Monday, June 30, 2008

I was so wrong. Morning sickness is so much worse.

When I first read about the early signs of pregnancy I felt like I would never be able to differentiate between the signs and how I normally feel. Nausea? Yeah, that's pretty regular for me. Fatigue? Man, I love my sleep. Heightened sense of smell? I already hold my breath the entire walk from when I get off my train until I get to my bus on my way to work each morning. Frequent urination? I can't imagine how it could get more frequent.

Up until the last week or so my nausea hadn't been terrible. It was brief and manageable and I thought it wouldn't be much different than how I sometimes don't feel well. This weekend, however, was my first glimpse of what is surely to come. I felt just horrible. I was in and out of the bathroom all Friday night, well into Saturday morning. When I finally got up I just felt exhausted and weak. As the day progressed, I steadily got stronger and felt better. I slept through the night Saturday but woke up feeling just as ill as before. Geoff and I did absolutely nothing yesterday. Heck, I was only up for a totally of 8 and 1/2 hours the entire day. He was such a trooper. He spent his Sunday lounging around with me, forcing me to eat (which helped enormously!) and being super supportive. I'm a lucky girl to have a husband like him around.

I think one of the hardest parts for me is I feel like I feel lousy for nothing. I noticed when we were watching "Jon and Kate Plus Eight" (Anyone else watch this? It's sort of like watching a really incredible train wreck.) that I started to feel better. Watching all those kids reminded me there is a reason for this nausea. I don't feel pregnant, yet. Truth be told, I think I've been holding myself and my emotions back so far. I'm not sure at what point this will begin to feel real to me. I suppose when we get to see a little heartbeat on the ultrasound I'll allow this all to sink in. Maybe then I'll really realize I'm growing a little, beautiful life inside me.

Until then I'm feeling very cautious. This is something I've waited my whole life for. I was the little girl who just wanted to be a mom when she grew up. I'm still that little girl. I still can't believe this is happening for us; I most definitely didn't think it would happen so quick. If I have to deal with a few months of nausea and some quality time in my bathroom so be it.

It's going to be SO worth it.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The First Sighting of Squirtle

This morning was our first visit to the doctor. When we arrived they gave me a stack of forms to fill out as well as a beautiful rose to say "Congratulations"; we thought this was a sweet gesture. Once we went to the exam room it became obvious that we were going to get an ultrasound- I wasn't expecting that! The doctor came in, did an exam and determined an estimated due date (EDD) of February 11. This would mean I was about 7 weeks along already. We then began the ultrasound.

During the ultrasound the doctor was able to see that I wasn't as far along as we'd originally thought. Apparently my cycle is longer than "normal" therefore I ovulate later. It's estimated that I'm only about 5 weeks along (Mom, that means Squirtle's the size of a sesame seed!) and it was too early to have a heartbeat. This was a bit disappointing to us. We have a follow up ultrasound scheduled for the morning of July 11.


That tiny white spec in the middle? That's the cutest little yolk sac we've ever seen!

The rest of the appointment consisted of me giving a urine and blood sample. The tech at the blood center wasn't very friendly and she had a hard time finding a vein to use. When she finally settled on one and began filling the vials my blood was coming very slowly. After a few minutes of watching my blood trickle into the 7th vial I started feeling queasy and light headed. I rushed into the bathroom just in time for my first "fruitful" bout of morning sickness. It was kinda awful.

Geoff and I headed home and he ran upstairs to put our rose in some water. He came back down to the car and said some of the petals had fallen off. By then I was in a bit of a *ahem* mood and didn't feel well so I was a little upset to hear this. When I came home this was the state of the rose:


That about sums up how I felt about the day.

My Boys Can Swim!

It's official: I do not have lazy sperm. Which is odd, considering how lazy I am.

As Miranda said, she took the test at about 5:30 in the morning. I was very much asleep. This quickly changed, as she burst out of the bathroom and put the test right in my face. My first reaction was "mm-hmm". My half-asleep state revealed my immediate feelings: with confirmation of my recent suspicion, all was right with the world. As I gained full consciousness, reality started to hit me. The ultimate goal had been achieved! Continuation of the species. In other words, an adorable little Miranda/Geoff amalgam was beginning its journey of life in my wife's uterus.

The ensuing 16 hours were a surreal blur. I barely remember being at work. My coworkers must have thought I was crazy, with the stupid grin plastered across my face all day. The evening consisted of being nearly squeezed to death by Kati, receiving baby clothes from Nancy (already), seeing more of our future when we visited Kelley and Dylan to impart the good news, and making the "best phone call we've ever had" to my parents. All in all, not a bad day. Not bad at all.

And thus begins our family blog, and our family. I couldn't be more excited, or more nervous.

Best 6 Month Birthday Present Ever

June 19th was my 1/2 year birthday (Yeah, we pay attention to those kinds of things. What of it?). I hadn't been feeling well for a few weeks. I worried that something was wrong, that I'd have to go to the doctor and run some tests, that my Endo was causing problems. Geoff, on the other hand, showed some "Daddy's Intuition" and felt strongly that I was pregnant and asked me to take a home pregnancy test. I relented, expecting a negative test just like in May. Last month I remember checking that little piece of plastic a dozen times, hoping that something would change and the second line would appear. Alas, no little line ever showed up and it was fairly heartbreaking for us. We decided then that this was going to be a long process and we just need to go with the flow and see what happens. Which is why I was just positive we'd get another negative test result. I resisted taking the test for a few days, thinking that if I just held out I'd start my period and avoid the whole ordeal.

Well, June 19th was different. I woke up at 5:30 and went to take the test as Geoff and I had agreed the night before. It was immediately positive, unlike the last month where I kept telling myself that it would take 5 minutes for us to be able to read the results. I swear I touched the thing and 2 pink lines appeared. They weren't faint, either. Heck, I think they were red. Go on, see for yourself!