13 week ultrasound

During my last doctor's appointment at a little over 11 weeks she offered up an ultrasound between monthly appointments. I jumped on it to make sure that everything was going okay right around the end of the first trimester. That ultrasound was yesterday.

Monday afternoon me, CP, and a couple of law school friends received an email from our friends in Denver. They were pregnant again and due in early August with a second girl (their first girl is only two months older than Izzy). CP emailed and asked why we couldn't respond with our good news as well...I asked him to humor me and wait until after the ultrasound juuuust to make sure things are okay. He didn't really understand my trepidation but complied with my request. 

That night we decided that I would ask for the gender results from the blood test when I went into the office and if things were okay with the ultrasound, CP could email friends the good news (I still want to wait for the Facebook announcement). (Sorry Jane I know that you were excited that we weren't finding out again!) I was fine with not finding out again, but our reasons for not finding out last time were partially because IVF made everything not a surprise. This time this pregnancy WAS a surprise and getting Izzy used to being an older sibling might help if we knew the sex of the baby. That night I as I tried to fall asleep, I may have started to feel some baby fluttering...or it was gas....but I think it was fluttering.

The tech came back to get me and then asked why I was having an ultrasound. I said it was for reassurance and to make sure everything was going okay as well as placenta placement. "Oh did you have a problem with your placenta before?" I replied no, but last time it was anterior and hard to feel the baby kicking until later on in the pregnancy. I think that she thought I was a little crazy, but I didn't care. Then she explained that two high school students were going to be in the room for an internship. High school students? "They are very mature." Uh huh. I wasn't given an option to say no which was weird (CP sarcastically commented later that he was sure that they were well-versed in HIPAA regulations). Thank goodness I was far enough along for an abdominal ultrasound as well....

The baby easily came up and looked more like a baby instead of blob with arm buds. Good start. The tech saw the four chambers of the heart, checked the heart rate (152), and said that the brain, stomach, arms, legs, etc. were all looking good. Even better news is that the placenta is posterior this time and not near my cervix so maybe I wasn't crazy the night before in feeling fluttering. YAY! The tech asked if we were finding out the gender and I said, actually, we made the decision the night before to find out. She said "oh good because this is really obvious." And there it was- a penis! 

We are having a boy!!! 

The tech laughed and said, "well, we generally don't do gender this early but your boy is quite the show-off and overachiever." Ha ha.

As soon as I called CP with the news, he fired off an email to his family- "Hot off the press... the parasite has a third leg!" Family members were less confused this time around than about the pregnancy email. 

So, in other news I can't believe that I am having a boy! I mean logically that's what I thought it would be because supposedly boy sperm are the first sperm to get to the egg and because we had sex the day that I think that I ovulated it would make sense that the boy sperm fertilized the egg. But now I have to wrap my head around changing a baby with a penis. And all of the gross things that little boys do. Maybe the fact that Izzy is older will temper the boy a bit? LOL.

So, pregnant at the same time with a good friend (again), rocking a posterior placenta, AND having a boy. Big news all around.

Sigh of relief

I know that I just posted, but I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. My doctor just called to tell me that my blood test came back and everything is normal with the baby. Phew. Being of "Advanced Maternal Age" (even though I was 34 when pregnant with Izzy and only weeks away from turning 35 when I delivered) this time has really screwed with my head. And oddly enough, I think that conceiving naturally has me waiting for the other shoe to drop more so then when I conceived using IVF. It doesn't make any sense, but I guess that it is still unbelievable to me that this miraculous pregnancy might actually result in a baby.

CP is ready to tell people now but willing to wait until I am ready. I want to make it through my extra ultrasound tomorrow....and then probably my next doctor appointment on February 9th before we start thinking about telling people. I'm currently in my 13th week and technically I'm not in the second trimester until Sunday so I would feel better getting officially past the second trimester mark before telling people. I know that a few days shouldn't make a difference but again, lots of crazy thoughts this time around!

PHEW. Another hurdle passed.

Microblog Mondays: Not worth the risk

Well, the trip that I have been looking forward to for months had to be cancelled. CP and I had booked a 9 day vacation next month to Costa Rica with Izzy and my MIL. When the CDC Zika virus warnings started to come out I brushed them off saying that they weren't anywhere close to Costa Rica. Then I started to hear the stories of some of the babies that were being born in places like Brazil and I felt awful for the families of those babies. A simple mosquito bite could do that (potentially- it hasn't been proven yet)? 

