12 Weeks 3 Days

I just have to share something that happened at work today that did and still does give me goose bumps. I went to the waiting room to call back a patient and this lady in her mid 60's had her daughter with her. She told her daughter to stay in the waiting room, but she got up anyway and came with her mother. The daughter would grunt and point, but wouldn't speak. When we got in the room, I had the patient sit up on the table and informed her daughter that she could sit in the chair in the corner. I proceeded to talk to the patient asking her how she was doing and found out that her daughter was 40 and had autism. As I started to take her vital signs, her daughter from the chair started yelling out "Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba" while rubbing her hand in a circular motion over her belly. Her mother looked at me and said, "She says you have a baby in there." The look on my face was shock, I know. I am not really showing and in scrubs you would never know a thing!!! I looked at the mother and said, "How did she know that?" She just looked at me, shrugged her shoulders and said, "I don't know!" I know I have heard of autistic people having special qualities that are amazing, but I can assure you that this particular girl I will never forget.

12 weeks 2 days

Well I have FINALLY made it to 12 weeks and feel somewhat relieved!! I was waiting until 12 weeks before announcing it to the Facebook world, which I did on Tuesday. So nice to read people's comments! I have been asked by several people to post a picture of myself, which I will try to do in the next week or two. I am a bit concerned that this nice little pooch I have is fat and not baby!! I will explain why I think that. I was doing really well with eating until about a week ago and now I have gone to pot with it. For lunch on Wednesday I ate 3 pieces of brisket, some salad, 2 chocolate chip cookies, and a piece of carrot cake. Then, two hours later I had a piece of cake that was left over from a baby shower we had at work for a coworker the day before. So, the sweet tooth has more than taken over. Today for lunch I had a quarter of a burger, salad, 3 pieces of sushi, a slice of pepperoni pizza and a chocolate chip cookie. See what I mean!?!?!?!?! I asked Shane yesterday if I looked fat and his comment was, "I don't see any rolls!" Love that response!!!! LOL!!!!

How our baby is growing:

The most dramatic development this week: reflexes. Our baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. His intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder.

Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in the baby's brain, synapses are forming furiously. His face looks unquestionably human: His eyes have moved from the sides to the front of his head, and his ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, our baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.

11 Weeks 2 days

First of all, I must say Happy Birthday to Shelbe, my first "child." She is my shih-tzu that I received when I started nursing school. She is 15 today and I love her so very much. She is blind and for the most part deaf, but is still a wonderful and loving child!!!


So this past week has had some good days and bad days, but I must say for the most part they were good! The nausea has seemed to have left me for the most part, which is such a blessing. But on Saturday evening and pretty much all day Sunday I got to experience gas like never before!!! I was completely and utterly miserable on Sunday just feeling bloated and burping all the time. I swear if I burped once I burped 1000 times on Sunday. I am sure Shane thought he was in a boy's locker room, although I did excuse myself each and every time!!!! The paperwork I received from the doctor which lists the medications I can take had a section for everything BUT gas. As a nurse, and one who used to have to be on call, I can so sympathize with receiving calls on the weekend that just seem unimportant, so I decided not to be one of "those" people and didn't call. (Perhaps I am saving up my calls for later!!!) Anyway, my wonderful husband could see that I was suffering and went to the grocery store and bought me some Tums, which did help some. Needless to say, by Monday, things seemed to be much better. I am thinking that my culprit is dairy products, but will do a little more trial and error before I blame it solely on good ol' dairy.

I commented earlier on Shane, but he deserves a lot of credit this week!! For those of you who know Shane, you know that he is not one to get excited about food. Nothing really just tickles his fancy when it comes to food, unlike me, who absolutely LOVES food and gets really excited about getting to eat certain things or going out to eat. This has been a bone of contention for me in our marriage because I just could not relate to him or how he could not sing praises about my cooking!! ; ) (Not that I am a great cook, but some things I make taste really good to me!) Well, pregnancy has seemed to have taken my love of food away at this point. Nothing sounds good and honestly nothing really tastes just wonderful, unless it is chocolate!!! So on Wednesday, I was fixing supper and telling Shane that I could finally relate to him and his lack of excitement for food. I told him the only thing that even tasted good was sweets, and namely chocolate (which I am a chocoholic anyway). He just chuckled and said, "Finally!" So after supper, Shane was cleaning up the dishes and was taking longer than expected. I looked in the kitchen and he was measuring out some oil. He was making brownies!!! My husband who does not cook, nor does he care to cook, was making us brownies!! And they were wonderful - nice and warm and gooey!!! It honestly was the best thing I had eaten in weeks!!! Apparently my husband is hiding some of his talents, but seems to be letting them out at just the right time! So as much as I hate that I am like this right now with food, I am glad God has shown this to me so that I can understand Shane a little bit better and not become frustrated with him in this area.

How our baby is growing:

Our 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.

