to meet up with the whole gang.

My parents and Whit/Michael had the whole weekend's meals catered by Faith of Crazy Mountain Catering, http://www.crazymountaincatering.com/, and it was a pregnant woman's dream!  The food was awesome, and she was so accommodating to all of my crazy pregnancy food rules.

Friday the ladies headed in to Bozeman to have mani/pedis at the Loft: http://www.theloftspabozeman.com/.  They were very helpful and let us take over the entire spa section of their place.  We had champagne and little sandwiches from the cafe downstairs....then to top it all off - delicious chocolate dipped strawberries!

             

After our indulgent spa time, we had to rush to get back to the ranch in time for a 330 pm rehearsal, followed by a delicious rehearsal dinner with family and friends.  We called it an early night and separated Whitney and Michael :) so that she could get a good night's sleep.  The next morning was off to an early start with Whitney getting her hair done by Piper and I did her makeup.  She looked beautiful.  The ceremony was small and intimate right there on the ranch - officiated by Judge Swandal.  After dinner with their closest family and friends, everyone was shuttled back to Livingston for an all night party at the Depot: http://livingstondepot.org/  Here are a few pictures of the day!
                     

12 week OB workup - aka 12 week "waiting session"

Baby Length:  just over 2 inches

Baby Weight:  about 1/2 an ounce

Baby is the size of a:  Lime







On Tuesday, April 16th I went in to North Atlanta Women's Specialists to see Dr. Marcus for my 12 week work-up.  There wasn't really much to the appointment other than about 2 1/2 hrs of waiting for a few different services.  After waiting in the waiting room for 30 minutes, they took a urine sample, took my weight and blood pressure and then had me sit in the inside waiting room for another 30 minutes.

Then my nurse Joanne took me back to an exam room and tried to find the baby's heartbeat with the doppler which she couldn't do.  I have a Sonoline B fetal doppler that I bought off www.fetaldoppler.net for about $55 that I use frequently at home, so I knew everything was okay, but they seemed a little concerned about not finding one.  So Joanne fired up the fancy GE ultrasound machine and took me in to wait another 20 minutes for Dr. Marcus to come in and take a quick peek to confirm the heartbeat by ultrasound.  He saw the heart pumping and all was well.  (here is a pic of the doppler I use at home - I love it - and it has been a huge reassurance to me in between visits...)

                 

Then Joanne rushed me back to an exam room and they did what they basically do at an annual exam - a breast exam, pelvic exam and a pap.  After Dr. Marcus was done with that I went in to his office to chat, and he answered a few of my questions about some questions I had and what things that were safe during pregnancy.  Here are my findings:

• I could stop the progesterone that Sunday at 13 weeks!  Yippee!
• He didn't care that I was using a home fetal doppler and said it was perfectly safe.
• I could take Claritin/Zytec, Sudafed, and Mucinex for my sinus infection and chest cold.  (I didn't for another week because I was scared to hurt the baby - then gave in because the coughing was too miserable) 
• No acne treating products!  He said the big ones to stay away from are Retin-A and Salicylic Acid.
• Hair color okay after week 13 - they recommend only one time per trimester, but that will be tough for me considering the amount of new gray hairs that have "sprouted" since I became preggo.
• Anti-aging night cream is fine.  Dr. Marcus said his wife used the Obagi line while pregnant with no issues.  I use Creme de La Mer face and eye cream (on the nights when I have the energy to wash my face and apply night cream!) and he said that was perfectly acceptable.  Here is what I love to use:

                        

We discussed that the last real action item of the first trimester was to have my NT scan with Dr. Mann at Northside once I got back from my sister's wedding and cross that worry off the list.  Otherwise he didn't need to see me back until my 16 week visit - which I scheduled for May 15th.

And the baby was Kung-fu Fighting...

Since all was progressing well, and I was feeling pretty good (aside from the 24 hour a day, non-stop hunger and nausea), we had scheduled another ultrasound at 9 weeks on Monday, March 26, 2012 to check on the baby's growth.  My hubby Jake was able to make this one and was very excited to finally get a glimpse of our little Nashable.  It was the coolest thing ever!  The little blob inside me was finally starting to resemble a baby - and we watched our little one kicking up a storm.  He/she was doing these adorable little spazzy Karate kicks and seemed to be full of energy.  I think this baby is going to be alot like its Daddy.

My favorite of the scans is the bottom left, where our baby looks like a little gummy bear.  Clearly a little human, but still so tiny :)  The baby still measured a few days behind - every scan the baby was about 3 days behind my dating from LMP - but my doctor was pleased with the scan and our little ones heartbeat was now 178 bpm!!  Dr. Marcus sent me on my merry way and told me to come back at 12 weeks for my OB workup as well as schedule my NT scan and bloodwork with Atlanta Perinatal Consultants at Northside Hospital if I was interested in having one.  I went ahead and scheduled my 12 week OB appt for Tuesday, April 16, 2012 - the week before my little sister's wedding in Montana!!!  And I set up an NT scan with Dr. Marcy Mann at Northside for Tuesday, April 24, 2012 the day after we got back from our western adventure.

Ravenously hungry nausea?

