The Last 11 Weeks.

Now I can get into all of the gruesome details of the first trimester of a pregnancy. To sum it all up in one word: exhausting. But that would defeat the purpose of a blog.

The first thing I needed to do after I found out I was pregnant was tell my Mom. She is my best friend and knows everything about me. She is also going to be a tremendous resource for me throughout this pregnancy as she is a Registered Nurse and has worked in OBGYN specifically for the past 20-some years. She works in the Birth Center (where Mom's and babies go after delivery) at Regions Hospital. When I told her she immediately was excited. Her goal in life was to have babies, and now that we are all grown up her new goal is to have lots of grand-babies. So here marks the beginning of that journey for her. She is ecstatic. She told me a little story that explains her excitement perfectly: One night at work she was sitting at the front desk and a woman walked in frantically shouting "Where is Jane Doe*** (fake name)!!!! Where is Jane Doe!?!?!?!" My mom answered calmly "She is over this way ma'am". The woman then began to cry "I'm a GRANDMA!!! I'm a GRANDMA!!!" as my mom simultaneously cried "SO AM I!!" And they both cried. I cry hearing/telling this story as it really puts the excitement in all of this into perspective. After she had a moment to get off the phone with me she told my dad before I came over. She went downstairs and my dad was putting some cans away in the lazy susan in the kitchen. She told him to look at her because she had something to tell him. He said "what is it?" without looking at her and continuing his work (typical man) and she said "Look at me GRANDPA!". According to my mom, he turned around with a grin on his face "JAMIE!?". He immediately called Clint and congratulated him. THIS was all a relief. After that we slowly told each member in our family - so glad we did it all early as it took a HUGE amount of stress off our shoulders. 

The first few weeks after knowing are a blur. We did a lot of telling people, crying, laughing, and accepting. The couple weeks after that I remember vividly. I lost about ten pounds from being sick all of the time and not wanting to eat anything except popsicles and fruit. Now, in the last couple weeks I am feeling a lot better and even gaining some of my energy back (have yet to see the weight come back). I have in the last week or two started to notice a rounding of my abdomen. This stage kind of sucks because it is definitely not obvious that I am pregnant, but it does look like I have a gut. I am going on a cruise in 2 days and swimsuits will be less than flattering. Oh well!

Around week 6 (February 2nd) we had an ultrasound. We saw our little peanut and saw a strong heartbeat which was very reassuring. It doesn't look like much but it was very amazing when we were watching it live. It confirmed the pregnancy and let us know there was only one baby in there (I have twins in my family). Seeing a heartbeat that early was very awesome, as it decreases any risk in miscarriage. Which, at my age is very low anyways. 

Tomorrow I go in for my 2nd prenatal appointment (11 week appointment) and from what I have read I will be able to listen to the heartbeat via doppler. Clint and I decided that he will only come to the important prenatal appointments because there are SO many of them and he has to take time off of work to make them. So tomorrow, my mom wants to come with to talk with the midwife I have chosen and to join in on the fun of hearing the heartbeat. This particular midwife was named  as one of the top five Nurse-midwives in the country by "Fit Magazine". Sheila Billstein is her name. She also happens to practice 5 minutes from my house, under my insurance plan, and delivers at Regions Hospital (which is my top choice for hospitals to deliver at). Perfect! After the first meeting I am already happy with her and excited for each appointment to learn more about the process of being pregnant. 

We decided to have an elective ultrasound at a place called 4D Enlightened Imagine and Photography when I am 16 weeks pregnant to find out the sex. We will have our regular one at 20 weeks, but I am impatient and want to know NOW what it is!! The elective one is specifically meant to find the sex; they spend the entire half hour searching for the goods. A regular 20 week ultrasound is focused more on the full anatomy of the baby to check for any abnormalities, and if you are lucky you can find out the sex (depending on the positioning of the baby). We scheduled that for April 15th. Calendar is marked, starred, and highlighted. CAN'T WAIT.

I am going to treat this blog as a journal and a way to document my time being pregnant. Whether it be about the pregnancy, or just my every day life. I of course will want to brag all about my trip when I get home. I am going on a cruise to the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands with Mom and my only sister, Laura, and her best friend Ashley. It will be the last trip I take for a while without a baby so I am going to savor every moment. Will blog more when I get back.................... until then, 

BON VOYAGE!