Anatomical Scan

EEEKKK! I can't believe this day is finally here!  We had our 20 week US today a little early so we'd have pictures to share with family at Thanksgiving, and the verdict is....

The family tradition will continue!  Little Baby S is a BOY!!! He will hereafter be referred to as little man or Baby B.

I am beyond excited!  I really wanted a boy, and not just for A's family tradition stuff (which I'll explain in a minute), but also because it's what I've always wanted.  Ever since I was a young girl dreaming about my own family, I've always wanted sons.  Don't know if its because I grew up in a house with 2 other women and only one man or what, but that's what I've always dreamed of.  I have to admit, I was really afraid of what my reaction would be if it was a girl.  And I think that's part of why I wanted to find out so bad.  I've read a lot about gender disappointment, and I wanted to be able to get through that BEFORE the baby got here if it was going to be an issue.  It's not, and I'm relieved, I think that I probably would have been ok either way, but this saves me from all the emotions that go with being disappointed, and then feeling bad that your disappointed, etc.  It's kind of like the vicious circle a lot of infertiles go through when a friend gets pregnant.  We want to be happy for them, but at the same time we're upset that it happened to them and not us.  Then we're upset at ourselves for not just being happy for them..and around and around it goes.

So anyway, A's family tradition.  For 6 generations (he's the 6th) the firstborn of the first born son has been a son. A, his father his grandfather, his great grandfather, and the 2 before that were all the first born. The very first of these (A greats grandfather) middle name was his mother's maiden name, and all the firstborn sons since have had that same middle name. So naturally his whole family, well at least his dad's whole family, was convinced it HAD to be a boy, and the tradition would continue. I'm really glad it will, and thankfully I really like the middle name, it will fit with out preferred first name.

And now for your viewing pleasure, here's some pics of our boy.  I videoed the whole sonogram, but I can't upload it until later, so that will go up tonight probably.  Assuming I have time between baking an apple pie, packing to head to dad's for 3 days, and getting a foster ready to be adopted that is!  What a day!

Full Profilelegs turned away

Face Profile and legs turned away

Facing us and waving 



18 weeks

Wow that just seem unreal.  18 weeks, I'm really here.  I've actually had a really crappy week.  I've been feeling cruddy since Friday night, and discovered I have the beginnings of a nice fun sinus infection.  My General Practitioner gave me a prescription for an antibiotic hoping to fend off a more severe infection, and my chiropractor recommended a technique to help break the crap up.  I'm definitely going to give it a try tonight, in fact as soon as I'm done with this I'm headed up to try it and go to bed.  Here's the survey.
The survey:
How far along: 18 weeks 0 days
Total weight gain/loss: -0.5 from pre IVF
Maternity clothes:  All maternity pants or stretchy knit skirts (I LOVE my Old Navy roll top skirts!). Some regular shirts fit, but only on good show off my bump days :-)
Stretch marks: One new one on my belly, left side.  The ones on my hips from puberty are ANGRY!  I've started using Palmers Cocoa Butter lotion for stretch marks, and it is taking most of the redness away.  Loving it!
Sleep: Sucks.  Mostly because I've been coughing.  Its tough to get healthy when you can't sleep.
Movement: Just some flutters.  I really can't wait for that to start for real!
Cravings: None really, broccoli cheese soup twice this week, but I think that because I've been sick.
Aversions: Still having issues with hot sauce.  Anything really greasy doesn't sit well. Sometimes cooked fryer oil sets me off.
Gender: We'll find out in 1 week!!!! Can't wait.
Symptoms: Nausea is tapering off to once or twice a week.  Sciatica is in full force (thank GOD for chiropractors).  Tired a lot.
What I miss:  Not eating tums for dinner. Heartburn has been really bad!
What I look forward to: Feeling real movement
Moods: Up, down left, right, in, out....depends on the minute
Milestones: umm..oh discussing cribs and names
Medical Concerns: the sinus infection of course, and I'm still getting headaches, although these are sinus related I'm sure.
Weekly Wisdom: I'm going to repeat the little green brain wisdom.  It's saved my butt twice this week.
Best moment this week: Being reminded how awesome my hubby is.  Even though he doesn't like doctors and medicine, he was adamant that I go to the doctor ASAP when I started coughing up pretty colors.  I normally would have just toughed it out, but he insisted, and now I'm glad he did.

