The Crib

...is officially on its way! Pretty sure our little booger is doing a fist pump in my belly.

14 Week Belly

I feel like this same pooch has just been hovering for weeks. It looks like it's poking out a *little* more than four weeks ago, but it's really not all that different...




It's comin' though! But the best news? I think I've turned a corner and am feeling pretty good now! On Monday, I vomited for the first time. Felt crappy the rest of that day. But on Tuesday, the nausea just sort of was... gone. And I haven't really had much at all sense. I do still get mad hunger pains at time - especially from late night till early morning, and if I don't munch on something right away, I can feel a bit queasy. But it's not nearly as bad as the general nausea I was experiencing over the past couple of months, so hallelujah!

I've still been tired at times, but my energy seems generally better. At least my drive and motivation is - I've gotten more done in the last few days than I have in the last 8 weeks. For example, a couple of weeks ago I'm not sure I could've handled that hour-long trip to pick up the changing table. And hello, I haven't taken one nap all weekend! I did veg for a bit yesterday afternoon after a trip to the outlets that wore me and the hub both out, but I never actually fell asleep. So hopefully this means I'll be feeling pretty good during the 2nd trimester! I sure hope so - it's a lot easier to enjoy all this when you're not feeling like total ass.

Oh and speaking of the outlets, the main reason I wanted to go yesterday was to see what the Pottery Barn Outlet had. We've gotten some major deals there over the years on random furniture and rugs, so I was curious what they had in the way of baby and kid stuff. Our PB Outlet dedicates nearly half the store to PB Kids stuff. I was hoping to maybe find a crib or rocker selection, but no luck. Not a single crib or rocker/glider in sight. But they did have some other furnishings, tons of bedding and bath linens, and other accessories. So I will note that in my mental Rolodex for future.

We also intended to get to IKEA this weekend but that never transpired. I honestly hate going there, so I avoid it until absolutely necessary. But we're interested in redoing the shelving in the nursery closet, so this warrants a visit. Here's a pic of the closet now (actually right NOW there is nothing in the closet because I've cleaned all the junk out, but you get the idea)...




We had originally requested double shelving in this closet (knowing it'd be a nursery someday), but obviously the builders didn't do it. Whatever. But aside from needing more hanging space, the current shelving in there doesn't work great. The hanging rod is so close to the door frame, that every time you open and shut the closet door, it rams into the clothes hanging there. So even if we end up sticking with the current shelving and just adding some more, I think we'll remove the door altogether and hang some fabric instead. But really, I just want to find some better shelving options to maximize the space more. It's a small space, but so much of it is not being used the way it sits currently. I'd like to have some drawers and cubbies and that kind of thing for all the itty bitty sweets baby needs in his/her closet! Nothing fancy... which is why we're calling on IKEA. I'm going for functional over cute here. So hopefully we'll get over there next weekend and be able to price some things out and see what's doable.

Oh, but other than shelving changes/additions, we're painting the interior of the closet a sweet sherbet orange. I wanted something bright and gender neutral, and hello... I love orange. We've already got the paint, so don't try to talk me out of it. That's our first big nursery project, so I should have some pics pretty soon as we'll be tackling this one in the next couple of weeks... stay tuned!

My favorite pop-up window.

13 Week Ultrasound

I wish we could have gotten a good pic of the thumb-sucking from Monday - that was so fun to watch.  But this is still a pretty decent pic - you can really see the spine.  I also just got word from the perinatal group that my all my bloodwork came back within normal limits, so all appears good and healthy so far!

 

Also, thanks so much for all the thoughts and advice on the cord blood banking.  We haven't made any final decisions on anything, but my guess is we'll end up donating it.  If it can help someone, I think that's awesome!

Nursery Bargains: Changing Table

Less than 48 hours ago I was looking at changing tables online and gawking at the prices. I had found a suitable crib in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog that was on clearance for $399 (regularly $599). And we wouldn't necessarily have to have "the" matching changing table for it, but of course I was perusing the ones they had anyway. Ugh, the cheapest one I could find was like $599. I know that's not outrageous, but I was just not thrilled about spending that much. Besides our dining room set, I'm not sure there's a piece of furniture in our house worth that much! Our couches are Exhibit A for the fact that our dogs rule the place, and our master bed is literally a mattress on wheels without a headboard. So yeah, nothing too fancy in our digs right now while we're still in debt-busting mode.

