Wednesday, January 28, 2009

It looks like a baby!

Yay! We had our NT scan yesterday and got to see the little bambino. For you who don't know what that is, NT stands for nuchal translucency. Basically it is a no-risk test they can do this early to detect high risk for down syndrome and some other defects. The test is an ultrasound to measure the length on the back of the baby's neck. You can kinda see it over there. It is a thin little membrane. If it is very thick, your risk increases. They also supplement with a finger prick for some followup at the lab. For more on NT scans, check out BabyCenter. Anyway, we didn't see any of the doctors but rather an ultrasound tech. She was super sweet and let us look all around at the little munskin. She looked at the feet and the head (freaking alien eyes). He/she was even doing little flips in there! You can see the little fingers in this pic! She said the full results would be back in around 10 days but the measurements looked fine and in the normal range. The heartbeat was pumping strong at around 170bpm. That's my thumper!

This was my "all systems go" for telling people and I really haven't stopped. 2 girls at work already knew but that was it. I think I have told almost everyone now...with a few left to do tomorrow. I am leaving the Manns up to Kevin. I emailed Niral and Catherine today with the pics and have dinner with Chele tomorrow. I am keeping a running total of how many people I can make cry in 1 week. I think I have 5 now. I can't wait for some of the Mann's to know :).

Well since I am winding down the first trimester, my symptoms are wearing off a bit. No more nausea and NO MORE SORE BOOBS! YAY! I can finally sleep with no bra again. Now the only things I have are some lightheadedness that sometimes forms into a headache and slight heartburn in the evenings. Nothing really to worry over. I am not really "showing" yet. I can wear all my normal pants (not my super small ones) but they aren't alway comfortable. One big thing is since my boobs are bigger, all my shirts are getting shorter! Anyway I am going to go look at Bella bands this weekend. I hear all kinds of rave reviews about it throughout pregnancy and even after. We shall see. I am enjoying wearing my fat jeans today actually!

Well here are more pics of the little tyke. I am super happy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/bemann/LittleMann?authkey=Vv_o1oUANrA#

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Happy 10 Weeks!

Here is the update from baby center. I hope everything is going ok in there little one. I am still nauseous off and on throughout the day, my boobs are still like rocks, and I am still having to pee at night. Hopefully those are all good signs. On the belly front, I don't think I have much of anything. If anything, I just have the usual pudge around the middle. Before pregnant, it would come and go depending on the workout I did that day or something like that. Now it never really goes away. I can tell that my lower abdomen is a little harder and not as flat but I don't think anyone but me would notice. If baby center is right, I sure can hide a grapefruit! O well. Nothing much else to report. O I crave fruit. I went last night and bought tons of it. Speaking of....its banana time!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

The symptoms

The first question I get when I tell people is "How are you feeling?". I shall explain that here. Here we go.

WARNING: This post contains gross stuff!

Boobs
This was the first sign I was pregnant. Same as before....except I was SURE this time. I used to get sore boobs before every period. Ever since the last pregnancy, my periods have been anything but normal. I haven't had sore boobs in 8 months....so when they showed up, I was positive...literally. Within the past weeks, I have already gone up 1 bra size and they don't look (or feel) like stoppin. I spend maybe 3 hours a day not in a bra. I sleep in a bra because I roll over on them. It's quite funny. The latest development is the extreme itching. It kicks in at night mostly even though I have made a trip to the bathroom at work just to scratch. It is the skin stretching to make room for more :). So in summary, my boobs hurt and itch...nuff said.

Progesterone Poisoning
When we first went to the doctor back in February, the doc recommended that I read this one book The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy. While it is a hilarious book, it is also a great read on symptoms by other women...not doctors. I highly recommend. Anyways, she decided that since morning sickness is such a misleading term, that she would coin her own word to better explain. She calls it progesterone poisoning. It is actually very true. You get sick because your body is trying to get used to the high levels of HCG and progrestrone in your system. Now it affects everyone differently. I haven't got it very bad. I get nausous but I never have thrown up. I usually get a wave when I am getting ready in the morning before I have eaten. Then I get a wave before lunch...it doesn't seem to be food related though. Then at night it kicks into a higher gear. I get some heartburn but not too bad. I changed to taking my prenatals to night time and that has seemed to help.

Bloodhound Smelling Capabilities
Now while I can't smell everything in super human strengths, anything that will make me want to hurl, I can smell from a mile away. The worst yet was walking into Kilwins in Blowing Rock over Christmas. The smell of fudge and popcorn really about sent me running to a trash can. I turned around and left immediately. Last night even, we were sitting on the couch watching tv and I could smell the garbage like I was sticking my head in it. I made Kevin go and take it out right then.

