I'm finding that I keep having to re-think my impulse to post things on Facebook because I'm afraid that it's going to give away to everyone that I'm pregnant. Example, I just made myself the BEST popcorn chicken salad I've had in a LONG time - it was all homemade. I wanted to post on Facebook that I satisfied my chicken salad craving, but I worried that the word "craving" would cause some angst. So I decided NOT to post about it.
That's only one example of many I've had over the past few weeks. I've found I'm posting less and less on Facebook because I don't want to give things away. My Mom never had to deal with this :P Heck, no one had to deal with it just 10 years ago. Isn't it funny how current times change the way we think? I think about it in another light, if I didn't have Facebook I wouldn't even consider posting something about wanting a chicken salad anyway - it would just be a non-issue, just like it is now that I've decided not to talk about it at all.
Funny to think about :)
BTW that chicken salad was AWESOME! I needed some good veggies and I had plenty of them in that salad. I also bought myself some good frozen fruit pops and lots of fresh fruit :)
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Week #7 Update
How far along: 7 weeks, 5 days
Maternity clothes: I have bought some! I went to Target last night to check out what they had on clearance. I found 2 dresses and 2 tops and only paid $27 for all of it! They are all maternity friendly too :)
Major Symptoms: This was an extremely rough week at work. I had two 5am days and tons of meetings where I was presenting information. I was essentially exhausted the entire week and I loved sleeping when I could! Over the last few days I've started to notice more random dizziness and some bouts of momentary nausea - it's never to the point where I want to throw up...but it's a few minutes of intense loathing of being around food or standing up, etc.
Stretch marks: No - still using Palmer's
Sleep: One night this week I went to bed at 7:30 pm cause I was so tired! It was great. But, I am waking up once per night on a regular basis now to get up and pee.
Best moment last week: SEEING MY BABY'S HEARTBEAT ON THE MONITOR!!
Movement: No, although I'm starting to feel the entire "sac" or whatever shift each time I roll over in bed. I've been told that it will get harder and harder for me to just effortlessly toss around - I can see why this will be.
Food cravings/aversions: I'm starting to dislike chocolate. WTF?!?! I was given a KitKat at work yesterday - totally didn't want it! I just gave it to someone else. That never happens for me. I'm kind of all about greasy foods right now - SO BAD! I am going to make a strong effort and have more fruits and veggies this next week.
Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet
What I miss: Nothing really. I'm excited about everything that's happening - I like seeing how things change and progress.
What I am looking forward to: First visit with the Midwives this coming Wednesday.
Milestones: First ultrasound is DONE and was a SUCCESS!
Total Weight Gain/Loss: It's up a bit, but I'm convinced it's all in my boobs. My pants are still fitting fine.
Major Symptoms: This was an extremely rough week at work. I had two 5am days and tons of meetings where I was presenting information. I was essentially exhausted the entire week and I loved sleeping when I could! Over the last few days I've started to notice more random dizziness and some bouts of momentary nausea - it's never to the point where I want to throw up...but it's a few minutes of intense loathing of being around food or standing up, etc.
Stretch marks: No - still using Palmer's
Sleep: One night this week I went to bed at 7:30 pm cause I was so tired! It was great. But, I am waking up once per night on a regular basis now to get up and pee.
Best moment last week: SEEING MY BABY'S HEARTBEAT ON THE MONITOR!!
Movement: No, although I'm starting to feel the entire "sac" or whatever shift each time I roll over in bed. I've been told that it will get harder and harder for me to just effortlessly toss around - I can see why this will be.
Food cravings/aversions: I'm starting to dislike chocolate. WTF?!?! I was given a KitKat at work yesterday - totally didn't want it! I just gave it to someone else. That never happens for me. I'm kind of all about greasy foods right now - SO BAD! I am going to make a strong effort and have more fruits and veggies this next week.
Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet
What I miss: Nothing really. I'm excited about everything that's happening - I like seeing how things change and progress.
What I am looking forward to: First visit with the Midwives this coming Wednesday.
Milestones: First ultrasound is DONE and was a SUCCESS!
