2nd Trimester!

I am officially in my second trimester and that's a wonderful feeling. I no longer worry about a miscarry all the time and can sit back and enjoy a relatively morning sickness free day! Tuesday and Wednesday I was in Columbus visiting my sister and to babysit Cole on Wednesday when his daycare is closed for the day. On Tuesday Heather and I went to babiesrus and 3 hours later emerged with a full registry list. It was certainly helpful to go with someone who has just been through it and had insight as to what she thought was defiantly needed and what was not. I would have just picked out a stroller based on color but she was pulling it down off the shelf, folding it up and popping it back up a couple times, pulling out the car seat part and basically putting it through a test of how easy it would be to actually use :) Lucky for me I can borrow some things from Heather and my cousin Amber that the baby will only use for a couple months. My sister wants to throw me a baby shower sometime in February, so hopefully some of you guys can come!

But probably the highlight of my trip was when we went to Cole's daycare to pick him up and when he saw us walk in he got a big smile on his face and said "Ali" and ran over to give me a hug :D Nice to know even though I only see him like once a month he loves me! Wednesday was a full babysitting day filled with dancing, watching Super Why on PBS and eating/throwing food to the dog.

You can view the registry at Babies 'R Us.
And if any of you parents out there notice that I am lacking a "must-have" item, let us know!

12 weeks tests all good

Just thought I would let you all know I followed up with my OB doctors post-kidney stone incident and they really didn't have much to add on that front besides drink more. However, they did let me know that all the blood work for Downs, Cystic Fibrosis, etc came back normal so things seem good there. My next OB appointment is Nov 10th, but its going to be a real quick 16 week checkup - basically just a momma and baby vital signs check.

Hope everything is going well with my friends and family who follow the blog. This weekend is a huge football game between Florida and Georgia, so be sure to cheer on those Gators!

Uhh, I dont feel so good

So yesterday I was at work and lately I feel like I need to urinate about every 30min from my uterus pressing on my bladder so I am not a big fan of drinking as much as I probably should be. Well on one of my frequent trips to the bathroom I all the sudden get this sharp pain on my left side along with a nice combo of nausea and faintness. I walk back to my co-workers apparently looking very pale (which living in Ohio for 2 years will do to you anyways) and tell them I don't feel so good. Being nurses they love to jump on possible exciting cases so they throw me on a stretcher and make me go to the ER. Now just lying down I feel a lot better and if I was at home I am sure the crisis would have ended there. The pain had basically gone away and it feels nice to be flat in bed. In the ER they drew lots of blood, urine and did an ultrasound. Here I was of course happy to get an unexpected check of the baby (HR rocking in the 160s). The ultrasound showed a small kidney stone and some fluid on my kidney. So they gave me a liter of IV fluid and I got to watch TBS for 4 hours until they deemed me fit to go home. My instructions are to rest, drink tons of fluid and check with the base OB doctors and see if they want to follow up at all with me.

In unrelated exciting news, Dan and I are going shopping for a new car/truck/SUV type thing with 4 doors since neither of our cars have 4 doors and we think that would be helpful so we don't kill our backs with getting the baby in a car seat.

A baby bonanza!

A baby bonanza!

Ali & Dan - 12 weeks pregnant
Debbie & Joe - Dan's sister, 8 weeks pregnant with twins.
Julie & Jim - Joe's sister, is 13 weeks pregnant.


So basically every one is having a baby within a month period! And its everyone's first child so that's a lot of craziness to spread around to all the grandparents :)

Edit - post is edited because someone else wants to wait longer and stuff to tell people. Also our friend Anna is pregnant! Crazy summer this will be.

Fun day at the doctors!

Today I had 2 doctor appointments. The first was with a doc on my medical team. I got a physical, pap smear and baby heart rate check (167 bpm), went over my previous lab work (all good except low hemoglobin of 11 - so placed on Iron supplements).

The second appointment was with the ultrasound tech. This was wonderful! The baby was just swimming all around, it has 2 legs and 2 arms and a bunch of fingers, a nice spine, a strong heart and a large head. It measures a whopping 5cm long, yet despite being tiny I found it pretty easy to identify the body parts. It helps to know that bones are white on ultrasounds so its easy to see its spine and fingers and skull. It also measures exactly to the day(11 weeks, 6days) keeping my April 29th due date on track. But perhaps the most exciting part, and somewhat unexpected this early, was the tech telling me with 90% certainty that we are having a baby boy! Dan and I are both thrilled to have a boy and tears were shed by both of us on this news. If the 90% proves to be true, his name will be Dexter (still working on a middle name)

Today's scan combined with some lab work, so perhaps in a week or so I will know info about chance for Downs, Cystic Fibrosis, and other fun stuff we hope not to deal with. The scan part measured normal, so just waiting on lab work now.

Next appointment is in 4 weeks, Next ultrasound is in 8 weeks. At the 20week ultrasound they should be even more certain about the baby's sex so until then we will be working on staying healthy!

CT Scan Results 9-Oct-2008

"Stable examination with no evidence of residual or recurrent disease."

OB Nurse meeting

Today I had my group meeting with the OB nurses. There were probably 6 pregnant women there for the information session. Before we all got together they took our weight & blood pressure and scheduled my appointment with the nurse practitioner. (Oct 14th, Tuesday). My blood pressure was great as usual, I remarked to them that several times at work I have checked my heart rate and it was ~120, during my check in the office today my heart rate was only 108..they didn't seem concerned as your blood volume is greatly increased during pregnancy.

At this meeting we saw several different groups from the hospital. The OB nurses went over what we could expect during some of the early appointments. A nutritionist went over that information. A person from Family Advocates group talked to us about support programs they offer (baby classes, financial classes, etc) And they gave us alot of handouts, videos and books. In fact they gave us 3 big books for free (What to expect when your expecting, what to expect the first year and what to expect in toddler years).

So next Tuesday I have 2 different appointments. First thing in the morning (8am) I meet with the nurse practitioner and I assume get a baby heart rate check and physical. Then at 11:15 I have an appointment with ultrasound for a Nuchal scan. This scan along with some blood work looks at certain birth defects. The main things they check for is Downs Syndrome and they will look at its heart and make sure all four chambers look normal.

Until next Tuesday!

"Morning" Sickness

For several weeks I have been feeling a bit queasy but it has turned up a notch the last several days. Thankfully I dont throw up easily but I defiantly feel on the verge sometimes lately. I also feel dull aches alot in my pelvic region - I guess my body is expanding. Tomorrow I meet with the nurses at the OB clinic on base, I think its just going to be getting a bunch of handouts and stuff but I am sure to let you know if anything exciting comes out of it. Its weird going from such frequent checks and ultrasounds to several weeks with no information. I really want to hear the baby heartbeat again to make sure everything is going ok in there!

Thursday-Saturday I will be out of town at Amy's wedding. I cant wait to see my college friends who I haven't seen in a year or so. Hope everyone is doing well, be sure to cheer for the Gators this Saturday when they play LSU.