Sunday, April 19, 2009

Too many cookies or is there a baby in there? Week 9




What's Baby up to? The uterus is now a little bigger than a grapefruit and baby is the size of a green olive (1 to 1 1/4 inches) The arms and legs are longer. Hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over the heart area. The eyelids almost cover the eyes, the ears are well formed, and the baby starts moving its arms and legs. The baby looks more like a baby, rather than an alien. Just 3 more weeks until we are out of the first trimester! yay!

Changes in Momma: Ok, since we lost the "before picture" I found one from Florida. Comparing from then to now, what happened to my body??? From the 9 week picture above, looks like my pj pants are getting a little tight! Oh well, its for a good cause, right? The past week (week 8) was a rough week with morning/all day sickness. I'm feeling better so hopefully things will continue to improve and I can get my energy back! My boobs are still very sore. Cramping stopped at 7 weeks and sometimes every now and then. I was working out in the backyard planting some seeds and each time I stood up, I got very lightheaded and dizzy. I would have to stop and sit down each time I stood up, it was very annoying. Also, heat gets to me a lot quicker. It was 75* and felt sick while working out in the yard. I guess it could be that I am not used to the warmer weather yet...I hope so or its going to be a long summer!

How's Daddy? Amazing. Wonderful. Supportive. He told me the other day that he didn't think I needed to be out in the heat, it just wasn't good for me. He lets me sleep in on the weekends and take naps. He gives into my cravings, recently it was hot dogs. I know I am not supposed to have them, so we stopped at the store and got turkey dogs...yummy! He has also done all the grocery shopping since it makes me gag with all the smells. He gets very concerned if he doesn't think I'm eating enough. I give him a play by play of what I eat everyday. He tells me if I don't eat enough "our child will be born with one eye (or whatever body part is developing at the time)." He is so protective! He has also finished one of his books called "My Boys Can Swim" it was a hilarious book! He is currently reading "Be Prepared" such a good daddy :) I love him!

Favorite Foods: fruit, mashed potatoes, pizza, cottage cheese, turkey dogs, bacon.

What people are asking: Are you going to find out the gender? Yes, we have had enough surprises. What do you want? A healthy baby, secretly thinking its a boy :) Bets have already started on if its a girl or a boy. So far boy is winning.

What else is new? Not much, working on the house, the kitchen is almost finished! Working on the ceiling. Next up is painting the bathrooms and then the two extra bedrooms.

Friday, April 10, 2009

What's Going on in There? At 7 weeks





So time for an update since breaking the news. It is seeming more real and Alan has been wonderful!

Baby Changes: Week 3-4 it was the size of a poppy seed, now we have a blueberry! Week seven: Baby's brain -- both hemispheres! -- is growing fast, generating about 100 new cells every minute. Arms and legs are emerging as joints start to form, and a permanent set of kidneys (baby's third!) is now in place.

Morning sickness: dry heaving has gotten worse over the evening, morning sickness isn't just in the morning, it starts when I wake up, in the afternoon I am ok, but the evenings are the worse, I am tired, hungry and nothing sounds good. I come home from work, fall asleep on the couch, wake up have some dinner and do things around the house and then go to bed by 9:30.

Foods I'm in love with: plain bagels with plain cream cheese, crackers with peanut butter, any type of fruit, raw veggies dipped in ranch dressing (well, that was last week, not so much this week), coke a cola (never really liked it, but now the regular is my favorite) and yes I can have 300mg of caffeine a day, coke only has 34 mg for a 12 ounce can. I am in love with the blue frost gatorade. I have been craving eggs and bacon, haven't actually had any yet, so that maybe a different story. Anything plain. Except for BBQ sandwiches, I wish Brian (Alan's brother) could come back up and make me his BBQ it was sooo good! Pickles, yep love them, couldn't decide which type to buy at the store so I bought the sweet and the dill. Oh, cream of mushroom soup, you know the stuff you mix in with green beans? I love it. Weird.

Foods I've broke up with: anything spicy, anything that's complex, its hard to describe, but for example I made pasta with chicken and tomatoes with Alfredo sauce, ate it one night and now can't even watch Alan eat it. Anything with a taste, is on the makes me sick list. Yogurt, I used to eat it every morning, not anymore. Basically, if its not a carb or fruit I don't want it.

Body changes: my work pants are tight and I unbutton them, jeans nope not fitting at all. Another weird thing I have developed in the past few days, very vivid dreams. Not scary, but just very real and they are usually about food. I tend to get hungry in the middle of the night or and have dreamt for the past few nights that I am eating goldfish crackers, or eggs and bacon, cucumber salad, or potato skins. It is so real that I wake up in the morning and think that I actually ate those things!

