Anatomy Scan date

Today I made our big ultrasound date- Wednesday January 14. 45 minutes or so of bliss watching our bean bounce around and hopefully a lovely surprise of a boy or a girl! We're crossing our fingers baby isn't camera shy...

17 week update

Today we had our first Centering baby group with the midwives. It's a really neat concept, essentially you are assigned to a birth cohort, a group of couples all due the same month as you. You all go once a month to group classes with one of the midwives from the practice, with the opportunity to talk to other couples, hear their questions and experiences. During the class each couple also has an exam with the midwife individually.
Today's experience was good, and I'm hoping it's going to be great for us as first time parents. And we got to hear the heartbeat again, which was great. I was actually feeling the baby kick me a bit on my left side during the class, too!
So now we just need to make an appointment for our anatomy scan. Only a week or two left of mystery about baby yostee's gender...

Nudges!

Last night, the most amazing thing happened- I got two little nudges from baby!!
I have been wondering whether the little flutters I feel are the baby moving around, but so far it had been a little difficult to distinguish from intestinal rumblings. Last night, I was lying in bed late at night (debating about whether to drag myself to the bathroom yet again)... I rolled over onto my belly, and tap! tap! baby kicked me right where I rolled as if to say- HEY! You squished me! Of course I woke Eric up to tell him, not sure if he was concious enough to process, though.
How's that for my very own personal little Christmas miracle!

Snow

The last couple of days have been CRAZY snowy- more snow than I have ever seen in Seattle by far! Last night we got about 8 inches at our house, topped by a thin layer of freezing rain for the ultimate slippery roads. Today it started snowing about 3 and has been coming down ever since.

Jenny and Ward came over to do some sledding at gasworks park, which was fun. My snow pants would not even come close to buttoning, but they stayed up just fine unzipped :-). Above are a few pictures of our weekend.

Now it just remains to be seen whether Eric and I will make it down for a day or two before I have to work Christmas or not... trains are all booked, flights are canceled, and the roads are definitely not passable right now. We will see!

15 weeks

Now baby is as long as a navel orange, 4-5 inches crown to rump, and weighs several ounces. Now he or she is going to get down to the serious business of gaining size and weight, and soon I should be able to feel him or her move, which I can't wait for.
Our next appointment is Dec. 29, and at that point we should be able to make our anatomy scan appointment. I think it's fun to try to predict gender, but Eric doesn't want to guess. Does anyone else want to speculate??
I bought my first pair of maternity jeans this week, too- what a relief, I love elastic!
Not much else to report right now. I am looking forward to my birthday and Christmas celebrations in the next couple of weeks, I think we will be busy busy busy. Happy Holidays everyone!

10 fingers, 10 toes!

Today we had an ultrasound and got to see our baby- who really LOOKS like a baby now! It was really fun to see how wiggly he/she is and we got a couple beautiful pictures which you can see below. 10 fingers, 10 toes and all the guts on the inside (the nurse in me is celebrating!!!).
The unfortunate news is that I have a partial placenta previa (low lying placenta), which has been causing a few minor problems. Most likely I will just have to decrease my work hours for a while and wait for it to move to a better place.
That's not so bad in the grand scheme of things, just a little annoying.

14 week belly shot

Here it is... the emerging belly.

Thanksgiving recap

Well, it was a great Thanksgiving. I haven't been home to have mom's food for 3 years because I've worked it every year I've been at Children's, so I enjoyed it extra this year. It was also great to have all the siblings together and the crowd of grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins/friends at the table was really fun.
Baby-wise things continue to go well as we cruise past the 13 week mark. I feel fabulous! My tummy continues to pooch out more, which I will show you in a picture one of these days....

12 weeks

12 weeks- wow! I have noticed an amazing difference in the last week in how I am feeling, and I LIKE it. I am only peeing 2 times at night instead of 5, feel much less sick, and I have enough energy that yesterday I finally noticed how trashed our little house was and went to town helping Eric clean up. Hopefully it will continue this way until the home stretch!
This week baby has reached nearly 3 inches in length and weighs about an ounce, which dad cleverly pointed out is as big as a full grown mouse (eww). Next week will mark the beginning of the second trimester.

The sweetest sound...

Hi guys... today we finally got to HEAR our baby's heartbeat! It was surprisingly easy to find, too. How cool is that? Pretty amazing!
We have also decided to announce this pregnancy officially. We're going to tell our extended family next week at Thanksgiving.