Sniffle Sniffle
While pregnant, the membranes in your body secrete more of their usually bodily fluids to prepare for the baby. The main point is to loosen up your cervix and other lady parts but your body just starts to do it in other places. That includes your nose. So I am sniffly all day. Not like being sick but enough to make me sound like a 7 year old who won't blow her nose. THEN to top it all off, at night, the heat drys it up and I keep waking up to a whistling nose. Ugh. I set up the humidifier the other night and that seems to help. I can't wait for warmer weather.

Gas
Long story short, I have a lot. For you prego newbies, this is because your hormones slow down your digestive track to strip every nutrient out of your food. This also means your food sits in your stomach and intestines longer. They build up gas and BAM. Fun stuff.

Anyway, there are other minor symptoms but nothing really worth noting. I have stretching and bloating in the belly region, but that is just exciting. I would like to say that I LOVE all these symptoms. Everytime I get a wave of nausea, I wince for a second but then I smile ear to ear. Thumper and I had a talk the other day on the work (alright I didn't all the talkin) and I told him/her that it was ok to make mommy sick. The more sick I am, the better I think Thumper is doing. Some studies have said that more sickness means the pregnancy is going well. Who knows if this is true, but I take it as some kind of external sign that things are going well. Well 1.5 more weeks to go until we get to see the little bean again!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Welcome Thumper!

Well since no one is really paying attention to this blog right now, I think I am safe to announce we are officially on round 2! I found out I was pregnant on December 5th with a little joy mixed with a lot of panic laced in there. We decided not to tell anyone until we had our first appointment....just in case. Our appointment was set for Dec 22nd. I figured it was perfect so we could find out and then be able to share the good news on Christmas with the families.

So there I was, waiting close to 2 weeks with no reassurance. I did a few panic calls to Jan at healthcare to see if I could come have blood drawn for beta levels. We talked a good bit and she talked me out of it. Her reasoning was right. If we found they weren't doubling, there was nothing we could do anyway. It was still nice to talk to her. She has been great over the past 8 months. She has dealt with my slight hypochondriacness. After one horrible cycle of uncertainty and weird stuff going on, she was just nice to take the 15 minute appointment to talk with me and provide me with enough reassurance that I could go on. So technically I told Jan before the appointment but that doesn't really count. She was really excited though...she figured out my respective due date at the time and said she was putting it on her calendar :).

We had a lot going on at work so I was able to pass the time pretty quickly. On that Monday, I was giddy with excitement. Luckily, no one was at work that week so I didn't have to hide it much....plus the whole work fiasco (see the Mann Clan for more details) was a distraction. So we arrived at the appointment and I got to see my favorite nurse Judy. She went through the motions with weight/BP/crazy blood draw. We then got to go talk to Dr. Seidel. I just love him :). When we walk up he asked if we wanted to go see first or talk. I figured it would still be there if we waited. We went through the obligatory do/don'ts but he knew I remembered for before so it was really quick. We kidded around and everything. He asked how I was feeling and I said I was slightly nasous but not throwing up or anything. He said "very good". Oddly enough, I share that sentament. :) More on that later. Anyway, we bebopped in, dropped the pants and voila! I turned away from the screen until he said something positive. I don't know why but it just made me more comfortable. He said everything looks great and healthy. I was measuring behind 1 week from their old school prediction but I expected this because I have a 35 day cycle and not a 28 like they base it off of. So 6w6d. We passed the point of Pumpkin...that was a big sigh of relief. Then he zoomed in to see the little heartbeat flicker. Now remember we saw this(or thought we did) before. Kevin said this was much more noticable. He zoomed in some more and turned the sound on and we got to hear the swoosh swoosh :). It showed the frequency and everything right on the screen. He didn't do that before. So that made me more hopeful. He said you can't get an exact heartbeat count at that early but it was about 135-140 he guessed by what he could get with the machine. Right on target! I left super happy with 3 pictures in hand. When we got home, Kevin said that heartbeat was just pounding away. It made me think of the name Thumper. Gender neutral and cute. So there...Thumper it is.

Our next appointment is set for Jan. 21st. I will be 11w1d. I have decided that if it goes well, I am ready to tell other people. It is technically a little earlier than is recommended but I won't have another appointment before 12 weeks anyway....so nothing changes for me.

I am going to cut the post off now. I will post more about telling people and symptoms later.

O and the due date is set for August 11th...good ole sweaty August :)