Appointment with the Specialist

OK, so in Atlanta at 9am on a weekday... Not somewhere you want to be. Traffic was horrible. As soon as I got onto I-285 my GPS said "traffic accident reported in 4 miles". My exit? 5 miles. They must've gotten it cleared by the time I got halfway there since it was starting to break up the closer I got to the Glenridge Connector. Anyway, I zoomed in the parking deck and found a great spot right in front of the stairs leading to the tunnel that takes you to the Women's Center. I was only 10 minutes late, but the receptionist didn't say anything. I would've been pissed if they would have turned me away after driving an hour in traffic to get there. Anyway, I only waited about 5 minutes before they called me back.

First thing we did was the ultrasound. She tried to use the regular wand (they put it on your belly), but baby was tucked way down. I told her my uterus was tilted so she switched to the trans vaginal wand. We saw the heartbeat right away. It was 171bpm, which she said was in normal range for my stage of pregnancy. We saw little one floating around and kicking. It was such a relief, I definitely let some tears roll down as we watched. Then she switched it over to 4D, and I've got to say it's the most amazing thing in the world. I though the 2D ultrasound was cool, but the 4D is just awesome! She measured from the head to the rear and then the size of the head, and confirmed that I was exactly 11 weeks. So all my dates are correct. :o)

When she was done she went to go talk to Dr. Korotkin and he came in shortly after. He checked my cervix and said that it was high and closed and everything on the ultrasound looked great. He also recommended that I be screened for Downs Syndrome, he recommends it to all of his patients. So I agreed and they poked my finger and I get my results at my next appointment. It'll be a "1 in a x number of babies" chance. I remember when they did tested on Brent after he came out they said that genetically he was perfect, so I'm not too worried, but you never know. While I was getting my finger poked my ultrasound tech came in with some pictures she printed out for me, and she printed like 6 of the 4D ones! I wasn't expecting that, but I'm definitely grateful. The nurse was like "You got color ones! Not everyone gets color ones". So I was on cloud 9 of course. My next appointment with them is in 2 weeks, so I'll get another ultrasound, cervix checked, and results for the Downs test.

I had lunch with mom and she took my pictures back to her work so she could show her co-workers. She's going to drop them off at my work later since I have to close tonight. I'll scan them and put em up as soon as I get home tonight. So today has been a very good day, I don't think anything can bring my mood down right now. Well, off to rest before getting ready for work...

Dinner, Dishes and a Raise

So I actually felt like a normal person when I came home today. I did the huge pile of dishes in the sink, gathered all the trash from each room and started marinating the chicken. On the menu tonight: Lemon pepper chicken, rice and broccoli with cheese. (I was going to make rice/broccoli casserole but Bobby ate my can of cream of chicken on Friday). I plan to start on getting laundry sorted after dinner. I'm going to go through and pack up the summer clothes, unpack the winter and maternity clothes, and go through and see what I want to donate to either Goodwill or Salvation Army. Hmm... there's also a local Habitat for Humanity in Cartersville. We have old dishes that we need to get rid of too, I think they take household items to sell in their store.

I had my review at work today. It was pretty good, other than some areas that I already knew I needed to improve on. I got some advice on how to handle situations without getting too angry, which is my downfall. I usually end up yelling at my team when they do something that impacts the department negatively, instead of coaching them on how to do it the right way. However, I do feel that there are some people that no matter what you do, will always disappoint you if they aren't a good employee to begin with and just don't care. Also, I was shown how to do write ups so that I can FINALLY write people up myself. YAY!!! I'm not saying I want to write people up, but some people don't kick it into gear unless they know they're on their last leg with the company. I also made a suggestion about one of our programs and my GM is going to send it up to the right people to get it heard, which is awesome, since I believe it would dramatically increase profitability with the program. My raise wasn't awesome, but it was more than I thought I'd get, so I'm happy with it. She said she gave me more than the maximum allowed. She had to get it approved by the District Manager and he had no problem approving it. It helps when he's buds (in the most business-like way possible) with the Hubby though... :o)

Well, off the put the chicken in the oven...

Feeling BLAH

Yeah, that pretty much sums up how I've felt this past week: BLAH. I've been extremely bloated all the time. After I eat I burp about 100 times (no joke), and I'm not even gonna tell you what happens when I sleep... :o) Tee-hee. Lately just the thought of eating is enough to tire me out, it seems like such a chore. I don't enjoy it at all. Even ice cream! I think I need a s'more to put me back on track. I'm starting to get a craving for them again. Yesterday I think I slept til about noon, it was great. And today we got up around 11am, watched Bobby play his XBOX360 and kill people, then went to Waffle House. I normally love my sausage, egg and cheese wrap but today I wasn't really feelin' it today. It was a struggle to get the last bite in. I kept thinking "Must eat protein, baby needs protein..." For the record, mind games don't help when you're pregnant. You're body takes over anything your mind wants.

