Baby is Growing Fast

Hi All,

Thought I'd post a picture of my growing baby belly that Jeremy took a few nights ago. It's amazing that I have grown so much in the last 2 1/2 -3 weeks.  I read that from 16-20 months that the baby doubles in size; the baby grows an inch a week at this time and I should gain 1-2 pounds per week during this period. As a result I've been getting lots of new muscle spasms and slight growing pains which is to be expected.

So I finally got some maternity clothes which I need now.  I love my Gap maternity jeans (ladies I highly recommend these as they are very stylish and don't look maternity) and am feeling comfy today!

Can't wait for the 20 week ultrasound which is on April 8. If we cannot find out what the sex of the baby is then we will go to get a 3D/4D ultrasound somewhere.

Jeremy has been really cute and has been playing the baby music on his iPhone at night. Last night it seemed like the baby was responding because I was feeling all sorts of flutters and "fish in a fish bowl" types of feelings. He/she was very active.

I LOVE the 2nd Trimester

Hey ho,

I am now officially 16 weeks as of last Saturday. I cannot tell you how good I feel. It is night and day compared to the first trimester. I have energy up the wazoo (yes, I said wazoo) and am ready to start organizing my house for baby.  I am also raring to go baby shopping.  Of course a lot of that cannot be done until we find out the sex of the baby, so I am in limbo for about another 3 weeks. Sigh.

My nausea is about 90% gone and I can cook most foods again - yay!  Last night I made an andouille sausage and shrimp gumbo.  It was spicy but hey, baby liked it. Spicy doesn't seem to affect me as much as eating too much at once does. Since your food digests slower, I have to keep that in mind and eat smaller, more frequent meals.  Speaking of food, it is time for second lunch!

I also found out that I will get the rhogam shot at 28 weeks, unless Jeremy is negative too.  There is a rh protein that is missing on my red blood cells (that is what rh negative means) and so now Jeremy has to go get a blood test to see if he is negative or positive. Just a little fact: 85% of the human race is rh positive, and 15% (me included) is rh negative.  Go figure. So I can hope Jeremy is negative as well. The shot is an "insurance" of sorts; in case of the small chance (I fall or get into a car accident.... I'm knocking on wood right now) my blood mixes with the baby's blood, then this keeps me from attacking the baby (that sounds horrible doesn't it?)  Not ME personally. My blood, of course.

I'll post a pic of my growing belly soon. It's definitely obvious I am prego now. Either that or I love me some Budweiser.

Well that's it for now.  Time to go eat - again :-)

Vanessa

16 Week Ultrasound

Buon Giorno Friends and Familia,

Hey I have a love of the Italian language, even though I have a vocab of about 40 words.  If I sound prententious, too bad - sue me! I have this fantasy I was of Italian heritage in another life. If you've been to Italy you may have the same daydreams.

So......many of you know that yesterday I had a doctor's appointment to run some 2nd trimester risk assessment tests, and most importantly have a 16 week ultrasound (I will be 4 months on Saturday). I was really hopeful we might be able to find out the sex of the baby, but alas, it was not to be. My doctor's high-tech ultrasound machine broke down, and so the one he was using was a loaner and did not show a great amount of detail.  Boo  :-( In the meantime, we were still able to see the baby and hear the heartbeat, which was fun and also reassuring that the pregnancy is still going smoothly. There will be another ultrasound at 20 months, and the machine they use at that time shows quite a bit more detail (a specialist comes in to run more tests, measure the baby, check out all of its organs, fingers, toes etc.) so we should have a good chance to find out then. I was really looking forward to be able to start buying baby clothes, but I guess I will have to wait a bit longer. :-( Being patient is hard!  I do have to say that when the baby moved its legs, I swear I saw a penis!  But who knows - maybe one of the toes was in the way, it was quite blurry ;-) But now it has gotten me thinking about boy's names. Ha ha!

The good news is the baby is healthy.. he/she was moving around quite a bit. So that is what is important. And in a few weeks I should really know if those "flutters" I feel now are really the baby, or just gas.  Most of the time it is gas. Hee hee.

I had some blood drawn for the purpose of running risk factor tests. They take the blood tests from the 1st trimester, my 12 week ultrasound where they measured the baby and make sure there are no abnormalities like down syndrome, and the blood tests from yesterdays visit, and will be able to give me an overall risk factor for abnormalities. So far 2 out of 3 tests look good. This will determine whether I should consider an amniocentesis (needle where they draw amniotic fluid); right now my doctor doesn't think it is necessary.

Oh and this is interesting (and important) .... since my blood type is A Neg, I might need a Rhogam shot. Because of the blood type, if my blood mixes with the baby's blood during pregnancy, it might distinguish baby's blood as foreign matter, and could start attacking the baby. So this shot would create antibodies to keep that from happening. I will find out in a couple days if that is necessary or not. So thanks mom and dad for the A Neg blood - it's all your fault!  LOL

As far as my growing belly.... the baby is supposed to double in size in the next month (from week 16 to 20), so I assume I'm going to need to buy some new clothes! Right now I am still able to fit into most of my skinny jeans, but have to unbutton them and wear long shirts. That will not be possible in the next few weeks.