And while I'm very, very picky on the styling of this nursery, I'm not going to be too picky when it comes to the crib. It's not going to be the main focal point in the room and I just want something simple. So the clean lines and more importantly, the price, of this one will work great! This is the Kendall crib from Pottery Barn Kids, in white...




So on a whim yesterday while at work, I hopped on craigslist to see what was available in the way of changing tables. Again, not too picky here but just wanted something with similar styling that would coordinate with the crib we're eying. And right away, BAM! I found two local listings for a Pottery Barn changing table in the exact same collection! It's the Kendall changing table, in white, pictured here...


PB Kids actually doesn't sell it anymore - they have a new Kendall changing table they're selling now. But I like this one better! (Even in the current crib pic above, you can see the edge of this old table in the corner.) And I certainly like the price better! One chick had it listed for $275 along with the baskets she had purchased. I didn't really care about the baskets - I rather get my own, but whatever. But then I found another listing for the exact same piece (sans baskets) for $150! So long-story-short, we drove a good hour last night (I was using "local" loosely - metro Atlanta is rather large) to pick up this beauty! The previous owners were super nice and threw in the changing pad and we also bought a barely used crib mattress from them for $15! Um, Pottery Barn has their cheapest crib mattress listed for $129. Score! I know you can get them cheaper, but still.

I am so excited!!! First big baby purchase! And I'm in love with it - the changing table is in great condition and even more beautiful in person. There's nothing much more satisfying than a killer deal. Stay tuned for more nursery developments! I mean my whole reason for wanting a baby is to design a nursery and have my own live dress-up doll. Kidding. Sort of.

And yes, I am up at 4:00am typing this while eating a pop tart. Baby was hungry and my bedside saltines weren't cutting it...

First Perinatal Appointment - 12 Week Screening

We had our 12 week screening today with the perinatal group.  Had another transvaginal ultrasound since my uterus is apparently tilted and we couldn't get a good read with an abdominal one.  No assistance needed this time with the wand, though!  Apparently it's only my weird OB's office that does that.  Or maybe it was just that one particular ultrasound tech.  Who knows...

 

There was some mad thumb-sucking going on today, and as always, baby was a big mover and shaker.  So fun to watch him wiggle around in there!  And so weird to know that's going on inside of MY stomach.  It's always a relief to see that heart pumping away when the picture first comes up.  I mean we have no reason to think that it wouldn't be, but at this point we have no way of knowing till we see it!  Yes, it's still there... good, good. 

 

Today they were measuring the skin behind the neck (for signs of downs, etc.) and it looked good and skinny, just how it should.  I also had bloodwork for further lab tests and we'll get those results later this week.  But the doctor suspects everything will come out perfectly.  No luck on determining the sex this time.  We could barely get a butt view as it was and it's still early.  I measured 13w5d today and baby is about 7cm long (crown to rump).  But they'll see me back at 16 weeks (on August 11th) and we should be able to determine the sex then if baby cooperates!

 

In the meantime, I'll be back at my OB's office next Tuesday.  I can't remember exactly what for... I'm pretty sure we're not doing another ultrasound at that point.  But yeah, we're rolling right along!  I still feel cruddy... in FACT... I actually vomited this morning for the very first time.  Don't know if I waited to long to eat something or what... but yeah.  Thought I was going to escape the whole up-chucking thing, but I guess not.  Everyone's still telling me I should turn a corner at 14 or 15 weeks.  I'm counting on it!  Well, hoping anyway.  Either way, it's all worth it.  I'll get the sonogram pic up when I get a good scanned copy.