Then the CDC added 8 more countries. While Costa Rica was not one of them (yet), I assume it's only a matter of time. As I thought about it more, it wasn't something that I wanted to worry about during my pregnancy. Because that's exactly what would have happened. Even if there had been no Zika issues in Costa Rica by the time we arrived next month, I wouldn't have been able to relax. I would have had to wear long sleeve clothing, spray DEET all over myself, and would want to stay indoors behind screens/mosquito netting the entire trip. And that would not have been fun at all.

So this weekend we cancelled our flights, getting all of our United points and almost all of our money back. We cancelled our hotels and car rental as well. Then yesterday we went looking for a new place to go next month that is warm. Our current choices? Hawaii or Arizona. We have plenty of airline points to get us to either place. Now we just have to find housing.....

And yes, I realize that I am incredibly lucky to be able to do this. Currently my country is not advising me not to get pregnant for two years (like El Salvador) and I have the option to steer clear of countries that are having Zika outbreaks. Hopefully in a couple years we can re-book the trip to Costa Rica when I am not pregnant as it is still one of the countries that I can't wait to see!

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Day in the Life- Winter 2016 edition

Winter Day in the Life- 2016

CP-39.5 years old
NSC- 37 years old, 12 weeks pregnant
Izzy- 2 years old
Buster 4.5 years old

I haven't done a weekday post in a while because generally they result in a smaller number of pictures and aren't as exciting, but I wanted to document a day while CP was away for work (he was in China). This was my Tuesday.

12:06- Izzy cries out for me and doesn't go back to sleep so I head into her room. She first asks for "medicine" but I say no, then she wants a hug and to rock in her rocking chair. I tell her that I will rock her for one minute, which we do, before I put her back in her crib and tuck her in. I take the opportunity to pee for a second time already tonight. I have been in bed for two hours already but I can tell that I have had a weird sleep already as I woke up with the kleenex box in my hand, thinking that it was something else in a dream.

4:00- I wake up to pee again then head back to bed. I had no water past 8pm yesterday so where is all of this pee coming from? This is something I ponder every night as I get up to pee way too often.

6:00- alarm goes off on my phone and I am not ready to get up yet. I set a 20 minute timer in hopes of falling asleep again. I got highlights to cover my grays yesterday so I won't shower this morning as to keep my straight hair so I should have some extra time.

6:22- 20 minute timer goes off and i reluctantly get out of bed, pee again, wash my face and armpits, put in contacts and face stuff for the day. I look at the weather for the day and it currently feels like -12. Excellent. I guess I will wear my new warm sweater I bought yesterday. Buster starts to get antsy so I get dressed and head downstairs to let him out.

6:40- Once Buster is outside I grab his food bowl and get him food in the basement. I come upstairs, drink some orange juice and let Buster in to gobble up his food while I heat up a croissant in the microwave. I quickly eat the croissant with a little butter while I get Izzy's milk ready. I also grab a banana, apple, yogurt, and soup to bring to work.

6:50- I head upstairs noting that I am already running late. The good news is that Izzy is already up as opposed to some mornings when I go into her room and she tells me she is "still sleeping mommy. Go away." She pops right up and starts to hand me her panda. I turn off her heater, humidifier and nightlight, and grab clothes for her. She hands me a duck and a bear from her crib to put on her changing table as well. I also grab a tissue as girlfriend has some serious snot coming down her nose.

I change her diaper and put her into her clothes while she drinks her milk. Izzy requests braids for the day and I figure that I'm already late so I brush her hair and put them in. Right before we head downstairs I remember to grab an extra shirt to bring to daycare (she came home in her back-up shirt yesterday) and she sees her llama sweater and requests to wear it to school. As we head downstairs Izzy notes that it is dark outside.

7:05- I should have left already but instead I run outside to start the car to warm it up a bit while Izzy watches me from the window. Once back inside we head into the kitchen to both eat one prune before I help her put on shoes, get her in her jacket, hat, and gloves while I get mine on as well. Leash goes on Buster and I get Izzy in the car first before getting Buster in the back, locking the door, and leaving by 7:14.

At this point I know I can't make my usual train. Izzy is quiet as she drinks her milk and I listen to an NPR story about Bernie Sanders campaigning in Alabama.

We pull into the daycare parking lot, I make Izzy walk inside instead of carrying her, sign in, and head to her classroom. We put her hat and gloves in her cubby and hang her coat up before she asks for a couple hugs and a kiss. She then wants to give her teacher a hug so I slip out of the room at that point.

