A Sneak-Peak at Our Baby!

I had our first ultrasound today! Adam wasn't able to come, because they only schedule them before 12:30pm, and he has school. However, my mother was thrilled to come along.

We were at the appointment 5 minutes early, just as they asked, but they were a half hour late calling us in to be seen. We first met with a genetic counselor, who went through any and all health-related problems in our families. Our main concern was club feet, as my grandpa has one, and my cousin has two. But she went through everything, including (let's see if I can get this right, because mom was actually the one who explained it) two of my mom's cousins who each had a child with a heart defect. She wasn't too worried about it though, because it seemed to be pretty far removed from me (and baby).

They sent us back out to the waiting room to wait for the ultrasound tech to be ready for us. Then Krista (I found out her name later) brought us back into the ultrasound room and put warm jelly on my tummy (my mom was surprised it was warm... I guess back in the day they didn't have the technology to warm it up or something!) Then she moved her little device around and found baby right away, but wanted to check around to make sure he didn't have any siblings in there. Then we could see baby! She measured him (and I'll call baby him, because I think it's a boy, but we don't know for sure yet) from crown to rump and told us that I was actually 15 weeks 2 days pregnant, not 13 weeks 6 days, moving my due date up to May 22 (the day of Katie & Derek's wedding!). She wasn't able to do the first trimester screening (that I was actually there for), since I was past 13 weeks 6 days. Then she moved around to find 5 little fingers and two little legs with little feet and took lots of pictures.

Baby's head & spine (on the screen you could see his little ribs!)

Baby's butt & little legs
Our baby, the alien (his head on the right & tummy on the left)

Baby's profile (the ultrasound tech said he was giving me kisses)

Baby's little foot

Baby's hand, arm, ribs, and head

Baby's Heartbeat!

We had our first pre-natal appointment today! I was very excited, but not so much at the same time. I hate needles! And I knew I would have to get blood drawn and I was hoping (or not...) to get a flu shot & H1N1 shot. But what we heard before 5 vials of blood and an H1N1 shot, was totally worth it!

I was hoping that we would have an ultrasound done, as I had heard from several people that they had had one done at about 12 weeks. We didn't. But our nurse midwife, Carrie, did bring in a fetal Doppler to listen to the baby's heartbeat. Carrie found our baby's heartbeat right away. It was so fast! Then she moved it around and found my heartbeat. My heartbeat was about 70 beats per minute (bpm) and baby's was about 150 bpm. More than twice as fast! It was such an amazing sound to hear!

I was convinced that our baby is boy, but after I read some folklore on the sex of the baby, I'm not so sure. The site I found said that if the baby's heartbeat is over 140 bpm, then it's a girl. That doesn't totally convince me either though, because the same site also said that if you don't have morning sickness, then it's a boy (and I haven't really been sick at all). So at this point I'm not convinced either way. I will be happy either way, but Adam still is leaning more towards a boy.

Carrie also recommended that we have a level II ultrasound done, because we have some genetic defects that run in the family. From what I could find, a level II ultrasound is a very detailed ultrasound that shows your baby a lot more clearly.

Our due date was calculated to be June 1 (I calculated June 2, we must be pretty close) and our next appointment will be at about 16 weeks.

Organic Midwives

We had our first "class" for baby this week. It gave us a little information about nurse midwives and about how I should be taking care of myself & baby.

I still like the idea of going with a nurse midwife to deliver our baby, but we both agreed that nurse midwives seem to be a little over the top with somethings. For example, I am all about trying to eat healthy, but the nurse midwife giving the class (who is also the nurse midwife for our first pre-natal appointment next week) was all into buying everything organic. I guess it would be nice, if everyone could afford it, but there's no way. She also said not to drink anything out of plastic. I understand wanting to avoid the BPA, but there's no way we can purchase everything in metal containers or paper cartons. I will stick with my BPA-free Nalagene and keep buying the products I am buying.

She also wanted us to throw out all our cleaning chemicals and use nothing but vinegar & citrus oils (or something). Now, I will stay away from them (Adam cleans the bathrooms anyway, plus I really do hate the smell), but I'm not about to throw them all out and have my house smell like we were dying Easter eggs all the time.

I'm not trying to rag on nurse midwives. After all, we are still going with nurse midwives for this pregnancy (and probably any others we have in the future). They want mother and baby to be as healthy as they can be, but they also understand that we can't make all these changes to our life (and quite frankly, many people can't afford some of them). They're all good suggestions, I guess, but put them all together, and it's a little over the top for me.

The Cat's Escaping from the Bag...

I am a little frustrated & upset. Shortly after we found out we were pregnant, we told our parents, asking them not to say anything to anyone until the second trimester. Adam actually told his oldest brother, Jon, right away when they were hunting, and soon after called his sister, Jacque, in California to tell them. He was waiting to tell his other brothers, Charles & Ben, until he saw them though. He saw Charles when they went to get the cabin ready for deer hunting and told him, and when he saw Ben at the gun show, he was going to tell him, but he already knew.

I guess Adam's mom had told all their friends at the bar, one of which lives below Ben. So of course Ben found out from this fellow, and Adam wasn't able to tell his brother that we are expecting our first child. I feel bad that Adam lost that chance, and that Ben had to find out from someone who isn't even family that his own brother is going to have a baby.

Adam wasn't surprised, as I guess it's hard for his mom to keep a secret. I know it's exciting news (trust me, it really is for us!), but we would like to wait until we are out of the first trimester for the rest of the world to know. The rate of miscarriage is pretty high in the first trimester and if that happens to us, it will be a lot harder on us if more people know. Which is why we've picked & chosen who we've wanted to know.

I was disappointed also to find out that his mom had started to tell someone else, when my sister-in-law nudged her to tell her that some people (her kids... our nieces & nephews) don't know yet. And she told the lady to "just keep it between them." But one of our nieces found out. Of course she is really excited, but it's hard for a 7-year-old to keep a secret from all her brothers & sister.

At Thanksgiving, we had planned on telling everyone, since it would be close to the end of the first trimester & all the family would be together anyway. But from the sound of it, a lot of the extended family already knows. I'm disappointed that we've had our exciting announcement of our first child stolen from us. But we've learned our lesson from next time.