Monday, September 16, 2013
Baby Gilbert's First Scan
Ramin and I went to our first baby appointment today. It wasn't with the people who are actually going to help us through the whole process, instead, this was with the University of Utah's Healthcare System. They requested we come in for a "viability scan" because I had previously seen Dr. Keye in the same system when we were still trying to conceive. He was our reproductive endocronologist and they like to see you through a few weeks to make sure the pregnancy is viable before they send you on your way.
Our appointment was at 11am and we arrived about 10 minutes early. When they called our name I immediately recognized the nurse, also named Jennifer. She had helped us the last time we were there to see Dr. Keye and I think she remembered me as well (I was wearing the same shirt). She did the usual diagnostic type stuff when you go to any doctor appointment. I found it funny that one of her first questions was "So how did you conceive?" - and I replied "Completely naturally!". I think they're used to having unique circumstances there because when Dr. Moore came in a bit later he asked the same question :)
I had my blood pressure taken and I'm happy to report it's a low 114/76! I think that's the lowest I've ever seen it for myself. It might explain why I've had a few dizzy spells over the last week or two - nothing serious.
Dr. Moore came in (he's the one that does the viability scans) and let us know what he would do. I had an internal scan with one of those probe things. It didn't hurt so don't worry. I don't think anything going up there could even come close to the pain I experienced during my HSG test...this was a piece of cake (hardly felt anything).
And there it was....
Our little tadpole is in there. Imagine a little tadpole curved around with the heart beating in the white center. We actually did see the heart beating really quickly...actually it was more like flickering on the screen. Dr. Moore told me to hold my breath a few times so he could see things better. He also got the probe close enough to turn the sound on. All I heard was static, but Ramin and the Dr. definitely said they heard something (I was too busy concentrating on my breathing :P).
When I sat up after it was done and Dr. Moore said everything looked fine, I started to cry happy tears - for the first time since I found out I was pregnant. Now it's more real to me.
Baby Gilbert is measuring at 6 weeks and 1 day so they moved my due date to May 11th. I'm still sticking with my original May 5th due date because I know I'm 7 weeks (I'm extremely confident in the date I ovulated). Ramin and I also believe that because it took the baby a while to produce a lot of HCG that perhaps it's behind on development. I've read some stories of where this has happened and the baby has caught up farther along in pregnancy. I think that will happen for us.
I cannot stress the amount of relief I have knowing everything is OK thus far. Dr. Moore said that now that viability has been checked, our chance of miscarriage goes down to 10% at this point. Amazing!
I'm just so beyond excited right now! It's hard to concentrate on anything at this point :) I just want to stare at the picture all day long :)
Our appointment was at 11am and we arrived about 10 minutes early. When they called our name I immediately recognized the nurse, also named Jennifer. She had helped us the last time we were there to see Dr. Keye and I think she remembered me as well (I was wearing the same shirt). She did the usual diagnostic type stuff when you go to any doctor appointment. I found it funny that one of her first questions was "So how did you conceive?" - and I replied "Completely naturally!". I think they're used to having unique circumstances there because when Dr. Moore came in a bit later he asked the same question :)
I had my blood pressure taken and I'm happy to report it's a low 114/76! I think that's the lowest I've ever seen it for myself. It might explain why I've had a few dizzy spells over the last week or two - nothing serious.
Dr. Moore came in (he's the one that does the viability scans) and let us know what he would do. I had an internal scan with one of those probe things. It didn't hurt so don't worry. I don't think anything going up there could even come close to the pain I experienced during my HSG test...this was a piece of cake (hardly felt anything).
And there it was....
Our little tadpole is in there. Imagine a little tadpole curved around with the heart beating in the white center. We actually did see the heart beating really quickly...actually it was more like flickering on the screen. Dr. Moore told me to hold my breath a few times so he could see things better. He also got the probe close enough to turn the sound on. All I heard was static, but Ramin and the Dr. definitely said they heard something (I was too busy concentrating on my breathing :P).
When I sat up after it was done and Dr. Moore said everything looked fine, I started to cry happy tears - for the first time since I found out I was pregnant. Now it's more real to me.
