Over the next few days

As I have said before, every day brings on new feelings/pains/uncomfortable moments etc..... This morning I had the weirdest sensations in my stomach. And of course Eric constantly reminds me that I am growing a baby. YES I KNOW!!!

Today I have decided to wear that crazy prenatal Cradle.As you can see from this picture, this contraption looks pretty miserable. However I was surprised to notice that this thing is hardly noticeable on. And it really helps your tummy. So I might give it a shot and keep it on all day. I have not felt any pain with it on. So it must work a little. Lets hope it stays that way.

Last weekend I had my scrapbook fundraiser. Thank you everyone that came/helped out etc. I so appreciate it. And we had an awesome turnout. I suppose that means we are on for next year as well. While I was doing that, Eric was off in Frankenmuth with his friends celebrating October fest. Is this picture below, not hilarious. Jenn....great photos by the way!!! I wanted to upload one of him and Rick. But it wouldn't work.

Eric was informed the next day by many family members that he better have had a great time because this time next year he will be changing poopy diapers and feeding a crying baby. Basically that his Octoberfest days are numbered. I hope this isn't the case. But you never know. Like we have any say over how our child is going to dominate our lives.

This weekend we have our Carriage Days Festival. Corn Dogs!!!!!!! And as I have mentioned before we have our softball tournament that we run. I pray the rain stays away. We want this to be a huge success. And I have got Angel to sit with me all day. Well she informed me that 8am time is out of the question. But once she gets around, she will be around to help out. You all should come hang with me. Its lots of fun.

Only 5 more days before we get to see what we are having. Its making me bonkers. It feels like every day that goes by the calendar is moving backwards. I hear people that went to see what they were having only to not have the baby cooperate. I hope the little cupcake/quarterback(I swear I call this baby something new every day) is behaving well. I might get some orange juice or coffee before I go in. This way they can be jacked up on sugar or caffeine. hahaha (Dont judge me!) hahaha

Well thanks for checking in. My next post should be Wednesday next week.

E

Thankful

So things have been pretty uneventful....which is awesome. I do experience the Round Ligament Pain on a more consistent basis that I would like, but.....I know it could be worst. Eric puts up with my whimpering and freak outs. So thank goodness for that. I just picture this little alien baby stabbing me with a knife every hour or so. Good times!

Today I got some pretty good news. Our follow up test came back with a Negative result for Downs Syndrome, any Trisomy illness, or any chromosomal defect. So I would say we are very thankful that we can cross this off of our things to worry about list. It was not a high marker on my list, but you always wonder.

This week we did receive our first "baby" gift. I have been hesitant to buy things or think about things for our baby. But its getting a little more comfortable. So when Uncle Jesse and Aunt Jodi gave our little one a Detroit Lions outfit, I couldn't help but smile. Which Eric was super happy about. It will be a while before he/she fits in it. But I imagine next fall it will fit perfect. Just in time for the Lions to return to have an awesome season in 2010.

The countdown is so on for us to know what we are having......11 more days to go. Man how I hope the baby cooperates. Plus I am getting a little nuts with the wait. Of course there are a few people in our life that want us to wait. That would be my brother, Stephanie and Grandma. But....I can not do that. Its not in my nature to be patient. You all know that.

Oh and a little problem I have here on this blog. Where are all my comments at? I mean you guys all email me. How come you don't leave comments. This my permanent pregnancy record/diary. I want to look back and remember all that was said to me. And I want to share it with the baby. Aunt Frances was totally awesome about responding and Monica....but where are they? Michelle said she can not post a message, so I will cut her some slack. In any case, keep 'em coming.

Well my Lupus fundraiser is tomorrow. Thank you to everyone that is helping out in some way shape or form. You guys are just awesome.

Have a great weekend.

Namaste

Okay so yesterday was my first prenatal yoga class. It was super relaxing. And it was super weird all at the same time. I am not sure if this is going to benefit me or not. But I can tell you that it has a lot of relax moments....which is the whole point of yoga right? We did some weird positions to help us get use to opening up our pelvis. And we did some breathing exercises that will help when the baby gets bigger. So those are pieces that I can totally deal with. However there are several times in the class where we had to "ohm" and do things like that where I was like SAY WHAT??? I know, I know what did I think I signed up for. And we have this like quiet mommy and baby time where we close our eyes and lay back and relax and just breathe and focus on the baby and letting go of stress. Do any of you know how hard it is for me to be quiet? I have never shut my mouth that long in my entire life. The baby probably thought I was sleeping or died. Shoot even in my sleep I talk. So this will take some getting use to. But I am going to go in there with an open mind. And I am going to try to learn from these classes. There are 6 girls in my class. And our due dates are all over the calendar. And although I am overweight...I am far from the clumsiest/uncoordinated in the class. Which this makes me feel good. Its all those years of dance class...finally paid off.

