ULTRASOUND #2 - GENDER REVEAL!!

It's been a long 20 week wait to find out who's floating around in there. My appointment was at 11:45 this morning and I had to drink at least 16oz of water and hold it an hr before. My bladder was kinda going to explode. I went to check in and sat down on probably the most comfortable waiting room seats I've ever sat in...for chairs at least. They were super bouncy and cushiony. So I bounced around as I waited. Thankfully we didn't have to wait long, since the anticipation and full bladder were running against me.

We went into room 1. I laid on the little chair/bed/table/thing and the lady technician, who was super awesome and nice by the way, sploodged some goop on my belly and began scoping the innards. 1st we saw the head, then we saw some legs, and some arms. She asked if we wanted to know the gender. We were thinking of having Barry's sister do a little gender reveal extravaganza for us, but we've waited so long, we just had to know. So we both said "yes". So she began looking for the special parts. She took a bunch of photos and said "ok you may go pee now" and we'll look some more. So I waddled across the hall and emptied the tank and waddled back quickly. She looked around some more. Our hearts were just about pounding out of our chests. Then she said "it's a boy!" Barry and I were both very excited and relieved. Since we both really wanted a boy. So she made sure to take a picture of the boy bits just for proof for the fam ;)

She went on taking a zillion more pictures for the Dr. We saw the little guy shifting around, moving limbs, and stretching. It's weird seeing him moving on the screen and feeling the movement at the same time! At the end of our appointment she said he's around 10oz, a heart rate of 140 bpm, and quite possibly 2 days ahead of his due date, but the Dr. will be able to be more precise. She printed our some pictures for us to take home and then we were on our way. Of course we hugged it out once we got in the hall and we were all smiles the rest of the way to the car.

We took a picture to send to my mum and made our way to Babies R Us to work on more registry stuff! We then took a picture for Barry's family. Everyone was very excited. Also, Barry's parents owe us a dinner...hopefully not TacoBell-HAHA!

There ya have it! Our future Oliver Blu!

Our Dude :)

week 20!

DR. APPOINTMENT #3!

19 weeks in! Went in for appointment #3. Did my pee check in, and waited to be called in. Nurse calls me in and weighs me in at a whopping 104 lbs. Dr. comes in checks the heartbeat and cracks a few little jokes then says everything is perfect! Hearts ticking away just nicely and I'm gaining the perfect amount of weight for 19 weeks. I had to "HA!" at Barry because he think I'm not eating enough. Dr. M just said as long as I'm not eating junk food, WHICH I'M NOT, then I'll be fine. He says the main problem he gets is people overeating and overdoing it with junk food...not eating for 2, people!

Every morning Barry asks me what I'm going to eat. I usually have cereal and some fruit, but for Barry that's not enough. So he makes me a protein shake before he dilly dallys off to work. Aww what a guy :) and sometimes he makes me scrambled eggs with toast. He makes good eggs. A few times I had to go wake him up to make me eggs. I don't like eggs too much, and I don't like touching them, nor cleaning up after them, but if someone makes it for me, then I'll eat it...still not my favourite, but I'll eat it.

I've also experienced more movement than last week. Still not ninja status, just little flutters, specially right after I eat. It's still strange to me having another organism sprouting away inside of me. Now it's able to hear our voices! My mum told me to talk to it, so I said "hi". We listen to a lot of music together in the car. I read that you should play more soothing songs rather than crazy upbeat stuff since it may startle the little scaredy cat. So I toned it down a little. Times like this remind me of when I was growing up...my dad insisted that we listen to Pink Floyd in hopes that one day we'll get older and have good taste in music. Not sure how it worked out for others, but it definitely worked on me, so I'm passing the torch on to our offspring...one brick in the wall at a time...(Hah, see what I did there?)

So that's the update for now. This coming week we're going to find out the gender of our little friend, and we'll finally be able to refer to it as "he" or "she" rather than "it". We've got a little family bet started, losers buy the winners dinner. It's not looking so good for Barry's parents - hahaha!

IT MOVES!!

Putting it all together, seeing it on screen, hearing the heartbeat...it makes feeling it even more surreal I think. I wasn't even waiting around to feel anything, it wasn't even crossing my mind really. I knew around week 17...week 18 I would start feeling little things here n there. I was laying in bed...on my RIGHT side... awaiting the sandman and his big 50lb bag of sand to pour into my eyes when all of a sudden I felt a little flutter in my lower belly area. I said to myself "hmm, what?" I put my hand on top and waited a min. Then I felt another little flutter. It felt like an air bubble. A very tiny and dainty air bubble. WHOA! It's moving...that means it's alive! I texted Barry, who was at the gym doing his manly gym manly things, and let him know the offspring had just moved.