Baby Gilbert is measuring at 6 weeks and 1 day so they moved my due date to May 11th. I'm still sticking with my original May 5th due date because I know I'm 7 weeks (I'm extremely confident in the date I ovulated). Ramin and I also believe that because it took the baby a while to produce a lot of HCG that perhaps it's behind on development. I've read some stories of where this has happened and the baby has caught up farther along in pregnancy. I think that will happen for us.
I cannot stress the amount of relief I have knowing everything is OK thus far. Dr. Moore said that now that viability has been checked, our chance of miscarriage goes down to 10% at this point. Amazing!
I'm just so beyond excited right now! It's hard to concentrate on anything at this point :) I just want to stare at the picture all day long :)
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Week #6 Update
I'm going to make my update posts on a weekly basis and I'll try to do them either on Saturday or Sunday so I don't feel rushed or tired.
I've officially entered the "you can get sick at any moment" time frame of pregnancy, so they say at least. Starting from 6 weeks onward, the morning sickness can hit. So here's how I've felt this week.
How far along: 6 weeks, 5 days
Maternity clothes: Nope, still window shopping
Major Symptoms: It's weird because early in the week I actually felt pretty good. I wasn't as tired, my boobs were less sore (relatively speaking) and I just felt like I had a bit more energy. As the week progressed I started to notice things change. By Thursday afternoon I started to feel crappy. I left work a bit early because I did feel kind of sick to my stomach, although I could still eat and didn't throw up - nothing just seemd appealing. I also was EXTREMELY fatigued. I came home and took a 2-hour nap before I went out and had dinner with Jill. That night while sleeping I woke up a few times because I noticed my boobs were insanely sore - they felt like rocks on my chest! Friday was more of the same, especially in the afternoon. I also noticed my face break out Friday as well. It's like I can definitely tell when the hormones surge because I get fatigued first, then the boobs get sore and then I break out. Today, the cramps and aches have started...so I'm sure whatever surge happened was meant to cause some more growing - which is GREAT! Oh yeah, the last symptom is gas (sorry TMI) but it's been pretty bad the past 2 days.
Stretch marks: Nope - I have started Palmer's Cocoa Butter every night all over just for prevention!
Sleep: I loooooove the deep sleep I get when I'm fatigued...it's like the greatest thing in the world to do is lay down and sleep.
Best moment last week: Since the week isn't over I'll say that the best moment will be telling my Dad that we're pregnant tomorrow when he visits.
Movement: Nope, just achey-ness
Food cravings/aversions: Man, it's hard for me to feel like eating anything available to me. Sometimes nothing sounds good and I have to force whatever I can down...thank goodness it hasn't started coming back up yet.
Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet
What I miss: I'm starting to feel like I can't lay on my back when I'm in bed reading a book. I've got to kind of lean to the side to prevent pains. I'm sure it will only get worse as time goes by...I'm not too heartbroken about it though.
What I am looking forward to: First ultrasound this coming Monday!
Milestones: Moved into the "queasy" period - let's hope I'm one of the lucky ones!
I've officially entered the "you can get sick at any moment" time frame of pregnancy, so they say at least. Starting from 6 weeks onward, the morning sickness can hit. So here's how I've felt this week.
How far along: 6 weeks, 5 days
Total Weight Gain/Loss: I've been fluctuating between +2 and -2
Major Symptoms: It's weird because early in the week I actually felt pretty good. I wasn't as tired, my boobs were less sore (relatively speaking) and I just felt like I had a bit more energy. As the week progressed I started to notice things change. By Thursday afternoon I started to feel crappy. I left work a bit early because I did feel kind of sick to my stomach, although I could still eat and didn't throw up - nothing just seemd appealing. I also was EXTREMELY fatigued. I came home and took a 2-hour nap before I went out and had dinner with Jill. That night while sleeping I woke up a few times because I noticed my boobs were insanely sore - they felt like rocks on my chest! Friday was more of the same, especially in the afternoon. I also noticed my face break out Friday as well. It's like I can definitely tell when the hormones surge because I get fatigued first, then the boobs get sore and then I break out. Today, the cramps and aches have started...so I'm sure whatever surge happened was meant to cause some more growing - which is GREAT! Oh yeah, the last symptom is gas (sorry TMI) but it's been pretty bad the past 2 days.
Stretch marks: Nope - I have started Palmer's Cocoa Butter every night all over just for prevention!
