We're Back in Action!

Meet Molly Helen Handren. =) Born February 21st.

And now come on over to our new blog, here to catch up!

On the menu for tonight: rice cereal - first dinner!

Insert Foot Into Spleen

I felt the baby kicking yesterday morning while I was at work. This was the first time I was able to feel her when I wasn’t lying still, and it was amazing!

All of a sudden, I felt something move. It was similar to normal digestion or gassy feelings, but it was a definite kick – moving outward away from my spine at the front of the belly. And then, to assure me that I wasn’t imagining it, she proceeded to kick me about 40-50 times all morning. I’m so excited to be able to feel her in there.

There’a a PERSON in there. A tiny person, but still a people. Crazy!

Now that I’m about 20 weeks, my belly is more noticable. It definitely isn’t as big as I was expecting by this point, but I’m certainly not complaining. Because I’m on the heavier side, my weight gain goal given to me by my OB was 10-15 pounds. At first, I laughed a little when I heard it. I figured that despite all of my hard efforts, my body might just keep growing past the 25-35 mark.

Praise to the heavens, I’m currently STILL less than I was when I conceived. I gained about five pounds in the first month... before I knew I was pregnant. But then I changed my diet (no more crap food) and made yoga and walking a priority. No late night snack binges, despite occasional cravings. And no fast food. I lost 11 pounds, bringing me to about 6 less than what I was when I got pregnant.

Since then, I’ve been slowly creeping back up to the break even point (as I call it). I’m still about a half pound under my original weight, and I’m halfway done! Hopefully the 10-15 more from here will just be baby growing and amniotic fluid. ^_^

Girls, It's a Girl!

We had an ultrasound on Thursday at 18 weeks. The tech said she was 80% certain that we'll be having a little girl!

The whole experience was amazing. We were able to see her brain - you could clearly see two separate lobes. We also saw her stomach, bladder, kidneys, heart, and lots of feet kicking! We were also able to witness our sweet little girl trying to find her thumb. You can see it in this picture. =)

This weekend I went north to New Hampshire to visit my parents and brother, and my mother and I went shopping in North Conway with some friends. We got the most adorable little clothes at Carter's! A little pink dress and a soft, cream-colored cardigan to wear over it. (It'll be February, after all!) Also tights to keep her legs warm and some little booties! Everything's so tiny and cute. I can hardly stand it. In a good way, of course.

Yay for little girls!

Letter to Baby

Dear Baby (Name to be determined ^_^),

Mommy and Daddy are so excited to meet you!

You’re still only 12½ weeks, but you’re already almost three inches long. You’re growing so fast, and Mommy can’t wait to start to feel you moving in her belly!

We don’t even know if you’re a little boy or a little girl. But there are a lot of things that we DO already know. We know that we want you to grow up knowing how very much we love you. And we want you to know how much Mommy and Daddy love each other. You’re lucky, because your parents are best friends. We’re all going to have so much fun together!

We don’t know if our home will be filled with matchbox cars and baseball gloves or if we’ll be picking up princess dresses and costume jewelry. We don’t know if you’ll be wearing prom dresses or renting tuxedos. But we do know that we’re excited to play with you whether it’s GI Joes or Barbie dolls, to watch as you learn how to play catch and drive a car.

So for now, just keep growing. We don’t care WHAT you are. We just want you to be happy and healthy. We’ll see you soon!

On Fruit, Fetuses, and Lasting Nicknames

Blueberry = Baby. Did you know? At least, for my family it does. When we told Scott’s brother and sister that I was pregnant, they were ecstatic. They’re 24 and 21 (respectively), so they can’t wait to be uncle and aunt. They were also curious to know how big the baby was at that moment. Taking a page from “What to Expect” (not literally, of course) I explained that the 5 week old fetus was about the size of a blueberry.


Since not everyone knew about it, we spoke in code at the family reunion.

How’s Blueberry doing?
Good!

Make sure you eat enough for blueberry!

And my favorite, as I was eating fruit salad with blueberries in it.... Simultaneous looks (from both of those fools) of fake shock and disappointment as I “ate” my child.

They really are hilarious and awesome people – I consider them to be my closest friends... And because they’re so witty and amusing, the nickname has stuck. (Not surprised... ^_^) I have a feeling our little one will always be “Blueberry”... even when they’re going to their prom. Even now, baby is more peach than blueberry. But that doesn’t seem to matter.


I can still hope that the baby grossly mispronounces their names and they go through life referring to uncle and auntie as something completely random. Like my cousin who started saying “Gwah” instead of “Gram”. He’s sixteen. She’s still Gwah. That would be some funny irony.

Calling All Moms!! Advice?

Next week I’ll be going in to my OB’s office for some testing that has been scheduled. The test is called Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS), and I’m unsure how I feel about it. I was hoping to get some feedback from you moms out there.

For those of us who don’t know what it is (myself included, until I read up on it), they insert a small tube or needle into the uterus to extract a sampling from the placenta. The tissue therein is rich with genetic material matching that of the baby. They use this to test for Tay-Sachs disease, cystic fibrosis, as well as Down’s syndrome. The idea, apparently, is that if you found out that there were genetic defects, you could decide what to do... how to proceed. Whether to proceed?

You can imagine the thousands of thoughts that have been racing through my head. What would I do? I’m not sure that I’m willing to get into the details here, since this subject is one that people feel strongly about – one way or the other. Myself included. I avoid discussing this subject with friends and family, to avoid hurt feelings and getting into an argument with people that I care about. So I’d like to avoid that amongst us as bloggers, too. If you’ll forgive me for completely side-stepping this whole conversation.

MY concern, is whether to have the testing done AT ALL. I hadn’t really thought about it until my mother questioned why they were doing such an invasive test when there are no hereditary warning signs on either side of my and Scott’s families. Why, indeed? I tend to go with the flow. When my OB said that at around 12 weeks, they run tests for Tay-Sachs and Down’s syndrome, I said “okey-dokey”. Do what you’ve got to do. But do they have to?

After reading up on it a bit more, the consensus seems to be that there is a 1 in 300 chance of miscarriage associated with the test. That statistic improves in reputable clinics where the test is routinely performed, as is the case with my provider... But my bigger concern is this: What if we got a false positive?

My cousin’s girlfriend got pregnant fourteen years ago at the age of 16. When the CVS was done, the results came back positive for Down’s. She got a second opinion. Same results. She was devastated for her entire pregnancy. But she went through with it. At 16. And when the baby was born, out came a perfect, beautiful baby girl. With NO signs of genetic problems. She’s 14 now, and still perfectly normal.

I guess I’m just looking for some kind of assurance that everything will be okay. Not that anyone can give that to me. But is there anyone out there who’s had a baby recently?? Like within the past five years? Has the testing been refined or at all perfected in the past 15 years? Help! =)

In other news, today I am 11 weeks and five days pregnant. And last night, I realized that when I press on my lower tummy, I can feel my uterus. How cool is that? Four more weeks, and I might be able to feel some movement. Little baby feet kicking! So excited....