This morning we had our apt with Dr. Kelley. I told the PA that I have cheated and listened to the baby for the past 2 weeks or more. She pretty much just laughed. Everything is to go as scheduled. We have our big ultra sound on the 29th as I am sure I have said 100 times. And she told us that they give us a DVD and pictures. How cool is that? So now whoever wants to see him/her moving before being born can. We were super excited about that. She then told me I have to get a flu shot and a swine flu shot. Oh my lord. and apparently I have to get 2 swine flu shots because one just does not cut it. So one in Mid to late October. And then one later. Whatever!

Well that is all I have for now. Chat later!

Tiny Bubbles

So today at about 7:57am I felt the baby move. hahah I know the time because I was just logging on to my computer at work. And of course I text Eric immediately to let him know. His response was "Cool" "make sure you blog it". haha He was about to start class.

I think what I felt was the baby. It was a bunch of tiny bubbles that lasted about 3-4 minutes. It is 10:10am right now and I have yet to have it happen again. But it felt pretty distinct. Who knows, maybe I am reaching here, and it was gas. hahah That would so be me.

So at this point the following is going on:

I still have random Round Ligament Pain. It just has not been as intense as that one day.
Of course after a day of walking at Mackinaw, by night I couldn't walk at all.

I am now over the peeing every 10 minutes deal. I do believe this is the calm before the storm. I love sleep!!!!

I have this thing where I totally want to eat a particular item. I get it and it makes me sick and I don't like it. Pretty much nothing tastes good except for the following standby items:

Pasta
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Peaches
Strawberries...any berries.

Those can pretty much make me feel pretty good. Oh and a random bowl of cereal.

Tomorrow is the apt with my OB to hear the heartbeat for the first time. This makes me laugh as we have been listening for 3 weeks now. But oh well. I am not one to pass up a high tech moment. Also I will be getting the highly coveted flu shot. Not to be confused with the swine flue shot. I don't have any fears about actually contracting swine flu. But who knows...someone gets it right? I guess only the health departments get those vaccines. Dr. offices don't even get them. Apparently there is hardly enough to go around. Go figure. FYI...if you want a cheap shot for the flu shot and you don't have insurance. Walgreen's was giving them for $24.99. That's not bad to prevent the flu.

Well that is all I have for now. Uneventful is how I like it.

Its a Girl!!!!

Or a boy! hahah Yesterday I had my scare of the month. I was in our Graduate Orientation. And I stood for a couple hours. We had to do some running back and forth and well lots of work. Well I started to feel a little cramping but it was different. So I just ignored it. Well by the end of the evening, I started to feel some super sharp stabbing pains that shot right through my groin area. Well with my history I didn't mess around. So I had Eric take to the O.B Triage.

This is so awesome. Prior to your 14 weeks of pregnancy, if anything goes wrong, you go to the ER. Sadly I know this. And any time after 14 weeks, you go straight to O.B. Well I just had to try out this place. So up to the 3rd floor at Sparrow we went. They checked me in immediately to the Alliance room. Alliance is the O.B practice I go to. And essentially whoever in that practice that is on call, is the one that will treat you here.

So they hooked me up immediately to this contraction monitor. And then they got the doppler to find the baby's heartbeat. We found it. YEAH!!! and then we waited. So essentially after describing to them what happened and what I felt, they told me that I was experiencing what is called round ligament pain. So basically the ligaments that hold the uterus are growing and stretching and sometimes that hurts. And so I say, if it can happen, it will happen to me. She said it can get really painful. So she just gave me a heads up. It was decided that she would write me a script for a "prenatal cradle". I don't know why, but Eric and I thought that sounded so funny. And basically it holds my uterus tight so that my ligaments aren't as stretchy. She said most women just deal with the pain over the annoyance of the brace. So I have decided to wait and see if I really need it. Now that I know what is causing the pain, and that it will not hurt the baby, I can handle it. I just need to take it easy.

