Listening to the baby

Everything is going well. I'm still feeling really sick, but I was able to get through a day without the Zofran today. I listen to the baby's heartbeat every day when I get up in the morning, and Jeff and I listen every evening. It's a neat bonding experience. It's usually pumping away at about 160 beats per minute. Sometimes it's a really quiet patter, and other times, it sounds like a freight train chugging. It just depends on where the baby is. We can also hear him or her moving around in there. This is one very active baby already!

We started putting a few basic things on our registry (although we already know of some changes we need to make). It was so much fun to get that started! I can't wait until we know what color clothes we need! :)

Home doppler

We got our doppler yesterday, and we found the heartbeat on the first try last night! It was SO COOL! For the next 3 months, we can listen to the baby any time we want. It's so exciting!

Our next appointment with the nurse practitioner is in 2 weeks, and our big ultrasound is 6 weeks from today!

What a sweet husband!

It has been a while since I have had the time and energy to update this journal, but we're all still here and still healthy. :) I'm past the 12-week mark now, and contrary to what I was told would probably happen, I'm feeling sicker than ever. I think it's a conspiracy... Women who have had children all agree to lie and tell us that the morning sickness goes away after the first three months, because if they didn't, no one would get pregnant! :)

School is going well, and I appreciate my much more relaxed job this year.

I am waiting for two exciting packages from UPS. This evening, I will finally be receiving 90 Zofran pills (after many phone calls to the insurance company and pharmacies). And tomorrow or Thursday, we will be getting our rented home doppler so we can listen to and record the baby's heartbeat! I'll try to put a recording of the heartbeat on the website, but if I can't find a way to do it, I'll be sure to email it out. I told Jeff from the beginning that I wanted to rent one, but he told me that we didn't need it and it was too much money. I found out this week that he had planned to get one the whole time, he just wanted to surprise me. :) He's so sweet!

What do you have in there?

This week has been a busy one with the start of school. I'm really enjoying being back. It's still sad not to have my old class all together (and not to have a class of my own at all), but I do get to see my former students a lot. It's fun getting to know the new first graders too. This morning, one of the girls poked my belly as she walked by and asked me "What do you have in there?" If I had had a few more seconds, I could have come up with some really clever response and told her it was a monkey or something, but she walked away too quickly. :)

P.S. As I write this, my loving husband is in the kitchen cooking me steak. :)

State Fair

We went to the state fair today. All that food...it's a pregnant woman's paradise! Thankfully I wasn't too sick to enjoy it thanks to my good "friend" Zofran. I made sure to eat some corn and drink some tomato juice for the baby, which of course cancelled out the junk food. :) During one of our visits to an air-conditioned building (it was SO HOT outside!), we sat next to a mom and her 5-month old baby. He was born March 10th, so he's the same age that our baby will be at next year's state fair. At one of the booths, we saw some cool pictures of babies in the womb and got a pin that has little feet that are exactly the size of our baby's feet right now. I also got a little plastic model of what the baby will look like in another week or so. Jeff thinks it looks kind of creepy, but I think it's cool! We rode the tractor train all the way around the fairgrounds so we could see everything without me losing consciousness from the heat (which nearly happened a couple of times anyway). So we had to make it a very short day, but it was a lot of fun.

It's funny how we are so constantly focused on the baby already. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we are always thinking about how we will take the baby there someday and how different it will be and how much fun it will be. I resisted the temptation several times today to go up and ask moms about how they liked the strollers they were using and how easy they were to fold and unfold. And I am so amused by the temper tantrums that little kids throw and their parents' funny reactions to them. That will be us soon! And after over a year of trying to avoid looking at pregnant women so I wouldn't start crying, now it's so fun to see all the pregnant women and wonder what I'll look like in a few months. Despite all the less than pleasant symptoms, I really am enjoying being pregnant.

Heartbeat!

Today was a big day! Our doctor's appointment went great, and we got to hear our little one's heartbeat! It was the most awesome thing I have ever heard! We had heard it using the ultrasound a month ago, but we had never heard it just through my belly like that with the little machine. The heart rate was 150, which the nurse said was great. I go back to the doctor in four weeks, and then four weeks after that (October 6th) we will get our ultrasound and find out whether the baby is a boy or girl! My birthday present this year will be getting to set up our gift registries. :) I'm so excited and relieved that things went well today.Today was our big back-to-school meeting and work day, and this evening was the ice cream social where the kids come to meet their new teachers. I went so I could see all my students from last year, and it was fun. But now I'm tired after such a long day, so I had better get some rest. :)

Last day of summer break

My last day of summer break has been miserably sick. I thought for a couple of days that I might be feeling a little better, but today was just awful. Someday I'll have to share with this child just what I went through and how of course it was all worth it in the end. :) I'm praying that tomorrow will be better so I can have a good start to the school year and that our doctor's appointment will go well.