I'm also starting to feel some stretching around my sides. Especially at night. I try to find a comfortable position at night and as soon as I find one, 20 minutes later it's not comfortable anymore. My hips are starting to hurt too, I know they're about to start spreading. It's not too bad yet, but I remember from last time. The pain is coming... It's only a matter of time. It's usually only if I've been sitting in the same position for a long time and then try to get up. I guess it's time to start stretching.

I've trying to get into gear for this move but it's been so hard to try to get on track. There's so much to do, starting with just cleaning and doing the dishes. But we've got to figure out what we're taking to the house, what's going in storage, what we're giving away to be donated, etc. This week at work I'm going to be collecting boxes so I can start get stuff packed that we don't need. I took the last week in October off, but I'd like to have most of our things already where they need to be. With the exception of the furniture. I'm pretty sure we'll have to rent a truck, not a large one, but big enough to fit the couch, loveseat, table, bed, tvs, computers and dresser. If all we had to do was move the big furniture and clean that last week I'll be a happy camper.

I just hope I get some energy back soon...

10 Weeks

Geez, they couldn't find a fruit the looked more appealing than a prune?! Here's the scoop on baby this week:

-Baby is approx. 1.25 to 1.68mm and weighs 5 grams.

-Baby's fingers and toes have completely separated to form single digits.

-Baby has developed taste and tooth buds.

-Baby's brain is growing at a rapid rate and a quarter of a million new neurons are produced every minute.

-Baby's heart is completely developed.

-Though the external genitalia are not apparent until next week, if the baby is a boy the testes will begin to produce testosterone.

Halloween Costumes Ideas (for next year of course)

Fun Baby Birthday Facts

I found this while web surfing. Enjoy, I did!
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Congratulations!Your Due Date Is Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Your conception date was most likely Tuesday, August 05, 2008
You are in Week 10 of your pregnancy and your baby is 8 weeks old. Why is this?
Your Second Trimester will begin 10/28/2008
And your Third Trimester will begin 1/27/2009
68 days down, 212 to go!

Fun Birthday Facts
Your baby's birthstone will be Diamond (Innocence)
Your baby's Astrological Sign will be Taurus
Your baby's Flower is Daisy or Sweet_Pea (Yellow, Red and colorless)
Your baby will be born in the Chinese Year of The Ox
This time next year your baby will be 22 Weeks Old!
Your baby will start kindergarten in 2014,
be old enough to drive a car in 2025,
finish high school in 2027,
and will graduate from college with the class of 2031, give or take a year.
Can you imagine?

It's Back

So I haven't thrown up in almost 2 weeks, I figured I would be getting away with my few days of real nausea, but mother nature had different plans for me this morning.

I got up and hopped in the shower, and while putting conditioner in my hair I started to feel a little dizzy and light headed. I didn't eat anything before I got in the shower, I think that was my first mistake. While trying to wash out the conditioner in my hair I couldn't bear to stand up any longer because I was afraid I'd pass out. I tried to sit down and wash the conditioner out but the stream of the shower was too high and what I could manage to get under was just a weak little wanna-be stream. I tried to stand back up and finish, but it wasn't happening... I turned the water off and ripped open the curtains. Ahhh... cool air, felt so good. I sat on the side of the tub and grabbed my towel. Managed to dry off even though I had wet conditioner soaked hair dripping all over the places I was trying to dry. I finally grabbed another towel and put my hair up in it, stumbled over to my bed and plopped myself under the fan... where I fell asleep for the next half hour. I realized what time it was, got up and started blow drying my hair, which was a bad idea because the hot air was NOT helping the situation. Started to get the dizzies again but they went away after I got dressed and stepped outside. Thank goodness it was like 55 degrees this morning. Bliss... pure bliss. I rode to work with the windows down.

I got to work and went to grab a water and a pop tart since I slept through my breakfast earlier. (Whoops.) I took 3 sips of water and no more than 30 seconds later I was running for the bathroom. It didn't even have time to get warm in my body yet, I puked up the cold water and a little bit of stomach bile since it was completely empty. Yeah, puking when you having nothing to puke = NOT FUN. I felt better once I was done though. I tried a little piece of the pop tart, it stayed down, so I took a couple more small bites, it was ok, so then I added the water back in. I still felt nauseous but it was staying down so I was happy. Emily came in shortly after that, so I went to the back to finish my breakfast and chill out for a minute.

