Week 17: Now We Have an Avocado!

So it’s been a whole month since we last posted and our Blueberry has ballooned into an avocado!

From BabyCenter.com, this is what we’ve been doing this week:

Your baby’s skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she’s around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.

The biggest news is that I’ve been feeling the Blueberry moving!  I felt the first bumps during a meeting on June 7th and had to excuse myself to the restroom to call Jesse, I was so excited.  It was fairly sporadic over the next week or two, but this last week, I’ve really been aware of the baby’s presence and movement.  It’s very cool and a bit surreal.

We also had another doctors appointment on the 22nd and the Blueberry is doing great.  The OB also went over the results of our genetic tests and everything is in the “normal” range, and I’m not a carrier for Cystic Fibrosis!  *Whew!*  The other good news is that I’m right on track with my weight, only having gained one pound so far.  My goal is 20, so now I need to gain the average of one pound per week.

Jesse and I also enjoyed our cruise and trip to Puerto Rico at the beginning of the month.  It was nice to get away, but as always not long enough!  This is us in Barbados.  I’m about 14 weeks here…the belly is really starting to show!

To compare, this is me last Sunday at 16 weeks:

In other news, Jesse and I have decided to opt for a birth center birth instead of a hospital birth.  There is a great facility at Anne Arundel Medical Center, which is where we were already planning to go, that is connected directly to the hospital in the event of an emergency.  We really liked the home-like environment of the center, and I really like that the attending midwife will be there for the whole labor and delivery, whereas an OB only comes in to deliver a baby.  I’m sure we’ll have more on this in later posts. 

So, now we are waiting till our 20 week ultrasound where we will hopefully find out the sex of the baby.  Let me just say that it’s worse than waiting for Christmas!!!

We Have a Five Fingers! (And a face!)

Hello everyone!  Just a quick post tonight to share our latest sonogram  images from our doctors appointments today.  We had our nuchal translucency test done and got some amazing images of the baby.  Let’s just say they are REALLY cool…

Here we see the baby zoomed out a bit.  The Blueberry has a nose and mouth (and a huge head- I think it’s about 50/50 head to body at this point!) and looks like a tiny little human!  Note the scale to the right of the image.  Only 12 centimeters!  Small huh?

Here you can see a hand near the mouth, maybe the left one?  Those little white spots are finger tips!

This one is really cool…  You can see both hands, one near the nose and the other near the mouth,  and the upper leg, knee, and part of the lower leg!  So cool!  Pretty soon those appendages are going to be doing a lot of punching and kicking in there. 

This is the one Jesse’s calling “Skeletor”.  LOL!  That cute little bump of a nose is going to need some major kisses in a few months!

This may be my favorite of them all…  One perfect little hand!  It’s hard to believe that this little person is still in there growing like crazy.  Most days it still feels like a dream!

We can’t wait to meet you Blueberry!!  Keep up the good work!

Almost Out of the Woods: Starting Week 12

I’m sorry to say that there won’t be any cute pictures of my internal organs today, just some basic updates. 

We have officially completed our 11th week of pregnancy and are into our 12th.  I’m really excited to reach this milestone as it marks the end of our first trimester and means that all of those nasty 1st trimester statistics go away.  So keep your fingers crossed until next Friday when we’ll be beginning the next phase of life!

Here’s what’s been happening to the Blueberry over the last week according to BabyCenter.com:

Your baby, just over 1 1/2 inches long and about the size of a fig, is now almost fully formed. Her hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under her gums, and some of her bones are beginning to harden.

She’s already busy kicking and stretching, and her tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. These movements will become more frequent as her body grows and becomes more developed and functional. You won’t feel your baby’s acrobatics for another month or two — nor will you notice the hiccupping that may be happening now that her diaphragm is forming.

Ignore all of those “she’s” and “hers”, we still don’t know the sex yet, but are definitely going to find out!

