We're doing good.

So we were at the doctor's today - and apart from the waiting waiting and then the ultra short doctor's visit, it went well. We found out that all the tests that I had to do at the first visit didn't show any abnormalities of any sort.

It doesn't seem like I've gained any weight as yet ( though my waist and lower tummy beg to differ ), and BP was good at 115/65. We heard your heartbeat again, and it was a good strong heartbeat at 166 beats per minute, and at some points when the doctor was trying to find your heartbeat, there were some "swooshing" sounds, which the doctor said was YOU MOVING AROUND!

How neat is that? Your dad couldn't believe it :)

Next up is the visit with the OBGYN/Maternal & Fetal Medicine/Medical Genetics specialist for a detailed Ultrasound Scan, and we'll get to see how much you've grown!

Who would have known

that I would get all excited about a visit to the Doctor. Well, that's what we're up to tomorrow... checking in with the OBGYN and seeing how our little schnookums is doing.

12 weeks

Another milestone.

We're towards the end of the first trimester and getting over a bunch of humps...

Risk of miscarriage goes down dramatically
Nausea almost entirely gone and appetite coming back.
More energy
More alert ( lol )

On the other hand, with improved appetite comes increased girth, not only from babyness. :) Oh well, I've already got my stretchy jeans. Now if only my chin hadn't decided to start cloning itself.

We go back for our second doctor's visit next week, and then the appointment with the ultrasound specialist after that. I can't wait to see more images / scans/ pictures of how you are growing !!!!

Stopped Uppedness

I'm sure it's because of all the progesterone that is floating around in my body right now, but I have such a stopped up GI system at the moment. I can't eat very much at one sitting ( eating smaller more frequent meals these days ) and the food I DO eat seems to sit in my stomach for a long time. I have to sit up/be propped up in bed during my afternoon naps, which I'm grateful I can have, and wake up still feeling like there's a brick in my tummy.

Oh well.

I was telling a friend that I will take the good and the bad together in this pregnancy because who knows if this will be the only one I'll ever have, non-spring- chicken that I am *grin*

At least I am not having the nausea much any more. In fact, I haven't felt the nausea in a few days - if I feel nauseous at all, it's because of the bloatedness and feeling of indigestion.

AND on the wardrobe front, the hubs brought me to Ross' the other day to get some maternity stuff, and I ended up with a pair of jeans with the stretchy maternity band, a "yoga/exercise" pants with the same stretchy waist band, and a couple of tops. And all for like less than $40.00.

WOOT.

The hubs still feels pretty helpless at times when he sees me sleeping propped up in bed, or when I'm telling him I'm feeling so uneasy from all the stopped-uppedness, and offers to give me a back rub or something.

Yup Jnr, your daddy's quite the sweetheart :)

Good Golly You're 11 Weeks

I knew time literally flies by, but this is ridiculous.

And I think that this belly I have is not merely FAT anymore. I know a big part of it is bloat ( read latest blog post HERE ), but I also believe part of it is the "baby bump".

I KNOW!!!

Anyway, I will probably have to go shopping for either jogging / yoga type pants or those maternity pants with the band thingy, coz at this rate, my regular pants ain't gonna be zippin' up much longer.

YOIKS!!!!

Your 2nd Cousin twice removed

( or at least that's what your Aunt Judith says )

was born today - Max Micah, to your cousin, Stephanie! All of this made daddy real nervous but we're treating it as a "trial run" to kinda prep your daddy for what's coming up :). I think he handled it well, although he had to "leave" the maternity ward waiting room several times from butterflies in his tummy to go get some coffee, but we've still got time to work on him :)

Link to Photos HERE

Can you taste my food yet?

It's probably too early, because I don't think the baby starts swallowing amniotic fluid until some time in the second trimester, but because of what I've read about amniotic fluid "tasting" like the food that the mother eats, that I wonder if you can "taste" it too.

I'm only saying this cos your daddy and I had CURRY among other things last night for dinner, my little strawberry.

Some people get glowing skin,

I get zits :)


I have been blessed with good skin that doesn't break out unless it's PMS related, and even then it's just one or two at the chin area. I didn't go through a zit period in my teenage years, and am very thankful for that.

But in the past week, I've been having a zit or two crop up in the usual chinny chin chin area, but I'm not unhappy about it.. It's just another reminder that I probably am producing enough hormones to support my little one, and that sounds mighty good to me :)

Another thing is, since there are like, half the days in a week ( or more ) that I'm feeling "under the weather" now and spending more time in bed, between chores and cooking and cleaning etc, that I've started using our "breakfast in bed/tv" foldable and raisable trays to do my reading, and of course my computing with the laptop on. We have a pair of them and they were wedding presents from Frances and Cindy several years ago, and boy, I've been getting quite the equity out of them this past week :) Why hadn't I thought of it earlier? I don't have to have a hot heavy laptop in my lap and this puts the screen at the right height and everything. Thanks again, Frances and Cindy!!!

Hey, you're 10 weeks!

Can you believe we have already completed 1/4 of our journey? Hurricane Ike is hammering the mid eastern Texas coast tonight, and mummy's following it online.

I was just thinking today that before you were conceived, I would wonder if I could ever be a good mommy, and sometimes the thought of bringing up and moulding a life would terrify me. But you know what? Those thoughts have not entered my mind since the moment we found out that we were having you.

