Week #12 Update

We had our second prenatal appointment this week and it was seriously AWESOME! Since I'm seeing the Nurse Midwives at IMC I'm supposed to see a different one each time we have an appointment. However, the one we were supposed to see this week was busy doing a procedure and so Melissa, the midwife we saw on our first visit, came in to take care of us. It was cool to see her again because she's really nice and patient!

First off, I've got to  mention that I was extremely happy seeing my blood pressure results - 102/60! That's seriously the lowest I've ever seen it for myself and I'm really hoping it stays low throughout the pregnancy.

Melissa had me get up on the table and she brought out the doppler to try and listen for the heartbeat. It took her a good 5 minutes to fish around looking for it. She told us that she could hear it but Ramin and I both couldn't hear it - all we could hear was my heart beat. I looked at her and asked "You sure you heard it?" and she confirmed she did. I think she could sense my apprehension a bit and so she said that she thought the ultrasound room was free and that we could go do a quick ultrasound even though we really weren't supposed to that visit.

The moment she stuck the little device on me we immediately saw the baby! It was incredible how much larger it looked this time compared to 4 weeks ago. The other thing we noticed immediately was the baby jumping and bouncing around all over the place like a little jumping bean! Melissa even said "No wonder we couldn't hear the heart beat very well, this little baby is moving around all over!" It was the funniest thing to me to see how fast it was moving and just to see how big it was! It made me so happy to see how active our little baby is :)

This week I also started capturing my baby bump progress through pictures. Here's the first picture Ramin took of me:

I'll take a picture like this every 4 weeks - and I have stickers for each of the pictures too :)

How far along: 12 weeks, 6 days

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I was up 3lbs at this appointment as compared to my first appointment

Maternity clothes: Nope, but I am starting to NOT button the top button on my jeans.

Major Symptoms: Yesterday was the worst day I had all week. Ramin and I were able to deduce that the thing that's been causing me tummy pain is flax meal. I've always added it to my protein shakes and to yogurt. The horrible day I had last week was the result of the yogurt mixed with flax meal that I had. And yesterday was much of the same. So I'm hoping now that I know that, I'll start feeling much better!
Stretch marks: Nope
Sleep: I was pretty tired this week. Had a few early nights.
Best moment last week: Seeing our little bouncing baby! I'll never forget how excited I was seeing it move around on the screen!!
Movement: I had some sensations yesterday before I ate my protein shake and got sick. But I'm still not sure if it's the baby moving.
Food cravings/aversions: I had Rumbi twice this week. I really wanted their brown rice bowls! I still want to go back and get a salad from there. I just LOVE their tempura shrimp!

Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet
What I miss: I still don't miss anything. Even on my worst day (which I know isn't as bad as it could be), I'm still so thankful and happy to be pregnant!
What I am looking forward to: Wearing my Halloween baby skeleton shirt to work on Halloween.
Milestones: Passing the FIRST TRIMESTER! Next week I'll write about our official baby announcement on Facebook.

Week #11 Update

Wow, this week started out pretty rough but once I got over it I've realized that a lot of my energy has returned, and that's a good thing!

The fun thing that happened this week was that Jill gave us her crib along with a ton of other cute stuff! I took some pictures of Ramin and Chris unloading the crib from the truck and some other random pictures :) So here they are!

Chris and Ramin unloading the crib. It will stay in the garage until we're ready to move the office downstairs and start decorating the nursery :) Isn't it such a nice crib?!? Attached changing table too!

Jill also gave us this box of baby toys AND monitors she used. I'm so glad we don't have to buy new ones. Just thinking of all the different types and ones to choose from, it causes me anxiety just thinking about it. This way they're already chosen for us and best of all, free!

She also gave us ALL of the bedding that went with the crib (well the bumper, blanket and mobile). As you can see it's a jungle theme. I'm still debating whether I'll want to use it all or not. It's such a super nice set that I'll feel bad NOT using it. So the jury is still out on this one :)

Here are some other random things we've got for the baby so far. When we saw Ramin's parents in Vegas a few weeks ago, they packed a few suitcases worth of stuff for us, including all of these awesome children's book! There's an entire set of National Geographic pop-up books AND a really awesome children's encyclopedia - I can't wait to read all of these books to my little one :)

These are the clothes we've amassed thus far (not much and all gender neutral). I found two onsies on Zulily a few months back that are nursery rhyme-themed, so I had to get them :)

Next week's blog entry will most likely be related to what I've pictured below. Yesterday my mom brought over my baby books along with TONS of pictures to go through. There's a lot of pictures to sort through so I'll try working on that throughout the week, but I've already found a TON of my baby pictures. I want to post some of my mine and Ramin's on here so that we'll know what to expect with our little boy/girl.

One of the REALLY cool things I found in one of my baby books (yes my mom made me two hehe), was a hand written letter from her to me. It's funny because it starts out with "Dear Jennifer Rose or Anthony Joseph" - I never knew what I would have been named if I was boy. Anyway the letter was REALLY cool and I'm so glad my mom did that for me. The purpose of this blog is to capture my thoughts of my baby throughout pregnancy of course and then I hope to print it all out into a keepsake book as well. But, I also really like the idea of a handwritten letter - so I'm going to make sure I do that for each trimester. Since next week I'll be 12 weeks, I better write one for the first trimester!