How Daddy is doing: wonderfully. In the mist of one of my dry heaving spells, he says to me "you know I am a sympathetic puker" I laughed and gagged and laughed and gagged. I have yet to actually toss my cookies and Alan has kept his down as well. He will also be doing the grocery shopping, I went to Kroger for the last time this past week to get bagels and cream cheese and the smell of all the bread was making my dry heave in the store.

First prenatal appointment: We love our doctor, Dr. L is wonderful, laid back and funny. He asked us if we figured out how it happened and Alan said, "insert tab A into slot B" Dr. L laughed and said "yep, you got it!" Dr. L answered our questions and felt my uterus and said that it is measuring 7 weeks. He said that he wants to do an NT scan in 5 weeks (I'll be 12 weeks along) to check to make sure we are measuring correctly since I was on the pill. I got my blood drawn and the results came in three days later, with perfect results. I am A- which means I will have to get the Rhogam shot. It is explained below: www.rhogam.com

Being Rh-negative means you don't have a certain protein ("D antigen" or the Rh factor) on the surface of your red blood cells. If you do have it, you're Rh-positive. So the terms “Rh-negative” and “Rh-positive” are really just terms that further define what type of blood a person has, beyond the general blood type categories of A, B, AB, and O.

Being Rh-negative is neither good nor bad, but it can become a serious issue if you’re pregnant by or planning to have a child with a man who is Rh-positive.

WHEN NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE MEET AND MATE

If you're Rh-negative and carrying a baby who is Rh-positive (like the baby’s father), your baby may be at risk for a serious disease. When your immune system (which fights off invaders to keep you healthy) is exposed to your baby’s Rh-positive blood, it will begin producing antibodies that are sensitized(designed specifically) to destroy these “foreign” blood cells.

If this is your first pregnancy, chances are everything will be fine. These sensitized antibodies are typically not dangerous until subsequent pregnancies, when they've had time to grow in strength and number. However, all subsequent pregnancies would be at great risk. That is why you must act now to prevent your immune system from being exposed to Rh-positive blood.

CONSEQUENCES OF HDN FOR UNPROTECTED BABIES

If your immune system is not held in check by a product such as RhoGAM® Brand, sensitized antibodies programmed to recognize and attack any Rh-positive blood cells are waiting for the next pregnancy. The antibodies then begin to destroy the red blood cells of the baby, leading to complications such as jaundice, anemia, mental retardation, and heart failure1. This condition, known as hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN), can be fatal in the most severe cases—the infant would typically die during pregnancy or shortly after delivery.

Prior to the introduction of RhoGAM® Brand in 1968, HDN was a major cause of infant mortality, responsible for an average of 10,000 deaths annually in the United States2. Since the introduction of Rh immune globulin products, like RhoGAM® Brand, the incidence of HDN has been virtually eliminated in most developed countries.

So looks like I will be getting a shot, unless we find out Alan is also negative.

Surprise!

Amazing, within six months of getting married, we bought and remodeled a home, and during that time got pregnant! It was quite a shock to us all, defiantly not planned, but very much loved! Here is the story...

