Tuesday July 1st

I had my first prenatal appointment today. It was kind of disappointing. All they did was answer questions and do a routine exam - breast check, pap etc, and give me paperwork to go get some blood tests (which I am doing later today - Thursday). This appointment was with a nurse practitioner, Jessica Brownrigg.

The good news is that they have me scheduled for an ultrasound next Friday - so we should know then that everything is where it is supposed to be, and I should be able to hear the heart beat. I am so excited for that!

My next appointment with Dr. Feldman is on July 22.

Wow!

It was so much fun to read the blog! It is exciting to "watch the baby grow". It is so cool that there is so much information out there to keep us up to date!

 

I love hearing all about your experience and your feelings. I love the way you are so out there with what you are experiencing! When you read back on all of this you will be amazed at how much you are actually feeling!

 

It is a miracle, just like you! It is a lot to take it and process. This is just the beginning of an amazing journey!

 

Thank you so much for sharing all this with us!

 

I love it when you wrote......"I'm having a baby....I'm having a baby!"

 

Amazing! I'm going to be a Grandma! WooHoo!

 

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Telling People

Telling people has been so much fun! So far, we've told my mom (Patty) and Bobby, Grant's mom (Donna), Danny, Angie, and Nanci and John.

We told Mom and Bobby first because we couldn't tell them in person. Needless to say, they were excited! We had shipped them a journal called "Memories for my Grandchild," with strict orders not to open the box until we said they could. (We implied that the package had something to do with the cruise.) When they opened it, they were like, "What's this, wait, what? Are you? No, you're... are you?" followed by some screaming and general excitement about the whole situation.

Next we told Danny (because we suspected that he overheard Mom's screaming through the telephone wires...)

We told Donna the same way we told Mom and Bobby - by giving her the journal. It was fun watching her face when she realized what the journal was telling her! Later on, we went through the journal and looked at some of the questions - she had a similar journal that she had given her mom to fill out, but Grant's Grandma didn't fill it out very thoughrally... She also gave me some neat books...

We went to visit Grant's grandma, Adair (his dad's mom) who is on hospice right now. Nanci and John were there, and since we don't see them in person very often, I went ahead and told them since I thought it would be more fun in person. (Which it was!)

Finally, Angie and the kids came over. I said, "Hey Cori, guess what? I have a baby in my tummy!" Angie started laughing and then it dawned on her what I said - her scream was almost as loud as my Mom's! "I'm going to be an Aunt!" And then Andrew says, "Does that mean we're getting anothe cousin! Wahoo!" And then Cori came over and laid her head on my belly while patting it with her and, sort of hugging it, saying, "Hello cousin! Hello baby!" That was SO precious!"

Left to tell in person before I send out the mass email:
Dad (Bob) and Delaine, Grant's Dad (Gary), Tammy, Cathy and Katherine, and I have to call Andy, and Grant needs to call Blake...

General thoughts

I am excited about my first appointment.

I still think it is funny that a container of Pringles could taste so good that it made me cry.

I've had food dreams for the past two days. Weird, but good because it makes it much easier to eat first thing in the morning, which I didn't like to do before. (The first night, I dreamt about what I wanted to get at the grocery store - which Grant and I later went out and bought - this list included celery and peanut butter, cheese, salami, yogurt, apples and cinnamon cream of wheat (which they didn't have), a box of cereal and some milk, cottage cheese, and of course pringles. Last night I dreamt about a dessert buffet - just baked chocolate chip cookies, pecan brownies, pumpkin pie... don't worry, I am not going out to buy all that!)

I was pretty tired all day yesterday - I went to bed at 10 and woke up at 6. So it has been frustrating that although I am tired, I can't sleep in. I may try taking a nap today - I've never been very good at it and usually feel like crap after wards, so we'll see. I'd love is I could move my schedule up just a bit - like say 11 - 7 or 11:30 - 7:30 ish.

My body feels weird. It feels crowded in my lower belly - like everything is struggling to find a place to fit. (Full disclosure now - don't get all wiggy on me...) When I have to go to the bathroom, it's like I need to go now, because there just isn't room for it to sit around and wait for a convenient time. And same with gas - this kid is definitely Grant's because it makes me fart all of the time! Hee hee!

