Baby Gymnast

So Friday 9/10/10 was our 20 week OB appointment. My doctor was on the same wave length as me and totally agreed that Ultra Sounds are more elective usually than diagnostic. She said that as long as the pregnancy seems to be progressing at a normal level and you hear a healthy heartbeat, there is not a whole lot of reason for Ultra Sound if it doesn't change the outcome. In our case, no matter what, the outcome would be the same.... give birth to baby and we will love what ever we get. Abortion is NOT an option to us.

(The day before, we got an ultra sound but decided not to stress about it not being at the doctors office and it was cheaper anyway. THANKFULLY all was healthy and wonderful. The tech was amazing at pointing everything out and assuring us that we had a very healthy, and very tall baby girl growing with all 20 digits and a perfect little face and heart :) Yay!)

Anway..... later in the evening on Friday we were at our friends THE RAMBOW'S and I felt the baby start kicking away. I grabbed Taylor's hand and put it on my belly because he hadn't gotten lucky enough to feel her yet. The look on his face was so cute as he was in such awe that he finally got to feel her after hearing me talk about feeling her moving.

Then, this morning we were sitting on the couch waking up and my tummy was growling... well apparently she gets anxious when I'm hungry because she was kicking like crazy. So I pulled my shirt up and told him to watch and he got to see her kick twice. It was so cool :) He's so excited and scared to be a dad. No doubt he will be AMAZING. He comes from good peoples :)

Updates on baby :) It's a.....

Ok, sorry I'm a slacker and haven't updated in a while. So here's the skinny of the last week. On Thursday 9/9/10 we went to THIS 4D Imaging place to find out the gender of our little bundle.

Here are a couple of photos:
It's a............................................................GIRL!!!!!

She was so active during the Ultra Sound. It was sooo fun to watch her kicking and moving and being imodest :) We did a $100 package and then paid the extra $25 to get the live motion DVD. It was so worth it! (I would have paid $150 at my Dr.'s office AFTER insurance with no fancy pictures, CD or DVD)

Now I can pop it in and watch her get jiggy with it. And considering I'm only about 20 weeks and am starting to feel a lot of movement I think my belly is going to be moving a LOT in these coming weeks.

Heyyyy baby

This is 14 weeks. Not a whole lot different than 11 weeks but I'm starting to slowly feel better. The sickness seems to be only in the mornings for the most part now unless I need more sleep. I feel more sick if I'm more tired. So there ya go. More sleep is what the Dr. ordered. Yoouuuu got it.

Cravings: Beef, Artichokes, corn on the cob, tart or fruity things
Aversions: Still chicken tho it seems to be lightening a little, Salad (blechh), raw veggies in general.

Good. Times.

11 1/2 weeks

So, a little background on today's visit. I had a wee bit of a heart attack because when the Dr. was listening for the heartbeat with her fancy little machine she couldn't find one. She quickly does a pelvic exam and says my uterus is tilted back quite a bit and that might be why she can't get the beat because baby is too far away from the surface or something...

I woke up today for the first time in weeks not feeling sick. Time. To. Panic.... Not a good sign. I'm not quite 12 weeks and yet I didn't feel sick this morning. Uh-Oh...

So she refers me over to Ultra Sound to get one as sort of an emergency.

Longest 10 minutes of my entire life.... trying so hard not to freak out as my husband is sick with strep and too sick to make it to the appointment... Be STRONG Andrea...

At last, finally the tech takes me in. Does the U/S.... Finds baby.... wait.... finally! Finds a heart beat. Holy crap I almost gave birth right then. 158 bpm and I got to hear it!

So. Amazing.

And, my baby is going to be a little Athlete. It was moving and shimmying all over the place. The tech even said, "wow, that's an active baby". My ribs most definitely will not appreciate that later I'm sure of it. However, it will be worth knowing little bebe is healthy and good.

8 Weeks

So here's my first preggo photo at 8 weeks. Just enough of a pooch that I can't "suck it in" anymore. Boo hiss. J/K I'm excited :)

Finally I can talk about it!

Ok, so it's been forever since I've updated but mostly because I felt like anything I say would spill the beans too early about bambino Graves, coming to a hospital near you around February 3rd 2011.



We are super excited and were a little surprised as we were not officially trying. Obviously not preventing very well either ;)

• I have been sicker than a dog....but thankfully the Dr. Rx'd me the generic Zofran which does wonders. I can actually function on it. Though the occasional dose is not quite up to par and so I still suffer a bit. All I can say is thank goodness for medicine because I would be in bed ALL the time without it.

• Side effect: CONSTIPATION. This has been a real battle. I've become the point of impacted twice now. I won't go too far in to detail but lets just say it takes physical intervention to get movement again. And there's blood. Lot's of it sometimes. Due to the consistency I tore and once you have a "Fissure" it doesn't heal until you can be on a complete clear liquid diet for 3 days. Seeing as how that's not possible with a growing fetus....well you get the picture...Oh the joys....

• Eye on the prize. That's what I keep having to chant to myself as I experience the lovely discomfort that is morning (hah! more like all day) sickness, constipation, and aversion to food though hungry all the time.

• That Duggar lady is CARAZY. 19?? At this point I think my mother is crazy too. She had 6! And was sick, if not sicker than I am. Who thought this pregnancy thing was a good idea anyway? Ok, ok, I do. I am so excited. only 32 weeks left.....

From my journey

So I'm not generally keen on posing in a bikini but I did it in part for motivation and in part to see the true results. Since my tummy has always been a problem area for me. 14.6 lbs. Wowza!




And can I just say this diet is HARD. Emotionally more so than any other diet I've ever done. Then again, I always broke down and cheated or just quit on all my other diets so I filled that emotional void with food. Not this time. Nope. It kicked my emotional butt....but it works.






I am thinking I will do the three weeks of maintenance and then maybe try to kick the last 5 or 10 on another round. I know I won't be able to do it "on my own" without the CRAZY strict structure that this plan makes you follow. But I'll let you know in 3 weeks when my maintenance is up just how I feel.