doin the bump

this marks the end of my first trimester. i'm officially 12 weeks into my pregnancy. only 28 more weeks to go! it seems like a long time, but i know it's just going to keep flying by. i think compared to other 1st trimesters i've heard about though, i've had it pretty easy. i just hope that my luck carries into the 2nd and 3rd!

i have noticed that i've had a little more energy lately and a slightly more aggressive appetite. i haven't wanted to eat more, it's just when i'm hungry...i'm HUNGRY and need to find food. :) i'm still craving fruit and ice cream and still waking up around 2am every morning. oh, i guess another thing i'm always in the mood for these days are frosted mini wheats. i love them!

one thing i've been trying to work on recently is sleeping on my side. i'm definitely a back sleeper and it's really hard for me to sleep on my side all night. i think i'm going to have to put a pillow behind my back so i don't roll over completely onto my back. if any moms out there have any additional ideas i'm all ears!

well...here it is. the bump at 12 weeks.

farewell 1st trimester

11 weeks and 6 days...1 day before the end of my first trimester. i really can't believe it. i know i keep saying it, but time really is flying by. i went into the radiology lab today to get my nuchal translucency screening done. unfortunately grady wasn't able to make this visit either, but luckily they sent me home with a cd full of pictures!! and they weren't able to tell what we were having, so i was happy about that because i want it to be revealed to grady and i at the same time. i'm hoping at our next doctors visit, may 5th, that they'll be able to tell us something?!

the ultrasound went really well though. the doctor said everything looked great and to keep up the good work! :) and man o man do i have an active one!! chickadee was tossing and turning and flipping all around. it's really weird because you can see it moving all over the place on the screen, but it's weird to not feel anything yet. i can't wait until i can! and apparently i may have drank too much water and had to relieve myself so that the baby would hopefully stop moving so much and the ultrasound tech could get better shots of everything necessary to document.

out of the 20 pictures they sent me home with, here are a few that i LOVE looking at.


chickadee is nice and cozy in there! and a whopping 5.92 cm i might add. already at a size of 12 weeks and 3 days. grow baby grow!

you can actually see facial features now. here you can see the nose, eyes, chin and they very important tummy!

you can't see much of the baby in this shot, but this is chickadee's heartbeat. much faster than at 6 weeks. a strong 176 bpm.

even though they're teeny tiny, look at those little arms and hands! i can't wait to have them holding my fingers! this was the hardest thing to capture since chickadee wouldn't put it's hands down almost the entire time.

and i had no clue they had one of the ge 3d ultrasound machines at the radiology office. of course chickadee had to cross it's legs for us and not let me have a peak at anything!!! and note the hands at the face again!

yeah for two arms, two hands, two legs and two feet!! :) you can even see the earbuds in this shot. and i don't know what it is, but i fixate on that cute little baby belly. i love it and can't wait to kiss it!!

11 weeks

almost done with the first trimester! i'm already getting some energy back and not falling asleep by 8:30pm! sickness has still stayed at bay, which i'm VERY happy about. chickadee is definitely growing like crazy and i feel like i'm showing a little bit more. i can tell more so on my sides. they're getting a little thicker. so i present to you the bump at 11 weeks!

pucker up!

11 weeks!! it's crazy how fast the weeks keep going by. this week our chickadee is the size of a lime!!

both grady and i went to my doctor's appointment yesterday and everything went great.

i've lost 2 pounds (nothing to worry about right now)
blood pressure readings were good
protein absorption test came back fine

and even though we didn't get an ultrasound this time (kind of bummed because i was hoping grady would get to see the baby).......we did both get a pleasant surprise. the doctor took the doppler out and prefaced it with "we'll see if we get lucky!"

we were lucky alright. and we have HEARTBEAT!!! it was the coolest thing i've ever heard. and it's weird because when were at the appointment i wasn't choked up at all, but somehow writing about it now, i'm getting choked up! :)

stay tuned for future bump shots!

prenatal pilates

i have my friend dawn to thank for letting me know about the awesome prenatal pilates class she's been taking for the past 10 weeks. a new session has started and i made sure to sign up for it (after i got the ok from my doctor!!)! so every friday from 6:30-7:30pm i get some quality bonding time with little chickadee and other mom's to be. it's really great! and then after class dawn, mary and i head over to wegman's for dinner yummy!! i think i'm going to like this new friday ritual.

i can definitely see how these classes are going to help me tone, stretch and strengthen specific birthing muscles too. i've only been to one class and i can already feel it this morning! and i don't know if i was just trying to calm myself down before the class or what, but for some reason my blood pressure has gone from the 130's/90's to the 120's/90!! YEAH!! :) so i'm going to try really hard to focus my breathing more all the time and do my at home exercises. i want my chickadee to grow grow grow and not have my blood pressure slow it down!

here's to staying cool and relaxed chickadee*

daily fiber intake

we've hit the 10 week mark!! i can't believe it! i think we get more and more excited everyday about how much our little chickadee is growing. even when i show grady the pictures from my books he doesn't get freaked out anymore haha! and we've been so lucky to be showered with congratulations and best wishes lately. so thank you to all of our family, friends and even neighbors! you're all the best!

