4 Months Pregnant

I am still sick a lot of the time, but I am starting to show more and more. I just have to remember that I am sick because my body is adjusting to this beautiful baby that is inside me. I am one moth closer to meeting this little bundle of joy!!

A Beautiful Sound (Heartbeat)

Today was the the most amazing day since the 1st ultrasound. First of all, the Dr. was able to use his small in office ultrasound machine to see the baby and it's getting so much bigger. The baby has arm and leg buds now! The highlight of today though was that we got to hear the heartbeat!!!! The sound was so amazing and beautiful. It is such a milestone as you know you will be hearing it now at every appointment (or every 2 weeks for me) The heart rate was135/bpm (suggests girl if you believe the old wives tale). Russ and I were so amazed, it was a great day and here is the heartbeat...

How To Tell Your Employer You're Pregnant When They Don't Want You To Be

Today was hard and I day I have been dreading since I found out I was pregnant. One of the things I said to Russ when I found out that I was pregnant was that I was going to loose my job. We always knew I would be a stay at home mom, but my job was such that there is no maternity leave. I know that my employer wasn't planning on me getting pregnant and that since they couldn't get pregnant and had to adopt their children the didn't want me to get pregnant either. So today after avoiding it, hiding my belly, etc. I told them. Of course, it went how I planned where they were shocked and not really thrilled. You know what though? I don't care, nobody can take away my happiness over this baby. Of course we talked about when I would leave my job, I told them I would like to stay on till March, but we will see what happens. I will be surprised if I make it that long.

Bears Party

Today we had a Chicago Bears party. Russ and I LOVE LOVE LOVE watching football every Sunday, so we wanted to have a party. Plus it was a great time to show everyone the baby bump. My morning all day sickness, is getting a little better, but its not there yet. At least I was feeling well enough to have the party. We took a survey on the gender and the overwhelming guess is that this is a boy! I am feeling that this is probably a boy too (although the 1st ultrasound's heart rate was in the 170's which suggests girl). Just about another month till we find out for sure!

Sinus Infection

I can't believe that I am sick again. It took me so long to recover from the strep throat (I guess pregnancy makes for a longer recovery). I usually do get a sinus infection every year, but this one is so much worse. I guess part of that has to do with the fact that I have Rhinitis (which is something you can get when you are pregnant). So I am back on the couch with the vaporizer and the Netti Pot. I really have to figure out what I am going to do about my job. My morning all day sickness makes it difficult enough, but the kids are always sick and it is making me sick, and I really can't shouldn't be on too many antibiotics while I am pregnant. Russ and I feel like I will probably have to leave my job my the 1st of the year, but we will see how it goes.

Telling Everyone Else Because I'm Showing

Guess what??? I am showing (crazy)!!!! Therefore, since we are about 12 weeks along and I am showing we decided we better tell everyone that I am pregnant. So we announced it on Facebook (of course). Most of our close friends knew already because I have been so sick, but it was still super fun to announce it to the rest of the world, so it doesn't have to feel like such a secret anymore. I am also so happy that we are past the 12 week critical time. However, I can't believe I am showing, I thought I would have more time, but the belly just has nowhere to go! Everyday it is becoming more and more real. Please excuse the pictures, I still feel like I have the flu...

Strep Threat and Morning Sickness

Yep I have strep throat and morning sickness, I am off work until next week. I am going to continue to lay on the couch and be miserable.

Sick On Your 3rd Anniversary

Today Russ and I have been married for 3 years and I am sick (not fun). So not only is my morning sickness still horrible, I have a sore throat and a fever. The kids at work have strep throat, so I am pretty sure I am coming down with it too, guess I am off work and off to the Dr. tomorrow (unless I have a miraculous recovery). Russ is taking care of me with lots of popsicles (since that is all I can eat anyway). I am truly blessed to have been married to Russ for 3 wonderful years. I am so excited for us to be parents and for this exciting journey we are on.

The First Ultrasound!!!!

Today was the day that I have been waiting desperately for! Today was the 1st ultrasound! I have been waiting and so excited for this day to come. Especially since I have been so sick, I wanted to see what was really happening inside me. The Dr. has tried to get an ultrasound on his little machine in his office, but the baby was too small to see anything. Russ and I went in, not really knowing what to expect. We were even thinking maybe I was pregnant with twins (since my sisters are twins and because I was so sick).

So we went into the room and the ultrasound tech got everything ready. Russ and I were eagerly looking at the screen, and all we could see was black. Then all of a sudden there it was our beautiful baby (or more like a seahorse at this stage). It was so unbelievable, the baby was so tiny. However, the most amazing thing about this was I was only about 8 weeks pregnant and yet there was a heartbeat!!! We could see it and the ultrasound tech was able to see that the heart rate was about 170 bpm, although we couldn't hear it. This was just more confirmation for me that life truly does begin at the moment of conception.

Russ and I both cried at the sight of our precious miracle and that tiny heart beat. This was truly confirmation that all of the sickness I have been going through was so worth it. The ultrasound tech looked rally hard to make sure we were only having just 1 baby and we are! The baby is healthy and seems to be developing perfectly, so now the waiting until the next ultrasound around 20 weeks find out the gender. It is going to be tough to wait that long, but at least I have beautiful ultrasound images to look at now.

