Travel Often

“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” — Rosalia de Castro

Love Deeply, but Laugh Along the Way

"Happiness is only real when shared." - Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

View Marriage as an Adventure

"Love is a flower which turns into fruit at marriage." ~Finnish Proverb

Fuel your body with GOOD (It's the only one you get)

He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything. - Arabian Proverb

Open your Soul to Motherhood

A Grand Adventure is About to Begin - Winnie the Pooh

A New Kind of Love is Born

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Hearing the Heartbeat - Month 4

13 weeks

Fingerprints have formed on your baby's tiny fingertips, her veins and organs are clearly visible through her still-thin skin, and her body is starting to catch up with her head -- which makes up just a third of her body size now. If you're having a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries. Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce. As you start your second trimester, most of your baby's critical development will be completed and your odds of miscarriage drop considerably. (info found on babycenter.com)

We have now entered the beginning of month four!!! And once I hit week 14 (tomorrow), I will have made it to the beloved second trimester. Yeah!!! This is where I hear some, if not all, of the energy comes back and when I'll start to feel baby K kick...and things become a little more real. I can feel my energy sneaking in from time to time already. I can get out of bed in the morning with my cat-like speed like I used to (no more zombie walking to the bathroom and back and no more peanuts at 4:00 a.m.) I was able to create a website for my uncle on my free time, so that tells me I'm slowly coming back. I still need to get to my book writing, but at least I'm able to send out three AOL articles a week.

Tuesday we had the wonderful opportunity of hearing our baby's heartbeat. WOW. First, we decided on St. Francis hospital in Shakopee to deliver. We met with Dr. Druckman who delivered all two of my friend Jill's babies and the one baby she was a surrogate for. She had nothing but great things to say about him and she is right. We connected with Dr. D instantly and I especially liked him because he told me I was in wonderful shape. Yeah!  And he's funny. I guess I'm hungry for compliments now since I'm not used to growing out of my pants so fast.

I found out my blood pressure is great (90/60) and that I have gained 5 lbs total in my first 13 weeks. Phew. For some reason I thought it'd be a lot more. We had a few questions, especially about heart health since so many people in my family have issues. But he said because I am so healthy and I take such good care of myself, we have little to worry about. But he also suggested going to Methodist in St. Louis Park around 20 weeks to get a more serious heart test done. He also gave me the clearance to go back to running and doing stair stepper and whatever balls-out activity I did before I became pregnant. I swear this being healthy stuff is so so so important!!! This made me soooo happy. I miss my hard workouts because that is where my happy drug comes from!!! It's just finding the motivation to get to the gym that's been hard. Hoping that changes second trimester, but at the same time I do like having more time in the evenings to cook and get other things done. Working out sure eats up time.

Dr. D moved the little recorder around on my belly and before we knew it the room was filled with baby K's little heart pumping. I'm so mad we didn't record it, but maybe there will be a next time where we can do that. What a crazy, awesome sound. Still blows my mind that this little human is growing inside me. I'm having the hardest time wrapping my mind around it all. I know people have baby dreams, but that is one thing I haven't had. So strange. When I was planning for our wedding, I dreamt about that every single night. So why no baby dreams? Sometimes I even forget I'm pregnant and get really scared when I realize I am. Like...oh my God...this is happening! Are you ready for this Christie??? I guess I have to be now! Ha! I guess I feel like I should be planning more but we really haven't. But maybe more so around the holidays.

Doc said baby is sounding healthy!!! Next appointment is scheduled for November 9. We're still undecided if we're going to find out what we're having. We're kind of leaning towards no on this, but that seems to change every day.

Changes in body
  • Jeans are really snug around waist.
  • Sometimes I have NO control of what happens (was on a nice leisurely walk and was hit with baaad stomach pains. Without getting in too much detail, let's just say I had to call Karl to come pick me up)
  • By the time Friday comes, I am exhausted by 4:30 and really want to go to sleep. It is also very easy to fall asleep around 9 every night.

Cravings
No new ones to report of. Just sticking with my healthy cravings I always have and hoping they last. I did buy a bottle of Olive Garden salad dressing so I could stop obsessing about eating there.

Advice
I've received great pieces of advice from a couple people so far:
  1. Buy all your bigger items in unisex colors (stroller, crib, changing table, car seat, etc.). If you plan on having more than one kid. This pregnancy might be a boy, but the next one could be a girl. Unless you want to buy all new stuff again. Good point.
  2. When you want baby to stop sucking on the nook, cut a piece off of it every few days, Pretty soon there will be nothing to suck and and baby/toddler won't want it anymore.

This week kicks off an insane week. Tomorrow Mike (my bro) and I are meeting up with Pastor Vern for breakfast at 6:30!!!! I sooooo miss him terribly and can't wait to see him. Then I have a full day of work. Then I have our association meeting for our town home and am scared for that since our dues are going up and I'm pretty sure nobody wants to hear that - I know we didn't. So I'll have to do what I can to keep the blood pressure down. Then I have volleyball at 9:15. It's going to be a long long day.

I have promised myself to really enjoy these next six months of relaxing as much as possible. Friends and family will always ask favors of me and I've come to terms with the fact that it's okay to say no because my life is about to become very chaotic. It already has with Karl being back in school. My household chores have doubled again since he can't get to any of his stuff. So that stinks. I just really need to decide what is important to me. I want to get as much rest and relaxation as I can right now because this is the only time I will be able to enjoy silence and sitting for a very long, long, long, long time. And for once, I'm kind of okay with it.

Today I'm hitting up the Mall of America in hopes of finding a few cute maternity outfits. I hear GAP, Old Navy and Motherhood are the places to go. I need pants for sure. I am still able to wear about five or six pairs, but every week the waist is getting tighter and more uncomfortable. We'll see what I come up with!! Pictures soon!