I want my baby back, baby back, baby back....

No, not really. I just want MY ribs to feel better! They still hurt, especially my right side. The pain was excruciating this Sunday. I woke up and felt okay, but think I hopped out of bed too quickly and tweaked something, because for the rest of the day, I was in agony. I noticed today they're feeling a lot better than they were, though there are still some twinges of pain.

When I was at the OB this morning, I asked about the pain and she said (as I thought), it was just residual muscle strain from when I had the flu. She said the things we'd normally do to make it better-- Advil, Motrin, etc.-- are off limits because of the pregnancy, and basically, I need to grin and bear it. Which I have been doing as best I can.

In other news, my fundus is measuring 31-32 weeks, so she's sticking with her "the baby is big, we're not changing your EDD" policy. Also, I got my H1N1 vaccine today. Anything to keep from getting another round of the flu! (And never mind how much worse it would be if I picked up swine flu somewhere!). The baby is not, as I feared, transverse; she's head down. Thank goodness for that.

The big mass I've been feeling on the right side, under my (painful) ribs is the baby's rump. Good to know.

I am at a point now where I need to go in for appointments every 2 weeks, and, on top of that, I will start going in for non-stress tests twice a week at 34 weeks. I'm so thankful I'll be working in the same city as my doctor. I don't know what I would have done if I'd needed to do that while working 100 miles away.

Hard to believe we're getting so close! We still have so much to do...

"No worries"

So the ultrasound. Apparently I didn't drink the water early enough so they had a hard time looking at my cervix and had to use the dildo cam. The baby looks good-- had her hands in front of her face, boxer style. Put 'em up! But she's big. Or I'm further along by 3-4 weeks than they thought based on my 8 week ultrasound.

I emailed my doctor to ask what she thought. Her reply was actually really nice. (I always am self conscious about bothering her, which I know is stupid, but still.) It began with "no worries." She went on to say the baby is just big, that the 8 week ultrasound is waaaay more accurate than this and that they're not going to move my due date and that I don't need to be freaked out about possibly delivering about a month earlier than we'd planned. She also said that my high blood pressure could have made the baby smaller, but that it's not the case and I should be happy about that. And I don't have gestational diabetes, so the baby isn't big because of that. So I'm going to stick with her advice and focus on "no worries."

Mommy friends

I met a nice woman at the dog park today. Leah is her name, and her dog's name is Tucker. She's a pediatrician and has a baby that is less than a year old. I have seen her there before and we've chatted, but this time, we talked longer than we ever have in the past and actually exchanged names. I'm hoping this will be the beginning of a friendship, because I could use some mom friends who live locally! Right now, I only have one, though another friend is about 3 months pregnant (which means Poppy will be about 3 months older than my friend's child). Being around people who know what you're going through because they've been through it is so helpful, and I would like to build a support network for me and a network of friends for Poppy (especially since our neighborhood doesn't lend itself to her making friends around here). I am thinking about trying to join a mommy's group or doing Stroller Strides or something, but it will also depend on my job situation, since working 90 miles from home isn't conducive to having lots of time for playgroups, etc. (though I'm sure Mike will be able to make lots of mommy friends, ha ha).

Update

My birthday ended up being fine. We had dinner with some friends the day before and it was really nice. Very touching. I cried. I'm a sap, what can I say? The actual day-of, I worked a really long day (10 hours, plus 3 hours drive time). The day after, though, Mike and I and my brother went to a really fancy place for dinner and ate like pigs. Literally hundreds of dollars worth of food (and wine for the boys). It was all comped because of some work Mike had done for the owner of the restaurant. Not bad!

My stomach has gotten a lot bigger. I look at pictures from a couple of weeks ago compared to now and it's mind boggling. Amazing how quickly it happens. Tomorrow I'll be six months pregnant, and Sunday, I'll be married for a year. It's been a busy 12 months.

Work is going well. My boss has been much more open to letting me work from home. I'm home today and will be home two days next week, too. Woo hoo! That's a huge load off.

Big plans for this weekend include buying "What to Expect The First Year" and "Super Baby Foods." I figure I should get started learning about those things now, while I have time and while I'm rested.

