February 23, 2009

What a delay! I am so sorry for the hold-up, everyone. I've had a solid month of just feeling so down in the dumps. From nausea to headaches and dizziness to just overall aches and pains, it has been a rough month. However, I am on my third day now of just feeling back to normal, so I hope it sticks around!

We had our last appointment on February 7. We had our second ultrasound, which I will post pictures of at the bottom. He said the baby is developing well and he or she looks totally healthy. We heard the heartbeat for the first time, and it was just so magical. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Jesse's face the moment he heard the heartbeat. He was standing behind the doctor, and his whole face just lit up when he looked at me and mouthed, "thats... that's the baby?" I didn't realize we'd be able to hear it so soon, so it took us both by surprise. We weren't told what the BPM was, but I am definitely going to ask and find out at our next appointment.

I actually ended up losing 10 lbs from the start of the pregnancy until about a week ago, since I had almost no appetite and have been so sick. My doctor said it was normal though, and that I will likely start gaining weight in the next few weeks. As a matter of fact, just in the last week that I've gotten my appetite back, I've gained about 3 of those lbs back. I think most of the weight that was lost was in my hips because although I feel my stomach is getting a bit rounder, my jeans have been fitting looser. Hopefully, I can hold off on the maternity clothes until at least 16 weeks!

Our next appointment is on March 7, and I will be about 12 weeks along. I'm not sure what will happen at that appointment, but I do know that my doctor said we will very, very likely be able to find out the sex of our little one at the next appointment after that. That will be my 16 week appointment which will fall on April 4th. We really cannot wait!!

In other semi-baby related news, Jesse has submitted a leave request from April 8th to April 22nd for us to make a trip home. I will be about 16.5 weeks when we get home, and about 18 weeks when we leave, so we will know the sex by the time we come home.

We haven't started registering anywhere for baby things yet because that's something we don't want to have to do via a website. We will likely go to Babies 'R Us and register the first day or two that we are back home. We can't wait!

As for preferences on baby gender, we really don't have any. I was calling the baby "she" for awhile, but now I switch back and forth pretty regularly between "he" and "she". Jesse wants a girl one day, but the next day he wants a boy just as badly, so we will be 100% happy either way. All we want is a healthy, happy little baby. :)

Now that I'm feeling back to normal, I can finally get back into exercising. I've done a lot of research and found that as long as my body temperature doesn't get too high and my heart rate doesn't get too elevated, I am fine with doing cardiovascular workouts. I am pretty excited about that because lately I have just wanted to get up and moving. I know not to overexert myself and all that, and I am being very careful about my health, so no worries about that!

As long as all of the sickness continues to stay away, I will definitely be trying to update this so much more regularly. My next update should be around March 7, after our next appointment. Thank you to everyone who reads this... we really appreciate the support!

Now for ultrasound pictures!



The second half of this picture is the heartbeat of the little one