Checking in at 19 Weeks

Over the past few days, I think I've finally started feeling the baby move a little... although it could all be in my imagination, or wishful thinking.

I've read on various forums that sometimes it feels like flutters, and sometimes gas bubbles, and sometimes like someone's flicking you lightly from the inside. From my perspective, the third description seems like the most accurate. I guess I'll find out when they get stronger, and I'm able to more easily identify the feeling, but for now, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

On Friday, we find out if we are having a boy or a girl. We've decided to keep it a secret for a few days until we can do the big reveal with our families at the house on Sunday, because we've got a busy weekend ahead (Honors Banquet on Friday night, Color Run and two weddings on Saturday). I threw together some decorations and I need to start cleaning the basement and putting them up this week. Not sure how exactly we'll do the reveal yet, whether it's cake or balloons, but we've got a few more days to think on it. 

Cuz bowties are cool.

We've got girl names and boy names picked out, but I'm not sure when we'll share them with the masses. Maybe we'll share the one we intend to use once we know the gender. We may want to keep the other one in our back pocket in case we have more kids (I'd like 2-3 total).  

In other news, baby is now the proud owner of a nice bed my mom found at a garage sale, and a few other furniture items. And this, of course, a souvenir from Wizard World Comic Con St. Louis. (We saw Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, among others, in person!)

 Baby's first TARDIS

I'll check back in next week! In the meantime, take our Survey Monkey survey and tell us what you think - boy or girl.

16 Week Update

Just a quick update following my 16 week check up this morning (at 15 weeks, 4 days).

This month I battled a number of infections, for which I was on a number of "pregnancy safe" antibiotics, but otherwise had no complaints.

Everything looked good at the appointment.

I did gain 5 pounds within the last month, which seems kind of steep for this early in the pregnancy. I am looking bigger around the middle these days and wearing a lot of my friend Emily's hand-me-down larger, non-maternity clothing to feel comfortable, but there's not much of a bump there, if any at all. Until this morning, I thought my uterus was much lower than apparently it is, so maybe some of that pudge is actually a bump now after all.

The nurse practitioner found baby's heartbeat immediately, which was a steady and strong 157 bpm.

At next month's appointment, on April 25, we should be able to tell whether he or she is a little boy or girl! I can't wait. I guess I should start researching fun ways to "reveal the gender" to our families and friends. Mostly I am looking forward to looking for cute baby stuff to put on our registry. I haven't let myself do that thus far because there are far too many gender specific things out there and I don't want to find myself daydreaming and leaning one way or another, when really all we care about is a healthy and happy baby.

Pregnancy Update!

Today/tomorrow (depending on which website you pay attention to, I'm 14 weeks along! And as usual, I have not updated this blog in a very, very long time.

Let's rewind a little, with a little help from my written, private journal, which I keep up only a little more efficiently than this blog ;):

Just before Valentine's Day, around 9 weeks, we told our parents, using heart-shaped mini boxes of chocolate and cute little Valentine's Day cards. Now that I think about it I should have taken a photo of them before we sealed them up, but David's parents' card said something along the lines of "Roses are red, violets are blue, September 2014 is when baby is due." Both sets of "grandparents-to-be" were pretty excited!

Although it felt good to tell some people, it still didn't feel real until that first doctor's appointment, which was Feb. 28. We heard the heartbeat and saw our little one on the ultrasound for the first time. It was really exciting! He or she was bouncing around a lot in there, and appeared to be sucking his/her thumb at one point. It will be weird when I can feel all that. 

Here's baby's first photo: 

That night, we celebrated with dinner at Applebee's and then telling our closest friends. On Sunday, we told some extented family, and on Monday, which was another snow day, we went "Facebook official."

It's all much more real now. I'm still not "showing" in a way that anyone can tell, and I haven't gained much weight, but my clothes are definitely tighter. I really just look fatter. I tried on clothes Friday to clean my closet up a bit, and almost none of my pants fit me at all :/ Although it's cold again today and supposed to snow, it has gotten significantly warmer over the last few days, and I'm looking forward to full on spring, skirts, and nice weather. 

Yesterday, some of my friends ran the St. Pat's Parade 5-Miler in St. Louis. This was my first time NOT doing that race in the past three or four years, and it felt kind of weird, even though I'm not the biggest fan of that race and even got sick last year after doing it (I think I had already come down with something - which would explain my less than stellar time). We have been playing some tennis since the time change, so I'm trying to keep active, but my back's been pretty sore, so it's not as easy as I would have thought. Even this early. Anyway, that's the update for now!

