20 weeks! (Jan 25)

So where to begin with this one. Well, our appointment was at 4pm and the letter we received stated that we needed to be there promptly 15 minutes before the appointment. So for those out there who do not know what an ultrasound entails, let me elaborate. They ask you to drink a shit ton of water (of course they word it nicely lol) 45 minutes prior to the appointment so that when you get there and your appointment is ready they take you with a full bladder so that you get better images of the baby. So based on my calculations, if my appointment is at 4 then I had to start drinking an exuberant amount of liquid promptly at 3:15. So I did. And we arrived at our appointment promptly at 3:45. I check in with the girliest fat man I've ever seen in the Ultrasound/CT Scan/MRI place and he proceeds to inspect my ID and insurance card and look at the screen and click the mouse a few times. Mind you, while he is doing this, he is on the phone and never made eye contact with me. Then he tells me to sit down and wait...mind you, we were there promptly at 3:45.

So 4 o'clock rolls around and no one comes to the waiting area calling for me.  4:15 rolls around and I'm starting to get that urge of needing to go pee. So I tell Ed to talk to me about anything just to get my mind off of it and he does. But then the feeling rolls back around close to 4:30. I tell Ed that it's getting harder to hold it and the look in my face was probably filled with agony. I get up to go talk to another receptionist and tell her I have an ultrasound appt and I really had to go. All she said was "Just go to the bathroom and then drink more water." She didn't ask what time my appointment was at or anything relating to the appointment. I've had an ultrasound done once many years ago and remember that I was in the same situation with the urge to pee and I remember the nurse telling me to just let out a little (maybe 2-3 seconds worth of pee) and stop. Well I was thinking it was going to suck if I let it all out and then they called me in and then I'd have no pee in my bladder and I'd have to sit there and wait longer, so I peed for a few seconds then stopped. Yea.. a little painful...Well, after composing myself in the bathroom, I go back to the waiting area and they still hadn't called me. 4:40 rolled around. 4:50. 5 o'clock. At this point, I'm about to pee my pants yet again and i'm getting real pissed. Why do they tell me I have an appointment at 4 and make me wait out there for a freaking hour!?!??!! So infuriating! I got up again and this time I talked to the dude I had checked in with at 3:45 and told him that it was getting ridiculous that I was told to be here promptly at 3:45 for this appointment and it's already 5 and I'm still waiting! His face got all attitude-y as he asked for my name and then he proceeds to look at the screen, clicks the mouse a few times looks at the screen some more, asks for my name again, clicks the mouse a couple more times and he says, "They'll be coming to get you right now." So it was then that it dawned on me. Motherfucker probably forgot to check me in because he was talking on the phone like a freaking chismoso while he was supposed to be checking me in, and all this time the freaking ultrasound room was probably empty after the last lady that came out at 4:30!!!!! So mad, so mad... Well, finally like 5 minutes later the technician comes and gets me and Ed and we go to the dark room.

What to say about the dark room. It wasn't that dark. The lights were intimately dimmed. Enough to be able to tell where you are walking and see who you are talking to. I must remind you however, that I still need to go pee. Well, the technician apologizes for the wait and then informs us that the procedure will take 45 minutes. In my mind I was screaming bloody murder! 45 minutes?!?!? Wasn't it enough I had already been waiting over an hour with a bladder that felt like it was going to pop??!?! Whatev. After I laid down on the bed thingy they have there for you, the urge to pee subsided ever so slightly but it was countered by the warm jelly and the sonogram thingamabob that she began putting pressure on to finally get the images of the kid growing in me. So here are some pics of the kid!

And for the long awaited money shot.....(drumroll please...)

There you have it ladies and gents! The vajayjay...Yep. We are having a girl!

12 weeks! (December 1 & 2)

So we had back-to-back appointments in December. The first was on the 1st and it involved the 12 week sonogram where they do a nuchal translucency screening.  This screening can tell you about your baby's risk for Down syndrome and other problems.  Again, week 12 rolled around and there really isn't a belly to show, so it's still mind boggling that I am pregnant without looking like I'm pregnant.  (Ed says it's all in my head lol) Well, we go into a small dark room where the sonogram technician squirts warm jelly stuff on my belly (no hoo-hah action this time) and begins rolling the sonogram "mouse" on my belly.  At first we just saw a big black oval-shaped thing with nothing in it (part of the uterus).  But as she kept on moving the mouse thingy we start seeing what looks like an actual baby! It was surreal! (See picture above lol) It was amazing to see it move its little arms and fingers and hands and see little feet on the sonogram! She zoomed in so we could get a better look at it and I was just blown away! To think that inside my belly there is an itsy bitsy little person growing!! There were no words to describe the feeling that came over me right then and there as I saw the baby move and turn and raise its little arms... unbelievable!  Ed was smiling the entire time (at least every time I looked at him lol)

Well, the sonogram technician had to take numerous pictures of the baby and the nuchal fold and measure it to determine the risk for the bad stuff but she was unable to disclose any information regarding the information she acquired. She informed us that we had to wait until our 16 week appointment where more blood would be drawn and then combined with first trimester blood in conjunction with the sonogram pictures to give a better prediction of down syndrome and what not.  All we care about at this point is that our baby is healthy and growing strong every day.

