By Doze is Stuffed Ub

I'm just over 16 weeks now, and my nose is feeling the brunt of it now! Who knew that pregnancy causes you to become congested? Apparently all the additional blood coursing through my system is putting pressure on my nasal passages, which causes me to stuff up and sneeze a lot.

Mmm...food

Food finally tastes really, really good again. :o) Everything on the menu sounds amazing, and I am alway happy to eat. It's amazing how dramatically your attitudes toward food change so rapidly during the first few months! I've been good, though, and I'm not "eating for two". Everything I've read says I only need an additional 300 calories per day from this point forward, which is basically a tall glass of milk. Though yesterday I had an Oreo milkshake instead. ;o) In other exciting news, we got our first baby presents today. We got an infant snuggli that allows you to "wear" baby on your front. I pulled it out of the box when I got home and kept trying to imagine an actual little person in it. It sort of feels like having Christmas Eve about six months before Christmas morning!

Officially in the 2nd Trimester

We've made it to the 2nd trimester, and I'm feeling pretty good. :o) I'm starting to show a teeny bit, and a couple of people have actually asked me if I'm pregnant. My new favorite thing in the world is the Bella Band, because my normal pants are anything but comfortable anymore & I'm no where near fitting into maternity pants. I'm a 'tweener!

Twelve weeks!

We had an amazing appointment today! We were at the hospital for four hours...but we still had an amazing appointment. We went in for a first-trimester screening called an UltraScreen. They did a targeted ultrasound at the back of the baby's neck to measure the thickness of the fold at the back of the neck. A high measurement indicates a higher risk for heart defects or chromosomal abnormalities, and I am thrilled that our baby's measurement looked perfect! :o) We still have to wait 10 days to get the bloodwork, but the ultrasound looked great. The best part was that we got to watch this kid dance around for a while. When the tech first turned on the ultrasound, Baby was on its head and kept kicking its legs all over the place. Then we got to watch it move its arms around for a bit. A couple of times, Baby brought its arms up over its face, as if camera shy. This picture is a profile shot of Baby: This is a 3D shot looking down at Baby lying on its back (both arms are at the face): Baby's head is to the left, with an arm at the face and both legs kicked out to the right:

Bye-Bye Nausea

I hit 10 weeks on Monday of this week, and the day before was the best I've had in a long time. The nausea is just gone. I was skeptical at first that it was really gone, but I've had three full days with no nausea & this morning is going pretty well, too. :o) Jeff took me out for dinner on Valentine's Day, and I actually had an appetite. It was pretty exciting to want to see food! We have a level 2 ultrasound scheduled for Feb 27, so I should have some pretty cool pictures to post after that appt. We also hit 12 weeks that day and can start telling the world that we're expecting!

Estimated Date of Delivery

I had my follow-up appointment this morning, and all of the lab work from last week came back looking really good! Hormone levels are where they ought to be, and everything that is supposed to be negative is negative. :o) My doctor was able to date the pregnancy this morning, and we are due on September 11th. She was quick to point out that few babies are born on their actual due dates, and that due dates can vary up to two weeks in either direction. But as Jeff said, at least we'll have something positive to associate with that date if that is when this baby chooses to arrive. :o)

Baby's First Picture!

So here's our peanut! I had my first OB appointment today, and so far things are really good. :o) My OB couldn't date the pregnancy just yet because the baby is just a little too small. She thinks it's probably about 7 weeks (which is what I had guessed), but she's going to have me come back next week for another ultrasound to set a due date. And that, of course, means more pictures!

Starting to Feel Pregnant...

Now I'm starting to feel it. :o) I have been exhausted for the last week or so. I absolutely hit the wall around 4:00 pm and want to sleep so badly. Unfortunately, I usually find myself starting a presentation around three or four o'clock, so that doesn't work so well. And the nausea kicked in over the weekend. I won't call it morning sickness, because that sounds like something that happens only in the morning... I've been lucky so far in that I haven't actually gotten sick, but the nausea's pretty intense. You all know how much I love bread...and I can't eat it. It makes me want to gag. I'm only interested in cereal with milk or foods served with a sauce (like pasta). I can't even look at dry foods. So weird!

Telling Kristy's Family

Last night Jeff & I went out to dinner with my mom, Pat, Heather, & Justin to tell them the good news. We met up at a Claim Jumper, where the wait for a table was 90 minutes! I'm really not sure how we kept our mouths shut for that long. :o) Once we were finally seated and had placed our orders, I pulled out a gift bag containing a pair of infant-sized tennies and a couple of cigars. We told the group we'd brought some goodies and I handed the bag to my mom to open. She poked around in the paper and then gasped, frozen for a second before almost yelling out, "Congratulations!" The rest of the group was a little puzzled until she pulled out the tennies. Then she said, "We're going to have a baby!" as Jeff snapped this photo. Everyone else appeared stunned for a moment, until Heather moved Justin out of the way to give me a hug. Everyone shook Jeff's hand, and we told the story about finding out that we were pregant while on our trip. My mom then said, "Oh, Kristy, shopping is going to be so much fun!" At that point, Pat threatened to confiscate her credit card. :o)

It's a Baby!

Jeff & I just got back from a road trip up through the Pacific Northwest. On New Year's Eve, we woke up and a HPT indicated that we were pregnant. We both apparently find it difficult to get very excited over the news conveyed by a small piece of plastic, because neither of us reacted very much. I scheduled an appointment for this morning with an OB (I can't believe I have an OB) for a blood test. I tried calling back around 4:30 pm to get the results, and I found out they close about 30 minutes earlier than I thought... But then I got a call from the office around 5:30 pm. They'd gotten my results, and the nurse couldn't see making me wait until morning. (Me either!) "It's positive." Hearing it from another human being was slightly more convincing. Then we jumped into the nitty gritty of scheduling my first real exam and all the details I needed to know between now and then: It'll ben an hour-and-a-half long appointment that I should bring Jeff to. I'll find out about the hospital where I'm going to deliver. (I'm going to deliver!) Jeff has to change the cat box for the next 9 months. I'm allowed to exercise if I keep my heart rate under 140. I'm going to get an ultrasound at the very first appointment!! I have a phone number to contact my OB if anything goes wrong after hours or on weekends. (I have an OB...) Some of this helped make it a little more real. We are going out to dinner with the immediate family on Saturday to spill the beans. I can't wait to see the looks on everyone's faces. :o) I really don't know how I'm going to keep my mouth closed for the next 7 weeks until I can tell everyone else!!