About two weeks before my period was due, something was just not right...my boobs weren't sore! (red flag #1: boobs) The classic early pregnancy sign is that your boobs become very sore, mine are always sore just before my period and had always told myself "I'll know when I am pregnant when my boobs aren't sore." I wish I had trusted my previous thoughts, it would have saved money on those expensive pregnancy tests! Sunday, March 15, 2009 the day before my period was to show Alan and I were to do some painting in the house. Earlier that morning I went to the bathroom to test, result 2 blue lines, but didn't believe it because I could hardly see it (red flag #2: positive pregnancy test) I crawled back in bed and after what seemed like forever of thinking "no way I am pregnant, I'm on the pill!" Alan woke up and wanted breakfast. He went to fix pancakes and eggs, which sounded good to me, I was hungry (red flag #3: I am hardly ever hungry in the morning). While he was fixing them I went to the bathroom to test again, result 2 blue lines, but didn't believe it (red flag #4: second positive pregnancy test). We sat down for breakfast and started talking about what we were going to do that day. I said that I was going to go out to look for a rug while he did some painting (and to get a digital pregnancy test). I ate my eggs, but the pancakes repulsed me. I gave them to Alan and said "it just doesn't sound good." (red flag #5: food aversions) He looked confused and said, "but you said you wanted pancakes." "I know" I said and he ate my pancakes. I took off for the store while Alan painted. I went to Walmart, couldn't find a rug that I liked, went to Big Lots, not luck there. I ended up at Target, still no rug but I was getting tired (red flag #6: exhaustion) so I bought a digital pregnancy test and went to their bathroom. Took the test in Target's bathroom and within a minute or so "Pregnant" flashes in bold black letters on the screen (red flag #7: third positive pregnancy test). I shove it back in its sleeve and go home. I am shaking all the way and thinking "there is still one more test in the box, maybe this one is defective." I get home and must have looked scared to death because Alan came over to me and gave me a hug and said "what's wrong" as he is looking outside at my car to make sure I wasn't in an accident. I stammered out something, like "I don't know how to tell you..." "What, tell me" "Sit down" I said, "and close your eyes." He closed his eyes reluctantly and I handed him all three positive pregnancy tests. He opened his eyes and said "ok." I said, "do you know what they are and what they mean?" "Yes" he said very calmly. He seemed so ok with this, how? I have been freaking out about it all morning and afternoon!!! Needless to say Alan, my wonderful husband was way more okay with it than me...well at this point anyway. We went along our day thinking and talking about it every now and then. The next day I was still thinking that nope, not really pregnant, I'm cramping and should get my period today. At 9:30am (it comes every 28 days at exactly 9:30am) there was nothing, nada, zip, zero, zilch (red flag #8: no period) By this point now, I'm thinking that this is really happening (took me long enough!) I am excited and can't wait to tell our parents! I get home from work Monday and ask Alan about telling my family, he said ok. We went over there for dinner and of all times they were cooking sauerkraut! I started dry heaving before we even stepped in the door (red flag #9: strong sense of smell, just in case your not believing I'm actually pregnant). We sat down for dinner and this is how it went:
"So can you all cook a turkey" I ask. My dad says, "maybe, why?" "Well, we are thinking about having Alan's family up for Thanksgiving this year, with the new house and all." Mom says "good luck getting everyone over there, you know how difficult it is to get everyone together." And then mom and dad start talking about Thanksgiving and other random things. (Obviously at this point the conversation has taken a different turn than I was expecting). So I said "well we would like to have everyone over because.." and I look at Alan for reassurance and he is putting more mashed potatoes in his mouth. "we are having a baby" I said almost laughing. The looks were priceless, dad stops in mid fork full, mom jumps out of her chair to give me a hug, and Emily and Jenny scream "we are going to be aunts!" Dad says, "are you kidding?" Nope your going to be a grandpa. He then says, "wow!" And that is how we broke the news to my family.

After dinner we went outside to roast marshmallows, dad still in shock. Dad and Alan have now finished a bottle of wine by themselves. We call Alan's mom, she doesn't answer. We then get a call back from Judy saying "hello Janelle, sorry I missed your call we were in an exhibit in Epcot, what's up?" At this point I am not really sure how I am going to break the news to her, so I say as I put her on speaker phone "well, we need you all to come up around Thanksgiving." "Why?" she asks very curiously. I said, "because that's when the baby is going to be here, your going to be a grandma" Then there is the loudest shriek, scream, mixed in with some crying, that I am not sure if I heard through the phone or actually heard from Florida. She can't say anything, so she hands the phone over to Ed, and I tell him the news. He is ecstatic and says he is very happy for us and can't wait to be a grandpa. Judy gets back on the phone with me and then Alan and then my mom. It turned out to be a wonderful day.
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Feels Like Home

We bought our first home in February. The previous owners were an older couple who kept everything in amazing condition. They told us that it was their first home too and that they have been there for 40 years and love the neighborhood. Our neighbors are great, some have invited us over for dinner and another one gave us a cookie cake that said "welcome" on it. Ok, on to the details of our home:
1,300 sq feet upstairs (same amount downstairs in an unfinished basement)
3 bedrooms
1.5 baths
large kitchen (well, it was two rooms and we made it one)
living room
large fenced in backyard with a wooded area and creek in the back.
no garage yet, but Alan has plans... :)

With the help of Alan's brother, Brian who stayed with us for a month, we remodeled the kitchen and did some plumbing and electrical work. Also thanks to Tim (who lives in CO for coming out to help for a couple of days), my dad who helped with he plumbing and electrical, my mom who helped with cleaning and keeping us fed. All the friends we recruited to help us move, we couldn't have done it without you! Enjoy the pictures above, just click "play"