 

So random question... There are pamphlets and ads and whatnot being shoved in my face everywhere for cord blood banking.  I understand what this is - I think.  But of course nothing tells you how much it costs.  One company even offers up a gift registry program to raise money for it, which is (a) really tacky and (b) means it must be really expensive.  Did any of you mommas save your baby's cord blood?  How much did it cost and is it a one time cost or do you have to pay like yearly storage fees or something?  Hey, we do for our embryos, so it's not a dumb question.  Any advice is helpful!

Sasha & Twitch

Apparently it's video day. Last one, I promise! This was easily my favorite from SYTYCD this week. Sasha and all-star Twitch doing a hip hop number. Love, love, love me some Twitch!

The Birds & The Bees

One more video for you guys today... found this on a friend's blog - love it!

OMG.

As if I wasn't torn up enough over this last film being the LAST...

First Baby Gift!

I was so excited to get home and find this fun package in the mail yesterday from a dear friend...


A super soft and deliciously sweet baby blanket - our very first baby gift! It's much cuter than this crappy phone pic shows. It's ivory with a baby blue satin trim. And along with it was this lovely card...


Definitely brings about one of those "is this really happening?" moments. To God be the glory indeed. THANK YOU, LAUREN!!!


So the questions I'm getting the most are "How do you feel?" and "Are you going to find out the sex?" Well, just to answer those quickly... I still feel like total crap. Eating is still a chore and I'm tired a lot, etc. etc. But everyone tells me that it should get better at 14 or 15 weeks. Today, I'm 13 weeks, so here's hopin'! As for the sex, yes, we're definitely planning to find out. We have another ultrasound on Monday for our 12 week screening, so maybe they can make some guesses then, but my doctor said not to buy anything till we hit that 20 week mark.

Thanks again for all the well wishes!

SO good...

Go Melanie and Marco!



Also loved this one with Jordan and Tadd...

Two more days!

We've got our IMAX tickets ready for 3am on Friday. That's right... 3 o'clock in the morning. All the midnight shows were sold out by the time I got around to getting tickets. And I was on the fence anyway about my ability to stay up for a midnight show. So 3am makes total sense, right? Well, I am excellent at falling asleep pretty much as soon as my head hits the pillow these days - no matter what time of day. So I'm planning to go to bed Thursday night at like 7pm. Then I'll roll out of bed at 2am and we'll head over to the theatre. Brilliant, right? Harry, you're the only one I'd ever do this for.

Who's excited?!?!

First OB Appointment!

Seriously, I hope you are not holding your breath for blog updates because I still have little care or energy to do them right now.  Soon though - I'm told - I will!  I think the fatigue may be slowly getting better, but I could be imagining that.  I still spent the large part of this past Sunday horizontal, so perhaps not. 

 

Anyway, we had our first prenatal appointment with my OB yesterday!  Besides the appointment itself taking flippin' forever, all went well.  I think we are just so spoiled by RBA being so darn quick with everything - they would always get us in and out of there pretty fast.  So having to wait several times yesterday between seeing the doctor, the ultrasound, and bloodwork, etc... I was literally gone from my office (including travel time) for four hours.  Granted, we did pop by (two floors up) to say hi Dr. T on our way out and had to wait 10 minutes or so to see him - so that didn't help.  But yeah, four hours.  Needless to say, I was exhausted yesterday afternoon.  It's amazing how much a bunch of sitting and waiting and anticipating can wear a girl out!

 

I wasn't expecting to do another ultrasound yesterday, so that was a fun surprise.  It was a totally bizarre experience though.  Now, I've had literally around 30 transvaginal ultrasounds over the years.  I mean, it is like shaking my hand.  No big whoop.  I know the drill.  But they've all been at RBA, so I was just used to how they did them.  So maybe how my OB does them is normal, but I thought this was totally weird. First of all, I didn't have a private room to change in and the ultrasound tech didn't leave the room for me to drop my drawers.  OK, kinda awkward but whatever.  Then once I had my feet up in the stirrups, she handed ME the wand to insert myself.  OK, what?!?!?!  Then she took over once I put it in.  OK is it just me or is that totally weird?  Is there some legal reason for this or something?  I mean even at an OB/GYN's office they're constantly sticking things up in your girly parts without assistance.  Why not this wand?  I am still totally weirded out by it.  I don't like to see what's going on down there.  Just do your thing under the paper gown and let me be.  WEIRD.