Other than that, nothing too exciting going on. That's probably a good thing. ;)

Halfway there!

I had another doctor's appointment on Thursday and while the doctor hadn't looked at the images from the ultrasound in great detail, she said if something had been obviously wrong, the tech would have called in a radiologist and they would have called her. So it's sort of a "no news is good news" situation. Same with the genetic testing.

Somehow the doctor and her office forgot to tell me I needed 2nd trimester blood work done for the genetic screening. I was surprised to get a letter when I got home at 7 p.m. on the 18th saying I needed to have the blood work done on/by the 20th or else they couldn't do any screening. I was NOT happy. It worked out fine and I was able to have it done on the 20th, after my prenatal appointment.

While I was there, the doctor also ordered some general blood and urine screening because I explained I've been a little tired, a little swollen, and sensitive to sugar. My results came back later that day and they all look sort of funky to me. My red blood count from the CBC was really low. That probably explains why I'm so exhausted all the time. I need to follow up with the doctor to see if I should be taking supplements or something.

In a concession to my health, and thinking of Poppy's, I went back to taking prenatal vitamins last night. The ones I was taking before made me really sick, so I switched to regular adult gummie vitamins. But the prenatal ones have more good stuff that I obviously need, so that's that.

I'm happy that everything is going well and amazed at how quickly the days have passed. I'm 20 weeks along today-- halfway there!

Great news!

Mike was late for our appointment. Well, he wasn't late, exactly. He was late for check-in, and they ended up taking me slightly early. He didn't miss anything. Just the least talkative technician in the world running his wand over my belly (and excruciatingly full bladder). Mike arrived, he watched. I couldn't see anything from where I was. I asked the guy, "is the baby still in there? Heart still beating?" He said yes, so that was a relief, but he didn't say ANYTHING else. Mike tried to ask the guy a question or two, but the tech just said, "you'll have to ask the doctor. I can't make any diagnoses." I don't want a diagnosis-- and by the way, does that mean something's wrong?!?-- but I'd love to know what you're looking at/for.

The tech took a million images. My bladder was threatening a revolt, so I got up and peed halfway through the exam. There was one image he was trying to get, but it took a long time. The tech kept pushing the wand into me harder and jostling me, to get the baby to change positions, I guess.

Then, finally, he turned the screen around so I could see. And what did I see? A little baby! Moving! In my belly! PHEW! He showed us head and profile and feet and arms and heartbeat... and... female genitalia! It's a girl!

He also moved the date up a bit, saying I'm really 20+ weeks along. Moved my due date from January 9, 2010 to December 29, 2009. By far, that's the easiest "week" of pregnancy I've had!

I'm off (in about a half hour) to another doctor's appointment, where we will review the sonogram images and I'll have some more blood work done. More on the blood work later.

January 9, 2010

The doctor's appointment went well yesterday. I was weighed, we went over my health questionnaire. The nurse midwife I was on track to see (lovely Kaiser) suggested I see a doctor for my next appointment because of my blood pressure, which is high. Depending on how that goes, I may continue to see him/her (how sad is it that I don't know who I'll be seeing, or their gender?), or I may go back to the nurse midwife.

We did a sonogram to date the pregnancy. As of yesterday, I was 8 weeks and 2 days along! The baby looks healthy, the heartbeat was visible (though I couldn't see it because I didn't have my glasses on), we're on track.

I wish I was further along, though, so my stupid morning sickness and fatigue would go away. I had been thinking I was about 10 weeks along, hoping for 11, but telling myself to be happy with 8 so I wouldn't be disappointed if that was the case. As it turns out, that is the case, and I'm dealing with it okay. I spent all day feeling pukey, like I was on the verge of throwing up every few minutes, but I guess that's just additional proof that the bun in my oven is baking.

I will say, it was cool to see the baby inside of me. I didn't know what to expect, in terms of how I would feel about it, but I definitely felt a little wave of pride and happiness. Mike did, too.

I have to go back in 5 more weeks, plus go in for some blood work in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we continue to read our books and look at baby gear (we've been hot on the trail of cribs lately). I also still have to tell my dad the news, but I'm hoping to do that this weekend. So lots of excitement to come!

