12 weeks, 4 days - Belly pic!

Again, as previously reported, no change, but I thought I'd post the proof. I'm feeling pretty great these days, still awfully tired, but I suspect that has more to do with the emotional stress of losing my dad than it does with the not-so-blob.

12 weeks, 1 day - Ga-gung ga-gung ga-gung ga-gung

That post title is what little baby blob's heart sounds like. That's right, I heard a heartbeat yesterday. It was a bit anti-climatic, to be honest. The whole "first prenatal exam being the longest and most invasive" was a bit of a red herring. Yes, I got a pelvic exam and some swabs were taken, but all in all, I don't think the doctor was in there with me for more than 5-10 minutes. Start to finish. She's delightful and answered all of my questions, but she did that while doing the exams and then, while we were talking, she squirted some stuff on my belly and plopped this thing on it and all of a sudden, it sounded like Brooklyn's Cookie Monster stethoscope. In fact, at first, I did kind of hear his voice doing the "gung gung-ga-gung gung-ga-gung gung-ga-gung" sound. I just looked at the doctor and she smiled at me and said, "that's your baby's heartbeat." By the time that sunk in, she had the instrument wrapped back up and was asking if I had any questions. Whirlwind. I didn't feel rushed or anything, I just was surprised by how fast everything went. I did feel terrible, though, because everything happened so fast and I didn't know what was happening until after it was over that... I forgot to have them go get Matt. :( He was so sad. Understandably so. It just all happened so fast that I didn't think of it. And of course I didn't want him in the room for the pelvic exam but I just... ... I'm just a jerk. No excuses. Poor guy.

The good news is that the heart rate is still good and high at 163. Doctor told me to gain between 25 and 35 lbs between the second and third trimesters, which is just what all the books said, but not what the stupid people in the blogs say. I should know better than to pay attention to them by now. But yeah, all seems fine.

Oh! And she asked how I was feeling. When I told her that I've had really very little morning sickness she smirked and said, "maybe it's a boy." I guess she's heard that tale, too. We'll just have to wait and see.

I go back again in 4 weeks and I won't have another sonogram until 20 weeks, so I guess you'll all have to suffer through belly pics until then. Which, I promise, I really will start taking again at some point. It just seems pointless because there hasn't been a change yet. I was starting to think that maybe my waist was thickening this past week while at my parents house, but now I think it was just from eating so much salt (I survived mainly on cold cuts and potato chips while home).

I weighed in at the doctor 3 lbs lighter than I did last time I was there, which was a surprise because I weighed myself yesterday morning and was back up to my normal weight. I guess I must have drank enough water to get rid of that salt. Who knows? Anyway, if we're to believe the doctor's scale, I'm down 5 lbs from where I was pre-pregnancy. Also, my blood pressure was surprisingly low considering the fact that I don't exercise and I ate spoonfuls of salt while at home. Aren't our bodies amazing things?

10 weeks, 3 days - Boy or Girl?

So... I promised that belly pic, but never delivered. Sorry. Matt came up this weekend for a surprise visit and brought his mom's old camera with him, so maybe I'll start being better about taking them. But I don't have any sort of bump yet, so I don't feel like it's that important.

What I have been feeling is important, though, is researching old wives tales. Why? I don't know. But I'm suddenly obsessed with it. So I spent a long effing time today trying to decide if our dear little blob is a girl or a boy. I have come up with nothing. As I mentioned before, the heart rate says girl, but morning sickness says boy. Sweet cravings mean girl, salty mean boy. Today, I ate a big bowl of ice cream and a bag of Funyuns. So... yeah. There's one that says to take the age you were when you conceived and add it to the month you conceived and if it's odd, it's a boy, even is a girl. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell if I was 32 or 33 when we conceived. Carrying high or low and where you're putting on weight are other indicators, but of course, since I don't have a belly and haven't been putting on weight, I can't use that either.

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with this. We're not even planning to find out the gender, so one would think that I'd be happy with not knowing. But I think the fact that I'm not going to know makes me want to know even worse. Oh, Amanda; will you ever win? Since the old wives tales have failed me today, I've been trying really hard to focus and see if I get a feeling. I don't. Amy? Sue? Mom? Did any of you get a "feeling" with any of your babies?

10 weeks, 0 Days - Kumquat

Maybe I'm not giving you all enough credit, but I thought you may not know what a kumquat looked like, so I thought I'd provide a graphical depiction of how big Baby Blob is this week. It's not bigger than a breadbox, but it's a heck of a lot bigger than that puny quarter! Also, exciting news is that we officially have a fetus! Prior to today, Baby Blob was still considered an embryo. Today, we've got a fetus in the house. Hooray!

