Helloooo 2nd Trimester:) And Dr's appointment update

We made it:)  Woohoo!  Week 13 started this past Saturday and I'm so happy!  So much to my dismay there is some contradicting information regarding when the actual first trimester is over.  Some say after the end of week 12 while others say after the end of week 13.  I was riding the fence until the doctor confirmed today that we were definitely in our 2nd trimester!  The outlook is much brighter:)

• First trimester highlights
• Finding out we were expecting
• Telling family and close friends
• Our first ultrasound
• No vomiting!!!
• Still in all "normal" clothes
• Weight gain to date 2 1/2 lbs

We had another doctor's appointment today.  I was originally scheduled for last week (12 week appt), but Adam had to work out of town so we rescheduled for today.  We met with Dr Fuson for the first time and I absolutely LOVE her!  She took time to talk with us and answered all of our questions.  And I didn't feel silly asking questions! (Sometimes I think that physicians think that I should know all the answers b/c I'm a PA, but I'm an new expecting mother too!)  She went over all of my lab work and vitals from last visit and said she was very pleased. 
When we had our ultrasound at the last visit, the technician noticed a "spot" on my uterus that she took a picture of to let the doctor look at.  At the time, the tech didn't make much of it because it was small but she said the dreaded word fibroid.  I know lots of people that have fibroids and have no problems at all, but I was a little nervous to find out more because I know that they can cause problems during pregnancy if they grow and press on the placenta or they can cause problems with hemorrhaging after birth.  So I've been "patiently" awaiting to find out more.  Great news: Dr Fuson said it was a very small fibroid (about 1cm) and it should cause NO problems throughout my pregnancy.  She was so unimpressed by it that she doesn't even think we will be able to visualize it on subsequent ultrasounds!
Also and most importantly, we heard the baby's heartbeat!  Yet another confirmation that there truly is a baby in there:)  The nurse struggled a little bit to find the heartbeat at first but then there it was!  Initially the heartbeat was a bit muffled at 150bpm.  Then the baby started moving and the nurse had to reposition and the heartbeat ranged from 140-145bpm.  Everyone's been telling us a heartbeat at this range means where having ______! What do you think??

First Ultrasound

I just realized that I never posted about our first doctors appointment and ultrasound!  We had our official first appointment at 8 weeks.  My OB/GYN is Dr Jennifer Fuson at Central Baptist Hospital.  At our first appointment we met with the ARNP.  We were beyond excited about the ultrasound and the wait was well worth it!  We saw a 3D image which was a bit weird.  The baby measured exactly to date and we got our due date of March 31, 2012!  We saw the heartbeat at 170bpm.  We "heard" the heartbeat but the tech said it was a digitalized one based off of the visualization.    The baby had arms and limb buds for legs and we could see the bloodflow through the cord.  The baby was even wiggling around a bit!  Luckily, everything checked out great!  We then met with the ARNP and had my exam.  I think that we were fortunate that she didn't give me a great deal of restrictions and I felt very comfortable with the discussion.  As long as I have an "average" size baby I should have no problem having a vaginal delivery.  Thank goodness!!  I was exactly 6lbs born 3 weeks early.  Adam weighed over 10lbs!  Wish me luck!  Our next appointment will be next week-we should hear the heartbeat:)

End of Week 11 & Beginning of Week 12

I'm starting to feel better!  Less nausea and fatigue.  Still not 100% but an improvement.  Adam has been home which has been helpful and work has been routine.  Our litte baby is growing like crazy.  Now the size of a small prune, the baby is developing toe/fingernails (which makes me think of the scene in the movie Juno!)
In other news: the word is quickly spreading!  We traveled to Ohio yesterday and met up with both sets of Adam's grandparents.  This will be Grandpa Ray's first great-grandchild and I think he was a bit shocked!  Grandma Donna and Grandpa Bernie have several great-grandchildren but were excited all the same.  We then made a pit stop at the outlets in Jeffersonville, OH.  I picked up a few maternity items (even though I'm still fitting into all my regular clothes). 
Today, we met my parents and my dad's parents in Indiana right outside of Louisville for dinner at this restaurant called  The Overlook--it sits right on the Ohio River.  Funny thing is, when we originally told my parents a few weeks back my grandparents had come over that night for dinner.  We had already decided we weren't going to share with them yet and swore my parents to secrecy.  Anyways, that day my Mamaw would not stop talking about this cradle that she had put away in her attic that she was wanting to give to me.  This is the cradle that my dad gave to my mom when she was pregnant with me.  All of my aunts used it for my cousins and my sister even used it for my niece and nephew.  It was just so funny that she randomly brought it up that day and would NOT stop going on and on about it.  I was about to die!  So today, I introduced our little sweet pea by saying that it looks like we'll be needing that cradle a little sooner than she thought!  They were excited!
This weekend we also mailed out little announcements to aunts/uncles and other close family and friends.Pregnancy announcement

Books and Gifts

The instant we got that first faint positive line on the HPT, I immediately needed MORE info!  I first searched the internet via thebump.com.  Lots of useful information, but some scary info if you read peoples responses to things.  I stuck with this for a couple of weeks.  Honestly I was still a bit apprehensive to buy books, etc.  Around week 6, I searched amazon.com and picked up

I also bought Adam a little gift

This is a funny guys perspective to pregnancy!  Not very informative but a short read:)

Also, I wanted to get a start on some sort of journal so I purchased this

It is great!  It has all the essential places for belly pics and ultrasounds, plus has funny sayings and things to prompt journal entries regarding how I'm feeling, etc

Adam surprised me with a little blue box to celebrate that we were pregnant!  My first Tiffany gift (hopefully first of many more to come ha!)  I love it!  (Yes I feel a little bad that I all I got him was a $9.99 book!)

