Third Appointment at the Birthing Center!

Today I had an appointment at ABC and I showed up late! Eek! I am never late, but I thought the appointment was for 9:30 and it was actually for 9, so we had to rush through it a bit. Some good news it that I have gained 10 lbs, bringing me back to my pre-pregnancy weight. So, I am half way through this thing and have gained zero pounds. I was a little surprised by this, since my belly sticks out a bit now, but I suppose maybe I have always had a pot belly an was just to vain to recognize it. (joke?) Anyway, in the next 20 weeks if I can manage to only gain 30 lbs I will consider it all a success. I was never really too concerned with gaining pregnancy weight until it was pointed out to me that gaining excessive weight in pregnancy leads to higher birth weights and therefore birth complications (i.e. the baby gets stuck). Since I am trying to do this all natural, I would really like to avoid that at all costs. Here is to me keeping up my walking and yoga, and keeping my french fry gorging to minimum. Also, today my midwife felt around on my tummy after she did the Doppler and informed me that I am measuring well an that I am "at umbilicus", which means my uterus has grown up to my belly button. Yippee!

Current Stats:

How far along: 19 weeks
Weight gain: none, zip, nada, 0lbs
Cravings:  food. all of it. tacos and fruit are the best.
Sleep: creepy, insane, awful dreams and dreams about food.
Moods: Forrest says I have been more normal than before I was preg. (no PMS?)
Stretch Marks: not yet...
What I Miss: being able to rough house with people/my dogs/etc
Milestones: tons of kicking!
Looking Forward To: sonogram next week to tell the gender!!

So, this Monday I have my next appointment and I can't wait! Who would ever have thought a person could be so excited to see a medical professional? Also I am seriously excited for Christmas-- it seems my excitement is inversely proportional to the temperature outside.

Point of the post? I totally feel the baby kicking all the time now! The first few times I was in disbelief but it really feels like nothing I have ever felt. Earlier in my pregnancy I was told by several moms and read in several books that it would first feel like a "flutter". I literally never felt anything that I would describe as a flutter. It essentially went from nothing to full on kicks. Well, I suppose they would  be better described as pokes, since they are soft and don't hurt. What's weirder is that the first time I felt them it wasn't just in my belly, but rather I felt it with my hand. It was the night of game 7 for the Rangers and I just couldn't watch anymore so I went to lie down and had my hands resting on my tummy. All of a sudden I felt a "poke! poke!" on my right hand and immediately froze with disbelief. A few seconds later I felt the same thing but on the other hand and yelled for Forrest to come feel. Needless to say the baby has still never kicked while he was feeling for it, but hopefully someday soon. Since then I feel it all the time without my hand having to be there, but it is always equally thrilling.

Next post will be about the appointment, and then the week after....gender reveal!

This Month's Midwife Visit, and More!

This past Thursday I had my second monthly appointment at ABC, and since it was during lunch time Forrest got to come with! It was just a general "how are you feeling?" and "any issues lately?" sort of a thing along with my blood pressure and such. One thing to note that the midwife (I got to see the sweet Mrs.Carol this time) got a little miffed about was the fact that I had lost 10 lbs in one month since I last had an appointment. Oops. I blame it partly on the resolution of my...errmm..."gastrointestinal issues", but she thinks that I need to start carrying around cheerios or something with me and eating more frequently. I jumped right on that train and have kept a gallon sized bag of the little yum-yum's in my bed ever since. Guess what!?!? I haven't really gotten sick since then. I think my blood sugar may have a lot to do with my vomiting. Anyhoo, another really neat part of this appointment was that Forrest got to hear the baby's heartbeat via the Doppler. Quite a few times we would hear a funny "whoosh!" and she told us that was him/her kicking! Carol said the baby kicked a lot more than is typical. Karate star? Perhaps. Am I looking forward to feeling those "frequent" kicks at full blast in 5 months at midnight....Yikes.

Other tidbits:

Weight gain/loss: minus 10 lbs
Cravings: Morningstar vegetarian chicken nuggets
Belly growth: barely
Sleep: I suddenly have allergies, so not very good.
What I miss: As much coffee as I want and a clean house. (they go hand in hand)

The most recent appointment I had at the birthing center (last week) was my 10 week checkup. In reality, it was more like my first "real" appointment. I got to talk extensively with the midwife (there are several, but this is the only one I have met so far) and she asked me a slew of questions about my health and how things were going with my pregnancy. She also used a Doppler to check my belly buddy's heart beat. She warned me that this early is was trickier to find and might take a bit. After waiting FOREVER about two minutes she found the most beautiful sound that I have ever heard in my entire life! 170 BPM! I was so pleased and now I just cannot wait to hear it again next month. She also gave me a hug before I left. I love being crunchy.

This is a picture of me at 12 weeks. It is a terrible picture, and also the best we could do this morning at 7:30 before Forrest had to get to work!

My belly is definitely sticking out a bit, but it does not look "baby big" yet, so I just look like I ate a few too many burritos. Oh well, gotta start somewhere, right??

This week I have noticed a steep drop in my nausea and much awaited reappearance of my characteristic hyper energy. Forrest is just glad that he doesn't have to do any more dishes or laundry while I wallow in self pity. I AM BACK IN BUSINESS, FOLKS! Hopefully this means I will be able to keep up with blogging better, too!

