WE SAW THE BABY THIS WEEK!!!
 |
| Proudly Introducing: Our Little Sweet Pea! |
What an amazing feeling it was to see the baby for the first time! I was stunned. We feel a deeper connection with the baby after seeing his or her little face and body. We were happily reassured that things are going smoothly in this pregnancy and that baby is developing well!
Overall this week was pretty easy, except for last night.
Ugh, I still don't feel good. It crossed my mind to wait until Monday to post this update but, of course, I couldn't allow myself to do that. Last night was rough, guys. And truth be told, I'm a little scared.
There's a good chance everything is fine with baby and me but I'm concerned. Last night I had a late-night snack alongside my prenatal vitamin, as usual. Trevor brought home an artichoke for me and it was starting to look on it's way out but still good, if you know what I mean. So I decided I would enjoy it right then. Growing up, mom used to make artichokes for the two of us and we would eat them while watching a show together. Some people like to eat artichokes with butter or oil with herbs and seasonings but we feast upon ours with mayonnaise! It's delicious, I swear. If you love artichoke and haven't tried it with mayonnaise, do it!
So there I was with my artichoke and mayo watching an episode of FRIENDS. As I was digging into the mayo (about a tablespoon worth), I noticed there was a red streak in it. I have no idea where it came from and I'm still baffled by it. The mayo container is the squeeze-bottle variety and so there is no chance for cross-contamination from ketchup. About two hours later I was throwing it all up.
My throat was so badly burned from the acidity that it was challenging to sleep last night. It still hurts this morning and I just feel... blah.
My biggest concern? Food poisoning.
It's so dangerous to have any bad bacteria in your GI tract during pregnancy and I'm nervous that somehow the mayonnaise and/or the artichoke was bad. Neither one tasted or smelled spoiled and my first thought was that the combination of artichoke + mayo + prenatal (which causes nausea) was a bad choice. That's my hope! But I'm scared. And I know myself, if anything happens from here on out (even if I'm told it's completely unrelated) I will likely blame myself.
Called Trevor, my mom and the midwife hotline and all of them reassured me the foods were likely too heavy for me, or perhaps even the artichoke was just a little too old for my body's liking. It's so tough knowing that any decision I make affects our child.
I'm split because part of me is pretty confident everything's fine and the other half is still processing that this one decision may have ruined our baby's life. Medically speaking, if it weren't happening to me I would assume everything's fine. So that part of me keeps creeping in to reassure myself.
I'm really hoping everyone's right.
Trevor and I had plans to take pictures of the apartment for you guys but I just wanted to lounge on the couch with him and watch Netflix. In our house, "Netflix and Chill" means we lay around watching shows until someone falls asleep. This time that someone was Trevor. He's happily sleeping while I'm writing to you! Check back again this Wednesday as that's my deadline for uploading pictures of our place. I would love to invite you in before we vacate!
 |
| Watching 9 Months That Made You with Trevor's hobbit feet. #ExpectantParentLife |
22 May 2017: First Midwife Appointment
Needless to say, we were super excited for this appointment! An ultrasound, nuchal scan, and a full examination was promised to us over the phone. I was about five or six weeks along when I made the appointment and it surprised me that the OB did not request to see me sooner. Friends of mine have had transvaginal ultrasounds around 8 weeks.
 |
| Off to see the OB! |
Then there was no ultrasound. No nuchal scan. Most everything that was set up for our "11 week appointment" was not included. I pushed our midwife into scheduling an ultrasound the next day. We wanted to see our baby, dangit!
They pushed me into having STD tests done, even though I was a virgin marrying a virgin. It felt ridiculous but again, medically speaking, I get it. It needs to be documented that I'm free and clear.
We opted to do genetic testing only because we want to know the gender sooner. Usually folks find out their baby's sex at 20 weeks but Trevor will no longer be in the States at that point. My good friend Emily offered to host a baby shower/gender reveal party here in Fort Collins for us so we need to know what we're having ahead of time. Crazy thing is, I should receive a call sometime next week that the results of the testing are in... but I have to wait 3 more weeks to find out if it's a boy or a girl because that's when the party is scheduled for. That's gonna be a long three weeks for us, people.
If you're curious, the plan is to have the OB write out two cards with the gender on it. I'll pick both up and mail one out to my mom and hold onto the other for safe-keeping/memory's sake. When she gets the card she's going to call up Emily and tell her what we're having. I'm pretty stoked for this plan because I wanted to somehow include my mom in this. It means so much to me to have her know before anyone else.
23 May 2017: Baby's First Ultrasound + An Unintentional 2nd Facebook Announcement + Planning a Gender Reveal
Finally got to see our little baby! Thankfully they let us film, well to be honest, we didn't even ask. Trevor couldn't set up the camera fast enough to catch our first reactions to seeing the baby, bummer! But we marveled at our little being the whole time. So strange to see the person that is actually our child! This baby is 50% me, 50% Trevor and I find that incredibly amazing.
I won't keep you waiting. Here's our little one!
At one point during the appointment, the baby rolls over to it's side! It was so fascinating to see it lifting its arms and extending its legs. The technician had a bit of trouble recording the heartbeat because baby kept wiggling! That's what we like to see... an active baby! A friend commented that baby appears to be sucking on its hand! Later on I was looking over the pictures of the baby and realized I'll be wiping that little booty by the end of the year, haha. I told you, it's becoming so real for us.
