Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Pregnancy Update - 18 Weeks

 So tomorrow is the BIG day! We found out pink or blue! I am beyond excited and a whole lot nervous. I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be unable to sleep tonight, especially considering the fact that I have been frantically cleaning all day to prepare for the arrival of the estrogen clan (aka. sister, mother, and grandmother) coming to be at the sonogram appointment tomorrow. Needless to say Adam will be waaaaay outnumbered temporarily. 

Many people have asked me what my "hunch" is about the sex of our little nugget (as we affectionately refer to him/her as). Not to sound cliche, but I really don't care. I just want a healthy child. I have driven myself crazy wondering if everything is going well, if nugget is growing, if there are any problems. After all it has been 4 weeks since I last heard the heartbeat and without any noticeable movement and the -7 pound weight gain overall, it's a little scary. We are laying it all in God's hands though, trusting that He will give us only what we can handle.  Such a faith building time for me and the hubs, but we are full of excitement and anticipation.We would certainly appreciated your prayers as we head to the doctor tomorrow at 4:00 pm.

Oh and P.S. Please don't be offended if you receive a mass text message to share the exciting news. There are so many people dying to know, that I just don't know if I'll have the time to call everyone individually with company in town. Please know that you are both important and loved by us, and we are both so excited to have you as part of Nuggett's life!!

Update...

How Far Along: I'm 18 weeks along

Due Date: November 2nd, 2011

Size of Baby: Baby Kizziah is about the size of a turnip?? (Anyone else think it's strange that they use food as a point of reference. I'm not even sure what a turnip looks like). Nugget weighs about 5 ounces and is 5 inches long. 

Maternity Clothes: Still squeezing into my regular clothes! I must admit the jeans are getting a little snugger these days!

Gender: Tomorrow, Tomorrow!! Yay!!

Movement: I'm not sure. Sometimes I think I might feel something, and other times not? At this point there is no consistent and noticeable movement, but I'm hoping for that soon.

Sleep: Still sleeping well and cherishing the time I have left to sleep on my stomach.

What I miss: Liking food, a predictable bladder, and ADVIL!!

Cravings: I really don't like food too much these days, but when I am hungry I definitely crave/need meat.

Symptoms: Nausea has subsided a little bit, though a bout with the stomach virus last week hasn't helped matters much. I am still having pretty bad head aches, and I never can seem to drink enough fluids. I have regained a little bit of energy...No nap today!! Hooray!!

Best moment: Celebrating our first anniversary with absolutely NO pressure about when to have a baby :) ha ha!


**I'll try to snap an 18 week picture and post tomorrow with the gender news. It proves to be quite complicated to take pictures of your own belly, and Adam never seems to be home when I get the urge to blog**

Friday, May 13, 2011

The Pregnancy Story...

 So I haven't really told too many people just how frustrating and dramatic actually confirming my pregnancy was, so here goes my attempt to re-cap the craziness for you and for my own memory...

In the middle of January I went to the doctor for my annual visit, and to just find a doctor here in Jacksonville. We discussed lots of things that I'll spare you the details of, but overall was a standard visit and everything was normal and fine. I absolutely loved the nurse practitioner that I saw and scheduled a follow-up visit to perform an ultrasound of my ovaries to make sure that everything was all good with me considering I had never had one and all of my family history. The plan was to call her and come in right after my "friend" visited in February (sorry boys, if you're reading). 

Anyway, around the beginning of February I started feeling really bad. Super bad headaches, super tired, and just really blah. I remember thinking to myself, "Something is definitely wrong with me. Wonder if I'm getting sick?" After a few days of that, I decided to take a pregnancy test. I still am not quite sure why this was my plan of action, considering it I wasn't even late yet. Woman's intuition? Who knows? 

Well you guessed it...a little pink line. I mean the faintest, smallest, nearly invisible, this can't be real, pink line. It was so faint that I immediately and frantically called my friend Jenn, who just so happens to live in our neighborhood and is a momma expert with 4 of her own, and told her she must come over immediately. I don't guess she questioned me, but could just tell that she needed to come. Within 5 minutes she was there to confirm that it was indeed a positive test. I think I was probably in shock, while she jumped up and down with excitement. I immediatly headed to the winn-dixie to buy every pregnancy test they had in the store. Literally. 4 different packages. And Guess What? All positive. 

I had no idea what to think or feel, but there I sat with 8 positive pregnancy tests, including the one that actually shows the words "pregnant." Let me tell you, that one is the scariest. I think I sat numb, crying, smiling, and going through every emotion in between for the next 3 hours until I decided to get up and cook dinner for when Adam got home. I was gonna try to play it cool, to tell him in some non-life-changing way (does that even exist?) at the right moment. That lasted a whole 2.5 minutes when he immediately knew something was wrong with me. I'm smooth like that. He harassed me questioned me until I reluctantly just handed him the pregnancy test. He cried, I cried, it was amazing and terrifying all at the same time. 
**Hang in there with me, this is getting wordy, I know**

I wish I could say it was that easy, but things never seem to be that way for me. I called my OBGYN and scheduled a pregnancy confirmation appointment for the next day. When I arrived, I proceeded to pee on yet another stick, but this time it was NEGATIVE. I couldn't understand this. I had just peed on 8 sticks and they were all positive. Weren't the doctor tests supposed to be even better than the home ones?!? 