The whole pregnancy thing really is surreal, especially in the beginning when you don't really look or feel pregnant.  In the first trimester, the only reminders of pregnancy I had were extreme nausea and ravenous hunger.  From about week 6 until the middle of week 11, I had what they call "morning sickness."  I'm not sure who named it that, since the morning had very little to do with my sickness.  I was sick all day, every day, and sometimes even in the middle of the night.  It was like having the worst hangover of your life, 24 hours a day, for 6 weeks.  The strangest part of it all was that I never actually threw up, I just felt like I needed to or was about to all the time.  Sometimes I wish I had just thrown up and gotten it over with!

Another strange partner to my all-day sickness was the most intense hunger I have ever experienced in my life.  Like I might die if I don't eat in the next 5 minutes kind of hunger.  And that paired with nausea makes for a very confusing all day conflict.  I feel so sick I can't eat a thing, but if I don't eat a thing, I might just die.  And it did seem that somehow despite nausea, the only thing that provided even momentary relief was to eat something...only to shortly after feel nauseousness again.  It was a vicious cycle that I eventually gave into and just ate anything cheesy or sweet I could get my hands on.

My local yogurt place Yotopia has a yogurt happy hour on Tuesdays from 4-6pm where everything is 25% off.  It has been my happy hour of choice these days.  This beauty you see here is cake batter frozen yogurt with brownie bites, white chocolate chips and strawberries.  I knew it was decent sized but didn't think I went overboard until I got up to the register, where the young girl at the counter rang me up after I set my froyo on the scale, and then just stood there staring at me.  She says to me, "You know that's 16 oz., right?" Yes, honey, I do.  And for those of you who aren't big on your conversions, 16 oz is 1 pound.  And I ate the entire thing in one sitting.  I had to.  I might have died otherwise.

And we have a blob!

I went in for my first appointment with the doctor at 6 weeks 1 day on Tuesday, March 6, 2012.  It was a fairly routine pelvic exam and they ran a blood test to check my HCG and progesterone levels.  Other than that, he was about to send me on my merry way.  I begged and pleaded for him please to take a quick peek with the ultrasound machine to put me at ease that there was indeed something growing in there...

Luckily my doctor is a big softy and is easily persuaded with a few "pretty pleases" and I got him to do a quick and dirty look with the fancy GE equipment in his office.  There wasn't much to see, other than a big circle with a little white ball inside of it.  He explained to me that it was all as it should be, and what I was seeing was the gestational sac and yolk sac - where the baby would shortly be growing.  He wasn't able to identify the fetal pole quick yet - and I was a little disappointed to find that there wasn't a heartbeat to be seen (although one of the nurses Judi swore she saw a little flicker!)  They called me a few days later to tell me that my hormone levels looked fantastic - HCG was 28,000 and progesterone was 26 - and that they wanted to see me back in 7-10 days to check on progress.  I was assured that those levels were fantastic and that in a week we would see so much more and definitely find a heartbeat.

When I returned in 7 - 10 days for my follow-up ultrasound on Tuesday, March 13, 2012, we finally saw evidence of an adorable little baby blob.  And that little baby blob had a heartbeat of 118 bpm!!!  We weren't really sure what was what, but the doctor assured us that all looked as it should.  The little hand cursor is pointing to the start of the baby, and the white circle is the yolk sac.  I was technically 7 weeks 1 day, and the baby measured Crown to Rump (CRL) at 6 weeks 5 days.  I was worried that the heartbeat was too slow, but the doctor was pleased to see anything greater than 100 bpm at 6 to 7 weeks.  My doctor said that everything we saw was normal for the early weeks and wanted to see us back in 2 weeks to confirm growth.

So, I'm finally doing this!

I've been wanting to do this for about 9 weeks since I first got my "pregnant" on my home pregnancy test...but I thought I might jinx myself so I've been anxiously waiting until it was a bit more "official".  I'm now 13 weeks 4 days pregnant and have a bit of catching up to do!

I got my "bfp", also known as a "big fat positive," on Friday, Feb 17th, 2012 despite not feeling terribly pregnant yet.  My husband Jake said he had a feeling that something might be up when I was having terrible cramping about 7 days before my period was due.  And on top of that, somehow my boobs instantly grow when pregnant despite being a measly barely B cup, so between those two things, he suspected.  We were excited, nervous, overwhelmed...it had been a bumpy road for us to get to that point, and we knew that nothing was certain yet...we just had to wait it out and see what happened.

I called my ob/gyn to let him know the news, and of course they wanted me to come in for bloodwork and monitoring, but I decided against it this time.  It doesn't change the outcome and turns me into an anxious, crazy lady.  So I decided to pretend I was calm and act like nothing was wrong.  And let's just say I'm not a good actress.  I did take twice a day prometrium (a progesterone supplement) just to play it safe, and I felt some sense of security from that.

We had a ski trip to Whitefish, Montana planned with some friends, and I asked the doctor if it was okay to travel such a long distance and ski.  When I got the thumbs up, we packed our coats, ski pants and goggles and headed to the slopes of Big Mountain.  I did end up and ski every day, even if only a half day, and in all I felt pretty good.  I was a bit more tired than usual, and felt somehow clumsier than I already am, but we had a good time.  I did fall a few times, but I was always going slow and usually hit my head harder than my stomach.  I was glad that we had the ski trip planned because it was a great distraction in early pregnancy and kept my mind off all of the things that I had no control over.  I knew I had an appointment coming up when I returned, but I felt good and all seemed to be going well.