so i'm still a huge fan of thebump.com's size comparisons. this week our baby is the size of a........

no, not a raisin......a prune! :) yeah fiber!

i don't think i've gotten much bigger in the bump area, but my clothes are definitely starting to fit differently. i've become a HUGE fan of yoga pants and a comfy men's tanktop (i'm not going to call it by it's real name!).

some other things i've noticed:

i'm not too fond of red meat these days

i'm still pretty tired

i wake up around 3am every morning to pee

i can't get enough chocolate!

i sleep A LOT better now with my boppy body pillow!

my hair is AWESOME (thicker and always does what i want it to do!)

same goes for my nails. they've been stronger and getting much longer, faster!

haven't had any cravings yet, but i'm always in the mood for fruit

no morning sickness!!!

looking more like a baby now

last friday i had my second doctors appointment and as mentioned in my last post, i was surprised with another ultrasound. the pictures i was able to bring home weren't nearly as good as the ones i got from the radiology office, but needless to say, i was happy to bring anything home!

so here is our little chickadee at 9 weeks. growing like a weed compared to the 6 week 4 day ultrasound pics!



you'll probably have to click on the photo to enlarge it, but if you look closely on the top photo you can see our chickadee's head, arms and legs! the bottom picture was taken when chickadee was grooving away in my belly! :) chickadee's got some good dance moves already!

bu, bu, bu, BUMP!

it's almost as if overnight my little bump has made its debut! it's not huge, and you can't really see anything when i have clothes over my belly, but i think it's pretty obvious when i raise my shirt a little. so here it is at 9 weeks 1 day. of course mojo had to get in on the photo shoot as well!




yesterday i also had my 9 week check-up with the doctor. everything went well, except for that my blood pressure was a little high (nothing new with me though!). so i am taking daily bp readings and will just closely monitor it. so far my bp was lower last night and this morning than it was at the doctors office. maybe it was just a litlte bit of white coat syndrome! :)

on a positive note though, my doctor did a surprise ultrasound for me and i got to see our little chickadee one more time. SO much bigger than the last time and the heartbeat was still beating strong! you could actually see it's hands and feet and the shape of it's head. and apparently our little chickadee is quite the wiggle worm! i think seeing it move on the screen has been the coolest thing i've seen so far. i was so bummed that grady wasn't there, but then again, i didn't know i was going to get another ultrasound at this appointment! he'll definitely be at my next appointment though! the doctor sent me home with a couple pictures that i still have to scan. once i do i'll make sure to post them.

first visit from grana and grandpa

what a wonderful weekend we had with grana and grandpa. luckily the weather decided to cooperate with us. we were VERY happy about that! although not everything went as planned!!

saturday i had planned to make sticky buns for breakfast....yeah, well something happened with my rolls and they didn't puff up like normal. they were still good though, and we managed to eat them. ; ) aunt sue came over and we all decided to go look at cribs and strollers. SO MUCH FUN! even grady got into looking at all the strollers. we really like the one he picked out, but i think we still want to look a little more before deciding on 'the one.' there were a lot of cribs to look at too. of course we didn't find 'the one' either in the crib department, but what we did determine was the style of crib we liked. one check off the list!

ventured over to sam's club after shopping and then home for lunch. everyone, but me, enjoyed a nice glass of wine or a nice cold beer on the awesome 74 degree day we had and then mom, sue and i decided to hit the carters outlet in leesburg!! woo hoo!! of course we had to make a few other stops while at the outlet mall, but man o man, carters is a hot place at the outlet mall. i have a feeling i'll be going back frequently too! especially since they always give you coupons for your next visits. grana bought us our first set of bodysuit onesies and the cutest little bib. thank you!!

after we got home is when the unplanned event #2 happened. so you know how i've been saying i've been feeling fine, no sickness, etc. yeah, well, um.....of course the one time i have to make a dash to the bathroom is at DINNER when everyone is at our house! :( i think i just pushed myself too hard and wore myself out. guess i can't complain too much though. that was the first time i actually got sick and it's been over 8 weeks already. note to self though...no more marathon shopping days like i used to!

rasberries

so i can't believe that i'm 8 weeks pregnant today! the time has been flying by. of course i get emails from babycenter.com and thebump.com, on what seems to be a daily basis, and thought thebump.com put the current size of the baby in relation to a much nicer object than a "kidney bean," which most sites seem to say. according to thebump.com, today our little chickadee is the size of a rasberry! even though our chickadee is growing VERY fast these days, i'm still not showing. once i get "the bump" i'll start posting pictures. but for now i'll just try and find other things to post.

lastest addiction

i thought giving up alcohol would be the hardest part of being pregnant...not so much. i've found that giving up caffiene has been harder for me than anything!! i loved having my big latte mug of "mud" every morning to give me a little boost. these first couple weeks of knowing i'm pregnant have been rough in the morning. it's definitely taken me a little longer to be completely awake.

