Bad Day/Good Days

I had the worst day of pregnancy on Friday! Austin and I went out of town for the weekend, which was wonderful, but getting there was hard on me. I have no idea how I'll travel home to visit during my pregnancy, as the 2.5 hour drive was extremly uncomfortable! I couldn't find a good position to sit in, I had to use the bathroom every 45 minutes and the sun was WAY TO HOT on half my body. Let's just say, that by the time we got there, I was in tears and NEEDING to get out of the car. Ausint was extra sweet and helpful, offering any support he could. I guess if that's the worst day yet, I'll take it. The rest of the weekend was relaxing and beautiful. And suprisingly the drive home was much better than that drive there! Pictures to follow tonight.

How big's the baby...

According to my reading, the baby is about the size of an avocado! Most of the books and websites say that during the first four months or so my uterus is below or under my pelivs (strange to think about). Over the last two weeks, I've been able to notice and feel my uterus rising. I wake up in the morning and lay flat on my back, and all the sudden you can feel where the baby is living, so crazy. Well on Wednesday I woke up and I could no longer feel the uterus the way I had for the weeks before, instead, I felt it much higher! Guess the baby is starting to rise! He or She is still very low, I think I'll end up caring that way for most of my pregnancy. So the lower part of my belly should be busting out any day now. I think this will be the month of the prego belly. I do have some back discomfort. Nothing major, just some pressure and soreness there. Guess it comes with the terms of being pregnant! More belly pictures next week!

Maturnity Pants

Well, it's offical, at least for today....I'm wearing my first pair of maturnity pants. My close girlfriend, Andrea, allowed me to borrow some of her maturnity clothes and I decided to wear a pair today! Most of the pants will be for later on, when my tummy is bigger, but the shirts will be perfect and the shorts I'm wearing today are soooo comfortable! I haven't had a big problem fitting into any of my clothes. Some of my tops are to small, but most of my pants/skirts/shorts fit as long as the top button is undone. I'm guessing the next month will push me out of my "regular" clothes and full into the maturnity world. I'll post a picture of the pants tonight, if I can remember to do that.

Facebook

My girlfriend emailed me this picture and suggested that I use it to tell the Facebook world that I'm pregnant. Most everyone knows at this point, at least all the people that we really want to know! But Facebook is a weird world sometimes, people know information about you, sometimes before you even know it yourself. For a long while I had my Facebook wall down, because Chiara was being born, but also because I was pregnant. You never know what people might "say" on Facebook, without thinking first. It isn't that I don't want people on Facebook to know (most of you know I love to delete people on Facebook, so most everyone is a close family friend or family member) it's just that it seems so strange to just blurt it out there. Hello everyone, look at me, I'm pregnant! I don't know. I'm sure eventually it will be on there, because people say things on there already (which is totally fine! Erin..maybe people caught on after your 9 months off comment. It was priceless, I went to church a bunch of girls said, "umm...is there something you want to tell us!"). Anyway, thought the picture was worth sharing!

Janice Bovee-My midwife

Just so you know who I'm talking about when I'm writing. She's amazing! I love her already and I'm so thankful for my choice for a midwife!

Midwife classes

I attended my first prenatal midwife class last night. Basically, rather than going once a month and meeting with my Dr. for 15 minutes, I attend a class with 6 other pregnant women (all due around the same date) on a monthly basis. There we do the norm, check weight (yes, I'm gaining!), blood pressure (totally normal 108/67), urine test for sugar and protein (-/-) and the baby's heart beat (more on that in a minute). The difference is I get to do most of the checking myself. If Austin's with me, he does my blood pressure and dips the urine to see the results, I weight myself and everything gets written down. After quickly completing those steps, we go in for "tummy time", yes my Midwife is so cute with her sayings, and check the baby's heart beat. Once the basic is covered, the next 1 1/2 hours are spent with the women and my midwife.

Last night we went over nutrition, exercise, Mom's desires for the class and a general overview. Over the next few months, we will cover labor and delivery, breastfeeding, baby care and so much more. It's a great time to bond with other Mom's that are going through the same things I'm going through, as well as get to know really know my midwife.

I loved the way the midwife, Janice, described what she does. She said, "Basically, I help you have a "home" delivery at the hospital". Her C-section rate is less than 10%, which is encouraging and she is very hands on with natural child birth. As I stated before, her energy and personality is a joy to be around. It was hard not to hug her with I left last night!

On to the baby!! It was a blessing and relief to hear Baby S' heart beat. It was very strong; bouncing between 152-162. When Janice put the heart monitor on my belly you couldn't hear the heart beat right away (which is nerve racking to say the least) but you could hear some "movement", at least that's what I was told. Janice told me it was the baby moving and kicking. NO idea how true that is, but it made my heart melt!!

