Send positive vibes to San Diego!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Brian is out in San Diego (he left on Friday) to take his Veterinary Surgery boards on Monday and Tuesday.

He's been studying his tail off since the second week in November and finally takes "the test" this week.

Please send him positive thoughts... "pass, pass, pass!"

Checking In

How far along am I? 15 weeks exactly.
Total weight gain: Unofficially up 4 pounds from pre-pregnancy weight. This tends to fluctuate, though.
Maternity clothes? Stopped by Old Navy today, but the Maternity section was so limited.
Sleep: The past two nights have been bad (Brian is out of town and I never sleep well when he's not here).
Best moment this week: Someone actually asked me if I was pregnant! Yay! Guess I don't look "fat" like I thought!
Movement: Nope, nothing yet!
Gender: Won't know until late February/early March.
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly Button in or out? In :)
What I miss: Margaritas on the rocks with salt, red wine, and sangria....Mmmmmm.
What I am looking forward to: Feeling the baby move, finding out the gender.
Weekly Wisdom/Quote: "Does this baby make me look fat?" Saw it on a maternity tee.
Milestones: Baby Trump is the size of a navel orange (about 4" big)---for guys, that's the size of a baseball. :)

Weekly check in...

I'm going to start a weekly "check in," answering some basic questions each week. Let me know if there's anything else that would interest you. Here goes:

How far along am I? 14 weeks, 2 days.
Total weight gain: Unofficially up 4 pounds.
Maternity clothes? I bought a few shirts as I've recently noticed that my tops are starting to get a bit snug around the belly.
Sleep: Pretty good overall. More trips to the bathroom but I fall right back asleep.
Best moment this week: Eating ice cream at 9 pm because "the baby needed it." Ha!
Movement: Nothing yet--- too early.
Gender: Won't know until late February/early March.
Labor Signs: No way, Jose.
Belly Button in or out? In :)
What I miss: Not feeling like I have to pee all the time.
What I am looking forward to: Feeling the baby move, finding out the gender.
Weekly Wisdom/Quote: "Back off man, she's hormonal." (Overheard about a fellow preggo at work.)
Milestones: Officially in second trimester as of 13 weeks, 3 days!

Aches and Pains

Since I was spared morning sickess during the first trimester, I assumed (stupidly) that I'd bypassed the "worst" part of pregnancy thus far. Yeah.... not so much!

For the last 3 weeks or so I've been experiencing round ligament pain (RLP). It feels like I've strained an abdominal muscle-- usually the strained feeling runs from just next to my navel up to approximately the bottom of my rib cage. It comes and goes, but tends to stick around for longer periods of time if I'm especially active (i.e. walking around the mall for 4 hours like I did yesterday). When it's really bad, the strain transfers to the long muscles of my lower/middle back on the same side as the RLP. Fun, fun, fun!

Last night was the worst I've experienced. I went to bed with the heating pad in an attempt to ease the pain and had trouble getting comfortable just lying there. Throughout the night it hurt to turn from side to side (which kept waking me up). Combine the pain with the multiple bathroom trips in the middle of the night, and I'm looking like a hot mess in the morning!

Guess I'll just have to take it a little easier than I have been. Hell, I'll take this over nausea any day!!!

NT screen results

So, the numbers are in and they're wonderful! After combining the measurements from the ultrasound and the results of the bloodwork, our results are "extremely low risk." The nurse from Maternal and Fetal Medicine (who did the workup) called me yesterday to give us the official numbers:

Pre-NT screening:
Risk of Down Syndrome= 1:669 births
Risk of Trisomy 13 and 18= 1:1,229 births

Post-NT screening:
Risk of Down Syndrom= 1:>10,000 births
Risk of Trisomy 13 and 18= 1:>10,000 births

Yay!!!! The RN said my risk level was that "of a 20 year old," which is the lowest possible risk you can be measured at.

Next appointment is the first week of February. Following that, we'll be able to schedule the date for the "big" ultrasound (4 weeks after). We'll keep you posted!

Forgot to tell you...

The heart rate was 161 during the ultrasound yesterday--- tech and M.D. said this is a good strong heart rate. So, for those of you who believe in the old wives tale, this would indicate a girl--- but, seeing how Brian and I are very fact-based, objective people (ha), we're just going to wait for that confirmation at the "big" ultrasound. :)

It's Alive!!!

13 weeks, 1 day-- Grow, baby, grow!

We had the NT screening today-- it's a two part screening (ultrasound and bloodwork) that gives us an idea of the odds that we'll have a child with Down Syndrome or other chromosomal abnormalities. Neither side of our families have a history of chromosomal abnormalities, but Brian and I decided that in the case that our child does have special needs, we want to be as prepared as possible. Plus, the screening allowed us to see the baby on ultrasound again...which we wouldn't be able to do until early March at the "big" ultrasound.

We have the results of the ultrasound portion: a score of 1.5. The fetal medicine physician (Dr. Wells) said that this is an extremely low score (which is a GREAT thing), and that anything above 3.0 is considered abnormal. So, we are definitely in good standing after the ultrasound. We're now just waiting on the bloodwork to come back, which should be in by Friday. Brian and I are feeling pretty good about the baby's health after today's visit.

The ultrasound technician was really nice and pretty funny. The baby wasn't cooperating at first, he/she kept flipping around and over onto his/her side showing us his/her back. The tech needed a few good profile shots in order to measure the thickness of the fluid on the back of the neck (which is where our measurement of 1.5 came from), and he kept having to jab and poke my stomach with the ultrasound wand to get the baby to move in the right positions.

