Thanks to my mom for coming over to take a few pictures of Shelton and I with the belly. We realized this weekend we didn’t have any decent “together” pregnant pictures and figured the clock was ticking if we were going to get any. These are my faves.
Whew! What a week! I’m already completely drained and we’ve got four days to go before the next one starts.
I mentioned in my week 27 OB update that we’d be having a sonogram next week. Well, that moved, to yesterday.
It seems I haven’t exactly been the best advocate for myself and fortunately for me/us, someone else was watching over our shoulder. Dr. T, our fertility doctor, caught word via “M,” our IVF nurse/sanity manager, that my bleeding had continued… was continuing. Remember, we dealt with this for the first six or eight weeks of the pregnancy with him. Tuesday evening I received a call from him wanting to know what was going on and expressing his concern. He encouraged me to move up the sonogram.
So yesterday I called radiology and they obliged, moving me from a Monday appointment to an afternoon appointment yesterday. No doubt I was thrilled to be able to peek inside and see how much this baby had grown in the eight weeks since our last sonogram; more so, I just want to know what is going on.
As of now we have not yet heard back on the radiology report. However, what Shelton and I saw yesterday was the most perfect, healthy baby with her mama’s nose! Every picture showed a strong, healthy baby. And the ripples that waved across my stomach and the fact that the sono tech had to basically chase her down showed us that she’s very active and very much spending every single day growing. She’s currently at two pounds five ounces and all of her measurements hit the 50 percentile dead-on. Her size matched her gestational age to the date. In other words, she’s perfect. She’s textbook.
Today I’m just waiting to hear back from Dr. W, my OB, to make sure this bleeding/spotting/whatever really is just some bizarre anomaly that none of us can account for.
I did take my sono pics over to Dr. T yesterday afternoon. In no way at all trying to undermine or step on the toes of Dr. W, but I felt like if I had a second doctor this interested in helping us, two minds can surely be more helpful than one, right? It’s like going to a salon and suddenly asking a different stylist to do your hair instead of the one who did it before. Awk-Ward.
It was such a treat to steal some of Dr. T and “M’s” very valuable time and not only talk about the health of our pregnancy, but kind of catch-up in general. Dr. T strongly urged me to take the next five weeks seriously in regards to our pregnancy and just focus on relaxing, not stressing and keep this baby inside. He reminded that every day she’s inside buys us more weight, more health.
I was also encouraged that if anything changes – cramping, bleeding, etc. – that I need to be checked out immediately. So the hypochondriac in me is trying to stay in hiding; reasonably, I need to just listen to my body and recognize when something isn’t quite right.
I’ll of course update once I hear back on the sono report.
In the meantime, go ahead and swoon over this adorably squishy-cute baby face! That’s her nose, lips and chin.
I don’t do Christmas letters, but I do like to wrap up my year all nice and tidy on my blog. Web site. Whatever we’re calling it. Before I had a blog I would always go back to the front of my calendar and relive the events of the past 12 months. But now I can do it so much flashier!
2009 will go down as one of the best years I’ve yet lived. It wasn’t too fast, it wasn’t too slow, it feels like it was exactly the pace a year is supposed to be. We’ve enjoyed four actual seasons, distinguishable from one another with generous tap lapses between one climate/weather and the next. You know, because I’m such a crier, I get a little misty thinking about bidding this year farewell and I wonder if 2010 can live up to the bar that has been set so high.
Here’s a look at some of the highlights from our year. First in pictures, surrounded by the people, places and even things that fill our lives with such immeasurable joy.
And now, the list. The things I’ll most remember 2009 for.
1. Ringing in the new year with some of our dearest family/friends, at a nerd-themed party.
1b. (because I’m not renumbering this list!) Watching Obama being sworn in as president.
2. Eating oysters for the first time in Dallas with the Woolards. And not dying.
3. Spending an entire week with the Koskies in OKC, while dodging Flu Armageddon ‘09
4. Attending my sister’s sonogram to learn she was having a little girl!
5. Buying a Snuggie. And wearing it in public.
6. Attending SXSW in Austin (my first trip) with some of best guys I know. Not to mention eating lobster tacos and sipping mojitos on a roof-top under the sun.