7 weeks

Your pregnancy: 7 weeks

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

The big news this week: Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs — although they look more like paddles at this point than the tiny, pudgy extremities you're daydreaming about holding and tickling. Technically, your baby is still considered an embryo and has something of a small tail, which is an extension of her tailbone. The tail will disappear within a few weeks, but that's the only thing getting smaller. Your baby has doubled in size since last week and now measures half an inch long, about the size of a blueberry.

If you could see inside your womb, you'd spot eyelid folds partially covering her peepers, which already have some color, as well as the tip of her nose and tiny veins beneath parchment-thin skin. Both hemispheres of your baby's brain are growing, and her liver is churning out red blood cells until her bone marrow forms and takes over this role. She also has an appendix and a pancreas, which will eventually produce the hormone insulin to aid in digestion. A loop in your baby's growing intestines is bulging into her umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from her tiny body.

See what's going on in your uterus this week.

Note: Every baby develops a little differently — even in the womb. Our information is designed to give you a general idea of your baby's development.

How your life's changing:

Your uterus has doubled in size in the past five weeks, and eating may feel like a chore — or worse — thanks to morning sickness, which by now may be in full swing. (If you're feeling fine, don't worry — you're lucky!)

You may need to pee more than usual, too, thanks to your increasing blood volume and the extra fluid being processed through your kidneys. (By now, you already have about 10 percent more blood than you did before you were pregnant. And by the end of your pregnancy, you'll have 40 to 45 percent more blood running through your veins to meet the demands of your full-term baby.) As your uterus grows, pressure on your bladder will send you to the bathroom as well.

About half of the women who feel nauseated during the first trimester will find complete relief by about 14 weeks. For most of the rest, it'll take another month or so for the queasiness to ease up. It's unlikely, though, that the need to pee more than usual will ease up. In fact, research shows that both the frequency and volume of urine tends to increase over the course of pregnancy.

moody

Yesterday was hard for me. No morning sickness, exactly. (Is that strange? I haven't had any since Saturday and Sunday? Yeah for me!) But yeaterday I just felt yucky all day. Tired and moody. I wasn't hungry, but on the train the trolley guy walked buy and he had pringles and twix and I bought them and the pringles were so good that I cried. How weird is that?

Monday

No morning sickness today! Hurrah!

Apparently, this is an off and on thing?

morning sickness

I was feeling yucky again this morning - It didn't last long and it wasn't too severe, but for a while I was feeling pretty crummy. It was hard to hide from Gary! In fact, I couldn't - I just told him I wasn't feeling gret but that I'd feel better after breakfast - which was semi true but easier to hide when we were up and walking.

Riding the bike this morning was nice - it got my mind off of how I was feeling until the sickness passed. Again, no throwing up!

6 weeks

This week's major developments: The nose, mouth, and ears that you'll spend so much time kissing in eight months are beginning to take shape. If you could see into your uterus, you'd find an oversize head and dark spots where your baby's eyes and nostrils are starting to form. His emerging ears are marked by small depressions on the sides of the head, and his arms and legs by protruding buds. His heart is beating about 100 to 160 times a minute — almost twice as fast as yours — and blood is beginning to course through his body. His intestines are developing, and the bud of tissue that will give rise to his lungs has appeared. His pituitary gland is forming, as are the rest of his brain, muscles, and bones. Right now, your baby is a quarter of an inch long, about the size of a lentil bean.

Morning Sickness

I think I had my first official day of morning sickness. (I survived the flight to Amsterdam with no problems!)

My morning sickness hit as we walked through the stalls of the street market - it was the roasting chicken that really set me off - although the fish, and even the cheese stalls were making me feel queasy.

No actual throwing up, just queasiness, and not awful, considering how much I was tempting fate walking through the market in the first place! It was only bad for about an hour, and I was feeling completely normal by about 5 hours after I had woken up. Not bad at all (I didn't start feeling sick until after i;d been up about 2 hours -again, once I got to the market. It might have been smell aversions, and not morning sickness...)

Not feeling too overly tired, so that is good! ::fingers crossed:::