Seeing the Heartbeat - Month 3

written Monday, September 12, 2011
9 weeks

First ultrasound. Wow!

Your new resident is nearly an inch long — about the size of a grape — and weighs just a fraction of an ounce. She's starting to look more and more human. Her essential body parts are accounted for, though they'll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. Other changes abound: Your baby's heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form — as do her tiny teeth. The embryonic "tail" is completely gone. Your baby's organs, muscles, and nerves are kicking into gear. The external sex organs are there but won't be distinguishable as male or female for another few weeks. Her eyes are fully formed, but her eyelids are fused shut and won't open until 27 weeks. She has tiny earlobes, and her mouth, nose, and nostrils are more distinct. The placenta is developed enough now to take over most of the critical job of producing hormones. Now that your baby's basic physiology is in place, she's poised for rapid weight gain. (info from http://www.babycenter.com/)

Something needs to be said about that first ultrasound. Wow. Wow. Wow. This whole creating a baby is truly a miracle. Whoa. Yes, I've been reading up on my four different books. (Ergh...umm...yes, I have four now. Thanks She-Dawg!!!) And I wasn't so sure anymore that we'd even be having the ultrasound since most of the books say you'll have your first one at 12 weeks. I knew I was going into my ninth week, so I wasn't sure if they'd make us wait.

Before we went to bed last night I said a little prayer. I told God that we felt pretty bad we hadn't been going to church lately but we're hoping he hadn't forgotten about us too much since we hadn't been spending nearly enough time with him. We asked that everything turn out just as it is supposed to be and that baby is healthy. All I know is after I spoke those words, I felt really safe...really happy.

Then I had a rough time sleeping. I woke with a throbbing headache around 2:30 and had to take Tylenol with a handful of peanuts. I woke every hour either to pee or to roll over. I was hot. I am never hot when I sleep. My dreams were crazy and I felt like my mind was racing all night. I wasn't sure how the appointment would go.

Mostly I've been freaking out about my weight (so dumb I know but seriously...I'm a fitness freak). I know I've gained a few pounds since our wedding for sure. At 5'10" I was down to 143 when I walked down the aisle. I gained seven pounds over our honeymoon - I do not regret a single pound either. That honeymoon was frickin amazing. Sometime my heart hurts thinking about how amazing that was and how not one vacation will ever be the same as that. It was really special and a one-time deal.

So over the course of two years I've fluctuated between 147-152 pounds. When I first weighed myself on day 30 of this journey, I was 154 and the size 4s were getting a bit snug. Today, I was only up a pound!!!!!! Phew. That means if I gain the 30-34 pounds I can still stay under 200 pounds. I will die if I get over 200. Baaaahahahaha. I worry because I eat a lot, but I do eat healthy when I eat a lot, so I have that going for me. But whatever. If I get chubby, I get chubby.

But yes, this is about baby and not my chub. Karl and I headed to the doctor appointment at 7:50 after battling annoying traffic. So doc (nurse practitioner) went over my form I filled out and asked me lots of family history questions. I will say everyone was quite impressed with my family heart history.

• Mom's dad died of congenital heart failure
• Mom's brother has a defibulator and was on heart transplant list for awhile (get this...his defib went off when he was scaling a mountain and he was thrown off!! Can you even believe it!?!?)
• Mom's other brother has irregul heartbeat and needs to get shocked every once in a while
• Mom's sister has the super fast heart beat and needs to dunk head in ice sometime to jump it back to normal
• Dad's dad has a pacemaker, a pig valve, and two clots in his heart
• Dad has pacemaker
• Brother was born with hole in heart and irregular heart beat (but also completed two marathons and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro! Boo-yah!!)
• Dad's sister gave birth to a baby whose heart valves were flipped and he died 6 months later:( 

So yeah... crazy hearts on both sides and doctors and nurses are keeping a close watch! Then she asked for our questions, which I had a bunch. Then she wheeled in the ultrasound machine. She had to go through my 'who-ha' on this one since a belly read would be too hard. She moved the big ol' stick around inside me until...poof! There was our baby jumping and twitching around!!!!! I looked up at Karl and tears rolled down his cheeks. I had to look away... I'm emotional enough as is!!! But WOW. Nothing can prepare you for that moment. It's nuts. Then I saw a little dot in his chest pumping super fast. Then all I kept thinking about was...is he/she healthy? What is he/she going to become? Will he/she play volleyball?

So so so so neat. I'm already in love. We also found out I'm for sure 9 weeks along and due April 16! I'm getting super excited about this and felt really great the minute I was able to hear the words..."there's the heartbeat." Because I know things are going to be fine. One of my books says if you make it past 8 weeks and see the heartbeat, miscarriage drops to 5%.

I headed downstairs to get blood drawn. My veins were nowhere to be found and I got poked twice in both arms since they weren't having much luck - and then I peed in a cup. Fun stuff.

I just can't wait to meet this little fella. How much joy he/she is going to bring!!!!!!! So of course I called my mom and I left a bubbly message with her and then called my dad right away since I remembered my mom was working out - and he was just super excited. That was cool to hear! I instantly felt like myself again. It was great. We're SO excited to see them this weekend and to show them pictures!!!!!!!!!!! It's going to be great. Speaking of pictures...what do you think? Pretty cute, huh? I think baby is going to have Karl's ears!!!!!!!! YESSS!!!

So I did something crazy and I'm grabbing a quote from my calendar - the one on April 16. Isn't this so cool!?!??!

"As Jesus stepped into the garden, you were in his prayers. As Jesus looked into heaven, you were in  his vision... His final prayer was about you. His final pain was for you. His final passion was you."

-Max Lucado