Technician said everything looks good. She didn't measure the space behind baby's neck (nuchal translucency scan) but I commented that it looked good to me and she agreed. Heartbeat was 162 and she said that's a strong heartbeat. So far, so good!
I sent out texts to family and a few friends because I hadn't planned on posting anything on facebook. Around 10pm that night, as Trevor and I were laying on the couch, I posted a picture to instagram and decided to forward it to facebook. The ultrasound picture was an unintentional pregnancy announcement to those who either hadn't seen our official announcement picture or for those who didn't understand it, haha! Either way, it was fun to have an inadvertent second announcement. My mom doesn't usually go on facebook, but she logged on to say thank-you for the congratulations from her friends and to share how proud she is to be a grandma!
After the appointment we ran over to Emily's house to have lunch and talk a bit about the gender reveal. We decided on a co-ed, BABY-Q-themed (BBQ) party, and Trevor and I decided how we want the gender revealed to us.
 |
| Straight from my Pinterest board! |
Just like the appointment we had the day before, poor Trevor went straight from working a 9-hour shift to powering through the ultrasound appointment. He was bushed! Poor bubs fell asleep on Emily's floor for a bit while she and I finalized the guest list.
 |
| Told you he can sleep anywhere! My hardworking guy was pooped. |
Wanted to also mention, thank you for your many prayers! We were approved to move-out on the 19th of next month! Although we're sad to leave, we're glad to save some money and be able to head to California sooner. Sadly, Trevor will only have a few short weeks with us once we're there. Every now and then I cry when I think about saying goodbye to him. We value the support all of you have given us! Thank you for your encouraging text messages and your involvement in this pregnancy. We are blessed to have you in our lives, truly. I don't cry often but when I do it's because I'm reminded of God's goodness. Thank you for being a part of the village God has given us!
Week 12 Photos
Week 12 Updates
1. Size of the baby? From crown to rump, baby is just over 2 inches! About the size of a lime.
2. What's developing this week?
4. Movement? Call me crazy, but for two nights in a row (not last night) I swear I felt the tiniest, softest, feather-like touch on the inside of my belly. It's usually only at night after I lay down. If this isn't the baby then nope. Nothing still.
5. Sleep? Still sleeping a lot but not nearly as much as weeks past. Energy levels are picking up slightly and I'm grateful! Now getting up about 2-3 times to pee every night. Also, being under the "sleep" category, I had a dream that our OB slipped and told us we're having a.... BOY! All other dreams have involved us having a little girl.
6. Symptoms?
- Headaches still. Haven't tried Tylenol but if my memory serves me correctly, it won't do me any good. So I just drink a glass of chocolate milk for the caffeine to ease the pain. Works most days.
- Usually left-side belly pain but this week I've had more pain on the right. Uterus is doing it's thang, y'all!
- Pubic bone pain.
- Long showers = nausea. Can't stay in the shower for very long before I start feeling sick.
- Nausea first thing in the morning. Trevor usually greets me with a plate of scrambled eggs or a few pieces of turkey bacon for protein. Cereal doesn't cut it. If I don't have protein first thing in the morning my day is wasted.
- TMI, but nasal congestion. Basically, more boogers. Apparently this is a thing. My momma friends, was this true for you during pregnancy too?! (Told you I would be open and honest with you! You thought I was joking, didn't you?! There you go.)
- Cried twice this week. Once in thinking about Trevor leaving and once more after reading tributes to fallen soldiers in honor of Memorial Day.
- Boobs are kind of huge now. I can only tell they're bigger once they're unleashed from their sports-bra cage.
- Sex drive is back up to what it was pre-pregnancy. Trevor's not mad at this.
7. Cravings and Aversions? No notable have-to-have food cravings this week. I just kind of eat whatever I want to. My aversion to meat is still ongoing! It's a struggle to eat it. Such a pain because I usually love it and I know I need it. I have had to force myself to eat as much protein as I can.
8. Best moment this week? 23 May 2017! The day we saw our little baby! Since then Trevor has been hugging me from behind and ever-so-gently rubbing my belly. Sometimes when we lay on the couch together he'll reach over and want to rest his hand there (although not actually resting or applying pressure in any way). He's such a sweet daddy already. But for those of you who know Trevor well, we always knew he'd be the best dad one day!
9. Prayer requests? Please pray that the neighbors below us stop smoking weed. Last night they smoked in the back bedroom and it filled our whole room. Sad thing is, they have a toddler living with them! We could hear her running around so they were smoking while she was there. Trevor opened up windows and turned on all the fans in our bedroom and eventually the smell went away. I'm sure baby's fine but we only have a few weeks left in this apartment and we'd like things to go smoothly. We're praying we won't have to deal with this again before we leave. Also, please pray that we are efficient with the time we have together. We have a lot going on these next few weeks and between my fatigue and Trevor's demanding work schedule, we're having a hard time getting things done.
10. What are you looking forward to for next week? Taking pictures of our place for memory's sake and then packing it all up in storage! Wish us luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment