Post 82: Week 24

Week 24

-Baby is the Size of: an ear of corn

-Weight Gain: 8 pounds, but Julie weighs 1.5 pounds, so really only 6.5 in my opinion

-Stretch Marks: starting to go away on my chest as I use my belly butter cream, but I have one stretch mark on my right butt cheek, and all of my shot spots from the progesterone injections have magically reappeared!

-Sleep: not great. I'll fall asleep pretty easily, but can't seem to stay asleep. Most nights I'm waking up around 3AM to eat, but eating wakes up Julie, then it's a dance party in my belly!

-Movement: all the time! Julie never stops kicking, flipping, and squirming, which is awesome to feel, but makes me a little nauseous. 

-Favorite or Funny Moment: People are finally seeing my belly at this point, and I had one person who commented that I'm progressing nicely. Not the funniest thing to have happened, but it's nice to finally have a baby "bump" and no longer just look chubby. We also set up our registries this month, and had a ball looking at and comparing every baby item known to man. We registered at a huge Babies R Us in Knoxville, and also at target. It was overwhelming, but a lot of fun. I think my favorite moment was buying our stroller! Babies R Us had our travel system for $450, and Target put it on clearance for $199. Target was sold out, but Babies R Us price matched the deal, and we walked out of the store with a higher model than what we'd looked at originally! They weren't supposed to price match the travel system since it was on clearance, but the manager was super nice, and helped us out. It was a great day! Or crib is finally painted and assembled too! It's been a very productive month! 

-Sickness: still sick, and it seems to be getting worse. I'll be ok for a day or two, then I'm throwing up for 3-4 nights. I have a feeling of nauseousness that never goes away, which really stinks!

-Feeling: Exhausted and sleep deprived, but I have random bursts of energy, which are nice. 

-Symptoms: tired, short tempered, sick, happy

-Cravings: strawberries, red meat, cutie oranges, raisin bran with cranberries 

-Aversions: spicy foods, raw meat

-Purchases: clothes, crib sheet, swaddles, Britax Be Safe 35/Be Agile stroller and car seat travel system! 

-Photos or Videos: We went for our final 3D ultrasound with Love at First Sight Sonography at 23 weeks, and got the cutest move of Julie! She yawned, and found her thumb. I've never been so in love, and I watch the movie daily. I can't wait until she is here, and I can hold her in my arms. It made me realize that our dreams are really coming true. We're going to be parents! 

Post 81: Week 20

Week 20

-Baby is the Size of: an avocado

-Weight Gain: 4 pounds - I officially have a baby bump, and no longer look chubby - however, it depends on what I'm wearing, and I can still hide my pregnancy if I want to. There's a photo below of me at 18 versus 19 weeks - it's a huge change! 

-Stretch Marks: only on my chest

-Sleep: Like a log! Summer camp is draining the life out of me. I'm asleep each day by 7PM.

-Movement: Finally feeling movement! It's not consistent, but definitely noticeable when it happens. 

-Favorite or Funny Moment: Camper walked by me and said, "Hey...you're pregnant! Hmm."

-Sickness: still sick every 2-3 nights, seems to be getting worse instead of better

-Feeling: Exhausted, but I think it's just from camp and summer heat

-Symptoms: grumpy, over heat quickly, dehydration, nausea, car sickness 

-Cravings: Breakfast foods, lemon chicken, steak

-Aversions: spicy foods (sigh)

-Purchases: rockaroo swing, dresser, diapers

-Photos or Videos: Had our anatomy scan this week, and confirmed that we're officially having a girl! The ultrasound tech said everything looks great, and Julie looks healthy. She refused to stretch out, so they couldn't get a measurement for her length, but she weighed approximately 12 ounces, and had a great time chewing on her toes. Here's our gender announcement photo from Facebook, and a few other photos from this week!

Post 80: Week 16

Week 16

-Baby is the Size of: an avocado

-Weight Gain: 

-Stretch Marks: none yet! 

-Sleep: Slept in bed all week, which is a huge improvement over sleeping on the couch last week! 

-Movement: no movements yet :-(

-Favorite or Funny Moment: Throwing up so hard that I peed on myself a little. Oops! 

-Sickness: still sick every 2-3 nights 

-Feeling: Like I'm starting to get my energy back, but I could still use a daily nap!

-Symptoms: congestion, peeing a lot, cats are stuck to my side like white on rice, starving all day, sick all night 

-Cravings: Raisin Bran Cereal with Cranberries - I've seriously eaten an entire box in 4 days, steak, ice water in a styrofoam cup from Food City! 

-Aversions: body odor, raw chicken

-Purchases: two packs of swaddles and a boba wrap from a yard sale!