Sleep: I loooooove the deep sleep I get when I'm fatigued...it's like the greatest thing in the world to do is lay down and sleep.
Best moment last week: Since the week isn't over I'll say that the best moment will be telling my Dad that we're pregnant tomorrow when he visits.
Movement: Nope, just achey-ness
Food cravings/aversions: Man, it's hard for me to feel like eating anything available to me. Sometimes nothing sounds good and I have to force whatever I can down...thank goodness it hasn't started coming back up yet.
Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet
What I miss: I'm starting to feel like I can't lay on my back when I'm in bed reading a book. I've got to kind of lean to the side to prevent pains. I'm sure it will only get worse as time goes by...I'm not too heartbroken about it though.
What I am looking forward to: First ultrasound this coming Monday!
Milestones: Moved into the "queasy" period - let's hope I'm one of the lucky ones!
Finding Out
The story of how I found out I was pregnant was not all that extraordinary. Because I'd been taking my temperature religiously for a year and a half, I knew the patterns very well.
On a Thursday morning I was 10 days past ovulation (DPO) and my Fertility Friend software indicated to me that my temperature was starting to possibly go triphasic, meaning that it was showing 3 levels of temps. I got a little bit excited and I texted my friend Genevieve the picture below around 9am while I was at work:
You can see that my temp was definitely going up. This wasn't usually the case for me around 10DPO...in fact I was expecting to see it drop slightly. I was starting to get excited at that point.
That evening I had dinner with my friend Marci who just moved back to UT from CA. I had a great time catching up with her and I had the chance to bring her up to speed on our trying to conceive journey. BTW, for documentation-sake, I did blog about most of my journey on a separate blog here: http://thisttclife.blogspot.com/?zx=7a6cc51be95f3ad1
You can read about the rest of my day and how we found out on the last post of that blog :)
On a Thursday morning I was 10 days past ovulation (DPO) and my Fertility Friend software indicated to me that my temperature was starting to possibly go triphasic, meaning that it was showing 3 levels of temps. I got a little bit excited and I texted my friend Genevieve the picture below around 9am while I was at work:
You can see that my temp was definitely going up. This wasn't usually the case for me around 10DPO...in fact I was expecting to see it drop slightly. I was starting to get excited at that point.
That evening I had dinner with my friend Marci who just moved back to UT from CA. I had a great time catching up with her and I had the chance to bring her up to speed on our trying to conceive journey. BTW, for documentation-sake, I did blog about most of my journey on a separate blog here: http://thisttclife.blogspot.com/?zx=7a6cc51be95f3ad1
You can read about the rest of my day and how we found out on the last post of that blog :)
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Week #5 Update
Time seems to be dragging along. I've been very exhausted the past week, especially at work. I just don't have the motivation to want to do anything, even if it only involves reading my email. I'm hoping that once the month of September passes I'll feel much better.
How far along: 5 weeks, 3 days
Total Weight Gain/Loss: None yet
Major Symptoms: Oh man do I have to pee A LOT! Sometimes it interrupts my sleep because I've got to wake up and go! My boobs are still extremely sore and growing bigger. My throat also tenses up sometimes as though I have a sore throat - but it's not sore.
Stretch marks: Nope
Sleep: It's been very good lately, probably too good. I've been having some very vivid dreams and sometimes it's hard for me to wake up. I'm also fond of taking midday naps, even at work.
Best moment last week: Seeing the results of my final HCG test. Phew!
Movement: None, just uterus stretching.
Food cravings: None yet. I have experienced a few instances where I'm hungry but don't feel like eating anything that is available.
Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet
What I miss: I kind of miss the fact that I used to have more energy during the work day which helped with my motivation to actually do work....but my mindset is shifting a bit now. Right now my health and growing baby is the most important thing.
What I am looking forward to: First ultrasound on September 16th!
Milestones: Passed the HCG test, next we need to see the heartbeat!
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Why Did I Never Think Of It This Way?
I'll always have compassion for those struggling to conceive. There's no way I could forget those months and months of emotions and feelings I experienced throughout our journey. I remember posting on my other blog about how it just made me so mad sometimes that teenagers or others I deemed as "non-deserving" could get pregnant so easily when I was so ready and willing. Over the course of my journey I learned to stop thinking that way and stop comparing my situation to others. I tried not to judge others or their abilities and this helped to ease my mind quite a bit.