Sharing the News

Keeping our little "sweet pea" a secret was a bit more difficult than I anticipated.  We had decided that of course our parents should be the first ones to hear the news and that we wanted to tell them in person.  This would have been easy, expect that Adam was travelling like crazy for work and my parents live close to 3 hours away!  I was originally hoping the keep it a secret until I was closer to my second trimester.  And the perfect time would have been this weekend because tomorrow is Grandparents Day!  Great idea in theory, but of course nothing goes exactly as planned.  Anyways, I was beginning to not feel well so I was afraid word might start leaking around work, etc. 
So we ended up telling our parents around 9 weeks!  The great part about all of this, is the fact that we hadn't shared with any family our plans as far as when we were going to start trying to have a baby!  All this was a complete surprise:) 

We surprised my mom with a visit home to celebrate her birthday a little early.  I think we trumped all the other gifts with the news of a little one arriving in the spring.  Everyone was beyond excited, even the kids!  My sister even teared up a bit:)  This is a little sleeper, socks, and rattle that my parents have already shipped to us for Baby Davis!

Adam's parents were a bit easier!  We had them over for a cookout and gave them a picture of our ultrasound to announce the news.  Of course, my MIL said she knew it when we invited her over (I will give her the fact that she's randomly asked us if we were pregnant on at least 2 separate occasions this summer) but I still think there were no hints leading up to this. 
We swore both families to secrecy and I know it's just killing them.  But as far as we know mums been the word!
We've also slowly began to spread the word to close friends as well.  And soon we will tell our grandparents (again the plan is for in person).  We have designed some pregnancy announcements cards that will be mailed out to family and friends in the next few weeks!  Soon enough the whole world will know when it goes viral on facebook haha!

Signs and Symptoms

Let's start from when "we found out" we were pregnant

Weeks 4 & 5: Normal PMS-type cramping.  Unlike the "usual" 2 days of cramping, I experienced all day 2 weeks worth of cramping.  Worse at bedtime and with more back achiness.  I would typically take some Ibuprofen or something of that nature, but now I was trying sans medicine.  Frequent urination--awakening at least twice during the night.  Headache, well this was more caffeine-withdrawal related.  Lasted about three days, again did not take any medicine to relieve.

Weeks 6 &7:   The start of week 6 on the dot, morning or rather all day sickness, began.  Each morning I would awake with nausea.  It would stay with me until after eating lunch, then return again around 4-5pm.  Worse times were first thing in the morning and around 9pm.  Frequent urination, now awakening only once during the night.

Weeks 8 & 9: Nausea still.  A bit better during the week, definitely worse on the weekends.  Fatigue or should I say exhaustion!  This creeped in here and there in the prior weeks in the form of a cat nap after work or falling asleep early on the couch.  But this weekend I think I slept most of the day away.  If not asleep I was definitely lounging on the couch.  Unfortunately, Adam was away for work for the majority of this time and it was all up to me to take care of myself.  It's pretty hard to cook a decent meal when you are tired and nauseous---so soup or pasta was about all I could handle!

Week 10:  Finally getting the nausea under control.  I realized that if I eat every couple of hours, then I can ward off the ill feelings.  This is still a bit difficult on the weekends (I'm not on a schedule and I tend to just eat less), but this weekend was much better.  Despite eating 5-6 times a day, I have yet to gain any weight!  Yay!  Frequent urination--once during night.  Still fighting fatigue.  Took a nap Saturday, Sunday, and Monday!  Hoping to store up enough energy to last me all week:) 

Finding out

A little back story first (as most people have been asking!).  We hadn't shared with many people our exact plans as to when we were going to start trying.  Our thoughts had always been that there were certain things we wanted to do before "settling down" with a family.  My main "to do" was travel and specifically to Paris.  Well, we checked that off in May!  Since returning home most discussions turned to the topic of babies.  Needless to say we went back and forth about being ready in all aspects of our lives.  But after visiting some close friends that had just been blessed with a precious baby boy, our fates were sealed.  It was time!

July was a busy month for us.  We travelled to HHI for vacation with my family and had a blast!  When we returned Adam was due to travel to northern Ohio for work for several weeks (returning home for most weekends).  I had realized that if in fact we were expecting, I may learn of this while Adam was away.  As most people in my situation would have felt, it was not an ideal scenario to have to deliver that news via phone.  So I decided to take a test a few days early "just in case."  Adam and I had discussed this and he agreed.  However, I think he forgot because he walked in on me in the bathroom and immediately asked "what are you doing?" When I told him, he got this nervous look on his face!  A few minutes later we had a faint positive line!  Adam was ecstatic, but I was a bit apprehensive.  What does a faint line mean??!!!

I went about my business for the next few days.  I gave up caffeine and tried eating healthy.  I had some of my normal PMS symptoms but otherwise was doing fine.  When aunt flow failed to show up, I took a more reliable (First Response) test.  It was almost instantly positive!!  The next day, I called the OB/GYN to set up my first appointment.  I had calculated at that time that I was around 4 weeks and estimated my due date to 4/2/2012.  Because it was so early on, Adam I decided to keep the news to ourselves until we had at least gone to the doctor.  Also, we wanted to tell both of our parents in person. With Adam out of town that made things impossible for a while.  So I avoided phone calls so that I wouldn't spill the beans!!

Bun in the Oven

If you're reading this, we've shared the good news!! We're going to be parents, our little sweet pea is due March 31, 2012:) We're beyond excited! We've decided to start this blog so that family and friends can follow along with us as we transition from a family of two to a family of three (well four if you count our dog, Brodie!) Anyways, the first couple of posts will be recaps of our lives over the last several months. Enjoy!