7. Going vegetarian for an entire week. Not one piece of meat. And trying tofu.
8. We moved (and will likely do so again this spring). Sigh.
9. The Brooks wedding.
10. The Morehead/Bauer wedding.
11. Witnessed the founding of Snikl.com.
12. Invited to have dinner with Jillian Michaels. Had to try sushi for the first time. Didn’t die.
13. Start taking birth control pills, officially begin the IVF process.
14. Shelton got a fantastic new job, ending seven months of unemployment!!
15. Spent a weekend in Baltimore and Annapolis visiting Koskies, being woke up each morning by my nephew.
16. Attended my 10 year high school reunion and loved it!
17. Skipped Shelton’s 10 year high school reunion because he said we wouldn’t love it.
18. Welcomed miss Charlie Jane Morehead! My 18th cousin or something.
19. Spent 4th of July in Omaha/Cedar Creek with the Moreheads and made the best of the dreariest July EVER!
20. Shelton’s MESA surgery.
21. Started Lupron and thus began 68 consecutive days of fertility drug shots.
22. Said goodbye to Anna Cesario, who never hesitated to tell cancer where it could go!
23. Welcomed my niece Eleanor “Ellie” Sue Marie Felker!
24. Did our egg retrieval, and got 17 eggs.
25. Waited “patiently” for four days and then transferred are only two viable embryos.
26. Waited “even more patiently” for 11 days and then took a pregnancy test and found out that we were finally, FINALLY pregnant!!!
27. Waited “really super patiently” for two more weeks, then did a sonogram to learn that one little baby was occupying my womb!!!
28. Released from our amazing fertility clinic to join the ranks of normal OB/pregnancy treatment. But, we know we’re not normal!
29. The best camping trip in a very long time! Morning sickness and all. Thank God someone brought BBQ potato chips.
30. Rocked the best Halloween costumes EVER as the Twitter bird and Fail Whale .. with the Moreheads.
31. Felt the baby moved… and she has yet to let up!
32. Took our Babymoon to Boca Raton. Swam in the Atlantic for the first time. Sailed on a catamaran. Spent an entire day on the beach doing nothing.
33. Found out she’s a she baby!
34. Celebrated our little’s 13th birthday with Hibachi!
35. At midnight we’ll celebrate nine years together.
Week 19 will probably go down as the most memorable of this entire pregnancy. For this was the week that we found out our little monster is a she-monster. It’s a girl, and we couldn’t be more thrilled! She was quite cooperative for the sonogram, and by cooperative I mean not very lady like as she showed us all her business, or lack thereof.
It has unexpectedly completely changed my feelings toward this pregnancy in a way that’s really hard to describe. Not that was happy, excited and anxious before, but it’s all been exponentially increased. While I’ve been like, whatever, April will get here. Now I’m like, IS IT APRIL YET?!
I get the dumbest, giddy grin on my face every time I IM or tell Shelton “your daughter…” and it’s usually followed by “won’t stop moving.” This week she became incredibly active. There’s still no real pace or predictability to it, but there’s definitely no doubt that she’s in there now. A couple of days after the sonogram I was able to feel her from the outside for the first time. That took me off guard and was pretty exciting. I immediately placed Shelton’s hand in the spot, but alas, nothing. I’ve been told it could still be a couple more months before either of us really gets to enjoy external movement, so for now, it’s like this fun little secret that’s all mine.
I think I had another growth spurt this week. While changing a few days ago Shelton commented that I definitely looked pregnant now and that my belly had grown larger than my boobs… finally! Those are still a feat to be reckoned with, but at least my belly is taking the lead.
The heartburn that could make a dragon cry continues relentlessly. I had a few nights of leg cramps this week that, much to my doctor’s surprise, are in my upper thigh. He said that’s odd and not common. But these cramps are in the joints of my hips and knees, as well as the calf and thigh muscles. It’s so painful and so annoying. I just keep hydrating and blame it on shifting bones and muscles.
The other issue I’m still facing is my toothbrushing sickness. Putting toothpaste in my mouth makes me so ill I end up dry heaving for five minutes every morning. It’s awful. Most mornings I’m just running a dry toothbrush over my teeth to kick off the funk and then going back w/ paste later in the day when my stomach has had time to equalize. I’ve even switched toothpastes. This is one phase that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
I’m also experiencing A LOT of back pain. By around 9:00 at night, there is not a comfortable position to be found. No chair, floor, pillow or position alleviates the pain. Shelton has been amazing and volunteers a back rub most nights and it helps, for a moment, and I’m so thankful to have those.
Today we kick-off week 20, our half-way point, and I’m almost feeling that same sense of relief we did transitioning from first to second trimester.
Yesterday we started our second trimester, and I cannot even begin to express the sigh of relief that exhaled from my lungs as I woke up. I know we’re not out of the woods completely, but we’re through the thick of it. I won’t consider us out of the woods and 100% until this little monster is at home with us, and I’ve counted all of the appendages ten times.
But, this post is not about the second trimester, it’s about the final week of our first trimester. Week 13.
