Swim, goldfish, swim!

Last week was a fun one! On Thursday I sat down at work for a few minutes and suddenly felt something move around in my belly! It felt like a little goldfish flipping around in there. Much stronger than the "butterfly wings"/gas feeling I was getting the week or two before. It was awesome to so clearly feel the baby move! It was still wiggling around when I got home, but of course it's still too small for Erich to feel. But I swear when I was lying perfectly still I could see my belly vibrate a little in the area where I felt the goldfish. A bit like water rippling when a fish swims just below the surface. Well, you can guess what the baby's nickname now is... :)


On Friday I visited a school and met the principal there for the first time. Toward the end of our meeting, out of the blue, she asks me, "When are you due?" Apparently, I'm starting to look clearly pregnant now (or else she didn't care if she offended me if I had in fact just eaten more cake lately....) Though there are 3 teachers in her building all due in May, so I suppose she has a trained eye for these things! But then on Saturday I went with a friend to get a pedicure, and the gal working on my toes asked as well!! I'm quite glad to be moving out of the, "Is she fat or pregnant?" stage!

I've also developed full-blown pregnancy brain. I pulled up to the gas station in my car which I've driven for 4 years now, and realized the tank was on the wrong side. Whoops! I'm Polish, blond, and pregnant...something like this was bound to happen...  ;)

Is it my imagination, or do I look thinner in this week's shot? Not so much in this one though:

What's in a name?

This week we started thinking more seriously about baby names. Although we had a girl's name picked out long ago (a baby girl will be named after our grandmothers), a boy name is proving challenging.

We downloaded a name app on my phone and perused through over 1000 (!) names and have yet to find anything that really grabs us. There were a few that were possibilities, but most of them were just ho-hum names, or definite NOs!

We're both surprised at how difficult finding a boy name is turning out to be! Picking the right name is a lot of responsibility! We'd hate to saddle the kid with a name that will lead to relentless teasing or be something that's too hard to live up to... (One of the names we promptly rejected in the list of 1000 was "Adonis"... No pressure there, eh??) Hopefully we'll find something we like soon; or perhaps in another 4 weeks we'll find out we don't need to... :)

In other news, we booked our holiday flights this weekend. We'll be going to MN for Christmas, and just after New Years I'll be flying to CA to visit Polina, Max, Ben and new baby Lexi! It should be a lot of fun. And given my steady belly growth, I'm sure by then (about 5 months) I'll be showing quite a bit, which should be entertaining for all.

I also started skimming through a book a friend of mine recommended called Baby Bargains. It helps you make decisions about what products to purchase for baby. There are so many different brands and features in baby gear, it's overwhelming! How am I supposed to know what features I'd like in a stroller? Holy cow, there are a lot of options. I'm sure I will be bugging all you new and recent parents for your recommendations soon!

Did I feel movement???!

This week I think I may have felt the baby move around a little, though I can't be sure! We read that it may be possible to feel the baby a little and that it would feel like "butterflies in your belly".

Early this week when Erich pressed on my belly a little, I thought I felt something roll over, but Thursday night as I was laying in bed, it really felt like something fluttering around in there a bit. Hard to know for sure, maybe my tummy was just rumbling, but it felt a bit different than normal!

I also discovered a cool website that helps you figure out what color eyes your baby may have. I was under the mistaken impression that the kid would have to have blue eyes since Erich's are blue and mine are green, but I was wrong!! Check this out (from The Tech, Museum of Innovation):

It turns out the kid is actually more likely to have green eyes!! Who knew??? Be sure to cast your vote and predict what color eyes the baby will have (top right corner of blog), assuming of course that you're not sick of voting. :)

Here are this week's belly shots:

(Notice the "I Voted" sticker on the 15 weeks sign.)

By the way, since we've announced to all now that we're having a baby, this blog is no longer in private mode, so you can  subscribe, RSS it, whatever to know about updates!

Happy Halloween!