The bets are in

Because we have no idea how far along we are with the pregnancy, I thought it would be fun to ask people for their guesses. Ideally, I'd like to award a prize, but I haven't been able to think of anything creative yet. (Although as I typed that, I had an idea-- a certificate with a stylized picture of whatever the baby looks like that week, e.g., if I'm 8 weeks along, a kidney bean. Fun!)

Without further ado, here are the guesses:
My best friend = 7 weeks
My mom = 10
My best "mom" friend = 11
Myself = 9
Mother-in-law = 10
Only coworker who knows = 11

I haven't been able to get a guess out of Mike yet, but I'll be sure to do that before our appointment. I'm getting really excited for tomorrow and have already done some research on questions I should ask, plus things I want to know based on stuff that's been happening to me. For example, yesterday I got a migraine. Am I allowed to take my prescription migraine med, or do I have to tough it out for two days, like I did?

Bombshell

A few months ago, I started gaining weight. I'd never had regular periods, and had been told by a doctor when I was a teenager that I'd have a hard time having kids, but I was still curious enough about the weight gain to take a home pregnancy test. March 23, it came back negative. When my period still hadn't arrived a month later, I made an appointment at the doctor, and April 29, I went to the OBGYN to get the ball rolling on figuring out what's wrong with my female plumbing system. Since you have to be trying for a year to be declared reproductively challenged, I didn't think the midwife (I'm a member of Kaiser, so it's rare to see a doctor) would do much for me, but thought it was the first step that would help me and my husband, Mike, start down the road of starting a family someday.

Imagine my surprise when we started and ended the appointment with a pregnancy test. The test was positive. I was shocked. It was the last thing I was expecting (for a number of reasons, including the negative pregnancy test the month before).

The process of finding out as a comedy of errors.

The nurse told me to pee in a cup, but I'd just gone to the bathroom, so I didn't have to go. We argued about that for a minute and agreed that as a compromise, I would drink a cup of water and then see if I could squeeze out a few drops. "We don't need much," she said.

I peed in the cup, the nurse used an eye dropper to put the urine on the test. One line showed up right away. There was a faint light gray line next to it. She showed it to me and expected me to be excited. I, of course, had no idea what I was looking at. Apparently I didn't look impressed because she then explained the test to me. Two lines = pregnant, one line = not.

She said she couldn't tell if the test was positive or not, and took it to confer with another nurse. Meanwhile, I was in the exam room freaking out. "What does this mean? How is this possible? Is this a joke? Are you kidding me? Should I call Mike? Text him? This must be some sort of mistake."

Meanwhile, I heard the other nurse say, "just tell her it's positive." So nice, so caring. The first nurse comes back in and proceeds to tell me how exciting this is and how great the news is and to go on and on and on.

Now-- this is GREAT news. I'm very excited. Very happy. I just think it's inappropriate for this woman to, without knowing my circumstances, make such a fuss. What if I'd been raped, or didn't want the baby for some other reason? I told her I was happy and she left, then I waited for the midwife I was scheduled to see.

She gave me a run down of some info (eat small meals, don't think you really have to "eat for two," stay away from raw fish, take prenatal vitamins, etc.) and asked me if I had any questions. I told her I was sure I'd have lots of questions later, but that at that point, I was mostly in shock. You know, because I'd gone into the doctor expecting to be told I'm barren and left having been told I'm expecting.

After leaving the doctor's office, I texted Mike to see if he wanted to meet me for lunch. I didn't want to tell him over the phone, so that seemed like a good plan. But he'd eaten just a little bit before and wasn't hungry, so when he asked how the appointment went, I was vague. I planned to tell him in he evening when he was home from work, but Kaiser threw a wrench into those plans.

Each of us has our medical stuff set up so that when one of us goes to the doctor, the other one is notified of the test results. That's why Mike got an email shortly after my appointment that said "Diagnosis: Pregnancy." And that's why he called me a few minutes after that and asked, "Are you pregnant?!?!?" So I ended up telling him over the phone after all.