Finally Showing
05 Mar 2012 2 Comments
I had to go shopping for some shorts because I was going on a 3-day cruise to Mexico. I grabbed several size 6 shorts of varying styles and tried them on in the dressing room. Of all the shorts I tried on, the only ones that fit were the shorts with elastic waistbands.
Yeah… I think I’m finally beginning to “show”. Pictures of my baby belly to come soon!
-J
16-Week Update
29 Feb 2012 5 Comments
Today, Dan and I went to visit Dr. Beddow hoping that maybe we can find out if Freckle is a boy or a girl. Normally, you are able to find out at 20 weeks, but there have been cases where you can find out at 16 weeks. Unfortunately, we did not do an ultrasound during today’s visit, so I guess we’ll have to wait a few more weeks.
The doctor did a quick check on the baby and listened for Freckle’s heartbeat. She said the heartbeat was coming in strong and that Freckle was throwing in an occasional kick or two inbetween. Go Freckle!
A week before our next doctor appointment with Dr. Beddow, we have an appointment to go to the hospital for the 2nd (and hopefully, last) test screening for Freckle. There, the technician will use an ultrasound that can pick up a lot more detail than the one Dr. Beddow has, and we’ll be able to find out if Freckle is a boy or a girl.
Dan and I have no preference on whether we want a boy or girl. Really, we don’t mind! But we definitely want to find out as it will narrow down the name selection by half. But who knows? Maybe we’ll just keep the name Freckle! …probably not, though. 🙂
Please come back to our blog on March 21st in the evening (our appointment is at 3:30pm) to see if Freckle is a boy or a girl!
-J
Early Cherry Blossoms
13 Feb 2012 4 Comments
in The Pregnancy Tags: photography
Well we don’t have anything interesting to post right now since… you know… Freckle is being really boring. So I thought I’d post a photo I took this weekend. I’ve been taking a LOT of photos (and a photography class) and so far this is the first one that I’ve felt warrants other people looking at it. So here you go: Early Cherry Blossoms.
Early Cherry Blossoms
First Trimester Screening
10 Feb 2012 1 Comment
Just to keep everyone updated, the genetic counselor left me wonderful news yesterday saying that the preliminary screening looked great. The chances of Freckle getting these different disorders or diseases (i.e. Down Syndrome, Tay Sachs, etc.) are *extremely* low (as low as 1:17,000+). The second screening will give us more information and that is scheduled for March 21st. The counselor already said she is not too worried since our family history looks pretty clean, but it’s always nice to have it be confirmed. 🙂
-J
Greetings, Human!
06 Feb 2012 2 Comments
Today we went in for our “integrated screening” procedure. We met with a “genetic counselor” and talked about blah blah blah…
OMG ALIEN! IT’S WAVING HELLO!!!
Greetings, Human!
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, back to the story. As I’ve already discussed, our disparate genetic past significantly reduces Freckle’s likelihood to contract any hereditary genetic diseases. There’s always the possibility of a spontaneous error happening (knock on wood!) so we get this integrated screening test thingy. They do some nifty measurements on different things, including mommy’s blood, and then come up with probabilities for different problems occurring. If anything seems worryingly probable, they move on to more invasive testing.
They did an ultrasound to get some measurements on the baby as part of the testing. Freckle, like mommy and daddy, seems to enjoy sleeping because there wasn’t much movement this time. Unfortunately, the nurse wanted to get measurements from the other side and so decided to wake Freckle up.
We tried a few different methods…jiggling the belly didn’t work, neither did tapping it. I was expecting the nurse to lean down and yell, “WAKE UP!” but instead she had some other less direct ideas (partially emptying the bladder didn’t work either, unsurprisingly) which were all equally fruitless. Finally she told Jenny to lay on her side for a few minutes and she’d be back to see if that helped.
The nurse stepped out for a minute and I took the opportunity to whip out my phone and crank up some tunes. Clearly Freckle just needed the right motivation. Since today is Bob Marley’s birthday, we figured it would be appropriate. Of course, it did the trick and then some. Freckle even gave us the “black power” fist when the nurse got back! I’d call that a great success!
Anyhow, we’ll get the first round of results in ten days and then we go back in for a second round in another 6 weeks or so. We’ll let you know how it goes. Black power!
Three Months
01 Feb 2012 4 Comments
I am officially entering my second trimester, which is great for a couple of reasons. One, the chance of a miscarriage drops drastically. And two, the uncomfortable aspects of being pregnant *should* go away.
The doctor visit was a relatively short one. Apparently, I’ve lost 4 lbs. but she’s not too worried about that. She said the baby looks great and everything seems to be coming along just fine, which is such a huge relief for me!
During the ultrasound, the baby was moving – a lot! It was as if the baby was fist pumping at a rave! That made Dan and I laugh. And at one point, s/he even flipped over which was totally surreal to me.
Below is the ultrasound. You can make out the baby’s head, torso, and leg. 🙂
I am one happy mama right now.
-J
Crazy Thoughts From A First-Time Mother
27 Jan 2012 2 Comments
As some of you may already know, I was having a really tough time sleeping for the past week or so. This time, however, it wasn’t due to me feeling under the weather, but from me feeling nervous and anxious about being a mother. I am actually really surprised that I’m as nervous as I am. I’ve always considered myself to be a nurturer. I’ve been “taking care” of different cousins since I was 16 years old. I’ve even been watching after Ciera, Paige, and Genevieve since they were little babies. I think watching after children and nurturing them comes very naturally to me.
But recurring thoughts keep coming back to me over and over at night. Will I be a good mother? Will Dan and I be able to provide our child with the kind of lifestyle we want for him or her? Will we have enough money for college, extracurricular activities, and birthday parties? Will I be able to be strict enough to help guide them to be a decent human-being? Will I be lenient enough and respect their space so that they can be who they were meant to be?