Zofran

So after having morning all day sickness for days on end, I knew I had to call my Dr. He prescribed Zofran, which helped some, it made life tolerable. I am thankful that there was at least something that I could take to keep food down. Although I can eat is plain bagels. It works by basically preventing you from vomiting, so while you still feel mildly nauseous, you don't have the constant urge to vomit. However, I do recommend Zofran to anyone else that experiences any type of severe nausea while pregnant, and get it right away. 

***Looking back I would be sick pretty much 24 hours a day for about 3-4 months***

Morning Sickness

This was something that I didn't anticipate...I never knew how sick you could be when you were pregnant. I always thought that the people who said they had morning sickness, were just not feeling the greatest, I knew never they were paralyzed with sickness. I started out with full blast, hard core morning sickness. I literally could barley get out of bed. Walking was making me nauseous, food was making me nauseous, driving, and or  riding in a car would make me nauseous. I would got to bed nauseous and wake up nauseous. I don't know how I did it, but I managed to go to work. I would get there and throw up all day. I would eat what I could, which was not much, basically plain bread. I would come home from work and go straight to the couch, where I would may until the next day of work. I needed to call the Dr. and see what else I could possibly do because this was not good. I tried everything ginger, ginger ale, Vernors, lemon, lemon tea, peppermint  peppermint tea, nothing helped. I would say to Russ, I don't know how I can go on like this. I literally have never experienced ANYTHING like this before. The best way to describe it was like you have the flu 24/7.

Telling The Family The Big News

I had already told my Mom that I was pregnant, because I had to tell someone other than Russ. However, I had not told anyone else in my family. Russ and I were going to my parents house to celebrate my step-dad and step-sisters birthday. I had bought a grandparents book to give to my step-dad to break the news. When we got to my parents house, my step-dad wanted to open his gift right away. He opened it , read what the book said, and went crazy. He ran to show my sisters the book, so they found out and we called my brother who is in California. My step-sister came over later and and of course my step-dad showed her the book right away too. Finally we texted my step-brother who was in Virginia. My Grandpa was also living with my parents. We told him he was going to be a Great-Grandpa (he has dementia and his response was "wow you really went to town". Thanks Grandpa for the total embarrassment LOL. It was pure craziness. I think my family was pretty much in shock. They like us, kinda thought that it would never happen, so it truly was a complete surprise. They were elated too. It was a really great day, celebrating birthdays and my pregnancy.

Here is a picture of us with my family after we shared the news...

First Dr.'s Appointment and Tests

So now that I knew that I was pregnant I was freaking out because I felt cramping. I called the Dr. right away the morning after I found out I was pregnant. They wanted me to go in for blood work right away. So I went Wednesday night after work, and again on Friday after work. The tests confirmed I was pregnant and my hormone levels were where they should be. We then me with the Dr. on Saturday who confirmed that the cramping was just the uterus stretching. He told us that our due date would be April 27, 2012. Russ and I were still in shock that this was happening. We stopped by a bookstore that was closing on our way home from the Dr. We wanted to buy a grandparents book to give to my parents, to break the big news on Sunday.

Pregnant!?!?

I never thought that I would get pregnant, let's just start with that. Russ and I had been trying to get pregnant pretty much ever since we had gotten married. There would be times we tried more and time we tried less, and time we didn't try at all. Russ and I had pretty much given up hope that it would happen for us. In fact we had started planning on to have fun and keep busy just the 2 of us. Russ is a SCUBA instructor and I was learning to SCUBA dive.

I had been gaining some weight this Summer, and my clothes weren't fitting very well. I usually wore a size 2, but it just wasn't cutting it. I was also bloated since I was getting ready to start my period. On Saturday I had it, Russ and I were going out to dinner and I couldn't fit into anything. I told him that I would need to go shopping in the next week and get clothes for the Fall that would actually fit me. I put on my only pair of size 4 pants and we went to dinner.

On Sunday Russ and I went to Six Flags (our local amusement park). I was feeling crampy because I was supposed to start my period any day, it was 1 day late but no biggie. We went on roller coasters and water slides, as I was feeling tired and nauseous, but that is to be expected at an amusement park. There was a feeling thought that it was weird I was 1 day late, but didn't think too much about it.

On Monday, I my period still hadn't started. I said to Russ, "Do you think I am pregnant"? He didn't think it was possible, and said that I would probably start my period at any time, but deep down inside, I thought that it could be possible, I was hoping that it was possible, but I was scared.

This morning Russ, asked me if I had started my period, I told him no. He said "Holy cow, I may be a Dad!" Russ really wanted to hold off on buying pregnancy tests for a while, but I couldn't take it. We went to Target and got 1 regular +/- pregnancy test and 2 digital tests. Of course as soon as we walked in the door I had to take the test. I took the regular +/- test first and within 15 seconds there was a very faint + sign. I was so happy and scared all at once. Of course I called my Mom and told her right away because I just couldn't believe it. Both she and Russ thought that I should make sure the digital tests also said pregnant because the + sign was so faint. I started drinking tons of water, just so I could take the digital test right away and this is what I got...