But I don't think I ever really got "it". Not until today at least.
I came across this article via one of the Facebook pages I follow:
http://heidibrockmyre.com/blog/2013/8/24/is-your-baby-ready-to-come-to-you#
The kicker in this blog post is this:
But what may be even more important than your preparation is that of your baby’s preparation. Is your baby ready to come?
I so wholeheartedly agree with this and in my mind it makes complete sense! Everyone who knows me knows that I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason. And in order to truly believe this I have to believe in the possibility that my baby just was not ready to come to Earth all of the time before...and I'm so happy they waited. Because now I get to experience pregnancy during a great time of the year and I get to look forward to May, even more so than I already do each year.
Anyway, to me this was very profound and I wish I'd had this mindset months and months ago...but I'm also glad I went through the emotional struggles I did because it has only made me stronger.
But I don't think I ever really got "it". Not until today at least.
I came across this article via one of the Facebook pages I follow:
http://heidibrockmyre.com/blog/2013/8/24/is-your-baby-ready-to-come-to-you#
The kicker in this blog post is this:
But what may be even more important than your preparation is that of your baby’s preparation. Is your baby ready to come?
I so wholeheartedly agree with this and in my mind it makes complete sense! Everyone who knows me knows that I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason. And in order to truly believe this I have to believe in the possibility that my baby just was not ready to come to Earth all of the time before...and I'm so happy they waited. Because now I get to experience pregnancy during a great time of the year and I get to look forward to May, even more so than I already do each year.
Anyway, to me this was very profound and I wish I'd had this mindset months and months ago...but I'm also glad I went through the emotional struggles I did because it has only made me stronger.
Telling Loved Ones
There were a few people on my immediate list that I knew I HAD to tell right away after we found out we were pregnant. I still have not yet told all of my family and definitely not the majority of people. However, there are two main stories I'd like to write out so that the memories remain alive. For some of my close friends, I merely texted them my excitement, and for them, that was enough. For others who we knew we'd be seeing the two days after we found out, we had some surprises up our sleeves!
I'll write the story of how we actually found out during a later post, what I will say is that we found out on a Thursday night. The stories I'm going to write about now took place on the Saturday and Sunday following Thursday.
Saturday at The Baugh's
We play games every week with our good friends, Jenn and Matt. I knew I wanted to surprise them somehow with the news that weekend but I wasn't sure how. I asked Ramin to think about it on Friday night and he came up with the PERFECT plan!
All of us have a favorite game called Agricola. We've played TONS of games and we always love when we can go back and play Agricola every few weeks. We were due for a round of it and so Ramin had the awesome idea to change one of the standard cards of play.
Behold the picture below. The left side represents what the card actually looks like, and the right side is how I modified it with our news!
The plan was to pull up this "app" on my phone and show my Mom and Chris that I could translate the barks of my dog Belle - who can basically bark on command.
This app really isn't an app at all, although on the phone it looks like one. I actually have my browser pulled up and Ramin hosted a dummy website that he could control. When you press on the screen you'll see a running dog animation and then when we stop recording the barking dog, you'll see a translating page. Keep in mind that all of this is fake of course. But, to make it look real, Ramin can manipulate the site to make the translation say whatever he wants!
So both my Mom and Chris arrive at my house, my Mom was there before Chris so we had to wait for him to get there. The minute he got there I stood up and said "Hey, I have this new app I have to show you guys!" I ran into the office and whispered to Ramin to get ready ;)
I come back into the living room and show them the homescreen so they'd buy in to my "app". I then start recording and ask Belle "What's your name?" Ramin types in "My name is Belle" and it magically appears on my screen! Both my Mom and Chris were blown away - my Mom more so than Chris.
Next I could see that Belle really wanted her toy so I asked her, "What's this red thing in my hand that you want?". She didn't quite get a good bark, so I asked her again. This time the translation came back as "That's my toy!" and I showed it written on my screen to my Mom and Chris. Again, my Mom was in total shock and laughed with surprise. Chris was more skeptical and more quiet - I'm sure he kept thinking "How does this crap work?!"
