I forgot...

Some baby info. I'm officially in the second trimester at 14 weeks! Here is some info on a 14 week fetus and a baby bump picture, although not a real great one.



How your baby's growing: This week's big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb. In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon— and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces. His body's growing faster than his head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, his arms will have grown to a length that's in proportion to the rest of his body. (His legs still have some lengthening to do.) He's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over his body. Your baby's liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it's doing its job right — and his spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can't feel his tiny punches and kicks yet, your little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active.



I must respectfully disagree on the last sentence since I have been feeling the baby move for almost a week now. However I was able to feel movement early with all my pregnancies. SO here is the picture, not great, but oh well. As you can see my belly just barely stretches out further than by boobs. LOL! I no longer fit in my regular clothes, but a lot of my maternity clothes is still too big. I've been wearing maternity undies lately because when I wear my regular underwear, it cuts right through the middle of my stomach giving me the appearance of having two fat rolls, not so attractive if you ask me.

Hello Sciatica!

My sciatic nerve reminded me that it was still around on Wednesday. Woohoo! Unfortunately the medicine they tell you to take to help it I can't because of the baby. So I spent a good portion of the evening with a heating pad on my lower back. Thankfully when I woke up the next morning the pain was gone, but who knows if it will return. I had a lot of Sciatica pain when I was pregnant with my daughter, but not with my sons. Could this be a sign it's a girl? Who knows, probably just means my body is getting old. LOL

Cold & Flu season has arrived!

Of course my kids don't like to do anything half assed. Do they get a little cold? Nope my oldest son woke us up late Thursday night coughing and struggling to get a deep breathe in. Scared the crap out of us. Off to the ER we went where we were at for four hours. He got a shot of steroids and diagnosed with Croup. Not to be outdone, my "baby" (he's 2) came down with it Monday night. Thankfully he didn't have an attack, so we didn't have to go to the ER just went to the doctor's the next day. We'll see what my daughter decides to do. Hopefully, she'll just stay healthy or just get a normal cold.

Wow, it's been a while..

There was nothing really new to report. I was still feeling like crap, so how much can one person complain? We did tell the kids the day I had my ultrasound and they were excited especially our daughter. You would have thought we told her Christmas was the next day.

I saw the doctor yesterday. My official due date now is April 17, 2009. I did not gain any weight this month, but I didn't lose any so that is good. I met a different doctor in the practice and she was super friendly and nice. She prescribed me Zofran for my nausea and Immitrex for my migraines. So far, I haven't had to use either.

My next appointment will be November 11th and they will schedule another ultrasound then. Hopefully the baby will cooperate and let us see between his or her legs. I'm going to be taking a new belly picture, so stay tuned.

Ultrasound

I had my ultrasound today and it went fine. The baby is measuring 9 weeks 3 days, so that would make my due date April 20th. He/she had a strong heartbeat and was quite wiggly. Here is a picture, I know it only looks like a blob, but it is my blob. :) BTW, the umbilical runs right under the blue arrow.

Saw the doctor yesterday.

It went well, the office was nice as was the staff. The doctor was nice enough, she wasn't super friendly, but not necessarily cold either, just very matter of fact. They weighed me and apparently I have gained almost 7 pounds since the last time I was at my doctor's. I figured I had gained some weight seeing that I can only fit into elastic waist pants, but I wasn't expecting that, Damn double stuff Oreos! The doctor did the exam and as any woman who has an exam knows what I am talking. After the exam she takes out the Doppler(tool used to listen to a heartbeat) and starts saying how most women don't hear a heartbeat until about 12-13 weeks, but slender woman can hear it as early as the tenth week. Even though I am only 9 weeks, she'll try. Oookkkaaayyy *scratching my head* how is that some slender women hear it at 10 weeks, but me at 9 weeks am supposed to? So of course she can't find a heartbeat, yeah, big surprise. So she tells me she wants me to go to another room to get a quick ultrasound to in her words "Make sure something is there." Okay, now this woman has got me worried. So we go to the other room and she tells me it isn't an official ultrasound, just to check pregnancy. I got to see my little blob and was able to hear the heartbeat, which as I has said before is possibly the greatest sound in the world. She wants me to go in for an ultrasound to measure my cervix to help calculate my due date. She also gave me a prescription for my morning (all day) sickness, but told me to only take if I really needed it because it would make me drowsy. Well, I took one yesterday at about 3:30 and by 5:30 I felt like a zombie. Drowsy definitely did not describe what I felt like, I was falling asleep on the couch by 7. I decided against taking it today since I have to drive to and from the kids' schools, however I have actually felt pretty good today. Woohoo! I had a couple of touches of nausea, but nothing to bad.

I think the kids know

or at least have some sort of psychic intuition. Today while eating lunch my son tells me that my belly is getting fat and big. My daughter replied that my belly wasn't fat, I was just you know, growing. He then said, "Well, maybe she just has a baby in her belly." Seriously, where do they come up with these things? 

Here is some information on a 9 week old fetus.

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.

And so my frustration continues...

As you know, I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. I drove the 45 minutes to get there, signed in and was told that they didn't take my insurance. UGH! We have Illinois Health Connect which is like medicare, but we pay for the insurance. We have co-pays, pay for prescriptions, etc., just like a regular insurance, but it is run by the state. So when I called and asked if they were taking the insurance, I was told yes. The woman at the office told me that they only take full public aid. Excuse me? So because we pay for our insurance I can not be taken care of. We called the state when we left and the woman on the other end was completely baffled. She said the only difference between our insurance and full aid was we pay for it. So the search for a doctor is on again. I have already called at least 10 today and they either don't work on Friday or aren't taking my insurance. So I am giving up the search until Monday. I was really hoping I could get some relief from this constant sickness.


Update:
I decided to try again. I called numerous different doctors for at least 45 minutes, of course all of the answers were a unanimous no when asked if they take my insurance. Then I got to the last number for the day and was in near tears due to my frustration. When the woman said yes they would take me, I couldn't help myself and started crying. She was so nice and I kept apologizing and explained how no one would take me. She said she understood and not to worry about it. So now I have an appointment at 9 on Monday. Please keep your fingers crossed that I actually get to see a doctor this time.

An update on school.

I decided to cancel my last class today, I have just been too sick. Most of yesterday was spent in bed or laying on the couch because I was so sick. Today was a decent day, but I never know from day to day how bad it will be. So for right now things are on hold, but I'm okay with that because I know that I'm still going to go back.

I would like to thank everyone who gave me such a positive response to our news. It really means a lot to me to know that I have support. :)

I go see the doctor on Thursday so I'll update after my appointment.

Well,

with some reluctance (mostly on my part) we told our parents (or at least our moms). We got really good reactions. I'm hoping that they will continue to spread the word to other family members, if I not I just sent them a link to this blog. ha ha Kind of sneaky of me, isn't it? I realize that this baby is blessing and Pfft to anyone who may have any negative comments about it. I go to the doctor in a week and am hoping that they will give me something for this nausea. I am so thankful to have an awesome husband who completely understands and does not make me feel bad for not doing anything. I can only imagine how sick and tired he is of my complaining because I know I am! He however just jumps right in and does what needs to be done. I'm just happy to know that the morning, or should I say all day sickness will not (hopefully) last forever.