Baby West says, Go Dawgs! (12 Weeks)

The whole pregnancy thing from my (Cary's) perspective:

I remember very early on, I was sitting on the couch and Kelly brings me an EPT.  I'm thinking, sure they have commercials about those, but are they really accurate?  Personally, I put little stock in it.  It wasn't until I saw the ultrasound that it was real.

My role?  Support and Logistics.  When Kelly has cravings, I go to the grocery store, coupons in tow, and support the craving.  I even bought tart yogurt from a  frozen yogurt place, filling up a container until they were out of that flavor.  From a logistics side, our health insurance is from my employer, and I have read just about everything our insurance has on prenatal care, pregnancy, birth, and postnatal care.  I should know from working in healthcare, but I soon realized that though most services received are dictated by insurance, the doctor's office is unaware of who gets what services.

It is definitely an exciting time, preparing our home, our budget, and our hearts.  Speaking of budgets, Kelly sent me an article from Southern Savers about the best deals on diapers and what is considered a good per diaper price based on size.  As with other products, I've taken this somewhat as a challenge to find the best deals...more to come on that later.

**Just FYI, these posts are not "real time" and may be a few weeks behind. We plan to catch up soon.**

10 WEEKS

By this point, the baby is about the size of a grape.

We had our first doctor's appointment (I was actually 9 weeks, 5 days at the appointment, but who's counting).  I made this appointment as soon as I had a positive ept, meaning almost a month prior.  When I called, the receptionist told me I would have to wait until I was 8 weeks and then due to appointment availability, I was going to be 9 weeks.  Maybe it's just me, but that's a LONG wait for a first time mom to wait!  Then, on the morning of the appointment, I get a phone call that my MD had been called into emergency surgery, and they needed to re-schedule.  Now I completely understand that when I am that pregnant woman with an emergency c-section, I will want my MD there as soon as possible, but the thought of delaying an appointment this important caused some serious stress.  Not to mention Cary and I had taken the day off from work!  Luckily, I got in the next Monday morning.
Cary had the day off for Veteran's Day so he was able to come, too.  As soon as I checked in, the receptionist asked if this was a prenatal visit, and I said "Um, yes."  Yep, I am pregnant, and this is really happening.  They took my weight and BP, and I peed in a cup for their pregnancy test (which I assume was positive, they never said :)
More waiting and then they took me back to see the MD.  She went over the do's and don't's of pregnancy, answered my questions, and then performed a pelvic exam and pap smear. She then told me that I'd be having an ultrasound next. I was instantly excited.  From reading and talking to friends, I thought that I might have to re-schedule for another time to have an ultrasound.  We went right into the ultrasound tech's office and got to see our baby!
Now, I should warn you this may be TMI....
I was warned by a friend who found out she was pregnant around the same time I did....the first ultrasound is trans-vaginal, not through the abdomen.  (The baby is too small to be seen through the abdomen at this point.)
The ultrasound makes it real.  I don't care how many pregnancy tests you take, the fact that you've missed periods, or have morning sickness.  Seeing your baby on an ultrasound makes it REAL!  I remember asking the tech as soon as we got in her office if we were gonna get pictures (you know me and pictures!).  I held Cary's hand throughout and still remember his smile at seeing his first child for the first time.

 

That little baby is 2.88 cm! About an inch long!

And my favorite part:  As soon as the ultrasound tech found the sac, the baby was moving around like crazy!  We could clearly see arms and legs moving in every direction.  The next miracle was the heart beat.  We saw the little chambers of the heart pulsating, and I remember asking the heart rate and Cary answered (you know he's a numbers guy). It was in the 160's...which is normal but studies say cannot predict gender :)  He/she stopped moving and the tech joked that he/she went to sleep.  She was able to take measurements and told us everything looked good. She also checked to make sure there was only one sac ;)
And no, we do not know the gender.  From what I have read, you cannot determine gender until 15 weeks at the earliest and usually 16 to18 weeks to be sure.
They later took a bunch of blood for testing and another urine sample.  The whole process probably took about 2 hours.  The best part, by far, is seeing the baby.  It will be several weeks (20!) before I get another ultrasound, so I will just have to be patient!

Big Announcement

No, our big announcement is not that we are actually posting on this blog again...although, it could be.  It has been months since this site has seen anything new, sorry!  No, we have much more exciting news:

We're expecting!  

Personally, I've known I was pregnant since late September/early October.  I took a pregnancy test about a week and a half before my missed period.  I bought one of the cheap ones from the dollar store because I didn't really think I would get a positive, and I didn't want to waste an expensive test. (In case you've never priced a pregnancy test: The nice ones like "ept" or "First Response" are about $10 each, but the dollar store ones are, yep, a dollar!)

So as soon I got home from work, I took the test and waited.  A few minutes later a very faint pink line appeared in the window.  I was instantly mad.  I thought, well what does that mean?  It didn't look like the example on the box.  Am I pregnant or not?!?  I took a couple deep breaths and did the next sensible thing....googled it!  According to Google, a line, no matter how faint, is a line....a positive test.  In more googling, I found out that I should have taken the test first thing in the morning, when hormone levels are highest.  Google also recommended waiting 3 days and taking another test, at which time the line should be darker.  I felt much better and wondered what people did before Goggle?  Old wives tales I guess.  Google also will tell you the sensitivity and specificity of pregnancy tests, which is very interesting, but I won't bore you with all that.

I think I waited 2 days and took another test, in the morning.  A couple minutes later, I had a bright pink line!  Pregnant.  And this was still about a week before my missed period.  I debated whether to tell Cary, after all, this was really early and anything could happen.  I kept it to myself all day, but by the evening I had to tell him.  On the way home from our small group Bible study, I told Cary I had taken a pregnancy test, but quickly explained it was a cheap one so who knows if it is accurate (trying to down play it all).  Well!?  He wanted to know if it was positive.  Yep, it was positive!

I'll let him tell you about his feelings after finding out he might be a Dad, but as for me, I was excited and nervous and expectant, all at once.  I waited one week and took an "ept" brand test.  Again, it was positive, so I felt for sure that this was happening.  I gave the test and a Georgia G onesie to Cary as a "surprise" we're pregnant gift (I had told him I bought him something he might need for Gameday).  Although he already knew, it was confirmation to me to miss my period and have another (more expensive) positive test. 

 

By the way, that onesie is size 3-6 months...the approximate age of our baby at the beginning of next football season! Crazy!