My Favorite Things

There are definitely some items that I have fallen in love with during this pregnancy! Things I can't won't live without now. Here's my list...

1. My blanket. My friend Becky made this quit for me last year and I.Love.It. It's so comfy and warm and the best part is that its homemade with love! :) I've been using it during my daily naps and won't use anything else. Isn't she so talented??? (Not only is she talented in sewing, but she is an amazing photographer!! You can see her work on her blog www.comcapphotoblog.com. Check it out)

2. Hot water bottle. This just makes nap/couch time so much better.

3. Doppler. This is my freak-out moment lifesaver! Any time I have doubts, I get out the doppler and listen to the sweet sound of baby!

4. Rubber Bands. These little babies come in handy for holding my non-maternity pants up while unbuttoned. It is way too tight to button my jeans up so I've been using the rubber band trick and it works like a charm :)

5. Pinterest. I've been finding so many cute nursery ideas through pinterest! I love them all. It's going to be really hard to find just the right one. This is one example...how cute is that?!

6. iPhone. Since I have been super duper lazy lately, I don't really feel like getting up to go to the computer. My phone has been very handy to check Facebook, emails, and my pregnancy apps.

7. Whattoexpect.com. This is where I get a lot of my pregnancy questions answered BUT the best part is the August 2012 community forum. It's the site where all women who are due that month can go to support one another/ ask questions, etc. It is truly fantastic because all of these women are so hormonal, all from different walks of life, and boy do they all have their own opinions on things! Sometimes I log on to ask/answer a question, but I mostly go on for entertainment. The drama is awesome.

So that's all I can think of for now! We have an appointment with our midwife tomorrow so you can expect an update. Have a great night everyone!!

IT'S A....

GIRL!!!! (Most likely) Lol. We had our NT scan yesterday and the tech told us she's about 75% sure we have a baby girl in there. The way that they can tell at this point is called "the angle of the dangle." All bubs at this stage have a nub with either turns into the penis or clitoris. Boy babies stick straight up and girl nubs stick outwards or facing down. You can see the arrow pointing to hers in the picture below.

The NT scan went very well...our baby's chances of having Down Syndrome is 1:9,200 and Trisomy 18 is 1:25,000. But of course nothing is without a little complication...the ultrasound tech did the ultrasound and afterwards she said the doctor would come in after and explain our results and sometimes she might want to take a look herself. The doctor comes in very serious and gets right down to business, taking the ultrasound wand out again and taking a look at baby girl. I could tell something was wrong by the way she kept looking at a certain "something." She finally turned off the machine and said our baby looked perfectly healthy and everything looked great but she wanted to talk to us about a small finding she saw. She said it's probably nothing significant but we have a two vessel umbilical cord. Normally, its a 3-vessel cord with two arteries and one vein but in our case there is only one artery and one vein. She said its not too uncommon and she said complications from it are very rare. They do want to monitor it and make sure baby is getting everything she needs so we have another level 2 ultrasound scheduled for late April. I did some research of my own when I got home and of course read the worst case scenarios which are really scary. But I did find tons of women who had this and everything came out perfectly healthy. So we just have to have faith that it's all in God's hands and pray everyday for our baby girl. I also read that in most cases of 2 vessel cords, the mom is induced a couple of weeks early and is very closely monitored during the last couple months of pregnancy.

Ok here are more pics of the ultrasound! Here is baby just pulling her thumb out of her mouth...we just missed it!

Then her beautiful little hand waving at us

Both of our moms were able to be at the ultrasound so they knew it was a girl. But we wanted to tell someone at least in a cute way so we surprised Tony's dad and brother with this...

Anyways, thats all thats going on on the baby front! I did make those peanut butter brownies and they were SO GOOD! I used the big muffin pans which worked great. The only issue I had is after they had been in the oven for 15 minutes like the recipe said, they were super batter-y still in the middle so I put them in a few minutes extra and they were perfect. Tony ate them up like they were going to run away. :)

The Official 12 Week Mark

How far along? 12 weeks 
Total weight gain/loss: 6 lbs up from pre-pregnancy weight
Maternity clothes? Nope
Sleep: I fall asleep really easily but I get up to pee about 3 times during the night.  
Best moment this week: Seeing the bub on the ultrasound :) 
Movement? Not yet
Food cravings: Sushi, crab sandwiches, deli sandwiches
Gender prediction: I think its a girl and lots of people have told me girl. Except my Aunt Joss who thinks its a boy and she is very intuitive so we'll see! Hoping to find out at the NT scan next wednesday 
Belly button in or out? In
What I miss: Sushi and deli meat 
What I am looking forward to: NT scan and completing our first trimester (13 weeks)
Milestones: Making it to 12 weeks! 
Things I've been experiencing this week: A little more sleepy than usual and headaches
Showing? Just bloating still. My bloat bump always looks the same! 
Size of baby: Large plum 


12 weeks today!!! We woke up this morning and got the doppler out and sure enough there was Baby O with a fast heartrate 162-170. According to our baby go-to website, the baby is about the size of a large plum today. I am a little confused by this because last week it said baby was the size of a lime and isn't a lime bigger than a plum?? Oh well :) It also said baby is opening and closing his/her fist, curling toes, sucking, and can hiccup. All the major organs are developed, just needing now to grow.

