The first real picture

The long awaited day had finally come, although I think I was more nervous for our last appointment, the wait for this appointment didn't seem as long as the last time. We had our first ultrasound today. After our last appointment and almost missing it, we were sure to leave early this time and we had smooth sailing right to the office, thankfully. And after relatively little wait time, it was the moment of truth. 

I was excited since this was our first real confirmation of timing and my due date. Here's a fun fact the first ultrasound is not over your belly. Use your imagination for how they get the pictures this time ;-) For the first few seconds as it loaded and it was a blank screen for a split second I couldn't help but think oh no, where is the baby, but then as soon as it came up, it was unbelievable. There it was our little baby on the screen and it was perfect. For once it was exactly as described in all the baby books I had been looking at. 

The baby was growing at the perfect size, you could even somewhat identify the head and the body forming, although there's no hands or feet right now. But the most amazing part was you could actually see the baby's heart beating, and we heard it too. He said if I stayed real still we could listen, amazing. The baby had a strong heart beat of 170! He said 120-180 is in the normal range. Supposedly a high heartbeat means girl, but maybe that's just an old wives tale. 

The baby measured at 8w4d which is right on track, by my estimates I am 8w1d and so he said since it's too close and not far off it would not change my due date which as of right now defaults to Nov 27 based off my last period. Which was my due date! Although I obviously came on the first. Looks like my days of birthday celebrations are behind us. I'm just hoping the baby waits till after Thanksgiving dinner is served to come, that's the best meal of the year, lol. 

I def had some tears in my eye as we saw the baby today for the first time. It really felt even more real, and just knowing the baby is growing so well  is so reassuring. Although I was thinking about it before I guess you trade one worry for the next. Before this I was so worried about the baby being the right size and all, and now the next piece is getting through the next set of tests at our 12 week appointment where they test for downs and other things. 

Mike looked in awe as well seeing the pictures come up on the screen. It was pretty cool watching his reaction as well to seeing the baby. The only words I can think to describe is just amazing, we made a little person that's growing inside me right now and we got to see it! Amazing.  

Weekly Pregnancy Update - Week 7

Ok so I'm a little behind on this one and I going forward I will try to do these on a more regular, weekly basis, although not much has changed so far but I'm sure later things will pick up more quickly!

Weekly Pregnancy Journal Update

How far along: 7 weeks today, baby is the size of a blueberry

Weight Gain: Assuming none so far. I had been at about 118.6 so far, today I was up a pound but we'll call that dinner last night

Body & Changes: No major symptoms yet, no morning sickness, no having to pee more, no sore boobs (although sometimes first thing in the morning, but not really). My biggest thing is feeling very tired, mostly during the day. I've taken a nap in the afternoon the last 3 days. I'm amazingly still awake right now and it's 9:40pm.

Exercise: So far so good, less nervous now that I talked to the doctor

Clothes:  Regular

Sleep: Good at night. Been tired in the afternoons and sometimes earlier at night, ok right now though

What I’ve been eating: Carbs. I am loving carbs. Although that could honestly just be me anyway

Emotions: Starting to feel more real now that we got the blood work back, starting to set in a bit more

Purchases: Nothing really this week. I've been meaning to buy Rocky a t-shirt on Etsy that says he's going to be a big brother so we can tell people (at the appropriate time)

What I miss: Absolutely nothing so far

Stretch marks: We'll call this not applicable for a while

Food cravings: None so far

Movement: We'll call this not applicable for a while as well

Anything making you queasy or sick: not yet....

Have you started to show yet: Nope

What I’m looking forward to: One more week to go till our ultra sound on the 18th!

Best Moment of the Week: Actual confirmation on the blood test results

Our First Appointment

Well the long awaited first visit with the doctor was finally here! When I first made the appointment they said you had to be at least 6 weeks, which at that point was about 2.5 weeks away and I couldn't get the appointment till the end of the week so I think it ended up being the longest 3 week wait ever. Mostly while we were waiting I just wanted official confirmation that there was actually a baby in there, I really didn't believe it, although I think also bc for the most part I really don't have any pregnancy symptoms (more on that later).

We both took the day off from work for the appointment, we didn't know what to expect or how long it would take. Of course we ended up in ridiculous traffic, and at rush hour, and were late to our appointment. And apparently anything over 15 minutes late and they can refuse to see you, we almost thought we weren't going to get our appointment after all. They did inevitably see us but we had to wait a bit to see the doctor.

Finally it was our turn, of course my blood pressure was high bc I was anxious about the appointment and all that waiting. The appointment itself wound up being more of a consult and blood draw than anything. We sat and talked with the midwife (the same one I had seen at my annual appointment two months earlier), and she explained a couple things to us. Today's appointment was really only to confirm the pregnancy with a blood draw. I was expecting the full appointment and work up.

We did get to talk to her which made me feel reassured about some of the things I was worried about. I told her I really didn't believe it bc I don't have any symptoms at all, and she said I may never get any symptoms and not to let that worry me one bit. She said every pregnancy is different and not to worry about all the things that I read in the books. I also asked her about my workouts which was another big concern for me the last few weeks and she said that too should not be an area of concern for me. She told me that to keep doing exactly what I've been doing and nothing is off limits right now. She told me "you can't harm a healthy pregnancy and you also can't save an unhealthy one" and really not to worry as much. That alone made me feel much better. The other thing too is she said the risk of miscarriage goes down significantly after another 2 weeks, at around weeks 8-9, and I'm almost there! The way she said it, it seemed like most miscarriages occur so early and so far so good, I'm at week 7 already, which made me feel better too.

