More of me to love.

Well--I think there is no denying it know--there is a baby in my tummy--I don't feel her move yet (at least I don't think I do--it is very hard for me to tell). A co-worker (after wondering if I was just fat) finally told me she heard rumor--and I said--it is Ok--Yes, I'm pregnant. She asked if I had started talking to the baby yet--I said no (should I be talking to her-what do I say?) Then she said wouldn't it be wierd if I started talking to her and she moved....I seem to be in the I'm starting to look pregnant, people giving me advice, peeing often, and feeling really fat stage--so I decided to google a few things--here is what I found on weight gain, talking to the baby, and movement.

WEIGHT GAIN

• It is not necessary to "eat for two" during pregnancy. It's true that you need extra calories from nutrient-rich foods to help your baby grow, but you generally need to consume only 100 to 300 more calories than you did before you became pregnant to meet the needs of your growing baby.

• A woman of average weight before pregnancy should gain 25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy. Underweight women should gain 28-40 pounds during pregnancy. I'm considering myself in this underweight--I think I'm on pace for 40 pounds. ( Overweight women may need to gain only 15-25 pounds during pregnancy. You may need to gain more or less weight, depending on what your health care provider recommends.

• In general, you should gain about 2 to 4 pounds during your first three months of pregnancy and 1 pound a week for the remainder of your pregnancy. If you are expecting twins you should gain 35 to 45 pounds during your pregnancy. This would be an average of 1 ½ pounds per week after the usual weight gain in the first three months.
  

Where Does the Extra Weight Go During Pregnancy?

Baby-8 pounds
Placenta-2-3 pounds
Amniotic fluid-2-3 pounds
Breast tissue-2-3 pounds--That's it--I think mine weigh 5 pounds each.
Blood supply-4 pounds
Fat stores for delivery and breastfeeding-5-9 pounds
Uterus increase-2-5 pounds
Total- 25 to 35 pounds

So far at almost 20 weeks--I've gained 15 pounds--If each boob weighs 5 pounds then the rest of me only gained 5 pounds--makes perfect sense. The baby by the way, only weighs about 6 or 7 ounces....

What Should I Do If I Gain Too Much Weight During Pregnancy?

If you have gained more weight than recommended during the beginning of your pregnancy, DO NOT try to lose weight. It is never safe to lose weight during pregnancy.--Great, so I'm basically Stuck...

TALKING TO THE BABY

Even from within the womb, babies are trying to communicate. A return kick to a tummy rub, a punch to a loud song, these are the earliest forms of communication. The awareness of speech sounds is also developing at this time. Researchers have been able to determine this by using the fetal heart rate test to track an unborn baby’s heart rate in relation to external sounds. They have discovered that unborn baby’s heart rate will decrease at the sound of their mother's voice (Fitzpatrick, 2002). An important strategy for early promotion of language is introducing the unborn baby different types of speech. Having continual communication is important. By reading stories, singing, and even talking to the baby, parents can help to promote developing language skills. I guess we better start singing and reading stories--I hope she likes hip hop (just kidding)

Baby Movement

Some moms can feel their babies move as early as 13-16 weeks from the start of their last period. These first fetal movements are called quickening and are often described as flutters. It may be difficult to determine whether this feeling is gas or your baby’s movements, but soon you will begin to notice a pattern. First-time moms may not feel these movements as early as second-time moms. Some moms, especially those in their first pregnancy, may not feel movement until 18-20 weeks. Remember that each woman and each pregnancy is different, so you may not feel movement as early as another woman. There is a broad range of when the first detection of movement can be felt, ranging from 13-25 weeks. Ok---anyday now.

First Pregnancy Dream!

Well I have heard that pregnancy can bring some wierd dreams and last night I had my first pregnant dream. I was going into labor now--at 19 weeks and was really freaked out--but successfully gave birth to a wonderful, healthy, furry little kitten. We were so happy!! I have no idea what that means. But it was pretty wierd and I'm a little freaked out by it.

The best part of pregnancy:

I have discovered the best part of pregnancy so far: The PRE-NATAL MASSAGE! I had my first one last week and it was sooooo wonderful---they surrounded me with pillows and all the stress just melted away. I hope to schedule one every month. The experience prompted me to purchase a body pillow (who I have named cuddles). Cuddles takes up practically our whole bed, but is a nice comfort as it is starting to get awkward to lay on my belly.