10 Weeks 2 days

It is so hard to believe that now at 10 weeks, I am a fourth of the way through my pregnancy. This time is going to fly by so very fast! I am going to do my best not to complain about a thing, but instead enjoy every aspect of it (including nausea). I am still nauseated, some days being worse than others. I tried not taking my prenatal vitamin one night to see if that helped, but it did not. Like I told a friend at work, I guess I am just pregnant!!! : )

Sunday I bought my first piece of maternity clothing. It is not that I am showing, but I was so concerned that when we were at hot Alabama football games in the Fall I would have nothing to wear because all the clothes they will have out in October will be Fall/Winter clothes and I will be out of luck. So, I bought a cute little sleeveless cotton dress. Of course I had to explain to Shane my whole mentality on why I had to buy it now even though I am no bigger, but I think the explanation sufficed since he went along with me.

Just a side note: The books I read about pregnancy describe the baby as the size of a kumquat. I get tickled when I read that. When we lived in Texas, my parents had a kumquat tree that was always so full of kumquats. It was actually one of my favorite trees. I can so easily relate to that comparison since they always seemed to have kumquats in the fruit basket. The baby is so small, yet so big compared to the poppy seed size it was at 4 weeks!

How our baby is growing:

He is about the size of a kumquat - a little over an inch or so long - and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature. Vital organs are in place and starting to function. He has tiny nails forming on his fingers and toes and peach-fuzz hair is beginning to grow on tender skin. His limbs can bend now. His hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over his heart, and his feet may be long enough to meet in front of his body. The outline of his spine is clearly visible through translucent skin, and spinal nerves are beginning to stretch out from his spinal cord.

9 weeks 3 days - Second Appointment

Today I had my second OB appointment. Need I say again how much I love Dr. DiPiazza. She is around my age, has two children of her own and can relate to how pregnancy totally consumes all of your thoughts and actions. She discussed genetic testing with me and gave me all the pros and cons that go along with the testing. I had already pretty much decided against it since, regardless of my findings, I would not terminate the pregnancy. She said it was really not a matter of terminating the pregnancy but having all the cards laid out on the table to know what I was dealing with upon the baby's arrival. She did say that if the tests came back positive, I would have to be willing to do amniocentesis and if I was not willing to do that, then no need to proceed with the testing. I told her I would discuss it further with Shane and if we decided to proceed, we would let her know. We did discuss it this evening and decided we would not have the testing.

Since I had bleeding before the last ultrasound, she suggested that I have another ultrasound today. Of course, I agreed. Any opportunity to see the baby and hear its heart beat is exciting and reassuring for me. This time seemed so much more enjoyable since I was not petrified of the findings. The baby is growing right on cue and we were able to see the buds that are its arms and legs. They yolk sac is now gone and we were able to see the umbilical cord. This time the heart rate was 162, which made me feel much better. The only negative to it all was that Shane was not there with me to see our baby because I told him that he did not need to go to the appointment with me since nothing exciting would be happening. I guess that was a lesson learned!

How our baby is growing:

The fetus is nearly an inch long, about the size of a grape, and weighs just a fraction of an ounce. She's starting to look more and more human. Her essential body parts are accounted for, though they'll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. The heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form — as do her tiny teeth. The embryonic "tail" is completely gone. The baby's organs, muscles, and nerves are kicking into gear. The external sex organs are there but won't be distinguishable as male or female for another few weeks. Her eyes are fully formed, but her eyelids are fused shut and won't open until 27 weeks. She has tiny earlobes, and her mouth, nose, and nostrils are more distinct. The placenta is developed enough now to take over most of the critical job of producing hormones.

8 Weeks 5 Days

This past week has been up and down. I have been having waves of nausea, but on Tuesday I was miserable ALL day long with it. All I could think about was how I was going to make it that way day in and day out. But on Wednesday, I was better and by Thursday I felt like a new woman. Of course, the nausea is still around, but nothing like Tuesday.

This week our baby received its very first gift from one of my dear co-workers. She gave us a burp cloth with baby foot prints monogrammed on it and a book entitled "God Gave Us You." I was so thrilled to receive her gift - I am so grateful to have some wonderful people surrounding me during this pregnancy.

For the Fourth of July we went to Macon, GA to visit Shane's grandparents. It is always so wonderful to go there - we are always able to relax and we eat very, very well!!! We were able to visit with a lot of his family and received many congrats.

This week I believe I have been plagued by a food diversion. I am someone that loves food, and pretty much ANY food. But . . . . . . right now the thought of BBQ makes me nauseous. Driving by a BBQ restaurant makes me just about gag. This is not a great thing for me since food is catered to my work and many times it is BBQ. Hopefully, this too shall pass - but as for now, I must quit writing about it before I have to excuse myself to the bathroom.

How our baby is growing:

New this week: Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from our baby's hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his "tail" is just about gone. In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. Our baby is now about the size of a kidney bean.