This weekend has been a busy one for us! Saturday we started prepping the baby room for the  new crib and changing table we bought from our friends.  Since we like the upstairs guest bedroom furniture better than the bedroom set downstairs, we moved the nicer set into the guest bedroom on the main floor and moved the other furniture down in to the basement with. Our friends delivered the crib and changing table last night, which we  thoroughly cleaned and assembled in the new baby room today (Sunday). It's looking pretty good! (We are grateful to our neighbor Phil for helping Erich haul the furniture around, as I'm pretty useless in that department.)

We also went out and celebrated Halloween on Saturday night in downtown Boulder. There weren't too many people out, but enough to enjoy some costume watching, and we went to bars with good non-alcoholic choices; so we were happy! Although we usually go all out for costumes, this year we didn't know if anyone was going to celebrate with us until the last minute, and it was also hard for me to find costumes that would look good in my current awkward pregnant shape (not clearly pregnant, but slightly chubby looking). But I think we found a fun solution:

And of course, we also took our weekly belly shot! Here's the full progression so far:

And an abbreviated one of just me that makes the growth a bit easier to see (where did my waist go???):

This week baby will grow to about 4 inches! It really seems like I should be able to feel something by now, but I guess I'll just have to be patient. :) We have about 6 more weeks until baby grows big enough to see the gender in an ultrasound; and I keep having dreams about a baby boy. It will be interesting to see if my dreams are correct!

Second Trimester

This week we officially begin the second trimester! Wow, time flies!! Our risk of miscarriage has significantly dropped, and if I haven't gotten any morning sickness, I hear I'm in the clear now. Yay!

Last Wednesday we had our ultrasound that helps assess risk for Down's syndrome (Trisomy 21) and other chromosomal problems. It seems our risk is extremely low. The ultrasound measured the nuchal translucency (essentially the fluid in the back of the babies neck) at 1.5 cm. Anything over 2.5-3.5 cm indicates potential Down's. The baby also had a nasal bone, which apparently is often missing in Down's cases. We're still waiting on blood work, but the current stats are: odds of Trisomy 21 is 1:3866, Trisomy 18 (Edward's syndrome) is 1:2550, and Trisomy 13 (Patau's syndrome) is 1:28,814. There is apparently a blood test that we can pay for that can get even more accurate statistics, but it costs a bit our risk is so low, it seems unnecessary.

The doctor was also able to see kidneys, the spine, and several other things that to us looked pretty much like blobs, except for the spine which was obvious. Baby was very cooperative for the scan. The doctor told us that taking the nuchal translucency measurements can often be difficult depending on the baby's position, but our little munchkin was right in the proper position from the get-go and nice and still for the measurement. It did some flopping about and turning later, but that was useful too for the doc to see all he wanted to.

The only potential issue was that the placenta was a bit low, but we're told that can be normal at this stage, so they'll just keep an eye on it.

Some pictures and video from the ultrasound:

Crown to Rump Measurement 57.7 mm

Head and Nuchal Translucency (NT) Measurement

Heartbeat 163 bpm

Crossed Legs - Those Look Like Toes!!

In other news, a friend of mine is selling us her crib and changing table for a bargain! I did some research and it's a great model, very pretty, safe, etc. It's in great shape and will save us over $600, so we're happy. :) The crib can be turned into a toddler bed, day bed, and even a full sized bed, and she's selling all accessories for the conversions as well. The picture below shows the crib and changing table, though ours will be dark cherry.

 

We also have two more "baby bump" photos to add to the collection:

Out of the Closet!

Yesterday I told my boss and teammates I was pregnant. I was SO scared to tell my boss, I was actually shaking a little! She's super nice, so I shouldn't have worried, but I felt so bad that they hired a pregnant chick who wouldn't be able to finish out the year! As Erich pointed out though, none of us in the district would have a job if it wasn't for women having babies!

I decided to show her a picture of our first ultrasound, prefaced with, "I'd like to show you something on my iPad that I made..."

