12 Weeks!

I am officially at the 12 week mark as of today. On Thursday I had an ultrasound, and Jeremy and I were able to see the baby move and hear the heartbeat for the first time.  It was very exciting and made everything that more real to us. You should have seen this baby move! He/she was very active.

Here's a few first pics of the baby:

I will be having another ultrasound at 16 weeks, and am hoping around that time we will have the opportunity to find out what the sex of the baby is. We have a few names picked out (more girls than boys  - boy's names seem to be challenging for us) but are not really telling too many people yet because we aren't sure if they are the right fit.  I'm sure as soon as we find out the sex, that will motivate us!

The first 10 or so weeks of pregnancy have been very trying. Between heartburn, nausea, indigestion (horrible gas that even I couldn't handle... yuck.  Hey its a pregnancy thing!) and extreme fatigue, it put me out of commission. But I seem to be coming out of that stage now; I have more energy, my nausea is subsiding, and I hope that I won't have to be as picky with food.  I hear for some women that last one doesn't entirely go away throughout the pregnancy.  Especially today when I ate some gross gluten free fish sticks and almost lost it, and passing by the Japanese restaurant on the corner near my apartment really does me in. Gross. But I seem to be getting hungrier, too. The problem is, WHAT EXACTLY??  

I haven't gained any weight yet. In fact, at 8 weeks pregnant I had LOST 5 pounds, but that is normal for many women due to nausea and lack of interest in food, fatigue etc.  Now I am back at my "standard" weight, and am told I should start putting on weight in the 2nd trimester.   Wow, already starting the 2nd trimester next week!  I have to say that before I got pregnant, 9 months/40 weeks seemed like it would be an eternity.  Now it seems like it is flying by. I'm starting to get a little more of a baby belly - if you are looking for it you can tell, especially if I am wearing form-fitting shirts.

I've started a baby registry of sorts.  I found this site called BabyList, where you add their toolbar to the top of your web browser, and then surf other pages.  When you find something you like, you click the "Add to BabyList" link and it adds it to your registry. So far I've only looked at strollers (I like the B.O.B.) and am trying to find affordable, eco-friendly cribs which is a challenge. And there are so many options to choose from: the portable or mini cribs, the convertible cribs, and the same goes for the strollers and car seats. We have time still - 6 months to be exact - so I'm not sweating it (yet.)

On another topic related to the daddy of this child.... Jeremy had his ankle surgery yesterday.  He found a well-respected doctor at Cedars Sinai and per the doctor, he said the surgery couldn't have gone better. He says he is very optimistic that Jeremy will heal just fine this time. He just needs to get through this painful and frustrating healing process.  He was already on crutches for 3 months before this, so needless to say, he never wants to see another crutch again ;-)

Anyways, that's it for now.  Will write again soon!