Mike asked her a couple questions as well and we went over the next couple appointments. We'll have our first ultra sound appointment on the 18th which is when they will be able to tell us the size of the baby and how far along I am, including my due date. And then after that I guess I'll have my full work up exam (with all the blood work) on the 28th is when they could get me in the schedule.

The main part of this visit was for my blood work to test for my HCG level, my first blood test. I'm not a fan of needles but it really wasn't too terrible, the nurse was very good and I handled it like a champ Mike said. We promptly got our test results back right away the following morning. I was able to log into my patient portal to get all the results. Although it was just the numbers, it didn't confirm two things for me which made me feel better, one I actually am pregnant (yes I am almost crazy enough to have not believed it) and two, that my levels look good based on my weeks along. In my mind I felt like bc I wasn't having symptoms maybe something was wrong but this made me feel a lot better. So it's starting to feel more real now that it's actually been confirmed by the doctor. Now I can't wait for our next appointment on the 18th, things are getting real!

Easter in Long Island

Couple quick pictures from Easter with my family this year. We try our best to alternate Holidays with the families, so this year we made the trek to Long Island to spend the Holiday with my cousins, which is always nice. The family has gotten so large these days with all the kids that they do a lot of the Holidays out at restaurants these days. He's a couple pictures of the family from Easter, that Harry (and Zoe) is just too cute, he's so funny, he def takes after his Dad and what a character he is too. Amazing to see all the kids, looks like next year there will be one more! ;-) 

Stunned Surprise

I didn't really have a plan for when we were going to tell my parents specifically but I knew it was going to be that weekend since we were going to be home in person. I kept our news in all afternoon, there just wasn't a good time, by the time we got there and then the girls came over. And once they were there it was quite chaotic for those few hours chasing the kids around. As much as I love my friends there was a part of me that didn't know when they were going to leave so we could finally share the news.

Once the girls all left and Mom was finally starting to clean up for the night, my dad was downstairs cleaning up. My mom and Susan Ramirez were sitting in the kitchen and I told my mom we got her a small gift for Easter and I handed her the wrapped sign. She asked if it was a picture while she was opening it and I said yes.

After she unwrapped the sign, she stood there in stunned silence. I don't think she said anything actually. I don't know if it didn't click right away, she looked at me and looked at Mike and asked really, and Mike reassured her that yes it was true. It clicked for Susan Ramirez right away but my mom was still there in stunned disbelief that she was really going to be a grandmother! Her dream was finally coming true. My Dad had a similar reaction when we told him too when he came upstairs. The two of them just kept asking us really? And we told them, yes, we'll be having one more for Thanksgiving this year.

The funny part was that threw them off was my Mom and Susan had offered me a glass of wine earlier in the day when Bridget was over, which I accepted. I figured if I said yes it would throw off any suspicion which it did. I of course didn't actually drink the wine. I dumped some of it out when no one was looking and also just put the glass up to my lips so it looked like I was drinking it. Surprise accomplished! Yes my mom is being promoted to Grandma, and boy she can't wait!!!

Catching Up with Old Friends

Well unfortunately time has once again gotten the best of me and I'm a bit behind here. I really had good intentions this time of keeping up with my new blog and staying on top of documenting things but I'm already behind. Time to pick up the pace! 

Easter weekend was already two weeks ago but it was a great weekend filled with friends and family. We were lucky enough to have off on Good Friday so we spent our day off visiting our very good friend Carmen. We took a two hour drive out to Scranton, PA (the happiest place on earth according to Carmen) to go visit him and his boys and see his new house. Even Rocky made the drive with us! We had a great day catching up with Carmen and the boys, the little guys (much like their father) are quite the athletes already. No doubt we'll be seeing Jayden in the major league one day. 

It's hard to believe how much can change in just 5 years. A time hop picture popped up today of the first time we met little Jayden and now so much has changed for Carmen and the boys. Hard to imagine another 5 years from now and Jayden will be 10! But let's not let time go too quickly. It is nice that now Carmen is a lot closer and we can visit anytime. Look forward to more trips out to Scranton to see him and the boys. 

The next day we packed up and took another drive, this time out to the Island for our annual St. Patricks day dinner at my mom's and Easter the following day. This year we invited Bridget and Kristin to come over and join us with their 3 girls. While it was extremely chaotic and crazy chasing the three girls arounds at times, I wouldn't have it any other way. 

The funniest part of the night though had to be at dinner. Gabby and Olivia sat in the kitchen by themselves while the rest of the adults sat in the dining room. All of a sudden we hear Gabby shouting, very dramatically, "someone help me, help me," we all got up and rushed, I thought the table was falling or something was falling on her, it turns out a certain four legged someone took advantage of the little people, jumped up on the kitchen table and was eating right off Gabby's plate of chicken nuggets!!! What a devil I tell you boy! 

My favorite girls and the loves of my life. Miss these girls all the time!!!