-Photos or Videos: finally got our doppler out and running, and found Julie's heartbeat this morning! It's so reassuring that things are going well when I hear her little heart chugging along. 

Post 79: Team Pink!

We had our first appointment of our second trimester today! Cleatus had a strong heartbeat, and David said things look good, and to come back in five weeks for another check up. Since we were already in Beckley, we decided to visit Love at First Sight Sonography, an independent ultrasound practice. Since we didn't have an ultrasound with David today, and don't have one until the anatomy scan between 20-22 weeks, we decided to do a private ultrasound to check on Cleatus and learn the gender. Though they can't say with 100% positivity, they were certain that we're having a girl! Cleatus is officially Julia Rose, and we are thrilled! She measured exactly with our IVF dates, and the ultrasound tech said she looks extremely healthy. Throughout the ultrasound she kept waving, talking, and playing with her mouth. It was adorable! We had a great heart rate of 160, and she looked perfect! We'll go back for another private ultrasound at our next appointment on July to double check that it's still a girl, but the tech said he'd be extremely shocked if he was wrong, and with over 20 years experience, I trust his word. It was so wonderful to see a healthy, growing, wiggling baby girl, and I can't wait until November when I get to hold her in my arms. Let the countdown begin! 

Post 78: Playing Catch Up

It's been a while since my last post, but it's been a crazy few weeks! After a rocky start, our pregnancy was deemed viable and healthy! I went to my first ultrasound with my parents, to see if the pregnancy was ectopic. My dad stayed in the car, and my mom went into the office with me. We waited for what felt like forever, before it was finally my turn. I walked into the room, terrified of what they’d find. Though I’d held onto hope, part of me was expecting for them to find the pregnancy was ectopic, and receive a shot of hormones to terminate the pregnancy. Instead, they found a strong, healthy heartbeat, in the uterus, where it was supposed to be! Cleatus the Fetus measured exactly on target at multiple appointments, and on April 15th, we were released from Wake Forest, and I got to stop my daily shots! 

I've been extremely sick, and even with medication (diclegis) I still throw up around 2-3 times a day. However, I've never been so happy to be sick. I haven't had many cravings since stopping the progesterone shots, but I do really enjoy pickles, cereal, green apples, and Gouda cheese. Taco Bell makes me sick, and Italian and Mexican food give me horrible indigestion. I'm napping every day, and fall asleep around 8PM every night. I love the fact that I'm finally pregnant, but I'm completely over being sick, and I'm hopeful that I'll start to feel better soon! 

Post 77: numb

I'm back to playing the waiting game, and this is probably the most excruciating wait of my life. We had our second beta test today, and the results were not what we had hoped for. Our original HCG on Monday was 112, so with a healthy pregnancy, it should have doubled by today, and been at least 224. Unfortunately, our HCG was only 166. It's only doubling at half the speed it should be. According to our doctors, there's two scenarios for what's to come. The first is that my numbers will continue to rise and we had a set of twins, and are losing one of them while the other is still hanging on. The second is that my numbers will begin to go down, and I will have lost the entire pregnancy. We test again on Friday, and are praying that the numbers continue to rise. 

Post 76: beta day!

Today was the first time I've ever been excited for bloodwork! I had my first beta, and it's official! We're pregnant! YAY!! We woke up (Monday, March 16th) early, I got my progesterone shot, and we were at the hospital a little before 8AM. Registration took forever! When we arrived at the hospital, we were given a buzzer and told to wait in the waiting room until they called our number. Our wonderful hospital only had one person working at registration, and it took 45 minutes to get registered. I'd never seen such slow service. There were only three people in line in front of me. It was ridiculous! Once we were finally registered, we headed to the lab. About 20 minutes later they had drawn my blood, and we were on our way out the door for breakfast. It takes an hour to get the results, so Shaun and I headed to the mall to set up the studio, dropped off my car at the shop to get fixed since someone hit me in the Verizon parking lot last week, then we headed back to get the results.

I knew that the result should have been positive, but I was still completely terrified as we waited at the window for medical records to give us the piece of paper than could forever change our lives. Shaun and I held hands the entire time, and finally she gave me the results. I saw the number immediately! My HCG was 112! Our doctor wanted any number over 50, so we were off to an awesome start! We started walking down the hallway of the hospital, still holding hands, and Shaun asked if I was going to let him see the results. I handed him the paper, and in the middle of the hospital, he started cheering, and kept repeating, "It's not zero! It's not zero!" It was the sweetest response I could have asked for! 

We go back on Wednesday for more bloodwork to make sure that my numbers are doubling correctly, so, from now until then I am cautiously exited about being pregnant! Ahhh! I never thought I'd get to use that word to describe myself! I'm pregnant!