Gotta love a good prenatal visit!

I went in for my first centering meeting at Vandy on Tuesday and absolutely loved it. Here's the rundown.

-They showed us how to do our own blood pressure and weight checks. We'll record it into our charts each meeting and keep track of the changes. According to their scales, I've gained about 5 lbs. That's more than I thought I had, but it's pretty much where they expected me to be so that's not too bad. I'm still really paranoid about gaining too much, but I'm doing fine for now.

-We all had Doppler checks of baby's heart rate done. I warned them in advance that my anterior placenta made it really hard to find the hb last time. They were thankful that I let them know ahead of time, because they had an extremely difficult time finding it. After a couple full minutes of trying, they caught it for just long enough to say, "That sounded great!"

-Somehow, my urine analysis had failed last time. They either lost or spilled my pee, so I had to fill a new cup for them. So fun!

-Finally know my blood type. I'm A-neg. Which means that I get to get Rhogam shots at 28 weeks and right after the baby is born. I'm not super thrilled about that, but I'm really thankful that it's so easily taken care of with just a couple shots.

-We got our anatomy scan moved from May 10th to May 1st. Which means we're just about 1 month away from knowing if I'm carrying a boy or girl! Time seriously cannot move fast enough until then.

That's about it for this update. I feel like I could ramble nonstop about how cool it is to be pregnant, all the crazy emotions that go through my mind, etc etc. But that gets old for everyone else, so I'll try to create an update someday soon that has nothing to do with pregnancy.

Rediscovering my love for scrapbooking...again.

For most of my life, I've had absolutely no interest in scrapbooking. It looked like something that old ladies did. (And the fact that my own sweet grandmother scrapbooks only helped reinforce that idea in my mind.) But then I worked for a little while with a scrapbooking company, got a lot of free/lightly damaged goodies, and learned how awesome it could be. It lets you be artistic without having to possess an ounce of drawing or painting ability.

After we lost our first baby, I put scrapbooking on hold. I had scrapped a few layouts of my bloat, and while I couldn't bring myself to throw them away, I also couldn't stand to see them. I had so looked forward to scrapping pictures of the ultrasounds and then the baby, and I felt like that had been stolen from me. But today I was looking at layouts on www.studiocalico.com (yep, company I used to work for) and saw some seriously cute baby ones. I decided to be brave and go ahead and do a layout with one of our ultrasound pictures.

I'm a perfectionist when it comes to any and all things baby related, so I still am not sure if I'm done with this layout. But DH likes it, and I'm afraid to keep going in case I make it look overdone. I tried to keep it fairly gender neutral since we don't know if it's a boy or girl, but I couldn't resist throwing in a little pink. (I really, really like pink.) And buttons.

I really need to start documenting this whole pregnancy journey better. Maybe I can use my bump progess cellphone pictures to make some kind of moderately cute scrapbook layout. Anyone have some motivation and creativity for sale?

Oh, allergies...

The pollen. Please, someone make it stop. I can't breathe through my nose. The Neti pot brings no relief. It's starting to leave blood on the tissues from my frequent nose blowing, and I almost threw up in the sink from gagging on the drainage down the back of my throat.

The weather is beautiful, I won't deny that. For days now, I've left the windows and back door open to let the beautiful warm air in (which is stopping now as I hide indoors from the pollen) and it kept us from having to run the air conditioning. But my car is covered with a fine sheen of yellow tree pollen, and my sinuses are screaming for relief. Sinus headaches are the worst. I don't want to dope myself up because I'm very hesitant to take medication while pregnant, so maybe I'll have to resort to using the Neti pot several times a day. Of course, I'm paranoid about using the Neti pot now because of the people who died from amoebas in the water that crawled into their brains...

DH and I are working to get our bedroom/baby room organized. My FIL is bringing us some furniture this weekend and we need to get that room cleaned up so that we can have space for the fairly large furniture. I found the PERFECT nursery online, and emailed the link to my mom and MIL, and they both were totally in love. Showed it to DH and he smiled and said, "You're going to hate me, because I don't like that at all." I laughed and told him that I really don't care if he dislikes it...I'm doing it anyway lol. With some mild color tweaking, it would work for a boy or a girl, so I'm pretty much sold. It'll take work to talk DH into it but I think realistically, he doesn't care THAT much.

Speaking of baby, I'm 14 weeks pregnant now. Things are going great, as far as I can tell. I can feel a lot of stretching and pulling sensations, but no movement yet. (Darn that anterior placenta.) It gets uncomfortable at times, and I had my first experience with RLP the other day, but it's reassuring because I know those things are normal. I have my centering group meeting on Tuesday and my mom gets to go with me, so I'm looking forward to that. Things are going fairly smoothly in our lives here, and what a blessing that is.

I'll try to update a little more consistently, but to be honest, I'm losing my drive to post. Lots of reasons for that, but for the sake of my audience of 2, I'll work on my motivation issues.

13 can be a lucky number!

How far along? 13 weeks!

Weight gain/loss: I've been a little, um, "backed up", gastrointestinally speaking, so it's thrown my numbers off...but the scale today said 125. We'll go with that.

Feeling: Pretty good! I've been incredibly emotional the last few days, and a little irritable, but the nausea is pretty rare now which is a blessing.

Maternity clothes? They're starting to be more and more appealing. My normal jeans had been fitting just fine, but with the enormous bloat, it's getting extremely uncomfortable. I've been pretty much living in sweatpants around the house.

