At the recommendation of a couple of friends, I've decided to start a baby blog. I don't know how consistent I will be about posting, but hopefully more so than I ever was with my blog about my teaching experiences.
As this is my first pregnancy, I would guess that a lot of the things I will write about will not be new to many people out there. I don't claim to be any sort of expert, I just want to reflect on my own experiences as I go through pregnancy for the first time. Maybe it will help someone later, who goes through the same thing, or maybe it will be purely for my own reflection, but I'm still going to put it out there.
So. First things first: a little info about me. I am 29 years old, and my husband and I just celebrated our first anniversary in June. My birthday is 2 days before my due date. I am currently 13 weeks and 5 days pregnant, which according to the pregnancy websites I look at means I call myself "14 weeks" pregnant for 2 more days.
I find it interesting that the pregnancy is counted from the last menstrual cycle, which is technically about two weeks before conception. I suppose there's not really a better way to consistently count it, since every woman's cycle is slightly different and because it's difficult to pinpoint exactly when ovulation and fertilization occurred. Still, it means that though I'm 14 weeks pregnant, the baby has only been there for about 12.
So far, I've had a pretty easy time of things. I had a few weeks of some pretty rough nausea around weeks 4 through 8 of pregnancy, though I have been lucky enough to have not vomited a single time. This is a definite plus, as during those weeks it was a challenge to eat, and returning what little I was able to eat would probably not have been good for me. The nausea let up considerably when I switched to taking my prenatal vitamin before bed instead of in the morning, at my sister's recommendation (she's a doctor). I was still almost permanently queasy for the next 4 weeks or so, but eating was considerably easier. Still, to date I've actually lost about 10lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight. It doesn't really worry me, though, as I started with considerably more weight than I needed (as a 5'4" woman with a pretty wide frame, I weighed over 190lbs before conception). I think most of the weight loss has actually been because I've been eating much healthier since I found out I was pregnant, and I've also probably gotten down to eating the right amount, instead of overeating.
At our first OB appointment (with the actual OB, not the nurse), at about 12 weeks we were able to catch the baby's heartbeat, but not for long. My baby is apparently a bit shy, as she had trouble finding it, and when she did, the baby moved almost right away. She found it again a second time, but again it was only briefly before baby decided to move away again. Still, my husband and I were quite happy to have confirmation that there was a little someone in there, and that it wasn't all in my head.
Then, this past Wednesday, we went for our first ultrasound, as part of a screening for risk of Down Syndrome and a few other genetic abnormalities. Luckily, the tests all came back negative, and our specific risk of Down Syndrome is down to about 1 in 42,000. I can deal with odds like that. The only drawback to the test is that we had to pay almost $300 towards our deductible, which wasn't mentioned by the OB when she scheduled us for the ultrasound. On the other hand, I was pretty much expecting to have to pay a chunk for it, since it was at the hospital, and not at the regular doctor's office.
The exciting part, of course, was the actual ultrasound. Getting to see images of our growing baby, and getting to watch the baby kicking and wiggling was priceless for me, and my husband seemed pretty enthralled as well. Admittedly, it's not the most comfortable position in the world, as you have to have a full bladder for them to be able to see the baby. This was made worse for me by the fact that once again our baby was not being terribly cooperative. To get the images they needed for the test, the baby needed to be lying on the back: our baby was apparently quite comfortable lying on the belly. So what do they do to try to get the baby to move? They jiggle your tummy. An entertaining idea, but not the most comfortable when you already really have to pee. So, the technician jiggled my belly, and the baby turned on to the side, but would not turn all the way over. After a few minutes, baby was back on the belly, which meant more jiggling for me. She was eventually able to get the pictures she needed, but unfortunately that meant getting the baby back on the side (never did get the baby to turn all the way over), and then pressing the ultrasound thingy into my side to get a different angle, so she could get the right picture. On the plus side, we got to watch our baby wiggle and squirm for quite a while, since s/he was so uncooperative ;-)
Other than that, I'm looking forward to the time when my belly will look actually pregnant instead of just looking slightly more bloated than usual. We're getting there, I think, but right now the only outward signs for me are my larger than usual breasts (fun for my husband, at least) and the fact that most of my pants and shorts don't fit comfortably anymore. Oh well. At least I have a lot of skirts with stretchy waistbands. Those are good for summer wearing anyway :)