A Womb with a View:

My most recent ultrasound was on December 17th--I was about 17 weeks 5 days pregnant. Despite the baby being in a bad position for the ultrasound--they were able to see everything they needed. I am happy to report KronBaby has all of her organs, the heart seems to look good and as of Dec. 17th weighed a whopping 6 ounces--I was hoping she weighed more as mom weighs a whole 12 pounds more.

This first picture is the money shot--It's a Girl!!! We made sure to get a shot of her little butt, her upper legs and "girl" parts. The arrow points right to them. I'm sure when she is 13, she'll be very happy to know that I've passed this around to show the whole world.

This picture may look like she is face up, but she is really face down, with her hand up by the opposite side of her face. They had me roll over on my side and they took the picture at a side angle in order to see her face. I call this the frog picture as you can see her little frog leg and arm--she was face down and kicking me in the bladder (did I mention they make you drink 32 ounces of water before going into the appointment and the tech was tapping on my belly the whole time trying to get her to role over)
Here are the face down picutres--doesn't look comfortable at all. Right now she is in a breach position with her head up by my belly button and her legs down by my right hip. She has plenty of time to turn head down which she will have to do if she wants to come out the natural way.
The view of the spine is amazing. I guess she has all her parts--the same as you and me--just really really small.

Time to plan the nursery.

So now that we know it is a girl, I'm excited to start working on the nursery. I think I want to go with a classic girly style and am pretty sure I'm going to get the bedding at Pottery Barn Kids--She will be sleeping most of the time, so she needs some quality bedding. I'm sure this will change 1000 times, but this is my first challenge--Go girly pink--or not so pink (there will of course be pink everywhere, I think the challenge is whether or not to make pink the main color

These are the two options I like so far and you can vote for your favorite on the side bar. Ami likes yellow and they both have yellow. I have my favorite, but we'll see what you all think.


I also have my dressers from when I was a little girl that I will be passing down. They were in need of a paint job, so that is another project I've started under the guidence of my friend Nicole. We started stripping off the old paint, the wood of the drawers is actually quite nice underneath the paint, but the dresser itself is a different story, so we will definately be repainting. Here is our progress at the end of day one.

As the belly grows...

9 Weeks

10 Weeks

12 Weeks

15 Weeks

17 Weeks

Pregnancy Brain?

In the past week--I have forgotton my cell phone several time, left my debit card at a restaurant and forgot to sign the bill and leave a tip, and today I think I forgot to put on deoderant. Who knows what will be next.... but at least there is a logical explanation--PREGNANCY BRAIN!

While there are many theories as to why the condition fondly referred to as “pregnancy brain” exists, most pregnant women affirm it’s presence from almost the first hour following a positive pregnancy test. For many pregnant women, pregnancy brain sneaks up on them and the results can be frustrating, while often humorous.
Pregnancy BrainThe condition referred to as pregnancy brain is one of forgetfulness. You feel scatterbrained and have trouble pinning down a precise thought. Women suffering from pregnancy brain drive off with their cup of decaf on the roof of the car – that is if they can remember where they put their car keys. They forget names. They forget appointments. They may even forget they’re pregnant!
There is talk that hormones cause this condition. Other mothers feel that the overwhelming news and imminent arrival simply overload the brain to the point where it can’t process something as simple as telling the difference between salt and sugar when making cookies. But pregnancy brain can be minimized a bit, and you should make a conscious effort to find ways around your new state of occasional confusion.
As the mothers of new babies can tell you, the condition never really goes away - it just gets a new name: Motherhood.

Butt Paste?

I'm not sure how I got through 32 years of living without this incredible product. It was featured on a must have list for first time moms. It has been featured on Oprah, The Tonight Show, and ESPN. Come on' all you mommies out there--why have you been keeping this product a secret. It is advertised as "Goes on and comes off easily, convenient travel sizes, and even has a pleasant sent." The website is conveniently www.buttpaste.com. We are sending away for the free samples and suggest you do the same......

15 Weeks!

So I signed up for this website called 3dpregnancy.com that sends me weekly updates on what new parts the baby is growing this week. This week the baby is about 4 inches long and weighs 2 ounces. It is growing eyebrows and eyelashes and it can sense light, but its eyelids are sealed shut. We have started cleaning out our guest room, which will become the baby's room, but so far all we've managed to do was clean out the closet. We are also trying to get the loft in order--as that will be our new "guest room." So this weekend we did some futon shopping--no purchases, just looking. Our shopping day also included a field trip to Babies R Us! Ami had never been to one before--I have been forced to go to the Baby Mega Store for some shower gifts and always found it completely overwhelming. We went aisle by aisle looking at all the stuff--very scary the amount of stuff you could accumulate for a baby--I think we are planning on keeping it simple-but we are definately thinking about the basics.