Oh and a question: even though I technically won't be a mom yet, but I will be 6 months pregnant in May, does that mean I get to celebrate Mother's Day?  I think the hard work of growing a baby should qualify me to get cards ... hint hint

Here is a video of what is going on with the baby weeks 16-20.  The human body is amazing.
http://www.babycenter.com/2_inside-pregnancy-weeks-15-to-20_10308111.bc

Ciao,

Mommy V

Energy Is On Its Way!

Could it be true? Could I finally be getting my energy back? For the first trimester, I've had those flu-like, achy fatigue symptoms for about 4-6 weeks, then it would slightly subside and come and go for the last few. What a tease. Last night at 9pm, I get this burst of energy - of course it was when I needed to sleep, but it seemed like a sign that the first trimester sluggishness was fading.  This morning, I was bright-eyed at 6:30am, making muffins and coffee for breakfast.  I don't mean warming up a muffin in the microwave, I mean baking carrot cake muffins FROM SCRATCH before work! I was baking because my appetite seems to be returning, too. We had Chipotle last night (my favorite) and it tasted better than ever. A few weeks ago, guacamole tasted pretty disgusting, but it didn't last night. Yay! 

I'm sure the fatigue and food aversions and nausea will come and go, but for now I am going to enjoy feeling good and enjoy my growing belly. Which, by the way, hasn't grown too much yet. But, I know it will over the next several months.

I feel like I'm one of those women who (as long as I'm not full-on nauseous or tired to the point where I feel like I have jet lag times ten) will really enjoy her pregnancy. I'm looking forward to a growing belly, buying maternity clothes, getting smiles from strangers that hopefully let me cut in line at Target (just don't touch the belly or you'll get smacked) and the first time the baby will kick.

I'm really looking forward to the 16th week ultrasound.  Maybe we will get lucky and be able to find out the sex. My appointment is in early March. Cross your fingers!

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!

In The Early Stages (9 Weeks)

Hello!  Welcome to my baby blog adventures. This is my first baby, so I will use this blog (with humor) to track the ups and downs of my pregnancy.

9 weeks - Not Much To See Yet!

Last Tuesday we had the first official ultrasound at 8 weeks 3 days.  We could see a tiny outline of a baby and also see the heart beating, however getting the sound of the heartbeat proved to be challenging, since it is still very early in the pregnancy. 8 weeks is on the cusp of going from a zygote to a fetus.  The yolk sac is disappearing and the baby soon relies on the amniotic sac and placenta. We have an ultrasound scheduled for 12 weeks, 3 weeks from now, and that should be exciting. I should have something to post on the blog then for everyone to see. I think Jeremy and I are hoping for a girl (I know we have LOTS of girls in the family especially on my side, but we want one anyways) but of course will love our child girl or boy.

I'm excited to be a mommy, but right now, to be honest, not so excited about the pregnancy symptoms. The first trimester can be a trying time, and it has been that for me so far. I learned that when you become pregnant, your immune system lowers itself as to not attack the baby, but that means the mommy is vulnerable. Since I have some bacterial/fungal issues, this has affected me. So far I have had strep; luckily a light case that went away taking immune boosting vitamins and eating healthy. I can't take antibiotics or other over the counter medications, so I have had to find ways to fight this stuff naturally. So far raw garlic has been a lifesaver and I seem to be getting better. I know, eating raw garlic, doesn't that sound fun!! I will be happy when I can just deal with morning sickness and extreme fatigue.  That in itself is enough!

But aside from that.... some of the symptoms I've been having are all very common. A light case of morning sickness (that of which I am grateful for so far) which pretty much feels like car motion sickness, swollen boobies (I will need new bras soon), and my pants are starting to get a tad snug. Hey, an excuse to go clothes shopping!! Yay! I also get this weird bitter metallic taste in the back of my mouth sometimes, mostly if I've eaten something acidic like tomatoes or lemons, and is worse when I have dry mouth. And speaking of dry mouth, I cannot seem to consume enough water. I'm drinking 60-90 ounces a day. It is 3pm on Saturday and I've already drank 60 ounces! Oh and of course already I have to pee every hour!  LOL And the heartburn... yikes. The one symptom that really bums me out is that nothing ever sounds good to eat, except for carbs like croissants, french fries, rice with butter and cheese... and I cannot have any of that because it can cause my bacterial/fungal problem to worsen, I'll get sick, and that's not good for baby either. So, I soldier onwards, and find decent substitutions. I can't seem to cook or handle raw meat, either (makes me gag), so poor me, we get to eat out more often ;-)

It's common for most of these things to get better around 12-14 weeks in the 2nd trimester (I hope it does) and regardless of how many times I might complain to Jeremy (I'm waiting for him to get fed up and run from me but his patience amazes me every day) I know it is all worth it in the end.

I was at Stewart Park today in Santa Monica, taking advantage of this unusually warm weather, reading and basking in the sun. It was truly a beautiful day, and while there I was witnessing many families enjoying themselves: family and friends at a children's birthday party, a father and son playing soccer, and little kids just running around being silly. It made me excited for what's to come. I'm also excited for what's to come in my pregnancy, and determined to enjoy every minute of it.

Fun at the Park