Buster is calm until we pull in the doggie daycare parking lot and he starts barking because he is so excited. I drop him off, still barking, where he is greeted by his two favorite daycare workers.

I finally pull into the train parking lot 7 minutes after my usual train left so I make my way into the station building, get a drink of water from the water fountain, and sit down, starting to write out the day so far. The next train comes about 10 minutes later so I hop on, heading downtown.

I check some emails on the train seeing that CP still feels like crap in China. He thinks he has food poisoning, possibly from the flight over, and someone there got him an antibiotic (no prescription needed in China!). Hopefully he starts to feel better. It's a 14 hour difference from where he is in China and Chicago so it makes it really difficult to talk. He also forgot his iphone and ipad charger (older models) so we are using skype with his computer instead of Facetime. Unfortunately we haven't been able to connect much but at least he is home on Saturday.

8:25- My train gets into Chicago and I am late. Thank goodness for a flex schedule (I can get in as late as 9:30). I had a freezing walk to my office and wait in a long line for chai latte as I am going to need some caffeine.

My computer desktop screen at work. It definitely needs to be updated!

I meet with a coworker from 9-12:15 to prepare for upcoming event. For lunch I eat some soup brought from home and a yogurt before catching a cab to my afternoon meeting because I am too late to walk.

1-2:30 I run the meeting then walk back to office in the bitter cold. My upper legs and face are freezing and I curse myself for not bringing a scarf. While I walk I listen to the podcast Jesse vs. Cancer. The rest of the workday I send/reply emails, talk to my boss, eat an apple with peanut butter and handful of trail mix.

4:30- I chug the rest of my water before leaving work which probably won't end well. I listen to Jesse vs Cancer during my walk to the train. During my ride I catch up on Feedly posts while I have some cramping/pain in the uterus area. I also have to seriously pee from chugging the water before leaving work (to no one's surprise). My train arrives at my station and I run into the bathroom- sweet relief. I'm in the car by 5:30 and on my way to pick up Buster. His best friend Finnegan, a Irish setter, finally came back to daycare today (he had a shoulder injury) so Buster got a lot of play time today.

5:45- I pick up Izzy and am relieved to hear that she napped (this doesn't happen every day). There is a basket of crackers by the door and the ritual is that she grabs one and has them in the car ride home....however, there are no more left so she is pretty sad. On the car ride home she talks about the fact that there were no crackers and how green light means go, yellow light means slow down, and red light means stop ("top!").

As soon as we get home I get everyone in the house and grab a few crackers for Izzy. I grab the iPad to try to Skype with CP but he is not there. :-( Another missed Skype session. We go down to the basement to get Buster's dinner before heading upstairs so that I can change clothes.

Crackers!

I realize that I have to use the bathroom so of course Izzy has to join me. :-/ For dinner I throw a frozen pizza in the oven.

6:30- After two bites of pizza, a tangerine, and a few bites of broccoli, Iizzy sits at table until I finish with dinner. I'm pleased that she is being so patient tonight as usually when she is done with her food she wants to get down as soon as possible. It's 6:53 so I tell Izzy that we have 7 minutes to play before heading upstairs.

Izzy loves her play kitchen so she heads over to "wash the dishes". I let Buster out to go to the bathroom and when he gets back, Izzy wants to give him a treat. I hand her a few small treats and she places them on the ground in a few different rooms.

7:05- We head upstairs with the new double monitor (our old one broke a few nights before). I set it up while trying to get Izzy not to play with it and then we head into the bathroom to brush teeth. Izzy then sits on potty and pees! She wipes, flushes potty, and then washes her hands. I did laundry over the weekend so we finally put her clothes away. I then get her pajamas on and put some lotion on her because she is itchy. We quickly make a video for CP with Izzy saying hi and singing her ABCs a couple of times. I read two Curious George books, sing "You are My Sunshine" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." I notice that it sort of hurts my belly to have Izzy lay against it. Once we are done singing I tuck her in with all of her stuffed animals.

7:57- I leave Izzy's room but she needs one more hug before going to sleep. I head downstairs, turn on the tv and start to watch Downton Abbey. Buster realizes that it's his turn for some attention with Izzy now in bed.

Buster needs petting

9pm- I head upstairs because I keep hearing Izzy cough on the monitor. I decide to wake the beast up to give her some Zarbees cough medicine in hopes that her coughing lessens. I end up staying upstairs and watching the news in my bedroom.