My New Drug Addiction

I promised myself I would be doing weekly posts throughout my pregnancy, but alas, this post is a few days later than planned. I have a valid excuse though-- I almost died. Well, that is what it felt like at least. I hit the nausea part of pregnancy last week and I hit it HARD. So much for having a clean toilet bowl when all you can do is lean over the side of the bed to chunder into a bucket and hope nothing comes out of your nose (yes, it did). After several attempts at telling myself and others I could do it without Zofran, since I realllllly wanted to avoid the...ahem..."side effects" that come along with it, I caved. Letting that first pill dissolve on my tongue and slowly starting to feel like a human again had me immediately hooked. Two days later, of course, there were repercussions, i.e. a big glass of prune juice with Miralax dissolved in it and a few other details and wailing's we won't go through. Either way, I highly recommend this miracle drug. I think Forrest does too, as he was surely getting tired of me rolling around in bed and crying about how "I was never going to do this again" and "Why can't I just go ahead and die already". Dramatic? Yes, but I never denied I was a complainer before our nuptials. Accurate assessment of how I felt? Also, yes.

Other annoying things about my first trimester of pregnancy:

My mouth ALWAYS tastes bad

My nose bleeds when I blow it in the mornings

I vacillate from exhaustion to insomnia every few days

Even with the Zofran food always sounds, tastes, and smells icky

This is what my belly buddy should be looking like by the end of the week...

This may be the pregnancy hormones talking, but how stinkin' cute!!

I also decided that I would take a belly picture every month, so this Sunday I will put up 8 weeks, though I doubt it will be too impressive. 

First Appointment at the Birthing Center

     Today Forrest and I met with the administrative director and one of the nurse-midwives at ABC. They were both really nice, welcoming ladies and we were quite pleased with the experience and the the answers we got to all of our questions. First we were shown around the center, which is essentially just a converted historic home. BEAUTIFUL. Both of the suites have birthing tubs (score!) and are decorated with lovely and comfortable linens and homey accents. After asking a slew of questions of the admin lady we realized that it would actually be MORE cost effective to use ABC than a hospital when all is said and done. After we had all our financial questions squared away we spoke with the midwife and I rather awkwardly jumped to the question "How will you know if I am a good candidate??!" She asked me several personal and family health questions and basically assessed whether or not I was really educated on what it all entailed. After regurgitating to her all the things I learned via school, books, and the wisdom of others in the fashion of a teenage girl trying to get picked for the cheer-leading team, she smiled and said it was clear that I knew what I wanted and that I would be fine.

     My first real appointment is when I am 10 weeks, and I cancelled any further appointments with my OBGYN. Sonograms are (unless something unhealthy is suspected) not really necessary and are costed out separately at ABC, so I decided to just get one done when I am 20 weeks to find out the sex, and then forgo any others. I will have an appointment once a month starting at 10 weeks, then twice a month after 28 weeks, then once a week after 36 weeks. Forrest and I are also going to be enrolling in Bradley classes starting in January. It was hilarious because the midwife and I were going back and forth discussing the Bradley class that they offer and finally I looked back at Forrest next to me on the couch nodding with a smile (basically what I look like when he asks insurance questions) and realized he had no idea what we were talking about. I quietly turned to him and said "Bradley is like Lamaze". He was pleased to be clued in as to what the heck was going on.

     Finally, I am really starting to feel the nausea now. This morning I woke up and immediately realized I had a limited number of minutes to eat something before I got sick. I quickly tried to whip up a fruit smoothie and before I could finish I was dry heaving into the kitchen sink. I then had to settle for three rice cakes, seeing as how after the nausea gets bad NOTHING sounds remotely edible that has any flavor. I am a bit nervous to go to work tomorrow. I wonder what they will think when I stop every hour to have a snack. Oh well. Worst case scenario I get fired and get to stay in bed sick instead, right? Sounds like a win win to me.
   

Number of weeks: 6 and 1 day
Symptoms: Still pretty tired and the nausea has begun. If I ever let my stomach get even half empty I start to feel pukey AND I have to stick to eating certain things, i.e. nothing too flavorful. Oh, and my pee is BRIGHT yellow like a hilighter no matter how much water I drink.
Cravings: Nectarines! 

New News Is Good News!

As per Sarah Giles suggestion I have decided to start keeping up with my blog again, especially now that I have some exciting things to blog about! As most of our friends and family already know, after about 10 months of "trying", Forrest and I finally got a bun to start baking in the ol' oven and we are simply ecstatic. Here are the stats so far on the whole experience...

Number of weeks: 5 and 1 day
Due date: April 3rd
Weight gain: minus 5 lbs (not sure why?)
Symptoms: Super dry/cracked lips, 4am insomnia, weepy at silly things, and EXHAUSTED.
Cravings: Avocado frozen yogurt...or anything frozen and fruity. Hot food makes me feel nauseous.

That is about all I have so far, since it is still very early in the pregnancy. I went to see my OBGYN last week and they just drew blood and made me pee in a cup, but I am scheduled to get a sonogram in 2 weeks to hear the heart beat. I might be cancelling that appointment, however. This is because Forrest and I have an appointment to meet with a certified nurse midwife at the Allen Birthing Center (heretofore dubbed "ABC") this coming Monday to see if I am a "good candidate" for an out-of-hospital birth. If they decide I am and everything else checks out, i.e. price, then we will quit the regular OB and I will be completely cared for by the "hippie ladies", as my sisters would call them. To be entirely honest I am a little nervous about the decision to do it since my whole family seems to think it is a terrible idea and that I will surely meet my demise because "our family just doesn't give birth well". At the end of the day I have educated myself quite a bit on the subject and I know it is the right decision. If for some reason there is a complication during labor, the ABC is right next door to Allen Presbyterian Hospital and they work in conjunction with OB's who will see me through the rest of my birth if need be.

All of these thoughts are really early in the pregnancy, but it seems to be the only thing I am interested in planning so far. Hopefully soon the hormonal urge to decorate a nursery will kick in and I will have some pretty pictures to show.