i figured i would try decaf coffee...yeah, no, doesn't taste the same! so then i figured my only option now was decaf tea. i'm not a huge regular tea fan, and of course all the flavored ones i like have caffiene in them. d'oh! exceeeeeeeept, this one that i found on saturday in good 'ol target!

oh my! with a little splash of milk and a sugar cube....delicious!!! thank you celestial seasonings!!

it's been a long two weeks

so thankfully i haven't had morning sickness yet (hoping it stays that way), unfortunately though, i've been virus sick for the past tw0 weeks. after my whirlwind week of doctors visits (wednesday to the ultrasound and thursday to the OB) i finally had time yesterday to go to the after hours care to have them check me out.

being the paranoid first time mom that i am, i haven't wanted to take any medicine and risk anything. i had a fever last friday so i did break and took some tylenol....definitely helped! but this thing has been lingering for too long and causing me too much pain in my sinuses and my right ear.

it didn't take the doctor too long to see what was wrong. and just as i thought....sinus infection and a perforated ear drum. :( so now i'm on amoxicillin and hoping that clears everything up. rested all day today and will likely do more resting tomorrow. well, probably some cleaning too since we're excited that grana and grandpa are coming up next weekend.

send me some healing thoughts! :)

ready for our closeup

we finally got to meet our little chickadee for the first time on wednesday. my first prenatal visit was on thursday, but they wanted me to have my ultrasound before the appointment so they could have the results at my visit. a little bit of a problem since grady wasn't able to take wednesday and thursday morning off, so i had to go alone. i assured him i wasn't in the room long (which i wasn't) and that the nurse said the next time will be much better. and that they would actually give us a CD FULL OF PICTURES!!! can't wait!! :)

the doctor at the ultrasound took a look and said everything looked fine. i was happy to hear that! i was also super impressed with his estimate on how far along i was. he was DEAD ON! after grady and i figured out when our exact day of conception was i realized my little baby ticker is a week off. so if you notice more time added to the ticker that's why! so now we're looking at an october 29th due date. as grana has been saying, we'll be welcoming a new little pumpkin to the world soon!

the prenatal visit went well too. i was glad grady was there so the nurse at the doctors office and the nurse practitioner could meet both of us and explain everything to both of us. he did really great! of course i didn't make him stay in the room for all the "girl stuff" at the end of my visit. i probably could have used him at the very end when they took all my bloodwork though. woo, i felt a little woosy after they took about 5 vials of blood. luckily the nurse practitioner told me to sit tight and she went and got me some water. overall i have been VERY impressed with both the ultrasound office and my OB's office. it also helps that both offices are no more than 5 minutes from our house! i go back on the 26th for my first visit with the OB. i'm excited to meet the doctor and hope that she's just as nice as everyone else i've met.

so here are the pictures you've all been waiting for.
may i present.....our little chickadee*


most of you already know this, but the little bubble is the yolk sak and the little rice looking thing is our chickadee.

this doesn't show much and was actually MUCH cooler in person. the picture in the bottom right captured the heart rate, and what was so awesome was i actually got to see it's little heart beating!! the nurse was pretty surprised too because i guess not everyone is able to see that this early on. chickadee had a nice strong heartbeat of 125bpm.

we can't wait to see you again soon chickadee*

chickadee's first gifts

thank you to grana and grandpa for our little chickadee's first gift!! and wow, 900ft range monitor....that means we can go next door to the clay's right! :)

and i've been good about not buying things for the chickadee, but when i was walking through target the other day i saw something i HAD to get. a cute little basket with a green liner (almost the same color as the nursery too!) and what else....little chickadees embroidered on it!! and it was on sale. how could i pass it up! and as you can see, rudy really liked the basket as well.

one of my biggest fears....

....has become a reality!! being sick while pregnant!! and no, not morning sickness, actual bug sick! this has been one of my biggest fears because of the fact that i can't take any medication. :( i've got the good ol frog in my throat, sinus pressure and sinus drip! (good mental picture huh!) i can't even drink my tea since i've been really good about cutting caffiene completely out of my diet! guess it's just OJ and fruit smoothies for me, and lots and lots of tissues!!

i was about to give up hope last night and cut my nose off (okay, well not really) when i found a sample of breathrite extra strips i had gotten from a friend. i couldn't breath out of my nose at all when i went to bed, so i thought why not try the strip to see if it would work.

HOLY NOSTRILS BATMAN! the minute i put that strip on i was able to BREATH!!! and not just out of one nostril. i was able to breath completely out of both nostrils. i was shocked! i thought i was going to go through a whole box of tissues last night and when i woke up there were just two lonely tissues laying on the ground.

so any of you expecting mothers i would HIGHLY recommend the breathrite extra strips. not sure what makes them "extra" but all i cared was that they worked. and that they did! although i apparently didn't read the "how to remove" instructions and tried pulling it off like a bandaid. yeah, don't do that. follow the instructions and take it off when you're washing your face with warm water!!