Inlows +1

Even though we haven't told anyone yet (and I won't publish this until we do), I decided to start a blog post about a coming addition to our little family. No, we're not getting another cat... we're having a baby!

Up to this point I've been pretty nervous to even say anything privately and jinx us (although I've obviously told David), as I know miscarriages are pretty common this early (did you know than 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage?). We plan to tell our families in a few weeks when it's a safer bet, and everyone else anytime between that and 12 weeks (if all goes to plan). In the meantime, we've decided to let ourselves get a little excited and enjoy this little one instead of worrying 24/7. As someone said on one of the forums I've been frequenting, "Be happy that today, you're pregnant." So I am.

Here are the highlights thus far:

4 weeks
On Friday evening, Jan. 4, 2014, I was sitting in Grandma Wittman's recliner and watching "Game of Thrones" on my iPad, when I randomly decided to take a break, use the restroom and have a warm bath. I don't know what possessed me to do so, but I took a pregnancy test. Somehow, I already knew, but was still in shock after seeing that second line. I had taken a few tests in previous months, thinking I "felt pregnant," and of course I was always wrong before and the line never showed. This time it was there, and it was clear as day. Hindsight is 20/20, but suddenly the super weird dreams I had been having over Christmas break, the slight nausea after eating too much pizza and the extreme fatigue (no matter how much sleep I got) started to make sense. My hands shook with nervous excitement. I could have told David in some creative way, or I could have waited, but instead I came right out and showed him the test. He was sick at the time, and medicated, so the news didn't quite sink in until later, but even he couldn't deny the test result.

That weekend was a long and snowy one. On Monday, even the doctor's office was closed (as was Lewis and Clark, where I work) so I had to wait another day to call and make an appointment. I read online that miscarriages are very common before 8 weeks, so knowing we had a whole month ahead of us felt daunting. I took another test that day "to make sure." Again, positive. On Wednesday, I saw Dr. Ricci and had a blood test done to test for pregnancy and my thyroid levels. On Friday, his office called - my levels looked great, and the test, again, was positive. Third time's a charm - after having it confirmed by a medical professional and not just me and a cheap at-home test, we decided to let ourselves get excited about the happy news, even though my first appointment with the OB isn't until the end of Feb. (11 weeks) and that's scary. We're just taking it day by day and feeling lucky for what is ours at the moment. We even know two names we like already, although I have no idea if they will still be on the list in 9 months. Lincoln for a boy, and Violet for a girl.

5 weeks
This week, if baby is growing according to schedule, he or she is now officially an embryo about the size of an appleseed. These next few weeks, according to all the reading I've been doing on The Bump, Baby Center and "What to Expect When You're Expecting,"are crucial because they're when all of his/her organs will be forming (and some will even start to function). I would bet that's why most miscarriages happen during the early weeks, being that the number one reason they happen is that baby is not developing properly. I know I'm being a worrywart and things will probably be OK, but just in case I'm doing most all the right things - exercising (at least as much as I did before I got pregnant), hydrating, and taking a prenatal vitamin every day at dinner (so as not to interfere with my thyroid meds, which are important for me and for baby). I'm not eating badly, though I could eat better, so I'm working on that. I mostly haven't had any caffeine, although I know it's safe to have a little. It just hasn't seemed appealing, even though normally when it's this cold out I drink a pot of coffee a day! As long as that's the case, it's easy to completely abstain - especially since it's not good for me anyway. I'm watching the few pregnancy symptoms I do have for any changes, which could be a hint that something is wrong, but there's not a lot I can do other than stay positive and believe in the power of positivity. So far, I've not experienced any more "sickness." Mostly, it's just light cramping from time to time, digestion issues and fatigue. My chest is a little sore, so I catch myself from time to time checking them to make sure they still are. I read here that the chance of miscarriage drops to about 5 percent between 6-8 weeks, so we're almost there.

Honeymoon Highlights : Day 3

Day 3

On day three of our honeymoon, we headed to Folly Beach, SC for the first part of the day and then to downtown Charleston to explore the city. 

The beach was a lot of fun! David liked the ocean more than he expected to, and we enjoyed fantastic weather. The only problem was we packed too much stuff for the beach, so while one of us swam in the waves, the other stood in the shallow holding our beach bag. 