We just scheduled our 20 week ultra sound. We can't wait to "see" the baby. The last two ultra sounds where amazing and the baby was so small you could hardly tell it was a baby. But at the 20 week ultra sound we'll get a good look at his/her arms, face, legs, entire body!!

More belly pictures to come!
Thanks for being a part of Baby S' life already!

Due Date Change

My Dr. told me last night that my Due Date was changed to Feb. 5th. I guess at my last ultra sound they made the change. I don't remember any of this, but will agree to three days early. I'm going to try and keep my mind of the 8th, knowing that there is a good chance I could be late, being that this is our first.

16 Weeks

Here are a few updated pictures of the belly. It seems to grow more at night and then shrink by morning. I took a few with my workout clothes on, because I thought it make me look more "pregnant" and even tired to do a few photos with the self timer! Next time I'll have Austin take some of me, so I don't have to figure out where and how far away from the camera I need to be. Off to my first Dr./prenatal meeting. I'll post more about it tomorrow! Can't wait to hear the baby's heart beat in the next hour or so!

When to tell work...

Any suggestions on when to tell your work, and how for that matter? A handful of my co-workers know, but everyone else is all up it people's business and it's not something I want to be a part of. I was thinking about waiting until it was painfully obvious that I was getting big, I mean REALLY BIG before telling anyone else. Not to worry, my HR rep knows and it working with me on my maternity leave and such. Suggestions welcome.

15 Weeks

Tomorrow I'll be 15 weeks! Over the last week I've felt a few changes, for one I'm still tired but the exhaustion changes from all day to just an hour or two. I've put on a few things and soon realized that they didn't fit, not in the belly and not in the thighs. Per my sister's advice, I emptied everything out of my closet that didn't fit. No sense in looking at what I used to wear, time to move on to what I will be wearing for the next five months or so. My sense of smell seems to have appeared out of thin air. For a while I thought I my smell had increased, but this week it was off the charts. Making bacon Saturday morning was a project, as the smell of it was repulsing. In fact, I had a few bits of my egg white, bacon and cheese sandwich and soon handed it over to Austin to finish. What I used to LOVE as a big Saturday breakfast doesn't taste as good as it used to. In fact, I would rather have a bowl of fruit, yogurt and granola! Guess that isn't such a bad thing. Even my amount of food seems to be different. I'm still hungry and the hunger definitely comes out of the blue, but I can't seem to eat as much. I'm fuller longer, for two hours or so, too full! Maybe I should cut down on the portions and not eat until I'm full (Which is hard to do once you start eating and you don't want to stop!). As a result of the above, the belly continues to grow! I've posted three pictures from tonight. Enjoy!!

Due Date

Just realized that there is no record of the due date on this blog, unless of course I missed it while I was re-reading, which is very possiable. Baby Stutz is scheduled to arrive on Feb. 8, 2011. He or she will most likely share a birthday with someone, being that there are seven family members/friends that have their birthday around then, and when I tell people the due date they usually say, "oh, so-and-so's birthday is Feb....". With all the holidays coming up, the next few months are sure to fly by! And the belly is sure to grow!!

To know or not to know....

Everyone asks the same question, "Do you know what you're having, are you going to find out?" The answer, NO! Austin and I are both on the same page and always have been with this one. We don't want to know what we are having until the baby makes his or her appearance. We both think it's one of the few times in life when you can be truly surprised!! We can't wait for the day to meet our little boy or girl!

The Belly Bump

Well, the belly is growing. It's at an in between stage, where I sometimes have to unbutton my pants due to pressure, but am not big enough to be wearing maternity clothes (something I'm looking forward to). My sister gave me a bunch of shirts while I was home this week (Thanks Mant!), and for kicks I tired some on this morning. They are still way to big in the belly area. It's fun to think that sometime soon I will fill out the shirts.

I had a lot of newborn practice this past week, as I was home and got to spend time with new baby Chiara. She's such a good baby, and still I realized how much work they really are. I kept telling Austin we had NO idea what we are about to get into! It's exciting and nerve-racking all at the same time. I'm thankful to have my sister, sister in laws (including SARA!!) and many friends who have gone through it before me. I know we'll have tons of questions.

Right now I'm 14 weeks and counting. Overall, I'm feeling great. My energy, which was shot in the first trimester, is slowly coming back, which is wonderful. The baby is about the size of my fist this week, and continues to develop at a rapid rate. The baby's eyes and ears are moving into place. We can't wait to see pictures of the baby at the next ultrasound (I'm guessing around week 20). Enjoy the baby bump picture. I'll continue to post the belly from here on out, on a weekly basis. I'lll really feel like we're having a baby as the belly expands.

Thanks for dropping by! Love you all.