I spent Sunday-Saturday in NYC. It’s a trip I take three or four times a year for work, and one I always look forward to. I work at home, so my days are spent with me, the dog and my laptop. I work with the best group of guys and I thoroughly enjoy getting a chance to work in the same room with them. And have real conversations.
On any other trip to NYC, I come home completely exhausted. It’s a completely different pace out there and I’m gung-ho and ready to take it on the first half of the week, but by Thursday I’m fading fast and the airplane never delivers me home soon enough. So I had my apprehensions about taking on this trip pregnant. I have more good days than bad days, as far as how well I feel. But good days can turn on a dime and I knew we didn’t have time for me to be laid up in bed. So my first plan of attack was to take my anti-nausea pill each morning with my pre-natal. And I like to think it worked because I didn’t get sick once. (Well, once, but completely unrelated.)
We also do a lot of walking. A lot. And I have days where a lap around the grocery store can send me in to a three-hour nap. Fortunately, I now stay in Brooklyn, rather than Upper East Manhattan, and the pace is slower. It probably also helped that I didn’t drink every night I was there.
I managed to stay well fed. And if you keep up with my pregnancy story at all, you know that that is a must because I eat round the clock. I took a trip to the grocery store and stocked up on healthy snacks. And then made sure to get my breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. The food there is always amazing and so delicious, and I love how each restaurant seems so authentic, handmade and like they really put their hearts into the food.
I did have one lunch that could have gone badly. On the walk to the restaurant I could feel my blood sugar crashing. I was getting the shakes, so I reached in my bag and started munching on some almonds. By the time we arrived at our table, I was sweating and light-headed. I asked the waitress to bring me food, anything, now! She did and I inhaled the chips, salsa, bread and butter that she delivered. Then I plowed through my lunch and felt back to normal. I hate, hate, hate that blood sugar crash feeling. It’s like there’s not enough food, soon enough that can pull you back to safety.
This past week I also discovered the club soda & cranberry juice. When everyone around me had glasses of wine and beer, and I jealousy smelled the aroma in the air, I got to sip on a fun-having drink, too! (I’ve since named this the Mama Cocktail.)
I returned home Saturday evening, in time to see my Sooners beat the Jayhawks!!!, and I collapsed. I rolled up into a corner on the couch and I didn’t move the rest of the night. I’ve also been home for two days now, and knock on wood, I don’t seem to be getting sick. I was concerned with flying in the germ tube that I’d come home with some horrid strain of some disease. I feel like I’m in the clear, and I’d like to thank my incessant handwashing (my hands are so dry they hurt!) for keeping me healthy.
I also brought a little more home with me than I left with. My belly. BIG changes in that this week and Shelton was just awe-struck when I lifted my shirt to show him the expansion project I underwent while in Brooklyn.
Now that I’m home, I’m starting to feel better and things feel like they’re slowing down from the insanity of the first trimester, I’m so anxious to get back on track with my eating. I went WAYYYY off the deep-end and I can’t even tell you how much I’m looking forward to salmon, brown rice and veggies tonight!
I had a sonogram this morning. Unfortunately, the bleeding showed back up. (In my week ten recap, I explain that it went away. It did, for five or six days, and now it’s back.) I immediately called my doctor this morning and asked for a sonogram. They obliged and radiology was able to see me at 11:15.
It should be noted that I woke up SICK today. I really thought I’d managed to get the flu, even though I’ve had my flu shot.
So after heaving my breakfast in the kitchen sink, and having to call my Aunt F for a ride to the doctor, I made it – with a cup of water and crackers in hand. Shelton was able to meet me and we were promptly taken back.
People, it was magnificent. First, after everything we’ve been through, I feel like an honorary sono tech. Without the tech’s say so (which they can’t really say so) I was able to see that there’s not one spec of that blood clot left! No sign that it was even there. (HUGE relief… but why the new bleeding?)
Then, oh my, then the baby. The last time we had a sono was Sept. 17, and for the first time it looked like more than a fuzzy blur. There was shape, and that shape was similar to a gummy bear. Today… there was a baby. A whole, real baby! Shelton and I were both giggling, it was so amazing to see. I saw individual toes and fingers. A head, with a spot for eyes and a nose and a mouth. I saw traces of a spine. Elbows, knees, feet, and a rapidly beating heart (154bpm). Not to mention the acrobatic show it was putting on for us. Arms and legs and body just jutting and wiggling here and there. Then, it did a complete 180 flip. Positively amazing.
The baby has grown to 4.6cm (about 1.5″). Everything is right on track.
You can see for yourself!