The next day, same time I tried to feel around for it. As if the night before we agreed to meet again tomorrow same time, same place for a good ol kick in the stomach. Little one left me high and dry, which is fine...can't expect them to come to you whenever you feel like it, but the next night...he felt like making contact again! Barry got to feel it too this time. I guess he was maybe expecting a big punch in the hands, but it was just a dainty little "boop". Oh also, don't youtube any videos of babies moving in the womb, it's pretty creepy. Thanks Steen. I mean unless you're into alien looking beings growing inside your body and moving around like it's a club zone. Some people find every part of pregnancy beautiful...I have yet to uncover the beauty I suppose ;)

WEEK 18!

I'm starting to feel more pregnant. So far I've gotten heartburn, more drooly, lots of headaches, some cramping, more pee breaks, really dry skin, and full body aches. The heartburn is awful. I've never got it before and one night I got the worst of it it seemed like and I woke up freaking out. I almost woke Barry up because I had no idea what to do, it hurt so bad, I wanted to cry. It's like being sick and wanting your mummy to take care of you. All I could think of was sitting there thinking to myself "please make it go away..." and within seconds it went away. Hmm..if only that worked for everything!

Drool...so awesome! I've had to really try hard not to drool on myself specially when people around me are talking about delicious food. It's like I've developed another consciousness just to look out for drool embarrassment. Drooling in my sleep is a whole different story. There's really nothing you can do. One time I was taking a nap with my little sausage dog, Arnie. We like to cuddle. Anyway, I woke up and noticed his head was soaking wet and quickly noticed the side of my face was damp. I felt so bad. I had drooled all over Arnie and he didn't even care. That's love I guess. HAH!

Apart from drooling all over myself and my dog headaches and cramps are probably another not so very awesome thing  I've encountered. I've gotten headaches before and I obviously know what a cramp feels like, but these ones are just a little different than the normal...for me anyway! The headaches seem to just hit you without warning, there's no gradual ease into it. It's either there or it isn't. That's how I've noticed it going away, all of a sudden it'll be gone. Smells set it off for sure. If it's a smell I'm not too keen on surely enough a headache wont want to miss out. Sounds too, I have yet to pin point what specific sounds set it off, but again if it's something even the least bit bothersome, it's there. Cramping kind of comes in the same fashion. It just hits and disappears. There's no subtle way for it to show up. It feels like a sharp stabby feeling sometimes, and quickly disappears after you make that ugly seizing face. There are times when the cramps kinda feel like the ordinary dull period cramps, but not so much.

OH! Let's not forget the frequent pee breaks and the feeling like your whole body is trying to kill you! I probably pee every 15-20 mins. now. Sometimes I get so tired of getting up that I try to hold it for an extra 5-10 mins. It's not comfortable, because when you gotta go, you should REALLY GO. I've gone so many times that I think all toilets seats should be built with a seat warmer. Seriously, it shouldn't cost extra...it's almost 2015. It should be a thing now. But back to the pee fest. Say you emptied your bladder 20 mins prior...not having anything to drink...having to go pee again like your life depends on it. WHERE IS IT ALL COMING FROM!? I haven't had a sip of water since the last pee break! I know someone is reading this (mum) and thinking to herself..."..tisk tisk, Affy, you need to be drinking more water than that!..."

One sec...I have to pee...

...toilet seat warmers, I'm telling you!...So that's my bladder activity recently. Oh yeah, body pains! They're so great. Easiest and quickest way I can sum it up...after gym muscle aches. The feeling you get when you've worked out a certain body part the day before, sore, can barely move, achy...That's what it feels like throughout my whole body, not so much the belly area. No the belly just seems to be doing fine at this point with the little offspring bouncing around lah-dee-dah while the rest of my body is crying out for mercy. But my belly does feel heavy. I don't know why, because it's really not that big yet, but it feels so heavy that I wish I had a wheelbarrow to carry it in. This is only 18 weeks in, so I'm sure it's going to start feeling like I'm carrying a box of bricks soon. Can't wait!

So this sums up my week 18 check in!