Maybe I'm too busy with thoughts of how to keep myself healthy and not feeling sick, so that you will have the best chances even while in the womb, or preparations for your arrival, that all these"bad and unprepared mommy" thoughts just have not had the chance to enter the picture. One thing for sure, mommy and daddy already love you so much and can't wait to catch another glimpse of you on the next ultrasound appointment!

I have been having good non-barfy days and yesterday watched a bunch of "Discovery Health" and there was a stretch of baby and delivery documentaries so no wonder I was glued to the screen. Anyway, one documentary mentioned that while pregnant, a woman produces the same amounts of hormones as a non pregnant woman would if she lived for 150 years! I mean, woah!

Good Day and Private Pay

Hadn't been feeling all that good the last couple of days, so it was a nice surprise to actually feel pretty good today. Good enough that I wolfed down 2 ( home made too! ) chicken enchiladas in green sauce! Like, woah. And then feel hungry 2 hours after that. But I know by now that every day is different, and there are good days and bad days, good hours and bad hours. I can't believe this is the first day in quite a while I haven't had to stay in bed for at least part of the day feeling bad! Yay!!!

Also, I received a call from the doctor's clinic today, and the lady on the line said "I just called to say we messed up". I was thinking, WTH??? Anyway, turns out that they had done a routine swab during the Pap smear for cooties in the yaya, and had sent that off to a private lab, and then had me go to the health dept to have urine cultures for the same cooties..

In other words, they were duplicate tests. She said that they don't usually do the cootie swabs for the "private pay" patients as the urine culture test would be an equivalent test. ANYWAY, I told her I had received a bill in the mail yesterday for over a hundred dollars for those tests, and she apologized and said that if I could pay that laboratory bill, that they would deduct it from my final doctor's bill with my OBGYN. Pretty cool.

More Bodily Functions and Fluids

I've talked about poop, now I need to talk about pee. ( Can't wait to start on GAS! )

I've tried to research it ( and maybe it'll be something to talk to the OBGYN about ) and I'm almost certain it's due to the prenatal vitamins...

My pee has turned a fluorescent bright neon yellow for a while now. And yes, I drink oodles and gobs of water every day ( so it's not like I'm having dehydrated concentrated pee).

I kid you not, Junior. Mummy is peeing highlighter fluid.

9 weeks

Junior turned 9 weeks yesterday and went for its first football game :)

w00t!

Still being likened to food, Junior should be around the size of a green olive or roundabout 1 inch or so..

I KNOW!!
I still get paranoid about stuff. I mean, who wouldn't.

I get worried that I feel a twinge of crampiness in my lower abdomen, or that I don't feel as sick as I think I should ( I feel strangely comforted if I feel nauseated - go figure ), or if I think my BBs aren't as tender as they were.

I still obsessively look at the TP each time I wipe, and at times wish I had an ultrasound machine at home, so I could see that Junior was growing like he/she should.

Did I mention I love my Hubbiness?

Part 1 : At the FIL's house

Letti : *pouts* My pants are getting tight

Hubby : *smiles & hugs letti* That just means you're the mother of my child.


*melts*


Part II: Shopping at Sam's Club

Hubby : *out of the blue* Let's go look at "little people" clothes.

*Double melts*

Blood, Sweat and Urine

I think being pregnant makes you feel hot.

And not necessarily hot in the "sexy momma" sense, but rather as in the "why is it so hot in this store?? Are they trying to save on their electricity by making this into a sauna" sort of hot.

I didn't really sweat, but the hubs and I were at like, 5 different locations today, and I swear, each time we stopped, i would wonder the same thing .. "What is up with the thermostat settings at these places?!?!". Oh well.

Our first stop was the Abilene Health Department, where, armed with my lab form from the OBGYN, David and I trooped up to the second floor, where the lab was located, for my baseline prenatal blood work. The technician was really nice and gentle, and sent me off first to the ladies' room, with 2 urine sample bottles.

Back in Malaysia, for urine cultures, we would probably just ask for a mid stream urine sample. This time, tho, I was given a single sterile wipe in one of those foil packet thingies, and told to collect first in 1 bottle ( probably for the urinalysis part ) , then BRAKE and WIPE, and THEN collect the second sample ( for the urine culture ).

Good grief. They're starting me on my Kegel exercises already. ( the link's to a pretty funny video )

Then came the blood taking part. The hubs went "ERK!" and walked off into the hallway to escape all of that. The technician's comment? "Bah, men are such babies".

*grin*

Plus, by going to the health department and not the hospital's lab, we saved 2000 dollars. TWO THOUSAND FREAKIN' DOLLARS!

Yoiks.

The Poop on Pregnancy

Well, more like pregnancy poop.

This is another TMI blog post, so be warned :)

Okay. So I've noticed that since I've been taking prenatal vitamins, that my poop has turned an interesting dark green color. Having worked in wards where rectal exams and poop inspection were part and parcel of the daily grind in which I had to give reports on ( and then act upon those reports ), it doesn't seem too odd to me that I'd have an interest in my OWN poo. *okay.. the faint hearted and slightly more delicate readers might be thinking that they should have stopped right after the warning*

But really, I think it's the prenatal vitamins that are doing it.

Or maybe it's just the gobs of green leafy vegetables that I am eating to try and stave off the dreaded constipation of pregnancy ( that is oftentimes aggravated by the above mentioned prenatal vits )

Or maybe it's just all this grape juice I've been drinking.

But all this green poop can't hold a candle to the baby's MECONIUM.