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good. I have waves of nausea from time to time, but it's nothing to complain about and really feels a lot like regular Celiac's. And I'm pretty much a pro at that. :) Aside from that, I'm tired and moody but otherwise pretty good. I've lost about 4 lbs, which I was pretty surprised about at first because I haven't been throwing up or feeling particularly sick. I can't eat as much at one sitting, though, so I'm sure that's why. And I stay full a lot longer. I'll take a tummy pic tonight and post it tomorrow, but there's no change that I can tell yet. It's still early as far as I'm concerned, but the websites and books say that my clothes are probably feeling tight by now. They're not. Aside from the fact that I'm not bloated or anything, I have a long torso and relatively strong abs, so I guess I might not start to pooch for a while yet. We'll see; it's still awfully early.

9 weeks, 3 days - Moms know everything...?

I think it's pretty widely known and accepted that moms know everything. I've always assumed it was because when you're super tiny, you don't need to know very much and when you get older and your questions get harder, your mom just keeps up with the types of questions you'd ask. But I'm not so sure anymore. I have now taken apart and fixed our washing machine twice. Would I have done that last year? I just don't know.

So, our washing machine has been acting up for several months now. Last month, it kicked it for what we thought was for good. A washer is not in our lease, so our landlord would not cover it and instead, we'd either have to get a new one or start using the stupid laundromat. Gross. So one day last month, in a fit of handiness (and lack of clean underwear), I decided to fix it. It was pretty easy. I just looked at what we were doing before to make it work and using my powers of deduction, determined that a piece had come loose and no longer registered that the lid was closed. No problem. I just pulled off the lever and taped it down so it thought the lid was always closed. Ta-dah! Jeremy was ever so impressed with my mechanical skills.

I came home from the holiday vacation to find it broken again. Jeremy keeps saying that I broke it, but the thing is, there were about 15 other things broken in the house when I came home and it wasn't working when I first tried it so, really, who broke it? Regardless, it's been sitting there full of water since last Monday and just this morning, I decided that I could fix it. Because I watched an episode of Breaking Bad last night. If you're unfamiliar with the show, it's about a high school chemistry teacher who is dying of lung cancer, so he decides to "break bad" and start cooking and selling Crystal Methamphetamine in order to pay for his treatments and leave money for his family. Anyway, in the episode last night, he was making batteries and it somehow dawned on me this morning that the problem with the washer must be that the circuit won't close. Duh. So, I pulled it apart this morning and sure enough, the piece that was closing the circuit when the lid was closed was broken. So, I pulled off the wires, connected them together and ta-dah! The washer works again. I feel like I just created fire. Such a simple concept, but I'm so proud of myself. :)

And I blame it on being a mom. I truly believe that 9 short weeks ago, I would have just said, "eff it" and bought a new on one craig's list. But apparently, the mom genes kick in early.

9 weeks, 2 days - Sonogram Pic!

So, it really looks like a blob, but that blob shows that there's a baby in there. Hooray! I tried to circle the things that the tech showed me, but I'm not 100% positive I got everything right. Just mostly looks like a blob to me.

So, there's an old wives' tale that if you have bad morning sickness, you're more likely to be having a girl. Since mine hasn't been bad at all, I'd decided we must be having a boy. But I was reading my What to Expect When You're Expecting book this morning and found another wives' tale that said if the heart rate is under 140 it's a boy, over it's a girl. Well, as our nugget's hr is at 170, it must be a girl. So who am I to believe? Jeez. Those old wives. Holly assures me there is no medical reason to believe any old wives tales, but whatever. They're fun. So I'm back to who knows. My book also said that normal early fetal heart rates are between 100 and 160. Again, ours was at 170. So already, our baby has high blood pressure. Not really. The doctor and sonogram tech both said it was great, so maybe it means it's an over achiever. I don't know. But hooray!

It still doesn't feel real, but it's a huge relief to know that there's really a baby in there this time.

9 weeks, 0 days - First Sonogram

Well, today turned out to be an emotional rollercoaster. I called the doctor's office this morning after 9, as they directed yesterday, to find out the results of my blood test. The receptionist took my name and told me that a doctor would be calling me back to discuss my results. So, naturally, I freaked out. Last time, the receptionist just told me straight away and scheduled me for a sonogram right then and there. Someone -- not the doctor -- called me back shortly, told me my levels were "nice and high" and told me that the doctor wanted me to come in today or tomorrow. Today or tomorrow?! Egads. I freaked out again. When they want to see you immediately, it's never a good sign, right? Well, turns out they were just being extra cautious because of last time. All was fine. I messed up the date of my last period when I talked to them, though, and told them it was 11/3 instead of 11/6. But I guess it doesn't matter. The sonogram tech told me that my due date will be 8/9 based on the size of the baby, not the date of my period so it didn't really mess anything up. That's why you'll notice that we skipped ahead a few days overnight.

