Tuesday, February 23, 2010

First Doctor Appointment and Ultrasound




Oh, what a beautiful baby we have. It has it's mother's lima, and its father's bean. Part of me thinks that most people find ultrasound pictures irrelevant, but here it is for those of you that love seeing it like we do.

I went to my OBGYN office yesterday for my first prenatal appointment. I was so excited. On the elevator up I was saying to myself: This is my very FIRST visit to the doctor PREGNANT. I'll never do this for the first time again. (Those of you that have been pregnant or are pregnant know that there are about a zillion doctor appointments throughout the course of the pregnancy.) I always try and make sure the weight of what is happening in life is realized so that I don't let the moment pass.

Basically, I can't eat or do anything so that's cool. Ha. I'm most sad about giving up the Diet Coke. That will most likely be the hardest for me. Besides asking me three hundred questions, the doctor's visit was pretty much uneventful. The best part was that when I got to the doctor's office, I had to pee really bad (for those of you that know how much I peed BEFORE I got pregnant, imagine this 10 x worse). Anyways, I was thinking I better suck it up and hold it since they'll probably need a sample. Well I guess I was squeaking in my chair a little too much and looking a little pained because the receptionist looks over at me and mouths: Do you need to go to the bathroom? Ha. Guess I'm not very discrete with my body language.

This morning Andy and I went to our ultrasound appointment at Vanderbilt. (Once again, I say in the car: This is the FIRST time we will see our baby!!) I dont know if I mentioned this before, but I am participating in a study with Vanderbilt for pregnant women. One of the incentives is a free early ultrasound. If I wasn't part of this study, we would have had to have waited until I was 20 weeks! Anyways, the nurse told us that the woman doing the ultrasound wouldn't talk to us (since I am a participant instead of a patient). We were bummed because that meant we couldn't find out how far along I was. Not to mention how weird it would be to have someone probing around and not responding to us. I guess I could think of creepier situations.

BUT, we get in there and the ultrasound tech is like: I'm not suppose to talk to you, but I'm going to tell you what you want to know. How awesome is that?!?! SOO...I thought I was 6 weeks and 4 days, but she tells us I'm 6 weeks tomorrow. Nothing to write home about I suppose. OUR DUE DATE IS OCTOBER 19TH. And the heartbeat was 102. (Normal at 6 weeks is 90-113). Go baby!

It was so cool to see the little flicker. Andy says, beaming: Well, ITS OFFICIAL. Like it wasn't before this. hehe.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Seven Week Update



Today marks the beginning of the seventh week. Yeah!! Only 33 left to go! ha. I'm still having occasional cramping, but for the most part that has gone away. No nausea so far, THANK GOD! Seems like I got this notion into my head that besides possibly feeling sick, I would escape any noticeable outward changes to my body, at least for a few months. Unfortunately, this is not true (at least for me). Although even Andy tells me he doesn't notice and the scale still says the same number, I have a hard time believing it. Everything from my butt to my stomach to my other unmentionables seem to be growing. Unlike my poor little battered self-esteem, which is taking its tole. Ahh...the joys of being knocked up. ;)

Don't ask Andy how the pregnancy is going. I'm afraid of what he'd answer. He often says something like this to me: I know that my sweet wife is in there somewhere, but this horrible monster has taken over. hah. Talking about my very short fuse. I often find myself apologizing in the middle of a sentence. Hey at least I recognize I'm crazy. Most crazy people don't know they're crazy.

Our first doctor appointment is on Monday, and we have an ultrasound scheduled for Tuesday. I think this might be the first time it really sinks in for Andy. Up to this point, he's basically had to take my word that there's a little creature in there. I didn't know I could be this excited to go the doctor. I will post an update (hopefully with some ultrasound pictures) on Tuesday.


(Oh, yeah. Here is a picture of my stomach before any growth.) I wanted to post a picture pre-bump so you could see some growth.


The baby this week: How does your baby grow? Pretty fast, actually. At 7 weeks pregnant, your baby's length is approximately a quarter of an inch — the size of a blueberry. Sounds pretty tiny still? Consider this for a little perspective: Your baby is 10,000 times bigger now than it was at conception a month ago.

The biggest fetal growth this week is your baby's head (the better to store all those smarts in), with new brain cells being generated at the rate of 100 cells per minute. How's that for a budding genius?

And talking about buds, your baby is going out on a limb this week as his or her arm and leg buds begin to sprout and grow longer (and stronger), dividing into hand, arm, and shoulder segments — and leg, knee, and foot segments (though the limb buds look more like paddles than hands or feet at this early stage).

Also forming this week are your baby's mouth and tongue. And although your embryo is just one month old, it's already gone through three sets of kidneys. The ones in place now are the permanent set and are poised to begin their important work of waste management. In about a week, your baby will start producing urine. Lucky for you, there's no need for diapers (yet). As your baby matures inside you, much of that urine will be excreted into the amniotic fluid, swallowed again by your baby, and then excreted again in a continuous cycle.

Monday, February 8, 2010

WE'RE PREGNANT!!


We are SOOO excited. I wake up in the morning and realize it wasn't a dream, I really am pregnant. We have been secretly trying since November and even though its only been a few months, the negative test results were hard to get. When we took a test on Thursday it was negative. But, I was CONVINCED I was pregnant and kept hoping. Friday night I was up all night severely cramping (this is normal in early pregnancy, due to your muscles and ligaments preparing for baby). I woke Andy up around 3 AM. I said: Wake up. I'm hurting really bad and there is NO WAY I'm not pregnant. This is NOT normal. We made ourselves wait til the morning to take the test. At this point, I didn't even need the test. I just knew. We took the test and fought over whose head was going to be directly above the results. I saw it first. Me: TWO LINES!! TWO LINES!! Andy: Where!?! (there was a very faint line). I don't see it!. ME: IT's THERE! I pulled the negative test out of the trashcan and held it up to the positive result. SEE!!! TWO LINES!! It took me a while to convince Andy that I was indeed preggo.

We had a grand old time making our way around town to various family members who were able to meet us spontaneously. We told family by giving them a giftbag with a pacifier in it, with the pretense of forgetting to give them one of their Christmas presents. It was one of the funnest days we've had so far. Waiting with anticipation until they finally figured out what the pacifier meant. Our mommas were the favorite. My mom cussed and then started crying. Andy's mom fell on her knees and said: Thank you GOD! haha. It was awesome. More to come. We made this blog with the anticipation of keeping various grandmas and family members up to date on what's happening with the now present Baby Kurek.