She then sent me for blood work to test my HCG levels, the preggo hormone. We were looking for anything over 5 as a positive test. Two days later my results were 27. A positive test. But not quite positive enough for their liking. I was sent for a second round of blood work, hoping this time that my number would have doubled in 24 hours. My test came back at 86. It doubled, but not quite enough for them?!? Are we seeing a pattern here? 48 hours later I went AGAIN for blood work, and this time my levels were 529. Thank goodness. I could finally breathe and begin the long process of accepting that I was actually pregnant. I had my new OB appointment which lasted around 4 hours, had my first sonogram (the grain of rice picture), and met with the first of 4 doctors who may deliver baby Kizziah. Quit a whirlwind if I do say so myself, but certainly rewarding to hear that little heat beat for the first time.

For any of you wanna-be-mommies, moral of the story: wait 2 weeks before going for your pregnancy confirmation appointment. Save yourself a few needles poked in the arm, and a whole lot of stress! The doctors were actually amazed that I even knew to take a pregnancy test when I did, and completely shocked that I could have caught it so early, considering I was only 6 weeks pregnant after 4 weeks of testing and scheduling my first appointment 5 weeks out, when you are supposed to be at least 8 weeks. It turned out that it's been great though, cuz I have gotten two sonogram when normally you would only get one. 

And for those of you who have stuck around for this LOOOOONNGG post, here is the oh-so-wonderful belly shot. I am horrified, but Adam says it's adorable, so I'm going with that. ha ha


Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

Considering today is THE day we celebrate mama's around the world, I figured now was as good a time as any to let the cat out of the bag. Are you ready for this? I'm....









Yep that's right. There is a proverbial bun in my proverbial oven. I'm baking a baby these days, which certainly explains (or so I hope) my blog neglect. All I have really wanted to do for the past few months is rest my ever-expanding body on the couch from the time I get home from work until bed time. In fact there are many a day when the hubby comes home from work to find me drooling deep in slumber.

For all those wondering, we were certainly not planning this pregnancy. Especially considering the fact that we are fast approaching our FIRST anniversary as a married couple. I was hoping to at least make the year mark, and preferably a few more after that, but here we are, despite GREAT effort, if you know what I mean!! There is really no other explanation than it must be God's timing, and we are trusting in that against all odds.

So for those of you inquiring family members and friends, I have decided to track the pregnancy via this old blog from time to time. No preggo belly pictures yet, I just can't bear it, but I promise they will be here in the future. So here goes...

How Far Along: I'm 14 weeks along

Due Date: November 2nd, 2011

Size of Baby: Baby Kizziah is about the size of a lemon at this point, and weighs about 1 1/2 ounces.

Maternity Clothes: None yet, thank God! Living in dresses and skirts for this Florida weather, but can still button all of my pants :)

Gender: We don't know yet, but find out June 1st! Can't wait!

Movement: Can't feel anything yet but aches and pains.

Sleep: I'm sleeping well at this point apart from the occasional night time nausea.

What I miss: Not feeling like a zombie every afternoon around 1:00 & being able to finish a whole meal!

Cravings: Chicken nuggets, pickles, cheese Doritos. The picture of health, I Know!

Symptoms: This first trimester has been rough. Plenty of nausea and morning sickness (even though it is terribly misnamed because it can happen at any time of the day), fatigue that you wouldn't believe, and crippling headaches. We're almost out of the woods, so I'm told though.

Best moment: the look on Adam's face when I told him he was going to be a daddy. I must admit, he handles change muuuuuuch better than his "better half" who took until just about a few weeks ago to settle into the whole mommiehood thing.


The whole story of determining if I was actually pregnant was a little bit crazy, so I'll share that in a later post. But for now, I leave you with our two sonogram pictures. The first was taken at 6 weeks, and looks like nothing more than a grain of rice. The second one was taken at 10 weeks, and looks like an alien blob. I must admit that I think the second picture scared me more than set my mind at ease, but the doctors assure me our "blob" will take human form very soon!!



Saturday, May 7, 2011

Progress

Do you hear that peeps? We are making progress with pups!! Just look at this...


It's a touch, well almost, but definitely close to being a real touch, as in two animals close enough to touch if they wanted to!! For those of you who have never met my two wonderful pooches, let me just say there is definitely an alpha female in our presence. We call her Macy, or May May for short. With the new introduction of little brother Max, casa Kizziah went from calm Queen Bee palace to chaos in a matter of minutes. Complete with many growls, doggie time-outs (kennel time) and maybe even a scream or two from a nervous mom as I witnessed what was sure to be a doggie death in front of my very eyes. 

I am pleased to announce we are in the GREEN!! Our pups are getting along cohabitating quite nicely. They are even, dare I say, "playing"! Not sure you can quite classify what you are about to see as true playing considering out geriatric bulldog hasn't seen this much activity in years, but still it's quite entertaining for the rents to watch!

**Note of warning: please completely and utterly disregard the extreme ridiculousness of my voice in these videos. Do I really sound like that? Somehow I missed the memo that my camera records sound and am simply not tech-savvy enough to figure out how to mute it. Hence my public humiliation begins!!! **




Macy and Max "Playing" from Taylor Kizziah on Vimeo.