Anyway, the baby looks like a blob. She pointed out arm and leg buds to me but they didn't look like anything. The heartbeat looked like a moth fluttering against a lightbulb. Just fluttering super fast. 170 beats per minute. I guess that's very good. Both the doctor and the sonogram tech said so. Dr. Elliot came in afterward to shake my hand and see if I had any questions. He is just so lovely. He said congratulations and that he's so happy for me and was just so so so warm and nice. He said that he wanted me to come back in 2 weeks, but when I went to schedule with the receptionist, she got all flustered because it was too early for my NT test. She wanted to schedule me for 3 weeks and I told her that was fine with me, but she ended up scheduling me for 2 weeks and then said I'd have to come back for the NT. Then, on the way back to work, Dr. Lashgari called to ask if I wanted to reschedule so I could do the NT at the same time. She only left a voicemail, so I didn't get a chance to talk to her or, you know, find out what an NT is. So, I called when I got back here and rescheduled my appointment, then found out that the NT is the down syndrome test which I promptly opted out of. I can't think of any good reason to do it and I feel like I've had enough to worry about already. If the baby has down syndrome, then we'll find out the day it's born and I don't think we'll be any worse off because of it. I can't think of anything different it will need in those first few weeks, so why spend the next 7 months worrying?

Today was a rough day.

8 weeks, 4 days - First Dr. Appt down, about a million to go

So, I had my first dr. appointment this morning. I say that very loosely, though. By dr. appointment, I mean that I went into the dr.'s office. I did not, however, see a doctor. I got there at about 8 am, updated my insurance and waited. After about 15 minutes, the waiting room filled up with other girls. Then a nurse came out and called, "Amanda?" A girl across from me popped up and went back. Since I was the first person there, I wondered a bit if there was maybe some confusion. So I asked at the desk, just to be sure they didn't accidentally get the wrong Amanda. They had. But, since she was there for the same thing I was, they had already drawn her blood. Which means that they never confirmed who she was. Which means that, if I hadn't said anything, our blood samples would have been mixed up. How scary is that?

Anyway, all they did was draw my blood, give me a bag of vitamin samples, and send me on my merry way. They didn't weigh me. Didn't take my blood pressure. I didn't speak with a doctor. I'm supposed to call back after 9:00 am tomorrow morning to see how to move forward. So, I guess if they confirm the pregnancy, I'll schedule a sonogram at that time. Since I haven't been feeling particularly sick lately, I'm a little concerned that my HCG levels have dropped or something because the baby is dead. Or something like that. I just have to keep reminding myself that I had high HCG levels last time and there wasn't even a baby in there. The whole thing is just so weird. I'm just going to be glad to have the first sonogram over with, whatever comes of it.

8 weeks, 3 days - Post New Year's Let Down

I spent the New Year in my traditional style, partying it up with Dr. Holly Milne. This year, I served as DD, but the partying itself was no less intense. And for some reason, I was neither overly tired nor nauseous at all for the whole trip. I'm not sure what happened. We regularly were up until the wee hours of the morning, but I was still able to do it without any extra effort the next day. Really incredible. Maybe my body knew how much I wanted to have that fun time, so it stifled all symptoms until now. Because, now that I'm back at work, of course, I'm nauseous again. So weird. We took a long walk through Schenley Park and that about did me in, but aside from that, I was able to hang (and dance) like a champion the entire weekend. And, of course, that makes me super nervous. I've pretty much convinced myself that it means that there's no baby or that it's dead. I keep trying to remind myself that I haven't been bleeding and that my body would have no way of knowing that anything was wrong with the baby, so the baby's health shouldn't have anything to do with whether or not I'm having symptoms. But I have a hard time listening to myself.

Also, apparently you're allowed to smoke in bars in PA. That was weird for me. I haven't been in a bar that allows you to smoke for years. Aside from the gross smell it left in my hair and on my clothes, I was, of course, nervous about the health of my unborn child. My throat is still raspy and feeling damaged from the second hand smoke I inhaled. I can't imagine that was good for little baby PR. Oh well. In the old days, they told you to try to keep yourself to 2 drinks and 10 cigarettes a day when you were pregnant. I have to think I inhaled less than that.