I really enjoyed walking out on the Folly Beach pier, which had a terrific view and jutted pretty far out into the Atlantic ocean. We timed our trip pretty well because some ugly clouds came in as we left the beach and it started raining...

After we cleaned up back at the Inn, we headed into the city and for a late lunch at the Hominy Grill, which Travel Channel star Adam Richman has visited. It gave us shelter from the rain, which had picked up pretty heavy by that point. I hate a vegetable plate with cornbread, and David had a chicken biscuit with gravy called the Big Nasty Biscuit. He assures me it was anything but nasty. The decor was very homey and we got the best seat in the house!

Also, we tried boiled peanuts for the first time. They were given to you free at the table like most restaurants leave a bread basket.

 My plate: 

The Big Nasty Biscuit:

After eating, we took to Downtown Charleston. We saw some of the sights from the car but it poured so hard we eventually took shelter in a parking garage on King Street. When the rain let up, we explored King Street, and then surrounding streets, and took some touristy pictures to make the best of things. 

Not quite Rainbow Row, but about a block from there. I didn't realize we were so close but we didn't want to stray too far from the car in case the rain hit hard again.

A Fort Pulaski memorial. David really wanted to do the Fort Pulaski Tour but unfortunately, our timing was off and we missed the last ferry :(

The rain looked like it was going to pick up again so we decided to head out. After sitting in traffic (which a dude told us was really out of the ordinary for Charleston), we drove through a couple feet of standing water to get out of downtown. The flooding was so bad, that after we crossed the bridge, I read on Twitter that the bridge ended up closing due to the flooding. It was an adventure. 

Honeymoon Highlights: Day 2

Day 2

After getting some Dunkin Donuts, we hit the road yet again for a four hour drive to Charleston, SC. When we arrived, we found a cool game store in Summerville called Here Be Games and Books. They had a lot of stuff I haven't seen at local game stores, and we ended up buying two games - Gloom and Zombie Dice. Around 4, we were able to check in at The Inn at Middleton Place.

The view from our room :)

The inn was wonderful. (Warning: The wifi wasn't great and the TV was small and only got a few channels, so if that's the kind of thing you're looking for, this isn't your place.) Yeah, it was rustic, but it was very clean and super relaxing and romantic. It felt like a destination, not just a place to rest your head, and was definitely a primo choice. The one downside was the distance from the beach/downtown Charleston, probably only because of the traffic on and around Ashley River Road, but otherwise it was fantastic.

The outside looks very modern, which is a contrast from the historic plantation located on the grounds (to which you get FREE admission for being a guest at the inn, a fantastic perk), but it feels right at home with surrounding nature.

We were the room on the bottom left under the stairs.  

South Carolina is known for palmetto trees. 

The lodge and common area was located not far from our room. 

Terrific view of the Ashley River. 

A walking path to the Middleton Place historic plantation



Ashley River overlook

The view from the pool!

This pool was amazing, until it started to get dark and a giant fly tried to attack us ;)

Drinks and chess at the lodge

Our bathroom with huge shower/soaking tub

Our bedroom and sitting area with floor to ceiling windows

Organic toiletries - nice!

Nice fireplace, even though it was too hot for that sort of thing. Would be terrific in the winter!

Honeymoon Highlights Day 1

Day 1

We left around 8 in the morning for our belated honeymoon. Lots of driving on day one - the goal was to get as far as Asheville, NC, although our contingency plan was to stop in Knoxville, TN if we were running low on time. Luckily we made really great time (and got really good gas mileage in our new 2013 Ford Focus). It really started to get exciting once we hit mountain country! So many pics ;)

Check out that gas mileage!

We stopped at the Holiday Inn Biltmore West for a night. The hotel was pretty nice. We didn't get a chance to swim in the pool, which was kind of unfortunate because it was both indoors and outdoors - pretty unique! We ate at a Fatz, which we later found out is a chain in that area. It was pretty good. If you're a first time visitor, they fry you some of their famous chicken strips (which are marinated for 24 hours in buttermilk) to try. We loved them. David had some more, and I had a chicken wrap. Afterward, because it was our vacation, we also took some peanut butter pie back to the hotel with us. It was amazing. So was their bread (which tasted sweet like doughnuts) and their butter :)

We got up bright and early and headed for Charleston, SC, our first destination.