The next doctor’s appointment is going to be the 25th when we have our nuchal translucency test, some more blood work (to see if I’m a carrier to Cystic Fibrosis), and our regular OB checkup.  Hopefully we’ll have some more ultrasound pictures then!  The nuchal translucency test is an ultrasound that looks for fluid build up in the folds of a developing baby’s neck.  The amount of the fluid can be an indicator as to whether or not we’re at a higher risk for chromosomal abnormalities like Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and others.  Apparently it’s a pretty high powered ultrasound, so the images are supposed to be more detailed.  Maybe we can even see the baby moving around!

In other news, I’ve just begun to get my taste of what morning sickness is like…not fun at all.  It sent me home early from work yesterday.  I read this morning that my placenta is now making more hormones than my ovaries are, which I guess is causing me to finally feel so gross.  I just hope it doesn’t last long, as Jesse and I have scheduled what we’re calling “The Last Hurrah!”  We are going on a cruise out of Puerto Rico at the end of the month and are so excited to have some nice time to relax and unwind with just the two of us.  It will be a fabulous break from work, which has been driving us both up the wall the last couple of weeks.  And it will definitely be the last big vacation for a while!  We are also going to be visiting our friends Mareah and Richy while there, which I know will be fun even though I can’t partake in all of the rum drinking…

The other exciting news is that I’m getting to the point where I’m going to start showing soon.  I can feel a difference in the way my lower abdomen feels.  It has a certain bump to it that didn’t seem to be there yesterday.  It’s pretty cool feeling.  And I know I’m not crazy because Jesse could feel it too!  I’m looking forward to having a more “pregnant” look and not just like my gut is hanging out. 

I also had another realization today: I often tell Jesse that I love him more than anything.  When I went to say it today I realized it wasn’t true anymore, so instead I said, “You are one of two things I love more than anything else.”  Amazing how this little fig-sized baby is already changing our family dynamic.    So much love between us and the baby, which has brought us together on a level that I thought we had already achieved (wrong!).  It’s amazing the capacity love has for growing.

Since Jesse’s out playing baseball this morning (Go Jesse, Go!) I’m going to wrap it up.  We miss everyone bunches!! xoxo

Week Nine Update & Baby’s First Picture!

We had our much-anticipated first OB visit today.  We were up bright and early for our 8:30 appointment and I got to wear a nifty pink robe!

 So, to cut to the chase, the appointment went very well.  The doctor performed an ultrasound and we got to see our first glimpse of the baby!  It was such a relief and I cried some very happy tears.    It was incredible to finally see The Blueberry, although it’s now more like a green olive.  We could even see the heart beating…so cool!  Then the doctor played the heartbeat.  Amazing!!

Below are the ultrasound pictures.  The dark blob is the amniotic sack and the light gray blob inside is the baby!!  So tiny still!!

Here you can kind of see the baby in profile and the small circle to the right is the yolk.

Our doctor took a “crown to rump” measurement which is the length of the baby, and calculated the heartbeat at 168 beats per minute.  She said everything is right on track based on my last missed period and that everything looks very good and healthy.  It’s such a relief!!    So, we are doing great and are just where we need to be!

Like I said, I feel so relieved that everything is going well.  I can’t believe how much I love this little peanut of a person already and today really cemented the fact that I am going to be a mother and we’re going to be welcoming this wonderful life into the world very soon.  I feel like I’ve been floating on a cloud all day (until this afternoon when I crashed out for a nap on the couch!) and have been so elated with excitement.  I think I was holding back a bit emotionally because things can go so wrong during the first trimester and I didn’t have any way to know was happening inside me other than the symptoms I’ve been having.  But now that I’ve seen our baby on the screen and watched the heart beat and listened to its fast thumpa-thumpa, I feel so incredibly connected to this wonderful life and for the first time really feel pregnant.  It’s such a good feeling, better than anything.   I can’t wait to meet you, Blueberry!!  Just get here safely! 

