I am a little late to the game. I wanted to start a blog to document each stage of my pregnancy, and I probably should have started earlier. This probably going to be quite a long post as I try to summarize the entire first trimester, and then some. Might as well play catch up now!
First things first. My name is Amanda, and I am a first time mom. To a human, at least. My husband Jeff and I have a dog, a 10.5 year old dachshund beagle mix named Toby. He is the laziest dog I have ever met, but also the funniest. Here is a picture of him, and also a picture of us as a family (taken the day after our wedding, April 13, 2012):
Where do I start? Today, I am at 16 weeks and 4 days into my pregnancy. So I have a lot of time to make up for.
Let's take it to the day I found out I was pregnant, back in mid-June. (Caveat: this may be TMI.)I had ordered a swimsuit for an upcoming family trip to Hawaii. I was generous when it came to the size of the top, and let's just say, it didn't fit. Hubby and I had decided to start "trying" in April (our 1 yr anniversary) so I put two and two together and took a test. I honestly did not expect it to come out positive. I was shocked, but elated!
Telling Jeff was the fun part. I didn't really do anything fancy, just left the positive tests (I took a 2nd just to be sure) in the bathroom with a note that said he was going to be a daddy. I had taken the day off work (to be honest, I didn't feel sick, just needed a day to recoup- you know the feeling!), so I was really anxious when he got home. I directed him to the bathroom, he took a look, and the look on his face was priceless. I wish I had thought to take a picture!
I made a doctor appointment right away, scheduled for July 2nd. I tried to estimate a due date based on what the internet said (Google knows all), but I figured it was much easier, and more accurate, to go with the doctor's estimate. Shortly after finding out, we told our parents and my sister, and everyone was super excited.
The first doc appointment went well, they said I was a little less far along than they had anticipated from the information I told them over the phone, but that is completely normal. At the time of the appointment, I was at 6 weeks, 6 days. But we could see a heartbeat! It felt surreal! All we could really see from the ultrasound was the yolk sac, but hearing the heartbeat was awesome.
We went to Hawaii a few days later, and it was a great trip, except for the fact that I couldn't drink mai tais on the beach. It was great to share that week with my family. It didn't hurt that I was coddled a little more than I usually am ;-)
When we got back home to San Diego, we had to decide when to tell everyone else the news. From what I had read, most people recommend after about 12 weeks, since the risk of miscarriage is significantly lower. Others recommended after the 1st trimester (which I think is around 13-14 weeks? Still unsure about that). We decided 12 weeks was long enough.
Let's just say, getting through that first 12 weeks trying to hide my exhaustion and "morning" sickness was sooo hard. I was tired all the time. And "morning" sickness actually means all day sickness. I have this problem where I can't throw up when I get nauseous, so I just felt nauseous without being able to do anything about it. Also, I sneeze when I get nauseous, weird right? But all my efforts to hide it paid off, because now that my coworkers know I'm pregnant, they all keep saying "wow, it's amazing you didn't have any sickness or anything." I hid it well!
At 12 weeks (after one more doctor checkup at 10ish weeks), we made the big viral Facebook announcement. These are the pics we chose to share:
And yes, that was a real fortune I got the weekend before we told everyone (Jeff's parents can attest!). From there, my coworkers slowly found out. I got a couple comments like "oh, I could kind of tell you were gaining weight in your upper body" and "I thought you were just getting fat!" which made me laugh. At the time of those comments, I had only gained about 3 pounds, so laughing it off was really all I could do. I did have one time at work that I almost fainted. So that was not fun... but I know what fainting feels like so I was able to stop it! And it was after everyone knew I was pregnant, so that was helpful.
We recently started our baby registries at Amazon and Buy Buy Baby, which was really fun, albeit rather overwhelming for us first time parents. Going on The Bump and chatting with other soon-to-be moms (especially those fellow February due dates) helped a lot in picking out certain items, as did Pinterest. But we won't know for sure how the items we picked will be until the little nugget arrives!
As I progressed, I took a few pics, so here are the couple progression pics I have taken thus far:
13 weeks, 5 days- Fig size
15 weeks 2 days- Navel orange size
16 weeks, 4 days- Avocado size (somehow that's bigger than an orange?)
I should mention that although I haven't gained that much weight, I have completely grown out of my regular pants, and into maternity pants. My awesome mother-in-law bought me my first couple outfits (the 15 w, 2 d pic is one of them, and I love it). And shopping for maternity stuff is a little bit too addicting!
As I mentioned previously, I have been on The Bump boards a lot. It is nice to have the support and help from other expectant mothers. It's a great community to be a part of!
I will try to keep this blog updated with my daily experiences, symptoms cravings, etc. My main craving right now is coffee frozen yogurt. I cannot get enough. I have been having a little bit of lower back pain, but yoga has been helping.
A couple facts about the pregnancy:
Hospital we will be birthing at: Mary Birch Center for Women and Newborns (Sharp Hospital)
Prenatal yoga studio: Nature's Whisper. They are a little bit hippie, but I love it so far (I just won't admit to them that I am considering an epidural)
Most annoying symptoms: Acid reflux. Ugh. I have never experienced it before, and it is awful. Tums is a lifesaver. Also, having to get up to pee 3 times a night. I slept through the whole night last night and was SO happy about it.
We aren't finding out the sex. I like green better than blue and waaay better than pink, so I am totally fine with it. The nursery will be a safari/jungle theme with lots of greens and some browns. Also, we won't be sharing any names, so it will be a surprise to everyone :-)
I think that is a pretty good 16 week summary. I will try to update weekly with pics!
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