Show me on the doll where the Dr. touched you...

Another visit to Dr. Patrick is behind me. I have another in 2 weeks. She loves to see me, what can I say. And she checks my cervix everytime and says, "Yep, feels good!" I think next time I will ask for at least dinner and a movie. I'm starting to feel positively easy. ;) But it is nice to know the baby isn't going to fall out. After the leep procedure I had a couple of years ago, they are worried things might not have knit together just right. That would be bad. Baby fall out, go boom. So, she is watching it. If my cervix starts being naughty they will throw in a couple stitches and I'll be good. Before I got pregnant, the thought of them needing to stitch my cervix closed to hold in the baby was horrifying. Now, not such a big deal. After I saw that tadpole on my first ultrasound I would let them stitch anything they wanted if it helped the baby. Luckily, they aren't that trigger happy. So far no stitches needed. Yay and stuff.

The heartbeat was 153. It sounds so strong and healthy! My own heart just melts every time I hear it. And doc says I am growing great, my uterus is all the way up to my belly button!

My blood sugars are still good. Next time I go in they are going to give me a glucose tolerance test. If I do well on that I won't have to stab myself as much. Cross your fingers and toes for me.

I will see Dr. Patrick on Dec. 11th and have my big ultrasound on the 12th. We hope to be able to see if it is a boy or a girl. We will put up what pics we can.

This pic is a very flattering one my dad got of my tummy at Thanksgiving. Hardy-har. But if you look really close you can almost see where the baby is! Amazing!

What's a doppler?

I'm a lucky snot. Overall, I haven't been sick hardly at all. There was that one incident with the ramen where I had to leave the house for a few hours. I only shout at the big white telephone every once in a while. Usually, it's if I get a whiff of something icky or if I see eggs on TV. Eggs on TV make me hurl. They always have them huge, in your face, and glistening. urrp. Brian warns me though. "Don't look!" Then tells me when it's all clear.
I get sleepy very easily and I don't have my usual stamina. Naps are lovely things. I get pain in my lower right abdominal quadrant sometimes when I stand up. Doc says that it is from ligaments stretching, that it's prefectly normal. I like normal.
Most of my appointments are pretty easy now. She asks me how I'm feeling. Then I promptly forget all the questions and concerns I had. I need to write this stuff down. Then she checks the baby's heartbeat. The first time she did this I was confused when she didn't crack out her stethoscope. Instead, she shot goo on my tummy and chuckled at my Halloween underpants. Then she grabbed this device about the size of my hand that had a little wand on the end of a cord. The wand squished around on my liberally greased tummy, a quick repetetive whooshing noise came from the speaker. The baby's heartbeat she said! I found out later that the device is called a doppler. Apparently, you can't hear the baby's heartbeat with a stethoscope until later (18 or 20 weeks?). But with a doppler you can hear it at ten. Ignorant me. But, I love the doppler. I wanted her to just hold that cold little wand on my tummy for an hour. I wanted to wallow in that whoosh of the heartbeat! But it was over too fast and it just seemed too surreal. She said the heartbeat was 173, at the next appointment it was 150, at my appointment I just had it was 153. Active li'l ticker.
My bloodwork all has come out good, except that I am anemic. Rats. More vitamins. They are really watching me for gestational diabetes, too. They said that my bloodwork was fine for it, but that they wanted me to test my blood anyway. So they sent me to the nutritionist at Mercy.
There were 2 other ladies in the class. They were both 7 months along and I was terribly jealous. Then I started getting confused. The teacher commented that we all had failed our glucose tolerance tests twice (No I didn't!). And talked about a few other tests and problems that I hadn't ever had. This was a class for women with gestational diabetes, she said. I don't have that! Hopefully I won't get it. Apparently, I looked very confused. The teacher asked me if I had a question. So, I explained that I didn't have bad tests or gestational diabetes, that the doc just wanted me to come to get the blood tester and some good advice on how I should be eating. She said that was fine and that it would mean a few differences between what she wanted me to follow and what she wanted the other ladies to be doing. Phew. So, they talked about a good diet and making sure that you didn't gain too much weight or have too much glucose in your blood. But they also talked about making sure that you don't lose weight. That is bad for the baby for several reasons, apparently it will release ketones in your blood that isn't good for the baby and also the baby won't get enough nutrients. Seemed pretty straightfoward, and we have been following their advice pretty well. Brian has been a huge help in this. He just on the bandwagon too and is completely supportive. He's an angel.
I'm also testing my blood. At first she had me do it everyday 2 hours after eatting. She looked at those numbers and said they were fine. Then she said to do it every other day. Once when I first wake up and then once 2 hours after eatting. No problem. It's very reassuring to have my glucose numbers be good. In a month or so they are going to give me a glucose tolerance test. If I do well on that she said I won't have to stab myself all the time anymore. Cross your fingers and toes.