Finally I told my Mom to make it work. I told her to ask Belle what the news of the week was. She had no hesitation about the question and proceeded to try it. However, the way she asked the question wasn't very loud and she looked directly at the phone instead of Belle, so Belle didn't bark. We had to try it again.
When I helped her out I pushed the translate button and a few seconds later the message of "Jenn's Pregnant!" popped on to the screen. My mom was holding the phone and looked at the message for a few seconds before reacting! She just got this huge grin on her face and started laughing and smiling. I bent down to hug her on the couch as I showed the phone to Chris. He was super happy and still wondered how the heck this "app" worked.
Ramin came out of the office now that our ploy had worked and gave everyone a hug. It was a great feeling surprising them with the news :) I then gave them each the onesie's I bought...and I'm sure eventually we'll get to use them.
All in all we had some good surprises. I think we've let everyone know the news in the best way we could tell them. There's still a few more to go, but I'm already excited thinking about the way we'll announce the pregnancy officially on Facebook - which will be near Halloween - that's for an upcoming post!
I'll write the story of how we actually found out during a later post, what I will say is that we found out on a Thursday night. The stories I'm going to write about now took place on the Saturday and Sunday following Thursday.
Saturday at The Baugh's
We play games every week with our good friends, Jenn and Matt. I knew I wanted to surprise them somehow with the news that weekend but I wasn't sure how. I asked Ramin to think about it on Friday night and he came up with the PERFECT plan!
All of us have a favorite game called Agricola. We've played TONS of games and we always love when we can go back and play Agricola every few weeks. We were due for a round of it and so Ramin had the awesome idea to change one of the standard cards of play.
Behold the picture below. The left side represents what the card actually looks like, and the right side is how I modified it with our news!
The thing about this card is that it's a standard card that we all know VERY well. Ramin and I guessed that it would take Jenn and Matt a while to even notice something was different about it - at least that's what we were hoping :)
So that night we headed over and we told them we brought Agricola because Ramin didn't feel like learning a new game. We didn't get much questioning about it because we all love it anyway. We played the first few rounds as normal (it takes a good couple rounds before this card actually comes on to the board). When I saw Ramin turn the card over and lay it on the board my heart started to pound...I wondered if they'd notice right away.
They didn't.
We played a full round before I started sweating bullets. I casually took a glance at Ramin who was sitting to my left and I saw that he had covered his mouth with his hand...trying to hold in his laughter. He saw me glance over at him and then we both just started busting out laughing - we couldn't contain ourselves. Poor Jenn and Matt wondered what the heck we were laughing at. It was obvious they were completely bewildered.
Ramin and I tried to cool ourselves down but we just couldn't contain it. Ramin could see the confusion in their faces and said something like "It's an inside joke". It seemed to me that his comment didn't appease them. So I said "We'll tell you after the game".
We finally calmed ourselves down long enough to continue play as usual. We started getting ready for the next round and started laying out new cards and pieces. Just as Ramin moved his hand over the card, it drew Jenn's attention to that area. I intently watched her eyes as she took a second look at the card and then jumped up crying and screaming about how happy she was! She jumped out of her seat and came over to me and started hugging me!
I was so happy she figured it out but I could see across the table that Matt was completely mystified as to what was happening. I asked him if he knew what was up yet and he said that he figured I was pregnant because that's the only reason why Jenn would be crying and hugging me like that, but he had clue how Jenn found out.
We showed Matt the card and then all was revealed. I think we really got them good and I think they really loved the surprise :) I love surprising people and seeing their reactions. We all agreed to leave the card the way it is for the rest of the time we play. It's a good reminder of our fun announcement story :)
Sunday - Mom and Chris
For my Mom and Chris I knew I wanted to surprise them as well. I decided to get them each a neutral color onesie with a little phrase on it indicating something special for them. For my Mom I got a "Grandma's Little Peanut" onesie and for Chris I got a "My Uncle is the Best!" onesie. I knew they were both supposed to come over on Sunday around the same time and I was planning to give them the onesies in little gift bags and tell them it was a leftover gift from our Vancouver trip that I forgot to give them.