Week 17 update

I realized it's been forever since I did a survey, and we had an check-up at 17 weeks, so here's the update :-)

DR appoint Stats:

• My BP 132/76 Weird because it's high on the upper number and low on the lower number.  I usually sit at around the low 120's/mid 80's.  Doc isn't worried as long as it stays below 160/100
• Heartbeat is 150, right in the middle of normal.  I totally get it now why some women buy an at home dopplar, I'm in LOVE with hearing that heartbeat.
• Weight (by docs scale) 206.2 but I'm at the doctor at different times, wearing different clothes, and after eating, so I'm tracking weight gain by my home scale always measured first thing in the morning in my birthday suit :-)
• Measuring right on target according to my doctor's abdominal exam

The survey:
How far along: 17 weeks 0 days
Total weight gain/loss: I'm still down about a pound from Pre IVF!!
Maternity clothes:  All maternity pants or stretchy knit skirts (I LOVE my Old Navy roll top skirts!). Some regular shirts fit, but only on good show off my bump days :-)
Stretch marks: One new one on my belly, left side.  The ones on my hips from puberty are ANGRY!
Sleep: Sucks.  I'm lucky if I sleep through the night, mainly because I can't get comfortable.  I've been careful about not drinking too much within 2 hours of bedtime so my bladder isn't waking me up which is good.  I got a Shepard's hook pregnancy pillow, and it seems to be helping, so we'll see if it get better.
Movement: Just some flutters.  I really can't wait for that to start for real!
Cravings: None really, although I have had biscuits and gravy for breakfast every morning for 2 weeks.
Aversions: Still having issues with hot sauce.  Anything really greasy doesn't sit well. Sometimes cooked fryer oil sets me off.
Gender: We'll find out in 2 weeks!!!!
Symptoms: Nausea is tapering off to once or twice a week.  Sciatica is in full force (thank GOD for chiropractors).  Tired a lot.
What I miss:  Beer with my football, I didn't get any octoberfest this season :-(
What I look forward to: Feeling real movement
Moods: Up, down left, right, in, out....depends on the minute
Milestones: Passed my first Glucose test!
Medical Concerns: Nothing major, some headaches cropping up, seems to be directly tied to my ability to stay (or not stay) out of the Halloween candy.
Weekly Wisdom: Keep a "little green brain" with you at all times! And a pocket calendar if you don't use your phone for that. I have a little green notebook that I keep in my purse so I can write down important stuff...like when food day is at work or what I'm supposed to bring for a meeting.  I am SO bad at remembering things anyway, pregnancy brain has made it near impossible.  I would never get anything right if it wasn't for my little green brain and my droid calendar!
Best moment this week: Hearing that heartbeat again.  I can't get enough of it.  It makes me smile every time.  I think I'll record it on my phone next time, just so I can listen to it whenever :-)

Holy Cow! Twice in one week! (now with Pictures)

I know its crazy, but I'm actually posting twice in the same week!  I'm sitting here watching the football game and really procrastinating putting away all the inside Halloween decorations, so what do I have better to do but blog?  :-)


I pulled a ton of pictures off the camera and moved everything from my computer to our external hard drive, but realized that I have over 300 pictures that need to be sorted and organized!! I couldn't believe how much we had been slacking on getting all this done!  So this is my big project for this week, sorting all these pictures.  But in the mean time, here's the pics I promised.

Pre Pregnancy

8 Weeks (on my birthday, an awful cell phone picture, and OMG was I BLOATED)

12 weeks

















16 weeks (wow I need a haircut!)



