The next day we had our appointment with our NP (nurse practitioner) who happened to have seen me a few years back for some lady business. I sure didn't remember her but she "knew" who I was because she checked my chart and saw that she had taken care of the yearly lady business. Anywho, she went over my first set of blood work and said everything looked normal. Then she proceeded to start a brief physical exam--stethoscope, deep breath in, out, blah, blah, blah--and then she takes out her doppler so we could hear the baby's heartbeat.  Baby's heartbeat was a strong 150 bpm so she said that was good. Then she did the pelvic exam to check where the uterus was at (somewhat uncomfortable) and that was that. She asked if we had questions. I inquired about sleeping positions, the ongoing nausea and the horrible taste in my mouth. She was very informative and thorough when answering the questions and she gave practical solutions that were easily followed.


At this point in the pregnancy...
I feel nauseous still but not the entire day. It seems to hit me more when I'm at home. I've thrown up several times but not to the point where I'm losing mega nourishment.  We took a trip to Babies R Us to find the infamous "Preggie Pops" to help the nausea. They did their job and also curbed the bad taste in my mouth because the sour ones made me salivate like Pavlov's Dog.  Switched my cereal AGAIN from Honey Nut Cheerios to Multi Grain Cheerios. Ed has been putting his foot down in the food department and making something and I am, well, eating it...at least some of it, that is...

As far as food goes...
I am favoring fuji apples! I love them love them love them! I'm eating like three almost everyday! Granted I have puked a couple but they are still tasty!! (not when coming back up though...)

Other thoughts running through my head...
I am uneasy about not gaining any weight still. My weight started increasing but it's up to 110 right now, not that the baby is weighing an enormous amount but still. I had to switch my vitamins up from the huge horse pills I got at GNC to gummy prenatal vitamins. Pre-pregnancy my gag reflex was sensitive. Now, it's even MORE sensitive! Ed even tried to break them in half but it was still making me dry heave (sometimes not so dry lol)

I am excited about picking out baby stuff, going to the clearance racks and getting baby clothes and going to Joann's to pick out fabric to make blankets and swaddling cloths (I think that's what they are called...) and yarn to start working on projects!

8 weeks! (October 31, 2011)

So we had our "8 week" appointment on October 31st.  Here we were in the doctor's office waiting patiently for the doctor to come in and confirm the pregnancy. Ed had never been in the OB/Gyn department so he was very quietly sitting looking at all the posters that were around of vaginas and ovaries and baby development stages. He looked a little weirded out lol. Anywho, the nurse asked me to undress from the waist down for the exam and then shortly after some other random chick walks in, mind you...i just have some sheet covering my nether regions and my ass was probably exposed...and she was looking for some paperwork she left behind! Now, these doctor offices are not very big, kinda like when you go to the eye doctor...maybe a tad smaller...but anywho, there was ed by the door, I'm sitting on the bed looking thingy and this chick is looking for her paperwork, not that there are many places she could have left them. Oh well, she leaves, then the nurse comes in looking for the chick's paperwork! And all this time I'm getting more and more anxious about the doctor walking in so we could get this show on the road! Well, finally the doctor makes it in and she starts the test, which is not on your belly by the way, it's up your hoo-hah...cold and a bit uncomfortable. But there you have it, we looked at the screen and saw our new addition to the DeLaO clan at  7 weeks and 4 days based on the length from crown to rump.   Our estimated delivery date is scheduled for 6/14/12

At this point in the pregnancy...
I feel nauseous ALL the time! It's hard for me to eat my cereal in the morning. It used to take me like five minutes to chow down on breakfast. Now it's taking me like twenty minutes! Had to switch from my favorite Honey Bunches of Oats to Honey Nut Cheerios. Also, we changed the milk up to Lactaid instead of the regular reduced fat stuff. It has helped with the gas. My sense of smell has gotten ridiculously sensitive! And I always thought pregnant women were making shit up!When I'm brushing my teeth I can smell the drain...I know gross. Every smell seems to be stronger! Pre-pregnancy I was an avid fan of air freshers and plug-ins. Now, I can't seem to have them around because I start to feel nauseous with the smell. To tell you that I had to make a hurried trip to the bathroom at work because the air freshener I had in the classroom made me gag at the end of the lesson! Thankfully it was toward the end of the period and I had an aide that I left in the room while I made a run for it!


As far as food goes...
I am favoring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on wheat bread. It seems they make my stomach happy. It's getting more and more difficult for ed to find something I am ok eating.

Other thoughts running through my head...
I am uneasy about losing weight. I know that sounds dumb and some of you are probably thinking, "What weight does she have to lose?" Well, when we went for the "unofficial" doctor appointment with my family doctor, I weighed in at 114. As of now I'm at roughly 106 so I'm a bit worried.

I am excited about starting a family with Ed. We have been together for almost eleven years and the talk of kids has been around for quite a few already. We finally decided this summer to stop using birth control and based on conversations with a few friends conception was probably six months to a year away since I was using contraception for a while. Well. It only took three months. lol