15 Weeks Pregnant

Baby's Second Pics

I'm guessing from my last post on October 8th---that was the last time I was feeling good. However, I have good news to report that I have felt pretty good all week, at least since Monday. I'm hoping this is a trend that will keep going up. The first trimester was nothing like I imagined it would be. I was moody, tired (I even had to sleep in my car a couple of times at work), sick (and it is not morning sickness-It is all day sickness and middle of the night sickness). It was horrible. All I wanted to eat was mac and cheese and bagels--which is not too good for the waistline--which is why I'm in the Fat phase now. But anyways--I'm trying to be more positive.



My last doctors appointment was very un-eventful, but I guess that is good. And on November 5th we did an early Down Syndrome Screening (which is where these pictures are from). I was 11 weeks, 5 days. I was shocked at how much the baby grew in 5 weeks--it has a head, arms, and legs and you can even see a little nose.

This first picture is looking at the baby with its head in front, you can see its little legs sticking up in the background. The giant lump on the left side is the placenta.

Here is the best picture, and it actually looks like a baby--I love its little feet and nose.

This is the 3D picture and this one kinda freaks me out--it is looking straight down at it, so you see the top of the head (it is still kinda curled up at this point), the arms, legs, and a great shot of the umbilical cord.

About one more month to wait to find out if it is a boy or girl!!! Hopefully we'll know before the holidays.

Say Cheese! Baby's first pics.

So they were able to see the heartbeat today, which is really what we were waiting for before spreading the word to everyone. These pics were taken on October 1st and they measured me at 6 weeks 5 days. So today, that would make me just about 8 weeks. I think the good news is I think there is only one in there. I was a little scared after the Rabbi in Israel blessed us with Twins and Ami's grandfather was a twin and they say it skips a generation or something. I know you can't see much from these pictures-but the smudge on the picture that looks like it may be a head is just the yolk sac and the rest is a little body--I don't really think it has a head yet--just a heart. My next appointment is really my first real one as the other two were just confirmations and making sure my hormorne levels were increasing, and now they see the heartbeat so its for sure. I kinda felt like Miranda in Sex in the City--they show it to you and you are supposed to be really excited--but I couldn't really tell if I could see anything, so I just smiled and pretended. I'm still feeling pretty tired and knock on wood-today is the first day I have not dry heaved or vomited in 2 weeks--but I've had to leave my desk at work to go take a nap in my car for the past two days as I'm so exhausted-I can't even sit up. I'm wondering when the glowing begins.

I hate the Skinny B*tch

Well my mom and Laura had the best intentions when they both bought me the Skinny Bitch's guide to be a hot and healthy mom. Well this week I say FU skinny b*tch. I cannot handle the guilt when I feel sick and starving all at the same time. I feel like I have to eat every hour or I feel sick to my stomach. I don't know if this is good or bad, but no matter how sick I get--I only dry heave--I think it is giving my abs a workout, but it is horrible. I would think this would be because I have no food in my system, but how can that be--I've been eating ALL THE TIME! So where is this food going--because I can tell you that it is not exiting my body the correct way either. I went from having no symptoms to one day having them all. Some foods gross me out--I went to have a bagel, that I thought was just a cheese bagel, but when I cut it in half got a whif of jalepeno mixed with cheese and yes back to the bathroom for more dry heaving. The thought of a salad right now is enough to send me to the toilet. I don't know if it is in my head or what--but I want carbs--Thomas's whole wheat english muffins are my savior right now and for lunch I ate a whole box of mac and cheese. I had to even work from home today, because it took my 2 hours to be able brush my teeth because I kept gagging myself. So next time you see me and I have gained 20 pounds and have bad breath you know why!

So how did this happen?

Q: Were you two trying?



A: No we wouldn't say we were actively trying, but we were talking about it. I am blaming "The Secret" I guess we talked about it so much that we stimulated the law of attraction and attracted ourselves to the possibility of getting prenant.

Q: How far along are you?

A: As of the end of September 6-8 weeks is my best guess--its confusing how they calculate these things.

Q: When are you due?

A: Our best guess is mid-may. But I like the doctor's answer--the baby will come when it wants to.


Q: Are you excited?

A: I think we are in shock more than anything.


Q: Are you going to find out if it is a boy or a girl?

A: Yes.

The test was positive--6 times!

I guess my reacton to the first test was denial, so I went to the drug store and got 4 more tests--yup all positive, then a confirmation at the doctor's office, so that makes 6 positive tests in all. I guess it is official--We're having a baby!