Here's a picture of the baby on his/her head... sorry for the glare...



It was pretty amazing to see the little guy/girl flipping around, kicking his/her legs, waving his/her arm above his/her head... it was very reassuring to me to see the movement because it's too early to feel it yet.

Overall, a great day!

Next visit is in about 2 weeks. Nothing special-- just a check in on symptoms, probably will hear the heartbeat, and send me on my way. The "big" ultrasound (where we find out the sex) won't be until weeks 18-20, so somewhere around March 3rd based on the 4 week appointments that we've scheduled. I'll keep you posted!

Bumpwatch 2010! First pic!

Here's the first pic (that doesn't just show "bloat" vs. an actual bump)--taken at 12 weeks.

So far, so good! Feeling great overall-- a bit tired during the day, but that could be the combo of the pregnancy with the new job.

Brian will be taking pics every 4 weeks starting today, so we should be able to document my expanding waistline pretty well.

Let Bumpwatch 2010 begin!

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

Ah, the most beautiful sound in the world to my ears. "Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...", strong, steady, and sounding healthy.

Brian met me at the OB/GYN's office for a 4:00 pm appointment on Wednesday (1/6/10). He took an hour out of his study time "just in case" we were able to hear the heartbeat today. :) Good move, hubby.

Overall it was a quickie appoinment. We went in, did the usual routine with the "sample" they need, were led to an exam room and waited for Dr. Smith to come in to see us. Dr. Smith came in, asked how I was feeling, etc. I told him that lately I've been very tired and have had a few dizzy spells. He told me this was normal and that likely it was a mix of the pregnancy and starting my new (much more active) job.

I've also been getting a dull, muscle strain type pain on my right side next to my navel. After some research, and talking to some formerly preggo friends, it sounds like it's "round ligament pain." Something that I can look forward to throughout the pregnancy. Apparently it can get pretty intense for some people. For me it's just been uncomfortable, but it seems to go away after resting for a bit.

Anyway, back to the appointment. Dr. Smith whipped out the old doppler and said something to the effect of, "Well, if your baby is at all cooperative, we'll be able to hear his or her heartbeat!" He placed the doppler on my lower abdomen, and after a little bit of searching, we heard the strong and steady heartbeat of our little baby Trumpatori.

I'm not going to lie, I got a bit teary-eyed. I looked over at Brian and it seemed to really affect him, too. It was a wonderful and beautiful moment for both of us. I couldn't stop smiling for a good 5 minutes or so.

We didn't ask about the heart rate-- we've heard some old wives' tales about fetal heartrate relating to gender, but it doesn't seem to hold up and we'd rather wait to get a postive gender prediction a little later on.

The next appointment is the NT screening. It's in a week and a half and will entail some bloodwood and an ultrasound to measure the thickness of the back of the baby's neck. The purpose of this is to give us an idea of the probability of some chromosomal abnormalities. The doctor told us that we're "low risk" and that it's not absolutely necessary, but Brian and I have decided that it's in our (and our child's) best interest to know what we might have to plan for. We'll love our baby regardless-- we just want to be prepared for anything (or, as prepared as we can at this point).

I'll keep you posted!

First Visit 12/8/2009

Let me start by saying that even though the tests (a total of 5, by the way.... did I leave that out in earlier posts....?) told me I was officially pregnant, it's a little hard to wrap your head around the idea that there is a small human being growing inside of you. After walking out of the doctor's office on that mild December morning, it finally became real to Brian and I that this was really happening.

I guess it was a typical first visit. Brian and I first sat down with Martha, one of the nurses who's been doing this baby thing forever (over 20 years she said), for our interview. She asked lots of questions about our health, our family members' health, answered any questions or concerns that we had, and she gave us lots of information on newborn classes (i.e. Daddy Boot Camp, birthing classes, Newborn 101, etc). We'll be signing up for some of those in the future.

Following the visit with Martha, I went to the lab portion of the office to give my "sample" and have 5 (yes, FIVE) vials of blood drawn. This girl doesn't really do well with needles, so I asked the tech to distract me while she did this. The sound of the blood gushing into those vials is enough to make my stomach turn even now, almost 4 weeks later.

Ok, blood drawn, it was now time to go sit down with one of the eight OB's in the practice that I go to. They like to have each patient meet every doctor, so you are at least familiar with the person who will be delivering your baby. We got to meet Dr. Harden this time. He's a wonderfully sweet man who has a semi-dry sense of humor. The first thing he did when he walked into the office was shake Brian's hand and say "Congratulations, man, good work!" Priceless.

After a short talk with Dr. Harden, he took both of us down to one of the ultrasound rooms to have a little peek at the kiddo. We were able to get the first look at our little "gummy bear sized baby" (as Dr. Harden put it). It looked like a little white blob, just the size of a gummy bear. Nothing fancy when you first look at it, but the best part was that when the doctor held the device really still we were able to see the heartbeat! A little gray flutter on the screen was all we needed to slap some giant smiles on our faces. Dr. Harden printed out a few pictures for us-- one is posted at the top of this entry.

Next visit is scheduled for January 6th. I'm pretty sure it'll just be another physical, but I also think we get to hear the heartbeat. Don't think they'll be another ultrasound until we find out the sex later on, but that's ok. I just want to make sure the kiddo is still there and looking healthy so far, and hearing a heartbeat will do that for me.

We'll keep you posted!