***

This is Jesse, a soon to be daddy.  I think Meg covered the highlights.  I took a small video with my phone while the heart beat was going.  I’m not sure how it came out but we’ll get that to a computer to listen to it soon.

I was very anxious all morning.  The doctor was very good, informative, and fun to talk with.  As the visit went, I got more and more excited before the ultrasound.  Seeing Blueberry on the screen, hearing the heart beat for the first time was pretty…spectacular?  That really doesn’t describe it.  There are no words that really can put it into context.  Basically one of the happiest moments of my life.  And to think, this is just the beginning.  So much to do in so little time!  I’m going to be a dad!!!!!  WOOOOOOOOWWWW!  When people ask you what life is about, this would be one of those moments!  We’ll speak again soon!

It’s a….BABY!

Well, here we go!  We got our positive pregnancy test on Friday, April 8, 2011, which was a wonderful surprise given that it was also the ten-year anniversary of our first date.   

Here’s the picture from that night:

According to the date of my last missed period, I am now starting my eighth week of pregnancy and we are due on December 2nd!  So far, I’ve been feeling pretty good, but am certainly experiencing a lot of symptoms.  I’ve been having some interesting cramps and contractions as my body begins making room for the Blueberry (which is what we’ve decided to call him/her until we at least know the sex); I’ve been crazy tired, going to bed as early as 9 pm – but fully expect some 8 pm bedtimes; morning sickness hasn’t hit me hard yet (thankfully!), but I’ve certainly been having my fair share of yucky/nauseous/bleh feelings; there’s been lots of increased trips to the bathroom as my body processes fluids to make more blood and other fluids we’ll need (making me incredibly thirsty); and I’ve also noticed an increased appetite, as well as an aversion to some smells (not pleasant!).  All in all, it’s been really exhausting dealing with all of these changes in my body.  I guess I never really knew how good I had it before!

Jesse’s been great, although I’m not sure he knows how crazy it’s going to get.  He’s super attentive and affectionate, and has been talking to the baby even before we knew the Blueberry existed.  At this point we’re both so excited and happy.  We’re about as ready as we can be, and ready to welcome this new life into the world. 

Now we are just trying to take it easy, relax, and eat well while we wait for the first trimester to be over and to get safely to the second.  Meanwhile, I’ve been extra conscious of everything I do and eat.  I’m trying to keep my diet varied and have been packing lots of healthy snacks for the office and at home.  So me and the Blueberry have been eating lots of baby carrots, cantaloupe, nuts, TONS of water, blueberries, cheese, grape tomatoes, oatmeal, oranges…you get the drift.  I feel very lucky that I’ve had a healthy appetite though all of this and that my food aversions haven’t kept me from making good food choices.

Our next big event is our first prenatal visit with the OB, which is on the 28th.  So, keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well and we get a clean bill of health!

 ***

So, this is Jesse.  With the big news, it’s hard to describe how I’m feeling.  I thought it would take weeks, months, etc. and look at where we are now.  I’m gonna be a dad by the end of the year.  Not really sure how to feel.  I know everything inside me is saying “WOW!  This is what life is all about!  You will get to have the greatest joy of life later this year!”  I think I’m still in shock.  I’ve thought about being a dad so many times and now that it’s here, I have no idea what to do.  I mean, I know what to do but the thought is rather scary.  As several have already told me, things are gonna be nuts from here on out.  Preparing for everything is impossible.  Thinking about every thing that could happen is impossible.  But that’s the joy of being a parent!  There’s no other feeling like it for good reason.

So,  our first ultrasound is at the end of the month.  I think that is when everything will hit me like a ton of bricks.  How life will change, what is in our future…it’s all completely new and exciting with kids.  And to hold my son or daughter for the first time and know that I will shape them for the rest of their life is…no words can describe.  Until then…

 ***

Okay, Family & Friends, that’s it for our first post.  We hope to be posting weekly with updates and photos, so stay tuned in!

xoxo,

Meghan, Jesse, & the Blueberry