Thursday, April 25, 2013

Second Trimester

Well, I've made it to the second trimester, and so far things are going so much better than they were. I no longer fit in my clothes at all. I haven't gained any weight, and I think I actually might have lost a couple pounds, which is weird. I am feeling much, much better. The nausea is gone and I can almost go without eating at some times during the day. Although that blood sugar crash is much more prominent now. I'm more prone to a bit of crankiness if I don't get fed regularly. I'm still off-put by meat, but it's getting a little bit better. I can eat things that meat is in (like soup), but I still can't handle those pieces of meat. I'm not sure I'll get over that. We got our first bona-fide baby present a couple days ago from Uncle Rob and Aunt Eileen. It's a cute bouquet of flowers that's actually baby clothes rolled up. And it's in my favorite colors - green and yellow! So nice.
At this point, most everyone knows. I've told my boss and she was the super coolest, most supportive boss ever. She even suggested converting the office next to hers to a nursery, since another woman in my lab is also pregnant. We are due two weeks apart. How cool is that?
Since I'm feeling better, it's been easier to exercise. I've been riding my bike to work once a week (20 miles! Woot!) I am super tired for the last mile or two of the ride, but I end up feeling pretty great for the rest of the day. I've had to change my pedals from clipless to regular pedals since my center of gravity is quie a bit off. I've also taken up swimming, which has been lovely. The Stanford Aquatic Facility is the nicest I've ever seen, and it's a lovely time to just do some laps in the sunshine, use the kickboard and not drown. Haha! Plus, it's important to get some Vitamin D, right?
This weekend, we are headed to a wedding vow renewal in Santa Barbara. I'm excited because I get to see my family (pretty much most of them) and Randi and a couple of my girlfriends from college. It will be fun to see the look on their faces when I tell them we're having a baby. I think they're gonna laugh!
So, today's my Friday. I get to sit in the OB clinic and have some lovely sugar juice for my GTT. Oh well - almost over!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Weekend Wrap Up

This past weekend was glorious - lovely weather, no work, just great. On Friday, we hit dinner at a local diner, and I got to use the "pregnant lady" look to get a free order of onion rings. Oh yeah! On Saturday, we went to the mall and walked around a bit. Then we hit up Cheesecake Factory for late lunch/early dinner. It was lovely and delicious since it, of course, included cheesecake. We headed home in a bit of a food coma, took a walk around the neighborhood, and then hit the couch to watch The Hunger Games movie. On Sunday, we headed to the farmer's market, and bought lots and lots of produce and yummy things. Then I came home and did laundry and puttered around the house while Alex took a bike ride.  It was such a hot day, we ended up on the couch again with the fan blowing directly on us. I'm a little overdramatic, obviously. Altogether, it was a lovely weekend and I am so glad we didn't have a thing to do. Next weekend we have lots of stuff going on, so it was nice to have a minute to just chill!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Tummy Thursday

The past week we've had appointment after appointment with the doctors to talk about the kid. We had our first ultrasound that had terrible resolution, but I could actually see a little head and body in there with a little heartbeat, which was kinda a trip. I got all these blood tests, and found out I'm O+ blood type (who knew? not me!). I'm a carrier for a mutation that causes cystic fibrosis, so Alex went to get his blood drawn to make sure he's not a CF carrier. I still oddly have antibodies that recognize chicken pox and measles, mumps, rubella, so that's really good. It's interesting all the things you can learn about yourself when you get pregnant. We also had our first appointment with the genetic counselors here at Stanford. I feel like I am getting the most amazing care already, and I'm so glad I'm at a teaching hospital where all this stuff is available to me. It's really been amazing. We had another ultrasound, and this time it was super high resolution. I saw kidneys, and placenta, the hearbeat, even the brain! It was such a trip. There are two legs and two arms, and I think I saw hands and feet. I could see skeleton, like ribs, and facial features like jaws and skull. It was a big trip, especially when you think that it's all going on in your body! We were seen by the director of the clinic, and she predicted that it's a boy with 85% accuracy, which is what I've been feeling all along. We'll know more in about 8 weeks, but, at this point, I am pretty sure it's a boy.
My husband was pretty excited about the whole thing. He took the ultrasound pictures back to work with him to show his boss, and then scanned them in to email his parents. It's nice that things are settling down for a minute. I know it will get hectic in a few months, but I also feel like it's nice to dream about who this kid will be and what he'll be like. We shall see.
I'm feeling much, much better, and I actually biked the 20 miles to/from work yesterday. That made me feel great (although I did go to bed rather early last night). Food seems more palatable, although I still have significant food aversions. I'm still dealing with constipation, and I've added in about 16 pills a day that seem to be easing things along. However, I'm still not "regular", which gets to be a little bit uncomfortable.
I've been pretty much taking it easy since I finished my grant on Monday. I've been walking every day, and not working super hard. My brain is honestly a little bit fried from the grant writing experience, and it's still working overtime to process this whole "having a kid" thing. I've told my lab and they are all super excited. I'll tell my boss next week when she comes back for a visit. All seems to be coming together nicely right now, which is a nice situation. I don't have to yet think about car seats or baby clothes, and I get to just hang out and enjoy cooking a baby, which is kinda cool. Even my horrific acne is going away, praise the lord. So, I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride for now.