Chub

Today we haved reached 11 weeks. Only one more week until we reach the miraculous 12 week mark and the risk of miscarriage virtually disapears! Very exciting.
I have started noticing a wee bit of chub around my middle that wasn't there a few weeks ago... baby and uterus are pushing my gut out and making my usual jeans uncomfortable to button. It's a very strange sensation, it feels sort of like I ate a giant Thanksgiving dinner (and looks that way too) except I don't feel full. I can hardly wait for a real belly that looks like something more defined than dinner!

Midwife

Today was our first prenatal appointment with our midwife. I have been having a little trouble deciding how and which provider to choose for our care, but today's appointment went really well and I feel very comfortable with this group so far. Mostly it was lots of talking, and a quick exam. We decided not to do the quad acreen that would have included an ultrasound, so we didn't get to see baby this time.

Unfortunately we couldn't find the heartbeat with the doppler, which the midwife told us she would not expect to hear consistently at this point. Usually 11-12 weeks... which is so unfair because 10 and a half weeks seems so close to that! I was really hoping for that little piece of reassurance. Anyway, we'll go back next week for another quick try at the doppler just for fun. I'll keep you posted...

10 weeks

Today feels like a bit of a landmark. Baby has become a fetus now, over an inch long, swallowing amniotic fluid, moving around lots and with details emerging like hair and fingernails. My usual jeans are a wee bit tight when buttoned... I have definitely gained a few pounds already.

This week we have our first appointment with a group of midwives in our neighborhood. I am praying that we can hear a heartbeat with the doppler, although it may be a tad on the early side to be able to do that for sure. I just hope.

Soon I think we'll be ready to announce this pregnancy to the world at large!

Babies!

Thanks for the wonderful comments, everyone! I love to see that you are checking in on us...

Yesterday Eric and I went to church in the morning, which we don't usually do, and we came in at the last minute so we sat in the back. Apparently this is the time and place where all of Seattle's cutest babies also hang out on Sunday morning... it was unbelievably distracting, but also very fun!

Today I got to babysit my coworker Julie's 6 week old baby Kate, who is really precious. That was really fun to get some hands on baby time, too. We had a wonderful snuggly hour or so while Julie was at the dentist.

This week has been full of cute babies for me. Kinda makes things hit home in a whole new way!

Flailing Grape

This week, baby is as big as a grape and beginning to move around in there. Crazy! Maria made me laugh when I told her about these latest developments... she told me I should post it on the blog- "post about the flailing grape!". Hee hee. It is pretty amazing the amount of development and size increase that can happen in one week at this stage.
The latest symptom I have been experiencing has been a little bizarre- very vivid dreams. I read about this happening in pregnancy. This week I had crazy dreams every night, very vivid and memorable, and even a nightmare. Yikes!

8 weeks!

Baby bean is now as long as a kidney bean crown to rump- almost 2 cm. That seems big to me compared to previous weeks: poppy seed, sesame seed, lentil, blueberry... but it's nothing compared to what's coming, of course!

So far things have been going really well. Now that some of our friends know, it's seeming more real. It's great fun to hear people's reactions, and great to feel so much support and joy and love from everyone.

Aside from the twice daily yacking and some fatigue, I feel good. Honestly, it's a relief to feel a little sick and know everything is going ok in there.

Thanks for checking in on us!

Heartbeat

Hi everyone....
Today Eric and I had our first ultrasound. Everything looked great. We could see the little gray blob that is our baby and a heartbeat just pumping away at 130 beats per minute! They confirmed our estimated gestational age and said my due date is officially June 8. They gave us a hard copy of the ultrasound picture but I would love to post it so I will work on getting it scanned in somehow.
So now we wait for our first visit with the midwives that will most likely follow our care through the birth (on Nov 12).

1 week until ultrasound

Our first ultrasound is scheduled for next Thursday, Oct. 16. Hopefully we will see a little grey blob with a heartbeat. Lots of prayers until then! I can hardly wait.....

Coming soon... jelly belly

Here is a nice "before" belly shot to help you compare as time goes on... I bet it will be quite a while before anythings shows, but I can't wait for the jelly belly.

We're pregnant!

We have decided to start a blog to keep all the friends and family up to date with what's happening with us and our yostee bean. Welcome! Leave us a comment when you visit...