Okay so I just realized the top picture is upside down.... Jason helped me post them, can you tell? haha. O'well you get the idea, it is standing on it's feet!

20 week ultrasound pictures

It really looks like a baby!

21+ weeks

Well both Jason and my mom have felt the baby moving. I think Beretta has also felt it as she seems to be always laying by/on my stomach! I had my 20 week Dr apt, everything was normal. Later that week we had our 20 week ultra sound. Everything looked normal. The baby was 15 oz... I can not believe it is that big! My fluid levels were normal and the baby was cute as ever, I will post some pics later when I get a chance. We passed up our big opportunity to find out the sex. Both Jason and I turned our heads when the tech said she was going to look down there, but my mom did not turn her head. She says she doesn't know what it is, but I wonder. The tech said she knew what it was. I am glad we did not find out and it was not hard for me to look away. This whole pregnancy is going so fast that I am sure the baby will be here before we know it and I am very excited for the surprise. The baby even got a few Christmas gifts this week... very nice of everyone, it is nice to have a few things as we have nothing and have bought nothing! Maybe in the next few months my husband will let me put the crib up and go register! PS I have a little belly now!

Crazy baby!

PS the baby is moving all over in there! I think I can feel it from the outside when I put my hands on my stomach. Maybe soon Jason will be able to feel it too! Also my stomach is another story. They say you pop out and have a stomach one day. Sometimes when I eat a lot it sticks out a little... then the next day it is gone. Maybe someday I will start showing :) Guess I haven't popped yet. 19 weeks on monday!

Scare

For all of the guys that don't want to know this you can skip this posting.

So anyways while I was on my way into work on Tue night I felt a small gush... scared me a little, but I did not think to much of it. Later I felt like I was leaking. I know they say you are never dry down there after you get pregnant, but this we totally new for me. So I talked to the triage nurse at work... (I guess it pays to work here) and they wanted to test an amniosure test (a test to see if my water/membranes broke). Nothing like letting your co-workers check you out down there! Luckily the test was negative... little scary there for a while. No more leaking since... weird. I hope that was the last of it! TMI I know, but this is a pregnancy blog you get the good and the gross!

10 fingers, 10 toes!

17 week ultrasound pictures!

My favorite picture is the feet! The face one is a little creepy, looks like an alien. The baby is sure active in there, I can't wait until Jason can feel it moving from the outside!

17 weeks

Had my appointment with the perinatologist. The baby looked great and was soo big, I will post pictures later. My CMV test are still negative... yeah. The doctor convinced me this is a good thing and that my chances are not as high as we thought they were. They will test again in the middle of January. If tests are still negative then I do not have to go back to the perinatologist. They said the baby looked great and healthy! They asked if I wanted to know the sex... it was tempting, but I said no. Will post pictures later.

16 Weeks

I had my 16 week appointment. Like always they drew more blood... I can't believe how many tubes of blood they take when you are pregnant. We listened to the babies heart rate 155-158 again and the baby was moving all over! Short appointments now. I get to set up my 20 week ultrasound for the week before Christmas. We can find out the sex of the baby at that point, but I really do not want to know. Jason really wants to know. He says he can bond better with the baby if he knows what it is. I like the idea of the delivery room surprise. We talked about just him finding out, but he thinks he might ruin the surprise somehow. So for now we will just go enjoy the hour ultrasound and keep it a mystery! They redrew my CMV labs and they are still negative! So that is a good thing. And I am getting a small gut.. if you look close! They said I should stop sleeping on my tummy... really hard to do, especially when there is nothing there to keep you from rolling on it. I have been trying really hard not to. So far so good!

Bring on the Ketchup!

So my pregnancy update that gets mailed once a week says my baby is the size of an apple! Amazing how you still can not see it in my belly. One day I am sure it will pop out... I do feel a little more bloated lately. Anyways I had a bladder infection over the weekend... TMI (too much information)... I know that is all I will say, but the symptoms are much different when you are pregnant. Glad I went to the doctor, but I feel like a bad mom and bad nurse that I did not catch it sooner. Guess I was too busy working! My doctor also set up a meeting for me to meet with a perinatologist about my CMV exposure. The perinatologist wants more blood drawn on Monday and then set up an appointment. He said there may be treatment options if I do end up getting it. Glad that the nurse practiciner I see is watching out for me! It makes me feel better. So anyways hope all of the test are negative next week. Heard the babies heartbeat last week at the Dr's 150 again. Pretty consistent. Darn bugger was moving around like crazy they could barely find the heartbeat for more than a few seconds. Oh yes... If any of you know my husband has a love for ketchup! Well I don't mind it, but don't put it on very many things. I went out to eat with my girlfriends and had onion rings with ketchup which were wonderful and ever since then I seam to be eating ketchup so much more and craving it! I actually really like it.. I even put it on my burger instead of mayo.... what is wrong with me? So I guess our baby already has one trait of his dad's, a love for ketchup!

Good news and Bad news....

The bad news first. I am not a CMV carrier like everyone thought that I would be. This would have been good because then I would have had antibodies against the CMV. The good news is that so far according to my blood test I am not having a CMV reaction. They will test my blood again in 5 weeks to make sure I still am not having one. So I guess I have to be really careful until May and figure out some way to get CMV by the time I get pregnant with my second! I made it to my OB visit, everything was fine and I got to listen to the babies heart beat.... 148!

Appointments!