I texted Bobby about it, he said I should go home, but I stuck it out the rest of the day. Though, I couldn't eat anything at lunch. Food just didn't sound appealing. After I got off work I met mom at Starbucks. I normally get a caramel frappacino, but I opted for the Mango-Orange-Banana Vivvano Smoothie with protein. Which is awesome by the way, you should all try it... Now I'm at my parents getting ready to have dinner. We'll see how much of that actually gets put in my mouth. My mom is making my favorite though: Ham, mashed potatoes, corn and yeast rolls. :o)

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Mom's birthday is tomorrow so we're going to breakfast and I got her a few gifts. I've got to work after that, so hopefully after breakfast I can go back home and sleep a few more hours until I have to be at work at 2pm. Love you all.

9 Weeks

-The embryo is now considered a fetus.

-Baby is approx. 22-30mm

-Baby's head is larger than the rest of the body and is curved into the chest.

-Baby's hands and fingers are growing at a faster rate than the legs and feet.

8 Weeks... (a little late, sorry)

-Baby is approx. 14-20mm long.

-The uterus is the size of a grapefruit (normal size is a balled up fist)

-Baby's eyelid folds and ears are forming.

-The tip of the nose is present.

-Fingers and toes are becoming visable.

A little bit of a scare today...

I woke up this morning at around 9:30am, feeling pretty well rested, and actually feeling pretty good. I got up and went to the bathroom and while I was peeing I felt something fall out of me. To my horror when I looked down there was a huge clot laying in the toilet. (I say huge, but it was about the size of a nickel, which I was later told was actually quite small) Anyway, I cleaned up, ran to the kitchen and got a little Tupperware bowl and spoon and got the clot out of the toilet so I could take it with me. I called to the doctor's office and it first sent me to the nurse's voicemail so I called back and told the receptionist, with shaky voice, that I needed to speak to someone NOW. I got my regular nurse, Whitney. I told her what happened and she went to see if they could get me in there, if not I'd have to go to the ER. She came back on and asked if I could come down now, and I said I'd be there in 15 minutes. I think I actually got there in 10 though (it's right down the street).

I get up there and walk in and they had me wait in the waiting room for like 30 seconds before calling me back. I'm sure the other people that were there weren't happy about that, but screw them, I had a problem, they were just in for check ups. So I go to pee in the little cup, of course I'd just peed like 15 minutes before that so it wasn't even enough to cover the bottom of the cup, but they said it was enough. I waited while they got the ultrasound room ready for me and then they called m back. I saw a different midwife than my normal lady, but she was just as nice. She took a look at my specimen that I brought in and explained that since it was more red and small that was a good sign. There wasn't any traces of tissue in it. Then she took her little light and had to look at my cervix. They said that my cervix was positioned like a hook, so she had to use a long q-tip like think to pull it down to look at it. Then she did the ultrasound and first checked on the baby. We saw it in there, pretty un-phased by it all, heart just beating away and squirming around. Then she called in the Obstetrician, so I got a little worried.

He came in and looked at the screen and moved the little wand around. Then he too looked at my cervix. The whole time I'm still freaking out on the inside wondering what they're seeing, or thinking. Finally, he tells me that baby looks perfect, the sac is completely in tact, and the cervix is closed and tight. Yay! So what the hell else is going on?! He said that I have a little polyp on my cervix, and said that it's pretty normal in pregnant women, but it can cause some bleeding, since it made it's home on a bed of blood vessels (my cervix). But he said that people get polyps in their noses, ears, colons, etc. Sometimes they just fall off, but sometimes they have to go in a remove them. Since it's still really early in my pregnancy he said he would just keep an eye on it for now. If it grows or changes they'll take it off. Anyway, he said the bleeding could be caused by the 2 ultrasounds I had on Tuesday and Thursday, it may have caused the polyp to become irritated. And if I was bleeding a little more because of that, then it would have pooled while I slept and came out all together in the morning (hence the clot).

So he told me to take a deep breath, I guess I looked pretty scared and probably as white as a ghost. He said that the bleeding wasn't coming from the uterus, and the cervix was nice and tight and polyps are nothing to be worked up over. So I feel a lot better. My freak out levels are much lower. They told me to stay off my feet for a couple days, so I got my doctor's note and I guess I'm just going to be veggin' at home for the next 2 days. Here's some info on cervical polyps:

• Cervical polyps are growths that appear in the cervix that range from light pink to dark purple in color.
• They vary in size and look like bulbs on a stem.
• Cervical polyps can be caused by an abnormal response to the female hormone estrogen, many women in early pregnancy experience polyps due to the estrogen hormone being higher, or can be caused by clogged blood vessels in the cervix.
• Most all polyps are benign, but in rare cases it can be cancerous.
• Prognosis for polyps, the out look is excellent. A vast majority are benign and those that are removed usually do not come back.
• There is no known way to prevent polyps.