9:45- Izzy calls out so I get her some water then tuck her in again. I turn off the tv and hope for a good night of sleep.

10:45- Izzy calls out again so I get her a little more water before heading back to my bed. Thankfully she sleeps the rest of the night, but I have a restless sleep all night long.

Izzy snippets

Now that I am no longer doing monthly updates on Izzy, I do want to make sure that I remember the different phases that she goes through. Here are some of her current phases/funny stories:

*Sometimes when we are all in the car together, CP and I will be talking. If we aren't talking to Izzy and she isn't entertaining herself in some way (book, taking off her shoes, etc), she will often say "No Mommy, no Daddy talking."

*I playfully spanked CP's butt after he came out of the shower a few weeks ago. Izzy happened to be in the room and ran full speed over to him and did the same thing. We about died laughing and CP put on underwear very quickly after that. Guess I won't be doing that again in front of Izzy! LOL.

*Izzy is now in the "what's that?" phase. She asks what EVERYTHING is these days. Sometimes it's hard to describe exactly what she is pointing at or other times I have no idea what she is looking at. The "that" part of the "what's that?" is high pitched so it seems as if she knows that she has to bring her voice up when asking a question.

*On a drive yesterday Izzy was counting to herself. She has 1-10 down no problem and I guess has been working on what comes after 10 at daycare? She got to 10, correctly said 11, then jumped to 14, then jumped to eleventeen. CP tried to stifle our laughter but she did it twice- so clearly to eleventeen comes after 14.

*Izzy has been into sparkly things recently. I tried to take her shoe shopping at Target and when the Stride Ride shoe section didn't have anything in her size, I took her over to the boy's section. I picked out a pair of gray shoes which she soundly rejected because those are "Marco's shoes" (a boy in her daycare class). I told her that she could wear the same shoes as Marco and she steadfastly refused. So we went back over to the girls section and she picked out a pair of navy blue shoes that had glitter all over them. They are her "parkle" shoes (she still has problems saying s). 

*Speaking of starting to like girly things....after we get back from Costa Rica next month we are going to start potty training, so right now we read the book "Big Girl Panties" when she is on the potty at home. At the end of the book the little girl asks "do you wear big girl panties?" Izzy will answer "not yet." The other day I was asking her what kind of big girl panties does she want when we get some and she said "pink." Ugh.

*Her top two 2-year-old molars should be coming in soon as they look swollen and I can see the whites beneath the surface. I'm getting ready for middle of the night wakeups soon.

*Speaking of middle of the night wakeups, this past month Izzy has been waking up around 2 or 3am crying- not every night but a couple nights a week. Either CP or I will go into her room and luckily just have to rub her back for a minute or give her a hug, tuck her into her blanket and tell her to go back to sleep and she does (thankfully). Not sure why she is waking up in the middle of the night though?

*About a week ago we decided that Izzy was big enough to move from her high chair to a booster seat. We probably could have done it a while ago but frankly it was much easier to clean the high chair tray than the table/floor around Izzy after every meal. 

*We have been feeding Izzy more of what we eat for dinner and so far, it has been working. Recently she ate chicken tortilla soup (she really liked the chips and avocado in it) and pork tacos with roasted pineapple. 

Eating tortilla soup in her booster seat

*Last night her daycare had the kids learn songs and sing them in front of parents. As soon as I arrived, Izzy ran over and wanted to go home. I finally got her standing with the other kids, but she didn't sing one syllable because she goes mute in the presence of strangers (aka the other parents in the room). Maybe next year....

*On a not so great note, Izzy has started to hit when she really doesn't want to do something. We read "Hands are not for Hitting" once in a while at night and remind her about gentle touching a lot. Hopefully this is a short phase.

11+ week Appointment

Your comments on my last post were all so funny! My sister's fiance didn't mean anything harmful by the comment and because he and my sister are likely not having any kids they have no idea what it's like to have to worry about miscarriage/due dates around others/etc. I knew that the comment just came from a place of ignorance, so other than the flashing thought in my mind about the worst case scenario, I didn't think about it too much. I just figure that this is a topic that the two of them will never know much about and won't seek out much information about it because it doesn't concern them.