Sleep: Decent, but still not great. I'm still waking up super frequently to pee, but I think that if I could stop doing that, I'd probably sleep pretty well.

Food cravings: Protein. I ate boiled eggs today with spicy mustard and it was amazing.

Movement? None so far. I have an anterior placenta so they said it'll be at least another month before I feel anything. I can feel a lot of stretching and cramping at this point, which makes me nervous, but I know logically it's a normal part of the process.

What I miss? Artificial sweetener. Never realized how much stuff it was in!

Best moment this week: DH getting off of work early, and getting to cook dinner together before church and have a nice meal.

What I'm looking forward to: A ladies Bible study this weekend with some wonderful friends!

Next appointment: Not until May 10th. Such a long wait!

Milestones: 2nd trimester!!!! I got a little emotional today realizing how far we've come. I can't believe how big this baby is getting. Love this little guy or girl SO much.

Since people wanted to see a picture of the blump, here ya go. Please bear in mind that this is a blump, not a real bump. Also, pardon my spotty mirror.

Last week of 1st trimester, woohoo!

I'm stealing this pregnancy update from Mchupie so I don't take credit for any of it! (Except my answers, obviously.)



How far along? 12 weeks

Weight gain/loss: Still at 124, so down about 3 lbs from pre-pregnancy weight.

Feeling: Tired, but that might just be from getting up 6 times last night to pee. Nausea is almost entirely gone, but I have to keep food in my stomach or it creeps back up.

Maternity clothes? None really, yet. I have a couple maternity tops that I wear sometimes, but more because I like them than because I need them.

Sleep: A challenge. I've been waking up so much to go to the bathroom, and I feel like it's just impossible to get comfortable. I'm trying to convince DH that I need a Snoogle.

Food cravings: Comfort food. Cornbread, chicken and dumplings, etc.

Movement? None so far. I have an anterior placenta so they said it'll be at least another month before I feel anything.

What I miss? Sleep. Beautiful, glorious sleep.

Best moment this week: Not heading into work on Monday, because I'm now a SAHW!

What I'm looking forward to: Heading to Arkansas this weekend to see my grandparents. DH has barely ever met them so this should be fun. :)

Next appointment: I've got my group meeting with other KU ladies on the 27th, but the next REAL appointment is May 10th. Anatomy scan, yay!

Milestones: Baby's reflexes are active now! If I push on my belly, baby will startle and move, although I can't feel any of it for now.

I really am looking forward to my centering appointment. Basically, women who are in the midwife-based program all get together once or twice a month at the clinic for classes, discussion, education, etc. It's all women who are due in September, so it'll be cool to get to interact with other ladies who are as far along as me and have different birthplans and experiences. The first appointment for that is the 27th of this month, so not too long to wait. :)

Movin' on up!

Yesterday was a fantastic day, despite the fact that our entire area was slammed with some pretty bad weather. (Tornadoes, hail, strong winds and thunderstorms, etc.)

DH took the day off and used the morning to go get his yearly checkup done. The doctor's office took their sweet time and made him wait for a couple hours, and he barely got home in time for us to leave for my appointment. But we made it on time (and managed to stop at Panera for some cinnamon crunch bagels for lunch) and checked in at the doctor's office. The nurse took my blood pressure and temperature, and then a couple other nurses came in to record my family medical history and let me know a little more about what to expect and how the whole midwife experience works at Vanderbilt. I'm going to be part of a program called "Centering", which means I'll be meeting for a few weeks with other women due in September and taking group classes, etc. I'm looking forward to it!

The midwife came in, and I really liked her a lot. We chatted about baby-related things, and then she had me lay down on the little table. She whipped out the Doppler and said, "We might not be able to hear anything yet, but what's the fun in not trying, right?" It took her a minute to find it, but there it was! What a relief.

After that, they sent me over to the ultrasound department, and they got me back to a room super quickly, which was great. She told me it was going to be an "internal" (ahem) ultrasound, but I balked and she said we could try the transabdominal instead. (I'm glad I said something, because we could see everything juuuust fine.) The tech turned off the lights, and DH and I had our own tv screen to watch everything on. There was baby, laying still but the little heart very visible and beating. I was a little bummed that s/he wasn't moving around, but then all of a sudden s/he startled and threw those tiny little arms in the air, and started arching that back and wiggling the legs. I burst into tears at the sheer awesomeness of it. It was so crazy, seeing this baby move and not being able to feel a bit of it. The tech said everything looks perfect. Showed us the feet with the little ankles crossed, and baby gave us a great show. She moved my due date to September 19th instead of the 21st because instead of measuring 10w5d, baby was at 11w2d. Cool! She printed up three pictures for us and sent us down to the lab for my bloodwork.

I was really anxious about the bloodwork because last time I had a draw, it went really poorly. The phlebotomist was very reassuring and told me it'd all be fine. She tied off my arm, and I just looked away because if I don't see it, it won't make me sick. It didn't take long before it was done, and I looked over as she had me hold gauze on the hole. Eight vials of blood! I was surprised. Never had that much drawn before. She said it's standard for them to draw a lot from pregnant ladies because of all the tests they'll run. She got me some apple juice and graham crackers and congratulated us, and we were done for the day. It was truly a great experience, although I am really bruised from the draw. Totally worth it.

So the baby that looked like a bean last time, actually looks like a baby now! Here's our most recent picture of Baby K, waving hi. :)

We are super blessed. Couldn't have asked for a better experience. And most importantly, this baby is healthy and OURS. God is good.