So I had an ultra sound on Tuesday.. the doctor said everything looked normal. Jason went with to see the baby, but we were a little disappointed. It was not as clear as the last ultrasound I had, it was really hard to follow. Never the less we got to see our baby, it's long limbs, and heartbeat. It must be long because they keep trying to change my due date... they tried to change it to end of APRIL.... but since we know the exact day of conception my due date will stay May 5th! Must just be a tall baby! I will post pics later!

I already feel like a bad mom... I missed my OB visit. I never miss appointments. I came home from work around 10:30AM and set an alarm for 3PM to go to the doctors. I must have slept right through because Jason woke me up at 5:45 to go to dinner and I about freaked out. Of course he forgot about the apt so he did not wake me up. By that time the clinic was closed. I cried (a lot). And kept saying how it will go on my prenatal reccord as a no show and now they are going to test me for drugs! I made a new apt for the next day, but the clinic called to let me know the Nurse practitioner I see was out sick and I would have to reschedule. So I have an apt for Monday morning... hopefully I get to go to this one! The girls a work are already laughing at me for being a no show.... I am still bitter but starting to get over it!

So then when I got to work today they gave me my assignment of sick babies to care for and said that I could not care for this one baby because it tested positive for CMV which is really bad to have during pregnancy. I about started crying because I had talked care of that baby 2 times in the last week. So of course I have been really nervous about it all night. The neonatal nurse practitioner came to talk to me and said everything would be fine. Chances are I am already a carrier of the virus working with kids and in health care for so long. I also went and talked to one of the OB docs and he said the same. They figure I probably already carry the virus so it is not as big of a deal and if I do not carry it I probably did not get it from that baby as I wore gloves with all of it's diaper changes. Anyways I am still very nervous and will be glad to see the doctor on Monday to see what she has to say and if she can draw any labs. Guess those are the chances I take working in health care. I will keep you posted!

Ultra Sound Fun

So I guess working here has its perks. The nurses did another ultra sound last night. First the baby had the hiccups...haha. Poor thing. Then it started freaking out and moving all over. It was throwing it's head back and forth. I think it was throwing a temper tantrum! HAHA! Must be taking after it's mom, I was a horrible toddler. Nice to see it moving around.. and again the girls noticed it's long legs! Jason told me to stop doing ultra sounds and leave the poor thing alone.

11+ weeks!

So in the beginning I was feeling like crap... like a 24 hour hang over that would not go away. It was like that for about 3 weeks, I lost some weight, layed in bed, and thought why do people ever do this a second time. The doctor gave me a prescription for nausea because she didn't want me to loose anymore weight (I only lost 6 pounds) and a couple of days later I started feeling better (and I haven't even used any of the pills)! Which was great... but then I started to worry something was wrong with the baby. Curiosity got the best of me and working with OB docs everyday is a little advantage, so I had one of the doctors do an ultra sound last night. She saw the heartbeat and all and said that the baby looked appropriate for 11 weeks. It was just hanging out, not as active as before... but looked like it had really long legs! They were sticking straight up in the air. Wish I had a picture. So now I feel better! More appointments next week. I will be happy when I can feel the baby move so I don't have to ask the OB docs to do ultra sounds all of the time! (Okay only second time but still!).

Picture below

Sorry forgot to explain the picture, not sure why they always post sideways. Anyways the baby's head is up, you can kind of see the arms on each side and the legs and the tail at the bottom! Don't worry it will loose the tail.

First OB visit

So I finally had my first OB appointment last week. They gave us all kinds of information and free samples! They were slightly concerned about the amount of cramping I have been having so they sent us for another ultrasound. No one has called to tell me otherwise so I assume everything is okay. The heartbeat was 170! The baby has arms and legs... if you can tell by the picture. Actually it looks like a turtle.... tail and all! It was bouncing around... jumping bean is what it looked like. They showed me the umbilical cord and where the placenta is attached. So far so good! Jason was sad he missed the ultrasound where it actually looked like something!

Just one baby!

So we finally went for our first ultrasound last week at 7 weeks to count the sacs (babies). There was only one sac, yeah! We would have been happy with more, but are relieved to just have one to care for! The picture is hard to see, the black area is the sac... and the whitish blob to one end is the baby. Jason was disappointed with the picture.. I guess he wanted to see arms and legs! But the ultra sound was normal and we got to see the babies heart beat! By the way our due date is May 5th if they don't change it!

We did it!

The story of baby Curtis began a long, long time ago.... okay 1 1/2 years ago, but it seems like a long time ago. Not to bore you with details... but we had some infertility issues. After trying multiple medications, a very painful HSG procedure, a surgery (Hysteroscopy and Laparoscopy), and lots of testing we finally got to the point of trying IUI (interuterin insemination). So on Sunday August 12th we lined up with 2 other couples to have our first IUI. Prior to this day I had taken a brestcancer chemotherapy drug to make me grow follicles (eggs), then gave myself shots in the stomach to make the follicles get bigger, then my grandpa (because I chickened out) gave me a big shot in the leg to make me ovulate (or release the eggs). So 36 hours later we were at the clinic to be inseminated. They placed Jason's sperm directly into my uterus to give "his guys" a better chance to find the eggs. Our chances were 17% or less, we were hopeful but trying not to get our spirits up too much, since this was our first try at IUI. Well 2 weeks later one of the doctors at my work drew my blood and told me I was pregnant! Yeah! And that is how the story of baby Curtis begins!

See!!! Positive!! I had to take a test just so I could see it myself!