Well then just to make sure everything was really ok, she set up the bedside ultrasound. Which is pretty much a laptop. haha So I said "Can we find out what we are having" and she said, as long as the baby cooperates. She left the room to go get the machine, and I looked at Eric and I said, "I want a girl". And he said "I want a girl too". It was like woah, we usually don't say that. But of course like I said, a boy is super awesome too. Well she came back and hooked me up. She said "oooh he has a perfect spine" (do people really say that?). And she said "he has a great melon".hahhah. And basically he/she was kicking and moving but would not uncross the legs. The kid is already not cooperating. But it was so super cute. He had all of his/her fingers in its mouth. And it blew bubbles/spit. And the little feet were so cute. He is totally all baby now. Of course Eric called it "Skelator". Yeah that's nice. hahah

She noted that my placenta is a good spot. My placenta is sitting on the top and to the right side of my uterus. So, that is good she said as long as it is not covering the cervix or by the cervix that is good. And she said there are not clots in there. So that is awesome. Just a follow up from my previous issues. We were not sure where the placenta was going to stay. So this was super good news.

But sorry folks, we still don't know what we are having. She assured me that it would be much easier to find out what it is at our apt that I have coming up in several weeks. So until then, I still wonder.

We are heading up north as always this weekend. And we are actually taking MY first trip to Mackinaw Island. Yes I know, "everybody has been there". But not me! So I am super excited.

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend. The last of whatever summer we have had this year.

Baby Beats

So as promised, I am here to report on the Doppler that we received in the mail yesterday. Eric and I got home super late from his double header and dinner. But we finally were able to give it a shot.

As soon as Eric put the little thing on my stomach we could hear the super fast heartbeat of the baby. It was so cute. And of course we knew what it sounded like because we have heard it before on the ultrasound machines at the doc office. But we (especially Eric) did not think we would hear it so easily. Well then very soon, the little bugger must have rolled over because we couldn't hear it anymore. So I rolled over and pushed on my stomach a little. And then there it was. I had to push the baby back in to position so we could hear it.

It was so cool. I think I enjoyed this better than seeing him/her. I think because it was just Eric and I doing it. And because we were home. It was like OMG....there is a baby inside me. haha Reality may have finally caught up with my brain. plus every time I see it at the Dr. office I am in a state of panic. At home we were able relax and enjoy it. And how cool is that, that we can actually hear our baby any time we want in the privacy of our own home? It doesnt get better than that. Unless you are Tom Cruise. Then we could buy our own ultra sound machine. However, even though Eric is stunningly handsome, our wallets do not look the same as Toms.

Well....waiting for the next adventure!

Strange....

So last night I was in bed with my new body pillow Eric bought me from Target. OMG...that pillow rocks. Anyway, I was laying there attempting to sleep. And all of a sudden I felt this strange feeling at the very bottom on my stomach. I am not sure how to describe it. But here is what I have come up with...

Have you ever drank a super fizzy drink (dr. pepper, cherry coke etc...) too fast and almost hiccuped and swallowed what was super fizzy? Well it felt like a bunch of fizzy bubbles in my stomach. I don't know if this was my first baby kicking moment or not. I do know what gas feels like, this wasn't it. But I have never ever felt this type of movement. And it happened for like a minute. I kept rolling over and looking at Eric for an answer, as if he knew what I was going through. haha

Only time will tell if kicking is what I felt. but it was an odd tickle sensation. And I tried to make it happen again, but nothing. So we will see as time goes by.

Also, I did another "Estrella" thing. I ordered a Fetal Doppler Monitor. For those of you that have no clue what this means, it is a monitor that will let me listen to the baby's heartbeat any time I want. I know crazy right? The picture is what I will be getting. Well I have decided to rent it for the next two months. I figured these are the months of uncertainty (as if the first trimester wasn't). But what I mean by this is, this is the time when all of your symptoms are playing nice. And you honestly don't feel that pregnant other than those tiny subtle moments. So I thought this would be nice to alleviate some of the anxiety that I have been going through. It is no ultrasound machine, but it is close enough. It comes with gel and the little probe thing that you rub across the belly. And then it will play (hopefully) the sound of your baby's heartbeat. Eric thinks this will make me feel worst. But I say only if I find nothing duh! I am told this might be a little bit too early to hear it. So if this happens, I know not to worry. It is during these next few weeks when hearing it on a doppler is possible. It should be on my porch this afternoon. I cant wait. And I hope to give you all an awesome report tomorrow.