But Ramin had a better idea.
Saturday night he stayed up making a special "app" - see below:
This app really isn't an app at all, although on the phone it looks like one. I actually have my browser pulled up and Ramin hosted a dummy website that he could control. When you press on the screen you'll see a running dog animation and then when we stop recording the barking dog, you'll see a translating page. Keep in mind that all of this is fake of course. But, to make it look real, Ramin can manipulate the site to make the translation say whatever he wants!
So both my Mom and Chris arrive at my house, my Mom was there before Chris so we had to wait for him to get there. The minute he got there I stood up and said "Hey, I have this new app I have to show you guys!" I ran into the office and whispered to Ramin to get ready ;)
I come back into the living room and show them the homescreen so they'd buy in to my "app". I then start recording and ask Belle "What's your name?" Ramin types in "My name is Belle" and it magically appears on my screen! Both my Mom and Chris were blown away - my Mom more so than Chris.
Next I could see that Belle really wanted her toy so I asked her, "What's this red thing in my hand that you want?". She didn't quite get a good bark, so I asked her again. This time the translation came back as "That's my toy!" and I showed it written on my screen to my Mom and Chris. Again, my Mom was in total shock and laughed with surprise. Chris was more skeptical and more quiet - I'm sure he kept thinking "How does this crap work?!"
Finally I told my Mom to make it work. I told her to ask Belle what the news of the week was. She had no hesitation about the question and proceeded to try it. However, the way she asked the question wasn't very loud and she looked directly at the phone instead of Belle, so Belle didn't bark. We had to try it again.
When I helped her out I pushed the translate button and a few seconds later the message of "Jenn's Pregnant!" popped on to the screen. My mom was holding the phone and looked at the message for a few seconds before reacting! She just got this huge grin on her face and started laughing and smiling. I bent down to hug her on the couch as I showed the phone to Chris. He was super happy and still wondered how the heck this "app" worked.
Ramin came out of the office now that our ploy had worked and gave everyone a hug. It was a great feeling surprising them with the news :) I then gave them each the onesie's I bought...and I'm sure eventually we'll get to use them.
All in all we had some good surprises. I think we've let everyone know the news in the best way we could tell them. There's still a few more to go, but I'm already excited thinking about the way we'll announce the pregnancy officially on Facebook - which will be near Halloween - that's for an upcoming post!
Monday, September 2, 2013
5 Weeks
Today is the start of my 5th week being pregnant (technically I'm only 3 weeks pregnant gestational-wise). Ramin and I were apprehensive most of last week because of all the drama surrounding the beta-HCG blood results. I was definitely more optimistic than he was, but I guess that's just my nature to be so.
My full results went like this:
Friday, 8/23, 11DPO = 27
Sunday, 8/25, 13DPO = 39
Tuesday, 8/27, 15 DPO = 51
Friday, 8/30, 18DPO = 147
Sunday, 9/1, 20DPO = 403
You can definitely see that the first 3 tests did confirm I am pregnant, but my HCG wasn't doubling as it's "supposed" to. I read a lot last week about the varying ways women react to pregnancy and how we create HCG. I seemed to read mostly positive stories and ones were women said they started out slow but then picked up quickly. Ramin seemed to read only the negative stories and this caused him to be extremely cautious. This is one of the reasons I love Ramin, he helps balance me out and think realistically. However, when it comes to baby stuff such as this, I think having a positive attitude while also understanding the risks is the right way to think.
I remember at one point at the end of last week where I sort of gave in to Ramin's way of thinking and said during out conversation that we should "hope for the best but expect the worst". I kind of regret thinking that way now. Instead, I'd like to think of it more in terms of "hoping for the best and preparing for the worst" - I don't think it's right to EXPECT the worst, but I do think it's wise to prepare for it and be emotionally ready for it.
At any rate, Ramin found a cool graphing tool during this week that we've been using to help track our HCG progress. It's only limitation is that you can only input 2 test results. So....with the data of the last two tests, this is what our graph looks like now:
The visual graph I think helps to put Ramin's mind at ease that things are progressing normally. But, as he reminds me, our next milestone is getting to 12 weeks and out of the first trimester.
