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

January 29, 2009

I haven't updated in awhile. I've been dealing with lots of nausea, headaches, back and hip pain. It comes and goes, but keeps me just wanting to stay home. We have about a week until our next appointment, and we're both very anxious about it.

January 19, 2009

We're home from the doctor. :) I am definitely NOT 9 weeks along. He put the ultrasound trasmitter on my lower stomach, and pushed around, but couldn't find anything. Sooo, he decided to use the vaginal ultrasound transmitter. It still took a minute for him to find anything because I'm still really early into my pregnancy. He estimated me to only by 4-5 weeks, even though I haven't had a period since November 15. All we could see was the gestational sac and a teeeeeeny dot which is apparently our baby. He didn't do a pelvic exam or anything because apparently he doesn't usually work on Mondays so there was no room available to him. We go back on February 7th and I'll have the more complete examination then.

Here are the pictures we've got... you can barely see the gestational sac, which is the little black oval at the top.

January 15, 2009

The pregnancy symptoms have started kicking in a little bit. I still haven't experienced morning sickness, and I'm crossing my fingers that I won't at all. I've had some back pain the last few days, and it got the worst today. I've also been super sleepy throughout the whole day. I haven't taken any naps just yet, but if the sleepiness gets any stronger, I definitely will have to take a midday nap.

We decided where we're going to put the baby furniture today. Our dresser, closet, and the baby's dresser will be in one of the spare bedrooms. In our bedroom, we will just have our bed and the baby's crib. We obviously won't have the crib for quite a few months, but whenever we do, that's the setup that we both really want. We don't feel comfortable having either our bedroom or the baby's in the 2nd bedroom because of the wall-sized window. We tried hanging curtains, but can't because the walls are concrete, it's just too much of a hassle. The 3rd bedroom is for storage and Jesse's Army gear, and stays the coldest of the rooms, so that's out of the question.

Just another day and a half until our sonogram! We are getting so anxious to see our little one!!

January 13, 2009

Ms. Kim [the military coordinator for the hospital] called Jesse today. She scheduled our appointment for Saturday morning at 10am, and we are just SO excited. She told us we will definitely be getting an ultrasound. It's Tuesday evening now, so we've got about three and a half days to go. We just cannot wait to see our little peanut!! :)

January 12, 2009 - Part 2

I decided to take a few more pictures because I'm still in the "ohmygod, I can't believe it's really true!!" stage.

I don't look as pregnant here as I did in the one yesterday, I don't think. I'm sure my weight will go back and forth a lot in the beginning though.


Here's the front view of my tummy. :)

January 12, 2009

We're definitely pregnant! :) I'll start with a little back story and work my way up from there.

Around November 15, 2008, I started my most recent period and it lasted for about 3-4 days. I tested for pregnancy around early to mid December, and it was negative. Over the next several weeks, I probably went through 10-20 pregnancy tests, and they all kept coming back negative. I basically gave up, since my period still hadn't shown. I've always had irregular periods in the past, and since my doctor told me this past summer that it was unlikely I would conceive without fertility medicine. My thought was no period = no ovulation, so I just accepted the fact that I wasn't pregnant and told Jesse not to get his hopes up anymore. From early December to early January, I had four bouts of nausea between the hours of 11pm - 3am, but I never actually threw up. I just felt sick and sweaty with a hard pulse.

When Jesse came home from work this past Friday night, he had two E.P.T. pregnancy tests, and surprised me with them. On Saturday morning when I got up, I tested, but honestly, truly wasn't expecting anything. After about a minute and a half, Jesse just started shaking his head sadly, and I said that it hadn't been the full three minutes yet. A few seconds later, I said to Jesse, "go look at that, I think I see something." He looked at it, but saw nothing and handed it back. When I looked again, I could swear I saw the faintest line, and jumped up to put it under the line. It got slightly darker, but was still very light. We both looked at each other and just started jumping up and down and hugging. We called my mom to tell her, but didn't tell anyone else.

The next morning, Sunday morning [yesterday morning], I decided to take the second E.P.T. test that we had. It showed up another plus sign and was slightly darker this time. Again, we just hugged each other and were so happy. For some reason, I had the worst fear that it was an evaporation line or something, so we went and bought a ClearBlue Easy digital pregnancy test. I took it Sunday night, with VERY little urine. About a minute later, the big digital "PREGNANT" popped up, and we just lost it. It just confirmed our fears and we just danced around the kitchen. I jumped into his arms and he just held me. We were so incredibly happy. :) We told the rest of our immediate family, and some of my closest friends.

This morning, we went to the Wood Medical Clinic on Camp Walker for a blood test. I had to give a urine sample, but had just peed before the appointment, so I had almost no urine. Apparently it was enough to confirm the pregnancy with a urine test though! They took my blood pressure, and then called me back for blood work. A Katusa took my blood and got 5 vials full. He asked me if I could give another urine sample and I said there was no way. I found a water fountain and drank water for about 20 minutes. When I felt like I needed to pee again, I tried to give another sample and still only got it about 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch full. They didn't ask again, so I guess it was enough.

A doctor came out a little while later and congratulated us. He told us our options between going to a Korean hospital off post for care, or staying with the military treatment facilities. If we stayed with MTFs, all of my appointments would be up in Seoul, about 4 hours away, so we opted for a Korean hospital. He gave us a contact number, and Jesse called a little while ago. The lady, Ms. Kim, told him she would get my paperwork from the clinic and give us a call back, but said there would be no problem getting us in there within a few days. The doctor at the clinic on post told us they offer you an ultrasound at every appointment, so I know we will definitely get one at our first. I am just excited beyond words, and beside myself with happiness.

My stomach has been feeling a little weird today, and I've had the very slightest bit of cramping. Other than that, I've been just fine. The doctor gave me a prescription for pre-natal vitamins, although I've been taking some for awhile.

Here are a few pictures to end my first entry. :)

The test on top was my test from 1/10 and the bottom test was from 1/11.


This is the test from the evening of 1/11.


This is what I look like as of 1/11. I'm definitely poochier than normal. :)