In other parts of our lives, we have officially started our 4 day weekend. YAY. I think we are going to see The Vow tonight, family party tomorrow, then just relaxing. We have been dying to get the dogs out of the house to run around but our dog park has been closed since January. It's supposed to open back up March 2nd so we are really looking forward to that.
Also, I found these brownies last week on Pinterest and ever since Tony has been drooling over this picture. So I will be attempting to make these this weekend. We don't have mini muffin pans so hopefully our regular pans will work. You can find the recipe here http://www.bakedperfection.com/2009/07/peanut-butter-cup-brownies.html

Almost 12 weeks!

So here is my excuse for not posting for a few weeks...I haven't told anyone about my blog yet! I started it as a journal-type so I can remember everything about this pregnancy without the intention of ever telling anyone about it. But I decided now I want to share this journey we are on! So here goes...I last left with being unsure about how my 9 week appointment (first OB appt) would go because the baby was measuring behind and I thought the heartbeat was too low. Turns out I had nothing to worry about! Baby was measuring perfect although he/she kept her back to us the whole time and wouldn't turn around and the heartbeat was 176-185. Perfect! I ordered a home doppler so I can listen to the heartbeat whenever I want. SO so worth it. Anytime I have any doubts about this pregnancy I whip it out and listen to my new favorite sound in the world.
On Sunday I was having some brown spotting so I sent an email to my midwife to mention it. I wasn't really worried because i had read that that's pretty normal in pregnancy. But they called me on monday to come in for an ultrasound just to be sure. Baby was perfect measuring a day ahead at 11weeks and 4 days. He/she was even moving around a bit. I did have to get the Rhogam shot because my blood type is O-negative. Anytime there is a chance the baby's blood could mix with mine, I have to get that shot. Also it will be given automatically around 28 weeks and after birth.
Let's see what else....I am so close to 12 weeks! That means no more progesterone shots, no more estrogen patches, and no more estrogen pills. I also stopped the baby aspirin yesterday after Dr. Lovely (IVF doc) and my midwife, AND the doctor who saw me for that quickie ultrasound all said it was ok to stop. Hope they are right! I am 11w5d today and take the last doses of everything tomorrow! I'm excited to finally be a normal pregnant person. We have our NT scan on the 22nd of this month. That's the scan they do combined with bloodwork to test for Down Syndrome and other Trisomies. To be honest we really just want the ultrasound because the midwife told me they like to tell you the gender at that scan! Here are the ultrasound pics from the quickie ultrasound on monday..

Tony and I celebrated Valentine's Day last night by going to Fenton's which was the BEST dinner ever. Crab sandwiches and onion rings and a huge sundae to share. He also got me roses and tulips for V-day :)

Keeping the faith

So I was worried about my lack of symptoms so I made a call in to Kaiser and got an ultrasound for the same day. Baby had grown a lot and just looked so stinkin cute. I am a little worried because the baby was measuring 1-2 days behind and a heart rate of 154. I know the heart rate is ok for this "age" but it had only got up 14 beats since last time. With the combination of that and measuring a little behind, yes I am nervous BUT I am choosing to trust the Lord with this one. There is nothing I can do at this point either way.

I had my prenatal intake appointment with the clerk which was just a bunch of paperwork and bloodwork. Nothing too exciting except we scheduled our first appointment with the midwife for this Friday! I am so excited to start these appointments and especially to see our little one on the screen again. I'm praying the baby is caught up in growth (I will be 9 weeks) and for his/her heartrate to have gone up!

Also, I heard that urine pH can "determine" gender before 9 weeks. At my appointment with the prenatal clerk it was 6.5. The range is 4-6=Girl. 7-9=Boy. Where the heck does that leave me?? Lol..

Baby 8 Weeks

How far along: 8weeks 2 days
Total weight gain/loss: 1 lb
Maternity clothes? Nope
Sleep: Waking up a lot, uncomfortable 
Best moment this week: Telling people about baby :)
Movement? Not yet
Food cravings: Oh a lot...Sushi is my biggest craving, eggs benedict, roast beef sandwiches
Gender prediction: Baking soda test said girl...
Belly button in or out? In
What I miss: Sushi and deli meat
What I am looking forward to: Our next ultrasound probably in two weeks
Milestones: Seeing our baby's heartbeat 
Things I've been experiencing this week: I have hardly any pregnancy symptoms. I am maybe a little more tired than usual, constipated, and gassy (sorry tmi)
Showing? It kind of looks like I have a belly but it's just bloating 
Size of baby: large raspberry 

A change in plans...

Well this started out as an adoption blog, but its actually going to turn out to be a PREGNANCY BLOG! That's right...God had a bigger plan for us than we ever could have dreamed of. Here's how it all went down...after our first IVF failed, we bought a package from a different IVF clinic which included 3 ivf transfers and you get all of your money back if none work. We had done the first two with only one chemical pregnancy to show for it. We literally had no hope for the third and final cycle which is why we were already moving on to adoption. We didn't even really want to do the last one because "we knew it wouldn't work." But did it anyways in order to get our money back to put towards the adoption. They transferred in two embryos on Dec 14, 2011. I took a home pregnancy test on the 19th thinking it was way too early to be positive even if it did work. Amazingly, it was positive. Faint, but there. We were happy but we had been through this before with our chemical pregnancy (we got positive home tests that started to get fainter and fainter every day). To our shock (and delight!) the line kept getting darker every day. Our first beta number was Dec 23 and it was 162. Four days later it went up to 1140. We had our first ultrasound on Jan 13th and found one healthy perfect little baby! His/her heart rate was at 140bpm and measuring two days ahead. (7w2d) We couldn't be any happier. It just shows us how amazing our God is and how we can make plans all we want, but He has a plan the whole time. Far better than anything we could have ever imagined or hoped for.