I do have tons of things I can't wait to document on this blog, one of them being my "birth plan". I think the number one piece of advice everyone keeps giving me is to just "be open to all possibilities". And I definitely plan to be, however, in my personal opinion I feel like our society has driven this fear of childbirth in our minds since the time of our own birth. The human body is capable of so many things, giving birth being one of it's greatest accomplishments.
Sometimes I wonder if we put limitations on ourselves through our own thinking. I definitely believe in the mind/body connection and that whatever you think does have an impact on your physiology. I heard many times during our trying-to-conceive journey to "just relax" and to "stop thinking about it" - don't those people realize that when they say these things that they're touting the mind/body connection? They clearly thought that my "stressing" over the situation was having an impact on my ability to get pregnant, Ramin included. So, the same logic must apply to giving birth. The more I fear and stress over it, the harder it surely will be. But the more I think of it in terms of a natural human ability and something to look forward to, the easier it will be for me to cope with the pain.
I've been reading this book:
My full results went like this:
Friday, 8/23, 11DPO = 27
Sunday, 8/25, 13DPO = 39
Tuesday, 8/27, 15 DPO = 51
Friday, 8/30, 18DPO = 147
Sunday, 9/1, 20DPO = 403
You can definitely see that the first 3 tests did confirm I am pregnant, but my HCG wasn't doubling as it's "supposed" to. I read a lot last week about the varying ways women react to pregnancy and how we create HCG. I seemed to read mostly positive stories and ones were women said they started out slow but then picked up quickly. Ramin seemed to read only the negative stories and this caused him to be extremely cautious. This is one of the reasons I love Ramin, he helps balance me out and think realistically. However, when it comes to baby stuff such as this, I think having a positive attitude while also understanding the risks is the right way to think.
I remember at one point at the end of last week where I sort of gave in to Ramin's way of thinking and said during out conversation that we should "hope for the best but expect the worst". I kind of regret thinking that way now. Instead, I'd like to think of it more in terms of "hoping for the best and preparing for the worst" - I don't think it's right to EXPECT the worst, but I do think it's wise to prepare for it and be emotionally ready for it.
At any rate, Ramin found a cool graphing tool during this week that we've been using to help track our HCG progress. It's only limitation is that you can only input 2 test results. So....with the data of the last two tests, this is what our graph looks like now:
The visual graph I think helps to put Ramin's mind at ease that things are progressing normally. But, as he reminds me, our next milestone is getting to 12 weeks and out of the first trimester.
I do have tons of things I can't wait to document on this blog, one of them being my "birth plan". I think the number one piece of advice everyone keeps giving me is to just "be open to all possibilities". And I definitely plan to be, however, in my personal opinion I feel like our society has driven this fear of childbirth in our minds since the time of our own birth. The human body is capable of so many things, giving birth being one of it's greatest accomplishments.
Sometimes I wonder if we put limitations on ourselves through our own thinking. I definitely believe in the mind/body connection and that whatever you think does have an impact on your physiology. I heard many times during our trying-to-conceive journey to "just relax" and to "stop thinking about it" - don't those people realize that when they say these things that they're touting the mind/body connection? They clearly thought that my "stressing" over the situation was having an impact on my ability to get pregnant, Ramin included. So, the same logic must apply to giving birth. The more I fear and stress over it, the harder it surely will be. But the more I think of it in terms of a natural human ability and something to look forward to, the easier it will be for me to cope with the pain.
I've been reading this book:
It talks a lot about the mind/body connection and the entire first half of it is dedicated to many positive birth stories on The Farm in Tennessee. My friend Genevieve and I went to a special screening of a documentary that came out last year all about The Farm (see trailer below - watch out, there's birth nudity!). People may look at it and think "oh that's just hippy stuff"...well, I really believe in the wisdom of tribal knowledge. To me, birth is one of those things that is as natural as breathing....every mammal gives birth. Sure, there can arise complications and with wisdom you learn to identify those risks and mitigate them when necessary.
Anyway, I could go on and on about this now but I won't. I'll save it for later. I just ask for all of those telling me to "be open to possibilities", that you also be open to my choice to want to have a natural birth and try it the way that we were designed to do it, naturally (if I'm lucky enough to get dealt that hand).
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