How far along: 11 weeks, 6 days

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I think I've actually stayed the same since last week.

Maternity clothes: Not yet still.

Major Symptoms: The week started out rough, Tuesday especially. I was BEGGING to throw up that day after lunch. My digestive tract was so bad that day that nothing would move. I had a few throw-up burbs, but that was it. I wanted relief so bad. I'm not sure exactly what the cause of that was but by Wednesday I was completely fine and have continued to be so, hardly feeling sick at all the past few days especially! I've even noticed I have a LOT more energy. I was able to get chores down around the house yesterday that I've been putting off for weeks. And this morning I finally organized my messy craft room :) I also took a good walk yesterday and exercised to my pregnancy DVD this morning. I hope this means that I'm really heading into the second trimester with lots of good energy.
Stretch marks: Nope
Sleep: Sleep is wonderful. But I still get up to pee once a night :)
Best moment last week: Getting the crib! It makes it feel a bit more real. Plus I really love Jill for being so generous to me!
Movement: No flutters this week.
Food cravings/aversions: This week hasn't been too bad.
Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet
What I miss: Since my energy has returned, I don't really miss anything right now at all :) I'm loving being pregnancy and enjoying my time preparing my mind for the baby!
What I am looking forward to: My next appointment is THIS week!
Milestones: First piece of nursery furniture is in the house!

Week #10 Update

It's weird to me to think I'm almost out of the 1st trimester. It's gone so quickly, yet it's also been slow. I still have not yet gotten super sick but I did experience some different symptoms this week that I noted below.

I know I won't completely decorate the nursery until we get much closer, but it hasn't stopped me from thinking of the theme as well as acquiring a few items that go with my theme :) My theme is Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes and I've had a pretty good vision of how I want the nursery to look when it's time.

I pondered over one item for quite a few weeks before I actually purchased it on eBay. It arrived this week and I'm excited because it kind of summarizes the overarching visual aspect that I'm going for :)

Here is the switch plate I bought:

I have a few other decor items from Jim Shore. I need to purchase one or two more before I'm satisfied with the set. Once I'm complete with those I'll post pictures.

How far along: 10 weeks, 6 days

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Up 1 or 2 this week

Maternity clothes: Not really. Tested out my Bella Bands again this week.

Major Symptoms: Had a persistent headache for a few days this week. It was NOT fun. I gave in and actually had some Diet Coke one day while at a training conference and it provided only temporary relief. I definitely felt like I was going through some hormonal changes because the headache was also accopmanied by an acne breakout. I'd also say I'm sicker to my stomach this week but I'm able to relieve it through being gassy hehe. I've also had a few incidents where  some throw up has come up my throat, but it's never been enough to make me actually throw up. I've got some pretty big food aversions but they change every day and pretty much every hour. I find hardly anything appetizing. I also get full extremely fast, which is disappointing.
Stretch marks: Nope
Sleep: Sleeping better this week. Last night I even slept all the way until 6:30am without having to get up to pee! 
Best moment last week: Feeling better after the headache.
Movement: I *thought* I felt a weird flutter this week - and I'm CERTAIN it wasn't gas. I think it's too early to be anything though.
Food cravings/aversions: I finally bought some gummy candies. I NEVER eat that stuff, but I just had to have some.
Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet
What I miss: Having energy to do things around the house that I want. I'm lucky I did the laundry and vacuumed the upstairs today :P Oh, and I went grocery shopping. If it was a normal Sunday I'd also have energy to do some crafting, but most of my day today was spent in front of the TV :P
What I am looking forward to: The next appointment with the midwives on the 23rd!
Milestones: None at this time.

Week #9 Update

This week was pretty dramatic if I have to be honest. Since I failed my 1-hour glucose test last week I knew I had to do the 3-hour test and I wasn't looking forward to it.  But, I went on Friday morning and did it! Here's how it went:

• 9:00am: Got to the hospital and went to the lab. They took me back to the room to draw my fasting glucose before they'd let me take the drink. I hadn't eaten since 8pm the night before so I was confident I'd pass that. However, it took an extremely long time for them to even draw my blood because the first lady couldn't hit the vein in either my elbow or wrist on my left side. The head phlebotomist lady came back and found my small vein in my right elbow - thank goodness!
• 9:35am: Because it took so long to actually take my blood, I didn't actually get to drink the stuff until 9:30am! I knew I'd end up being there until at least 12:30pm at that point. I took a nice picture of my drink, along with the bandage of my left wrist. The glucose drink they give you for the 3-hour test is twice the concentration of the 1-hour test. The 1-hour was 50 and this one was 100 - as you can see from the bottle. I tolerated the 1-hour like it was no big deal. The 3-hour was a little harder to down, especially since I rarely drink anything but water!