She was great about it. She gave me a huge hug (several actually!) and confessed that she was a bit suspicious when I didn't drink at her BBQ get-together and caught a cold two months in a row. She told me she was thrilled for us and not to worry about a thing. That she would have hired me even if she had known I was pregnant from the beginning. She also said if I needed more time off later or wanted to quit altogether after the baby was born she completely understood. Of course, that's not at all the plan as I love this job and my co-workers, but it was still nice to know she is so supportive.

My co-workers took it well too. One gave me a hug and the other congratulated me and then said, "Oh no, please don't tell me you're leaving!!" It's nice to know she likes working with me! :)

I had been planning on waiting another week or two to tell people at work, but yesterday I realized I had outgrown another skirt and most of my tights, and today I put on a button down that fit last week and the bottom part of the shirt was pulling apart! It's definitely time for maternity clothes! Since there's another gal in the building who is pregnant and wears clothes from the same store I'd shop at, I knew I had to confess before I outed myself unintentionally.

So today after work I went shopping. Even though Motherhood Maternity is not expensive really, buying enough clothes to last 7 days is pricey! Throw in a winter coat (mine are already snug when closed) and the total was a bit scary. But it will be nice not to spend 30 minutes getting dressed in the morning because everything I try on is too tight. :)

Thankfully, a conversation with a friend inspired me to check out Goodwill and other second-hand clothing stores, so maybe I can find some gently used clothes that won't break the bank and can return some of the things I got! Other maternity stores are so expensive it's ridiculous. I went to a shop in Boulder looking for slacks for work, and they had just one pair...price? $110! Seriously?? For pants I can only wear for about a year? (For pants in general, that's steep!)

If you're ever looking for a business venture, open a maternity consignment shop. There are only a few in the whole Denver metro area. Just be sure to hire people that won't have phone conversations with their children while pregnant women are shopping that end with the comment, "Sometimes I wish I could sell my kids."

True story.

Symptoms this week? Largely going away. Cramping is more or less gone, extreme hunger intolerance is fading, and thankfully, I never had nausea or serious fatigue, but apparently now that I'm at 12 weeks, I'm out of the woods for those symptoms! But alas, there is a new one: headaches! Apparently it's some sort of hormonal/extra blood side-effect. Whatever, I don't care. I want them to go away now. Please. They're especially no fun since I'm trying really hard to avoid Tylenol. It's safe to take while pregnant, but I figure the fewer drugs, the better. I have to admit though, right now, I'm real close to caving!

Hospitals & Doctors

Last week we took a tour of the Longmont United Hospital. Overall, we liked the facilities and features of the maternity ward. Although we feel that Boulder may be a tad nicer, it really doesn't justify choosing an OB out in Boulder and driving 30-40 min. for each appointment.

So I chose an office here in town and had my first appointment on Monday. The OB was nice and very practical, for lack of a better word. (Unlike some of the Dr.s I've met in Boulder who are more the granola, hippie types that are big supporters of everything "natural".)

To my surprise, my first appointment was not just a meet & greet, and I actually had another ultrasound! Although I was bummed that I didn't know this would happen, so Erich wasn't there, it was nice not to waste time & $ on a get-to-know-you appointment.

The baby was moving and grooving this time! It was wiggling around, rotated a bit, and even stopped moving for a moment, then raised its left hand and waved at the camera. :) As you can see in the pictures below, their ultrasound is not quite as high quality, but the baby is completely turned around compared to last time. I guess it's enjoying the room to swim about while it's available!! The Dr. calculated the same due date exactly as we were given during the last ultrasound.

We also took another "belly shot". Alas, we missed a week, so the progression goes week 8, 9, 11. Oh well!

I think you can definitely start to see changes, especially in the upper part of my belly! Thankfully, the OB assured me that gaining 10-12 lbs. during the first trimester is normal. So given that I have just 1 week left until the 2nd trimester, I'm actually doing much better than I thought!

On a side note, the ultrasound yesterday showed me as 11 weeks 4 days pregnant, which the Dr. referred to as "11 weeks pregnant". But I notice that the countdown timer and other online pregnancy clocks & tools call it 12 weeks. Any experienced mamas know why?