On Dec. 12th we have another ultrasound. If the baby isn't mooning the camera, we should be able to see if it's a boy or a girl! Holly and Bridgette want a girl so badly. They watch too much Disney where little brothers are evil.

Yes, I'm a slacker

I admit, I had nice high expectations for myself when I started this blog. I would update it regularly! I would log all kinds of stuff for posterity. But when push comes to shove, and the choice is reading/watching TV/playing toontown/going to bed way early or typing on the baby blog, my choice has been laziness.
Bad mommy... no cookie.
So, hopefully this update will redeem me a bit.
So, I had that visit with my doc. And oh yeah, definitely pregnant. I was so anxious. I was convinced there would be something wrong, like I'd have a little alien-cthulhu baby. Is it alive? Does it have multiple heads? Is the heart beating ok?
So, I'm sure I sounded like a complete idiot to Dr. Patrick. She just chuckled at me and assured me that everything was fine and that the baby would be human.
She fondled me a bit and gave me a pap (which was fine, phew), then off to the ultrasoung room! I waited and pawed through the bag of pregnant lady goodies they gave me. She came in and turned down the lights and got started. And there on the screen was my baby! And there was definitely only one head! Huzzah! There was the little head, and I could see that tiny heart beating away. I was so overcome by wonder I cried. I could make out the head and heart easy, the rest was just a tadpole-ish shape. She said everything looked fine and that I was 7 weeks along. Wow! Then she printed me off a little picture and let me put my pants on. Next visit at 11 weeks.

Wait... It says what?!

So, last Thursday, August 31st, I decided it was time to pee on a stick.

I was 2 weeks late for my period. I went off birth control last spring. But I didn't feel pregnant. But, it had been 2 weeks. So, time to pee on the stick.

We waited until the girls had gone to bed. We cracked out the handy Walgreens Easy to Read Pregnancy Test. Bill and Marciana gave it to us several months ago. It was a 2 pack and they had only needed one, obviously. Bill wanted a really easy to understand one. No plus or minus or blue lines or pink lines. This test has a digital readout that will say "Pregnant", "Not Pregnant", or "Error" in easy to see text. It claims to be "over 99% accurate" and the Ob/Gyn office agrees.

Holy crap.

At this point I must say that using a pregnancy test is both awkward and embarrassing. We got through it. Brian held the readout while I thoroughly washed my hands. I says it takes up to 3 minutes to get a result. Brian grinned after a minute and put the readout in front of my eyes.

"Pregnant"

My response wasn't eloquent. I didn't hug Brian and tell him how much I loved him and how happy I was. I felt that way later. At that moment I grunted, "Nuh-uh!" I figured we just needed to let it sit for another minute and the "Not" would appear. Brian asked if I was happy. I said of course, but that the test was wrong. I think he laughed at me.

After 5 minutes I accepted that "not" wasn't going blip up on the little screen. I was happy but scared. It just couldn't be real. I can't get pregnant, right?

We decided to wake Holly. We figured that she was listening from her bed, but she really was asleep. A child after my own heart, she said "Nuh-uh!" when we told her. She also wanted to know if the test we showed her was a fake one we'd bought somewhere. Once we convinced her, she was so excited she could hardly go back to sleep.

We tried to tell Bridgette, but she would just look cross at us and try to pass out again. Brian told her in the morning.

So how exciting but scary. I went off birth control in the spring. After a couple of months I just figured I shouldn't get my hopes up. I figured I would likely never get pregnant, but that was OK because I had my stepdaughters and they were plenty enough for me. But I love my girls and wish I had known them as babies. Now I have an opportunity to know one of my little ones from the beginning. The girls are very excited, though Holly is less than pleased at having to give up her room. Poor kid.

So, I have an appointment with my Ob/Gyn, Dr. Patrick, on the 11th.

Wish me luck!

Melli

Umm... Hi

I had hoped, but I never let myself hope very hard. Then I just figured I would never get pregnant.

Well wasn't I just mistaken.
I'm all pregnant and stuff. : )
Very weird.
So here is where I'll write about it. I plan on being pretty honest and I'm not the type to beat around the bush, so if you don't want to hear something icky then don't read the journal.
So, I'm hoping for fun if occasionally gross!

Yay! Wish me luck! Pray for no nausea!
Melli