• 10:41, 11:41 and 12:41: They drew my blood at the same time each hour after I finished the drink. The main lady took my blood twice and then the original one took it the final time. By then we'd learned the tricks to getting my veins just right.
• 1:00pm: I was feeling good by the time I left the hospital however I knew I had to eat. I'd planned to stop at Harmon's on the way home and then eat lunch at home. I made it through Harmon's just fine, however, the moment I got back in the car to start driving home I knew something was wrong. I started getting extremely shaky and I tried to tell myself to just keep driving cause I was almost home. Thank goodness I had some of my mom's high protein bars in the car so I scarffed down two of them in about 5 minutes with the little water I had left in my bottle. But, I had gotten to about 5400 South in the Kearns area and just knew I had to pull over. I started having vision problems and I just wanted to lie down. I pulled into the parking lot of the Kearns Rec Center and immediately put my seat back to lay down. I knew I was having a hypoglycemic episode, the worst one I'd ever experienced. At Harmon's I'd bought a large pack of Oreos and I opened them and started downing those too because I knew I needed sugar immediately. I laid there for about 20 minutes just waiting to start feeling better. It wasn't happening. So I called my mom, sounding very incoherent, and told her my problem (she knows I experience this a lot). She called Ramin and he drove out to find out. It was about 1:45 by the time he got to me and I was tired and weak. He knew I needed protein and so he went to go get my a chili from Wendy's. By then I'd finally started to feel better, good enough to drive back home even. So I made it home and immediately went to bed. Ramin got home and I downed the chili as fast as I could (which wasn't fast because of my pregnancy tummy). After that I passed out for the next 3 hours. 
• After discussing the incident with Ramin we agreed that the glucose drink was such a shock to my system and because I hadn't had any Metformin to control the release of insulin to counteract the sugar, my body overloaded on the insulin and my blood sugar plummeted extremely quickly. The lesson to myself is that if I need to do another glucose test during this pregnancy I need to make sure and stay at the hospital and eat some good protein before I start driving again. Things could have turned out a lot worse than they did. 
• BUT! There's good news at the end of this story! Here are the results of the 3-hour test. According to the ranges listed here, I am normal!!! I still have to hear back from the midwives on the results, but I'm hopeful.

How far along: 9 weeks, 7 days

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Maintaining

Maternity clothes: Not really

Major Symptoms: Had a nice bloody nose the morning of the glucose test. My tummy has been having some troubles too, fluctuating between constipation and diarrhea - sorry TMI!
Stretch marks: Nope
Sleep: Had a rough week. Each night after I get up to pee (usually 4 or 5 am), I cannot fall back asleep. I think my thoughts of work are getting in the way - so I'm going to try and correct that.
Best moment last week: Passing that darned glucose test!
Movement: Not yet
Food cravings/aversions: Still avoiding bacon. I'm totally LOVING banana creamies - who woulda thought?
Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet
What I miss: Good solid sleep (parents will inevitably tell me I need to get used to it) - this I already know.
What I am looking forward to: The next appointment with the midwives on the 23rd!
Milestones: Passing the 3-hour glucose test!

Week #8 Update

I'm a bit late on doing this update because Ramin and I were in Vegas Thursday - Monday. So this update is about 4 days late, but that's OK. I'll do another update this week for week #9 :)

How far along: 9 weeks, 2 days

Total Weight Gain/Loss: After coming home from Vegas I'm up about a pound but that's because of all the buffets we ate!! The walking did help though!

Maternity clothes: Just ordered some more from Zulily but I don't really need to wear any yet, even my pants. I did buy some Bella Bands though and I think I'll try them out this week and see if they really do hold up my pants without buttoning them.

Major Symptoms: Surprisingly I did really well on the trip. I did get tired at certain points and I did have a few momentary bouts of nausea, but nothing signifcant. I still haven't thrown up at all (THANK GOODNESS!)
Stretch marks: Nope
Sleep: It's been good, especially while on vacation. I got to sleep in most of the time which was really really nice! Now that I'm back home I'm in my routine again and I'm waking up once a night to pee. 
Best moment last week: We went to our first Midwives appointment and it was a good appointment. I didn't learn anything new really, but we did get to do another ultrasound and we could see the heartbeat again! 
Movement: No baby movement...but I do keep having minor tightening/contracting sensations once in a while. I wouldn't call them cramps, but I can definitely feel them.
Food cravings/aversions: Ugh...lots of random things turn me off. And sometimes I'll like something one minute and then hate it the next. This happened A LOT while having the buffets in Vegas. I'd put something on my plate thinking I'd want it and once I got back to the table I didn't want it. Oh well. I'm really noticing that if I'm full at all, I hate the idea of ALL food for a while, until I stop feeling full. I have to watch out not to overstuff myself.
Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet
What I miss: Haven't given up much yet.
What I am looking forward to: Getting over the 3-hour glucose test I have to do on Friday. I failed the 1-hour test during the Midwives appointment last week so now I'm doing the 3-hour test. We're doing my glucose testing early because of my PCOS and use of Metformin. Sooooo I'm hoping things go better the second time around.
Milestones: First official prenatal appointment!