 

Aside from the strange start, the sonogram was of course fun to see.  Our little nut measured 4.91cm crown to rump and was moving around in there like crazy.  We have no reason for it, but we both think it's a girl.  So perhaps she'll be a dancer like her momma.  And go on SYTYCD Season 24.  I totally won't be disappointed if it's a boy though.  At this point we'd take a hermaphrodite alien with eight legs.  The tech also did the over-the-belly ultrasound (I'm sure that's the technical lingo) to try and get a decent profile pic, but our little bug wasn't cooperating.  The pics aren't nearly as clear as the transvaginal ones - at least not this early.

 

So... my doctor was of course excited to see me finally knocked up.  (She's the one who did all my initial why-am-I-not-getting-pregnant bloodwork and referred me to Dr. T.)  She agreed that we'll do a planned C-section at 39 weeks.  I like plans.  She also referred me to a group of perinatologists (high-risk pregnancy docs), so my next appointment will be with them in two weeks for my 12 week screening.  Then I'll be back at my OB another week after that.  Sounds like I'll be seeing someone at least every 4 weeks - I'm not sure yet what kind of schedule the perinatologist will have for me.  At 28 weeks, I'll start seeing my OB every 2 weeks, and then every week starting at 36 weeks.  Lots to process...  I guess this is really happening, huh?

10 Week Ultrasound

Lots of big steps this week! We're officially in double digits! We're now in the "fetus" stage and no longer the "embryo" stage. Very exciting. And on Friday we graduated from RBA and will now be seeing my normal OB/GYN going forward! Big steps... very grateful... and I think we're really starting to get excited.



Friday's ultrasound was definitely the best one so far... our little nut actually looks like a little baby now. An alien baby, but a baby. The ultrasound tech was pushing on my stomach and having me hold my breath to get the little guy to move around. He was definitely dancing around in there! Can't feel it yet though - it's just bizarre knowing there's a little creature inside of you wiggling around.




These scans aren't great - they show up kinda dark here, but hopefully you can see the images OK. We measured right at 10w1d on Friday and baby almost doubled in length from the last ultrasound to 3.31cm. We heard the heartbeat again, which was good and strong. Everything looked great! This 3D image is kinda freaky...




Totally looks like a little alien! Dr. T was excited to see us off and get us back to my OB. It was definitely a bitter sweet goodbye - RBA has been such a big part of our lives for over four years now. We'll of course be back when we're ready for more, but for now it's goodbye. Here we are with Dr. T...




OK so we also figured it was time to start capturing belly shots. I've honestly had a pooch since beginning my meds back in early April. I literally JUST got off all the hormones on Friday (woo hoo!), so who knows if my belly is due to meds, baby, or both. It's definitely there, whatever it is. And we obviously didn't get a "before" shot since I started plumping up before the transfer even happened. So we'll just use this crappy screen shot from my Lupron shot video as my "before" picture. Because it was all over after that morning!




And here's the pooch as of today (10w3d)...




I'm wearing these fold-down maternity pants from Old Navy here and I can already tell these are going to be a favorite. I'm curious if dropping the hormones will affect the pooch or if I'm just in for the long haul from this point. Either way, fine with me! There's plenty of time to get my flat belly back later. Soooooo not worried about that right now. Honestly I'd like the big belly to hurry up and get here because right now I'm in that stage where none of my normal clothes fit. All I can really wear right now to work are dresses, so getting ready for work has become challenging.

I still feel like crap. Still tired all the time. Nauseous much of the time. Eating is a chore because it's impossible to plan my meals. Therefore I've been spending more on food because I impulse-eat. Grocery shopping is hard because (a) it's exhausting and (b) everything is gross. But I'm managing! In fact, I'm about to head out to Publix right now... so wish me luck!

Hope you all have a fabulous 4th! The hub's running the Peachtree in the morning. (Meanwhile, I'll be snoozing.) Then we have a cookout later that afternoon with friends. Enjoy and stay cool!