The dentist is safe

Just an update...the dentist and I both survived my appointment without incident. :)

Spoiled already?

I have developed a new craving over the last couple of days. Jeff has spent the last two evenings buying and cooking me steak. He's such a dedicated husband and dad! Last night, he finally resigned himself to the fact that this craving could stick around for a while and bought a package of steaks to keep in the freezer. He has pointed out that this is probably the most expensive craving that I could have. :) Does this qualify as spoiling the baby already?

I spent some time arranging my classroom yesterday, although between the sickness, the excitement, the pregnancy "stupidness", and my tendency to talk and talk, I'm not very focused or productive yet. I'm really happy to start the school year. I didn't realize how much I had missed the staff and the kids. I was able to get through the day only sharing my news with two new people. I guess that's not much of an accomplishment, considering that the people I see the most already know. It sounds like the news is spreading around to others though. :)

Today the baby and I will visit the dentist and the eye doctor. I'm a little scared that I might throw up on the dentist, so please pray for me...or better yet, pray for him! :)

My next OB appointment is Thursday at 3:00, right after my first official day of work. I am REALLY REALLY hoping that we get to hear the heartbeat! We are well past the time when we lost our first baby, and statistically, the chance that anything could go wrong at this point is really really low (I have read below 3 percent) since we have seen the heartbeat, but of course a mother still worries like crazy. This will be my first pregnancy visit with the actual doctor who (with the luck of timing) will probably be delivering the baby. Up to this point, I have seen the nurse practitioner, who is wonderful. My doctor is Dr. K, and according to our family friend, Sue, who works in labor and delivery at the hospital, he is the BEST.

Maternity clothes already?

I have started wearing maternity clothes a little this weekend, not because they are totally necessary at this point, but more because they're much more comfortable than tight clothes! Maybe it's because of the big shirts, or maybe it's because of the baby, or maybe it's because of the two McDonalds cheeseburgers I ate the other day, but I'm definitely starting to look a little bit pregnant. A friend at church today asked to touch my belly. My first belly touch...a big moment! :) Everyone says that by the time the baby is born, I'll be sick of everyone touching my belly, but I don't think I will mind. It's just so exciting!Jeff is really excited too, and I love watching him get ready for the baby. He is itching to get started on the nursery. On the day that we found out about this baby, he was already saying "I want to have the baby now!" He has already been out pricing diapers and formula at Sam's Club. :)

Growing and growing...

Friday, August 05, 2005
Between the sickness and my cramped little bladder, I woke up every hour or so during the night last night, so I'm pretty tired today. It was so exciting to get onto the baby's website this morning and read about a new week of pregnancy...it's the 11th week now. All the baby's organ systems are up and running, and the most complicated work of development is done. Now it's just time to get bigger and bigger! (...and bigger and bigger and...and then it's supposed to come out how?!) :) The baby is probably a little over an inch long today and will grow to about two inches by the end of the week. That's amazing when you think that a month ago, he or she was the size of a grain of rice! I hate this he-or-she stuff, and I refuse to call my baby "it". Can't wait until we can call the baby by name! We have names pretty much set. We're sure about a boy's name, and just have a little more discussing to do to finalize a girl's name.

Our first post...10 weeks pregnant with Alyssa

Thursday, August 04, 2005
I am officially 10 weeks pregnant today! It seems like it has taken forever to get this far, but it's also hard to believe that it has already been over three weeks since we got to see the baby's heart beating on ultrasound. I'm sure once I get into the second trimester and start feeling better, things will begin to move faster.I have been fighting some really bad morning sickness. (Whoever said it just happens in the morning was sadly mistaken!) My doctor's office is helping me get coverage from my insurance company for some really good medicine, so I hope to be feeling much better very soon! My boss (and loving husband) has officially retired me from my summer job so I can get some extra rest before I start back to school next Thursday. I'll be working as a first grade tutor this year. I'm excited because I get to work in my old classroom with my old team, but I won't have all the responsiblity and time committment of teaching. Only a few people at work know about the baby, so it will be exciting to tell everyone next week! I still have trouble believing that this baby is really here! Jeff and I are SO excited and can't wait to see him or her! My next doctor's appointment is next Thursday, and I'm hoping that we will be able to hear the heartbeat with the doppler device, although it might be too soon because of the location of the baby. We should be able to find out whether this is a he or a she in late September or early October. We will be thrilled with either one, but we are really eager to find out!!! (So far, most friends and family are guessing that he's a little boy.)