First appointment and ultrasound

Chip and I went to our first appointment on Jan 16th. It was pretty long but exciting for us. The midwife estimated our due date of August 25th. However, she's off by one day according to every calculator I've used online. Even the ultrasound woman calculated the date from my last period to be August 24th, so I believe the mid-wife is a day late :-)

She ordered an ultrasound for us to make sure that we were actually 8.5 weeks along and not more. So on Jan 20th (9weeks 1 day) we saw our baby for the first time! The baby was measuring at 8 weeks 6 days which would put the due date (by measurement of the length) at August 26th, so basically some time in late August, we'll have the baby!! ha! What a thrill and relief to see the baby's heart beating at 162 beats per minute and the baby was wiggling!!! It's alive and healthy!!! Whew!!!

Our next appointment is on Feb 12th with our OB. I have a few friends who have had him as their doc and really liked him compared to the others in the practice. I can't wait for the next appointment. Oh... and if you're wondering, we're planning to find out the gender of the baby... but not until August 24th or so - yes, we want to be surprised!

Below is a picture of the ultrasound. You can see the whole uterus, complete with baby and placenta. The placenta is on the left, the grayish thing bulging out on the left side of it. The baby is on the bottom, head to the left, if you look closely you can see the spinal column down the center. That is one beautiful baby!!!!!

Nausea and exhaustion... and the best husband anyone could ask for.

I started to feel nauseous the day after Christmas when we were bringing Mom to the airport. It was all day nauseousness, not just the morning. So that lasted from week 5ish to about week 9. I learned quickly that if I ate something every 1.5 hours, I could make the nausea bearable. Now at 10 and a half weeks I'm feeling a lot better with the occasional bout with feeling sick. It's certainly do-able now.

Sleepiness... who knew that building something the size of a poppy seed would be so exhausting!! During the same weeks I wasn't feeling great, I found myself hitting a wall by about 3-4pm each day not thinking I could make it the rest of the day.

This brings me to Chip - the best husband in the world! He has done a brilliant job of trying to make me as comfortable as possible. Picking up groceries after work, making dinner while I nap or zone out on the couch... even walking me out to my already heated car in the morning to make sure I wouldn't slip on the ice!! During the nights where I couldn't stay up later then 8, he'd even go to bed with me early so he wouldn't wake me up by getting into bed later on.

If possible, he seems more excited about having a baby then me! When we go to bed he says good night to the baby. One night that sticks out in my head when he was talking to the baby was right after we found out we were pregnant when he said "You're loved" and rubbed my belly. I love that man!

Christmas and sharing the news

Even though we were nervous to share the news so early, we decided to tell our parents and my brother, Bruce, and Megan on Christmas day. Chip and I picked up some frames and put a note in there that said "Merry Christmas Grandma! I'm excited to meet you in August" Replace Grandma with Uncle Brucie and Aunt Megan or Grandpa and Grandma J.

Mom came into town for the holiday on 12/23, it was so hard not to blurt our news when I first saw her, but luckily, I held out until Christmas morning like we'd planned. Dad and Janet came in on Christmas Eve, but Brucie and Megan couldn't make it home, so we sent them their frame with a note on the wrapping paper that said "Don't open unless you're on the phone with us." So on Christmas morning, with Brucie and Megan on the phone, Dad and Janet and Mom opened their gifts. I think Mom squealed, I can't quite remember seeing anything after that because she was squeezing me so hard I think I lost vision! Brucie was silent on the phone - similar reaction to what Chip and I had when we saw two lines! haha. Janet was giggling her happy giggle and Dad couldn't wipe that silly grin off his face the rest of the day!

My Grandmother came over a little while later, so we showed her the frames we'd given to everyone and she was just as surprised!

Chip's Mom, Chris, came into town on 12/27 and gave her a frame just like the ones we gave to my parents, she was also quite surprised. We're going to see Chip's Dad in Feb and will give him his frame at that time, we can't wait to share the news with him. I'm sure that will be a memorable Christmas for years to come :-)

"I think it's showing two lines..."

We found out we were pregnant on December 17th, 2008. I took a test before starting my day and was pleasently surprised, and very shocked to see two lines!!! I went into the bedroom and woke up Chip, asking if he was seeing what I was seeing. Shock, shock, excitement and disbelief were both of our first reactions with what we were seeing. The excitement set in more throughout the day while I was at work, which I know wasn't exactly a productive day, but can you really blame me? It's an unexplainable feeling to have the best news and not be able to share it just yet... I must have had the most ridiculous grin on my face all day.

We got home that night and I was anxious to get to Barnes and Nobel and pick up our first of many reads having to do with pregnancy. Chip and I headed there together after work and couldn't find any books having to do with pregnancy. We looked in the health section and a few other sections, but wouldn't you know, it was in the children's section under parenting. I think this is going to be a lonnng ride...

Our Story

I'm currently 10 weeks 4 days pregnant and wanted to start to document the excitement of our pregnancy before I forget all the ups and downs. In the next few posts I'll bring you up to date with what's been going on over the past two months.