Anyway, on to my appointment this morning. It took a looooong minute to find the heartbeat, but it is still beating strong at 157. No ultrasound today, but I was telling my doctor how I was curious where the placenta was going to end up with this pregnancy (with Izzy it was anterior, which means that I couldn't feel her kicking for a while because it was acting as a buffer against the inside of my belly). She said that if I wanted to get an ultrasound in two weeks to make sure everything is okay and to check where the placenta is I could. You better believe I scheduled that in a heartbeat! I know that women start to feel kicks earlier on during their subsequent pregnancies because they know what they are looking for so if I don't start to feel them soon I'm going to start worrying. Plus, who doesn't want an extra chance to make sure everything is going okay (especially right around the time that they are exiting the first trimester?).

Today I also had blood drawn for the genetic testing. Fingers crossed the results come back okay for that (in about a week). The doctor asked if we wanted to find out the sex of the baby and at this time, we are not finding out...but I think that there may be some discussions ahead about finding out before delivery this time. Stay tuned.

Finally, CP is in Puerto Rico so I wasn't able to talk to him about how the appointment went, but I left a message and a text message and we'll talk tonight via FaceTime. He was obviously happy that things went well and then asked "so when do we start to tell people?" Oh boy. You do remember that I am now 37 and of advanced maternal age so rates of birth defects are higher, right? Not to mention I am still in my first trimester for almost another two weeks.... The people that need to know (aka a small amount of family members) already know so what is the rush in telling everyone else? If I had my wish I would wait to tell people for another month. That way we have gotten through the blood test results, the ultrasound, and the next appointment with my doctor. We'll see if CP is on board with this as well- I assume we will have some discussions around this topic....

Microblog Mondays: Pressure

This weekend at my sister's engagement party, her fiance turned to me and joked that because his sister and I will both be heavily pregnant by the time their wedding rolls around (Memorial Day Weekend), he is planning on making a lot of jokes referencing the fact that the pressure is off them to supply any grandbabies at the wedding. I laughed, but in my head I was thinking, oh boy is that going to be a rough wedding/reminder if things don't go well with this pregnancy and his sister is walking around with a huge pregnant belly and I am not.

Tomorrow I have my next appointment with my OB. Fingers crossed everything continues to go well.

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Confusion

CP wanted to write a funny email to his parents telling them of the pregnancy. I was hoping to wait a little longer but CP told his sister while she was in town and she is not known for staying quiet so we knew that we didn't have much time. He should have just called them to tell them the news (like I suggested) because his email just confused everyone. Here is it below:

Dearest Family-

There has been much drama in the house over the past few weeks.  After several appointments with generalists and specialists, it turns out NSC has a parasitic infestation in her uterus.  She is in no danger, just tired and cranky.  The little creature will need to be removed by surgery which is estimated to be around the end of July when it will be mature enough to remove.   Attached you can see a rendering of the infestation.*  Until then, NSC is unable to drink alcohol, eat sushi, or deli meats so that the parasite does not manifest itself into a flesh eating stomach burster (http://youtu.be/JehjqlzXwIQ). 

Please keep this news private until we decide to share publicly.

Love,

CP

*CP attached the 3D ultrasound picture we got at our first OB appt.

I have to admit it was hilarious when CP's dad called very concerned a few minutes later and CP had to calmly talk him down and then ask him what the ultrasound picture looked like. CP's mom sent a hilarious email saying that I was in her thoughts and prayers. I decided to take control at this point and sent out a clarifying email to everyone; his mom responded that CP was "such a brat."

I also happened to forward the email to my sister as we figured that we should tell her as well (my parents have known since day 1) and thankfully she got it, but did not appreciate the You Tube video that CP linked to (hint: it's from the movie Aliens).

This is what happens when you leave your husband, an engineer, to tell his family the big news.

Microblog Mondays: Jinx

I'm not sure why our culture is fixated on the concept of jinxes. I myself don't really believe in fate, but still worry that I am going to jinx myself at times.

This weekend it was worrying about jinxing the pregnancy. CP and I were putting away Christmas decorations in the attic and because we don't go up there too often, I asked him to  bring down my bag full of maternity clothes and the Snoogle. I'm not ready to start wearing maternity clothes just yet but figured that I should at least start to wash them. As I put my first load in, I wondered if I should wait until after my next appointment. I also felt nervous spilling the news to CP's mom, dad, and my sister (my parents already knew) this weekend. Would I jinx the pregnancy by seeming too hopeful about the future? I mean, I'm still in the first trimester, the blood test screening isn't until next week, and I still have other milestones to hit like the 20 week ultrasound and viability.

But something in me wants to believe that this is real and that this pregnancy is going to go the distance. For now, I hold onto that thought and try to push out the other negative thoughts.


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