And if all those thoughts were not enough to drive a pregnant woman crazy, there was also a touch of paranoia to add to the mix. Now, I’m fully aware that I’m not even 3-months pregnant yet and things are supposed to be uneventful (except for the nausea and constant visits to the bathroom, of course). But a lot of times, I don’t really feel pregnant. I started to worry that there might be something wrong. I started to think to myself, I hope my baby’s okay. Maybe I should’ve waited for the 3-month mark before I started announcing to everyone I was pregnant. Maybe I can call my obstetrician up right now and ask her to just give me 10 minutes of her time to give me an ultrasound and let me hear my baby’s heartbeat. That would give me some peace of mind.
That last paragraph there, I initially did not want to include in the blog. Who wants to read about something so negative on a baby blog, right? But Dan convinced me that I should and that I’m probably not the first pregnant woman to have these thoughts and feelings. (Please do not feel obligated to comment and legitimize my crazy thoughts)
But once again, my strong network of family and friends have helped me through this time and I have been feeling much better for the past couple days. My husband wrote a beautiful letter to me to help ease my worries and help me sleep at night. My mother has jokingly given me anecdotes to help me fall asleep. And my sweet father, after having heard from my mother that I’ve been getting little sleep at night, called me telling me that I have nothing at all to worry about. He said in his broken English, “Jenny, why do you worry?! You have nothing to worry about! This is MY grandchild, okay? He is just like his grandpa. He’s quiet and doesn’t make any trouble. He’s not like his grandma who is so loud and talks a lot. So don’t worry, okay? He’s quiet, but he’s good.”
And as weird as that sounds, that made me feel a lot better. I feel truly lucky that while I’m going through this crazy roller-coaster called Pregnancy, that I’ve got so many people holding my hand throughout the entire ride.
Only five more days until the next doctor appointment. I think all these pep talks will help me not freak out and will hold me over until then.
-J
A Note to My Wife
24 Jan 2012 2 Comments
For thousands of years, humankind has raised its children under deplorable circumstances. If it wasn’t razor-fanged predators and creeping glaciers, it was religious crusades and rampant plagues. Children were growing up with nothing to hope for but another generation to carry on their line.
These days, we have almost none of those problems. Food is readily available to even the poorest citizens, education is free to a point and potentially very cheap after that, we’re at the top of the food chain and shelter is a problem for relatively few. And that’s just the bare minimum that can be said.
Freckle is fortunate enough to have parents (and a great support network of family and friends) who can give far more than the bare minimum. We carry around small devices that keep us constantly connected to the global repository of all human knowledge. We think nothing of hopping on an airplane to fly thousands of miles for the weekend. While there are still some great plagues out there (e.g. AIDS), they can be avoided for the most part with a little education and effort.
When you look at how much has changed in the last 100 years, or even the last 25 years, you will realize that Freckle will be growing up in the most exciting time in human history. Advances in genetic, robotic, information, and nano technologies will change the world as even we know it. There are some who say that if you can live to 2050, you have a very good chance of living forever. We are already taking the first major strides in weening ourselves off fossil fuels and moving to renewable sources of energy. Commercial sub-orbital space flight exists and one day may replace those pesky slow airplanes. All plagues may soon be a sad footnote in history. Globalization and transnationalism are making war a much less desirable way of solving our differences.
Freckle has so many things going for him/her; what’s there to be worried about? Rest up, think about all the wonders our child will take for granted, drift asleep with a smile on your lips. It’s going to be great.
Mobile Site
22 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in The Pregnancy Tags: mobile
Hey everyone,
Just a quick heads-up that I’ve added functionality to make the site easier to read on mobile devices (i.e. your cell phone). If you have any issues with the mobile site, there is a link at the very bottom of every page to switch back and forth.
Let me know if you use it and what you think. It’s pretty basic, but that’s the idea.
Papa-D
Finally Feeling Pregnant
20 Jan 2012 1 Comment
The first few weeks of us finding out we were pregnant, I was suffering from a terrible cold. As a first-time mother, I was so afraid that it would harm the baby’s development. Luckily, the doctor assured me that it’s quite normal to be sick and in fact, it’s actually a good thing because the mother is sending antibodies to the baby as she is fighting the cold. What a relief!
This week, for the first time in a long time, I have been able to sleep through the night without coughing, sneezing, or blowing my nose. I am finally able to enjoy my pregnancy (which is the #1 advice mothers have been giving me). I’m not quite at the “glowing” stage of the pregnancy yet, but I think my excitement has shown through. I haven’t been moody really, but I suppose that’s something only Dan can answer. I have been sleeping pretty much any chance I get, which is mostly during the weekend. On average, I’d say I sleep and nap about 12 hrs/day on the weekends. Not so much on the weekdays since I have school and work. But I do get extremely tired.
Some of the perks of being pregnant is that my family has been spoiling me rotten. My great-aunt refuses to let me carry Genevieve (my 3.5 y.o. cousin) even though I’m not even 3 months pregnant yet. Every time I walk by, my uncles all joke around and make room for me and say, “pregnant lady coming through!” Both my parents call me almost everyday to check up on me to make sure I’m doing okay and my mom is always offering to make me any food I’m craving. And Dan has been the best of them all. While I was sick, he went out to the drugstore to buy me medicine. After work, he stopped by to buy me a humidifier to help me sleep better at night. After dinner, he’ll see that I fell asleep on the couch so he puts my plate and cup away for me. Little things like that help me feel more comfortable during this tough part of the first trimester. I feel so lucky to have a husband who is so involved with the pregnancy.
My next appt. with the doctor will be on Feb. 1st and it cannot come any sooner! I will keep you all posted as to how that goes. 🙂
-J