Kristen's Week-by-Week Pregnancy Log
Synopsis
My husband Pete and I had decided to start our family in October 2008 and we had been trying for about a month. It was going to be our first child. I took a pregnancy test and it came up negative and I, of course, thought "okay this might take some time." I started to worry about "what if..."
About two weeks later when my breasts started getting bigger and hurting all of the time, I decided to take another pregnancy test. I was sitting nervously in the bathroom looking at the test and wondering if it was going to be negative again. I waited and waited and there appeared to be a very faint line developing and about 10 minutes later there was a faint blue line in the positive oval. My husband was sitting eagerly on the bed and I walked out and said "Well, I don't know but I think it is positive." "You should go look and tell me if you see the blue line or not." He came out of the bathroom and said "I think it's positive!" I went back and forth and checked it a few more times and then I jumped on the bed and said "Oh my gosh...what did you do?" in a joking manner. My husband Pete had a grin from ear to ear! We were so excited, but at the same time a little afraid of what was to come and how our lives would change in the future.
I waited about 2 weeks and then I decided to take another pregnancy test just to be sure and it immediately showed a dark blue line in the positive oval so I knew that was it! Besides my breast had grown a whole cup size and they also hurt really bad. Otherwise, I felt great...no nausea or sickness.
That morning, on my way to work, I called my Mom and my Dad and told them they were going to be grandparents. They were elated...especially my Dad. I think he has been waiting for this for a long time. Later that evening, Pete and I proceeded to tell our close friends and other close relatives. We were SO excited we didn't want to wait to tell them and I am really bad at keeping good news to myself. We waited to tell Pete's parents a couple of days so that we could do it in person over the Thanksgiving holiday. The family went out to dinner and Pete's parents immediately noticed that I ordered Ginger Ale to drink and looked over at me and asked if there was something we wanted to tell them. They were very excited to hear the news!
When we returned home from Thanksgiving, I immediately made an appointment at the OBG office for my 8 week visit. Pete and I counted down the days. Since it was our first visit, I had never met the doctor, but my friends have referred me to her and said she was excellent. I was a little nervous. The doctor walked in and immediately Pete and I knew she would be great! She had a funny sense of humor (which will definitely be needed in the delivery room), answered all of our questions, and spent a lot of time explaining what foods to eat, medications I was taking, tests and all the important stuff that you have never thought of until then. The doctor asked "So, what do you do for exercise?" I responded by telling her about my horse and that I ride 3-4 times a week. She said "Not anymore" in such a frank way that I asked if she was joking. Unfortunately she wasn't. But afterall, I knew lots of pregnant girls who rode up until the third trimester and had no issues, so I was going to keep riding anyway.
The doctor gave me the first ultrasound and we got the first glimpse of our baby, which I lovingly called "the shrimp" (that is exactly what it looked like and further on in the pregnancy you get, you'll come to laugh at the comparisons of your baby's size to different kinds of foods and fruits that you read about on different web sites and in books).
Seeing the first picture of the baby was really significant for us and made it all "real." I cried a little and Pete came over to hold my hand and smile. After our appointment we emailed the pictures of the shrimp to our family so that they could see the first picture.
After that initial visit, Pete and I started talking about the things we were going to need, how we might see us doing things in the future, and reading every parenting. pregnancy and baby book we could find. We counted the days to every monthly doctor's appointment, especially the ones when we got an ultrasound.
Over the next few weeks, I felt great most days and had no nausea or sickness to speak of and I thought it was great considering some of the horror stories that I had heard or read about. My breasts went up another bra size (which Pete couldn't stop noticing) and they hurt so bad. Just looking at them made them hurt! At about week 10, I was started getting really nauseous (mostly at night), I had a very strong sense of smell (meat smelled awful), and nothing in the world sounded appetizing to eat. I was also really tired, even to the point of not cleaning my house or doing anything outside of the house, not doing anything productive, and suffering when I had to get up and go to work. I was really started to think that this pregnancy thing was not going to be a fun journey. My hormones were also crazy and I started to have breakdowns crying and being irrational (think PMS x 100). I had a meltdown at the store because the parking lot was crazy and some lady was in my way when I was trying to get tomatoes (this is funny to me now). My poor husband was so sweet and never said a word to me about how ridiculous I was being.
Before we knew it, the second ultrasound appointment (12 weeks) was here! It was the first on the big screen and Pete and I were so excited. I laid down on the table and Pete grabbed a chair and my hand to watch. The minute we saw the baby jumping and kicking we both laughed and I started crying again. It was amazing to see. The technician went through the appointment showing us all the measurements and parts of the body, which was very cool.