I hosted a Thirty One catalog party in in October, and my order came in this week.  My SIL is a consultant, and I am just in LOVE with everything I have bought so far.  This time around I bought a new bag for work stuff, I've been bringing a lot more stuff back and forth to home lately, and I'm just sick of carrying it by hand.  And as we get into winter, I'm going to have to start wearing slip resistant shoes for walking through the parking lot, which means I'll be carrying my work shoes in.  All the more reason to have a big enough bag to carry it all in, keeps my hands free.  I also got several organizers to use with my crafting stuff, and I'm loving how much easier it is to find stuff!  As I use all of my new bags and purse, I think I'll do a little review of each on here.  SIL uses one as her diaper bag, and although I'm not fond of any of the current prints for that purpose, I'm hoping that I'll find one in the spring prints I like (out in February).  If your interested in looking at the catalog, checkout the site.  If you think you want to order, let me know and I'll get you hooked up with my SIL.

Other baby news, I'm on movement watch constantly right now.  I think I'm looking forward to that more than the anatomical scan right now.  Just that constant reminder that our little one is still in there and doing ok will do a lot to ease some of my worries I think.  I'm still doing really well in the weight gain area, only up 0.2 lbs since last week.  I'm trying to go back to my PCOS diet, slightly modified, as a way of keeping the dreaded Gestational Diabetes at bay.  I'm not back to avoiding ALL the blood sugar spiking foods, but I'm working really hard to keep it limited to one serving a day.  I can't even begin to tell you how much I missed baked potatoes!!! I also had banana for the first time in over a year and it was OH so good!  I got a pregnancy pillow last week...2nd hand but practically new, it's in the washer right now.  Hopefully that will help me sleep a little better.  Right now A is getting a little overwhelmed by all the pillows I have in the bed trying to get comfortable.  I think there was 5 on the bed this morning, all for me :-)

I did it again :-(

Seriously, how is it that nearly 2 weeks have passed since I posted last?  It really doesn't seem like that long!

Things have been absolutely nuts for me lately.  It's the whole Halloween thing.  A and I are HUGE Halloween nuts.  We volunteered for 11 years at a local Haunted House before it closed after the 2007 season.  In the 3 years since we've built a mini haunt in our yard.  Here's a video of this year's haunt. I didn't help with the build as much this year as in years past obviously, but I did get to play a crazy escaped mental patient with my psycho baby doll.  I LOVED it.

In baby news, I had my glucose test last week.  It SUCKED!  My advice for anyone who has to go through it, if you don't have to fast DON'T.  I was so nauseous after drinking that orange crap I struggled to keep it down for the necessary hour.  When I got to work, I munched on crackers until about lunch, and then I finally felt like eating real food around 2pm, and my test was at 8am!!!   Won't have the results till my next appointment, but I'm guessing if it was really bad they would have called sooner.  Next appointment is next Tuesday, and we'll have the anatomy scan the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.  Oh and the chiropractor is helping SO much with the leg issues.  I still get the tingling every day, but the sharp stabbing and burning pain only comes infrequently now instead of every day.

I've started feeling more and more of the uterine flutters that are known to happen around this time, but nothing real from the baby yet.  I'm really looking forward to really starting to feel movement.  There's still a part of me that doesn't think this can be real, that this is all just a dream.  I don't know when it's going to all sink in, but I'm really looking forward to that.

Otherwise I'm feeling pretty good.  The nausea and heartburn have lessened quite a bit.  All in all I've been really lucky so far.  I've had it pretty easy and, knock on wood, that will continue. 

A has been giving me a lot of crap for not posting more regularly, and the truth is I feel really bad about it.  Thank you for sticking with me even if I am only posting once a week.  I actually started this post 3 days ago, and its taken me this long to finish it.  I'm setting a goal for myself to post at least once a week going forward.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep to that.  Oh and I do have some belly pics, I just have to get them off the camera and I'll post them.  By next week I promise!