At about 12 -13 weeks, I started feeling better emotionally and physically and began to feel more positive about being pregnant. My energy level was better and I was starting to crave things like OJ and clams. Who knows why, but I wanted clams and shellfish most nights and couldn't get enough orange juice and apple juice to satisfy my cravings. Later on I added white cake with white icing to the list of "must haves".
At my 16 week appointment, which was a routine appointment, I found out that I had lost 10 lbs from my prepregnancy weight, which was actually quite comforting to me because I was a little overweight to begin with and I had friends that gained 40-70 lbs over the course of their pregnancies! The doctor didn't seem worried about it and everything else looked normal. Pete and I counted every day until our 20 week ultrasound when we were to find out the sex of the baby.
During week 18, I started feeling little flutters in my tummy...finally I was feeling this baby growing inside me!! It was so cool. I grabbed Pete's hand and pushed it down on my stomach and he got to feel a little movement. His eyes lit up and he smiled and laughed. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether it's my stomach growling, gas, or the baby, but I am sure in the future that the baby movements will get more noticeable.
20 weeks
When the 20 week appointment day arrived, Pete and I excitedly went into the ultrasound room and spent about an hour looking at and measuring the parts of the brain, the bones in the body, looking at all of the major organs, checking out the spine and all the fingers and toes. Pete and I could hardly wait and I know while we were both watching our baby on the big screen, we were trying to look for signs! Unfortunately, it is sometimes hard to tell what you are looking at without a trained eye. Finally the technician said "Well folks, do you know what that is?...come on now..." and I yelled "It's a boy! Pete and I were so happy to finally find out, even though we wouldn't have cared either way. We just want a healthy baby, but now we can buy some fun stuff like cute clothes and toys and finalize the name.
During the 20th week I feel very good with the exception of my back pain, which I remedy with a chiropractic visit once a week (it's a life saver). I am starting to really show and have problems changing positions in bed with all of my pillows that I have accumulated to help me get comfortable. My cravings are a lot less strong now, with the exception of the occasional craving for dessert of some sort--chocolate is the best. My favorite thing to drink is still OJ with a little sprite added...it's my fake Mimosa.
21 weeks
This week I am feeling really good...lots of energy and excitement as I have really started feel the baby move around. He seems to be most active in the early morning, mid morning, and around 9:00 pm. The movements are starting to feel more like kicks than flutters in my tummy and the movements are more frequent.
Although I love my growing belly, it seems to get in the way every once in a while...sort of like I am not used to it quite yet. Putting on my shoes and bending over to pick things up and to shave in the shower are becoming harder every day. One night I was leaving work and I found that someone had parked REALLY close to my driver's side door. For some strange reason, my remote won't work at the building so I have to manually use the key to unlock the door. So I tried to get through the small space between the other car and my driver's side door to unlock the door (my belly rubbing up against my car the entire time (it was obvious I was going to have to crawl in through the other side of the car at this point). I managed to unlock the door and slide out (cursing the other person the entire time). I went around to the passenger side, got in, and stood crouching on the seat trying to get my ackward body over the center console and get my feet down into the driver's side area so that I could sit down. I think this would've been difficult to do with my regular body, but adding my pregnant belly to the mix made it almost impossible. I finally got down into the seat and took a deep breath and called Pete to have a good laugh (although it took a few minutes for the anger to subside)! I am sure we will look back at things like that and have stories to tell our children.
23 weeks
I can tell this week that my belly hit a growth spurt. It seems that it got a lot bigger overnight! I feel great with a good energy level and lots of movement from our little guy. At our 20 week visit, he measured in the 75th percentile so we think he is going to be bigger than average and his kicks are getting stronger every day. He seems to be most active in the early morning, lunch time, and late evening. He also likes Jay-Z and hip hop music as I can feel him wiggle around when it's playing in my car (It must be the base). It's very cute!
My apetite has been ravenous for the last week and I can't seem to get satiated with anything that I eat. I am definitely eating more, but trying not to go overboard as I know I have a ways left to go and I need to maintain the weight guideline given to me by my OB, which was a modest 20 lbs. So far, I have gained 6 lbs so I want to keep on track with my weight. I have been craving more sweets...doughnuts and brownie sundays, which I have been allowing myself to indulge in (in moderation, of course).
